[HPforGrownups] Dursleys' Fears (WAS: Redeeming the Dursleys

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 53501

This is a *very* late response, but I've been out of town and trying to catch up.

Eric Oppen wrote:


> We know from JKR's statements in interviews (don't have URLs handy, sorry)
> that we're going to find out a lot about the Dursleys in Book Five.
> Maybe...maybe we find out _why_ they're so terrified of magic?
> 


Indeed. I think we need an explanation, as the ones in the books don't quite add up. On the one hand, the opening page of PS/SS states that the Dursleys feared that someone would find out about their unDursleyish relatives.  This is repeated in GoF. On the other hand, ch. 3 of GoF says that "fear of [Harry's] powers had led them to lock his school trunk in the cupboard." Certainly after PS/SS, Vernon's fear of magic being used against him or his family is not an abstract one - they have the hospital bill from Dudley's tail removal to prove it and a history of abusing Harry to think about. But the fear that Vernon demonstrates in the later books is virtually the same fear he shows in chapter 1 of PS/SS, before Harry even shows up on his doorstep with the fateful letter from Dumbledore.

Eric went on to suggest that Vernon knows more about the magical world than he cares to admit, and suggests some possible reasons, including:

> If Young Vernon Dursley had some really
> unpleasant encounter with magic and wizards, his attitude would, IMNSHO,
> become much more understandable. 

The family that ran the campgrounds where
> the QWC took place might well have an uneasy feeling about magic and
> "unusual" people, even after Memory Charms...and we don't know how effective
> Memory Charms really are, now do we? A badly-applied Memory Charm could
> have left him with just enough memories that he has a permanent aversion to
> magic, even though he doesn't know why.

Taking the memory charm first, I don't think anyone used a memory charm on Vernon. The Dursleys certainly didn't get memory charms after Dudley's tail was removed. (Remember how Dudley clutched his backside in GoF when the Weasleys arrived to pick Harry up?)  Immediate families of witches and wizards seem to be exempt from the requirement that magic be hidden from muggles, or Petunia wouldn't remember about the teacups Lily turned into rats.  Vernon seems to know way too much about magic to have had his memories erased, though he's got a strong case of denial about it. 

However, I agree that Vernon at least, and more probably he and Petunia together, were been victims - possibly on multiple occasions -- of the sort of magic that humiliated Vernon, and at least momentarily, made him fear for his life - just as the Ton-Tongue Toffee episode must have momentarily terrified Dudley. I will also propose that the perpetrators of the magic tricks played on Vernon were none other than "that double act, Sirius Black and James Potter . . . such a pair of troublemakers" that only the Twins could compare in terms of magical mischief.  It seems right in character, knowing how they treated Snape.

Possibly, every time Vernon has come into contact with wizards in his life, except Harry, someone performed an ugly magic trick on him. That is, in fact, what we see happening to Dudley. For someone such as Vernon who seems to need to feel powerful (why else would one derive pleasure from yelling at his subordinates?), the idea that there are people about with powers he doesn't share targeting him must be quite terrifying.

If James and Sirius did prey upon Vernon, Vernon's dismissal of James and Lily as good-for-nothing weirdos and persistence in treating their deaths to be something they brought upon themselves can be seen as a way of rationalizing away his own humiliation and feelings of powerlessness. That would also explain why Petunia and Lily are no longer speaking. And it allows the Dursleys to rationalize their abuse of Harry as avenging their own magical *abuse*.

Another reason why magical pranks seems to be a good explanation is that Vernon's fear doesn't seem to be explainable by any understanding of the real dangers of the wizarding world. There's no evidence anywhere that Vernon was aware of Voldemort's existence before Harry arrived. In PS/SS ch. 1, he doesn't pick up on the You-Know-Who reference he hears on the street. His concerns are all about the Potters; when he overheard Harry's name, "fear flooded him." But he has no idea what has happened to James and Lily at that point, only that these cultish people seem to be talking about someone with the same name as a nephew whose existence he'd like to forget. 

And if the Dursleys had learned anything significant about Voldemort and the DEs in the letter they received from Dumbledore, they'd be desperate for Dumbledore's protection and anxious to do whatever he asked. Instead, they're clinging to the idea that it's all some kind of joke and that James and Lily were "weirdos [who] asked for what they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types." All the Dursleys have to do to avoid the risk of DE attack is to continue to do what Dumbledore wants them to do, which at the beginning of PS/SS is to send Harry to Hogwarts. Instead, Vernon goes to extraordinary lengths to prevent Harry from getting his Hogwarts letter. So I don't think they're relying on Dumbledore's benevolence to protect them from attack by Voldemort's loyal servants. They evidently think Dumbledore himself (and that wizarding school he runs) is the enemy, and have no understanding whatsoever of how Voldemort's anti-Muggle hatred could hurt them.

Why would Vernon's prior humiliation at the hands of James and Sirius be significant? Well, for one thing, Vernon's determined blindness toward the wizarding world could have serious consequences if the Dursleys should someday be forced to personally confront the reality of Voldemort and his Muggle-hating DEs. For another, I think Sirius and Vernon are destined to meet again someday, with very interesting results. 

Well, it's a theory. Holes, anyone?

Debbie

preparing to unveil all her silly theories before OoP comes out so she will be positioned to claim her victories or, more likely, eat her humble pie






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