The Dursleys and Luna's Purpose in the Series

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 145606

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "amiabledorsai" 
<amiabledorsai at y...> wrote:
<SNIP>

> I've had the idea for a while now that it was that the protection
> Harry receives from staying at Privet Drive is reciprocal--it 
protects
> the Dursleys as well as Harry.  If so, their protection ends when
> Harry hits 17--and there's a war on.  Wouldn't it be delicious irony
> if the Dursleys had to come to Harry (on bended knee, if there's any
> justice) to arrange to be hidden from Tommy's Toerags?  
> 

That would be a great and wonderful way to finish off the Dursleys' 
arc, would it not?  I am actually intrigued as well be JKR's mention 
in an interview about how it's probably too late for Petunia and 
Vernon but she feels sorry for Dudley.  What might that portend, if 
anything?

Here is a delicious scenario:  The Dursleys are packed off to hide in 
the wizarding world.  In the process they come into contact with 
different wizards and their families.  Dudley, frightened and lonely, 
develops an adolescent crush on the only witch near his age who will 
talk to him for more than thirty seconds -- Luna Lovegood.  Now, try 
to imagine Petunia and Vernon's reaction to Luna -- not only a witch, 
but in her disregard of convention the utter antithesis of everything 
that they use as the guiding light of their lives.  Try to imagine 
their reaction if the romance actually gets off the ground and they 
are faced with the prospect of Luna as a daughter-in-law and magical 
grandchildren!

This scenario, in addition to being deeply satisfying on many levels, 
would also explain Luna's purpose in the series.  I think most of us 
have expected that she must be there for some reason.  Why introduce 
her and build her up so late in the day unless there is something for 
her to do, something for which she is uniquely suited?  So far she 
hasn't done anything, in terms of advancing the plot, that another 
character could not have done just as well -- except perhaps to 
comfort Harry for the loss of a loved one, and it seems like a huge 
waste of time and energy to develop an entirely new character for 
that one scene (and even there Neville might have done the same thing 
in a different way).  I suppose that the chief theory was that she 
was supposed to provide a romantic interest for someone.  Well, we 
know it won't be Harry or Ron, and JKR has said it won't be Neville.  
Maybe Dudley?  After all, who else would put up with him?

Not a prediction, just a speculation.


Lupinlore