GOF Chapter 3: The Invitation

[oryx_leucoryx]

This is the obligatory Dursley chapter, in which we are treated to the home life of this family and learn how inferior they are to wizard families.

Dudley takes up a whole side of the square kitchen table. Ahem, I doubt a square kitchen table (as opposed to a dining room table) was designed to seat 8 people, 2 on a side. His parents excuse away his teachers' accusations of bullying. As opposed to the Weasleys who never receive reports making such heinous accusations against the twins (we'll see the school does occasionally owl their parents, but I don't see any awareness that some of what the twins do is bullying behavior). (This starts the theme of parents dealing with wayward sons in this book.) Dudley is forced into a diet of fruit and vegetables rather than his favorites. From the descriptions we get of the food Harry eats at Hogwarts I get the feeling Harry's favorites are closer to Dudley's than to the health foods, nor does he limit his intake. But somehow Harry remains thin, regardless of whether he gets starved by Petunia or stuffed by Molly or the House-elves.

Changing the food choices of the entire family is a good thing! However adjusting Harry's serving size to Dudley's (perceived?) emotional needs isn't. I don't begrudge Harry for working around a diet he doesn't need, but then I also sympathize with Dudley who does. Changing eating habits of years is hard.
This is also the place to say Dudley must have grown up as an emotional wreck. Knowing that his parents were capable of such physical and emotional deprivation of someone in their care - what if he ever failed to please them? I think a big part of his misbehavior is both making sure his parents know he *isn't* Harry as well as wanting the reassurance that they still love him, no matter what anyone else thinks.

Of Harry's 4 sources of help only one sends food he appreciates. Odd that even Hagrid managed to send an edible birthday cake. But how edible is it (or any of the others) 3 weeks later?

Harry is surprised that the Weasleys wrote directly to the Dursleys. Vernon is embarrassed that they didn't know how many stamps to use. But really, how hard is it to find out? Didn't they go to the post office to buy the stamps? What does it say about the exchange rate between Galleons and pounds that a family so poor finds it reasonable to spend on so many stamps for one letter? Molly's letter sounds as if she is trying too hard to make the Quidditch World Cup sound special and to make Arthur sound important. And of course she doesn't have enough imagination to realize that sending a letter by owl isn't normal for the Dursleys.

Harry is offended on Molly's behalf when Vernon calls her 'dumpy'. Since Molly likes Harry nobody is allowed to notice she is overweight.

I must say that the scene where Harry threatens Vernon with Sirius looks a lot less humorous now that I have seen Harry enjoy torturing a man for punishment, and Sirius engaging in Muggle-baiting.

If I am correct in my understanding that Ron is claiming that he and Molly wrote their respective letters at about the same time, then I am impressed with the UK post. Molly's letter arrived on Saturday morning. Pig arrived the same morning. Considering the speed of owls elsewhere, it looks as though Ron's letter was sent earlier that morning. So a letter got delivered the morning it was sent?

I am less impressed with the Weasleys. They plan on taking Harry regardless of the Dursleys' consent. One could argue that eventually Molly and Arthur realized their sons were not exaggerating when they said Harry had been imprisoned and starved, but seeing how Arthur views the treatment of Muggles, both in this book and in COS, I doubt this made a difference.

Harry is happy specifically because Dudley is suffering and he isn't. The seeds of the bully of HBP and war criminal of DH.

Comments

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Well, the schadenfreude over Malfoy being transformed into a ferret is understandable, if not admirable. Still technically wrong, I guess.

In OotP there's off course that whole group hexing of Draco, Vincent and Greg, who, by the way, didn't even have their wands drawn, until they 'resemble slugs'

Woah, hold on. Here's the canon:

Firstly Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, who had clearly been waiting all week for the opportunity to strike without teacher witnesses, attempted to ambush Harry halfway down the train as he made his way back from the toilet. The attack might have succeeded had it not been for the fact that they unwittingly chose to stage the attack right outside a compartment full of DA members ...

First of all, it's clear that the ugly Trio 'strike' in an 'ambush' or 'attack' which is seen for what it is by a compartment full of other students. So that was just defence; well, at least the first part. I guess the Hufflepuffs were a bit over-enthusiastic. And Harry apparently wasn't one of the mob who hex the Slytherins.

