[HPforGrownups] new (?) thoughts about the Dursleys

[JamiDeise at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 21517

In a message dated 6/27/2001 6:09:23 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
pigwidgeon37 at yahoo.it writes:

<< The Dursleys' behaviour to Harry can never be really justified, but I 
 think we should look at some parts of it from a slightly different 
 angle: They didn't take him anywhere because it wouldn't have been 
 safe. (What about school, though? Could there have been some 
 undercover wizard to look after Harry?)>> I doubt it. They didn't seem to me 
to really care about Harry's safety.

I don't think Dumbledore's letter -- and oh how I wish we could someday read 
it! (and I also got the impression that there were two letters; one for the 
Dursleys, and one for Harry to read when he was older ... or maybe just one 
letter with two parts) -- was too alarmist ... after all, this baby just 
destroyed Voldemort; how could any other wizard possibly harm him?

>>Closing him in the cupboard and humiliating him certainly wasn't 
 necessary, but maybe Dumbledore's instruction was: "Don't let him 
 become aware, under whatever circumstance, that he is a wizard".<< I doubt 
it. Hagrid had expected Harry to know everything, after all.

>> That would explain why they punished him most when he did "abnormal 
 things", like making his hair grow or jumping up on the school roof. >> I 
believe those punishments were in the hope that they'd teach him not to use 
his magic.

Whether or not Mrs. Figg turns out to be a witch, it still doesn't explain 
why Dumbledore insisted that Harry return to the Dursleys at the end of GoF 
before joining the Weasleys. After all, why would one witch offer more 
protection than a houseful of wizards and witches ... unless Mrs. Figg has 
something she needs to give or tell Harry at this point in the epic.

I'm also wondering whether a yearly dose of the Dursleys somehow provides 
Harry with a kind of innoculation ... after all, Petunia, as Lily's sister, 
is her closest genetic match ... could exposure to her somehow reinforce the 
protection Harry received when Lily died for him? 

I'm probably really grasping now ...

Jami