[HPforGrownups] Re: Lily and Petunia

[Janette]

No: HPFGUIDX 176496

>
> Bart:
> I asked a question during the DH flood that kind of got lost. I think that
> this is a good place to bring it up again.
>
> The Dursley's were VERY big on "keeping up with the Joneses" (or, more
> precisely, BEING the Joneses). It was not good enough to be well-to-do
> (well, upper middle class). They had to SHOW everybody that they were better
> than everybody else. That was part of why they kept Harry in hiding.
>
> My question is, why did they allow Harry out in such shabby, ill-fitting
> clothes, especially going to school? What did they think people would think
> of them treating an orphaned nephew that shabbily? And I KNOW that isn't a
> custom in England; as I mentioned in my earlier piece, I had contact with a
> wealthy family in Britain who took in a lower-middle class girl to be a
> playmate for their own daughter, and, from simple observation of the way
> they treated the girls, you would never know which was the companion, and
> which was the natural daughter. I was told at the time that this was not an
> uncommon practice.
>
> To summarize, why would people like the Dursley's, who seem to be so
> incredibly conscious of what people think of them, publicly treat their
> nephew so badly?


montims:
to make it obvious that he WASN'T their child, or connected to them in any
way other than being dumped upon them by his feckless parents having died?
He wasn't allowed out, as I recall, other than to go to school, and Petunia
could blame Harry as well for his poor appearance - they give him nice
clothes but he treats them really badly and deliberately looks a mess to
spite them, as he did with his hair?  Poor Harry...


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