Petunia’s animosity against Harry was probably a result of her long-standing envy of Lily, her magical sister. Remember my last,” read a Howler from Dumbledore addressed to Petunia. He was likely referring to the letter he left with baby Harry on Privet Drive’s front step. Albus had another motivation to write, though, and this one had far-reaching repercussions.
When Petunia wrote to the headmaster of Hogwarts as a young girl pleading to be admitted, he sent her a sympathetic reply. Dumbledore’s tactful rejection caused “Tuney” to start calling her sister a “weird.”
Petunia was disappointed and resentful, so she watched Lily and Snape as they become close friends and learned bits and pieces about the wizarding world she would never be able to enter.
Harry was more shocked than Uncle Vernon to hear Petunia mention “Azkaban” as she spat out a competent description of a Dementor. Even Petunia, who was so determined to despise the magic she never experienced, was horrified to learn of Voldemort’s reappearance; this was the one time Harry genuinely realized she was her mother’s sister.
Although she may have given Harry a place to grow up, it was obvious that Petunia’s unfulfilled magical aspirations were likely what made her the person she was—someone who was more concerned with the surgical cleanliness of her counters than the welfare of her sister’s son.
She paused briefly as she bid Harry farewell, as if to say something. Of course, she never did, but that shaky second revealed a lot about her character.
Whoever sent the howler could remember my previous Petunia?
Because she lacks magical skills, Harry’s aunt Petunia believes her nephew is a freak. Despite the fact that she and her husband have “raised” Harry since he was a baby and have hosted him every summer since he enrolled at Hogwarts, they detest him and wish he weren’t connected to them.
Most of Aunt Petunia’s actions in Book 5 are consistent with the racist, emotionally abusive foolishness she usually engages in. She continues to treat Harry like he is an embarrassing secret that the Dursleys are forced to keep hidden. However, she makes a fascinating character development that starts to make Aunt Petunia appear more human and less cartoonishly nasty and foolish. Harry informs his enraged aunt and uncle that Voldemort is returning after she almost loses her son to demonic attacks. In fact, Harry’s mother Lily’s sister, his aunt Petunia, truly appears to understand what that means:
She was gazing at Harry as if it was the first time she had ever done so. Harry suddenly understood, for the first time in his life, that Aunt Petunia was his mother’s sister. He was unable to express why this struck him so forcefully at the time. He only knew that other people in the space shared his suspicions about what Lord Voldemort’s return may entail. […] The vehement denial that Aunt Petunia had upheld during Harry’s entire life—that there was no magic and no other world save the one she shared with Uncle Vernon—seemed to have crumbled. (2.194)
Harry and Aunt Petunia share a moment of unexpected understanding when Harry suddenly realizes that his mother, who was killed by Voldemort, was also her sister. This moment serves as a reminder that the two worlds Harry lives in aren’t entirely separable. Beginning with Book 1, the wizarding and Muggle worlds have entirely different appearances. But starting with Book 5, we begin to realize that there are Squibs and Muggleborn wizards in the Muggle world as well. As Voldemort rises, Muggles are no more protected than magical beings, and Aunt Petunia appears to be aware that the line dividing the magic and non-magical realms is beginning to blur.
Of course, having Harry inside her house puts her entire family’s safety at danger. In order to prevent Voldemort from finding them, Uncle Vernon tries to kick Harry out of the house in Chapter 2. However, Aunt Petunia gets a unique enchanted letter from Howler that just says, “Remember my last, Petunia” (2.217). By the end of Book 5, Harry learns that Professor Dumbledore sent this Howler to remind Aunt Petunia of her promise to provide Harry with a place to reside. Uncle Petunia’s connection to Lily, who was murdered by Voldemort out of love for Harry, offers Harry a unique, age-old magical shield. As long as Harry is living with Lily’s blood relatives, Voldemort will not be able to discover him. So even though they don’t want to, the Dursleys still let Harry into their household. For the first several years of his life, Harry is kept secure thanks to this power.
Aunt Petunia, was she a dud?
“Good question,” Rowling responded when the reader inquired if Aunt Petunia was a Squib, a non-magical person born to at least one magical parent. She is not a Squib, so no, she is not. Her race is Muggle.
In Order of the Phoenix, who was it that sent Harry dementors?
Madam Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge sent two Azkaban Dementors to Little Whinging to silence Harry Potter because she wanted to cast doubt on him. Harry was able to save himself and his cousin by using a physical Patronus to drive the Azkaban guards away, but the Ministry nonetheless punished him.
Did Petunia attend Harry’s nuptials?
“Large and neckless, this young businessman seemed to young Petunia a picture of manliness.”
“Petunia accepted right away when Vernon Dursley quite appropriately proposed marriage in his mother’s sitting room at the appropriate time.”
He solemnly assured Petunia that he would never hold that fact against her for having a weirdo for a sister.
Petunia had also long had the wish—which she never confided to Vernon—that one day, she too would exhibit magical abilities and be whisked away to Hogwarts.
The Dursleys’ names were chosen by J.K. Rowling because she believed they had an unpleasant sound.
“Vernon” is just a name I’ve never given much thought to, wrote Rowling. In make-believe games I played with my sister, I always called disagreeable female characters “Petunia.”
“Although some readers desired more from Aunt Petunia during [Harry’s departure], I still believe that I had her act in a manner that is most consistent with her thoughts and sentiments throughout the previous seven volumes,” the author said.
Uncle Vernon never seemed to live up to expectations, so people weren’t upset.
