Mrs Mason was the ornithophobic wife of Mr Mason, a builder from whom Vernon Dursley was hoping to get a big drill order. On 31 July, 1992, the couple were dinner guests at the Dursley home. Their evening was nearly ruined when the dessert Petunia Dursley had made crashed to the floor (an incident blamed on Harry Potter though it was Dobby's fault), which they were extremely shocked at. The evening could have been rescued were it not for the barn owl that flew through the open window to deliver a letter of warning of a breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery for Harry. The owl dropped the letter on Mrs Mason's head, and due to her extreme fear of birds she “screamed like a banshee” and ran from the house shouting something about lunatics, followed quickly by