Who's really in charge?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 90322

"Bridget"  wrote:
> Hi all! I've been re-reading the series, paying special attention to 
> the parts where Harry is at the Dursleys', as it seems to me that 
> Harry thinks Vernon is in charge. Vernon is the one who punishes and 
> threatens him etc. But if you read closely, it's fairly obvious that 
> Petunia is the one making the rules, Vernon is just the one 
> enforcing them. <snip> He is deliberately 
> ignoring his instincts about what's going on to avoid upsetting her. 
> What I want to know is why he lets her be in control. What does she 
> has over him? Is it merely because he loves her or does he know 
> something about her we don't? We know Petunia knows more then she 
> let on to knowing can the same be said of Vernon? Any ideas, other 
> examples, and comments are much appreciated!

Carol:
I think that Vernon and Petunia are operating as a team in their
suppression of Harry but with different motivations. Vernon's are
fairly simple, he's a Muggle and "Mugglehood," to him, is normal.
Petunia, despite her witch sister, is also a Muggle, "normal" to him,
and he must have loved her to marry her despite her "freaky" sister.
At first (SS/PS chapter one), he simply doesn't want anyone to know
that his sister-in-law and her husband are a witch and a wizard. Then
Harry shows up on his doorstep, and the need to conceal the
"abnormality" of his wife's relations becomes more urgent (in his
view). When the owls arrive with the letters for Harry from Hogwarts,
he goes into panic mode. (I do think he's in charge at that point.
Petunia, Dudley, and Harry are all powerless against what even Dudley
perceives as his his father's insanity: "Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?")

Once Vernon realizes that he can't prevent Harry from going to
Hogwarts, he reverts to his old methods, trying to force Harry to be
"normal" by punishing any accidental magic or use of the "M" word,
etc. The only reason he lets Harry out of his cupboard is fear of
retribution from the WW. (Later he and Dudley both fear that Harry
will cast a spell on them; later still they fear retribution from
Harry's "convicted murderer" godfather.) Vernon also pretends that
Harry is incorrigible and not quite sane, attending not Hogwarts but
St. Brutus' School for Incurably Criminal Boys (IIRC). Essentially, I
think Uncle Vernon is the arch-Muggle, the modern descendant of the
witch-burners of the Middle Ages. He would deny magic if he could;
since he can't, he hates and fears it and tries to suppress it.

Petunia's motivations are different and more complex. Unfortunately
for those of us who want to interpret her, we've never been allowed
inside her mind. We do know that she grew up with a witch sister who
got a letter from Hogwarts (clearly Petunia didn't) and apparently did
magic over the summer vacations (maybe MoM restrictions weren't so
stringent then?). Petunia is obviously jealous of her sister, calling
her a "freak" but perhaps secretly wishing she were a freak, too, and
calling James "that awful boy" whether or not she really means it. She
certainly has seen magic performed, and she knows about Howlers and
Dementors. But apparently she doesn't want anyone, including Vernon,
to know how much she knows, which explains why she's so uptight when
he tries to talk with her about what he's seen in SS/PS chapter one
and why she, too, punishes Harry for accidental magic.

At first, it seems to me, Petunia's position is rather like Vernon's.
They've agreed to hide from the world the fact that she has close
relatives who aren't "normal." (It's rather like hiding the fact that
your sister is an alcoholic who has been released from prison after
serving a prison sentence for a hit-and-run. You don't talk about her
and you don't want her to visit you and you don't have any photos of
her in your house.) At this point all Petunia and Vernon have to do is
hide Lily's and James's existence from their neighbors and Vernon's
business contacts. But when Harry arrives on their doorstep, Petunia
grasps much more thoroughly than Vernon does how much more complex
(and dangerous) the situation has become. Whatever is in the letter
that DD puts in Harry's blankets is a binding contract, as he reminds
her in the Howler, but clearly she's in the situation against her
will. It may well be that her resentment shows in her treatment of Harry.

In any case, we know that she knows more than Vernon does about the WW
and Harry's parents, and apparently it's much harder for her to keep
quiet about it. Twice, when she has a chance to talk, the information
she's been holding in bursts out of her. The first instance is in the
hut when Hagrid arrives to take Harry to Hogwarts and she can finally
confess that her sister and brother-in-law were a witch and wizard and
that they were not killed in a car accident. Her resentment and
jealousy of Lily are clear, but so is the fact that her feelings have
been bottled up for ten years and she can now, finally, reveal part of
the secret. In OoP, we get another glimpse of how much Petunia has
been concealing, this time the knowledge of what a Dementor is. She
perceives the meaning of the Howler and Vernon doesn't, and it does
appear at that point that Petunia is in charge. Maybe Vernon
understands at last that she knows more than he does and her motives
are not the same as his.

I have no idea what's going to happen with the Dursleys in the next
two books, but I think it's time for Petunia to level with Vernon and
tell him what's really going on. He needs to understand that there's
more at stake than concealing from the world that they have an
"abnormal" nephew or connections with the WW he wants to believe does
not exist. The Dementor incident has shown Petunia that she and her
family are now in real danger, but she also knows, thanks to the
Howler, that she must continue to let Harry stay in her home. How
she'll explain that to the arch-Muggle, I can't guess, but I think
that telling him the full truth instead of holding everything inside
will at least result in an improvement in her emotional state. Maybe
it will result in an improvement in her treatment of Harry as well. We
can only hope.

Carol