Chapter 34: A Dish Served Cold
Vernon Dursleys frowned as he looked at his reflection.
Was he losing his hair?
Nonsense. He wasn't balding. He was a man in his prime. Still his hair looked a little thin. And his suit looked rumpled. He told Pet to make sure that she had pressed it. Then again, he couldn't exactly blame her with Dudder's situation.
He frowned as he thought about his boy. The boy was once the pride and joy of his life was now a freak, and they didn't know why.
Pet went to one her sister's freak friends to find out why. But she was just told that Dudder's freakishness was cast from some barmy sorcerer.
They didn't associate with any barmy sorcerers.
As Petunia told this to that Snapple fellow, but Snapple insisted the Dark One had cursed their son.
Such nonsense.
Not that Vernon had much time to think about it, he had been busy down trying to tack the illusive CEO of Spinner Enterprises to try to get his job back.
It had taken a lot of effort but now he had finally found the CEO's name: Robert Gold.
That name seemed so familiar.
Yet Vernon couldn't pinpoint how he knew it. He had asked if he could speak to Mr. Gold when he had the opportunity and had thought the thing was a complete wash, until he received a letter this morning.
Mr. Dursley:
Like you said, I am a very busy man. However, I admire your initiative and I am willing to hear your case. That doesn't mean, I can guarantee you a position in the company. Cuts were made for various reasons. Plus, that dinner you described sounds delicious. I can always do with a good steak
Regards,
R. Gold
Good steak indeed. They were T-Bones sent to him by some company friend last year. He hated having to use them like this, but he had to get Robert Gold convinced that he was the only man for the job.
He just wished Petunia had had his suit pressed correctly and that his bloody hair looked better than it is.
He needed a glass of brandy.
Petunia had been adamant about not drinking till Gold got there.
Bloody American was probably drunk.
Vernon hated Americans.
Though, he had to be thankful that they took the freak off of his hand. That entire thing seemed to so vague now. He couldn't even remember the face of that landlord bloke who took the brat off of their hands once and for all.
He wished he would've. He would've honored him with a glass of brandy.
"Vernon! There's a car in the driveway. A Ferrari."
A Ferrari! And not in your typical red, but a black one.
Bloody hell. This Gold guy must be richer than he was expecting.
One last glance in the mirror, and Vernon frowned. He guessed the suit would have to do. It wasn't what he wanted, but at the same time what could you really do?
He still couldn't believe it. A Ferrari.
Petunia was already waiting for him as he went down the stair. "He hasn't rang yet?" Vernon asked.
Petunia shook her head. "I think he's on the phone or something. Hasn't even gotten out of his car."
Vernon nodded looking at his wife. Petunia had kept it classy. A nice cocktail dress in a demure shade of beige. Nice enough for a dinner part, but not too fancy. "And Dudders?"
"Safely locked up in his room with the dead bolt." Petunia said. "I made the little chap a sandwich. Hope it will keep him full."
Vernon nodded. "And you explained that he can't come down?"
"Yes," Petunia said. "And he understands, much better than that boy ever did."
Vernon frowned, "I blame him for all of this."
Petunia sighed. "It does seem the most likely, doesn't it? I don't care what Sev has to say. How do I look?"
He didn't know how to answer that. Boring. Petunia wasn't much of a looker, she did make a nice steak though. And the house always looked perfect. She was reliable. A good mother. But not exciting in bed. Which was why Vernon usually had a wide variety of mistresses, or if he was really desperate a high priced escort.
But he didn't tell her this. Instead, he smiled and said. "You look wonderful, Pet."
And then the doorbell rang.
The man looked familiar. That's what Vernon first thought. But he couldn't place him. His suit was expensive. Like one of those you'd get at the fancy shops in London. He was a little taller than Vernon too, but somehow he seemed to tower over him. Vernon didn't know why, but Robert Gold held presence.
"Quaint," He said walking in he nose slightly scrunching up. "Quite, quaint."
"Mr. Gold," Vernon said holding his hand out. "It's a pleasure."
Gold raised an eyebrow, but didn't shake Vernon's hand.
"OCD are you?" Petunia said walking in. "That's okay, I don't like germs either."
Gold didn't respond instead he walked into the house. It was as if he was looking at it for something. Vernon didn't know what.
His eyes seem to settle on the small cupboard of all places. And Vernon could have thought he heard something that sounded like way too small. But he must've been hearing things.
"Can I pour you a drink, bub?" He asked. "Pet and I got some fine wine the last time we were in Tuscany."
In truth, he merely picked up the bottle of merlot at the local Tesco. No need for Mr. Gold to know that though. Bloody Americans, couldn't taste fine wine for the life of them.
