Harry's protection ( was:Whither Snape AND the Dursleys AND Umbridge?)

[amiabledorsai]

No: HPFGUIDX 144888

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" <rdoliver30 at y...> wrote:

> ...what then will be the punishment of... the Dursleys?  I have a 
> feeling it will involve revelations from Petunia that will be 
> devestating for her to make -- probably along the lines of what 
> Dumbledore was corresponding with her about, which is part of the 
> reason I think his appearance in the third chapter of HBP is part of 
> a larger movement in the plot.  It fits nicely with the Howler in 
> OOTP and may well segue into whatever happens in Book VII. We may 
> even see a certain amount of salvation for Dudley, as JKR has hinted 
> in that direction, as did Dumbledore (and of course "salvation" for 
> Dudley might very well equal "ruination" in the Dursleys eyes).  
> After all, we have yet to see the vaunted "protection" in action,

Yeah, what about the protection?  What is the nature of it?  I used to
think that there was a sort of force field around #4 Privet Drive that
excluded Voldemort and his agents, but since HBP I've come to believe
there's more to it than that.

Consider Harry's adventures--Harry has always prevailed by a
combination of pluck, determination, and... let's face it, dumb luck.

He's not always lucky, of course.  In fact, most of the time, if it
weren't for bad luck, he'd have no luck at all (I forget whose lyrics
I'm mangling)--but when it really counts the Death Curse will miss,
Fawkes will show up with a hat and a sword, Hermione will knock down
Quirrel, or Dumbledore will show up in the nick of time.

Now we know that luck can be granted by magic, the Felix Felicis
potion is proof of that.  Maybe that's the nature of the protection:
in extremis, Harry will always luck out.

That would explain a couple of oddities: Why, in OotP, Harry was free
to go outside the house (at least until the Dementors showed up), for
example.

It would also explain why Dumbledore asks that Harry be allowed to
come back to Privet Drive one more time:

"This magic will cease to operate the moment that Harry turns
seventeen; in other words, at the moment he becomes a man. I ask only
this: that you allow Harry to return, once more, to this house, before
his seventeenth birthday, which will ensure that the protection
continues until that time."  --HBP--

Note that Dumbledore doesn't ask that Harry be allowed to stay *until*
his birthday, just that he be allowed to come back "once more".  

By this view, Harry needs to return for only a short time to recharge
his luck (as he says he will do at the end of HBP) rather than hide
out at Fort Dursley until the wards fail.  The former makes little
sense if Dumbledore expected that he and Harry (or Harry alone, if you
subscribe to the notion, as I do, that Dumbledore knew he was dying)
would be hunting Horcruxes that summer.  Harry might be safe, but any
time sitting behind the wards would be time that could have been
devoted to finding and eliminating Voldemort's anchors to life.

As to the Dursleys:  My guess is that the protection is in some way
reciprocal--that it protects the Dursleys as well as Harry, and that
Petunia knows this.  That would explain why Petunia has never chucked
Harry out, and would be the thing that Dumbledore's Howler urged her
to remember when Vernon was ready to show Harry the door.

Petunia is upset by something Dumbledore says when Dumbledore finishes
his talk with the Dursleys: "Aunt Petunia, however, was oddly
flushed."  Maybe it's the thought that she has screwed up Dudley,
maybe it's guilt, or maybe she's worried that once Harry hits
seventeen, she's--literally--out of luck.  

That then, could be justice for the Dursleys: had they been decent to
Harry, they would be the beloved family of a very important wizard. 
Ways would be found to protect them.  As things stand, though, the
Order has little incentive to spend precious resources protecting a
pair of child abusers.

Amiable Dorsai