Weasleys Weasleys Weasleys / divination / Dick

Wed Apr 3 06:29:27 UTC 2002

No: HPFGUIDX 37364

Philip Nel wrote:

> Perhaps the Weasley children develop -- or are in the process of
> developing -- a response to their family's poverty. Charlie and
> Bill get good and/or interesting jobs (snip) Charlie's adventurous
> and scientifically minded; Bill's job combines adventure with
> status, but his status resides more in being "cool" (to cite 
> Harry's first impression of him) than in having a prominent job at 
> the Ministry.

IMHO Bill (and maybe Charlie) may not have experienced Weasley 
poverty first-hand. If the Weasley financial difficulties result from 
trying to stretch enough income for a family of four to support a 
family of seven, the difficulties would have been much less back when 
there were only two kids. When Arthur and Molly have FIVE kids at 
Hogwarts, even if I am right that Hogwarts doesn't charge tuition 
because it has a huge endowment, that is still FIVE sets of textbooks 
and school supplies and uniforms and whatever. When they only had TWO 
kids at Hogwarts and only had to pay for TWO sets of those things, 
they might have had enough money left over for supplying new wands 
and new broomsticks and new dress robes... 

Kel wrote:

> The possibility of a missing child is very intriguing.... but there
> may be yet another explanation: the Weasleys just didn't want to 
> have any more babies with Voldemort running around.

My fingercounting says Percy was born in 1976, the twins in 1978, Ron 
in 1980 (like Harry), and Ginny in 1981. All those boys (and 10/12 
chance for Ginny) were born before Harry disintegrated Voldemort on 
October 31, 1981. 

Jake Storm wrote:

> This says nothing about Fred or George, who may well have been born
> into troubled times as well...do we have any canon about when LV 
> started to raise his big stink?

At the Dursley doorstep (chapter 1 of book 1), McGonagall complains
that the wizard folk are being careless in their celebrations and 
Dumbledore replies forgively that they haven't had much to celebrate 
these last 11 years. I figure that means that they've been freaking 
out over Voldemort since 1970, which suggests that the first Dark 
Mark killings (which would have been thought to be one-off insane 
tragedies) occured in 1969. 

My fingercounting also tells me that Charlie was born in 1967 and 
Bill in 1966. If Arthur and Molly had originally intended to have 
more than two children at a time, they could have had another in 
1968 or 9, before the Bad Years (my name for the Voldemort Reign of 
Terror). 

A possibility is that Arthur and Molly only intended to have two 
children, or not to have another two until the first two grew up 
(wizarding lifespan seems to be at least twice Muggle lifespan, based 
on JKR's statement that Dumbledore is 150 and McGonagall 70, and so 
it may be that witches remain fertile until like age 80 and therefore 
can space their children to suit their income). Then something shook 
them up so that they decided to keep making babies until the Dark 
Lord was defeated, as an act of defiance against Death and Darkness
on behalf of Life and Light. 

Scary Fairy Mary wrote about the name Molly:

> The origins of the name Mary lie in hebrew meaning "bitterness" 
> (yes I know, I was very disappointed when I discovered this!!!) 
> Although I found that information in a book for naming children so 
> I'm not 100%  sure of its authenticity.

It correlates with what my mother and many of the friends said: the 
name "Miriam" (which was my mother's name) means "bitter sea" from 
Marah meaning bitterness and Yam meaning sea. I know that Yam does 
mean sea. Mary, mother of Jesus, was actually named Miriam, so you 
can at least consider yourself to be named after the sea rather than 
after bitterness ... which has a lovely, altho' co-incidental, link 
to the Latin word Mare for sea, like the Virgin Mary is Stella Maris, 
star of the sea. Another of her titles is Queen of Angels, thus 
making Mary the name of a Queen *snicker*. 

But Molly is the name of a queen, too ... in the first half of the 
twentieth century (I almost said 'this century'!), girls whose Hebrew 
name was Malkuh, which means queen, were often called Molly as their 
American name. No, I don't think any of the Weasleys are Jewish, but 
as long as we're free-associating on names... 

Spottydog wrote:

> It has also occurred to me that "Percy" could be an abbreviated 
> version of "Perseus" from Greek mythology. 

Yes, it could. And that could lead to more delightful complications 
... Perseus is a constellation, so was he named after a Black? And 
how does this relate to 'Severus Snape' being an anagram of 'Perseus 
Evans'?  

Milz wrote:

> I have the impression that she partially based the Weasleys upon 
> them. I'll begin with some background and review, before tackling
> Percy issues. Mitford background: They were an aristocratic family.
> Nancy's father was a baron. The father was mildly eccentric, fond
> of hunting and other bucolic activities, preferring to live in the
> countryside.

That goes along with the person who said that the Weasleys are 
typical English Upper Class Eccentric, with their poverty a part of 
their eccentricity, and accents posher than any of the other 
characters except the Malfoys. Myself, I've always thought the 
Weasleys were Common.

Suzanne wrote:

> Someone (was it Dumbledore?) talked about divination in a way that 
> made me believe a lot of the wizard folk consider it all a bunch of
> baloney, no matter what.

I think it was Hermione quoting McGonagall saying that Divination is
a very *imprecise* branch of magic.

Chris M. Dickson wrote:

> in the same way, Richard would be known as Dick. As it happens,
> this is a common nickname for the penis. A rather less vulgar and
> more childish alternative is "Percy".

Then you would have to theorize about PETER Pettigrew....

Seriously, I am very much affected by the phrase 'Tom, Dick, and 
Harry' and the central importance of a Harry (Potter) and a Tom 
(Riddle) in the saga. I keep my eyes open for a character named Dick.