GOF Chapter 5: Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

[oryx_leucoryx]

Fred is excited at the thought of Dudley eating deadly candy. Oh, *untested* deadly candy, that's even better!
Harry takes an instinctive liking to Charlie because everything in his appearance says 'physical, uncomplicated'. Bill is more of a surprise - you can be a Head Boy *and* 'cool'. (Just like your dad, Harry. Now you don't have to worry he was anything like Percy, in case you ever were.) How does Harry know what people who attend rock concerts look like? Probably from TV.

Yes Arthur, pranking Muggles in life-endangering ways without doing the responsible thing and mind-wiping them in the aftermath undermines wizard-Muggles relations. Unlike, say, taking their magical kids and turning them against their parents.

The Dursleys excuse away Dudley's misdeeds. Arthur is a much superior parent - he doesn't let his wife know about the twins' (or at least tries to avoid letting her know). It does seem as though Hermione caught on quickly and tried to do her bit of protecting the twins from Molly.

This is Hermione's first stay at the Burrow - and she is here even before Harry, who has been here before and who might need 'rescuing' from his home. I wonder how long Hermione was there before Harry's arrival. Nevertheless, this was the last summer she will spend any significant time with her parents. And she will only spend Christmas of 6th year with them because of the Ron/Lavender relationship. To remind you, Hermione will turn 15 next month - an emancipated minor for all intent  and purpose.

For the first time in canon, Ginny isn't at all awkward around Harry. Despite not having started dating any other boys yet. (Or has she and we weren't told? We don't know when she and Hermione had their little talk.)

I'm supposed to think Percy is a pompous, ambitious idiot for taking work home and caring about it. Being an adult I see Percy as acting normally and Ron being an immature idiot. BTW after seeing Neville's molten cauldrons can't Ron appreciate looking into safety standards? (No, because danger everywhere is what makes life worth living for most Gryffindors.)

Why are Bill and Charlie staying in the twins' room? In later books (HBP and DH) Bill will suddenly have his own room, which he will also share with Charlie. See www.hplex.info/wizworld/places/w_pl_burrow.html. Did Molly and Arthur decide to add rooms (on the lower floors!) after their sons started leaving home?

Ron is annoyed by his owl. This is typical of Ron - he laments not having things, and when he does he laments them again, even when they aren't obviously unsuitable or in bad shape or taste.

Ron makes a homophobic wisecrack at Percy and his boss. BTW according to the Black Family Tree, it appears Bartemius Crouch Sr is Arthur's first cousin. This together with his outward personality and his position all make him an ideal surrogate father to Percy. (Which starts the theme of disappointed sons in this book.)

Ginny is still an outsider to the trio's adventures - as far as Harry knows. Neither of them had openly shared their involvement with Sirius' escape. (BTW Harry still hasn't questioned if perhaps Albus was a tad responsible for there not being more people aware of what Sirius was or wasn't guilty of.)

Crookshanks was one of the heroes of last year's adventure - sniffing Peter out in his rat disguise, communicating with Sirius, sending messages by post. This year he's just a cat who chases gnomes.

Molly rants about the twins. She blames them of lacking ambition. No Molly, they are more ambitious than anyone in the family. It's just that their ambition is to make a lot of money fast, while causing as much property destruction and humiliation to those around their customers as possible, instead of doing well at school and getting a government job. Oh, Molly did receive the occasional owl from the school about the twins. Though I do wonder if Albus or Minerva framed their actions as bullying the way Dudley's teachers apparently described his stunts. Also, Molly mistakes a twin-made fake wand for her own, thus starting the emphasis on wands in this book. (There will also be emphasis on wands in DH, but everything will work completely differently, despite Rowling's claims about planning and plotting. You have been warned.)

There was a time I found Bill and Charlie's table-duel endearing. By now I have had enough of Gryffindor boisterous behavior.

Even Bill joins those who dis Percy. Because while he works for a bank, his job description is robbing graves, which is much better than working in an office regulating international commercial transactions.

