"I'm mentioned," said Mr. Weasley, his eyes widening behind his glasses as he reached the bottom of the Daily Prophet article.

"Where?" spluttered Mrs. Weasley, choking on her tea and whiskey. "If I'd seen that, I'd have known you were alive!"


When Harry and the Weasleys get back from the Quidditch World Cup, she's all worried. And she says there that if she had seen the mention of Mr. Weasley in the Daily Prophet, she would have known he was alive.


But then, not too long after:


Mrs. Weasley glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner. Harry liked this clock. It was completely useless if you wanted to know the time, but otherwise very informative. It had nine golden hands, and each of them was engraved with one of the Weasley family's names. There were no numerals around the face, but descriptions of where each family member might be. "Home," "school," and "work" were there, but there was also "traveling," "lost," "hospital," "prison," and, in the position where the number twelve would be on a normal clock, "mortal peril."


So, forgive me, but if she was so worried about whether Mr. Weasley and everyone else was alive and all right or not --- why didn't she just check the clock?


Oh, and here's one other thing I've always wondered about --- what would happen if one of the Weasleys died? Is there a position on the clock for "dead," or would their hand just... disappear?

Good question.
Another example of wizards not using muggle logic I'd say! Almost everything is slightly crackpot in their world (to us anyway). What about if you were two or more of them at the same time, like in hospital but in mortal peril because you've just been bitten by a really big snake, or traveling in the wrong direction so you are actually lost?

It's better than nothing I suppose.

Well before you die the clock would probably show "mortal peril" so if you died it would probably just stay there because there is no "dead" description. Perhaps this is why she didin't know if they were dead. The clock showed mortal peril for so long that she didin't know if they were actually still in mortal peril or if they died and the clock just had no description to place them under so stayed on mortal peril.

I think the answer is more simple. I think it is a matter of muggle logic not wizard logic. To me that part was just not written very well. There are many ways that could have been better written. The clock is very important to Molly so I doubt she would have not looked at it.

Rowling should have written the section where Molly said something about being worried about Arthur. That the clock had shifted to mortal peril and she read the news about the attacks. For whatever reasons, Rowling's editors did not pick up on this minor problem. I few minutes of re-write would have gotten the same point across and not created this descrepancy.

I don't think it is an error. We know that from the beginning of the fifth book (i think) to the end, all the weasley's were positioned in "mortal peril". This suggests that the moral peril dial is pretty easy to be in. I would say that all hands were in mortal peril during the quidditch world cup.

And that's fair enough, but there's still the question of what happens with the clock if one the Weasleys dies. Does their hand get stuck at Mortal Peril? Is there a position for Dead? Does their hand disappear entirely?

I'd say that since there is no other option except mortal peril, it either stays there, or it simply disappears as was mentioned earlier.

Mr. Wealey's clock hand obviously sat at Moral Peril, I would guess. But I don't think Mrs. Wealey really meant she thought Mr. Wealey had died, she was just extremely worried. So, in conclusion, she was merely over stating her worry that Mr. Weasley's clock hand was sitting at moral peril.

Yes, I agree. I'm not exactly sure if they were all pointing to mortal peril from the beginning of book 5, as someone said earlier, but either way, I'm sure when they were at the QWC there hands were all pointing to mortil peril as they were in danger because of the death eaters. And since there is no death hand, as we've established, then Mrs. Weasley has no way of knowing if they are dead from that danger or not.

i don't see why all the hands would be on mortal peril during the quadditch world cup
it's not like anyone expected something like the death eaters appearing to happen.
so i'm at a loss to why mrs. Weasley didnt look at her clock to be sure that her family memebers where okay.

That's a good question. I've never tought about this... but I think it would be so easy if Molly just check the clock... ahh.. I really dunno!

I think that if a family member died there hand would just not work anymore

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She was probably so frantic simple logic didn't occur to her - like once my little brother ran away and we were so worried about where he was we didn't think to ring his best friends house He'd gone round to play on the trampoline and hadn't told us

yeh its like most people have been saying, i think that the clock is useful, but in situations where it needs to point at 2 things at once it cant do, therefor its not completly reliable, and so im sure Mrs Weasley didnt want to rely on the clock

Well, the cloak can point to 'mortal peril', true, but can it point to dead? There were a lot of death eaters around, setting things on fire and blasting tents out of the way, not to mention Barty Crouch, a 'loyal' death eater, in the forest. I think that qualifies as mortal peril.

