Protection at the Dursleys (was Sirius)

[dfrankis at dial.pipex.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 21679

Jamie wrote:
> 
> But it's not a theory - it's fact. (Well, in a HP canon sense that 
> is)  Voldemort himself says "But how to get at Harry Potter?  For 
he 
> has been better protected than I think even he knows, protected in 
> ways devised by Dumbledore long ago, when it fell to him to arrange 
> the boy's future.  Dumbledore invoked an ancient magic, to ensure 
the 
> boy's protection as long as he is in his relation's care.  Not even 
I 
> can touch him there...." (GoF ch.33)
> 
> But now *all* i want to know about how this ancient magic 
> works.....anyone have any ideas?
> 
> - Jamie

My understanding - and really we have very little yo go on - is that 
the ancient magic is something that is already 'there', but it needs 
invoking.  That is, it's not just a (very old) spell cast by 
Dumbledore which would have worked anywhere, but neither is every 
child living with relatives automatically safe.

In the case of the Dursleys, a good guess might be that it's possible 
to protect a wizard child from magical harm if:

they live with their last remaining (close - how close?) relatives 
*and*

these relatives are Muggles *and*

the wizard child practices no (deliberate) magic while under their 
care.

This would explain why it's so important that Harry not practice 
magic while all the others get away with, well, not actual murder but 
explosions etc.  Also it would still allow Harry to be hurt by normal 
means such as Dudley's gang.

By rights, Dumbledore invoking the magic should have some hidden 
cost: when he grows up Harry will have to go to the Well at the 
World's End and do whatever the old lady (transfigured young maiden) 
tells him to do, or some such.  Or there's a picture, or a rose, in 
the Dursley's attic.  Or there's a 'secret keeper' type of person 
(Mrs Figg?). Or something.

I don't see Lily's protection as 'invoking' anything.  She loved 
Harry; she died protecting him; that's enough to stop AK.  It 
wouldn't have worked if Voldemort had used a gun.  There would be 
something about the *quality* of her love for Harry that mattered, 
or, though I hope it's not quite like this, the purity of her 
character (I think D almost says as much at the end of PS), else 
Harry wouldn't be so unusual in this respect.

In ther any relationship or interaction between the Lily-protection 
and the Dursley-protection, perhaps via Petunia?

David, imagining a scene where the Dursleys defeat Voldemort by 
locking him in the cupboard under the stairs, which they can do 
because V has Harry's blood in him...