Several questions about the Dursleys, the Fidelius charm and Dumbledore
meira_q
mb2910 at hotmail.com
Sun Dec 1 14:16:18 UTC 2002
No: HPFGUIDX 47522
This subject(s) was(were) probably discussed several (billion) times
in the past here, but I'm hereby asking them (probably) again.
Feel free to sigh and say "Oh, no, not again the question about (fill
in proper subject)..."
*hides the rotten tomatoes* ^-^
So here is my question:
Dumbledore placed Harry on the doorstep of no. 4 Privet Drive for the
Dursleys to care for him and raise Harry.
for 11 years, the Dursley's greatest wish was to get rid of Harry,
and suddenly Harry gets this letter from Hogwarts telling him that he
has been accepted to study there, and the Dursleys do everything they
can to prevent him from going there (they don't have much success in
that endeavor, but that is another matter).
Having a wizard in the house would be a bad thing (from Vernon's and
Petunia's POV) for a few reasons: It's the most un-normal thing
possible, and they don't want people handling frog spawn and wands
under their roof, and it's a *very* bad influence on Dinky Duddydums.
That is why, when Harry does come back for the summer vacation, that
they lock his things away and padlock Hedwig's cage.
But... sending Harry to a very far away place should be (for the
Dursleys) as if 10 years worth of Christmass's, Hannuka's, Birthdays
have been cramped into a single day.
So, why would they want to prevent Harry from going to Hogwarts?
(for example, in CoS, when Ron and the twins "play" tug-o-war with
the Dursleys, with Harry as the thing being tugged), or in PS/SS, in
the hut, that Vernon tells Hagrid that Harry will under no
circumstances go to Hogwarts and that he will go to Stonewall High
and be greatful for it). Just to prevent Harry from getting what he
wants? It doesn't seem to me that the Dursleys would care too much
about what Harry would become and do in his life, except in the sense
of keeping him as down-trodden as possible.
My opinion is that the same charms and spells that protect Harry at
the Dursley's residence, sort of protected Harry from getting thrown
out the nearest window or something like that, and here's another
Nice Little Question (several, in fact, but who's counting *g*):
What would have happened if the Dursleys would have decided to move?
The charms protecting Harry would have moved too? What would Mrs.
Figg do, since she's there to keep an eye on Harry? Do the charms
prevent the Dursleys of moving because of Mrs. Figg and the
logisitical challenge it would be to move the charms with them?
Another opinion that I have (which might not be too original and
innovative but I like it *g*) is that Dumbledore knew about Harry's
problematic (putting it nicely) family: "'I never expected this,' he
[Hagrid] said, in a low, worried voice. 'I had no idea, when
Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh,...'"
~PS, chapter 4 - "The Keeper of the Keys", p. 44 in the Bloomsbury
version~
And more questions: Is it possible that Dumbledore knew from the
start that they were going to be like that? Maybe that is why he
wanted Harry growing up there, to prepare him mentally or emotionally
for the future?
Meira.
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