HP as "fairy-tale," Harry left with the Dursleys (Re: Snape and Harry again.)

[dzeytoun]

No: HPFGUIDX 114039

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "meriaugust" <meriaugust at y...> 
> 
> So yes the Dursleys have treated him...well basically like shit. 
But 
> as DD said, Harry arrived at school alive and relatively intact, 
and 
> without the one thing that DD feared the boy would get if he had 
> been raised by a WW family: a humongous bighead. 

I rather think everyone makes too much of the whole "Dumbledore 
fearing Harry would be arrogant" theme.  We really only have two 
references to that, in SS/PS and in OOTP.

In PS/SS he is making excuses to McGonagall, evidently not wanting to 
tell her the truth about why he has to leave Harry at Privet Drive.  
Now, this begs the enormous question of why he feels he can't be 
honest with Minerva.  The answer is, I suspect, simply one of 
plotting.  JKR doesn't want the readers to know the answer so he 
can't tell Minerva the truth.  In other words, that whole speech is  
a plot device to pull the wool over everyone's eyes.  In any case, 
since he is admittedly not being fully truthful with Minerva I don't 
think we should really trust anything he says there.

Now, the OOTP situation is much more interesting.  "and if you were 
not a pampered prince, you were as normal a boy as I could ask for 
under the circumstances."  There is a piece of crucial information 
that JKR does not provide, and it makes all the difference in the 
world.  What tone of voice does Dumbledore use when he says this?  If 
he says it simply and straight out, as if relaying facts, then one 
would suspect he did have a priority in keeping Harry humble, and 
one's opinion of Dumbledore plummets through the floor.  If he says 
it sadly and with remorse, it would mean what Alla takes it to mean, 
i.e. "how I wish you could have been spoiled by your family, as all 
children deserve to be to an extent, but I take cold comfort in that 
you at least were as normal as possible."  If he says it in a tone of 
bitterness and mockery, one might take it as a reproach on himself, 
i.e. "old fool that I am, I meddle with people's lives and look what 
happens."  The last is the interpretation I tend to place on it.  All 
three meanings, and probably more, can be legitimately attributed to 
Dumbledore's speech.  Without knowing the tone in which he says it, 
we are at a loss at present to know definitively which one is 
correct, and you have to choose the one you think best fits 
Dumbledore's character as revealed by JKR's (i.e. "Dumbledore is 
Goodness") and by his actions in the rest of Canon.

On a related note, the last time I looked at JKR's site the question 
about the meaning of Dumbledore's Howler to Petunia was still leading 
in the FAQ poll.  I think it's curious that JKR hasn't answered yet, 
and I wonder if that is because that answer might reveal more than 
she is prepared to talk about right now.  Then again, it probably 
means no such.

Dzeytoun