Petunia and DD (was DD's courtesy; was re: petunia)

[macfotuk at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 114201

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "esmith222002" <c.john at i...> 
wrote:
> 'During the Edinburgh Book Festival Q&A JKR states the following, 
> regarding Petunia: "No, she is not a Squib. She is a Muggle, 
but..." 
> then she trails off onto some other tangent.  She is a *Muggle* 
> according to JKR.  Straight out of her own lips.  A "Muggle*'
> 
> What confuses me in all this is Petunia's howler. Dumbledore 
actually 
> calls her 'Petunia'. The feeling I get from the books, is that DD 
is 
> very old school in manners. If DD is talking about soemone in the 
> third person, he will always refer to them by their correct title 
> e.g. Always admonishing Harry for not giving Snape his correct 
title. 
> However, when he speaks to people directly, he will always use 
their 
> first name e.g. Harry, Severus, Cornelius etc. The only example I 
can 
> think of where DD has spoken directly to someone and used their 
> correct title is Madame Maxine - which shows how polite DD really 
is. 
> My point...finally....is that I do not think DD would address 
Petunia 
> in such a way unless he knew her. If they had never met face to 
face, 
> he would have called her Mrs. Dursley. So the question is 'When 
and 
> where have Petunia and DD ever met previously.

A very stimulating post. This is what it has inspired (dons flame-
proof clothing and disappears to JKRs holiday destination post-Mark 
Evans debacle - since I have no phoenix of my own)...

This post made me re-read 'a peck of owls' (Ch2 OotP) and, as usual, 
try in my own mind to explain what might be going on. I recall that 
when first I read the 'remember my last, Petunia' howler message and 
then later found out it was from DD (though had half suspected this 
anyway), I had interpreted it as meaning that Petunia and DD were in 
corresponsence with one another, perhaps because of the way DD is 
being so intimate in using her first name. However, if DD is to 
admonish a student (or wayward adult wizard) then he also reverts to 
first name use (Bertha in the pensieve in GoF, Sirius, Cornelius 
etc, as you so rightly point out): this is what I think is going on 
with the howler - he's trying to speak *directly* to Petunia and no-
one else in the room because they (DD & P) share a secret, one that 
DD suspects she won't have shared with Vernon and certainly not 
Harry.

So, what does 'my last' mean? My last (of several messages)? - this, 
as I said, was my original thinking, but no, not now. OK then, .. my 
last letter (meaning the one we saw him leave in PS/SS) - odd if it 
*is* since we know of no other letters from DD to the Dursleys - 
there *was* only one so why call it my last letter rather than my 
(only) letter. Or does he mean my last something else? hmmm what 
though. Aha! my last sentence, point or paragraph in that all 
important letter left with baby Harry on the Doorstep at number four 
Privet Drive.

So, what is DD reminding Petunia of? Why does she look so oddly at 
Harry in an almost caring/synpathetic way that he's never (or can't 
recall ever having) seen before but reminds him suddenly and 
strongly that she is his mother's sister? Hopefully we will find out 
very soon from JKR's website FAQ poll, but here's MY take:

There has to be some compelling reason in DD's letter as to why the 
Dursley's should accept baby Harry - appealing to Petunia, not 
Vernon (who if this interpretation, below, is correct, hasn''t even 
read the letter - which is fine because Petunia is the more likely 
to have been first to open the door that next morning). 
The 'reason', to work requires some backplot assumptions, but here 
goes... 

