As Vernon carried the much smaller bags out to the trash, Petunia watched Harry continue to work. His hands seemed to float and dance like a musician as his eyes glowed. Unlike before, she didn't feel sick or smell tainted air, this time the air felt excited, as if something amazing was just out of sight and she could almost touch it.
She stopped playing with the bar of copper. "Harry, I... I can't really remember how much I told you about your world. Honestly, the last time I really saw any magic like this was back when we were eleven."
Harry's hands seemed to jerk a little, before his green eyes followed her words. She smiled a little. "We didn't know it was magic of course, but one day we got this letter. Lily always had strange things happen when she was mad or whatever, but we were young. Then one day, this really nice envelope showed up. It said Lily was to attend a school for wizards and witches."
Harry absently waved a hand, and Petunia watched the newly created white cloth fold itself and move aside as more white cubes of plastic began to form. He seemed hooked on her every sound, and she felt a small warmth inside at how cute he looked. Right now he was not moving like an assured but tiny adult... he was just a little boy listening to a story. She smiled. "Mom thought we were playing pretending at first, until the next letters showed up. Then a couple of days later, a bird showed up."
Harry tilted his head, cubes forming into a pile. "So... it was like a magic bird or something?"
Petunia shrugged. "Probably, I guess. Apparently wizards use owls to send mail."
The young man paused. In fact, all the cubes froze for a moment. "Huh. Well, that seems a bit silly. Unless you make the bird super smart or something. Heck, how do they even check to make sure the mail gets delivered? Not like a bird can make reports or sign in or whatever."
His Aunt almost giggled, "The one that showed up actually smacked Lily in the head. I thought it served her right, since I didn't get my letter." Her face sort of fell, as sadness crept into her eyes. "We had an argument about that. I even tried to beg mom and the witch that came to help Lily to take me too. We had done everything together, so when Lily found out she was a witch, we thought I would be one too."
Harry leaned forward. "Well, it makes sense to me. How did they check if you were one or not?"
Petunia leaned back, blinking away any possible tears. "Well, apparently there is a registry in the school, and when a magic person is born they show up there. The woman who came to help Lily shop didn't really say much to me about it, although I wasn't exactly calm or able to think straight at the time."
The boy went back to working on the cubes, as the remaining amount of trash bags collapsed into themselves. "Well, it may not matter. I am not sure I am a wizard."
She blinked away memories. "What? Of course you are, just look at all this!"
Harry chuckled. "Exactly. Do I LOOK like I am using a stick? From what I can tell, every other magic person does. Well, all the ones I have seen so far. Did the woman who showed up for Mom have a stick?"
Petunia seemed a tad off balance. "Yes, I think. I know Lily showed me her stick when she got back from some sort of magic shop. But you have to be a wizard. Maybe not all of them need sticks or whatever."
He moved his hand and the cubes began floating and stacking on the floor. "Well, I don't need a stick, I don't know any spells really, I don't yell things when I use my threads. Seems odd enough to me. Still, more information would help."
"Well, we don't really know how to contact them." Vernon came in from where he had been leaning in the hall, recovering from carrying all those bloody bags. He sighed as he saw the new stack of near-empty bags that now had to go out.
Turning to Harry, he seemed to find some inner strength. "So I think we should make some plans."
Harry nodded as Vernon sat across from him and continued. "The age thing is a big deal. So we will pretend that you were abandoned today rather than back then." Vernon rubbed Petunia's shoulder. "I know some people, so the paperwork should not be an issue. We could home-school you until you reach Dudley's grade, then you can join him in school."
The boy tilted his head. "The story works pretty well, cause Dudley won't really recognize me like this. Won't even have to change my name, since no one used it." Harry tried to ignore the winces from both his listeners. "I can probably catch up pretty quickly if you can get me Dud's old books."
Vernon tried to remember where exactly they had shoved those things. "If we are missing any you need, we can go to a book store." He hugged Petunia's shoulder as his eyes darkened with more than a little shame. "We should probably get you some things for your room too."
