Smelting stick

"They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat. 'Get the mail, Dudley,' said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper. 'Make Harry get it.' 'Get the mail, Harry.' 'Make Dudley get it.' 'Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley.' Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail."

- Harry avoids some pain.

A Smelting stick was a type of knobbly stick assigned to every student that attended Smeltings Academy. These were used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking, and was said by the school to be "good training for later life."

In 1991, Dudley Dursley was assigned one of these when he was accepted into Smeltings Academy. He immediately took to carrying it around with him all the time. Vernon Dursley quickly began encouraging him to put it to good use by telling him to hit Harry Potter with it when he tried to refuse getting the mail, but Harry dodged the attack. Later, when he wanted to see Harry's Hogwarts acceptance letter, Dudley rapped his father on the head with the stick, but it did him no good. After Harry was given The Smallest Bedroom, Dudley whacked his father with the Smelting stick in a fit of rage, but this didn't do him any good either. Later, when he was made to get the mail because Vernon was trying to be nice to Harry, he whacked the stick all the way down the hall.

As a graduate of Smeltings Academy, it is likely that Vernon Dursley possessed a Smelting stick as well, unless they were only instituted after he had graduated.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
 * Pottermore