We all know DD's excuse that he wanted Harry to grow up as a normal boy, but who says the foster parents had to know he was Harry Potter? Surely there were many orphaned children during the war, and I'm sure there would be plenty of families willing to take in an orphaned child. The Weasleys, Bones, Abbots, Longbottoms, Diggories, Patils, Lovegoods, Changs, etc are all "light-sided" families as far as we've seen, and I'm sure there are plenty of other families who would have taken in an orphaned baby. If not, with the popularity of adoption in the 80s much more than it was during Riddle's childhood, I'm positive he would've been adopted by people who weren't "Muggles of the worst sort".

At the very least he wouldn't have been abused mentally and emotionally by the Dursleys or physically by Dudley's gang. If he was raised by a wizarding family, he wouldn't be so clueless about the magical world and probably would've known more about his abilities (Parselmouth for one) before he joined Hogwarts and was made out to be a dark wizard.

Before anybody mentions the Blood Wards we already discussed this in another thread, and they don't seem to do anything since anybody but Voldemort can still attack him anywhere he is, and if people assumed he died in the fire he wouldn't be the target for DEs until he found out who he really was in first year of Hogwarts.

 

Ummm the DE's knew that he survived. The blood wards might not do anything in the minds of us DLP people but to Rowling's mind they do so thats one reason. Also because Rowling wanted Harry to seem like a little pansy ass from what we have read in her books, if he grew up in a normal home then he wouldnt have been portrayed that way.

 

How did the DEs know he survived, as opposed to both of them being killed? All Dumbledore had to do was say Harry died in the attack but took Voldemort with him, or that James and Lily did it, and nobody would've been the wiser. Besides, I don't think saying "because JKR said so" is a good reason to dismiss plot holes.

Another question I have is why anybody knew what the scar looked like... The only people who saw Harry that night were Hagrid, Minerva, Dumbledore, and possibly Sirius. I don't think any of them would've talked about it, since anonymity is seemingly what Dumbledore was looking for.

 

Yea or harry could've grown up in a muggle orphanage than he would've shared even more characteristics with Tom Riddle therefore allowing JKR to mirrror young Voldemort's life. This way, if she wanted, she could have harry become some badass and could use Dumbledore's line " it is our choices that seperate us" or whatever that line was to help distinguish harry's choices from tom's. This way harry could be more Slytherin and really be a lot smarter like tom was but she could have harry turn out different.

 

In England today (and as far back as the 80s) there are many more people looking to adopt than children to be adopted, and the difference is even higher when you look at babies. Babies are also more likely to be adopted than older children for obvious reasons, so Harry would have a VERY high chance of getting adopted, since he was only 1 year old.

And that's just looking at Muggles, I'm sure one of the numerous lightsided families would've been happy to adopt a child that an enemy of their family orphaned.

I'm not saying he should've been Slytherin!Harry, but at least this way he wouldn't be so emotionally unstable and socially inept.

 

Dumbledore told everyone that Harry survived so the DEs knew. Plus someone would have seen him in a passing in the muggleworld and told the daily prophet. In fact in the first book it said that several wizards saw him in the muggleworld and reconized him. So of course the DE's knew he survived. Reread the first book if you dont believe me.

 

What I'm saying is HOW did they recognize him? How would they know he was the Potters' son if they just saw him passing on the street? Either Hagrid, Minerva, or Dumbledore told somebody about the scar, they were the only ones who know who he was. The solution to keeping him in the magical world or at least in a family that wouldn't abuse him would've been to say he was dead and even if people knew his parents they would probably just think he was a relative, since everybody would think by then that Harry was dead.

Assuming what you said was true about Dumbledore telling everybody that Harry was alive (I don't think it was mentioned in the book, but that seems the most likely), why would Dumbledore tell everybody that Harry was alive, instead of saying he was dead? What if one of those wizards who saw him and recognized him was a death eater? Or a vampire? Or a werewolf? Or just somebody with a big mouth who would've told where he was? The blood wards wouldn't have protected him from them, as far as we know they only worked against Voldemort because he was inhumanly filled with evil.

