Bait & Switch

One Way or Another

Harry gets beat up for getting mail basically

also the abuse to Harry is a lot worse than depicted in this fic I js don't feel comfortable writing graphic abuse, js know he gets beat up a lot more frequently.

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The incident with the Brazilian Boa Constrictor earned Harry one of his longest punishments ever. By the time he was allowed out of the cupboard, the summer holidays had already started.

Dudley had somehow already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control aeroplane, and when he was out on his racing bike for the first time, he knocked Mrs Figg over while she was on her way across the street to one of the other elderly ladies on the drive for tea.

Harry was honestly glad school was over – it meant he would be told to tend to the garden more, which was a relaxing chore in and of itself. Harry loved plants and taking care of them, but it also meant he was able to talk to the snakes he had become friends with.

He could also walk to the library more often since he had more free time when the Dursleys didn't have any chores for him. He's allowed to go out as far as he wants, but he's still too scared to go further than two blocks down, which was where the library was, afraid he'd get lost (he knows the Durlseys wouldn't look for him).

But even when he had free time, he couldn't escape Dudley's gang very easily. They were constantly over at the house, almost every single day (Harry wonders how Dudley doesn't get tired of them or them Dudley when they quarrel so often). Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but since Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of them all, he was dubbed the 'leader' of sorts.

They had invented a 'game' named 'Harry Hunting', which was their new favourite sport. The premise of the game was to just try to hunt Harry, and whoever got to him first got to get the first hit in. This game does not include Harry's consent, obviously.

Harry had tried running, but he eventually ran out of stamina, or one of the taller boys who had a longer stride managed to catch up with him. He's still skinny and short after all, he just assumes it's genetic.

After running didn't work, he tried hiding in many places, his cupboard, the backyard, the small playground nearby, but Dudley's gang always found him at some point or another, and they ended up even angrier because he was 'trying to be smart'.

The only thing that Harry found that ever worked was climbing up a tree (the snakes taught him how, even though he had limbs and they didn't), but that would just irritate Dudley and his gang, so they would all sit around the base of the tree and wait until Harry had to climb back down, or they'd get bored and eventually leave.

This is one of many reasons that Harry spends as much time as possible out of the house during the summer. He mostly wanders around for a while and thinks about the beginning of the next school year and the hope that it'll be different.

When he's not wandering, he's in the library, reading books about science and math occasionally, sometimes with a fantasy book thrown in here or there, and most of the time, he grabs a book about snakes, too. Still, Harry's favourite kinds of books are books about plants (or botany books, as the librarian would call them). Harry learned that botany means 'the study of plants' he wouldn't mind being a botanist someday.

He loved plants, whether he was reading about them, tending to them, or planting them. So he would always head straight for the botany section and sit at a small table in the back left corner of the library, which wasn't used often, as not many people came to the botany section. It gave Harry the perfect getaway for when he wanted to be alone.