#The Dursleys

[hollowed-theory-hall]

how bad do you think Harry's abuse was? like, okay we all know he was neglected his entire childhood. Do you think he really didn't know his name until he went to school? That he was forced to help around the house the moment he could walk? He prob also didn't know his birthday at some point :(( I love him so much, i want to throttle the dursleys

I mean, just from his behavior I feel like it was pretty bad. I talked about it a bit before and he's very aware he is being mistreated. Harry literally makes a joke about Vernon beating him:

“You don’t seem to need many qualifications to liaise with Muggles. . . . All they want is an O.W.L. in Muggle Studies. . . . ‘Much more important is your enthusiasm, patience, and a good sense of fun!’ ” “You’d need more than a good sense of fun to liaise with my uncle,” said Harry darkly. “Good sense of when to duck, more like . . .”

(OOTP, 657)

As for the abuse itself:

Dudley and his friends beat him often. As mentioned repeatedly.

He slept in a cupboard under the stairs until the Dursleys thought someone else might notice. Only when they got the Hogwarts letter that mentioned the cupboard did they move Harry to Dudley's second bedroom. (The title of the room itself and where Harry was sleeping show how much of an afterthought he was).

The house had no pictures of him, no belongings, no sign Harry lived there, he only got Dudley's cast-offs.

So, yeah, it's definitely neglectful to an insane degree.

As for the more fanon portrayals of the Dursleys' abuse.

They did starve him as a form of punishment:

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, “Go — cupboard — stay — no meals,” before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.

(PS, 23)

And Harry didn't get much food at the Dursleys in general:

This was their encounter with the fact that a full stomach meant good spirits; an empty one, bickering and gloom. Harry was least surprised by this, because he had suffered periods of near starvation at the Dursleys.

(DH, 250)

But he did get to eat with them at the table when he wasn't being punished, seen with Aunt Marge, and when the Dursleys didn't have guests:

Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.

(PS, 19)

That being said, Harry seems to be punished at the Dursleys pretty often. (Although, Harry considers sitting with them at the table punishment enough)

So the fanon portrayal of getting locked in the cupboard/his room with no food for who knows how long (or just, not enough food, like in CoS when he shared a canned meal with Hedwig) is actually canon.

He gets physically abused by Dudley, but also by Vernon and Petunia. We saw Petunia try to hit him with a frying pan.

Aunt Petunia knew he hadn’t really done magic, but he still had to duck as she aimed a heavy blow at his head with the soapy frying pan. Then she gave him work to do, with the promise he wouldn’t eat again until he’d finished.

(CoS, 17)

The above qoute mentions how he was forced to do chores with the threat of no food until he's done with his chores. So, yes, he was forced to work at the Dursleys. Another quote indicating he had plenty of practice cleaning over at the Dursleys:

“Filch’ll have me there all night,” said Ron heavily. “No magic! There must be about a hundred cups in that room. I’m no good at Muggle cleaning.” “I’d swap anytime,” said Harry hollowly. “I’ve had loads of practice with the Dursleys. Answering Lockhart’s fan mail . . . he’ll be a nightmare. . . .”

(CoS, 114)

That being said, we see Petunia cooking more often than Harry, and she's also mentioned cleaning on occasion:

At last, at long last, the final evening of Marge’s stay arrived. Aunt Petunia cooked a fancy dinner and Uncle Vernon uncorked several bottles of wine.

(PoA, 26)

“Right — I’m off into town to pick up the dinner jackets for Dudley and me. And you,” he snarled at Harry. “You stay out of your aunt’s way while she’s cleaning.”

(CoS, 14)

I think he wasn't constantly worked like a house elf the way the fandom sometimes portrays it. He was made to clean often enough but he didn't cook that often. The breakfast in PS is likely more of an exception than the norm as whenever any fancy dinner, like with Marge or the Masons, it's always Petunia cooking it, not Harry. So, I don't think Harry cooked or cleaned for them since he could walk, I mean Petunia is a perfectionist about how her house looks, so she wouldn't let a small child who'd do a subpar work do it.

But he was definitely put to work as either punishment or when the Dursleys wanted him occupied. And considering he mentions "plenty of practice" when he's 12 and he spent the last two years at Hogwarts, he likely started doing chores earlier than that, but old enough to use a mop properly. So, I'd guess he started helping to clean the house around the time he was 6 or 7 years old, and started cooking on occasion only very recently before the books start in all likelihood.

The really shitty thing about all his chores is that Dudley isn't doing anything and it's just Harry. This difference is one Harry was always aware of and considers unfair, because it is incredibly unfair. The fact he is forced to do work and gets punished when the other child in the house doesn't adds to the sense of worthlessness the Dursleys already make Harry feel.

Uncle Vernon in general is pretty violent towards Harry, shown in the first quote in this post and in others:

Harry ran down the stairs two at a time, coming to an abrupt halt several steps from the bottom, as long experience had taught him to remain out of arm’s reach of his uncle whenever possible.

(HBP, 45)

I wanted to add the imprisonment in CoS, because the treatment is truly subhuman:

The following morning, he paid a man to fit bars on Harry’s window. He himself fitted a cat-flap in the bedroom door, so that small amounts of food could be pushed inside three times a day. They let Harry out to use the bathroom morning and evening. Otherwise, he was locked in his room around the clock.

(CoS, 28)

They treat him like an actual prisoner. They let him out to the bathroom twice a day! Like WTF! This is so not okay I don't have words.

As for not calling him by his name...

“We could phone Marge,” Uncle Vernon suggested. “Don’t be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy.” The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn’t there — or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn’t understand them, like a slug.

(PS, 19)

They usually refer to Harry simply as "boy" or "the boy", they also use "you" when talking to him or "him" about him, but not his name, except one time in PS when Vernon is faking being nice:

“Er — yes, Harry — about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking…you’re really getting a bit big for it…we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley’s second bedroom.

(PS, 30)

Considering how Harry mentions they often don't speak to him, but at him or about him, definitely suggests they don't use his name often. Vernon seems very odd about using Harry's name, and we see it isn't something common, but it does happen. I think Harry did always know his name though, I'm sure he asked, and regardless of how awful the Dursleys are, Petunia likely told him his name in the same breath she talked about how his father was a drunkard that got both him and Lily killed.

We also know they don't do anything for Harry's birthday, and Harry doesn't think they remember it:

The lighted dial of Dudley’s watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he’d be eleven in ten minutes’ time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.

(PS, 35)

So, it's very plausible the Dursleys never told Harry when his birthday is and that he had to discover it himself somehow.

TL;DR

Harry's abuse at the Dursleys was awful. It included physical abuse from all three Durslesy and periods of starvation.

He was put to chores like cleaning the house, but it wasn't a constant thing where he worked like a house elf. It actually seems Petunia did most of the cooking.

He probably only started cleaning when he was 6 or 7 at the youngest. And cooking is likely a later development.

Harry was allowed to sit at the table and even watch TV on rare occasions but usually didn't get to choose what to watch. It means Harry should be somewhat aware of muggle pop culture at the time.

Harry, in general, wasn't really treated as human. Not having his name used, only talked at, not having his birthday celebrated, not getting pocket money or anything of his own. Not to mention being forced to sleep in the cupboard or on the floor (in the shack on the sea in PS) and getting his food through a cat flap on his bedroom door like an actual prisoner in CoS.

So, while fanon portrayals make the Dursleys worse than they actually are, they are plenty awful on their own. Believe me, if I could throttle them, I would.

[snifellus]

<check my blog for more>

tf is this shit?

im at a loss for words...

[weird-obsessed-girl]

Harry dealing with abuse trauma/people finding out about Dursley’s treatment

Ok so I didn’t know exactly how to word this particular genre of Harry Potter fanfiction, but I have been reading some fanfics where either the teachers, Sirius or the golden trio find out that Harry has been abused by the Dursley’s and how Harry deals or heals from that trauma. #cupboardreveal

so therefore below is a list of fanfics that deal with this topic, this is pretty obvious but TW for child abuse, some of these I haven’t read yet so i don’t think any of them feature active abuse, more so past abuse.

