Vernon Dursley owned a pair of old socks that were given to Harry Potter by the Dursleys for his tenth birthday on 31 July, 1990. They were mustard-yellow in colour. On 1 September, 1993, while en route to Hogwarts Castle aboard the Hogwarts Express, Harry Potter's Sneakoscope started whistling, and Ronald Weasley stuffed it into one of this old socks to muffle the sound and Harry kept it there for over a year. On 25 December, 1994, Harry gave this pair of socks to a delighted Dobby as a Christmas present.