Petunia (was: Lily's Letter (and Petunia))

[gwen_of_the_oaks]

No: HPFGUIDX 173620

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "va32h" <va32h at ...> wrote:
> On a related note, I was very disappointed that Petunia couldn't 
muster up -ANYTHING - to say to her nephew. Personally (and yes, 
again here I 
> blaspheme against JKR) rather than finding out about Lily/Snape 
during 
> *just* the Prince's Tale, I think a better device would have been 
> Petunia giving Harry a bundle of letters containing the  note 
> Dumbledore left with baby Harry, and also letters from Lily that 
she 
> sent home during school. Such letters could contain references to 
her 
> friend Sev, their falling out, and perhaps something that explains 
why 
> she decided to go out with James Potter? This would have made 
Harry's 
> confusion over Dumbledore even more interesting - as he finds 
reasons 
> to doubt Dumbledore, he finds reasons to trust Snape hmmm....that 
would 
> have been interesting. 
> 
> va32h
>


I was also disappointed that Petunia didn't communicate anything to 
Harry.  Ever since her "breakthrough" scene in OOTP, where she shares 
her knowledge of the dementors and Harry realizes that "he was not 
the only person in the room who had an inkling of what Lord Voldemort 
being back might mean." (OOTP, chapter2  A Peck of Owls), I was 
really, really hoping that JKR would start the transformation of 
Petunia from a cardboard-cutout wicked stepmother to a full-fledged 
character.

Especially in light of the Prince's Tale - which gives us so much 
insight into Petunia.  (Loved finding out that the "awful boy" she 
heard about dementors from was Snape - not James) Suddenly, you could 
see her treatment of Dudley v. Harry arising from her jealousy of her 
sister.  If she could not show her "perfect" sister what it felt like 
to be the one who was not special, not gifted and not favored, then 
she would show it to the boy with her sister's eyes.  She was 
determined to make Harry as miserable for being magical as her sister 
was treasured.

Maybe she saw sheltering Harry as her chance to be a part of the 
magical world she was denied entrance to so long ago, and became 
disappointed yet again?  Or maybe her anger came from being required 
to do something from the man (Dumbledore)who had turned down her 
request to join Lily at Hogwarts.

I am quite pleased that we were spared a trite, cheesy scene where 
everyone is suddenly and inexplicably reconciled to each other, so 
its not that the farewell scence disappointed me.  But I feel that 
Petunia had a lot of potential depth that was left completely 
unexplored in the series, and her silence here did not speak the 
volumes that one or two carefully crafted lines could have.

Gwen