Dudley Dursley[edit]

Dudley Dursley is the child of Vernon and Petunia Dursley and Harry's only cousin. Described as a
very large, blond boy (though dark-haired in the films), Dudley is given his way in almost everything,
and shows the symptoms of a spoiled brat. Dudley is a cold-hearted bully and the leader of a gang
of thugs with whom he regularly beats up Harry and younger children on the flimsiest of excuses.
For this purpose, he is described early in the first novel as the reason for Harry being friendless
before enrolling at Hogwarts, as even though Harry was good at sports and got good grades, he was
the favorite victim of Dudley's bullying, rendering classmates too scared to admit to liking him. He is
only one month older than Harry, meaning that his birthday must be sometime in late June. The
same year Harry starts at Hogwarts, Dudley is enrolled at his father's old private boarding school,
Smeltings.
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Dudley is given a pig's tail by Rubeus Hagrid which has
to be removed at a private hospital in London. In Goblet of Fire, the Smeltings school nurse advises
the Dursleys to put him on a strict diet. During the summer when this diet is enforced, the Weasleys
arrive at Number 4, Privet Drive to pick Harry up for the Quidditch World Cup, and Fred
Weasley "accidentally" drops a Ton-Tongue Toffee, which enlarges Dudley's tongue to four feet long
before his hysterical mother reluctantly allows Arthur Weasley to shrink it. By the start of Order of the
Phoenix, Dudley has been on his diet for a year, taken up boxing, and become a regional inter-
school champion.
In the fifth book, two Dementors attack Dudley and Harry in an alley. Dudley collapses, and Harry
uses the Patronus to drive a group of Dementors away from himself and his cousin. Mrs. Figg, their
neighbour, then comes running in and reveals she is a Squib by talking about Dementors. Harry and
Mrs. Figg carry the shaken Dudley home, though Dudley is convinced that Harry made the
Dementors appear in the first place. After the confrontation, Harry wonders what sort of bad
memories Dudley could have relived, as Dementors force people to relive their worst experiences.
Rowling later revealed, in an on-line chat, that Dudley's worst fear was seeing himself for who he
really was: a cruel, selfish, violent bully with no feelings whatsoever for others, and this revelation
shocked him to the core.[1] The experience does give Dudley a more favourable impression of Harry,
as seen in Deathly Hallows, when Dudley is the only member of the family to accept Harry: he
shakes his hand and thanks him for saving his soul from the Dementor attack, and shows some
concern for him when the Dursleys leave to go into hiding. In his appreciation of his cousin's belated
gratitude, Harry says good-bye to him using Dudley's former nickname, "Big D". In the film version,
however, there is no such sentiment as Dudley leaves Harry before he can say any final words;
however, on the Blu-ray/DVD release, a deleted scene includes the reconciliation between the two
cousins.[