Petunia didn't seem to grasp his words at first, before she gasped. "Oh god, we... we shoved you under the stairs, of course you don't have anything." Her eyes began filling with tears as she began gasping, her nerves so rough that she seemed to not feel Vernon's arms. A small hand on her shoulder made her look into green eyes.
Harry gave a small smile. "No, you shoved HIM under the stairs. While being attacked mentally for years. Stronger men and women would have done worse than either of you."
She could barely see him through her tears. "How... HOW can you just let something like this go!? YOU KNOW WHAT WE DID!"
Vernon couldn't even look at him, couldn't even talk.
Harry gave a hesitant hug to the two people falling apart in front of him. "It helps that you both regret the actions. It helps that you were being used like I was being used. We all suffered because of that evil beast, and honestly I feel better knowing you two can really understand what that is like." His eyes looked at them, the green dark and tears unshed. "Remember, while you were being tormented he was inside me. Hurting me, both through you and in my dreams. And I didn't even know that I was fighting at all."
He gave a weak grin. "So, from my point of view, both of the monsters who hurt me died when that daemon did. From your point of view, the monster under the stairs died at the same time. We were all saved from monsters, right?"
Vernon couldn't even cry anymore, he just gripped his wife and... sod it all, his second son. Damn it, he didn't deserve forgiveness, he didn't deserve this feeling. But he was not strong enough to push it away. It felt like this small boy had freed them both from hell, and even if he did not deserve to be saved, Vernon was not going to let this chance leave.
Petunia just kept whispering how sorry she was into Harry's hair, feeling her loves arms wrapping the small boy. She would protect both her kids from anyone, she would not fail again. She felt Harry hug her back, and it was one of the best feelings in the world.
Harry didn't say anything. He knew this moment would go into his green room later, but right now he wanted to feel this moment for as long as he could.
A stray thought made him giggle. He pulled back from the hug and wiped his eyes a bit. "About the room thing, I will probably have better furniture than you guys." He pointed at the blocks of plastic being built. "Get me some wood and stuff, and I bet I can shock your socks off."
He grinned as he went back to work, pulling raw materials together. It was fun to be so relaxed.
~~~Core Threads~~~
Harry moved cupboard door farther back on the staircase and expanding it into full door size. No reason to always crawl around now that hiding was pointless.
Vernon walked into the space again and slid his hand on the wall, feeling the perfectly smooth wood. The blue color seemed to grow from the gain, to be a part of the original tree. He looked around and saw some cloth bags in the corner. Curiosity made him walk over and look inside. Jerky, energy bars, all kinds of ready to eat food.
"I collected that a few days ago, in case I had to stay here." Vernon looked up to see a slightly hesitant Harry. "My original plan was to get some answers about my past then basically hide here, like a non-aggression pact."
Vernon stood tall and thought about it. "I honestly just feel surprised. Where did this all come from?"
Harry looked aside. "Well, let's just say the pantry has a bit more room."
Petunia looked into the bag. "Dear goodness, when did you get all this? I can't believe we had so much junk food in the house we didn't even notice any missing."
Vernon snorted. "I can. I used to buy all kinds of food, because I couldn't drink. I didn't dare risk losing my focus with that... uh. I couldn't get drunk, I mean."
Harry picked up the bag. "Things changed a lot, didn't they?" He glossed over the earlier statement. Apparently stabbing the thing responsible had been pretty cathartic. Sorting and storing all memories and emotions about the daemon baby hadn't hurt Harry find peace either. "Still, you will probably save a lot of money not having to buy that junk again."
The older man's eyes almost glossed over. "I can drink again. Haven't had a beer in years." Petunia smacked his shoulder with a small smile and picked up one of the bags. She turned to the boy. "Harry, grab the other bag. You won't be sneaking food around. Lily would have us be your family, and a family eats together."
