Who, exactly, is Petunia

[meltowne]

No: HPFGUIDX 124605


With all the discussions about why Dumbledore left Harry with the 
Dursleys, I've been thinking about Aunt Petunia.

I think there's much more to Petunia than we are led to believe.  
Remember, what we know about her is all from Harry's perspective.  I 
think she is a witch hiding in deep cover.  Vernon is as much a 
muggle as Harry believes, and she uses that to her advantage as part 
of her disguise.

Looking at the beginning of Book 1, we are introduced to Vernon, and 
follow him through his day.  We are only introduced to Petunia by 
him - when he asks if she's heard from her sister, and tells her 
strange things have been happening.  She acts upset, but she should 
have known about some of the happenigs outside.  We know from Prof. 
McGonagall that she went out with Dudley during the day - he kicked 
her all the way down the street, asking for sweets.

She has more information that we would expect about the Wizard world -
 why would she know so much about the dementors?  I can't imagine 
James mentioning them in front of her, for any reason.

Now, why would she be in hiding?  Perhaps because she is one of only 
3 living members of an important line of wizards (herself, Dudley and 
Harry).  Perhaps her mother was a witch who was forced into hiding 
because of some other prophesy predating Voldemort.  This would 
explain why Harry's grandparents are no longer around - they were 
discovered.  Perhaps there was a prophesy about her importance, and 
she too was kept in hiding.  Lily, being the younger child was 
allowed to attend Hogwarts as long as Petunia was kept in hiding, 
because she presumable wasn't important.  Or perhaps Petunia wasn't 
as strong a witch.  Not all wizard children are invited to attend 
Hogwarts.

I think Petunia tries extermely hard make sure nobody has reason to 
suspect anything about her.  She is hiding something important, even 
from Vernon.  The cryptic howler makes this clear - Dumbledore told 
her something that makes her want Harry under her care, even after 
his presence has brought the demntors to her neighborhood, even 
though Dudley's life was put at risk. As much as she knows about 
dementors, she must know that Harry was telling the truth about them, 
and probably is amazed that he and Dudley survived.  The stakes are 
much higher than they've ever been.  Maybe the protection that Harry 
gets by being in her home also protects her - If Dumbledore is 
Harry's secret keeper, keeping others from attacking him in her home, 
perhaps it keeps her home safe for her as well.  

Why don't we know she's a witch?  Because Harry doesn't know - he 
didn't know Mrs Figg was a muggle either.  Dumbledore might have 
known from the beginning, but wouldn't say anything to anyone.  Prof. 
McGonagall might not have known - was she head of house when Lily was 
a t Hogwarts? would she have been given this information about Lily's 
sister?  I doubt it - she and Dumbledore don't seem to know each 
other all that well yet.  Remember she was surprised that Dumbledore 
recognized her is her cat form; if they were well acquainted, there 
would be no question of him recognizing her.

Petunia is never the one who says bad things about her Sister - those 
words always come from Vernon, she just seems to go along.  I think 
she's more afraid of being exposed to the wizarding world than to the 
muggles.

I hope we learn more about Petunia in the next book, and about why 
Harry sends the entire summer there, when clearly he only neds to 
stay a couple of days for the protection charms to stay in effect.