Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing Harry’s awful cousin- Dudley. More specifically, however, we’re going
to be discussing a false reality in which Dudley-a muggle-is magical, being shipped
off to Hogwarts alongside Harry in the year 1991. Expanding on THAT- we’re going to
discuss what house-if any- Dudley would be sorted in to. Would he be an ambitious Slytherin?
A brave Gryffindor? A hard-working Hufflepuff? Or a clever Ravenclaw? Let’s dive in to
it.
First- let’s look at Dudley as a person. Dudley Dursley was born the 23rd of June 1980
to parents Vernon Dursley and Petunia Evans. As a young boy, he was about as awful as you
can be. He tormented Harry, b*llied other children, and was about as spoiled and petulant
as you can get. His insolence and general demeanour was the result of his parents spoiling
him for his entire childhood- effectively producing a demanding, manipulative, selfish
and ungrateful monster.
In addition to his manipulative nature, Dudley also had an affinity for b*llying weaker,
younger children- the mark of a true coward. This b*llying even included Harry from time-to-time,
though much more often in his younger years,when Harry had not yet fully honed his magical
abilities.
Dudley really didn’t have many positive qualities, and it probably didn’t help that
he had a relatively low level of intelligence. Apparently, in addition to b*llying students,
Dudley was actually dismissed from Smeltings Academy for poor academic performance.
So, in short, Dudley was a manipulative, spoiled, petulant, selfish, ungrateful and unintelligent
b*lly. My next question is, where does that leave him terms of a Hogwarts house?
Here’s the thing- it’d be unfair to assign Dudley to a house based on his childhood alone,
because believe it or not, as he grew older, he turned in to a respectable young man- even
creating some semblance of a relationship with Harry.
The crossroads for Dudley was the Dementor attack that occurred in the Order of the Phoenix.
Though the Dementors weren’t able to successfully suck out Dudley’s soul, the attack still
had a profound impact on him, as it forced him to observe the type of person that he
was. Not only that, but Harry saved his life- and for this he was eternally grateful- Harry
just didn’t realize that until much later. This is reinforced by JK Rowling in an interview:
"People usually ask me, what is it that Dudley saw during the Dementor attack?" Rowling said.
"My feeling is that he saw himself, exactly for what he was, and for a boy that spoiled,
it would be terrifying. So he was jolted out of it. Dementor attacks aren't usually good
for people, but this one was."
What this confirms is that Dudley changed. He really grew out of being the petulant little
boy that he once was, and it’s even revealed that Dudley later felt remorse for the way
that he treated Harry as a boy. Dudley’s tragedy was the unfortunate conditions in
which he was raised- you see, he never really stood a chance with parents like Vernon and
Petunia who spoiled and infantilised him. Dumbledore put it best himself when discussing
Harry:
"The best that can be said is that he has at least escaped the appalling damage you
have inflicted upon the unfortunate boy sitting between you."
Given that Dudley showed his true colours later in life, we’re going to assume that
the sorting hat would pick up on these less obvious, nascent qualities- similar to the
way the sorting hat picked up on Neville’s bravery- which wasn’t necessarily apparent
at the time of sorting.
The sorting ceremony is an annual tradition at Hogwarts- it occurs at the beginning of
the school year, and its function is to assign new students to one of the four houses: Gryffindor,
Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. Students are sorted using the Sorting hat, a sentient
hat that once belonged to Hogwarts Founder Godric Gryffindor.
Recognizing that they each valued very different traits in students, hence the rationale for
having 4 houses in the first place, each founder passed on the main criteria for their particular
house to the hat. The student then places the hat on their head, and is assigned to
a house based on which founder they resemble most.
First things first- I certainly don’t think that Dudley was a Ravenclaw. Generally speaking,
the defining characteristics of Ravenclaw house, in a nutshell, are knowledge, wisdom,
and a studious nature. They are often (but not always) exceptional students with a thirst
for knowledge and unparalleled study habits. Ravenclaws are like sponges who take in their
environments and question well..everything. All aspects of life exist to be uncovered
and examined. Does this sound like DUDLEY DURSLEY to you? Though he ended up being quite
a respectable young man, it doesn’t mean that he was especially inquisitive or intelligent-
I mean, he even flunked out of Smeltings academy. I think of all 4 houses, Dudley meshes LEAST
well with Ravenclaw.
Next up- Slytherin. First of all, let me just say that Slytherins get a bit of a bad wrap.
