...once again Dumbledore!Abuse - a Balanced Approach

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 142943

> >>Pippin:
> > <snip>
> > But the bottom line for me is that just as people don't like    
> > being locked up, whether they deserve to be or not, people don't 
> > like being ordered about, even if the orders would be good for   
> > them. They will rebel, eventually,  no matter how powerless and 
> > intimidated they seem to be. That's what happened with Kreacher, 
> > and it would have happened with Vernon and Petunia. Dumbledore's 
> > intervention might have handed Harry straight to the death      
> > eaters. 

> >>Magpie:
> But if Dumbledore actually trying to make them stop actively      
> abusing Harry *might* get him turned over the Death Eaters somehow 
> (I assume the Dursleys wouldn't be doing it, as they wouldn't know 
> how) or make the Dursleys worse, why do some of the books end with 
> the happy idea that the Dursleys are going to be threatened into   
> behaving now?
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I think the story of the Longbottoms supply an example of the threat 
Harry faced.  If the Dursleys had said thanks but no thanks and 
given Harry to an orphanage (or a foster home -- do orphanages even 
exist in England anymore?), I think we're supposed to imagine that 
undiscovered Death Eaters would have hunted him down and either 
killed him or kidnapped him.

I think it's noteworthy that Harry has no wizard contact at all 
until he's eleven.  Dumbledore plants a squib (Mrs. Figg), unknown 
even to the MoM, to keep an eye on Harry.  I get the impression that 
Harry's location was unknown to any wizards not in the Order.  And 
probably only a few Order members at that.

Once Harry is introduced to the WW the protection of the Dursleys is 
lessened.  It's still a handy sanctuary to have, especially since 
Dumbledore is trying to downplay his personal interest in Harry 
(something that ends at the conclusion of OotP, IIRC).  That Harry 
uses his newly discovered power to intimidate Dudley into leaving 
him alone, and his new connections to let the Dursleys know that 
there are folks watching out for him, is Harry's business.  It's an 
internal struggle rather than an outside one.  If that makes any 
sense.

The members of the Order threatening the Dursleys at the end of OotP 
signals, I think, an end to that detachment.  Dumbledore has decided 
that he will no longer try and hide his connection to Harry.  It's 
only about two weeks later that he turns up on the Dursleys doorstep 
to deliver his smack-down, IIRC.

[Actually, it's an interesting conflict that occurs here, IMO.  Why 
do the Dursleys accept Harry back into their home after his first 
year at Hogwarts?  Not only accept him into their home but make the 
trip to Kings Cross to pick him up?  It goes hand in hand with the 
question of why they fight so hard to prevent Harry from becoming a 
wizard in the first place.  I mean, why not just give Harry up and 
good riddance to bad rubbish?  Why go through all the trouble of 
trying to hide him from the WW?]

> >>Magpie:
> Basically, to me it seems like the problem is this: Rowling        
> started out with a fairy-tale/Roald Dahl idea so Harry has        
> terrible parents.  Unfortunately, due to her plot, the magical    
> mentor character was also the person engineering his early abuse.  
> It's the mixing of two genres, I think, that's causing a problem.  
> <snip>
> Rowling kind of wanted both here-- Cinderella and Percival or     
> whoever, so she leaves you with the obvious question of why the    
> Wise Mentor felt it necessary that our hero was absued as a child.
> <snip> 

Betsy Hp:
I agree that the mixing of genres is the challange JKR undertook.  I 
think she was aware of the problems she was facing, however.  
Because the Dursleys have never reached the level of Dahl or Grimm 
when it comes to bad parenting, I think.  That always struck me.  
They were terrible, obviously.  But a Dahl child would have begged 
to live under such easy discipline, I think.  Cinderella would have 
seen Harry's chores as a day off.

Aunt Marge really brings that out, I think.  She revels in making 
Harry play the part of serving boy, enjoys picking at him to see him 
squirm, and really seems excited at the idea of Harry being caned.  
Compared to her, the Dursleys' attitude of "out of our sight" seems 
almost caring.  It's also brought home by Abused!Harry fic, I 
think.  When writers set out to write Harry's horrible homelife they 
have to tweak the Dursleys into behaving *much* worse than they do 
in canon.

Then JKR turns around and makes the wise mentor very human.  He 
makes mistakes and often seems to be reacting to trouble rather than 
having a master plan ticking away in the background.  Often times 
the books seem to end with Dumbledore victorious only by the skin of 
his teeth rather than chuckling over a plan coming beautifully 
together.

I'm not trying to say JKR did a seamless job of combining the two 
genres.  There are problems, and with only one book left I'm not 
sure she'll be able to smooth those problems out.  If Petunia gets a 
chance to share her side of the story, that may go a long way.  And 
I must say, JKR's handling of Draco's arc has given me a bit of hope.

Betsy Hp