[HPforGrownups] Chapter Discussions - Chapter One, Dudley Demented

[Wendy St John]

No: HPFGUIDX 68228


Pip!Squeak started us out with a great Chapter Summary, and lots of good
questions - including several that hadn't occurred to me before. Here are
my thoughts on a few of them:

(Pip!Squeak)
>He is hiding because his relationship with his Aunt and Uncle is so 
>bad that they won't willingly watch television with him. They grind 
>their teeth and question him. We hear Uncle Vernon express suspicion 
>at Harry's interest in the news.

>Is this a change in the relationship between Harry and his foster 
>parents? In PoA Harry is eating with the family and watching TV with 
>them.

(Wendy)
It does seem to be a change. I actually didn't understand at all the
Dursley's suspicions about Harry wanting to watch the news. I honestly
can't imagine what they thought he was up to if he'd been pretending to
watch the news. So maybe they were expecting something to happen. Vernon
specifically states that "your lot don't get on our news." When Harry
responds with "that's all your know," Petunia accuses him of lying - rather
forcefully, actually. Almost as though she really doesn't want it to be a
possibility. When considering this with what happens a bit later in the
book (Petunia knowing about Dementors), I do think that Petunia knows quite
a bit more about the WW than we (and Harry) have been led to believe. And
Vernon may not actually know things, but can tell that something dodgy is
going on (maybe just from Petunia's overreactions). I think there is more
to say about this, but it should probably wait for the discussion on
chapter 2.

BTW - this little episode also had one of my favourite funny moments:
Vernon's comment "as if a normal boy cares what's on the news - Dudley
hasn't got a clue what's going on, doubt he knows who the Prime Minister
is!" And this is a *virtue* in Vernon's book! <G>

(Pip!Squeak)
>Both Aunt and 
>Uncle accuse Harry of being up to something. They demand to know 
>what news the Owls are bringing him. Harry has to admit that the 
>Owls aren't bringing him any news. Harry loses his temper and stalks 
>off. He knows he'll be in trouble later.

(Wendy)
This is something which really confused me, especially on my second
reading. Not because Harry gets angry, but because he really is *lying* to
the Dursleys. The owls most definitely ARE bringing him news - we learn a
page or two later that he's getting the Daily Prophet delivered every
morning. The paper may not be printing the news he wants to see, but the
owls are bringing him the news. So that whole paragraph about how it cost
him something to tell the truth this time to his aunt and uncle just makes
no sense to me. It's as though Harry is lying for no good reason without
even knowing he is telling a lie. Is this just sloppy writing? Or is there
really something weird going on with Harry? (Sorry - more questions than
answers here, huh? <g>). Did anyone else have this reaction to reading this
scene?

(Pip!Squeak)
>Instead of ignoring Dudley, he 
>deliberately catches up with him and starts teasing him. He siphons 
>off his frustration into Dudley. Dudley, meanwhile, does not attack 
>Harry physically. Harry taunts Dudley because Dudley has been 
>beating up 10 year olds. Dudley responds by saying that Harry would 
>be scared to fight him without his wand, and anyway, would get 
>expelled if he used it. Dudley also points out that he's won against 
>older, heavier opponents.

>Is Harry just trying to get back at Dudley for his past bullying? Or 
>is Harry trying to bully Dudley? Who is showing more restraint? Why?

(Wendy)
Good questions - I'm not sure I see a difference between wanting to "get
back" at Dudley and Harry actually bullying Dudley himself. A bit of the
victim becoming the bully here. I think in this scenario Dudley shows more
restraint, but it's because he's afraid of Harry, not because he's morally
superior or anything like that <g>. This particular scene concerns me just
a bit, because Harry's behaviour did surprise me - we've seen him be cheeky
before, but this was the first time I actually saw him being mean spirited
without being specifically provoked. (I'm not saying he's never been
provoked by Dudley, obviously. Just that Dudley hadn't done anything to
provoke him on this particular occasion). This was the first instance of
Harry's anger coming out in a not-so-pleasant way, which culminates with
the Cruicatus he casts at Bellatrix. As I've already posted in other
threads, what I see as a mean streak of Harry's will concern me if it turns
out not to be a phase - in other words, if he doesn't learn to control it
in the next book, I worry that Harry is going to let his anger take him
places I don't want to see him go.

