GOF Chapter 3: The Invitation
Jan. 17th, 2011 09:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslockThis 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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-20 07:47 pm (UTC)Well, I think I know what a good teacher would have done. Asked to borrow the book to look at what else was in it, recognized that at least some of the comments significantly improve the recipes, but there were also spells, some of which questionable or worse in the margins. The teacher would have confiscated the book, given the student another, uncommented copy, and given the whole class the improved recipe in those cases where the teacher agreed with the improvement (as I said, we don't know if there were any trade-offs involved with the modifications).
Slughorn may have been too lazy to do all that. OTOH professional pride and curiosity may have encouraged him to go through with it. Especially if he recognized the corrections as being from Severus.
Dumbles would have let Harry keep the book. Personally I think he planted it on him. He wanted Harry to be favored by Horace so he would get the memory, and he didn't care much about Harry's moral development.
Minerva - since the cheating is not related to Quidditch she would have probably objected. Especially if she realized Harry was not learning properly. She said she'd do her darnest to get him a chance to be an Auror, and if he ended up failing exams because he was coasting on success gained through the book it was a bad idea for him to keep it.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-21 06:03 pm (UTC)That's an interesting interpretation and one I wouldn't disagree with.
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Date: 2011-01-21 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-21 08:36 pm (UTC)We are left with either the choice of Snape abandoning the book after 6th year, after making copious annotations to it, including potions and spells of his own invention, and somehow it survived 20 years knocking around Hogwarts without it ever being given to another student, or Snape rediscovering it when he returned to Hogwarts as a professor.
Or the other choice of Snape did keep the book and used it as a resource when teaching NEWT-level Potions, but for some unfathomable reason he tossed it in with other used textbooks when Slughorn took over as Potions professor.
I really can't see Snape doing either...
no subject
Date: 2011-01-22 04:59 am (UTC)Plus It's Snape's 6th year school book? Why would it even be there in the first place?
Severus would have left Hogwarts after 7th year and surely that book would have left with him. I don't see him donating that book to the school when he left after 7th year.
Why would he come back and put his old school books in the spare book cabinet? Shouldn't that book be in his private room with his personal belongings?
This would mean, Snape would be going through and unpacking when Dumbledore hired him as potions Professor in 1980-81. Severus takes out his school books and decides to put them out for public use. Does that even make sense to anyone, considering he would know what he'd wrote in it.
Why does that seem to be NOT in character for him, especially if he kept this book that long? He has to know what he wrote in it and I don't see his character just randomly putting that book there.
I don't think JKR worked it out very well because I just do not quite understand how Snape's book would have gotten there to begin with. It just does not seem his style.
It's never really explained fully and that annoys me that JKR didn't give a better explaination of how the book ended up there.
I have to agree that Dumbledore seems to be the one who put it there. My second guess is maybe Slughorn did it because he was already favoring harry.
Hay, That solves the complaints about the was he cheating or not cheating. If Slughorn was the one to plant it so Harry would get it then...Slugies wanted him to cheat. Problem solved.
I still can't see Snape leaving the book there; it just doesn't fit his nature/character.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-22 05:36 am (UTC)(Sorry if I´m hard to understand, I´m trying...)
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Date: 2011-01-22 02:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-22 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-24 09:41 pm (UTC)There was a theory I read a long time ago on this site (if anyone recognizes it *please* tell me who to give credit to) which said that Snape actually left the book and its annotations for *Slughorn* since he knew from his own schooldays that the recipes were inefficient/generally lacking. However, since he probably just left (a rather acerbic) note of explanation with it in his difficult to read hand-writing, Horace assumed it was just another old copy for student use and tossed it in the cupboard with the rest.
For once, DD is not the villain (shockingly) and Harry's record of surviving everything through dumb luck is untouched ;-)
I must confess that I am exceedingly fond of this theory. It manages to keep everyone mostly IC. Which isn't to say that DD didn't have back-up plans on how to get Harry through the class if it came to that...