CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS: Chapter One - Dudley Demented (yes, this is a repost)

[adsong16]

No: HPFGUIDX 82434

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "bluesqueak" <pipdowns at e...> 
wrote:

> Order of the Phoenix Chapter One
> 
> Chapter Discussion Summary and Questions
> 
> This chapter starts with Harry hiding under a flowerbed, trying to 
> hear the TV news without being seen. It establishes that Harry isn't 
> a cute little boy any longer; he looks pinched and unhealthy, his 
> jeans are dirty and the soles of his trainers flapping.
> 
> Is this a choice of Harry's? Previously his clothes have been 
> secondhand and too big for him, but there was no mention of their 
> being worn out or dirty.

I think this shows how increasingly estranged he has become from the 
Dursleys, so that now they don't even bother to make sure he's cleaned up (=
 
or maybe he has refused to be around long enough for them to do anything 
about it).

> 
> 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.

The relationship must be getting worse and worse, not the least because the=
 
last time the Dursleys had to spend any kind of time with Harry they ended =
up 
with the living room destroyed and Dudley gagging on a giant tongue.

snip
> 
> Was Uncle Vernon right not to trust Harry? Harry did have an 
> ulterior motive for watching the news, which he hasn't shared with 
> them.

On the one hand, Uncle Vernon is reaping the ill will he's sown on Harry si=
nce 
he was one year old. On the other, the Dursley's various encounters with 
Harry's "lot" can;t possibly create trust in Uncle Vernon, as he ennumerate=
s to 
Harry in the following chapter.

[snip]
> 
> Unfortunately, he hits his head on the open window. Uncle Vernon 
> grabs him and demands that he puts his wand away. Suddenly he finds 
> Harry impossible to hold. 
> 
> Why?
> 

Harry tends to do magic without trying and without a wand when he is under =

great stress, like here (Uncle Vernon was choking him) and later with the 
Lumos (when he was facing the dementors). Conveniently, we have seen 
none of this wandless magic in other sticky situations, notable the encount=
ers 
with LV ( sure could have used it while tied to that gravestone). Maybe 
wandless magic only works in the Muggle world?

[snip]

> Harry is angry at Ron and Hermione – so angry that he threw their 
> presents away (which he now regrets). Again, is this another 
> foreshadowing – is Harry's anger mainly harming himself? He feels 
> that they are enjoying themselves at the Burrow while he is stuck at 
> Privet Drive. Does this prove to be fair?

Harry is very moody in this book, not just angry. A mixture of hormones and=
 
post-traumatic stress, no doubt. In this chapter Harry tends to wallow in h=
is 
own anger and frustration, which is typical teenager and typically unfair t=
o his 
friends.

> After a mere four weeks, Harry is full of impatience. He feels 
> abandoned by Dumbledore, his friends and his guardian. Has he been 
> abandoned?
> 
I think here we find a foreshadowing about how the lack of information Harr=
y 
is forced to deal with causes more trouble than it would have if DD had tol=
d 
Harry the truth. Had Harry known that he is protected only in Privet Drive,=
 that 
people were following him for his own protection, and that both the Ministr=
y 
and LV have dark designs for him, he may not have dawdled in a dark alley 
teasing Dudley. The dementors might not have found him outside, and the 
whole hearing affair would have been avoided (granted, the book would have =

been much less interesting ;-) but you get my meaning)
[snip]
> 
> Harry tries to produce the Patronus, but he can't think of happy 
> enough thoughts. The Dementors hands are closing on his throat when 
> he realises that if he doesn't do something, he'll never see Ron and 
> Hermione again.
> 
> Is this a *happy* thought? Harry produces his best and most powerful 
> Patronus's not when he is concentrating on a happy memory, but when 
> he's thinking that he's about to lose something that makes him 
> happy. His friends. Is this in keeping with Lupin's instructions in 
> PoA, that a Patronus is produced by concentrating on a happy thought?
> 
I agree with kirikat2001 that this is analogous to the emotion that allows =
him to 
escape LV's possession. Dementors feed off of people's best emotions and 
produce the worst emotions (fear, hopelessness, etc). The patronus is an 
embodiment of those best emotions, but the dementors can;t feed off it. 
Clearly happiness is only one of those emotions.

> The Patronus saves Harry, and Harry then turns his Patronus on the 
> Dementor attacking Dudley. Dudley is clamping his hands over his 
> mouth. Muggles are not supposed to see Dementors – is this a sign 
> that Dudley has magic in him? Or is it a sign that Dudley trusts 
> Harry more than Harry thinks?
> 
> Is Harry rescuing Dudley a sign of Harry's inner goodness? Or does 
> Harry care for his cousin more than he thinks he does?

I think this scene, as much as the revelation that Petunia has knowingly sa=
ved 
Harry's life by taking him in, shows that the Dursleys are not as unredeema=
bly 
awful as we think. Sure, Harry wouldn't have left anyone to be kissed by a =

dementor, but at the same time Harry's first reaction is too tell Dudley ho=
w to 
defend himself... I smell some sort of reconciliation coming, maybe not wit=
h 
Uncle Vernon, but definitely with the rest of Lily's blood relatives.

Gorda