"I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured - and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion - asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types - just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -" (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)
What’s the meaning of the highlighted part?
Answer
This is probably Harry's uncle Vernon telling Harry that had he been spanked (beaten) very hard instead of treated like a special child, there would be nothing strange about him. Vernon believes that violence solves problems and that beating Harry every time he used magic would have killed the magic, or at least Harry's desire to use magic, and that he would have grown up to be a normal boy, like Vernon and Petunia's son Dudley.
There's a saying in English: Spare the rod and spoil the child. It means that children flourish and grow up well only if they are strongly disciplined mentally, emotionally, and physically. It's from the King James Version of the Christian Bible, Proverbs 13:24:
He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
It's justification for corporal punishment.
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