JK Rowling Dursley Family Harry Potter Story – Refinery29

The most revealing of which centers on Dudley’s equally terrible parents, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. They even nearly tore up Harry’s birth announcement.

According to Rowling, she chose the name Vernon simply because she didn’t like it, while Petunia was a name she and her sister used to give “unpleasant characters in games of make believe”.

The celebrated author unveiled Privet Drive’s most loathed residents, Petunia and Vernon Dursely’s secrets on her website, Pottermore. Fans should remember Dudley as the chubby and bad cousin of Harry Potter. There were no hatstalls in Harry’s class, although the hat did take a while to decide on Hermione (she was nearly in Ravenclaw, naturally) and Neville Longbottom (almost a Hufflepuff, but we’re pretty sure he proved his proper Gryffindor status a few times over). “James described his racing broom”. ““Petunia didn’t want Lily as a bridesmaid, because she was weary of being overshadowed”, Rowling wrote.

Initially Vernon took the news of his sister-in-law’s magical abilities surprisingly well, Rowling revealed: ‘Vernon, as Petunia had expected, was deeply shocked; however, he told Petunia solemnly that he would never hold it against her that she had a freak for a sister, and Petunia threw herself upon him in such violent gratitude that he dropped his battered sausage.’

. “Vernon tried to patronize James, asking what auto he drove”.

The British author went on to explain her inspiration for the characters, writing that “Vernon and Petunia were so-called from their creation, and never went through a number of trial names, as so many other characters did”.

When Vernon couldn’t figure out if he was being made fun of or not, he got increasingly mad and eventually he and Petunia stormed out of the restaurant leaving Lily in tears. Rowling explained how she picked the name for Harry’s Aunt and Uncle. When the family is leaving, Rowling’s book reads that “for a moment Harry had the strangest feeling that [Petunia] wanted to say something to him: she gave him an odd, tremulous look and seemed to teeter on the edge of speech, but then, with a tiny jerk of her head, she bustled out of the room”. Rowling explains that Vernon’s dislike for Harry “stems in part, like Severus Snape’s, from Harry’s close resemblance to the father they both so disliked”.

Fans of the series will be pleased to know that Rowling will revisit the Potter universe yet again, to produce and pen the script for the upcoming spin-off Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, which is set to star Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne and Katherine Waterston.