Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Chapter Notes

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 

Chapter 4: Back to the Burrow

• “He had rarely seen Mr or Mrs Weasley wearing anything that the Dursleys would call ‘normal’. Their children might don Muggle clothing during the holidays, but Mr and Mrs Weasley usually wore long robes in varying states of shabbiness.” – I always found this interesting, that, despite being pureblood wizards, the Weasley children would wear Muggle clothes. We later see at the World Cup how foreign the concept of Muggle clothes is to most wizards, so how come the Weasley kids dress like them? Where did they even get Muggle clothes? How did they know how to mix them? And again, why would they wear Muggle clothes in the first place? Was it simply in vogue to dress as Muggles in the 90s? And how does those traditional wizard fashion even look like despite robes?
• I know the entire meeting between the Dursleys and the Weasleys is written for laughs, and still I think the way the Dursleys act is quite telling. They are terrified. The last time they met a wizard Dudley ended up with a tail. But I think it is more than that. Petunia might had a great dislike towards the wizarding world based on jealousy, and Vernon shared her hate for everything that was ‘other’. But then her sister died, murdered, and this more than anything proved how dangerous this other world is. The Dursleys fear they could be seen as not normal is really just surface level. They are deeply scared of a world that they don’t understand, a world that left them with an infant, because his parents were killed, because someone tried to kill him as well. And the Dursleys goal to somehow get the magic out of Harry was also a way to try prevent Harry from becoming part of that world, from preventing them to be connected to this world through him. Petunia’s view of the wizarding world might be overly simplified and prejudiced, but it is born out of fear.
• “Indeed, from the tone of his voice when he next spoke, Harry was quite sure that Mr Weasley thought Dudley was quite as mad as the Dursleys thought he was, except that Mr Weasley felt sympathy rather than fear.” – I think Mr. Weasley is quite unique in the way he sees Muggles, especially given he is a pureblood wizard. While wizards like the Weasley don’t hate Muggles or Muggleborns, most of them still see Muggles as ‘Others’. Ron for example doesn’t seem to bother to find out more about Muggles or to try to understand them, unlike his father. He is fascinated by them, to some degree even impressed with all their inventions, thinking that wizards can even learn from the Muggles. And yet I think he is aware of his privilege as a wizard, but unlike Voldemort and his followers doesn’t think it should be the reason wizards should rule over Muggles. He sees his privilege and tries to be an ally. He tries to help, tries to learn from them, but mostly he thinks that Muggles deserve protection, overly aware of how many wizards abuse their powers to hurt Muggles. He is a good egg, that Arthur Weasley.
• All the Weasley (and then Harry) shout out “The Burrow” once they travel back per Floo Powder, but “The Burrow” is just the name the Weasleys gave their home, not the actual address. So how does that work? Do you have to think of the place where you want to end up, like you do while apparating? How? (I’m afraid the answer is simply… because magic.)
• “‘You aren’t going to see your nephew ’til next summer,’ he said to Uncle Vernon in mild indignation. ‘Surely you’re going to say goodbye?’” – By now I think that Mr. and Mrs. Weasleys clearly underestimated just how broken the relationship is between Harry and the Dursleys. They probably thought they might not get along all the time, but that despite that there are still some manners and some respect towards each other. Mr. Weasley seems genuinely surprised that Uncle Vernon didn’t even bother to say goodbye to his nephew, which would have been the decent thing to do. After all it is a good thing the Dursleys never met Mrs. Weasley, because she sure would have told them a thing or two about their treatment of Harry.