Harry at the Dursleys

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 118316



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:
> 
 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.

Pardon me?  I'm afraid I don't see this reasoning at all.

 
> 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. 

Well, the fact is that we are all speculating pretty wildly here.  
Pippin's interpretation may be right, but there are others that can 
be argued just as plausibly.  The problem is we just don't have 
enough information.

I rather think what we are dealing with, in part, is the fact that 
JKR knows her story and characters in ways we don't.  It is very hard 
for an author to put themselves in the position of a reader who knows 
only what the text says.  I suspect she believes she has explained 
all of these issues better than she in fact has.  To her, the text 
probably leads obviously to one set of conclusions.  Unfortunately, 
to people without her "inside knowledge," the text seems very 
ambiguous and even contradictory on a lot of these issues.

Let's just hope this is part of what gets cleared up in 
the "backstory" JKR has promised.

Lupinlore