Petunia doth protest overly much

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 104576

Jocelyn wrote:

I am still puzzling over the "Remember my last" in OotP though.  
There was some bargain struck between her and DD, no doubt.  We know 
she agreed to keep Harry but what did DD agree to as his side of the 
bargain?  She certainly seemed terrified of the agreement being 
broken!

I haven't really found any of the propositions advanced so far 
convincing. I would quite like the 'Dudderkins is a wizard' theory if 
I didn't think that DD would consider suppressing a child's magic 
potential to be deeply unethical.

vmonte responds:

I also think that DD has made some kind of bargain with Petunia. (I  
don't think that DD is suppressing Dudley's magic either.) 

I posted a theory about the howler a few weeks ago.  I often wondered 
why Harry did not recognize DD's voice, and why DD often seemed to 
know more information than he should.  Maybe "remember my last" 
means "remember my last prophecy."  After all, Trelawny has a 
different voice when she is prophesizing, maybe the howler voice is 
DD's seer voice.

Anyway, here's my previous post (#101316):

Remember the howler that Petunia got? The howler that spoke in a
scary eerie voice that Harry did not recognize as DD. Trelawny speaks
in another voice when she is prophesizing, maybe this is DD's Seer
voice?

I remember when DD told Harry that he had been thinking of removing
divinity from the school altogether--until he met Trelawny. (Why
remove the subject you say? Well maybe because divinity is ambiguous,
non-specific, often missinterpreted, and usually revealed after-the-
fact.)

What if DD has a couple prophecy orbs himself? The same ambiguous,
and non direct kind of prophecies like Trelawny.

There is one at the house of the child born in the seventh month who
will...blah blah blah...develop magic late in life...this one will be
protected by the child who can vanquish the dark lord...blah blah
blah...on this non-specific ambiguous date and time...

This prophecy is the reason Petunia agreed to take in Harry. DD's
howler reminds Petunia of the prophecy.

Here is the thing, I think that Petunia has assumed that the prophecy
is about Dudley, but it is really about herself. Petunia lived with
a witch, her sister. She would know the early signs. She has been
trying to keep Dudley from getting angry and upset his whole life in
fear that he would reveal his magical side.

The problem is that the prophecy is really about her --- HAHA.