AD's reasoning on Nov. 1 (was Who should raise Harry)

[Ebony Elizabeth Thomas]

No: HPFGUIDX 11420

I'm re-reading PS/SS this week... and thinking about Penny's "Sudden Thought 
About the Dursleys" thread.

>Monika wrote:
>
> >Maybe Dumbledore didn't warn Hagrid about Sirius because he didn't
> >think he would meet him at the Potter's house. If you have just
> >murdered your best friends, you won't usually stay put and wait until the 
>police (or the hit wizards) get you.

Amy Z responded:
>Good point.  But doesn't he need to warn him that there's still someone out 
>there who wants to kill Harry?
>
>I guess I can accept that he just thought this way was safest.  Or that he 
>was sure the traitor, knowing that his master was unable to kill Harry, 
>wouldn't dare try it himself.  He was right about that.  Peter must've 
>known, since the entire wizarding world did, that Harry had survived--but 
>when V fell, instead of trying to finish what V had started he saved his 
>own skin.
>

I'm also impressed with Dumbledore's reasoning on November 1, 1981.

What do you think of the choice he made for Harry's upbringing?

It has been argued here that the Dursleys were abusive.  Child abuse of any 
form IMO is... well, I'll keep my strong opinions on that subject to myself. 
  But today I realized that it was the wise Albus Dumbledore that *chose* 
for Harry to live with the Dursleys.  (Quick rhetorical question--does the 
Hogwarts Headmaster usually function as the Department of Social Services 
equivalent in such cases?  Or is there a Ministry agency that usually 
handles such cases?)

My question--did Dumbledore make the wisest choice possible?   Did he make 
the *only* choice possible?

If there is nothing special about Harry, and if Voldemort is not evil 
incarnate in this fictional universe... why did Harry grow up in that 
cupboard under the stairs?  Wouldn't adoption by sympathetic Muggles have 
been a plausible solution?  (There are a number of Muggles who know about 
wizards anyway... think of all those parents of Muggle-born Hogwarts 
students, etc.--one of my arguments against a large Hogwarts/wizarding world 
should be obvious here.)

Here someone will say, "But Harry is protected at the Dursleys, since 
they're his only blood relatives."

Why did Harry have to grow up with a blood relative in the first place?

Why was it so important that this particular child lived?

I'm reminded of other children who were similarly protected in other 
narratives.  All of those children were *different* in some way.

Would someone who does not subscribe to the "There's Something Special About 
Harry" theories please explain away PS/SS Ch. 1?  Even the opening seems to 
foreshadow his unique status.

--Ebony


<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
Ebony AKA AngieJ
(H/H Special Agent, First Class)

"'We start by recruiting members,' said Hermione happily.  'I thought two 
Sickles to join--that buys a badge--and the proceeds can fund our leaflet 
campaign.  You're treasurer, Ron--I've got you a collecting tin 
upstairs--and Harry, you're secretary, so you might want to write down 
everything I'm saying now, as a record of our first meeting.'

"There was a pause in which Hermione beamed at the pair of them, and Harry 
sat, torn between exasperation at Hermione and amusement at the look on 
Ron's face."

--from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, p. 225, 1st Amer. ed.

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