I love Percy's earnestness and enthusiastic attitude. His criticism of Bagman is on relevant points - organizing the Quidditch World Cup sounds like something that should have fallen mostly on a department dedicated to Magical Games and Sports (an entire department for that? not a subdivision of a Department for Cultural Affairs or similar? Tells you everything about wizards and their priorities), and an employee going missing for 'over a month' in a place known to be the location of Voldemort in whatever form he was isn't something to ignore. But to Arthur what matters is that by covering up illegal activities of Ludo's brother he got tickets to the Top Box, so he won't be hearing criticism of his friend. Who had bribed him. However having grown up in the Weasley household I think this goes over even Percy's head. Understandably but tragically Percy interprets Bartemius' concern for Bertha's whereabouts as that of a caring boss for a former underling. Of course he is actually concerned because she had subconscious information that might be of use to Voldemort (as well as cause much trouble to Crouch himself if revealed to the public). It has been several years since Bertha became brain damaged. Since Harry forgot all about his dream the mention of her name rings no bells.

Ginny defends Bill's hairstyle to Molly. Showing us that despite lack of awkwardness around Harry this is still her first personality, whose favorite brother was Bill. Next year we'll see Ginny v 2.0 whose role models are the twins.

The Quidditch chatter reveals that like in football (soccer for USians), Britain has separate 'national' teams for England, Scotland and Wales. But all three lost at some point.

Harry confirms - the letter about his scar hurting was the first he sent to Sirius, after receiving 2 from him in addition to the letter he got at the end of POA. Sirius 3, Harry 1. Even with people who are close to him he is more of a taker than a giver.

The twins sent Percy dragon dung in the mail, how hilarious! How kind, how mature.

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

Lily clearly wasn't miserable. Nor was Hermione. Or Dudley.

The Snapes were poor. But there's more to just poverty to their misery - poverty does not have to imply neglect. Now, if Eileen was not used to the workings of the Muggle world and was either incapable or refused to use magic to improve her family's living conditions then that put one kind of limit to their means. Another factor seems to be that Tobias gave up on his son once he realized the son belonged in a different world - because an involved father would make sure his son wore socially-appropriate clothes, at the very least, even if they came from a church rummage sale or the like. So living as Muggles was an indirect factor in the state of the Snapes because Eileen wasn't equipped to live that way, or at least not effectively when her means were limited.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Poverty in the Potterverse seems to imply an inability to do simple household charms, though. Molly can't be bothered to fix up those dress robes for Ron. Looked and smelled like his aging aunt's might. So, poor witches can't do household spells or care enough about how badly their children dress. Muggle Tobias probably couldn't fight such a weight of destiny to get his son dressed properly.

Heck, maybe it's all the stupid witch's fault for not knowing those handy-dandy house-holdy spells. No wonder Tonks died!

And, look at the Gaunts. Poor, living in a hovel, strange eyes, strange manners, creepy possible breeding practices, Merope's inability to save herself, which is portrayed as a lack of courage instead of a lack of good nutrition and medical attention...

Poverty is obviously a fault in the Potterverse, even for the otherwise Gryffindor-pure Weasleys.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

The Snapes were poor. But there's more to just poverty to their misery - poverty does not have to imply neglect.

Exactly. Which actually raises the question as to just how impoverished the Snapes supposedly were.

I'm not saying they were rich, and they weren't in the economic class of the Evans or Dursleys...but do we know for a fact that they were "poor" in the strict sense of the term?

Rowling really gives us almost nothing about the Snapes, and really it boils down to fans making assumptions based on a few glimpses Harry has of Snape's childhood memories.

Young Severus is said to have an "air of neglect", or outright look neglected...but as you state, neglect doesn't necessarily imply poverty. Parents who are well-off financially can still neglect their children, and many parents who don't have two pennies to rub together still take the time to make sure their children are clean and neat even if they have to wear hand-me-downs.

For all we know, the mill may still have been active when Severus was a child, with Tobias working full-time and maybe even overtime. Perhaps Tobias was a skinflint and didn't like to spend money if he felt he didn't have to. We just don't know.

because an involved father would make sure his son wore socially-appropriate clothes

Okay, now you've touched on my own personal soapbox issue (which resulted in the challenge which in turn resulted in the fan fiction I'm writing)...

The memory of Severus first meeting Lily occurred in 1969 -- Snape we are told was born January 9, 1960, therefore since Rowling tells us that both Sev and Lily are 9 y.o. in that memory, the year has to be 1969.

I turned 16 that year. I can tell you that a smock shirt and an overlarge coat would NOT have been considered all that unusual for a young male to be wearing. High-water jeans yes...THEY would have elicited snarky comments, but not the smock and coat.