And where do you get the idea that Malfoy & Co. don't draw their wands?

Yes, the scene ends up a bit ugly with the 'good guys' exacting *revenge*, but it seems clear that it started as plain and justified defence, right?

The Marietta thing was again a case of 'revenge' against a perceived wrong. Ugly, though.

With Ginny we have a case of a thuggish girl who exacts bullying assaults against a boy who *irritates* or *insults* her. With Harry many of these cases are scenes of passively enjoying the misery of those who were punished for actual *wrongs* against Harry; Mariett's treason, the Slytherin Trio's ambush, etc.

For me, I had Ginny as a rung or two higher above Harry on the 'thuggish bully' ladder until Oryx mentioned the Crabbe/Filch things from HBP.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

marionros may have confused it with the similar incident in GoF when Draco gloats about how Voldemort's going to kill Harry and co, and says something like "they'll be the first to go. Well, second - Diggory was the first" and gets hexed by the Trio and the twins, who had sneaked up from behind.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

The thing with Malfoy...I think it's abominable. I also think it's probably human nature for someone to enjoy seeing someone they hate suffer. I can't understand it myself, because I've never hated someone enough to want to see them abused like that (dead, perhaps, but not suffering pain) but I've never had an arch-enemy.

What I can't believe and find appalling is how people outside the books justify it. From Harry's pov, it's a horrible kid who's been mean to him for years. (not a bully, I don't see anything in their dynamic that suggests the bully/victim dynamic) From ours, it should be about a teacher's abuse of power and callously inflicting pain on a kid whose behavior isn't any worse than any Gryffindor's. And yet people are so caught up in the revenge fantasy that they applaud this and don't look deeper and see the horrible message it's sending about prejudice and persecution.

And Harry's assault on Filch is just another blow to his already low hero credibility. Yes, Filch is an unpleasant man who has a ton of annoying regulations like no toys that can cause pain to others or create a mess he'll have to clean up by hand. But that does not deserve to be met with unprovoked hexes behind his back while he's doing his job! How people aren't repulse by Harry attacking a defenseless old man, IDK. But again, it's the wish fulfilment thing, getting vengeance against people who've wronged us. It's just that in these books, that's often as simple as not agreeing with Harry or making a mild insult, and the punishment is way out of proportion.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

The Filch thing is bad; I'd forgotten it until Orycx reminded us of it:

There had been a hex that caused toenails to grow alarmingly fast (he had tried this on Crabbe in the corridor, with very entertaining results); a jinx that glued the tongue to the roof of the mouth (which he had twice used, to general applause, on an unsuspecting Argus Filch); ...

It doesn't make Harry the most evil person in the galaxy but hexing someone who can't fight back, behind their back (I assume) is not very nice.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

It certainly doesn't do much for his reputation as the Supremely Loving Champion of Tolerance, that's for sure.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

We know that was total BS, made up by Dumbles to persuade Harry that doing horrible things and inflicting pain on others is positively correlated with love and the milk of human kindness. The dude had an agenda, he needed Harry to fight and kill, after all, so he had reason to twist his head.

If Voldemort had never murdered your father, would he have imparted in you a furious desire for revenge? Of course not...despite your privileged insight into Voldemort's world (which, incidentally, is a gift any Death Eater would kill to have), you have never been seduced by the Dark Arts, never, even for a second, shown the slightest desire to become one of Voldemort's followers!"

"Of course I haven't!" said Harry indignantly. "He killed my mum and dad!"

"You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!"

WHAT. So his 'furious desire for revenge' = love. Harry not wanting to join the guy who murdered his parents = love. OKAY THEN. I laugh at the way that convo has so little logic to it. Every point Dumbles makes, every rebuttal or protest Harry makes takes it further and further away from his 'you have an amazing power of love' argument and yet that still ends up being his conclusion. LOLWUT.

And on a side note, what is up with the brackets in spoken dialogue? How does that work? O.o

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

It doesn't work. JKR or one of her editors has no idea how to use punctuation, apparently.

