Dean Thomas

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 40264

A conversation I've had elsewhere has got me started thinking about 
Dean. I've searched the archive and it's not thrown up anything 
relevant (but I could be mistaken), so I thought I'd put this past 
everyone here in the hope that the collective wisdom of HPFGU might 
add some insight.

I realised that we don't know very much about Dean's background. It's 
not until p187 of CoS that we get "Dean Thomas, who, like Harry, had 
grown up with Muggles". Note the comparison. It's not "Muggle-born 
like Hermione".

By the middle of PS/SS, we know all about Harry's friends, and even 
about his nemesis. We know that Ron comes from an old wizarding 
family, that Seamus is "half-and-half", that Hermione's parents are 
muggle dentists and that Neville was born to a wizarding family but 
feared to be a squib (though we don't know the term at that stage). 
We know Malfoy comes from a rich pureblood family. About Dean, we 
know NOTHING.

By the end of GoF, we've even met all their parents (in the 
Longbottoms' case, in the Pensieve), EXCEPT for Dean's. Dean attends 
the QWC, but he's Seamus's (and his witch mum's) guest.

Interestingly, as well, that little tidbit about Dean is given to us 
by the Narrator - all the other kids get dialogue to tell us 
about their background. Dean's only dialogue on this subject in PS/SS 
is that he doesn't know anything about Quidditch, which labels him a 
Muggle. Yet the Narrator specifies that he was *raised* by Muggles, 
not that he born into a Muggle family!

Although even four books down, we know nothing about his past, two 
facts about Dean are rammed down our throats. We're informed in each 
book that he's a West Ham supporter and that he's good at drawing 
(our attention is drawn to an item of his artwork in each book).

This is a long shot, but if we assume they are his local team, Dean 
was raised in the East End of London (non-Londoners/non-football 
supporters - despite the name, West Ham is in East London, and forms 
part of the administrative area of Newham, one of the most run-down 
and impoverished areas of the UK). The Scholastic edition adds the 
information that he's black. A black Newham resident is a *poor* 
Newham resident.

Now, what are the chances that he was raised .... in a Muggle 
orphanage? London's East End is a very stereotypical place to put 
orphanages, and for good reason - there are lots of children's homes 
in that area. It's also typical for football clubs to be involved in 
helping local children's homes and the like (on the one hand, it's 
good PR, and on the other it's an easy way to increase supporter 
base), so despite being poor, he'd have access to things like 
posters. 

Hmmm... do we know anyone else who was raised in a Muggle orphanage? 
Perhaps even the *same* Muggle orphanage, half a century ago? My head 
is beginning to ache from the possibilies...

The next big question is what is the importance of his artistic 
skills? Knowing JKR, she has got *something* up her sleeve in this 
regard, or she wouldn't have made so certain that we'd notice it...

Questions, questions, nothing but questions...

-- 
GulPlum aka Richard, UK