Percy Weasley

a rant/musing

 

Percy was a near hat stall, and more importantly, he was sorted into the wrong house. 

*These are all my opinions, based off the book version of Percy and not my own personal take on the character*

When being sorted he would have/should have been a stall between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. His ambition, thirst for knowledge, wit, leadership (even as a child), resourcefulness, and by far his intelligence should have had him in between those houses over Gryffindor. Yes, he had nerve and was daring but he was incredibly selfish with those two attributes when they worked for his own personal gain. He was never reckless in his decisions, everything was always calculated and the only true Gryffindor trait he had was a negative one: arrogance. And in all truth, just from his behavior throughout the series, especially after leaving Hogwarts, he should have been sorted into Slytherin.

Fight me *laughs* 

Now, this isn't just some random thought or a way to be edgy, because I stand by him being sorted in Gryffindor, just that he was just sorted incorrectly. And, not all Slytherin's were evil, and he would have been one of those characters that proved that. As for Ravenclaw, he wouldn't have been sorted into there, because while he had the characteristics of Ravenclaw, he clearly valued his own personal ambition over knowledge. He gained knowledge to use it, not just to have it and the hat looked at what one values, not just their personality.

Now, for me personally, there are two sides to this coin in why he was sorted into Gryffindor. 

One, he swayed the hat. Percy grew up in a family of Gryffindors and was raised by their core values. With his parents as Gryffindor's, Bill and Charlie were already sorted into the house, it would have been practically expected that he would be as well. Percy, who always wanted to be perfect and make his family proud, who was already bullied by his siblings for being different, he would have been terrified knowing it was a real possibility that he wouldn't be a Gryffindor (probably thinking he'd be a Ravenclaw) and as the black sheep, bookworm that his siblings liked to pick on, would have done anything to be sorted into Gryffindor. So, much like what we saw with Harry begging not to be in Slytherin, Percy would have been begging to fit in with his family and make them proud by being a Gryffindor.

Which is a good thing because if he had been sorted in Slytherin, Percy wouldn't have thrived and would have had a miserable experience at Hogwarts had he been sorted there. He had all the traits of one but most in the house viewed him and his family as a blood traitors and then his own family making his life hell for it. Already feeling distant from his family, this would have been a breeding ground of issues for Percy and he probably would have been swayed by the darker side of magic because he would have spent seven years of his life being reminded that he wasn't like the rest of his family. He succeeds in Gryffindor, and would have in Ravenclaw, because he had the support to do so. So while he would have been a remarkable and true Slytherin, it was extremely good for him to not be in that house.

Two. Lazy writing by JKR. She created the whole Weasley family and threw them all into Gryffindor because it was easier than keeping track of which kid was in what house while not paying attention to the personalities she gave them and the people she had them grow into. There was so much complexity to Percy, possible reasonings behind his decisions that had the potential to make people see things from another view but as she did with most characters, it was supposed to be black and white on if you like a character or not. From the first book we weren't supposed to like Percy and she pushed that idea by having him leave the burrow and then gave him a tiny and rather insulting redemption arc in the final book.

These are just my own opinions and factor into the way I've been shaping Percy and fleshing him out as a character.  As I said, he is a Gryffindor, my mind won't change on that. But he was without a doubt a hat stall and isn't a Gryffindor at his core. And on a side note, can we all just acknowledge that sorting kids at the age of 11 from 'vaules' when they are still growing as people and changing is way to early.