muggle baiting vs. muggle torture

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 155412

Steven1965aaa wrote:
<snip> 
> They didn't go after Dudley because he is a muggle, they went after 
> him because he's a prat and a bully himself, he just happened to be 
> a muggle.  That's the difference from the death eaters who levitated 
> those people at the World Cup BECAUSE they were muggles.  Also they 
> have gone after magical prats like Umbrige.  The toffee was comic 
> relief and Dudley deserved it.
>
Carol responds:
Maybe they didn't go after Dudley *because* he's a Muggle, but they
did go after him *knowing* that he's a Muggle, and that both he and
his parents would be helpless and terrified.  Whether Dudley deserved
it or not, it was not their job to punish him--nor did the punishment
have any permanent effect except to give the Dursleys firmer grounds
for hating and fearing the WW. It certainly did not improve their
treatment of Harry.

As for the toffee being comic relief, that's your opinion, not fact. I
for one don't find gagging on your own greatly engorged tongue funny.
If it happened to me, I'd be terrified. If the incident were meant as
harmless comic relief, they should have given Dudley a canary
cream--one moment of startled terror and he'd be back to himself
because the spell wears off almost instantly, with no pain and no fear
that he was going to die. The Twins could have their laugh and vanish
up the chimney with no effort from Arthur required to "sort it out."

If I want comedy in the HP books, I'll look up the Luna Lovegood
passages. The Rotfang Conspiracy is (IMO) laugh-aloud funny. (Harry
thought so, too, or he wouldn't have inhaled his mead up his nose.
Notice that he *didn't* laugh at what was happening to Dudley.) Luna
never seeks revenge on the many people who underestimate and mistreat
her. She trusts that the people who take her belongings will return
them at the end of the year and they always do, perhaps feeling a bit
ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of a little oddball.

The other characters--Harry, Hermione, Ron, the Twins, Snape, and many
others--could learn a lesson from Luna.

Carol, tired of pranks and cruelty and pointless revenge, and hoping
that Book 7 will take us in an entirely different direction once we
get past the Harry-Snape confrontation