What do you think of Molly Weasley?

[Kitty279]

Probably his soul - the "kiss at first sight" order wasn't rescinded, as far as I remember.

[Silvertongue]

Maybe that's what she was aiming for so she could gain back the control of Harry.

God, we're so cynical.

[Kitty279]

We are. And it makes reading Molly bashing so much more fun because it feeds the cynic in me.

[Animikokala]

I don't think a lot of the flaws of Molly Weasley are limited to her. I'm not that fond of her myself, mind you, but there are an awful lot of "issues" with the wizarding world when it comes to children.

What kind of school allows parents of their students to publicly humiliate them with verbal abuse (via howler).

Why was Snape allowed to be so unfair to students? Spy duties is no excuse; Snape could have told Voldie that Dumbledore ordered him to "shape up or ship out (to Azkaban)" and so Snape decided it was better to "play nice" with the students and gather information than become a worthless spay in Azkaban.

There did not appear to be any sort of Wizarding Child Service, or anything with the best interests of school children at all. Nobody seemed to think anything about Neville's pre-magic treatment, or how Seamus' Dad didn't know about magic until after he married Seamus' Mom, and what the possible effects would have been.

No counselor for the students; no required medical check up upon arriving to the school. Hell, the adults could use some counseling as well. It's obvious from the boggart in OOTP that Molly's got some issues that need to be talked about.

[Silvertongue]

The Neville and Seamus thing is true but if only the 11 year olds heard it then, well, when you're that age you don't tend to think of things in that way.

Everything else, very true, and stupid.

[Kitty279]

You can add Dumbledore dumping a baby on a doorstep in a cold, rainy November night. Who gave him the right to kidnap the baby from his rightful guardian in the first place? Why did he never check up on him, but relied on Arabella, who lived two streets away and knew nothing? Why didn't Wizarding Child Service check up on the saviour of their world? And don't get me started on all the traumas Harry went through without any help at all. Or the crazy point/detention system.

Besides, the whole political and social system was equally messed up.

[Silvertongue]

How did Figg get herself the baby-sitting job in the first place? Did she just knock on the door one day and say "Hello. You know that spare child you have? I could look after him today with all my pretty kitties while you go out and have fun. I know you just hate taking him with you."?

[Kitty279]

Good question. Arabella was most definitely *NOT* in the Dursley's social circle, after all. The cynic in me says that Dumbledore used a compulsion charm on them ... But seriously, it's not as if it was the next door neighbour who could be asked easily. At best, Arabella was someone you may sometimes see when you go grocery shopping or something like that. Not who I would entrust my children with.

[Silvertongue]

They wouldn't have cared enuogh about him to worry about whether they could trust her with him or not. She could have been a mass murderer and they'd have sent him off with her.

[Kitty279]

True. Just a pity they didn't just send him to that mass murderer who was on the news in the summer of 1993 O:-)

[Spaz86]

I had liked Molly up until the fight she had with Sirius in OotP. She went down after that. She is such a control freak. It's like she couldn't stand that her kids were growing up and kept treating them like they were 5 not teenagers. Though Ginny's tantrum didn't help probably. I think if she had just went quietly then maybe her parents would have started to treat her like she was her age. Though I think that being the only girl and the. Any she was so used to getting her way with her parents that it probably just flipped. I've seen lots of "babies" of families do that. But Molly was treating everyone like they didn't know what they were doing by telling them what was going on. And then of course I hate the fact that she thought Sirius couldn't tell between Harry and James. That really Irked me. I'm going to stop ranting now.

[melodypottersnape]

her naiveness and hypocriticalness get on my nerves.

like when Arthur first told her of the dementors being at the school she was all for it. They were creatures that sapped away good memories and could suck out souls and she thought that was good protection for children!

Also when she snubbed Hermione for Rita's article right after she reprimanded Mr.Diggory for doing the same to Harry.

On a side note at Harry's trial when the Minister said something to the extent that the dementors are never out of his control;
I think harry should have asked him if he had tried to assinate him three times in his third year. It would have forced Fudge to say they could get out of his control or made Fudge guilty of attempted murder.

[Silvertongue]

That's a good point but he would have twisted it somehow to say he must have been either near Sirius Black or breaking the law again.

[Kitty279]

Would have been nice

That reminds me - why has no one prepared Harry for the trial in the first place, told him which laws and arguments to use, instead of just insisting "they can't expel you" - they should know already that Fudge can do everything. I like to think that Sirius wanted to do it and Molly tore into him for bothering the poor baby ... but that's my private fantasy.

