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Weasley family

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File:Weasley Family in Egypt.jpg
A photograph from the fictional wizard newspaper The Daily Prophet of the Weasleys on vacation in Egypt. (Ron is the first at left.)

The Weasleys are a fictional family of wizards who figure prominently in the plot of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of novels. This is primarily because the youngest son, Ron Weasley, is the best friend of the series' protagonist, Harry Potter.

Family tree

Template:Weasleyfamilytree

The family

The Weasleys were one of the few remaining pure-blood wizarding families, though they were considered blood traitors for associated with non-pure-bloods. The Weasleys have seven children, all of whom have red hair and freckles.

All of the Weasleys have been sorted into Gryffindor House at Hogwarts and, apart from Bill and Percy, are known to have played on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Bill and Percy were both Head Boy and, along with Ron and Charlie, were school Prefects.

Bill works as a curse-breaker for Gringotts wizarding bank, and Percy becomes assistant to the Minister for Magic.

The Weasleys are a poor family. Mr Weasley holds several rather low positions at the Ministry of Magic (initially in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office).

Arthur Weasley's mother Cedrella was a member of the Black family, and his wife Molly (née Prewett) is related to the Black family via the marriage between Ignatius Prewett and Lucretia Black. Therefore the Weasleys and the Blacks and the Weasleys and the Malfoys are distant cousins: the seven Weasley children are Draco Malfoy's third cousins, once removed.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Bill Weasley marries Fleur Delacour, and they later have a daughter named Victoire. Fred is killed during the Second Battle of Hogwarts. Ron marries Hermione Granger and has two children, Rose and Hugo, while Ginny marries Harry Potter and has three children, James, Lily and Albus Severus.

Residence

The Weasley's home, known as The Burrow, is located in the village of Ottery St Catchpole, also the home of The Lovegoods and the Fawcetts. Amos Diggory also lives nearby.

The Weasley house has seven floors. It is dilapidated, managing to remain standing only by magic. Despite the house's rundown appearance, Harry remarks on his first visit that it was the best house he had ever been in and it comes to be his second favourite place in the world (after Hogwarts).

The Weasleys' home, The Burrow, as depicted in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

The well-hidden orchard nearby doubles as a Quidditch pitch for the Weasley boys and (secretly) Ginny. Real Quidditch balls cannot be used in case they escape and fly over the Muggle village.

The Weasleys own an unusual (possibly unique) clock, a manifestation of Molly's anxiety about her family's well-being. Instead of telling time, each hand has the name of a Weasley written on it and points to a term indicating their whereabouts; when Harry arrives at the Burrow in Half-Blood Prince, with Voldemort waging war on the wizarding world, all the hands are fixed on "mortal peril." It is not known where they obtained this clock, although Molly comments that she does not know any one else who owns one.

A ghoul resides in the attic of The Burrow and causes minor disruptions by groaning and banging on the walls and pipes whenever things have got too quiet. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the ghoul is magically altered in appearance to resemble Ron as cover for his absence from school.

A multitude of garden gnomes infest the garden of The Burrow.

Extended family

  • Septimus Weasley, the Weasley children's grandfather. Once owned Ron's wizard chess set.
  • Uncle Bilius is never seen during the books, but according to Ron (whose middle name is Bilius), he died after seeing the Grim (an omen of death). He was fun at parties.
  • Great-Aunt Muriel, a rude woman said to be over 100 years old. She loans her beautiful goblin-made tiara to Fleur to wear when she marries Bill. She is probably a relative of Molly's, based on the fact that Ginny is the first female in the Weasley family in several generations and that Molly calls her "our great-auntie Muriel".
  • Molly Weasley's second cousin is an accountant and probably Squib. The family never talks about him.

In the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire film, Ron is horrified at his dress robes, saying that they "smell like my great-aunt Tessie." Great-aunt Tessie is never mentioned in the books, however.

Pets and animals

There are many pets and animals associated the Weasley family.

  • Errol, an ancient Great Grey Owl who serves as the family post owl. He has trouble carrying loads due to his advanced age, often needing help from other owls. He is often found unconscious after crashing into things or collapsing from sheer exhaustion.
  • Scabbers, a rat who had been in the Weasley family for twelve years. He first belonged to Percy, but was later passed down to Ron. Near the end of the third book, Scabbers is revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, an Animagus and Death Eater who had once been a friend of James Potter.
  • Pigwidgeon (or "Pig"), Ron's small hyperactive Scops Owl, a gift from Sirius Black upon the loss of Scabbers, following the climactic events in Ron's third year.
  • Hermes, an owl owned by Percy, which was a gift to him from his parents for becoming a Prefect in his fifth year.
  • Arnold, a Pygmy Puff (miniature Puffskein) owned by Ginny and obtained from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes in the sixth book.
  • A large frog owned by Ron.
  • Several chickens.
  • A puffskein belonging to Ron that was killed by Fred when he used it for Bludger practice.

Names

There is a running theme of Arthurian legend in some of the Weasley family names. The father is named Arthur; the daughter is named Ginevra, which is the Italian form of Guinevere; a son is named Percy, which is a shortened form of Percival, and the youngest son is named Ron, the name of Arthur's spear in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, and in the "Brut" poems of Wace and Layamon[1][2] (it was originally "Rhongomynyad" in Welsh legend).

On her official website, Rowling explained her choice of surname and hair color for the Weasleys:[3]

In Britain and Ireland the weasel has a bad reputation as an unfortunate, even malevolent, animal. However, since childhood I have had a great fondness for the family mustelidae; not so much malignant as maligned, in my opinion. There are also many superstitions associated with redheaded people and most state that they are in some way unlucky (Judas Iscariot was supposedly red-haired), but this is nonsense; I happen to like red hair as well as weasels.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.bootlegbooks.com/Reference/PhraseAndFable/data/1069.html Bootlegbooks.com Retrieved on 04-24-07
  2. ^ http://www.geocities.com/dagonet_uk/weapdata.htm Geocities.com Retrieved on 04-24-07
  3. ^ http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/extrastuff_view.cfm?id=7 JKRowling.com Retrieved on 04-24-07
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