Arthur Weasley: The Wizarding World's Curious Father

A grown wizard with a job at the Ministry, fascinated by an electrical plug. Arthur Weasley is the father everyone would want: loving, absent-minded and able to do the right thing when nobody is watching. And he never stops asking how Muggle things work.

Who he is

Arthur works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic. It is a minor post with little prestige and less pay, and he loves it. He is married to Molly and has seven children. Though the Weasleys are pure-blood, they refuse the idea that this makes them better than anyone.

His passion is Muggle objects. He collects plugs, batteries and anything that explains how Muggles live. He enchanted a Ford Anglia to fly, and that gets him in trouble at work.

Key moments

• Chamber of Secrets, ch. 3: Harry arrives at the Burrow and meets an Arthur who asks him a thousand questions about Muggles, starting with what a rubber duck is for.
• Chamber of Secrets, ch. 4: at Flourish and Blotts he brawls with Lucius Malfoy, who looks down on him for his family and his money.
• Goblet of Fire, ch. 4: he blows up the Dursleys' fireplace by mistake while trying to pick up Harry, and then apologizes to them.
• Order of the Phoenix, ch. 21: Harry sees, as if he were there, Nagini attacking Arthur at the Ministry. Harry's vision saves Arthur's life.
• Order of the Phoenix, ch. 22: at St. Mungo's it comes out that he tried to heal himself with Muggle stitches, and the Healers don't know whether to laugh or scold him.

Relationships

With Molly he is a complement: she keeps her feet on the ground and he supplies the ideas. With Harry his affection is that of a kind, close uncle. With Dumbledore, deep loyalty. With Lucius Malfoy, an old enmity.

With Percy he has a painful break over ambition and pride, and the reconciliation comes in the final battle.

What almost nobody notices

Arthur never mocks Muggles and never idealizes them. He treats them with real curiosity. In a pure-blood wizarding family, that is a political position: without saying it, he opposes the idea that there is a moral difference between wizards and Muggles.

Nagini's attack shows how much he is willing to risk: he was on guard duty for the Order, at night, in an empty corridor nobody else wanted to watch (Order of the Phoenix, ch. 21).

If that kind of quiet courage sounds like your house, the house quiz will tell you.