This is my first Harry Potter fanfic, and i have no beta-reader

There will be a bit slash in one chapter, but the rest of the story is not yaoi, no romance between Snape and Harry... only comfort.

Have fun reading, comments are always welcome.

I don't own anything

PART 1. 'HOME SWEAT HOME'

"Hey, you're Harry Potter, right?"

Harry jerked around and looked behind him to see who was speaking to him and uncle Vernon leered down at him angrily.

"Ehm, just give me a minute." Harry asked cautiously and took a step towards the two men who obviously were wizards, as their clothes gave them away instantly.

Harry wasn't at Hogwarts anymore, he had to be careful and he eyed them suspiciously. "What do you want?"

They didn't look like they wanted to hurt him... but he had to be cautious, even here at the station with lots of Muggles and wizards milling around him.

"Hello, we're from a company named Join-in..."

Harry looked at them, puzzled; he knew his uncle was going to be mad at him for taking so long.

"And?"

"We're making programs about rich and famous. We have a magic sellef follow each person around 24 hours a day."

"A sellef?" Harry became even more puzzled.

"It's like a camera in the Muggle world," the short one said.

"And what does that have to do with me?" Harry asked, starting to get angry as he realised what they were trying to talk him into.

"We have already asked 4 other people to join, we need a fifth one and we were thinking..."

"NO! Forget it! I am not going to let a camera... ehm a sellef follow me around everywhere everyday this summer. My private life is my own business."

"Yes, but this is an opportunity to get..."

"The last thing I need is more publicity, and I have had enough of snoopy reporters trying to let people have a look into my life."

"But this will show people who you really..."

"People don't need to know who I am, I am tired of people assuming things about me just because they read an article or saw my scar or..."

"You will get payed of cour..."

"NO! And if you'll excuse me I have to go." Harry turned to leave.

"Wait!" The tall one placed his hand on Harry´s shoulder to stop him. Harry was startled, and he felt a little sting where the hand touched him.

"Please, would you just think about it and send us an owl if you decide otherwise?" He gave Harry his card.

Harry took it, but said, "My decision is final. I don´t want to participate in your program." He put the card into his pocket anyway, then hurried out.

The two men looked after him, then smiled and gave each other the thumbs up. Then they left the station.

"Get in the car, boy!" Uncle Vernon growled and pushed Harry inside.

"Nice to see you too." Harry mumbled under his breath.

Vernon got in as well and started the car. Harry looked out the window and waved goodbye to Hermione, who looked at him trying not to look too sad but she wasn't very successful.

"Well, how have you been doing?" Harry asked very quietly to start a conversation.

"Fine."

"Ehm, how is Dudley's diet..."

"Shut up boy, and do not speak unless you are allowed to!"

"And SIT STILL!"

They drove in silence the rest of the way.

Harry constantly peeped over his shoulder to see if somebody were following them. He had a letter for the Dursleys, concerning him. Dumbledore had told him what it was about and insisted that it was necessary. Harry wasn't sure how his uncle was going to react.

Harry looked down Privet Drive as they got out of the car, maybe he was just being paranoid, but he couldn't help it. His encounter with Voldemort had left him with this feeling of being followed, and Dumbledore's letter didn't help him at all.

"Uhm, uncle Vernon?"

"WHAT?" Vernon almost foamed.

"I have a letter for you, from my headmaster at school." He handed his uncle the letter as they walked inside.

His uncle turned a dark shade of purple that harry didn't even knew existed. Hoping to avoid another lecture he quickly gathered his things and headed up the stairs.

"WAIT!" Vernon shouted as Harry reached the last step. Harry stopped dead in his track and looked down at his uncle, who was looking rather smug.

"What does he mean exactly... you're not allowed to leave the property? Who are those guys who are after you?"

"The people who killed my parents."

"And they tried to kill you in school this year?"

Harry nodded.

"Why didn't you tell your godfather to come and help you?" Vernon asked mockingly.

Vernon enjoyed Harry´s lack of words.

"Does this mean... that you will be killed, if you step outside the fence?" Vernon had an insane look in his eyes.

Harry looked at his uncle and paled. "What are you driving at?"

"Leave your things down here."

"But, but I have loads of homework and..."

"I said leave your things down here, don't disobey me, boy!" Vernon roared.

"But..."

"ARE YOU DEAF? If you want to live in this house you will do exactly as I say!"

Harry just stood there looking at his uncle in disbelief. "No, I need my books." 'Professor Snape is going to skin me alive if I don't do my homework.' Harry added mentally.

Vernon just smiled up at him. "Leave it here."

"You can't do that, I will..."

