How It All Goes Down
Mayhem at the Ministry
- After a few hours' sleep, they return to the Weasley house.
- Mrs. Weasley is relieved to see them all, especially Fred and George.
- She weeps, "I shouted at you before you left! [...] It's all I've been thinking about!" (10.11).
- Mr. Weasley finds an article by reporter Rita Skeeter: "Ministry blunders ... culprits not apprehended ... lax security ... Dark wizards running unchecked ... national disaster ..." (10.14).
- So the whole thing is quickly turning into a PR disaster for the Ministry of Magic.
- Mr. Weasley has to go into the office because "this is going to take some smoothing over" (10.19).
- Harry asks if Hedwig has arrived yet. Nope.
- Later, Harry explains to Ron and Hermione that he's waiting for word from Sirius about his aching curse scar.
- Harry is suspicious that Voldemort is planning something big.
- In response to this news, Ron is frightened and Hermione is practical, exactly as Harry had predicted.
- Percy and Mr. Weasley start spending a lot of time at the Ministry.
- Percy gets pretty self-important about all the time Mr. Weasley has to put in at work: "Well, Father feels he's got to make up for his mistake at the match, doesn't he? [...] If truth be told, he was a tad unwise to make a public statement without clearing it with his Head of Department first –" (10.60).
- "Don't you dare blame your father for what that wretched Skeeter woman wrote!" (10.61), yells back Mrs. Weasley.
- When Mr. Weasley comes home, he brings bad news: "Rita Skeeter's been ferreting around all week, looking for more Ministry mess-ups to report" (10.77).
- Harry, Ron, and Hermione are getting ready to go back to school for the year.
- Mrs. Weasley has gone ahead and done all of the school shopping for both Harry and Ron.
- Ron finds something weird with his stuff: "a long, maroon velvet dress. It had a moldy-looking lace frill at the collar and matching lace cuffs" (10.94). (Dress-up?)
- These are Ron's new dress robes, and they're shabby because they are secondhand – all that Mrs. Weasley could afford.
- Harry has a new set of dress robes, too, but they're nice – bright green versions of his usual school robes.
- Ron is furious: "Why is everything I own rubbish?" (10.113).