A New Normal?
Harry was learning the new routine in America, but it was taking some time and pain. He knew all the rules back in England, but they seemed to have changed for some reason. He was no longer allowed to go out and get the mail because now the neighbors might see him. He had to start a whole new garden in the yard because this house did not have one. He planted some rose bushes by the front door along with some shrubs along the front wall.
Petunia decided that she wanted to grow her own vegetables here, so he created a separate area where he planted tomatoes, cucumber, squash, broccoli and more. He even was tasked to create a hanging system for herbs to be grown in pots nearby. Harry didn’t know why Petunia was talking with the new neighbors about what she could cook with all this. Harry cooks all the meals.
It took weeks to plant everything and get it started. When the beans he had planted had died he was given a new kind of beating. Vernon had created a small room in the basement that he had soundproofed, he told the company that his son liked to play the drums and he did not want to disturb the neighbors. He set up a room with chains and hooks on the wall to put around Harry. The first time he was brought in that room he was locked up with the collar and chains and left there for 3 days with no food or bathroom, then made to clean the mess he has made. The second time he was given the belt.
He tried his hardest to never need that room however with the rules continuing to change he was spending quite a bit of time chained to the wall, either starving or bleeding after another beating. This continued for the next month until the new school year started. Dudley and Harry went to fourth grade at the local elementary school and while Harry had less problems adjusting, Dudley was causing a ton of problems. He was acting out, bullying other students, and as usual pushing Harry around.
The teachers at this school seemed to be better than the ones in Surrey, in Harry’s opinion at least, because they did not let Dudley get away with pushing other kids and not doing his work. They also noticed that Harry seemed to get the answers wrong on exams in class and that both boys' homework had the same handwriting. To try and get to the bottom of this they decided that Harry would go into Mr. Kevin Blackwell class while Dudley was put into Mrs. Rachel Harlow’s class.
Harry was thriving in an environment where his aunt and Uncle couldn't tell the teachers he was a liar, thief, and a delinquent like they always do. He was still very careful about his grades but since he did not have Dudley and Piers ruining his homework every day, he was able to do better.
However, after Harry brought home a test that had a B on it in math, a subject Dudley was currently failing, along with a sticker of praise from the teacher Harry was chained up for the rest of the week with the belt again. When he returned to school, he was careful to not sit with his back touching the seat and made sure to start failing tests again. Mr. Blackwell became suspicious and started taking notes and documenting what he saw.
After he noticed Harry coming to school in rag-like clothes, with a backpack that was falling apart, and carefully covering his arms and back at all times, he brought the principal and Mrs. Harlow into a meeting. They compared Dudley’s brand-new clothes and supposed to Harry's clearly hand-me-down clothes, his one notebook that was falling apart and the backpack that was ripped. They talked about what to do and went about documenting everything legally.
The principal, Mr. Robert River, reached out to Child Protective Services about the family. When they began their own investigation, they were contacted by Grunnings. Grunnings was conducting their own investigation into the family and asked to work together on the matter. Grunnings was looking into tax fraud allegations while CPS would be looking into the family life.
This investigation continued behind the scenes for months without the family knowledge. Vernon continued to work for the company and Petunia had started a book club at the local library. She was frustrated that the neighborhood they moved into had most of the women working as well as the men. This was just not normal and so she avoided those neighbors. Women were supposed to stay at home and take care of the family according to her and anything else is freaky and wrong.
The family had quickly made a bad impression in the neighborhood, but they did not see that. The next-door neighbors had seen Harry out for hours in the summer heat planting the new garden. They never saw Petunia out there despite all her bragging. Word spread quickly about the small black hair child with the family that was never talked about and not in any picture they could see hanging around the house.
One of the neighborhood kids was in the class with Harry and learned that he was their nephew and that he was the same age as Dudley surprisingly. Everyone thought he was around 6 or 7 years old, not 9 like his cousin. This led to another call to CPS from the neighbors where notes were added into the investigation. They had someone go into the neighborhood themselves and observe but did not take direct action yet.
Meanwhile with Pearson Hardman
Harvey has been looking over the investigation into this family from England while drinking his morning coffee. His associate Mike Ross was sitting with the other associates in the bullpen area going over some legal briefs for one of his other cases. Being a senior partner was everything he had wanted in his career, except maybe being named partner. He has his associate doing night classes to finish his degree after calling in favors from Harvard. Mike had been so close to finishing until he messed it up for his friend Trevor.
Harvey saw that there were now reports for Child Protective Services involved with this case meaning it got more time sensitive. Harvey called Mike into the office to discuss the changes. Mike came in carrying the briefs from the Coastal Motors case.
They sat down together going over the Grunnings case in fine detail. Harvey put Mike to work trying to find where the extra $2,500 a month was coming from. Vernon Dursley never claimed it in his taxes but when Grunnings started noticing parts of sales going missing they looked into the bank accounts of their employees. They found two employees with extra funds coming into their account with no clear information.
Luke Smith was accepting bribes from some of the wealthier clients and organizations to deliver some drills to questionable shell companies. He was putting in extra drills into the system and sending some to shady deals such as organized crime suspects.
Vernon Dursley was not only skimming a little for himself on each sale but getting an extra $2,500 a month from a source that said A.P.W.B.D for upkeep. The bank where the money came from was posted as Gringotts London. When they tried to find the bank online there was no mention at all. There was also no reference to who or what the initials stood for.
Mike was using all the systems available to track the money. He noticed is started November 1, 2004. He also noticed that occasionally the amount would increase for a month or two before going back to the base. What they did not know is that anytime Harry accidentally used magic, someone called CPS or Vernon was arrested for something Dumbledore would interfere and pay extra to keep the family in line.
Harvey and Mike decided to meet next week with Grunnings as the family were being served this week. They could then represent the company against whoever the Dursleys choose to hire for court.
Harvey sat in his living room later that night thinking about the case. That somehow led him to thinking about the little boy, Harry, he had met on the plane. He could not figure out why they would have a young kid, probably about 7 if Harvey had to guess, sitting next to a stranger for a long flight. They never once checked on the kid either. He had noticed that the kid did not have much in the backpack and that he could or would not eat much. He was worried at the time that the kid was so enthusiastic about the food being the best ever but maybe lasagna was not something the family made. He put Harry out of his thoughts for the night and got back to TV.