Dumbledore's Magnaminity

[Sherry]

No: HPFGUIDX 143117

> > 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.
> >

Amontillada: 
Only because they agreed?  Even if they hadn't taken him into their
home, I suspect that Voldemort and/or the Death Eaters might have gone
after them in search of clues to finding him. I don't think it's a
secret that Petunia is Lily's sister, or that the DEs would leave any
possible clue unturned or untortured.
> 
> Alla:
> Now, of course if you want to measure quantitavely, they could be in 
> MORE danger with Harry in their house than without him, I guess, but 
> it is all relative, don't you think? They are just as likely to be 
> killed if they never took Harry.
> 
> What I am trying to say that with war started Dursleys are in 
> danger, Harry or no Harry.
> 

Amontillada:
In fact, I've often wondered if the blood tie protection worked both
ways--if the fact that Harry and Aunt Petunia share a home has
protected the Dursleys as well as Harry himself.

The DEs tortured Alice and Frank Longbottom out of their sanity, just
in search of clues that MIGHT help them find Voldemort. I doubt that
they'd moved all the magical protections from their house when he
disappeared, but the DEs were able to invade. Members of the WW have
been watching the Dursley house, but it doesn't have overt magical
protection. 

Consider--the only wizards who've ever been able to do anything 
hurtful to the Dursley family (whether or not intentionally) are those
who'd been given the address and invited in, however oddly: Harry and
the Weasleys.

The Death Eaters who attacked Harry and Dudley in OotP, on Umbridge's
secret orders, actually attacked them away from the house--in the
neighborhood, but not in the actual home. I believe the home is
somehow shielded from magical detection or entry. Even if magical
individuals know about where it is, they can't actually assault the
house or its occupants. 

Amontillada