Vernon as Molly's cousin / Timetables / Crouch Sr.

[judyserenity]

No: HPFGUIDX 38380

David said:
> [he] have long maintained that there must be some secret in Vernon's 
> life that accounts for his anti-magic attitude.  ... Can we take the 
> time-honoured approach of finding an irrelevant character who has > 
not been named, and equating him with VD? 
> Yes, indeed we can.  Molly Weasley's cousin who is an accountant, of 
> whom they never speak, simply leaps off the page... 
> At Kings Cross, who does Vernon eye suspiciously?  Molly Weasley. 
> Why?  Because he suspects her of being a wizard?  No, because he is 
> worried she will *recognise* him.  He is her cousin...
> And notice one final, important consequence of this incontrovertible 
> conclusion:  Harry is *already* part of One Big Happy Weasley Family 

Oooo, brilliant!  (And I mean "brilliant" in the American sense, where 
it means a lot more than in England.) That is great!  Further support 
is that JKR said in an interview "There's stuff coming with the 
Dursleys that people might not expect" 
(http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf?/books/00/10/al_11browl22.f
rame) And, I believe she has said that some character will discover 
magic powers late in life.  Suppose it's *Vernon*? 


Now, on to the timetable. Several participants have tried to make 
sense of the timetable and calendar information that JKR has provided. 
My belief is that the timetable is just irretrievably FLINT-y.  
Someone mentioned here, a while back, that in one of the books the 
kids take the Hogwarts Express on Monday.  And then, classes start the 
next day -- which is also Monday.  I just think JKR hasn't worked the 
calendar out.

By the way, I don't think there are classes on Saturdays -- Quidditch 
games are played on Saturdays.  And, classes seem to be on the same 
day each week (within a given year), so I don't think there's a 
rotating 6-day cycle. 


As for Crouch Sr., Barb said:
> [Crouch Sr.] put his son away even with inadequate evidence for the 
> sake of his career (even though this did turn out to be the right 
> thing to do). He engineered the switch between his wife and son, 
> which was categorically the WRONG thing to do and cannot therefore 
> count as a good act.

I don't see Crouch Sr. as being totally bad.  And, I don't see how 
sending his son to Azkaban, and helping his son escape, can *both* be 
seen as evidence of his evilness. Either Crouch Sr. believed his son 
was guilty as sin (in which case it was right to perfunctorily 
sentence him to life in Azkaban, given the way "justice" operates in 
the Wizarding World) or he believed his son was not all that evil (in 
which case Crouch Sr. couldn't forsee the consequences of helping his 
son escape.)

My personal belief is that that Crouch Sr. believed his son was guilty 
and deserved harsh punishment, but had no idea just how devoted Jr. 
was to Voldemort.  I don't think Crouch Sr. could possibly be expected 
to know that his son would help return Voldemort to power if released 
from Azkaban.  Any parent would think "My son was under the bad 
influence of his friends" not "My son is the most evil creature on the 
face of this earth." Crouch Sr.'s willingness to help Jr. escape was 
done out of love for Mrs. Crouch, and I therefore think it should 
count in Crouch Sr.'s favor. 

Remember, it was Sirius who said that Crouch Sr. was motivated by 
career ambitions in sentencing Crouch Jr. to Azkaban. That may not be 
true. Sirius has good reason to hate Crouch Sr., and is not always 
exactly fair towards people he hates (as in his claim that Snape 
*deserved* to be eaten by a werewolf.) Perhaps Crouch Sr. did have 
good evidence that his son was guilty of torturing the Longbottoms, 
and was genuinely furious at him for the torture.  We really don't 
know Crouch Sr. sent his son to Azkaban for career reasons.

My personal opinion of Crouch Sr. is that he was arrogant, lacking in 
sympathy, and lacking in fatherly love towards his son.  But, I 
wouldn't say he was evil. I think he genuinely hoped to improve the 
world by stopping the Death Eaters, but his own flaws got in the way. 
Also, he was capable of love, at least towards his wife. We have seen 
no evidence that Lucius or Crouch Jr. are capable of love, and 
Dumbledore says flat out (at the end of Book 1) that Voldemort is not.

Certainly, Crouch Sr. doesn't seem bothered by the appalling lack of 
due process in the WW "justice" system.  However, it seems that few 
other wizards are bothered by this, either. In regards to rule of law, 
the Wizarding World reminds me of China, which spent thousands of 
years advancing in some cultural areas (the arts and literaure) but 
just never put any emphasis on developing its legal system, and still 
has problems with a lack of due process.  Even Dumbledore never speaks 
out against the WW legal system.  So, Crouch Sr. certainly doesn't get 
any credit for the way he ran the office of Magical Law Enforcement, 
but I can't really put the whole blame on him, either.

So, Crouch Sr. is a good example of a character who is in something of 
a villianous role, but who is not one-dimensionally evil.  However, I 
agree with the claims that many of JKR's villains are quite 
one-dimensional (and therefore not all that believable.)

Judy