All of these will be angst but many with a hopeful/happy ending. Organised by word count. If you would like some fic recs that don’t focus on Harrys abuse here’s the link to my master list Harry Potter Fic Rec (mostly Drarry)

How Each Weasley Found Out About The Dursleys - burnthebodiesandbedonewithit

What it says on the tin, Harry/Ginny (very light tho), protective Weasleys | G | 1k

Food For Thought - LoveHP

Snape notices some things throughout the years, have not read yet so IDK | T | 1.2k

Bottle It Up - mallfacee

Disabled Harry, Severitus, hurt/comfort, hiding medical issues, apart of a series | T | 2.1k

Aftermath - CreateImagineWrite

Post-final battle, Harry is dealing with trauma, Ron helps him and finds out, Trigger Warning for food issues and trauma responses | G | 3.1k

Disguised as something else - aloneintherain

Everybody lives, au war ends early, Wolfstar custody of Harry, hurt/comfort, THIS IS SO GOOD #cupboard reveal | T | 3.1k

Muggle Management - LadyWinterlight, NerdyKat

Hermione recognises the signs of abuse, part of a series, Hermione finessing the muggle system | G | 3.4K

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell - IamShadow21

Not focused on past abuse but is mentioned, Ron and Harry friendship through the years | T | 3.7K

The Cupboard - GreenEyesGreySkies

Drarry, panic attack, harmless prank that turns out to not be so | T | 4K

Bruised Hearts and Painted Skin - mikimouze16

Lupin, McGonagall and Snape find out, therapy, depression | G | 4.4K

Cascade - taradiane

Drarry, post-Hogwarts, Harry has nightmares, discussion about the Dursleys | PG | 4.7k

Claustrophobic- Annie1025

Summer at Spinner’s End, sevitus, 5th year, hurt/comfort, panic attacks | T | 4.8k

Where the Sunbeams Start - zedpm

Sirius/Severus, Soulmate au which leads to Severus getting Sirius freed, then they adopt Harry! T | 7.1k

Locked Cupboards - Lomonaaeren

Redemption, Draco is assigned to guard Dudley, Dudley talks about their childhood | T | 7.2k

Darker Than You Think - Lomonaaeren

Drarry, Draco is very much a psycho, bent on revenge, dubious consent | M (definitely should be E) | 7.8k

Fac Mihi Viam - MistressKat

Canon divergence, Harry stays at Grimmauld Plac, abuse not necessarily discussed but implied, Wolfstar | T | 7.9k

The Uncle - copprbadge

Wolfstar, gangsters au, Remus saves Harry from Dursley’s | T | 7.9k

Tugging Sleeves - Windschild178

Harry isn’t responding to Rons letters, POV Ron, Ron to the rescue | G | 8.1k

Harry Potter And The Summer At Grimmauld Place - Silver_Queen_DoS

What it says on the tin, Sirius is free, home renovation, book 3 | G | 8.6k

Listen - Marchling

Need to sign into Ao3, Sirius spies on Dursleys, hurt/comfort, misunderstandings, reconciliation | T | 10.9k

Finite Incantatem - skullcandy11

Rogue spell hits Harry and reveals some truths, manipulative Dumbledore, Harry joins the dark side | T | 12.3k currently, ongoing

Scars - pheonixgirl26

Some Gryffindor’s see some of Harry’s scar, and decide to help | M | 12.5k

Timeshare - astolat

Honestly i have not read this yet but it looks promising, Harry is spending summer at the Dursleys and then the Malfoy’s | M | 14.1k

Seven Plus One - ABlackRaven

Sirius adopts Harry, 7 times Sirius is called uncle and 1 time he’s called dad, Peter caught, hurt/comfort | T | 15.4K

What’s Left Unsaid - angel74

Post-Order of the Phoenix, Hermione and Ron look into Harry’s life at the Dursley’s, angst, hurt/comfort | T | 16.1k

A Hero - Celebony

Dudley begins to see his family in a different light | T | 18.1k

The Lioness - Aya_Diefair

Molly becomes suspicious of Harry’s relatives, she visits them, BAMF Molly, Sirius is freed | G | 18.3k

That’s Your Punishment? - slytherclaw7

Molly actually asks Harry questions, this is definitely a fix-it fic, Sirius is freed, Peter is caught, Dumbledore bashing, Tonks family taking Harry in | IDK how fanfiction.net ratings work | 19k

Pinky Promise - etymolodrarry, huffinglepuff

Remus is observant, angst with happy ending, Dumbledore bashing, implied self harm, Wolfstar | T | 19.5k

Listen Now - mrsfizzle

Harry confides in Remus, hurt/comfort, Wolfstar adopts Harry, moving into Grimmauld | G | 21.2k

Conquering the Dark - noeon (noe)

Healer!Harry and neuromagic!Draco, both work together, unearths trauma | E | 23.7k

The Chamber of Secrets and Half the Adults are Idiots - Des98

Apart of a series, Drarry, Harry recognises Lucius’ treatment of Draco, fix-it, inter-house friendships | M | 42.8k

The Article - LeeASherlook

outed by the Daily Prophet (not in the gay sense), 6th year, Drarry friendship | T | 43k ongoing

Burnt - lastcrazyhorn

Disabled Harry, Slytherin!Harry, have not read so refer to tags | T | 104.9k

Memories and Dreams - paganaidd

Series, one part Dudley’s POV | T | 140.3k

Malfoy Family Values - belana, Merry1978

This only really mentions Harry’s mistreatment but i thought it is an interesting fic to possibly explore, Malfoys adopt little Harry | G | 141.7k

Stronger At the Broken Places - enigmaticblue

More so focus’ on Sirius’ trauma, but it’s a whole Wolfstar family affair | T | 174.9k

Digging for the Bones - paganaidd

Hogwarts starts screening students for abuse, Snape conducts Harry’s screening, Snape is Harry’s bio dad, Severitus | M | 212.2k

The secret language of plants - Endrina

Severus/Remus, Sev rescues toddler Harry, this is a series of Severus/Remus being Harry’s parents, pre-Hogwarts to post, future Drarry | rating varies | 373k

Innocent - MarauderLover7

Ok so this does not focus on Harry’s abuse but Sirius gets freed and raises Harry when he’s 8 | M | 487.5k

A Year Like None Other - aspeninthesunlight

Disability, slightly Severitus, 6th year, canon divergence, Snape forces Harry to read letter from Dursleys | T | 789.5k

[hpseeker99]

Aunt Petunia: We once told Harry a watermelon was gonna grow in his stomach and I kid you not, he looked at us straight in the eyes and said, "Nope, because there's no sunlight so you're wrong and education has failed you." Uncle Vernon: That little freak was five at the time

[wisteria-lodge]

Manipulative/Morally Grey Dumbledore? An In-Depth Canon Analysis

So when I look at Harry Potter, my goal is to separate what I think the books are intending to say, from what they actually say, from what the movies say… and what the common fan interpretation is. So today I’m interested in Dumbledore, and specifically in the common headcanon of  Manipulative/Morally Gray Dumbledore. Is that (intentionally or unintentionally) supported by the text?

PART I:  Omniscient Dumbledore

“I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here”

In Book 1, yes Dumbledore honestly does seem to know everything. He 100% arranged for Harry to find the Mirror of Erised, publicly left Hogwarts in order to nudge Quirrell into going after the Stone, and knew what Quirrell was doing the whole time. It is absolutely not a stretch, and kind of heavily implied, that the reason the Stone’s protections feel like a little-end-of-the-year exam designed to put Harry through his paces… is because they are. As the series goes on this interpretation only gets more plausible, when we see the kind of protections people can put up when they don’t want anyone getting through. 

Book 1 Dumbledore knows everything… but what he’s actually going to do about it is anyone’s guess. One of the first things we learn is that some of Dumbledore’s calls can be… questionable. McGonagall questions his choice to leave Harry with the Dursleys, Hermione questions his choice to give Harry the Cloak and let him go after the Stone, Percy and Ron both matter-of-factly call him “mad.” The “nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak” speech is a joke where Dumbledore says he’s going to say a few words, then literally does say a few (weird) words. I know there are theories that those particular words are supposed to be insulting the four houses, or referencing the Hogwarts house stereotypes, or that they’re some kind of warning. But within the text, this is pure Lewis Carroll British Nonsense Verse stuff (and people came up with answers to the impossible Alice in Wonderland “why is a raven like a writing desk” riddle too.) 

This characterization also explains a lot of Dumbledore’s decisions about how to run a school, locked in during Book 1. Presumably Binns, Peeves, Filch, Snape are all there because Dumbledore finds them funny, atmospheric, and/or character building. He's just kind of a weird guy.  He absolutely knew that Lockhart was a fraud in Book 2 (with that whole “Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy?” thing after Lockhart oblivates himself. ) So maybe he is also there to be funny/atmospheric/character building, or to teach Harry a lesson about fame, or because Dumbledore is using the cursed position to bump off people he doesn’t like. Who knows.

(I actually don’t think JKR had locked in “the DADA position is literally cursed by Voldemort” until Book 6. )

Dumbledore absolutely knows that Harry is listening in when Lucius Malfoy comes to take Hagrid to Azkaban, and it’s fun to speculate that maybe he let himself get fired in Book 2 as part of a larger plan to boot Lucius off the Board of Governors. So far, that’s the sort of thing he’d do.  But in Books 3 and 4, we are confronted with a number of important things that Dumbledore just missed. He doesn’t know any of the Marauders were animagi, he doesn’t know what really happened with the Potter’s Secret Keeper, doesn’t know Moody is Crouch, and doesn’t know the Marauders Map even exists. But in Books 5 and 6, his omniscience does seem to come back online. (In a flashback, Voldemort even comments that he is "omniscient as ever” when Dumbledore lists the specific Death Eaters he has in Hogsmeade as backup.) Dumbledore knows exactly what Draco and Voldemort are planning, and his word is taken as objective truth by the entire Order of the Phoenix - who apparently only tolerate Snape because Dumbledore vouches for him:

“Snape,” repeated McGonagall faintly, falling into the chair. “We all wondered . . . but he trusted . . . always . . . Snape . . . I can’t believe it. . . .”  “Snape was a highly accomplished Occlumens,” said Lupin, his voice uncharacteristically harsh. “We always knew that.”  “But Dumbledore swore he was on our side!” whispered Tonks. “I always thought Dumbledore must know something about Snape that we didn’t. . . .”  “He always hinted that he had an ironclad reason for trusting Snape,” muttered Professor McGonagall (...) “Wouldn’t hear a word against him!”

