At his inherited home a short way from Privet Drive itself, was a man bent over a simmering vat of half brewed Dreamless Sleep. It was here Severus Snape felt the sudden inexplicable urge to do something completely and utterly absurd: sneeze. In fact, the hook nosed potion master was so startled by the urge to sneeze, that he was unable to suppress the desire and managed to sneeze straight into his half brewed potion. He then stared, scowling into it, half startled by his lack of control and half upset at the ruined potion.

Taking the ruined potion off the fire and setting aside the remaining ingredients, Severus made his way upstairs and sat grudgingly upon the worn couch in the parlor area, and folded his hands to rest his head on them. Quite honestly, Severus was bored. Two weeks into his self imposed reclusive summer, Minerva and Albus had found themselves too busy to allow him to remain as he almost always did on the grounds of Hogwarts, and so Severus had found himself back in one of the many, many places he never wanted to return to. Perhaps it wouldn't have been so unfortunate if he hadn't had to come here of all places, though.

Here was also known as Spinner's End. The wallpaper peeled in yellow strips, the furniture was worn and sinking deeply into itself, and the carpeting smelled like alcohol in some rooms, cigarettes in others, and like potion ingredients in the rest. Severus, although he was a wizard, found himself quite unwilling to change much of anything inside the sad ugly old home and instead spent most of his time downstairs brewing. He supposed, when he gave himself a moment to consider the reason, that it was because his mother's memory, and his unwillingness to change anything that she had touched.

Tobias wasn't the only one to haunt the house. Severus felt that near every time he tried to change nearly anything in the ugly rotting house, he found himself inexplicably focused on Eileen. Just like now.

The notorious Snape stood up snorting lightly at how ridiculous he was being again and reached for his muggle clothes. Though it was late, he supposed he could resume Dumbledore's solitary task for the summer: watching James Potter's brat of a son.

Snape cursed himself once again for the stupidity in allowing himself to be manipulated by the headmaster yet again. It wasn't enough for the old coot to remove him from Hogwarts for the summer, no the old man had him watching Saint Potter Jr. Fortunately, he only had to check on the brat once every week or so.

Still sucked deeply into his annoyance Severus stalked away from Spinner's completely unprepared for what he would face upon his arrival at Privet Drive Number 4.

Three days. At least, Harry was pretty sure it had been three days. He was making the assumption purely on the number of times cold cans of soup had been tossed into the cupboard from the blinding light in the living room. He had been so sick when Petunia had thrown the first unopened can in that he had thought she was his mother come to rescue him. He'd gotten the can thrown in his face for the trouble.

Harry had only been let out from the cupboard this morning since it was Monday morning and Petunia needed chores done. The freezing cold shower had woken him momentarily from his fever to the agony that his back was. He had stood transfixed by the sores before sinking to the ground and retrieving the rubbing alcohol. His hands were gripping the countertop as he tried to prepare to clean his back when-

"Hurry up, boy!" Petunia's voice shrilled despite the closed bathroom door, "Vernon will be home in a couple hours and I need this house cleaned!"

"Coming Aunt Petunia!" Harry replied quickly before gritting his teeth and pouring the rubbing alcohol down his back. It didn't reach every sore, but Harry still felt like screaming when the dulled pain in his back exploded once more. He bit down hard on the yell that threatened to spill out and tossed on a shirt before exiting the bathroom.

"Took you long enough" Petunia grumbled as he came out.

"Sorry. Won't happen again" Harry mumbled quietly as he followed his aunt downstairs.

"It better not. The only reason you're out of that cupboard is because I can't stand cleaning. Otherwise you would stay in there until Vernon decided you could come out," she paused slightly. "Just start on the flowerbeds. They need to be weeded again since they haven't been looked at since Friday. Afterward, you can do the backyard and then the front. I'll have you finish the laundry before Vernon's home as well. You have four hours or so. Get to it. "

"Yes, Aunt Petunia" Harry replied quickly before making his way out front to tend to the flowerbeds at the front of the house. He knelt down by the roses closest to the window and peered inside as he worked. Merlin, he hates this house.

AN: I am very sorry for the wait but my computer has finally died. Everything now has to be typed on my iPhone which takes forever. Updates will be a lot slower than I like them to be since I have to type on a phone. Sorry