[TitansRule]

I agree with pretty much everything that's said here, but I'm not entirely convinced that Molly had no other reason to loudly announce Platform 9 3/4 than to get Harry's attention. I do it a lot with my brother when we're out somewhere and I'm telling him something important - if I think he's not listening, I'll say something like "What's 2 + 2?" and if he answers or looks at me funny, I know he's listening. It's not too much of a stretch to believe that Molly wasn't just making sure her kids were paying attention to her - although saying it in a platform of Muggles was a stupid idea!
I read a theory somewhere that JK Rowling intended the books to be solely aimed at children, so in the first three, the characters are exaggerated - look at the Dursleys as the evil relatives, Dumbledore as the all-knowing headmaster, Molly as the 'mother figure' - but as the series got darker and became more adult, she was then stuck with those characters, which admittedly makes them flawed (ergo human) but also leaves you with all the questions we ask ourselves when we're 'character bashing'.

[IceBlueRose]

I have to admit that I started out really liking Molly but I tend to just roll my eyes at her now and get very frustrated with her attitude. I can definitely see where she has some good aspects about her character - the way she loves her family and her strength - but she goes about things in the wrong way and even those good aspects can be a hindrance with the war they're fighting...to a point, at least. After all, while it's great that she loves her family, if that's going to cause her to become so overprotective of them that she does more harm than good, how is that going to help anyone?

Her brushing off Harry starving always bothers me in CoS. She's constantly talking about Harry being too thin but when the twins say that he had bars on his windows and he was being starved, she just brushes it off and gives Harry a bit more food. Um, how about telling someone about it so that that treatment stops instead? (Off topic a bit, but I always wondered how Harry was able to eat so much after being starved so often. You don't eat for a long period of time usually results in you being able to handle a lot less food than you normally would and yet Harry becomes a bottomless pit the second he leaves the Dursleys' and never gets sick from having too much to eat.)

Then in GoF, I hated that she actually bought in to what Rita Skeeter was saying. It's clear from the beginning of the book that the Weasley family knows that she writes nothing but crap - look at the article about the Dark Mark. She was just stirring up trouble. But Molly then believes that Harry cries himself to sleep over James and Lily and that he's dating Hermione simply because Rita wrote it? If Harry is so much like a son to her, shouldn't she know him better than that? We rarely see Harry cry - he had a breakdown over Sirius dying (though I don't remember if tears are mentioned) and he definitely cries at Godric's Hollow but when has Molly herself actually seen him cry? Well, before the end of GoF, I mean, when he basically cries after Voldemort comes back, but hey, I'd have been a mess way before that so props to Harry for holding himself together for so long. Tangents aside though, I always thought that, for Molly, those articles were just another excuse for her to build up her excuses of why Harry and the others should be kept in the dark and should be "protected".

Comparing the twins and Ron to Percy (Bill and Charlie too but they rarely come up, it's usually about how Percy never caused trouble) doesn't help either. It pretty much just feeds in to Ron's inferiority complex and gives the twins another reason to resent him.

Not to mention the way she snaps out Sirius' name at the platform. Way to announce you've got a fugitive with you! Right after she's been insisting that the kids can't handle this news, when she's the one practically giving them away over something petty (after all, plenty of dogs jump on people as if hugging them the way that Sirius does to Harry - it's why I have to immediately greet my friend's dogs with "No! Stay down!" when I go over, lol). At least when Sirius points out why they're not in the order he gives them a reason - they're still letting emotions rule them when it comes to family and not thinking of the mission. They've got the same point but one gets it across better than the other.

Her treatment of Sirius in OotP was pretty much it for me. Throwing Azkaban in his face was uncalled for - he was pretty mad with grief and betrayal by the time he went after Peter, after all. Yes, Molly was able to duel after losing Fred but everyone handles grief differently. Look at what Harry does after he loses Sirius - he does what Sirius did and goes after the person that cost him his family. Then the remark where she says that she thinks Sirius just sees Harry as a James replacement. If she were real, I'd have kicked her. Way to make Harry feel great there, Molly. Not to mention, another uncalled for remark - just because Sirius doesn't talk about Harry the same way she might talk about one of her kids doesn't mean he sees Harry as his best friend reincarnated. After all, look at his actions towards Harry - he broke out of prison just because he realized Harry could be in danger from Peter, he lived in a cave and ate rats, he risked getting caught just to contact Harry and he made sure he was there if Harry needed to talk (oh if only Harry had opened the mirror!). Those aren't things you do for someone you're just looking to go out and have fun with. Honestly, I just think she felt like she was getting replaced because it's obvious by that point that it's Sirius that Harry trusts more and goes to. She lashed out and it always frustrates me that the most she got over that was Remus reminding her that she's not the only one that cares about Harry. Heck, even Harry's annoyed by her coddling him and treating him like a baby.

