[HPforGrownups] Re: OOTP observations - Molly

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 132706

On 13 Jul 2005 at 21:15, delwynmarch wrote:

> So personally, I support Molly in her substitute-mothering of Harry
> and Hermione.

As do I.

I admit to some concerns about it, but to me the following is the 
key:

"'Well,' said Mrs Weasley, breathing deeply and looking around the 
table for support that did not come, 'well... I can see I'm going to 
be overruled. I'll just say this: Dumbledore must have had his 
reasons for not wanting Harry to know too much, and speaking as 
someone who has Harry's best interests at heart -'

'He's not your son,' said Sirius quietly.

'He's as good as,' said Mrs Weasley fiercely."

(OotP, p.85)

"He did not look at Mrs Weasley. He had been touched by what she had 
said about his being as good as a son, but he was also impatient with 
her mollycoddling. Sirius was right, he was not a child."

(OotP, p.86)

"Harry watched them go, feeling slightly uneasy. It had just occurred 
to him that Mr and Mrs Weasley would want to know how Fred and George 
were financing their joke shop business when, as was inevitable, they 
finally found out about it. Giving the twins his Triwizard winnings 
had seemed a simple thing to do at the time, but what if it led to 
another family row and a Percy-like estrangement? Would Mrs Weasley 
still feel that Harry was as good as her son if she found out he had 
made it possible for Fred and George to start a career she thought 
quite unsuitable?"   

(OotP, p.156-157)

Mrs Weasley has willingly given Harry just about the most precious 
thing he could possibly have. Sirius took on a role as surrogate 
parent to Harry, certainly, but he was prevented from doing that as 
much as I am sure he would have liked (and I must say I also feel 
Molly was way out of line in pointing that out, when she did), and he 
also had a duty to do it, and a link through friendship - I don't 
seek to cheapen what he did, but would he have done it without those 
links? Molly simply did it without any real connection - she simply 
embraced it.

And yes, she does mollycoddle Harry to an extent - but she does it in 
the same way as she does it to her own children. And though Harry is 
impatient with it, he also understands what she has given him - and 
he *wants* it. He fears losing it. This isn't something he doesn't 
want - he values it, as can be seen in the third quote above.

"Mrs. Weasley set the potion down on the bedside cabinet, bent down, 
and put her arms around Harry. He had no memory of ever being hugged 
like this, as though by a mother. The full weight of everything he 
had seen that night seemed to fall in upon him as Mrs. Weasley held 
him to her. His mother s face, his father's voice, the sight of 
Cedric, dead on the ground all started spinning in his head until he 
could hardly bear it, until he was screwing up his face against the  
howl of misery fighting to get out of him."

(GoF, p.620).

*This* is what Mrs Weasley has given Harry - and it is hard for me to 
imagine anything on this Earth that could be more precious to him. 
Does she have her faults? She certainly does - but *nothing* that 
even comes within a country mile of comparing to this, in my view.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia