Why Didn't Eb Raise Harry?

[ClintACK]

With all this talk about Maggie and Malcolm's deaths/murders, I'm reminded of a nagging question -- Why didn't Eb raise his grandkid? Keeping their blood relationship a secret can't enter into it, because everyone knew Maggie had been his estranged apprentice. He wouldn't even have needed to tell Harry the truth.

Do we have any in-book answers to this, that I've missed or forgotten?

[morriswalters]

To my knowledge there is no text which explains it.  Up until the point Harry manifested talent, Eb's raising him would have been pure poison.  And once he went into the system Eb may have lost track.  We do know that Eb had at least seen Malcolm.

[sayyadina]

Would Eb raising Harry as his grandson have made Harry a target? Given that Eb is the Blackstaff. Would openly acknowledging that he has a grandson who was under the Doom of Damocles have put either of them at greater risk?

[DonBugen]

I think that, when it comes down to discouraging dangerous enemies from doing evil things to the people you love, it makes little difference whether the person is related to you or not.

Whether Ebenezar raised Harry as his grandson, or raised him as an adopted son, doesn't mean that he wouldn't have essentially gone through the exact situations and scenarios that Eb claims to have been trying to avoid.  If Eb was trying to keep Harry away from attention and dangerous people who would have had reason to either murder, kidnap, or enslave him, it wouldn't matter if it was adopted or not.

[nadia.skylark]

There's a WoJ that Ebenezer didn't know about Harry until after he killed Justin.

[peregrine]

There's a WoJ that Ebenezer didn't know about Harry until after he killed Justin.

Yeah.  He met Malcolm before Harry was on the scene, then had a falling out with Maggie, so he didn't go visiting, once Maggie was dead, there was no reason to visit Malcolm.

[peregrine]

Also, because he couldn't find the body, as it was fallen into the lake.

[ClintACK]

So, basically, Ebenezar made exactly the same move Harry did with Maggie, Jr. -- staying completely out of her life to keep her safe.

And in both cases, it backfired spectacularly. Malcolm and Susan died. Harry and Maggie were traumatized.

Would love a flashback scene with Eb realizing that instead of Harry living a happy life, raised by a good mortal man, he'd been orphaned, bounced around through the system, then raised by an abusive ex-warden, touched by an outsider, bargained with by a predatory faerie, and forced to kill with magic. If Eb is anything like Harry... Imagine the guilt trip after that soulgaze.

Perhaps a deathbed (Eb's) confession, Harry making the analogy and forgiving him?

[peregrine]

No, Eb made exactly the same move Harry did, which was to not know about the existence of the kid until after the caregivers were both dead.

[Kindler]

Man, I thought this was going to be a thread on necromancy.

For what it's worth, I always figured Eb was ignorant of Harry's existence. Once he learned about him, he took him in.