Dudley's Dementor encounter (Was: CHAPDISC: DH3, The Dursleys Departing)

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 177545

Carol earlier:
> <snip>
> > The only bad things we know of that have happened to Dudley before
the Dementor attack are the "giant" Hagrid breaking down the door of
the hut and giving him a pig's tail and the Weasley Twins giving him a
candy that caused his tongue to grow about four feet long, causing him
to choke and his mother to pull on it and make his pain and fear even
worse. <snip>
> 
> > I'm quite sure that those incidents are the experiences Dudley
relived during the Dementor attack... <snip> >
> 
Laura responded:
> I don't see how Dudley's reliving those experiences would lead to
his concern for Harry in DH.  They would tend to make him fear wizards,
> reasonably enough, and they must have been quite traumatic.  But
> according to JKR, Dudley saw himself exactly as he was when the
> dementors attacked him.  The physical results of a dementor attack-
> nausea, chills and so forth-were Dudley's first reaction after Harry
> saved the two of them, and at that moment Dudley was in no condition
> to think deeply (imagine Dudders thinking deeply about anything-what a
> concept!) about what he experienced during the attack itself.
> 
> It would only have been much later, after he was fully recovered and
> feeling safe again (well after Harry returned to Hogwarts) that he
> would have been emotionally able to consider what he saw at that
> time.  It's greatly to Dudley's credit that he confronted his memory
> at all-human nature would be to deny that it had any reality.
> Instead, he looked squarely at the picture the dementors presented to
> him and acknowledged to himself that it was true.
> 
> Innocent people like Hagrid and Sirius (and Harry, of course)relived
> moments of terrible emotional pain when they were in contact with the
> dementors.  Evil people like Bella and the DEs weren't affected by the
> dementors because they were emotionally and morally warped, so that no
> memory of any act they'd committed or any experience they'd had could
> hurt them.  Dudley is somewhere in the middle-he did bad things, but
> he was not so morally stunted as to be beyond redemption.  For someone
> like him, it appears that a dementor attack might be a very healthy
> reality check-provided that the victim acknowledge the truth of what
> he experienced-and that the attack ends before the dementor can kiss
> him.
>

Carol responds:

I'm privileging canon over interviews, which I never trusted and trust
even less now. <smile> Canon tells us that a Dementor encounter causes
a person to "relive the worst moments of their life" (OoP Am. ed. 30),
and somehow I think being attacked by wizards and nearly choking on
your own tongue would be worse in Dudley's mind at a time when he
still hates and fears Harry and thinks that Harry cast a spell causing
the darkness and "the clammy cold as hope and happiness were sucked
out of you" (31) than anything Dudley himself has done to Harry.
Harry's worst memory, after all, is his parents being killed, not
something he himself has done. All we know is that Dudley "h-heard . .
. *things*. Inside [his] head" (30, JKR's emphasis and ellipses).

I think the experience of being *saved* by Harry (once Dudley realized
that the Dementors were real and not a lie Harry was telling to get
out of trouble) would have made Dudley grateful. Certainly, that's
what he indicates in DH with "you saved my life" (DH Am. ed. 40).
Dudley no longer thinks that Harry is "a waste of space" and he has
tried to express his gratitude with a cup of tea inside Harry's door,
but there's no indication *in the books* that he's seen the light
about himself or that his Dementor-induced visions included anything
other than his worst memories. Since "spoiled, pampered, bullying
Dudley" 30) has never suffered fear or pain except at the hands of
wizards (he keeps his bottom covered when the Weasleys show up,
indicating his memory of the pig's tail and his mouth covered with the
Dementor, either following Harry's advice or remembering the
ton-tongue toffee) and still fears Harry's magic ("W-what are you
d-doing? St-stop it!" (16), it seems clear to me that both his
greatest fear and his worst memories involve magic, specifically, the
use of magic against him. We certainly see nothing else in canon that
could qualify as a "worst moment" for Dudley.

After the attack, he still thinks that Harry has cast a spell on him.
There's not the least sign of gratitude, much less self-understanding
or remorse. Once Petunia has made clear that Dementors really exist,
Dudley says nothing more. Perhaps his slow mind is figuring out what
really happened (though he doesn't understand what having his soul
sucked out means): Harry didn't cause the cold and dark and bad
memories. He saved Dudley's "life" from the "dementy-whatsits" (to
quote Uncle Vernon) by casting a Patronus charm (as Harry is finally
able to explain on p. 36). But we don't get Dudley's thoughts. We just
see in HBP that he's still terrified of wizards (Dumbledore's
sofa-moving and brandy glasses and summoning of Kreacher doing nothing
to relieve that fear), and yet by DH he has come around to the point
of seeing Harry as a member of the family and wondering why he's being
left behind. But Dudley himself gives the reason for his change of
attitude: "You saved my life" (DH 41).

It seems likely that Dudley has been thinking about and regretting his
mistreatment of Harry in his dim way and trying to make up for it with
a cup of tea and a handshake, but I don't think it's because he heard
himself telling Harry to stand in the toilet or his parents ordering
Harry to stay in his room (or cupboard). Those aren't *Dudley's* worst
experiences. Harry asks Dudley if the Dementors blew a new personality
into him and Dudley replies, "Dunno" (DH 42). Most likely, they
didn't. It's the aftermath of the experience, the horror of the
Dementor attack followed by the realization that Harry saved him from
something even worse (death, he thinks) that causes the gratitude,
which in turn causes the change in behavior. And I suppose that regret
for bullying Harry could spill over into regret for bullying Mark
Evans and others, but we don't know that. All we know is that, for
Dudley, Harry is now an okay guy, a member of the family. It's rather
sad that Harry sees the change in him so belatedly, but nothing to
shed tears over. We can hope that Dudley won't become another Vernon
and that he won't lump all wizards together as beings to be feared,
but that's about it.

Carol, who thinks that Dudders is going to be one bored boy without
his computer or even school to attend and that seeing others
performing magic around him won't improve matters



Carol,