Chapter Text
“Well, Piers got to go!”
Transferring breakfast from the pan to the plates, Harry did his best to ignore the whining pitch of his cousin’s voice and brought the food to the table.
“And we’re not going to that freakshow. It’s not natural!” Uncle Vernon insisted as he smacked a hand on the table.
Harry scattered back to the sink as soon as he had put down the plates, beginning to scrub at the pan and clean up the workspace as precisely as possible.
“But Daaaad!” Dudley’s voice had reached the pitch he always used to get his way. In the relative privacy of the kitchen, Harry dared to roll his eyes. Now at least Aunt Petunia would be on his side.
“They’re machines, dad, really cool ones. Isn’t that what….what cars are gonna be like? In the future?”
The spluttering from Uncle Vernon begged to differ.
“Well, I don’t think it’s that much different, Diddykins.”
“Petunia!”
“It’s just technology, I don’t understand what the big deal is. I thought you’d be happy our Diddykins is taking an interest in technological advances?”
For a moment, Uncle Vernon only grumbled and the room was silent.
“…I’ll think about it.”
Dudley’s smugness was tangible all the way from the living room.
As time progresses, the topic is raised once or twice again, and with summer vacation approaching, it is finally settled that the Dursleys will go on a one-week vacation to this pizza place Dudley wants to visit so badly. Whenever Harry hears him talk about it, he makes an effort to not listen to him, because it sounds honestly amazing. Which means he’ll likely not be allowed to come. Dudley is sadly all too aware of this and has been using the knowledge to actively taunt him. Still, it’s better than getting beaten up by him and Piers. It seems like Dudley is actually content enough for once to just mock him instead of throwing punches.
One evening, Uncle Vernon comes home late, grumbling to himself angrily, and easily audible from where Harry was lying under his blanket in the closet. He holds his breath as Uncle Vernon’s shadow passed by the gaps in the door, but luckily, it does not open and his uncle simply moves into the living room, where Petunia is still up and watching TV. He can her a short conversation, then a shocked gasp from Petunia.
“But she can’t be sick!”
Followed by Vernon saying something else that he couldn’t decipher over the noise of the TV. He sat up and quietly shuffled around to lay an ear to the door.
“….- don’t think so- … - going on vacation as well-“
“There has to be someone!”
“We might have to- …. Oh, don’t look at me like that! The Colburns in No. 6 have been looking!”
“…- ruin the vacation- … - burn down the house!”
Harry held his breath again. No need to get his hopes up. Just because they were using the same tone they usually did when talking about him didn’t mean it was about him. There were other things that made them angry.
“…-surely we can just-…”
“Ugh, fine!” Vernon still sounded upset. There was a noise as the fridge opened and he rummaged around, raising his voice to carry over the sound. “The brat can be grateful we won’t have to spend more on another ticket.”
In the darkness of his closet, Harry stifled both his rising excitement and any noises that might have escaped him. He’d have to wait for them to tell him for sure, but it sounded like he was coming with the Dursleys after all. Thinking of going with the Dursleys helped tamp down the excitement, but after weeks of Dudley talking about robots and games and music, Harry would have been bored to tears if he had to stay with Mrs. Figg again.
However, the next morning, nothing was said on the matter. Neither on the day after. Harry knew the Dursleys were going to leave right after school was out for summer break, but before he knew it, the day had arrived and nothing had been said about him coming along. Angry at himself for being disappointed, he scrubbed at the breakfast dishes with vigour, went through a familiar dance of dodging Petunia when she went to smack him for sulking, then went off to school with Dudley, who was in high spirits and left him with several bruises ‘to remember him by’ while they were gone.
So, when the Dursleys came to pick them up, he expected to be dropped off at Mrs. Figg’s as usual. He was alerted to the fact that this was not the case by Dudley’s loud gasp when they drove onto the highway.
“Mooom! Daad!” he yelled. “You forgot to kick out the freak!”
Harry could see Vernon’s shoulders tense in front of him. “Mrs. Figg is in hospital, Dudders. It’s better to just take him along than leave him to trash our house. Just ignore him. And if he does anything freaky, we’ll dump him on the side of the road.”
The next fifteen minutes or so were headache-inducing as Dudley screamed in fury, kicked at Petunia's seat, and then finally fell into a quiet sulk.
In the meantime, Harry hid a small grin by looking out the window, watching trees whoosh past the car. Making sure he stayed quiet and didn’t draw attention as Dudley wailed on.
“You wait in the car, boy.”
“Yes, Uncle Vernon.”
Vernon glared and leveled a thick finger at him before slamming his door closed again and locking the car.