Gold shook his head. "No, there won't be time for that, I'm afraid."
"You don't sound like a Yank." Vernon said ignoring Gold's reply. "His accent sounds Scottish, doesn't it, Pet? You from Edinburgh or perhaps Glasgow?"
"Never been to either place, I'm afraid." The CEO said. "And I don't have time for small talk, Dursley."
"Then your getting down to business then," Vernon said. "So, when am I going back? Is there a promotion in order? I know sales needs a new VP."
"Afraid that Grun Gruns doesn't need a new VP in sales. Since that company is being consolidated with my power tool company. Efficiency, you see. Not that we'd hire a liability like you again, anyway. We don't want another sexual harassment lawsuit. No, that's not why I came here Darren."
"Vernon." He corrected.
"Whatever. Your name's not significant at this moment. And while I know that names matter, sometimes it's fun to act like they don't."
"I don't…"
"You don't even remember me, do you?" Mr. Gold asked.
"Well, you do look familiar." Petunia said. "Are you dating that Australian movie actress?"
Gold looked bemused. "No. Let's just say that you were taking care of something very special of mine and you failed."
"I don't understand." Petunia said. "We've never met you, Mr. Gold. Seriously."
Gold murmured something under his breath again and this time Vernon knew how he knew the man.
"You! What are you doing here! We made a deal, you can't dump that freak back on us! And you bought my company, you're just a common landlord."
"Most people would call it a multi-billionaire landlord, but yes I bought your company. It was chump change. And all a part of our bargain, really. I think it's time to finalize things. Maybe if I'm generous, I'll make some modifications. But considering you put my son in that broom closet, I'm not really feeling in the mood to renegotiate. I might just go back to my original plan of turning you into a turnip."
"A turnip?"
"Yes, normally I'd just do some sort of gastropod, but I've been told it's becoming a cliché. Besides, Harry turned me on to this British show where the idiot manservant is fascinated with turnips. I thought it would be a nice change in pace."
"Get out!"
Gold rolled his eyes. "Seriously. You invited me for dinner. For steak and 'Tuscan' wine apparently too. I'm not daft. I know its grocery store wine. Regardless, it would be rude of you to rescind the invitation now."
"We don't take to freaks here." Vernon bellowed.
"And you don't listen to their offers either. I thought I'd help you with your Dodo problem."
Dodo what was he talking about?
Petunia seemed to realize what he was saying though. "Dudley. You can help with Dudley? You can make him normal again."
"Normal? I believe he was never normal. Ridiculously dull. But are you talking about him randomly performing magic?"
"Obviously." Petunia said. "Why? Why did you do this to my son?"
"He made Dudders a freak!"
Vernon was going to clobber the man, fancy suit and all. But his fist never got near him. In fact, Vernon found himself being frozen where he couldn't even blink. All he could do was stare.
Gold shook his head. "No, that will not do. I don't result to this sort of vulgarity."
"Unfreeze him!" Pet wailed.
"Madam," Gold said. "You're really in position to negotiate. And besides, weren't we trying to figure out what to do with Dodo?"
"I want him to be normal." Petunia wailed.
"Normal, meaning no magic." Gold said. "You know, it surprised me when my curse worked on you in this way."
"Curse!"
"Yes, if you would've read the paperwork that we signed in clause number four b section five part c you would've found that if the treatment of my son was inadequate there would be consequences. Your worst fears. Meaning, Dodo having magic."
"How dare…"
"You signed the contract." Gold said sitting on the sofa and putting his loafers on the coffee table (gasp!). "It's not like it's real magic either. He can't and won't ever have any control over it. It will just appear as a mere annoyance."
"Get rid of it!" Petunia said.
"Really?" Gold said. "You don't even want to negotiate terms."
"I don't even know why you did this in the first place. For that frea…"
And then Petunia couldn't speak. Or at least she couldn't say the word freak.
"You don't bad mouth my son." Gold said. "You should be glad I haven't turned you into a rutabaga."
"You said turnip."
"I said I'm trying to vary."
Petunia frowned. "I didn't even mess with your son. Just the fr…"
"Harry is my son." The man said. "In spirit and by blood. He was taken from me."
"That explains it!" Petunia said. "I knew magic couldn't cause her to conceive! She was bloody barren."
"Magical conception? Seriously. That's almost as bad as Magic CSI. But no, he's not your sister's. Never was. Never will be. Hence, you never hand any legal control over him or his finances."
"But we made a deal."
"Yes, we did. And you didn't live up to the terms, dearie. Hence, the repercussions."
"You said we could fix those."
"I did," Rumple said. "We're going to make another deal."
