HBP Chapters 27 - 30 post DH look LONG SORRY

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 184528

> > 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. 

Montavilla47:
As we know about that letter Dumbledore sent to Petunia was
that he tried to let her down gently.  All we know about Petunia's
response was that she was mortified that Lily had peeked at the 
letter.  

The attitude of Petunia's that Harry knows about comes after
many other negative experiences, such as Lily showing off her 
magical tricks and getting her parents' approval, Petunia opting
for an ultra-normal life, Lily marrying James, and Harry being
dumped on their doorstep.  I don't know that we can definitely say 
that Petunia formed her dislike of  magic as far back as her initial 
letter to Dumbledore.  Indeed, she must have liked it enough back 
then to want to participate in that world.

Petunia may have sent an ugly vase to Lily, but she was still 
sending her a vase.  As for why it was "ugly," there are several
possible explanations.  One, she was, as you say, being passive-
aggressive.  Or two, she liked the vase, but her taste and Lily's
were diffferent.  Or three, she had seen the way wizards tend 
to dress and decorate their houses and assumed that ugly was
their taste in things.

I really don't see what Petunia had done up to that point to
deserve such shabby treatment.  As for how she might have
reacted, she might have been rude and nasty.  But we'll never
know, will we?  


Pippin:
> 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?

Montavilla47:
I never heard that one before.  Where is that from?

Carol:
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. 

Montavilla47:
I agree with you that, whether or not Dumbledore sent the 
letter to shame the Dursleys, it certainly had that effect.  And it
might have been even better to have sent that letter some years
earlier so that Harry might have moved from the cupboard into 
a room at a time when children normally do tend to get their
own rooms.

Actually, I spent two periods in my life when I lived in the 
hallway between my brother and sister's bedrooms.  In the 
attic, no less!  I can't remember why now.  We must have been
short on rooms.  But I never found it oppressive at all.  I 
thought of it as an adventure.

But I should point out, regarding Dumbledore "shaming" the
Dursleys by addressing a letter to Harry in the cupboard that
he chose to do nothing the next year when the Dursleys 
locked Harry in his bedroom, only letting him out for
bathroom visits.  I don't believe he even got exercise 
breaks that summer.  

That period (in CoS, following Dobby's helpful antics) is as 
abusive as the Dursleys get in the books.  It's the only time that
Petunia and Vernon actively starve Harry or restrict his
movements.  The rest of the time their real crime is that 
they don't *love* him.

And I'll agree with you, Pippin, that nothing Dumbledore
could have done would have made that happen.

But, that doesn't mean he had to drop Harry off like an
unwanted puppy at an animal shelter and ignore the 
situation for ten years. Especially not when he tells 
Harry that he'd been looking after him and we know
that he had an operative a few doors down who could
tell him what was going on.  Presuming he didn't have
other ways of spying on Harry.  He implies that he does
at the end of OotP.

Now, there could have been reasons that Dumbledore
kept his distance.  For example, he might have been
afraid that any contact between the magical world and 
the Dursleys would draw the Death Eaters to Harry.  
That would make sense *if* there hadn't been the 
blood protection.  Since there is, it hardly matters if
the Death Eaters know how to find him or not.  

Maybe Dumbledore was satisfied that Harry was 
living in the cupboard, friendless and lonely.  After all,
if he didn't have any friends, there was little chance he
might do a sleep-over, which would provide an 
opportunity for him to be attacked, right?