[HPforGrownups] Re: Petunia

[Paula "Elanor Pam"]

No: HPFGUIDX 114089

ChrisT wrote:

> [Petunia] says how they were thrilled to have a witch in the family. This
> could mean that they showed slight favouritism towards Lily, who I
> believe to be the youngest and the one that most parents show the
> most favouritism to in general.

As the youngest in my own house I feel forced to say that parents don't
exactly "show the most favoritism" to younger siblings. What usually happens
is that they have more experience dealing with kids after the first one(s).
The older kid too, usually feel like the younger one is his/her
responsability, and shows indignance when his/her parents try to treat
him/her as a kid as well, when deep down they want to be patted in the head
as well, if you get what I mean.

I'll use my own experience to illustrate my point: My sister was very
overprotective of me, and defended me from the bullies at school (I was the
typical bully magnet). At the same time, if I ever happened to receive more
praise or attention than she did, she'd act nonchalant but be snappish at me
later. We've never been the kind to have "sibling fights", but still I think
she used to resent me, sometimes. She also gave me suggestions or even
ordered me around in the matters in which she considered herself superior to
me. I think it only stopped when we started showing our professional
inclinations - they were just to different to be compared (physics and
arts), so we didn't have much reasons to be jealous of the other. She LIKED
physics, I LIKED arts, and we'd never butt in the other's subject.

I feel that what went between Petunia and Lily (if Petunia WAS the older
sibling) is that, when Lily received her letter, it took her away from under
Petunia's wings. Lily wouldn't depend on Petunia anymore, and she'd be able
to do things Petunia wouldn't be able to do. And unlike my sister, who's
happy enough being able to barely draw charts, Petunia really was interested
in Lily's subject, and it unfortunately was beyond the greatest of her
efforts to learn. If Petunia learned physics, Lily could learn it as well;
but Petunia would never learn magic. At first, her pride as older sibling
was destroyed, and with time her curiousity and impotency started to gnaw
painfully on her. Lily had what was an inhuman power in Petunia's eyes; the
latter's mind probably came up with a thousand ways Lily could control her
instead of her controling the younger one. (Note: older siblings do like to
control the younger ones. Sometimes they don't see it, sometimes they think
it's for the best, sometimes they're just bad siblings. >.>) She probably
feared and envyed(sp?) the power she thought Lily had, and grew bitter and
wary of her and other wizards because of it.

If she was the younger sibling, she was probably very excited with the
prospect of receiving a Hogwarts letter as well, and was beyond disappointed
when it didn't. She was fated to a boring world, where she'd be nothing more
than a face in the crowd, and, in her bitterness, she decided to embrace it
with all her being out of sheer spite. We can add fear of her now more
powerful older sibling, and the results would be similar.

That was my take on the subject. Sorry for the long email.

Elanor Pam, newbie, brazilian, 18 years old, capricornian, likes manga,
books and metal. Studies japanese, piano and arts.

"Believing in people can save them" - Oboe, Violinist of Hameln, Vol. 16,
Chapter 1 -- http://elanor-pam.deviantart.com

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