When Vernon didn't miss - Sahits

Chapter I*Mid-July, 1992The are many times when a split second can cause huge consequences.This was such a time.Harry Potter had made a mistake. He had scared Dudley, pretending to do magic, and his aunt anduncle had reacted far more angrily than he had imagined. A year away from his abusive relativeshad dulled Harry's memories of them. Harry had made the mistake of mildly talking back when theyhad screamed at him, and Vernon had lashed out. Normally, Harry would have avoided the blow,but this time he was not quite fast enough. The punch landed, breaking Harry's jaw. The fallafterwards had caused a severe concussion and a minor skull fracture.Had Vernon's fist missed, as it usually had before, things would have been very different -- Vernonwould have just locked the freak up for the summer, and decided what to do about his unnaturalnesscome late August. That, however, was now out of the question. Even Vernon had been shocked atthe damage he had caused. If they took the freak to hospital, there would be questions, and Vernonwas not stupid enough to trust getting away with any excuses. And, if the freak died while theywere all there, they would have to have some really good story when the freaks came looking forthe boy in six or seven weeks, a story which might have to satisfy the police as well.Vernon had thought furiously, and decided he was likely already in too much trouble when he wasfound out.Therefore, he decided to take a gamble, which Petunia had agreed to. Then he had pulled Harry'strunk out from the cupboard under the stairs and put it in Dudley's second bedroom. He put Harry'sfinger prints on the outside of the door and around the inside of the cupboard before dropping Harryon the bare floor, carefully closing the door, automatically locking Harry away without having tosmudge the fingerprints. Then they placed Hedwig, still locked in her cage, with the owl fightingagainst that cage, into a plastic garbage bag and closed it tightly. They repeated the process twicemore, making it nearly airtight.Then they tossed the bags, cage and owl, out of the window of Dudley's second room.Hedwig did not long survive the fall, in part because of the injuries and in part because of the lackof air.They made certain the cage and owl were well-buried in the trash that was collected that afternoon.Then, two days later, the Dursleys left for an extended vacation in northern England, Petunia havingtaken notes from the report the freak's school had sent, where they mentioned the friends he hadmade. They would report Harry as a runaway the next day, and knew they had to give the police thename of someone from the freak's world to talk to. The dentists' daughter should be as good a bet asanyone.*It was the evening after the Dursleys had reported Harry missing that Dobby the house elf appearedat the Dursley house. He was bound to the House of Malfoy, but he felt a connection to the Boywho lived here. He wanted to protect Harry Potter, and he had sensed that things were not well with