Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

The snake’s escape brings on Harry’s longest punishment, ending as the summer holidays begin. Harry then spends as much time as possible out of the house, trying to avoid Dudley’s gang and thinking about the new school he will be attending in the fall. Dudley will be going to a different school, and this offers Harry a tiny ray of hope.

One day in July, Dudley parades around the living room in his new school uniform: maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, a flat straw hat, and a walking cane. Harry tries to stifle his laughter as Vernon and Petunia beam with pride at their son. The next day, Harry finds Petunia dyeing Dudley’s old clothes gray for Harry’s uniform. Harry worries that he will look like he’s wearing “bits of old elephant skin” on his first day of school.

As the family sits down for breakfast, the mail arrives. Vernon sends Harry to get it, and Harry realizes with excitement and wonder that there is a letter for him, addressed to “the cupboard under the stairs.” Harry starts to open it, but Dudley shouts that Harry has a letter, and Vernon promptly snatches it away. He reads it, his face turning red. Petunia then reads it and nearly faints. They yell at the boys to get out, though Harry furiously protests that he deserves to read the letter, as it was addressed directly to him.

Vernon throws Harry and Dudley out into the hall and slams the door. Harry listens to his and Petunia’s conversation, as they worry how someone might know where Harry sleeps in their house. Petunia says they should write back, but Vernon argues that they should ignore the letter. He reminds her that when they took Harry in, they swore they would “stamp out that dangerous nonsense.”

That evening, Harry again demands to see his letter. Instead, Vernon tells Harry that he’s getting too big for his cupboard, and he and Petunia want Harry to move into Dudley’s second bedroom, which Dudley has been using to store all of his toys. It takes Harry one trip to move everything he owns. Downstairs, he can hear Dudley bawling at the news. Harry sighs—he would rather be back in his cupboard with the letter than in a bedroom without it.

The next morning, another letter arrives for Harry, this time addressed to “the smallest bedroom.” Vernon wrestles the letter away from Harry once more. The morning after that, Harry tries to sneak downstairs early to wait on the corner for the postman, but Vernon is already guarding the door. When three letters arrive for Harry, Vernon tears them into pieces. He then nails up the mail slot.

Over the next three days, the letters continue to arrive—pushed under the door, inside the two dozen eggs that the milkman delivered, pelting out of the fireplace. After this final incident, Vernon declares that they’re all leaving for a trip. In the car five minutes later, Vernon drives wildly, as if trying to shake someone off their trail.

Vernon, Petunia, Harry, and Dudley arrive at a gloomy hotel outside of a big city, but the next morning, a hundred letters arrive at the hotel for Harry. They set out again. In the midst of this, Harry realizes that the next day is his eleventh birthday. His birthdays have never exactly been fun—last year, the Dursleys gave him a coat hanger and a pair of Vernon’s old socks. Eventually, Vernon finds a “miserable little shack” on a rock in the middle of the stormy ocean. The inside of the shack reeks of seaweed, and the wind whistles through the walls.

Vernon is delighted, even as the storm grows stronger, thinking no one can deliver mail to this house in the middle of a storm. Vernon and Petunia claim the single bed in the shack, Petunia makes Dudley a bed on the sofa, and Harry curls up on the floor under the thinnest blanket. He watches Dudley’s wristwatch as his birthday ticks nearer. When midnight arrives, Harry hears the whole shack shake and someone outside, knocking to be let in.