HBP Chapters 27 - 30 post DH look LONG SORRY

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 184523

> Alla:
> 
> They were way past the possibility of Dumbledore having a decency to
 inform Petunia in person that her sister had died and asking her to 
take her nephew?
> 
> What are you basing that on? They had what one letter exchange, 
> Dumbledore and Petunia, I mean and that's how Dumbledore decided
that  Petunia is a lost cause and he just can't be bothered to tell
her  that her sister died in person and just has to dump Harry on her 
> doorstep?

Pippin:
Dumbledore did try to reach out to Petunia in his first letter, which
Lily says was very kind. But Petunia did not want to be friends with a
Dumbledore who could not teach her magic. Instead she decided that
magical people were freaks and not worth being friends with. She kept
that attitude consistently over the next ten years, AFAWK. Lily
wasn't making a secret of her problems with her sister -- why wouldn't
Dumbledore know about them? Hagrid says they were close, and he
doesn't seem to be wrong about things like that. 

The ugly vase is the canon that Petunia's attitude didn't change. It's
not quite as blunt as a handful of maggots courtesy of Kreacher, but
it's the same idea, along with  all the other non-presents that
Petunia would later send to Harry, or the teeny Easter Egg Hermione
would get from Molly. 

 You probably know that to cut someone out of a will, you're supposed
to leave them a dollar so that the slighted heir can't claim he was
disinherited by accident? Well, this is the same idea, IMO. Lily got a
non-present, so as to make clear it wasn't  a case of Petunia
accidentally forgetting to send one. Nasty.

And before you ask, I don't think it was a case of Petunia having no
taste. Petunia's house is not full of ugly vases. 

 
> Alla:
> 
> I do not know. I kept not believing and not believing when people 
> were arguing that this speech feels suspiciously like someone who 
> **was** sorry and kept coming up with the reasons to cover up grief 
> and denial. I am still not totally convinced, especially based on
her  treatment of Harry, but I think argument has merit now.

Pippin:
Oh my, when I think of all the characters we supposed were only faking
hatred -- but there really weren't any, were there? No one, *no one*
speaks ill in death of a person they actually loved. Snape did it,
offpage, to convince Voldemort that he was over Lily, but we aren't
shown that.  

 
> Alla:
> 
> And that's fine. If he tried and Petunia gave him that crap, I would
be totally okay with him saying you disgust me. Petunia would have 
disgusted me as well. He did not try though.

Pippin:
Oh, me too. I'm glad we agree on something. <g>

But telling people they disgust you is not a good way to get them to
do favors for you, and that is why, IMO, he dared not try.

At the risk of sounding like a parrot, Dumbledore cannot force Petunia
to take Harry or keep him, and still get the love protection which is
the point of the whole thing. The longer Harry stayed at Privet Drive
without Voldemort coming after him, the less likely it would
seem to Petunia that he really needed her help to survive. She
wouldn't even have to send Harry back or drop him at an orphanage to
break the blood protection. All she would have to do is leave the
house with no intention of returning.  Dumbledore would have had to
tell her that, to make sure she didn't break the charm by accident. 

I wonder what canon you have that  Dumbledore absolutely knew that
under no circumstances would Petunia refuse to shelter Harry?  It's
common practice, in the WW, for families to give their Squib children
to Muggles to raise, so why would Dumbledore think that Muggles
wouldn't behave the same way?

Pippin