I have a friend named Pam that like them quite a bit. Now Pam is about as far from the Dursleys as one can get. She is nice and opened minded and willing to give anybody a chance. So, it was always a head scratcher to me when she would mention how she liked them. Mostly I'd give a small chuckle and say yea, and change the subject.
That was until yesterday, I started to think about them and their role in the Harry Potter story and their role in life in general. I have not been very open minded or tolerant about them and, in fact, have turned into a Dursley of sorts.
Let's look at how they treat Harry. Yes, they are horrible to him, they kept him in a closet under the stairs. They made him do a lot of work. They yelled at him for things he didn't do. The list goes on and on. However, it doesn't include beating, except from the son Dudley, but how many siblings can say they didn't get in fights with each other. They never swore at him, and they did warn him before they'd punish him.
Why would the Dursleys behave like this toward him? Well, for the most part, they were scared and I would even go as far as to say, scared for him.
They didn't like Wizards. People get upset about them for that. But why? They don't do anything against them. They just ignore them and go on with their life as best they can. If only the world had more people like that in it. So, they don't like wizards, and know what kind of trouble it can be to be one, ie. Lily and James Potter, so they want nothing to do with them and then out of nowhere, they get stuck with one. And not just any wizard, Harry Potter, the most dangerous wizard to date. All of the Dark Wizards are looking for him and if the spell Dumbledore put on the Dusley's house were to break, they would all be dead. I know... That would scare me too.
So, they are scared, and the life as they knew it is ruined forever. But like good Brits, they keep a stiff upper lip most of the time. Dudley ends up wishing that Harry would go with them when the Wizards make them pick up and move because they are in danger of the Dark Lord. (again, who can blame them for not liking the magic community). Dudley, who had his life saved by Harry, really started to like his cousin. But, if Harry was never around he would have never been in that danger, or even if Harry wasn't a Wizard.
As the beginning of the first book said, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number 4 Privet Drive, were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. And all of that was ripped away from them. Perhaps, you'd like to think you'd handle it better, but I bet you'd get annoyed more than you're prepared to admit to.
