Identifying with Muggles in Potterverse WAS: Re: DD at the Dursleys:

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 158025

> Betsy Hp:
> It's the use of magic that tilts it for me.  A wizard using his wit 
> or intelligence or basic decency to put the Dursleys in 
> their "place" I'm fine with.  But when a wizard uses his magic he's 
> taking advantage of an extreme power difference.  A power 
difference 
> I'm on the wrong side of.  That it's done so easily suggests that 
> abusing that power is an easy thing for wizards to slip into.  And 
I 
> don't like it.  Which colors how I take that scene.
<SNIP>

Alla:

I think I understand sort of, but let me ask couple more questions 
just to make sure I do and again, this is just curiosity on my 
behalf, because I do understand that I am trying to figure out your 
emotional reaction, which really needs no justification or 
explanation.

I understand dislike of wizards abusing their power, etc ( I am 
willing to put aside for a second that I don't think that Dumbledore 
abused any powers of his in that scene), but to me it is still a long 
road to travel from thinking that wizard abuses his power to 
empasizing with people against whom he does it.

Is the main source of your empathy with Dursleys the idea that 
wizards can do it to your as muggle? Basically that you can be in the 
same situation as they are?

I mean if it is so, I guess I understand the reaction ( not share at 
all, but at least understand where you are coming from and this is 
all I wanted to figure out), since my empathy with Sirius started 
with two things - his love for Harry and the second one his unfair 
imprisonment. I am sure many know that in the Soviet Union millions 
of people were unjustly imprisoned starting from Stalin regime and 
continuing into 70s of the twentieth century. No, thank goodness 
neither myself or anybody in my family was not in prison, but it was 
SO easy to imagine being in such situation. All one has to do is to 
actively act in opposition to regime and one can easily find himself 
to be in prison and **not** in the prisons with the level of comfort 
of american prisons ( no, I had not been in american prisons 
either :), but from what I have read and seen on TV, they really look 
as resorts in comparison)

So, Sirius unfair imprisonment strikes something for me on 
subconscious level very deeply ( besides you know universal 
hurt/comfort etc), is that the same for you with Dursleys?

I guess it never enters my mind that I can find myself in the 
situation like Dursleys, because I **know** with absolute certainty 
that I would never abuse a child, so I have no reasons to fear that 
his family and friends would come after me with a vengeance, magic or 
not :)

And I understand that you may say that if wizards can abuse their 
power against anybody, then they can do it against anybody, including 
people who did nothing to them, but the thing is .... I don't see 
anybody who is not a DE doing so. That is why I cannot

To me, there is a sense of deep, **animalistic** if you wish fairness 
of Dursleys getting their dues and on the page of the book, I can 
really care less about the means they get their dues. :)

But thanks for explaining your reaction, I think I got it now.

JMO,

Alla