OOP: Those Evans Girls WAS (Spoilers!) Re: OOP: Thoughts and more thoughts

[jmgarciaiii]

No: HPFGUIDX 64879

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[snip]
> 6. Here's one of several comments about Petunia/Lily/their 
parents. Firstly, if as someone suggested, the Evans were a pair of 
Squibs who got married, had Petunia (non-magical) and Lily 
(magical), then Petunia wouldn't be a squib, she'd just be a muggle, 
as a squib is a non-magical child born of Wizarding parents. Lily 
would be a muggle-born witch. This having been said, I do think (as 
many have suggested) that although Petunia acts like she may have 
been the oldest, that she was younger- someone (I believe it was 
lizcrosssmith) said exactly what I thought, which was that Lily gets 
a letter saying she's a lost member of this wonderful hidden world, 
she comes home and shows her younger sister (who of course looks up 
to her, as all little sisters do) all these tricks and neat things 
she can do, and then Petunia doesn't recieve a letter saying that 
she, too, is "special". This would be a particular upset if since 
their parents were so excited that they had a witch in the family. 
To play the devil's advocate, if the Evans' had been a wizarding 
family, making Petunia a squib, they would have rather been 
expecting a letter to show up- they probably would have already 
known that she was a witch, and Petunia a Squib, before the letter 
would have come, anyway. In other words, they wouldn't have been 
surprised to get a letter for Lily from Hogwarts. Besides, the 
Weasley's weren't waiting for a letter from Hogwarts to confirm that 
their children were magical, right? 
> 

Further thoughts on my part over That Wacky Evans Family. [Caveat: 
This is all my own set of suppositions based on conjecture, hunch 
and semi-organized speculation.]

Pa Evans, Squib marries Ma Evans, Squib. They move to life amomg the 
Muggles, adopting a goodly bit of Muggleness, but not QUITE. They 
still pine (much like Argus Filch pines) for the ability to do 
magic. They have Petunia, Squib. Then they have Lily, witch. 
Petunia's not all that crazy about the remnants of wizarding culture 
still to be found in her family, and tries to REALLY fit in among 
the Muggles (in the case of people who belong to certain 
ethnic/religious minorities who are attempting to assimilate into 
the larger culture, this sort of behavior is called "trying to 
pass"). Petunia's 11th comes and goes without any sort of owlish 
disruption. But THEN Lily's 11th rolls by and ta-da, she gets the 
owl with the letter. She now becomes the "perfect one" the one 
through whom Ma & Pa Evans can live the wizarding life vicariously. 
Petunia buries herself even deeper in Muggleitude, rejects her 
family (besides Lily...are there ANY OTHER maternal relatives of HP 
mentioned?) entirely, and thinks her sister freakish, thanking her 
(Petunia's) lucky stars she was not saddled with the freakishness.

> 13. Now here I'm very sure I'm in the vast minority (I'm thinking 
perhaps 10 people out of our 8300 may think this as well). The 
relationship between Sirius and Harry has always bothered me, even 
last year, and definately this year (OoP). They've known one another 
less than two years, and yet Harry is willing to listen almost 
exclusively to what Sirius has to say. He won't go to Dumbledore, he 
won't ask anyone else for advice, and I'm not sure I understand why. 
He's known Dumbledore, the Weasleys, even Lupin longer and better... 
Why go exclusively to Sirius for advice and counsel? I'm thinking 
this way- if I was told I had a sister I never knew I had, and 
someone introduced us, I wouldn't instantly love them just because 
someone said she was my sister. Yet this is how I think it happened 
with Sirius and Harry. Why does he love Sirius any more than Lupin, 
or Molly, or Dumbledore? He's known those three longer; they too 
have his best interests at heart; Molly even thinks of him as her 
own son. Is it just because Sirius has the title godfather, or 
because he's one of Harry's father's best friends? 
>


I guesstimate that HP felt the level of affection for SB for the 
simple reason he was, in HP's mind, the ticket out of #4 Privet. 
He'd live with Sirius, he'd leave the Dursleys forever and all would 
be right with the world.


> I was touched when Harry was part of Mrs. Weasley's Woes. I think 
part of what bothered me so much about the H/S relationship in this 
book is that Sirius didn't seem to have Harry's best interests at 
heart for quite a bit of the book- he was reckless, a little 
selfish, and so that bothers me. Perhaps, when I can articulate my 
thoughts and feelings on this matter a little more clearly, I will 
post about it. Hehe. 
>

I would also lean in this direction. I am mildly saddened that SB 
had to be the first major character to assume room temperature, but 
I am not grief-stricken by this. The scene with Neville and his 
mother was, to my mind, infinitely more touching.

-Joe in SoFla