When Petunia met James

[mkaliz]

No: HPFGUIDX 70303

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "fridwulfa" <rubeus_hagrid at w...> 

> Me (Izaskun)
> You see, I keep thinking "That awful boy" is not James, the way she
refers
> to him (whoever HE is) is not consistent with the way she refers to
James in
> previous books.
>
> [ excellent elaboration snipped ]

When I first read the book, my immediate thought was "That awful boy"
referred to Peter. It seemed to be the kind of think that an insecure
boy who was trying to puff himself up a bit (which was my mental image
of Peter) might do. 

On second reading, I wondered if perhaps it was some other magical
relative of the Evans'. From the way Petunia spoke about her parents
excitement over Lily's Hogwarts letter, I got the feeling that perhaps
magic was not unknown to them, but merely unusual...or a wonderful
surprise (aka "Oh Great Granny Evans was a witch, but it skipped your
grandmother's generation.") 

Unfortunately, I have no evidence to support either idea. However, I
do agree that Petunia was almost definitely not referring to James
(how's that for hedging my bets! ::g::)

--kai