Will he return to the bosom of his family? Or will he be too angry or ashamed to suck it up, and end up a death-eater?
Personally, I vote for “death-eater” as his most likely occupation. His mom was fretting about families being split again by Voldemort, just like last time.
Thoughts?
No way Percy becomes a Death Eater. As Sirius said in Phoenix, “But the world isn’t divided into good people and death eaters”.
Just because he’s a pompous prick doesn’t mean he’s going to be rushing to follow Voldemort.
Ah, but good people can be seduced by their human frailties into becoming such! And be redeemed, as Snape was.
For a real-life case, consider Skywalker/Vader. 
I have just finished Phoenix, and I must say I was a little surprised that Percy wasn’t mentioned at all. At the end that is. I suppose it is one of those details that will be revisited in the next installment. I will have to vote, though, that Percy returns. Given the way that Mr Weasley’s attack was treated, I don’t think Rowling wants to muck with the Weasley family too much.
I still find it difficult to treat Snape as a good guy, cause he’s such a jerk. But I like the way that Rowling fleshed out Snape’s character and Harry’s attitude towards his dad. I always choose character over plot. Almost.
My guess is that Fudge will survive as Minister and Percy will continue to rise in the Ministry, perhaps ending up in some key position in book seven.
And I have to agree with Earl. I don’t see Percy or Fudge or his ilk become Death Eaters. I think that was one of the most powerful messages of the book: You can do as much harm by refusing to acknowledge a problem as the problem causes itself.
Percy is career-oriented. There is NOTHING else in his life. I don’t see him going as far as being a Death Eater, though. While he loves authority, he’s just too much of a wimp.
He may waffle and kiss butt, but he’s not evil.
Yeah, I’d be disappointed if Percy ended up a Death Eater. One of the cool things about the books, this one is particular, is that they make that distinction between the truly evil people and those who are just assholes. And, just as important, that there’s not always a resolution. Sometimes stuff happens that just sucks, and even with magic you can’t make it all just go away. I’d be a lot happier with the books if they had Percy keep on being a “git” and just never reconcile with the rest of the Weasleys.
That said, I can definitely see his going over to Volde… You-Know-Who in the next books, though. Rowling has to show that Voldemort is a real threat, and his ability to turn people over to his cause is an even greater power than just his attack magic. There aren’t that many characters left that would have much impact if they went over to the Dark Side.
I’m not sure that Voldemort would accept Percy even if he wanted to become a Death Eater. IIRC, Hagrid says in the first book that there’s never been a wizard who went bad that didn’t come from Slytherin House. Now I don’t know that we can take that at face value, but given that we already know The Big V is obsessed with blood purity he might also be prejudiced against any Hogwarts students not from his own house. Or he might just think Percy was too much of a priggish little git to tolerate.
I was surprised that Percy didn’t send a letter or anything when his dad was almost killed, I mean I thought he was better than that.
As a result I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t try and make up with the rest of the family.
IIRC, he did. Something along the lines of “I told you so”
Nope. All he did was send the Weasley Christmas sweater back, with no note. Re-reading that makes me wonder if I even care what he does. Git.
Am I the only person considering that maybe Percy is acting as a mole, getting inside info on The Ministry for the Order of the Pheonix?
Apparently. Here, at least.
I still think a good case can be made for driving Percy to the dark side…um, I mean over to what’s his name. It was certainly foreshadowed by his mum’s anxiety attack over families split by death and betrayal the first time around.
Anybody recall Rowling’s use of foreshadowing so far in the series, and how it came out?
I think that Percy will probably be reconciled with his family. It is possible he could become a Death Eater. What I think he might do is become a spy for the Order of the Phoenix and spy on the Death Eaters.
Voldemort would probably want to recruit Percy. Percy is pretty intelligent, and he would be a useful spy - either for the Ministry or for the Order of the Phoenix. I think there are good cases for Percy joining any side. But Percy seems like a decent person at heart, so I hope he’ll join the Order of the Phoenix.
I say this because he seems like a perfectly nice person in the first three books - maybe a little pompous, but so what? He does “jump up and down like a maniac” at the last Quidditch game in Prisoner of Azkaban.
The quote from Hagrid is correct, but Hagrid is wrong. There have been dark wizards from other than Slytherin. Peter Pettigrew comes to mind. Or, at the time, Sirius Black (Hagrid still thinks he is guilty). Sirius Black was in Gryffindor. (This is not stated in the books, but Sirius was James Potter’s best friend, and James Potter was in Gryffindor. Oddly enough, I think Hagrid says that. Or J. K. Rowling, I recall reading it in an interview.) I see no particular obstacle to Percy becoming a Death Eater. Incidentally, how does Voldemort recruit Death Eaters, anyway?
Percy, unfortunately, is likely to become a Death Eater. But he is (in my opinion) equally likely to not become a Death Eater. We’ll just have to wait (several years, probably) and see.
I don’t see him as a Death Eater. He’s a butt-kissing suck up, but I don’t think he’s truly evil (as Rowling sees things, anyhow. I don’t think that anyone who could hurt his family that badly has much decency left in him.)
Geez, now you’ve got me changing my tune in mid-argument…
But, still, I think Percy’s motivation is that he has to be the best boy. Fudge is the Ministry of Magic, the ultimate boss, and therefore he has to be right. Therefore, Percy has to serve him perfectly, and anyone else who gets in the way of that is just wrong (in his eyes.)
I think he’ll simply realise that he isnt always right, and subsequently will become more likable… cos other wise hes an annoying sod!
I thought the same thing, and was a little surprised that it wasn’t mentioned at the end of the book. But JK Rowling said in an interview somewhere that one reason the book was so long was that she was setting up stuff for the remaining books. Perhaps this is one of them?
As for Percy’s fate, I don’t see him becoming a Death Eater. I think he supported Fudge because he’s got such blind faith in authority. I think that the fact that Fudge was proven so wrong will shatter this belief, and return him to the fold. Also, Fudge should be removed from office, for being so utterly wrong, for appointing such an evil person as Umbridge and because he’s ill-suited as a wartime leader.
Dunno about that, SMTWTFS. He just about worshipped Barty Crouch as a god, and then when Crouch’s dark past came to light, quickly disassociated himself and latched onto Fudge. While I expect that the events of OotP will have a much more jarring effect, I could still see Percy continuing to favor whoever demonstrates the clearest chain of command over vigilante/rebels like the Order. Incidentally, I don’t think the Order is going to “go public” in Book 6, either. They may form a tacit alliance with Fudge, but I have a feeling they will keep the Order itself as secret as possible.
Back on topic… in all honesty, I think it’d be more intruiging if Percy stayed separated from the Order (not necessarily as a Death Eater, but perhaps continuing his shunning of all things non-Ministry), at least until sometime during Book 7. The “misguided moron comes to his senses and becomes a force for good” thing is just a trifle overused, and I found putting a rift into the Weasley family an interesting direction for JKR to take (just like the James-was-actually-something-of-an-asshole bit).
Just finished OotP yesterday, so now I can join the Potter discussions! Yay!
I personally don’t think that Percy has the right temperament to be a Death Eater. All the Death Eaters we’ve met so far have had a fairly cruel, sadistic streak to them. They like causing pain, making mayhem, and killing people. Percy is a stuffed shirt, but I don’t think he’s sadistic.
That being said, I rather doubt he’ll return to his family either. I mean, if he didn’t return when his dad was at death’s door, then it’s a fairly safe bet that he’s not going to return for anything. So that leaves Percy as Ministry suck-up.
I think there’s some possibility Percy will pretend to be a Death Eater, acting as a double agent, so that he can redeem himself in the eyes of his family.