McGonagall questions Dumbledore about the Dursleys, but not about Snape. I see this as part of the larger trend of basically Dumbledore’s deification. In the beginning of the series, he’s treated as a clever, weird dude. By the end, he’s treated like a god. 

PART II: Chessmaster Dumbledore

“I prefer not to keep all my secrets in one basket.”

When Dumbledore solves problems, he likes to go very hands-off. He didn’t directly teach Harry about the Mirror of Erised - he gave him the Cloak, knew he would wander, and moved the Mirror so it would be in his path. He sends Snape to deal with Quirrell and Draco, rather than do it himself. He (or his portrait) tells Snape to confund Mundungus Fletcher and get him to suggest the Seven Potters strategy. He puts Mrs. Figg in place to watch Harry, then ups the protection in Book 5 - all without informing Harry. The situation with Slughorn is kind of a Dumbledore-manipulation master class - even the way he deliberately disappears into the bathroom so Harry will have enough solo time to charm Slughorn. Of course he only wants Slughorn under his roof in the first place to pick his brain about Voldemort… but again, instead of doing that himself, he gets Harry to do it for him. 

Dumbledore has a moment during Harry’s hearing during Book 5 (which he fakes evidence for) where he informs Fudge that Harry is not under the Ministry’s jurisdiction while at Hogwarts. Which has insane implications. It’s never explicitly stated, but as the story goes on, it at least makes sense that Dumbledore is deliberately obscuring how powerful he is, and how much influence he really has, by getting other people to do things for him. But the problem with that is because he is so powerful, it become really easy for a reader to look back after they get more information and say… well if Dumbledore was controlling the situation… why couldn’t he have done XYZ. Here are two easy examples from Harry’s time spent with the Dursleys:

1. Mrs. Figg is watching over Harry from day one, but she can’t tell him she’s a squib and also she has to keep him miserable on purpose:

“Dumbledore’s orders. I was to keep an eye on you but not say anything, you were too young. I’m sorry I gave you such a miserable time, but the Dursleys would never have let you come if they’d thought you enjoyed it. It wasn’t easy, you know…”

It’s pretty intense to think of Dumbledore saying “oh yes, invite this little child over and keep him unhappy on purpose.” But okay. It’s important to keep Harry ignorant of the magical world and vice versa. fine. But once he goes to Hogwarts… that doesn’t apply anymore?  I’m sure when Harry thinks he’s going to be imprisoned permanently in his bedroom during Book 2, it would’ve been comforting to know that Dumbledore was sending around someone to check on him. And when he literally runs away from home in Book 3… having the address of a trusted adult that he could easily get to would have been great for everybody. 

2. When Vernon is about to actually kick Harry out during Book 5, Dumbledore sends a howler which intimidates Petunia into insisting that Harry has to stay. Vernon folds and does exactly what she says. If Dumbledore could intimidate Petunia into doing this, then why couldn’t he intimidate her into, say - giving Harry the second bedroom instead of a cupboard. Or fixing Harry’s glasses. In Book 1, the Dursleys don’t bother Harry during the entire month of August because Hagrid gives Dudley a pig’s tail. In the summer between third and fourth year, the Dursleys back off because Harry is in correspondence with Sirius (a person they fear.) But the Dursleys are afraid of all wizards. Like at this point it doesn’t seem that hard to intimidate them into acting decently to Harry. 

PART III: Dumbledore and the Dursleys 

“Not a pampered little prince”

JKR wanted two contradictory things. She wanted Dumbledore to be a fundamentally good guy: a wise, if eccentric mentor finger figure. But she also wanted Harry to have a comedically horrible childhood being locked in a cupboard, denied food, given broken glasses and ill fitting/embarrassing clothes, and generally made into a little Cinderella. Then, it’s a bigger contrast when he goes to Hogwarts and expulsion can be used as an easy threat. (Although the only person we ever see expelled is Hagrid, and that was for murder.)

So, there are a couple of tricks she uses to make it okay that Dumbledore left Harry at the Dursleys.’ The first is that once Harry leaves…  nothing that happens there is given emotional weight. When he’s in the Wizarding World, he barely talks about Dursleys, barely thinks about them. They almost never come up in the narration (unless Harry’s worried about being expelled, or they’re sending him comedically awful presents.) They are completely cut from the last four Harry Potter movies, and you do not notice. 

The second trick… is that Dumbledore himself clearly doesn’t think that the Dursleys are that bad. During the King’s Cross vision-quest, he describes 11-year-old Harry as “alive and healthy (...) as normal a boy as I could have hoped under the circumstances. Thus far, my plan was working well.”  

Now, this could have been really interesting. Like in a psychological way, I get it. Dumbledore had a rocky home life. Dad in prison, mom spending all her time taking care of his volatile and dangerous sister. Aberforth seems to have reacted to the situation by running completely wild, it’s implied that he never even had formal schooling… and Albus doubled down on being the Golden Child, making the family look good from the outside, and finding every means possible to escape. I would have believed it if Molly or Kingsley had a beat of being horrified by the way the Dursleys are treating Harry… but Dumbledore treats it as like, whatever. Business as usual. 

But that isn’t the framing that the books use. Dumbledore is correct that the Dursleys aren’t that bad, and I think it’s because JKR fundamentally does not take the Dursleys seriously as threats. I also think she has a fairly deeply held belief that suffering creates goodness, so possibly Harry suffering at the hands of the Dursleys… was necessary? To make him good? Dumbledore himself has an arc of ‘long period of suffering = increased goodness.’ So does Severus Snape, Dudley‘s experience with the Dementor kickstarts his character growth, etc. It’s a trope she likes.

It’s only in The Cursed Child that the Dursleys are given any kind of weight when it comes to Harry’s psyche. This is one of the things that makes me say Jack Thorne wrote that play, because it’s just not consistent with how JKR likes to write the Dursleys. It’s consistent with the way fanfiction likes to write the Dursleys. And look, The Cursed Child is fascinatingly bad, I have so many problems with it, but it does seem to be doing like … a dark reinterpretation of Harry Potter? And it’s interested in saying something about cycles of abuse. I can absolutely see how the way the play handles things is flattering to JKR. It retroactively frames the Dursleys’ abuse in a more negative way, and maybe that’s something she wanted after criticism that the Harry Potter books treat physical abuse kind of lightly. (i.e.  Harry at the hands of the Dursleys, and house-elves at the hands of everybody. Even Molly Weasley “wallops” Fred with a broomstick.) 

PART IV: Dumbledore and Harry

“The whole Potter–Dumbledore relationship. It’s been called unhealthy, even sinister”

So whenever Harry feels betrayed by Dumbledore in the books - and he absolutely does, it’s some of JKR’s best writing  - it’s not because he left him with the Dursleys. It’s because Dumbledore kept secrets from him, or lied to him, or didn’t confide in him on a personal level. 

“Look what he asked from me, Hermione! Risk your life, Harry! And again! And again! And don’t expect me to explain everything, just trust me blindly, trust that I know what I’m doing, trust me even though I don’t trust you! Never the whole truth! Never!” (...) I don’t know who he loved, Hermione, but it was never me. This isn’t love, the mess he’s left me in. He shared a damn sight more of what he was really thinking with Gellert Grindelwald than he ever shared with me.”

Eventually though, Harry falls in line with the rest of the Order, and treats Dumbledore as an all-knowing God. And this decision comes so close to being critiqued…  but the series never quite commits. Rufus Scrimgeour comments that, “Well, it is clear to me that [Dumbledore] has done a very good job on you” - implying that Harry is a product of a deliberate manipulation,  and that the way Harry feels about Dumbledore is a direct result of how he's been controlling the situation (and Harry.)  But Harry responds to “[You are] Dumbledore’s man through and through, aren’t you, Potter?” with “Yeah. I am. Glad we cleared that up,” and it’s treated as a badass, mic drop line. 

Ron goes on to say that Harry maybe shouldn’t be trusting Dumbledore and maybe his plan isn’t that great… but then he abandons his friends, regrets what he did, and is only able to come back because Dumbledore knew he would react this way? So that whole thing only makes Dumbledore seem more powerful? Aberforth  tells Harry (correctly) that Dumbledore is expecting too much of him and he’s not interested in making sure that he survives:

“How can you be sure, Potter, that my brother wasn’t more interested in the greater good than in you? How can you be sure you aren’t dispensable (...) Why didn’t he say… ‘Take care of yourself, here’s how to survive’? (...) You’re seventeen, boy!”

But, Aberforth is treated as this Hamish Abernathy type who has given up, and needs Harry to ignite his spark again. There’s a pretty dark line in the script of Deathly Hallows Part 2:

Which at least shows this was a possible  interpretation the creative team had in their heads… but then of course it isn’t actually in the movie. 

So in the end, insane trust in Dumbledore is only ever treated as proper and good. Then in Cursed Child they start using “Dumbledore” as an oath instead of “Merlin” and it’s weird and I don’t like it.

PART V: Dumbledore and his Strays

“I have known, for some time now, that you are the better man.”

So Dumbledore has this weird relationship pattern. He has a handful of people he pulled out of the fire at some point and (as a result) these people are insanely loyal to him.  They do his dirty work, and he completely controls them. This is an interesting pattern, because I think it helps explain why so many fans read Dumbledore’s relationship with Snape (and with Harry) as sinister. 

