TBAY: Weasley Economics: POOR BABY NAPTIME

[Meg Demeranville]

No: HPFGUIDX 51916

Chuckling to herself at the battle raging in the sky, a girl climbed the
steps to the Safe House from the dock below, lugging an impossibly
overstuffed and impossibly bright blue duffle bag behind her. Letting
herself in, she was greeted by Sneaky, the house elf.

 

"Miss Meg, you came back. You've been gone so long!" Sneaky squeaked
drying her hands and running over to help with the door!"

 

"Yes, I know, Sneaky and I am sorry. I had to class and then vacation.."
Meg trailed off as Sneaky interrupted.

 

"Mister Grey Wolf, Miss Melody and Ms. Frankie will be so glad to see
you. And watch out for Miss Melody's evil bunny. She promises Sneaky
that it's a good bunny, but I knows better." Sneaky said frowning with
convinced certainty."

 

"I heard about her. And I also heard you went caroling for the Bay. I'm
impressed." Meg replied, obviously trying to suck up to the house elf.

 

"Miss Meg is too kind." Sneaky blushed and hid her face in her hands.

 

"Anyways, Sneaky, I need to go find everyone. Are Frankie and Melody
around? And where is Grey?" Meg asked looking around the oddly quiet
safe house.

 

"Yes ma'am, Miss Melody is in the living room and Ms. Frankie is in her
RATS room, drawing. Mr. Wolf was teaching Miss Melody's evil bunny to
hunt, he may still be out there.

 

Struggling to lift her bag, Meg noticed Sneaky's curious expression.
"Oh, right!" Meg stopped and dug in her back pack for her scalpel/wand.
Pointing it at her bag, she charmed the bag to float behind her. "Wish I
could have done that in Europe," Meg said with a chuckle. Meg headed
down the hallway towards the RATS room. Slipping inside, she noticed
that Sneaky had been wrong. Frankie was nowhere to be found. Removing
the charm from her bag, Meg dumped it onto the floor. Sighing loudly,
Meg headed for the kitchen to check the Safe House map to see where
everyone was.

 

Not glancing around, Meg strode to the Mystical Map. "I solemnly swear I
am up to spy theories." Staring at the map as it started to show the
rooms of the Safe House, she didn't notice Frankie walk in the back
door.

 

"Meg, you came back. How was your trip? What did you do? Why are you
here? Did you bring me presents?" Frankie was so happy to see her long
lost captain, she was jumping up and down as she talked a mile a minute.

 

"The trip was great. I went all over the place. I brought pictures but
no presents. And I am here to tell you about my Ron theory. Calm down.
And where is Melody?" Meg responded to Frankie's series of questions,
while still staring at the map.

 

"You're finally going to explain the theory? About time, and I think she
is in the living room playing with her paper dolls. Are you going to
tell her too?" Frankie pulled Meg out of the kitchen and down the hall
toward the living room impatiently.

 

"Melody, look who came back!" Frankie shouted.

 

Kicked out on the couch surrounded with little pieces of cut paper doll
hats, dresses, and shoes, Melody relaxed from her long night. Melody
looked up at the two girls and broke out in a huge smile. "Welcome back
Meg.  How was your trip?  Hey - have you met Coney?" Melody asked as she
held out the bunny sleeping in her arms who was quite disgruntled at
being woken up. "She's a little tired today, after Grey took her hunting
and all."

 

"It was wonderful and not yet, but I have heard about your bunny. May I
see her?" Meg asked.

 

"Daring, aren't you Meg?" Frankie commented with a smirk.

 

"Nah, I just don't think she's that dangerous. And besides, I am
surviving medical school, I can take anything," Meg said breezy.

 

"Well, if you're sure" Melody said as she handed Meg Coney. After baring
teeth at her, and receiving a glare from Meg, Coney settled down in
Meg's arms and went back to sleep. Meg picked a few spare bits of fur
still clinging Coney and handed her back to Melody.

 

"Anyway, let's get to why I am here. Shall we head to the RATS room. I
do believe I left my bag there." Meg said as she led the way out the
living room. "I spent a lot of time thinking about it during my trip and
I have a complete theory now." Reaching the RATS room, Meg proceeded to
settle into her cushy over-stuffed leather chaise lounge.

 

"Is this the theory you were suppose to explain two months ago? Should
we go get Grey?" asked Melody settling onto the couch while still warily
eyeing the willow furniture.

