I finally started reading Harry Potter again, after almost a decade hiatus.
Yet something has changed for me within the wizarding world, but it hasn't affected the magic for me in any regard.
My problems lie within the characterization of the Dursely's, who really did NOTHING wrong.
I know, how dare I make this accusation.
But honestly, the Dursely's in the first Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and The Sourcer's Stone", are really just trying to protect Harry from a force that they themselves do not understand.
You can make the argument that they acted completely insane at points in time, but they did it all out of fear for not only themselves but Harry too.
The first point of this can be seen with how the Dursely's dragged Harry along throughout their escape from the overwhelming amount of acceptance letters from Hogwarts.
When the first letter arrived they could have just sent him off and cut their ties with Harry considering their poor treatment of the boy throughout the first part of his life.
Harry was dumped in their lap, so in reality, they really don't owe him anything considering the fact that they got him that far.
The second point is they are genuinely concerned for Harry. Yes, they treat him terrible, but more on that in a moment.
We don't know in the first few books what the letter that Dumbledore left, entailed for the Dursleys, but from what we do know it couldn't be good.
Harry's parents were murdered by a completely evil wizard. So it is safe to say for two Muggles this news would have completely terrified them to the idea of the wizarding world.
Honestly, I don't really think that the Dursley's are really all that bad for their desire to keep Harry as far away from magic as they could.
He was being hunted by an evil entity, so the Dursely's took the only defense mechanism they had, ignorance.
And thirdly, the Dursely's treatment of Harry, though unwarranted, was because of the fear they possessed.
They had to the carry the memories that Petunia had from Lily, in which Petunia really only remembers her sister tormenting her.
This would stick with her entire life, and when her sister's baby turns up one night on her doorstep, it is only fair that she would have those traumatic memories flooding back and causing her to treat her nephew poorly.
It also doesn't help Harry's case that he looks like the spitting image of his father, which was clear Petunia wanted absolutely nothing to do with.
Lastly, I personally can understand the Dursely's position in all of this.
They had a lifelong obligation pretty much thrown into their lap, and it's just not fair for people to have such hatred thrown at them.
I could understand the animosity toward them if Petunia and Lily had a loving relationship, but they were completely estranged.
Petunia had blocked her sister out. Imagine the guilt that flooded the Dursley's when they found out that their sister was murdered in cold blood, and now they have the ever-present memory of Harry Potter to remind them of the loss Petunia has because she no longer has her sister.
So I can't say that the Dursley's deserve to truly be the unsung heroes in this situation, but they don't deserve to be painted as the monsters of Harry's past.