Let’s start with the first of Dumbledore’s “strays.” Dumbledore saves Hagrid's livelihood and probably life after he is accused of opening the Chamber of Secrets - and then he uses Hagrid to disappear Harry after the Potters' death, gets him to transport the Philosopher’s Stone, and he’s the one who he trusts to be Harry’s first point of contact with the Wizarding World.  Also, Hagrid's situation doesn’t change? Even after he is cleared of opening the Chamber of Secrets, he keeps using that pink flowered umbrella with his broken wand inside, a secret that he and Dumbledore seem to share. He could get a legal wand, he could continue his education. But he doesn’t seem to, and I don’t know why. 

So, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is a well known fix-it fic that basically asks “What if Harry Potter was a machiavellian little super genius who solves the plot in a year?” I enjoyed it when it was coming out, but the only thing I would call a cheat is the way McGonagall brings Harry to Diagon Alley instead of Hagrid. Because a Harry Potter who has spent a couple of days with McGonagall is going to be much better informed, better equipped and therefore more powerful than a Harry spending the same amount of time with Hagrid. McGonagall is both a lot more knowledgeable and a lot less loyal to Dumbledore. She is loyal, obviously, but she also questions his choices in a way that Hagrid never does. And as a result, Dumbledore does not trust her with the same kind of delicate jobs he trusts to Hagrid.

Mrs. Figg is another one of Dumbledore’s strays. She’s a squib, so we can imagine that she doesn’t really have a lot of other options, and he sets her up to keep tabs on (and be unpleasant to) little Harry. He also has her lie to the entire Wizangamot, which has got to present some risk. Within this framework, Snape is another very clear stray. Dumbledore kept him out of Azkaban, and is the only reason that the Order trusts him. He gets sent on on dangerous double-agent missions… but before that he’s sort of kept on hand, even though he’s clearly miserable at Hogwarts. And I do wonder about Trelawney. We don’t know much about her relationship with Dumbledore, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she was a stray as well.

I think there was an attempt to turn Lupin into a stray that didn’t… quite work. He is clearly grateful to Dumbledore for letting him attend Hogwarts and then for hiring him, but Lupin doesn’t really hit that necessary level of trustworthy that the others do. Most of what Dumbledore doesn’t know in Book 3 are things that Lupin could have told him, and didn’t. If had to think of a Watsonsian reason why Remus is given all these solo missions away from the other Order members (that never end up mattering…) it’s because I don’t think Dumbledore trusts him that much. Lupin doubts him too much. 

“Dumbledore believed that?” said Lupin incredulously. “Dumbledore believed Snape was sorry James was dead? Snape hated James. . . .”

 We also see Dumbledore start the process of making Draco into a stray by promising to protect him and his parents. And with all of that… it’s kind of easy to see how Harry fits the profile. He has a very bleak existence (which Dumbledore knows about.) He is pulled out of it by Dumbledore’s proxies. It’s not surprising that Harry develops a Hagrid-level loyalty, especially after Dumbledore saves him from Barty, from his Ministry hearing, and then from Voldemort. Harry walks to his death because Dumbledore told him too. 

Just to be clear, I don’t think this pattern is deliberate. I think this is a side effect of JKR wanting to write Dumbledore as a nice guy, and specifically as a protector of the little guy. But Dumbledore doing that while also being so powerful creates a weird power dynamic, gives him a weird edit. It’s part of the reason people are happy to go one step farther and say that the Dursleys were mean to Harry… because Dumbledore actively wanted it that way.  I don’t think that’s true. I think Dumbledore loves his strays and if anything, the text supports the idea that he is collecting good people, because protecting them and observing them serves some psychological function for him. Dumbledore does not believe himself to be an intrinsically good person, or trustworthy when it comes to power. So, of course someone like that would be fascinated by how powerless people operate in the world, and by people like Hagrid and Lupin and Harry, who seems so intrinsically good. 

PART VI - Dumbledore and Grindelwald

“I was in love with you.” 

I honestly see “17-year-old Dumbledore was enamored with Grindelwald” as a smokescreen distracting from the actual moral grayness of the guy. He wrote some edgy letters when he was a teenager, at least partly because he thought his neighbor was hot. He thought he could move Ariana, but couldn’t - which led to the chaotic three-way duel that killed her. 

One thing I think J. K. Rowling does understand pretty well, and introduces into her books on purpose, is the concept of re-traumatization. Sirius in Book 5 is very obviously being re-traumatized by being in his childhood home and hearing the portrait of his mother screaming. It’s why he acts out, regresses, and does a number of unadvisable things. I think it’s also deliberate that Petunia’s unpleasant childhood is basically being re-created: her normal son next to her sister’s magical son. It's making her worse, or at the very least preventing her from getting better. We learn that Petunia has this sublimated interest in the magical world, and can even pull out vocab like “Azkaban” and “Dementor” when she needs to.   She wrote Dumbledore asking to go to Hogwarts, and I could see that in a universe where Petunia didn’t have to literally raise Harry, she wouldn’t be as psychotically into normalness, cleanliness, and order as she is when we meet her in the books. After all, JKR doesn’t like to write evil mothers. She will be bend over backwards so her mothers are never really framed as bad.

And I honestly think it’s possible that J. K. Rowling was playing with the concept of re-traumatiziation when she was fleshing out Dumbledore in Book 7. We learn all this backstory, that… honestly isn’t super necessary? All I’m saying is that the three-way duel at the top of the Astronomy Tower lines up really well with the three-way duel that killed Ariana. Harry is Ariana, helpless in the middle. Draco is Aberforth, well intentioned and protective of his family - but kind of useless, and kind of a liability. Severus is Grindelwald, dark and brilliant, and one of the closest relationships Dumbledore has. If this was intentional, it was probably only for reasons of narrative symmetry… but I think it's cool in a Gus Fring of Breaking Bad sort of way, that Dumbledore (either consciously or unconsciously) has been trying to re-create this one horrible moment in his life where he felt entirely out of control. But the second time it plays out… he can give it what he sees as the correct outcome. Grindelwald kills him and everyone else lives. That is how you solve the puzzle.

If you read between the lines, Dumbledore/Grindelwald is a fascinating love story. I like the detail that after Ariana’s death, Dumbledore returns to Hogwarts because it’s a place to hide and because he doesn’t feel like he can be trusted with power. I like that he sits there, refusing promotions, refusing requests to be the new Minister of Magic, refusing to go deal with the growing Grindelwald threat until he absolutely can’t hide anymore, at which point he defeats him (somehow.) I like reading his elaborate plan to break Elder Wand’s power as both a screw-you Grindelwald, the wand’s previous master, but also as a weirdly romantic gesture. In Albus Dumbledore’s mind, there is only Grindelwald. Voldemort can’t even begin to compare. I like the detail that Grindelwald won’t give up Dumbledore, even under torture. And, Dumbledore doesn’t put him in Azkaban. He put him in this other separate prison, which always makes it seem like he’s there under Dumbledore authority specifically.  Maybe Dumbledore thinks that if he had died that day instead of Ariana…he wouldn’t have had to spend the rest of his life fighting and imprisoning the man he loves.

And then of course, Crimes of Grindelwald decided to take away Dumbledore's greatest weakness and say that no, actually he was a really good guy who never did anything wrong ever.  He went all that time without fighting Grindelwald because they made a magical friendship no-fight bracelet. Dumbledore is randomly grabbing Lupin’s iconography (his fashion sense, his lesson plans, his job) in order to feel more soft and gentle than the person the books have created. Now Dumbledore knows about the Room Requirement, even though in the books it’s a plot point that he's too much of a goody-two-shoes to have ever found it himself. He loved Grindelwald (past tense.) And Secrets of Dumbledore is mostly about him being an omniscient mastermind so that a magical deer can tell him that he was a super good and worthy guy, and any doubt that he’s ever felt about himself is just objectively wrong and incorrect. Also now Aberforth has a neglected son, so he’s reframed as a bit of a hypocrite for getting on his brother’s case for not protecting Harry. 

So to summarize, I think Dumbledore began the series as this very eccentric, unpredictable mentor, whose abilities took a hit in Books 3 and 4 in order to make the plot happen. He teetered on the edge of a ‘dark’ framing for like a second… but at the the end of the series he's written as basically infallible and godlike. I’ve heard people say that JKR’s  increased fame was the reason she added the Rita Skeeter plot line, and I don’t think that’s true. But I do think her fame may have affected the way she wrote Dumbledore. Because Dumbledore is JKR’s comment on power, and by Book 5 she had so much power. In her head, I don’t think that Dumbledore is handing off jobs in a manipulative way. She sees him as empowering other less powerful people. That is his job as someone in power (because remember - people who desire power shouldn't wield it.)

Dumbledore’s power makes him emotionally disconnected from the people in his life, it makes him disliked and distrusted by the Ministry, but it doesn’t make him wrong. That’s important. Dumbledore is never wrong. Dumbledore is always good. That’s why we get the Blood Pact that means he was never weak or procrastinating. That’s why we get the qilin saying he was a good person. It’s why we get the tragic backstory (because giving Snape a tragic backstory worked wonders when it came to rehabilitating him.) And that is why Harry names his son Albus Severus in the epilogue, to make us readers absolutely crystal clear that these two are good men. 

