Dumbledore's Magnaminity

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 143073

Geoff:
> '"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," 
said 
> Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"
> "You /knew/? said Harry. "You /knew/ I'm a - a wizard?"
> "Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "/Knew/! Of course we 
> knew!..."'
> 
> (ibid. pp.43-44)
> 
> QED.

a_svirn:
I don't think it demonstrates what you want it to demonstrate, 
actually. The full quote goes as follows: "Knew! Of course we knew! 
How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she 
got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that-that school-
and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, 
turning teacups into rats." It would appear that Petunia didn't know 
for sure from the beginning, but realized soon enough, by making 
comparisons with her sister. You will have noticed that she didn't 
refer to the letter, when she said she knew. 

PJ:
> First, we have no idea (yet) what was in the letter Dumbledore 
left 
> the Dursleys tucked into Harry's blanket.  That one letter could 
> clear up a lot IMO.  

a_svirn:
So it could. But we do have some idea, don't we. Dumbledore 
explicitly said that he had explained about Harry's parents' murder 
and had expressed hope that they would raise him as their own. 

PJ:
But, even if it isn't stated in the letter, 
> Petunia, by way of her experience with Lily, knows that Harry will 
> get a letter to Hogwarts on or around his 11th birthday.  So, if 
you 
> think about it, he wasn't *abandoned* there, he was placed into 
> their (foster?)care until he could take his rightful place in the 
> WW.  Big difference.

a_svirn:
So what if she knew. Her own parents were ecstatic about having a 
witch in the family and let Lilly go to Hogwarts. She, on the other 
hand, wasn't going to be so tolerant about such nonsense. Aren't 
parents, even foster parents, entitled to make that kind of 
decisions?

PJ:
> Dumbledore *is* the authorities!  He's head of the WW!

a_svirn
I beg your pardon? 

PJ:
> On the night of Dumbledore's visit to the Dursleys in HBP he 
states 
> quite clearly that they *willingly* agreed to take Harry in and 
> neither Petunia nor Vernon contradict him.

a_svirn:
I don't recall him stating anything of the sort. 

PJ:
And yes, they kept him alive for 16 years but we don't yet know what 
> they got out of the bargain.  If it was a FC they also could've 
been 
> protected from DEs and Voldermort by having him there.

a_svirn:
If they need a protection from Voldemort it only because they agreed 
to adopt Harry. It is not the protection they got out of the 
bargain, but on the contrary got their lives endangered INTO the 
bargain.