17"Well, shit, I don't see that college girl anywhere," Burt complained as he stared out the window as they were headed back towards town.
"Burt, ya gotta cut down on the swearing now that Hiram is living with us," Heather said as she peeked into the back seat of the GMC Jimmy, where Hiram was asleep.
"I'll try, dear," Burt replied as he looked into the rearview mirror at his nephew. "I need to get up to the Victorian the next day or so to send an owl to granddad; I want to read some more great-grandmother Christine's journals. Hopefully, they talk about how to raise a magical kid; after all, both granddad and aunt Sara are magical. I wonder if they mention anything about giant snakes."
"Well, you bring Hiram inside and get him to take a bath or shower, and I will start dinner. Let Walter know we did not find the college girl, and we will look again tomorrow." Heather said as they drove straight through town and took a right at the road that led to their hilltop house.
"Yes, dear," Burt sassed back to his wife. Heather slaps his arm, then leans over and kisses his cheek.
Burt woke Hiram up as they reached their house and got him inside to take a bath or a shower. But unfortunately, Hiram didn't like baths. Burt knew there had to be a story to go along with that statement but didn't push.
Heather was halfway through getting out the ingredients for tonight's dinner when she saw Hiram sneak into the room and stand in the corner watching her. "Hiram, I want you to take a bath or shower, dear; we've been out in the dusty desert all day."
"I did, aunt Heather," came the soft reply from Hiram.
She turned to look at him; his hair was wet, and he was shivering, "Hiram dear, did you take a cold shower?"
"Yes, aunt Heather, I used the bar soap lying there. I will pay you back for it somehow," Harry replied.
Heather turned to look at Burt, leaning in the kitchen door jam with a thoughtful look on his face. Burt cocked his finger in a come here motion to Hiram before leaving the room. "Go on now, follow your uncle Burt, Hiram,"
Harry was shaking, in part was the cold water he always uses in his shower; the other part was he was afraid he did something wrong and his uncle Burt would punish him, or worse! Send him back to England to live with aunt Marge! Uncle Burt was standing in the doorway to the bathroom.
"Come on in, here, son," Burt said as he entered the bathroom and opened the shower door. He reached in and pulled down the shampoo and conditioner, setting them on the counter next to the sink. Then after thinking for a moment, he pulled out the bar of soap Harry had used and placed it next to the others. "Shut the door so your aunt Heather can't hear," Burt asked.
Harry walked in and shut the door, keeping his back to it as much as possible without looking at his uncle Burt; uncle Vernon didn't like it when Harry looked at him while punishing him, so he believed that uncle Burt would be the same way. "Should I assume the position?" Harry asked.
"Assume the position?" Burt repeated with a dangerous tone to his voice. Not seeing the questioning look on Burt's face, just the tone of voice, Harry took off his shirt and turned around with his arms on the door. This displayed the scars that riddled his back from his uncle Vernon's belt. Burt lurched up from where he was sitting on the closed toilet lid, grabbed Harry in a tight hug, and started bawling, "I'm so sorry, I'm so, so sorry!"
Harry confused at what was going on, tried to pat Burt where he could reach him since his arms were pinned to his side by Burt, "uh…it's okay, uncle Burt."
"No, Hiram, it is not okay. Your aunt Petunia and her husband were monsters. You should have never been left with them. I don't understand how none of your teachers, neighbors, friends, parents, doctors, or nurses didn't notice the abuse and put a stop to it," Burt said as he held a stiff child. A child who had never been hugged before.
"None of the teachers liked me; aunt Petunia went and spoke with every teacher at the school before I started. She told them what a bad child I was. They never looked at me. They just immediately assumed what aunt Petunia said was correct. I was blamed for ruining stuff even if I wasn't in the room," Harry said with a sniff. He would not cry, aunt Petunia…Harry stopped and listened to uncle Burt; he was crying…aunt Petunia was a monster, uncle Burt said. Harry thought back to the teacher's nasty replies to questions, his neighbors turning the hose on him because he was walking by their property on the way to school or from school, and the one nurse. The one school nurse who recognized that he was being abused was arrested by uncle Vernon's friend shortly after Harry told her everything. "Uncle Vernon's coppa friend can't nick you if I tell you what I told the nurse, can he? He nicked the nice nurse, and she was fired."
