Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I do not have any rights to Harry Potter and I do not make any money from writing these fic's.
A/N 1: Just to stop the confusion I live in the UK and I know the UK way of crocheting so I am using the UK method of crocheting so to me a Single Crochet in patterns mean a double crochet.
Chapter Eleven
"How Vernon? How?" Petunia asked as she eyed the panicking freak in her husband's grasp as if it was going to attack her any second, "And why is the freak not standing behind you for? Freak! Stand up! I will not have you embarrassing my family on this special day!"
"The freak can't Pet, it seems I finally managed to do some permanent damage," Vernon replied with a pleased shark like grin as he gave a sharp yank to Harry's hair, "From now on the boy won't be able to get away!"
As her husband let out a cruel laugh Petunia frowned and looked down at her freak of a nephew's body looking for any changes only to find his legs lying on the floor like led weights. Fear flashed through her eyes as Petunia quickly turned and looked out at the birthday party in the back garden before turning back to her husband with a dark look on her face.
"Take the freak upstairs, I do not want to become the gossip of the town!" Petunia snapped out angrily, "I do not care if the freak is half dead he will not take the spot light off of my precious Dudley, especially today."
With a pig like grunt of understanding Vernon turned towards the stairs with his hand still firmly gripping Harry's hair. Without a second thought or care for his nephew Vernon dragged Harry up the stairs while not caring about the pain filled whimpers Harry made as his upper body and head was hit against the stairs.
'What is going to happen to me?' Harry thought as he bit back a sob 'Why did no one come and help me outside for? Am I that much of a freak?'
"I will be back in a moment, keep the party going," Harry heard his aunt call out causing him to wince in fear, "I just have to go and get something from upstairs."
'Oh no, I must be in really big trouble' Harry thought as the sound of his aunt's feet came to his ears and he could just make out the top of her head 'If they are both coming upstairs...I...did I hurt aunt Marge's dog that badly?'
"Put the freak in the guest room Vernon, I don't think Marge will be coming here anytime soon," Petunia said as Vernon reached the top of the stairs, "And remind me to get the freak to wash the sheets on the bed once this is all over with, I will not have him spreading his freakish germs all over my clean bed sheets!"
Used to his aunt's cruel words and his body being in almost constant pain Harry ignored them and concentrated on the thing that brought him the least amount of pain, or it would be better said the thing that brought him no pain at all.
'Why can't I feel anything below my waist for?' Harry thought as he tried to ignore how his uncle was roughly dragging him up the last step and onto the upstairs landing 'I know I fell out of the tree...and uncle Vernon used that big metal pole...and it hi t my back...did uncle Vernon do this to me?'
"You will just love my idea Pet!" Vernon's greedy voice said cutting Harry's thoughts off, "It will make us rich! The boy will finally be paying us back for everything that we have done for him too! We will even be able to buy a bigger house and hire other people to run it for us!"
"The freak can make us rich?" Petunia asked with a disbelieving look through there was a hint of greedy excitement in her voice, "The freak is not smart enough to add two and two together, how can he make us rich?"
"Dog blankets Pet! Dog blankets is the answer to all of our troubles!" Vernon replied with a grin on his face as he dragged Harry towards the guest room.
"Dog blankets?" Petunia asked with a hint of scepticism in her voice, "Vernon...what happened outside? Did the freak hurt you?"
"He didn't but I sure did!" Vernon replied with an evil laugh making Harry whimper, "Let's just get into the guest room Pet, I don't want anyone else hearing my brilliant plan!"
The next few moments were silent bar the sound of the guest room door being slammed open. Looking around the best he could with how his uncle was holding his hair Harry braced himself for what he knew was to come as he found himself being dragged into the guest room. Harry did not have to wait long for what he knew was coming as only a few seconds after Vernon had entered the guest room Harry found himself being lifted up off of the ground and thrown onto the guest bed.
'At least it is soft this time' Harry thought while struggling to sit up right only to flinch suddenly as his aunt's voice echoed throughout the room.
