Petunia and Lily (was why do people dislike this scene)

[katssirius]

No: HPFGUIDX 158062

"Magpie:
I wrote an essay on this once.:-) Basically, the way I see Petunia--
and
this is a lot to do with one small way in which I identify with her--
I think
she did love Lily, yes. That is, they had a normal, if imperfect, 
sister
relationship until Hogwarts. A lot of my imaginings about those 
early years
are obviously not canon at all, so they can't be taken as proof of 
anything,
but I much prefer seeing Petunia as a real person who had real hurt 
over
this issue instead of just the wicked stepsister who was ugly and 
didn't
have magic powers and was always jealous and hated perfect Lily. Not
because it makes Petunia's behavior towards Harry any better, but 
it's more
realistic to me. Also--and I think JKR illustrates this well in 
canon a
lot--real hurt breeds deeper bitterness and so more cruelty. She was
jealous, I think, but to me it's not just in a superficial way.

Granted my view of Petunia does slot in consistently to the way I 
see the
two worlds in general and all that, but it makes me like Petunia as a
character more, so I'm happy with it.:-)

-m"

Petunia and Lily's relationship is more complicated than the black 
and white/ good and bad that comes up in Petunia's statements about 
her sister. Petunia never comes across as hateful to me.  She is 
terrified.  I see her as a snapping dog in a corner that will bite 
you and run out of pure animal terror.  She is an extremely 
overprotective mother.  Again begging the question why does Dudley 
need protecting?  I agree with Magpie that Hogwarts forever changed 
Lily and Petunia's relationship because it separated them. Magic 
took Lily away to a world which Petunia could never be a part.  
Obviously the Evans parents were a problem if they made Petunia feel 
unloved.  Petunia is far too dysfuntional to have been raised in a 
loving home.  Maybe Lily was Petunia's only unconditional love and 
Magic took that away.  Stealing Lily away from her sister.  Petunia 
would hate everything associated with magic with an aversion.  She 
would want to stomp out magic.  But she would not have stopped 
loving Lily and therefore would take Lily's son in. She is not self 
aware enough to sort out Lily's abandonment with her feelings for 
magic (which in the end did take her sister away permanently) and 
her feelings for Harry.  Her heart is in the right place (very deep 
down) as DD says in OOTP she did take Harry in and according to DD 
it is all that saved Harry.  Petunia continued to do it even when 
her own son was attacked by Dementors.  I am trying to think of the 
number of people for whom I would endanger my children.  It is a 
very short list.  JKR has deliberately made Petunia misunderstood.  
If JKR is misleading with the bad then the good has to be underneath 
somewhere.

katssirius