Now I wonder what will come out of this.
No angry Vernon for Dudley? He did, after
all, show interest in the M-word…
naturally, at that age, of course.
Author's response
There was no reason to get mad at Dudley, since Vernon _thought_ everything was going his way. The idea here is that Rita had a bunch of things going for her that other wizards did not:
- competence at presenting middle-class respectability, even cross-culturally (even if Dumbledore could do this, he doesn't care)
- a job title and goals that worked the same way in the muggle and wizarding worlds. England has a rich tradition of tabloid-style journalism.
- Rita was specifically trying to get them to say bad things about Harry; it is easy to get someone to do what they want to do anyway
- she paid them £2000 to talk to her
(This review reminded me to go insert the pound symbol in the chapter -- thanks!)