Dudley Dursley

[OliveOil_Med]

I have something I have only just begun wondering about. We know that his mother's parents were big on flower names (and flower names are a major theme in general), but do you see Dudley following the pattern of giving any daughters he might have a flower name, would he go against it, or just not care very strongly either way.

I don't really seem him naming any supposed daughters after his mother. Even if he did love her, this just seems too redundant with all the people already named after someone else.

[AReader]

He probably wouldn't name his daughter after his mum, because he just dosen't seem the type. And there aren't a lot of flower names left. Violet? Daisy? That's all I can come up with, so probably not.

[AidaLuthien]

I would imagine that for a girl, Dudley would be willing to follow what his wife thought about naming her. Personally, I find theme naming to be overly cutesy and rather irritating.

If it is an Evans family tradition to name the girls after flowers, then maybe Dudley would follow it. On the other hand, we never see the Evans grandparents, so we don't really know that either.

I do agree with you, Molly, about all the people named after other people. There's a lot of referential naming, and Dudley doesn't need to join their number.

I wouldn't think it would be out of place for Dudley to name his daughter after a flower though.

I disagree about there not being many flower names left if you discount Lily and Petunia. Basically any flower that exists can be bent into a name, even if it's not very common. Amaryllis, Tansy... Daisy, Daffodil... Holly, Marigold, Dahlia, Rose, Iris, Peony, Poppy, Viola... Zinia. Yes, towards the end, I looked up a list of flowers.

Almost any flower can become a girl's name. I'm personally fond of Tansy, actually.

[Maple_and_PheonixFeather]

I personally think that Dudley wouldn't have picked up on the flower names. I think he'd go with what his wife said. He could have picked up on it though :P

[Essence_of_Lily]

Okay, I'm just going to start a new thread because I can NOT find the other thread for this guy.
Anyway, I'm writing a fic about Dudley where one of his daughters is magical and has to go to Hogwarts. How d'you think he'd react to that? Based on what I read, I don't think he'll be like Vernon, but he probably won't be all that accepting.
Also, do you think he'd be the same kind of parent his parents were, like, spoiling the kids rotten?

-Janine

[Weasley Mom]

It depends on how much stock you put in that whole "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" idea. Petunia thought Harry was a freak and was just as horrible to him as Vernon, though her methods were more along the lines of withholding love and care than being outright horrific to him. It's hard to think of Dudley being anything but disapproving of this turn of events. But if he already had a good relationship with his child (which would honestly only be believable to me if it was really well-written, or if he has an outstanding wife who has opened his mind a bit and helped him become more accepting in general). In that case, his love for his child could overwhelm his disgust with the magical world. ???

Also, there is the fact that he did seem to support Harry in the end, or at least respect him. So you have a bit of leeway there.

Sounds like an interesting premise.

[jk_salmeier]

I agree with Weasley Mom, I think it would depend on his love for his child. But I also think it would depend on the kind of woman Dudley married and how she impacts his character.

I like to think that since he had lived with wizards, (for what, a year?) during DH that he would have started to be a bit more open to the WW. And we know that after the Dementor attack that Dudley had started to respect Harry (even telling him he wasn't a waste of space).

Truthfully, I think he'd have a hard time with it at first, but would eventually come to accept having a magical child in the house, much better than his parents accepted Harry. (I think it would be cliched to have Dudley be exactly like his Vernon).

The spoiled rotten thing is hard to say. Its possible that the cycle could be repeated, but again, I think it would also depend on how his wife was brought up and the type of mother she is to their daughter.

Good luck with your fic.

[Eleanor Lupin]

Spoiling his kids rotten ... hmm, that's interesting. I think no. Though it depends to a certain extent on the sort of woman he marries, I think most people can look objectively at the way they were parented as a child, and it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to see that the Dursleys weren't going to get any parent-of-the-year awards, so though his child would probably get everything they needed and most of what they wanted, I don't think Dudley would do the same thing to his child.

Now. If his daughter was a witch ... this would depend on who he married. There are a few possibilities - first off, him marrying a witch, which is entirely possible IMO because he spent a full year with wizards during DH. If his wife was a witch I think his opinion on magic in general would have changed, and therefore he would have been fine with it. A tolerant Muggle would probably think having a daughter who is a witch is pretty awesome, and would probably be pretty capable of swaying Dudley into being an accepting - if not thrilled - parent. A muggle anything like Vernon/Petunia, however ... I still think that him having lived with wizards might have softened his opinion of them slightly - Dudley himself never seemed to show any actual animosity towards wizards, he was just afraid of them.

[Pyewacket]

- first off, him marrying a witch, which is entirely possible IMO because he spent a full year with wizards during DH.

Just where in canon did this happen? Last I can find is him driving off with Dedalus and Hestia at the beginning of DH.

Pyewacket