There have been a large number of theories that have been kicked around concerning Harry Potter and the hows and whys of his world and life, but this one is actually a theory that has come about and, inexplicably, been ignored a time or two. As Luke Parker of ScreenRant has stated, the Dursley’s, Harry’s family by his aunt, Petunia, were seen to hate Harry with a passion throughout the movies, resenting and neglecting him time and time again as he grew older and yet still taking care of him as far as feeding, clothing, and giving him a home. It’s easy to argue that they still neglected him since he was given Dudley’s old clothing, toys, and his cousin Dudley was able to abuse Harry whenever he felt like. Some might say that the theory I’m going to talk about is negated simply because of that fact, but if you look at real life you’ll take note that people are often judged pretty harshly when there’s a child in their care that looks ill-treated or abused, so the idea of their public image likely saved the Dursley’s from being picked apart by child services, or whatever passes for such an agency in England.
The theory however, that the Dursley’s reacted to Harry because he was a horcrux, a vessel for a piece of Voldemort’s fractured soul, is pretty sound. It wasn’t explained until much later in the movies how and why this happened, but after his mother’s sacrifice Voldemort was destroyed when his spell rebounded on him, but a part of his soul, the last part it would appear, latched onto the only living thing in the room, which happened to be Harry. Given that the dark wizard was so weakened it’s not hard to think about why he couldn’t recoup and take control of his new host, but that’s another argument for another day. The part of Voldemort’s soul that inhabited Harry was dormant for a long time until the Goblet of Fire when it started to act up yet again. Of course it would act as a beacon each time Voldemort was near as you can see in the first movie when Harry rubs at his scar. Voldemort was still very much alive, but it was a cursed half-life that forced him to live on in others and in inanimate objects that he’d used to house parts of his soul. Harry was the accidental horcrux that he didn’t mean to make, and as we’ve seen the horcruxes can have a seriously negative effect on even the most rational-minded people, so folks like the Dursley’s stood no chance when faced with the effects.
Recall what happened with the locket, the real locket that Harry, Hermione, and Ron all wore on occasion. Eventually they would have to switch because the effects that took hold made them each increasingly irritable, negative, and overall unpleasant. That’s the effect of a horcrux, especially one housing the soul of Voldemort, who would see everyone that stood in his way crushed. Now think of Harry being a horcrux, and think about growing up in the same vicinity as a family that were more or less unpleasant to begin with. Harry was unfortunately thrust upon the Dursley’s because they were family, and had it not been for the horcrux they might have still neglected him, but not in such an obvious manner. It does tend to feel as though the Dursley’s weren’t really played up for the sake of the horcrux and what it could have been doing to them, but in truth they were just nasty people that likely would have mistreated Harry anyway. The horcrux simply made those feelings come to the surface more often and with great ease. How many other people wanted to know just why the Dursley’s were against magic and its use? We did get the explanation, that Petunia hated her sister, or at least resented her for being a witch when she was nothing. It might have been too late for the elder Dursley’s since they were already of the mind that magic and its like were dangerous and had already taken one family member, but it’s been stated that Dudley actually repented of his harmful ways after Harry saved him from a dementor, and while they weren’t best friends they were cordial to one another after that.
But living in the same home for years, having to take care of a child that wasn’t their own, and with the knowledge of the family he came from and what it would eventually mean, couldn’t have helped matters. In fact this would have made the effect of the horcrux even more effective since the resentment, irritation, and downright hatred would have had time to continually fester and grow even stronger. Wow, how did Harry even survive?
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