At several points during the ride, Dudley had spilled snacks and broken things only to shout that Harry had done it, but thankfully, the Dursleys did not go through with their threat of tossing him out of the car and leaving him. They’d done it once or twice before, but that was when he was still close enough to Privet Drive to walk home. By the time Dudley was done with his tantrum and had the time to get the idea to get Harry in trouble, they were already miles away.
They had been on the road for several hours before the car finally turned into the car park of a hotel. The Dursleys were gathering their luggage from the back of the car now and Harry turned in his seat to watch as the trunk became emptier and emptier. Finally, the Dursleys had cleared out all the bags except for the kids’ schoolbags.
Maybe his thoughts had shown on his face because Aunt Petunia laughed and said in a patronizing voice: “What is it, freak? If you wanted to have a bag, you should have packed it yourself. Ungrateful brat.”
Then the lid of the trunk got slammed down by Uncle Vernon.
Harry watched them go and sighed. Of course, there was a catch. He comforted himself with the thought that he didn’t have much to pack anyway, and this set of clothes was one of his better ones. Even if getting pushed by Dudley in the schoolyard had made his shirt a little dirty. Perhaps he’d get a chance to wash it at some point.
As he waited, he looked out the window and watched people go by on the nearby street. There was a bus stop there, and he counted the buses that stopped while he waited. He stopped at 11 after thinking he saw the same number on a bus for the third time. He would have tried and gotten some homework done, but it wasn’t really worth the trouble if he got caught. Sometimes saying he was doing Dudley’s homework and not his own worked out in his favor, other times it very much did not.
Eventually, as he was already starting to get tired and the sun was beginning to set, Vernon returned and yanked open the car door, letting in a gush of fresh air.
“Get out.”
He quickly undid his seatbelt and followed Uncle Vernon as he walked briskly through the car park. At some point, Harry must have been too slow for him, because he grabbed onto his wrist and dragged him through a side entrance and up a set of stairs. After going a pretty convoluted path through the hotel’s corridors, Vernon unlocked a room and shuffled him inside.
It was a large bedroom with a double bed, a small couch, and a TV, but that was all Harry saw of it before Uncle Vernon pushed him onwards and into the bathroom.
“You’re staying in here, and don’t you make a noise.”
Then Vernon pulled the key from the inside of the door and shut it, locking it from the outside. Harry sighed quietly and locked around. There was a shower, but no bathtub, a sink that was just a little high, but still reachable, and the toilet. A few towels were hung up on a rack by the shower and by the sink.
And that was all he got to see before the lights turned off.
Looking up and around, Harry waited for his eyes to adjust and began to look for a light switch, but couldn’t find one. There was only a thin line of light marking the edges of the door. In a way, it was familiar, and he settled down on the bathroom mat. Which was surprisingly fluffy and soft. More of a carpet, really, he thought as he laid down completely. There were still the tiles beneath, but at least there was more space on the rug than in his closet. He could hear the TV being turned on outside.
Aside from that, he realized that he was in the bathroom and quickly sat up again. The sink was hard to reach, but after some careful poking around, he found a little stool tucked underneath the sink cabinets. He stepped up and let the water run in a trickle, scooping up some water to drink. Harry wasn’t sure if he was allowed, but as far as he knew, the Dursleys wouldn’t have to pay for the water here, it would have come with the room. But even if there was no real reason for it to be forbidden, he was still careful and quiet as he drank his fill and replaced the stool under the sink.
Sitting back down on the rug with his back leaning against the cabinet, Harry gave himself a moment to think.
They’d actually taken him along. This time, he didn’t stop the smile from spreading on his face. It was extremely rare for the Dursleys to take him on vacations, usually, Mrs. Figg looked after him then. There had been three or four times before when she had been unable to do so, and in only two of those cases had he actually been taken along. The other times, they’d found someone else, or that one time, where they had simply shut the curtains and locked him in the house with dire warnings to not even attempt to go outside. Those two weeks had been pretty great, even if he got in trouble after for a bunch of things he did or didn’t do while they were gone.
And the two times he had been taken along on a vacation, the Dursleys had begrudgingly taken him along when they went out. Sure, he did have to make extra sure to stay close to them and remember the way back to the hotels, but on the first such occasion, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had discussed heavily whether or not to just leave him in the hotel. In the end, the risk of unwanted room service or him doing something freaky while unsupervised won out. So, he was very sure that they would take him along to that pizza place tomorrow.
From what Dudley had bragged about, there would be a lot of cool things to do, but Harry tried his best to not hope for too much. On the two vacations he’d been with them, they’d always found ways to make it disappointing. Most likely, they would take him along and then not let him do anything but watch Dudley.