They are often unfairly and automatically labelled as inherently ‘bad’ witches and
wizards, but this isn’t true. Despite what you may believe, being a Slytherin does not
mean that you’re evil, and I think that a lot of their bad reputation comes from founder
Salazar Slytherin’s attitude towards blood purity. On the positive side, Slytherins are
often very clever, very resourceful, very determined, and make great leaders. When you
think of Dudley Dursley you don’t exactly think ‘clever’, ‘resourceful’, ‘determined’
OR ‘great leader’. The only way that Dudley fits in with Slytherin is if you consider
the false generalization that Slytherin is just comprised of the bad eggs - but that’s
not true, and Dudley ends up being a pretty respectable person. One of the biggest considerations
here is ambition- was Dudley ambitious? Not really- selfish maybe. And, was he a good
leader? Certainly not- despite having a gang of cronies, he didn’t really ‘lead’
them. Slytherin, in my eyes, is the second-least likely option for Dudley.
Next, Hufflepuff. The defining characteristics of a Hufflepuff are that they are hard working,
wholesome, trustworthy and loyal. Hufflepuff often gets given a bit of a hard time, and
is sometimes criticized for being neither particularly exceptional or clever-but this
is far from the truth, as Hufflepuff has produced some of the most impressive witches and wizards
to date. Witches and wizards like Nyphadora Tonks, Cedric Diggory and even NEWT Scamander
were all Hufflepuff’s, and they were all incredibly impressive. So- where does Dudley
fit in to all of this? The first qualities that I want to look at are ‘trust’ and
‘loyalty’. As a child, and even as a young man, Dudley had a group of friends that followed
him around. At first glance this could be perceived as ‘loyalty’ to his friend group
on Dudley’s part- but I think that in reality it was more just convenient for Dudley- he
wanted people to hang around with. Was he particularly LOYAL to them? Would he risk
his life for theirs? I don’t think so. The next aspect of being a Hufflepuff that I want
to look at is their hard-working nature. Was Dudley a hard-worker? Well, in a weird sort
of way he was. Not at school- and certainly not at academics, but in boxing. In fact,
it’s revealed in the series that Dudley at one point became the Junior Heavyweight
Inter-School Boxing Champion. What this tells me is that if Dudley really put his mind to
something, he could achieve it, and does becoming a boxing champion take a lot of ‘hard work’-
DEFINITELY. Could Dudley have been sorted in to Hufflepuff? Possibly.
Last but not least we have Gryffindor House.
The classic defining character trait of Gryffindor is bravery, something that is exhibited by
the trio time and time again throughout the series. Gryffindors are brave, courageous,
fearless, and every other descriptor that fits that category. Bravery, for Gryffindors,
is valued above all other traits-and we certainly know that if Harry hadn’t been brave, then
the wizarding world would have turned out a lot differently. So- is Dudley Dursley..Brave?
Well, he actually kind of is. You see, when the Deathly Hallows rolls around, and it’s
time for the Dursley’s to leave Harry, Dudley finally speaks up and acts against his parents
by expressing genuine concern for Harry’s safety. He had been raised by his parents
to basically treat Harry badly, and by worrying about him so openly he was kind of acting
in direct opposition to his parents. This undoubtedly took a lot of bravery, and while
we don’t see Dudley exhibit this kind of bravery in any other circumstance- this is
one of the last things that we see his character do- leaving a lasting impression.
When we think of Gryffindors we often think of brave, righteous, and good- sort of similar
to the way that we think of Slytherins as bad eggs. But, just like with Slytherin, this
perception of the house -is basically just a false generalization. In fact, there’s
one Gryffindor student that shares a lot in common with Dudley- Cormac McLaggen. Like
Dudley, McLaggen was arrogant, pompous, entitled and even sometimes aggressive- qualities which
are almost contradictory to the stereotypical ‘gryffindor-like’ qualities, but McLaggen
still made it in to Gryffindor. This is because, all of those qualities aside, he was still
brave- just in the foolhardy sense and not the selfless sense. McLaggen, like Dudley,
even had a bad temper- as Harry once thought McLaggen was going to punch him for not offering
him another quidditch tryout. In the end, however, it appeared that McLaggen was undergoing
‘growing pains’ in his youth just like Dudley, as he ended up being quite a brave
and righteous young man. Given Dudley’s similarities to McLaggen, I think that Dudley
would have most likely been sorted in to Gryffindor house- a real surprise for his cousin Harry
I’m sure.
And that’s it for this video! What house would YOU place Dudley in? Let me know in
the comment section below. Until next time
YER A WIZARD ARRY