The Underground

Chapter 1 - The Debt

Vernon Dursley thought he was a nice man. He had a nice family, and he had a nice house. His nice life had been almost spoilt a few years ago by the arrival of Petunia's niece. But since the girl had a use around the house they had decided to keep her instead of dropping her off at the closest orphanage. She was a freak, and he wasn't just talking about her freakish abilities either. She looked at him with such a strange look that it was like she didn't have any emotions. He expected her to look at him with cold detachment that Vernon had never seen in a child. A beep on his intercom made him withdraw from his thoughts as he answered. "There's a John Thomas to see you Mr Dursley. He says he has business with you." Vernon paused before answering. None of the accounts he was dealing with had that name as a contact. But he figured that maybe one of the companies had a switch around in its accounts which was entirely in their remit.

"Ok, send him in." He replied to the receptionist. He closed the file he was working on, and placed it to the side just as the door opened. A well-dressed gentleman in a navy suit entered, and didn't ask permission before he sat down on the other side of Vernon's desk.

"Are you Mr Dursley of number 4 Privet Drive, Surrey?" The man asked. Vernon felt his good mood simply dissolve away. This didn't seem like something that he would enjoy.

"Yes that's me. What do you want?" The man cocked his head at him.

"My name is John Thomas and I represent my employer in a matter which concerns you greatly." John Thomas then leant forward over the desk. "You engaged our services with the proviso that you would pay when we deemed you able to pay. That time has now come." As Mr Thomas finished his sentence, he sat back down. Vernon was sweating, this was not at all good news.

"It can't be that bad I suppose. How much is it?" He replied, putting up a facade of bravado in front of someone he now knew to be very dangerous.

"You now owe in excess of five hundred grand Mr Dursley." Vernon's eyes boggled at the number.

"That's outrageous!" He almost shouted. "It didn't cost a tenth of that when I employed your services."

"Times change Mr Dursley. Unfortunately for you, it means we are charging what we would now, rather than what we did then." John looked at Vernon with great calm, as Vernon's face started turning red.

"Get out! Out now!" Vernon shouted, pointing a finger at the door of his office. John got up, and straightened his suit. As he neared the door, he cleared his throat and turned his head to Vernon

"Mr Dursley, I suggest you don't go anywhere near a police station. You'll find it can have complications for your health." He turned his head back an left, leaving Vernon Dursley's pale face alone in the office. Vernon stood up, and grabbed his jacket. He had just become rather unwell, officially. In truth, he was very unnerved and just wanted to go home. And he didn't want to see that freakish girl either.

An hour or so later, a sleek car pulled up outside of Armitage International Headquarters in London. Stepping out of the car was the man whom had earlier spoken to Vernon Dursley. Smoothing his suit, he walked straight into the skyscraper that represented the achievements of the company. He found his way to the reception desk, moving through the people going in and out of the building, conducting business or other things. "Hi Kate, is Richard in?" He asked, smiling at the receptionist and leaning against the desk. She looked up at him, smiling.

"Yes Thomas, he's upstairs. I take it that your meeting didn't go as planned?" She handed over a plastic card, which Thomas took.

"How do you know that?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You're back an hour earlier than expected." She pulled a small smirk before beckoning her head over to the lifts to her left. "Head on up, he's expecting you." Thomas gave a nod of acknowledgment, but it wasn't seen by Kate as she answered the phone almost immediately after it started ringing. He entered the lifts, which were made by the company, and inserted his keycard into a slot on the panel. As he removed it, the doors closed before anyone else could get in, and it headed up to the top. He stood, waiting patiently as the muzak played in the background. Finally, the lift stopped moving, and the doors opened to reveal a wide oval shaped room. The sun was shining through the panoramic windows which reached from the floor to the ceiling. A chandelier hung in the centre of the room. Equidistant from the window and the right side wall of the room was a large, ornate desk. Behind it was a man of around thirty, with short brown hair. He looked up at Thomas as he walked into the middle of the room.

"I take it the meeting didn't go well then." Richard said, standing and walking out from behind the desk.

"He's not going to pay-up sir. It's rather unfortunate." Richard walked over to the large window of his office.

"What do we have on this guy?" Richard asked, looking over the London skyline.

"Wife and a son. Looks after his niece, though we don't believe she is treated well. Live in Little Whinging, Surrey at 4 Privet Drive. Has a heart condition and makes forty-two thousand a year."

"Do we have a phone number?" Richard inquired.

"Yes sir."

"Excellent. Have Kate call up and announce we are coming to dinner." Thomas nodded to Peter, knowing he could see his reflection, and headed back to the lift. "Oh, and Thomas." Thomas turned back to see Richard looking at him.

"Yes sir?"

