I just thought of something.

[conuly]

I can't believe I only just now realized how fucked up this is, but did Dumbledore and McGonagall seriously leave Petunia Dursley to find out about her sister's death via a mysterious note and a baby? I mean, sure, they were estranged, but that's just not cool. You don't even break up with somebody like that, and this is how they inform her of a death in the family?

No wonder the woman hated magic. Forget petty jealousy and the fact that her family probably did favor Lily, just as she claimed (even before Harry showed up, she clearly had some issues regarding her obsession with normality and her spoiling of Dudley. The level of child abuse she stoops to doesn't just spring up out of nowhere, does it? Years of therapy would have done that woman a world of good, or at least an island of good), these people think it's okay to leave babies on doorsteps overnight and think notes are an adequate substitute for a condolence visit.

Doesn't explain Vernon's issues, but then again, if my wife was informed of her sister's death by a note on the door, I'd be pissed off too!

Comments

[the_rck]

I once read something someone (I forget who) wrote that tried to justify leaving Harry that way by saying that it was magically necessary, that there's magical power in abandoning a baby on a doorstep. I didn't buy it.

[conuly]

That doesn't make any freaking sense! OMG. I don't buy it either!

[adrian_turtle]

That's somewhat less bad than the original. But it's still pretty awful.

[luscious_purple]

Interesting ... now I'll have to read the entire series all over again! :-)

[conuly]

Like many series, the more you look at it, the more things start to fall apart. Siiiiiiiiiigh.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

When Petunia wrote to Dumbledore as a child, begging him to let her come to Hogwarts too, he was very kind in his refusal. When he wrote later on to ask how she was, Petunia sent back a long diatribe about how magic was evil and that she never wanted to speak to another wizard again ever.

I think we can safely presume that muggle authorities also notified Petunia and the Evans family about Lily's death--though we do know basically nothing about any of Harry's grandparents.

[conuly]

When Petunia wrote to Dumbledore as a child, begging him to let her come to Hogwarts too, he was very kind in his refusal. When he wrote later on to ask how she was, Petunia sent back a long diatribe about how magic was evil and that she never wanted to speak to another wizard again ever.

Yeah, but she was a kid. You can't take that too seriously. We may know that Petunia hadn't particularly grown or changed in the intervening decade or so since her sister went off to school, but as normal people do grow up between adolescence and adulthood, there's no way for Dumbledore to have known that, at least, not without spying on her, which is a massive breach of privacy and something she specifically complained about when she got a letter back from Hogwarts. And if Dumbledore was so anxious to respect her wishes (except about that silly privacy thing), he probably would not have sat in her living room and thoroughly insulted her to her face at the beginning of HBP.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Ha! That's probably true. Personally, I have considered Petunia one of the most evil HP characters after finding out that her treatment of Harry stemmed completely from jealousy. But you're right, that doesn't mitigate the fact that a note in a basket with a baby is not a kind notification of a sibling's death.

I haven't talked to my mom in 20 years, and I expect at least a phone call when she dies.

[conuly]

You know, I really think "completely from jealousy" is overstating it. I know that's what Harry thinks from Snape's memories. And I'm sure that's what we're all supposed to think as well.

But I can't help putting these things together:

1. Petunia outright stated that her parents favored her sister.
2. Petunia is a raging narcissist. (In the informal definition, but I'd love if somebody with qualifications could comment on that.)
3. Petunia was already obsessed with spoiling Dudley rotten before Harry arrived on the scene.

None of this points to jealousy to me. To me, it screams "abusive upbringing". Maybe Petunia really had no other model of a healthy family life, and was trying to do the best she could. (Heck, for that matter, the only memories we have of Lily are for somebody who carried a torch for her nearly two decades after her death. Maybe Lily really was spoiled rotten, and a typical "Golden Child", and the only thing that made her a passable human being was getting out of that environment for 70 months during her childhood.)

Which doesn't excuse the fact that Harry's "hilariously abusive" childhood was actually just abusively abusive. But it certainly does explain it, and make me feel a little sympathy for poor little Petunia. (And villains you can feel sorry for are so much more interesting than the ones who you just hate.)

[conuly]

Sorry, don't wanna edit.

When you think about it, Petunia only had two choices when it came to Harry. She could try to be the bestest aunt ever, much better than Lily would've been as a mother (we see her efforts in that direction with Dudley), or she could've taken out years of anger and resentment on him.

What would've happened if she'd gone down path A?

Well, she would have tried to love him, and would have cared for him, and probably would have spoiled him and Dudley the same and tried to make sure that Dudley never felt second best in his own home. And then at eleven, Harry would have gone off to school, and if things went wrong he would never have told her, just like Dean doesn't tell his mother that things are wrong and just like you know Lily didn't tell her parents that things were wrong - except unlike Ms. Thomas, Petunia knows that muggle-born children lie to their parents and their parents have no way of finding the truth - and when he was grown he'd leave for good and probably die, and she'd be lucky to get a note sent home.

And for that she'd be risking the longterm happiness of her own child. No, thank you.

Petunia screwed that one up, but, again, she's not exactly the most mentally stable person in that series. What did Dumbledore expect? (And if a few days a year was sufficient for the wards by high school, surely he could've instituted that a wee bit sooner, had Harry grow up with, I don't know, Arabella Figg and simply slept over one weekend a month or something with his aunt and uncle? That would've been better for Harry and Dudley.)

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

This is one of the many reasons we have never been fond of Rowling's oeuvre. She simply does not think these things through sufficiently.