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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 187894

Alla wrote:
><snip> 
> 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.
>
Carol responds:
I certainly agree that JKR is inconsistent in many places and sometimes outright contradictory. She doesn't think out certain details (e.g., how Harry got home with his armload of purchases, including a caged owl). On occasion, she's completely illogical (how, for example, can Bill in OoP use his wand to cast Evanesco when both arms are overflowing with scrolls of parchment?)

But in this instance, I think we're meant to see a great difference between Harry before he learns that he's a wizard on his eleventh birthday, the downtrodden, humble Harry who magically escapes from harm and embarrassment but seldom stands up for himself and never acts like a bully himself and the increasingly angry Harry who, by the time he meets Sirius Black, actually wants to kill him. Harry at thirteen, even in the incident with Aunt Marge, has learned that he's magically powerful (maybe not in comparison with Dumbledore or Snape, but certainly compared with the Muggle Dursleys). He has destroyed Diary!Riddle and killed a Basilisk. He's growing in confidence, power, and knowledge, especially with regard to his parents, whom he still idolizes, not knowing that his father was "an arrogant little berk," to use his friend Sirius's term. His anger is also growing, against Voldemort and anything to do with him on the one hand and against the Dursleys, who lied to him about his parents and tried to squash the magic out of him on the other. That the hated Aunt Marge, herself a Dursley (though she doesn't know he's a wizard and has bullied him for other reasons), would dare to insult his parents is more than he can tolerate.

I've also suggested that as Voldemort becomes stronger, Harry's anger becomes stronger, influenced by the soul bit. He becomes less humble, gentle, and meek as the series progresses--but, fortunately, never quite turns into James (though hexing the helpless Filch in HBP comes close).

At any rate, I don't think it's surprising that his accidental magic changes as Harry grows older from merely defensive or harmless retribution (the teacher's blue wig) to angry retaliation like the "blowing up" of Aunt Marge, which resembles the tree branch falling on Petunia. Neither is intentional, but both reflect anger and a desire to punish the interfering and insulting Muggle.

Carol, who thinks that PoA Harry is exactly halfway between SS/PS Harry and OoP Harry in terms of personality, power, and, especially, anger