Underestimation

'Underestimation is the worst thing I could have done' Harry thought bitterly.

Harry had got to this point after only a week of working at grunnings drills with Dudley. During that week Harry had been working hard and he genuinely liked the people he was working with. After the first day of destruction in which Harry had accidently sheared a component in the drill making press which caused drill bits to fire out of that machiene and go everywhere, Harry was moved to the accounting which although never being a wizz in math, he enjoyed.
He worked at the accounting part of the factory 6 days a week at 8 hours a day, and all was going well.

The accountting part of the factory was filled with workers that knew so much about the math of the buisness that it was scary and the only thing he didn't really enjoy about these people was that they calculated how meny toliet breaks people should have and when each employee should have them to maximise efficiency.

Harry felt that this much effort into something as trivial as an increased output of say 2 drills a day was hardly something to get worked up over.
Unfortunaely Harry shared this view with some of those on the factory floor, which eventually worked its way up to the accounting area, this made the accounting people feel the need to prove the worth of such a equation. So they spent the next day working out how meny days it would take for those 2 drill bits a day extra,
to pay off the time they spent creating said extra drill bits.

At this point Harry felt that now they would have to justify, the time spent justifying the toilet equation and was about to tell the men on the floor this, but realised his error just in time.

So after a week of work Harry recieved his Sunday off, and so as Harry though lay in bed listening on the Sunday morning to the sound of rock streaming out from Dudleys room he realised that Dudley hadn't kept his part of the bargin they had made, since his Aunt and Uncle hadn't been out for dinner all week.

Harry actually didn't mind that because when he got home after work he was usually so tired that he just ate and slept. Being alone in the house hadn't really occured to him. Still Harry thought that if he let his cousin off for this week then Dudley might try to get out of the bargin all together, and Harry MIGHT want some time alone later on in the holiday, when he was less tired from work. So it was with this mindset that Harry knocked on Dudleys door at 10 am on a Sunday morning.

"Hello Dudley" Harry said "I need to talk to you about our little arrangement"
"Oh" Dudley said as he turned off the music "Common in then"
There was a pause as Harry walked in the room and took a seat on the couch that Dudley had managed to somehow get into his room.
"Er, Harry" Dudley started, looked very nervous "I'm sorry about this week, I know I haven't got those 2 out of the house, but I've been so tired after work and all"
"Oh, thats alright then" Harry said letting out the breath he was holding, Harry felt better knowing his cousin was taking the deal seriously.
"I'll take them out today then, and all night as well, to make up for the night I missed." Dudley stated "Just be sure to be in your room by...8 pm"
"8 pm ! common dudley make it 9pm I know you can keep them out at least that long" Harry stated, Startled that he was bargining with his cousin about anything,
let alone time spent with his Aunt and uncle.
"Fine then 9 pm, but not a moment more and be sure not to leave anything out or the tv on, because they will know and I might get in trouble for keeping them out"
Dudley said, fear in his eyes of being found helping Harry.
Harry went back to his room, and emerged 20 minutes later after Dudley had herded his uncle and Aunt away by asking politely to be taken to a concert.
Harry thought it strange that most parents would spend half the day take there kids to a concert on the other side of London, and leave them there for the day before spending the over half of the day picking them up latter on, trying to find there kids in the huge crowds.
Luckly for Harry, Dudleys parents where even stranger by taking him to a concert and staying with him, incase the line at the snack bar was too long and his favorate song was comming up, Thereby leaving Dudley to listen to his favorate song whilst his parents que up for 2 hours to get to the front of what turns out to be the only snack bar to have run out of drink.

At any rate with the day free Harry decided to watch some telvision, have a long bath and get some decent food from the supermarket to store in his room for later, But as with almost all plans Harry has ever made as soon as it was registered in his mind it all went to...well...fantacy land.
A knock on the door.
Harry relutantly went over to the door, it occured to him at the time that it could be a deatheater, but as Harry had spent his entire life "Safe" in this house he figured the guards would have figured it out.
As it turns out the guards did not know that anyone was at the door, the fog still running amok with there duties.
Opening the door Harry had a clocked figure push past him, at which point Harry was on edge, a clocked figure in his house with no guards or alerts to tell him someone was comming.
Harry relaxed when he heard the voice comming from the clocked figure, "Quite the fog you got there Harry" Ron Weasley's voice said.
"Ron...what are you...where did you...how...why" Harry was quite shocked to find his friend in his house during summer.
"Ahh, well er...I'd rather you didn't tell anyone I was here actually." Ron stated "No one really knows, at anyrate its lucky I could even find this place, I mean geez when I thought that the fogs at hogwarts where bad. This place you cant even see a few feet in front of you, Which actually is an advantage, because there is no way I could have gotten into this house without the guards noticing me with out it"
"Why are you here anyway" Harry asked "Do I need a reason to come and see my best friend during the holidays?" Ron retorted "anyway I've come to invite you to the burrow, or well... the place we are staying it'll be great"
"Don't you think people will realise and send me back here?" Harry countered "Well, yes actually thats true but well...when theres a will theres a way, as my mum always says" ron replied "Fine then, but ahhh we should leave soon...or now" Harry said "because as good as my cousin is at getting my Aunt and Uncle to do what he wants, I dont think he can keep them out in this fog for much longer"
"Well as long as its not in little Whinning then we're fine, because thats one very specific fog, only quite small too." Ron said "Oh, and...well...we can't go today anyway, because there are a few complications"
"what do you mean?" Harry asked "Well..." Ron went on to explain to Harry all about the fidilus and how getting him there would have to involve dumbledore. It was at this point that Harry got annoyed because he realiesed that leaving Pivet Drive was going to be harder then it all first sounded.