"You'll what? Write your godfather? No you wont because I will be sending that freaking owl of yours off to a bird pension on Friday."

"NO, uncle Vernon I need her, and my books."

"Do you want me to kick you out of the house?"

Harry´s heart fell as he realised he had lost all his weapons and just presented his uncle with a deadly one... literally.

"...No." Harry answered defeated, and looked down at his feet. This was going to be a very long summer.

Harry sighed, he was very hungry and tired, and he didn't have the energy to sneak out and steel his books back tonight. Besides that was a very difficult task, his uncle was a light-sleeper, and if Harry was caught it would probably mean another couple of days without food. They had already starved him for two days now. But as long as he had chores inside the house it was possible to steal a bit here and there. Still, he had to be careful; his uncle was extremely mean to him. Now that he knew he could make Harry´s life miserable and get away with it, he used every chance he got, giving Harry an ungodly amount of work and provoked him as often as possible.

Exhausted he collapsed on the bed. He seriously needed to get some food soon. It was not worth it to risk more starvation just for his stupid potion books. Harry´s stomach rumbled loudly and Hedvig hooted from her cage.

"Shhh, if you wake them, uncle Vernon will lock me in here." Harry whispered. The owl looked angrily at the wall separating Harry´s room from his aunt and uncle´s.

"Please, don't be mad at me. I'm sure you'll be taken better care of at that pension than here, where I can't feed you," he said soothingly. She hooted softly in reply. "Don't worry, as soon as Ron and Hermione write me, I will ask them to send me supplies, just like last year." He whispered trying to cheer both of them up.

He sighed and took of his cousin´s jeans, which were about three times too big for him. Then looking at his calender, he took a pen and crossed out the day´s date.

"Only 6 weeks left..." His shoulders sank and he slipped into bed. He was too tired to stay awake though he didn't want to fall asleep; he knew he would have more nightmares.

Vernon had threatened Harry with extra work because his screaming had woken the family on his first night back. Harry had kept himself awake next night, but he couldn't do that forever. And he really needed sleep now that they didn't give him enough food and double the usual amount of chores.

He turned to lie on his stomach and burrowed his head into the pillow to mute his screams. A few minutes later he was fast asleep.

"NO, Cedric! Please!" Harry saw Cedric's body fall to the ground. He tried to move but couldn't, and then he heard a loud high-pitched laughter that he knew all too well...

"Shut up you filthy piece of..." His uncle was shaking Harry violently.

"Let go of me! Leave me alone..." Harry jerked awake. "wha - what? Where am I... oh."

"Why the hell can't you just let us get some sleep?" Vernon bellowed and grabbed the collar of Harry´s shirt.

"Sorry, I was having another nightm..." Harry tried to explain but didn't even finish, maybe it was better to just stay quiet - his uncle looked very grumpy.

"Yes I noticed." Vernon said exasperatedly.

"Sorry."

Vernon showed Harry up against the wall as he let go and left the room cursing under his breath.

Harry let out his breath relieved that he hadn't received another diatribe. He looked at his watch, 4 o'clock. Then he sat up and pulled his legs up and hugged his knees, he didn't dare to go back to sleep, so he just looked out the window at the clouded moon.

Hi Harry, how are you doing?

I'm sorry there isn't more food, but Pig can't carry that much, and Percy is using Errol, besides he was too exhausted from his trip last week.

I hope we can convince Dumbledore to let you stay with us for a couple of weeks this summer. He said it was out of the question, that it isn't save but we will ask him again as soon as he gets back from the trip he is on with Hagrid.

Did you I ever tell you about a wizard program called joinin? It's a real hit with young people in the wizard world. Dad might want to see it though I think hardly any adults are interested... but Mr. Malfoy keeps asking if we have a receiver. Fred and George were going to buy one anyway, so we can watch the program from next week. It is expensive to get those receivers, I don't think that many people can afford them- don't know where they got tho money which botheres me a bit, I hope they wont get in trouble. Hermione is coming over next week to watch it with us, though she says it is crap, like some muggle program called something I don't remember. But ok, if Mr. Malfoy thinks it's good, it must be horrible. Anyway we'll see in a week..

Fred and Geroge are almost ready to start their business, and they will as soon as all the arrangements have been made. They have been working very hard on projects ever since holiday started..

Take care

Ron

Harry looked at the letter and let out a happy sigh forgetting his sadness and hunger for a minute. Then took his pen and wrote back while shoving in all of the cookies Mrs. Weasly had baked for him.

Dear Ron

I'm glad that Fred and George finally got the money to finance their dream, must be pretty dangerous for you living in the same house though with their experiments. I hope you're not their guinea-pig.

