บท 13: The Shift in Power
They turned the old toy room into a small library/study for the boys to use. They even made it clear to Dudley it was Harry's just as much as it was his and Dudley wasn't to try destroying anything Harry chose to leave in the room any more than Harry had ever chosen to destroy Dudley's things. Nor was Dudley allowed to enter Harry's new bedroom without his permission.
Dudley had protested that claiming Harry had destroyed a lot of Dudley's things before but for the first time in his life, his parents hadn't believed him. Which only hacked Dudley off and made him determined to make Harry suffer. Vernon made it very clear that if anything of Harry's in that room got damaged, Dudley would be in big trouble.
Dudley had tested that only once. He had defaced one of Harry's books and Vernon had literally taken a belt to his rump before making him replace the book out of his own pocket money. Something that had turned out to be a lot more expensive than any of them had thought it would be simply because the book he defaced was magical and could only be purchased in the magical shopping district with magical money.
So Dudley had to go to Gringott's and exchange his pocket money for magical coin and then go to the book store to find a copy of the book he'd destroyed. Nor would Vernon allow Dudley to force Harry to take him other places in the Alley where he could buy magical items to show off to his friends or use to torment Harry.
Of course, the thrashing came only after Dudley had tried to get revenge on Harry by trashing Harry's new bedroom. He had barged into the room while Harry had been occupied elsewhere in the house and completely demolished it. Petunia had made him clean the room when he had finished trashing it. She'd kept a list of everything he had destroyed in his rampage and Vernon had grounded him to his room as well taking away his second helpings and deserts for a week over the incident. Petunia had replaced the things she could off the list of destroyed items and the cost was taken out of Dudley's allowance.
Which had Dudley being broke for a couple of weeks even after he had finished his grounding time. He had gotten the message then as he didn't like being broke unable to purchase snacks for his crew when they were out causing mayhem in the neighborhood.
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Now that his decision was made there were only a few more things Harry needed to do before leaving for school. Namely shutting down the house for a long period of unoccupation. Luckily, he'd seen Vernon and Petunia do it often enough to know exactly what to do. Even when they knew they'd be leaving him here while they went on whatever trip they planned to go on, they'd always shut down the house before they left.
The last thing Harry did was to make sure the kitchen was sufficiently well packed away. What foods could be frozen had been packed into the deep freezer and the refrigerator cleaned out before it was shut off. He'd even remembered to go through the pantry making sure all the bags and containers were tightly closed to keep out the bugs and other vermin. He made sure the gas to the range, water heater and radiators was also turned off since he knew he wouldn't be back before the springtime. If ever. And then he turned the water down to a mere trickle. Just enough water flowing through the pipes to keep them from freezing in the winter and provide the hose in the shed with fresh flowing water for Hedwig. But not enough to be a real problem if something did go wrong.
Through the goblins, which had been tricky to arrange since he didn't want to let them know his guardians had flown the coop, he'd already hired a realty company to come by and keep an eye on the house while he was away at school. While the goblins tended not to care too much about their human patrons, they were under several different treaties and Harry couldn't be sure one of them didn't deal with abandoned children. He did know they were smart and just cagey enough to figure it out if he gave them even the slightest hint.
But the realty company would handle things here at the house for him while he was away at the Hogwarts Training Ground for Murder and Mayhem. They'd also keep the electricity flowing so the freezer wouldn't defrost. And Steve from across the street would keep an eye on the place while the family was gone. He'd agreed to mow the grass and rake the leaves as well as collect any mail that came for him so it'd look like someone was living in the house.
Harry hadn't told him the Dursley family no longer lived there but he suspected Steve knew it already. Steve was like that. He knew things even if he never commented on them or did anything to try and change them. After all, it was Steve who bought Harry hotdogs, sticky buns or crisps sometimes when he noticed Harry was looking thinner than usual. He'd always been there to lend a hand when a hand was needed but wouldn't be given by anyone else. So it was to Steve, Harry had turned when he knew he'd need someone keeping in eye on the place while he was away. He even gave Steve a spare key to the house so Steve could let himself in if a problem arose. Steve would call the realtors if he noticed a problem.
He'd also keep the neighborhood kids from vandalizing the house. Harry knew without asking Steve would stay in the house from time to time for a couple of hours turning on and off the lights, radio or television. He might even make himself a meal or two. Just so the neighbors would think the family was back from their trip. People around here were easy to confuse. So long as they heard the right sounds, they'd never think it might not be the right people making them. They never had before when it had been Harry himself pretending the family was in residence while they were on one of their trips.
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