4. Through My Words

"Yes," Percy explained later, "it was foolishness, nothing less. Stupidity. I can't say how ashamed I am, of myself and of the ministry." He firmly grasped the cup of chai standing on the table in front of him, as if for support.

Hermione smiled at him sympathetically. "Yea, you have committed mistakes. But so do all, don't they? The important thing is, you weren't actually working for the Death Eaters." She didn't tell him that this was what they had sometimes feared, although none of them would have admitted it. But Percy shook his head sadly.

"No, Hermione. You're a smart witch but here you're wrong. See, what I did was the worst possible behaviour, worse perhaps even than being a Death Eater. I showed lack of courage. I didn't show my colours. I thought above all we had to comply to the laws. Had to follow the rules. You should know what I mean: you're prefect. How could there possibly be anything more important than rules?

"Oh, of course there is. And I didn't understand this. But, Hermione: what if these rules are made for an evil purpose? Lucius Malfoy influenced our minister as we all know and he was a loyal Death Eater. He made sure certain laws that suited him were passed and others were delayed. Yes, he confessed recently. It's classified and I shouldn't be telling this. But see, this is exactly the problem. I obeyed without asking twice. That's lack of courage. And this is what makes it so easy for You-know-who: he doesn't need a hundred Death Eaters when he has a thousand people doing his biding quite voluntarily. In a way, the whole ministry followed his command. Mr Fudge pretended that You-know-who had never come back to power. And I, like so many others believed him although I knew what Dumbledore claimed." He laughed, "isn't that stupid? Hasn't Dumbledore often enough shown that he knows so much more than Mr Fudge? And still I believed him, just because he was the minister and he made the laws."

Hermione didn't seem entirely convinced but Harry thought he saw Percy's point: As long as people were willing to pretend that they were on the right side of the law and only led their petty lives it would be possible for anybody to take advantage of the situation. In order to prevent evil from happening that general behaviour had to change.

o

Harry wanted to ask Percy a question but feared it might hurt the newly-established peace. So he sat in silence and brooded while the others continued to discuss. But eventually he turned to Percy who wasn't much involved in the general talk either and asked:

"Percy, what about my process? When I was tried for my using magic in front of Dudley. Why were you on Fudge's side?" Percy shifted uncomfortably.

"I wanted to demonstrate my allegiance. Everyone knew that you were my brother's best friend. I think Mr Fudge wanted to test me when he appointed me scribe for the process. And I wanted to excel in this test of confidence. I wanted to show everybody that I was placing law and order higher than my family and friends." He sighed, "foolishness. Wrong sense of priorities. My parents had every reason to be mad at me."

Harry nodded in acknowledgement. At least Percy, unlike Fudge and many others, saw his mistakes and was determined not to repeat them.

o

In the week before the new Hogwarts term would start, a notice in a local newspaper in southern England announced that the police was searching for two missing children.