Rita Skeeter

The following are supporting characters in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling. For members of the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore's Army, Hogwarts staff, Ministry of Magic, or for Death Eaters, see the respective articles.

The Dursley family are Harry Potter's last living relatives. To ensure Harry's safety, Albus Dumbledore placed him in the Dursleys' care when he was a baby. The Dursleys live at Number 4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging in Surrey, England. They are all Muggles, and despise all things related to magic – and anything out of the ordinary in general – and the Wizarding World, especially the Potters.

Dursley is a small town in Gloucestershire, near Rowling's birthplace.

Vernon Dursley is Harry's uncle, Petunia's husband (and therefore Lily Potter's brother-in-law), Dudley's father and Marge's brother. Vernon is described as a big, beefy man, the literal human embodiment of a walrus, with hardly any neck, and a large moustache. He is very much the head of his family, laying down most of the rules for Harry and doing most of the threatening, as well as spoiling Dudley. He is also the director of a drill-making firm, Grunnings, and seems to be quite successful in his career. He regularly reads the Daily Mail.

Uncle Vernon and his wife have grudgingly raised Harry from an early age. He and Petunia were often hostile to Harry and never informed him about the magical world, including how his parents died; they explained it away as a car crash. Unlike Petunia, who proves to have a slight feeling of familial loyalty to Harry, Vernon seems to hate his nephew so much that in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, he is willing to throw him out of the house, knowing that doing so would put him in grave danger. In fact, while discussing the Dementor attack with Harry, Vernon actually hopes aloud that Harry will receive the death penalty. Vernon also has an aversion to imagination, to any references to magic, and anything even slightly out of the ordinary; in the first book, when Harry mentions dreaming about a flying motorbike, Vernon responds by angrily bellowing that motorbikes do not fly, despite Harry's protests that it was only a dream.

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