Character Analysis: The Dursleys, esp. Petunia

The Dursleys.... These are the worst kind of Muggles. So concerned with being viewed as "normal", they don't seem to care what happens to Harry, as long as he stays out of sight from the neighbors.

Dudley is a spoiled brat; we can see why Dumbledore later comments to them that they have caused more damage to Dudley than they have to Harry. Somehow Harry has grown up quite a bit more "normal" than Dudley.... Could Dudley possibly change for the better and learn to accept Harry and the wizarding world? Doubtful. He's completely absorbed in his own desires to receive new toys (he'll destroy) and beat up on other people. Blaming Harry for the dementor attack in OotP is most amusing to him, though the event was horrible, and of course he'll get whatever he wants from his parents to make him "feel better".

Vernon has no chance of redemption. Despite his name (see PS/SS:CH1:MEANINGS OF PROPER NAMES, part one) he despises dreams, visions, and imagination of any sort. Cats reading? People dressed in cloaks? Not acceptable! He knows little to nothing about the wizarding world and I'm sure he'd prefer to keep it that way. He gets his kicks from shouting at Grunnings workers and receiving new drill orders. What will happen in Book 7 now that Dumbledore has told Vernon about Harry's ownership of 12 Grimmauld Place and about the increased gold in his coffers?

Petunia is in another league, altogether. As JKR has said Snape's more culpable than Voldemort because he's known love, Petunia's more culpable because she knows of the wizarding world. But just how much does she know? She clearly sees Voldemort as a threat, she knows that she sealed a contract when she took baby Harry across the threshold into 4 Privet Drive, she even knows what dementors are and the purpose of Azkaban. Not only has she had some interaction with Lily and James Potter, but she mentions "that aweful boy" as if she's talking about someone else...not James. Otherwise, she would have said "that good-for-nothing husband of hers told her years ago" or something along those lines. I think she means a young Severus, and there is enough canon to support the idea that Lily and Severus knew each other quite early on, perhaps before their Hogwarts years. (And no, I'm not trying to ship Severus and Lily. There's not enough canon to support it.) Only two other boys would make sense: Sirius and Remus. Though Remus doesn't strike anyone reasonable as "aweful", Petunia isn't so reasonable and would easily see him as such. There's also the issue that she seems concerned when Dumbledore later corrects her about when Harry'll reach the age of majority...when he's 17, not 18. Is she actually concerned for Harry's sake? Her own sake and the sake of her husband and son? Let's also not forget the howler Dumbledore sent her. It said "Remember my last." Well JKR has said the "last" was the note left with baby Harry on the doorstep, but what correspondence took place between Petunia and Dumbledore before then?