Vernon's backstory (was Harry's family)

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 38402

dfrankiswork at n... wrote:

> 1) VD is the Director of a firm that makes drills.  But does he 
show any engineering knowledge?  No, he does not.  His various DIY 
attempts to keep Harry locked up are crude and pathetic.  
Furthermore, he is not Mr/Mrs/Miss Grunning, the firm's founder.  In 
short, he is your typical second generation director, an *accountant* 
who has got the job on the flimsy excuse that cash flow is the life 
blood of any business.  You've all seen it before.  Just as most 
politicians turn out to be lawyers when you scratch the surface 
(Fudge is Way Evil, remember?), so most businessmen turn out to be 
accountants when you look behind the moustache.

His role doesn't seem to be that of accountant, but of salesman. He 
deals with Mason's drills, for starters, and whenever he talks about 
Grunnings (which admittedly isn't often), it's always in terms of its 
products, not its finances. Besides, if he were an accountant, that's 
how Harry/the Narrator would refer to him - apart from anything else, 
eveyone knows that accountants are the epitome of boring people and 
the Narrator would definitely have used the term to describe him. 

Considering JKR's usual misdirection efforts, Ron's single line about 
Molly's accountant cousin would have already been mirrored by 
describing VD as an accountant, or at the very leat, something to tie 
him in with a finances. We've thus far had nothing of the sort.

Also, although the Weasley family don't speak of Molly's accountant 
cousin, she would have made *something* of his name. If there were 
any family ties, the letter Molly writes to VD at the beginning of 
GoF would have made mention of it - she would not have been so formal 
and it's obvious that she's writing to a total stranger, not to a 
deliberately ignored relative. 

> 2) 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.  
He knows who she is.  

Except that he asks Harry to tell him who she was when he gets that 
letter - VD is not a good enough actor to pretend not to know her. 
Besides, he has no reason to feign ignorance of who she is, as Harry 
wouldn't necessarily expect VD not to know - after all, from his POV 
it's obvious and he wouldn't realise that it isn't to VD.

> And this brings us to the third piece of evidence.
> 
> 3) What could cause young Vernon Dursley to become so embittered?  
It's clear.  Rejection, that's what.  *We*, through Harry's POV, see 
the kind, tolerant, welcoming Weasleys.  But Vernon has suffered from 
their dark side.  As so often happens with liberal-minded people, the 
Weasleys love Muggles from a distance, but have no intention of 
letting one anywhere near their family.  When Mrs Dursley Sr (nee 
Weasley - well, no, but possibly nee the same as Molly) married a 
Muggle and gave birth to a Muggle son, their wrath knew no bounds.  
They cut her off without a knut.  In turn, she brought young Vernon 
up to have nothing to do with magic in any form. She sent him to 
Smeltings where a regime of cold baths and knobbly sticks could 
guarantee to knock any magical thought out of his head.   She groomed 
him for that most unmagical of all professions, accountancy.

Weeelll.... Ron doesn't exactly say that the accountant is a Muggle, 
only that he's engaged in a Muggle profession - he's not even 
entirely sure. Also, with Arthur's love of Muggles, it would be just 
a little silly for him to ignore the Muggle in the family (or at 
least, his wife's). My own feelings are that either the "accountant" 
isn't actually a blood relative, or that he's simply given up on the 
wiazarding world (married to a Muggle?) and taken a Muggle job.

> 4) What unites Vernon and Petunia?  Fear and hatred of magic.  They 
are kindred souls.  Look how much they have in common.  Both from 
mixed Muggle-wizard families where the wizard side is unfairly 
honoured and the Muggle side despised.

Canon to date would indicate that Lily is entirely Muggle-born, and 
there's no immediat wizarding blood in the family line (or at least 
none that they know of). 

I don't think VD needs any kind of wizarding connections of his own 
to despise that world. He knows that his parents-in-law gave Lily 
preferential treatment, and thus Petunia hasn't had all the breaks 
she could have had, and then Harry turns up on their doorstep, 
disturbing their suburban lifestyle for ten years and more. We still 
have to find out what Dumbledore told him in the letter left with 
Harry - VD undoubtedly took umbrage at someone from the WW telling 
what he should and shouldn't do.

> I think I have said more than enough to demonstrate beyond 
reasonable doubt that Vernon is the unmentionable Weasley accountant.

Sorry, you haven't even started demontrating it to my satisfaction. 
Wanna have another go? :-)

-- 
GulPlum aka Richard, UK