Sudden thought about Aunt Petunia (Harry Potter related)

[Coventina]

I'm rereading all the books to prepare for HBP.

Anyway, I'm wondering if maybe Petunia was "accepted" at Hogwarts as well as Lily. Maybe she refused to go?

Just a thought that came into my brain as I began OOTP, and read the opening chapters. Just thought I would put it out there....mock away....

[davidinalameda]

1. don't think so

but we don't know anything about her parents--Harry's grandparents

could Petunia be a squib?

[MountainLaurel]

2. Petunia always reminded me

Of those incredibly homophobic people who were just trying to repress that part of their nature by releasing their poison and hatred on others.

[Pithy Cherub]

3. Lilly's blood is magical through a parent.

Lilly got a letter. Petunia did not. My premise is Lilly is not muggle-born. Petunia knows WAY too much about the wizarding world. The Harry Potter 'relatives' that are spoken about are Dursley specific. Petunia's very first rant PS/SS was based on jealousy and envy!

The Half Blood Prince will explore this...Something Wicked This Way Comes!

[radfringe]

4. Petunia would know about wizarding world

from dinner discussion when Lily would be home from Hogwarts

Petunia's attitude towards it is out of jealousy. If Lily and Petunia's parents were "aghast" about Lily being a wizard then they wouldn't have allowed Lily to attend Hogwarts in the first place.

My bet is the was alot of attention given to Lily - Petunia felt slighted and the anger/jealousy grew over the years.

Meanwhile -- regarding family relations, what about Harry's father's side of the family? Some distant cousin or something?

[Pithy Cherub]

5. In Chamber, it states that Lilly

is Muggle-born. You are right about the hate build-up between Lilly & Petunia. Eerily like Snape & James, eh?

Just finished reading Chamber so somethings are clearer now. Lilly was not going to go into a lot of detail about Hogwarts - how much was she legally allowed to share with Muggles? There is more to the Evans family than we know. Petunia's envy and spitefulness must have been really bad. Lilly would have treated sharing magic stuff with Petunia in the same manner that Harry shares it with Ickle Dudley Dursley. JKR is great at leaving gaps for future plot twists. I will steadfastly hang on a bit to my denial and think this is one.;)

As for James Potter, the quintessential Wizarding family. I wonder if Voldemort killed them all, which is what lead to them doing Fidelius Charm to keep themselves hidden. Dumbledore hasn't exactly told Harry everything - but the picture (on the HBP American cover) of them looking into the pensieve inspires much thought. Off to meet the Prisoner of Azkaban now...

[radfringe]

6. how much was she legally allowed to share with Muggles

sharing with Muggles in general is verboten -- but she could share with family

Look at Herminone and her family -- her parents visit Diagon Alley

and there's that line in Sorcerer's Stone when Harry first finds out he's a wizard -- Petunia sneers about how her parents were "...sooo proud to have a witch in the family...."

I think what we are looking at is a very deep resentment and sibling rivalry

[Pithy Cherub]

7. Lilly was very compassionate, but like her son

has a temper. So in an "Aunt Marge blow-up" precursor did Lilly do something out of deep anger, sort of in an accidentally-on-purpose (MIHOP) way to Petunia? That would have sealed the deal as far as the hate from Petunia towards Lilly goes. Petunia would have been afraid to fight Lilly straight on. So the whole family thing is being replayed out through their kids. One is magical, one is not. Dudley is really horribly jealous of Harry. Just like... :;)

Lilly would have shared some magical information with her parents, but scare the living daylights out of Petunia. Also, Petunia it seems must have come into contact with more than one magical person. Just wondering if it was another family member or Dumbledore. How would she know that was Dumbledore yelling at her in the Howler if she had never heard his voice before? Even Harry did not know who's voice that was until months later. Petunia never shared with Vernon how much she knew about the magical world.

Are members of the Potter family buried in the cemetery at Hogwarts?

[radfringe]

8. Petunia would have at least met James

a few times. Possibly Sirius Black and Lupin too during the time that James and Lily were dating.

It's possible that Lily used magic accidently on Petunia - but it still goes back to jealousy/sibling rivalry

what would help clear some of this up is finding out what happened to Petunia/Lily's parents.

[mondo joe]

9. Petunia is a closet case. She knows too much about Hogwarts, and

early in he HBP there is mention of her correspondence with Dumbledore (which Harry takes to refer to just one letter - but I'm guessing it's much more).

[mondo joe]

10. Oh, and I'll bet you Dudley ends up doing magic as well.

Notice early on in HBP there's a very minor reference to him eyeing a wand.

Dudley is going to be a surprise ally to Voldemort - that's my prediction.

[deadparrot]

11. Thought the same thing about the "correspondence."

I don't think JKR would have bothered putting that in there if it wasn't significant. Won't say anything about Petunia except that I think there's more to her than meets the eye.