DD at the Dursleys: Why do people dislike the scene?

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 157522

Let us turn our attention for a moment to a scene that gets a lot of 
discussion and no little heat:  DD at the Dursleys at the beginning 
of HBP.  Several people have expressed discomfort with or dislike 
for this scene.  I confess to being utterly baffled.

It seems that the scene serves two purposes.  One, the more minor 
purpose, is to get Harry out of the house while providing some comic 
relief and maybe a couple of hints (i.e. Petunia's blush) as to what 
might be coming.

The second, and more important purpose, is to correct some severe 
mistakes JKR made in OOTP.  The DD that came out of that book simply 
was not the DD she wanted to sell.  He wasn't an "epitome of 
goodness," etc.  By providing that scene she managed to partially 
(although I think still not entirely) wrench the Dumbledore train 
back onto the correct track.

Yet it seems, as I say, to have provoked a distaste in some 
quarters.  As I say, I am quite baffled as to why.  The first 
purpose was served admirably.  The second purpose was not, IMO, 
served so well but was, I think, utterly necessary if she wanted 
people to take any of her statements about Dumbledore with anything 
other than a guffaw of derision.

So whence the problem?


Lupinlore