[HPforGrownups] Re: muggle baiting vs. muggle torture

[Marion Ros]

No: HPFGUIDX 155393

Pam now:

Diet or no diet, muggles or wizards, I have often wondered about the wizarding popularity of some of the items sold in the Joke Shop. Fred and George are amassing a small fortune with their inventions, and some of them seem downright dangerous and cruel, even to other wizards. Why do wizards think turning their child's tongues into 4-foot monstrosities is hysterical? Because they can just make it go away? That's fine, but it crosses the line, I think, from funny into cruelty. I mean, in the WW, how long is one the prankster going to let their victim choke on their own tongues? That scene has always bothered me; not because Dudley is a nasty Muggle, but because it didn't wear off on its own; Arthur had to fix it. So many of Zonko's and Weasley's "jokes" seem like they'd be better used on DE's. Or BY them. Anyone?


Marion:

I just wonder about collapsable swamps (or whatever it is called - I don't have the books on me)
Who would want a collapsable/portable swamp? For what purpose?
Security? (to keep the Muggles away from your property) While there are stay-away charms or whatever? And what about if the Muggle gets lost in the swamp?
Which touches on my point: you can't use a swamp as a prank on a wizard. Wizards use a broom, a floo or they apparate to travel. They don't walk through familiar landscapes and whoopsie, it had turned overnight into a swamp.
There are folktales about fairies, pookas, witte wieven ('white ladies' - swamp gas lights) tricking poor mortals into walking through swamps and drowning them.
Why do I have the uncomfortable idea that those collapsable swamps (and many other products from their shops) are going to be used on *muggles*?

I'm going to get the Weasley fans all over me for this, but this is not just twin-bashing, it's a possibility. Muggle-baiting is not something only DEs do. Small annoyances (and bigger ones) are visited with regularity on the Muggles. We hear about enchanted teakettles and misplacing keys and hexing muggle objects to do unexpected things. The twins products would fit in. 
What the twins are doing is only slightly on this side of legal. They secretly bought illegal ingredients from Mundungus, they smuggled/stole several Dark objecs from Sirius house when 'cleaning up'.
It would be the ultimate painful confrontation when Arthur had to assist the Auror department to procure an arrest for his own sons because they supply muggle-baiters.
The twins would then try to blackmail their father with his own crime of owning an illegally charmed flying car. And they could use the fact that Harry Potter is co-owner of their shop to get out of trouble with the Ministry... They'd probably get away with it, as they got away with everything their entire lives. Unless of course Percy becomes Minister for Magic! Mwahaahah!
Sorry, it's getting *very* late and I'm indulging shamelessly in Percy-for-Minister fantasies.

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