Let us savor this image for a moment. Raises ugly to a fine art don't it?
More telling is that boys at Smeltings are given knobbly sticks to hit each other with. Is it any wonder Vernon turned out the way he did?
Meanwhile Harry is going to attend the local public school. In another interesting bit of character development, we see that even at ten years old Harry has a fair bit of fire in his belly. He uses a sharp wit against his aunt and cousin. In the latter's case, when Dudley suggests to Harry going upstairs to put his head in the toilet, Harry's response is that hardly seems fair--the poor toilet has never had anything as nasty as Dudley in it before.
Then, the letter arrives. Addressed to Harry himself in "The Cupboard Under the Stairs," is is of parchment rather than paper and includes an intriguing coat of arms--a lion, a serpent, a badger and an eagle all surrounded the letter 'H'. Even more intriguingly, this letter makes Vernon and Petunia go ballistic. They clearly recognize its source, are very upset, and destroy the letter without allowing Harry himself to read it. Very Dickensian in their evil are the Dursleys (we'll get to Tolkienian evil later on--the hardcore stuff). Then the next day, we are treated to the predictable response to Uncle Vernon's plan of ignoring Harry's letter. More letters arrive. These are destroyed. Then more. Harry thinks to wait outside the door in the wee hours of the morning to get his letter, but finds his Uncle ahead of him. Here is one example of something that might seem inconsistent but actually is very realistic. While Harry himself is a very bright young man (not in Hermione's league of course, but then few folks are), and his Uncle a dullard, the latter thought of something first.
Not that any of this works. Boarding up the mail slot does not. More and more letters arrive. Boarding up other entries into the house doesn't either. The letters even continue to arrive on Sunday!
Mr. Dursley takes extreme measures, one equal to his own unique philosophy of dealing with the world. He finds no one to bully, so he runs away. The whole family is packed off and driven randomly through the English countryside until they get to a hotel in Cokeworth. And next morning--there is a letter left at the front desk for Harry Potter.
Someone is following them. It is almost like magic.
In desperation, ignoring for once Dudley (or "Ickle Dudleykins" as him mother calls him in a clear act of child abuse) and his whining, Mr. Vernon Dursley rents the Hut of a Rock. This is a wreched little cottage on a bare rock out at sea in the middle of a thunderstorm! Even Harry agrees (quietly) that it seems impossible that anyone could reach them to deliver letters. So, for tonight, they seem safe from the horrors of a letter addressed to their neglected nephew from someone the Dursleys evidently find deeply upsetting.
One wonders what he thought would happen when the storm passed? And as time went by. Did he think they'd be able to stay on that barren little island? For how long?
Harry, meanwhile, realizes what no one else in his family has. This storm-tossed night would be his eleventh birthday. Harry figures that by the time they get back to Privet Lane, the place'll be so filled with letters he'll be able to steal one and finally read it. Quite an experience for the first bit of mail one has ever received! And quite an insight into this young man's life. He's never gotten any mail before. His family has forgotten his birthday, and he's not even surprised. Yet Harry is awake, watching Dudley's digital watch turn from 11:59 to 12:00, marking when he is no longer ten but eleven years old.
And at exactly that moment, something knocks at the door of the Hut, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the storm. At the very moment Harry turns eleven.
Like magic.
(Quick thought--that cannot be SOP, all those letters overwhelming the Dursleys. So whose idea was that? Methinks in retrospect we can figure it out, namely a certain blue-eyed wizard with a long beard, a broken nose and an interesting sense of humor.)
I would agree that the description is accurate based on the above definition! 