[HPforGrownups] Re: The wages of gluttony.

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 145469

festuco:
> That is not what Arthur is fighting against, i.m.h.o. There are
> certain wizards who think it funny to play magical 'tricks' on Muggles
> because they are Muggles. It is their idea of fun, and is based on the
> idea that wizards are superior to Muggles. And Arthur is firmly
> against that idea. That is not what the twins were doing at all. They
> don't like Dudley because he bullies Harry. And that is why they
> played the joke on him. That he is also a Muggle does not interest
> them at all.

Magpie:

Arthur is interested in Muggles in general.  He now has a chance to go the 
house of some, obnoxious as they may be, and his kids show up and play a 
Prank on the kid that makes his tongue swell up.  I'd think it was common 
sense that any good parent would teach their children not to do something 
like this when they went to someone's house no matter how they feel about 
the boy who lives there--or how much of a glutton you think they are.

Muggle-baiting does not depend on your motivations for Pranking, it has to 
do with using Magic on a Muggle.  I may consider Arthur a hypocrite for 
using memory charms on Muggles but it's pretty obvious he considers what the 
twins do outside of what's okay.  Does he himself say this is Mugglebaiting? 
Seems to me he spoke up for himself in the chapter and said yes, this is 
what he thought.  We've yet to meet a Wizard in canon who didn't think that 
Wizards were superior to Muggles that I can remember, and every time a 
wizard decides to "punish" a Muggle using magic they're proving they think 
that way.

Potioncat:
To take this in a different direction, gluttony comes up more than
once, sort of.

 Hermione uses Crabbe and Goyle's gluttony to trap them when the Trio
tries out the Polyjuice Potion.

Both Tom Riddle and Harry Potter use Slughorn's love of food to get
secrets from him.

The twins were getting back at Dudley for his treatment of Harry, and
testing the candy at the same time.

Magpie:

Yes, frankly, the books just seem to find fat people hilarious (while 
occasionally making Harry indignant when the proper weight euphamism isn't 
used about someone he likes).  Ironically, people who spend time on the 
Internet are often stereotyped as fat gluttons as well.  Personally, when I 
read the toffee scene I think more about the wages of Shamelessness (aka 
Lust, meaning not treating other people with dignity).

-m