[pleeborp]

Guys I’m actually crying right now I’m so sad all the time over how Harry’s abuse is never addressed

He was ABUSED guys and NOBODY ever talked about it

And can you just imagine Harry James Potter waking up that first Christmas expecting nothing and then Ron Weasley his FIRST friend telling him he has PRESENTS. The joy the shock that boy must have felt. But can you imagine for a split second he doesn’t believe him. Can you imagine for one second that Harry thought Ron, his first friend, could be playing a cruel trick on him. You think Dudley never pulled that shit on him? You think he was never given false hope that he had presents before?

Or how about the fact that Harry probably woke up every morning for what was probably his first four months at Hogwarts at least, panicked and rushed to get up to make breakfast for the Dursley’s only to realize he didn’t have to. Can you imagine the relief? The weight off his shoulders. Or even worse can you imagine the guilt he felt? He had been raised to cook for them every morning and you think it wasn’t deeply engraved in his mind that in order to feel some sort of acceptance without doing something for others? You think he didn’t try to do things for his friends those first months at Hogwarts, believing it to be the only way he’d be accepted?

Think even harder about how as the years went on and as he did more things for people it seemingly fed into those beliefs? How every time he saved someone, every time he did something for the school, everyone loved him for it? How Hogwarts was his safe haven, but even then they always expected something from him in return. And when they hated him, and he did something else to save them, suddenly they loved him again. You think he didn’t solidify in his poor, hurt mind that in order him for him to be accepted he had to do these things for the people around him?

Or even the betrayal he MUST have felt when he learned all of this was PLANNED. That he was raised and built and forged to be nothing else other than a hero for a society that always expected that from him.

That despite the fact that he escaped the Dursley’s, he would never be without expectations and responsibilities shoved into him from those around him.

Guys I’m so upset I just want to hold him. He deserved a loving, supportive home, where he should have had no expectations other than to be a child and to be loved. This is secretly a PSA that I fucking hate Albus Dumbledore for the pressure and the manipulation he put on Harry.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Also FUCK Jk Rowling

[nathancomet]

Drarry/Harco Headcanon #4

When Draco finds out that (besides his robes,) all Harry has are hand-me-downs that don’t fit he makes it his mission to fix it. Openly horrified, Draco drags a protesting Harry to Diagon Alley for a major shopping-spree.

Cut to Draco being a Drama Queen about fashion while Harry tolerates his boyfriend spending ridiculous amounts of money on him.

“That thing’s hideous.”

“Just try it, Potter! Stop arguing.”

[yallthemwitches]

Look Who's Coming to Dinner

Vernon thought a dinner at the Evans' house would be perfectly normal like all the other times--unfortunately for him, Petunia's sister is home and she has company.

AO3 Link here!: https://archiveofourown.org/works/57451264

It was half past six and Vernon was making good time. He had left the firm a few minutes early–not enough to be suspected as a loaf, but the proper amount that seemed reasonable for a man who had plans for the evening. At the light, he looked down and regarded his outfit. Despite being what he wore to work, it seemed to be perfectly acceptable if not an attractive look. White button up, thick gray tie, and black trousers; classic. 

It was not his first time visiting the Evans’ residence—not even a little. He had become quite accustomed to the small house in residential Cokeworth; the garden which Petunia fussed over, the cozy sitting room with a bit elaborate but tasteful crown moldings—he even started to get used to the cat that prowled around the halls and seemed to have a personal vendetta against his black loafers. 

He pulled up the drive. Above the garage, a yellowish, red light shown through the bay windows of the house. He had never seen those lights on, nor was he able to think if he had seen those same windows during one of the house tours Petunia had given him on his first visit. The light projected a red fog around the driveway, which was reminiscent of when his neighbors decorated for Halloween.

Vernon straightened his tie one last time, then trudged to the door. He rang the doorbell and waited. Within the house he could hear the sound of footsteps, a bang, and two muffled female voices that seemed to be at odds with each other. The door swung open. 

“Vernon!” Petunia took a step out into the garden and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek. Both of them agreed that any public displays of affection, even if there wasn’t anyone there to witness them, were base and lowly. 

Petunia wrung her hands on her cooking apron and glanced over her shoulder. 

“Well, we going in then?” Vernon huffed. He was getting hungry. He hadn’t left work 3 minutes early to stand on the stoop. 

“Of course darling. But—I need to tell you.” Petunia looked behind her shoulder again. “It’s just that—my love—my sister is home.”

Her sister. Vernon had not heard much of the elusive younger sister. On the few times he took tea with the Evans’ they would mention her in passing and she sounded perfectly normal, but Petunia absolutely hated to speak of her. On a date once he tried to politely inquire what her sister did (seeing as she was not home most of the time) and Petunia looked about ready to burst into tears at the mere mention of the subject. From that point on, he wrote it off as something too emotional to speak of. He hated things that were emotional. 

“Very well then. I’m sure the dinner will be just fine in any event.” He was getting impatient, but Petunia continued to wring her hands on the stoop. After a defeated sigh, she let him follow her into the house. 

Everything at first seemed perfectly normal since the last time he had visited. Mr. Evans sat on the sofa reading his paper with a cigarette hanging from his lips. Mrs. Evans was busy setting the table. Both stopped their respective activities to give a hello and Vernon found them just as practical and agreeable as ever. “No frills, no nonsense. Just normal good working people,” Vernon thought to himself. It was the reason he fell in love with Petunia. She came from good breeding. 

But something in the air was different. It took him a second to realize, but there was music playing off in the other room, and not just any music, but that bloody rock and roll music. 

Mrs. Evans finished at the table and approached Vernon and a still nervous Petunia, who since his arrival had not stopped fidgeting at his side. 

“Would you like a beer or something else to drink, Vernon?” Mrs. Evans offered. 

Vernon kindly accepted and Petunia stared wide-eyed at the kitchen door. She opened her mouth to say something to her mother, but Mrs. Evans cut her off with a shout. 

“Lily dear! Vernon is here. Could you grab him and your father a lager from the fridge?” 

The music from the other room cut and there was a muffled response from within the kitchen. Petunia widened her eyes with terror as the door swung open and a young girl bounded out, holding two bottles of beer by their necks with one hand.

She looked nothing like Petunia. Her dark red hair cascaded down her back in light casual waves and a pair of bright green eyes peeked out from behind a fringe that layered around her face. A small knot of pulled back hair was held in place on the back of her head with what looked like a very carefully treated piece of wood. 

She was attractive, Vernon could not deny it, but she was attractive in the sense that any of those young ruffian new age-y types would like. The way she was dressed, Vernon couldn’t help but think of all the movie commercials he saw play between news anchors. Women with long hair, short skirts, and nylon boots up to their thighs—no doubt promoting something scandalous, or worse, illegal for the youth of today. 

“Here you are,” Lily handed a beer to her father before extending the other to him. “I’m Lily, Tuney’s younger sister.”

She kept her arm extended out to him as though waiting for a handshake. Her eyes shone out from under the fringe and a little smile pulled at her lips. Vernon regarded her extended hand without reciprocation.

“Pleasure.” He grunted. Getting the hint, she dropped her hand.

Petunia stood stock still at his side. In all honesty, he found her behavior to be quite rude. Usually when he visited she would be bustling around making sure everything was perfect for the evening. Tonight, she acted as though lightning came down and struck her from the sky. 

After a long pause, Lily’s eyes shifted between everyone else in the room and her eyebrows raised.

“Right. Well, dinner is about ready. Tuney, will you help me serve the table?” With her name, Petunia seemed to snap out of her daze. She quickly grabbed the corner of Lily’s elbow and pulled her towards the open kitchen door. 

“Ow,” Lily murmured. As they walked away, he could see Peturnia talking quickly into her sister’s ear. 

“I swear to GOD Lily, if you do anything I will– I will…” 

Lily yanked her arm away. And hissed back as quietly as possible. “I’m not thick. What would I even do anyways?”

The door shut behind them. 

It was odd but Vernon drank his beer and struck up a conversation about car replacement parts with Mr. Evans. He quickly forgot about the scene between the two sisters. Girls are just like that. Alone they are fine but when you put too many of them in a room, it's too much trouble.

They sat for dinner. 

The whole table remained silent besides the sound of scratching utensils. Petunia kept eyeing her sister disdainfully, who for whatever reason, kept an amused smile plastered on her face despite a lack of conversation. 

“So, Lily,” Vernon started in. Petunia stabbed at her food loudly, clenching her knife in a full fist. “Your parents say you are in a boarding school.”

Lily blinked a few times. The amused smile wiped from her face and she seemed to be having an intense staring battle with her sibling. After a beat she spoke. 

“Er, yes. Yes, I do.”

“Whereabouts?”

“Scotland—the countryside.”

Vernon’s mother worked in education. He knew of all the finest academies in the British Isles but had never heard of a boarding school in the Scottish wilderness. He chewed at his steak and looked her over again. Her halter top was not doing the best work at hiding that she wasn’t wearing a bra and a ring around her middle finger had a strange symbol carved into it. No proper school would admit someone who looks like this on a normal day. 

“Haven’t quite heard of a school in those parts,” he retorted. “And what is their focus in study?”

Petunia nearly choked. A blush raised to Lily’s cheeks and she suppressed a laugh with a cough. Vernon frowned. 

“It’s an alternative school, darling. You know…. for those people,” Petunia cooed at him. There was a hint of caution in her tone, like she wasn’t completely sure of her own statement. Lily scoffed loudly and speared her stewed carrots with a vendetta.

