CHAPTER DISCUSSION: PS/SS 3, The Letters from No One

[rtbthw_mom]

No: HPFGUIDX 187819

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "geoff_bannister" <gbannister10 at ...> wrote:
>
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth@> wrote:
> 
> > > 4. Why do you think Vernon and Petunia decide to move Harry into a bedroom?
>  
> Pippin:
> > Their relationship to Harry is a bit like the relationship of Sirius to Kreacher, IMO. The Dursleys aren't hateful to children generally, or Dudley's friends wouldn't be coming over every day. But they don't think of Harry as being like other children. I think Petunia is determined to see that Dudley never feels slighted the way she did, and this feeling swallows up any pity or concern she might have felt for Harry's plight.
> 
> Geoff:
> My original take on it was that the Dursleys in some way feared that more 
> letters might be delivered or that some other form of contact might occur.
> 
> With hindsight, knowing that Petunia was not ignorant about the workings 
> of the Wizarding World, she might well have expected this but perhaps the 
> apparent disinterest of the Wizarding World over ten years had initially lulled 
> them into thinking that any contact could be easily rebuffed by moving Harry's 
> location - a view which proved futile. 
> 
> Their flight was progressively tracked by the deliveries, first to the Railview 
> Hotel at Cokeworth and finally when Hagrid caught up with them. The 
> delivery of the letter was intended from day one. This was intimated in 
> Dumbledore's comment to Professor McGonagall after Godric's Hollow:
> '"Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much 
> better off he'll be growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"'
> (PS "The Boy Who Lived" p.16 UK edition)
> 
> The Hogwarts contact was "in the diary" from that date onwards.
>


Pat, delurking for a minute:

I always thought the reason for the move was to avoid any consequences from the Wizarding World for mistreatment:

"Vernon, " Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address - how could they possibly know where he sleeps?  You don't think they're watching the house?"

"Watching - spying - might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.
Ch. 3, p. 36 (Am. version)

They seemed so worried there, it has always struck me that they were afraid of retaliation.  As they should have been!

~Pat, back to lurkdom; thanking Zara for the great questions and everyone else for interesting answers!