The wages of gluttony.

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 145446

Gerry:
> They played a trick on them. His tongue got engorged and Arthur fixed
> it. Not really nice, but quite a good practical joke from a wizarding
> point of view. It is not sadistic, not criminal. Just a practical
> joke. Ofcourse for a Muggle it will be hugely different. But I pointed
> out already that I don't think wizards really get that. And in
> Dudley's case, I don't think the Muggle argument is really that
> important, because he perfectly well knew he was eating wizarding
> candy. I don't like practical jokes, but I don't see the fuss. 
>
Pippin:
Strictly speaking it was criminal -- a violation of the statute of secrecy,
if nothing else. Harry's prosecution over the dementor attack shows
that Dudley's prior knowledge of the wizarding world would not
have been an excuse.

But the twins were stepping out of their usual role here.
Generally, they are jesters, and the point of their jokes is that anyone
can be fooled, even, and most especially, figures in authority. The
twins themselves can be fooled, as they found out when they 
discovered Ginny had been using their brooms.


It's interesting that they target Percy, while Hermione and Snape who are
every bit as officious and almost as full of themselves, go unscathed.
Percy's problem, IMO, is that he thinks his position ought to protect him,
while Hermione and Snape have no trouble skirting the rules when they 
are crossed and can get quite nasty too.


But Montague and Dudley were targeted as punishment, and the 
fact that the vanishing cabinet eventually backfired on the Twins shows, I 
think, that JKR does not entirely approve. 

Pippin