Dursley family

> "*Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.*"
> ― Description of the Dursleys[source]
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**Dursley** was the surname of a Muggle family, the only known living close relatives of Harry Potter. Petunia Dursley (Evans) was the older sister of Harry's mother, Lily Potter (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[source]
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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 Lily's maternal sacrifice for Harry would be transmitted through Petunia, even though she held Harry in contempt. Due to his wizarding background, Harry was treated with fear and negligence by the Dursleys; originally being kept oblivious to his wizarding heritage, and being told that his parents had died in a car accident.

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 detention 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.

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

## Etymology

Dursley is a town in Gloucestershire, England. J. K. Rowling has never visited Dursley, but she grew up not too far away from the town and used the name as she found it interesting.