He would've been far better off knowing he was a wizard before he joined the magical world instead of being in a family that despised him for it.

 

lol Harry was almost a Carbon copy of James Potter for one so it wouldnt be that hard to reconize him, also with how nieive harry can be he would have blurted his name out sometime when a wizard was passing by. Regardless people did reconize him and Dumbledore told people to give them hope cause thats the way the old coot works. we can speculate all we want but its not going to change the fact that Dumbledore placed him at the dursleys and told the wizarding world that Harry survived. There are a lot of what ifs out there and many a fic have been written with Harry ina differnt home for his childhood or in some cases without a home at all.

 

The thread is titled "Why wasn't Harry sent to another wizarding or muggle family?" for a reason. I'm asking why (other than as a plot device for JKR), Dumbledore would send him to a place where there was a good chance he'd end up hating muggles, the magical world, or both.

Harry didn't have to know his name was Harry Potter, he could've known himself as Harry Bones, Harry Longbottom, Harry Diggory, etc etc and wouldn't have been as naive about the magical world as he was with the Dursleys.

As far as we know the only people who recognized Harry were Order members (Diggle is the only one named that we know of for sure), and even then it was a risk considering Snape's membership. Then again, the Ministry knew where he lived, and considering the infiltration of DEs there, it's surprising he wasn't killed by his 5th birthday.

If Dumbledore himself told everybody that the entire family was dead, nobody would've thought anything of the similarities. When you see a random person on the street, do you immediately check your memory to see who they remind you of? Do you do this for every person you meet? Of course you don't, especially if the person you would have been comparing him to has been dead and it is said that the family line is gone.


vs


If you saw that Harry you wouldn't immediately think of James, unless you KNEW he was his son.

 

I can't see the pictures? Is this just my computer or anyone elses?

 

I can't see them either. Try copying image location and opening in different windows - that worked for me.

 

I can't see them either.

 

He was sent there because no Hero has zero hardships in life.

Anywhere else would have been boring besides to us. The other 50,000,000+ fans wouldnt be happy.

The story had to follow the basic hero storyline. Not change it.



/Myst

 

Maybe it was a test of his character. By placing him in a similar position to Riddle, Dumbs wanted to prove that evil is in the choices people make.

But honestly for the correct answer, you will have to ask JKR. But I doubt it will satisfy you.

 

But in most other stories there is a reason the hero has hardships in his life. Something that causes him to become the hero he is destined to be. Dumbledore's actions either hint at one of two things: the mega manipulative cliche that I hate so much about dark!harry and evil!harry fics. The other option (as I see it) is a completely incompetent Dumbledore who doesn't notice child abuse, cuts Harry off from the outside world, doesn't give him special training even though there's a raving lunatic out for his blood, allows the Ministry to know where he is even though he knows Fudge has death eater connections (Malfoy), etc etc.

The way JKR has him written and portrayed in the books has him come across as the greatest wizard of the age and everybody loves him and thinks he's perfect but then you look at what he's done. All the idiotic and meaningless things he does are glossed over and used only as plot devices, which just weakens the character even more.

Maybe reading fanfiction is as bad as JKR says, it points out all the plot holes I never noticed before.

PS I fixed the images

 

According to JK Riddle was inherently evil because he is the heir of Slytherin, and also a cleptomaniac. Just look in the 6th book.
Tom doesn't have any hardship in life, he has a nice life in the orphanage, and no one is out to get him. Harry, on the otherhand, faces hardship, has an abusive life at the Dursleys, and has relatives and lunatics that wish to harm/kill/maim him.

 

Yeah thats true. But at the same time I have ignored anything happening in cause that seems to have more plot holes than the creates on the moon. I like to point out something thats been said before. Up until the pile of griffon manure that was HPB evil was in the choices made, not the blood shared.

 

Of course, I just wanted to make a point.