Dumbledore's Magnaminity

[rklarreich]

No: HPFGUIDX 143131

Roberta wrote earlier:
> > Well, Harry's parents have just been killed by Voldemort, who 
> > tried to kill Harry too but got vaporized instead, and in order to
> > protect Harry from further attempts on his life by remaining 
> > Death Eaters, Dumbledore would like Petunia to take him in order 
> > to seal a charm Dumbledore has cast involving Harry's mother's 
> > sacrifice. That all seems like reasonable background information 
> > to put in the letter.
> >
> > Beyond that, we can speculate that Dumbledore also told the
> > Dursleys that Harry has definitely inherited his parents' magical 
> > ability <snip> but until we see the actual letter, this is all 
> > speculation, NOT canon.
 
Geoff:
> "We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish.....
> Wizard indeed!"
> 
> "Knew!.... Knew! Of course we knew...."
> (PS "The Keeper of the Keys" pp.43-44 UK edition)
> 
> ...are too extreme to suggest that they just guessed. Petunia's
> vitriolic reply and the triple use of "knew" is too strong. I think
> that if your scenario was correct, she would have said something 
> like:
> 
> "We guessed what you'd be like..." or
> 
> "When odd things started happening, it was too much like my dratted
> sister..."


Roberta:
But that's pretty much what she does say.  I don't have a copy of the 
book to give the exact quote, but right after the "Knew" bit you 
quote above, she says something like:  "How could you be anything 
else, my dratted sister being what she was?"

In other words, *that's* how she "knew."  Her dratted sister was a 
witch, so of course Harry would turn out to be a wizard.  She starts 
by saying that she knew (i.e. figured it out) and then explains how 
she figured it out (her dratted sister was magical and it's probably 
hereditary).

Haven't you ever said "I knew it!" in triumphant tones?  When people 
say that, they don't mean that they knew "it" as a fact; they say 
this after they find out that they were right about something they 
*guessed*.  That is what the context suggests is happening here.  
Petunia *may* also have been given factual information (by Dumbledore 
in the letter) to support her inference, but at this point there 
simply isn't canon for that.  What she says is certainly consistent 
with this possibility, but it is still a theory, not canon.

Geoff:
> There is also evidence that Dumbledore had had to tell the Dursleys
> something of what had happened to Lily and James...
> 
> "- and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we
> got landed with you!"
> 
> (ibid.p.44)

Which is exactly what I said he put in the letter (see my quoted text 
above, beginning with "Well, Harry's parents have just been 
killed...").

Roberta