I could probably go on but I'm also trying to fill out an application, lol, so I better get to that too!

[Silvertongue]

The children's book thing is a very good point. I bet every book out there has more plotholes and un-answered questions than Harry Potter.*cough*Eragon!*cough*

[Kitty279]

Titansrule, that's an interesting thought. Haven't tried that myself so far, but for your brother it seems to work. Well, it's a possibility - I always like it to see how many different views you can get on such a small detail
Plus, I totally agree about them initially being aimed at children. In our library, they were initially in the children's section. For the first, that was ok. For the second, it was ok, too. For the third, our lektor was already grumbling that they now tend to the teenage section, but the bother to change all the labels on the backs of the books was so much that he resisted. Then GoF came out, I did read the original, and the next day I told him they *need* to be changed, we can't put that one to the children's books under any circumstances. We just managed before the translation came, and when he had read it, he agreed with me.

IceBlueRose - You are completely right about the amount Harry could eat after being starved. And Molly didn't know anything about that, either, that much was obvious. I wouldn't be too surprised if Harry had thrown up after the meals every time and it was just not mentioned. JKR clearly didn't do her homework there.

Personally, I think Molly resented it that Sirius treated Harry like the teenager and near-adult he was, not like the five-year-old she wanted him treated as. That might have caused the accusation that he saw James in him. I swear, if she could, she'd just lock all the kids into a playpen to keep them safe!

I wonder if Molly ever realised that Harry has faced down Voldemort with 11, 12, 14, 15, 17? Not counting the time he was a baby? She herself can't even hear or say his name, for heavens sake! And she still believes she needs to treat him like a little kid who would go into full-blown panic at hearing the name alone? How many times have any of the Order faced that monster? For the most of them the answer was probably: Never. Harry knew more about fighting that megalomaniac than they all put together, but Molly refused to even consider the idea. What do you think, how long would Molly have lasted if she had to face him? Who needs protecting there?

[OculisCaeruleis]

Something that's always bugged me is that Harry calls Molly "Mrs Weasley" throughout the entire series.

I mean, obviously, there's nothing wrong with showing respect, especially after everything Mrs Weasley has done for him... but don't you think that after seven years they'd at least be on first-name-basis?

Molly is Harry's main maternal figure, but from his perspective she's always been Ron's mum first and foremost. Molly considers Harry to be another son and I know Harry loves her too, but he loves all the Weasley family and I just don't think he feels as strongly as she does him.

I'm not saying Harry should have been calling her "Mum" or that she should have replaced Lily, of course not. I'm just saying that, honestly, I fail to understand how such sentiments can possibly returned if Harry's still calling Molly by her married name.

Am I making sense?

[Silvertongue]

Yes you are, and I would mention that he calls Arthur Mr Weasley but he wasn't actually all that close to him.

[Kitty279]

Good point. Particularly considering how quick he was to call Sirius with his first name. Yeah, another sign that he wasn't that close to her as she wanted him to be.

[melodypottersnape]

I wanna know how she got the idea that she was
harry's "new mom". I mean he visited in the summer before 2nd and by third when harry overheard the Weasley parents Molly was already acting as if she was his sole guardian. I mean he was there a few weeks which were spent with Ron not her.

The only other times he saw her again was a bit of the summer before fourth and a brief visit towards the end.

Those were the only times they were in contact, while Sirius went out of his way to be there, get to know, and see Harry.

Heck I believe Remus had more of a right than Molly because he actually spoke to Harry multiple times and knew Harry better.

[hollywollypolly]

I like Molly.

[hollywollypolly]

Um... I read through some of them I see Molly in a lot of bad like did any of you remember that she killed Bellatrix because she nearly killed her daughter, or how concerned she was when Mr. Weasley was attacked or how she still made Harry presents when the Dursley's didn't give a damn. I know there is a lot of bad light but she also has some good light like all of the HP characters.

[mountaingirl777]

I have an interesting thought. What about "empty nest syndrom"? We don't know about Molly's life before Harry, we first see her when she is sending out the second to last child to school. I would think that would have made a great deal of difference in her attitude, especially since she had seven kids. She is used to having children around, to take care of them and all. A lot of mothers have this, some don't even know it. It could also explain the need to take care of Harry and Hermione. Remember, Bill and Charlie didn't come home much, she was probably thinking that the rest would do the same.

Just a thought. Make of it what you will.