Thank you for the cookies, I really needed those... they are still starving me, but as long as I do my chores they usually ignore me and leave me alone, and I am able to snatch something here and there.

It would be really great if I could stay with you, but I read Dumbledore´s letter, and I don't think you can convince him. He sais I'm not allowed to leave privet drive 4 but if you send me some food every now and then I think I'll get through it.

Actually some guys at Kings Cross station asked me if I wanted to participate in that program joinin you mentioned, but I refused of course. I don't need people to see how bad they are treating me here. Now THAT would be humiliating. I think I got my share of being in the limelight when Rita Sceta wrote those horrible articles. If people want to get to know me they can do it the old-fashioned way. Meet me and befriend me.

The muggle-program Hermione mentioned is called bigbrother. I never saw it, (I'm not allowed to watch TV) but if you particitate in something like that it would probably not be the real image of you people saw. If you knew people were watching - you would act differently, nicely and say smart things to make people like you better. HA! Can you imagine Draco in such a program, now that would be... interesting. Wonder if he is even CAPABLE of acting nice. how many MINUTES do you think it would take people to look through his facade?

Well, tell me about it next time, and PLEASE send more food, maybe you can let Pig send these two letters for me to Sirius and Hermione.

Harry

He leaned back and stretched tiredly. There was no need to tell Ron about his nightmares. He mentioned them in Sirius' letter, but that was all. No need to tempt Sirius to come and help him. IF death eaters were really waiting outside watching for Harry to make a wrong step, it probably wasn't a good idea to bring Sirius.

Harry fastened the letters to the overjoyed micro-owl of Ron´s, it flapped violently with it's wings and circled the room three times before leaving through the window.

Harry looked after it for ten minutes before he pulled himself together. Uncle Vernon had had a hard day at work, because there had been a quality-check and he wasn't quite ready for it, and one of his departments weren't approved. He had of course punished harry for no reason at all, and send him to his room without dinner.

Harry was always locked in his room at night, but now he had had some cookies he was ready to go downstairs and steel some of his books back. He only had 4 weeks left before school started, and he often needed something to take his thoughts away from his life at the Dursley´s.

"get up boy!" Vernon shouted through the door and unlocked it. Harry nearly got a heart-attack, he had fallen asleep on top of a pile of his books. It had taken him nearly an hour to fulfill his mission.

First he had to pick the lock open and creep down the stairs without making too much noice, avoid the creaking step, unlock the cupboard and take as many books he could carry. He had heard a sound from upstairs, but he made it to his room without waking anybody and he had to lock the door once more so no one noticed that the door was open.

Luckily Vernon didn't come to pull him out of the bed today. Harry hid his things under the lose board in the floor, and went to the bathroom.

Downstairs he sat by the table and was relieved that he was allowed to eat a bit of breakfast, before he was send to work on his list of chores, that seemed to be twice as long as yesterday.

It was a lovely warm summer-day, and the neighbours were lying in their garden sunbathing. Harry went on with his work. He weeded the garden, pained the fence, swashed the windows, paint the window-frames and the rest of the woodwork on privet drive 4, cleaned up all the garden furniture, watered the greenhouse and mowed the lawn - twice. Afterwards he heaved a sigh and went in the house to complete the rest of his jobs.

He wasn't allowed to have any dinner, he was supposed to clean the kitchen while the others ate; and after that he washed the dishes and finished what was left on his list.

About ten o'clock he was allowed to go back to his room. He was forbidden to take showers unless his uncle specifically allowed him to. So he filled the sink and quickly washed while brushing his teeth.

When his uncle showed him into his room and locked the door, Harry smiled sadly as he crossed the date on his calender and then collapsed on his bed. He waited until Vernon was back in the livingroom before he dared to find his books and start on potions.

This was what it had been like since Harry arrived: so many chores that he barely couldn't keep himself awake three minutes after he went to bed though he now had his books and needed to get some homework done. When he got food depended on Vernon´s mood, and the neighbours were starting to watch him with the same interest Petunia had in them. It was kind of annoying to be stared at all the time, though for once they weren't staring at him only because of his scar. Harry felt like an animal in the zoo.

Harry was dusting in the living room as his uncle busted through the door sprinting out into the kitchen.

"Petunia? I just talked to the Mr. Jonson... it's perfect."

"What's perfect dear, you looked so upset."

"I was but then he gave me a brilliant idea of what to do with the boy."

Harry stopped cold and gulped. They were talking about him. Vernon´s excitement had worn of a bit so he couldn't hear them anymore.