[HPforGrownups] Re: Dursleys

[Margaret Dean]

No: HPFGUIDX 17100

Philip Gonzales wrote:

> Also, I always wondered if Petunia was jealous of her sister,
> Lily. It could be for her looks, her smarts, or something else.

I think it's made pretty clear in the hut-on-the-rock scene in
PS/SS that this is indeed the case.


	    "You =knew=?" said Harry.  "You =knew= I'm a --
	a wizard?"
	    "Knew?" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly.  "=Knew!=
	Of course we knew!  How could you not be, my dratted
	sister being what she was?  Oh, she got a letter just
	like that and disappeared off to that -- that =school=
	-- and came home every vacation with her pockets full
	of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats.  I was the
	only one who saw her for what she was -- a freak!
	But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this
	and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in 
	the family!"
	    She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went
	ranting on.  It seemed she had been wanting to say all
	this for years.


Sounds like a full-blown case of sibling rivalry to me,
especially the "Lily this and Lily that" part.


--Margaret Dean
  <margdean at erols.com>