ESPECIALLY the smock; smock shirts/"poet" shirts/"gypsy blouses" were de rigeur attire in that very Hippie Era, even (some may say especially) for young men. Severus wearing a smock, even if it was a woman's smock, would not have been considered all that strange.

Granted, Rowling is talking about an industrial mill town which, I presume, would have been generally as conservative as the mill towns were in the area where I grew up in New England. So Petunia, reflecting a conservative attitude/mindset, would probably have something snarky to say about anything she considered an odd attire.

But if poor Sev had lived in London, he would have fit right in with the Carnaby Street fashions of the era (except for the high-water jeans). Too bad the kid couldn't have figured out a way to get to the Woodstock Festival in America that year, he would have fit right in:

http://majorjune.livejournal.com/tag/smocks

Anyway, my point is that all we can say with a modicum of certainty is that young Severus seemed to be neglected to some extent, but we can't make a definitive determination as to his family's degree of poverty based on that. They may well have been lower blue-collar, but that doesn't mean that they were abjectly poor.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Interesting about smocks. But what does that say about Tobias, if he approved of hippie-style attire for his 9 year old son?

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Interesting about smocks. But what does that say about Tobias, if he approved of hippie-style attire for his 9 year old son?

Who says that he did? Perhaps *if* the Snapes were really poor, Eileen and Tobias made do with what they could get from the Salvation Army (or whatever the British equivalent is), second-hand shops, etc. I'm not saying that Eileen and/or Tobias knew that they were dressing their son like a hippie, I'm only saying that the outfit Rowling describes would actually have been quite acceptable in 1969 amongst certain people.

I read someone's opinion posted somewhere that Sev's outfit in 1969 could have been a little boy's attempt to mimic what adult wizards would wear, but with only Muggle clothing to work with.

FWIW, in my fan fiction Tobias doesn't approve of how 9 y.o. Sev dresses, but that's just my personal opinion being expressed.

[oryx_leucoryx]

So are we in agreement that Severus' outfit is an indication of both the poverty of the Snapes, and lack of involvement of Tobias in his upbringing at that point? Because an involved Tobias would have made sure his clothing-blind witch of a wife selected clothes that are typical for boys his age in their neighborhood?

I read someone's opinion posted somewhere that Sev's outfit in 1969 could have been a little boy's attempt to mimic what adult wizards would wear, but with only Muggle clothing to work with.

I have seen this view too, but I thing Severus' behavior indicates otherwise. Because he behaves as though he is ashamed of his outfit. If he wore it to look like a 'real wizard', the opinion of Muggle Petunia wouldn't have affected him, he wouldn't have hidden his outfit under the coat until dark.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

So are we in agreement that Severus' outfit is an indication of both the poverty of the Snapes, and lack of involvement of Tobias in his upbringing at that point?

I will admit that that scenario is what I present in my fan fiction.

But if I'm honest with myself, I'll also admit that all we can really surmise is that Tobias probably wasn't buying Sev's clothes. We don't know if the clothes really mean poverty, or that Tobias was a skinflint who kept most of his paycheck and couldn't see why a lot of money should be spent on clothes for a little boy when stuff from second-hand stores -- or, for all we know, clothes that had belonged to members of Tobias' family that may have been sitting in trunks in the attic -- would suit.

Maybe Tobias felt that a 9 y.o. boy would ruin good clothes, so perhaps he felt that as long as whatever Sev had on was reasonably clean and not falling apart at the seams, that it was fine.

Maybe Tobias himself had to wear similar clothes when he was that age, and felt that if it was good enough for him, it was good enough for his son. We just don't know.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Maybe Tobias was marginalized in his son's life already since the boy was a wizard and Eileen didn't care what Muggles thought since little Sev wouldn't be living in that world after he turned 11. Spend the (limited) funds on other things.

I'm still going with the poverty scenario, though. I think that's what Rowling intended by all these trappings. (If I thought she was making an oblique statement, I might suspect that Eileen is supposed to be as demoralized as Merope - see her defensive scowl at the Hogwarts Express in Snape's memories. Rowling had a-hold of something but didn't want, or didn't know how, to use it, methinks.)

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

I might suspect that Eileen is supposed to be as demoralized as Merope

Yes, I agree. I believe Rowling meant for us to see parallels between Tom Riddle and Severus Snape.

But for all we know, Tobias also could have been suffering some sort of clinical depression.


I'm still going with the poverty scenario, though. I think that's what Rowling intended by all these trappings.