Stifling a yawn, he eyed one of the towels on the rack and chewed his lip. The bathroom wasn’t cold, and he was unsure if he would get into trouble for using one. Then again, it might be better to know sooner rather than later. Decision made, he pulled one of the smaller towels off and laid down on the rug again, pulling the towel over his body. It was too bad he hadn’t been allowed to pack his things, now he didn’t have a change of clothes or his blanket.
But, he was forced to accept it and also almost willing to pay the price. Tomorrow, he would have a good day, regardless of what the Dursleys might throw at him.
The next morning, Harry was confused that there was no rapid knocking on his closet door, but that he was simply yanked outside instead. Still mostly asleep, it took him a few moments to realize he was being spoken to.
“-usting, really. Now sit down and at least try to pretend you could be normal.”
His eyes followed his aunt's pointing finger to an unfamiliar couch, the sight waking him up properly. Right, they were not at home.
“Yes, Aunt Petunia,” he replied habitually and rubbed at his gummy eyelids as he made his way over to the couch, sitting down and trying to recall anything else she had said.
Something about the towel? So taking one maybe hadn’t been the best choice.
Somewhere behind him, Petunia and Vernon went in and out of the bathroom as they got ready. Harry tried to recall what they had said about their plan for the day, back in the car.
Uncle Vernon had said that the place they were going to opened at 7, so they would take a quick and early breakfast to make it there right when it opened. Harry snuck a glance at the clock hanging on the wall. It was just after six in the morning, so he would guess that after the Dursleys left, he’d have perhaps 20 minutes to get ready himself.
There was no way they would take him to breakfast, not with the way that Aunt Petunia had said ‘we will have a nice breakfast’ in the car. Not with how Uncle Vernon had practically smuggled him up here. He wasn’t dumb, they hadn’t passed any hotel check-ins or anything. And if there was no room booked for him, then breakfast didn’t seem like something that was in the cards either.
At least there might be a chance to get something later. They were going to a pizzeria, after all.
As expected, after his aunt and uncle had gotten ready – and had also gotten Dudley ready, whose room was across the hall – they pushed him back into the bathroom and left. But at least they didn’t turn off the light this time. There was no light switch inside the bathroom, only one outside, next to the door. So getting to keep the light was a bonus.
Harry didn’t even consider using the hairbrush that was now lying on the corner of the sink, instead combing through his hair with his fingers. It didn’t do much, but that battle was one Aunt Petunia had long since given up on. As for him, he was fine with it if his hair was a little wild, he just didn’t want it all flat in the spot where he’d slept on it.
After fixing that, he did what he couldn’t do in the dark and searched the cabinet under the sink. There were a couple of different things inside, but what caught his attention was the big box of individually packaged toothbrushes. They looked a lot like the cheap one he had at home, the one that had come with some toothpaste on it that had worn off after a short time.
It turned out these were exactly like that.
After brushing his teeth, he put the toothbrush back into the wrapper and hid it behind the box in the cabinet. He’d throw it away at the end of the week, but until then, it was better if the Dursleys didn’t find it.
What else was there to do?
He pulled off his shirt to see how dirty it had gotten yesterday, brushed a little dust off it, and deemed it good to wear. He used the toilet and drank some more water from the sink, and only moments after he’d pushed the stool back under the cabinet again, there were heavy footsteps outside.
Vernon was alone, Harry realized as he was ordered out of the bathroom and followed his uncle through the hallways once again. As it turned out, Petunia and Dudley had been waiting in the parked car for them. Ushered inside, Harry endured the couple of hits Dudley sent his way for holding them up. Thankfully, his cousin was quickly distracted by the promise of the day ahead. Vernon was talking about how the drive was short and they’d be there in no time.
However short the ride may have been, waiting in line was a lot longer. Dudley had passed the point of whining 10 minutes ago and was now silently sulking as Petunia and Vernon bickered about something or other. Harry heard something of VIP’s and saw them look over to a much shorter line that moved faster than all the others. The doors may have opened almost 20 minutes ago, but there were still two equally long lines in front of the doors. They became much more crowd-like near the doors, which was where they currently found themselves. And there were so many children.
Honestly, half of the crowd were kids, some not even with parents, quite a few older than Harry and Dudley, too. And it seemed waiting in line had not killed their excitement much.
Uncle Vernon grumbled when they finally reached the doors. Harry gaped at the robot – not a human! – manning the door. Its bottom half was simply a block with two large wheels on the sides, but the upper half looked more humanoid. There was some sort of device attached to its hand.
“Please present your Freddy Fazbear Pizzaplex Entry Ticket.”
When his uncle handed over their tickets with a grimace, the bot simply leveled the device at the tickets, which then emitted a beep.
“Welcome to the Freddy Fazbear Pizzaplex. Enjoy your stay.”
