Skinny characters (Was: Acceptance)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 178524

Marion wrote: 
> > I can't think of any characters who are described as skinny other
 than Harry in the first book.  I don't mean normal weight characters,
but people described in a stereotypical way such as "bony."
> 
Potioncat responded:
> hem hem, As I said before....Petunia.

Carol adds:

And "horse-faced" to boot. Poor Petunia.

There's also Trelawney, who, though not a bad guy, is a figure of fun
and a model of ineptitude:

"Harry's immediate impression was of a large, glittering insect.
Professor Trelawney moved into the firelight, and they saw that she
was very thin; her large glasses engulfed her eyes to several times
their natural size, and she was draped in a gauzy spangled shawl.
Innumerable chains and beads hung around her spindly neck, and her
arms and hands were encrusted with bangles and rings" (PoA Am. ed. 102).

Sounds like a caricature of me if I dressed up for Halloween,
actually. :-)

The resurrected Voldemort is also "skeletally thin" (GoF Am. ed. 643),
and I think we can agree that he's far more evil than any fat or
chubby character, even the pathetically weak (and formerly chubby)
Wormtail.

Carol, agreeing with Marion that "skinny" does not mean normal weight
(and unlike "slim" and "slender," or "plump" when plumpness was
fashionable, is not a compliment)