[HPforGrownups] Twins and Duddley/Snape as an abuser

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 145522

BAW:

> It seems to me that you don't see the difference between what
> the Twins did to Dudley and what the Death Eaters did to the
> Robinson family at the QWC.

Magpie:

I see some things that are different and some things that are the same. 
This is a position I find myself in a lot in HP fandom.


BAW:

> The Robinsons were minding their own business when a bunch of
> Death Eaters came along and levitated them upside down just for
> the fun of it.

Magpie:

Yes.

BAW:
> Dudley had made a career of tormenting his younger, smaller,
> weaker cousin, and had made a habit of eating anything that
> didn't eat him first.

Magpie:

Perhaps the Robinsons had a similar career.  I don't know anything about 
them.  Regardless I've already acknowledged about a dozen times that I know 
who Dudley is and the type of person he is, and that still doesn't make the 
twins robots who couldn't help but do what they did, nor does it make them 
saints acting out of altruism.  Just as, if Dudley were to suddenly gain 
magical powers and he showed up at the Weasleys and did something to them to 
get back at the twins for pranking him, I would consider him acting on his 
own volition.

I realize that the scene is different given the histories of everyone 
involved. I still feel the same way about the scene as I've been describing.

BAW:

Now he was at the other end of the
> torment AND as a direct consequence of his inability to refrain
> from stuffing his fat, ugly face.

Magpie:

Yes, I get that he is now the one being tormented and that he is fat fat fat 
(a crime in itself, apparently). The DEs Magically torment Muggles they are 
not personally annoyed with.

BAW:

> The Death Eaters would have tormented any Muggles who had the misfortune 
> to have come into their range.  The Twins visited retribution upon someone 
> who had injured their friend.

Magpie:

Yes, the twins certainly have no history of Pranking people other than those 
who have earned retribution by injuring their friend.  They get no fun out 
of Pranking otherwise.  Look, I'm not saying the twins are DEs, but I also 
don't see them as being so different there's nothing they could possibly 
have in common with them in any way.  I think it would be better to 
acknowledge those similarities than insist they have nothing in common.  As 
a Muggle I wouldn't trust being around either side.

-m