Chapter Text
Protective Measures
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Date: Summer Before Second Year, Late June
As soon as they got to back to Privet Drive, Vernon began attempting to bluster his way into taking control of the situation. Harry could tell he wanted to lock away all of his school belongings, an act Harry was not going to allow.
Which is why he ignored his Aunt and Uncle as they moved about and cleared his throat. When they stopped in shock and looked at him standing there in the living room he began speaking, "There is something we need to speak about, lets sit down at the kitchen table."
Even before they responded Harry had already sat down at the table and began getting out some paperwork from his side bag. Though Vernon was red in his face after being ignored he followed his wife's slight touch to his sleeve and sat down.
When he felt he had their attention, and after completely ignoring the random attempt at shouting that Vernon was doing, Harry spoke. "Now, despite my wishes, I am required to return to your residence for at least some part of the summer." He looks at his Aunt and says, "Dumbledore's orders." She nods at that, upset but already knowing it was going to be that way.
Harry then continues. "Now, I have no plan on being locked away for the whatever part of the summer I am here. No matter your wishes."
Vernon actually speaks at this point, "How dare you boy..."
Harry sits up even straighter, a year away at a magical school very clearly having an effect on who he is. "No, how dare you. You are very lucky that I am a nice person, otherwise trust me, you would be in for a world of hurt."
Vernon actually blusters at that. "What are you going to do, you can't do magic here. Petunia already told me that it would cause you to be expelled." The look of glee on his face his sickening.
Harry actually laughs, which in some ways scares them, cause its a laugh full of contempt. "Maybe, if I was anyone else. But I have learned that I am a hero among my world, one of such statue they would never kick me out or believe you over me." He shakes his head at such a notion. "Plus there are other methods than just spells that I could use, undetectable methods."
Petunia, seeing how things are going and knowing that there was no way Harry didn't have a plan, spoke up. "What is it you want."
Harry gives her a look of of approval for her quick understanding. He then says, "I have contacted Gringotts in order to set up a check up for me over the duration of my stay here. Every couple of days they will either write me, call me, or physically visit in order to make sure I am okay." He gives Vernon a look, "Gringotts is the primary financial organization for my world, and for one such as me they have a whole host of useful services. This was one of them."
"Are you threatening me Potter!" Vernon says.
"Yes." Harry says much to the older man's shock and which causes him to sit down. "That is exactly what I am doing. I am not a slave, I have better things to do with my time. Thus I will be doing as I wish when I wish, including coming and going when I want to. I will not ask permission for such things." Here he pauses. "I will also study my school work as I wish, nothing will be locked up or barred as you were planning."
"You dare, after all we have done for you." Vernon says again into the quiet.
Harry scoffs at that, a loud disbelieving one. "Of course I dare, you have not in anyway been good guardians to me. In fact, Petunia, I can truthfully say my mother would be ashamed of you, and would never have done the same if your roles were reversed. If you both had died and they needed to raise Dudley, they would have done it happily. Even without magic they would have cared for and loved him."
There is quiet after that. Eventually it is Petunia that answers, with a hand on her husband's arm to quiet him. "You won't be blatent in your behavior right, we don't want the neighbors to know of your differences."
"Of course not. They won't notice anything. Not even the fact that owls will come and go delivering mail as needed. Its all part of our work to keep people like you from knowing about my world."
"Right. You keep that stuff away and you won't be bothered." Here Petunia sighs a tiny bit. "Just tell me if you will be present for any food or if you will be away more than one day. Beyond that don't bother us."
Harry's statement of "Gladly," occurs at the same time as Vernon's declaration of "Petunia."
Petunia actually glares at him for a second and he sits back. "No. This is the best. We have to have him here for reasons we can't fight. Him doing his own thing will stop from causing us problems. Plus, I know of Gringotts, they have the services he is talking about." A slight pause. "And I have no doubt he set up exactly what he says he did."
"Actually," Harry says when she stops, "I have proof here. Its designed in a somewhat mundane format but it will show proof of what I organized." So said he passes the document over to her so she can see it.
Vernon looks at it over his wife's shoulder and stops suddenly. "What is this 100 pounds every week that I see here."
"It seems Vernon that my parents set up a system where my guardians could get a small stipend to take care of me. If you follow what I have stated you will receive ten payment, even if I do not stay here."
"Why weren't we given it earlier?" Vernon asks a bit more quiet then normal.
It's Petunia that answers, much to Harry's surprise. "Something tells me his placement here wasn't according to their laws. Gringotts probably wasn't authorized."
