A new-old commotion is roiling sleep from "Harry Potter" fans on social media, who are passionately arguing with each other over a single word that Dudley Dursley, Harry's nasty cousin, says in a famous scene in the first film in the series, 2001's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone."
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Dudley in "Harry Potter",
This is the iconic scene where Dudley (Harry Melling) rushes and stomps down the stairs to wake Harry - who is tucked into a cupboard under the staircase - for a trip to the zoo.
According to the official English subtitles of the film, when Dudley shouts he says the words Wake Up, Cousin ("Wake Up, Cousin"), although many viewers believed that he was shouting Wake Up, Potter ("Wake Up, Potter").
The reason for the lack of trust is that the fans claim that Dudley "did not see Harry as a family member but as a baker's boy who lived with him", so he would never call him "cousin".
"I hear 'Potter', I don't know why it says 'Ben Cousin'," claimed one fan, while another agreed with him: "I also always thought he said 'Potter'."
Those fans do believe that those responsible for the subtitles messed up their work and simply didn't hear properly, but those who oppose them are actually sure that Dudley "always said 'cousin.' As in Potter," what with Shurnon, Dudley's father, "wouldn't allow the word 'Potter' to be said at home."
Dudley with his parents, photo: Warner Bros.
So what's the bottom line?
Did Dudley really say Cousin and the subtitles are true, or did he say Potter and the subtitles are wrong?
The answer is not clear, but a resourceful TikTok fan expressed a willingness to solve the dilemma once and for all: "I hear both words."
"Harry Potter", photo: AFP
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