Privet Drive alternatives - any ideas?

[bleckybecs]

No: HPFGUIDX 124546


Reading up the list, there is a lot of back and forth of the same 
arguments about the Dursleys under various threads.

I agree that the Dursleys are far from ideal, and I agree that Harry 
has been abused (as has Dudley, just in a much less obvious way).

I further agree with arguments from the other side regarding the 
fact he was put there due to the blood protection.

What I want to know though is related to alternatives. Those who see 
an alternative, what is it? I just don't see it. Here is my list of 
alternatives, and the reasons I don't think they work in any way.

The Weasleys? (who I assume are most people's first choice. After 
all, what's another plate on the table to them?) - I don't think 
that when Harry was aged one, they knew DD. I don't think they knew 
him personally until Bill first started school, and I feel that they 
didn't get to know him this well until it became clear that one of 
their sons would be one of Harry's two best friends. They certainly 
weren't order members first time round. So that idea doesn't appear 
to have been an option at the time.

Next James's friends

Pettigrew? - erm
 may have seemed ok the night that Harry was nearly 
killed, but we now know different don't we? Plus there is the tiny 
problem that he was pretending to be dead.

Lupin? - Hardly a good choice to bring up a tiny child when he 
becomes a werewolf once a month. I can't exactly visualise him being 
capable of feeding Harry in that condition.

Sirius? - the only real option on the night as he wasn't considered 
a murderer at the time and he was Harry's godfather after all. 
However, as soon as he was considered a murderer, that option would 
also have flown out of the window.

So


Dumbledore maybe? - No. He is headmaster of a school. I can't see a 
Hogwarts being a good place to bring up a one year old. Plus, as 
headmaster (and someone very high up in other wizard institutions) 
he would have far too many other pressures on his time to give a one 
year old the attention needed. Not realistic. (Pretty much the same 
goes for MM. What would she do with him when she was teaching 
classes?)

Hagrid? - With the creatures he keeps as pets?! He might be kind and 
DD may trust him with his life, but he just doesn't have a normal 
sense of danger. Not a good idea with a young child around.

Moody? - I don't think I even need to explain how absurd that idea 
is. Can you visualise Moody as a single father? I can't. He'd think 
he was being attacked by DE's each time Harry cried for a feed or 
nappy change in the night!

Tonks / Kinglsey? - Too new on the scene. 

Mundungus Fletcher? - What a fantastic role model, plus the amount 
of time he'd leave Harry on his own (like when the dementors paid 
him a visit).

Mrs. Figg? - The most probable. But she not only doesn't have magic 
to help protect Harry, she doesn't have the blood protection either.

I know we don't see who Lily's friends are (yet), so we don't see 
who might have helped in that respected, but from those we do know, 
I don't see anyone capable. For all their masses and masses of 
faults, the Dursleys have (mostly) fed and clothed him. They have 
(apparently) agreed to offer this blood protection to Harry. (They 
didn't leave him to be adopted. They did take him in.)

I really do think that this is a case of the lesser of evils. I'm 
not excusing their treatment, but I see it more as that of someone 
who is scared. Sort of `push him down, that way he can't harm us`. 
They're frightened. Just look at their reactions when Harry does odd 
things. They may appear to Harry to be in control and punishing him, 
but that is just because he doesn't know the truth of the situation. 
*They* know full well why these things have happened, and it scares 
them. I think that's why the starvation rather than having 
physically hit him. If Harry can re-grow his hair overnight, and 
apparate onto the school roof, then what might he do if they were in 
close range when they angered him? They don't know. They don't 
understand him.

Anyway, I've gone off on a tangent. I just wanted to show the lack 
of alternative, and ask what other people thought. Where would you 
have him grow up instead?

Becky (Sorry that list is so long. It took much more space than I 
first thought.)