Chapter 134: Preparing for the Unpredictable
Vernon Dursley was happy. His life had finally returned to normal. After a complete disaster of a spring which included a complete rewiring of the house's electrical system as well as replacing every appliance in the kitchen and the tele, things were finally settling down. It had been at least two weeks since something major had happened. Today nothing would put Vernon Dursley in a bad mood. He was headed out to his first golf outing of the year. He had invited his biggest customer who was bringing his son who had just graduated from a leading University. Vernon had also asked his most important parts vendor along to round out the foursome. It was a beautiful day; blue sky, no wind, perfect temperature.
"Hello Bob," Vernon said to his customer. "Is this your son? I haven't seen him in five years are so."
"Graduated near the top of his class," Bob replied proudly. "Following me into the business. He knows all about those computers."
"We have a line of computerized drills," Vernon offered eagerly. "Commercial equipment can automate everything."
"Matt mentioned those. Thought we'd look into them."
"Well enough about business, it's too perfect a day to be thinking of such things," Vernon commented jovially. He could already feel the next large order coming his way. The bonus for selling one of those automated commercial drills with a support agreement would go a long way to repairing Vernon's financial issues. Just a few more compliments about the man's son and it would be a perfect outing.
Vernon watched the other three in his foursome tee off, each hitting respectable drives into the fairway. "Outstanding shot there Matt," He said to Bob's son. "Be tough for me to come close to that length. But shouldn't be a problem getting much further than you," Vernon ended his comment in thought as he pulled out his favorite driver; custom-made and illegally weighted.
As Vernon teed his ball up, he started his normal visualization. Not the 'visualize your shot' stuff all the pros talk about, no he'd learned several years ago if he visualized the ball as being the head of the freak, he got at least ten extra yards of distance. He took a practice swing, and then another. Then he lined the ball off of his front foot. He could see the freak's head. Sort of like on a pike just waiting to be clubbed.
Vernon took his backswing away, keeping his eye on the freak's head as it sat on the tee. Just as the club reached its desired position, he started the full swing. He brought it down in a perfect arc that struck the ball in its path propelling it forward. Unfortunately for Vernon Dursley with the club being an inch shorter, it only hit the top part of the ball "topping it". The ball screamed across the ground until it rolled to a stop thirty yards ahead, in the middle of the women's tee box.
After the ball came to rest, Vernon rubbed his nose and said. "Gnat flew up my nose right as I was swinging. Threw me all off. I'll just hit another real quick."
"By the rules," Matt said. "A ball, once struck must be played where it comes to rest."
"Yeah, well this is just a..." Vernon stopped when the rest of the foursome all turned and moved away from the tee box.
By the end of the round Vernon Dursley had snapped three of his graphite shafted clubs, his steel shafted sand wedge had a thirty degree curve in it and his putter was in the bottom of the pond near the eighteenth green. He had shot his worst round ever. His customer refused Vernon's offer for a round afterwards and left very quickly with his son. Vernon never received another order from him. Lost in his anger he didn't watch his speed on the drive back and was pulled over and ticketed. He was thinking of a bottle of scotch when he pulled into the garage. When he opened the door into the house an all familiar site greeted him, Petunia was there waiting. This time there was a stack of magazines in front of her. When her first words were "YOUR SON..." Vernon knew it was going to take more than one bottle.
That morning Petunia had been happy. Her new pots and pans were working fine, her house was once again spotless after all of the carpentry and electrical work had been completed and in a week her son Dudley was due to come home. Even better the freak wouldn't be back for almost another month. She decided to spruce Dudley's room up in preparation for his return. As she started to sweep the floor her foot hit a corner of the raised floorboard. A minute later Petunia was staring at a collection of adult magazines. The top one had a scantily clad harlot staring up at her. Petunia felt dirty and ill as she collected the magazines and headed down the steps to await her husband. "At least I know where the boy got the idea," She fumed.
.....
The rest of the Slytherins might be avoiding Harry Potter but that was not the case for Draco Malfoy. He knew Harry was behind what had happened to him and was not about to let it go. He knew exactly what he was going to do to get even.