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Percy's Predicament

By Harleen

    Hey everyone. Today I'll be talking about Percy. Love him or (more probable) hate him, I think Percy has and will play an integral and critical role in the Harry Potter series.

    To be honest with you, I was partially surprised at his behavior, but at the same time, what he did makes sense. Now wait, just hear me out on this one: In my view of him he's always been the black sheep of the family. The siblings closest to him in age don't seem to be close to him... Bill and Charlie seem like quite good friends and Fred and George, well it goes without saying. He doesn't seem to have ever really fit in. Look at the start of GoF, the whole family were outside (except maybe the twins, I can't remember about them but they would have been off together anyway) laughing with Bill and Charlie about the tables, while Percy was up in his room, doing what was important to him, work. I think he probably got to the Ministry and was, for the first time, in a place that he fitted in. His hard working was a valued quality. He gradually began spending more and more time at work. I imagine Molly probably nagged him to spend more time at home with his family rather than always being at work, which probably contributed to his estrangement towards them. He resented how they, in his eyes, wanted him to lead the same mediocre life as his father. I think for Percy throughout OotP, there were only two sides fighting against each other, Dumbledore and his followers (including Percy's whole family) and the Ministry. He seems to have started taking Fudge's word as gospel and probably viewed Dumbledore, as Fudge did, as 'the enemy'.

    Now let's get a few things about Percy straight, he may be a bit stiff at times but nothing means more to him than family. He proved that at the Second Task in GoF by completely forgetting to be professional and running to Ron. He also worried about Ginny in CoS and was the brother that made her take a pepper up potion because he was the one that picked up on how oddly she was behaving. Also he highly respected Dumbledore throughout the first four books. Dumbledore gave him the two positions at Hogwarts that Percy admired most, Prefect and Head Boy. Percy is not the kind of guy that would forget that in an instant. And to act giddy over getting Dumbledore in trouble, first off, my Percy doesn't do giddy and secondly Dumbledore was a man Percy respected. Also if you note in the same scene in Dumbledore's office, Percy is the only one who doesn't get mentioned as being hexed. Harry names every other person in that office but Percy. Curious no? It's also interesting that we've never seen Percy's reaction to Crouch's demise or Voldemort's return so we *don't* know exactly where he stands on either.

    So it went down one of two ways. Both start with Crouch failing Percy's image of him. The Ministry is now failable and there's a part of Percy that fears losing his job.

This goes one of two ways:

A) Dumbledore comes to him and asks him to take a post with Fudge when Fudge asks (cause Dumbledore knows it's coming). To alienate himself from his family so that Fudge trusts him completely. Percy does so but not without pain and attempts to warn Ron through a letter. And that's why the letter was odd to me too, Percy's a smart boy, he knows if he told Ron to go against his best friend that Ron would do exactly the opposite.

B) Percy is terrified of losing his job because he did work for Crouch and then all of a sudden there's the MoM at his desk offering him a position next to him. Percy snatches up this golden opportunity and goes home to tell his family about his promotion. His family looks at him with something akin to disgust and instead of being proud of him his parents suggest that maybe Percy didn't do this all on his own merit, maybe Fudge is using him. Not what Percy wants to believe, so he blows up at his parents, damaged from what he takes as lack of faith and convinces himself that his parents and Dumbledore are wrong.

    I have a fear that Percy's going to die and the truth about it is all going to come out then. Percy's too proud to crawl on his hands and knees.