Ron, Molly and Those Robes

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 59312

Having grown up myself in circumstances where money was often tight, I've
been following the debate about Ron, Molly and the Dress Robes From Hell
with some interest.  My own take is that while Ron could have handled the
situation better, Molly and Arthur are a long way from being free of fault.

Firstly, the Weasley parents don't seem to have their heads on quite
straight as regards money.  When you've got four kids in boarding school,
and books to buy for them for five years into the future, spending a
windfall on a trip to Egypt strikes me as slightly insane.  Far better
IMNSHO to have put that money into a "Weasley Children School Fund" and
budgeted it for new robes, books and so on---and _then_ seen if the family
finances would stretch as far as a trip to Egypt for all.  Even before that,
the money that went for the infamous Flying Ford Anglia could have probably
bought lots of robes, books and school supplies.

Also, Molly Weasley knows how to knit---would she know enough about how to
sew to either fix the second-hand robes she says she was reduced to buying,
or to run up a set of dress robes "from scratch?"  I'm not any kind of a
seamster myself, but I know lots of people who _do_ sew, and they tell me
that buying material and running up a set of robes would be quite a bit
easier than putting together a "Muggle" suit of clothes; robes are much less
complicated and have a lot fewer parts to them than even the simplest
"Muggle" clothing---and it would almost certainly have been much cheaper
than buying robes off-the-rack.  Even I, if I knew how to run a sewing
machine, could probably put together a simple robe, given the material to
work with.

And I don't think for a second that Molly doesn't know what is and is not in
fashion for wizards---she reads _Witch Weekly,_ and the Muggle equivalent
publications all have articles on fashions.  As for time, now that her
youngest is off to school, she isn't being run ragged at home---would it be
_that_ much trouble to do some sewing, in between knitting maroon sweaters
for Ickle Ronniekins?  Maybe Arthur's next acquisition of a Muggle
thingamabob might be a second-hand sewing machine, and Molly could surprise
Ron with a set of beautiful maroon dress robes in his exact size.  (Although
I would think, myself, that dark blue or dark green would look better on a
redhead, she apparently thinks differently)

One of my learned colleagues here, I disremember who, said that Ron seems to
be obsessed with money, and that he's the only Weasley who is.  I'd like to
point out that Ron is also the Weasley who gets by far the most "screen
time," and that the Twins certainly seem to be interested in money---one
recurring leitmotif in _GoF_ turns out to be their attempts to get Ludo
Bagman to pay up on the gambling debt he ran up to them.  We hardly _see_
Charlie, Bill or Percy enough to know how they feel, but Percy's slightly
obsessive desire to please his bosses might come from a fierce determination
to keep his job and be making money.

I think that in _OoP_ we might well get some more background on the
Weasleys, including maybe why they're so poor.