On the other hand (was Re: Disliked Uncle Vernon)

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 92734

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Doriane" <delwynmarch at y...> wrote:
> I was going through recent past posts, and since I am quite a 
> defender of the Bad People, I couln't help answering this one.
> 
> Geoff said :
>  
> > Yes but it doesn't excuse the way in which [the Dursleys] treated 
> > [Harry]. They have turned him into a "local eyesore" and made him a 
> > deeply unhappy boy to punish him because his parents had the 
> > temerity to get themselves blown up and the poor Dursleys had to 
> > take Harry under their wing. 
> 
> Del answers :
> 
> For people like the Dursleys, that's a perfectly valid excuse. There 
> are tons of people out there who think that life should always treat 
> them right, and that they are entitled to try and destroy or at least 
> modify whatever is bothering them. Their children, in particular, 
> should only give them pleasure and reasons to be proud. If they 
> don't, they get punished. Many kids get forcibly coerced into 
> becoming whatever their parents dream them to become. With disastrous 
> results in the end, of course.

Annemehr:
I don't see that as a defense of the Dursleys at all; it's more of an
inictment of them and goes to prove Geoff's point.  People who think
and act like that are Not Nice People.

> 
> Geoff :
> 
> > They are only assuming at the start that Harry might show magical 
> > powers. And why has he shown them before his 11th birthday? Because 
> > he has done it subconsciously when he is under threat - the 
> > haircut, the brown jumper with orange bobbles, the boys in the 
> > playground, the glass vanishing after he was pushed.....
> 
> Del :
> 
> Yes, but it can be safely assumed that Harry would have shown magical 
> powers anyway, even if he had been treated right.
<snip>

Annemehr:
Well, every incident of Harry doing uncontrolled magic, save one, that
we know of is the result of a Dursley's abuse.  The one exception we
know of is when he'd somehow turned his teacher's wig blue; I
*suppose* it was the teacher who'd stressed him that time, but I guess
we can't be sure.

When Hagrid was trying to get Harry to believe he was a wizard, he
said "Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"  It's
the Dursleys who've been making Harry scared and angry enough to do
reflexive magic.

<big snip> 
> 
> > > Kneasy:
> > > Again true. But are they determined to kill Harry at Stonewall 
> > > High? Anyway Harry saw S.H. as a refuge -  Dudders  and his gang 
> > > weren't going there. 
> > 
> > Geoff:
> > Only Dudley and Piers Polkiss I think... (PS "The Letters from No 
> > One" p.28 UK edition).
> 
> Del :
> 
> Nope ! Dudley is going to Smeltings (?), and the others too I guess - 
> not that it matters anyway : without Dudley to lead them, nobody 
> would care much about Harry.

Annemehr:
No, Geoff is correct: only Dudley and Piers are going to Smeltings. 
Dennis, Malcom and Gordon could well be going to Stonewall; at least,
the narrator doesn't mention them going to a public (i.e. private in
US) school when Dudley and Piers' school plans are mentioned.  And I
don't believe for a minute that they would have left Harry alone just
because Dudley wasn't around.

I'll give you Dursley defenders the fact that they were *afraid* of
taking in a wizard child.  But Harry would not have been constantly
causing catastrophes in their lives; he grew up looking normal enough
that he was able to roam the neighborhood and go to school and the
secret never got out.  Nobody ever suspected a thing.  Besides, they
weren't afraid to let their son hit Harry, and they weren't afraid to
lock Harry into a cupboard.  The Dursleys could not have been living
in such a constant state of terror that they were *unable* to see the
innocent child who was living with them.

The thing that makes me dislike the elder Dursleys is that they could
live with Harry for ten *years* by the beginning of PS/SS and never
soften toward him at all.  That is extremely cold-hearted.  I think
Vernon is the worst because I believe he is the only one who would be
perfectly happy to see Harry dead; I don't get the feeling that
Petunia is quite that far gone.  As for Dudley, I'm hoping to see some
sort of understanding develop between him and Harry -- as JKR says,
there's always hope, right?

Annemehr
who wishes Umbridge and Luna would have come up in the Chat