Harry tilted his head, cubes forming into a pile. "So... it was like a magic bird or something?"
Petunia shrugged. "Probably, I guess. Apparently wizards use owls to send mail."
The young man paused. In fact, all the cubes froze for a moment. "Huh. Well, that seems a bit silly. Unless you make the bird super smart or something. Heck, how do they even check to make sure the mail gets delivered? Not like a bird can make reports or sign in or whatever."
His Aunt almost giggled, "The one that showed up actually smacked Lily in the head. I thought it served her right, since I didn't get my letter." Her face sort of fell, as sadness crept into her eyes. "We had an argument about that. I even tried to beg mom and the witch that came to help Lily to take me too. We had done everything together, so when Lily found out she was a witch, we thought I would be one too."
Harry leaned forward. "Well, it makes sense to me. How did they check if you were one or not?"
Petunia leaned back, blinking away any possible tears. "Well, apparently there is a registry in the school, and when a magic person is born they show up there. The woman who came to help Lily shop didn't really say much to me about it, although I wasn't exactly calm or able to think straight at the time." The boy went back to working on the cubes, as the remaining amount of trash bags collapsed into themselves. "Well, it may not matter. I am not sure I am a wizard."
She blinked away memories. "What? Of course you are, just look at all this!"
Harry chuckled. "Exactly. Do I LOOK like I am using a stick? From what I can tell, every other magic person does. Well, all the ones I have seen so far. Did the woman who showed up for Mom have a stick?"
Petunia seemed a tad off balance. "Yes, I think. I know Lily showed me her stick when she got back from some sort of magic shop. But you have to be a wizard. Maybe not all of them need sticks or whatever."
He moved his hand and the cubes began floating and stacking on the floor. "Well, I don't need a stick, I don't know any spells really, I don't yell things when I use my threads. Seems odd enough to me. Still, more information would help."
"Well, we don't really know how to contact them." Vernon came in from where he had been leaning in the hall, recovering from carrying all those bloody bags. He sighed as he saw the new stack of near-empty bags that now had to go out.
Turning to Harry, he seemed to find some inner strength. "So I think we should make some plans."
Harry nodded as Vernon sat across from him and continued. "The age thing is a big deal. So we will pretend that you were abandoned today rather than back then." Vernon rubbed Petunia's shoulder. "I know some people, so the paperwork should not be an issue. We could home-school you until you reach Dudley's grade, then you can join him in school." The boy tilted his head. "The story works pretty well, cause Dudley won't really recognize me like this. Won't even have to change my name, since no one used it." Harry tried to ignore the winces from both his listeners. "I can probably catch up pretty quickly if you can get me Dud's old books."
Vernon tried to remember where exactly they had shoved those things. "If we are missing any you need, we can go to a book store." He hugged Petunia's shoulder as his eyes darkened with more than a little shame. "We should probably get you some things for your room too."
Petunia didn't seem to grasp his words at first, before she gasped. "Oh god, we... we shoved you under the stairs, of course you don't have anything." Her eyes began filling with tears as she began gasping, her nerves so rough that she seemed to not feel Vernon's arms. A small hand on her shoulder made her look into green eyes. Harry gave a small smile. "No, you shoved HIM under the stairs. While being attacked mentally for years. Stronger men and women would have done worse than either of you."
She could barely see him through her tears. "How... HOW can you just let something like this go!? YOU KNOW WHAT WE DID!"
Vernon couldn't even look at him, couldn't even talk.
Harry gave a hesitant hug to the two people falling apart in front of him. "It helps that you both regret the actions. It helps that you were being used like I was being used. We all suffered because of that evil beast, and honestly I feel better knowing you two can really understand what that is like." His eyes looked at them, the green dark and tears unshed. "Remember, while you were being tormented he was inside me. Hurting me, both through you and in my dreams. And I didn't even know that I was fighting at all." He gave a weak grin. "So, from my point of view, both of the monsters who hurt me died when that daemon did. From your point of view, the monster under the stairs died at the same time. We were all saved from monsters, right?"
Vernon couldn't even cry anymore, he just gripped his wife and... sod it all, his second son. Damn it, he didn't deserve forgiveness, he didn't deserve this feeling. But he was not strong enough to push it away. It felt like this small boy had freed them both from hell, and even if he did not deserve to be saved, Vernon was not going to let this chance leave.
Petunia just kept whispering how sorry she was into Harry's hair, feeling her loves arms wrapping the small boy. She would protect both her kids from anyone, she would not fail again. She felt Harry hug her back, and it was one of the best feelings in the world.
Harry didn't say anything. He knew this moment would go into his green room later, but right now he wanted to feel this moment for as long as he could.
A stray thought made him giggle. He pulled back from the hug and wiped his eyes a bit. "About the room thing, I will probably have better furniture than you guys." He pointed at the blocks of plastic being built. "Get me some wood and stuff, and I bet I can shock your socks off."
He grinned as he went back to work, pulling raw materials together. It was fun to be so relaxed.
Harry moved cupboard door farther back on the staircase and expanding it into full door size. No reason to always crawl around now that hiding was pointless.
Vernon walked into the space again and slid his hand on the wall, feeling the perfectly smooth wood. The blue color seemed to grow from the gain, to be a part of the original tree. He looked around and saw some cloth bags in the corner. Curiosity made him walk over and look inside. Jerky, energy bars, all kinds of ready to eat food.
"I collected that a few days ago, in case I had to stay here." Vernon looked up to see a slightly hesitant Harry. "My original plan was to get some answers about my past then basically hide here, like a non-aggression pact."
Vernon stood tall and thought about it. "I honestly just feel surprised. Where did this all come from?"
Harry looked aside. "Well, let's just say the pantry has a bit more room."
Petunia looked into the bag. "Dear goodness, when did you get all this? I can't believe we had so much junk food in the house we didn't even notice any missing."