The Weasley Clock

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 134988

Steve wrote:
Goblet of Fire -

Mrs. Weasley glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner. Harry
liked this clock. It was completely useless if you wanted to know the
time, but otherwise very informative.

It had nine golden hands, and each of them was engraved with one of
the Weasley family's names. There were no numerals around the face,
but descriptions of where each family member might be. "Home,"
"school," and "work" were there, but there was also "traveling,"
"lost," "hospital," "prison," and, in the position where the number
twelve would be on a normal clock, "mortal peril."

Eight of the hands were currently pointing to the "home" position, but
Mr. Weasley's, which was the longest, was still pointing to "work."
Mrs. Weasley sighed.

vmonte responds:
JKR seems to really like time-pieces, doesn't she? What is all the
obsession with time? The Weasley's and Dumbledore are always
associated with time, although they are not the only time references
in the books.

Here is the newest mention:
HBP, U.S. edition, page 390

"Seriously good haul this year!" he (Ron) announced, holding up a
heavy gold watch with odd symbols around the edge and tiny moving
stars instead of hands." (This sounds like Dumbledore's watch, except 
for the fact that DD's had planets that moved around the edge.) 

Ron then makes this comment to Harry: "See what Mum and Dad got me! 
Blimey, I think I'll come of age next year too..." 

Does this gift have symbolic meaning? Ron will be able to join the 
Order next year, like his other brothers. Do the references to "time" 
have anything to do with the Order? 

So, what is it with "time" and the Weasleys? Just how old is the
Order anyway? Is the Order a family side business? Are the Weasley's 
and Dumbledore related? via the Gryffindor-line? Was there an Order
during Grindelwald's time?

Here are more time references from mugglenet.com:

"We don't know whether JKR is hinting at something with all these
wristwatch references, or whether she just likes watches! (And she
has a wrist watch on her website desktop!) Big thanks to RoCkYz21 for
compiling most of this list!

Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone
Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her
eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took
a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd
watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets
were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore,
though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's
late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"
He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came
back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.
Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He
didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys
were asleep yet. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was
dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd
be eleven in ten minutes' time. Ron looked at his watch and then
glared furiously at Hermione and Neville.
When Angelina had scored, Harry had done a couple of loop-the-loops
to let off his feelings. Now he was back to staring around for the
Snitch. Once he caught sight of a flash of gold, but it was just a
reflection from one of the Weasleys' wristwatches, and once a Bludger
decided to come pelting his way, more like a cannonball than
anything, but Harry dodged it and Fred Weasley came chasing after it.


Chamber of Secrets
"Hermione, let me read your composition," said Ron desperately,
checking his watch. "We'd better get going," said Harry, loosening
the watch that was cutting into Goyle's thick wrist. "We've still got
to find out where the Slytherin common room is. I only hope we can
find someone to follow..." Harry looked at his watch. Five of their
precious sixty minutes had already passed.

Prisoner of Azkaban
Uncle Vernon drained his teacup, glanced at his watch, and
added, "I'd better be off in a minute, Petunia. Marge's train gets in
at ten." "We can't be there yet," said Hermione, checking her watch.
Ron looked at his watch. "If we hurried, we could go down and see
him. It's still quite early..." Hermione checked her watch. "We'd
better go down, you know, the feast'll be starting in five minutes."
They hurried through the portrait hole and into the crowd, still
discussing Snape. "She's seeing us all separately," Neville informed
them as they went to sit down next to him. He had his copy of
Unfogging the Future open on his lap at the pages devoted to crystal
gazing. "Have either of you ever seen anything in a crystal ball?" he
asked them unhappily. "Nope," said Ron in an offhand voice. He kept
checking his watch; Harry knew that he was counting down the time
until Buckbeak's appeal started.
"Yeah," said Harry, looking at his own watch. It was now two
o'clock. "Wish she'd hurry up..."
"I am going to lock you in. It is --" he consulted his watch, "five
minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Good
luck."
"Right, it's nearly time," said Hermione tensely, looking at her
watch. "We've got about forty-five minutes until Dumbledore locks the
door to the hospital wing. We've got to rescue Sirius and get back
into the ward before anybody realizes we're missing...."
"D'you reckon he's up there yet?" said Harry, checking his watch. He
looked up at the castle and began counting the windows to the right
of the West Tower.
Hermione was tugging at his sleeve, staring at her watch. "We've got
exactly ten minutes to get back down to the hospital wing without
anybody seeing us -- before Dumbledore locks the door --"
"Oh, he's horrible," whispered Hermione, her ear to the door. "I bet
he's all excited because the dementors are going to finish off
Sirius...." She checked her watch. "Three minutes, Harry!"
"I don't want to think about it!" Hermione moaned, checking her watch
again. "One minute!"


