Harry *wasn't* abandoned

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 68925

I, Pippin, said: 
> It seems to me if Harry had taken [Mrs. Figg] 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. <

Jazzmanchgo said:
>  
> True, but on the other hand, Harry has been living at the 
Dursleys'  for a long time, and there's never been evidence of 
anything or  anyone remotely Wizard-friendly within miles 
(dimensions?) of the  place.  I think he can be forgiven for 
assuming that anyone who lives  near the Dursleys is probably a 
Muggle through-and-through, and quite  possibly a vehement 
ant-Wizard bigot to boot.<

Oh, Harry's actions are in character and very understandable, but 
we'll never know, will we, anymore than we'll ever know what 
would have happened if Harry had unwrapped the mirror.  The 
one foreshadows the other.  

Jazzmanchgo continued: 
> More pertinent, perhaps, is why it's taken his erstwhile allies 
so  long to figure out that the conditions under which he lives on 
Privet  Drive are inhumanely abusive and intolerable [which they 
should have  known from the beginning, or at least since 
Hagrid's initial visit to  pick Harry up], and then get together and 
do something about it.
 If  anything, Harry should be angry at Dumbledore for allowing 
this to  continue, <


Dumbledore does know the conditions on Privet Drive are bad, 
and has known all along. I see him as the prototype of a person 
who had to make a difficult decision. I suppose he could have 
done the easy thing and refused  to make it.  He could have let 
the Ministry of Magic decide what to do with Harry. In fact, if Harry 
had stayed in the WW it would have been impossible to keep the 
Ministry out  of it.  What do you think *they'd* have done? I can 
just see Lucius Malfoy volunteering to be Harry's guardian. Or 
what about Barty Crouch Sr? That would have worked out well. :P 
Then there's the Longbottoms... You know, the Potterverse is a 
bit of a dystopia where parents are concerned. Except for the 
Weasleys, of course, but there's more than a hint that Molly 
would've spoiled Harry into a second Dudley if she'd got the 
chance.

Anyway,  you think Fudge would have let *the* Harry Potter stay at 
the Weasleys? I can just imagine what the Daily Prophet would 
have said about it:"Young Potter, as yet unaware that he is the 
heir to the immense fortune left to him by his late parents, will 
grow up in the shabby, overgrown pigsty inhabited by the already 
numerous Weasley family. 'We don't have any more bedrooms, 
unfortunately,' says Molly Weasley, Harry's new mom, 'but  we've 
moved our Ron into the attic  so darling  Harrykins will have his 
own room, and I'm sure he'll be happy in time, poor thing.'"

So Dumbledore was left with the best of a bad lot. It's hard to see 
what Dumbledore could have done to make the Dursleys treat 
Harry better as long as  they were determined to treat him badly. 
 I suppose he could've bullied them, but that would only have 
made them angrier with Harry in the end and anyway, 
Dumbledore is no more allowed to do magic in front of Muggles 
than Harry is.

Jazzmanchgo:
> Parenthetically, I must admit I've been more than a tad 
 uncomfortable, since the beginning, with JKR's almost offhand 
 portrayal of the treatment Harry receives at home.  In real life, 
 parents or other caretakers who lock children up in closets and 
feed them scraps for dinner are arrested for child abuse, and 
quite  frankly I was appalled when I saw that kind of thing being 
described  in such nonchalant, everyday language in the early 
books. <

I think it's only us grown-ups who have a problem with this.  Any 
child would know  that in a story which begins with a woman in 
the shape of cat, the hero  is not going to be rescued from peril 
by anything as prosaic as a vist from the family services dept. ;)

Pippin