"Very true. I decided to do it and I can take it away just as quick. If you had been good guardians to me I might have given you more, but you weren't and so I'm not." Harry then stops. "Petunia can also attest that Gringotts has way of detecting manipulations, so threatening me or trying to force me will not get you access."
Vernon looks at Petunia and sees her nod. "Fine." Vernon pretty much yells. "You leave us alone we leave you alone. But none of your freaky stuff should be seen."
"I will keep it away from your sight, though I will be studying so don't come into my room and you won't see anything beyond your understanding." Harry says with a fierce look upon his face. "So with that done I'm going to go and put my stuff in my room and get it all set up as I wish it to be. Don't bother me."
Harry then stands up, gives them a tiny nod, and goes to pickup his trunk. He stops for a moment, giving silent thanks that he had thought to send Hedwig off on her own. Not only would it let her take her time but it would stop the Dursley's from doing anything to her. With that thought he then heads up the stairs and into the smallest bedroom of the residence.
Once in the room he glances about in disgust as he notices that not only didn't the Dursley's clean the room since he left for school but they also began using it to hide their junk. He was quite thankful that he had chosen to take everything he owned with him to Hogwarts, especially with the state the room was in.
Quickly putting down the trunk he goes to move the bed out of the center of the room. He props it up against the corner wall, out of his way. First thing he does is reach into his own pockets and take out small door knob sleeve, which he quickly fits onto the door to the room. Its inbuilt magics would stop the Dursleys from coming into the room with intent to cause any problems, no matter how minor. Once that was set up - which he knew by the tiny flare of up magical light he then moved back to the trunk.
Reaching into one of its compartments Harry then rooted around for a few moments till he found what he wanted. "Ah," he lightly says, "found it." With it being a folded up canvas bag which he places on the floor in the middle of the room. Standing up he goes to the door and closes it, not wanting to make a scene with what he is next going to do. He reaches for his wand and then taps the tent twice. Like featherlight and shrinking enchantments what he just activated isn't considered an active use of magic. As its not a spell its not detected by the Ministry of Magic and thus not restricted.
Moments later the bag inflates and what was once a flat looking sheet instead became a somewhat small but sturdy and secure muggle looking tent. Quite small looking if one simply observed it or even opened the flap without the proper trigger. Before he headed inside he went back to his trunk and rooted around for another item he needed - this one looking like a hoop about the size of the window. Taking the hoop he placed it around said window frame, tapping both it and the tent with his wand. As soon as that was done it glowed for a second and then faded away, subsequently linking the locations.
Not even a moment later Hedwig came flying at the window and ran into it, though she disappeared the moment she would make contact. Harry knew she was fine, and in fact was situated calmly and happily upon a perch inside the tent. When he knew was where he was going to go next, which was done simply by touching a particular knot with his wand.
Walking inside he stopped at the sight that lay before him. It was moments like this that awed him, no matter how used to it all he became. Muttering, "I love magic," with a smile he gazed about the massive ten-sided foyer he arrived in. With each wall having a door the tent contained nine rooms plus the central foyer sitting room that lay in its middle. The rooms included two bedrooms each with attached bath, a focused living room, a kitchen with a dining room, a personal study and office, a nice sized library chamber, a potions lab, a training room, and a greenhouse chamber. It was the perfect place to live and study for the summer, without having to deal with the crap that his relatives tried to put him through.
Though an expensive purchase that was beyond the means of most Magicals, for him it was a perfect site. It even had one special feature that he would not tell anyone about - due to the wizard space being a naturally magical environment no underage use of magic could be detected within here. He could practice magic here as he saw fit with zero risk. Even more, much to his glee, it wasn't even illegal, frowned upon sure, but not illegal for it was not a mundane location.
It actually made him shake his head for a moment at the unfairness of it all. Pureblood and even halfblood students living with magical parents or the magical world could also perform magic. Though the trace was upon the wand in an already magic rich environment it was too weak to give off a signal. From his study it was a safety measure, if it didn't shut off it would constantly ping which was of no use to anyone.
What made him frustrated is that it allowed of his classmates living in the magical world - the Weasleys, Neville, Draco - all use magic over the summer with no hesitation.
Harry shook his head a moment later and looked up at Hedwig. "Enough of that," he said, "there are other things I need to do rather than dwell on the unfairness of our world." Laughing at himself he then goes into the office to begin the organization of his plans.
"First things first," he says out loud as there is no reason to keep quiet, "let me write a letter to Remus and Gringots so they know my gamble paid off."
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