Harry left at the Dursleys (Was Re: Plot in OotP)

[Vivamus]

No: HPFGUIDX 118146


> Snow:
> It is never the easy road that makes you strong but the hard one. 
> Where is the protection...it is their life...their choice...such 
> maybe the Dumbledore theory! Grow up hard. Everything didn't come 
> to Harry on a silver spoon with the Dursleys...in fact far from 
> it. Was Harry protected...No...But if Harry would have been allowed 
> the privileges of growing up in the world he was born to...what 
> might he have been...another Tom Riddle or a Malfoy?

Vivamus:
While I agree with you in general, one note on Tom Riddle: He grew up
dirt-poor in a muggle orphanage, amidst considerable abuse, judging from
Tom's comments in the diary scene.  In some ways, a very similar childhood
to Harry's.  A relevant question might be, why did the two turn out so
different?

> Alla:
> Sorry, but big NO again. The only thing I was arguing is the 
> necessity for Dumbledore to choose lesser evil from two - for 
> Harry to be dead or alive but abused.
>  
> If you are arguing that Dumbledore put Harry with Dursleys for the 
> reason of "not spoiling him" and teaching him some life lesson, 
> such Dumbledore gets ZERO sympathy from me. Abuse is NOT a life 
> lesson, which needs to be given to a child and I would argue that 
> child SHOULD be protected from such lessons if it is possible at all.
>  
> The only justification for Dumbledore in mind would be that he did 
> not want to see Harry dead.

Vivamus:
As terrible as child abuse is, kids are a lot more resilient than most
people give them credit for being.  Taking a child away from its natural
parents nearly always makes things worse for the child instead of better
(with the single exception being situations in which the child's life is in
danger from the abuse.)  Loss of a stable home environment, however bad that
environment is, is one of the very worst things a child can experience.   (I
know, it's not politically correct, but it is what recent studies on
interventions  [situations in which children are taken out of their homes
and put in foster care] have been showing.)

That's not in any way the slightest justification of abuse, btw.  It is the
observation that well-meaning "help" often causes more harm than even the
worst imaginable abuse.  

Let's assume DD knows this.  Let's further assume the first Trelawney
prophecy is not a red herring, but meant exactly what DD said it meant.
Let's look at baby Harry's situation from his point of view.

Harry has been put in the home of the only family on the planet who can
protect him.  His aunt agreed, and sealed the protection by doing so.  He
has suffered the trauma of seeing his parents murdered, but probably didn't
understand what that meant at all.  Petunia is FAMILY.  By all DD can tell,
the Dursleys, while particularly unpleasant muggles, would be the best
equipped to provide him with the loving environment he needs.   DD knows TRs
background.  He knows how important a stable home is for Harry, if Harry is
ever to be able to fight LV and win.   He knows the Dursleys will probably
be unpleasant to Harry, but he has no reason to think they would be as nasty
as they end up being.

It's probably a year or three down the road before it becomes clear the
Dursleys are never going to be won over by this little boy who has been
thrust upon him, that they are going to continue to hate him and treat him
with contempt, and that he is likely to suffer considerably at the hands of
his cousin as they grow.   What can DD do?   If he comes in and threatens
the Dursleys, they are likely to just toss Harry out; even if they don't,
the interaction would have huge consequences in their relationship with
Harry, and DD probably can't know what those are.  Unlike the first time,
when Harry was too small to remember, if his home is broken now, he will
suffer the pain of it his entire life.   

Could that pain be the difference between a Harry Potter and a Tom Riddle?
DD isn't omniscient; all he knows is that Harry is doing okay where he is.
It's much worse for Harry than DD had hoped, but the Dursleys, as awful as
they are, are at least feeding him, sheltering him, and providing some sense
of values.  I imagine it must have been quite frightening for DD to watch,
realizing that he had put Harry into such an awful situation, but by the
time it became awful, there was nothing he could do that wouldn't make it
worse.  

Leaving Harry there (and probably doing a whole lot of worrying) was
probably the ONLY thing DD could do.

Vivamus