While home with the Dursleys for the summer, Harry Potter is not getting any mail from his friends, Ron and Hermione. On his twelfth birthday (July 31) Harry is visited by Dobby, a house-elf, who warns Harry that he will be in mortal danger if he returns to Hogwarts. Harry ignores Dobby's dire warning and is determined to return. It turns out that Dobby has been collecting Harry's letters to make it seem as though his friends had forgotten him, hoping Harry might then not want to return to Hogwarts. Seeing that he will have to use force, Dobby decides to destroy, by the use of a charm, a pudding that Aunt Petunia has made for an important dinner party attended by a potential client and his wife of Vernon Dursley. Harry is blamed by the Ministry of Magic for Dobby's charm, and is told that if he does magic outside school again, he will be expelled. On learning that Harry cannot perform magic outside school, the Dursleys, previously fearful of his wizarding, lock Harry’s books and wand away and Vernon Dursley fits bars onto his bedroom window and door, making Harry a prisoner.