Gilding the Lily

[Bex]

No: HPFGUIDX 114520


Kneasy wondered:
> > Just one very, very oblique clue here; Petunia reacts to the 
> > name Voldemort and to the mention of Dementors. Where has she 
> > heard these before?

To which Bookworm replied:
> While Petunia recognized what the dementors are, the Dursleys
> didn't recognize Voldemort's name at first. At least Vernon
> didn't; we don't see Petunia's reaction until after Harry
> tells them Voldemort is back.  It took Vernon a few moments to 
> recognize the name – 
> 
> <<"Lord – hang on," said Uncle Vernon, his face screwed
> up, a look of dawning comprehension in his piggy eyes. "I've
> heard that name...that was the one who..."
> 
> "Murdered my parents, yes," Harry said.
> 
> "But he's gone," said Uncle Vernon impatiently, without
> the slightest sign that the murder of Harry's parents might be a
> painful topic to anybody. "That giant bloke said so.  He's
> gone."
> 
> "He's back," said Harry heavily.  <snip>
> 
> "Back?" whispered Aunt Petunia.>> [OOP, Ch2]
> 
> Vernon doesn't get the name right; he keeps calling him Lord 
> Voldythingy. But they did know what he had done. For a while I 
> thought about the theory that Voldemort had killed the senior 
> Evans, but it seems there is no connection in Vernon's mind 
> between the deaths of his in-laws and Voldemort.  If there was, I 
> think Vernon would have said something like, "Isn't he the one who 
> killed your parents, Petunia?"

Yb (cursing Yahoo, many times over) for eating her previous post:

Vernon seems (IMO) to have the tendency to be as blunt as a four-by-
four (not the block of wood; I mean the truck). But he doesn't know 
LV's name from anything except Hagrid's little talk in the island 
shack in PS/SS. That's where he remembers the name. If the Evans' 
died in suspicious circumstances, no one ever mentioned that LV had 
a part in it. That just means Vernon is being kept in the blind or 
is turning a blind eye to something. The name means nothing 
whatsoever to him, further illustrating the distance he has with the 
WW: Surely someone raising "The Boy Who Lived" would know who LV is, 
but he doesn't.

We never see Petunia's initial reaction. There is this little rule 
in the Wizarding World Press, who publishes the Hints and Clues 
books for Harry Potter books, like Cliff's Notes. If someone gets 
cut off, or JKR suddenly interrupts something, so we don't see/hear 
all of it, /it's a clue/! Petunia's reaction would probably be very 
important. When Harry says "He's back," when he eventually looks at 
Petunia, he sees fear. Was that all that was there?

I am almost CERTAIN that DD mentioned LV in the letter he left with 
Baby Harry. This little scene gives me more reason to think that 
Vernon never saw that letter. He hasn't the faintest idea who LV is, 
beyond what Hagrid said at the island shack, but Petunia certainly 
does.

~Yb