Vernon's biggotry, what if....just a speculation

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 161358

Carla (Ball) McCulley wrote:
>
> <snip> There has been alot of speculation about Vernon and Petunia
and the possibility of the magical community being a part of their
lives in another manner other than through Lily.  Petunia's  hatred is
clearly jealousy of her sister ("But for mother and father, oh no, it
was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud to have a witch in the
family,"  PS, chap 4).  But Vernon's apparent hatred of the WW is so
intense that it seems to be an ingrained behaviour past just the fear
of something different.
> 
> It's been established in canon that Lily was muggle born, so we
> can't have another Witch or Wizard there.  We've met Marge and
> Vernon wants her to know nothing about Harry's abilities, so it's
> doubtful of an apparent witch or wizard in Vernon's immediately
> family as well.  But wouldn't it be a kick in the pants if one of
> Vernon's parents was a Squib and the shame of it forced him/her into
> the muggle world and to hide his/her magical roots in order to be
> accepted?  I would love to see the look on old Vernon's face finding
> out that the shame of being "normal" is why Vernon's parent was cast
> out....perhaps by a family of pure-bloods as hateful as the
> Malfoys!  I know I'm stretching here, but it would still be a hoot
> and a very interesting twist.  Opinions??  How do you think he would
> react at finding something like this out.  I haven't seen anyone
> else mention this, so if it's already been touched on, I apologize.

Carol responds:
We've been told in every book that Vernon is a Muggle, and certainly
his sister Marge has no knowledge of the magical world. I seem to
recall JKR saying that Vernon has no magical powers. she has
definitely told us that Petunia and Dudley don't, and their chances,
given Petunia's sister being a witch, were greater than his. There's
been no foreshadowing of magical powers for Vernon. IMO, he's the
arch-Muggle, representing the fear of magic among those Muggles who
are aware of its existence but have no way of defending themselves
against it. Certainly, this fear is intensified once Dudley has been
given a pig's tail that has to be surgically removed and again after
the ton-tongue toffee and Dementor incidents. I think that Vernon
views magic as abnormal, unnatural, and dangerous. He wants to stamp
it out of Harry, to make him "normal."

Petunia, on the other hand, has some conception of magic from the
beginning, having lived with Lily during Lily's childhood and her
summer holidays (rats into teacups and frog spawn in her pockets,
conversations about Dementors, Azkaban, etc.). Clearly, Petunia knows
more than Vernon does about Voldemort and the events at Godric's
Hollow, and Dumbledore has corresponded with her rather than Vernon at
least twice. She also seems to know who Sirius Black is, and to
believe, as the WW does, that he betrayed her sister. For all these
reasons, I think that Petunia's fear of magic is different from
Vernon's, based on her awareness of Dark magic and its consequences
rather than, as she pretends as a cover story for Vernon, a fear of
what the neighbors will think. She knows, as Vernon does not, what can
happen to Harry if they refuse to allow him to stay in their house. I
wonder if Dumbledore has told her that Harry's magic must be kept
hidden from the neighbors, just in case the Death Eaters might hear
about it.(?) Which is not to say that Petunia wasn't jealous of Lily,
but something else is going on. Contrary to her nature, she's had to
keep secrets all this time, and on two occasions this repressed
knowledge comes bursting out of her, first when Hagrid shows up to
tell Harry that he's a wizard and deliver his Hogwarts letter and
again after the Dementor attacks Dudley. That she knows something
she's keeping from Vernon, and that her reasons are different from
his, has been apparent to me from the first chapter of the first book.
But unless the narrator is more than usually unreliable here, all
three Dursleys are Muggles incapable of performing magic under any
circumstances.

Carol, who thinks that the person who will perform magic late in life
under dire circumstances (can't remember the exact phrasing) is Figgy