Petunia reading the Daily Prophet? (Was Petunia/"That Boy")

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 78107

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "n_longbottom01" 
<n_longbottom01 at y...> wrote:
> 
> The first thing that occured to me when Petunia let slip that she 
> knows what Dementors are was that she had been secretly reading the 
> Wizard newspapers that Harry had piling up in his room.  We are 
told 
> that Petunia is an extremly nosey person; I can easily see Petunia 
> being tempted to read the Daily Prophet while Vernon is at work and 
> Harry is out roaming the neighborhood.
> 
> Petunia's access to the Daily Prophet could explain how she has 
some 
> knowledge of the Wizarding World.  The "I heard it from that aweful 
> boy" line could have been a cover so that Vernon didn't get upset 
> about her reading Harry's paper.  The "Remember my last" howler 
> message would seem to indicate, though, that Petunia did, at one 
> point have some non-Daily-Prophet contact with at some point in the 
> past.


Now Jen: That's a really good theory and one that fits in with 
Petunia's character. There's more support in OOTP for your 
theory,too: The scene where she and Vernon are watching the news and 
Petunia says: "as if we're interested in their sordid affairs" about 
the celebrity divorce, when really Petunia has "followed the case 
obssessively in every magazine she can lay her bony hands on." She's 
definitely portrayed as a snoop and gossip throughout the series.

Why now, though? Is she just pretending an abhorrence for all things 
magic and her curiousity caught up with her? Petunia doesn't find out 
until later in the Azkaban conversation that LV is back, so she can't 
be looking for information on his return in the Daily Prophet.

I wonder if it's some change in Harry she sees that reminds her of 
Lily. Certainly he is acting different, constantly trying to watch 
the news, getting the newspaper by owl post.  Maybe Petunia saw a 
change in Lily when Voldemort took power.

That reminds me, one of my all-time favorite scenes is during this 
conversation, when Harry tells the Dursleys that Lord Voldemort is 
back: 

    "[Petunia]was looking at him as she had never looked at him 
before. And all of a sudden, for the very first time in his life, 
Harry could fully appreciate that Aunt Petunia was his mother's 
sister....All he knew was that he was not the only person in the room 
who had an inkling of what Lord Voldemort being back might mean."

That scene still gives me chills, it's only the second time Petunia 
seems like a multi-dimensional character, instead of a cartoon 
figure. My first thought was, "the woman has MANY secrets that no 
one, including her family, are privvy to."  After all, her whole 
family life is built on a lie that keeps compounding year after year.

I'm suddenly very interested in knowing more about Petunia--Jen