OOTP Chapter Two: "A Peck of Owls"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Well done, Dumbledore, setting a Squib and an unscrupulous petty thief to guard the Chosen One. There’s absolutely no way those security arrangements could prove inadequate.

* Mrs. Figg seems to have a close association with cats, just like Filch. Is that an inherent power of Squibs? And if so, is that the source of the association between witches and cats (Squibs and almost-Squibs being the magical folk most likely to fall into Muggle hands)?

* So DD knew that the Dursleys were abusing Harry, and yet did nothing to stop it. And we’re supposed to think of him as the “epitome of goodness”, are we?

* So Mundungus Fletcher’s gone off to buy cauldrons when he should’ve been looking after Harry. Am I the only one to get flashbacks of Hagrid at this point?

* Also, I wonder why Dumbledore keeps hiring incompetent subordinates. Does being around useless people make him feel better about himself, or something?

* Look how the Dursleys’ concern about their son is played for laughs. If they weren’t so pathetic, they’d obviously realise that having your soul almost sucked out is part of growing up. It makes a man out of you, just like bullying does.

* Harry’s threatening to attack Uncle Vernon. Yes, I know that Vernon doesn’t treat him very well and Harry’s not thinking straight, but still, you’d have thought that a boy with the Power of Love ™ would refrain from threatening defenceless Muggles.

* Silly Dursleys, not believing poor Woobie!Harry like that. Obviously when your only son arrives on your doorstep in a state of considerable distress, and claims to have been attacked by a wizard with the means, motive and opportunity to attack him, the correct response is to ignore everything he says and listen to the slightly disturbed attacker. Obviously.

* “What could spoilt, pampered, bullying Dudley possibly have been forced to hear?” This could have provided an opportunity for some interesting character development, but unfortunately, it doesn’t go anywhere.

* Actually, it’s struck me that that comment could apply to most concepts and events in the last three books.

* BTW, does anyone know what Dudley did actually hear? Did JK Rowling mention it in one of her interviews?

* Harry’s really not doing his case any good here. By losing his temper like that, he’s making himself look like exactly the sort of person who would magically attack someone he didn’t like.

* In hindsight, “that awful boy” sounds like a very good description of James Potter. Note, though, that again disliking Harry’s parents is being used as an indicator of moral inferiority.

* Tcha, silly Dursleys, being terrified that Harry might attack them. Never mind that he’s acting rather aggressively, that they’d be practically defenceless if he did attack them, and that their last encounter with a wizard didn’t exactly end well.

* I like how “I deliberately provoked Dudley into losing his temper by humiliating him in front of his friends” becomes “Dudley thought he’d be smart with me”.

* Why is it that Rowling!Muggles never seem to be able to pronounce any magical words? “Dementors” isn’t that hard to say, and I don’t see why Uncle Vernon has to say “Dementoids” instead. It’s sad that JKR feels the need to artificially stunt all her Muggles’ intelligence like this in order to make the wizards look better.

* “Of course they didn’t get his soul, you’d know if they had.” Really, Harry? Really? The Dursleys are Muggles, and therefore are not expected to be familiar with Dementors. How are they supposed to know the symptoms of soul-removal?

* I don’t think Vernon’s “struggling to bring the conversation back to a plane which he understood” so much as trying to find some good in the situation, which, IMHO, is a perfectly natural and understandable reaction.

* God, but Harry’s being so unsympathetic here.

* Now that I think of it, isn’t Harry being a little silly in staying at the Dursleys’? Couldn’t they keep No. 4 Privet Drive as his official residence, but have him live with a wizarding family – say, the Weasleys – who’d be able to deal with magical threats like Dementors?

* It’s not really that strange that the Dursleys don’t flinch when they hear the name Voldemort. For a start, they don’t know who he is; secondly, that whole “don’t say the name!” thing was ridiculous. You don’t hear Muggles flinching when someone says “Hitler”, for example, and I doubt Voldemort was any worse.

