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]

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?