Dumbledore's hold on Petunia [was Re: Lily's Family]

[Eustace_Scrubb]

No: HPFGUIDX 108000

Marte wrote:
> It is claimed that Petunia is a squib and Dudley a wizard, mainly 
> because Dudley felt the Dementors.  But he did so not see them! 
That 
> was stated clearly in the book...  He felt them, and felt their 
> horror, but did not know where this icy cold feeling came from.  If
> Dudley was a wizard, Dumbledore couldn't have done anything about
it.  
> 
> Marte

Eustace_Scrubb:
Well, really, what we know of Dudley's experience isn't that different
from Harry's.

>From OotP, Chapter 1:
"[Harry] turned his head this way and that, trying to see something,
but the darkness pressed on his eyes like a weightless veil....  

Harry stood stock still, turning his sightless eyes left and right.
The cold was so intense he was shivering all over; goose bumps had
erupted up his arms and the hairs on the back of his neck were
standing up - he opened his eyes to their fullest extent, staring
blankly around, unseeing....

...he strained his ears...he would hear them before he saw them...."

Harry doesn't _see_ the dementors until after Dudley belts him and
runs off and then only once he lights up the wand.  We have no idea
what Dudley did or did not see at that point.  We only know that once
Harry has dispatched one dementor with his patronus, he ran down the
alley and found the other attempting to pry Dudley's arms off his face
to administer the kiss.  

Afterwards, Dudley was in a far worse state than Harry had been in the
presence of the dementor on the train in POA and at that point Harry
had no idea what a dementor was, either (of course that one didn't
actually try to kiss him).  Dudley has no experience that we know of
with the WW except for being Harry's cousin, so if he saw something
his brain probably couldn't process it anyway.  He's in shock when
he's answering his parents' questions and his halting descriptions
don't rule out that he saw something...then again, would Harry have
seen anything without the wand light?

So, I think the dementor experience isn't decisive evidence one way or
the other on Dudley's being magical.

I _do_ wonder though whether even Dumbledore could completely suppress
any magic that might be in Dudley...which is proposed as part of his
deal with Petunia to take Harry.  But if anyone could come close, I
would think it would be Dumbledore...and if Dudley does end up doing
magic in HBP or Book 7, then the suppression wouldn't in fact have
been completely successful.

Cheers,

Eustace_Scrubb, who's not sure he wants to see Dudley do magic but
can't come up with a better candidate.