Petunia

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 114088

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Freud" <geekessgoddess at y...> 
wrote:
  
> Hello people!  You don't make a child you love sleep under the 
> stairs.  You don't ignore their physical, emotional and mental 
needs 
> 24/7.  Petunia was an abuser who made Harry pay for real and 
> imaginary emotional slights inflicted upon her by other people. 

Hickengruendler: 
I agree with you. I quite like Petunia as a character, but she's a 
horrible person, who treats her own nephew like dirt. However, that 
doesn't mean she can't care at least enough for him to want him to 
survive.
  
> Both Pentunia and Snape seem to enjoy making young Harry, an 
> innocent, pay for their past. It is sad to see adults growing 
> older, but never wiser. 
>
> Petunia does NOT love Harry, never did love Harry, and these 
> speculations of a "deeper" Petunia are truly absurd.

But what you wrote above is already something that contains a deeper 
Petunia. Petunia is horrible to Harry, but there are at least reasons 
given. (Even if Harry is totally innocent). This sort of humanizes 
Petunia. Many villains or antagonists in the Harry Potter books are 
two-dimensional. They are (so far) just evil. Petunia however is 
somewhat explained. Even if we don't agree with her actions, we can 
at least see where she's coming from, the same is true for Snape. I 
think that's the reason why many fans think that she isn't all that 
bad deep-down, because they sympathize with her and can understood 
her.     
 
> 
> Why would Petunia do this?  Not because she cares about Harry, 
that's 
> for sure...
> 
> Why can't she throw Harry out?  When she picked up the baby was 
> there some kind of "binding" spell placed on her by the great 
> D?      
> 
> That led me to thinking about what Petunia does care about....Why 
> would she obey Dumbledore, a wizard of all people....?  Petunia 
> appears to have one true goal in life. She wants her muggle world 
to 
> stay the same.  She wants Dudley to grow up to be a big Vernon.    
> She wants to pretend they are "normal" forever.  Surely she knows 
> that Voldemort was, and is, a threat to her world too.  
> 
> It is just a guess but I think "remember the last" refers to the 
> last stand with Voldemort...perhaps the magic that protects Harry
> protects Petunia too. 

I think there's a hole in your theory. If I understand it correctly, 
the spell only works as long as Harry is in the house. Meaning that 
Petunia could be attacked the other 11 months in which Harry is 
normally either at the Weasleys or in Hogwarts. Even if we can argue, 
that the house itself is safe and that Petunia is safe as long as 
she's in the house, that wouldn't protect her, for example, if she's 
shopping or going for a walk. It certainly didn't protect Dudley from 
the Dementors. And it doesn't protect Dudley while he's in Smeltings. 
No matter what her reason for taking Harry in is, it certainly makes 
her a likely target of Voldemort and the Death Eaters, since she's 
the one who protects him. She would have been safer if she never took 
him in. She puts her own life and that of her family in danger to 
keep Harry safe.

Besides, during the march chat JK Rowling was asked, who her least 
favourite character was. The answer was Uncle Vernon, not "The 
Dursleys" or even "Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia" but Uncle Vernon. 
That means, that she seems to put Petunia above him (admittingly, 
that doesn't have to mean much, since she also seems to put Umbridge 
or Lucius Malfoy above Uncle Vernon, still it is something).