Mrs. Figg as babysitter

[love2write_11098 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 15257

I'm betting that Mrs. Figg was a decent, though dull, baby-sitter, 
who probably liked Harry a lot more than she could let on. My guess 
is that she's fairly old (between McGonagall and Dumbledore), and she 
had to be in order to fit the bill for the job for a couple reasons.

1. She had to be of an age when she could be retired. In general, you 
ask two types of people to take care of your kids: teenagers and old 
ladies. Teenagers expect to get paid. Old ladies *sometimes* don't. 
My guess is that Mrs. Figg *offered* to take care of Harry in the 
beginning -- for free. That was enough to cause the Dursleys to turn 
a blind eye to anything odd they heard about her. And I would bet 
money that the Dursleys have NO CLUE about who she really is. A 
witch! On Privet Drive! My God, can you imagine the scandal!?

2. She had to be able to drop her life and go do this. The poor witch 
has spent how many years as a Muggle? I bet she wasn't thrilled when 
Dumbledore asked her to do this, but I think that she'd have to be a 
pretty dedicated person to do it. She might turn out to be a *very* 
cool character in the end, despite her dry cake and cat photos (and 
there's nothing wrong with cat ladies! I belong to the Future Famous 
Weird Cat Ladies Club myself).

I also agree with whoever said that there probably wasn't much for 
her to talk about with Harry, since she couldn't let him in on 
anything.

And by the way . . . why *couldn't* she let him in on anything? And 
if she was communicating with Dumbledore all this time, why on Earth 
didn't Hagrid know that Harry was completely clueless about his 
parentage? You'd think that around Harry's ninth birthday or so, Mrs. 
Figg might have owled Dumbledore and said something like, "You 
know . . . the Potter boy really has no idea about what he is. The 
invitation from Hogwarts will probably be a bit of a shock. Do you 
think I should whip out the *real* photo albums and have a chat with 
him next time the Muggles send him over?" Would have helped Harry out 
immensely, I think . . . though PS might have been less entertaining.

Sorry if this has been said already. Many, many messages and not as 
many minutes in my day.

Stacy