Crazy thought......

[Berit Jakobsen]

No: HPFGUIDX 89633

Berit claimed:

Mark Evans lives in Little Whinging, no doubt about that. How else
would Harry know the full name and age of a small boy he thinks is a
Muggle?

K wrote:

But do we know exactly how Harry knows about Dudley and his pals 
beating up ten year old Mark? He can't have seen it himself - 
pointless as getting involved may well have been when Dudley was with 
his gang, I can't really see Harry just walking on by and not trying 
to help the boy. So if he didn't see it he must have got the 
information from somewhere else.
In which case your argument has a fatal flaw in it. It wouldn't 
surprise me if the kid lived a little bit outside of LW - Dudley and 
gang are cowards after all, far better to beat someone up if you can 
be certain that his father/friends/brothers/whoever else cares and is 
bigger than the bullies comes along and sees it.
 

Berit replies:

Well, your objection has flaws too :-) Whether Dudley and his gang 
are cowards or not, it doesn't stop them from bullying the kids in 
their own streets:
Quote: "Neighbouring children all around were terrified of him 
[Dudley] - even more terrified than they were of 'that Potter boy' 
who, they had been warned, was a hardened hooligan and attended St 
Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys." (OoP p. 15)

Dudley and his gang are beating up neighbourhood children. Of course 
it's possible to argue that it doesn't say these children were VERY 
CLOSE neighbourhood children, but to me that is a bit silly. The 
simple way of understanding this passage is that Dudley & Co. 
terrorize their neighbourhood (and we know they have done so for a 
long time). So Mark being being beaten up AND living in Little 
Whinging is not a contradiction.

I guess it would not be in tune with Harry's character to walk by and 
not intervene if he caught Dudley and his gang beating up a 
defenseless child. Of course I could argue that since Harry is not 
allowed to use magic in the Muggle world, he wisely refrains from 
rescue missions (without the magic, the only thing Harry would 
accomplish anyway would be to be beaten to a pulp himself); also HP 
history so far has shown us a Harry that's bullied and beaten up by 
Dudley and his gang just as much as any other Little Whinging child, 
so he might not be in the mood to get too close to them. What we've 
seen so far of Harry's summer holidays, he's not too into what Dudley 
and his gang are up to; just trying to keep out of their way as much 
as possible.

But I accept that Harry might not have been an eyewitness to the 
incident himself but might have overheard Dudley and his gang 
bragging about it (I don't think any of the children of Little 
Whinging told Harry; after all they believe he is a dangerous 
criminal and won't be on friendly, talkative terms with him any day 
soon :-). But then I think it's odd that Harry would have remembered 
the full name (!) and age of this kid that's completely unknown to 
him, just after overhearing his name being spoken once. What's the 
chance of Harry caring what this little kid's name and age are? If 
Harry just overheard the story of Dudley beating up this, to him 
unknown but named child, why did he bother to "memorize" and later 
speak of him by his full name? -When he doesn't even know/remember 
the names of a lot of Hogwarts students that he has been living with 
for several years? 

Reading the text straightforward, I think it's safe to assume that 
Harry knows ten year old Mark Evans as one of the neighbourhood 
children of Little Whinging. It would be twisting the passage to read 
something else into it:

Quote:"'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 -'" (OoP p. 17)

This sounds like someone knowing fully well who he's talking about... 
Just my humble opinion :-)

Berit