That Puffskein incident (was: Why I like the Twins)

[Judy Shapiro]

No: HPFGUIDX 43124

Catherine posted an excellant defense of Fred and George,
but then added that she was concerned about a couple of
things they had done:

> The Puffskein incident is not pleasant - I remember talking to
> Amy about this once, when we both
> hoped that Ron was joking.  This probably isn't the case,
> but it isn't inconceivable.


Like Catherine, I see the Twins as basically well-intentioned, so I too was 
very bothered by the puffskein incident.  (It's in Fantastic Beasts, p. 34. 
The margin notes read "I had one of them once." "what happened to it?" 
"fred used it for Bludger practice")   I hope that Ron was supposed to be 
joking, or at the very least that Fred was young when it happened and 
didn't realize the puffskein would be hurt.  Of course, it's also possible 
that the puffskein wasn't killed, that Fred simply played too rough with it 
and it ran away.

Deliberately beating a pet to death would be an absolutely awful thing to 
do; it is a sign of real abnormality. Kids that torture animals often grow 
up to be violent towards people.  I don't like the thought of JKR even 
joking about killing a pet.  Maybe she didn't think through the 
implications.

I should point out a possibility that I don't think has been mentioned on 
this thread -- maybe one of the Twins is nice and the other isn't.  I know 
that was discussed here a few months ago.  I think the claim was that Fred 
is evil and George is nice -- I guess that would mean Fred is George's evil 
twin!  (Oh no -- are we going to have one of those "evil twin mistaken 
identity" plot lines in books 5, 6, or 7?)

-- Animal Lover!Judy