The Twins used to have moments where they actually seemed to care about others' welfare, albeit briefly. In PS/SS they helped Harry get his trunk on the train before they knew who he was - he was just some random scrawny first year as far as they knew. What happened to those guys? Fred and George getting more callous, and then getting a rude awakening when their weapons-dealing helped DEs invade Hogwarts and rethinking their lives, would have been an interesting subplot, but unfortunately it stopped with "getting more callous." Are we meant to think that's a lovable foible?
The Dursleys are in quite a bind, it seems. They don't want Harry around, but they don't want him hanging out with wizards even more. Or showing them up by escaping.
At least wizards have Martin Miggs comics. Otherwise we'd have to wonder whether Beadle's tales, Celestina Warbeck, and the Weird Sisters were the only wizarding entertainment in existence. (Okay, and Lockhart's supposedly non-fiction tales of adventure.) This shows some evidence of popular reading material.
Not only does Percy have good emotional reasons for leaving the Weasley family, but logical ones too. The whole family follows Dumbledore without considering whether being powerful and against Voldemort is enough qualification for leadership. Percy could well conclude that he wanted to be on Team Good and oppose the various criminals and former DEs that caused trouble, but that Dumbledore and co. were ineffective and/or causing more harm than good. The Ministry might have flaws, but at least they didn't depend on a cult of personality and so had hope for improvement. (And Percy's too trusting about other people's intentions, but for crying out loud, he's still practically a kid and that's understandable.) The Ministry really can point to successes, from incarcerating DEs to making sure cauldrons meet standards so they don't melt and hurt people. What about Dumbledore? Failed to protect the Potters, failed to defeat Voldemort, failed to protect Hogwarts from all manner of monsters, sabotaged school unity with blatant favoritism, failed to so much as keep his groundskeeper out of Azkaban... If he can't convince anyone for fifty years that a big spider does not kill people without leaving a mark, or even to check Hagrid's memories to see that his pet was a spider, either he's incompetent or didn't try. Percy might not know the details, but wouldn't he wonder why, if Dumbledore is sure Hagrid isn't the culprit, he was unable to find any convincing evidence to clear his name? For fifty years? We know he does wonder things, like why Dumbledore didn't explain why the third-floor corridor was off-limits.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-09-24 05:35 pm (UTC)The Dursleys are in quite a bind, it seems. They don't want Harry around, but they don't want him hanging out with wizards even more. Or showing them up by escaping.
At least wizards have Martin Miggs comics. Otherwise we'd have to wonder whether Beadle's tales, Celestina Warbeck, and the Weird Sisters were the only wizarding entertainment in existence. (Okay, and Lockhart's supposedly non-fiction tales of adventure.) This shows some evidence of popular reading material.
Not only does Percy have good emotional reasons for leaving the Weasley family, but logical ones too. The whole family follows Dumbledore without considering whether being powerful and against Voldemort is enough qualification for leadership. Percy could well conclude that he wanted to be on Team Good and oppose the various criminals and former DEs that caused trouble, but that Dumbledore and co. were ineffective and/or causing more harm than good. The Ministry might have flaws, but at least they didn't depend on a cult of personality and so had hope for improvement. (And Percy's too trusting about other people's intentions, but for crying out loud, he's still practically a kid and that's understandable.) The Ministry really can point to successes, from incarcerating DEs to making sure cauldrons meet standards so they don't melt and hurt people. What about Dumbledore? Failed to protect the Potters, failed to defeat Voldemort, failed to protect Hogwarts from all manner of monsters, sabotaged school unity with blatant favoritism, failed to so much as keep his groundskeeper out of Azkaban... If he can't convince anyone for fifty years that a big spider does not kill people without leaving a mark, or even to check Hagrid's memories to see that his pet was a spider, either he's incompetent or didn't try. Percy might not know the details, but wouldn't he wonder why, if Dumbledore is sure Hagrid isn't the culprit, he was unable to find any convincing evidence to clear his name? For fifty years? We know he does wonder things, like why Dumbledore didn't explain why the third-floor corridor was off-limits.