Percy

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 166085

> > Magpie:
> <snip-snip>
> > Yet when he is promoted his father acts like it's transparently 
to 
> > spy on him, as if Percy is the slacker, and years of anger from 
> > Percy at Arthur come out. 
> 
> a_svirn:
> I think that it was Ron's and the twins' interpretation of 
theevents, 
> and they are not what you'd call impartial when it comes to Percy. 

Magpie:
True, they're not impartial when it comes to him at all. In that 
case I considered them fine witnesses in terms of who said what to 
who: Percy says he got a promotion, Arthur said X, Percy said Y. 
(The years of anger is probably my interpretation so I probably 
shouldn't put it on Ron--Percy responded this way and it could have 
been an in-the-moment thing). Their interpretation after the fact 
seems totally against Percy and unsympathetic to him. Harry, too, 
responds to the story, iirc, by saying, "He really said that?" 
regarding Percy accusing Arthur of being at fault for their 
financial situation. That seemed to be what they all focused on out 
of the fight as being proof that Percy was awful--and of course they 
also saw Percy as bragging about his promotion iirc.

a_svirn:
I 
> must say, it doesn't quite make sense to me. Suppose Fudge 
promoted 
> him so that he would spy on his family. First of all, it would 
have 
> been smarter for him to dangle the promotion as a payment for 
Percy's 
> services at first -- this way he could motivate Percy without 
> arousing Arthur's suspicions. (Now – if Ron's to be believed – it 
> seems Percy got his promotion for free.) Second, if his family 
> trusted him they could have used *him* to spy on *Fudge*. If they 
> didn't they could have used him to mislead Fudge about their plans 
> and activities. Either way there was no reason for the shouting 
match 
> and subsequent estrangement. In all likelihood, it was the other 
way 
> round – Arthur wanted Percy to become another Dumbledore's man in 
the 
> ministry, and Percy – being a loyal civil servant – refused.

Magpie:
I have a lot of misgivings about Arthur's interpretation--that is, I 
believe Ron when he says that Arthur gives this interpretation to 
Percy that night of the fight, but it doesn't really make a lot of 
sense to me. It's what made the fight read, to me, like a family 
fight where it wasn't really about the facts. Maybe I just had been 
sympathetic to Percy for a while before that, but I found myself 
more focused on Percy hearing he was a patsy than Arthur hearing he 
wasn't supporting his family well. 

-m