Dudley's Worst Memory

[suehpfan]

No: HPFGUIDX 92743

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, tyler maroney <tmar78 at y...> 
wrote:
> Carol:
> Either of those incidents would seem pretty terrible
> from pampered Dudley's perspective.
> 
> Tyler:
> I have a funny feeling its gonna be something more
> traumatic than that.  What if Dudley has been
> physically abused at some point in his life and he was
> forced to relive that?  Not sexually,  but maybe there
> was an adult who used to smack him around when he was
> little and it scared him so much he was afraid to say
> anything even to Uncle Vernon.  I've always had this
> feeling that Dudley must've been abused in some
> fashion;  it would help explain alot.  Abused children
> often grow up to be abusive teenagers and later
> abusive adults.


I tend to agree that if the worst thing that happened to Dudley was 
already written, JKR would have said so in the chat on the fourth.  
Because the oppressed always know the oppressor better than the 
oppressor knows the oppressed, I think we can assume Harry pretty 
much knew everything that was going on with Dudley up until he left 
for Hogwarts.  Harry seems to know every sound in the house and be 
able to read Dudley (Vernon and Petunia too, for that matter).  I 
tend to think Dudley's worst memories probably come from his years at 
Smeltings.  You can be the meanest fat kid on the block but your 
still the fat kid and there was no one at school to protect him from 
himself (or the bigger, meaner bullies at school). 

Scene: Dudley in a long line of boys waiting to be checked by the 
nurse.  In a large room with a scale in the middle 11 year old Dudley 
stands on the scale and his weight is announced for the secretary to 
write down.  I just don't think boarding school is such a great place 
for a big, fat, bullying kid who has never had to fight his own 
battles.

My two cents,
Sue