Chapter Four: Back to the Burrow
In chapter four of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire the Dursley’s are dressed to impress until their fireplace gets blown up, and the twins are kind of bullies.
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
The Dursley parents are doing some posturing to open this chapter, prancing around in their fanciest clothing as fake casually as possible, as if Arthur Weasley was their ex boyfriend who dumped them years ago and they want to prove how so very okay they are, ok, Arthur? They didn’t cry into glasses of wine and chocolate cake while listening to sad music and staring at your picture Arthur, ALL RIGHT? They certainly don’t want to burn all your possessions from the way you’ve hurt them, GOT IT?
Dudley is scared shitless and at where his pig’s tail used to be and ok, maybe I’m getting old, but while Dudley used to anger me a lot, this is kind of fucked up, no? That he had a dang pig’s tail that he had to get removed and is now traumatized by wizards? And then Fred and George show up and…we’ll get to that.
Our Weasley’s are late and as much as I detest agreeing with the Dursley’s about anything,
I LOATHE when people are late. It stresses me out! That was a full thirty minutes I could’ve been eating chocolate and cackling at memes, people! Don’t be half an hour late!
Hilariously, it turns out the Weasley’s are traveling by floo and have gotten stuck in the electric chimney, and whyyyy was this cut from the movie? WHY?! Goblet of Fire the movie, as much as it amuses me at times, is really when the movies become abominations due to how much material they hacked out of them. This scene isn’t even important, and I still seethe that we don’t see the Weasley’s squashed butt to face in a chimney, and Uncle Vernon throwing tchotchkes at Arthur, who can barely care because he’s inspecting electrical plugs with glee.
Harry escapes while Uncle Vernon keeps attacking Arthur (after all we did for you and you left us for that hussy! How do you like us now, Arthur Weasley!) and Fred drops a skiving snackbox on the floor for Dudley to eat. I feel like I should clarify, that just because a character does something I don’t like and I criticize it, that that means I dislike the character. Not true! I find a flawed character far more interesting, in fact. But I do think it is messed up that Fred (and George) use Dudley’s weight and diet against him to make his tongue so big he could’ve literally choked to death. The twins are good friends to Harry, brave people, and clever, but they do have a mean streak that rears its head at Percy, Ron, and now Dudley.
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Were the Weasleys rude for being so late?
Do the Dursleys have a good reason for disliking wizards and witches?
What were your thoughts on Fred purposefully giving Dudley a prank sweet?
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