SS Chapter 3

The Letters From No One

Summary:

Harry has been in his punishment and confined to his cupboard until the start of summer holidays, and now he is forced to venture outside of the Dursley house in order to avoid Dudley and his friends. July comes around and Harry receives a mysterious letter addressed to him, with the distinction of “the Cupboard Under the Stairs.” Before he can read it, Dudley screams that Harry has something and Vernon confiscates it immediately. He and Petunia are hysterical, especially as more letters begin to arrive.  Verin begins boarding up the house and slowly, as the week goes on, he starts to lose his nerve. On Sunday, however, he was most happy because there is “no post on Sundays.” But to his and Petunia’s horror the house is filled with letters, spewing out of the fireplace. At this, Vernon forces them all into the car and begins to drive in search of a place to escape the mysterious letters. He takes them to forests, fields, parking garages, hotels, and finally he finds the “perfect” hiding place. They are taken, by boat, off the mainland to an old, shabby shack on a rocky island in the middle of the sea. As the Dursleys slept, Harry laid awake watching Dudley’s wrist watch, as he remembered through all the chaos of leaving Privet Drive, that he would be turning 11 years old at midnight. The sea was crashing against rock and a storm had blown in, and as Harry counted down the seconds, there was a loud “BOOM.” Someone was trying to come in.

Initial Thoughts:

I love this chapter a lot! There are subtle elements that reference back to characters and places that many people do not realize. The main premise of this chapter is to show just how afraid of magic the Dursleys are, particularly Vernon, as he is not accustomed to it as Petunia had been. We’ve got Harry moved from his cupboard, to Dudley’s second bedroom, we see Dudley not get his way, and we see Vernon and Petunia have a secret that they do not want to share with either of the two boys. 

This is a shorter post as there will be a lot more to cover in the next chapter that will overlap! 

Smeltings Academy:

The Smeltings Academy is the alma mater of Vernon Dursley and the new school for Dudley and Piers Polkiss September 1991. The Smeltings motto is  Caveat Smeltonia, which means “Let Smeltonia Beware.”  The Smeltings’ school uniform comprises a  maroon blazer with orange knickerbockers and a flat, straw boater. To complete the ensemble each boy is to carry a knobbly stick, aptly named the Smelting stick, that was used for hitting each other with. This is supposed to prepare the Smeltings boys for the future.

The only known Smeltings alumni include Mr. Dursley, Dudley and Piers. We are not introduced to many staff members except for the school nurse, who, in Goblet of Fire, wrote the Dursleys a letter concerning the size of Dudley, and that the school does not stock uniform articles that will fit him. This led to Dudley’s diet and eventually led to his boxing career at Smetlings. 

Number 4 Privet Drive:

4 Privet Drive is the home of the Dursleys and Harry Potter. It is located in the little village of Little Whinging, in the county of Surrey, which is located in southeast England, not far from London. The Dursleys purchased the house in 1977 and lived there all the way to 1997, when they were forced to leave due to the dangers that were posed from Voldemort’s return and the breaking of the protection after Harry came of age.

4 Privet Drive was always kept in complete order, Aunt Petunia saw to that. The house has 4 bedrooms; one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for Dudley, one for  guests, and one for Harry, which used to be Dudley’s second bedroom. Initially, as we know from the last chapter, Harry was housed in the cupboard under the stairs. The living room was neatly kept and the kitchen gleamed. The Gardens in the front and back of the house were pristine and well-tended, except in 1995 when there was the severe drought that banned the use of hose pipes.

Cokeworth:

This is a quite subtle bit of world building that never made it directly in the books! Cokeworth is a large town in the midlands of England. Uncle Veron takes the family here on his quest to find a safe space away from the “letters from no one” that Harry had been receiving in this chapter. He was hoping to avoid the magical world here. But it was in vain, as the letters found them wherever they went. But Cokesworth is an interesting choice for Veron Dursley to make in the way of hiding from magic. 

In an interview during the press release for the Pottermore site, J.K. Rowling reveals to us that the Evanses lived in the town of Cokeworth. But who are the Evanses, and why do they matter? Evans is the maiden name of Aunt Petunia; it is also the maiden name of Lily Potter, Harry’s mother. For this reason, Cokeworth is a strange choice for Vernon to make to hide from magic because that town already has known witches and wizards. But Lily Potter (Evans) is dead, so there aren’t any more witches and wizards in the area?

There is one other wizard still in Cokeworth. On the deserted looking street of Spinner’s End, Severus Snape took up residence in what we can assume was his childhood home. We are first made aware of this in Half Blood Prince, as we see Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange visiting Snape in hopes of helping Draco with the task set by Voldemort. The next time that we are made aware of the connection between the Evanses and Snape is in Deathly Hallows, when Harry revisits the town in several of Snape’s memories. 

Wrap It Up:

This chapter has themes that overlap with chapter 4, and I intend to highlight them in the following post! The Letters From No One  has so many great pieces to dissect and it is important to highlight the most subtle and unknown piece of information, and that is Cokeworth. The connection to Lily and Snape and Petunia are already here. We hear about the main place that joins them in a fleeting couple of paragraphs. We also get to see just how awful the Dursleys are; they give Harry a cupboard and Dudley 2 out of 4 bedrooms. 

Harry never complained and never fought about this, and even when he was moved to Dudley’s second bedroom, he rather have been in the cupboard with one of his letters. It’s hard to imagine how much neglect Harry must have received for nearly 10 years of his life and I am so excited that we get to start creeping passed the threshold from the non-magical world to the magical world in the next chapter!