CHAPTER DISCUSSION: PS/SS 4, The Keeper of the Keys

[jelly92784]

No: HPFGUIDX 187884


Alla:  
...Harry is not Neville and he does show his accidental magic pretty early, I feel that if accidental magic shows up when Harry is angry or upset, when Dursleys anger or upset him (and we know that they do), it will be very reasonable for his magic to act up.

I may not be so adamant in thinking that if not Aunt Marge. It took **one** accident of her badmouthing Harry's parents for Harry to get so angry that she got blown up. She did not need to starve him, lock him in the cupboard, threaten to smack him with the pan (was it Petunia's pan that Harry ducked from?), she did not need to do all that, just badmouthing Harry's parents was enough. In this book we see Petunia and Vernon badmouthing Harry's parents as well and nothing happened. I just do not find it consistent. JMO.

Janelle:
I guess the way that I see it is that this magic is *accidental*, it doesn't happen every time that Harry gets upset (I imagine that things at the Dursleys' house would have been way more chaotic had that been the case).  The thing with Aunt Marge is different though.  You have to remember that Harry has been learning to use and control his magic for two years at this point.  I would argue that his magic is much stronger at this point than it was before he started school and so, when accidental magic does happen, it's also much stronger than previous examples.

I also want to point out that although his magic only acts up once while Marge is there, he sat through an entire week of being insulted and talked down to.  I think Marge's comments about his parents was just the needle that broke the camel's back, so to say.  He had been bottling up his feelings all week and just couldn't take it anymore.