HBP post DH look chapter 3

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 184315

> Alla:
> 
> Yeah, see to me no matter what backfired on them, it did not backfire 
> nearly enough like ever to match what hungry and upset twelve year 
> old was going through when they locked him up, no matter what 
> backfired on them, it did not match eleven years in the cupboard.
> 
> I wanted them in pain, I wanted them to be just as helpless as Harry 
> was for once. I felt like I got it in HBP. The scene did not lose 
> emotional impact for me because I feel bad for Dursleys, it lost 
> impact because of who was delivering it.
> 
> Ugh, I went into Dursleys' rant again, sorry.

Montavilla47:
No problem.  I don't blame you for being upset.  I guess I just
don't have that big an emotional connection to it.  That whole 
Dursley/Harry dynamic always struck me as a comic exaggeration 
of the fairy tale youngest child archetype.  You know, Cinderella
forced to wait on her sisters and all that.  

> Montavilla47:
> > In PS/SS, a single owl-delivered letter gets the Dursleys to move 
> Harry out
> > of the cupboard and into Dudley's spare room.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> I guess to me it just did not cross out previous eleven years.
> 
> Montavilla47:
> >At the end of OotP, a gang
> > of wizards openly threatens Vernon.  So, by HBP, the Dursleys (in 
> terms of
> > danger or harm to Harry) have shrunk to ant size.  Dumbledore's 
> just the 
> > boot that finally squashes them flat.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Sure, just to me no danger, did not mean that I did not want payback.

Montavilla47:
Fair enough.  It just seemd to me that the Dursleys were getting payback
all through the series.  The reason I mentioned the shifting balance of 
power was that it meant that the Dursleys had little ability to build up
the reservoir of Karmic payback after PS/SS and especially after PoA.  In 
CoS, Vernon can try to lock Harry in his room, but that doesn't last long.
In GoF, he's powerless to keep Harry from going  the QWC--or to prevent
Arthur from invading his home.

> 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  <SNIP of the whole post by Carol and 
> reply only to signature>
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Very good example actually of what I would have still enjoyed with 
> Dursleys. I of course have zero problems with how Dumbledore behaves 
> towards Snape in Prince tale, to me he had it coming big time and I 
> loved that.
> 
> But obviously the fact that I enjoyed it, does not mean that I am 
> going to delude myself and say that I think that Dumbledore behaved 
> as a good person here. It is just when I look at Dumbledore and 
> Snape, I find Snape to be much worse in terms of what he did to Harry 
> and I do not mind Dumbledore delivering that medicine to Severus dear.
> 

Montavilla47:
What's kind of odd to me about that, Alla, is that Dumbledore is 
delivering this payback pre-emptively.  Pre-emptive payback is 
oxymoronic.  Although Snape has unwittingly done Harry a bad turn by
delivering the Prophecy to Voldemort at this point, he's also trying
to undo that harm by warning Dumbledore.  And, at this point in
his life, he had yet to deduct a single point from Harry, give him a 
single dirty look or cutting remark, or do any of the things that
make people truly dislike him.