Where Were the Weasleys?

by · November 5, 2004

by Christina

One thing struck me when re-reading OotP for about the zillionth time. In Chapter Nine (“The Woes of Mrs. Weasley”), when Harry is shown the photo of the original Order of the Phoenix, where were the Weasleys??? (I mean Molly and Arthur, of course.)

They were fully-qualified and old enough at the time to be in the Order. When Harry asks what the Order are doing, he is told they are recruiting people. Tonks and Kingsley are mentioned, but the Weasleys are not. You’d think that, seeing as they were in the room at the time, they’d at least get a mention. They are clearly shown in OotP to be strongly anti-Voldemort, so why aren’t the Weasleys in the photo of the original Order? As far as I can see there are 3 possibilities:

  1. They actually WERE part of the Order at the time but weren’t in the photo because they were on a mission so important that it had to be kept secret from the entire Order. I don’t think this is likely because Lupin tells Molly in OotP that she wasn’t in the original Order and so doesn’t know what it’s like. If the were in the original order and it WAS a secret, I think that by fourteen years later it would be likely that at least the present Order would now know about it, or that Molly would tell Lupin when he says this.
  2. They simply weren’t there when the photo was taken. Possible, but again, unlikely. See the Lupin reason above, plus I think that the whole point of the photograph being taken was so it would be a record of the entire Order as some people in it weren’t ever seen again by Moody. It was probably taken at a time when, for one reason or another, the entire Order was present.
  3. There could be a thousand and one theoriess here involving polyjuice potions, metamorphmagi, fidelius charms and the like but I am disregarding all of these now on the grounds that JK wouldn’t re-use something like that for what has the potential to be another great part of the plot – it just isn’t her style, and it would be rubbish storytelling technique if she did. This (as far as I can see) leads only to one conclusion: the Weasleys were most definitely not in the original Order. But why?
  • A. They were on the side of Voldemort in the first war.Not in a million years! We’ve read countless statements of how much they hate Voldemort and nothing points to them supporting him – look at Arthur’s fondness for Muggles and what happened at the World Cup in GoF.
  • B. They simply didn’t join. There were seemingly plenty of people who supported the Death Eaters in the first war but didn’t actually join them. It’s highly probable it was the same situation for the Order. But why would Arthur and Molly not join? We know they are close to Dumbledore, so again using the parallel of the Death Eaters, I doubt that anyone could be best mates with Voldemort without joining the Death Eaters – the same goes for Dumbledore. Although Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred and George would have been small children at the time, I doubt this would stop them. If Voldemort gained complete power, they’d all be goners anyway, along with plenty of others (i.e Lily and James). Also, the Longbottoms were members with a small child, and that didn’t stop them.

I’m totally at a loss as to why they weren’t in the Order, so if you have any ideas, please e-mail me. I feel that this was one of JK’s many subtle hints as to what is to come in Books 6 and 7, and this ‘non-information’ could play a major role in future plotlines. I personally can’t wait to find out where they were because it’s going to be big!