Etiquette WAS Re: polite Dumbledore?

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 142657

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:

> 
> I do think think this shows that Dumbledore could not have bullied 
> the Dursleys into treating Harry better.  If he'd done something 
> similar when Harry was young, I think Harry would have been on a 
> street corner as soon as Dumbledore left Privet Drive and the 
> Dursleys would have had their bags packed and plane tickets for 
> parts unknown in their pockets.  Because the Dursleys *were* 
> terrified, and yet they still refused to drink the mead.
> 
> Betsy Hp
>

Hmmm.  I'm not at all sure it shows any such thing.  Dumbledore was 
engaging in what amounts to a parlor trick, and I'm not sure I would 
agree that the the Dursleys were terrified.  Frightened and 
uncomfortable, yes, but not terrified, and they were certainly 
nowhere near experiencing the level of pain and humiliation to which 
DD should have subjected them.  True threats would have been 
something else again (for instance letting Vernon spend a weekend as 
a turnip), and I suspect would have worked very well indeed.

Which, as I believe Alla has pointed out, is yet another reason that 
JKR seems to be backing away from the whole issue.  As is her bad 
habit, she really didn't think that whole situation through very 
thoroughly at all.  It wasn't until she had almost put her foot in it 
for good that she seemed to realize the mess she had gotten herself, 
and Dumbledore, into.


Lupinlore