Why wasn't Harry sent to either a lightsided wizarding family or a muggle fa

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 150226

John wrote:
> 
> > Harry's love for others was what drove off Voldemort from possessing 
> > him and IMO is what prevented Quirrel from touching him, not the
blood wards.

Carol responds:
Can someone please tell me where this term "blood wards" comes from
and what it means? Is it a Briticism? I don't recall seeing it
anywhere in canon.

I take it to mean both the blood protection that Harry received from
his mother's death (partially diluted by the addition of his blood to
the potion that restored Voldemort) and the protective charm that
Dumbledore  placed on the Dursley's house, but surely there's some
other term we can use that fits with JKR's terminology?

With regard to the point above, you're correct that love is what
prevented Voldemort from possessing Harry for more than a few moments
in the MoM, but according to Dumbledore, it was Lily's blood
protection that protected him from Quirrell (who of course was being
possessed by Voldemort at the time).

As for the blood protection not protecting him from the Dementors, of
course it doesn't. He's on Magnolia Crescent, not Privet Drive, at the
time,IIRC. At any rate, he's walking home from the play park, not
inside the house. Dumbledore and the Order tell him not to leave the
house for any reason; he's safe there (as Dumbledore reminds Petunia
in his Howler). But if the Dementors return, or if the Death Eaters
show up (DD wrongly assumes that these Dementors are outside Ministry
 control), Harry will not be safe.

The blood protection does apparently protect Harry at the Dursleys
from physical abuse: Aunt Petunia's frying pan misses him and Uncle
Vernon feels an electrical surge when he tries to choke Harry. No such
protection would be available to Harry at a nonrelative's house, and I
for one agree with Dumbledore's secondary reason for placing Harry
with the Dursleys: It would have been very hard to keep him from
growing up as a pampered prince, a la James, in a wizarding household.
And if James as Quidditch champion was an "arrogant little berk,"
imagine James's son growing up knowing that he was The Boy Who Lived.

You undoubtedly don't agree, but I think Dumbledore did what was best
for Harry given very limited choices, and I'm pretty sure that the
safety of the Dursleys' house, which is about to expire, is not
illusory. (I think we'll see the Battle of Privet Drive early in Book 7.)

With regard to the number of people who knew about Harry's survival,
at least one DE knew about it: Wormtail, who picked up Voldemort's
wand and hid it after the debacle (evidently he was afraid to try to
kill Harry after what had happened to his master). I don't know who
leaked the story to the press, unless it was Hagrid, who didn't get
away in time to escape the questions of the Aurors and reporters. Or
it could have been Wormtail in the role of bereaved friend, leaking
the story of Black's supposed betrayal and Harry's miraculous
survival, scar and all, as part of his plot to frame his dear friend
Padfoot.

Carol, who thought this would be a two-line post, asking Ceridwen,
Tonks, and Alla to please pass the iron when they're through with it
(maybe it will have cooled off by then!)