The room was made of polished wood, and was massive. The carpet looked like grass, and the wood walls and roof seemed to be sky. Vernon's mouth went a bit dry. "Uh. Yes, this seems nice."
Petunia knelt down and rubbed the carpet. "How... Just how?"
Harry shrugged. "I found out I can use my threads to tear things apart and put them back together. Started with my arm, ended up creating clothing and this room." He glared at the ceiling. "Not sure how it got bigger inside though. That was sort of an accident."
Petunia seemed lost. Vernon tried to move back to something mentioned earlier. "You said trade. What do you need?" Harry seemed to be making a mental list. "I need raw materials first of all. Cloth of any type to make clothing, sheets, and so forth. Metal to make more bed springs. Plastics and wood would let me build furniture and such. I also need knowledge. Teach me how to read, give me access to books. I also need some odd things, experiences. I need to see things, hear and smell things. Maybe a trip to a zoo, or just walks in the park." He seemed to go a bit absent. "I would like to see ducks."
Petunia hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder. "That all sounds fine, Harry. I am not sure where it would be best to get the materials and stuff, but I think the zoo would be easy enough."
Harry grinned a bit. "Tell me, Aunt Petunia. Have you heard of recycling?"
About thirty minutes later and 8 bags of trash now sat in the living room. Petunia seemed a bit stressed at this trash being back in the house, but Harry seemed ecstatic. He rubbed his hands, "Ok, how about we split this fifty-fifty? I split and clean this into base components, and the family gets half. I am pretty sure the electronics have gold or copper in it, and you can pay me to make or repair stuff using your half of the resources."
Vernon was still breathing a bit roughly from dragging the bags in. How much stuff had they piled on Dudley over the years? He nodded assent as he collapsed into his chair.
Harry was almost giggly. He had slept a bit roughly last night worrying about today, trying to prepare for situations ranging from random screaming to a massive attack of ninjas. True, many of those scenarios made less sense now that he had woken up, but it never hurt to be prepared. At this point however, he had received hugs! Even if he had to beat someone up later, this was turning into a great day. He spread both hands and had four or five ropes dig into the pile. He decided to leave the bags sealed, and began searching for any coins or bills missed. Apparently there were a few wallets in the bags, and he reformed the bills and coins in a small pile outside the trash. "Looks like Dudley really should have checked his pockets and wallets before adding them to the trash." Petunia just stared at the pile. She had thought she had cleaned out all of that while cleaning.
As Vernon relaxed in the chair and Petunia began sorting the money, Harry began feeling for gold. Ignoring the gasps around him, he began building a square of material as the bags wiggled and threads searched inside the various toys and gadgets. When finished, Harry had a glittering finger-tip sized rectangle on the floor. Soon after, a double finger sized copper bar formed next to it.
Now he began the more boring part. Vernon watched as threads seemed to pour out of the bags, thousands of colors that seemed to drain into a white mass on the floor. As the pile got larger, the bags began shrinking much faster, seeming to deflate like a balloon. Petunia had picked up the money and was now looking in her hand at the copper and gold bar. "I guess we could take these to a pawn shop or something. Where do we sell gold?"
Harry shrugged. "Honestly, I am not sure how I know as much as I do. I think some of Voldemort's general world information is still in me somewhere. I really shouldn't know so many words, or what my body parts are named. Since he was a mage... wizard? Sorcerer? Whatever, since he was magic he doesn't have a large amount of knowledge about the non-magic world." The white pile began weaving itself into a thick folded blanket as he talked. "So I have no clue where to sell anything." Petunia put the bars and cash on a side table and felt the blanket. "This is amazing Harry. Why is it so white?"
Harry shrugged as he continued weaving. "Far as I can tell, my thr... I mean, my magic, it thinks that the dye is dirty. Cleaning the thread makes it this white, and since I don't have any dye I have to fill it with my threads to make it a specific color." He stopped using his left hand and plucked his shirt. "I clean my clothing the same way each morning. It feels great but I have to redo the color each time."
Petunia sat back on the couch and thought a bit. "Harry, we could probably sell the gold at a pawn shop and get you some stuff that won't be in those bags." She held up a hand and absently rubbed her arms. "Raw silk and stuff should be cheaper than custom fitted things, and if we went to a thrift store you could get all kinds of cheap randomly sized things to turn into supplies." Vernon's eyes narrowed as he looked at the copper bar. "Copper is not cheap either, and I know that Grunnings has all kinds of metal debris and such that could be valuable. We could set up a small company and contract ourselves as recyclers."
Petunia smacked his shoulder. "Dear, he may act mature but Harry is still only eight years old. We don't want him to do an actual job, it would be child labor. A hobby moving at his own pace is totally different."
Harry paused and looked up, eyes wide. "Really? I am eight? Do you know when my birthday is?"
Petunia bit her lip but responded. "Oh... of course dear, I... I mean. Before everything happened I received a letter from Lily when you were born. I believe it was July 31, back in 1980." She seemed troubled for a minute. "I... I can't seem to remember the last birthday you had..." Vernon frowned. Now that he looked back, he couldn't remember Harry at ANY of the holidays. They had no pictures of him either. He got a firm look in his eyes. "Well, we can't have that. Your last birthday should have been last month, we can celebrate it next Saturday. If Dudley asks, we will act like you just arrived today, since you look so different from before."
Harry quickly looked back to his work, trying to hide the small tears in his eyes. He had not even thought about getting a party. He subconsciously thought only normal boys got to have such things. He smiled as he began extracting the plastic from the vastly thinner bags. Maybe he wouldn't have to escape this place after all. They may not be his parents, but maybe they could still be family.
As Vernon carried the much smaller bags out to the trash, Petunia watched Harry continue to work. His hands seemed to float and dance like a musician as his eyes glowed. Unlike before, she didn't feel sick or smell tainted air, this time the air felt excited, as if something amazing was just out of sight and she could almost touch it.
She stopped playing with the bar of copper. "Harry, I... I can't really remember how much I told you about your world. Honestly, the last time I really saw any magic like this was back when we were eleven."
Harry's hands seemed to jerk a little, before his green eyes followed her words. She smiled a little. "We didn't know it was magic of course, but one day we got this letter. Lily always had strange things happen when she was mad or whatever, but we were young. Then one day, this really nice envelope showed up. It said Lily was to attend a school for wizards and witches."
Harry absently waved a hand, and Petunia watched the newly created white cloth fold itself and move aside as more white cubes of plastic began to form. He seemed hooked on her every sound, and she felt a small warmth inside at how cute he looked. Right now he was not moving like an assured but tiny adult... he was just a little boy listening to a story. She smiled. "Mom thought we were playing pretending at first, until the next letters showed up. Then a couple of days later, a bird showed up."