Petunia, well-adjusted Harry

[kim reynolds]

No: HPFGUIDX 114091

> Tabekat wrote:
> <snip> Petunia does NOT love Harry, never did love Harry, and these speculations of a "deeper" Petunia are truly absurd. <snip> << 

>>Magda wrote: 
>> Petunia doesn't have to like Harry or not resent his presence to fulfill 
the terms of the magical protection that Lily died to put on him. <snip> 
But we can accept all of her flaws as long as we accept that she took Harry 
in - resentfully, grudgingly, angrily - but she did take him in.  And for 
that she deserves credit.<<


Kim here.  Hope it's OK if I join in the discussion.  Has anyone wondered 
though why Harry is such a well-adjusted child despite all the emotional 
abuse from the Dursleys from (it seems) the time he was only one yr. old?  
I mean, the poor kid doesn't have a friend in the world, not even a dog or 
cat, til he goes to Hogwarts.  

Maybe my perspective (being Muggle myself) is too limited, but someone, one assumes Petunia, would have had to feed baby Harry, bathe him, change his nappies, hold him when he cried, and show a certain amount of kindness or 
Harry would have ended up a total emotional cripple by the time he was 11, wouldn't he, instead of the spunky little guy he turned out to be. Maybe 
Petunia loves Harry even while she hates him, if that makes any sense (which 
it probably doesn't...).  

Or maybe being the boy who lived and the beloved son of Lily and James for 
that one year of his life (not to mention loved by Hagrid, McGonagall, and Dumbledore for a short time after L and J  died) was enough to counteract 
Petunia and her family's abuse.  Or maybe the Dursleys only became really 
cruel to Harry once he got old enough to talk and think for himself and 
started having magical reactions to things (like growing his hair back, 
etc.).  Enough maybes already... ;-)    

Kim