HBP post DH look chapter 3

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184309

Pippin wrote:
> > That *is* the point. The Gryffindors do have one glaring fault 
and that is their nasty habit of trying to put their supposed 
inferiors in their place. Of course Dumbledore doesn't believe in
racial or magical inferiority any more, at least he doesn't think he
does...but moral inferiority is another story.   
> >  
> > But much as we like to see the bad guys get what they deserve, it
really doesn't do, in canon, to bully your inferiors...even  moral
inferiors. You're probably not that much better than they are -- and
even if you were, the problem is, it's a lot easier to put people in
their place than to keep them there.

Carol responds:
I agree with you about Gryffindors bullying or psychologically abusing
their supposed inferiors--MWPP bullying Severus, the Twins and Hagrid
bullying Dudley, Sirius Black treating Kreacher like scum, James and
Ginny hexing people who annoy them, etc. Even Harry in HBP starts
hexing people for the fun of it, trying out the toenail hex on Crabbe
and Langlock on Filch, who can't even fight back. (Of course, they're
not the only ones who behave this way, as Morfin and the DEs at the
QWT demonstrate in more extreme form.) So, in this chapter, we get DD,
the supposed champion of Muggles and the oppressed and the advocate of
good manners even to the DEs on the Astronomy Tower, giving the
Dursleys a lecture on their treatment of Harry and (very mild) magical
lessons in what he calls good manners (though Vernon certainly has a
point about midnight intrusions on his family and can be forgiven for
not offering Dumbledore drinks, just as all of them are understandably
afraid to drink the mead that's knocking them on the head, though it
would have been good sense to at least take the glasses and put them
on the table.)

I don't really trust our ability to detect authorial intention, but
given JKR's remarks in interviews, I suspect that she enjoyed this
scene and expected readers to enjoy it, too. I know that many readers
thought at the time that the Dursleys had it coming. However, that may
not be the primary purpose of the chapter, which does prepare the way
for certain future events. It establishes that Kreacher belongs to
Harry and that it's safe to reenter 12 GP, it informs the Dursleys
that Harry will come of age at seventeen but will need to call 4
Privet Drive "home" for one more year (Petunia understands even though
Vernon doesn't), and it sets up Dudley's turnaround in DH, giving him
a whole year to think about his own and his family's treatment of Harry.

Carol, who found Dumbledore's (unwitting?) hypocrisy in this chapter
less disturbing than other instances of Gryffindor bullying, not to
mention the Dumbledore of "The Prince's Tale," the Dumbledore that
Snape knew and chose to trust