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

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

I agree that Harry's behavior in Potions that year is dishonest, and that his winning the contest involved an unfair advantage.

Harry's use of the Prince's book, over the course of the year, causes Slughorn to think that Harry is brilliant. Harry never explains that his successful brewing is due to having better instructions which he uncritically obeys. That's definitely dishonest.

The contest, though... Harry had an unfair advantage, but I'm not entirely sure it's cheating. Harry has instructions that the rest of the class doesn't have access to in the library, but... none of them is in a position to go to the library at the moment, anyway. What if Hermione had brought along another book on potions with helpful tips -- would that be unfair? She would have done her own work finding that source, but she'd've had an unfair advantage in having access to a source that the other students didn't have time to get from the library during class. Maybe that's fair, maybe it isn't.

What if another student had been handicapped by something like not having gotten a good night's sleep? What if yet another student benefited from being able to afford better-quality ingredients? The students usually do buy at least some of their potions supplies for themselves in Diagon Alley. Or another student is disadvantaged by old scales that are no longer as precise as when they were new?

If the students had known about the contest, they might have prepared, made sure that they were well-rested, etc. An impromptu contest like that is one that's less likely to have an even playing field. Slughorn didn't try to make it a formal contest that would reduce these inequalities.

Admittedly, if I were the one running the class/contest, and I found out about Harry's using the notes, I would probably suggest a rematch for the prize, to avoid too uneven a playing field. Still, I think that Harry *could* have told Slughorn he'd used notes in the textbook he'd been given, and that Slughorn might still have given him the prize. On the other hand, Slughorn might well have taken the book back out of interest in seeing those notes himself, and given Harry a different book.

So, while I don't approve of Harry's behavior that day in class, I wouldn't condemn it *too* strongly. His overall behavior in Potions that year was disgraceful, though.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

The night's sleep and suchlike aren't things that can be controlled by a professor very well, so they generally aren't taken into account. Yes, they do tilt it slightly theoretically.

But with regard to information that is available, theoretically any student who wanted to could have read the books in the library or checked them out at any point beforehand; the Prince's book was *never* available to them. Also, Slughorn could have told Hermione not use whatever book she had theoretically brought with if he wanted; whereas the notes were *in Harry's textbook* - so he wouldn't have seen Harry using another source (to tell him to put it away) and couldn't be put away at all.

Ingredients, scales, etc: such things could be pointed out to the professor if the student desired, opening up the possibility of fairness coming into play by allowing them school equipment of ingredients comparable to others' if they so significantly different as to cause a noticeably different result. Information on the other hand - research that *directly* and *to a significant extent* affected the quality of the potion - can't be compensated for the same way except by it having been available at some point in the past or present to everyone involved.

[cured4life.livejournal.com]

His overall behavior in Potions that year was disgraceful, though.
Isn't that the same behavior Harry's been displaying in Potions though every year?

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

Well, Harry did try to deceive Severus about various things. I don't know that he was successful with Severus, though.

And Harry wasn't really *rude* to Slughorn, was he? Nah, I don't think it's the *same* disgraceful behavior. ;)