The Letters from No One
*This post contains spoilers for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and the Harry Potter Series.
Chapter Summary:
The summer holidays have started and Harry is doing his best to avoid Dudley and his gang of friends.
While Dudley and Petunia went to London, Harry even had a pleasant day with Mrs. Figg.
Harry is pleased that he and Dudley will be attending different schools after the break. Dudley will be going to Smeltings, a private school that Vernon attended. Harry will be attending the local public school that Dudley deems as a laughable option of a school.
One morning, Harry gets the mail and finds something peculiar… a letter addressed to him.
“Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him.Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives…Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake.”
Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone
Before he could read the contents, Uncle Vernon grabbed the letter out of his hand and began to panic. Vernon and Petunia kicked the two boys out of the room to have a private conversation. Not wanting to miss out on anything Dudley and Harry listened through the door. Unfortunately, all they heard was Vernon and Petunia agreeing to ignore the letter.
That night, Harry confronted Uncle Vernon who told him he destroyed the letter and that it was sent to him by accident.
However, something good comes out of the interaction. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia seemed scared that the letter was addressed to Harry and specifically called out his bedroom as “the cupboard under the stairs”. Because of this they tell Harry that he will be moving into Dudley’s second bedroom to the dismay of Dudley.
The following day another letter came updated with Harry’s new bedroom on the address. Yet again the letter was destroyed.
The day after that, Harry crept downstairs in the hopes of catching the mailman down the road, only to find Uncle Vernon sleeping in front of the door seemingly to prevent such a thing. Still…three letters arrived that day…and three were destroyed. Uncle Vernon even nailed the mail slot shut to avoid delivery.
On Friday, twelve letters arrived shoved under the door and slipped through the bathroom window. More construction was done to board up cracks that letters could possibly slip through.
On Saturday, twenty four letters were somehow placed into two dozen eggs.
On Sunday, Uncle Vernon felt he could finally relax as the mail does not get delivered on Sundays. However, a rush of letters flooded the living room through the chimney desperate to be delivered to Harry. Uncle Vernon finally snapped telling his family to pack a bag as they were leaving the house.
After some time of driving they settled into a hotel where the letters still managed to arrive addressed to Harry.
Another day of driving when Harry realized that the following day would be his 11th birthday.
Uncle Vernon settled on the perfect place for them to stay the night. A small island with a singular shack that could only be reached by a boat navigating stormy waters.
Harry settled in for the night on the softest spot on the floor of the shack counting down the minutes until his birthday.
The wind howled and the waves crashed but the largest boom came from someone knocking loudly on the door.
*Spoiler reminder. If you do not want aspects of the Harry Potter series ruined for you, do not read below. Discussions about future stories and characters take place.
Hogwarts Letters
It is very common for those of us that enjoy this series to joke about not getting our Hogwarts letter. It has become a bit to say that they got lost or stolen and we are stuck living our Muggle lives because of it.
Getting this letter seems like such a small part of Harry’s journey but it is the catalyst for everything that he is going to experience in his life moving forward. Because of this letter he meets his best friend and ultimately the girl he marries. He can escape from the awful life the Dursley’s have given him and experience the life he was meant to. He is going to realize that magic is real and things he could never have imagined are possible. He will also, finally learn who he really is.
It also brings into Harry’s life all the negative things that are to come. This brings people into his life who he forms deep bonds with people that are going to die. He is going to have to face tasks that he could never even imagine. Mostly, he is going to have to fight the biggest evil that the Wizarding World has even seen and he will have to sacrifice himself (only to be in a way “resurrected”).
Harry has been living in this normal bubble for eleven years and this one letter changes everything.
The Dursley’s Failed to Stop Magic
Vernon and Petunia foolishly believed that they could ignore anything magical and make Harry “normal”. From Petunia’s standpoint, I believe that this was partially due to the fact that magic took her sister away from her. Her sister got to go to Hogwarts and have adventures leaving her behind. Magic is also the reason that her sister died. From where she stands, magic is the reason for everything terrible in her life. Vernon is just a hateful person who doesn’t like anyone different from what he believes society should be.
For the most part, the Dursley’s were able to dismiss any magic that Harry showed. They made up excuses for the odd occurrences that he experienced and squashed any curiosities he had.
These letters started off like anything else. They were able to destroy them and keep them out of Harry’s hands. If he doesn’t read the letter, he will never know. However, they become more persistent and more obnoxious where Harry was never going to let them go. They also were not going to stop until finally being delivered to Harry.
The Durlsey’s are forced to face magic and that it is back into their lives to stay.
A Small Interaction with Mrs. Figg
I love the fact that Harry got to see Mrs. Figg one more time before heading to Hogwarts. Harry doesn’t know that she has been keeping an eye on him his entire life. I would like to think that she was so excited to see him. Harry describes the day as not “as bad as usual”. She still has to pretend to play he part but she is probably just so happy to see him getting out of that house.
I think Mrs. Figg is a super underrated character and love to find little instances of her throughout the series.
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