Stepping inside, the crowd thinned a little, but not by much. From what he could see, there were some kind of turnstiles ahead where lots of people were busy swiping their tickets and moving further into the complex.
There were bright neon lights on the walls, and dozens of kids were running around. The Dursleys had barely made it past the turnstiles when something jumped int front of them, causing Aunt Petunia to shriek.
“Hi. Take a map.”
The robot in front of them looked a lot like the one at the door, only this one had a map in his hand instead of a screen. It also wore a hat and glasses
“Stupid tin can,” Vernon grumbled and tried to maneuver his family away. The robot, however, followed their sidestepping, still holding out the map.
“Take a map.”
“Fine!” Harry’s uncle huffed and yanked the piece of paper from the robot's hand. “Now get lost!”
But the robot had already turned away as soon as the map was taken, approaching another family.
“Where’s the shooting game, Dad?!” Dudley cried as he tried to look at the map. “Piers said they have lasers!”
Harry grimaced a little. He’d heard some of Dudley's conversations with Piers about the laser tag game. Apparently, Piers had stopped using the lasers at some point and started holding other kids in place to shoot and kick at. Hopefully, Dudley would get it out of his system quickly. Maybe then, Harry could still enjoy some part of today.
In the meantime, Uncle Vernon looked over the map for a moment, then handed it to Petunia. “Over there, see? Go ahead with Dudley while I take the brat over there.” He pointed at something else on the map.
Dudley, clearly having heard this, frowned and stomped. “Where does Harry get to go?”
“It’s the daycare, honey,” Petunia assured him as Harry’s mood plummeted. He was probably pouting, right now, but Vernon didn’t seem to care as he laid a heavy hand on his shoulder and steered him away from Aunt Petunia and Dudley. Harry could still hear her. “You know, for the little babies? That’s no place for a fine young man such as yourself.”
‘We’re both nine years old!’ Harry frowned, but quickly turned his face away from Vernon so he would not see.
They went up some escalators and entered a large hallway with brick walls. There were advertisements for candy on the walls, and lots of neon signs. There were surprisingly little people in here, compared to the masses outside. When they passed a large fountain, Vernon steered him to the side instead of approaching the large passageway where a family was still lingering.
When Harry turned to look at him, he was faced with a familiar look and a finger in his face.
‘No freaky stuff-’
“Listen here, if I get a single complaint about you messing things up-”
‘No drawing attention to yourself-’
“-then you best believe you can spend the rest of the week back at the hotel.”
‘and no ruining the vacation.’
“You’re not going to mess up Dudley’s week of fun, do you understand?”
Harry nodded. It was the same lecture he’d gotten the last vacation he had been allowed to tag along, the same one he got on his first day of school, the same one he got anytime they went anywhere.
“Yes, Uncle Vernon.”
“Good.”
Then Vernon steered him towards the now empty passageway and into a large room, making a noise of disgust and unease at the large golden statue that greeted them. Harry didn’t have much time to look up at the huge figure before Vernon pushed him onwards. However, he caught a glimpse over his shoulder at what might be another robot, this one with spiked coming out of his head. There was another statue behind it-
“I got a kid to drop off,” Vernon’s gruff voice pulled his attention to the desk they had reached. There was a woman standing behind it, who smiled at them.
“Welcome, sir! We just need you to fill out some information on here real quick,” she handed him a screen much like the one from the robot that had scanned their tickets.
Vernon let go of his shoulder to take the tablet, fumbling a little and grumbling under his breath. While he was busy, Harry looked around a little more, careful not to move away from where he was standing. There were more advertisements behind the woman’s desk, and he realized that the robot from the statue was present in them. Otherwise, there were kids’ tables and chairs scattered around the area and he wondered if he’d be all alone here all day. It didn’t look like this space was used often. However, as he turned back to the desk, he spotted something on the other side of his uncle.
Carefully leaning back, then forward to see past Uncle Vernon, he could make out the words ‘Slide into fun!’ above the entrance of a slide. Maybe there were other kids down there? He could hear someone over the music, but he wasn’t sure where or how many.
“There,” Vernon pushed the screen back at the receptionist, who took it with a smile and thanked him. Then she turned to Harry with … a slightly different smile and nodded towards the slide.
“Go ahead, everything is taken care of up here.”
Looking to Vernon, Harry carefully made his way over to the slide, hesitating when he heard him speak up.
“What, you people don’t have normal doors?”
“Don’t worry sir, you can pick up your son-”
“Nephew.”
“I’m sorry. You can pick up your nephew downstairs at the pick-up point later.”
Harry looked back one more time, then slipped down into the slide when he saw Vernon turning to leave. Even if this place was for babies, at least he’d be away from the Dursleys for a while. That seemed like a pretty good deal.