I was looking through the threads, though I definitely haven't looked through them all, but found no real discussions on the Dursley abuse subject besides an argument on Cervus' story thread. Thing is, after getting into a fight with my twin about the subject, we both wanted to know your thoughts on the matter.

Was Harry beaten like in fanon? Their were a few quotes in the first book, either euphemisms pertaining to it or things we looked too deeply into, but it never clearly came out and said he was beaten or literally 'starved'. It said he never really got what he wanted and wasn't "Exactly Starved", but that's all I could get. What are your thoughts on the subject? Severly beaten physically and mentally, or was it just mental? :?:

 

I doubt he was "abused"

In OOTP it says he had learnt to stay more than an arms length away from Vernon. That led me to believe that he would give him a wack around the head or something but I doubt he was "Beaten"

We also know Dumbledore did have him watched and doubt he would have let his mistreatment go that far.

As it is Harry had a small room and a lot of chores. Not a REALLY bad life compared to some. It's just in comparison to Dudley that it looks bad.

As for mental abuse, sure they called him names and shit but he seems to be rather immune to that. If he had serious mental abuse it would show more in his personality.

 

So what if Harry was beaten up in canon? It won't effect his life if he doesn't let it.

In fact, abuse doesn't effect normal people as much as we normally think:

- A New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell in The Best American Science and Nature Writing edited by Jonathan Weiner pg. 81

I hate abuseful Dursleys. They only give an excuse for poor writers to write unrealistic shit pandering for reviews and making Harry the worst pussy in the world. LightningontheWave is the most atrocious example of this. I'd say to Harry Potter, "You got abused. Boo-hoo. Life's unfair. Get the fuck over your shitty childhood."

And he has. Rowling has written him as a person who's dealt with and recovered from any abuse that occured. It's one of the things that I admire about her. It also shows Harry's strength as a character - he's a normal guy who can solve his problems and doesn't need everybody to comfort him.

So the answer to your question "How much was Harry abused?" is that "It doesn't matter."

 

Mostly my thoughts exactly, though starvation was also an issue that was brought up between my brother and I. Do you think he was starved? I read too many fanon freaks who can't differentiate the two and it's sad.

Personally, I think Rowling did an awful job portraying Harry's emotions after his life at the Dursleys, the death of Cedric, and then the death of Sirius. I can see the reasons with the Dursleys, for that was written at the time when these books were for children, but Sirius' death was spoken of in detail maybe once. I want factual basis for any stories I decide to post and most people like to believe that he was beaten within an inch of his life.

How does it not matter when it should be a major part of his life? It's one of those plot holes people always ramble on about and it shouldn't just be cut from the story. A prissy girl, of course not; A quite, self-hating child, right out the window; but can you not see the effect on growth and development? Rowling said he was a runt in the books, smaller then most of his house, so doesn't that somehow connect to his family?

One thing I hate is when people make Harry into a muscular super man. It wouldn't happen, not only because of at least some abuse from the Dursleys, but for the fact that he just doesn't seem motivated enough to work himself to that point. If you are trying to follow canon (post-OoTP, of course), then you need to be able to describe the effects his life at the Dursleys had on him. This wasn't sexual, at least I don't think so for that seems fanonish, but it was surely mental and physical and that must be taken into account.

 

I would move it down to wooden spoon

It seems realistic that his aunt would give he a quick wack on the ass if he really pissed her off.

The food issue... I believe he was never full but nowhere near starved. He always seemed to have energy to run and do work which seems to point to a decent diet.

 

I've never had the feeling, from what was written in the book, that Harry was abused at all. Sure the name calling was there, the occasional no food rule when he did something that really pissed them off.

My impression was that they tried their hardest to just ignore him and to do that they just shoved a bunch of chores on him.

 

Fanon exaggerates a lot too. Wherein Canon Harry took "Wooden Spoon" abuse from the Dursleys and beatings from his cousin who couldn't catch him most of the time, fanon makes him a depraved starving broken-boned pile of bed-wetting shit. Just the same with the starvation issue. Harry probably got smaller proportions and missed a few meals, wherein fanon you'll find that he gets one meal a week of stale bread and dirty water. As for the runt issue, it's more likely that he was a few inches shorter and a little skinnier than average until HBP when he gets tall, while in fanfiction, he's shorter than Ginny and every bone of the human skeleton is visible.

 

Most fanon abuse scenarios come from fourteen-year-old girls who have an unhealthy addiction to slash - i.e. they use Harry being abused as an excuse to put him together with the Ferret for lots of super-hawt-bumfucking!

Pretty sad, but that's how it is.

 

To play devils advocate...

If you take everything Harry says casually into context there could have been actual abuse.

Although I don't think anyone could go to a social worker and have them agree that living in a cupboard for a decade is not abuse...

I mean, I don't think anyone is going to believe that vernon ever made sweet sweet love to his preteen ass, and I doubt they would let him look too ruffed up to warrent people asking questions... but a few strokes of the belt doesn't seem unlikely, a rough shove, a light punch max...

With holding food also doesnt seem unreasonable.

After a while, a person stops feeling hungry, thats not to say he has to be some bony little thing that has about as much flesh on his bones as a buffalo wing.

...small portions, and frequent days where he is told to go to his cupboard with out dinner does sound like the thing they would do.

I've gone a week with out food... it is possible. As long as you have water. Thats key.

