OoP: Petunia, expelled?

[rowena_grunnionffitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 64625

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Erin" <erinridgeway at b...> 
wrote:
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> I'm germinating a theory I'd like feedback on, if anyone would like 
> to help me...or blow it out of the water, take your pick.
> 
> I theorize (get ready) that Petunia is...a failed witch. I theorize 
> that, just like her sister, Petunia recieved the Hogwarts letter 
and 
> shipped right off, pleased as punch. I also theorize that somewhere 
> along the line, something went bad wrong and Petunia was expelled, 
> had her wand snapped, and was sent packing from the WW for the rest 
> of her life. 

   Well I don't know if I'd go so far as to believe Petunia a failed 
witch, (though your point about siblings is well taken) but her 
knowledge of the Wizarding World is *definitely* too broad and 
intimate to be merely things she 'overheard'. It does look like she 
must have spent some time actually *living* in the WW. 

   The next question is what happened to Harry's Muggle grandparents, 
and the Wizard ones too for that matter. Did LV or his DEs kill them? 
Does Petunia hate the WW because it killed her parents? Clearly she 
regards LV as a threat her Muggle husband and son as well as her 
Wizard nephew. And what hold does Dumbledore have over her to force 
her to keep Harry? I mean what can he possibly threaten that's worse 
than attack by LV? 

   It may be the knowledge that Harry will certainly die if she sends 
him away is all the hold Dumbledore needs. As Harry points out 
Petunia doesn't love him, she clearly resents his presence in her 
life and her home *but* that doesn't mean she wants his blood on her 
hands. She's not wicked enough to deliberately send a child, her own 
flesh and blood, to his death. And notice Petunia's is the last word. 
Uncle Vernon backs down immediately when she sets her will against 
his.