Weasley family

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The Family

The Weasleys were one of the few remaining pure-blood wizarding families, though they were considered blood traitors for associating 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. All of the Weasley children, except Bill and Percy who both were Head Boy, are known to have played on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Charlie being the captain of the team for at least one of his school years. Apart from being the captain Charlie was a prefect as was Ron.

The Weasleys also all do work for the Order of the Phoenix, and all are members except for Ron, Percy and Ginny who as of the end of Deathly Hallows are not known to officially have been inducted into the Order.

Bill works as a curse-breaker for Gringotts wizarding bank, Charlie as a dragon handler in Romania, and Percy becomes assistant to the Minister of Magic. As J.K. Rowling states in an interview, Ron works as a member of the Auror Office and with Harry Potter, revolutionises the Auror Office and Ministry of Magic and Ginny becomes a celebrated player for the all-women quidditch team The Hollyhead Harpies before retiring and becoming sports reporter for The Daily Prophet.

The Weasleys are a relatively poor family compared to some of the more prominent pure-blood wizarding families. 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, the Blacks, 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 by the epilogue they have a daughter named Victoire. Victoire appears to be in a romantic relationship with Teddy Lupin, the orphaned son of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks. 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, Albus Severus, and Lily

Rose and Hugo are only mentioned in a brief epilogue to the seventh (and final) Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is set nineteen years after the main events of the novel.

Rose Weasley is the elder child of the two. She was born when Ron and Hermione were both 25 years old. Ron notes that she also seems to have inherited her mother's intellect.

See: Grandchildren of the Weasley Family

Residence

Template:HP Place The Weasleys' 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 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 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

• Gideon and Fabian Prewett were brothers of Molly Weasley. Both of them were members of the original Order of the Phoenix and killed by several Death Eaters, including Antonin Dolohov, not before fighting like heroes.
• Septimus Weasley was the Weasley children's grandfather,and once owned Ron's wizard chess set. He presumably died sometime before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as he is not mentioned at Bill and Fleur's wedding. Like his son, he is considered a blood traitor.
• Uncle Bilius is never seen during the books, but according to Ron, who took his middle name, he died after seeing the Grim (an omen of death). He is described as being "fun at parties" by Fred and George, who told Harry and Hermione that he'd "down an entire bottle of Firewhiskey, they run out onto the dance floor, hoist up his robes, and start pulling bunches of flowers out of his -". Ron also mentioned that he never married "for some reason".
• Great-Aunt Muriel, a rude centenarian. She loans her beautiful goblin-made tiara to Fleur to wear when she marries Bill. She is a relative of Molly's and most likely a Prewett, as she once expressed her distaste of the Weasley clan.
• Lancelot, a cousin of Muriel, was a St. Mungo's Healer who found the fact that Ariana Dumbledore never received medical attention at home as suspicious.
• Molly Weasley's second cousin is an accountant and probably Squib. The family never talks about him. On J.K Rowling's site she explained that he has a daughter named Mafalda. She was intended to be in the Goblet of Fire plot.
• Unnamed uncle, Arthur's other brother, he has not appeared in the series.

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. It is most likely that Great Aunt "Tessie" is taking place for Great Aunt Muriel.

Pets and animals

There are many pets and animals associated the Weasley family.

• 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, revealed in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
• 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.

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 (it was originally "Rhongomynyad" in Welsh legend). Their Auntie Muriel's cousin's name was Lancelot.

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

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.

External links

• An essay about the Weasley children's ages posted at the Harry Potter Lexicon
• Information on Mafalda from J. K. Rowling's website
• Post HBP Cub Reporter Press Conference