Molly-- Thoughts on a witch

pippin_999 foxmoth at qnet.com
Tue Aug 10 19:52:42 UTC 2004


No: HPFGUIDX 109593

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Josh Warren" 
<wjwarren4269 at c...> wrote:
> 
> Ok, I'll back off on the terminology. Molly and every other adult 
> has, in OotP, come out not smelling so much of roses, in 
Harry's  view. Everyone knew more about his own freakin' destiny 
than himself. His overprotection has led to Sirius' death, and 
Molly's dislike for  Sirius was made quite clear, and every attempt 
at protection in  Harry's experience has failed: his parents' fidelis 
charm, Gringotts,  the faculty, Fluffy et al, the faculty again, 
Azkaban, dementors, the  Ministry on several occasions, and the 
Order.<

Pippin:
Every protection fails sooner or later. It's quite a leap to say that 
because the protection failed eventually, it was never needed at 
all. Is there canon that anyone, aside from Dumbledore, knew 
more about Harry's destiny than Harry? 

The best anyone but Dumbledore could have given Harry was 
partial knowledge of the prophecy.That wouldn't have helped 
Harry. It would only have misled him and fired his curiosity to 
know the rest, just as it did Voldemort. But I don't believe there's 
any canon that anyone else in the Order knew even that much--a 
fleeting glance between Sirius and Lupin is the only hint.

Josh:
> Molly is over-protective, and Harry is definitely on a countdown 
to explode at all this protection.<

Pippin:
Oh, *that* will prove how mature he is. <g> The wise response is 
Bill's--he listens politely to Molly, then does what he 
thinks best. Harry does the same, and always has. He'd have to 
regress quite a bit to think he needed to gain his independence 
by telling off Molly. That wouldn't be unrealistic in terms of an 
actual teenager, but it'd be a bit boring for the reader. We've seen 
enough angry Harry, haven't we?

Josh:
> It's not that she isn't nice, concerned, etc. It is that she takes
it  too far and passes back into negative territory... petty,
scathing, 
 etc. on occasion. She needs an attitude adjustment on when to 
back  off.<

It's true that in her blind zeal to protect Harry she sometimes is 
unjust to others, but her friends understand that. There is no 
indication that either Sirius or Hermione held it  against her. 
When Molly took against Hermione, Harry calmly and gently set 
her straight. It would have been nice for Hermione's sake if he 
had thought to do it sooner, of course.  

Molly doesn't *keep* making nasty remarks to Sirius, there was 
only the one.  And it'd be silly for Harry to blame her for keeping 
him in the dark. She was the most vocal about it, but *all* the 
adult members of the Order were agreed--there was nothing 
stopping any of them, Sirius and Lupin included, from taking 
Harry aside and telling him whatever they knew.

Pippin







More information about the HPforGrownups archive