HBP: Appropriately long-winded thoughts on Percy

[icarus]

On Percy.

Now that the furor about Snape being "evil" has died down a bit, let's talk about Percy and all the new information about him.

What new information do you say?

Wellll... let's just have a looksee at what's implied with what little we know. And a warm thank you for the input of lillian78, cheshyre, mad_maudlin, monzz, dphearson, tekalynn, biichan, leogryffin, cordelia_v, wickedelf, gail_b, and mark356.

See? We are many and we outrank you. :D

Percy In a Post-HBP World. What's the point?

We see so little of Percy in HBP that, as Mark points out, he might as well not be there at all.

Yet, oddly, he is.

Why not get rid of him? Oliver's barely mentioned. Zacharias makes the briefest of appearances -- plenty of characters vanish. Well, Percy's a Weasley you might say. The family's a huge part of Harry's life. Yet not only does Percy put in an obligatory family appearance in the middle of the book, he's mentioned at the beginning... and tellingly, he's pointed out at Dumbledore's funeral in the entourage of the new Minister-whose-name-I-can't-spell.

He's on friendly enough terms with the new Minister at Christmas to not fall all over himself as he did with Fudge, or blatantly worship as he did with Crouch. Oh yes, he's used. But he's clearly aware of it and calmly playing the game. (By the way, the Minister would be completely ignorant of Percy's troubles with his family. In such a world, one must be "normal" and "fit in" so family problems are left at home. The Minister would have said, "How about I join you for Christmas with your family?" and Percy would have answered, "Uh, yes. Sure.")

Over and over Percy's name is linked with the Ministry and those-in-power, and over and over again we see how the family, especially the twins (and Ginny) treat Percy.

Didn't Dumbledore warn us that the way house-elfs (and other creatures) have been treated is a large reason they won't help in the war against Voldemort? Now here we have someone with a clear grudge, who's been treated with as much respect as a house-elf (note the parsnips on his glasses and the twins' long history with Percy) persistently near power. Whose influence and position appears to be improving.

What happens if the trio needs help from Percy, a rule or two bent, or access to Ministry files?

Percy's Skyrocketing Career

Percy's survival of the ousting of Fudge is nothing less than startling. I've been writing blind-and-deluded!Percy for a while now, and I'm having to reassess.

Normally in politics (and corporations) the crew goes down with the captain -- especially someone new like Percy who was definitely Fudge's man. An Umbridge will survive, deeply entrenched as she is with myriad connections. A Percy? Pfft. Forget it.

In OotP I bought Arthur's insistence that Percy was promoted solely to keep an eye on the Order, yet I seem to have been wrong. Percy is no longer useful for that and he's still there. In fact, Percy immediately cut off contact with his family (and, note, any useful information about the Order) the moment his father suggested he hadn't earned his promotion. I'm kicking myself a bit because obviously Percy hasn't been a worthwhile spy on the Order all along. I just assumed Fudge kept him despite the fact he didn't serve his original purpose. But the fact Percy's still near power proves Arthur was wrong.

Is Percy actually competent?

He did run the international Triwizard Tournament at the age of eighteen, doing both his own and his boss' jobs. Granted, he wasn't suspicious of the notes from "Crouch," but that was largely his ego and ambition, happy to sieze the opportunity (note his dismissive attitute about Crouch "getting old" once he had the power in his tight little hands). Not a pleasant picture, but it doesn't show someone who's incapable; instead we find someone whose ethics are overrun by ego and ambition, and are flexible to the circumstances.

He's survived both an inquiry and Fudge.

How? What did he do? We don't know.

But normally it would require some combination of:

1) connections,
2) a willingness to bail on Fudge,
3) an ear to the ground and political ramifications,
4) instinct to avoid shark-infested waters and political losses,
5) ability to form links to the new camps (help oust Fudge even?),
6) maybe a little dirt on a few people,
7) links to the press (Percy did give those press statements in OotP),

... and last and probably least,
8) general competence at his job.

Having swum the shark-infested waters of an international corporation, I can tell you that none of this is easy.

Harry has grown up, but so has Percy. He's a player.

cheshyre joked about Percy becoming a "kingmaker." Yet has anyone noticed that now Percy's in with the new Minister suddenly Arthur has a better job? After all these years? No evidence for it whatsoever, of course, but it's an interesting coincidence, especially given Percy blamed his father's lack of ambition for the family's poverty and has something to prove.

Percy and Family

Would Percy care enough to help Arthur's job? Remember, it was Molly who wanted Arthur to be more successful.

When Percy comes to visit, it's obvious Percy has only done so for the Minister. The only person he speaks to his mother as he stares stiffly above everyone else's heads. He's arrogant and his walking out on Christmas day is heartbreaking for Molly (she cries till New Year's), if understandable. We only know about the parsnips on his glasses, but the twins and Ginny show no remorse and take no responsibility for driving him out. Ron says he's no loss. When Percy steps into the Weasley household, only Molly hugs him, and Arthur is hardfaced and cold. Percy has stepped into enemy territory.

It's harsh that he didn't turn up to visit Arthur in the hospital in OotP, that he doesn't check in on Bill in HBP (I'm not surprised about Ron because one of the trio's always injured). Percy's rejection of his family is cold. But given his reception on Christmas, in front of the Minister which would put most people on their best behaviour, I can't say I blame him. Do they want Percy there? The answer for everyone but Molly is no.

