A Theory about Harry's Continued Placement With the Dursleys

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Some of us have questioned why Harry had to continue to spend several weeks with the Dursleys each summer after Voldemort returned at the end of GoF. If sharing Harry's blood allowed Voldemort to touch Harry, then it seems logical that it would also allow him to bypass any magical blood protections on #4 Privet Drive. So here's an idea, inspired by Arsinoe de Blassenville's The Best Revenge.

Dumbledore could argue that the Dursleys should have custody of Harry, even though they were Muggles, because Petunia was Harry's closest living blood relative. However, his argument probably would not have been especially valid unless Harry had actually lived with the Dursleys for at least a few weeks each summer. If Harry never actually spent any time with the Dursleys, then more distant wizarding relatives might have been able to present a good case for why they should have custody of him instead.

For example, let's suppose that Harry was the grandson of Dorea Black and Charlus Potter on the Black Family Tapestry. In that case, it's quite possible that, in the summer of 1995, Harry's closest living wizarding relatives (who were not convicted criminals anyway) were his second cousins Andromeda Tonks and Narcissa Malfoy. In the summer of 1995, Andromeda Tonks had long since been disinherited from the Black family, and Lucius Malfoy had the ear of the Minister of Magic. So, if Harry hadn't continued to live with the Dursleys for part of each summer, then the Malfoys might have been able to gain custody of the Boy-Who-Lived.

In a sense, then, the Dursleys did provide Harry with a "blood" protection, even after Voldemort returned. But it wasn't necessarily a magical protection; it was a legal one.

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

Most brilliant student my... Okay, I can actually accept Voldemort not figuring out the Harrycrux pre-OotP. First, he was in pain and vaporized and probably wasn't thinking straight, and he also had no way of knowing (we think) whether any of his soul just split or actually separated out (having no body to check the changes and having another cause to attribute the pain to), or if it did what it hit (could have been the crib for all he knew). After his re-embodiment, if he attributed his appearance to another soul-bit going missing, he might reasonably have concluded (with or without a search of the Godric's Hollow house) that the errant soul-bit had just whooshed through the Veil or floated off into the atmosphere or whatever soul-bits do when they aren't anchored properly.

Once he started getting into Harry's head, however, he really should have started wondering. Yes, they share blood now... but surely blood alone wouldn't account for that. Unless Tom knows nothing of blood magic beyond that door, which doesn't sound likely considering it's probably a useful avenue of immortality research. I mean, Albus is a blood magic expert, and we know he's another immortality-research junkie. Could Tom have been so proud as to avoid a field Albus specialized in? Sounds a bit extreme and counter-productive, but maybe he'd split off enough soul-bits by the time he went on his grand research tour to seriously impede his logic skills.