Molly's clock

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 151738

JK Rowling: <snip> Mrs Weasley is right, she hopes
> > that everyone is now in danger and she is correct. <snip>

> Doug Rogers:
> 
> "Mrs Weasley is right, she hopes that everyone is now in danger and  
> she is correct."
> 
> Her thoughts and desires are reflected in the clock hands!?!? Her  
> thoughts are projected into the clock?
<snip> It was a bit stunning to have Rowling say this, as above.  
> I hope it isn't some kind of mistranslation? <snip>

Carol responds:
It's possible that the interview is mistranscribed ("deaf eaters"?),
but I think the real problem is JKR's tendency to trip over herself
and interrupt herself in interviews and other off-the-cuff comments so
that her meaning is unclear. (Occasionally, IMO, she's deliberately
ambiguous, but I don't think that's the case here.)

I don't think she meant to imply that the clock reflects Molly's
wishes or that Molly wants everyone to be in mortal peril. I *think*
she means that Molly hopes that it isn't just her clock; that all the
clocks all the clocks of that sort are pointing to "mortal peril"
simply because the WW at large is in danger, as opposed to her family
in particular. It's like the difference between a red alert that
applies to everyone and a bomb threat aimed at one particular family.
She doesn't want her family to be in any more danger than anyone else.

Now I, for one, thought it was silly for Molly to carry the clock
around when the hands were *already* pointing to mortal peril. What's
the point? The situation, according to the clock, is already as dire
as it's going to get. The hands can't move to mortal peril because
they're already there, and the Weasleys are as safe as they *can* be
in their own home. I also don't like the fact that when a family
member really *is* in mortal peril, for example Bill when he's savaged
by Fenrir Greyback, that increased danger is not reflected by the
clock, which shows him in the same situation as Molly and Arthur when
they're sitting down to dinner.

It's not a Flint, exactly, but it's (IMO) a potentially effective plot
device that hasn't been used as well as it could have been. And I do
suspect that the Burrow isn't the safe haven it seems to be, but
still, when we see the Weasleys at Christmas time in HBP, they're not
in danger *yet,* or at least no more danger than the average witch or
wizard.

But to repeat, I really doubt that Molly hopes that everyone is in
danger and that this hop is reflected in the clock's hands, which of
course show only her own family's supposed degree of danger. She only
hopes, IMO, that the clock reflects the condition of the WW in general
and not the specific situation of her family. (I wish it had been
handled otherwise, but obviously I'm not writing the books.) 

Carol, who used to envision Molly standing immobile as Percy's clock
hand moved to mortal peril but now thinks we won't get any such
dramatic moment