Favorite Fictional Characters, #129: Molly Weasley
Magic Mom
I originally wrote this post on Mother’s Day in 2016, and I thought long and hard then about which fictional mother I would consider my favorite. There are certainly a lot of possibilities, and the matter is open to all sorts of debate, but I kept coming back to the grand dame of the Burrow, the Harry Potter materfamilias who raised six boys (including, somehow, Fred and George) and a girl (and, at times, Harry, too) and did it all on a government salary. Molly embodies all the criteria of many great mothers: boundless and unconditional love, an open heart for the friends of her children, patience for shenanigans to a certain point after which stern comeuppance is delivered, tolerant affection for a sophomoric husband who at times might as well be another child, and a fierce protective devotion manifesting as righteous retribution for any who would dare to hurt her brood.
I am fortunate enough to know of a lot of you mothers (including my own and the mother of my kids) who fit the above, and in each of your hearts there is a clock with two settings for your children: "Home" or "Deadly Peril" with very little in between. You might not have a wand or self-scrubbing pans or pixies in the drapes, but you're magic, every last one of you.