Percy and Pyramids

[ncfan17]

No: HPFGUIDX 190121

Does anyone else find it disturbing that Fred and George once shut their brother Percy up in a pyramid?

What I'm talking about is a throwaway line on page 63 of PoA. George tells Harry that he and Fred "tried to shut [Percy] in a pyramid", but that their mother caught them.

While this only says that Fred and George tried to shut Percy in a pyramid, there's nothing that suggests that they didn't actually manage it.

I know Percy isn't the most popular of characters (please don't kill me for going to bat for him), but I have to feel for him. He was never arrogant as much as he was painfully insecure and hiding it in all the wrong ways, and the Twins both seem to delight in making life harder for him. The rest of his family, even his mother, seems rather contemptuous of him or at least bemused by him. Percy is, plainly, the Odd Duck of the Weasley Clan long before he's the Black Sheep.

Back to the topic at hand. George's remark that "Mum" spotted them indicates to me that it's entirely possible that Molly was the only one who took Percy's side during the course of the "pyramid incident", meaning that the rest of the family took Fred and George's sides (as they tend to do anyway) and regarded the whole incident as a joke. I personally don't see this as a joke, I don't think it's anything resembling harmless, and if Percy were a real person he'd probably agree with me.

And one has to wonder how this affected Percy. If he really did end up locked in a pyramid for any amount of time, it was probably at best an annoying and at worst a terrifying experience for him (remember, he's only sixteen at the time and unable to perform magic outside of school; Harry's hearing in OoTP proves that the Ministry doesn't make exceptions for life-threatening situations), especially considering the stories mentioned about Muggles attempting to break into the pyramids ending up horribly deformed, and even if he didn't end up in the pyramid, this experience was likely an eye-opening one for him. It would likely have shown him just how far the Twins are willing to go in order to get a laugh at his expense, and if Molly was indeed the only one to defend him, it probably demonstrated to Percy just how friendless he is among his own family. One wonders just how far this incident went in helping along the breakdown of Percy's relationships among his family.

ncfan17