muggle baiting vs. muggle torture

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 155349

PJ wrote:
><snip>
> What they know is that *no one* has been injured by those candies 
> and they don't expect the results with Dudley to be any different.  
> They grew up enjoying candies that, for us would be deadly -like 
> acid pops - and don't know that muggles don't have the same 
> tolerance for these things.  Why would they?  They're still kids 
> with little or no interaction with actual muggles!  

Carol responds:
The Twins know that Dudley is a Muggle and that he can't defend
himself magically. They view Muggles as generally inferior to Wizards,
so they probably know, or suspect, that Muggles are less tolerant of
potion-laced candies than Wizards. It's possible that they don't
understand that Dudley is really suffering, but I think even a wizard
would suffer from a greatly enlarged and elongated tongue. And they
certainly should anticipate Dudley's terror, even if they can't
anticipate Aunt Petunia attempting to tear Dudley's tongue from his mouth.

Since no one is quoting from the scene, I'll do it.

"At that moment, however, a *horrible gagging sound erupted* behind
him, and Aunt Petunia started to scream.

". . . Dudley . . . was kneeling beside the coffee table, and he was
gagging and sputtering on a foot-long, purple, slimy thing that was
protruding from his mouth. One bewildered second later, Harry realized
that the foot-long thing was Dudley's tongue . . . .

". . . Far from being reassured [by Mr. Weasley's words], the Dursleys
became more panic-stricken. Aunt Petunia was sobbing hysterically,
tugging Dudley's tongue as though determined to rip it out; Dudley
appeared to be suffocating under the combined pressure of his mother
and his tongue . . . " (GoF Am. ed. 49).

Uncle Vernon is completely out of control, "bellowing like a wounded
hippo" and throwing ornaments at Mr. Weasley. The last thing Harry
sees before he leaves is Dudley's tongue "lolling around like a great
slimy python" (50). I'd say that the whole family is being tormented,
emotionally if not physically (in Dudley's case, both).

However, I've already made my points on Dudley baiting, and I want to
focus on something else here. You said that "no one has been injured
by those candies." While that's probably true of the puking pastilles
and fainting fancies, Katie Bell nearly bled to death when Fred gave
her the wrong end of a nosebleed nougat (or whatever it was) and had
to be sent to the hospital wing. And we don't see Fred and George
testing ton-tongue toffees on first years (fortunately). Dudley
appears to be the first--and last--victim of this particular candy. 

Maybe Fred and George learned a lesson from this particular experiment
cum "practical" joke, which really isn't funny (and seems more than
usually dangerous). Unfortunately, it probably wasn't that Muggles,
however flawed, are human, too, or that it isn't their place to punish
strangers for bullying their friends.

Carol, who thinks that the Twins should confine their displays of
loyalty to rescuing Harry from his bedroom in a flying Ford Anglia and
similar exploits, not tormenting his Muggle relatives, whose faults
will not be remedied by their interference