Harry grinned as he picked up the bag. He had been prepared to live alone, building and learning even without anyone to help. Now he had a real chance at something he had never expected, a real home. Hearing Petunia talk about being a family had pushed his ability to stay calm. He opened his new bedroom door and dragged his emergency rations to the kitchen.
Hearing Petunia behind him, he grinned and waved his hands. Thousands of threads filled the closet, and he had to close his eyes from the unexpected light from them rubbing and passing through each other. As his eyes cleared he heard Petunia gasp. His mouth hung open a little too.
Petunia had just reached the kitchen before a bright white light flashed, almost blinding her. As she blinked her eyes clear, she saw little Harry with his hand outstretched toward the pantry.
Well, it HAD been her pantry. Now it was a deep closet with shelves on each side. Every shelf was organized, food grouped and presented label forward. She turned to Harry, who seemed as stunned as she was. "Uh... I just wanted it organized. It seemed like a funny idea at the time." He seemed slightly out of it as he wandered into the room. "This is neat, but unexpected. It feels strange too."
She cleared her throat. "Good strange or bad strange? It isn't dangerous, is it?" She hesitantly reached a hand out, touching a bag of crisps. It felt normal.
Harry tilted his head. "Not sure. A lot of threads are still here. They seem connected with the floor." He reached into the bag he dragged and pulled out a small package of jerky. Dropping it on the floor, a dimmer flash made them both blink.
Petunia gave a small 'Eep!' and backed out of the closet. "Harry, get out of there right now! Who knows what it is doing!"
Harry turned with a grin, pointing at the Jerky shelf. "I think it's sorting! The original 'sort' threads apparently stayed here after I lost focus when that flash happened." Before she could say anything, he dumped his sack onto the floor. A glow filled the room and a soft rustling was the only sound as the shelves filled slightly. "SEE! I love stuff like this, wish I knew how I did it."
Petunia hesitantly grabbed an energy bar and tossed it into the closet, watching the shelf where it should show up. As she blinked her eyes clear, she saw one extra bar on the stack. She gave a hesitant smile. "Well, I don't like throwing food on the ground but at least it doesn't seem dangerous."
Harry rolled his eyes and pulled her into the room. She seemed to freeze as her foot hit the floor... nothing. She cautiously opened one eye hearing a young giggle. She absently pushed the young boy. "That... not funny, goodness my heart."
His smile broke most of her fear as she calmed down. "Oh no, the magic food sorter of doom!" She smiled a bit, embarrassed that after all the surprises she had gone through today, THIS would be the thing to nearly give her a heart attack. "Well, it's not like I grew up with magic either you know. Lily wasn't allowed to use it when not at school, said that us 'muggles' might find out." Petunia hesitantly poured the wrapped food into the room watching the shelves automatically expand and move to keep from overcrowding each other. If she didn't know better, she would say the room itself had gotten slightly larger when the new food was added.
"What is a muggle?" Harry picked up both empty bags and led her back to his room. He saw Vernon coming down the stairs holding a cardboard box.
"Anyone without magic is a muggle." Petunia held the door for Vernon as he sweatily placed the box down on the green carpet. He seemed too winded to talk right now anyway, apparently those books were heavy. "That is part of the reason I couldn't tell Dudley or Vernon about the magical world, because until you came here there was no one magically connected to that world, so they were not allowed to know."
Harry absently nodded as he began moving the pure white cloth and plastic and metal blocks he had recycled from earlier into his room. "I suppose it would not be much of a secret society if everyone knew about it. Still sorry about the pantry."
Vernon looked up. "Pantry?" Petunia gave a shushing noise and turned back. "Don't worry Harry, the changes are great. I will save loads of time if I don't have to sort everything when I finish shopping."
Harry bit back a small grin seeing Vernon's confused expression. He really appreciated how much his Uncle was trying to help, but he had clearly been out of his comfort zone for a while now. He hesitantly took a deep breath. "Uncle, for my birthday... could we go to the Zoo?"
