[HPforGrownups] Re: Dumbledore & Dursleys-What DD Knew

[Magda Grantwich]

No: HPFGUIDX 123786

--- Tonks <tonks_op at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Do we really think that a wizard, one of the greatest and most 
> powerful wizard of the day, should *threaten* a Muggle with magic. 
> Using magic in a Muggle area is against the WW laws.  Bribery is 
> against everyone's laws.  Only the weak, the bullies, *threaten* 
> others.  DD is a very wise man, he knows people and their actions 
> and motives very well.  He has learned something in his 150+ years.


The key to the protection that Harry had at the Dursleys was that
Petunia took him in willingly.  Had Dumbledore had to threaten her,
then the protective spell would not have worked.

OOTP, Chapter 37:

"...I put my trust therefore in your mother's blood.  I delivered you
to her sister, her only remaining relative."

"She doesn't love me," said Harry at once.  "She doesn't give a
damn-"

"But she took you," Dumbledore cut across him.  "She may have taken
you grudgingly, furiously, unwillingly, bitterly, yet still she took
you, and in doing so she sealed the charm I placed upon you..."

There are other points Dumbledore makes in the next few paragraphs
about how Petunia took Harry in as a "surrogate son".  They all point
to the same thing: Petunia had to be willing to accept Harry.  Had he
threatened her or bribed her, the spell would not have worked.

I mentioned in another thread that the Dursleys had leverage that
Dumbledore had to acknowledge; this willingness to accept Harry was
part of that leverage.  They could have called in the social services
people and claimed they didn't know him; they weren't completely
helpless in negotiations.

Magda


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