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JK Rowling reveals the secrets of the Dursleys

IN their own way, they made Harry Potter’s life as miserable as Severus Snape tried to – if not more so.

But until now little has been known of Petunia and Vernon Dursley, apart from their hatred of magic and Petunia’s burning jealousy of Harry’s mother - her sister Lily.

Now JK Rowling has helped fill in the blanks, and revealed some of the background into Harry’s strained relationship with his aunt and uncle.

She has published the Dursleys’ backstory, the couple into whose care Harry was entrusted as a baby – and who made the first 13 years of his life hellish.

The background was released on Pottermore by the author on Tuesday, along with new interactive sections of Deathly Hallows, the final Harry Potter book,

The Pottermore website explores the unknown parts of the series and re-tells Harry Potter’s story in an interactive way.

Rowling’s latest writings reveal how she came up with the Dursleys’ names and the background of their relationship with Harry’s parents.

She said she didn’t need to give much thought to picking out the Dursleys’ names: ‘Vernon is simply a name I never much cared for. Petunia is the name that I always gave unpleasant female characters in games of make believe I played with my sister, Di, when we were very young.’

And she said that the names for the unlikeable characters stuck straight away: 'Vernon and Petunia were so-called from their creation, and never went through a number of trial names, as so many other characters did.’

Initially Vernon took the news of his sister-in-law’s magical abilities surprisingly well, Rowling revealed: 'Vernon, as Petunia had expected, was deeply shocked; however, he told Petunia solemnly that he would never hold it against her that she had a freak for a sister, and Petunia threw herself upon him in such violent gratitude that he dropped his battered sausage.’

But when Vernon first met Harry’s father James, as one might expect he tried a game of one-upmanship: 'Vernon tried to patronise James, asking what car he drove. James described his racing broom. Vernon supposed out loud that wizards had to live on unemployment benefit.’

Vernon and Petunia’s courtship, Rowling revealed, had been suitably dull and as you would expect if a family riven with jealousy, there were issues surrounding the wedding.

'Petunia did not want Lily as a bridesmaid, because she was tired of being overshadowed; Lily was hurt. Vernon refused to speak to James at the reception, but described him, within James’ earshot, as ‘some kind of amateur magician’.

Petunia severed ties with her sister after the wedding. After Lily’s death, she felt compelled to take Harry in out of affection for her late sister.

But showing that Petunia was not all bad, her final farewell with Harry hinted at a softer side to his aunt. Rowling said: 'I wanted to suggest, in the final book, that something decent (a long-forgotten but dimly burning love of her sister; the realisation 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.’