As I said, I personally go with the poverty angle too, to the point that it's a major part of my fan fic.

But as I mentioned in my prior post, I also recognize that Rowling only gave us tantalizing glimpses, it's like an ink blot test that each person projects their own beliefs, feelings, and prejudices onto.

For instance, most fans believe that Tobias was abusive to at least Eileen, and then by extension they believe he was abusive to his son. But really, all we see is a glimpse of one argument, heated though it may have been. My parents fought like cats and dogs all the time, but if you'd asked them they'd have told you they had a happy marriage.

The reality could have been that Tobias and Eileen had heated fights that then led to heated sex...all their young son would have seen were the arguments, not the "making up" that followed.

Most of us come to the assumption that the description of young Sev's clothes means the Snapes were abjectly poor, when all it really says is that his parents neglected him to some extent, perhaps a great extent. And since I remember that long-time established mills were closing in the 1960s to move to where it was cheaper to do business -- and I'm assuming the same thing happened in Britain at the same time -- I am also assuming that the odds are greater than not that Tobias was either fully unemployed, or working less than 40 hours a week at the local mill which was probably in the process of phasing out.

But we don't know for sure; Tobias may have never worked at the mill at all. He may have been a carpenter, a mechanic, a bus driver, or a school janitor for all we know.

[oryx_leucoryx]

We do know they lived in the not-too-good part of town. Less well-off than the next neighborhood over where the Evanses lived. And with it being a mill-town rather than a very old metropolitan area they don't have the Black family's excuse of it have once been *much* better regarded.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

We do know they lived in the not-too-good part of town. Less well-off than the next neighborhood over where the Evanses lived.

No argument from me on that point. I've already stated that I recognize that the Snapes were of a lower economic class than the Evanses and Dursleys.

But when I was growing up I had a fair number of friends who lived in "the not-too-good part of town". These friends weren't poor in the strict sense of the term. Their families didn't collect welfare or use food stamps; their fathers were all employed, albeit at blue-collar jobs that weren't factory union jobs, so they lived paycheck-to-paycheck.

That is the only point I've been trying to make. The Snapes live in a rundown neighborhood (altho Rowling doesn't show us what Spinner's End looked like in 1969, but for the sake of argument I'll concede that even during its best days it was still a place for people that were lower blue-collar working-class, and by 1969 the best days of the mill were probably over)...

Tobias obviously doesn't make a ton of money, in the sense that a CPA or a lawyer would. If he worked at the mill, perhaps he made a decent enough income when the mill was operating 24/7, especially if that meant OT, but in 1969 the mill was probably in the process of phasing out, if not completely closed at that point.

But Tobias may not have ever worked at the mill -- Rowling never tells us. He could have worked as a milkman. He could have been a sewer cleaner for the local government's Public Works Dept. He could have run a news stand.

IOW, Tobias may have had full employment, albeit at a low-paying job. There may have been enough from his paycheck to pay the utilities, taxes, and put basic food on the table. We don't know if the Snapes even owned the house they lived in; there could have been mortgage or rent payments that had to be made from the limited paycheck.

So while they may not have been abjectly poor, they didn't have enough discretionary income to spend on lots of new clothes for their son and would have looked for ways to save money, like shopping for clothes at secondhand and thrift stores.

For all we know, Eileen and Tobias' own clothes might have been thrift store acquisitions, worthy of a snarky comment from Petunia if she'd seen them. We don't know, because what limited views of the Snapes we have is thru the Harry Filter.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

I lived in a not-so-great section of town, not the projects because that would have meant being on welfare for the most part, with the Section 8 on and all. Everyone where we lived back then were either retired and on soc sec or had low-paying jobs. (Now, the same neighborhood has a lot of welfare people along with low-income and retirees.) Clothes range from some new, some thrift-store to hand-me-downs, often severely out of date. Little Sev could have worn hand-me-down clothes from a neighbor or friend.

My parents fought all the time, too. All our neighbors fought and the walls were thin enough to hear through. If you asked anyone, even people who had sound effects of breaking things going on behind their doors, they were in good relationships. Aside from a few people, there was nothing to stop someone from just picking up and leaving if they weren't satisfied, certainly not social pressure. With all the screaming and the occasional broken whatevers, the kids, for the most part, weren't abused. It was between Mom and Dad or Parent and this month's Aunt/Uncle. There was some measure of neglect as the parents couldn't afford sitters except for special occasions - lots of latch-key kids. I started staying home alone at seven, older than a lot of my contemporaries.

