Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, who lived at number 4 Privet Drive, proudly claimed to be perfectly normal people, nothing more or less. They were the last people you would expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, simply because they themselves believed that such nonsense did not actually exist.

Mr. Dursley was a director at a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a tall, beefy man with hardly any neck, but he had a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was blonde and thin, and her neck was twice the usual length, which was very useful for her because she spent most of her time spying over garden fences and snooping on the neighbors. The Dursleys had a small son, Dudley, and they believed he was the best boy in the world.

The Dursleys had everything they wanted in life. But they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that someone would discover it. They believed they would not be able to bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they had not seen each other for several years. The truth was that Mrs. Dursley pretended she had no sister because her sister and her useless husband were completely different from the Dursleys.