"Well? Will you tell me now?" Petunia asked as she slammed the door shut behind her, "And why couldn't the freak make his own way up here? Why did you not make him walk! You are going to have to wash your hand now!"
Harry watched with wide eyes as his uncle just stood still and allowed his aunt to yell at him, this had never happened before. Whatever was going down it was big.
"First off Pet the freak can't use his legs anymore because of how he got out of the tree," Vernon said while ignoring Harry totally who was trying to use his legs to help him move but failing, "But that does not matter as I-"
"Does not matter! Does not matter!" Petunia screeched out angrily at hearing her husband's words, "How on earth can you say it does not matter! How will the boy do his chores! What will people say? He will cost us a lot more money now! What will those other freaks say now?!"
"I don't care about the other freaks, if they come anywhere close to my family I will have them arrested for trespassing," Vernon replied with an ugly look at the mention of the 'other freaks', "And with my idea we will be so rich that we can hire people to do the chores! Besides the best part of this plan is that the freak does all the work! We just have to give him the stuff so he can do it!"
"Do what?" Petunia asked carefully as she thought over her husband's words carefully.
"You remember that we gave the freak Dudley's unwanted birthday present from Jane?" Vernon asked, when Petunia slowly nodded her head he continued, "Well it seems the freak was doing something useful while up in that tree! Have a look for yourself!"
Much to Petunia's surprise she found herself being forced given a red woolly blanket, frowning she took it off of her husband and took a careful and closer look at the item in question only to spot the large white bone in the middle of the blanket. Looking up with a small glint of surprise in her eyes she gave her husband a pointed look.
"The freak did this?" Petunia asked in surprise.
"Yes, it seems the freak worked out how to do it," Vernon replied grinning like a loon at the fact his wife was beginning to see things his way.
"I remember my mother trying to teach my...that girl and I to crochet when we were young only I was never able to get it," Petunia said bitterly only to glare at her husband, "You do know how much wool costs don't you? Why just the other day when I was shopping I saw that only 100g's of wool costs £2's and that is the cheap wool!"
"Then we just charge the person extra, we make them pay for the wool along with however many hours it takes the boy to do what they want and a bit extra," Vernon said as he shot the nervous and worried Harry a nasty look, "Plus the freak can use all of that wool that Jane sent so he can always use that to begin with."
"Well...I guess people could always just buy the wool themselves and give it to us to use too," Petunia said thoughtfully as she ran a hand over the dog blanket, "You know we could do this...we could give Marge this blanket for her dog to make up for what happened and knowing how that woman likes to boast about anything she has we will find ourselves with loads of customers in no time."
"That's the spirit Pet, we are going to be rich!" Vernon said happily only to frown and point at Harry, "But what are you going to do about him? I hate to say this Pet but maybe we should find him some medical help, after all the boy is our ticket to the good life."
Petunia let out a thoughtful hum causing Harry to inwardly wince, looking over her nephew with a critical eye Petunia let out a long suffering sigh before turning and walking out of the room. Gulping nervously Harry did his best to stay still and look down at his lap while trying not to give his uncle any reason to beat him.
'I wonder what aunt Petunia has in mind' Harry thought as he poked his legs sadly 'I guess I'm just going to have to accept that my legs no longer work and get on with it...'
Sighing once again Harry jumped suddenly as two white small round pills where shoved in front of him with a glass of water. Blinking in total confusion Harry looked up only to find that it was his aunt holding them out to him.
"Hurry up boy," Petunia snapped out as she glared at Harry, "I am not doing this out of the goodness of my heart! Take them already, the sooner you take them the sooner I can get some pillows and the sooner you can start making us rich!"
"Yes aunt Petunia," Harry said carefully as he took the two pills and the water only to look at them as if they might eat him alive from the inside out.
To Be Continued...
More Epemetheus and Matsuo to come soon! Their appearance will also explain why no one came to Harry's rescue when he was up the apple tree in the front garden.