SCREENCAP MEME harry + hermione: up close and personal

Number Four, cây thủy lạp, privet Drive

J.K. Rowling's thoughts

The name of the đường phố, street where the Dursleys live is a reference to that most suburban plant, the cây thủy lạp, privet bush, which makes neat hedges around many English gardens. I liked the associations with both suburbia and enclosure, the Dursleys being so smugly middle class, and so determinedly separate from the wizarding world. The name of their area is 'Little Whinging', which again sounds appropriately parochial and sniffy, 'whinging' being a colloquial term for 'complaining hoặc whining' in British English.

Although I describe the Dursleys' house as big and...