[The Barrow-Wight]

In a cupboard under the stairs there lived a Potter. Not a clean, tidy cupboard filled with rows of neatly stacked vegetable tins, nor yet a warm, friendly cupboard with a comfortable chair to sit on. It was a Dursley cupboard, and that means misery.

It had a perfectly square door, painted white, with a shiny silver lock in the exact middle. When opened by his uncle, the door allowed poor Harry onto an airy hallway : a very comfortable hallway (at least when compared to the cupboard) with panelled walls, and the floors plushly carpeted, and lots and lots of pictures of Dudley, Harry’s cousin. The Dursleys were fond of Dudley.