Oh.Oh. She was one of those hippie types. He should’ve known as much with how she dressed and how much Petunia seemed disgusted by her. He would have the same sort of sentiment if Marge came home believing in some bosh liberal, free love crock. 

“It's quite a good school, actually,” Lily retorted. “Despite my sister’s reservations, it's the best school of its nature. I am actually head girl this year.”

“The best school,” Vernon reflected. “And what would it be best in?”

There was a whoosh of wind from under the table. He couldn’t be sure but it seemed like one sister had kicked the other. Lily scrunched her face. 

“Vernon, I’m so sorry—Tuney, can I speak to you in the kitchen for a moment.” Both girls got up from the table. Despite being so visually different, they both held tension in the same way—fists balled and shoulders pushed back. 

The kitchen door slammed shut and a flurry of whispered voices argued behind the door. 

“Don’t mind them. They have a bit of trouble seeing eye to eye sometimes. But we really are truly quite proud of them both,” Mr. Evans offered. 

The sound of the doorbell cut through the room. 

Mrs. Evans walked to the door to open it. A young, slim boy stood on the stoop. His hair was windswept and his eyes twinkled beyond a set of glasses. 

“Oh James!” Mrs. Evans exclaimed and she pulled the boy in for a quick hug. “Lily didn’t tell us you were coming! Should we have expected you?” 

James ran a hand through his hair, making it more untidy. “No, Mrs. Evans. I was actually just in the neighborhood and thought I would give my regards.” 

Lily walked out of the kitchen door and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of the stranger.  Behind her, Petunia looked pale and started pushing at her sister who waved her off with one hand. A blush grew on Lily’s cheeks as she bounded towards the open door. 

“Lily, I’m hoooome!” The boy called in a sing-song voice. “Hm. a bit cocky isn’t he,”Vernon remarked, but Mrs. Evans let out a laugh, clearly charmed, and let her daughter talk to the intruder. 

Despite frowning with her arms crossed, a creep of a smile curled at Lily’s lips. 

“You seem to be lost, Potter.” Despite speaking low, Vernon could make out most of their conversation.

“On a last name basis again, Evans? Thought we crossed that bridge—” He smirked.

“Ok, but seriously James—no, don't make a “serious” joke— what are you doing here?”

“I can’t miss my girlfriend on this unbearably long, lonely and cold winter holiday?”

She snorted. “You are unbearable.”

She pretended to fight him off for a second before allowing his hands to cradle either side of her face and lean in for a not-so chaste kiss. 

“Ugh, how disgusting. I bet they are some kind of “Free Love” advocates. Why would they think we want to see that? It's so tacky,” Vernon thought as he looked away.  

After what felt like an enormous amount of time to be kissing in front of family. The couple broke apart. 

“So—can I come in? I promise I’ll be good…” She made a scoffing noise as he pouted and batted his eyes. 

“Normally, I’d say yes…but we have company.” James looked over her shoulder directly at him. Vernon looked down at his plate and tried not to seem like he was eavesdropping. 

“Charming.” James said before raising his voice so the room would hear. 

“Well, I wouldn’t want to be impolite, so I guess I’ll be off then!” At that, Mrs. Evans spoke up from her place at the table. 

“No, no, it's no trouble at all, James! We would love to have you stay for at least a spot of dessert and some tea! Please come, we will make you a spot.” Mrs. Evans started to scoot things over while nagging Mr. Evans to find a suitable chair. 

James smirked at Lily and walked past her. “Well in that case…” Underneath her breath Lily murmured git. 

James took off his jean jacket and wrapped an arm around Lily as they walked towards the table. Petunia’s eyes were reduced to slits as she zeroed in on her sister. Catching her gaze, Lily mouthed a small “sorry” in her direction. Petunia gave out a scoff and wiped at her mouth. 

The couple reached the table and James offered his hand out to Vernon. 

“James Potter.” Vernon didn’t take the time to stand but shook hands. James burst into a wide grin and Vernon wondered if he had some food on his face.

“Vernon Dursley.”

“That’s Tuney’s fiancée,” Lily added. Petunia stared at James coldly, not offering him a hello or any such welcome. 

“Fiancée? Congratulations! I’m hoping to marry an Evans myself, so we have one thing in common!” Lily looked up at her boyfriend with squinted eyes but if he noticed, he seemed to be quite used to it. 

“What is this boy about? Is he mental?”

James sat back in his seat, leaving one hand resting carelessly on Lily’s thigh. I mean honestly. 

“Right. Well James, do you go to school with Lily?” Petunia made a choking cough. Lily’s eyes widened and stared intently at James who once again did not acknowledge his girlfriend’s glare. 

“I do, actually. It’s where we met!” Vernon looked him up and down. Besides messy hair and a hideous jean jacket, the boy looked over all pretty straight. If he had met him on the street he wouldn't have guessed he attended some hippie school out in the wilderness. 

“Lily was telling me you study all sorts of rubbi—interesting subjects. 

James stared blankly at him. 

Lily grabbed James’ arm and gave it a squeeze. “You know James, like… herbalism.”

James blinked. “Right–yeah, Herbalism. Err, love that class.”

Lily pressed her lips together to suppress a laugh. 

“Do you do any extracurriculars? Lily told me she is the head girl.”

“Well, I’m the head boy actually so we are a matching set.” James placed a kiss on Lily’s cheek.

Ugh. 

“But I also play sports—a sport.”

“Which?” At that James’ eyes darted around the room. He turned his head to Lily who also stared blankly and furrowed her brow. She bit her lip and squeezed his thigh hard. 

“Uh, actually—just remembered I don’t play sports at all. Hate them.” Lily closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. 

Something was fishy about this whole thing. School in the middle of nowhere. Classes about freak hippie subjects that were a bunch of bunk. Now this boy does not even know how to act in public, much less recount his life to make polite conversation. 

This must be a cult. Oh God. Petunia’s sister is in some Manson style cult. 

It all made sense now. Why Petunia looked so terrified and never wanted to talk about her sister. Why even her parents were so tight lipped about her. Why she and this boy were being so bloody weird. The poor family must be beside themselves every time they have to take her back in—probably has no money either.

A loud rumble came from outside the house, along with a squealing of wheels. Both Lily and James turned their heads to the door. Lily snapped her head back to look at her boyfriend with eyes raised. 

“So sorry to interrupt again, but I need to talk to James outside for a moment,” Lily cut in. “Please start dessert without us.” 

The two got up from their seats and stepped out the back door into the garden. Petunia made a long exasperated sigh and Mrs. Evans’ fussed over whether or not she should go ahead and pour a bit of tea for when they got back. 

Feeling a bit perplexed, and unsure how to properly proceed giving his newfound revelation, Vernon excused himself to the loo to sort it out. 

I bet there is some sort of loony bin the two can go to to get sorted. God knows I wouldn’t want my family around some cult following crackpots either. I’m sure they even have drugs on them! No wonder poor Petunia has such a hard time. He washed his hands and left the toilet. As he passed through the hallway, he could see the back garden lights on. He stopped and peered out of the window. 

Lily and James stood side by side looking out into the garden. He could see their mouths moving, but they didn’t seem to be talking to each other. Out of the darkness a large black dog padded its way up to them. Lily bent down, not to pet it, but rather continued talking to it as though it was capable of understanding her. James leaned down and said a few words to it as well. 

Well that sorts it, they are on drugs. 

The dog bounded back into the darkness, but a few moments later, a boy with long, shaggy black hair sloped his way out from where the dog disappeared. If this stranger had just appeared, the couple did not seem to acknowledge it. They continued talking as though the new boy had been there all along. 

They continued talking and the new boy threw back his head and let out a barking laugh at something that was said. 

James and Lily walked back towards the door which was within earshot of the window.

“Sorry to leave so soon Lils’---I hope I at least made it interesting. Tell your mum that I’d fancy a tea date with her whenever she likes—” Lily made a to give a playful smack, but James caught her hand expertly out of the air and swooped in for a kiss. They wrapped around each other and snogged for a few moments against the back wall of the house before pulling back and resting on each others’ foreheads.

“See you soon? I can’t wait until school comes back in, I’m just lost without you,” Lily snorted but smiled at him. 

“Maybe come around another time when I’m not trying to look normal.” She chided.

“Bad luck Evans. You’re the least normal witch I know.” The sound of a motor turning over rumbled in the distance. James pushed Lily back into the wall for one final kiss, before walking into the darkness where the other boy had disappeared. Lily stood with her arms wrapped around herself for a moment before entering back into the house. 

From beyond the treeline, a motor roared. A beam of a headlight ascended into the sky and Vernon could swear he could make out two silhouettes just behind the blinding light. 

What in the bloody hell?

Back at the table, the meal continued without incident. Vernon could have almost convinced himself he had dreamt it. At his goodbyes, he gave Petunia a quick chaste kiss ( nothing resembling the ostentatious affection her sister had shown) and bounded for the door. 

It almost seemed like a dream. The weird sister, the cocky boisterous boyfriend, the mysterious man with the weird unsettling light. Perhaps he had drunk too much Sherry. Satisfied with that excuse, he went to open the door. A jean jacket hung from the wall. 

He eyed it, realizing its testament to the evening's events. He looked at Petunia who had tears creeping into her eyes. He turned to her and gave her a hug. A real hug. 