Vernon felt like cool water had washed over him. FINALLY, something he knew about. No hocus-pocus or whatever, he knew how to handle kids wanting to go out for a birthday. "Of course! Saturday, us and Dudleykins can head over to the one closer to London. Heck, we can make a day of it. Petunia apparently found quite an amount when cleaning Dudley's room."
Harry's eyes suddenly widened and he went to a corner of the room, pulling up the grass green carpet like it was nothing. Pulling up under a board, he pulled a wallet out. "Speaking of money, I already made one withdrawal from Dudley before you guys got around to cleaning up there. As you probably noticed, he had collected quite an amount." He held the leather wallet out to his Aunt.
Petunia took the black wallet and opened it before quickly closing the thing. "GOODNESS, how much cash can one eight year old HAVE!" She opened it again, hesitated, and handing it back to Harry. "Here, consider it missed allowances. Use it responsibly though, not just toss it wherever." She leaned against her husband. "Seriously Vernon, we need to keep Dudley dearest from treating money like it was worthless."
Vernon had missed a good amount of the conversation, relying on his practiced "Yes dear" reflexes as he planed out a birthday. Nothing huge, he didn't want to overwhelm the boy. Lunch at a restaurant, spend time at the zoo... they had a tiny train there, didn't they? Dinner maybe at a steak house. It had been a while since they had eaten out.
Harry put his wallet into the back pocket of his jeans, and began focusing on improving the room. Apparently the threads he had used to paint the walls had caused them to subtly glow like in his dream world, which is why they could see without any real light sources. Still it would be awkward to explain to others. He would need some basic furniture, or at least some more raw materials. For now he took a couple of metal cubes and moved over to his bed.
Placing three cubes near the edge of his mattress, he used some ropes to pull one of the white cloths over and began working. The metal rapidly began to vanish as all the springs in his mattress increased in length and thickness, and the bed itself seemed to enlarge as the materials and cloth vanished into it. With an afterthought, Harry re-colored the entire bed brown like a log, and began weaving some more of the white cloth into a thick blanket. He felt a nudge on his shoulder.
Petunia was standing there holding a bed-sheet, two pillows and a cover. Harry gave a smile and grabbed the two pillows, ropes already devouring them and combining the stuffing. In his hands they merged into a thick and long pillow with a seamless cover, colored like green moss. Placing his new pillow on the bed, he absently bound the bottom of his new cover and sheet with the bottom edge of the mattress and used excess cloth to continue the patterns of the coverings to fit the new bed.
As he finished, he realized his Aunt and Uncle were silent. He turned as Petunia knelt and touched his pillow. "Harry, you have a gift." She saw his eye-roll and shook her head. "Aside from the magic I mean. This bed is beautiful." Her fingers rubbed the now moss patterned coverings. "These look beautiful you know. All the things you have made so far are beautiful."
He gave a nervous chuckle. "Hard to pin a bed on the refrigerator though, right?"
She gave him a smile. "Well, I am sure you could find a way. Could we trick you into doing stuff like this in the house? Not as obvious as the pantry, since Vernon has clients that may visit, but clothing like yours or decorations like these?"
Vernon nodded. "I know I would love to have extra hands to help me fix up the place. I always felt like SOMETHING was breaking or needed repair around here."
Harry could have lit the sun with his smile. He never realized how much he had desired to be wanted, needed for something. "I may fall for a few dastardly clever plots to help out around here. I may need practice fixing things, but I bet we can figure something out."
Vernon couldn't help but smile at the young boy. "Well, I got work in the morning but we should have time to introduce you formally to Dudley in the afternoon. I think we should take a break for now, but let us know if you need anything. Be careful to stay here today so it will look like you showed up tomorrow. Petunia will stop by with lunch and dinner."
Petunia nodded and gave another hug to Harry. He hesitantly hugged back, and after watching the door closed behind them just tried to stand still, holding the recent memories like a warm blanket. He absently picked one of the school books from the box and began looking at each page. Study and learning would happen later, after viewing each page so they could be rebuilt in his memories. Might as well take advantage of his faster mind world.
