’Lacy’ by Olivia Rodrigo is one of the most Percy Weasley songs to exist
“Dear angel Lacy, eyes white as daisies
Did I ever tell you that I'm not doing well?
Ooh, I care, I care, I care
Like perfume that you wear
I linger all the time
Watchin', hidden in plain sight
Ooh, I try, I try, I try
But it takes over my life
I see you everywhere
The sweetest torture one could bear”
‘Lacy’ represents the Weasley family.
”Did I ever tell you that I’m not doing well?” To me, that represents Percy feeling disconnected from his family, more specifically, his siblings. It represents him feeling to much like an outsider to confide in his own family and as a result bottling up his own feelings which causes them to explode in his bouts of ‘pompous’ or ‘arrogant’ lecturing directed towards his siblings, especially in Hogwarts, because he feels too disconnected and unheard and un-acknowledged by them to actually have a genuine conversation.
“Ooh, I care, I care, I care” Percy does love his family, with his whole heart and soul, but the ‘imposter’ feeling within him and his general inability to properly express his feelings and his fear that expressing his feelings will make him victim to the twins ruthless ‘jokes’ makes it difficult for him to express or show just how much he adores his family.
“I linger all the time, watchin’ hidden in plain sight” Again, shows how he feels like a stranger within his own family, watching from the sidelines as they have fun and laugh and play while his fear and low self esteem keeps him a mere observer in his own family. “Linger all the time” makes he think that this wasn’t only when he was in Hogwarts and after, but also when he was a little child.
“But it takes over my life, I see you everywhere, the sweetest torture one could bear” This, in my opinion, can mean a lot of things. Percy Weasley is nothing if not obsessive. “It takes over my life” could be his fear of ridicule and failure, specifically within his family. His fear of their reaction to him, his fear of their actions, their ridicule, their hatred, their anger, their indifference; all take over his life, throwing him into a spiral of self-hate and terror that he has experienced since childhood.
“I see you everywhere” Every year of Percy’s Hogwarts career one or more of his siblings were with him. In his first year both Bill and Charlie were there, his strong, popular, charismatic older brothers, well liked by many. He couldn’t compare. He always felt like he was in their shadow, always ‘Bill and Charlie’s brother’ not ‘Percy Weasley’. The same during his second year. In his third year Bill left and the twins came. Now he was ‘the boring brother’. And so on and so forth. His family was everywhere. He never had anything that he deemed was his own. Hogwarts, and the world in general, was always littered with traces of them. In my opinion, Percy notices more than he says, he’s on of those people who will see things, certain trees or flowers or nature or animals or objects in stores and think of people. In my opinion his ability to immediately be able to point out something his siblings or family would like involuntarily increased the feeling that he was insignificant compared to his family.
He may know that his family doesn’t mean any genuine harm, that they just use him as the butt of the joke, just for a few laughs. And Percy wants nothing more than to see him family happy. Ergo “The sweetest torture one could bear”
“Smart sexy Lacy, I'm losing it lately
I feel your compliments like bullets on skin
Dazzling starlet, Bardot reincarnate
Well, aren't you the greatest thing to ever exist?”
“Smart sexy Lacy, I’m losing it lately, I feel you compliments like bullets on skin” in general this whole part is entirely about Oliver, but this line to me can be that Percy finds Oliver to be legions more amazing than home “Smart sexy Lacy” Smart Oliver, excellent Quidditch strategist, Sexy Oliver, unbelievably attractive.
“Compliments like bullets on skin” is that Percy doesn’t believe any compliments he gets, much less if they are from Oliver, because Oliver is wonderful. He’s everything and more to Percy, so receiving a compliment from Oliver is like receiving blessings from the heavens themselves to Percy. Unrealistic and therefore untrue. Each compliment piercing painfully like a bullet because Oliver is kind and good and he wants to make people happy so it’s not true. His compliments are never true to Percy.
“Well aren’t you the greatest thing to ever exist” In Percy’s mind, Oliver is the greatest thing to ever exist, Oliver is everything the world should strive to be. Kind, compassionate, hardworking, intelligent, beautiful, confident, generous. Oliver will forever be the greatest thing to exist in Percy’s eyes.
“Ooh, I care, I care, I care
Like ribbons in your hair
My stomach's all in knots
You got the one thing that I want
Ooh, I try, I try, I try
Try to rationalize
People are people
But it's like you're made of angel dust”
“My stomachs all in knots, you got the one thing that I want” Love. Care. Acceptance. Happiness. Respect. Friends. Unconditional love. Things that his family has, that Oliver has, things that has wanted and craved for and worked for, things that he thinks will forever be out of reach, things that he has but he will never see because his own self-loathing and despair clouds over them.
“Ooh, I try, I try, I try, try to rationalize people are people but, it’s like you’re made of angel dust” This part can be about either Oliver or his family, placing this line in either dynamic works. Within his family dynamic, this would represent after the war. Percy puts his family on such a high pedestal, he believes that they can do and have done no wrong because he’s blinded by his own self-hatred. He almost puts them on the level of actual saints. Within his love for Oliver, I assume Percy would see Oliver as the human incarnation of good, of light and kindness. All the while seeing himself as the human embodiment of sin, of darkness, of disease, of something unholy and unnatural and meant to be eradicated. He doesn’t just adore Oliver with all his being, he actively worships him. Constantly wondering when Oliver will leave or why he hasn’t left or why Oliver looks at him with such softness and such love shimmering through the beautiful chocolate brown of his eyes. “It’s like you’re made of angel dust”
“Lacy, oh, Lacy, it's like you're out to get me
You poison every little thing that I do
Lacy, oh, Lacy, I just loathe you lately
And I despise my jealous eyes and how hard they fell for you
Yeah, I despise my rotten mind and how much it worships you”
“Lacy, oh, Lacy, it’s like you’re out to get me you poison ever little thing that I do” His own guilt constantly plaguing and consuming him, hanging off of him like a shadow that is fused with his own, haunting every experience he has, reminding him that he is awful and stupid and he deserves to be dead. “You poison every little thing that I do” Everytime he gets along with his family or he expresses love to Oliver, it’s like his past poisons his new memories with taunts of his old ones. He doesn’t know how to stop it. He doesn’t know how to tell anyone. He lets himself be poisoned in silence.
“And I despise my jealous eyes and how hard they fell for you” towards Oliver. In school Percy was always envious of Oliver, he was loved by Percy’s siblings, was respected, was confident, was happy; and all without him. He was joy and light and spring while Percy watched from the sidelines, slowly falling in love and watching his jealousy of Oliver turn into jealousy of those who got to be around Oliver, who got to see him smile or feel his hand on their shoulder or back, who got to hold his hand, who got to hug him, who got to be pressed against the door of the broom cupboard and be kissed by him. And he hated it.
“Yeah, I despise my rotten mind and how much it worships you” I don’t think I have to explain this one.
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