(Pip!Squeak)
>Dudley counter-attacks Harry, by telling Harry that he's been crying 
>out in his sleep `Don't kill Cedric'. Harry's also been calling out 
>for his dead mother and father to save him from Voldemort. This 
>makes Harry so angry that he pulls out his wand.

>Why doesn't Harry explain the nightmares to Dudley?

(Wendy)
Another really great question! I wonder just what it would take to repair
this relationship. As it turns out, Harry wouldn't have actually had the
opportunity (time-wise) to explain before the Dementors attacked. But what
if he had been able to tell Dudley about what happened in the Graveyard?
Dudley might not have believed him. Now, however, after experiencing the
Wizarding World for himself (in the form of the Dementors), perhaps Dudley
would be able to understand, and it might give the two boys something to
share - a place to start building a more "adult" relationship. I would love
to see something like this happen at the beginning of Book 6. This also
parallels what I'd like to see happen with Snape and Harry, btw.

(Pip!Squeak)
>Is Harry doing the equivalent of pointing a loaded gun at Dudley? 
>How dangerous is a wand in the hands of an angry teenager? Does 
>Harry think he's doing anything dangerous?

(Wendy)
It's difficult to give my answer to this without referencing the rest of
the book (are we allowed to do that, or are we supposed to stick to the
current chapter only?). Anyhow, after seeing the way Harry's Cruciatus
turned out, I doubt that he could have seriously wounded or killed Dudley.
Then again, ending up with a face full of tentacles or leeks growing out of
one's ears - or a pig's tail, for that matter - would certainly not be fun,
especially not for Muggle Dudley. The question of what Harry intended to do
(did he think he was doing anything truly dangerous?) is more interesting.
Here again, with Harry's anger culminating in a Cruciatus by the end of the
book, I think that during this year of Harry's life, he wasn't really
thinking about the potential harm some of his actions could cause. Not
across the board - there are many times when he is concerned with the
outcome of what he's doing, like with the D.A. But when he gets angry, I
see him letting his anger take control, and he's not really thinking
through the consequences of what might happen if he vents the way he wants
to. Let's hope he gets a handle on this soon, or I see it becoming a
problem for him.

(Pip!Squeak)
>In the event, Harry is half stunned and his wand is knocked out of 
>his hand. In the crisis, Harry tries to protect Dudley. He warns him 
>to keep his mouth shut.  He also manages to light his wand without 
>touching it. Is this an example of true wandless magic? Could it be 
>useful to Harry to learn to do spells without his wand?

(Wendy)
My opinion is that we'll find that there is lots of magic that can be done
without a wand, and also that there is wand magic which doesn't have a
spoken component. I believe that JKR said in an interview that wandless
magic is possible, but that all the really "cool" spells need a wand. So
things like "lumos" and other everyday type magic might very well be
possible without a wand, especially by the experienced witch or wizard. I'm
trying to think of an analogy - the one that is coming to mind is training
wheels on a bicycle - a child uses the training wheels until he or she is
steady enough to ride without them. It's not a perfect comparison, though,
because there will always be some spells which, no matter how experienced
one is, would still require a wand. In any case, I do think that we've not
yet seen the spectrum of ways magic works in the Potterverse. And I don't
think I like the idea that Harry might be "special" in the way he is able
to use magic - that no one else other than him can do wandless magic. I'm
happy to think of Harry as very, very talented and exceptionally powerful,
but I think it would be hokey for Harry to have "super-powers" that
*nobody* else has. Although that may be where the series is leading (what
with the prophecy, and all). But it would seem to go against the whole
"choices" theme - if Voldemort can only be killed by some special, inborn,
one-off power of Harry's, then where exactly does a choice come into play?

And finally, a question that occurred to me which wasn't mentioned here:
There are several mentions of there being a drought in the Southeast this
particular summer. I wonder if there is some significance to this for Harry
and the WW, in addition to the difficulties and lack of sleep it's causing
the residents of Privet Drive in having to get up at all hours of the night
to water their gardens in secret. <G>

Cheers!
Wendy