Disclaimer I do not own Harry Potter or any other recognisable works they are not my own. Sorry for the long wait for this ngl I totally forgot about it though I did have so much written up and I cant remember why I didnt post it? Thanks for all the likes and reviews and sorry to those two people who Dm'd me, I will start responding now but I think a random response 6 months late is a bit pointless soz. - Beth

The drive back was silent other than Vernon's occasional mutterings. When they reached the house, Vernon got out the car and slammed the door, causing Harry to hurry. He didn't even get his trunk to the bottom of the stairs before he was hit. He was surprised, normally Vernon waited until he had done something wrong before hitting him. The punch to his face caused Harry to drop to the floor, although used to the treatment it was a surprise after the time at school, where he didn't have to worry about his uncle. Harry prayed his uncle would stop at that, but Harry knew he wouldn't. He never did. That was the last conscious thought he had as the next blows left it hard for him to think. The only thing he focused on was not crying out. Vernon hated that. He had learnt that lesson the hard way, a long time ago. Harry couldn't be more grateful for his uncle's size as it meant he couldn't continue for very long, meaning that he was soon left alone. It was painful walking upstairs, he didn't know how he did it, but somehow, in his pain hazed state, he managed to make it into his room and onto the bed.

Harry woke up, fully clothed, on his bed and unsurprisingly he was in a lot of pain. He reached out and felt around for his glasses so he could see. Once he had shoved them on his face, he turned his head to look at an old alarm clock that he managed to keep after Dudley had broken it. Seeing that it was nearly eight Harry knew he'd have to get up soon in order to make his family's breakfast. In fact, he'd better get up now so he wouldn't have to rush, irritating his injuries further. It wouldn't matter to them that he was in pain or that they'd caused it. They'd just want their breakfast ready, warm and waiting when they finally decided to come downstairs. If he was lucky, he might even get some. Who was he kidding of course he wouldn't. They only fed he enough so he could do their housework. He wouldn't even be getting hampers from Mrs Weasley he thought with a grimace, reminding himself of his old friends. At least he wouldn't get shouted at for having owls bringing the letters from his 'freakish friends' like last year. Hopefully he'd be able to lie low this year.

After dressing in Dudley's old clothes, he slowly made his way downstairs to get a head start. He heard his aunt beginning to move around upstairs just he began putting the first rasher of bacon on to fry. He heard her footsteps on the landing and was thankful he was already awake. His aunt made her way downstairs with a frown on her face, obviously annoyed with the lack of response from his room and therefore it was with a shocked expression that she entered the kitchen to see Harry already preparing breakfast. Without so much as a 'good morning' she left the kitchen for the living room and turned on the TV for the morning news. Just as Harry finished laying the table his uncle entered the room with a disgruntled expression. He was followed into the room by Dudley who looked just as unhappy to be awake at that time as his father, however, Harry supposed it could just be their reaction to seeing him. The table was set perfectly and the food he had prepared for their breakfast was still warm so there was no reason for them to punish him. However, he knew they would find something, they always did, like they did last night and every other time he was punished. He was pleasantly surprised when they actually let him eat with them for once. The conversation was muted between the group with the occasional "pass me the…" or his uncle's mutterings over the newspapers' topics.

The silence didn't last with Dudley whining about how there wasn't enough bacon for him. Harry sighed mentally; he knew it wouldn't last. "Boy," Vernon thundered "Why isn't there enough bacon for Dudders?" Harry knew there was nothing he could say that would prevent his uncle from doing whatever he had decided, so he decided to stay silent and not respond. Snape would have a heart attack if he knew, Harry thought with a snort. "Boy. Boy. Are you listening to me?" Vernon shouted turning a darker shade of purple. Dudley sat at the table looking pleased at the turn of events after his comments. Harry nodded, knowing that he wouldn't appreciate him speaking as it was a sign of disrespect. "Good. You're to tidy up the attic and it had better be done by the time I'm back from work." Vernon told him with a face that promised him a world of pain if he didn't complete this task. Harry nodded once again, this time he left to go upstairs to the attic.

He was surprised at the task, he'd never been forced to clean the attic before, in fact he had never been in the attic. Harry jumped to open the hatch above him, cursing his short height. When it opened a piece of string fell down that allowed him to pull the ladder down from where it was sitting. He slowly climbed the rungs until he could pull himself onto the attics floor. Standing up he was hit with something plastic on a piece of string, after pulling on it, it became obvious that it was the light switch. Now being able to see, Harry saw how full the attic was. There were boxes everywhere! He would be here all day. Why did they even have this much stuff? It's not like they used it. The boxes were all covered in dust and so was the floor, they obviously hadn't been moved or opened in a long time.

Shaking the thoughts out of his head, he opened the closest box and looked inside, hoping it would be something interesting. Clothes. Nothing interesting. He put the box to one side and began looking through the other ones trying to get through as many as possible so he wouldn't get punished. The bending down and lifting caused pain to shoot through Harry's back, which only made the job harder. The boxes only contained more of the same, clothes, old toys and other bits and bobs. He had sorted them into these sections along one of the walls. This created a massive space between the piles and the cluster of boxes that he had yet to sort. Harry continued like this for the rest of the morning as well as all afternoon. After sorting the boxes, Harry found a basket in a corner that looked nearly as old as he was, so he put it in the 'other' pile for his aunt to look at. Just as he was about to declare it a day, he spotted a trunk hidden in one of the corners, its dark colour making it hard to spot in the dim light that shone from the attic's bulb.