"Come prepared." Thomas moved to the lift, activated it, and turned around as he stepped in.

"Understood sir." As he finished saying it, the doors closed, leaving Richard alone in the office.

When Vernon Dursley returned home, he expected to see lunch ready on the table. Instead, as he walked through the front door, he found Petunia fussing about in the kitchen and Dudley watching TV. "Petunia, what is going on?" Vernon asked as he watched Petunia look inside the oven. He couldn't see any sign of the freakish girl anywhere.

"Someone phoned up earlier today. They said they couldn't make it to your office, but said that they wanted to make a big deal. I invited them to dinner." Petunia had a nervous look on her face.

"That was good thinking. Well done." He looked through the small grate which showed the inside of the cupboard under the stairs. He saw the girl inside, laying down with her eyes closed. "Get her into something, I'd rather take my chances with her in the open than her making a noise in that cupboard." He shut the grate tightly shut, and banged his way upstairs.

Later that evening, all three members of the Dursley family were sitting in the lounge of their house. Their niece, Violet Potter, was currently in the kitchen, making sure the dinner that Petunia was planning was going to go well. Or, that was what she was meant to do. Instead she was going to try and mess up this whole contract situation. She held no love for this family. She hated them, and she wouldn't mind if something bad happened to them. But all she could do was try and make their lives miserable. She stared coldly at the family in the lounge as the doorbell went off. "Girl, go get that." Vernon bellowed through to her. She scowled and headed to the door. It wasn't time for her to act up yet. She opened the door to find two very well dressed men standing patiently. She eyed them over quickly, and saw what she thought was a handle to a weapon. The second man moved his suit jacket to hide it. She smirked at them, raising an eyebrow.

"Please, come inside." She moved aside, inviting them in, which they accepted, stepping inside the small hallway.

"Thank you very much young lady." The first man said sincerely.

"My uncle is in the lounge." She motioned for them to follow, but she couldn't help a sneer at the word uncle as she spoke. She had no doubt the men had picked up on this. As they walked through to the lounge, she walked back to the kitchen and started to dish up the main course.

"You!" She heard her uncle bellow. It seemed she didn't need to do anything.

Richard Armitage looked the man he took to be Vernon Dursley with amusement. He was currently standing, his face turning red at the sight of Thomas. "I take it you remember my associate from this morning."

"Get out! I want you out of my house!" Vernon roared, shaking a fist. Richard nodded to Thomas, who drew his gun. Vernon, who had been moving towards them, froze. The horse faced woman behind him held in a scream, and the boy whimpered. From the kitchen, there was the sound of a cupboard opening and closing.

"This can end two ways Mr Dursley. Either we can discuss your debt over dinner, or we kill you. Your choice." He could hear quiet laughter from the kitchen behind him. He turned slightly to see what was happening. The girl had finished putting the food on the plates, but was currently putting something in a corner cupboard, presumably the one that had closed earlier. She then picked up a couple of plates and started coming over.

"Dinner is probably better." Vernon finally replied. Richard indicated for Thomas to put his gun away, and the sat down at the table just as the girl placed the plates she was carrying in front of them. Eventually, everyone had their plates and were sitting down. But while Richard, Thomas, and the girl were eating normally, the core Dursley family were barely eating at all.

"Mr Dursley, you are in debt by the amount of five hundred and twenty-four thousand. We are not going to wait any longer." Vernon almost choked on the piece of chicken that he was eating. "This includes the original fee, extra fees, and inflation considerations plus interest. We are here because you very rudely dismissed my colleague. We are open to discussion regarding repayment." Richard stopped to let Vernon think it over. This apparently did not take long.

"How dare you come to my house, threaten my family, and have the audacity to - " Vernon stopped suddenly, before he started to choke seemingly on air, he hadn't eaten anything since he had started talking. The wife moved to help him before seemingly choking as well, along with the fat boy. Richard and Thomas were at a complete loss as to what was happening. They looked to girl, who was looking at Vernon with an evil smile on her face. As Vernon and the rest of the family collapsed, she turned away and started to eat again.

"Your food is safe." She said to them as she ate.

"Decided not to poison us then?" Thomas asked, as he began to eat too.

"I have nothing against you. They've been asking for it." As she continued, Thomas leaned over to Richard.

"I'll get a clean-up team in. Last thing we need is someone investigating." Richard nodded to the whispered words of Thomas. He turned his attention to the girl.

"What is your name?" He asked. She looked up from her plate.

"Violet Potter." She replied, placing her fork down. "Why is it important?"

"You've got two choices. You can either go through the whole system, as well as being a prime suspect in a murder investigation." He paused. "Or you can come with me." She looked at him in shock. Thomas looked at him too, though more with intrigue. She seemed to think it over, before finally answering.

"Alright, when do we leave?"