Then he cleaned her cage and took it out to the shed where she could use it as a safe haven if she needed it. The shed had a vent hole in the roof that was big enough for her to fly in and out. He'd placed a spell on it that prevented the weather from getting inside the building through it but that would allow her to come and go without a problem. And her cage had an automatic warming/cooling charm on it so no matter what the climate was outside, she'd be perfectly comfortable in her cage. He placed her cage and food supply where she could get at them for when the hunting was bad. He'd also left a narrow hose dripping water into a shallow basin so she'd have access to fresh water while he was away. A specially designed box from the pet shop in Diagon Alley would let her have a treat once a week and he'd made certain it was working correctly and fully stocked so she wouldn't run out. The box gave her a selection of treats to choose from like a vending machine offered choices to people in the muggle world.
The shed definitely wasn't an owlery but it was the closest he could come to one so it would have to do. It wouldn't be as warm a nesting place as she was used to either but it was shelter and they both knew she couldn't return to Hogwarts with him. They both knew why. She knew as well as he did someone had tried to kill her the last time she'd been at his school. Hedwig was his last remaining tie to anything mortal and neither wanted to see that tie cut or used against him to force him to behave in a manner he didn't wish to. After situating her things in the shed, Harry went to bed knowing he was in for a long nine months of worry and stress. And more than likely, pain.
The next morning, August 31st, he rose from his bed which actually was a real single wide bed his Aunt and Uncle had bought for his use while he had been at Hogwarts last year. It had a brand new mattress and box springs as well as bedding in his favorite colors. In fact, they'd completely changed things in the house, redoing and giving him the room they had always reserved for Marge to use during her frequent stays. Gone were the pink frilly curtains and mauve colored bedspread with the rose tinted but badly stained carpet. Now the room was done in cool greens and calming blues showing Petunia at least had paid attention to what Harry liked or didn't like. His favorite Dudley hand-me-down had been a blue and green striped boat neck shirt with a wide floppy collar. On Dudley the close fitting shirt had been short sleeved and barely reached the top of his trousers. But on Harry it was always baggy and comfortable. The sleeves reached his elbows and it was long enough to tuck into his trousers waistband.
They turned the old toy room into a small library/study for the boys to use. They even made it clear to Dudley it was Harry's just as much as it was his and Dudley wasn't to try destroying anything Harry chose to leave in the room any more than Harry had ever chosen to destroy Dudley's things. Nor was Dudley allowed to enter Harry's new bedroom without his permission.
Dudley had protested that claiming Harry had destroyed a lot of Dudley's things before but for the first time in his life, his parents hadn't believed him. Which only hacked Dudley off and made him determined to make Harry suffer. Vernon made it very clear that if anything of Harry's in that room got damaged, Dudley would be in big trouble.
Dudley had tested that only once. He had defaced one of Harry's books and Vernon had literally taken a belt to his rump before making him replace the book out of his own pocket money. Something that had turned out to be a lot more expensive than any of them had thought it would be simply because the book he defaced was magical and could only be purchased in the magical shopping district with magical money. So Dudley had to go to Gringott's and exchange his pocket money for magical coin and then go to the book store to find a copy of the book he'd destroyed. Nor would Vernon allow Dudley to force Harry to take him other places in the Alley where he could buy magical items to show off to his friends or use to torment Harry.
Of course, the thrashing came only after Dudley had tried to get revenge on Harry by trashing Harry's new bedroom. He had barged into the room while Harry had been occupied elsewhere in the house and completely demolished it. Petunia had made him clean the room when he had finished trashing it. She'd kept a list of everything he had destroyed in his rampage and Vernon had grounded him to his room as well taking away his second helpings and deserts for a week over the incident. Petunia had replaced the things she could off the list of destroyed items and the cost was taken out of Dudley's allowance. Which had Dudley being broke for a couple of weeks even after he had finished his grounding time. He had gotten the message then as he didn't like being broke unable to purchase snacks for his crew when they were out causing mayhem in the neighborhood.
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