Petunia's secret/ was Petunia and Dumbledore

[Tenou]

No: HPFGUIDX 115449



Tonks thus spoke:
<snip>
> > Here I am also speaking of         
> > Petunia's silence when it comes to "stamping out the magic in the 
> > boy".
> > 
> > If I remember correctly most of the "stamping out" of magic from 
> > Harry comes from Vernon. Maybe the reason JKR 
> > doesn't like Vernon is that he does not allow a person to be who 
> > they are...Not allowing a person to be fully what and who they 
> > were meant to be is in someway worst than just killing their 
body; 
> > it is killing their soul, in a sense. As I have said before, I 
> > think Petunia is a witch that chose to live as a Muggle. Maybe 
> > because she knows Vernon would not have married her otherwise.  


 Syroun thus spoke:
> I agree with Tonks; JKR has already warned us that there is more to 
> Petunia and that we should keep an eye on her. Past that, her 
> reaction to Harry's description of the dementors was not one of an 
> average muggle that holds whole idea of the WW as a "bin of 
> rubbish". She shows that she as a profound understanding of the 
> gravity of the situation. Harry comments that for the first time, 
> she sees something in Petunia's eyes that proves she is the sister 
> of his mother, Lily. 
> 
> This profound reaction gives her away. She is not just 
> the average muggle that happens to have a magical sister; she most 
> likely has her own personal experience within the WW and has 
chosen, 
> for one reason or another, to live strictly as a muggle. I also 
> think that the fact that Harry has spent appreciable time over the 
> years with Mrs. Figg, a squib in the WW, but an eccentric nutter to 
> muggles, is evidence of Petunia's connection with and understanding 
> of the WW along with her grasp of Harry's need for protection over 
> and above what she has provided him through the blood curse. It is 
> not likely that someone like Petunia would ever have anything to do 
> with an odd bird like Figg, if she did not have a significant 
> underlying reason for it. Figg is the type of neighbor Petunia 
would 
> ordinarily shun. 
<snip>
> They are, essentially, still human beings willing to afford 
> protection to children...regardless of how imperfect as they may 
> seem otherwise.

I agree with Syroun, in that Petunia has probably had some experience 
with the WW, however, like attracting like as it does, I'm not so 
sure she consciously chose Mrs. Figg. She would be afraid of angering 
her husband, even if she was sure he would not notice anything off 
about Mrs. Figg. It could have been something as simple as Harry - 
being the odd duck that he is – would embarrass the family if he were 
sent to stay with anyone else.

My own theory on Petunia, she is an abused woman and an enabler. In 
the beginning, before Lily is notified that she has been accepted to 
Hogwarts, Lily and Petunia are very close, possibly best friends. 
Lily goes off to Hotwarts and Petunia feels abandoned and a little 
betrayed, but still, she loves her sister and they still talk to one 
another. (`Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met 
for several years
' [pg. 1 UK ed.] I'm thinking that it would be 
right around the time of Lily's graduation that Lily and Petunia 
stopped talking.) 

In the time that Lily is gone Petunia meets a nice muggle – probably 
just like Vernon - and becomes romantically involved. He learns about 
her connections to the WW (or she tells him) and rejects her, calling 
her a `freak' by association, etc.

Lily come home for holiday, and she gets a lot of attention, which is 
probably amplified in her mind because she has been rejected by a 
man, and the natural distortions of memory and feelings. Slowly she 
begins to blame Lily, but being sisters, still loves her and is still 
loyal to her. Then Lily brings James home to meet the family, and 
James is up to his old tricks and turns her arms into wings or the 
like. But not only is James horrible to Petunia, Lily, the sister she 
has missed while she was away has no time for her and spends all her 
time with James. This gives plenty of reason to hate James, and then, 
to some extent, the WW, for taking away her sister and leaving poor 
Petunia behind.

When she meets Vernon she learns that he is a magiphobe (fear of 
magic people? What do you think?) she verbally bashes the WW, and, to 
let him know just how much she loathes the WW she tells Vernon how 
much she hates her own sister because she is a witch. 

So she and Vernon get married. They live their quiet, normal, boring 
lives until Harry comes into the picture. So again, Petunia has to 
bash the WW out of fear of being rejected, loosing her husband, son, 
the life she's built for herself, her financial status – home workers 
tend to be financially dependant on their spouse – if she openly 
loves and accepts her sister or her nephew. She enables Vernon's 
abuse/neglect of Harry by saying nothing against Vernon or in defense 
of Harry.

Like Tonks said, Petunia does remain silent in the `stamping out of 
magic.' But there are small things that seem to show that Petunia 
does care for Lily and Harry. She remembers obscure details about 
Lily's conversations (OoP, pg. 34-5 UK ed. She remembers James 
telling Lily about Dementors) Harry is not treated as a slave (PS, 
pg. 19 Harry does not cook the whole meal, Petunia does start cooking 
it.) While Vernon is abusive towards Harry, Petunia never takes part 
in the degradation of Harry. When it comes right down to it, I 
believe it is more than basic humanity keeping Harry safe in the 
Dursley's home. Petunia still cares for her sister, enough to see 
that no
 great harm comes to Harry, because he is, after all, 
family. `You may not like your family but you still love them.' 

Though I do not believe she would put her son or herself at risk for 
Harry's safety. It does take a Howler from Dumbledore in OoP (pg. 40 
UK ed.) to convince Petunia to stay.

Ten'ou