Identifying with Muggles - The Dursley and 'Terrifying' Abuse

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 158216

Betsy HP:
> But I don't think she'd be all that pleased with Dumbledore either.  
> If we're talking simple rules of etiquette, Dumbledore may have been 
> pleasant, but he wasn't polite.  

Pippin:
This is not a social situation. Dumbledore is there acting
as the executor of Sirius's estate. He also has some sort of ongoing
business with Petunia  which she has apparently concealed from
the rest of her household. JKR has told us that 'remember my last'
means there were earlier letters.

In other words, DD is not there as a social equal, he is there to
negotiate and he knows the Dursleys respect only strength. He is
not obligated to be polite, IMO, and he acknowledges that he isn't.
He admits he is tresspassing on the Dursley's hospitality and he 
apologizes for the wineglass thing. 

He is, perhaps, being hostile and threatening for the same reason
that, IMO, he allows Snape to be hostile and threatening -- because
there are threatening wizards out there and the Dursleys,
like the children at Hogwarts, need to be reminded that outside
their fortress, it's going to be getting dark. 

Betsy HP
> However, he chose to bring magic into the picture.  And he used it 
> against the Muggles in that home.  All of them.  Including the child 
> he identifies as having been abused.  True, he's not swelling 
> organs, or sending them into near fatal depression.  But he's using 
> magic.  In a manner designed to make the Muggles uncomfortable.  I 
> find little to praise in it.  And it shifts my sympathies to the 
> Muggles, as badly behaved as they are.

Pippin:
I believe Dumbledore thinks Dudley has been abused 
in that, among other things,  Dudley has never been taught that 
there are more important things than his personal comfort. Harry,
in that situation, would be thinking of how he could protect those
he loves. Dudley thinks only of himself. 

I can't really judge whether this was a weak moment, equivalent
to when he kicked Barty Jr over on his back, because until we know
what Dumbledore was doing during the ten minutes he and the
Dursleys were alone, we don't really know the purpose of his visit.

Pippin