One for Sorrow

I was reading something today that brought up that old HP argument, Weasleys vs. Malfoys and it once again made me ask: ( Are there any really happy families in HP canon? )

Phew! That was a lot longer than I expected it to be. I just started babbling about families. The basic idea being that this is why it drives me crazy when any family gets made one-dimensional either way, because it seems like it really goes against canon to both say a family is just completely negative or to say a family--usually the Weasleys--is ideal. I honestly don't even know if JKR *could* write One Big Happy Anybody's Family, because she just seems too aware of how people, especially families, fuck each other up and hurt each other. It’s not just that Voldemort comes from a bad family and Harry from a good one, it’s that while Harry’s family was good and then gone, Voldemort’s was just always gone. (Which of course probably means he never bonded and a sociopath is an expected result, but anyway…)

pauraque has started a re-read of PS/SS, which is up to chapter four. Hagrid has arrived to take Harry away. Heh. The first time I read the book I remember being incredibly impatient at this point--we know the kid is special, so why are they dragging out his return to the WW with a thousand owls and a trip to the sea? If that kid didn't just slip a letter in his pocket soon I was going to stop reading right there.

Ahem. Anyway, so the subject of Petunia came up, and I said some of this over there, but I figured she deserved a post, especially since I've discovered a very strong and disturbing way that I identify with the woman. ( Poor Petunia. )