When Petunia met James

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 70326

Linlou:


>I took two possible ideas about the dementors from this 
> passage. Either they were not around during the first war, or they 
> were on Voldemort's side. Dumbledore makes it clear that the 
> dementors would quickly go to V one asked. If they were around, I'm 
> sure V was not so stupid as to not extend the invitation. In fact, 
> he probably would have found it amusing for the dementors to 
> administer their kiss on his orders. Either way they could NOT have 
> been guarding Azkaban during the first war. 

In GoF, V-Mort makes reference to the Dementors being "natural 
allies" which would indicate, as you said, that he hasn't used them 
before. 

>Yet, presumably, Petunia  heard about the dementors and Azkaban 
while Lily was still attending Hogwarts-during the war. 
Logically, it just couldn't be the case. 

Well, it COULD work, if the Dementors were being used to guard the 
DEs being captured during the first war. James could very well have 
been talking to Lily about how he didn't like the Dementors guarding 
the prison, or commenting on something Dumbledore said about them. 
Dumbledore would have pitched a fit about them being used.

Petunia might have heard, or overheard, a great deal, enough to scare 
her into remembering it years later.

So, I'm not sure it couldn't be the case, which means the point here 
might not be so absolute:

> Therefore, she must have been at least peripherally keeping up with 
> what was going on in the WW since Harry was dropped on her doorstep.
> Why? 

This is possible, but there are other answers too.

Darrin