Is Dudley...slow?

[ericoppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 117699


I've sometimes wondered if a lot of Petunia's attitudes couldn't be 
explained by saying that Dudley's...slow of wit.  What I think is now 
called a "special-needs child", although the PC authorities may have 
come up with fresh euphemisms.  

If she and Vernon knew they had a child with special needs, that 
would explain a lot of their resentment of Harry.  Here they are, 
with the child they had longed for turning out defective, and, to rub 
it in, they get their already-unwanted nephew, son of Petunia's much-
resented sister-who-was-the-star-of-the-family, dumped on them, and 
he's bright and normal!  

Having a child like the sort I'm referring to is really, really hard 
on the parents, and some of them take refuge in proving that denial 
isn't just a river in Egypt.  They'll insist long and loud that their 
precious child is _normal,_ and don't you dare forget it, Mister!  If 
anything, they're even more protective of their children than 
ordinary parents...and doesn't _that_ sound familiar?

I can't remember anything at all in canon that implies that Dudley's 
even normally intelligent.  He never reads (while reading wasn't as 
big a thing for my classmates as it was for me, they all could and 
did), his grades are lousy, and he often behaves a lot like a person 
a lot younger than his chronological age.   True, he got into 
Smeltings---but not being familiar with that sort of pseudo-public-
school, I don't know whether or how much Vernon was able to pull 
strings to get him in.  About the only school system I'm personally 
familiar with is the US public system.

About the only thing in canon that militates against my theory is 
that Dudley, unlike _most_ mentally-slow children, has a nasty 
disposition.  However, that doesn't mean anything in and of itself; 
_most_ such people are gentle and sweet, but that doesn't preclude 
individual variance.

Comments?  *donning Howlerproof armour*