Why did Cho tip Harry off?
The event was ruined by Cho’s ongoing grief over Cedric’s passing, her unfounded envy of Harry’s friendship with Hermione (who, paradoxically, tried to give Harry advice on how to handle girls), and Harry’s general lack of experience with girls. When Harry revealed that he would be meeting Hermione later that day, Cho grew envious. She then tried to ascertain Harry’s feelings for her by revealing that Roger Davies had asked her out, but this just confused Harry. After Harry declined to speak with her about Cedric’s passing, she broke down in tears.
Cho: “Hermione Granger pulled off a really terrible prank there. She ought to have informed us that she cursed that list.”
Mrs. Figg, was she a dud?
The Order of the Phoenix member Mrs. Arabella Doreen Figg was a Squib who sold hybrid cats and kneazles[3]. She had at least four part-kneazle cats named Mr. Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty that she owned and extensively documented. She resided on Wisteria Walk in Little Whinging in a home that smelled strongly of cabbage. [4] She used to babysit Harry Potter in the 1980s and early 1990s because she lived close by and Albus Dumbledore needed someone to watch out for him. Mrs. Figg kept her true identity a secret for the majority of Harry’s childhood because Dumbledore thought he was too young to understand his place in the wizarding world. Harry didn’t learn of Mrs. Figg’s connection to the wizarding world until 1995, when he and Dudley Dursley were attacked by dementors. Mrs. Figg did her best to encourage the Order, although it’s unlikely that she took part in the Battle of Hogwarts. She most likely made it through the conflict and carried on reproducing and exchanging part-kneazle cats.
Petunia, did you want to be a witch?
4. Petunia aspired to become a witch, according to Rowling: “Petunia had some hidden sentiments of guilt about the way she had severed her relationship with Lily, whom she knew, in her heart of hearts, had always loved her. She also claims that Petunia had a secret wish that she would exhibit magical abilities and be whisked away to Hogwarts.
Vernon, on the other hand, shares a detest of Harry with a Hogwarts student. Harry’s likeness to the father Uncle Vernon and Severus Snape both detested is a contributing factor in Uncle Vernon’s disdain of him, according to Rowling.
5. J.K. Rowling explains how she came to choose the names of the Dursley family: “‘Vernon’ is just a name I never much liked, she says, adding that she always meant for them to be their names, even if she spent time exploring various names for other characters.
“When my sister Di and I were very little, I usually called terrible female characters that we would play make-believe games with the name “Petunia.
6. Hagrid and Dumble are named very specifically: Rubeus Hagrid and Albus Dumbledore were taken from the words “red and “white, two hues frequently connected with alchemy, whereas Petunia and Vernon may have been given names based on instinct. While Dumbledore is white, which is majestic and intelligent, Hagrid is red, which is warm and wild.
Why wasn’t Petunia permitted to enroll at Hogwarts?
Petunia had a sister named Lily and was the oldest child of Muggles Mr. and Mrs. Evans. However, Lily possessed many unusual skills, such as the ability to move a flower’s petals without touching them, which her sister observed with a mix of envy and disapproval. These feelings were heightened as Petunia’s parents continued to compliment Lily on her magical skills, which made her even more envious. [4]
Severus Snape was a young kid who also resided in the town of Cokeworth[6], and the two (Petunia and Snape) viewed one another with contempt. But Lily was fascinated by Snape, and they quickly grew close. Later, Snape also started to develop feelings for Lily,[4] which Petunia may or may not have known about. If she did, it was probably because she disapproved of it.
Petunia asked Albus Dumbledore whether she might study there when Lily got a letter from Hogwarts certifying that she was a witch. Even though Dumbledore answered warmly, Petunia felt betrayed and left out when he said that she could not attend Hogwarts because she is a Muggle. Since then, Petunia has avoided magic and the wizarding community and has repeatedly referred to Lily as a “freak.” [4]
Marriage
“When Vernon Dursley eventually got down on one knee in his mother’s living room to propose marriage, Petunia accepted right away. The only thorn in her otherwise perfect plan was her worry for her sister, who was now in her final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and what her new fianc would think of her.”
Is Lily’s cat named Crookshanks?
- When the group is in Grimmauld Place in The Deathly Hallows, Harry reads a letter that Lily wrote by hand. In the letter, she writes that they had a cat and that Harry almost ran over it with his toy broomstick. Harry even questions whether it was still alive after Voldemort’s attack.
- In Prisoner of Azkaban, the proprietor of the Magical Menagerie told Hermione that she had owned Crookshanks for “quite a while” and that no one had ever wanted him. This might fit with our earlier chronology where the cat vanished following Voldemort’s assault on the Potters’ home.
- Soon after Hermione purchases Crookshanks, he recognizes Scabbers and the shaggy dog as being Peter and Sirius, respectively. They would have frequently visited Lily and James while he was with them, according to the fan theory, which explains why Crookshanks recognized them both.
- Another well-liked idea holds that Nagini, who turns into Voldemort’s final horcrux, is actually the Boa Constrictor that Harry assisted in escaping in The Sorcerer’s Stone. This theory was probably born on Tumblr.
The fact that Nagini’s type of snake is not specified anywhere in the text is likely what gave rise to this fan idea. But that is unquestionably incorrect. just because Arthur Weasley’s attack is a blatant example of Nagini’s poisonous nature. This effectively disproves the notion because boa constrictors are not venomous. So the Boa Constrictor and Nagini are different.