What would happen if someone died? Would the hand like, fade away? Or would they just be stuck at the state they were when the owner of the hand died? It's an interesting question.

I agree. I dont think that rowling meant for us to ponder about it! lol. or did she. do you think evn she knows? I think it was a tidbit to make the wizarding world more magical. haha i imagine if someone dies that the hand on clock just kind of dissolves. that would be cool. sad that they died but you know!

Hmm, Well if they were to die I think they would just stay in Mortal peril. Thats just an assumption ( I think someone else has mentioned that not taking credit for myself) But if you were to die lets take fred for example. His hand would be in Mortal Peril.

Sorry if you have already said this I dont think you said it the exact way but i kind of pigybacked off few answers.

Andrew

Hmmm, true. I forgot about her clock. Well, I suppose she might have forgotten. You know, sometimes something can be so simple, but you forget about it. It might have just slipped her mind she was so worried. I don't know.

I agree with Nasuada, when people panic they don't normally think rationally. The logical thing to do at that point would be to look at the clock, but its stated in book six that the clock is normally in the sitting room, it isn't until Voldy is back alive and killing that Molly starts carrying it around with her and watching it constantly. So assuming that the clock was in the sitting room and she would have been in her room getting ready or the kitchen eating breakfast when the paper arrived then she wouldn't have had the clock at hand and may have not thought to go find it and see what it said.

I agree. I don't think the clock is prepared for a family member to be classified under two categories therefore would either freeze...or just pick one. Thus, the clock is not always completely reliable. However, I don't know if it's justified to say that she jsut forgot about the clock. If you remember, ( I wish I could remember what book or where exactly)....however, there was some point in time during the series when she ran around witht he clock tied around her neck.

I think it's in HBP...in fact, I'm almost positive it's in HBP...can anyone remember where that is?

It was in HBP that they mention that she carried the clock around with her. But the difference is that by HBP she wouldn't have been in shock anymore. Voldemort had been back for over a year at that point and had been recognized as being alive by the MoM for several months. Assuming that Mrs. Weasley had gone into shock when reading the paper at the begining of GoF she wouldn't have been thinking rationally during those few hours, but shock wouldn't last for months or years at a time, it would wear off allowing her to think somewhat more logically. In this case the realization that she could just look at the clock.

As far as the clocks reliability I think that it just shows whatever the worst case scenerio is. In the incident where Mr. Weasley was bit by the snake he was at work and in mortal peril, but the clock would have moved to mortal peril because thats the more pressing of the two matters. If you're lost and traveling it would show lost. My question is can you be lost without knowing it? I don't think you can because you think you know where you are. So in that case the clock would show traveling until the moment you realize you don't know where you are, making it slightly more unreliable.

My guess is that she was too paranoid to do something simple like check her clok. I notice that when I'm scared or something, I forget to do simple things that could solve my problem. If I remember right, doesn't the clock have something on it that says "Mortal Peril" or something?

yes I agree. When you are scared that something bad is about to happen you usually tend to forget stuff. (I usually tenf to whether or not im worried ). Yes it does have a section entititled (SP?) Mortal Peril.

Andrew

I think that when Mr. Weasley was attacked, his hand was pointing at mortal peril. I really don't know what happens when a Weasley dies. Maybe their hand just points at mortal peril for the rest of the time. Maybe that's why Mrs. Weasley didn't know whether he was alive or not.

Or, like others have said, she was just being paranoid.

I think I can relate as a mother to the theory that she was frantic and not stopping to think about the clock. Iprobably would have been the same way. Besides if the clock hands had been that way mortal peril for any length of time, maybe that because Voldemort was now getting stronger that mortal peril was a permanent state of affairs for any good wizard.

I do agree, i think the clock was on mortal peril thats wny she was frantis when they got home. I dont think there is a dead spot on the clock, the closest you will get is mortal peril. After she first saw the clock she could have been to frantic to do anything but keep lookin out the window for them trying and failing to do the dishes or something.