Dudely (was Re: Why did Barty Crouch Jr join Voldemort?)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 189763

> June:
> Personally I don't think Dudley was bad at all. He only behaved
> the way he did because his parents made him (part of what
> Dumbledore had in mind when he said his parents had abused him).
> I think Dudley actually wished he could be like Harry just as
> Petunia wished she could have been like her sister. The hatred
> was a cover.
>
Carol responds:
I don't wholly agree. Yes, certainly, his parents spoiled him, but Dudley was acting like a brat even as a toddler, kicking his mother and screaming for "sweets" (behavior that sensible parents would have nipped in the bud)--and that was before Petunia discovered Harry. And why Dudley would want to be like a skinny, unpopular oddball in over-large clothing (shades of Severus Snape!), I don't know. When Dudley grew older, he certainly knew that it was wrong to bully and beat up ten-year-olds (Mark Evans).

I agree that he became what he was because his parents indulged him, but he was not faultless himself. Even small children know when they're misbehaving and getting away with it.

As for hatred of Harry being a cover, who knows? I think he somehow had an epiphany regarding Harry and realized that his behavior was wrong, not to mention that Harry saved his "life" (soul). So he had good in him and the potential to become other than he was, but he lacked the strength of character or the intelligence to see that his father's example and his mother's fearful indulgence of him were harming him.

Carol, who nevertheless sympathizes with Dudley, the helpless Muggle, when the Twins give him a taste of *magical* bullying