* It’s a bit hypocritical of Harry to bitch about Vernon not showing sympathy about the murder of his parents whom he can’t remember, when he himself has been so unsympathetic about Vernon’s only son almost being killed just now.

* Petunia’s eyes are “so unlike her sister’s”. Just to remind us that Lily was awesome, whilst Petunia isn’t. Although personally, I’d much rather be friends with Petunia and Lily. Yes, she might be a bit nosy and snobbish, but at least she wouldn’t laugh when I’m publicly humiliated by the school bully.

* TBH, if I were in Uncle Vernon’s position, I’d probably want Harry to go, too.

* “The Kitchen, Number Four, Privet Drive.” So wait, how does DD know Petunia’s there? Either he’s an omniscient plot god or he’s just a normal human being like the rest of us. Either one could work, IMHO, but to try and portray him as both, as JK Rowling does, just seems contradictory.

* I wonder what Dumbledore did to make Petunia so scared of him?

 

Comments

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/* So DD knew that the Dursleys were abusing Harry, and yet did nothing to stop it. And we’re supposed to think of him as the “epitome of goodness”, are we?/

And in the sixth book, he gets mad at the Dursleys for not "doing as he asked." Well, you *knew* that they weren't "doing as you asked." You've known it for *years.* Why wait until *now* to reprimand them for it?

/If they weren’t so pathetic, they’d obviously realise that having your soul almost sucked out is part of growing up. It makes a man out of you, just like bullying does./

And just like being nearly killed by a wild animal does. And if you or your parents complain about it, then you're just a coward who wants to get people into trouble.

/“What could spoilt, pampered, bullying Dudley possibly have been forced to hear?”/

You know, Harry, maybe there's more to Dudley than you know. Maybe, despite being a spoilt, pampered, bullying brat, Dudley has his own issues. Did you ever think of that? I know that he's been horrible to you, but do you think that maybe this moment just goes to show that he's human too? No, of course not. And don't worry about Draco in the next book, because he's just a spoilt, pampered, bullying brat, too. What could he possibly have to worry about?

/“Dementors” isn’t that hard to say, and I don’t see why Uncle Vernon has to say “Dementoids” instead. It’s sad that JKR feels the need to artificially stunt all her Muggles’ intelligence like this in order to make the wizards look better./

Yet Arthur Weasley's inability to pronounce the word "electricity" is played for laughs and not taken as a sign of low intelligence.

/* It’s not really that strange that the Dursleys don’t flinch when they hear the name Voldemort. For a start, they don’t know who he is;/

This moment just goes to show how isolated Harry has already become from Muggles. He judges their world by wizarding standards. He's surprised that the Dursleys don't care about Voldemort because after all, *wizards* are scared of Voldemort.

/secondly, that whole “don’t say the name!” thing was ridiculous. You don’t hear Muggles flinching when someone says “Hitler”, for example, and I doubt Voldemort was any worse./

Which is why I'd like to read a fanfic scene where a wizard is trying to explain to his Muggle friend/relative about why they shouldn't use the name and the Muggle just flatly looks at him and says it anyway. And when the wizard freaks out, the Muggle scoffs about how nobody is afraid of saying Hitler's name or Stalin's name, etc., and yet the oh-so-powerful wizards get their knickers in a twist over saying this one guy's name.

Curiously enough, you don't hear wizards flinching whenever somebody mentions Gellert Grindelwald, even though he was a very powerful Dark Wizard too. In fact, practically nobody mentions him anymore, even though he had an agenda that was very similar to Voldemort's and conquered much of Europe. Do you think that years after the epilogue occurs, Voldemort's name will also be forgotten?

