Harry's upbringing

[Elizabeth Dalton]

No: HPFGUIDX 30579

Nancy wrote:

> It's amazing to me that Harry is able, despite his childhood with the 
> Dursley's, to love and to trust.

This was the sense of my first post to the list a while back, as well. Seemed to
get a pretty "ho hum" kind of a reaction then. My theory, for what it's worth,
is that Lily's "protection" charm protected Harry a bit from the Dursley's
abuse, as well... it's a weak theory, but it's the best I can come up with.

Though actually, after I wrote that first post, I thought about it for a while
and decided that Harry does do a lot of "neglected child" things. He's very
independent, doesn't like going to adults for help, and often doesn't tell
adults things he probably should. (CoS has good examples of this, and PoA even
more. I'm not allowed to discuss the movie here, but there's some interesting
threads about Daniel Radcliff's portrayal of an abused and neglected child over
there.) So maybe he is a bit more marked than we realize, sometimes. JKR just
doesn't drone on about it the way, for example, Mercedes Lackey might.

Elizabeth
(who regularly reads YA fantasy and science fiction-- because it fits well into
her 35-year-old new-mom lifestyle. ;)