deathtocapslock | GOF Chapter 10: Mayhem at the Ministry

Arthur is confident Mr Roberts will be alright, though at the moment he doesn't know which day it is, and worse. And Arthur knows that based on the extensive time he spent with Muggles, learning all about them and their culture? I doubt there is any long-term follow up on victims of Obliviation. How does Arthur know they don't develop some form of early-onset dementia later? Heck, maybe Mad Cow Disease is a front for Obliviation side-effects.

Molly is worried because of scary headlines in The Prophet. That's because she totally forgot to look at the living room clock where she could see that no family member was in mortal danger (or if any were for a while the danger was long over by the time she got the paper).

Rita Skeeter criticized the Ministry's lax security at the game. Last week she criticized Percy's cauldron project. And as we shall see later, earlier in the summer she called Dumbledore an obsolete dingbat. Does she have an agenda or is she an equal opportunity trouble-rouser? (Or perhaps she is in the process of upgrading from the latter to the former.)

Arthur keeps insisting nobody was hurt, but I can't forget those green flashes.

Molly tries to object to Arthur's going to the office to take care of the crisis when he is supposed to be on holiday. Percy doing the same is met with no reaction whatsoever.

Harry finally tells his friends about his dream, though as he expected they offer no help. Hermione disses Trelawney and her prophecy. Little does she know.

Sorry madderbrad (and other H/Hr shippers out there) but here we have evidence Hermione doesn't understand Harry all that well - not as well as Ron, at least. He does prefer playing Quidditch with the boys (Ginny? Who's that?) than going to bed early to worry.

Percy's help was in fact needed after all. (He reports no change in Crouch's behavior, though we know that by now Crouch has been placed under Imperius. Perhaps because at this point his instructions were 'act naturally'.) And kudos to Percy for catching Mundungus in his lie. This is the second mention of Mundungus before we learn he is an Order member. He gets a lot more foreshadowing than Sirius Black, though his role is significantly more minor.

Percy makes accusations against Arthur, Bill defends him citing his own run-in with Rita, but is countered by Molly who actually agrees with Rita's criticism of his hairstyle. Looks like Ms Skeeter has a talent for sowing discord that puts Voldie to shame.

Fred and George have already started their campaign to get Bagman to pay them with real money.

Bertha Jorkins' disappearance is finally serious business, once Rita found out about it (how dare she?). Now Arthur claims to have told Ludo to send someone to look for her. Hmm, he just asked him if there was any news of her and quickly shut up when Ludo said there wasn't. Can't afford to get on the bad side of the one who got you the tickets. It was Crouch who repeatedly asked for a search party.

You know, while Rita's style is annoying, she does catch instances of improper conduct at the Ministry. Maybe if she and her likes had better access to the goings-on people would be scared-straight and start doing things right. Though they'd probably only intensify the covering-up.

Hermione isn't of age yet so it is Molly who washes the socks.

Didn't Molly go shopping while the rest were at the match? So why is it that the first time either boy sets eye on the acquisitions it is the last night of vacation, 6 nights later?

I can understand Molly buying Harry more expensive robes than she bought Ron, since she was using his money for that, but that's still not a reason to buy Ron robes that were in bad taste, in a bad state, in the color he hates - and do nothing to improve them after the purchase. She did have 6 days for that. Any wonder locket-influenced!Ron believed his mother preferred Harry to him? (Now that I'm thinking about this - Molly treats Ron almost as badly or incompetently as Eileen treated Severus. Well, on the one hand, other than the dress robes Ron doesn't look visibly neglected, but on the other Severus seems to have been better informed about Hogwarts and magic than Ron. So perhaps it's a wash.)