Missing Weasley Children?

[Linda C. McCabe]

No: HPFGUIDX 37254


So I did a quick search of the archived messages to see if anyone had posted
a thought that I had recently on this subject.  And it doesn't appear so.
With that in mind, I have more than just the large gap between Bill, Charlie
and Percy to back up the thought that there was a child (son) who has died.
It has to do with how families name their children.  I've known many
families that think it adorable to go with a theme when naming their
children.  Either it is everyone has the same first letter - James, Jenny,
Jill, Jeremy, etc. *or* as they did in the movie "Seven Brides for Seven
Brothers" another type of theme - that is using the alphabet.

In "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," the oldest brother was Adam.  Then the
subsequent brothers were all given Biblical names, but they followed
alphabetically.  When it came to Frank, the parents had trouble finding a
Biblical name starting with F - so Frank is short for Frankincense.

Anyway, consider:

Arthur

Bill
Charlie
David?
Percy
Fred
George


Yes, I know that Percy wouldn't follow the naming scheme, nor would Ron.
Here's my slight modification to allow for that.  Possibly, Molly preferred
Percy as a name to "Edward" and the family started to call Percy by his
middle name.  I've never quite understood why parents will give a child one
first name and then call them by their middle name, but I know of that
happening on more than one occasion.  A cousin of mine was named Carol
Yvonne, but she's called Vonnie.  Try calling her Carol and she curtly tells
you she prefers Yvonne or Vonnie.

Then when it comes to Ron, he might have a similar first/second name
scenario.  How about his first name was Harold and the Weasley's called him
Harry for almost the first two years of his life.  Then when Harry Potter
became so famous, they felt that it best to call him by his second name in
deference and honor of The Boy Who Lived.

This scenario would allow for enough subterfuge for JKR to provide cover
that Ron was actually the Seventh Son who by legend is destined to be
prophetic.  If she had named Percy - "Edward" and if Ron was "Howard," the
alphabetizing and gap would have been very obvious.  Too obvious for JKR.

I really enjoyed Elkins theory regarding Arthur under Imperious Curse.  It
seemed very plausible as well as Barbara Jebenstreit's interpretation of
Ron's first encounter with Harry and the darkened look he had when
mentioning he was the sixth child to attend Hogwarts.  I also liked
Abigail's mention of Arthur's description of the Dark Mark and how it could
have been an allusion to finding it at his own home marking the death of a
child.

I think we are on to a Dark Backstory for the Weasley family.

Athena