A 17 year old boy from Surrey is in care today after a series of violent incidents culminated in a tense stand off outside a secondary school in Guildford.
The boy, who can't be named for legal reasons, is believed to have attacked several teachers and pupils with a short stick, while shouting pseudo-latin phrases and brandishing a rustic looking 'witches' broom, stolen from a nearby garden centre earlier in the morning.
The trouble began at 7:30am at a house in Privet Drive, Little Whinging where the boy is believed to have been forced to sleep in a dusty cupboard under the stairs and perform menial tasks around the house. Neighbours called police after the boy was heard screaming 'I've killed him, I've killed the Dark Lord'. The owner of the house, a Mr Vernon Dursley was seen trying to calm the boy, reassuring him that it was just a dream, but the boy became extremely violent when he saw the stuffed Snowy Owl that the family kept in a glass case in the hallway.
As police arrived on the scene, the boy fled under an old transparent plastic sheet he took from the shed, while Mr Dursley and his wife were led away for questioning over allegations of false imprisonment and psychological or possibly sexual abuse of a child in their care.
It is understood that the boy was placed with the Dursleys at a young age following further physical abuse at the hands of his natural parents whose beatings left him with poor eyesight and a ragged scar on his forehead.
Meanwhile, the hunt for the runaway continued as reports came in from across the county of sightings and minor disturbances.
He was finally cornered at the school in Guildford after he broke into a chemistry class and tried to take two other children hostage, insisting that they call themselves Ron & Hermione and that they should all get to Kings Cross in time to catch the Hogwarts Express.
Police negotiators eventually managed to talk the boy down from the roof of the science block where he was threatening to jump off while sitting astride the stolen broom. The 2 crying hostages were led away for counselling.
Police and social workers are now questioning the boy in advance of a psychiatric assessment which will determine if the pressures of A level studies and pent up frustrations of his abusive home life had caused the boy to suffer long term paranoid delusions.
Police are not yet confirming a link between today's events, and the mysterious fall of 81 year old Albert Dumble-Moore, a known associate and late night visitor to the Dursley household, from the top of a multi storey car park in Frimley last weekend.