I think the Dumbledore surveillance thing is mostly a combination of his somewhat vague "watched closely" statement, coupled with the Order members stationed outside the house in Order of The Phoenix.

In the fevered and enthusiastic minds of a lot of fanfic writers, that spelled constant surveillance and Harry being unable to leave Privet Drive without getting tracked, traced, and eventually dragged back to his 'safe' hell at #4. It wasn't a terribly huge leap to make, really; and, in some cases, it made for good reading.



Alexx: The constant double posting, STAHP!
It's become like watching a Creevey with a camera... which, in turn, is like watching a dog get so excited it piddles in the floor: Undignified and embarrassing for everyone involved.

 

He says it at the end of the fifth book:

I am in no way trying to support fanon's exaggeration of Harry's abuse. I'm talking about Dumbledore's acknowledgement of it. Perhaps not "emaciated," but apparently at least visibly underfed.

Again, I only mentioned Dumbledore's comment on Harry's health. I never posited that it was enough to permanently retard his growth, just that Dumbledore had, in fact, noticed that he was malnourished.

EDIT: More importantly, this speaks to the level of surveillance Dumbledore engaged in while Harry was growing up. He said he had "expected" to see Harry a certain way, which implies that he had not actually seen him since the night Hagrid brought him over.

 

I didn't say you supported fanon explanation about Harry's treatment at the Dursleys. Sorry if you understood that. I actually was answering Alexx.

It certainly seems that Dumbledore was talking about Harry's physical condition. For me it wasn't that important because I know Harry was fed enough. Small and thin at 11 doesn't mean anything bad per se. The Dursley family is constituted by one skinny woman and two fat men, Harry didn't eat like his uncle and cousin, he ate enough for a normal kid his age. But, interpretations are interpretations and you are right, so I concede.

 

Well, he does say "well-nourished" and "happy," but only in the negative, as in "not happy or well-nourished." And the thing is, he says he "knew [Harry] would [suffer]" when he left him, so when he says "neither as happy nor as well-nourished as I would have liked," he means they had done an even worse job than he imagined. He didn't think Harry would be pampered, but he expected him to at least show up in decent health. When you expect someone to be neglected, you aren't going to be expecting excessive or even perfect nourishment, and still Dumbledore says Harry was not as healthy as he would have preferred, which means that even though he expected Harry to be in less than perfect health, Harry still didn't meet even that standard.

Not enough to permanently stunt his growth, but enough for a man who expected pain and punishment to still be surprised at the level of pain and punishment.

EDIT: Like you, however, I still choose not to interpret the passage too harshly. Even acknowledging Dumbledore's statement as I have, I don't do so because I think it makes Harry's resilience irrational. I do so because I think it makes Harry's resilience more exceptional.

 

You're confusing knowledge with causality.

He knew that Harry had to die, or at least, came to that knowledge. He knew what it meant to have a Horcrux embedded in him. That meant, according to the prophecy, Voldemort could not and would not die until after Harry did, nor could Harry live (rather than just survive) until Voldemort died. The only option left, is death, in order to live, and that death had to come by the choice of love in order to balance the death that cause the prophecy to be accounted to Harry (on the literary level, not in the text itself).

 

http://fanfiction.portkey.org/story/4723/1

I just started reading this and I just got pissed by the end of the first chapter.

Basically Harry is of age and leaving the Dursleys. Petunia rants at Harry and demands he give them all his parents money. And Harry just agrees. This just pissed me off. I don't like Harry bending over to the Dursleys and giving them his money especially when he is of age and can do magic.

 

Note: "he said". It is nothing in narration that he plan to do it. And lying in this situation seems to be smart, effective, ethical and correct solution.

I may misremember but it seems to be the story where Dursleys received gold (only small amount) that was cursed by Hermione (bad luck etc).

 

I've read many fics where Harry gives Petunia millions of pounds from his 'Family Vaults' to start a new life away from Vernon who was secretly abusive towards her. I think even canon Harry, as thick as he is would have noticed if Vernon was making Petunia clean the bathroom floor with her tongue every night. Why would anyone want Harry to forgive Petunia anyway?

 

Because she's Harry's last remaining link to his mother? Because she can be a very interesting character when written properly? Because it shows Harry has a capacity for forgiveness that exceeds most people's? Because you can?

Take your pick.

 

She swung a frying pan at his head when he was twelve. What is there to forgive?

 

People have forgiven people for far worse than a little bit of assault.

 

Stories that feature abuse toward Petunia or Dudley usually just stick that in to turn Vernon into a one dimensional worse-than-Hitler character. I do understand JKR making her villains outright cartoonish and ridiculous (it is fantasy YA lit, after all) but I prefer more fleshed out characters and moral ambiguity in fanfiction personally.

 

Drarry and Snarry :fire

Good god, I'm not even talking about the Slash here. I can't be the only one weirded out by the words Drarry and Snarry. They're just wrong. So god damn wrong.

I've been using ff.nets new filters to keep Draco and Snape from even coming up in my searches. But still, I just read a summary that said the pairing would be Drarry or Snarry and literally had to do a gut check, because I hadn't seen the words in weeks. Unconditioned from my reprieve, they just seem horribly wrong, so so wrong.

Hape would be so much better for Harry and Snape, as it would better depict the actual relationship of rape. And Haco at least doesn't make me think of a variety of disgusting things, like a hair clogged, backed up drain.

Ugh! Save me from my own mind.

 

This is why I made program that is fetching stories from fanfiction.net and filtering out stuff like this. Kicking out any stories that included genre romance and listed as character Snape, Voldemort or Malfoy was the first thing.

 

Why the fuck is Voldemort doing romance anyway? Why would fangirls fantasize about such an ugly bastard. Its not like he was less uglier in the movies like Snape.

Also, would Voldemort/Hagrid slash be 'Holdemort' or 'Vagrid'?

 

Voldemort was ugly in the movies, but much like Snape, seemingly less so. He had no red eyes, and they changed some of his lines/added new ones with the apparent objective of humanizing him, or making him more relatable.

Even without that, however, the draw might be that Voldemort, while not physically 'attractive,' is still enormously powerful. In a world where strong enough wizards have the capacity to appear essentially however they want to, physical appearance might mean less. Bellatrix, for instance, even after his resurrection, was still obsessed with him.

Beyond that, there is still the appeal of his possible redemption, or his corruption of the protagonist by way of interaction with him. Exploring the aspects of emotion or intimacy in those considered evil is also fascinating to some.

Tom Riddle was also described as being very handsome, so there is also potential in what LV might have been, or might still be, beneath all that malice and hatred. How much of Tom Riddle remains in Voldemort could be open to interpretation, most especially the interpretation of fan girls.

 

Hagriddle.

 

I honestly don't believe them to be capable of such 'complex' thought process. What bothers me is that they don't understand Voldemort as the evil guy but as some sort of misunderstood and handsome douchebag who was probably sodomized by the evil Muggles/Dumbledore/Hagrid/Myrtle as a kid. I can't understand why that would appeal to them and my brain is now hurting from trying to figure out fangirl logic.

 

Murders and mass-murders rotting in jail get fanmail from women all the time. Hell, there are quite a few Jailhouse marriages every year. It really shouldn't surprise you.

 

My personal trainer got married to a guy in prison for murder. Granted, he was a good guy (the murder occurred under quite extraneous circumstances), so perhaps it isn't fully relevant to your point, but whatever.