Harry Potter discussion

Hello potterheads,
If this question has already been asked, please bear with me. Two days ago I finished rereading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for Merlin knows what time, and for some reason I kept wondering about the Dursleys. I guess we can all agree that they're not regular uncle and aunt-sweet, but do you guys think they're evil to the bone? They did take Harry in despite their hate for anything that can give them a bad name, however, they did treat him like stray dog.

So, what do you guys think? Are the Dursleys evil to the bone or are there any chance that they somehow cared for Harry?

I think they cared enough to not ship him off to an orphanage. That despite how much Aunt Pentunia was jealous of her sister, and therefore jealous of Harry, she loved both of them as family. Dudley and Harry acutally end up on "Christmas Card" terms.

Petunia might have disliked Lily and hated James, but she couldn't refuse her only child. I mean, would you?

the Dursley's might have been bad but they were not evil at all. After all they did take Harry and did not chuck him out of the house even after attending so many Hogwarts years

I fully agree with you guys. I don't think the Dursleys where evil, but they were in fact bad.

Evil and bad are too very, very different things.
To take somebody's stuff is bad.
To kill someone is evil.
So although the Dursleys disliked Harry and would probably have prefered life without him, they gave him a roof over his head and clothes (even if they were Dudley's) on his back.
They didn't send him away. And in the end, when they said goodbye to Harry for possibly the last time, Dudley said that he didn't think Harry was a waste of space.
I wouldn't call the Dursley's evil, or caring. They simply tolerated him and made sure he lived in a proper house with (after a while) a proper room to call his own.

I don't think that the Dursleys kept Harry out of love, I think that they kept him out of fear of magic. They weren't bad or evil, just ignorant. They didn't know what magic could do, and they feared that if they didn't at least keep Harry alive, that they would face awful consequences from the wizards. Also, Petunia did love Lily, and Harry had Lily's eyes. Petunia knew that if herself and Vernon had been killed, then her sister would've taken care of Dudley. Petunia loved her sister, and took care of Harry because of the relation.

That's what I think, at least.

I mean, out of love for Harry, in that first sentence there. I sort of contradicted myself by the time I finished typing.

Yes, maybe they were afraid of Harry. They knew he could perform magic, and every time he did do magic they locked him up.