Oop: Spoilers - Petunia's kitchen

[kenyonkrish2]

No: HPFGUIDX 62933

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lily_paige_delaney" 
<lily_paige_delaney at y...> wrote:
> Is anyone else suspicious about the constant references to 
> Petunia's ultra clean kitchen?  
> LPD

Yes, indeed. It didn't seem to me so much a "clue" as a bit of 
character development (if OCD is characterization), yet there may be 
more to it. 

I was reminded of the mother in *Libra* (Don DeLillo). The son in 
question is an assassin (Lee Harvey Oswald). His mother defends 
herself by repeatedly saying that she did the best she could, and she 
kept a neat house. 

It's a technique to absolve onself, to Pilate-like wash not only 
one's hands, but one's entire house. Maybe, just maybe, it suggests 
that she harbors some guilt in Lily's and James's deaths. Maybe that 
adds to the blood magic, mentioned at the end of OotP, of Lily's 
death *and Petunia taking in Harry,* perhaps because she had blood on 
her hands, not merely in her veins. 

Wildly Speculating,
TK