HBP Chapters 27 - 30 post DH look LONG SORRY

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184525

Alla wrote:
> 
> 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?
> 
> <snip> 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? <snip>

> Because if person believes in good faith that telling the sister of
the deceased that her sister is died, and that asking her to take her
nephew in, to ask her if she needs financial assistance, etc, I think
the person who believes that doing all these things is going to make
matters worse is **wrong**, period, end of story. Of course this is
all my opinion only. <snip>
 
> And again, I am not arguing totally identical position to
Montavilla, I agree with her that Dumbledore should have done
something, I do not mind that he should have tried persuasion,
anything to help Harry.
> 
> BUT if persuasion would not have worked, I do think that Dumbledore
should have used force, lots of it.

Carol responds:

Alla, I know you won't agree with me, but I don't see that Dumbledore
had any alternative. He believed that Harry was in the gravest danger
from the godfather who, DD had every reason to think, had betrayed
Harry's parents to their deaths. Other loyal DEs, such as the
fanatical and sadistic Bellatrix Lestrange, would certainly kill him
if they found him. Dumbledore knew that the best protection he could
give Harry, perhaps the only foolproof protection against Voldemort's
followers, was the blood protection that only Petunia, through
agreeing to a binding magical contract, could offer. He could not
afford to engage in routine courtesy; if Petunia said no, Harry would
be in serious trouble. Dumbledore could perhaps raise Harry himself,
but how? He was an old man with no experience with children; he would
often have to be away; and he would often be away. He would have to
trust someone else to care for Harry, and given what had happened with
the Potters' Secret Keeper, I doubt that he trusted to a Fidelius
Charm to keep Harry safe. (And the same would apply even if he knew
that Sirius Black were innocent; he would doubt, with good reason,
IMO, that Sirius could keep Harry safe, because Sirius could not
provide the blood protection. Only Petunia could.) The only
alternative he had was to make sure that Petunia took Harry, perhaps
pointing out to her that her family was in danger, too, and that
taking Harry would protect them.

Sometimes, the need to protect a child takes precedence over civility.
Under normal circumstances, of course he should have informed her of
her sister's fate and let her offer--or refuse--to take Harry in. But
with furious Death Eaters on the loose, eager to take revenge on the
child who had somehow not only survived their master's AK but somehow
caused it to rebound on him, Dumbledore couldn't take that chance. He
needed Harry to live to destroy Voldemort permanently. (And, yes, I'm
quite sure that he believed Harry was the Chosen One. He took no such
measures to protect anybody else.)

AS for whether DD could have influenced the Dursleys to treat Harry
more fairly, I suspect that he sent the letter addressed to Harry in
the Cupboard under the Stairs for that purpose, to shame them into
giving him an actual bedroom. (Now, if they'd forced him to *live*
under the stairs, to take his meals there and never go outside or
attend school or use the bathroom more than once a day, DD would have
had to step in sooner and firmly. But merely having to sleep, rather
than live, in a too-small room with spiders is tolerable, if hardly
desirable. Many people throughout the history and prehistory of Homo
Sapiens have put up with worse conditions--ship passengers in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, for example. And if Harry had
always slept in that dark little closet since he was, say, two or
three--it would have no terrors for him. Which is not to say that such
treatment is not abuse; I'm not condoning the Dursleys' behavior. It's
just not as bad as it might have been.)

As for whether force can persuade anyone to be kind to anyone else or
to treat them fairly, it tends to have the opposite effect. (Hagrid's
and the Twins's bullying of Dudley merely increased the Dursleys' fear
and resentment of Wizards.)

Side note: Someone said that Petunia knew how to get hold of
Dumbledore. I don't think that's quite accurate. Sure, she could
address a letter to Professor Albus Dumbledore at Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry, but where would she find a magical owl to
deliver it? She must have persuaded Lily to send her letter to DD by
return owl, along with Lily's acceptance of her appointment to
Hogwarts. Unless DD wrote to her, she couldn't "correspond" with him.

Carol, wondering whether Petunia gave Harry a child's equivalent of
ugly vases for Christmas before she resorted to tissues and toothpicks
because he'd been sent to Hogwarts