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

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Unless he left it there after 7th year - but with the writing in it that Snape seems very particular about why would he leave it?

Agreed. I just don't see 18 y.o. Snape just leaving the book behind when he graduated, especially since he seems to have become a DE around then, one would think that his annotated Potions book would be considered a valued resource to him at that time (and it's my opinion that Snape's expertise in potions is what brought him to Voldie's attention, and it is why Snape's tenure as a DE didn't require him to go out on raids like Bella and the rest).

So that leaves us with the only other possibility, that he still had the book when Dumbledore gave him a job at Hogwarts, and that he kept the book as a teaching resource thru the years.

So unless, as someone else suggested, Snape deliberately left the book for Slughorn to use, and Slughorn didn't realize it was anything but an old, used textbook, we have a big question as to why that book was in the cupboard with the other used textbooks.

If, as has been also suggested, it was part of a plan for Harry to get the textbook so that he would suddenly excel at Potions, it was a very random and haphazard manner to do it; IIRC, Harry and Ron fought over the newer textbook that was in better condition, and Harry ended up losing, and settling on the older book. But perhaps DD counted on the possibility that even if Ron had gotten the book, he would have willing shared its secrets with his BFF... :-P

[oryx_leucoryx]

One interesting bit about the annotations is that Ron couldn't decipher the writing but Harry could. So if there was a conspiracy going on, the annotations may have been charmed to be read by Harry.

[ioanna-ioannina.livejournal.com]

My theory is that somebody, possibly DD, confiscated the book from Snape somewhere arouhd his 6th or 7th year, maybe after the incident by the lake.
(Yes, I count with the Hogwarts Justice System: Blame the Slytherin for All.)

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

My theory is that somebody, possibly DD, confiscated the book from Snape somewhere arouhd his 6th or 7th year, maybe after the incident by the lake.

But then why keep it all those years instead of destroying it?

[ioanna-ioannina.livejournal.com]

Well, he kept the Horcrux books, too, didn´t he?
Why destroy a book that can be useful?
And this one was not nearly as bad as the Horcrux ones.