"Wolves would've been an improvement over the Dursleys," he says with barely concealed rancour. Normally, he would be a little more circumspect in his criticism, but his dislike of that part of his family is something he knows Snape has experience with and they can agree upon.

"I went back to their house every summer until I was eighteen and then I never looked back, except when I asked them to flee the country." Of the three, Vernon chose to stay behind, Petunia didn't want to abandon her husband, and Dudley, the only survivor, is currently a baker somewhere in middle America.