Mark Evans - evans, Evans, EVANS

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 86417

"dorapye" wrote:

> To respond to your reply, Carol
> 
> Carol wrote:
> >> Assuming that Mark is Harry's relative, he wasn't born yet when
> > Harry's parents died and his father might even have been an 
> unmarried
> > boy of 18 or so at that time, so he couldn't have offered Harry the
> > home he needed. More important, Mark's father can only be at most 
> his
> > mother's cousin; Dumbledore needed a closer relationship and 
> Petunia
> > was the only available candidate. And since Mark's parents are 
> pretty
> > clearly Muggles, it's very likely that Dumbledore was unaware of 
> their
> > existence. As far as he knew, Petunia really was Harry's only 
> living
> > relative. The WW has a hard enough time keeping track of squibs; it
> > would be miraculous if they knew every wizards' muggle second 
> cousin.
 
Now dorapye:
> Yes, I understand Mark'd have to be something like second cousin at 
> the very most, but I just wondered if Harry would rationalise this 
> to explain DD placing him with Petunia, obviously his closest living 
> relative, or if he would let his resentment for having to live with 
> the Dursleys drive a bitter wedge between himself and DD. He 
> certainly feels this very strongly at the beginning of OotP and even 
> though DD has now explained to him why he must return to them every 
> summer, I'm sure Harry is still feeling pretty hard done by, stuck 
> with the Dursleys again this summer (and part of the next). If he 
> allows himself to imagine that he *could* have been placed with a 
> loving relative, even though DD has explained to him that he needed 
> to use a close relative to seal the charm and therefore the blood 
> ties to Mark's family will not be close enough, will Harry be ready 
> to accept that explanation? Or will anger and frustration at the 
> choices that have been made for him (by DD and also by LV) prevent 
> him examining DD's choice rationally? 
> 
> I was just trying to tie Harry's possible response to finding he has 
> other (magical) family members to the Harry we see emerging in OotP: 
> a typically moody and angry adolescent, resenting the authority of 
> adults and being treated 'like a child', though still some way short 
> of ready to assume adult responsibilities.
> 
> Not saying I think Harry will still be 'raging' at being in Privet 
> Drive in Book 6 (maybe the loss of Sirius will help him gain a new 
> perspective on his situation) just that, if Mark Evans is a relative 
> of Harry's in the next book (likely, I think), it *could* introduce 
> some interesting tensions in Harry's relationship with DD.
> 
> For the record, Carol, I'm liking your theories, and your arguments 
> with Kneasy, very much.
> 
> dorapye

Thanks, dorapye! Apologies for not snipping sufficiently but I'm
trying to hurry through posting and get back to work. I'm hoping that
we're through with Harry's sulking and self-indulgence and that his
anger (which at the moment is mostly misdirected at Snape) will be
displaced by other emotions. The MoM experience has a number of
lessons to teach and hopefully he'll examine it thoughtfully and learn
them. Mark, I hope, will provide him with a chance to empathize with
someone very like himself, who has grown up in his own Muggle
neighborhood and has been a victim of Dudley. And if he is a relative,
I think that Harry's joy in the discovery will far outweigh any
resentment against Dumbledore for supposedly concealing this information.

Carol