The day of Dudley Dursley's fifth birthday was quite the talk among the residents of Little Whinging. Most of the children, no matter the fact that little Dudley knew not even half of them, had been invited to the grand event that his birthday party was promised to be.
What brought many people's attention is exactly what Vernon Dursley had hired for entertainment. Around ten in the morning a rather large truck had pulled up to number 4 of Privet Drive, 'Circus Baby's Entertainment And Rental' scrawled in large bubbly letters along the sides.
It was a spectacle. Both children and adults were amazed with the brightly coloured Animatronics that wandered around the front yard, entertaining the children at every possibility. The Dursley family was preening under the attention their household had temporarily gained much like Peacock's, happy to be the talk of the neighbourhood in such positive light.
The party that day would be remember fondly for quite a few years after the fact by many. Even if, to none of the neighbourhoods knowledge, the Dursleys nephew Harry went missing that very day.
Harry peered through the slits of the vent cover attached to his cupboard door, longing burning in him as he saw small glimpses of the children and adults enjoying themselves on the front lawn. He knew bright balloons and streamers would be decorating much of the house and front lawn, having been enlisted to help place said decorations, but he wasn't able to see much of the fruit of his efforts.
It wasn't fair that Dudley, the one who always poked him, pushed him, punched him, would get to enjoy things like this while he just got shoved into the cupboard. Even so, he didn't really understand yet what the 'birthday' fuss was about. If he had a birthday himself, he didn't know. If he did would he get such a happy party as well? Maybe freaks didn't have birthdays, he mused.
Harry craned his head when he heard a voice decidedly not so human. He soon saw the source of the voice when a large bear like figure amble into the house, heading to the living room where some children and the birthday boy himself were enjoying Dudley's newest gaming console.
"Bon-Bon I think I see the birthday boy over there, let's give him a surprise!" The bear cheerfully spoke as he moved out of his limited sight.
Smoulders of resentment burned in him as others soon passed the cupboard, none noticing the small boy under the stairs. It just wasn't fair! He wanted so badly to be out there, enjoying himself, getting some small acknowledgement from the robots that traversed the house and yard. No adult cared about him, nor did any child. His only hope was in the animatronics, and yet all he could do was watch as they passed by without ever noticing him.
Stewing in his thoughts, Harry was surprised to hear a small 'click!' come from the cupboard door in front of him. A small push confirmed what he assumed. The cupboard door was unlocked. Heart pounding in his excitement, he pulled himself together enough to carefully peer through the vent, straining his ears. No one was in the hallway, nor did anyone seem to be approaching it.
Harry slowly inched the door open at first, but soon pushed it open the rest of the way quickly with childish impatience. Carefully closing the door again as softly as he could, he scampered down the hallway, hoping no one would notice him as he entered the kitchen as stealthly as he could. The living room, and by extension the kitchen, was so noisy he could barely hear himself think.
Luckily that meant no one heard the few times he slipped on the kitchen tiles, nor when he scampered out the backyard. The noise seemed to be muted by the thumping is his racing heart as he hid by a large pot, peering back through the glass of the sliding door. Inside he could now see two robots, the large white bear that had passed his cupboard earlier along with a girly looking fox. The two seemed to be showering attention on the preening birthday boy and his guests, the fox currently enrapturing them with a story while the bear looked around the room waited for his turn.
A detail he hadn't noticed while in his cupboard was the blue bunny attached to the bears hand much like a puppet. The bunny seemed to be quietly conversing with the bear, facing him and making the odd hand gesture. The bear seemed to listen, but his eyes still roamed around the room. Occasionally the bunny's did too.
Until they landed on him.
Harry jerked slightly when the bunny stared straight at him, jaw moving to say something he couldn't hear over the noise of the party. However he was soon able to guess as the bears looked directly at him as well. Something about the robot's eyes being on him both sent shivers up his back and made elation bloom in his mind. They didn't look at him like the adults or children did!
Still enraptured in the fox's story, no one but Harry noticed as the bear slowly made his way out of the lounge and into the backyard. Only a few more steps had the bear in front of Harry. Harry's breath caught in his throat as he looked at the robot that towered over him, he was huge! A comparison to Uncle Vernon flashed in his mind, and he gave a more noticeable shiver.
Oddly, the bear seemed to almost understand that it was scaring Harry and very slowly knelt. The bunny attached to his hand gave him a friendly smile.
