Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Chapter Notes

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 

Chapter 3: The Invitation

• “Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had managed to find excuses for his bad marks as usual; […] [t]hey also skated over the accusations of bullying in the report […]. However, at the bottom of the report there were a few well chosen comments from the school nurse which not even Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia could explain away. […] The school nurse had seen what Aunt Petunia’s eyes – so sharp when it came to spotting fingerprints on her gleaming walls, and in observing the comings and goings of the neighbours – simply refused to see: that, far from needing extra nourishment, Dudley had reached roughly the size and weight of a young killer whale.” – I think it is in book 6, when Dumbledore visits the Dursleys, that he accuses them of having damaged Dudley as much as Harry. Harry suffered from the neglect, Dudley though from the opposite of it. Dudley lives, up to this point, in a world without rules, without consequences to his actions. The Dursleys show that you can love someone too much, that love without boundaries can cause damage in its own right. They find excuses for Dudley’s behaviour (which I think is worse than his bad marks or his weight), confirming him that what he does is right. And this “boys will be boys”-attitude is what really concerns me, because we live at times where rape culture has become a thing. Because children, and especially boys, like Dudley, who grew up very privileged and without fearing consequences to their actions, are predesignated to become man who don’t take a “no” for an answer.

• In the previous chapter we learned that it is still a fortnight, so 2 weeks, until Harry can return to Hogwarts, making it the middle of August. Now Harry thinks about the two birthday cakes he has left, that he will eat as breakfast. But since Harry’s birthday is the 31th of July it means those two cakes are at least 2 weeks old… even if they are dry cake I wouldn’t eat them anymore.

• Also, a quarter of a grapefruit seems far too little to eat for breakfast, diet or not.

• We know that Harry has at least told Ron about the Dursleys and their treatment of him, and that at least Mrs. Weasley was aware of the fact that Harry never got any Christmas presents, so the Weasleys are to some extent aware of the abuse Harry suffered from the Dursleys and yet… the letter Mrs. Weasley sends to the Dursleys is very kind, very polite, and they at least ask if it is okay Harry can come to them, unlike Sirius, who simply asked Harry, without considering the Dursleys. Either the Weasleys don’t know half of the stuff Harry had to endure (likely because Harry hasn’t told them) or they insist to be overly kind to people who don’t deserve it, and I think it is the latter. (Shower them with kindness is almost always the better option)

• “Harry frowned. He thought it was a bit rich of Uncle Vernon to call anyone ‘dumpy’, when his own son, Dudley, had finally achieved what he’d been threatening to do since the age of three, and become wider than he was tall.” – And yet Harry refers to Mrs. Weasley as plump. And constantly mentions Dudley’s weight, and joining in at the laughter on the prank the twins played on Dudley, which is cruel in its own way. Yes, Dudley is a bully, but that doesn’t excuse Harry and the Weasley becoming bullies as well.

• “‘You stand there, in the clothes Petunia and I have put on your ungrateful back –’ ‘Only after Dudley finished with them,’ said Harry coldly, and indeed, he was dressed in a sweatshirt so large for him that he had had to roll back the sleeves five times so as to be able to use his hands, and which fell past the knees of his extremely baggy jeans.” – Seriously Harry, you have a small fortune, please buy yourself some new clothes.