The rules were clear: stay indoors (we didn't;) don't open the door for anyone unless you know them; don't play with matches or with the stove. Neighbors watched out for egregious problems with the neighbor kids but otherwise were too wrapped up in their own problems to bother. If this was the case due to lack of work there on Spinner's End, Tobias probably did have a Dark Night of the Soul as he couldn't perform his major male role as defined at the time - support the wife and kid. Maybe Eileen had a low-wage part-time job or took in laundry/sewing (and, boy, wouldn't magic help with that!), further feeding his emasculation.

If he didn't outright work at the mill, his job in that town and in that part of the city would still depend on the mill. School janitor - if people were leaving with their kids, they might even close the school and ship out whoever's left to the next closest school. When the mill workers leave, everybody's affected.

I've wondered if that one argument that seemed memorable enough to dredge up during Harry's lesson wasn't because little Sev accidentally, magically, did something to Tobias, like setting his trousers on fire or whatever. Or if it was about money, or if it was just Tobias ranting about something that had happened at work (like a lay-off.) I doubt if something like that would lead to sex due to the subject matter, though it isn't impossible.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

There was some measure of neglect as the parents couldn't afford sitters except for special occasions - lots of latch-key kids. I started staying home alone at seven, older than a lot of my contemporaries.

The rules were clear: stay indoors (we didn't;) don't open the door for anyone unless you know them; don't play with matches or with the stove.

Sounds fairly similar to my childhood, except we were upper-middleclass because both my parents worked outside the home. My sister and I were given housekeys on ribbons that we wore around our necks under our dresses when we went to school; I was 6, my sister was 7, and rarely was my mother home for when we came home for lunch, nor when school let out at the end of the day.

We also had a "stay indoors" rule, but it was couched in terms of "no going outside to play until your homework is done", and of course homework was never done before one or both parents got home.

Neither were we allowed to have friends over when our parents were at work; but the "don't open the door" rule was for everyone, even if we recognized them. My mother's job was one where she was an adjunct to the local police, in fact she actually carried a badge and had the power to arrest people. She hit the roof when she found out one day that one of the local cops who lived in the neighborhood had stopped by to give her a message. It was warm weather and the inner door was open, the outer screendoor was locked, and my sister and I talked to the cop thru the door.

We felt we'd abided by the "don't let anyone in" rule, we couldn't help it that it was hot and the front door was already open. But my mother (who apparently felt that some of her coworkers had questionable morals) stressed that even if we DID recognize someone as a policeman, TO NOT OPEN THE DOOR! :-o

But she was fine with us using the stove; at the beginning it was my older sister just heating up a can of soup or frying an egg, but by the time I was nine I'd taken over all of the cooking chores.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Maybe Eileen had a low-wage part-time job or took in laundry/sewing (and, boy, wouldn't magic help with that!), further feeding his emasculation.

It seems to be the general consensus by most fans that Eileen couldn't handle a good many domestic duties, especially by magikal means. I wonder if Rowling, in drawing a parallel between Eileen and Merope, is perhaps suggesting that Eileen's magik was weak, or like Tonks, it got weak due to love problems?

And there's always been the Big Question of just how Eileen and Tobias met. Did Eileen have a job at the mill where Tobias worked? Did she work as a barmaid at the pub he frequented? Was she a checkout girl at the local grocery store?

I've wondered if that one argument that seemed memorable enough to dredge up during Harry's lesson wasn't because little Sev accidentally, magically, did something to Tobias, like setting his trousers on fire or whatever. Or if it was about money, or if it was just Tobias ranting about something that had happened at work (like a lay-off.)

Perhaps it was the last time Eileen bought new clothes for Severus that actually fit. Tobias could have been upset because they didn't have the money to spend on new clothes and didn't understand why she didn't buy clothes at a thrift store.

I doubt if something like that would lead to sex due to the subject matter, though it isn't impossible.

That's just the thing, we don't know what they were arguing about. Tobias could have had a bee in his bonnet because they were having macaroni and cheese for dinner for the 3rd night in a row. Maybe Eileen hadn't bought Toby's favorite brand of tea. Maybe Eileen had compared Toby unfavorably to other husbands in the neighborhood, maybe she had even let slip the term "muggle"...