He made an unspoken pact to her at that moment. Nothing, nothing as odd as tonight would ever happen in their happy life together once she left this house. Not if he had anything to do with it. 

[garlicbreadfanatic]

james potter watching ron’s family give harry an escape from his abusive household, and thinking about how he had to do the same for sirius…

[mauveberries]

the trope where voldemort finds out about harry's abuse by the dursleys and gets So enraged, that he kills the dursleys is so funny to me.

you're telling me, that genocidal maniac lord voldemort, who has killed scores and scores of people, has been left neglected and abused in an orphange himself, would fall so in love with a teenager that he would get worked up over child abuse? lol.

he'd probably snicker over the irony and parallels of his and harry's childhood and move on.

there is NO way he is getting worked up over harry being abused. he would feel satisfaction at the fact that he and harry had virtually the same horrible childhood because he is a sick, sick man.

he was the one who's been trying to murder harry for several years, he'd probably be annoyed/impressed vernon didn't finish the job for him. and like, you know voldemort literally killed harry's parents, right? harry's loving parents, who died protecting him.

the empty gesture of voldemort killing the dursleys is so overused and ooc imo.

[whinlatter]

The broken family bond between Harry and Petunia!

wow while usher was dancing his socks off at half-time you were thinking about petunia dursley née evans' malicious treatment of everyone's favourite grouchy knobbly-kneed jock... what does this say about you anon? look inwards

i feel terrible that i do not have too many thoughts about the broken family bond between harry and petunia but i DO have thoughts about what harry represents as a challenge to the nuclear family unit and its associated class connotations that petunia cares so much about. one thing i have been thinking A Lot about recently is petunia's description of snape as 'that awful boy' in ootp (which ofc, at the time, harry thinks is a reference to james), and how petunia's ideas about class and social mobility colour her view of wizards and, by extension, her resentment and contempt for harry. sooo i have talked about that instead......... ctrl + f neoliberal renders 2 results below i'm so sorry

when we meet petunia in the canon timeline, she's a parody of a tory home counties suburban housewife, striving middle class in the very thatcherite neoliberal sense, all about the house prices and the pension pot, with her perfectly maintained peach home decor and pristine garden, with a husband who has made his money through a managerial position in industrial manufacturing, who sends her son to private school and monitors the material wealth of her neighbours and associates very acutely. we know that young petunia wanted to join wizarding society and was rejected by it, and we know that adult petunia now holds wizarding world and its culture in open contempt. we particularly know that petunia hated snape, and that, other than lily, snape was the first wizard she ever really met. to young petunia's eyes, snape had all the visible markers of poverty and of being working class ("They live down Spinner’s End by the river," she told Lily, and it was evident from her tone that she considered the address a poor recommendation.') nevertheless, by virtue of being a wizard, this shabby poor-looking boy was elevated above petunia as something particularly special, and sneered at petunia as lesser than him as a result. i think this is interesting, because i think young petunia processes her rejection from magic by starting to think of magic and wizarding culture as a perverse subversion of the class system she knows and believes in, where a visibly working class person can somehow be special and worthy. (we can speculate what she would make of james potter as her son-in-law - james, while obviously wealthy, is old money posh coded - he doesn't work for a living! - aka not at all invested in the hard-work discourse, keeping-up-with-appearances that the new money suburban types that petunia strives for).

why does this matter? i just think it's very striking that petunia's complaints about harry are so often expressed less in terms of the danger of his magic, than his threat to external perceptions of her and her family, and, especially, as a challenge to their class position

petunia makes critiques of harry's messy appearance, his misbehaviour at primary school (caused by his magic), his association with the criminal (sirius black) and the shabby (the weasleys), and his refusal to respect or show any deference to vernon and the family despite their great attempts to maintain the trappings of respectability. the particular horror of harry's presence in the dursleys' life, in petunia's mind, is that his existence makes her family an alternative blended family, which compromises all that petunia holds dear in terms of the trappings of middle class respectability that puts a great deal of social capital on the nuclear family unit and no deviation from it. i don't mean to suggest petunia only perceives magic as a class threat, or that she doesn't fear harry's magic as something dangerous. her response to dudley's dementor run-in proves how much she fears what magic can do (and, ofc, she knows what happened to lily). but what's striking in DH is that petunia is still umming and ahhing, as vernon is, about whether to go into hiding. unlike movie!petunia in that deleted scene, book!petunia still isn't convinced about 'what these people are capable of'. for this reason, i think petunia has come to think of wizarding culture in terms of a fundamental challenge to the class system she understands and upholds, and to the primacy of middle class new money neoliberal suburban identity that is petunia's entire worldview. and that's really the source of her beef with harry: not his threat to her safety, but to her class identity, which is adult petunia's whole world.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Dumbledore is a Manipulative Piece of Shit: Part 4/?

(part 1, part 2, part 3)

He knew and allowed Harry's abuse

Well, this is a pleasant subject, isn't it? Harry's abuse at the Dursleys' hands. And the worst part about it is that no adult in his life really seems to care.

I'll talk about the Weasley parents in a different post. This one is dedicated to Dumbledore and how he always knew about Harry's abuse and allowed it to persist. For years. Not just once, Harry started Hogwarts. No, I think Dumbledore knew what was going on at Number 4 Privet Drive long before Harry stepped foot in Diagon Alley.

And more importantly, I can prove it.

So, I'll cover my evidence according to the order of the quotes that appear in the books since there is quite a bit to cover.

And yes, I know Dumbledore calls the Dursleys out in Half-Blood Prince:

“You did not do as I asked. You have never treated Harry as a son. He has known nothing but neglect and often cruelty at your hands. The best that can be said is that he has at least escaped the appalling damage you have inflicted upon the unfortunate boy sitting between you.”

(Half-Blood Prince, page 55)

But this scene is the definition of "too little, too late" considering how long this has been going on.

So, let's start:

“Nah. Dumbledore gave me the day off yesterday ter fix it. ‘course, he shoulda sacked me instead — anyway, got yeh this.…” It seemed to be a handsome, leather-covered book. Harry opened it curiously. It was full of wizard photographs. Smiling and waving at him from every page were his mother and father. “Sent owls off ter all yer parents’ old school friends, askin’ fer photos… knew yeh didn’ have any…d’yeh like it?”

(Philosopher's Stone, page 218)

Hagrid can't keep a secret to save his life, we know that, and he isnt the brightest, with all his good intentions. Yet, even he noticed something's wrong with Harry's home. He knows Harry doesn't have photos of his parents, he knows he never got any gifts.

"But that's not Dumbledore,"

True, but Hagrid tells Dumbledore everything. So if Hagrid knows, Dumbledore knows.

“I told you, I didn’t — but it’ll take too long to explain now — look, can you tell them at Hogwarts that the Dursleys have locked me up and won’t let me come back, and obviously I can’t magic myself out, because the Ministry’ll think that’s the second spell I’ve done in three days, so —” “Stop gibbering,” said Ron. “We’ve come to take you home with us.”

(Chamber of Secrets, page 31)

“It was cloudy, Mum!” said Fred. “You keep your mouth closed while you’re eating!” Mrs. Weasley snapped. “They were starving him, Mum!” said George. “And you!” said Mrs. Weasley, but it was with a slightly softened expression that she started cutting Harry bread and buttering it for him.

(Chamber of Secrets, page 39)

Both these quotes from Chamber of Secrets show Fred, George, Ron, and Mrs. Weasley clearly knew what was happening. That Harry was being locked up and starved.

Harry really, never kept his abuse a secret and is quite open about informing anyone who'd listen to him about it. He is just used to it being brushed off as something unfortunate that nothing can be done about. The Weasleys, McGonagall, Dumbledore, Remus, and the entire Order of the Phoenix treat it as such.

In OOP, Harry references needing to duck from Vernon's beatings as a joke to Ron and Hermione. He wasn't keeping it a secret.

On the same vane:

She had no idea that Harry was not following the diet at all. The moment he had got wind of the fact that he was expected to survive the summer on carrot sticks, Harry had sent Hedwig to his friends with pleas for help … Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, had obliged with a sack full of his own homemade rock cakes. (Harry hadn’t touched these; he had had too much experience of Hagrid’s cooking.) Mrs. Weasley, however, had sent the family owl, Errol, with an enormous fruitcake and assorted meat pies.

“Why didn’t you tell me you’re a Squib?” Harry asked Mrs. Figg, panting with the effort to keep walking. “All those times I came round your house — why didn’t you say anything?” “Dumbledore’s orders. I was to keep an eye on you but not say anything, you were too young. I’m sorry I gave you such a miserable time, but the Dursleys would never have let you come if they’d thought you enjoyed it. It wasn’t easy, you know. . . . But oh my word,”

(Goblet of Fire, page 28)

Harry wrote everyone he knew he was being starved. He wrote Hagrid and the Weasleys, and they all sent him food. The adults sent him food without bothering to ask him the important question: "Why aren't you being fed?"

(Order of the Pheonix, page 22)

This is the most damning evidence against Dumbledore.

He knew. He knew how Harry was treated his entire childhood because he had someone spy on him for years.

Mrs. Figg knew how Harry was treated by the Dursleys. She calls it: "miserable". She knew.

