A Bad Foundation


The muggle world moved to an industrial society due to necessity; too many people, not enough things to go around, and the general convenience of city living. Specialization was a big thing in the industrial revolution. People specialized in many different career paths, one of them being home builders.

Building codes were created to ensure a consistent standard for the safety of a home. One does not, for instance, build a house on a bad foundation. One needs to make sure that the land under a house is firm, and that the foundation for the house is adequate for the weight of the house. One also does not generally build rooms on top of roofs, or then build rooms on top of the rooms one built on top of the roof. That would just be a recipe for unpleasantness.

Muggles specialize and go to school, they learn not do silly things like that.

A house is designed by an architect, and looked over by an engineer. Then it's built by various carpenters; carpenters who might even specialize in certain aspects of the construction. One team of carpenters will build the foundation, and a different team will be the one to frame the house, and so on and so forth.

Wizards on the other hand did not go through an industrial revolution. When a wizard wants a house, one generally either has a goblin build one for them from stone (which is generally a good idea.), buys an old used one from a muggle (can`t have that pesky elektikity getting in the way of your fancy space expansion charms!), or one builds one themselves (which is generally a very BAD idea)

Arthur Weasley, when deciding on where to raise his family, decided to buy an old muggle house. Fascinating creatures those muggles are. He bought it from an elderly couple.

To a wizard, a house that`s a hundred years old may not seem too bad, but a muggle house of a hundred years will likely be in a rather bad state of disrepair.

Said house was crawling with termites; they were slowly eating the house from within. The old roof had seen better days, and multiple leaks over many years had lead to rotten wood on the trusses and had weakened many of the load bearing studs. Given its current state, it was already quite the deathtrap.

The family started small, and its current configuration was quite suitable. A few space enlargement charms tripled the size of their home, and a couple water repellent charms solved the problem of the leaky roof.

The home was rather comfortable until their third child. Percy needed a room, and Arthur decided, the crafty man he was, that he would build a nice little addition to their house. He'd do it himself, no need to hire a professional. His wand was as good as theirs.

Back to the industrial revolution for a moment here, given that there was less of the specialization in the wizarding world. There were no architects, no engineers, and no qualified carpenters.

An architect would have seen the leaks and tested for termites. He would have seen how terrible an idea it would be for Arthur to build a room on top of a roof. But there are no architects in the wizarding world.

An engineer would have easily spotted what the architect did, he would have also have done the math and seen how decrepit the house was. He`d likely have called the city and had the house condemned. But there are no engineers in the wizarding world.

A carpenter would have seen the house, heard what the owner wanted, and then run away screaming, sprinting as fast as physically possible. But there are no carpenters in the wizarding world.

So Arthur Weasley decided to do it himself. He found a book on home improvements in Diagon Ally, and went to the nearest lumber yard to buy materials.

And he was all set.

He cast a spell on the house to fortify the foundation, the trusses, and the load bearing walls. Given that the trusses and load bearing walls were rotten that was probably a good thing. The spell he used was designed for only one floors worth of weight, which was sufficient for his current needs.

He built the room and it worked well.

A couple years passed and Arthur decided that the twins need a room as well. Given that Bill an Charlie were sharing a pullout bed in the living room, it was decided that if he was building a room for the twins, then Bill and Charlie needed rooms too. Also, given that Molly had another child on the way, it was decided to build the unborn Ron a room.

The first addition was rather simple. By itself the house was fine, but there`s the rub, Arthur kept building things on top of each other. Also, those aforementioned termites were still there; still eating to their hearts content.

So again, Aurthur searched for his trusty home improvement book and skimmed over the first few chapters. The first chapter was pretty basic, and it had the spell for fortifying the trusses and load bearing walls. He skipped that thinking he had already done that last time.

He had, but for only one floor worth of additions. Now he was building extra floors on a structure that was already of questionable strength.

Heading over to the lumber yard, laughing at all the silly muggle construction tools. Who needs a level? Measuring tape? Please! He picked up his materials, and headed back to the burrow to start his little weekend project.

The first couple rooms went in easy enough, but Aurtur just kind of ignored those pesky cracking and squeaking noises as he continued to build. The next couple of rooms were further punctuated by more and more cracking and squeaking noises, but the structure somehow managed to stay upright.

It was a miracle of epic proportions.

So another couple years past.

Ron was born, and then so was Ginny.

The two youngest shared a room for a year because really, what does a baby need in its room besides it's crib? But sadly, children grow. Ron was in serious need of his own room at this point and it was decided that the house could use just one more room. So it was decided to build a room right at the top.

A cherry on the top so to speak.

At this point the house was barely capable of supporting its own weight, let alone the weight of two adults (three if you count a certain rat), seven children, furniture, pets, and most definitely not the weight if yet another room.

Aurthur didn't even search for the book this time. He knew the spells now by heart, and it was just a small addition this time. Nothing to worry about at all.

After getting the material to the house he realized that there was no possible way he could fit the materials through all the twisting hallways in his house, so he decided to just place a featherlight charm on the materials and levitate them all the way to the top.

Smiling at his ingenuity, he did just that and then walked into the house.

He greeted his brood in the kitchen, snagging a piece of bacon on his way up the stairs. Whistling an old tune, Arthur finally reached the top and took a seat on the top stair. He took a nice little break and thought over what he needed to do.

After a short wait, he decided it was time to get going. Arthur decided to start with removing the featherlight charm on the materials.

That probably wasn't the best of plans.

If the man had just used a little bit of common sense, he might have seen his children grow up to be incredible people. Two headboys! Three prefects! Successful businessmen! A daughter married to the boy-who-lived!

But then he released the featherlight charm and his house collapsed killing everyone inside.

But then again, wizards are stupid.


AN: That was kinda hard to write, given that I love the weasleys. Well, aside Ron, but we'll get to him.