Harry *wasn't* abandoned

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 68783

> First Perspicacious Pippin said:
> 
> > > "Harry was very pleased he was concealed behind the 
bush,  as Mrs. Figg had taken to asking him round for tea 
whenever she met him in the street."
 It seems to me if Harry had taken her up on it, she'd have told  
him what was going on.  It's interesting that Harry never thinks  of 
this, and goes on being cross with Dumbledore for leaving him 
without any contact with the WW even after he finds out that Mrs. 
Figg is a Squib.
 
> Then Dynamic Darrin said: 
> > I think that's a big leap, that Figg would have told him 
everything that was going on. We're not even sure she knew 
much past "keep an eye on Harry."
> > 
> > And considering that she had to play a role of being nasty to 
him  whenever he  was left there, why are we to assume she 
would change now? It took  the  Dementor attack to get her to 
drop her cover.

Intrepid  Indigo:
> Mrs. Figg actually said as much in the book -- that she had to 
not  give away she knew much about the Wizarding world, for 
that 
very  reason.  She knew if it appeared Harry was enjoying 
himself, they'd  take it away from him, and then she wouldn't be 
able to keep an eye  on him at all.<

Mrs. Figg says all this when Harry asked  why she never told him 
anything all the times he came round before, that is, when she 
was babysitting him as a youngster. She couldn't tell him 
anything *then* because Dumbledore thought he was too young 
to keep her secret. But that changed at the end of GoF:

Dumbledore: "You are to alert Remus Lupin, Arabella Figg, 
Mundungus Fletcher -- the old crowd." Dumbledore wasn't 
keeping her secret from Harry any longer.

 Mrs. Figg seems to be in the loop. She mentions "what 
happened in June,"  and she knows that the Ministry will be more 
upset about Harry's use of underage magic than about 
Dementors floating around Wisteria Walk.  She knows "*exactly* 
[emphasis Rowling's] what Dumbledore was afraid of." In the 
event, there isn't time to answer all Harry's questions on the way 
back to the Dursleys. But she's hardly furious with herself as if 
she'd been talking too much.

It makes sense that Mrs. Figg would have tried to get Harry  to 
come round to her house before talking to him rather than 
spilling the beans in front of a street full of nosy neighbors, all
of  whom are deeply suspicious of Harry, and on any other night 
would have been " about their usual car-washing and 
lawn-mowing pursuits."  She knows that the Ministry is looking 
for an excuse to further discredit Harry. Having a conversation 
about the wizarding world on a public street could have gotten 
them both in trouble. But since Harry had already gone and done 
actual magic, that wasn't a consideration any more.

Pippin