You know, call me a Doylist but I think part of the issue here lies with Rowling, and a plot thread she’s working out that doesn’t always have the practical implications that she wants. Because mostly everyone’s right: Ron has horrifying robes because the family is poor, which is part of his insecurities and indicative of a number of ongoing plots within his family. Goblet of Fire, after all, is also the book where the Twins seriously consider blackmailing a powerful individual for investment capital and Percy makes a fool of himself trying to impress his boss, setting the stage for his fall out with his parents in Book 5. Ron’s dress robes, as minor a problem as they really are in the grand scheme of things, are a reminder of the material lifestyle his brothers are all trying to escape. And because Ron is fourteen, he doesn’t have the perspective to sit down and go “hey at least I’m not an orphan like Harry here.” But if you stop and think about it for a moment, why did the robes in question have to stay the way they were bought? Think about it: Molly is a lifelong champion of domesticity and the household arts. She’s very good at at least one physical domestic craft (knitting). What are the odds she doesn’t know any sewing spells, particularly with seven children to clothe on a budget and the attendant necessity to mend any rips and tears in clothes that children acquire? Molly also knows what’s going on at Hogwarts this year before Harry and his fellow students do, as Arthur and Percy both work at the Ministry and the latter has probably been working on the last-minute details of the tournament for the past few months. She almost certainly knows when Ron needs the robes by, and it’s not immediately after he arrives at Hogwarts. So wouldn’t the practical thing to do be to say, “Don’t be stupid, Ron, of course I’m not letting you go out like some out-of-sorts time traveler. I’ll modify the neck and cuffs after the lot of you are out of my hair and send them along in a few weeks?” People alter second-hand clothes all the time; it should be the obvious step to take. Even Ron managed to take the lace off, although he didn’t do it well. But the point was to drive home how poor the Weasleys are and how the children feel encumbered by it, rather than to apply an ounce of common sense to the problem. And I think that one’s on Rowling.

underrated moment in you see everything when nathan is asking about the mattress and billys just like yeah cause we just sleep on bed frames here

she is perfect