Identifying with Muggles - The Dursley and 'Terrifying' Abuse

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 158237

bboyminn:
In other words, legally the Dursley are Harry's defacto
guardians by the mere fact that the are his CLOSE and
only living relatives. Legally, I would speculate that
both wizard and muggle law requires that they be
consulted first regarding Harry's disposition.

a_svirn:
One cannot be "legally defacto guardians". If you are guardian de
facto it means you are guardian in all ways but legal. As for the
Dursleys, they were Harry's guardians, because Dumbledore decided so,
not because of any laws muggle or wizard. When it suited Dumbledore he
regarded them as Harry's guardians. When it didn't suit him he didn't.
The law doesn't have anything to do with it. 

BAW:
Since when do Muggles attend Hogwarts? 

a_svirn:
I might be wrong, but I think Jordan meant that muggle *parents*
aren't offered an option to refuse a place at Hogwarts for their
children. The Dursleys certainly weren't

BAW:
If you mean Muggleborn wizardling
children,the MoM doesn't kidnap them--they are sent letters inviting
them to
attend, and a Hogwarts professor or a MoM official comes to explain to the
parents/guardians. We do know that children with magical abilities have
'breakouts', like the python incident, or the incident with the sweater;
certainly a few such would give any parents with any brains that there was
something odd about the child, and the letter and explanation would
come as a
relief; they'd at least some idea of what was going on.

a_svirn:
We don't know about ministry officials. As for Hogwarts professors
we've seen how they go about explaining things to muggles, haven't we?
Hugrid hunted them to the end of the earth and intimidated them, to
say nothing of inflicting bodily harm on their son. He did explain
some things to Harry, but he certainly didn't explain anything to the
Dursleys, much less offered them a choice. As for Dumbledore, he
simply used magic on the orphanage's matron to confuse her. That
hardly sounds like offering a choice, I'd say.