And yeah, that whole scene really does a number on the idea of love; I can rant about it for days and days. And people buy it! Apparently in schools these days they don't teach the basics of how *grammar* works, much less critical thinking.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

I think the parenthetical phrase was meant to be an aside. If so, it would have come across better if she'd had DD put his hand on Harry's shoulder or lean closer to whisper it, something besides parentheses to show that it's slightly outside of the main conversation.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Unsuspecting would mean behind his back. But even if it was to his face, that wouldn't make any difference- he's a Squib (or 'failed wizard', as Harry put it once), he can't defend himself. And he's old and creaky and can't nimbly dodge to the side either, even if he saw it coming.

I love how the message of tolerance and acceptance and respect and doing the right thing is reserved for very specific groups of people. Muggles, Squibs, non-human creatures and Slytherins need not apply.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

The Filch thing I just really don't understand anymore. How on earth could she put that in, never have Harry be criticized for it either by another person or by the narrative voice, and still expect anyone to believe that Harry is a champion of tolerance and love? It's...mind-boggling, especially considering how much she is at pains to paint Dudley and company as horrible people for doing essentially the same thing to Harry. And Draco and co. for doing it to Harry and co. And the Death Eaters for doing it to Muggles at the QWC. And the twins for doing it to Montague...oh, wait. Sorry. That last one was all in good fun.

This is just another instance of IOIAGDI, isn't it? *sigh*

Slightly off topic question (the bullying issue brought it to my mind): what's up with discipline and the law at Hogwarts? Here's a quote from HBP: "He pulled out a card from one of the topmost boxes with a flourish and read, 'James Potter and Sirius Black. Apprehended using an illegal hex upon Bertram Aubrey. Aubreys head twice normal size. Double detention.'"

It says *illegal* hex. Not *prohibited* or even *illicit* (which might be readable as against Hogwarts' rules but not actually *illegal*), but actually against the law. Yet they never faced criminal proceedings of any kind? It's not exactly covered up if it's in the files, but all they got was detention. I suspect that this is another point where JKR's lack of thought shows through, but from a Watsonian pov I wonder what on earth is going on there?

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/And yet people are so caught up in the revenge fantasy that they applaud this and don't look deeper and see the horrible message it's sending about prejudice and persecution./

And even after the revelation that the professor who did this was actually a Death Eater in disguise, somehow those fans still don't get it. Harry certainly doesn't, since he defends Fake!Moody's class to Umbridge the following year.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

YES. Harry learns all his important lessons from DEs- secretly benevolent, as with Snape, but also full-on malicious, like Bellatrix and Moody, and he never questions it. He'll never acknowledge learning his 'signature spell', the most important in his arsenal, used in his confrontations with Voldy, as being from Snape- but he'll be all 'Bellatrix was right, you have to really mean it' re: Cruciatus, and either he or Ron was talking about how fake!Moody was a great DADA teacher (IDK if that's the same thing you mentioned or a separate convo) and they learned so much.

W. T. F. The dude who locked their real teacher in a magical chest for a year and who orchestrated the event that led to Cedric dying and a whole bunch of other bad stuff...is their mentor. OKAY THEN.

And I love how when fake!Moody was showing them ACTUAL UNFORGIVABLES, everyoen was buzzing about how cool it was and how awesome he was, but Snape merely talks about the Dark Arts and Harry's thinking darkly about how it's disgraceful how much he sound like he enjoys them or something stupid like that. Yes, sue the man for being engaged with his subject. AT LEAST HE'S NOT THROWING AROUND UNFORGIVABLES. HARRY.

[merrymelody.livejournal.com]

Harry's thinking darkly about how it's disgraceful how much he sound like he enjoys them or something stupid like that.

LOL, or like the end of HBP where he self-righteously notes how he's always hated Malfoy for his 'fascination with the Dark Arts' as if Malfoy was the one who spent the whole book learning how to cut people up with the minimum remorse. Um, no, Harry, you hated Malfoy originally because he reminded you of Dudley and because he was talking about stuff you know nothing about, making you feel stupid. Way to stroke your ego and make it about how you always objected to him because he's ethically inferior, though.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

In this Harry seems to take after his father: mentally whitewash his own a longstanding hatred of and violence towards a Slytherin rival (who does fight back) stemming from stupid childish conflict with the excuse that they're obsessed with the Dark Arts and therefore a legitimate target, and that's the only reason they're a target. Ha.