[HPforGrownups] Chapter 23: The Yule Ball

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 6927

Snuffles MacGoo wrote:

> "The Dursleys (boo, hiss) give Harry a single tissue ("an all-time low")."
>
> This always bothers me a bit - Why do they give him anything at all? Surely the
> insult takes more thought than nothing? (but it is funny!)

Probably because the Dursleys are concerned with form, not substance. They move in
a world defined by what "people" think; this is the only reason they took Harry in,
I believe--it was what was "expected." The form. Of the substance of a home, they
give nothing. So, to not send a present at all violates the form, so they must send
something. Hence the Kleenex.

Or so I think.

--Amanda