7 A Deal at the Table

Dumbledore woke up in his bed, spending less and less time asleep. Devoting every waking minute searching for Harry, he has made numerous promises that Harry would be arriving this year to Hogwarts. "My bluffs are coming back to bite me" he sadly sighed, rising up from his bed and walked down to his office. After years of searching for the boy Dumbledore started to lose hope that he would ever be found. "I lost the boy who lives, the wizards and witches of Britain are going to hunt me down and flog me" Dumbledore spoke out loud. Reaching his desk, he grabbed a handful of Lemon Drop candies shoving them into the pocket of his purple robe. His phoenix looking worriedly at his companion starts to sing a beautiful melody. "Thanks my dear friend, you truly know how to lift my spirts" Dumbledore says as he gives his trademark grandfatherly smile to his familiar. Peering from his desk as he starts to get lost in his vision of witches chasing him down streets, in a game of cat and mouse, he sees an hourglass filled with red sand slowly spinning for the first time in a decade. A smile slowly extends from ear to ear, 'what a day to be alive' he thinks, his thoughts no longer filled escaping witches wielding rolling pins.

'What a dream' Harry thinks as he stretches his arms and legs in the warmth of the covers. Harry pulls off the covers of the bed, opens his trunk, pulling out a robe to wear and walks out of his room, his foot colliding with a squishy body. "Fuck, my bad kid" Harry groaned remembering that he never released the chubby kid from his Stupefy spell. "Rennervate" Harry mutters as a red spell hits the chubby kid in the back, his legs start to move "ugh" he groans. "Oof, that one was on me kid, had a lot of stuff go down last night." Harry says reaching for the chubby kid and helps him to his feet. "What is your name?"

Harry asked, "my name is Dudley? Are you going to hurt us?" Harry hears as he dropped his head in shame at losing his temper. "Not if your mom makes a really good breakfast" Harry joked, "She really does" Dudley replied as Harry smiled as they walked down the stairs.

They both arrived into the dining room, a giant wooden table surrounded by chairs took up most of the room, and the walls were painted a muted yellow with, pictures of flowers hung against them. Bang, a fist from the plump man hit the table as he made eye contact with Harry. He pointed at Harry and then his face as he opened his mouth trying to say something. Harry groaned "what a way to start the day" Harry said as he sat down at the table. The plump man glared at Harry still pointing towards his mouth as Harry smiled at him, "Did you say something? You are going to have to speak up" Harry antagonized the plump man. He started banging his fist as his mouth opened and closed. Harry rolled his eyes as he flicked his hand towards the plump man. "ave to get to work-" he yelled, stopped in the middle of his sentence as he heard his own voice. "How dare you use yo-" he started yelling as Harry silenced him. "We need to talk and I can't discuss anything with you when you're like that." Harry calmly said as he watched the plump man continue to bang on the table while glaring at him.

Dudley's mother walked into the dining room from the kitchen, carrying plates of food to the table. Her hands were shaking knowing Harry was there, the dishes clattered against the wooden table as she tried to set them down with her unsteady hands. She sat down next to her husband who was glaring at the uninvited guest in their house as everyone stilled. Dudley began looking at the faces of the people around the table knowing, this was a pivotal moment but not understanding why. "Dudley says you make a great breakfast" Harry said pointing to the eggs, bacon and toast as Dudley nods his head in agreement. "May I?" Harry asked, as she nodded her head, Harry began scooping eggs onto his plate, grabbing some bacon and toast afterwards.

"I was angry at both of you" Harry starts as he looks into their eyes "I am not sure you are aware but I was left as a baby on that very front door" He points to the door "until someone took me in, moments after being left there with only a blanket wrapped around me in a cradle. As we spoke last night, I could envision what my life might have been like if you found me, instead of the old man that arrived with me yesterday. The hatred in this house that would have bared down on me, every moment of my life, even now, I can see the hatred in your husband's eyes. I knew yesterday, that although you might be my last living relatives, I would find no love in this house. So I want to make a deal with you, a deal I think we could both agree on." Harry paused scooping eggs on to his toast as he took a bite. "I only need a few days here, I need to get my baring's of this world, some living necessities and then I will leave and I will never come back." Harry said as he looked at the nodding heads.

Breakfast was a quite affair, even after the plump man named Vernon was unsilenced. Vernon soon left for work as he complained about working on a Saturday morning to his wife as he left. Dudley went into another room to watch some cartoons. Petunia the long faced women, was currently in the kitchen washing the dishes. Harry rose from the now empty table and headed towards the room Dudley was in. "Hey cuz, do you guys own a computer I can use?" Harry asked as he noticed the computer on a desk a few feet away from the couch Dudley was occupying. Dudley about to open his mouth to answer "I see it, thanks" Harry smirked as he walked over to the computer and powered it on. 'Time to see just how similar this world is' he though as he remembered the conversation with Veronica.

Show after show began an ended on the television screen, hours passed by as Harry read about the world. Reading the wars that were fought and won, as Earth was marred by the battles. The fashion of this world was similar, jeans, shirt and sneakers would be fine to wear. He saw Meme's littering the internet for the first time, as he dragged Dudley away from his show to explain to him what they were. Harry started to search for spells as he heard Dudley's stomach growl. "Lunch should be ready" Dudley grinned as he skipped out of the room as Harry soon joined him.

After lunch, Harry started walking down towards the door, he reached out to the doorknob but was stopped as Petunia looking mortified "you aren't allowed to leave this house while wearing robes, what will the neighbors' think?" Screeches as she quickly pushes her body against the door blocking it from opening. "I need to get some clothes to wear, a toothbrush and some other things." Harry says as he looked down at his dragon leather boots and dress robes. "I will get them, just don't leave the house looking like that." She snidely remarks, reaching for her purse and keys. "Duddles, come with Mom" she yells, hearing her son faithfully come as called. "But mom, my shows" he starts to complain as Petunia reaches out grabbing his collar and dragging him out the door. "I will not leave you alone with him in this house" she says shutting the door behind her.

Harry looking around the house feeling like he forgot to do something very important. Retracing his steps from the computer room to the kitchen, as he starts walking up the stairs and into the spare room he was using, he sees his trunk lying on the bed. "Fuck, I forgot about Draven" Harry says as he quickly opens the latch to the trunk and starts changing the compartments looking for his faithful snake. "Speaker" he hears an annoyed hiss as Harry pulls him out of the trunk. "I didn't forget about you I promise" Harry says as the snake closed his eyes at the painfully obvious lie.