Cupboard under the Stairs

"*Mr H Potter,
 The Cupboard under the Stairs
 4 Privet Drive,
 Little Whinging,
 Surrey*"
— Harry Potter's acceptance letter

**The Cupboard under the Stairs** is Harry Potter's bedroom at 4 Privet Drive. He sleeps in the cupboard in *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*.

## About

The cupboard is very small and dark and often has spiders. Harry slept in the cupboard for ten years. If he was getting punished by the Dursley family, they locked him inside it. When Vernon and Petunia Dursley found out the wizarding world knew about the cupboard after they addressed his acceptance letter to it, they moved him to the second bedroom.

## History

### Early history

At one year old, Harry Potter was left in the guardianship of Petunia Dursley when James and Lily Potter were killed. Petunia and her husband Vernon Dursley wanted a normal life away from the wizarding world and were not happy about having to keep Harry. They were unkind to Harry and even though their son Dudley Dursley had a second bedroom in the house which they could have given him, they made Harry sleep in the cupboard under the stairs.

### Harry's bedroom

For the next ten years, Harry was punished a lot by Vernon and Petunia locking him in the cupboard. He was locked inside it for seven days for magically growing his hair back to the original state after Petunia cut it. They locked him in when he jumped up onto the school roof while he was running from Dudley. Harry shouted through the door that he had no idea how he managed to jump that high.

The day of Dudley's eleventh birthday, Harry was woken up by Petunia banging on the door. He was told that if he did anything wrong that day, he would be locked in the cupboard. Later that day, he magically made a window pane vanish and let a Boa Constrictor escape. Piers Polkiss told Vernon and Petunia that he saw Harry speaking to the snake. They knew he used magic and locked him in the cupboard for a month, the longest he ever spent locked away.

In July, Harry was sent an acceptance letter from Hogwarts with the address of "The Cupboard under the Stairs". Petunia panicked when she realised they knew because she thought it made them look bad for keeping him under the stairs. They moved him to the second bedroom. The cupboard was turned into a storage space.

### Later history

When he returned for the summer after his first year at Hogwarts, Vernon locked Harry's spellbooks, wand, robes, cauldron and broomstick in the cupboard the second they got home. When he was rescued, Fred and George Weasley used a pin to unlock the door and get his things.

After his second year, Vernon locked Harry's possessions in a trunk which he put in the cupboard. Having learned how to pick locks, Harry started sneaking downstairs at night and unlocking the door to get spellbooks he needed for his homework. When he decided to leave Privet Drive forever, he unlocked it in front of Vernon to get his stuff.

When Harry left Privet Drive for the final time, he looked in the cupboard. It was being used to store umbrellas and stacks of shoes.

## Notes and sources

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 2
2. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 3
3. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 4
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 1
5. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*, Chapter 3
6. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 1
7. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 2
8. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, Chapter 4