A contract is a contract is a contract.

[lealess]

No: HPFGUIDX 142968

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Bruce Alan Wilson"
<bawilson at c...> wrote:
>
> "a_svirn:
> I don't see what difference it makes for the Dursley's. From where
> they are standing they are still being intimidated by wizards.
> Whether the wizards in question are aurors or convicts is of little
> importance to them. The point is that they are all magical and the
> Dorsey's don't want to have anything to do with magic."
> 
> Bruce:
> In which case they shouldn't have taken Harry in in the first place.  
> Nobody forced them to.  They were given a choice.  They could have 
> sent him to a Muggle orphanage as Aunt Marge suggested, or they 
> could have told DD that Harry was a wizardling brat and that the
> WW should take care of him.  They didn't.  They
> took him in and established a contract, one which they violated.  
> Having violated it, they are fair game.  That Dumbledore didn't turn 
> them all into frogs is a sign of his mercy.
> 
> Bruce
>

If there was a contract, have the Dursleys violated its terms?  Let's
say there was a contract which said, take Harry in and keep him alive,
and in return, Dumbledore will put a powerful charm on the Dursley
house to protect it from Voldemort and his followers, a charm to last
as long as Harry is a minor.  If these were the terms, they have
fulfilled them to the minimum extent required.  Was accepting the
dangerous and destructive intrusions of the wizarding world, except
for Voldemort and his followers, part of the contract?  Was having
their son turned into a pig, possibly choked to death, and attacked by
Dementors part of the contract?  If they had to provide a minimum
standard of care for Harry, it seems Dumbledore should have ensured a
minimum standard of safety for the Dursleys.

Assuming Petunia was the one who accepted the contract, did she even
divulge its terms to her husband and son so that they could fulfill
it?  Did she take on the theoretical contract completely voluntarily,
i.e., without coercion or at least without having the fear put into
her head that Voldemort was likely attack her family?  We don't know
what choice they were given.

lealess