Article: One Big Dysfunctional Weasley Family? (LONG)

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "psychic_serpent"
<psychic_serpent at y...> wrote of :
>
> > http://www.redhen-publications.com/Weasleys.html
>   
> Well, I suppose it COULD be a thought-provoking article, but it
> does have a number of flaws concerning the canon.  

Thank you for pointing out the errors about who was Sorted into
Gryffindor, so I don't have to.

> I just don't know what Molly Weasley this person has 
> been reading, but it doesn't seem to be the one from JKR's books.

It's her own mother from her own childhood: she said so.

> The author claims, "And, so far, we have seen nothing in Percy's 
> behavior which would not be consistent with deliberately distancing 
> himself from his family, for their own as well as his mission's 
> protection," going on to mention Percy's "over-the-top pompous 
> letter to Ron congratulating him on his Prefect's appointment" in 
> which he also advises him "to distance himself from Harry Potter." 
 
> Actually, that very letter is the strongest thing in OotP, other 
> than the article that appears in the Prophet the next day, to 
> support the idea that Percy is a spy.  That letter very cleverly 
> communicated information to Ron and his friends that the rest of the 
> world did not have until the Prophet came out the next day, and it 
> was sent in the middle of the night, to avoid the problem of the owl 
> being intercepted (which Percy clearly knew was a danger).  The 
> letter was also clearly calculated to make Ron react strongly, 
> vowing that he would never abandon Harry, showing that Percy knows 
> his reverse psychology very well.  Percy's reaction in Dumbledore's 
> office is also cited as evidence that he can't be a spy, but if he 
> hadn't reacted that way, he would have blown his cover.  It is only 
> evidence that he is a GOOD spy, not a gleeful villain.

Uh, Barb, that portion of the essay was the author *agreeing* that
Percy's behaviour in OoP does not at all disagree with the theory that
his is Dumbledore's spy: "After the Crouch debacle, Percy could also
have been contacted by Dumbledore who has asked him if he is willing
to make use of the situation. Percy was in the perfect position at the
end of GoF to go into deep cover. ... This particular scenario feeds
into the "Redheaded Pimpernel" theories that periodically crop up on
one of my lists."

> Then the author, inexplicably, goes off on a tangent about how th
> age gap between Charlie and Percy "doesn't work" for the author,

You skipped the speculation about all Arthur's siblings and close
relatives having been killed in the First Vold War, seguing to the
'Ron as seventh son of seventh son' theories. Just because it's
not a new idea to these lists? 

> Then the author, inexplicably, goes off on a tangent about how the
> age gap between Charlie and Percy "doesn't work" for the author

I agree with you that the essay is all wet about the age gap, but the
transition is not inexplicable: "The "seventh son" theory is based
upon the reading that Ron is in fact the seventh son of a seventh son
... In order for this to pan out, of course, Arthur and Molly must
have already lost a son at some point. Most people holding to this
theory view the longer than usual age gap between Charlie and Percy
with great suspicion."