And she was sent there on Dumbledore's orders, meaning she was a spy. because let's be real, a squib, who can't do magic and doesn't own a gun can't do anything to protect Harry. She can only be there to spy. To report everything to Dumbledore.

This proves, more than any other quote here, how okay Dumbledore is with Harry suffering at the hands of the Dursleys.

Next moment he jumped as the lock gave a loud click and his door swung open. Harry stood motionless, staring through the open door at the dark upstairs landing, straining his ears for further sounds, but none came. He hesitated for a moment and then moved swiftly and silently out of his room to the head of the stairs. His heart shot upward into his throat. There were people standing in the shadowy hall below, silhouetted against the streetlight glowing through the glass door; eight or nine of them, all, as far as he could see, looking up at him.

(Order of the Pheonix, page 46)

The entire Order was there, at Number 4, Privet Drive. They've been following Harry since he got there. Tonks has seen Harry's bedroom. I don't think they missed something is definitely wrong. (I think this is why they tell the Dursleys off at the end of the fifth book and Dumbledore again in the sixth because someone else finally knew and Dumbledore had no choice but to address it)

And to make sure the Order is aware something's wrong between him and the Dursleys (that being an understatement), Harry outright tells Lupin:

“Excellent,” said Lupin, looking up as Tonks and Harry entered. “We’ve got about a minute, I think. We should probably get out into the garden so we’re ready. Harry, I’ve left a letter telling your aunt and uncle not to worry —” “They won’t,” said Harry. “That you’re safe —” “That’ll just depress them.” “— and you’ll see them next summer.” “Do I have to?” Lupin smiled but made no answer.

(Order of the Pheonix, page 54)

Harry makes it very clear the Dursleys don't care for his safety and that he never wants to return to literally everyone he can.

Why then? Why would Dumbledore want Harry abused?

“She’s evil,” said Harry flatly. “Twisted.” “She’s horrible, yes, but . . . Harry, I think you ought to tell Dumbledore your scar hurt.” It was the second time in two days he had been advised to go to Dumbledore and his answer to Hermione was just the same as his answer to Ron. “I’m not bothering him with this. Like you just said, it’s not a big deal. It’s been hurting on and off all summer — it was just a bit worse tonight, that’s all —” “Harry, I’m sure Dumbledore would want to be bothered by this —” “Yeah,” said Harry, before he could stop himself, “that’s the only bit of me Dumbledore cares about, isn’t it, my scar?” “Don’t say that, it’s not true!”

(Order of the Pheonix, page 277)

Harry said it best here: "for his scar"

In the previous posts, I covered how desperate Dumbledore was at the end of the war for a win, so much so, he might've forged a prophecy. And I explained he needed Sirius Black out of the picture for the same reason he wanted Harry at the Dursleys and wanted him mistreated — confident boys with a good support network and emotional regulation don't make very good martyrs.

In part 2, I mentioned how Dumbledore knew since the night the Potters died that Harry is likely a Horcrux. He has been manipulating Harry's life since then to achieve his grand plan of killing Voldemort. Even if it comes at the price of Harry having anything resembling a childhood and a life.

[annabethchase06]

One of the seriously underrated differences between Percy Jackson and Harry Potter is the involvement of supporting characters. And I particularly mean characters who might not appear special to the reader.

Look at Harry Potter. The only Muggle characters who get some spotlight (and that too, negative) are the Dursleys. Other than that, Muggles hardly play a role in the story. Yes, I know what I'm saying – they don't know magic, how would they help?

They can. Look at Paul Blofis(the best stepdad ever, I had to say that). He can't see through the mist, he barely knows stuff about the world of his stepson but my man really woke up in a warzone and killed a monster like a pro. He couldn't even see the monsters properly, but he was there to help.

I love how mortals are involved in the Percy Jackson series, despite them not sharing the connections to the magical world. Take Sally Jackson, she was always there for her son. I know people will think, "Well, she's the hero's mother." But what about Hermione's parents? We never see them getting actively involved.

Rachel is one of the prime examples of this as well. And her counterpart in Harry Potter is Mrs. Figg. The one time we do see Mrs. Figg helping, it looked like Dumbledore had forced her or something. Rachel Elizabeth Dare flew a helicopter to a warzone, not caring about her own life, knowing she was a mortal and that her special abilities may show her the future, but would not protect her future(her life).

Percy Jackson has got mortals involved in sucha brilliant spotlight and that's one thing I've definitely not seen in Harry Potter. Muggles are either timid, resentful, angry, irritable or evil. One more way in which Rick proved that ANYONE can be a hero, Kudos!

[why-are-all-the-users-taken]

Literally anyone else could have raised harry and if they did he wouldn't have a heteronormative mind set. So yes it is the Dursleys fault.

edit: and Dumbledore's fault for putting harry in their care when there was a whole wizarding world that would have took care of him

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

If Dudley turned out to have magic just like Harry, would the Dursleys treat him any differently?

Why Muggle-borns go to Hogwarts even when their parents are dubious. Why the Dursleys took in Harry (and they really couldn't say no).

The short answer: yes.

All's right with the world, they have their wonderful normal son Dudders, a freak of a nephew who they all know is blatantly a wizard and Petunia takes out all her rage on, and then the worst thing in the world happens, Petunia relives her childhood as Dudley on his eleventh birthday gets his mysterious letter.

I imagine they are in denial for the first few days, pull what they did with Harry and try to burn the letter, refuse to tell Dudley what it's about, and it gets worse when Harry gets his fucking letters but because they didn't send McGonagall to visit Harry with the letter I imagine we end up in the Hagrid situation.

Then when it's all too real, Dudley is definitely a wizard, I imagine they don't know how to react but it's with a lot of anger toward Lily, Petunia herself for having these genes/it clearly being from her side of the family, Harry for infecting their son, and even Dudley.

I imagine they try to keep Dudley from Hogwarts however this won't go well (see above links at top of the post). Dudley ends up going and is very aware of how isolated he is and quickly figures out that he is Muggle-born/dirt to the wizarding world. He tries to make up for it by bullying Harry as usual to provide a sense of normalcy, but this goes quickly sideways as he's bullying the Boy-Who-Lived who is very famous and at this point worshipped in the series.

And of course you'd get the Dursleys being weird when he goes home for the holidays and alternating between pretending he doesn't have magic at all and insisting Dudley just not talk about it or anything Harry's getting up to because they aggressively do not care.

Now, I don't know if they'd be hitting Dudley with frying pans but I don't imagine things would be good if Dudley turned out to have magic.

[wafflinglumos]

Lily and Petunia have such an interesting and complex relationship and there aren’t enough fics that delve into that.

From what we know from canon, the two were relatively close before Lily’s magic was discovered. We can assume that Petunia’s resentment ramped up when Snape and Lily started to become friends, which was partially because she just didn’t like him and thought he was a weird but if you look at it from a child’s perspective it paints it in a different light, children are easily possessive of things and people, siblings especially, sisters especially.

Her resentment was furthered with their parents treatment of the two. Petunia was the eldest sister, between the two she was the less remarkable, from what we know and can assume from canon, Lily was the golden child, when she received her Hogwarts letter and their parents reacted positively and from what we’re told in the books, ecstatically even, which furthered her resentment even more when she even wrote to Dumbledore asking if she could go to Hogwarts too, but he had told her, though kindly, that because she was a muggle she could not.

Petunia lashed out the only way she knew how to, with resentment and envy, which makes sense really.

If Petunia was already envious of her sister, and their parents put Lily on an even higher pedestal after they found out she was a witch, adding Dumbledore’s words about Petunia not be able to go because she was a “muggle”, then it’d make sense that Petunia would resent Lily, to make her a “freak” in her eyes.

Petunia’s jealousy and resentment came from many things with Lily’s odd abilities, with Lily spending time with Snape, with Lily discovering she was a witch and their parents praising her for that, with Lily’s acceptance into Hogwarts and Petunia’s rejection from it, with pureblood James Potter.

That’s not to say that Lily is at fault or that she didn’t care, we KNOW Lily loved her sister. We can safely assume that she wrote to Petunia throughout Hogwarts, her letters probably getting more scarce as they grew and Petunia had stopped responding, but Lily still sent Petunia a letter when she gave birth to Harry, she still felt that her sister was important enough to her to send a letter announcing Harry’s arrival.

Petunia’s resentment even caused her to marry Vernon because he was everything that Lily was not. He was a boring regular man with a boring regular life. (Which we learn from this part in the books below)

“Mrs Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.”

However, even with all that envy and resentment, Lily was still her sister, we see this when Vernon and Marge are laughing about Lily being a bitch and Petunia isn’t, we see this when Petunia tells Harry that he didn’t just lose a mother that night but she lost a sister(it’s in the movies explicitly so not book canon but it’s still a thing to note)

Petunia treated Harry the way she did because he was attached to the wizarding world and her sister, yeah Harry was a wizard but he was also the spitting image of James, Petunia must have resented him that much more because Harry was the embodiment of the two things that took away her sister, magic and James Potter. More over, Voldemort killed Lily to get to Harry, Lily died for Harry, it’s not an insane thing to think that that added even more to Petunia’s disdain.

Harry was the embodiment of everything that took Lily away from Petunia, magic, James Potter and the very reason her sister was dead. In Petunia’s mind at least.

To add Petunia treated Harry horrifically and no this isn’t an excuse for her inexcusable gross actions, but an unnecessary long look into the reasoning for it.