/* Petunia’s eyes are “so unlike her sister’s”. Just to remind us that Lily was awesome, whilst Petunia isn’t. Although personally, I’d much rather be friends with Petunia and Lily. Yes, she might be a bit nosy and snobbish, but at least she wouldn’t laugh when I’m publicly humiliated by the school bully./

Hmm, Lily turns a blind eye to James bullying Snape, and Petunia turns a blind eye to Dudley bullying Harry. If Petunia had been in Snape's position, I wonder if her treatment of Harry would be some twisted way of seeking revenge on Lily and James. And no, I don't care what this passage says; they are not polar opposites. "The Prince's Tale" showed us that Lily was just as petty and shallow as Petunia. The only way that they're opposites is that Lily was pretty and magical and Petunia isn't.

[oryx_leucoryx]

This moment just goes to show how isolated Harry has already become from Muggles.

Remember in the first book when Ron is amazed by Harry saying Voldemort's name on the train?

If Petunia had been in Snape's position

I think she is in Snape's position. They are both committed to keep Harry alive and protect him physically, both manipulated into this position by Albus. Severus is also committed (to himself, not Albus) to his moral state, to make sure he does *not* become the next James.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

True, but I meant if Petunia had been relentlessly bullied and tormented by James while Lily stood by the sidelines and laughed. If Petunia had hated James as much as Severus did, for the same reason, then it would be eerie if her treatment of Harry was supposed to echo Lily's treatment of her, if her hatred of Harry was fueled by her hatred of James.

[oryx_leucoryx]

You've known it for *years.* Why wait until *now* to reprimand them for it?

They moved Harry to a bedroom after the first owl addressed to the closet. And one reminder was enough to get Petunia to object to Vernon throwing him out here. And Dumbles knew it. If he had wanted the Dursleys to treat Harry differently he could have arranged for it. Heck, he could have rewritten their memories to believe he was Dudley's twin. That Twinkly didn't interfere suggests to me he liked things the way they were, he was expecting to benefit from them.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

He should have dropped a bag of gold off with the baby. The Dursley's don't seem like 'rich' people. The house sounds like a average middle class to lower middle class home. You'd think if Harry had all that gold rolling around a bank that there would be some sort of compensation for them to take care of the kid.

I'm not saying the Dursley's were right to treat the child the way they did but still - Here have a baby to take care of - you didn't plan on having to take care of 2 one year old boys Petunia but you will care for the baby because it's your relation.

Imagine your expectation of a life at the moment is your 1 child, and then you end up getting another unexpectedly. I don't care how wonderful a person you are thats got to put stress on you and your family.

But hell, anyone that drops a baby off in the middle of the night in November with just a note attached to it isn't all that caring. I can't say DD or MM gave a damn about him either.

The fact that Minerva McGonagall is right there and allows it doesn't say much about her either. She protests but I don't even remember if they knocked on the door or rang the doorbell. Didn't they just walk away?

It would have served them right if a wild animal had of walked up and ate little one year old baby Harry.

[oryx_leucoryx]

but I don't even remember if they knocked on the door or rang the doorbell. Didn't they just walk away?

No knocking or ringing. Petunia just found Harry when she took out the milk bottles. Good thing there was an early morning outdoor chore. Had it been the weekend who knows when she would have seen Harry (or what was left of him).

Dang it! Pratchett does it better, despite writing what started as parody and became satire. When the witches need to arrange for strangers to adopt the infant heir to the Lancre throne they put them to a test of character and when they pass the witches give them the infant plus money for his care.

(In Ankh Morpork orphans are traditionally left on the doorsteps of the guild-houses, so they can be brought up with a profession. Since it is a known arrangement one can assume that at least the sensible guilds have some arrangement to keep the infants from freezing to death. I won't trust the Guild of Fools, Joculators, Minstrels, Buffoons and Mime Artists, though.)

[oryx_leucoryx]

It would have served them right if a wild animal had of walked up and ate little one year old baby Harry.


And Dumbles announced that now Voldemort is finally gone? Except Severus' Mark would prove otherwise, so maybe not. I guess he would ahve realized there were other horcruxes sooner than in canon in that case. I don't think Dumbles wuld have been really troubled. Minerva and Hagrid yes.