Dursley's bribed?, charmed? or afraid?

[karywick <karenwickersham@ameritech.net>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50698

I looked in the archives to find discussion on this but could not 
find any.  Maybe its just too old for my computer to find. If so just 
please settle this argument between me and my husband.

The question is why after all the horrible things that have happened 
at the Dursley's house like Dudley's pig tail in PS/SS, the cake 
dropped in CoS, Aunt Marge being blown up in PoA, and Dudley's four 
foot tongue GoA, do the Dursleys keep letting Harry come back each 
summer?  We know that canon says that Dumbledore wants him at the 
Dursley's because he is safe there but the Dursleys must have some 
say in the matter.

I seem to think that they are really afraid of the power that the 
wizarding world has.  Its obvious that they haven't been charmed 
because Dudley remembers his tail.(in GoF p 40HC)" It wasn't 
altogether surprising, therefore, that Dudley kept running his hand 
nervously over his backside, and walking sideways from room to room, 
so as not to present the same target to the enemy." The whole family 
is visibly nervous when the Weasleys come to get Harry for the World 
Cup. GoF also show that Harry is able to bargain with  Uncle Vernon 
by 
threatening to write his godfather, Sirius.

 I believe that somehow the Dursley's know that Dumbledore can offer 
them protection and the price of that protection is to care for Harry 
in the summers and up until he was eleven.  For all the protest of 
the hatred of wizarding ways I would not be surprized to find that 
they know or realize a little more of what was going on when 
Voldemort was in power than we now are led to believe.  I'm not sure 
I'm going with these arguments that either of them or Dudley are 
wizards or squibs but I think that Petunia might have known what was 
going on with Lily.  I can't believe that as soon as Lily became a 
witch that all of her relatives shunned her like Petunia and that 
Petunia shunned all of her relatives.  She might have been very aware 
of what was happening even though she did not get along with her 
sister.  The fact that her sister was killed in Petunia's mind for 
being a witch has just solidified her hatred in the past decade or 
so.  That doesn't mean that she didn't hear about Muggle torturing or 
hadn't been warned by Lily about Voldemort and wasn't afraid and feel 
that they might need the protection of Dumbledore and his cohorts.  
She might deny her realtionship with Lily in an attempt to protect 
her family and seperate herself from the Potters.

My husband seems to think that they are getting paid money by the 
MoM.  He points to the new "company car" on pg 3 (Hardcover American 
ed) of PoA. "While Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dundley had gone 
out in the front garden to admire Uncle Vernon's new company car ( in 
very loud voices, so that the rest of the street would notice it 
too). . ."  as proof that they are being paid.  His rationale is that 
since he owns his own company it seems a little strange to get a 
company car, especially on the day Harry returns home.  My husband 
also feels that the Dursley's are shallow enough to take a child into 
their home for money only.  

Does anyone else have any feelings on this topic?

"Karen"