Petunia, Vernon and Dudley Dursleys are about as Muggle as you can get. Totally against magic and everything to do with it, they hold a grudge against Petunia's sister, Lily Potter, who was sent as a young girl to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to learn to develop her skills as a witch. But their resolve never to have anything to do with magic is quickly put to the test when Lily and her husband James is murdered and their young son, Harry, is left on their front doorstop.
Harry grows up in a house where Dudley is clearly the favourite child. He is given everything - two bedrooms, loads of toys, all the food he can eat - and he's never snapped at, unlike poor Harry, who lives under the stairs and wears Dudley's massive old clothes. But worst of all is the fact that Petunia and Vernon never tell Harry of his magical parentage - in fact, he doesn't even have a clue that the magical world exsists. All he knows about his situation is that his parents died in a car crash when he was very young, and that is where the odd-shaped scar on his head came from.
But the most famous wizard in the world cannot stay in the dark about his magical powers for long, and on his 11th birthday Harry recieves a confirmation letter for his place at Hogwarts. Try as they might to keep the letter and the magical world away from Harry, the Dursleys fail when Hagrid, the Hogwart's gameskeeper, comes to get Harry himself. Hagrid tells Harry everything about his parents, and about what he really is - a wizard!
The Dursleys continue to be cold towards Harry whenever he arrives home for holidays from Hogwarts, but this time they know they cannot be too favouring of Dudley - after all, Harry does know magic!
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