Having said his piece about the difficulties Ron then said something that Harry didn't quite understand, but it still gave him hope.
"I have to twins working on it now, but apparently you own the house thats somewhere and since you own it you must know where it is, which I can't tell you, but since you own it there's a law that forces Dumbledore to tell you, so essentially all you have to do is get this letter that the twins wrote to Dumbledore, and after he has read it he MUST give you the address it forces him to as soon as possible." Ron finished giving him a look that was something akin to hope.
"Excelent, so where is this letter that I have to get to Dumbledore?" Harry said "Well thats what the twins are working on, it'll have to be worded just right or it won't work because Dumbledore is a crafty lad, if anyone he'll find a way out of it.
So we are working on getting it water tight." Ron said "Well be here on say, Thursday night i'll get dudley to take the Aunt and Uncle out, you be here so i can sign the letter." Harry said, not entirely understanding what the letter said but figureing it was something to do with countering the fidilus charm.

After that point it seemed all the business was concluded and Harry and Ron spent the rest of the afternoon chatting about quidich and girls...just like a normal boy.

It was well after 10 pm when Dudley and his Parents finally came home, it seemed they had gone for a meal and a movie after the concert at Dudley's insistance and Harry only knew it was after 10 pm because he woke up to the sound of someone shouting lines to a movie they had just seen a laughing uproarasly as if it was the best joke.

Still the next day at exactly 7 Dudley and Harry loaded into the car to get to work, today dudley looking slightly more sluggish then he had in the past. Uncle Vernon on the other hand was not in the car at exactly 7, as he had...misplaced his wallet and couldn't find it.
This lucky gave the boys the purfect opertunity to talk.
" I need them out of the house thursday night" Harry said to Dudley " Wait a tick...Thursday night...but I can't do that, I said 2 nights a week, not 2 specific nights." Dudley said " I'll tell you what Dudley, you get them out Thursday night and thats your 2 nights covered for this week." Harry said " Well why do you want thursday so badly anyway" Dudley said.
Harry thought for a moment, telling Dudley the truth would risk him telling his parents. Although it could also make Dudley more likely to help him seeing as getting Harry out of the house for the summer seemed like something Dudley would want.
Harry decided to tell Dudley the truth, and it was lucky he did because after telling Dudley, he heard some important facts.
" You can't leave " Dudley said " Dudley don't get all sentimental on me ..." Harry started " I'm not gettting sentimental on you " Said dudley cutting Harry off " I mean you Litterally CANNOT leave. Its written into the contract that you signed with Dad. It says that you can't get out of working until the summer is over"
Harry felt like laughing " Can't Leave... you think something as small as a contract is going to stop me? " Harry said " Well...not normal contract...but a magically enhanced one will. " Dudley said glancing about as he said magically as if something bad would happen.
" Magically advanced...what are you talking about? " Harry said " You haven't even noticed have you? " Dudley said " Noticed what? exactly"
" My parents are treating you nicer this year, they never make you do the dishes, you got the same job as me, hell you even left the radio on in the kitchen the other night and they did nothing. " Dudley said Harry had noticed these things, except about the radio, and he HAD been curious as to why.
" Why are these things happening ... and wait a tick what about a magical contract? " Harry said

Dudley went on to explain everything. It seemed as though during the year a death eater had sent Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia a letter, this letter not being of the friendly type scared the Dursleys so much that they decided they needed protection. So the Dursley's went to the only man they knew who had magic. Dumbledore. He told them that as long as Harry sayed at there house over the summer they would be safe. The Dursleys asked him what the least ammount of time would be needed for Harry to spend thereunfortunely Dumbledore said he didnt know.

After Dudley had finished Harry was confused "What does this have to do with anything, they already knew about the protection"

"Ohhh thats true, but this time they where genuinely scared, so they decided to treat you better in the hope that the protection would be stronger. Anyway, about the contract, About a day before you arrived here Dumbledore turned up at our home. He said that you'd had a bad year and maybe you'd try and run away fom the house, which would inturn lead to no protection from your charm. He then told us that if you where to sign a contract keeping you here, then we could rest assured of the protection that you provide. They knew that you wouldnt sign one normally, so they had to disguse it as something else, which is where the work contract came into it."

It was at this point that Vernon returned to the car a frown on his face, " I couldn't find that blasted wallet anywhere, some punk kid at that disco probably stole it"
"It wasnt a disco it was a rock concert." Dudley said, looking offended that anyone would tell him HE would go to a disco.
" Same thing " uncle vernon smirked, Knowing his son was offended and enjoying the glare he was getting.

It was at this point where Harry realised he had been out played by someone much better then him.

'Underestimation is the worst thing I could have done' Harry thought bitterly.