Dursley family

Dursley was the surname of a Muggle family, the only known living close relatives of Harry Potter. Petunia Dursley (née Evans) was the older sister of Harry's mother, Lily Potter (née Evans), but took the surname Dursley when she married Vernon Dursley. They had a son named Dudley.

## Background

"*They're the worst kind of Muggles, oh really Albus, must we?*"
— Minerva McGonagall discussing Harry's relatives[src]

Harry Potter's Muggle aunt and uncle met at work. Petunia Evans, forever embittered by the fact that her parents seemed to value her magical sister more than they valued her, left Cokeworth forever to pursue a typing course in London. This led to an office job, where she met the extremely unmagical, opinionated, and materialistic Vernon Dursley.

Large and neckless, this junior executive seemed a model of manliness to young Petunia. He not only returned her romantic interest, but was deliciously normal. He had a perfectly correct car, and wanted to do completely ordinary things, and by the time he had taken her on a series of dull dates, during which he talked mainly about himself and his predictable ideas on the world. During one particular date when they were sitting in his car in front of a chip shop she tearfully confessed about her strange sister. As she had expected, Vernon was quite shocked, though he comforted her and told her it was not her fault for having a "freak" for a sister and that he would not hold it against her. He finally proposed to her in his mother's (very ordinary) living room, it was all very emotional.

Due to Petunia's maternal connection to Harry Potter, he was sent to live with the Dursleys after his parents were murdered by Lord Voldemort. The belief was that the power of Lily's loving sacrifice for Harry would be continued through Petunia, due to her blood connection with her sister, even though she personally held Harry in contempt. This would provide Harry with magical protection against Lord Voldemort and his followers when Harry was outside the powerful protective spells around Hogwarts Castle.

Due to his wizarding background, Harry was treated with fear and negligence by the Dursleys. He was originally kept oblivious to his wizarding heritage and told that his parents had died in a car accident. He believed this until Rubeus Hagrid revealed the truth to him on his eleventh birthday, over the Dursley's objections.

The Dursleys lived at 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey, and often went out of their way to keep their neighbours oblivious to anything odd about their family, usually explaining away anything odd by telling people that Harry was a delinquent who went to a reformatory school far away. Harry did occasionally update them about Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Because of their family connection to Harry and the danger of Voldemort using them to get to Harry, they were forced to go in hiding for their own safety for a period of time during the height of the Second Wizarding War.

Despite his mistreatment of Harry, Harry's cousin Dudley Dursley eventually came to regret his cruelty towards Harry, and the two reconciled later in life; this was mostly due to an incident in the summer before Harry's fifth year of schooling that involved him saving Dudley from a Dementor. The effect of the Dementor's powers forced Dudley to face the negative aspects of himself and prompted him to change his ways.

## Known family members

"*When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; The Dursleys were his only family.*"
— Harry Potter regarding his feelings towards the Dursleys[src]

 Petunia Dursley (née Evans)
 Vernon Dursley | Husband of Petunia and father of Dudley; director of a drill making company called Grunnings.

1. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `PS4`
2. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, Chapter 2 (*Aunt Marge's Big Mistake*)
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5. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*, Chapter 3 (*The Letters from No One*)
6. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `PS2`