"Hiya, I'm Bon-Bon and that's Freddy!" the bunny gestured at the bear holding the puppet, "What's your name birthday boy?" The puppet asked.
Harry gave the bunny a look of confusion, "I- I'm Harry, it's not my birthday though," he near mumbled.
"Well it might not be today but you still have a birthday, so birthday boy!" The bunny childishly reasoned, throwing it's small arms in the air cheerfully. Freddy watched the two of them with an almost fond expression.
Even so, Harry was slightly unnerved. Being so close to the robot highlighted how inhuman it was. All of their expressions were off in some way, and their happy expressions never could reach their eyes.
"I guess…" Harry sighed, not willing to mention that he wasn't even sure if he had a birthday. Uncle Vernon never liked him speaking about that sort of stuff to other people. Did robots count as 'people'?
"Why do you look so down? Do you want to listen to Foxy's stories too? She's a great storyteller," Freddy offered.
Harry shook his head sadly, "I'm not allowed, Uncle Vernon will get angry."
Freddy and Bon-Bon seemed to almost pause before a conspiratorial look came to their faces, "Well I know a way you could listen without getting caught…" the bear trailed off.
Harry perked up slightly, giving Freddy his full attention. Freddy leaned in, acting as if he was going to share a secret.
"I have a storage area in my chest, and it's large enough for you to fit without anyone knowing." Freddy confided.
"You could hop right in and not get in trouble for being there!" Bon-Bon added.
Harry felt a thrum of excitement as his eyes widened in hope, "Sure!" He exclaimed, almost forgetting to be quite.
Freddy nodded and raised his arms, with a loud click his chest swung open exposing a hollow just big enough for Harry to fit as they described. Harry carefully clambered in under the watchful eyes of Freddy and Bon-Bon.
"Remember, not a peep!" Bon-Bon cheerfully warned.
Freddy's chest closed, throwing Harry into darkness. For a moment all he could hear was the faint hum of gears, but he soon braced himself as the robot seemed to get to his feet. The sounds of the party once again became louder and louder, and soon Harry could hear Foxy spinning a tale about pirates and the sea.
A happy grin came to his unseen face as he listened, enraptured as all of the other children had been to the storytelling robot. The fox shaped robot's voice was soothing, and Harry after a while found it hard to keep his eyes open, 'Freddy won't mind if I take a nap' he reasoned.
When Harry next awoke, his back and neck ached from sleeping in such a cramped space. The sounds of the party were gone, leaving behind only a faint hum. Confusion flooded him. How long had he been napping for? Was the party over? He hoped Uncle Vernon hadn't realised what he did, he'd be weeding the garden for weeks if so.
Oddly, none of the mechanical sounds he could hear were from Freddy. Did he take a nap too? Harry had too many questions, and none of them could be solved from where he was. He managed to give where he guessed the opening was a push with his foot, but it held solid.
"Now that Funtime Freddy's power module has been removed, you will be sending him to the scooping room so his suit can be removed and cleaned. Press the green button on your left." A voice boomed out.
Harry froze. Someone else was out there. Throat tightening, Harry strained his ears and barely managed to hear the sound of someone breathing over the hum.
"Yeah, yeah…" Another voice mumbled. Harry heard a faint click, before a loud rumble shook Freddy and by extension, him. What was happening?!
The loud rumble seemed to go over forever, his ears smarting and body trembling. He almost sighed in relief when everything became still, though he remembered that other voice at the last second.
Without warning, a loud bang and squelch echoed through the room as something large and metal collided with the chest of Funtime Freddy.
The next day of Circus Baby's Entertainment And Rental was chaos. The maintenance workers, who had entered early in the morning expecting to clean the Funtime Animatronics suits, were shocked to find a much bigger mess awaiting them in the scooper room.
Blood, gore, and fragments of bone were splattered all across the room. Laying in a pool of blood was Funtime Freddy, a mangled corpse sitting in his chest. The few that entered ended up retching at the sight and smell.
News got to upper management quite quickly, and they received their orders: clean the suits, and never say a thing to anyone. They grudgingly did so, the last time anyone had spoken against their orders had somehow been arrested the next day and was never able to find another job again.
Later that day when Funtime Freddy was booted up to assess the damage, no one noticed the new green glint to the bear's eyes.
AN: This might get additional chapters, it might not. If anyone wants to make a story following up on this, feel free!
Also, I'm considering a Tattletail x HP crossover story but I'm still figuring out how to write that one :v