Feel free to ignore/not publish this if you donāt agree (Iām not trying to put you on blast). My two cents re: the Dudley Klinefelter theory:
Iād be wary of assigning KS to Dudley. Firstly because Petuniaās maternal age doesnāt align with the risk of KS, unless this version of Petunia is significantly older than Lily (or both of the sisters are 20-ish years older when they have their sons). Secondly while there can be developmental delays, intellectual disabilities, and behavioural concerns up to/including psychiatric symptoms associated with KS, especially in childhood, the expressions of this that Iāve seen in the KS kids Iāve worked withā¦ donāt really match the behaviours Dudley displays. Maybe the presence of anxiety and depression could be argued, but the social withdrawal and the difficulty making friends arenāt there. They also tend to be the victims of bullying, rather than the ringleader of a gang of bullies.
Iād also be especially wary of the persecution complex that sometimes crops up around disabled kids needing so-called āunfairā extra time and attention from their caregivers, which could unintentionally cloud the narrative of Harry being actually neglected by the Dursleys for actually unfair reasons. Nothing against making characters intersex, or disabled in generalājust maybe a little concerned about making Dudley disabled, specifically, in the context of his role in the story and considering how his character is already handled.
Thanks for the info, Nonny! I truly appreciate it.
If I were to ever actually write Dudley in such a way, Iād firstly be doing a lot more research into the condition than Iāve already done (which, admittedly, hasnāt been much more than a Wikipedia skim plus a few additional sources). If youād ever be willing to come off of Anon and DM me, Iād also love to ask you any questions, but I totally get it if you donāt want to do that. I do try to understand and research something beforehand, even though science isnāt really my forte, as Iād want to write this as accurately as I can.
But I think that if I were to do it, I figure that Dudley would actually be undiagnosed throughout his childhood and most of his adulthood, and that both him and his parents wouldnāt actually know that he was intersex within the span of time that we see within the books. We see how difficult it is for the family to listen to a doctor when it comes to commenting on their sonās potential obesity, so I figure that any other possible medical commentary about Dudley was put on a similar shelf and either ignored, not dealt with, or just didnāt happen because of how any deviation from the ānormā might contradict their opinion of him being their perfect little boy. Harryās also (imo) not a very good in-universe narrator when it comes to Dudley throughout the series simply because heās not present for most of his cousinās childhood, so we donāt really know how social he is or even how much of a bully he remains once he goes off to Smeltings. I sincerely doubt that an overly spoiled teenaged boy whoās edging on close to three hundred pounds, cries and throws tantrums at the slightest provocation, and struggles with counting past thirty isnāt getting picked on at an elite all-boys British boarding school. Not only that, but any instances of him being aggressive post-PS only seem to crop up when heās back at home and has members of his elementary school gang (aka, his only friends that we know he has) back around him, so we actually have no idea whatās going on with him at a school where thereās a pre-existing culture of students being physically violent with each other. I think that itās highly likely that Dudley is being bullied in some capacity at Smeltings and is lashing out once he returns home to Surrey as a means of exerting some form of control over himself/as a consequence for how Vernon teaches him to be a man within an environment where he feels empowered within, and we just donāt know about it because either he or his parents are not telling us for one reason or another and/or Harry doesnāt care enough to learn (also note that he does not do this at home because Harry clearly scares the shit out of him, and actually acts a lot more as Dudleyās incredibly frightening bully in OotP than anything else).
I would love to continue to hear any thought you had on the matter, Nonny, of course. Expert testimony is always welcome here, and anything youād like to speak on on the matter of Klinefelt Syndrome would be godsent.
