Etiquette WAS Re: polite Dumbledore?

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 142687

> >>Betsy Hp: 
> > I do think think this shows that Dumbledore could not have      
> > bullied the Dursleys into treating Harry better.  If he'd done  
> > something similar when Harry was young, I think Harry would have 
> > been on a street corner as soon as Dumbledore left Privet Drive 
> > and the Dursleys would have had their bags packed and plane     
> > tickets for parts unknown in their pockets.  Because the         
> > Dursleys *were* terrified, and yet they still refused to drink  
> > the mead.

> >>Lupinlore: 
> Hmmm.  I'm not at all sure it shows any such thing.  Dumbledore    
> was engaging in what amounts to a parlor trick, and I'm not sure I 
> would agree that the the Dursleys were terrified.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
To my mind, the fact that Vernon didn't force (or try, anyway) 
Dumbledore to leave, that Dudley didn't try to flee the room, that 
once thrown onto the couch (and they were rather violently knocked 
onto the couch) they didn't try and stand up, suggests that they 
were quite terrified.  Terrified into submission, as it were.  To a 
point.

The fact that they *still* had the wherewithal to refuse to drink 
the mead suggests that there is a rather fixed spine within them (or 
maybe a certain level of opstinance).  They will only go so far, but 
after that, they stop.  If Dumbleodore had overtly threatened any of 
the Dursleys, I think they'd have once again refused to drink the 
mead.  Harry would be out, and they'd flee.

> >>Valky:
> <snip>
> We simply do know he [Dumbledore] was not malicious for a start,   
> his intentions were entirely above board. I honestly think the     
> Dursleys knew that as well as we do.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Do we?  I thought Dumbledore was being rather deliberately rude with 
the Dursleys in this scene.  (I'm still confused about what book of 
etiquette says the polite thing to do if someone refuses a drink is 
to knock them repeatedly over the head.) 

Dumbledore, actually acts very much like a mob boss in this scene, I 
think.  He takes special notice of the most vulnerable of the 
Dursleys (Dudley) he pulls a weapon when Vernon starts to assert 
himself and forces the Dursleys into a submissive position, and then 
he treats them to continual physical humiliation.  That he does so 
with a quiet voice and a sweet smile would only increase the fear 
for the Dursleys, IMO.  (A "strictly business" sort of thing.)

Again, in some ways the Dursleys have been asking for it for a long 
while now.  But, as per usual with JKR, she takes it about two steps 
too far for me.  And what should have been enjoyable farce becomes 
slightly uncomfortable for me to watch.  What's difficult for me to 
decide is if JKR *means* for me to be uncomfortable or if she really 
does subscribe to the "beat them 'til they bleed" school of 
thought.  It's the same problem I have with the twins, the treatment 
of Draco, etc.

Betsy Hp