A young Harry sat cross-legged on his bed of blankets under the cupboard. He bit his lip in concentration as he carefully poked around a few matches on the floor; those were his infantry. The buttons were the navy, the small piece of broken glass an armoured tank. He had a few shells of pasta he'd stolen from the kitchen as boats for the marine squad, and he'd put out an old shoelace to show where the sea was. With some old grains of rice that he'd pried out from between the floorboards to keep track of the score, he almost had a complete set.
It was a strategy game. He'd seen Dudley and his friends playing it a few weeks ago and longed to join in. He didn't know the rules because they wouldn't let him, but he'd gathered enough from watching to pretend. Of course they had been playing with real army figures, carefully painted miniature helicopters, and a tank that shot a plastic bullet when you pressed a button on the top. Dudley had gotten bored quickly and thrown the tank at the wall, so the bullet was probably lost now, but it had looked really cool.
Picking up one of the buttons he pondered where to move it to next, when suddenly the door to the cupboard banged open and Uncle Vernon's fat face poked in.
"Lying about again, boy? Get out here. To think that we slave away to look after you and all you do is sit around, playing with- what is that?" he squinted his piggy eyes down at Harry's game.
"Er, nothing… sir," Harry quickly tried to make it look like the pile of junk really was just what it was; a pile of junk.
Vernon peered at him suspiciously but withdrew without saying anything more.
"Get out here!" He repeated. Harry quickly tucked away his game pieces into a sock and shoved it into a corner before scrabbling out of the cupboard.
Written for: the 'Game of Life Challenge'. Prompts: game, buttons and strategy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
CC cover image (entitled 'Gizmo Vs. The Army') courtesy of Stefan on Flickr.
A/N: If you're reading this, I assume that's because you just finished my story! Thanks so much for reading. Please do review if you have the time :) GG x