Molly with the Twins & some more Percy

[Penny & Bryce]

No: HPFGUIDX 35907

Hi again --

I said, of Molly's relationship with the Twins:


>  > with the Twins, she is definitely bossy,
>  > interfering & unappreciative of their strengths & ambitions;

Eileen said:

> 
> Yeah, wanting hurt people (Dudley), frighten the emotionally troubled
> (Ginny), torment their siblings (Percy), risk all their money on the
> Quidditch cup, flunk their exams, and otherwise cavort in
> unrestricted illegality.
> 
> I like the twins, just as Percy does in his heart of heart, but I
> think Molly's firm stand is necessary with those two, and even they
> know it.

Jo Serenadust added:

> As for her "interfering" with the twins, well somebody
> had better interfere with them!  Can you imagine having to bring
> those two up, what with burning holes in their little brother's
> tongue, and turning his bear into a giant spider?  I don't *see* any
> evidence that her mothering has cramped their style.

So, it's okay with you two if she just chooses the best career for the 
Twins, regardless of what they might prefer?  <g>  They are pretty 
obviously not cut out for the drone of govt work in the MoM, and they 
pretty definitely have started taking steps to avoid that situation. 
Molly, OTOH, has taken an active stance to *interfere* with their 
ambitions during the summer prior to their final year in school.  She 
also says later something to the effect of "I guess they'll just not 
amount to anything."  Yeah, they'll not amount to anything -- they'll 
just be those wildly successful entrepreneurs they *could* be if she'd 
keep her nose out of their career-planning.  I guess I just have 
reasonably strong feelings about letting your kids be who *they* want to 
be, not who *you* want them to be.  Molly may think the MOM is the only 
way to go career-wise (though why she'd think so since neither Bill nor 
Charlie chose that route is a mystery), but the Twins have other ideas & 
they seemed reasonably mature in their approach (drawing up order forms 
& creating a business plan & thinking about financing).  That's why I 
think her mothering style with respect to the Twins is not so great. 
I'm not saying she should never have prevented them from doing 
*dangerous* things.  I just think she fails to let them be the people 
they'd like to be.  Possibly ditto with Ron & Ginny.

Eileen again, with tantalizing information:


> Exactly. Percy is even ahead of the Lestranges in my book. And JKR
> has promised that Percy's particular problem will be adressed in Book
> V.

I've not heard *this* before.  You always hear this business about Ginny 
playing a "bigger" role in Book V (and as I always sarcastically note: 
yeah, bigger than her role in PoA or GoF?  What would *that* take?). 
I've never heard anything about Percy though -- very cool.  Can you 
provide a cite?

 
> The other problem with Ron as expert is that he is so obviously wrong
> about Percy. Percy will have a loyalty crisis, but it will be a
> loyalty crisis because he does love his family. He's actually the
> only Weasley to ever show pride in Ron. (Not that I think Ron is
> completely unappreciated by his family.)

I think he's wrong about Percy too, and Hermione points this up to Ron. 
  :--)

Jo Serenadust said:

> Kids often pick up mannerisms from one
> parent or the other without otherwise resembling them personality-
> wise, although I do think they have some traits im common.  My
> impression of Molly leads me to believe that she was quite the
> pistol in her day and not really much like Percy.  Remember her fond
> recollection of her "nighttime stroll" with Arthur <vbg>?

Yeah, and poor Percy is so straight-laced, he'd never do anything like 
that.  :::whispers:"Remember what Ginny caught Percy doing with Penelope 
in CoS?"::::  <vbg>

Penny