Harry at the Dursleys

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 118302


Mulling over some recent posts about how Harry could have 
turned out differently than Tom Riddle and why Dumbledore 
thought leaving Harry at the Dursleys was the best choice, I think 
these things may be related.

Granted  it would have been better for Harry to grow up in a safe, 
stable, loving home. But  Dumbledore knew that if he found such 
a home in the wizarding world, the love and stability would last 
only as long as the safety did. In fact, since Lily gave up her life, 
and with it the  love and  the home she could have given to her 
son in order to protect him, you could say that Dumbledore 
honored her choice by taking Harry to the Dursleys.

The Dursleys are dreadful, but they are nothing if not predictable, 
and though it may not seem much of a plus, I think it is why Harry 
made different choices than Riddle.  Harry trusts that people are 
what they appear to be until proven otherwise. That makes him 
very different than the ultra-paranoid  Voldemort, who suspects 
even his most devoted followers of plotting against him.

 I think we will find that Riddle's life before Hogwarts was much 
more unstable than Harry's was, so that he came to think that it 
was useless to trust anyone. Probably he had a succession of 
caregivers and never had a chance to bond with any of them, or if 
he did he then lost them. There are theories that say it is worse 
for a child to be treated well and badly by turns than to be treated 
badly all the time.


I don't think that Dumbledore left Harry with the Dursleys for any 
kind of life lessons reason, but I do think that he may have felt 
that any pressure on the Dursleys would have a bad effect
(especially on Vernon) and take away the one advantage, 
besides a whole skin, that Harry might glean from being with 
them. 

I think we sometimes exaggerate how miserable Harry is at 
Privet Drive. Voldemort has made him feel much worse than the 
Dursleys have. The Dursleys have *never* made Harry wish he 
were dead. Voldemort has.

Pippin