Petunia and love for Lily? (Re: LOVE Saves the Day in the end)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 137228

> Marianne wrote:
> b) Petunia will admit to loving her sister, Lily. Realizing this
> is the last time she will ever see Harry and that her love for
> Lily, buried deep all those years, is needed now... she gives
> Harry some Very Important Information about things she knew.
 
> Saraquel:
> I'm not sure that I can credit Petunia with that sort of insight,
> or that sort of real love for her sister, but I do think that 
> Petunia may give Harry some important information about Snape and
> Lily's relationship (I don't mean boyfriend/girlfriend here). I'm 
> going to expand on this in another post on the Snape's Worst
> memory thread. 

Jen: I snipped out this one idea from Marianne's post because it's 
been nagging at me all day. I returned to the Edinburgh book 
festival notes, where JKR made this comment to the question, "Is 
Petunia a Squib?" "Good question. No, she is not, but—[Laughter]. 
No, she is not a Squib. She is a Muggle, but—[Laughter]. You will 
have to read the other books. You might have got the impression that 
there is a little bit more to Aunt Petunia than meets the eye, and 
you will find out what it is. She is not a squib, although that is a 
very good guess."

The only thing I can think of related to being a Squib is denying 
your own magical powers. We see in HBP that Tonks loses some of her 
powers because of emotional upset. And Merope cannot use magic until 
she's away from the influence of her abusive father. So could you 
completely lose your powers if you deny having them?  If Petunia has 
always lived as a Muggle, she must be as good at compartmentalizing 
her feelings as Snape is! And that would mean denying Lily and all 
she stands for. Petunia's perceived hatred for Lily was not 
jealousy, but contempt for her *choosing* to openly live the life of 
a witch.

In that convoluted scenario, if Petunia owns up to who she really 
is, the facade of hating Lily would also fall away. The reason for 
it would go away. It wouldn't be the first time Harry was shocked by 
Aunt Petunia! 

This might explain why Petunia turned a bit red after Dumbledore 
scolded them for their treatment of Harry. At first I thought she 
felt shame or remorse, but now I wonder if her two worlds weren't 
starting to collide. She could have realized during DD's speech that 
what she did to Harry, trying to drum all the magic out of him, was 
basically what she did to herself.

It's a longshot, like Saraquel said it might require more insight 
than Petunia is capable of. 

Jen