By arriving with the Minister, Percy is not just allowing the Minister to use him. He is using the Minister to send his father a message: you were wrong. But all the family sees is Percy being used again, ignoring that obviously this visit is not Percy's sole job responsibility (and it's a little egocentric of them to think so).

Frankly, the fact Percy makes this statement shows he does care about what they think. His stiffness with them demonstrates as much hurt as anger. The family dynamic where Percy is concerned has always been Molly setting him up as a target by using him as an example for the twins (Percy's own brittleness making it irresistible), the twins rubbing his nose in it, then Molly stepping in (to little effect). His father not believing in him must have been a blow, as if his own father were taking the twins' part: "Excuse me? You don't think I could get this job on my own?"

If Percy arranged for Arthur's new job, well, that will be an interesting father/son moment, as it's as much a humiliating "fuck you, I'm better than you, Dad" as it is helpful. But certainly if Percy does have the power, he's perfectly capable of rearranging his family's life to suit what his mum always wanted.

Far from a happy family resolution, I see impending disaster. It would take, I think, an actual death in the family to close the gap. I'm holding out for Ginny as the future corpse (calling Septumsempra a "good one" -- honestly, what kind of ethics does that girl have?).

Percy the Death Eater Lackey?

At this point, it seems unlikely Percy will be knowingly involved with "the bad guys." Percy's not evil, he's misguided. And now he doesn't seem all that misguided either. He has shown far too much political savvy to be saddled with a dodgy cause, though if Voldemort took over tomorrow he would certainly -- apparently -- survive. Probably with his job intact as Voldemort's personal assistant.

There's an interesting suggestion that Percy may be - or may find himself - under Imperius, much like the low level lackey in the Muggle Prime Minister's office at the beginning of HBP. The Muggle lackey could foreshadow what is in store for Percy. Rowling could be setting a sort of "poetic justice" as retribution for Percy not noticing Crouch's plight.

Without a doubt Percy's slavish devotion to rules makes him an ideal candidate for Imperius. The scenario is quite possible and could explain Percy's remarkable survival in the Ministry: dark forces are manuevering their unwitting puppet into position.

If so, is Percy already under the Imperius curse?

It is unlikely that the Imperius curse caused the split with his family as some have suggested. Voldemort clearly would have benefited from Percy as an inside source at Grimmauld Place. Also, so far as we've heard, Imperius causes strange behaviour, at least when it's being fought (note Crouch's behaviour, the Muggle lackey's). Percy's behaviour, while priggish and rude... okay, it's completely normal for Percy to be priggish and rude. Percy's very behaviour with his family -- the wounded pride, the brittle temper -- demonstrates that he was not under the Imperius curse at Christmas. However, he is ideally placed to have Imperius cast on him at some future date.

Percy and relationships, and let's face it, slash.

With his family completely out of the loop on Percy's life, this door is wide open. We don't know where he lives. We have no idea what Percy's personal life is like -- except that if he's available to drop in his family on Christmas at the Minister's whim, there isn't much of one.

Percy could be having chaste dates with well-connected witches to further his career. He could be sleeping with a reporter (the Percy/Rita ship looms large), or he could stopping by a wizard bathhouse and getting fucked against a wall twice a week. We have no idea.

What we do know is that Percy's obsession with appearances and money (as shown by his bet with Penny Clearwater in PoA, refusing to admit that he didn't have a Galleon to gamble on a Quidditch match) is now coupled with an actual thriving career, one which represents his entire self-worth. He's not going to risk that for anything.

We can also guess that Percy has had at least one and possibly two promotions since GoF, along with glowing performance reviews and the pay raises this entails. Whatever his personal life, he has an unusually high income for someone his age.

What we do need to remember is that, regardless of his competence and apparent success, Percy is only twenty years old. His mistakes will be those of a young man. Given how determined he is to prove he's all grown up, without a doubt there's someone in the picture, somewhere.




ETA: to correct Tekalynn's name and properly reference joke.

Comments

[cheshyre]

I was thinking earlier about Percy's attitude towards Dumbledore and when it shifted. Rereading the earlier books, I realized the change is even more dramatic than I thought:

From the Sorting Feast in the first book:

"Is [Dumbledore] -- a bit mad?" [Harry] asked Percy uncertainly.
"Mad?" said Percy airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes.

From Order of the Phoenix, when Ron describes Percy's argument with Arthur:

"He said Dad was an idiot to run around with Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was heading for big trouble and Dad was going to go down with him

That's not merely like to dislike: Percy's attitude starts out almost worshipful, which makes his later rejection an awfully huge difference to bridge.


Percy's relations with Crouch and Fudge were similarly adulatory. The way Percy's described, you can almost believe his lips were welded to his boss's bottom. [That's certainly how his brothers treat him.]
But in each case when they became liabilities, he dumped them and moved onto the next bigger boss. And his attitude towards Dumbledore soured when he left school and was no longer dependent on the headmaster's good moods.

That's quite a pattern being established.
Interpretation depends on how cynical you want to be:

Maybe Percy wants somebody to believe in and makes a genuine effort, but his expectations are too high and he's disillusioned every time.

Or maybe it's all pretense.

---

One more facet to how Percy manages to survive. Remember in Book 2 when Harry's trying to decide upon electives? Percy advises him:

"It's never too early to think about the future, so I'd recommend Divination."

Maybe Percy has some innate talent for seeing when to jump. [He also took Muggle Studies, which is interesting in light of his relations with Arthur, but that's a different discussion.]