Most fans assume that Toby had a drinking problem; point of fact, Rowling doesn't show that. Perhaps Toby did, but perhaps Eileen also took a nip too many. That may have been the glue that held their relationship together. And their arguments may have been about anything or everything, big and small. And it's not unusual for such people who can get into passionate arguments to subsequently have passionate sex.

All I am saying is that we see a memory of a little boy who is perhaps 5 or 6 (maybe younger) at the time the memory was created, who is frightened by this passionate fight between his parents. So the memory is already being subjectively filtered, and it gets furthered filtered because we are seeing it thru Harry's brain.

The Snapes may have had only periodic, albeit dramatic, fights, the rest of the time living their lives in quiet desperation. Or maybe they fought whenever they laid eyes upon the other. We don't know.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

If he wore it to look like a 'real wizard', the opinion of Muggle Petunia wouldn't have affected him, he wouldn't have hidden his outfit under the coat until dark.

I got the idea that he was trying to dress like a wizard, I thought the coat was just to represent the robe look that is common among male magical people. He seems to have a real sense at 9 about magic and the world of the magic people even though he appears to be living in the muggle world.

I didn't get the feeling he was hiding as much I thought he was attempting to get as close as he could to wearing wizard clothing.

[cured4life.livejournal.com]

I think he wore the coat because he was ashamed of his clothes so he wanted them covered. He grew up in a muggle neighborhood so I don't think he'd see much in the way of wizard clothes.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

He grew up in a muggle neighborhood so I don't think he'd see much in the way of wizard clothes.

But his mother could have described the way wizards dressed, and perhaps there were illustrations in some of her books.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Or maybe she took him to Diagon Alley to buy stuff.

[cured4life.livejournal.com]

I think using the word neglect tends to mean neither parent was much there for the boy.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Well, Eileen did post the birth announcement in the daily Prophet. She must have some connection in the magical world to want to do that and let people know she had a baby.

Couldn't Eileen still go to places like Diagon alley? There is nothing that says she couldn't do that or even bring her son with her.

What other reason would she have for putting a birth announcement in the magical newspaper unless she had not totally removed herself from the magical world.

Severus could have had some exposure to magical people in some way. Unless we're saying Eileen totally never ever went to Diagone alley again or never had any friends she might visit in the magical community.

There had to be a reason for putting the announcement in, unless there is something in canon that suggests every time a magical child is born birth announcements just automatically appear in the paper.

So, I feel like Eileen at least either had a friend or family member she wanted to let know she had a baby. Perhaps she even still had uncles, aunts, cousins or some connection in the magical world that made her want to put the birth annoucenment in the paper.

[oryx_leucoryx]

But look at how Severus uses the coat: Out in the sunlight he wears it. When they go into the thicket, when he is alone with Lily and they are in the half-lit shade, he takes the coat off. Logically he'd want to be more dressed in the cool shade than out in the sunlight. Nor does he take the coat off for them to sit on it. So why wear the coat in the sunlight and take it off in the shade?

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

So why wear the coat in the sunlight and take it off in the shade?

We don't know how much time elapsed between Severus first revealing himself on the playground, and the later scene of him talking to Lily in the shade. But since Petunia had obviously left to then return, some fair amount of time had elapsed, and for all we know the latter scene could be a totally different day.

But even if it was the same day, the first scene could have occurred in the morning when it was relatively cool, and the second scene may have been late afternoon after it had gotten warm enough that it was uncomfortable to wear the coat, even in the shade.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

So, I feel like Eileen at least either had a friend or family member she wanted to let know she had a baby.

Or just to let old classmates know that at least one man found her attractive enough to have had sex with her at least once.

Don't laugh, I knew gals who did that. Their close friends and their family already knew they were pregnant and/or had given birth, there was no need to put an announcement in the paper for their benefit. No, these gals went to the expense (most papers charge a fee to post announcements) so that people they'd gone to school with who'd thought the gal would never find a man, would know that they in fact had.

At least for one night! LOL

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Believe me, a boy in a smock in a Northern mill-town would've stood out like a sore thumb.

I actually acknowledged that in my post. I pointed out that I assumed that British mill towns would have been generally as conservative as mill towns here in NEW England, and that Petunia in particular seemed very into fitting in with what is deemed "the norm".

Which is why I said that if Sev had managed to get to London's Carnaby Street, or cross the pond to go to Woodstock that year, he would have encountered very different attitudes towards his outfit than what he experienced at home. :-)