Four years later and Harry finally knew his mother's name, as well as his father's and many other facts about them. Foremost was that they could do magic and, as their son, so could Harry. Now he found himself whisked away to a magical castle in the middle of nowhere far far away from the Dursleys. Never before had Harry been so happy and never before had he been so scared.
It was late at night on Harry's first day at Hogwarts that found the boy silently crying on his four poster bed in the Gryffindor dorms. He'd gotten good at crying soundlessly after years at the Dursley residence and now it came in handy as to not wake up any of his new roommates who slept peacefully around him, with Ron Weasley's snores covering up any quiet sniffles he may make. It was now, after his whole world had been turned upside down, that Harry felt an odd sense of homesickness that he never thought he'd feel after having his dreams come true and finally being taken away from the Dursleys.
There was a certain routine to Harry's life that had been a source of great comfort. Aunt Petunia would start the breakfast in the mornings and, as she lovingly woke up her husband and son, Harry would finish it and dish it up for the family. Most days he was allowed to eat as well. Then he'd do the dishes and it would be time for school. Grudgingly, Uncle Vernon would drive him there, where Harry would spend the day avoiding Dudley and carefully underperforming so as to not be punished for doing better than his cousin.
After school there would be more dodging Dudley and doing more chores around the house for Aunt Petunia. Sometimes on good days he'd even have time to do his homework and learn a thing or two. Then it was dinner time which involved helping in the kitchen once again so that the food was ready for when Uncle Vernon came home from work. Harry would be fed at this meal less often than the others but on really good days he'd even be allowed to join the family at the table. After doing the dishes, the rest of the evening was spent hiding in his cupboard from the Dursleys and hoping they'd forget he existed.
It was a monotonous life but it was all Harry'd ever known. The changes that had come in the last couple months had been many and impactful. Never again would things go back to how they'd been for as long as he could remember. And though the changes were good, Harry was not used to change at all. The differences now were too many and he longed for the familiarity of his relatives ignoring him, ordering him around, yelling at him, anything that felt like home in this unfamiliar, cold castle full of strangers and uncertainty.
As the night passed on, Harry eventually ran out of tears. But the feelings of loss lingered and he stayed up much longer as he tried to wrap his mind around missing what he'd always hated.