My Theory: Petunia/"That Boy"

[KathyK]

No: HPFGUIDX 76366

Beckah:
> Hey all! Again, I will give my usual disclaimer - I haven't been 
able to keep up with all the posts so this may have all ready been 
said, although I couldn't find it in the archives :-) Now that that's 
out of the way, my husband and I were talking about OOP last night, 
and especially about Petunia and her relationship to the wizarding 
world when a thought struck me. When they are talking about the 
dementors, Petunia know what they are and where they are supposed to 
be. When she is asked about it, she says that she heard "that boy" 
talking about them. Now, I assumed that she was referring to James, 
but what if she wasn't? Here is my theory: when she was a teenager, 
Petunia dated, and fell in love with, a wizard. During the course of 
this relationship they talked about many things, and she learned a 
lot about the wizarding world. She was so in love with him that she 
planned a future with him after they finished schooling. However, he 
was a pure blood, and while dating a muggle was fine
>  with him, he had no intentions of ever marrying her. When he 
finally told her this, she was devastated and looked at the entire 
wizarding world in a new light - a very bad light at that. This heart 
break forever turned her against the wizarding world and anything to 
do with it. Hence the reason she is so nasty about the WW, yet seems 
to know so much about it. Well, that's it...what does everyone think? 
If you think it's completely ridiculous, please don't laugh too hard 
or send too 
> many howlers my way! :-)
> 
> 
> Beckah
> 

How very interesting!  When I first read about "that boy" I also 
thought that it was probably James.  But, like you, I thought maybe 
she was talking about someone else and knew more about the WW than 
she was letting on.  Actually, I finally concluded that Petunia was 
lying through her teeth with that phrase and that she just said she 
heard James talking about it to Lily because she needed to cover the 
slip up she'd just made in front of her family that would have shown 
she was in contact with wizards after taking Harry in.  
But I like your idea, too!  Do you suppose she met this boy through 
Lily, or somehow independently?  I especially like the idea of the 
boy being a pureblood having some fun with a muggle while in school 
and having to later settle down with a proper witch.  And Petunia 
held it against her own sister!

KathyK