Chapter Three The Letters From No One

Summary

(When someone starts sending Harry mysterious letters in the mail, Mr. Dursley takes the family out to a deserted island to prevent Harry from getting these messages.)

The book has jumped a few months ahead to summer, a few days before HarryÂ’s July 31 ^st birthday. Harry has been grounded ever since the snake incident that took place on DudleyÂ’s birthday in the last chapter.

Harry and Dudley are both going into the sixth grade at the end of the summer. Harry will be going to Stonewall, the local public secondary school. Dudley will be going to Smeltings, a private secondary school and his fatherÂ’s alma mater. After Aunt Petunia buys Dudley a brand new Smeltings uniform, complete with orange knickerbockers and a cane to hit other students with, she prepares HarryÂ’s school uniform by dyeing DudleyÂ’s old clothes gray.

That Tuesday Harry receives a mysterious letter with emerald- green ink in the mail. Before he can read it, Uncle Vernon snatches it away from him and, after reading its message, furiously tosses it into the fire. Uncle Vernon then moves Harry from the cupboard to the spare bedroom upstairs (DudleyÂ’s toy room) so that Harry will be further from the front doorÂ’s mail slot.

On Sunday, after a score of letters flooded from the fireplace, Uncle Vernon drives the entire family to a faraway hotel. When Harry receives a hundred letters addressed to his hotel room, Uncle Vernon confiscates the messages and takes the family out to a shack upon a small island just off the coast. As Harry tries to sleep on the cold floor he realizes that his eleventh birthday is only minutes away. As the minutes until midnight tick away, Harry hears sounds outside rising above the din of the storm. Directly at midnight, someone knocks upon the shackÂ’s door.

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