There are several interesting details about the "Harry Potter" series that J.K. Rowling just revealed on Pottermore in honor of Dudley Dursley's birthday on June 23.
The author gave extra insight on the Dursley family's backstory, including the names of Vernon and Petunia, as well as their relationship with Harry's parents James and Lily.
According to Rowling, she chose the name Vernon simply because she did not like it, while Petunia was a name she and her sister used to give "unpleasant characters in games of make believe." Their last name "Dursley" was "taken from the eponymous town in Gloucestershire," which she writes is more about "the sound of the word rather than any association with the place."
She also said that when Vernon and Petunia got engaged, Petunia's biggest concern was what Vernon would think of her sister and James, who were already in theri final year at Hogwarts at the time. She was right for worrying, since their first meeting was disastrous.
"Vernon tried to patronise James, asking what car he drove," to which James "described his racing broom." When James tried to explain Gringotts, Vernon felt he was being mocked and so the Dursleys stormed out of the restaurant.
At the same time, Petunia did not go to Lily's wedding, and vice versa. " " Petunia did not want Lily as a bridesmaid, because she was tired of being overshadowed," Rowling wrote. The last communication the sisters had was about Harry's birth.
Rowling also revealed that Vernon and Severus Snape both had the same reason why they disliked Harry so much. His dislike "stems in part, like Severus Snape's, from Harry's close resemblance to the father they both so disliked."
One of the biggest revelations of Rowling's new material was that Petunia harbored feelings of guilt over how her relationship with her sister ended. There were a lot of people who wished she showed some warmth towards her nephew during their final goodbye, but the author chose to let the character "behave in a way that is most consistent with her thoughts and feelings throughout the previous seven books."
"I wanted to suggest, in the final book, that something decent (a long-forgotten but dimly burning love of her sister, the realization that she might never see Lily's eyes again) almost struggled out of Aunt Petunia when she said goodbye to Harry for the last time, but that she is not able to admit to it, or show those long-buried feelings," she wrote.
