Percy again (Was: Perjury, Dumbledore, and Right v Easy once Again)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 166169

Carol earlier:
> > Fudge announces the "disciplinary hearing" (not trial, BTW)
>
Eggplant"
> Fudge calls it a disciplinary hearing, Dumbledore calls it a full
criminal trial. Who are you going to believe, fudge or Dumbledore? So
let's review, Harry (twice!) thinks about being sentenced to Azkaban,
AFTER that we learn it is a full criminal trial and he is being judged
by the full Wizengamot, something that is very rare; and yet you think
JKR expects her readers to believe Harry's fears were overblown and
the thought of Harry going to Azkaban never entered Percy's head. I
don't buy it.
>
Carol earlier:
> > Percy, of course, simply takes notes.
>
Eggplant:
> Yes, he was just following orders, but I would maintain it's
imposable to read that chapter and not know exactly what side Percy
is on. The man is evil.
>
Carol responds:
Fudge, who doesn't know that Umbridge summoned the Dementors, or that
any Dementors were actually involved, and who thinks (under Umbridge's
influence, IMO) that Dumbledore is trying to take over the Ministry,
changes the time and place of the hearing and brings in the Wizengamot
as jurors (which turns out to be a good thing) and himself and
Umbridge (who says very little) as interrogators. Madam Bones, who
gives Harry a fair trial, is still in charge. Percy, as scribe, takes
notes and smirks.

No one, not Mafalda Hopkirk in her notes to Harry, not Fudge in the
hearing or trial, call it what you will, mentions anything about
Azkaban. It's already been established (by Dumbledore) that the
Wizengamot/MoM can't expel Harry. At worst (and admittedly, it's a
fairly bad "worst"), he could lose his wand (which the MoM was
prepared to take from him *before* the hearing in an
Alice-in-Wonderland, sentence-first, trial-afterwards travesty
of justice) before Dumbledore stepped in.

Percy, who (unless he's pretending) believes Fudge and the Daily
Prophet and has been taken in by Umbridge's facade of sweetness, is
simply taking notes. His loyalty, he has stated, is to the Ministry.
He believes in authority, in laws and rules. He has no more idea,
before the hearing, that Harry was defending himself and Dudley
against real Dementors in Little Whinging than Fudge does. It's
possible that he still doesn't believe it after the Wizengamot clears
Harry of all charges.

There is no evidence whatever that Percy thinks that Harry will be
sent to Azkaban. That thought occurs to *Harry* twice before the Order
comes to rescue him. After that, his only fear is expulsion (he hopes
that Sirius Black will let him stay at 12 GP if he's expelled). That
Percy still believes that Dumbledore is trying to take over the
Ministry and that Harry is a possibly disturbed attention seeker seems
clear from Percy's letter to Ron and his presence with Fudge in
Dumbledore's office when Umbridge summons them regarding the DA. Percy
has somehow (perhaps because he's so proud of his promotion, so
ambitious, so devoted to the Ministry) swallowed the official line
regarding not only DD and Harry but Voldemort. He does not believe
that Voldemort is really back.

In HBP, we see a chastened and demoted Fudge, who knows now that
Dumbledore was right. He looks "miserable" at Dumbledore's funeral.
It's possible that Percy has learned, or will learn, a similar lesson.
The difference is that Percy is, as of the beginning of DH, only
twenty years old, still barely a man, still young enough to find
admitting that he's wrong difficult and painful, especially to the
family that he probably feels has rejected him.

Percy has plenty of faults (though I have some sympathy for him
because of the way his family treats him). He's ambitious, stubborn,
and almost wilfully deluded. But evil? Until and unless he joins the
Death Eaters, which seems highly unlikely given his devotion to the
Ministry, or stands by Umbridge knowing that she sent the Dementors to
Little Whinging and tried to Crucio Harry (as no one except Harry and
a smattering of students now knows), I refuse to consider him evil.

Carol, who thinks that Percy's actions are determined in part by what
he knows and believes, and as of OoP, he does not know the truth and
he believes the wrong people