new (?) thoughts about the Dursleys

[Milz]

No: HPFGUIDX 21527

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., pigwidgeon37 at y... wrote:

> Any comments?

I think Dumbledore was very thorough in his letter. No doubt, 
Dumbledore assumed Petunia, being Lily's sister, was familiar to the 
wizarding world. For all we know, Dumbledore might have included 
instructions to contact this person or that person if they had 
questions. 

Maybe Prof. McGonagall interceded when they returned to Hogwarts. 
Remember she did observe the Dursley's for a day and was shocked that 
Dumbledore left Harry with them. Or maybe the letter contained 
instructions for the Dursleys to stay in contact with Dumbledore and 
they didn't. Arabella Figg was one of the "old crowd" during the 
Voldemort years. Maybe she was sent by Dumbledore to live incognito 
near the Dursleys to guard Harry in the event the DEs attempted to 
retaliate against Harry and to keep Dumbledore apprised of the 
situation. I wouldn't be terribly surprized if attempts were made upon 
Harry and the Dursleys in the early days.

As for the Dursleys, I can't excuse them for their poor treatment of 
Harry. However, I can see why they kept Harry unaware of his wizard 
heritage and why they even attempted to "squash the magic out of him". 
Think of it, you find your baby nephew on the doorstep. A letter  
informs you that this is your nephew Harry. His parents have been 
killed by Voldemort, a powerful dark wizard bent on ruling the world. 
The bads news: Voldemort tried to kill Harry too. The good news: he 
couldn't kill Harry but Harry managed to kill or weaken him. It would 
scare me! I would think "why did this dark wizard want to kill a 
baby?", "does this baby have any powers?", "will other dark wizards 
try to kill Harry?", "will other dark wizards try to kill me because I 
have Harry?". I suppose the Dursleys thought that Harry's magical 
powers were dangerous to himself and to them because magic is the 
reason why Lily and James were killed. If Harry didn't use magic, then 
no one will try to kill or harm him. Keeping him ignorant of his 
magical heritage will keep him ignorant of his magic powers. I bet the 
Dursleys were hoping too that Harry had no powers and were very 
frightened that he did (growing his hair back, apparating to the roof 
of the school). The Dursley's methods were totally wrong. But I think 
deep down in their hearts they thought they were doing the right thing 
for Harry and for themselves. As strange as it may sound I think 
Petunia does love Harry in her own way and I think she loved Lily too. 
If she didn't love Lily, Petunia wouldn't have been upset that she 
married James, whom she thought was a good-for-nothing. you only get 
upset about people making what you think are bad choices if you care 
for them. However, her fear about magic manifests as anger directed 
toward the two magical people in her family, Lily and Harry, because 
her fear is just too great for her to cope properly. 

Vernon probably behaves that way because he feels Harry's presence in 
their home is a threat to their safety and probably because he's been 
influenced by Petunia to the degree that he too is scared of magic. 
But I still have to hand it to Vernon: he went to extraordinary 
lengths to keep Harry away from Hogwarts. It can be easily said that 
he did that because he hates Harry so much he wanted to keep Harry 
aways from something that might be good for Harry. But considering his 
family's experience with magic (Lily's death by Voldemort), magic 
isn't good. That's  why I can't definitely say Vernon and Petunia hate 
Harry. If they really hated Harry, they would have turned him over to 
Hagrid immediately and let him live in an environment they think is 
bad. They wouldn't have gone to those lengths to keep him away from 
that bad environment.

Milz