Molly Weasley: the Burrow's Mother and Her Duel

Molly Weasley cooks for twenty, knits sweaters by hand and sends Howlers like nobody else. She is also the witch who stops joking the moment someone threatens her daughter. She is the mother every reader would want, and the one no Death Eater wants to face.

Who she is

Molly was born a Prewett and married Arthur Weasley. She has seven children: Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny. She runs the house and the kitchen at the Burrow, and she is one of the forces holding the Order of the Phoenix together. With very little money, she always finds a way for nobody at her table to go hungry.

She is very protective, sometimes too much. She scolds, lectures and advises without being asked. That protection includes Harry from the first day.

Key moments

• Philosopher's Stone, ch. 6: at King's Cross she tells Harry how to get onto platform nine and three-quarters, and treats him like one of her own.
• Philosopher's Stone, ch. 12: Harry receives a hand-knitted sweater with an H. For a boy who never got gifts at the Dursleys', it is a huge surprise.
• Chamber of Secrets, ch. 5: she sends Ron a Howler for taking the flying car without permission.
• Order of the Phoenix, ch. 9: she faces a boggart that takes the shape of her dead children and can't shake it off. You can see the fear that drives her.
• Deathly Hallows, ch. 36: she duels Bellatrix Lestrange and kills her after Bellatrix goes for Ginny.

Relationships

With Arthur she is a team: he brings the wild ideas and she makes them work. With her children she swings between affection and demands. With Harry the affection is nearly maternal: she treats him as one more son and defends him from anyone who tries to touch him.

With Fleur she started with prejudice, but that changes. With Sirius she clashed seriously over how he treated Harry.

What almost nobody notices

Molly's boggart doesn't turn into a monster. It turns into the people she loves most, lying on the floor. Her greatest fear isn't dying herself, it is being left alone (Order of the Phoenix, ch. 9).

Bellatrix laughs at her, and doesn't expect a witch who raised seven children to win a duel. Molly does, in front of everyone.

Are you someone who protects first and reasons later? See what the house quiz says.