Dumbledore on the Dursleys in OotP (was:Re: Old, old problem.)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 151019

> >>Alla:
> > I think Dumbledore was faced with horrific choice. Did he do the 
> > best he could? As some people know, I was very angry with 
> > Dumbledore speech at the end of OOP and if he would continued    
> > this way in HBP, I may have hated him a great deal, but luckily 
> > JKR rehabilitated him VERY well in HBP in my eyes. :)

> >>Ceridwen:
> <snip>
> I mentioned above that the justification at the end of OotP was   
> probably DD rationalizing to himself the treatment Harry endured.  
> Yes, in the end it did make Harry stronger, but that was never a  
> guarantee.  
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I was confused about what upset you both about Dumbledore's speech 
at the end of OotP, so I re-read it.  And I'm still confused.  
Dumbledore never says anything about Harry's treatment at the 
Dursleys being a positive thing.  He does the exact opposite, in 
fact.

"You had suffered.  I knew you would when I left you on your aunt 
and uncle's doorstep.  I knew I was condemning you to ten dark and 
difficult years." (OotP scholastic hardback p.835)

Then Dumbledore explains *why* he'd felt it necessary to leave Harry 
with the Dursleys, and strength training had nothing to do with it.

"You might ask -- and with good reason -- why it had to be so."
[...]
"My answer is that my priority was to keep you alive.  You were in 
more danger than perhaps anyone but myself realized."
[...]
"Your mother's sacrifice made the bond of blood the strongest shield 
I could give you."
[...]
"She [Aunt Petunia] knows that allowing you houseroom may well have 
kept you alive for the past fifteen years." (ibid p. 835, 836)

The only part of his speech, with regards to the Dursleys, that 
might possibly offend (that I could find anyway), was this part here:

"You were not a pampered little prince, but as normal a boy as I 
could have hoped under the circumstances." (ibid p.837)

Is this the offending statement?  Because I think that harkens back 
to Dumbledore speaking of so many in the Wizarding World who'd have 
been thrilled to call Harry their own.  Dumbledore never says 
anything to suggest that the Dursleys kept Harry humble, but he does 
spend a great deal of time stressing that the blood protection that 
only Petunia could offer kept Harry alive.

And he even goes on to suggest that part of the reason he kept the 
rather horrifying prophecy from Harry was that he knew Harry had 
suffered rather a lot already.

"I defy anyone who has watched you as I have -- and I have watched 
you more closely than you can have imagined -- not to want to save 
you more pain than you had already suffered." (ibid p.838-839)

At this point Dumbledore has only reached the end of Harry's second 
year in his narration.  And while Harry went through some rather 
large adventures his first and second year, I don't know that he 
really *suffered* all that much.  In fact, he seemed to mostly enjoy 
himself during those relatively innocent times.  So I think it's 
pretty safe to say that Dumbledore is referring to the suffering 
Harry went through growing up at the Dursleys. (Especially since 
Dumbledore already used the word "suffered" to describe Harry's life 
at the Dursleys.)

I do think Dumbledore wanted to avoid Harry being brought up in the 
spotlight the WW would have turned on him.  But I don't think he 
chose the Dursleys for that reason.  If Harry's protection hadn't 
been dependent upon blood (and if Sirius had still been locked away 
in Azkaban) I'm betting Mrs. Figg would have raised Harry in the 
Muggle world.  (As a squib we've seen it's quite easy for her to 
drop off the WW's radar.)  From this speech I got the sense that 
Dumbledore left Harry at the Dursleys with great reluctance and 
*only* because of the blood protection.  

[It does raise an interesting question though.  If Sirius had been 
free (and Harry's protection didn't depend on blood) or if Petunia 
had been a witch, would Dumbledore have encouraged them to leave the 
WW and live as Muggles in order for Harry to have as "normal" an 
upbringing as possible?] 

Anyway, I'm just curious as to what was so wrong with what 
Dumbledore said about leaving Harry at the Dursleys, what about it 
read as rationalizing on Dumbledore's part?

Betsy Hp, who remembers a great deal of back and forth on how 
Dumbledore spoke about Sirius, but not the Dursleys so much. (There 
must have been a rip-roaring Snape discussion going on at the time). 
<g>