[melodypottersnape]

I'll admit I dont hate her I just greatly disliked her attitude in the terms that she had a right to make choices that affected children that weren't hers.

[readingwizard4]

It seems to me that people give Mrs. Weasley a pass since she killed Bellatrix. I like Mrs. Weasley in the first two books but third book on, no. I hate how she treats Fred and George about the joke shop. It takes a lot to run a shop. A Dragon tamer, a Curse-Breaker, a Ministry worker, Shop owners, an Auror and a Quidditch player. That sounds like good careers to me. She also destroys their stuff in years 4 and 5. They probably can't sue her in GOF but what about OOTP? They are of age. If I was Fred and George I would have run away 4th year. They didn't 5th year since they wanted to prove that they were better than Percy. Also why would she name Fred and George in honor of her brothers why not let them do the joke shop since they would have approved of that? Pretty poor way to honor their memories. Also does anyone think Percy wouldn't have sent his family to the Dementors in 5th year to save his job? Hermione didn't believe in 4th year but he left the family for the ministry quick enough so I wouldn't be surprised

I also hates how she treats Sirius. She had no right to trash Sirius in his house especially the Azkaban part. I think a part of the problem of Sirius possibly thinking of Harry is James is because of Molly yelling at him. The thing on the train station now makes me wonder since I've read it on here if she said that on purpose. Sirius did so much Harry. He risked his freedom for Harry and what has Molly done? Nothing. Makes you wonder what she did at home all those years since the kids were at school?

Don't even get me started on the Rita Skeeter situation. She banged on about how evil she she is and yet she believes her. Told off Amos yet thought Hermione was a scarlet woman. How hypocritical. No teenage boy will ever admit to crying about his parents or showing weakness. She's had 6 boys, how could she not know this? Ron I could understand since he was ticked off at Harry he would justify it to himself somehow.

The twins saying he was starved and Molly brushing them off and then going on about how he is so thin is mind-boggling to me. Makes no sense. How can she not see? And then the 7 helpings of food. How is that good for him?

Bill and Charlie left England. That should mean something. As far as we know they didn't owl or floo. They left and never kept in contact. Molly going on about Charlie's hair was ridicoulous. Let it go.

If the Weasleys were so poor as Malfoy claims how where they able to go on trips Christmas 1st year, Christmas 2nd year and summer before 3rd year? A trip to Romania and 2 trips to Egypt? or vice-versa. Wouldn't it have been cheaper for Bill and Charlie to come home instead of going to them?

The situation in OOTP is appalling. How can Molly believe that her kids were going to be okay if she coddled them? They are blood traitors. Voldemort wants to get rid of everyone that's impure. Even if that wasn't true the Malfoys want them gone. Anyway the kids are friends with Harry Potter. How can they remain safe in the situation? No way no how. Voldemort went after Harry at 18 months old so why wouldn't he go after a teenager? At least Voldemort attacks Harry at the end of the year for the most part after exams are over. Seems like he cares about his education after all lol. Also does anyone find it appalling that the kids except for Hermione knows what the Dark Mark was? Shows you how bad the kids have been coddled. The kids should have been told what it was so they know to avoid it. Molly and Arthur should know that there are some Death Eaters out there. so why not tell the kids ways to avoid them. Am I the only one who is surprised Ron knew what the Imperius curse was? Molly would have had a fit if she knew.

I'll comment on the Fleur situation later I think

[Spaz86]

I dunno, I had a teacher when I was little, and she was also my dads friend growing up, to this day I still think of her as Miss Jenkins. And considering I had her in first grade in 1992 is saying something. And after living with Dursley's, I think that after having been forced to use titles (aunt Marge) he just had that in his head to call her Mrs. Weasley, and no one bothered to correct him. I think people just assume he's more comfortable with it that way.

[My-Rebel-Within]

Molly is a brilliant mother, but she should not compare her children. It will only do more harm than good like causing Inferiority complex and sibling hatred. She should support the twins' dream and see how brilliant their inventions are. Molly always seems to get in the way of Sirius/Harry bonding. Don't get me wrong, she is a brilliant mother and my favorite mother figure in fiction. She mothers too much at times. I have a saying, "In childhood ignorance is bliss, but in adolescence it can be fatal(c)." The children need to be informed of the dangers they may face and keeping them in the dark will only put them in greater danger. After the children hear Molly’s comparing of her children and not supporting the twins, they would confront her about it. Ron, Hermione, and Harry have done more heroic than she can ever think to do. She needs to give them respect not undermined them.

[ShotgunWilly]

The Ministry scene in DH is the only time in the books that Harry calls Arthur by his first name. There's some trivia for you.