Molly as written in the books

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 84273

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "hermionegallo" 
<hermionegallo at y...> wrote:
> But if we look 
> at that scene in conjunction with the hotly-discussed boggart 
scene, 
> and see that her greatest fear is losing a family member, we 
realize 
> that she's feeling a desperate need to protect whoever she can, in 
> whatever ways she can.  She knows, however, that she can't make 
her 
> adult children or her husband refrain from fighting Voldemort, and 
> that her authority over the older kids is waning with their age.  
> It's hard to send your children out into the big, bad world -- 
even 
> harder, I'm sure, when that world is so threatening.


Jen: I felt like the end of the "The Woes of Mrs. Weasley" chapter 
pretty much sums up the situation in OOTP (and possibly what we and 
Molly have to look forward to): "But Harry, closing his bedroom door 
behind him some ten minutes later could not think Mrs. Weasley 
silly. He could still see his parents beaming up at him from the 
tattered old photograph, unaware that their lives, like so many of 
those around them, were drawing to a close." sniff, sniff (OOTP, 
chap. 9, p. 178).

Molly (Sirius, Dumbledore, etc., take your pick) must find it 
extremely difficult to face the prospect of a second war after the 
first one decimated so many of their lives. No matter what Lupin 
tells Molly to soothe her earlier in the chapter, that "the Order is 
better prepared"; how can they *not* look at each other and wonder 
who will be the next to go? Grimmauld Place must feel like a fox-
hole, where every stress, every anxiety is maginified 100x's. And as 
a reader simmering in this pot with the characters, I couldn't help 
but feel like their faults and foibles were maginified 100x's as 
well. We (and Harry) got a good dose of life in wartime, part deaux, 
and it's not pretty. 

So Molly yells, Sirius sulks, Lupin becomes ultra-rational, Snape 
taunts, Dumbledore evades...the negative sides of the charaters come 
out to play. Everybody has a fall-back position when life gets tough 
and personally, I think Molly's attempts to control a stressful 
situation signify a normal human reaction. Yes, she has a tendency 
to boss, to control, to meddle. She also has to ability to love 
deeply, contribute whatever she can and to stand up for what she 
believes in. She sounds pretty OK to me :).