Many sleepless nights

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 124594


Paul:   
>     I think that AD is either the greatest fool  or the greatest
> manipulator ever. I don't believe for a second that he didn't 
know what kind of people are the Dursleys. And that leads us to 
thefollowing options:
>  a) He trully didn't know and that makes him at least 
incompetent.
>  b) He knew but he believed that the Dursleys may behave 
themselves and that makes  him at least naive and finally,
>  c) He knew but he didn't care. Everything and anything in order 
to protect his "asset" or "weapon" you name it for future use. In 
that case he is a s*n of a b***h.
> 
>    In any case AD took a big risk because he recreate the very 
same conditions that made Tom Riddle to become Lord 
Voldermort and that is an abusive, uncaring muggle foster family 
for little Harry.

Pippin:
Or d) he could not intervene without making things worse.

Remember that there is a twisted logic behind the Dursleys 
cruelty; they did not set out to make Harry unhappy because they 
are sadists, but because they thought it would crush the magic 
out of him. Where they got that idea, canon does not say. Maybe 
it was a combination of Peter Pan "`You just think lovely 
wonderful thoughts" and Petunia's garbled information about 
dementors: "Get too near a dementor and every good feeling, 
every cheerful thought, will be sucked out of you [...]Dementors 
are supposed to drain a wizard of his powers if he is left with 
them too long..." --PoA ch 10.

Dumbledore seems to have known they had this idea, but what 
could he do about it? They certainly wouldn't believe anything he 
had to say! 

So, as Mrs. Figg says in OOP, "I'm sorry I gave you such a 
miserable time, but the Dursleys would never have let you come 
if they'd thought you enjoyed it."  Any  attempts to make Harry  
visibly happier would have been squashed by the Dursleys, 
regardless of whether they seemed to emanate from the WW or 
not. 


Further, the Dursleys hate Harry because they're afraid of magic, 
so using magic against them would only  make them hate 
Harry more. Not until Harry has the means to escape  their 
hatred is it wise to exacerbate it.

Most abused children do *not* become psychopaths.  If Harry  
had those tendencies (and he does not, because despite the 
likenesses between them, he is a very different person from 
Tom Riddle)  they might just  as  easily have developed  
 in the wizarding world. It would certainly not discourage 
paranoia and selfishness if:

a)if you knew the most powerful dark wizard ever was trying to kill 
you
b) you had enough wealth to indulge your every whim,
c)  people  liked you  because you were rich and 
famous. 

We may yet discover that Dumbledore was intervening in subtle 
ways, though he was unable to keep Harry either as happy or as 
well-fed as he would have liked. Does  he need to apologize for 
that?  Does the surgeon apologize to the patient for the scarring 
and the pain? 

Yes, he should be sympathetic about them, if that's what the 
patient needs. But Harry has never *wanted* sympathy. Far from 
being alienated by the lack of it, I'd say nothing would turn him 
against Dumbledore more than the thought of DD feeling sorry 
for him.

Pippin