Yet another DD Dursley thread (was Harsh Morality )

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 121039


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" 
<bob.oliver at c...> wrote:  Or given that he feared Voldemort's 
> return (and I readily grant he had no way, as far as we know, of 
> predicting when that might be) surely he had it within his power 
to  force the Dursleys to behave more appropriately, not to 
mention he  had it within his ability to provide more support for 
Harry from the  Wizarding World.  Sirius was in prison, but why 
would periodic  visits/checkups from Remus or even McGonagall 
have been out of the  question, not to mention visits on his own 
initiative?  <

Pippin:
Force? Where I live, a teacher who suspects abuse is supposed 
to report it to the proper authorities. He certainly isn't supposed  
to intervene by threatening or forcing the parents to behave 
appropriately, and if he does, he himself becomes a criminal, at 
least in my country.

Should Dumbledore have intervened anyway? Dumbledore has 
many enemies  who would love to find out that he has been 
harrassing Muggles. Just think what Lucius Malfoy would make 
of that! The same goes for his deputy, McGonagall, and double 
for Remus Lupin, werewolf. And if Dumbledore did convince the 
WW that Harry was being treated so badly that intervention was 
justified, what would happen? They'd take Harry away from Privet 
Drive. Game over.

Whether the proper authorities were ever notified,   we don't 
know, but I am afraid a report from dotty old Mrs. Figg might not 
be taken very seriously. Still, IIRC, the time of Harry's longest 
incarceration in the cupboard corresponds with Mrs. Figg being 
incapacitated with a broken leg, does it not?  She seems to have 
had some influence.

Pippin