Percy

[Annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 166093

houyhnhnm wrote:
>
> Given the way Percy has turned out, it seems 
> strange that Rowling had him be the most enthusiastic 
> supporter of Dumbledore that Harry  encountered on his 
> first night at Hogwarts.
>  
> "Mad?" said Percy airily.  "He's a genius! Best wizard 
> in the world!  But he is a bit mad, yes.  Potatoes, Harry?"
> 
> Surely it is significant.  Rowling could just as 
> easily have put those words in the mouth of either Fred or George.


I don't think it's strange, so much as the poignant beginning of the 
revelation of Percy's character.

Percy puts all his faith into his authority figures.  He has done so 
since childhood, and since childhood, and right into his first year 
working for the Ministry, this outlook on life had been consistently 
affirmed by those authority figures through the granting of good 
grades, material rewards, and positions of responsibility.

For a long time, I really felt for Percy.  On the surface, his 
philosophy seemed to be working very well, making it hard for one so 
young and inexperienced to see the need to question it.  At the end 
of GoF, he finally did have a reason to question it, but found it too 
easy to transfer his loyalty to the next Authority instead.  After 
all, so he might tell himself, the Crouch disaster was Voldemort's 
fault, not his, right?

But by now we see that Percy clings doggedly to his childhood outlook 
on life: a slavish loyalty to authority figures which has probably 
become inextricably entwined with the presumption of reward and 
advancement.  This in spite of the fact that his new Authorities have 
turned him against his old ones -- and he is now willing to hurt 
people rather than consider a fundamental change in philosophy.

It not just an innocent foible anymore.

Annemehr