Goblet of Fire
Dudley was crammed into an armchair, his porky hands beneath him,
clamped firmly around his bottom. Harry couldn't take the tension; he
left the room and went and sat on the stairs in the hall, his eyes on
his watch and his heart pumping fast from excitement and nerves.
"Look at the time," Mrs Weasley said suddenly, checking her
wristwatch.
They trudged down the dark, dank lane toward the village, the silence
broken only by their footsteps. The sky lightened very slowly as they
made their way through the village, its inky blackness diluting to
deepest blue. Harry's hands and feet were freezing. Mr. Weasley kept
checking his watch.
"Must be nearly time," said Mr. Weasley quickly, pulling out his
watch again. "Do you know whether we're waiting for any more, Amos?"
"Three..." muttered Mr. Weasley, one eye still on his
watch, "two...one..."
Harry disentangled himself from Ron and got to his feet. They had
arrived on what appeared to be a deserted stretch of misty moor. In
front of them was a pair of tired and grumpy-looking wizards, one of
whom was holding a large gold watch, the other a thick roll of
parchment and a quill. Both were dressed as Muggles, though very
inexpertly: The man with the watch wore a tweed suit with thigh-
length galoshes; his colleague, a kilt and a poncho.
"Nearly six," said Ron, checking his watch and then staring down the
drive that led to the front gates. "How d'you reckon they're coming?
The train?"
So far, however, all they had managed to do was get the badges stuck
on POTTER STINKS. Harry crept past them to the portrait hole and
waited for a minute or so, keeping an eye on his watch.
And still they walked, Harry getting more and more irritated as he
jogged along in their wake, checking his watch every now and then.
Wand tip alight, he crept along the bookshelves, pulling down more
books - books of hexes and charms, books on merpeople and water
monsters, books on famous witches and wizards, on magical inventions,
on anything at all that might include one passing reference to
underwater survival. He carried them over to a table, then set to
work, searching them by the narrow beam of his wand, occasionally
checking his watch...
"Ten minutes?" Harry croaked. "Ten -- ten minutes?" He looked down at
his watch. Dobby was right. It was twenty past nine. A large, dead
weight seemed to fall through Harry's chest into his stomach.
Where were the other champions? Would he have time to take Ron to the
surface and come back down for Hermione and the others? Would he be
able to find them again? He looked down at his watch to see how much
time was left -- it had stopped working.
Harry checked his watch, then remembered it hadn't been working since
it had spent over an hour in the lake.
One of the nifflers had suddenly leapt up and attempted to bite Pansy
Parkinson's watch off her wrist. She shrieked and jumped backward.
Harry took off his watch, which he was only wearing out of habit, as
it didn't work anymore, and stuffed it into his pocket. Then he
picked up a niffler. It put its long snout in Harry's ear and sniffed
enthusiastically. It was really quite cuddly.
History of Magic had rarely gone so slowly. Harry kept checking Ron's
watch, having finally discarded his own, but Ron's was moving so
slowly he could have sworn it had stopped working too. All three of
them were so tired they could happily have put their heads down on
the desks and slept; even Hermione wasn't taking her usual notes, but
was sitting with her head on her hand, gazing at Professor Binns with
her eyes out of focus.
Hermione looked at her watch. "We haven't done any practicing!" she
said, looking shocked. "We were going to do the Impediment Curse!
We'll have to really get down to it tomorrow! Come on. Harry, you
need to get some sleep."


Order of the Phoenix
"He's excellent," said Lupin, who was checking his watch
"I don't know, it's just what Mad-Eye says," said Hermione,
distractedly looking at her watch.
"Wotcher, Harry," she said, winking. "Better hurry up, hadn't we,
Molly?" she added, checking her watch.
"Just a couple of people," Hermione repeated, checking her watch and
looking anxiously at the door.
A few goals and they would be in the lead as usual, Harry assured
himself, bobbing and weaving through the other players in pursuit of
something shiny that turned out to be Montague's watchstrap.
"So, anyway," he checked his watch, "phase one is about to begin."
"You will tell your Aurors to stop searching for my Care of Magical
Creatures teacher so that he can return to work. I will give you
"
Dumbledore pulled a watch with twelve hands from his pocket and
surveyed it "half an hour of my time tonight
"

Vivian - Who wonders what the importance of DD's scar is? Was he once
a horcrux, like Harry? Just a thought.