The sound of the soft tread of his Aunts feet on the stairs woke Harry, as he woke he realised he was clutching Fox to his chest. Quickly bundling fox up in his blanket, he crawled out of the cupboard just as his Aunt reached the bottom of the stairs. After a quick hug, he headed up to his room to stash his blanket and Fox, before cleaning up and helping his Aunt with breakfast. As it was a Saturday, they had a bit of a wait before Vernon woke up, and spent the time just sitting together drinking a cup of tea. Once they heard he was awake they finished breakfast, and Harry ate a quick bowl of cereal before he was shooed into the back garden to begin weeding, with a whispered promise that he'd be called in once they were gone.

Apart from Vernon bringing out a bundle of letters to burn and swearing at him, Harry was left to his own devices for most of the morning. The thing about Dudley being able to practice on him when they got home faded away from his mind with the monotonous task of pulling up the new weeds before they took hold.

Eventually, his Aunt called him in, admonished him about not tracking mud into the house otherwise he'd be the one cleaning the floor. A few hours later they'd finished watching both videos. Only around 20 minutes of which had been about meditation. They were now sitting together eating sandwiches in the living room. Harry still couldn't believe that he was allowed to sit on the chairs in the living room, this time last week his Aunt would have chased him off into his cupboard. He was startled out of his thoughts as her voice broke the silence, reflexively looking at her face for any signs of being upset or angry he relaxed again when it was clear that she was relaxed and had a strange expression on her face.

"Are you OK?"

"I'm fine"

"OK, I said, would you like to practice meditating with me in the mornings before they get up?"

"I wouldn't want to put you out, I can do it in my room."

"I'm asking because I'd like to do it with you, it's something I couldn't share with your Mum, so I'd like to share it with you."

"Uh, OK?"

With his slightly confused acceptance, she bursts into tears at another reminder of just how badly she's brought up Lily's son, and how badly she'd failed. Squaring her shoulders, she turned to Harry.

"Right, can you go and get the sheets off the beds and I'll put them on to wash. Then I'll help you put the clean sheets back on the bed. After that we can work on the front garden together."

It was only when his Aunt came upstairs with him and got the clean sheets out of airing cupboard that he realised that when she said we, she didn't mean just him. She even showed him how to do a hospital corner on the sheets, which is what she'd kept telling him off about over the years and called him stupid for not knowing. By the time Dudley and Vernon came home he found that he was enjoying working with his Aunt, and he didn't know why.

Even being forced to stand in as the training dummy for Dudley wasn't that bad as Vernon was showing him how to use his baton to disable an opponent rather than kill, so he got away with bruises rather than being beaten around the head. Vernon emphasised just how important it is that Dudley learns how to pull his blow so that his victims, sorry opponents don't end up in hospital, and the police get involved. Even being sent to bed without dinner didn't put too big a dent into his day. It wasn't the first time he'd gone to bed hungry, and at least he had lunch. It was waking up in the night to Vernon bellowing at his Aunt, and her cries as she was dragged into the bedroom that did it. He grabbed Fox from her hiding place and clutched her to his chest as he quietly cried himself to sleep.

Petunia knew when she started gardening with Harry that it was a bad idea, but she'd been enjoying working with him rather than ordering him around and doing her own thing. It was less lonely for a start. It was when she heard the car door slam that she realised that she'd let her guard down too much. She tried to stand up and look stern, but she knew even as she did it, that it was too late. Vernon didn't say anything when he brought the bags in with Dudley, but she could see from the set of his shoulders that he'd seen.

At dinner time she contrived some excuse to sent Harry to bed with no food. Hopefully, that would be enough punishment that Vernon wouldn't decide to add more. After dinner was finished and cleaned up, and Dudley was sent up, that's when it happened.

Vernon sat on the sofa instead of his customary armchair with the weekend film on TV. Petunia sat in her armchair, a glass of water on the side table. During the ad break, Vernon broke the silence, patting on the seat next to him.

"Come on pet, come sit next to me."

Petunia couldn't help herself, she froze and shook her head.

"I said, come and sit next to me!" he growled out.

Meekly, she stood up and moved over to sit next to her.

Putting his hand on her leg and squeezing, he continued.

"I thought we agreed that we wanted nothing to do with the freak, and that we would only do what we needed to do to prevent social services from stopping by."

Mutely she shook her head.

"Didn't we."

He squeezed her leg tighter.

"Vernon, you're hurting me."

"Didn't we!"

"Yes Vernon" she squeaked out, tears of pain glistening at the corners of her eyes.

"It doesn't look like you remembered, I'll give you another lesson tonight, and I'll show you why 'It's not muggle baiting when you're defending your family' doesn't wash. Do you understand?"

"Yes Vernon"

"I don't think you do."

At which he turns off the TV and grabs her hair before she can get away then drags her upstairs to the bedroom.