Dudley Dursley never got much attention in the Harry Potter movies, which meant the most intriguing mystery regarding his character was completely ignored. Though never a main character, Dudley did have something of an individual arc in the Harry Potter books. In the end, Harry’s cousin even made clumsy amends for his bullying over the years. Dudley realized that Harry had saved his life during the dementor attack in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and, therefore, gained a renewed appreciation for him. However, that wasn’t all that happened during this scene at Privet Drive.
When Harry and Dudley first returned to the Dursley home after the dementor attack in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the Muggle boy still believed that his cousin had attacked him. It wasn’t until Harry explained about the dementors that Dudley realized he had been attacked by a terrible beast and that Harry was the reason his soul was still in his body. Of course, Harry had no idea that the dementor attack had so changed his cousin. However, there is a moment in the Order of the Phoenix book in which Harry ponders (but never solves) a mystery involving Dudley.
Dudley Heard Something During The Dementor Attack That Changed Everything
Harry Became Curious What Dudley’s Worst Memory Could Be
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In the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book, Dudley explains to his parents what he experienced when the dementors attacked. He said everything went dark and that he began hearing “things” inside his head. This greatly disturbed Vernon and Petunia, but Harry was immediately intrigued. He knew that dementors forced a person to experience their worst memories. Since Harry had always considered Dudley’s life perfect, he couldn’t imagine what it would have been that his cousin would hear:
“But Dudley seemed incapable of saying. He shuddered again and shook his large blond head, and despite the sense of numb dread that had settled on Harry since the arrival of the first owl, he felt a certain curiosity. Dementors caused a person to relive the worst mements of their life…. What would spoiled, pampered, bullying Dudley have been forced to hear?”
The topic of what Dudley heard during the dementor attack was never brought up again in the Harry Potter books, and the next time this character was brought into any focus, it was during his big goodbye in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. However, the fact that author J.K. Rowling wrote this indicates that she knew precisely what Dudley had experienced. It’s not a mystery ever solved on the page, but it’s a detail that must have contributed to the change in Dudley’s character during the following two books. Of course, the Harry Potter movies cut all this nuance—but the books might have contained more clues.
This moment comes from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , chapter 2: “A Peck of Owls.”
The Harry Potter Books Might Have Contained Subtle Clues About Dudley’s Worst Memory
Dudley’s Memory Must Have Involved Petunia
This chapter in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was the first time that Harry ever considered that Dudley’s life might not have been perfect. As it is, this wasn’t his only revelation. Harry mentions several times during this sequence that the dementors coming to Little Whinging had caused his two worlds—magical and Muggle—to collide. After telling his aunt and uncle that the dementors had attacked because Voldemort had returned, Harry noticed the terror and fear on Petunia’s face, which jolted him. For the first time, he realized that Petunia had been more affected by Lily’s death than she had let on:
“She was looking at Harry as she had never looked at him before. And all of a sudden, for the very first time in his life, Harry fully appreciated that Aunt Petunia was his mother’s sister. He could not have said why this hit him so very powerfully at this moment. All he knew was that he was not the only person in the room who had an inkling of what Lord Voldemort being back might mean. Aunt Petunia had never in her life looked at him like that before. Her large, pale eyes (so unlike her sister’s) were not narrowed in dislike or anger: They were wide and fearful. The furious pretence that Aunt Petunia had maintained all Harry’s life — that there was no magic and no world other than the world she inhabited with Uncle Vernon — seemed to have fallen away.”
Harry realizes in this chapter that Petunia has been putting on a show all these years. She had pretended the magical world didn’t exist and that she hadn’t cared about her sister’s death, but that wasn’t true. The fact that this information was presented in the same chapter in which Harry became curious about what Dudley heard from the dementor is likely not a coincidence (literature rarely contains coincidences). Therefore, Petunia’s secret fear and pain that resulted from Lily Potter’s murder may have something to do with this Dudley mystery.
When Harry is around a dementor, he hears his mother dying—a memory from when he was only a baby. It could be fitting, therefore, that when Dudley is around a dementor, he hears his own mother reacting to the news that her sister has been murdered. Petunia would never have allowed Uncle Vernon to see her pain, but perhaps she would have allowed herself to break and mourn when she thought no one but her toddler (whom she would think wouldn’t remember anyway) was around. These long-suppressed tears and screams would have been frightening and terrible to the young boy.
Surely, reliving the moment in which he heard his mother’s mournful screams over Lily’s death would change Dudley’s perspective on Harry.
Surely, reliving the moment in which he heard his mother’s mournful screams over Lily’s death would change Dudley’s perspective on Harry. Over the next couple of years of reflection, he might have realized that his life had never been what he thought. Though dense, even Dudley could eventually understand that his family had abused Harry, not because the boy was bad, but because of all that suppressed pain.
The Harry Potter Movies Completely Cut The Consequences Of The Dementor Attack
Dudley’s Whole Story Was Neglected
Though Dudley could have seen and heard any number of things when the dementor attacked him, it makes sense that it would have something to do with Harry and Petunia. The combination of Harry saving his life and the realization that his mother had been taking her grief out on Lily’s son would surely have been enough to make Dudley rethink his behavior. So, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Dudley shook Harry’s hand when they said their goodbyes, passively apologizing for how he had treated him all those years. It’s an impactful story, but the Harry Potter movies missed it entirely.
In fact, the Harry Potter movies completely missed all the consequences of the dementor attack, aside from Harry’s near expulsion. This moment really shook the Dursley household and showed Harry a side of his aunt he had never seen before. Petunia never earned any redemption—her treatment of Harry was far too extreme for that. However, she and Dudley went from comically horrible relatives to individual characters vicariously harmed by Voldemort’s crimes. The Harry Potter movies left them one-note, but the books revealed that they were far more complex than that.