Vernon wanted to scream not to make a deal with that man. Look where it got him, he lost his job. Dudders was a monster. And Petunia…what had happened to her, hitting the bottle more?
Petunia sighed wearily. "I don't know."
"You'll like this deal," He said. "There's no pain involved."
"I want my family to be alive." Petunia said.
"I never said this deal involved them in imminent harm."
"You never said anything about Dudders becoming a freak in our first deal."
"It was in the contract, dearie. You just didn't care to read it."
That was true. They had been so happy about getting rid of the freak, they hadn't read through the fine print. That was something Vernon deeply regretted now. But how was he supposed to know that Gold was going to turn out to be a freak. An even bigger freak than those other freaks it seemed. This man didn't even try to hide his power or really seem to care about any magic laws.
Petunia pursed her lips. "It was sort of thick. And really I thought it just dealt with custody stuff."
"It did. You just didn't take care of my son when he was in your care. That means extra work for me, so there had to be some penalties in there, dearie."
"You are his father." Petunia said.
"Really?" Gold said. "You think?"
Petunia glared at him. "You don't look anything alike. But you act like him. So smug. You think you're better than anyone else. "
Gold glared at her. "You are a horrible caretaker. I am tempted to get my revenge, but I'm going to be generous. You are my son's illegally adopted aunt, there's probably some maternal love there."
Vernon wished he could snort. The brat never showed them any affection (not that they wanted it), but all he could do was stare. And watch his wife talk to the demon man.
Petunia sighed. "Fine, what do I have to do to get Dudders to be normal?"
Rumple nodded. "I'd do anything for my son too."
"You really did it for eleven years."
Rumple raised an eyebrow. "I'm going to let that go. For now. I'm going to release the spell. After you do one thing for me."
"Anything,"
"I want to know everything about my son."
"Okay," Petunia said just like that ,no negotiating no nothing.
Stupid bitch, Vernon thought. But the deal was gone. Gold smiled and handed her something.
"A rock?" She asked.
"Just hold it and think of Harry. It will absorb anything I want to know."
Petunia did just that then asked, "Well, are you going to release the spell on, Dudley?"
The Dark One nodded and waved his hand.
Petunia smiled for one brief second before falling on the ground .
"Shame," Rumple said turning towards Vernon.
He could speak now, but not move.
"What? What did you do to her? Put her back right?"
Gold rolled his eyes. "You're wife paid the price. She wanted her son to be normal. If there would've been pure truel love there, she would be fine. True love's an antidote for anything. Well, almost anything. However, she just thought your son was some sort of status symbol. So, she's dead. It's sad but that's how the cookie crumbles, I think that's the right idiom."
"You can fix her though, right?"
Gold rolled his eyes. "Dead, is dead. Especially when it involves a magical death. It's not like there's a stream of Petunia goo that came out of her and can go back into her body back in time. Now, that would be a horrible plot hole that. She got what she wanted though Dodo is back to being the bore that he always was. Back on track though, what to do with you Darren…"
"Please, don't turn me into a turnip. Or a rutabaga. Or a gastropod."
Gold rolled his eyes. "You'd make a foul tasting turnip. And turning you into a slug would be way too easy. But I can't let you go unpunished."
At this point, the man was mere inches away from Vernon. Vernon could feel Gold's breath. It smelt surprisingly minty which Vernon would've never thought given how eerie his smile looked.
Gold laughed as he looked at Vernon, "You have no idea, do you."
"No, idea about…WHAT?"
He felt it something being removed from his chest and then he saw it. A heart. His heart. No, that was impossible.
But it was there.
There in the man 's hand what sort of….
Vernon felt like his chest was going to explode. He looked to see red smoke ooze from Gold's hand to his heart.
"Oh, sorry about that." Gold said. "I put a little spell on this bad boy. Adjustment spell that whenever you think of magic, my son, or me poorly you'll be getting a little buzz."
"That's…that's…"
Vernon couldn't speak.
"There, there." The imp said. "It's going to be okay. You'll solider on soon enough. And if not, well, the alternative is always death."
"What. Are. You. Going. To. Do. To. Me." He finally bit out.
"Do to you?" Gold said. "Well, I already pulled out your heart. But long story short, you are going to do my biding, Vernon Dursley. And you'll have no idea what you're doing."
And then Vernon collapsed.
When he woke up. He found he was in the hospital. They told him, that he was poisoned. A recall on some pain medication he bought for headaches. It killed Petunia. She was just dead. They couldn't do anything for her. But Vernon, he was going to be just fine. Dudley had saved him in the knick of time. Dudley who now refused to see him for some odd reason, not that he wanted anything to do with the freak.
However, despite the doctors reassurances, Vernon didn't feel fine. Something was off. He just didn't know what it was and he never would.