"That awful boy" (Was: Petunia's comment)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 172124

Ray J wrote:
> >In the Chapter Dudley Demented while Harry and the Dursleys are
"talking" in the kitchen Petunia says "they guard the wizard
prison"(not exact quote I don't have the book here with me) she then
says "I heard that awful boy tell her"
> > 
> > Harry immediately assumes Petunia is talking about James...(Harry
has often jumped to the wrong conclusion in the past)  I think Petunia
Was Talking about Snape!
> 
Ceridwen replied:
> That has been discussed, though I don't know now if it had a thread
 of its own or not.  The most likely candidate would, in my opinion, 
be James, since he probably came to see Lily at her parents' before
they were married.  Another possibility would be Sirius, who may have
accompanied James on his visit to Lily.  It could have been Remus or
Peter, on the same possibility that they came to see Lily with James.
 Snape is a possibility, since he was a classmate of Lily's, and we
now know they were both good at Potions.
> 
> I always thought it would be funny if Petunia meant Sirius.  I
imagined a scenario where Sirius comes by with James, and Petunia 
falls for him.  When he snubs her, she starts calling him "that awful
boy".  Of course, this would mean she either knew Sirius Black, the
escaped criminal, was a wizard in PoA and connected to James, or she 
didn't connect the name to the person, so that's probably not it. >
Still, it was fun to think of before I started trying to connect dots!

Carol responds:
I thought for a long time that the "awful boy" was James, and in fact
took it for granted (always a mistake with JKR), but her coyness
regarding that question in interviews leaves me wondering--Lily is
clearly "her," but could Harry be wrong that James is "that awful
boy"? (Yeah, he was one, but that's beside the point.) Harry is often
wrong in his interpretations and Petunia doesn't respond, so the
identity of the boy is still open.

It could be Severus, though I really don't think he'd have visited a
Gryffindor at home, especially one who liked James. And while Peter
would certainly qualify as an "awful boy," it seems more likely that
James would have his best friend with him on a visit to Lily rather
than Remus or Peter.

I'm not sure why you reject Sirius as the possibility based on her
reactions. She's suppressing a lot, and the "awful boy" comment only
comes out later in relation to Dementors and Azkaban. But notice
Petunia's reaction when they see Black on the news. At first, she's
silent, but when Vernon says, "Lunatic could be coming up the street
right now!" she rushes to the window and looks out. Why do that unless
she knows that Sirius Black is a wizard who knew the Potters? And if
she believes him to be a murderer (Harry's godfather or no) as of OoP,
his youthful self would certainly qualify in her mind as an "awful boy."

Carol, who hopes that the "awful boy" is Severus and that we'll learn
more about him through Petunia but thinks, based on Petunia's reaction
to the news story, that he's more likely to be Sirius