Harry at the Dursleys

[David & Laura]

No: HPFGUIDX 118491



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:
> 
> Carol earlier: <snipped by Alla>
> > I think that's a misreading. What Dumbledore actually says, after
> > explainig why he placed Harry with his aunt instead of a 
Wizarding 
> > family that "would have been *honored* and delighted to raise 
[him] 
> > as a son" (OoP Am. ed. 835) (his priority, as you say, was to 
keep 
> > Harry alive,835), is 
> > "Five years ago, then, you arrived at Hogwarts, neither as happy 
nor 
> > as well-nourished as I would have liked, perhaps, yet alive and
> > healthy. You were not a pampered little prince, but as normal a 
boy 
> > as I could have haoped under the circumstances. Thus far, my plan
> was working well" (837).
> > As I see it, he's *glad* that Harry is not a pampered little 
prince, 
> > a condition he *contrasts* with Harry's normalcy. 
> > 
> > 
> > Alla responded:
> > 
> > It is not a misreading, Carol, it is how I read this quote. It is 
> > one of the possible readings. As Lupinlore said earlier, we are 
> > missing the tone of Dumbledore's voice.
> > 
> > I read "but as normal boy as I could have hoped under 
> > circumstances " as Dumbledore's regret about the fact that under 
> > those circimstances Harry could not have grown up as normal boy, 
who 
> > could be a little bit spoiled and loved.
> 
> Carol:
> Sigh. You're right. We're missing the tone of voice and it's 
possible
> to read it your way, but given the context that you snipped, I read 
it
> differently. for one thing, I don't think spoiled (or pampered) is 
the
> same thing as loved. Look at Dudley, for example.
> 
> Carol, hoping that *someone* will go upthread and respond to the 
idea
> that Dumbledore was right about not raising Harry as a "pampered
> little prince"

David:

I agree Carol that DD was right in his actions. You could argue in 
fact he had no other choice. He suspected Vmort was still alive and 
wanting vengance. Some of Vmort's followers were still on the loose. 
He had heard, from a questionable source, a prophesy foretelling 
Harry's future.

If he had put Harry with a wizard family, yes there was the 
pampered/hero problem, but also the very real fact that Vmort or his 
followers would have just wiped them out to get Harry.

He took his best shot at achieving the one end-goal that mattered; 
getting Harry to Hogwarts alive. This was enacting the blood-family 
charm to protect him.


For his protection to work, Harry had to stay with a blood relative.