re: #60 wheat-dogg

I can’t speak to the other kids’ situations, but Harry’s uncle and aunt were borderline abusive guardians and never let him out of the house, it seems. Hermione’s parents were muggles and presumably took her out on the summer holiday. Ron’s family were all wizards, so WTH knows what they did over the summer.

Besides, since when does fiction bother with characters’ off time? Did Christie tell us what Poirot did when he wasn’t working a case? Did Lee and Ditko go into the details of Peter Parker’s school day? It’s left to the reader (one presumes) to fill in those details.

The Weasleys were poor, but they travelled the one summer they could afford it (won a prize). But the adult economy is entirely missing from the books. (With a civil service job, why was Arthur so poor? Where did the Malfoys’ money come from? Or Harry’s?)

(How did Bilbo survive without a job before the dwarves arrived? Investments? What in the Shire was there to invest in?)