And harry has mentioned that he learned to pick the locks on his cupboard so he probably snuck out at night for late night snacks to keep from beeing starved.

Fannon dumbledore has really influenced us in how we think about how he checked up on harry.

I doubt cannon dumbledore would stand for harry living in a cupboard under the stairs... hagrid clearly did not know how little harry knew when he went to get him for the first time, indicating that Dumbledore didn't know. I think dumbledore only ever made sure he was alive and safe in terms of wards and what Mrs. figg saw. The dursleys surely wouldnt let anyone know about where they kept harry, as they know themselves its wrong.

Dumbledore probably only ever saw a family that was dysfunctional at best, and left it at that.

 

What the hell can I say to all that? My brother's sitting dumbstruck right next to me as I right this. I agree completely with most of what you are saying, but don't any of you believe that, given how he was shoved in a cupboard for first ten years of his life, the Dursleys had to do something worse to him.

 

Well there are quite a few hints on physical abuse - like Petunia with the frying pan (CoS), or Vernon's hands around his throat (OotP). That's more than a light smack. They certainly were quite rough when handling him, occasionally including physical harm. He was regularly beaten by Dudley and his friends, but there is no hint he was permanently treated with a baseball bat, also a typical fanon subject.

We know he was locked into the cupboard, the bedroom, the garden shed (mentioned in OotP I think), without or with only few food (CoS), and he had to endure Dudley's diet worse than Dudley himself (hmmm ... can't remember the book). But that's not exactly starvation.

JKR only presents some hints stimulating the fantasy of the reader. As we don't know much about Harry's childhood other than that it was bad, fangirls have a base for imagining even worse events than presented in the books. But there are no hints for the often described 'worst case' scenarios which are usually written by shitty authors who are unable to balance the plot.

 

No matter what happened to Harry, we can be sure of one thing.

VERNON DURSLEY NEVER EVER BUTT-RAPED HIM.

Yes, that did need to be written in all caps.

 

I can see that in canon there was some abuse, though not on the level most write it at. Canon indicates Harry was emotionally abused and physically neglected which can be detrimental to a child's development.

 

So, we've got ritualistic beatings, but no broken bones or butt sex. Still haven't reached the subject of the cupboard though. How would that effect him? Do you think Rowling wrote in enough detail or did she pass over it because of the kiddies and leave us adults hanging?

 

The kiddies were definetley a factor...

I mean like Dark minion pointed out... all those examples of their abuse are pretty much brushed aside... She wouldn't right about a suicidal eleven year old emo who want's to cut his wrists to end his suffering.

She try's to be comical in a way by making all these serious fights sound like cartoony little spats... ie the cute cartoon animal A hits less cute cartoon animal B with Big Honking Mallet C, not a few minutes later they start over again.

The cupboards obvious abuse... no one is dissputing that. neglect at its finest considering the two other rooms available...

But its a problem plot wise as now that harry's a big boy, he is forced to ignore it because of the bigger problem of voldemort.

There is no resolution to it.
Fanfiction likes to either kill them off or play alot of pranks on them... but in reality Harry would probably gladly turn Vernon over to receive his fair share of butt sex from a burly fellow nammed bubba who likes to take long strolls down cell block D.

At the end of the day, the dursleys will get away with it, Harry will probably be dead fighting the good fight, as he takes voldemort with him with his almighty power of love.

 

Canon Harry: Minor physical abuse from his aunt and uncle, and slightly worse emotional abuse from all three family members. Worst case scenario, he gets locked in the cupboard for a few days, which is pretty bad. Very strong character, personality, and person who overcomes his problems and lives productively. The abuse he suffers serves only to make him stronger. The worst part of his life is most definitely the cupboard. It will make any future human interaction difficult. He has not known the love of a family, and will find it very hard to open up to anyone. He basically had a few years of solitary confinement, which is pretty damn bad for anyone, let alone a developing child, but fanfiction still exaggerates.

Fanon Harry:

 

Harry is abused.

NOT to the extent that it's stated in 90% of fanon. It doesn't change the fact that they a) did not feed him enough <which implies neglect> b) did not provide him with physical affection <again implies neglect> c) put him in a CUPBOARD UNDER THE STAIRS rather than a room <which wouldn't be neglect if they hadn't had another room to put him in> d) continually demeaning him by constantly calling him derogatory names <which is mental abuse> e) ALLOWING Dudley to continue to beat him up (or try to beat him up) does denote both neglect and aiding and abetting with physical abuse by doing nothing about Dudley's abuse.

It's not to say that Harry doesn't have his own coping mechanisms - or perhaps he's decided - as most kids his age would - that he wants just try to forget about it. There's a chance - if the books gone on and on and Rowling wanted to address the issues - that it might affect him more later on. It's a fact that's what happens.

The point is, though, that he was abused - whether HE sees it that way or not doesn't matter. He may see it as just 'typical behavior' despite having other examples of proper behavior by guardians/parents.

(This is just five years of college speaking, lol - and multiple term papers on the issue.)

--Bella

 

JKR gave a few hints towards abuse, sometimes they were more than hints- ie. the cupboard and the mental abuse. But like it was stated it could have been much worse. Neglect is obvious. However we have to keep in mind the first book or so, when it covers most of Harry's background, were written for a younger audience. So we can only really speculate on what happened. A lot of fanon do over kill it... but abuse does leave a mark. Statisticaly 1 in 8 people abused as children grow up to become the abuser.