The Letters from No One: In Depth
Again, there are no new characters introduced in the Letters to No One, but a lot of important events. In this chapter Harry is mentioned leaving the house all day sometimes to hide from Dudley & his gang. In future chapters and the subsequent books we see him sparring most often with Draco who is a villian in the exact opposite way of Dudley. While he is still a bully, he uses his brain and the brawn of his flunkies to do the bullying. Dudley is not smart enough for that, and I think if he had had magic in him he would have ended up being a hanger on, similar to Crabbe and Goyle, except scorned even by them for his Muggle parentage.
We are also introduced to Uncle Vernon’s fear of the wizarding world. Not because of his running and hiding from the letters, although that is one of the symptoms. No, what I’m really referencing is his immediate move to put Harry in an actual bedroom. As soon as he realized that the people from this school know that Harry has been sleeping in the Cupboard under the stairs he moved him. His fear runs so deeply that he makes changes in his own household, giving the child that he dislikes so much, a room of his own. Throughout the series this fear, which mirrors his hatred of that same said world, increases exponentially. When Dudley is given the tail of a pig in the next chapter, Aunt Marge is blown up like a balloon, and he sees Harry, whom he has taken joy in abusing his entire life, become stronger every year, Uncle Vernon becomes more afraid. Yet in the end, in the very end, he allows his life, and that of his family, to be put into their hands. Because even though he fears them, I believe that he knows that they are mostly good people, perhaps better people than he is, and that they aren’t out to harm him…
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