Harrys childhood

[hfakhro at nyc.rr.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 16952

> Now. The In Defense of the Dursley´s Behavior towards Harry as a 
> Small Kid-squad (*only* member=me) kicks in.

Count me in - I think the Dursleys are hysterical! Excellent source 
of humour in the books, and I agree with you that while they have 
been horribly mean to Harry and in no way made him feel loved or 
wanted, their presence in his life has produced so many qualities 
that make him loved by his friends. Maybe this wasn't the Dursleys' 
intention, but I don't think they were all that bad. 

>  And they didn´t hand him over to an orphanage (thus maybe 
> preventing him from becoming a new Tom Riddle! ;). As aunt Marge 
> sais, in HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban, page 23: "It´s damn good
> of Vernon and Petunia to keep you. Wouldn´t have done it myself.
> You´d have gone straight to an orphanage if you´d been dumped
on My 
> doorstep."
> Of course there could have been some sort of threat in the letter 
> from Dumbledore that scared them into keeping Harry (or a plead of 
> some sort, but I certainly don´t know what it could be). But
would 
> that really go along with Dumbledore´s "style"? 

I think that considering that we know just how much the Dursleys fear 
wizards and I think it is a very real fear, if unfounded (note 
Petunia's speech about Lily in my prior e-mail) and in later times 
Dudley has been twice attacked by wizards, I think the Dursleys for 
all their 'muggle-ness' are to be admired for taking Harry in. I do 
not deny that he suffered a lot under their hands, and overall I 
think there's a lot about them that should be criticized, poor 
Harry!! Probably never having seen a picture of his parents until 
Hagrid gives him that photo album, it's just awful to deny him his 
roots like they did... but I think they could have done worse, 
considering their very paranoid frame of mind concerning wizards. I 
don't think Dumbledore threatened them - but I guess we'll have to 
wait and see what that particular magic about the Dursleys is in 
later books.