Dieting Dudley, the Grangers, redheads

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 22666

Y'know, if Smeltings takes Dudley firmly in hand over the year of GoF, that diet he's on might actually work!  Enter a new, slender golden-haired Dudley.  Aunt Petunia will be ravaged with horror that her darling is emaciated, but how might this change him?

The other thing that's always quietly bothered me is the description of Dudley as prime bully boy, leader of a gang and inspirer of fear and awe in his classmates.  Since when has "the fat kid" been anything other than a figure of ridicule and social rejection among his classmates?  A friend of mine who went to a snooty boy's school and gained a lot of weight there was positively burnt at the stake by his peers!

I too have long been curious about the Grangers.  What happens to the parents of Muggle-born magic kids?  Are they sworn to secrecy?  Does their child have to wangle them into Diagon Alley to buy supplies?  If Hermione's dentist dad had his hand bitten off by an avenging patient, would she (assuming she's 17) be allowed to fix him using magic a la Madam Pomfrey/Voldemort, or would she be legally obliged to bung him in a muggle hospital?

As for the redhead stuff, I note that the girl playing Ginny has blue eyes... tsk!  In canon (early CoS, I think) they are clearly mentioned to be brown (do I get LOON membership here??).  But as we haven't yet seen Ginny on-screen, I suppose the benefit of the doubt is in order here... brown contacts may have been applied.

Phew, the hazards of the acting profession.  I've avoided contacts (when vain, I prefer to go blind, otherwise I take my glasses on and off to suit), but from all accounts, the first week or so wearing them is agony, take an hour to get them in for one hour, count the minutes, take them out, spend the rest of the day in bloodshot agony... quite a lot to inflict on an eleven-year old child actor!  And surely bullying hair into going silver blond or red for the duration of a shoot can't do it much good after a while... the bald Malfoy?  And as for that *dodgissimo* perm they gave Rupert Grint for Thunderpants... blee!

Tabouli



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]