by highsorcerer » Thursday 3 July 2003 9:33:51am
Actually, the trend is very clear over the books. Every year, Harry's home life gets a little better. He escaped to the Burrow in CoS, was allowed to use Hedwig in PoA (plus spent part of his vacation in the Leaky Cauldren), had the threat of Sirius to hold over the Dursley's in GoF (which led to his early escape to The Burrow and the Quidditch World Cup), and had an almost normal summer in OotP until rescued by the OotP. Now the OotP have conveyed a message to the Dursley's with enough firepower to back it up.
On the other side, his school life has gotten progressively worse. He didn't have much to worry about except Snape and Malfoy in SS (PS). He was accussed of setting the creature on the school in CoS, had to deal with the threat of Sirius (and the story of what he supposedly did to both his parents and to 13 innocent people), dementors, and Trewlany in PoA. In GoF he dealt with Ron not speaking to him, dragons, merpeople, Barty Crouch, Jr., and Voldemort. In OotP he dealt with a smeared reputation, a vindictive DADA teacher, getting kicked off the Quidditch team, a link to Voldemort, death eaters, Sirius's death, and the ramifications of the prophecy.
The trend is likely to continue. He has OotP protection over the next summer holiday, and after that he'll turn 17 and be a legal adult, able to use magic outside of school. On the other side, Voldemort will be openly active, and it will come down to a final showdown between Harry and Voldemort.