Yes, I'm on an Egyptian mythology roll, because in doing last week's post on Luna as the Eye of Harry/Horus, I discovered quite a few other links JK Rowling made to these old myths. And here's one that seems so obvious to me now, that I don't know why I didn't see it before.
When I first started reading the Potter series, I always wondered with each new book why Harry had to return to the dreaded Dursleys each summer. Sure, as a writer I understood Rowling's desire to frame and pattern the story with Harry's annual exodus and return to the Muggle world, but as a reader, I kept wondering why Harry couldn't be allowed to go live with the Weasleys.
Of course this was all explained when Dumbledore talked about the spell of protection that he'd used to keep Voldemort from finding and harming Harry as long as he could call #4 Privet Drive his home. A spell that was born of the shared blood between Petunia and Lily.
