Aunt Petunia (was Re: Theoretical boundaries)

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 120362


Imamommy wrote:
"Petunia is a muggle, but is it possible that she *chose* to be a
muggle?  Could she have been born into a part-wizarding family. and
decided not to go to Hogwarts?"

Iris answered:
"Petunia as a witch who refused to learn magic: I'm not sure it could
 work, but that's an interesting possibility.
I'm not sure it could work because of the way she behaves towards
Harry and Dudley. JKR shows her giving to her son much more than he
needs, for example concerning food, as if she was trying to compensate
for something he doesn't have."

Del replies:
There's another take on Aunt Petunia's spoiling of Dudley. It has been
presented many times on this board, and I think it could make a lot of
sense.

What if Aunt Petunia spoiled Dudley to *prevent* him from exhibiting
magic?

If imamommy's theory is right, and Aunt Petunia is actually a witch
who hates magic and decided to live as a Muggle, then her biggest fear
would naturally be that Dudley might turn out to be a wizard too. We
can reasonably assume that parents are not informed about their
children's magical ability until they receive the Hogwarts letter. So
Petunia would have no way of knowing, when Dudley was born, whether
her son was indeed magical or not. And she knows from personal
experience that magical kids can do accidental magic when they are
under intense emotions. So maybe she figured that by spoiling Dudley,
she could prevent him from getting upset enough to show magic and to
discover his magical nature.

That would help explain why they were so upset to have to care for an
*obviously* magical child : because it might give ideas to Dudley. So
maybe they figured that by making Harry hateful to Dudley, their son
wouldn't wish to be a wizard himself if he ever learned of Harry's
magical abilities.

But if this theory is true, then it seems they did all this for
nothing, since Dudley is very much a Muggle.

Del, who wonders what church imamommy belongs to, because it sure
sounds a lot like her own church ;-)