What Petunia knows (Re: The Dursleys:)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 167560

> Hickengruendler: 
> "Is Aunt Petunia a Squib?
> 
> Good question. No, she is not, but—[Laughter]. No, she is not a 
> Squib. She is a Muggle, but—[Laughter]. You will have to read the 
> other books. You might have got the impression that there is a little 
> bit more to Aunt Petunia than meets the eye, and you will find out 
> what it is. She is not a squib, although that is a very good guess. 
> Oh, I am giving a lot away here. I am being shockingly indiscreet."
> 
> From here: http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/news_view.cfm?id=80
> 
> IMO, these answers are pretty clear. Aunt Petunia is a muggle, who 
> has never done any magic and never will. Granted, JKR is very tricky 
> sometimes (see her answer to the question, if we'll here about 
> Regulus), therefore I would be very careful about everything she 
> said, but I really don't know, how she could sneak out of this one.

Jen:  Reading this quote again makes me think the simplest answer is
best, that Petunia is like a Squib in knowing how the WW operates but
this is due to her nosiness and not from growing up in a family with at
least one magical parent or from trying to fit into the WW.  We know
Petunia overheard that one conversation at least; it's hard to imagine
she only listened one time given how curious she is.  Hmm, just noticed
how Petunia's curiosity is contrasted with her rule about no questions
for Harry--does that stem in part from Petunia thinking she paid a price
for learning about the magical world?  If so, she didn't learn any lessons
about her own curious nature!

There's so little she can do to learn information though, unlike a Squib.
She can't read Daily Prophets, Lily's letters or any WW books (I'm guessing).
Now the Grangers could see Gringotts so it's possible Petunia went on
errands with her parents and Lily in Diagon Alley during summers prior
to school starting.  Still, she could learn a lot by eavesdropping on
conversations between Lily and their parents if they were interested to 
learn all about the WW.  Then Petunia would be doing to Lily what Harry
observes her doing to with neighbors and famous people: professing not
to be interested and yet her actions reveal otherwise.

Petunia knows enough about the WW to correspond with DD prior to
his 'last', the letter on the doorstep.  I'm intrigued how these previous
letters fit in.  Petunia was chosen because of the blood connection so
I don't see how Dumbledore would have corresponded with her about
the possibility of baby Harry living with them until the blood tie became
a necessity.  And yet DD appears certain the Dursleys will accept Harry
with just one letter of explanation; even McGonagall is surprised that
Dumbledore believes a letter will be enough.  I'm thinking the previous
letters would fill in this particular gap because they need to be relevant
to the missing parts of the story revealed in DH. I can't think of where the
Dursleys would fit into the remaining story unless it was the events 
directly prior to Godric's Hollow.

(Aside here:  I like the theory about the Dursleys living at GP for a portion of 
DH when Privet Dr. is in danger of attack.  Could they see the house though,
even knowing the secret location from the SK as they do since Dumbledore
revealed it in HBP?  It seems like there would still be anti-Muggle jinxes and
such.  Maybe the Fidelius overrides those.)

Jen