Petunia a squib

[hedwigpotter2003 <lilypotter@gosympatico.ca>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50619

On the topic of the Evans family, a thought has crossed my mind. Who 
is not normal after all ?

Petunia and Vernon are often referring to the abnormality of witches 
and wizards. How they despise everything and anything that 
is "abnormal" or yet, the "unnaturalness" (GoF p.35)of the WW. They 
are "touchy ...about anything even slightly "out of the ordinary" 
(GoF, p33). The theme comes back everytime the Dursley's are around. 
Finally, (one more canon before I make my point), Petunia's reaction 
to her parents'pride in having a witch in the family and going on and 
on about it after Lily received her Hogwarts letter is, to say the 
least, venomous.
Petunia recalls how she was the only one to see Lily for what she 
really was: a monster.

This visceral need for "normalcy", the fear of anything from the WW 
could be because, in the Evans family, there was shame for not having 
a real wizard among them, as it should have been. Remember how 
ashamed Filch is when he thinks Harry may have found out he's not 
a "proper wizard"(CoS p.98). 
It seems that not being a " proper wizard" can be the source of 
shame.
 And, the Evans family could have been more then squibs, they could 
have been born muggles in a wizard family. Parents may have 
demonstrated shame of their inabilities and passed that shame on to 
their children. To not have been like the others in the family and 
traditional family social setting. Ashame of not being complete.

How excited they would have been indeed to discover finally they had 
a perfectly capable witch as a daughter, witch enough to get invited 
into Hogwarts. Her abilities may have been hidden all this time 
because of lack of role models in her direct family (again, we don't 
know what happened to the grand-parents). And her muggle/squib 
parents would not have been able to help bring her abilities out 
either.  The "abnormalcy" in the family could have been in fact to 
not be full wizards. How extremely hurtful for Petunia to have to 
live with this inherited shameful state while her sister is the 
embodiment of the family's deepest desire.

As an grown independent woman she would have chosen to separate 
herself from this source of shame and have espoused the MW 
completely, where she IS normal. Anything "out of the ordinary" would 
very much bring back this awful state of being labelled. In MW, she 
and her new family can live a normal life and never be lebelled as 
anything different. Harry would not only have been a reminder of 
those awful days but definitely a threat to their perfect blending in 
muggle society, away from all that is strange. Their hate for him has 
been driven by fear of what was and what could be again.

Hedwig
who is finally getting her wings wet.