Harry Potter fans divided over what Dudley really says in iconic scene after seeing subtitles

Harry Potter fans are wondering if they've had a collective Mandela effect over one of the lines in the very first movie.

For a film about a boy who goes to wizard school, a decent chunk of the opening of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is dedicated to showing Harry's dreadful muggle life with the Dursleys.

There's one particular scene in the film where Harry is living in his cupboard under the stairs and that little s**t Dudley (Harry Melling) is thundering down the stairs in excitement for his birthday.

He then decides to give the stairs a few extra stomps to wake Harry up, and declares: "Wake up, Potter!"

Only, according to the subtitles he doesn't, and he actually says 'wake up, cousin' instead, pouring sawdust onto Harry's head and making the audience wish someone would push the little toe-rag down the stairs.

Fortunately he does get some comeuppance in the form of getting up close and personal with a snake at the zoo.

Plus we also know from a deleted scene which really ought to have been left in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One that Harry and Dudley patched things up, parting on good terms.

Admit it, you wanted him to fall down the stairs here didn't you? (Warner Bros.)

Anyway, back to the confusing comment, one person posted it to TikTok and wanted to know what people thought the real line was.

Other social media users and Potter fans have been left just as bamboozled, flooding to the post in confusion.

One fan simply refused to believe the subtitle is correct: "It's Potter. Ain't no way Dudley called him cousin... cousin would imply Dudley claims him as family not as his live-in whipping boy."

Others readily agreed, refusing to bow down to the tyranny of the subtitles when their ears knew the truth.

"I hear Potter. I don't know why in the subtitle said cousin," one said, as another said: "I always thought it was Potter too."

The original poster replying: "Right? Maybe whoever did the captions misheard?"

Cousin, or Potter? He's both, but which did Dudley say? (Warner Bros.)

Some users disagreed and said they could clearly hear 'cousin' opposed to 'Potter'.

"It was always cousin," one said, while another pointed out: "It says cousin."

The heated debate has continued on other social media sites too, with one Harry Potter fan taking to Reddit in their pained confusion.

They called out to fellow Redditors: "Does anyone actually know what he says? It seems like a stupid question but it's quite hard to distinguish between 'Potter' and 'cousin' when they're muffled by a staircase and it's getting frustrating."

"It's cousin. If you particularly listen for the consonant in the second syllable, it's clearly a 'z' sound like cousin and not a 't' sound like Potter," one user argued.

Topics: Harry Potter, TV and Film