HMS_Yowling (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} hms_yowling) wrote,@ 2003-07-23 11:00:00 |
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Traitorous Weasleys, or, who will betray Harry, Ron or Percy?
It seemed to me when I was reading the first few HP novels that Rowling intended Harry’s generation to mirror the Marauders generation. The problem was that, prior to OotP, there were too few players. The Marauders were four, plus Lily, and the “New” Marauders consisted of three total. If the mirror was fairly exact, that should have meant that seemingly weak and wimpy hanger-on Neville Longbottom would turn out to be Pettigrew-like. Neville siding with Voldmort seems unlikely, if only because Neville’s parents were tortured into insanity by Voldemort’s followers. But there’s the matter of his last name. Longbottom may seem a silly name, perhaps especially to Americans, but “bottom,” is British slang for “courage.” Rowling likes to play the names-as-clues game, so it seemed likely that Neville, instead of being like Peter and growing petty, would be long on courage.
But then who would be the Pettigrew character (if in fact there is one)? I looked to the names again and came up with the rather obvious: Weasley is a lot like “weasel.”
Who then, might be the weasel Weasley? I elected Ron, mostly because none of the other Weasley’s were that close to Harry. Also, prior to the events of OotP, we had seen Ron behave badly toward Harry -- roughly one incident per book -- although Harry and Ron always managed to work their differences out in the end. And it’s true that their battles could represent nothing more than adolescent growing pains. Nevertheless, we do see Ron express jealousy of Harry’s fame, success, and money. Also prior to OotP, Harry began to keep secrets from Ron: that he’d given the twins his Triwizard winnings.
This last secret is revealed in OotP, and Ron isn’t at all upset. In fact he’s grateful -- his mother now has someone else to blame for the twins leaving school. But Harry now has two new secrets to keep: the first is that Ron was more-or-less Angelina’s last choice for goalkeeper. That, of course, may amount to nothing since Ron came into his own by the end of the book, and perhaps more importantly, achieved a success, and helped Griffindor win the house cup, all without playing the part of Harry’s sidekick. The other “secret” Harry knows is that Ron was actually Dumbledore’s second choice as prefect. This, potentially, could be more damaging to the friends’ relationship depending on whether, and how, it is revealed.
On balance, the evidence for Ron being the traitor is fairly weak, especially since there now seems to be a more obvious Weasley traitor: Percy.
Frankly I’m hoping that Percy is a red herring, meant to look like a traitor, rather than actually be one. The textual evidence is a little slim, granted. The first bit of evidence is that Percy may be named for Dumbledore. We find this out during Harry’s trial, when both Percy’s and Dumbledore’s full names are read aloud. Just this little mention was enough to make me theorize that…. Percy is Dumbledore’s mole inside the Ministry.
The name-sharing may seem unimportant, but the reveal, especially considering that Rowling likes to use names as clues, is significant. If Rowling didn’t mean something by it, it probably wouldn’t be there at all, much less included on successive lines (top of page 139, American edition). More name clues: Percival a loyal knight of the Round Table. The significance of Ignatius, Percy’s middle name, is unclear to me. Two Catholic saints bear his name. St. Ignatius of Loyola is the better known one and was apparently an ambitious SOB before he found God. Perhaps that’s significant as well.
My second bit of evidence is the horrible letter Percy sends to Ron. If Percy is a mole, and is afraid of being caught or is under suspicion, it was rather a clever way to warn Dumbledore -- providing Ron had shared the letter with him -- that Fudge was moving against him in a big way. It was also a good, if rather painful, way for Percy to confirm his family’s worst suspicions, thereby maintaining his cover. The high drama surrounding Percy’s defection, not to mention that he of all the Weasley’s knew best what Ginny had gone through when possessed by Riddle, means that I’m going to cling to this theory for the next two years, or until Rowling provides evidence otherwise.
My last bizarre theory is that Percy is actually a correspondent for The Quibbler simply because it’s a fun image: A frustrated and lonely Percy pouring out what he knows, disguising it sufficiently so it can’t be traced back to him, and sending it to the Quibbler where it gets edited to become preposterous. Based on Umbridge’s attempts to regulate half- and non-humans out of existence, I wouldn’t be surprised if Fudge is anti-Goblin, especially since the Goblins do control money in the wizarding world.
But what does this mean for Ron? Well, it could mean that Rowling is setting up things so that the New Marauder generation succeeds where the Marauder generation failed. And that may mean that Ron is being set up to have the motivation to betray Harry, but enough of a sense of his own self-worth so that he doesn’t. In the interest of Drama, however, I admit to rooting for Ron-as-Traitor. I’m also thinking that if both Percy and Snape survive the war, they should get together to discuss the difficulties of maintaining their cover.
