Movies - Dursley family

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The Dursleys or the Dursley family are fictional characters who are Harry Potter's last living relatives. Harry was placed under their care as a baby by Albus Dumbledore, in order to ensure his safety.

"Dursley" (pronounced "DURZ-lee") is a small town in South Gloucestershire, birthplace of JK Rowling.

Vernon Dursley

Harry's uncle-by-marriage: he is married to Petunia, Lily Potter's sister and they have a son named Dudley. Vernon is described as a big, beefy man, with hardly any neck, and a large mustache. He is the director of a drill-making company called "Grunnings" and seems to be successful in his career. He is a Muggle, and detests all magical things, especially his nephew Harry. He and his wife, Petunia, have grudgingly raised Harry from an early age, denying him any information about the magical world, including his parents. He reads the Daily Mail newspaper.

Petunia Dursley

Harry's maternal aunt: Petunia Dursley, née Evans, is described as being a blonde woman, with bony hands, a horsey face and a very long neck, which she uses to spy on her neighbours. She obsessively follows news about divorced movie stars while sniffing, "as if we're interested in their sordid affairs" (OotP). Her whole family was made up of Muggles, except for her sister Lily who was a Muggle-born witch. Mr. and Mrs. Evans were proud of having a witch in the family, but Petunia saw her sister as a freak (perhaps out of jealousy towards her sister whom she referred to as being 'perfect' at one point. In the eyes of some readers, however she seems to genuinely have believed Lily to be a freak due to years of bigotry towards the strange and the unknown.)

At some point she met Vernon Dursley and married him. On 22 June 1980 they had a son named Dudley. Petunia Dursley hadn't seen her sister for years and usually pretended she didn't have one - The Evans sisters weren't talking as Lily Potter knew how her sister felt about her. However one day Petunia discovered her nephew Harry Potter on her doorstep as she put out the milk bottles.

There was a note left with baby Harry by Albus Dumbledore, which explained that his parents Lily and James had been killed by Lord Voldemort, how Lily Potter had sacrificed herself to save her son's life and how living with his only other relatives would protect him from Lord Voldemort. Petunia and Vernon agreed to raise Harry, but kept him as downtrodden as possible in order to squash the magic out of him; they never told him how his parents died, instead claiming they had died in a car crash.

When Petunia and her husband, Vernon, attempted to throw Harry out of their house at the beginning of Order of the Phoenix, she receives a Howler from Dumbledore – "Remember my last, Petunia", which JKR has confirmed is referring to the note he left with one-year-old Harry on their doorstep. She has, therefore, more knowledge about the wizarding world than she will admit. Furthermore, Petunia has proved she knows what dementors and Azkaban are, claiming to have overheard a conversation between Lily and an "awful boy" that might have been James Potter. In an , J.K. Rowling confirmed that the readers will discover that "there is a little bit more to Aunt Petunia than meets the eye".

Dudley Dursley

Harry's first cousin: Dudley was born on 22 June 1980. He is the only child of Vernon and Petunia Dursley, a nephew to Marjorie Dursley and Lily Evans (respectively his father's and mother's sisters), and nephew-by-marriage to James Potter.

He is described as a large blonde boy, whose parents have spoiled him since birth, letting their child lack social courtesy or grace, and overeat until he was beyond morbidly obese. Throughout their childhood together, Dudley would take any opportunity he could to humiliate and torment his cousin, Harry. Unlike his cousin, however, Dudley has no powers outside of his brutishness. By the fifth book Dudley has become physically strong: he has taken an interest in boxing and seems skilled in it. A great bully, he leads a gang of 4 with whom he regularly beats up younger children such as Mark Evans on the flimsiest of excuses ("He was asking for it ... he cheeked me"). He is attacked by two dementors (sent by Umbridge) at the start of the fifth book. His hair in all the books is blond whilst his movie counterpart has brown hair (see image).

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