Old, old problem.

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 150988

Ceridwen wrote:
>  Any WW family could turn out to have a traitor/LV supporter in
their midst (just as the Black family had a 'blood traitor' in
Sirius's refusal to go along with family belief, or more directly,
Barty Crouch Jr. in Crouch's household). 
> 
> Draeconin replied:
> True, but it would have taken little to verify each member of a
family, especially if they started with an OoP member. (There would be
far more than are ever mentioned.)
> 

Carol responds:
IMO, Dumbledore had to act quickly, to get Harry to a place where the
DEs would not find him (they would know nothing about the Dursleys and
would expect DD to do exactly what you're suggesting, place him in a
wizarding home). There was not time to check for potential traitors;
he had to be taken to safety quickly. And in addition to whatever
"wards" could be placed on a wizarding home, Petunia's home had the
unique advantage of the blood protection. Whatever secondary motives
Dumbledore may have had (and I agree with you that it would have been
disastrous for the WW for Harry to turn into a second James), he had
to keep Harry alive and away from the Death Eaters who at that time
were still at large (imagine if Harry had fallen into the hands of
Bellatrix and her crew, who Crucio'd the Longbottoms into insanity, or
a murderer like Antonin Dolohov). Only the blood protection could
guarantee that he was safe from the Death Eaters, "many of whom were
nearly as terrible as he [Voldemort], to quote DD from memory. 

Draeconin wrote:
<big snip> But if Dumbledore is looking at Harry as the weapon that
will one day destroy Voldemort, he's going to want someone who will
follow orders without question.

Carol responds:
I can think of only one instance where Dumbledore presents that view
to Harry :in HBP before the cave expedition when he tells him that his
(Harry's) life is more important than Dumbldore's own and he gets
(okay, psychologically pressures) Harry into agreeing that he will do
whatever DD says, even if it means abandoning him to his death. Thisis
not a case of using Harry as a weapon but of making sure that he
survives, both for his own sake and that of the WW.

In all other instances that I can recall (except, perhaps, with Snape,
who may be under a similar set of orders), Dumbledore is the spokesman
for the theme of choice. He motivates Harry to fight Voldemort because
he wants to, because he chooses to do so, not because the Prophecy has
destined him to do it. From at least CoS onward, he says things like,
"It is our choices that show who we are, Harry, not our abilities"
(quoted from memory). He believes in second chances, so that a person
who chose wrongly the first time can choose rightly the second time
(and prove himself through his choices). His belief in freedom of
choice is the reason why he has such a hands-off approach to teaching.
(If Harry or any other student were actually being harmed, he would
probably step in as he does when Umbridge shakes Marietta in OoP. I
don't think he would have allowed her to use her poison pen in
detentions if he knew about it, either, but that's another thread.) He
also takes a hands-off approach to Harry, watching him from afar,
either through Order members as in OoP or, perhaps, through those
instruments in his office: "I have watched you more closely than you
know" (quoted from memory from near the end of OoP).

Harry is a special person with a special destiny. Dumbledore *can't*
yield to the impulse to protect him, except in dire situations where
Harry's life is actually in danger, as for instance in CoS when he
arranges for Fawkes to arrive with the Sorting Hat when Harry needs
them, or in the MoM, when he fights Voldemort one on one. But if Harry
is to survive being the target of Voldemort whenever Voldemort returns
to power, he must *not* be cocky and arrogant like James, too sure of
himself and his abilities, or he'll be easy prey and the WW will be
doomed. But he must be resilient; he must be unafraid; he must be able
to think for himself, and quickly.

Placement with the Dursleys is the first step in this training, IMO.
The second step is watching him from afar as he deals with
increasingly more difficult obstacles, ranging from bullying or
otherwise dangerous teachers (and I don't just mean Snape) to the TWT
tournament to the cave with the Horcrux. Occlumency lessons have him
facing Snape as a stand-in for Voldemort: "You are handing me
weapons!" says Snape in OoP as Harry lets him see the memory of
Cedric's death. (Read, "You are making youself easy prey for the Dark
Lord by handing *him* weapons!")

Dumbledore knows that Harry must be ready to fight Voldemort, and the
only way to do that is to allow him, from the outset, to be faced with
obstacles and hardships and to fight his own battles, so long as his
life is not actually in danger. Granted, Dumbledore makes mistakes,
one of the biggest being his failure to realize that the Goblet of
Fire was a portkey that would take Harry to Voldemort. But if Harry
had not already been trained to think on his feet, to be resilient, to
face pain and even death without fear, he would never have survived
that battle.

Carol, noting that this is the WW, where children face a future very
different from anything in RL, not to mention hexing each other in the
hallways, and that Dumbledore has the horrendously difficult task of
balancing what's good for Harry against the survival of the entire
Wizarding World