Arthur Weasley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Harry Potter character | |
|---|---|
 Mark Williams as Arthur Weasley in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
|
| Arthur Weasley | |
| Gender | Male |
| Hair colour | Red |
| Eye colour | Blue |
| House | Gryffindor |
| Parentage | Pure-blood |
| Allegiance | Order of the Phoenix, Ministry of Magic |
| Actor | Mark Williams |
| First appearance | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
Arthur Weasley (born 6 February c. 1950)[1] is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series. He is the patriarch of the Weasley family and married to Molly Weasley with whom he has seven children: Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny. He is most probably the son of Septimus and Cedrella (née Black) Weasley. Interestingly enough, this makes him a descendant of the wealthy and aristocratic House of Black, but his mother was disinherited for marrying into a family of wizards who were "blood traitors". The evidence for this is Sirius Black's comment that Arthur is his second cousin once-removed, combined with the Black family tree as drawn by Rowling. It also potentially makes him a first cousin of Bartemius Crouch Sr (who may be the son of Caspar Crouch and Cedrella's sister Charis), though given that Cedrella was striken from the record it is unsurprising that Crouch would not acknowledge this relationship if he was even aware of it.
Arthur is described as being tall and thin — a physique inherited by his third and sixth sons Percy and Ron while his first son Bill inherited the tall stature but not the thin build — and as having a receding hairline and wire-rimmed glasses; Percy also wears glasses. An affable, light hearted man, he tends not to be the authority figure in the family; his wife Molly tends to handle that area, and the only time Ron can ever remember seeing Arthur genuinely angry was when his older twin brothers Fred and George tried to trick Ron into making the Unbreakable Vow when he was a child.
Arthur Weasley's youngest son Ron is one of Harry Potter's best friends. Harry and his other best friend Hermione Granger enjoy spending time with the Weasley family and they seem to have been accepted as unofficial members of it.
Contents |
[edit] Career and interests
Arthur Weasley works for the Ministry of Magic, initially in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office. In the sixth book, he has been promoted to Head of Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects. He is obsessed with learning about Muggle customs and inventions (in particular, he is determined to discover how aeroplanes stay aloft), but so far, he appears to have had little success. He also owns a large collection of tools, batteries, fuse wires, and plugs. For a long time, a number of wizards regarded Arthur with disdain owing to his obsession with Muggle culture. His department, a minor and derided subsection of the DMLE, lacked funding, and his salary was insufficient to provide for a family of nine - leaving his family finances precarious. His promotion to a more valuable and demanding job was accompanied by a pay increase.
A favourite fan theory had been that Arthur Weasley might become the next Minister of Magic; however this hypothesis was denied by J. K. Rowling on her official website.
[edit] Role in Harry Potter
He first officially appears in the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, along with the rest of the Weasley family during the summer before Hogwarts.
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Mr Weasley, who has been consistently against Voldemort, is a member of the Order of the Phoenix and during one of his shifts in the Ministry of Magic he is attacked by the snake Nagini, which was acting under Voldemort's control. Harry, who is mentally connected with Voldemort, manages to see this in a vision and is able to warn the Hogwarts authorities. Mr Weasley is subsequently saved just in time and sent to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
[edit] Name
The name Arthur Weasley is reminiscent of the birth name of Arthur Wesley, better known in later life as Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, though at this point in the story it is difficult to know if he will be a similarly heroic figure. See Arthur for more information on other possible origins of Arthur Weasley's first name.