 

"Meg, are you here? Did I just hear my name?" Grey Wolf asked as he
poked his head around the door. 

 

"Yes, she is, and she is going to explain her theory. Come watch."
Melody replied to Grey Wolf as he walked in and settled into one of the
large willow chairs. Coney hopped off of Melody's lap and settled into
Grey Wolf's lap.

 

"Yes, it is. My own POOR BABY NAPTIME (Pity Over Ownings, Ron Becomes
Awful Bratty Youngster. Now Arises Problems, Temptations In Major
Economics)," Meg answered Melody, as she dug in her backpack. Extracting
her laptop from between two bulging binders, Meg continued talking. "I
got bored in class so I put together a little proposal for you guys.
Here we go." Pressing a few buttons, a blue screen appeared on the wall.

 

Getting out of her chair, Meg stood by the blue screen. "Okay, I am
going to give a quick presentation to you guys before I send it out for
approval. Tell me what you guys think.

 

Pressing a button on the remote in her hand, Meg called up the first
slide. She began to read out loud. "Weasley Economics, the untold
story."

 

Frankie and Mel oooed and ahhhed at the fancy presentation.

 

Pulling up the next slide (Money matters), she continues, "Ron is always
whining about money, yet there seems that there is always money around.
Not lots of it mind you, but the Weasleys aren't as bad off as Ron makes
it seem."

 

Click (Point #1: The textbooks) "One of the oft-quoted pieces of reasons
everyone assumes the Weasleys have no money is that Molly worries about
buying textbooks every year. Many people ask about Ron's books, why Ron
doesn't inherit one of the two sets that the twins have and why he gets
such used books. It is possibly that Molly is smart enough to not buy
the best books for boys. For the most part, boys and textbooks don't
mix. My own mother never bought new books for my brothers. Books at the
end of the year were completely unusable. However, I would get better
books because I was a girl and anal-retentive. No highlighters, pens or
pencils ever went near my books (they do now, but that's different).
This explains the apparent disparity between what Percy gets and what
Ron and the twins get as far as books. After a year with the twins,
Molly would be well advised to just burn what remained of the twins'
books. Between spills in potion class and whatever else they get in
their textbooks, the books would have probably been unusable the
following year. But Percy, being the perfectionist, gets better quality
books, which are probably passed down to the twins, because he would
keep better care of them. So Molly is stuck buying new books for Ron and
buys used books for him because she knows he isn't as perfectionistic as
Percy is in caring for his things. At the end of the year, his books are
more likely to be like the twins' books rather than Percy's books. That
means she will end up having to buy more books for Ginny. So rather than
buy high quality books that won't make it through two years of service,
she buys cheaper books for Ron. The only mention of Ginny's books is the
brief mention in CoS. Hang on, let me get it." Meg grabbed a well-worn
hardback copy of CoS off the table. "Here we go.  '[Lucius Malfoy]
reached into Ginny's cauldron and extracted, from amid the glossy
Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to
Transfiguration' (p 62)." Meg closed the book. "However, there is no new
book listed for Transfiguration on Harry's second year book list. See
it's here on pages 43 and 44. 

'There was also a list of the new books he'd need for the coming year. 

Second-Year Students Will Require:

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk

Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart

Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart

Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart

Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart

Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart'

So Ron must still be using the Transfiguration book. Ginny would
therefore need a different one from Ron, and there probably weren't too
many around to choose from." Meg put down the book and picked back up
her pointer.

 

Click (Percy vs. Ron: a breakdown) "Percy is consistently teased by the
twins for his attention to rules and order. Even Ron thinks Percy is
obsessive about things." Picking back up her copy of CoS lying on the
table, Meg reads aloud. "Here we go on page 58. 

' 'Course, he's very ambitious, Percy, he's got it all planned out.. He
wants to be Minister of Magic.'." 

 

Putting CoS down, Meg picked up GoF. "And later in GoF we see the
following exchange between Ron and Harry about Percy on page 57.

'Percy's enjoying work, then?' said Harry, sitting down on one of the
beds and watching the Chudley Cannons zooming in and out of the posters
on the ceiling.

'Enjoying in?' said Ron darkly. 'I don't reckon he'd come home if Dad
didn't make him. He's obsessed. Just don't get him onto the subject of
his boss. According to Mr. Crouch. as I was saying to Mr. Crouch. Mr.
Crouch is of the opinion. Mr. Crouch was telling me. They'll be
announcing their engagement any day now.'

