[HPforGrownups] Mark Evans

[Julie Stevenson]

No: HPFGUIDX 88549

Andrew stated:
>Hardback page 143 "The Hearing".
>
>"Dumbledore stood up and gave MRs. Figg his chair, conjuring a second one for 
> himself.
>'Full name?' said Fudge loudly, when Mrs. Figg had perched herself nervously on 
> the very edge of her seat.
>'Arabella Doreen Figg,' said MRs. Figg in her quavery voice.
>'And who exactly are you?' said Fudge, in a bored and lofty voice.
>'I', a resident of Little Whinging, close to where Harry Potter lives,' said 
> Mrs. Figg.
>'We have no record of any witch or wixard living in Little Whinging other than 
> Harry Potter,' said Madam Bones at once. 'That situation has always been 
> closely monitored, given...given past events.'"
>
> This seems to ruin any theories about Mark Evans.

Yes and no. It all depends on what their definition of 'witch or wizard' is. 
Clearly, they define Harry as a wizard, even though he's not of legal age 
(17) yet, and he hasn't finished Hogwarts. However, Harry does use magic on 
a regular basis when he's in school, so that might be part of the 
definition.

What we don't know is, do they define as a wizard someone who possesses 
magical ability, but perhaps hasn't used it yet, or is untrained in magic? 
If Mark is 10, then he's not of age yet to have gotten his letter inviting 
him to Hogwarts, and so he might not be defined as a wizard.

Or...perhaps Mark Evans doesn't live in Little Whinging. Maybe he's a 
visitor to some relatives for the summer, and he's come on enough of a 
regular basis that others living in the area have come to know who he is.

Or perhaps Mark isn't magical at all. But let's look at what Rowling tells 
us about him:

<OotP Chapt. 1 (American hardback edition), pg 13>
"So who've you been beating up tonight?" Harry asked, his grin fading. 
"Another ten-year-old? I know you did Mark Evans two nights ago --"

Now, there are two key things to note here. First, his age. Ten years of age 
is one year shy of the age when students get their invitation to Hogwarts, 
if they've got the magical gift. And she didn't have to give us that age 
either, if it wasn't intended to catch our attention. Harry could've said, 
"So who've you been beating up tonight? Another little kid? I know you 
did..." etc.

And the second thing to note is the name. Rowling certainly has never been 
at a loss for names, and the majority of her names have meaning to them. So 
it's not likely that she ran out of ideas of what to call this toss-off 
character reference or forgot that she's used the surname 'Evans' before. 
The quote could have been, "I know you did Ajay Pancholy two nights ago --" 
And we wouldn't have thought anything of it.

But the fact of the matter is, she specified an age for Mark that sets off 
alarms in the heads of people who are familiar with the HP universe details, 
and she used a name that she had previously stated in interviews as being 
the name of Harry's mother. And of course as we read further in OotP, we get 
to see Lily addressed as 'Evans' during the Pensieve sequence in Chapt. 28, 
which confirms this.

So, from this we have three possibilities, as I see it --

1) This information was given for a reason, and it will become important (or 
at least worthy of note) in book 6 or 7;
2) This is a red herring that Rowling's put in to tease her readers -- we'll 
never hear about Mark again after this one mention; or...
3) We'll hear about Mark again, but not in the way we expect it to happen.

Actually, knowing how Rowling loves to keep readers on their toes, I think 
the 3rd option is the most likely. Remember how everyone was guessing about 
Mrs. Figg before book 5 was published, after all. But the rule of thumb I 
always keep in mind while reading these books is... Rowling never does 
anything for no good reason. Yes, she has her minor errors here and there. 
But this doesn't fall into that category. She knew full well what she was 
doing when she mentioned Mark here.

-- Julie

_________________________________________________________________
Find out everything you need to know about Las Vegas here for that getaway.  
http://special.msn.com/msnbc/vivalasvegas.armx