Chapter One - Dudley Demented

Epigraph:
To Neil, Jessica, and David,
who make my world magical.

1

Theme: lack of movement, after midsummer -- decline; everything dry, dying, neglected

invisible. only if they look straight down from the window
aunt and uncle annoyed by his watching the news
uncomfortable but pleased with hiding place; also thematic for later
normal boys don't watch the news; "doubt [Dudley] knows who the Prime Minister is!"
Petunia shushes; someone (who matters) might hear through open window. Theme of adults censoring.
Fruit 'N Bran ad
Mrs. Figg from Wisteria Walk

tea = vandalizing, smoking, throwing stones
Harry steals newspapers from bins
Time: "after a month of waiting"
Spanish baggage handlers' strike; Vernon "lifelong siesta"
"death and destruction were more important than stranded holidaymakers"
Weather: "brilliant blue sky"
Quote:
Every day this summer had been the same: the tension, the expectation, the temporary relief, and then the mounting tension again... and always, growing more insistent all the time, the question of why nothing had happened yet....
Note: sets up for the rest of the novel. is this conflict ever resolved in the book?
imagines adventure-ly type warning signs

news: drought in Southeast - next door sprinklers at three am
: helicopter almost crashed in Surrey
: famous actress divorce from husband - dismissal from Petunia though she watches obsessively; set-up for Quibbler / press.
Weather: "blazing evening sky"
Bungy the budgy; Five Feathers in Barnsley; Mary Dorkins (news reporter)
Quote: "If they had reached water-skiing budgerigars, there was nothing else worth hearing."
Apparition: "like a gunshot"
breaking china inside; Harry draws wand as though "unsheathing a sword"
hits head on window
head "split in two" but Vernon gets him by the throat; "two large purple hands"

"sausage-like fingers"
Quote: "some invisible force seemed to have surged through his nephew, making him impossible to hold."
Mrs. Number Seven, net curtains.
"grin became a grimace of rage"

Quote: "Well, it changes every day, you see." - Harry
"your lot" repeated. Us vs them theme.
Quote: "It cost him something to tell the truth this time, even though his aunt and uncle could not possibly know how bad Harry felt at admitting it."
Costs of telling the truth - theme later expanded into propaganda
pun! "Well, that's news to me"
backchat turns to temper.

Ron and Hermione write but no news inside; communication without information
"inside birthday card" so after June 31
R+H in same place
threw away their chocolates, sorry for it when eating "wilted salad"; later the cycle of temper and guilt towards R+H
Theme: nightmares / daytime.

Magnolia Crescent; alley beside garage where he first saw Padfoot
Sirius - no news but "caution and consolation"; later - wanting news from adults, but also needing reassurance to deal with it
Magnolia Road
play park
"frustrated and angry"; "reduced" - indignant
irony of cautions from Sirius
Harry's narrative voice mentions attempted murder indifferently
"vaulted over the locked park gate"; last swing
nightmares-- Cedric, "dreams about long dark corridors, all finishing in dead ends and locked doors"
huge plot foreshadow, but also theme... mazelike, cf labyrinthine / pilgrimage / Minotaur imagery

Harry doesn't mention scar-pain. irony of wanting news but not sharing news; sullen
Time: "four solid weeks"
"reward" more indignation
harps on same description again; worrying away at same information, building up steam
"furious thoughts" contrasting with "sultry, velvety night"; temptation and anesthetic? evil creeps up
Dudley's gang: "crude song" and "expensive racing bikes"
Dudley head of the group?

diet and boxing change physique
Junior Heavyweight Inter-School Boxing Champion of the Southeast
wry tone over "first punching bag"
St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys
"It would be really fun to watch Dudley's dilemma"; frustration into want of violence / manipulation. (Yoda anyone?)

Harry begrudingly following directives
only in trouble after Dudley gets home; subjective justice, double standards-- does it turn up later?
"preferred Little Whinging by night" - gorgeous description. hiding from disapproval
shadow of lilac tree
Malcolm, Piers, Gordon, Dudley. congratulate on right hook
"Big D"

Harry teases about nicknames
earlier "squealed like a pig"; "ham-like hands"; Harry gets a good zinger in: "'Cause that's not cheek, Dud, that's true..."

"twitching"
It gave Harry enormous satisfaction to know how furious he was making Dudley; he felt as though he was siphoning off his own frustrations into his cousin, the only outlet he had.
later gets satisfaction watching Malfoy get angry at foot of stairs.
same alley- between Wisteria Walk and Magnolia Crescent. no streetlamps, garage walls and high fence

Harry laughing at Dudley... toying with him
Fandom: the slashy subtext... or at least the masculine chest-bumping
putting down Dudley's accomplishment; beat sixteen year old, down for 20 minutes, twice Harry's weight
all above, including running to Daddy - parallel with Draco in Great Hall
Harry harping on age (weakness) of opponent

gorgeous imagery. must read.
passion - restraint - reason. but actually cycle is temper - barely holding restraint - logic under pressure.
Quote: "He turned his head this way and that, trying to see something, but the darkness pressed on his eyes like a weightless veil."
Sightlessness. Darkness as a force. Confusion. Death imagery.
again with something out of his control which only seems to be connected to Harry. wrong place at wrong time...?
"goosebumps" "sightless eyes"; corpselike, almost like Dementors themselves
blind yet instincts are accurate

violence erupts into sound/touch, light, "cleaved in two"; losing wand - does this jolt save Harry?
"squealing"
surrounded. fear in front and behind
Lumos. more stomach imagery.
Quote: "no feet or face visible beneath its robes, sucking on the night as it came"

Begun 06-27-03 by Liondragon.

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