dudley's hospital visit

[Athena Appleton]

I'm a bit confused about something...

When Hagrid gives Dudley a pig tail, and Vernon and Petunia have to take him to the hospital to get it removed, which hospital did they go to?

Are muggles who have been effected by magical injuries sent to St. Mungo's, where they're treated and their memories are modified, or do they have to try to come up with some explanation about why they have these really odd injuries, like pig's tails, when confronted by a doctor?

And kind of relating back to the Dudley's Dementor thread, some people have said that he may have had to relive getting the tail... but I wonder if it's possible if he saw something truly scary while he was in St. Mungo's?

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

I thought the book said Dudly went to some kind of small hospital (haha like a veternarian, lol). Probably one of those places where you won't find a certified MD for a 2 mile radius. I bet the "doctor" that removed Dudly's tail was a bartender or something that moonlights as a surgeon!

I don't remember reading that Dudley went to St.Mungos. But if he really did, then their memories would have been modified accordingly.

[Alice I]

I agree with EWPZ
I don't think Dudley went to St. Mungo's as the Dursley's would have no idea that it even exists and Vernon said that he had to go into London to have the thing removed. So he obviously had an appointment.
I think he took Dudders to a private hospital and paid big bucks to have the thing removed and told the surgen that it was an odd family (genetic) birth defect that they wanted taken care of before he started secondary school.

BTW EWPZ is your name
a place where evil wizards go to a pet animals in a zoo
or
A petting zoo that has lots of little evil wizards in cages?

[imc130d]

I'm not sure what I actually believe here, I'm just thinking out loud.

It occurs to me that if someone from MoM got wind of someone needing a pig's tail removed, they could send an agent out to intercept the Dursleys at (whatever hospital) and take them to St. Mungo's, modifying their memories as appropriate afterwards.

The problem I see here is, how would someone from MoM find out about this? Hagrid isn't going to tell anyone; he's not supposed to be doing magic. I guess there might be someone monitoring hospital admissions for this sort of thing...

[Groo]

ya i agree with Alice, he went to a private hospital where the surgeon mercilessly cut the piggytail

i dont think Mungos was involved

[Ferrus]

I always thought that too, Vernon took Dudley to a private hospital and payed a load of money to keep things quiet. Í don´t think that Vernon would have taken dudley to St mungo´s even if he knew about the place.

[Female_alien]

EWPT wrote:

(haha like a veternarian, lol).

lol

I don't think they went to Mungos since vernon is afraid of a broom, or even a wizard and he'd probably have a heart attack if he would enter St. Mungos and see not only the "normal" wizards and witches, but sick and crazy one too. Poor Vernon...

So I agree with the private or small hospital thing

[Athena Appleton]

I guess y'all are right... but I think that if Vernon were given the choice of going to St. Mungos, Dudley keeping the tail, or other muggles finding out that something was odd in the family, I think he would go to St. Mungo's.

It doesn't mention that Dudley went there, but we didn't know St. Mungo's even existed at that time... could be Vernon just chose not to tell Harry that they were going to a wizard hospital... or that he himself didn't know until they were setting out.

[Nobby]

yeah,vernon would want to keep it hush hush. and the dursleys never tell harry anything anyway

[Evil Wizard Petting Zoo]

This all kind of goes back to the Ministry not keeping track of who is and who isn't suppost to be doing magic, since it was Hagrid who gave Dudly the tail. But if the Ministry was on the ball that day, they would have been swooping in on the Dursleys. But I doubt Vernon and Petunia wouldn't have let Dudly go to Mungo's without a fight.

Alice I wrote:

BTW EWPZ is your name
a place where evil wizards go to a pet animals in a zoo
or
A petting zoo that has lots of little evil wizards in cages?

LoL! Now that I think about it, the second one would be more fun! But the intention was something like once Voldemort conquers the world there will be little evil wizard petting zoo's where Draco and all his pals can go pet the monsters.

[Phaerie]

Vernon would actively avoid somewhere like St Mungo's. He probably wouldn't even know about it. Pertunia probably would know about St Mungo's but would be unlikely to consider it.

Unless of course seeing as the tail had been added by magic, it could only be removed by magic.

otherwise its rather likely that they would have gone to a privat clinic to have it removed. But seeing as it is quite possible to have a genetic abnormality causing you to have a tail, he may simply have gone through the NHS.

[Athena Appleton]

well, i still think that while Vernon wouldn't be happy about going to St. Mungo's, if the options were go there and be asked no questions, or go to a regular muggle doctor and be bothered with curious folks, he'd go to St. Mungo's and be asked no questions. Because I don't know many doctors who would see an 11-year-old boy with a pig's tail firmly attached to his heinie and not wonder what in the world happened here...

About a tail being a normal genetic defect... have you ever seen those kinds of tails? very very very different from a curly pink piggie tail coming out of your rump.

[Ferrus]

I think that Vernon has enough money to go to a private clinic and make a generous "donation" to help the doctors "forget" the incident. I´m pretty sure that Vernon would be willing to pay a good deal to avoid having to go anywhere near St Mungo´s.

[pallas artemis]

I think that Vernon has enough money to go to a private clinic and make a generous "donation" to help the doctors "forget" the incident.

What makes you think the Dursleys are that wealthy They don't live in a large house, only three bedrooms, Vernon drives a nice car but it's a company car which means the company bought it, right? I think the Dursleys are by no means poor but I don't think that they have the liquid assets to pay off a private hospital. Harry even says in p/ss that they've always complained about how much it cost them to keep him ( granted they are particularly stingy with regards to Harry)

[Alice I]

I don't think Ferrus meant that they were wealthy but they are not hurting either. I get the impression that Smeltings is not exactly a public school and it probably has a big tuition.

I believe that JKR stated in an interview that little Winning is an affluent neighborhood although I could be wrong there.
Athena has read most of the JKR interviews maybe she would know if the Dursleys are considered well off enough to pay a large sum to keep some Dr. quiet.

How about it Athena?