Harry's summer in the 6th book

[bowlwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 101034

> vmonte responds:
> 
> Dudley relives a lost memory from his childhood through the 
Dementor 
> attack. I think that the Dementor that attacked Dudley made him 
> remember something he saw as a baby. 
> 
> From OOTP (Page 30, U.S. version): "All dark," Dudley said 
hoarsely, 
> shuddering. "Everything dark. And then I heard....things. Inside m-
my 
> head..."
> 
> Petunia then responds in a way that makes it seem that she is 
worried 
> that her son may be losing his mind:
> 
> "What sort of things did you hear, popkin?" breathed aunt Petunia, 
> very white-faced with tears in her eyes. 
> 
> But maybe Petunia was worried that Dudley might have remembered 
> something that happened in the past. Something he should not have 
> seen.
> 
> "But Dudley seemed in capable of saying. He shuddered again and 
shook 
> his large blond head, and despite the sense of numb dread that had 
> settled on Harry since the arrival of the first owl, he felt a 
> certain curiosity. Dementors caused a person to relive the worst 
> moments of their life...What would spoiled, pampered, bullying 
Dudley 
> have been forced to hear?"
> 
> Petunia may have been threatened by Voldemort. She probably knows 
him 
> up close and personal, and not by listening in on her sister's 
> conversations. Voldemort may have gotten to Petunia (when he was 
> searching for the Potter's) before he reached word from wormtail. 
He 
> may have threatened Petunia or her son with a dementor. In fact 
> Dudley's worst memory may be that he previously had an encounter 
with 
> a dementor as a baby! (I don't think that Dudley's worst fear was 
> getting a pigtail.)

This is a great idea.  The only thing to wonder is when it happened.  
VM would have 15 months between the hearing of the (partial) prophesy 
and finding the child who fulfilled it.  Dudley was born only a few 
months before Harry, so it must have been very shortly before the 
attack at Godric's Hollow.

We know that Petunia had met James, because she mentions he told her 
about the Dementors guarding Askaban.  Maybe James and Lily stopped 
off to see Petunia when they were on the run and VM followed them 
there?

bowlwoman