The interviewer asks whether Skeeter is referring to
Aberforth, Albus Dumbledore’s bother, when she is talking about his dark
history. She responds: “‘Oh, Aberforth is just the tip of the dungheap’”[1]
This idiom is based on the muggle phrase ‘the tip of the iceberg’. This idiom refers to the fact that only the tip of an iceberg is visible whereas the much
bigger part of it is hidden in the water. The concept of the iceberg has been
used to describe that it is possible to oberserve something and find evidence
for a problem. However, the bigger part of this problem remains hidden under
the surface.[2]
The
phrase, Rita uses, alludes to the same problem. The criminal offences of
Aberforth and his father are widely known to the wizarding community. However,
this implies that there are even worse crimes the family must have committed
which are unknown to the public. In the wizarding world the word ‘iceberg’ has
been replaced by the word ‘dungheap’. Most people avoid dungheaps due to their unpleasant
scent. That way they are only seen from the distance. Due to the mountainous
shape of the droppings people tend to focus on the tip of the heap which is
similar to the tip of the iceberg. In contrast to the iceberg the bigger part
of the dungheap is not hidden but visible to the eye. However, most people are
too busy avoiding the heap and looking at it in general that they don’t pay
attention to it. This means that the bigger part of the problem, once again,
remains unnoticed.