It took an upset Burt a moment to translate Hiram's British slang, 'uncle Vernon's police friend can't arrest you if I tell you what I told the nurse, can he? He arrested the nice nurse, and she was fired."
"No, Hiram. British police officers have no jurisdiction in America. We fought a whole war over it and everything," Burt responded as he grabbed the toilet paper, sat down on the floor, and blew his nose. "Come, Hiram, I want you to tell me everything, and once this mess with the murderer/snake is solved, we need to go over what you said and how much your aunt Petunia and her husband were WRONG!"
Burt never got around to teaching Hiram how to actually shower. Apparently, Petunia wouldn't let him shower in the house. Snow, rain, burning sun; it didn't matter. So instead, she made Hiram clean himself in the backyard with a hose. Five-minute time limit and a bar of soap he had to purchase the use of by doing extra chores. Burt lifted a sleeping Hiram up from where they had collapsed on the bathroom floor after the intense sharing of abuse that Hiram went through in his short ten years of life. Opening the door, he found Heather on the flooring across from the door, knees drawn up and face streaked with tears, a box of kleenex and used tissues scattered around her. She stood up and followed Burt to Hiram's bedroom, where she helped pull down the covers and take off Hiram's shoes. It was the first night Hiram slept in the bed all night.
After checking in with Walter in the morning, the Gummer family again spent the day searching for the college student. Burt had gone over with Hiram when he and Hiram were alone about how to take a shower. How much shampoo to use, how much conditioner, what the bar soap was for. How long to shower and what temperature to use. Burt and Heather sent Hiram to shower while they went down into the rec room to use the CB radio to call Walter. At the same time, Heather loaded up the spent shells to scrub the brass clean, so they could reload the bullets. "Burt to Walter, come in," Burt called out on the CB radio, "Burt to Walter. Who's minding the store, for god's sake?"
"Darlin' somethings going on; they are all on the roof," Heather said as she looked out the window using the binoculars.
"Burt, come in…over," Val could be heard over the radio.
"What are those two yahoos doing back?" Burt said to Heather as she still gazed out the window.
"Get…roof…Burt…under…god damn…mon…." Val yelled into the CB radio, every few words cutting out, making the message hard to understand.
Suddenly, something rammed into the basement cinderblock wall across from where Burt and Heather stood. Burt, who had been on the CB trying to understand what they were saying, yelled out, "Jesus Christ!" before dropping the CB. Both Burt and Heather reacted by grabbing weapons hanging on the pegboard wall behind them. The wall was rammed again, and the Gummers could see something pushing on the wall, making it bow inwards.
Hiram spent the first five minutes of his shower just standing in the warm water like uncle Burt had told him. Then, for the next five minutes, he used the shampoo and conditioner for the first time in his life. It made his hair feel nice afterward. Finally, in the last five minutes of his shower, Hiram used the soap to wash his face, ears, arms, chest, legs, feet, and dingaling. Hiram and uncle Burt had spent a little time at lunch going over the American slang versus British slang for the word penis until aunt Heather caught on and yelled at Burt. Uncle Burt had just smirked and told aunt Heather it would be better to hear it from Burt than Melvin. Or worse, Val and Earl. Aunt Heather just rolled her eyes at Burt. Hiram was debating getting out at the 15-minute mark or staying in the shower for five more minutes as uncle Burt told him both were okay when he felt a tremor and the house shake. Hiram quickly got out and got redressed before standing in the doorway, as the movies mentioned to do during an earthquake. Hiram didn't know if they were actually having an earthquake or if the shaking was from the shooting he could hear in the basement. Uncle Burt had told Hiram he had a shooting range in his basement and, if he heard shooting, not to come down, so Hiram stayed where he was. He figured if it was a real earthquake, uncle Burt and aunt Heather would know and come get him. As the house stopped shaking, Hiram cautiously came out from the door frame to hear uncle Burt yelling, "Broke into the wrong, god-damn rec room!"
AN: This is the last of the prewritten chapters for Harry Potter Beneath Perfection. I currently have 4/5 stories that I am writing so I try to work on them in some sort of order but sometimes the muse is stronger on one story versus another and we must do as the muse says. Seriously, Clio, my muse can be a real bitch sometimes.
AN2: There will be less and less Harry...Hiram as the story progresses. I am using the Harry...Hiram to show the difference between the abused child versus the growing confidence. Not to mention as a child who had their name changed, it can be confusing for the child before they get used to it.