Hut-on-the-rock, the Sea

When Harry started receiving mysterious letters in the summer of 1991, the Dursleys did everything they could to keep him from reading them. Unable to stop the letters from coming, Vernon Dursley forced Petunia, Dudley, and Harry to flee Privet Drive with him in the hope that whoever was sending the letters would give up and leave them alone.

They left on Sunday, July 29th, 1991, driving in a zigzag pattern with no clear destination in mind. After a day, Vernon parked their car by the coast and disappeared, leaving Petunia, Dudley, and Harry to wonder where he had gone. When Vernon returned to the car he seemed quite pleased with himself and was carrying a long, thin package that contained a rifle. He said that he had "found the perfect place" for them to spend the night and pointed to "the most miserable little shack you could imagine" sitting on a tall rock far out at sea (SS/PS, p. 44).

The hut-on-the-rock was, quite literally, a small, decrepit hut perched rather precariously upon a rock out at sea. The shack had only two tiny rooms and smelled strongly of seaweed. The wooden walls had large gaps in them and did very little to keep out the storm that raged outside. The windows, like the rest of the hut, were filthy. The night of July 30, 1991, the Dursleys and Harry ate a meager meal of chips and bananas and then made ready for bed. The single, moth-eaten sofa was given to Dudley to sleep on, as were the majority of the moldy blankets. Harry was forced to sleep on the floor with only the thinnest, most raggedy blanket to keep him warm.

Harry was unable to sleep that night, so he laid awake waiting for midnight and the arrival of his eleventh birthday. As Dudley's wristwatch turned to midnight, a loud knock came to the door. In a few moments' time a huge man had broken down the door and come inside. The man was Rubeus Hagrid, and he had been sent by Albus Dumbledore to find Harry and deliver the letter the Dursleys were keeping from him. The letter, whose address changed each time the Dursleys forced Harry's location to change, read,

Mr. H. Potter,
The Floor,
Hut-on-the-Rock,
The Sea
(SS/PS, p. 51)

It was in the hut-on-the-rock that Harry first learned the truth about his parents, their death, and his magical abilities. Hagrid started a magical fire in the fireplace, gave Harry some sausages to eat, and told him about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the magical world to which Harry belonged. He also told him about Voldemort and the fame Harry knew nothing of. Hagrid was incensed at the Dursleys for keeping the truth from Harry for ten long years. Vernon threatened Hagrid and refused to let Harry go to Hogwarts, but crossed the line when he insulted Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Hagrid, fiercely loyal to Dumbledore, lost his temper and hit Dudley with a spell that caused a curly pig's tail to sprout out of Dudley's overly-round bottom. After that the Dursleys fled into the hut's other small room and slammed the door.

By the following morning the storm had passed. To get back to the mainland, Hagrid and Harry took the boat Harry and the Dursleys had used the previous day in the journey to Hut-on-the-Rock. How the Dursleys ever got back to mainland is unknown, since Hagrid took the only boat and there did not seem to be another non-magical way off of the rock.