Harry Potter's Invitation to the World
by Vickie Ewell
Chapter 7 – Mr. Dursley Tried to Hide Harry (HP Chapter 3)
Dudley was used to the comforts of life. He had no idea that a Wizarding World existed, and that dad was trying to prevent that world from contacting Harry. To him, dad was just acting like a fruitcake. Dudley was curious as to who was trying so hard to contact Harry, but going all day without food, television, and his computer games turned him into an emotional mess. He was hungry and going through physical-world withdrawals.
I couldn’t help but think how Dudley mirrored Ron in Book 7 when Harry, Hermione, and Ron were out hunting for horcruxes. Ron did a 180-degree flip on Harry and Hermione because he was hungry, scared, and frustrated. In fact, his emotional state had produced so much fear and discomfort that he had run out on his friends.
Dudley was also still in shock that his dad had actually hit him for trying to stuff his television, VCR, and computer into his sports bag. That mirrored Hermione doing something similar in Book 7. She had packed a bag with everything she thought they might need, in case the trio had to leave the wedding without time to properly pack. It’s our natural instinct to desire comfort and strive to avoid painful situations, so both Dudley and Hermione were thinking ahead.
However, when we are threatened in some way, adrenaline and other hormones designed to give us energy for fight and flight fuel our efforts. Normally, we don’t think about food and other comforts during that time, which is why Hermione didn’t think about packing food. We just react. But Dudley wasn’t feeling threatened by the Wizarding World. His dad was.
Mr. Dursley stopped at a hotel, so they could sleep, but Harry didn’t sleep. Like Dudley, he was curious about who was trying to contact him, and why Mr. Dursley was fighting so hard to prevent that from happening. They do get to eat stale Cornflakes and canned tomatoes on toast the next morning, undoubtedly a breakfast they weren’t used to, but once again, about a hundred letters addressed to Mr. H. Potter in room 17 arrived at the Hotel’s front desk.
It’s amazing to me that Mr. Dursley was so stubborn. Obviously, there was no where to run that would prevent the Wizarding World’s attempt to contact Harry, but he still didn’t understand. He continued to believe he was right, and Aunt Petunia was wrong. That’s just the way he saw things.
Dudley, of course, was seeing dad in a different light. “Daddy’s gone mad, hasn’t he,” he asked mom later that day. And while mom didn’t answer, we know she was wondering the same thing because Mr. Dursley had stopped the car at the coast, locked the three of them inside the car, and took off.
The three of them were imprisoned within Mr. Dursley’s reaction to the letters. He was calling the shots, and there was little they could do to help themselves. He wasn’t acting rationally, but whatever he was doing, it made sense to him.
Dudley began to whine. It was Monday, and he was going to miss one of his regular television programs. That reminded Harry that tomorrow, Tuesday, was his birthday. Tuesday is associated with the planet Mars, which might be why Voldemort picked Harry over Neville who was born on a Monday, since Monday is associated with the feminine characteristics of the moon.
Each planet has a certain vibration level and planetary characteristics it endows to those who are born under its influence. Mars was the Roman god of war and agriculture, so Tuesday’s children manifest frustration, active passion, and achievement. Mars was second in importance to Jupiter and represents military power directed towards securing peace, rather than waging war for enslaving one’s enemies.
The majority of Mars’ energies go to create conditions that allow crops to grow. Those born on a Tuesday are actively involved in planting seeds and helping others (Harry’s “saving” thing that others on the list have spoken of).
The alchemical element associated with Tuesday is iron, the beginning of The Great Work, but their color is also pink, a symbol for The Middle path. As a combination of white and red, these children have the potential to actually complete the Path of Liberation – achieving both the white and red stones and participating in the Alchemical Wedding that helps them to balance the two.
This is also signified by their number: nine. Nine represents final judgment, divine perfection (3x3), and the end of The Path of Liberation. So in a sense, you could say that Tuesday’s children represent both the beginning and the end. The Alpha and Omega.
Their animal is the lion. Leo is considered the great lion, a symbol for the Christ consciousness that holds the star Regulus in its heart. When Virgo (love) combines with the lion (symbolized by the sphinx) the riddle of the sphinx is solved. According to the nursery rhyme, these children are also full of the grace of God.
We see that each time Harry is saved from physical death. He has inherited an extra degree of physical protection to help him complete his mission. In some spiritual traditions, this is described as having extra guardian angels.
Harry had never had a fun birthday, so he didn’t expect this year to be any different. Last year, the Dursleys gave him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon’s socks. They wanted him to hang up his hope for salvation and put on the beliefs, attitudes and normal behavior of a Dursley. Harry didn’t do that, of course, which is why the Wizarding World is trying so hard to contact him.
Mr. Durlsey returned to the car and said he had found the perfect place to hide. It was cold outside of the vehicle, uncomfortable, but Mr. Dursley didn’t notice that. His focus was on achieving his current desire: getting his family to a shack that sat on top of a rock and was a long way out to sea.
Dudley wasn’t happy. There would be no television there. But Vernon believed that with a storm heading their way, there would be no way to deliver any letters. They would be safe. Vernon was the only one of the four who felt the degree of discomfort the Wizarding World sparked was bad enough to do something this drastic.
It was freezing in the boat. Earthly conditions for Harry and the other two were getting worse. The gray water and falling rain felt like ice, and they were getting wet. That made the wind feel colder than it otherwise would. It’s almost as if subconsciously, Vernon was trying to quench the fire of the spiritual world with earthly water. Of the four, he was the one most disturbed by the higher vibration level that had intruded into their normal lives.
This scene gives a mirror image of the cave, water, boat and rocks that Harry and Dumbledore must face in Book 6 when they attempt to retrieve the false locket. Only this time, Mr. Dursley was attempting to hide Harry himself inside of a cold, dirty, smelly, broken down shack. Vernon felt that hiding Harry was a matter of life and death, the same as Voldemort felt when he hid the real horcrux.
Mr. Dursley tried to start a fire in the fireplace, but he was unsuccessful. The empty potato chip wrappers he used just shriveled and smoked because he had no way to spark a fire. But the cold didn’t bother him. He was happy because he thought he had achieved his goal.
Harry was somewhat disheartened because he thought his uncle might be right. They might finally be in a place that was bad enough that the letters would stop coming. His aunt found some moldy blankets to fix up a bed for Dudley. She and Uncle Vernon went into the only other room there was to sleep on the lumpy bed, leaving Harry to fend for himself.
Harry curled up on the floor with a thin, ragged blanket. Things could not get any worse for him. He was cold, hungry, and had trouble falling asleep with Dudley’s loud snores drowning out the noises from the storm that had encircled them. The only light in the room was the lighted dial on Dudley’s watch. Harry could see it was almost midnight, which meant he would be turning 11 very soon.
When there was only five minutes left to go before Harry’s birthday, he heard a creak coming from outside the shack. He hoped that the roof didn’t cave in, but then comforted his fear by telling himself that it might be warmer if it did. He lay there in the dark wondering if the house on Privet drive would be so full of letters by the time they got back, that he’d be able to steal one somehow.
As the minutes counted themselves down to midnight, Harry heard crunching noises coming from outside the shack. And then at the exact second that Harry turned 11, there was an exceptionally loud knocking on the door. Someone was outside the shack, knocking to come in. Harry’s physical salvation and invitation had arrived.