[HPforGrownups] Re: Child Sociopaths

[OctobersChild48 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 151273

In a message dated 4/21/06 8:44:21 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
saundradj at hotmail.com writes:


> Actually, you touched on something that has been in my mind since I read 
> the first HP book.  Harry and the years 15 months to age 5 when he finally went 
> to school. What happened when he cried upon waking and his parents weren't 
> there?  Children, even small ones, know and react to change. What happened 
> when he skinned his knee or was afraid in the dark? 

Sandy:

I'm glad to know that I am not the only one who had these kinds of thoughts, 
which I think of as being one of the foibles of being an adult reader. But my 
thoughts went even deeper. Harry came to the Dursleys at an age that requires 
a lot of work, for lack of a better word. Based on my experiences as RL mother 
Harry still needed to be bottle broken and potty trained, watched closely as 
he toddled about getting into everything. He needed to be bathed and his 
diapers changed. I can't help but feel that Harry went through hell with Petunia 
being the one responsible for handling all of this. She did not want him and did 
not like him, and she had her own child just a few months older who required 
the same care. As the mother of Irish twins I know how hard it can be doing 
this kind of double duty. As he was going through this phase of his life how 
much must he have suffered at the hands of Petunia? How much neglect did he 
endure? Of course these things would never come up in the books, and I doubt they 
are part of JKR's backstory, but as an adult, mother, grandmother, and 
great-grandmother I can't help but think of these things.

Sandy


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