Threatening the Dursleys at the station (was Re: Why not BRIBE ...)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 123098


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "meriaugust" <meriaugust at y...>
wrote:
> 
<SNIP>
> 
> >Lupinlore:  
> > However, this raises another very important point.  If bribing the
> > Dursleys undermines the "willingness" factor, surely threatening 
> them
> > does so even more.  And yet this is precisely what Lupin and the
> > Weasleys and MadEye did at the end of OOTP.  Now, if they couldn't 
> be
> > threatened or bribed before, why is it suddenly all right to do it
> > NOW?  And if it is all right to do it now, why in the world didn't
> > Albus get off his be-robed butt and do it a looooong time ago?
> 
> Meri again: Again, IIRC, Mad Eye and Lupin weren't threatening the 
> Dursleys to keep Harry, just to treat him better, and they probably 
> weren't doing this with DD's knowledge or permission, but I don't 
> see why their actions would negate the protection. OTOH, I would 
> imagine that after what happened last summer the Dursleys probably 
> wouldn't be able to treat Harry any way they wanted. After all, he 
> saved Dudley's life. Now I know the Dursleys are Muggles, but there 
> may very well be some sort of debt between them now. 


Okay, but that doesn't answer the point.  If it's OK to threaten the
Dursleys NOW in order to get better treatment for Harry, why on Earth
wasn't it OK before now?  In other words, if it is OK for the Dursleys
to be threatened at the end of OOTP, why didn't Dumbledore do this
long ago?

The crux that you bring up is the question of whether DD KNOWS about
the Order's actions.  If he did not, we are thrown back on our
original questions.  If he DID, then the confusion deepens still more.

Lupinlore