Dudley Dursley

Dudley Dursley

Alias: Big D, Dud, Dudders, Duddy, Diddy, Dinky Duddydums, Ickle Diddykins, Ickle Dudleykins, and an assortment of other childish pet names from his mother.

Age: 16 (Born June 23, 1980)

Special Abilities: No magical abilities whatsoever, but in addition to his extreme knack for manipulating his parents, throwing tantrums, and gaining weight, Dudley is an accomplished boxer. By the summer of 1995 he had won the title Junior Heavyweight Inter-School Boxing Champion of the Southeast.

Distinguishing Characteristics: Dudley Dursley is and has always been a very portly boy. He has a large pink face with beady, watery blue eyes. Like his father, Dudley does not have much neck to speak of, and his several chins wobble constantly as he shovels food into his mouth. Dudley has thick blond hair that lies flat on top of his large head. He is a poor student and known bully. Although Dudley had always been big, he finally became so large by the end of the 1993-1994 school year that he was placed on a diet by his school nurse. It seemed there were simply no uniforms large enough to fit him, so Dudley was grudgingly forced into a strict regiment of diet and exercise. While Dudley remained large in spite of the diet and exercise, he managed to gain muscle as well as fat and discovered a talent for boxing. By the end of the 1994-1995 school year, Dudley had become the Junior Heavyweight Inter-School Boxing Champion of the Southeast.

Heritage: Muggle

Family: The only child of ultra-Muggle Vernon and Petunia Dursley, Dudley is as non-magical as possible. He is the maternal cousin of Harry Potter and one of Harry's few remaining relatives.

First Mention: Sorcerer's Stone/Philosopher's Stone, chapter one.

First Appearance: Sorcerer's Stone/Philosopher's Stone, chapter one.

General: Dudley Dursley is the spoiled, doted upon only child of Petunia and Vernon Dursley of 4 Privet Drive. Petunia and Vernon, so quick to find fault in others, are unable to see anything but good in their bullying son Dudley, spoiling him with food, material possessions, and attention. Because of their desire to give Dudley anything and everything he wanted, Dudley quickly became an intolerably selfish and corpulent child. He learned how to manipulate his parents by throwing tantrums and pretending to cry. He also learned that they would believe nearly anything he told them, no matter how much evidence there was to the contrary. This led him to become a dismal student with behavioral and weight problems, problems his parents quickly excused away. Left to his own devices by his parents' denial, Dudley and his gang became infamous among their peers, and nobody seemed keen to get on their bad side.

Dudley was a little over a year old when his maternal cousin, Harry Potter, came to live with the Dursleys. Harry, small and skinny, quickly became Dudley's first punching bag. Vernon and Petunia mistreated Harry because they suspected he would be a wizard like his parents, and although Dudley was unaware of Harry's magical background and abilities, his parents turned a blind eye as Dudley bullied Harry mercilessly for the first ten years Harry lived with them. Harry was not without recourse, though, and even though he didn't realize what he was doing at the time, he accidentally released a boa constrictor on Dudley during Dudley's eleventh birthday trip to the zoo.

Dudley started Smeltings secondary school in 1991 at the age of eleven, the same year Harry started Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Smeltings, the school Vernon had attended, required students to carry knobbly sticks and encouraged them to use these sticks to hit their fellow students when the teachers weren't looking. This practice did nothing to rid Dudley of his bullying tendencies, and within a year, Vernon and Petunia were receiving notes about Dudley's bullying behavior. These notes were completely ignored.

After the incident with the snake, Dudley has always come off the worse for wear after encounters with the magical world. The first adult wizard he ever met was half-giant Rudeus Hagrid when Dudley was eleven years old. After arguing with the Dursleys, Hagrid hit Dudley with a spell that made a curly pig's tail poke through the seat of Dudley's trousers. This tail had to be surgically removed in a discreet hospital before Dudley could attend school that fall. This encounter served to further the Dursleys' mistrust and hatred of the magical world.

When Dudley was thirteen years old he complained so loudly about the walk between the television in the sitting room and the refrigerator in the kitchen that his parents bought him a television for the kitchen so he could eat constantly without interrupting his favorite shows. Needless to say, the loss of what little physical activity Dudley did incur while walking back and forth between the two rooms caused him to gain even more weight. That same summer, Dudley watched as Harry lost control of his temper and inflated Vernon's sister, Marge, before running away. This gave Dudley an even greater fear of his cousin than he had had since originally learning of Harry's magical abilities.

At age fourteen, Dudley had yet another negative encounter with wizards. Fred and George Weasley, who accompanied their father to Privet Drive to fetch Harry for the Quidditch World Cup final, decided to have a bit of fun at Dudley's expense. Dudley had been put on a strict diet by the Smeltings school nurse at the end of the previous school year. In an effort to cheer her son, Petunia had placed the entire family on a diet, yet Dudley constantly tried to sneak sweets past his mother's watchful eyes. When Fred purposely dropped a bag of brightly colored toffees all over the Dursleys' floor, the temptation was far too great for Dudley to resist. He grabbed one of the toffees and ate it, not realizing it had had an Engorgement Charm placed on it. Within a matter of seconds, Dudley's tongue had enlarged by a foot. It was soon purple and protruding from his mouth, strangling him. Petunia, not realizing it was Dudley's tongue, threw herself on top of her son and tried desperately to wrench what she thought was a foreign object from his mouth. Unsurprisingly, this caused Dudley to choke even more. Mr. Weasley attempted to return Dudley's tongue to normal, but he had a difficult time doing so because of the elder Dursleys. Dodging the glass ornaments Vernon was throwing at him and trying to calm a hysterical Petunia, Mr. Weasley was eventually able to return Dudley's tongue to its normal size.

During the 1994-1995 school year, Dudley's dieting and exercise led him to discover a talent for boxing. Before the year was up he had been awarded the title Junior Heavyweight Inter-School Boxing Champion of the Southeast. If anything, Dudley's dexterity in the boxing ring made him an even bigger bully. He and his gang spent the summer of 1995 vandalizing the local play park, smoking on street corners, throwing stones at cars and children, and beating up younger boys. Petunia and Vernon were completely ignorant of their son's activities, thinking he was off having tea at friends' houses.

On the evening of August 2, 1995, Harry was taunting Dudley as they walked home together. As they were walking through an alley located between Magnolia Crescent and Wisteria Walk, about two streets away from Privet Drive, two dementors appeared and attacked the boys. Dudley, terrified and unable to see what was attacking them, ran blindly away from Harry. Harry conjured a Patronus to defend them against the dementors, but Dudley had very nearly received the Dementor's Kiss and was obviously shaken to his core. Harry half-carried, half dragged Dudley home, where he promptly vomited all over the doorstep and himself. Petunia and Vernon made over their shaking son, thinking he had been mugged, but when Dudley at last found his voice he implicated Harry in what had happened to him. Although it is unlikely Dudley could see the dementors, he described the effect they had on him to a fault. What Dudley saw or heard when the dementors got close to him is unknown, but it was enough to upset him greatly.

Dudley has not lost his fear of the magical world. If anything, his misgivings have grown in the seven years since his first encounter with Rubeus Hagrid. What will become of Dudley and his parents once Harry is no longer forced to stay with them is unknown.