« Previous Post | Index | Next Post »
Grey Wolf wrote:
I think you are overlooking something, Elkins. While all your points are valid, you are basing them in an asumption: that Crouch heard the name "Percy Weasley" at least once.
Heh. Yeah, you're right. I had been making that assumption. I suppose that it is possible that he never did. (I particularly liked your suggestion that confronted with the question, "Are you related to the Weasley family?" Percy would likely have simply answered in the affirmative. That cracked me up.)
Grey Wolf:
Now, the real interesting question is: how does an absolute newbie, that has been in the ministry for less than a year, manage to climb far enough to be Crouch's personal assistant and substitute when he is unavailable (for example, as Tournament judge)?
Hmmm. Well, I've actually been a "personal assistant," and in my experience, at any rate, it isn't a job that necessarily goes to someone with seniority. Far to the contrary. In my experience, it goes to the person the Assistee finds most amenable to having around as a dogsbody. Such a person is often someone with very little in the way of seniority, but with quite a lot in the way of...
::long silence::
::sigh::
Oh dear. You know, I really very much want to say "hustle" here? But I suspect that "sycophancy" might actually be a far better and more accurate descriptor.
I have no difficulty believing that Percy would have been that person for Mr. Crouch. I've always read a certain degree of amused approval mixed in with the faint exasperation of Crouch's description of Percy as a tad over-enthusiastic at times.
I also find it believable that Crouch really would have wanted, er, "Weatherby" as his personal assistant because Percy did idolize him. That's an important trait in a personal assistant. I don't know if anyone else has ever held such a job, but I imagine that it may be a bit like being a professional servant. It is work that is much easier to perform well if you are able to convince yourself, at least while on the clock, that your employer really is a kind of minor deity. You don't have to believe it too far down, but it's a lot easier if you do. It's a thankless job, really, and if you can't at least Stanislavsky or Roleplay or Self-hypnosis or what-have-you your way into at least...err... assuming the position of personal devotion then it will likely drive you quite, quite mad.
(Why, yes! I did feel a great deal for Percy at the end of GoF. Why do you ask?)
Cheryl/Lynx, however, has a far more sinister suggestion:
I'm not sure about the position, but I do have a suggestion about why Percy was chosen as the representative. I think that was LV's doing. Especially if/since Crouch, Sr., remember Percy's real name. All he knew was that this newbie was just that, a newbie, overly flattered by Crouch's interest. He probably felt that 'Weatherby' would be the least dangerous person to be the link between Crouch and the tournament, especially with Crouch resisting the Imperious. After all, Percy did accept all Crouch's notes unquestioningly.
I agree that this seems very plausible. Especially since I think it's safe to assume that Voldemort could have learned all he wanted about Crouch's underlings from Crouch himself.
Poor Percy really was an ideal tool, wasn't he?
For pretty much the same reasons that he would have made such an ideal personal assistant, actually.
—Elkins
casting an uneasy glance down at her SYCOPHANTS badge and trying to avoid thinking about that clock chiming somewhere up the hill in the Garden of Good and Evil...
Posted to HPfGU by Elkins on January 30, 2003 10:59 PM
« Previous Post | Index | Next Post »