Dursleys' desire to hold onto Harry

[sammerz2388]

No: HPFGUIDX 47532

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "meira_q" <mb2910 at h...> wrote:

> 
> 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.


     From what JKR has given us, the Dursleys appear to be obsessed 
with normalcy . Within the first few pages of PS/SS, Vernon 
threatens Harry ("no funny business...") before the *family* trip to 
the zoo. I got the feeling of Vernon being extremely hateful towards 
all things "funny" - he does seem to be one of those people who 
house strong resentment against that which they do not understand... 

     Petunia joins her husband in this outrage against magic - 
consider her many temper tantrums at the mention of her wretched 
sister, Lily. Any reminder of Petunia's tainted childhood sends her 
into a flying rage, complete with rants and raves about Lily's 
putrid husband, James.

     With parents like these, Dudley couldn't possibly be raised 
with anything but a deep hate for magic (if he even comprehends the 
fact that magic lurks in his household ;-)). So here we've a family 
of three, with a distaste for anything detracting from their 
normalcy. It seems normal to me that, despite their detestment for 
Harry, they'd want to keep him home where he wouldn't be involved 
with the magic world in any way, shape, or form. What if someone 
were to discover that the nephew they had raised for 11 years was 
some kind of "freak", shipped off to some *special* school? I think 
Petunia's already run through these scenarios in her mind, and come 
to the conclusion it would be *much* better off keeping Harry at 
home. 

     Perhaps the Dursleys are afraid to send Harry to Hogwarts 
because they fear what will happen on his return. Will a big, bad, 
magic-wand-carrying nephew come back for vengeance, evil spells in 
hand?

     Or, hey, we could just chalk it up to the Dursleys' all-out 
weirdness. :-)

"sammerz2388"