So you see, Ron is the opposite of Percy. Where Percy is neat, orderly
and obsessive, Ron is messy and chaotic. Ron is much more like the twins
in that respect. His books are probably not being passed on to Ginny any
more than the twins' books were being passed on."

 

Click (Point #2: The ever present money) "An often overlooked point is
that Ron always seems to have spending money. He is able to buy presents
for Harry, treats in Hogsmeade and souvenirs at the Quidditch World Cup.
If they were really as bad off as Ron says, then there would be no
spending money for such things. Yes, kids get spending money from other
sources, but if the family was as bad off as Ron purports, all money
would go toward the family." With a click, quotes pop up on the screen
from PoA and GoF.

 

Click (Ron's Expenditures) PoA - Pocket Sneakoscope, treats from
Hogsmeade

GoF - souvenirs at QWC, Christmas presents for Harry (Dungbombs)

 

Click (Point #3: Visitations to the Burrow) "Ron is allowed to have
Harry spend chunks of vacation at the Burrow. The Weasleys also spend
the night at the Leaky Cauldron. If there was no money, having an extra
mouth to feed and entertain for weeks at a time would put an enormous
strain on finances. Staying at the Leaky Cauldron is also superfluous.
Given that it is possible to have either taken a taxi from the Burrow or
Floo to the Leaky Cauldron and take a taxi from there, staying overnight
at the Leaky Cauldron is using money they just shouldn't have. Even if
staying at the Leaky Cauldron was a necessity in PoA, they should have
stayed in fewer rooms. By my count, the Weasley are in at least three
separate rooms, one for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Ginny, one for the
twins and one for Ron and Percy." Meg looked her audience. "Frankie, get
out of that bag. There isn't anything for you." Frankie looked up from
where she sat on the floor digging in Meg's big duffle bag and looked
guilty. "Anyway, where was I? Oh yes."

 

Click (Point #4: Those silly dress robes) "Although Ron is a complainer,
he does nothing about his situation. There is no point that shows him
saving money. He just whines about it. Molly seems to ignore him most of
the time. It is only when he goes too far that he gets a reaction from
her. His hissy fit (and yes, it's a hissy fit not a conniption fit) over
the robes is when he has gone too far. Molly knows he's probably a hard
size to fit and she can't justify buying brand new dress robes when he
will be a completely different size in a couple of months. Dressing boys
this age is like flushing money down the toilet. Using a real world
Southern example, tuxes are quite expensive. Boys here wear these pretty
often. At least twice a year, they are expected to wear them. Typically,
they rent tuxes or borrow them until they stop growing. Both of my
little brothers and most of their friends received their own sets of
tuxes for either Christmas of their senior year or for graduation from
high school, Harry's year 7. One of my brother's friends still has not
gotten his set because he is still growing at age 21. In a lot of ways,
he reminds me of Ron. Between the ages of 14 and 15, he grew almost a
foot in height. Clothing him was ridiculous. It seemed that as soon as
he got something, it was too short. None of his brothers were anywhere
close to his size for hand-me-downs. Buying a tux for him would be a
waste. This is why Molly bought second hand robes. She was doing her
best with Ron, but choice was extremely limited in the tall and thin
section. And maroon can look good on some redheads depending on the
shade of both the fabric and the hair."

 

Click (Conclusions) "Ron does present a picture of the Weasleys as very
poor. However, the situation just doesn't exist. Instead, Ron is seen as
a whiner. JKR is setting him to have temptations of money. Even out on
the bay, there are several ships that believe Ron will turn on Harry for
money. But I propose that although Ron whines about money, he has enough
to where it would take major economic shifts in the current situation
for him to be able to turn on Harry. He is being set up for a big fall.
That's why I entitled my theory POOR BABY NAPTIME for Pity Over Ownings,
Ron Becomes Awful Bratty Youngster. Now Arises Problems, Temptations In
Major Economics."

 

Clicking off her laptop, Meg looked up her audience. "Well, what do you
think?" she asks nervously.

 

Melody looked around and said, "Wow, Meg, I don't know what to say. I
think I speak for everyone when I say us think about it for a bit."
Melody and Grey Wolf got up from their respective seats and headed
towards the door.

 

"Meg, it was an interesting presentation." Grey Wolf said as he and
Melody walked out the door.

 

Meg smiled and visibly relaxed. "Ok, then. Frankie, walk with me, talk
with me. There is something I want to show you out on the side lawn."
Meg and Frankie walked out of the RATS room together.

 

--Meg (who really should get back to studying)



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