Petunia (suggestion why she hates magic

[Doriane]

No: HPFGUIDX 74635

"tania_schr" wrote:

> Interesting.  Maybe it could be that when Lily was little (even 
> before she knew she was a witch), she - like Harry - had 
> some "magical" things happen and something bad happened to Petunia 
> as a result (kind-of like when Harry accidently enclosed Dudley in 
> the snake exhibit at the zoo).  

Beware of movie contamination :-) In the *book*, Harry didn't enclose 
Dudley in the snake exhibit, he removed the glass between Dudley and 
the snake.

> I have always thought that Petunia was jealous of Lily.  I think 
> if as a kid my brother had found out he had magic powers and got to 
> go to a special school like Hogwarts and I didn't, I would have 
> been pretty jealous.  Don't think I would have reacted like 
> Petunia, but people react to things differently.  In Petunia's 
> case, I think her bad feelings about not being included turned into 
> hatred for the magical world.

I don't think she was jealous. To me Petunia feels 2 things regarding 
the WW : disgusted and scared.

1. Disgusted, because the WW is full of strangeness and weirdness and 
Petunia seems to be desperately looking for normalcy and belonging. 
She's like those kids who get so mad at their mom because she's 
coming to get them in the old car, wearing an unfashionable dress, 
and with an impossible haircut. They are ashamed, because their mom 
is different, while they want to be like others. As they grow up, 
they will discover that it's perfectly okay to be different, and that 
everyone has a right to be who they want to be. But Petunia seems to 
be stuck at that stage.

2. Scared, and horrified, because scary things are going on in the 
WW. She knows about LV, about the Dementors, she mentions "that 
horrible boy". Obviously she learned that the WW was in the midst of 
a war when her sister got her letter, and that scared her.

But their parents, on the other hand, seemed to be enthusiastic about 
Lily being a witch, which made Petunia feel misunderstood... Ooh, 
does that ring a bell ? A teenager, full of strong feelings, and 
feeling completely misunderstood and ignored by the adults ? Hum ? No 
wonder Petunia reacted so badly to the whole business !

Del