</lj>
It seemed to me when I was reading the first few HP novels that Rowling intended Harry’s generation to mirror the Marauders generation. The problem was that, prior to OotP, there were too few players. The Marauders were four, plus Lily, and the “New” Marauders consisted of three total. If the mirror was fairly exact, that should have meant that seemingly weak and wimpy hanger-on Neville Longbottom would turn out to be Pettigrew-like. Neville siding with Voldmort seems unlikely, if only because Neville’s parents were tortured into insanity by Voldemort’s followers. But there’s the matter of his last name. Longbottom may seem a silly name, perhaps especially to Americans, but “bottom,” is British slang for “courage.” Rowling likes to play the names-as-clues game, so it seemed likely that Neville, instead of being like Peter and growing petty, would be long on courage.
But then who would be the Pettigrew character (if in fact there is one)? I looked to the names again and came up with the rather obvious: Weasley is a lot like “weasel.”
Who then, might be the weasel Weasley? I elected Ron, mostly because none of the other Weasley’s were that close to Harry. Also, prior to the events of OotP, we had seen Ron behave badly toward Harry -- roughly one incident per book -- although Harry and Ron always managed to work their differences out in the end. And it’s true that their battles could represent nothing more than adolescent growing pains. Nevertheless, we do see Ron express jealousy of Harry’s fame, success, and money. Also prior to OotP, Harry began to keep secrets from Ron: that he’d given the twins his Triwizard winnings.
This last secret is revealed in OotP, and Ron isn’t at all upset. In fact he’s grateful -- his mother now has someone else to blame for the twins leaving school. But Harry now has two new secrets to keep: the first is that Ron was more-or-less Angelina’s last choice for goalkeeper. That, of course, may amount to nothing since Ron came into his own by the end of the book, and perhaps more importantly, achieved a success, and helped Griffindor win the house cup, all without playing the part of Harry’s sidekick. The other “secret” Harry knows is that Ron was actually Dumbledore’s second choice as prefect. This, potentially, could be more damaging to the friends’ relationship depending on whether, and how, it is revealed.
On balance, the evidence for Ron being the traitor is fairly weak, especially since there now seems to be a more obvious Weasley traitor: Percy.
Frankly I’m hoping that Percy is a red herring, meant to look like a traitor, rather than actually be one. The textual evidence is a little slim, granted. The first bit of evidence is that Percy may be named for Dumbledore. We find this out during Harry’s trial, when both Percy’s and Dumbledore’s full names are read aloud. Just this little mention was enough to make me theorize that…. Percy is Dumbledore’s mole inside the Ministry.
The name-sharing may seem unimportant, but the reveal, especially considering that Rowling likes to use names as clues, is significant. If Rowling didn’t mean something by it, it probably wouldn’t be there at all, much less included on successive lines (top of page 139, American edition). More name clues: Percival a loyal knight of the Round Table. The significance of Ignatius, Percy’s middle name, is unclear to me. Two Catholic saints bear his name. St. Ignatius of Loyola is the better known one and was apparently an ambitious SOB before he found God. Perhaps that’s significant as well.
My second bit of evidence is the horrible letter Percy sends to Ron. If Percy is a mole, and is afraid of being caught or is under suspicion, it was rather a clever way to warn Dumbledore -- providing Ron had shared the letter with him -- that Fudge was moving against him in a big way. It was also a good, if rather painful, way for Percy to confirm his family’s worst suspicions, thereby maintaining his cover. The high drama surrounding Percy’s defection, not to mention that he of all the Weasley’s knew best what Ginny had gone through when possessed by Riddle, means that I’m going to cling to this theory for the next two years, or until Rowling provides evidence otherwise.
My last bizarre theory is that Percy is actually a correspondent for The Quibbler simply because it’s a fun image: A frustrated and lonely Percy pouring out what he knows, disguising it sufficiently so it can’t be traced back to him, and sending it to the Quibbler where it gets edited to become preposterous. Based on Umbridge’s attempts to regulate half- and non-humans out of existence, I wouldn’t be surprised if Fudge is anti-Goblin, especially since the Goblins do control money in the wizarding world.
But what does this mean for Ron? Well, it could mean that Rowling is setting up things so that the New Marauder generation succeeds where the Marauder generation failed. And that may mean that Ron is being set up to have the motivation to betray Harry, but enough of a sense of his own self-worth so that he doesn’t. In the interest of Drama, however, I admit to rooting for Ron-as-Traitor. I’m also thinking that if both Percy and Snape survive the war, they should get together to discuss the difficulties of maintaining their cover.
</lj>
