[HPforGrownups] Re: Harry at the Dursleys

[Vivamus]

No: HPFGUIDX 118333


> Pippin:
> James instructed Lily to "Take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run!  I'll 
> hold him off." Clearly he had some means of escape in mind. 
> But Harry was in his cot when Lily died (per the website), so she 
> wasn't fleeing the house with him when she died. Knowing that 
> Voldemort would never stop hunting Harry, she  chose to give up 
> her life,  and the love and the home she could have made for 
> him, in order to give him the blood protection. Since this is 
> ancient magic, it is something she could have known about. 
> Dumbledore understood what she had done, and honored her 
> sacrifice by taking Harry to live with the Dursleys. 
> 
> Of course you could read it otherwise. But I think it is JKR's 
> purpose at this point in the story to allow us multiple 
> interpretations, and force us to ask, What is goodness? What 
> sort of sacrifice could be so powerful? rather than spoon feeding 
> us the answers.


Vivamus:
I'm with you on this, Pippin.   Much is being made of the fact that Harry
suffered at the hands of the Dursleys, but there seems to be an assumption
that all suffering is bad.  Growing up seems to be painful in nearly all
circumstances, and the last thing you would want for a child raised from
birth to fight a desperate battle is to have that child protected from all
pain.  

I also do not buy the argument that "DD put Harry there so the Dursleys
would be nasty to him and make him stronger."  That would be practical, but
not good, and JKR has told us directly of DD's goodness.  I think, as you
stated, that he put Harry there because of Lily's choice, but I also think
he suspected the Dursleys were going to be unpleasant to him.   OTOH, he had
no way of knowing they would be as nasty as they turned out to be. 

For those who are thinking that leaving Harry at the Dursleys was an evil
act, I cannot speak for Harry, but can say that, as one who grew up with
abject abuse, that stability and consistency were far more important to me
than the particular pain of the moment.  One thing about waking up every
morning and wondering if you will die that day is that you are extremely
jumpy about anything new.  You can survive almost anything and recover from
it, but you desperately need the world to be consistent if you are going to
maintain some sanity.  

As nasty as the Dursleys are, they really are quite consistent.   And so
Harry, in living with them, really does learn some of the values he needs to
fight LV.  I'm sure DD did a lot of watching and worrying, but really, what
could he do?  He threatened Petunia when they were finally going to kick
Harry out, because he had no choice there.