Mimble Wimble

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 89880

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "frost_indri" <frost_indri at y...>
wrote:
> lizvega2:
> > My New Clues book talks a little about the Mimbulus Mimbletonia ( 
> I 
> > know I spelled that wrong, sorry), and it says something a long 
> the 
> > lines of 'Mimbulus Mimbletonia' meaning 'mimble wimble'- in some 
> > fashion
> <<snip>>>
> > Neville accidentally sprays stinksap on himself, Harry, Ginny, and 
> > Luna in the compartment on the Hogwarts Express on the way to 
> > school. Later, in the MOM the only ones who aren't seriously hurt 
> > are Neville, Ginny, Luna, and Harry. 
> <snip>
>  Is the plant some sort of protection device? If, so, is it too much 
> > of a coincidence that Uncle Vernon said 'mimble wimble' and Dudley 
> > was only given a tail moments later? 
> > 
> > Am I crazy? Or is there something else here?
> 
>  Frost:  
>   Well, I'm not going to argue your sanity, 'cause you might as well 
> be crazy. BUt as for your theory...
>   It could be, but then, that would imply that a spoken spell by 
> Uncle Vernon worked to protect his son. IE, Uncle Vernon would be 
> the Hidden Wizard.  
>   WHich would be very very funny.  
>   Really, he is the sort of person that, if he were to cause 
> something wierd to happen in a moment of stress when his rather 
> latent magic appeared, he would be very good at convinceing himself 
> of a very reasonable non-magic explination.  That also might be a 
> reason that he thought he could squash the magic out of Harry.  
> 
> Interesting idea.  


Carol responds:
I remember Uncle Vernon mumbling something that sounds to Harry like
"mimble wimble," but I just checked and it's not in "The Keeper of the
Keys" chapter of SS/PS. Maybe, come to think of it, it's in OoP,
"Dudley Demented"? In any case, it's not something that Uncle Vernon
mutters to protect his son. It's a reaction to something already done
that he can't control and can hardly believe.

BTW, besides the narrator's usual reference to the Dursleys as Muggles
in chapter one, we have Hagrid calling Uncle Vernon "a great Muggle
like you" and then explaining to Harry that "Muggle" is "what we call
nonmagic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a
family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on" (33). There's no
question that Vernon is a Muggle (even Dedalus Diggle calls him one),
but people on this list have raised the possibility that Petunia, as
Lily's sister, might be a squib. But surely Hagrid would know a Muggle
when he saw one and would not mistake a squib for a Muggle? Professor
McGonagall, though she doesn't use the word Muggle, does say to
Dumbledore, "You *can't* mean the people who live *here*? . . . You
couldn't find two people who are less like us. . . . Harry Potter come
and live here!" (13)It's pretty clear to me that she also sees them as
Muggles (and that her opinion of Muggles isn't very high).

Just throwing that in because whatever "mimble wimble" might mean in
the mouth of a wizard, when Vernon Dursely says it (if that's what he
says and not just what Harry hears), it's just a whimper.

Carol