Dudley Dursley

## Dudley Vernon Dursley

**Dudley Dursley** (born 23 June, 1980) was the Muggle son of Vernon and Petunia Dursley and cousin of Harry Potter. He was obese and insolent as a result of his parents spoiling him throughout his childhood, although he became muscular in his teens. He and his gang often tormented Harry, taking after the example set by his parents, as well as other weaker and younger children in their neighbourhood and at school.

## Biography

#### Early years (1980-1985)

Dudley was born on 23 June, 1980, about five weeks before his cousin Harry Potter, in Little Whinging, Surrey, England. He is the nephew of Marge Dursley and the son of Vernon Dursley and Petunia Dursley (née Evans).

On the night of 1 November in 1981, was witnessed by Minerva McGonagall in her Animagus form demanding his mother provide him with candy. Hours later, Harry was delivered to the Dursleys after the attack on the Potters in Godric's Hollow. Over the following few weeks, Dudley took to prodding and pinching Harry.

In June 1985, his Aunt Marge was at Privet Drive to attend Dudley's fifth birthday party. She whacked Harry Potter, then four years old, around the shins with her walking stick to stop him from beating Dudley at musical statues.

#### St. Gregory's (1985-1991)

During their years together at St. Grogory's Primary School, Dudley frequently chose Harry as his favourite punching bag with the help of his own little gang. Because of the pair's differing sizes, Dudley could easily hurt Harry, although Harry was often faster than Dudley.

Aunt Marge was present again at Dudley's tenth birthday party when Harry was nine. Harry accidentally stepped on Ripper's paw, causing the dog to chase Harry out into the garden and up a tree, while Dudley laughed himself silly. Marge refused to call the dog off until past midnight, much to the Dursleys' delight.

#### Summer of 1991

Dudley celebrated his eleventh birthday on 23 June, 1991. His presents included a new computer, a second television, a remote control aeroplane, sixteen new computer games, a gold wristwatch, a video recorder, a cine-camera, a remote control crane, a racing bicycle, (which Harry found odd, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise if it did not include punching someone) and more. When Dudley counted his presents, he got angry and claimed that he had two fewer than his last birthday, although he actually had one fewer than his last birthday. Petunia promised that when the family went out, she would buy him two more presents, and satisfied with this, he did not throw a tantrum.

By the time the summer holidays had begun, Dudley had broken his video camera, crashed the remote-controlled aeroplane, and knocked an already injured Mrs Figg over with his racing bike. Near the beginning of July, Dudley was accepted into Smeltings Academy, his father's alma mater. After returning from London with his new school uniform, Dudley paraded around the house in the get-up, which included a maroon tailcoat, orange knickerbockers, a boater, and a knobbly stick. He took to whacking everyone and everything within reach with this stick, which became extremely annoying to Harry.

The following morning when the post arrived, Dudley alerted his father that Harry had received a letter. Seeing his parents' reactions to the letter's contents, Dudley demanded to see it. Not used to being ignored, Dudley rapped his father on the head with his Smelting stick. Dudley and Harry were thrown out of the kitchen, but overheard the conversation through the door: Harry forced to listen under the crack, while Dudley looked through the better position: the peephole in the doorknob.

Within a week, 24 or more letters arrived for Harry; Dudley wondered who on Earth would want to talk to Harry so badly. When so many letters for Harry arrived, Vernon, having had enough, told the family to get ready to leave. Dudley angered his father when he dawdled, trying to pack his television, VCR and computer into his bag. By nightfall, Dudley was in an unpleasant mood; he was hungry, had missed five TV shows he wanted to watch and had not gone so long without shooting an alien on his computer. At the Railview Hotel, Dudley shared a room with Harry; while Harry remained awake, Dudley fell asleep almost immediately.

#### Smeltings years

*"Today's your birthday. How come you haven't got any cards? Haven't you even got any friends at that freak place?"*
—Dudley taunting Harry on 31 July
On 31 July, Dudley taunted Harry about not receiving any birthday presents from his friends. When Harry pretended that he was going to set a bush on fire by saying pretend magic words, Dudley ran to his mother, frightened. That night, the Dursleys (sans Harry) hosted a dinner party for clients of Vernon's — the Masons. At eight o'clock, Dudley was by the front door, waiting for Mr and Mrs Mason to arrive. He offered to take their coats and offered his arm to accompany Mrs Mason to the dining room a while later.

In the early hours of the next morning, Dudley was dumbfounded when he and his parents witnessed Harry's escape with Fred, George, and Ron Weasley in their father's flying Ford Anglia.

## Physical Appearance

Dudley has watery blue eyes and thick blond hair. Growing up, Dudley was extremely fat, at least four times Harry's size. Harry often thought Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.

## Personality and traits

Dudley was an unpleasant and spoiled child. His parents spoiled him to the point of becoming grossly obese, demanding, selfish, and manipulative, but most of all, extremely ungrateful. During his eleventh birthday, he screamed when he received one gift fewer than the previous year, making his parents promise to buy him two more, and pretended to cry when he realised Harry would have to come with him for his birthday trip to the zoo.

Dudley had an awful habit of bullying children who were weaker and as much as five years younger than he was, and when he forgot his fear of Harry's powers, callously insulted him in any way possible, even jeering at Harry about his obviously disturbing nightmares.

Despite being fairly manipulative, Dudley appeared to have a low level of intelligence. In 1991, whilst Rubeus Hagrid was attempting to enter the Hut-on-the-Rock, he foolishly quoted *"Where's the cannon?"* showing poor common sense. In the school holiday of 1994, he received a dismal school report from Smeltings Academy, which included very poor academic results as well as reports of bullying others.

## Etymology

*Dudley* means "from the meadow." It is also a large town located in the West Midlands county of England which, as with the town of Dursley, is known for its coal mining in the Victorian era. J. K. Rowling implied that she took the name from the town, commenting "maps are a great source for names", then adding "Dursley and Dudley and Snape are all places I can’t visit anymore."

Dursley is a town in Gloucestershire, England. Rowling has commented that she visited the place as a child and hated it, which likely affected her choice of surname for the awful family, remarking "I don't imagine I'm very popular in Dursley." Rowling chose the name because it sounded "dull and forbidding".