The Dursleys

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 167659

Pippin:
> Try this --
> She's not a witch, nor a squib. Petunia is ex-Phoenix.

Hickengruendler:
> One slight problem, though:

> In HBP, when Dumbledore visits the Dursleys, while admitting that
they corresponded, he acts, as if he saw Petunia for the first time.
("You must be Petunia.")

Ceridwen:
I thought of two possibilities immediately:

1)  Petunia and Dumbledore never actually met.  Lily was the contact 
between Muggle Petunia and the Order.  That way, as few people as 
possible knew about Petunia and her involvement, and Petunia never 
met any other Order members who might later be betrayed through her 
torture if it came to that.  She may have corresponded with 
Dumbledore, or he with her, during this time.  I'm not 100% convinced 
that "Remember my last" means she should remember the last in a 
series of letters, just his last correspondence with her, which could 
very well have also been the first.  If Lily was the contact between 
Petunia and the Order, then she may have been the *only* contact 
Petunia had, bar none.

If Petunia was working for the Order, the note Dumbledore left with 
Baby!Harry would not only tell her what had happened to her sister 
and James, but would also give the intelligence that the war was 
over... for now.

Or,

2)  Dumbledore understands Petunia's desire not to be associated with 
him or with the Order in front of Vernon, and says this to sound 
genuine in the circumstances.

There is the remote possibility that Petunia has actually changed 
over the years, many people do, but I think that would be the least 
possible explanation.

If we're playing with Double-naught!(00!)Petunia, then perhaps her 
vitriolic, over-the-top hatred of her sister and the WW was just a 
teensy bit put on.  Not all the way because I can see someone who 
works with talented people (or magical people) wondering why they 
weren't talented or magical as well, and even feeling resentful of 
people, the closer the person the more resentment they might feel.  
And once VWI cut into her cozy little corner of Muggledom, then that 
resentment taking over and becoming real.

Ceridwen.