I'm rereading the chapters about Aunt Marge in POA. She seems excessively disapproving of Harry for someone who's not in on the fact that he's special in any way. This makes me think that there might be more to her than meets the eye. On the other hand, she does fulfill her role as a plot device in POA by getting blown up, thus causing Harry to flee the Dursleys' and go to Diagon Alley. And she does need to be worse than the Dursleys to get Harry that angry, since he's used to the Dursleys.
But why do we need Harry to flee the Dursleys and go to Diagon Alley? Hmmm...brainstorming:
1. To introduce the Knight Bus. We've seen the Knight Bus several times, but why do we need it?
2. Because it's on the Knight Bus that Harry learns Sirius Black is a wizard. But he would have learned that soon enough in Diagon Alley.
3. So he can see, and be frightened by, Sirius' Animagus form. This is necessary, it shows that Sirius is checking up on Harry and presents the idea of the Grim. But he gets frightened by the Grim in other places. Is this one truly necessary?
4. To show that the Ministry is being more lenient with Harry this year. So how does this contribute to the overall plot?
5. To introduce various denizens of Diagon Alley. The people at the Leaky Cauldron. Florean Fortescu. To introduce the idea that the entire magical world is looking out for Harry (perhaps to contrast with OOTP?)
Is this all leading to something, or is it just an incidental subplot whose only purpose is to be interesting and make this book different from the others? Who knows? We must read on...
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