Voldemort discovers the prophecy. Harry becomes the chief immediate 
target (Neville isn't considered in this post, i.e. whether he needs 
taking out too, or not, though I do think yes that Neville would 
have been next). This gives Voldy yet another reason to gun for 
those more than pesky, positively obstructive, Potters (Lily and 
James - or maybe just James, because of the GH stuff about Lily 'not 
having to die', though I don't think so). So, Voldy does all he can 
to kill James even before HP is born (or during that first year of 
his life) but fails, repeatedly. James is way too clever to be 'got' 
and is DD's main man. Not so all his family - parents, any siblings 
and 'significant' ('blood') relatives. Hence they died before James 
did, at the vindictive hands of the DE's (mafia style - if I can't 
get you or get you to do what I want, I'll get your family) and the 
chief reason they don't figure in the book and aren't around is 
because they were among the many casulaties of wizard/DE war I. 
Remember, we are often told 'whole families' died. Having taken out 
all of James' relatives and yet this nuisance *still* won't 
yield/heel, Voldy goes for Lily but likewise can't get her either. 
So, he takes out all *her* family too, one by one, parents first 
(they have to have been far too young, even as muggles, to 
have 'died of natural causes' by the time of GH - they are alive 
during Lily's schooldays and dead within a few years thereafter). 
Petunia, completely unknowingly, was next. This is one of the points 
made in DD's letter perhaps - but for Lily's sacrifice and Harry's 
power LV *would* have wiped out Petunia, Dudders and Vernon (maybe 
their survival was prolonged by Lily's charming Privet Drive against 
detection by Voldemort, that and/or Lily keeping the existence of a 
sister a tightly guarded secret). So DD also plays the 'honour' card 
(Lily helped ensure you/your family didn't die) - perhaps the reason 
Petunia hates her - just like a wizard debt this unrequested and 
unknown (at the time) action places Petunia in her sister's debt, as 
Snape was in hated James' 'debt'. Next DD makes the point that Voldy 
is gone, but not dead and maybe lists just some of the things 
Voldemort did to muggles which Petunia will have seen on the news 
(odd murders etc) and previously thought were caused by  'the nasty 
way the world is'. Then, like in the film terminator (1) he tells 
her Voldy isn't dead and he isn't satisfied and that he *absolutely 
will not stop*. Her ONLY hope is to protect and nurture, willingly 
or otherwise, the only weapon the world (WW or muggle) has against 
this irresistable evil, it's only salvation. DD reminds her that she 
is the only one able to do this because of blood ties and that if 
she refuses then she must accept the consequences - Harry is left 
unprotected, dies and Voldy then is free to murder the last 
remaining Evans (Petunia) - the bloodline and possibly last 
descendent of Gryffindor even? so including HER SON (Dudders) who 
she very much DOES care about, especially since he's just a baby 
then at the time of the letter. So, DD's last (point, sentence, 
whatever) was probably something along the lines of 'only YOU 
Petunia can save the world, and only by raising this child and doing 
what is necessary to keep him protected until such time as he can 
stand and fight for himself (and all the rest of us)'. This is neat 
because it doesn't matter whether or not they tell harry he's a 
wizard (I believe DD hoped they wouldn't) and although this outrages 
Hagrid when it emerges, it doesn't bother DD who knew to send 
letters once harry hit age 11 and, moreover, to 'the cupbord under 
the stairs' (leaving him surely in little doubt about the 
intervening 10 years' treatment by the Dursleys).

So, Petunia also knows (as DD and JKR do), long before Harry does, 
that this is a fight to the death and that Harry is the 'magic 
bullet'. Hence her 'ice-melting' moment when looking at Harry (she 
may hate what he stands for, but still can't stop herself from 
admiring the tragic figure he potentially represents, unknown to 
himself at this stage) AND her clinging to her real 'most precious 
object' Dudders. Indeed, the recent attack by the Dementors on not 
just Harry, but on Dudders too*, rams this all home only too clearly 
for her and the howler is an, as ever timely, reminder that perhaps 
she forgets what this is 'all about'. 


*Does anyone out there who thinks Umbridge (Fudge too?) isn't 
working (knowingly or otherwise) on a DE-sponsored agenda wish to 
change their mind at this point, bearing in mind that it might make 
LV very happy indeed to see all of Harry's family, valued by him or 
otherwise, dead as dodos, finito, end of line?