Mark Evans

[queen_astrofiammante]

No: HPFGUIDX 84961

Berit said:
>Others has already commented on the fact that not even Harry
defended himself magically every time he was cornered by Dudley and
his gang; Harry was beat up quite frequently.

Now me:

It does occur to me that Harry, having the misfortune to live with 
Dudley, would be on the sharp end of much more of his bullying than 
anyone else, to the extent that it was routine for him and had been 
all his life.

We know nothing of Mark Evans or his domestic circumstances, so we 
cannot say whether he is leading a happy or an unhappy life. But I 
would hope that the experience of being set upon by a number of large 
15-year-olds and beaten up would be an unusual one, an extreme 
situation.

Perhaps a time to employ any means at his disposal to escape their 
attention... 

I am very uneasy with this, because for my taste it is venturing way 
too far into the realms of speculation about a boy who gets barely a 
sentence or two and may never reappear. 

But I am suggesting that Dudley's bullying was nothing out of the 
ordinary for Harry, and so might be less likely to provoke an 
instinctive 'desperate measures' response, while Mark Evans would 
hopefully see it from a different perspective - it should be more of 
an extreme event for him, and more likely to trigger magic should he 
be capable of it.

I'm not sure I'd like to push this argument too far, but it is one 
way of dealing with the very valid point you have raised: why did 
Harry not employ latent magic as a defence against Dudley more often? 

A possible answer: because he was too accustomed to the bullying. 
Another possible answer: because the latent magic was not routinely  
available to him and would not necessarily be to anyone else in a 
similar situation. Take your pick (in fact, I think you have already).

Back to Berit:
> [JKR] tells us that Mark was "asking for it", and that he
is "cheeky"! I don't think Dudley is lying; I think he is describing
a boy very much alike another boy I know about who doesn't take
Dudley's bullying lying down! Yep, personality-wise I believe Mark
and Harry has something in common... :-)

I take this rather as a mirror of Dudley's personality than any 
reflection on Mark Evans - he reads the response he wants in the 
boy's reaction, the one that allows him to initiate violence. I'm 
afraid I think you might be extrapolating a bit too much from just 
three words.

But hey, where would this list be otherwise?

With all good wishes

Astrofiammante