FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT PERCY WEASLEY, WHO WAS THOUGHT TO BE STUFFY AND SERIOUS, WAS THE LAST PERSON WHO MADE FRED WEASLEY LAUGH.
FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT PERCY WEASLEY IS STILL A TITANIC ASSHOLE WHO DID NOT EARN REDEMPTION.
EXCUSE ME? YOU COME ONTO MY POST? MY POST ABOUT PERFECT PERCY AND YOU SAY THIS? OH NO HONEY, YOU’RE NOT GETTING OFF THAT EASY.
Percy Weasley 100% deserved his redemption and you want to know why?! Too bad, I’m going to tell you. For his whole life, Percy Weasley was made fun of, he was teased by all his siblings, constantly the butt of jokes. Whenever he was proud of his accomplishments, his family (besides his mother) shut him down. Prefect? Fred and George made fun of him for bragging, for being excited that he lived up to Bill and Charlie’s shadow. Head Boy? Fred and George teased him, stole his badge because they thought it was funny. Percy was so happy and proud of himself and his brothers tore him down. He was pushed aside for Bill or Charlie or even Ron and Ginny. Sure, his mother was proud of him, but his brothers made sure they made his life hell. When he got his job at the Ministry he was so excited. Right of school he got a job he loved, a job he was sure he was good at. He talked about it a lot but that’s what happens when you’re excited. His parents were proud, but again, his siblings made sure to tease him. When Crouch didn’t know his name, his siblings laughed, Fred and George sent him dragon dung.
Then he gets the job of Junior Assistant to the Minister. He’s proud because he’s 2 years out of school and has this prestigious position. Of course he’s going to want to share with his family. What do they do? Tell him his hard work meant nothing, that the Minister was using him (and sure, that was probably true, but Percy was so excited). He saw that he and his family shared two very different views and opinions, some words were said, and Percy left. Reminds me of another beloved character that never gets shit about leaving his family from the fandom. Any guesses who? If you said Sirius Black you are correct! Like Sirius, he left home and the family he clearly no longer saw eye to eye with. That’s not a problem. He felt as though he was in a toxic environment, and honestly he was. I do not blame him for leaving his family even if they were for the wrong reasons. (but why does Percy get shit for leaving a toxic family when Sirius doesn’t? interesting) Now we don’t know what happened when he was at the Ministry. He wrote a letter to Ron that was a bit rude, but we’re also seeing this from Harry’s limited POV. Maybe Percy regretted leaving, maybe he loved his freedom and never wanted to go home. We just don’t know. He finally does come home for Christmas in 1996 (HBP), where he openly welcomed by his mother. He was being used by Scrimgeour, but he went. While his mother was welcoming, his siblings are not. He leaves with mashed parsnips in his face. Did he want to be there? No idea, but he went. How do you think he felt leaving? Probably awful. He didn’t go to Bill and Fleur’s wedding, but it was clear from the way his family treated him the year before that even if he did go, no one wanted him there.
The Battle of Hogwarts comes and Percy comes back. Yes, comes back. He went back to the family he left, he apologized for leaving and for being ‘family disowning, ministry loving, power hungry moron’ (as Fred put it), which he takes full blame for being. What happens next? Fred welcomes him back. Then his parents. Then George. They did not need to do this, but they did because they were family and they still loved each other. Percy fights in the Battle and ends up going up against Pius. He makes the “Hello, Minister, did I mention that I’m resigning!” joke which shows that his limited view has been expanded. He finally saw what was wrong with this Ministry, with what was happening around him (though this may not all be his fault, he surrounded himself with people who also had very limited knowledge and views). When Fred is shown dead, it is Percy who is crying over his body, Percy who tries to protect his body and hide it. Wonder how guilty he felt after this happened because he made Fred laugh and then Fred dies. We don’t know what happens to Percy after this but we clearly know he has a very fierce love of his family and that he was really and truly sorry.
So TLDR; Percy loves his family and was very sorry and hurt by them. He 100% deserved his redemption even if you don’t think so. And if you don’t, don’t comment on other people’s posts about him saying rude things about Percy because you will be proven wrong. Thank you and have a good day.
Honestly, if my family shut me down for every single good thing that happened to me, that I earned, I’d leave too. Staying loyal to people who constantly ignore or make fun of your position is exhausting. I hated Percy at first too, but then I realized that if I was in his position, I wouldn’t act any different. No one needs that kind of toxicity in their life.
It’s very easy to understand why Sirius leaves his toxic family because most of his family members are arrogant racist classist shitlords and shitladies and the Weasleys are the antithesis to that. But it doesn’t mean their worldviews and attitudes are perfect, either.
As for Percy’s letter, from Harry’s PoV, it’s horrible. From the perspective of an older sibling? It is 100% understandable.
Let’s look at things from Percy’s PoV where Ron’s friendship with Harry is concerned:
Year 1: breaks into ultra-secret teacher-set booby traps designed to stop adult dark wizards. Almost gets killed by a monster-dog and by a giant chess game.
Year 2: Confronts a basilisk under the school. Nearly gets himself killed.
Year 3: Confronts a known serial killer. Winds up with a broken arm.
Year 4: Nearly drowns because he was The Thing Harry Would Miss The Most. (Students have died at the Triwizard Tournament, after all.)
Harry then shows up at the end of the tournament with the dead body of his classmate/rival, claiming that Voldemort, who everybody knew was dead, had somehow done it.
Honestly, Percy is kind of more than a little justified in wanting Harry to stay tf away from his little brother. And then you take into account the way that once he’s at the Ministry and not at school, the conversation around The Potter Boy takes on a much different tone. It becomes easy for Percy to look back on all their adventures and overlook the heroic things like saving Ginny, and to start seeing Harry Potter as dangerous. (Because the truth is, Harry is. It is very dangerous to be friends with Harry Potter.)
I’m not saying the letter was right, but it was incredibly understandable.
Especially if you take into account that, for all the crap they give him, Percy is actually protective of his family up until the point that they drive him away. Think about his early childhood–unlike Ron and the Twins, he’s old enough to remember some of the war, but unlike Bill and Charlie, he would’ve been too young to know details. Just that there were big dangerous things, and you had to obey whatever rules someone shouted at you very quickly and without question, because that’s what you teach young children to do in dangerous situations. When Ginny’s gone in CoS, Percy takes it the hardest out of all of them. And people say he got off light, that oh, he should’ve died instead, but no, man. He got the harshest punishment–his little brother dying right in front of him.
