The case for Dudley, the Latent Wizard

[Ali]

No: HPFGUIDX 83747

I wrote this post some time ago, but never actually posted it, with 
the recent discussion on Petunia, it seemed the right time to post 
it.


JKR has told us that someone will find magic late in life. To date, 
there appear to be only 4 people who could credibly find this gift. 
They are Filch, Arabella Figg, Dudley and Petunia.

There are of course many Muggles mentioned in the Potterverse. It is 
certainly possible that any one of these could develop or find 
latent magical powers. But, whilst we can hypothesise that Aunt 
Marge or Colonel Fubster might suddenly magically blow things up or 
survive being thrown out of a window, so far, neither these two, or 
any of the other characters have contributed much to the story. 
Whilst finding that they are magical might make an enormous 
difference to them, it would not appear to make a great deal of 
difference to Harry.

What would change if Filch could do magic? Filch could be quite 
dangerous. His squibness represents impotence to him. He hates the 
students who can do what he can not. And yet, IMO he is now so 
bitter, so thwarted, that I personally can not see the sudden 
emergence of magic prowess adding much to his character. He would 
continue to be unsavoury, warped and twisted.

Arabella Figg might suddenly find magical powers, and in doing so, 
might save Harry's life. That would certainly add to the story. Yet, 
even if this were to be the case, it would only be an extension of 
her role to date. Arabella's role of protector to Harry might have 
been hidden, but it was none-the-less there, and it was in fact her 
quick thinking that saved Harry from expulsion after he had fought 
off the Dementors at the beginning of OoP. 

If Arabella hadn't been suspicious of Mundungus' reliability, then 
she would not have stationed her cat as a secondary guard. She would 
not have witnessed the attack and thus provided Harry with an 
independent, if not wholly credible witness in his hearing. Nor, 
would she have been able to advise Mundungus to contact Dumbledore 
PDQ. If Dumbledore had not acted so swiftly, Harry would have been 
expelled from Hogwarts, his wand would have been destroyed – or 
Harry would have gone AWOL.

The impact on Harry if Petunia or Dudley were to access latent 
magical powers, could be immense. Petunia has spent all of Harry's 
life hating him for his magical ability and I suspect his potential 
for destroying her mundane existence. If Petunia were to discover 
that she had magical powers, she might have to reassess her whole 
relationship with Harry and the world that he belongs to. But, 
Petunia, like Filch is *so* bitter, so constrained and damaged by 
her earlier life that it is not hard to imagine her continuing to 
deny her magical ability. I cannot see her buying a beginners guide 
to magic and learning how to use a wand. She might involuntarily act 
to save Dudley, or maybe (in my dreams) Harry, but that I suspect is 
all.

Now, Dudley finding he is a wizard is a different kettle of fish 
altogether. I can almost see Petunia re-enacting the parable of the 
wind and the sun. In the parable, the wind and sun have a 
competition to see who can remove a traveller's cloak the quickest. 
The wind tries to blow the cloak off. In fact, it blows so hard that 
the traveller is nearly swept off his feet, but clutches the cloak 
even tighter around him. The sun on the other hand shines down upon 
the traveller, who feeling rather hot, removes the cloak himself. 
The moral of the story being that you can *persuade* someone to do 
what you want by friendly action, rather than forcing them to. Thus, 
if Dudley ever showed signs of magical powers as a young child, he 
was dissuaded from trying to repeat the experience, by being 
indulged in every possible aspect of his existence. Harry on the 
other hand is "squashed" in an attempt to make him "normal". The 
attempt of course fails and Harry goes off to Hogwarts. Harry spent 
his life knowing that he's not normal. Normal kids aren't kept in 
cupboards and don't receive coat hangers as birthday presents. Harry 
will revel in his magical ability as it has become a way to express 
himself, something Petunia has always denied him.

If Dudley found himself with magical ability? I like to assume that 
Dudley once did something "funny", and that it is Petunia's reaction 
to this that represents his worst memory. He might be aware of 
something strange, but just not feel the need to question it. Now, 
however, the position has changed.

He is a teenager, and however indulged he is at home, he isn't 
truthful to his parents, and by lying to them already shows the 
potential to rebel. Power and potency is something that matters to 
Dudley. He is a bully, he likes to control, he likes to win. He has 
in the past shown a marked lack of self-control. I think if he were 
now to realise that he possessed magic powers he would be unable to 
resist the temptation of trying to use them. I think that the effect 
on Petunia would be momentous.

It is not hard to assume that Petunia suffered terribly because of 
her sister's magical ability. We know she felt inferior, we know she 
lost her sister at a young age and we know that she got landed with 
her nephew. What we can suggest is that she also lost her parents 
because of Lily's magical involvement.

For Petunia to witness Dudley discovering that he is a wizard would 
surely be one of her worst fears confirmed. I think that she would 
do almost *anything* to stop Dudley entering the WW.

Now, I know people have questioned whether Dumbledore would prevent 
any child with magical abilities form entering Hogwarts. I would 
agree, that in normal circumstances, he wouldn't, but anything to do 
with Harry is a special case. If, Dumbledore thought that the only 
way he could keep Harry safe was to deny Dudley his place, then IMO, 
he would have done so.

 Think about what Dumbledore says:-

"What did I care if numbers of nameless and faceless people and 
creatures were slaughtered in a vague future, if in the here and 
now, you were alive, and well, and happy" OoP UK edition p. 739. 

Now, it could be argued that Dumbledore only feels like this after 
he has got to know Harry, but if Harry's importance to him is such 
that he could let others die, then he could certainly deprive Dudley 
of a place at Hogwarts. This is particularly so knowing how anti-
wizards, Dudley's parents are. Yep, Dudley could be magical and 
might not know - yet.

Ali