Why buy 5 sets of Lockhart's book?

[sad1199]

No: HPFGUIDX 113681

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "romuluslupin1" 
<romuluslupin1 at y...> wrote:
> I was watching COS again yesterday and a thought struck me. Why 
did 
> the Weasleys, who are reputedly so poor, spend so much money on 5 
> sets of Lockhart's books. Even with Harry giving Ginny his free 
> copies (or is this movie contamination?) they must have dug a 
large 
> hole in the family finances. Wouldn't it have been cheaper to buy 
a 
> couple of sets and have the kids swap them on a need to use basis? 

sad1199 here: 

   Being a mother of 4 children I can understand the need for all 
the kids to have their own set of books. Here in California we have 
a system called "a book for every child" where even though text 
books are very expensive for our badly funded school districts each 
child gets their own books. When you go to private school and the 
school sends home a list of necessary books a parent buys each child 
his or her own set (even if they duplicate). Not only is it 
important for each child to have his or her own set of books 
academically it is important socially as well. The Weasley children 
already know they are poor, I am thinking that Molly understands how 
embarassing it would be to have Ginny or Ron say to a friend "I need 
to get "our" book from Fred so I can study..." 

As far as the wands (1) and robes (2) go: 

(1) When you graduate and get your adult(?) wand or maybe (stronger) 
wand then I could see your old wand being recycled for someone else 
to use (we do that here with computers-a lot of old computers get 
donated and refurbished for our schools). I see  a few kids in our 
story alone using someone elses old wand. Also, when Ron broke his 
wand, I think it was a responsibility issue that prevented Molly 
from buying him a new one right away. Or, wait, did he even tell his 
parents? He knew he was in big trouble for the Ford fiasco. 

(2) And for the robes, I don't think Molly put a lot of stock into 
the whole 'you have to have a dress robe for the Tri-Wizard 
Tournament dance' idea. I mean, it was my impression that the only 
reason the Yule Ball was held was because of the tournament, the 
kids didn't usually require a dress robe for 4th year, just this 
special year or else Ron could have worn one of his older brothers' 
hand-me-downs from a once a year event.

Have a happy love filled day!  sad1199