Harry stood with Ron and Hermione, waiting to board the Hogwarts Express. The beautiful sleek scarlet steam engine stood proudly, puffing billows of white smoke that drifted upwards and mingled with the bright day's light clouds. It was a lovely day, but Harry didn't feel like appreciating the rare Scottish sun. He loathed to get on the train and return to his cupboard. 'Well, maybe I will get to keep the spare bedroom, I did grow some and couldn't possibly be expected to fit back in the cupboard" he thought to himself.

"Harry, feels weird to be going home huh mate?" Ron asked, looking at the castle as he stepped onto the train.

"I'm not going home. Not really." Harry replied with a sad smile.

Somewhere in Dumbledore's office, a small whirring monitoring device sitting on the back of a shelf stopped working. Fawkes the phoenix looked at the device and again at the headmaster who was absentmindedly sucking on a lemon drop. With a flap of his wings, the device whirred as if it was working again.

Hermione's mouth was going a mile a minute in her effort to tell Harry and Ron exactly what she was going to do that summer. Apparently, there were several vacations lined up to France and Spain lined up, as her parents had saved up weeks of vacation time from their shared dental practice. Ron listened somewhat disinterestedly as his family wasn't as well off as Hermione's was. He was just hoping for a nice relaxing summer flying with his brothers in their orchards.

As Harry enjoyed listening to Hermione talk, he started to feel hungry. Realizing he forgot to eat his breakfast, he pulled out the package that Madame Pomfrey had given him. He opened the sack, noting the weird texture of the bag, and pulled out a sandwich.

Ron looked over, immediately noticing the appearance of food.

"Hey mate, can I bum one? I'm hungry again, and the trolley is going to be awhile."

Harry looked at the bag in his hands, knowing that he was holding a very needed piece of food, but sighed, and handed over the bag. If he refused Ron, he would have to explain to him and Hermione about why he needed the food. It was bad enough that McGonagall and Pomfrey knew, but if he could just keep it to himself then maybe he wouldn't be seen as weak.

The trio disembarked the train back on platform 9 ¾ to their waiting families. Mrs. Weasley quickly rushed over to Harry and Hermione, telling them that they both had an open invitation to spend some of the summer at the Burrow if their guardians allowed it. Harry smiled at her, but his smile didn't reach his eyes. Not that anyone noticed, the others were all swept up in the rush to exit the platform back into the muggle side of the station.

The Dursleys were waiting for him. More accurately, Uncle Vernon was waiting for Harry on the other side of the platform looking thoroughly inconvenienced at having to retrieve his nephew.

"Hurry up boy, Petunia and Dudley are waiting in the car." he grunted, as Harry struggled behind him with his trunk.

Upon arriving at Number 4 private drive, Harry was immediately put to work on chores. Apparently he was going to be treated exactly as he had been when he left. as he turned to leave, Vernon's voice stopped him.

"Oh and by the way freak, I don't care what sort of shite they taught you at that loony bin you went to. If one single freakish thing happens in this house, you will think that Dudley's eighth birthday was a walk in the bloody park. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME BOY?" Vernon snarled.

Harry stiffened, then nodded and mumbled "yes sir" before quickly exiting the kitchen to begin on the flowerbeds. That birthday had been awful. Dudley had gotten many presents, but one had promptly broken when Harry's accidental magic flared near it when Dudley had tripped him. After the party had ended and guests had left, Harry had received his first beating with a belt and Vernon's fists together. Usually it was one or the other and not too bad, but this time he had fallen unconscious and was thrown into the cupboard and locked in for a week with only a bucket. After that, being belted and beaten began to become a regular occurrence. Being starved was normal at that point, but he had always been allowed to use the restroom before.

One week after returning to Number 4 Private Drive, Harry was in the garden weeding again. The sun was beating down on him, and his back was sticky wet and clinging to the sorry excuse of a T shirt he was wearing. He was so thirsty, but knew that he could fix that easily by sneaking water from the garden hose. Unfortunately he could not fix his hunger as easily. It had been a whole week since he was allowed to eat more than one small meal a day.

He sighed and wiped his forehead, but only ended up smearing a streak of dirt across his glasses.

"Meow."

Harry looked up at the sound, and saw the figure of a cat sitting on the fence of the neighbors yard. The cat was blurry from the sorry state of his glasses, so he took off his glasses to wipe away the grime with his shirt. He put his glasses back on and looked up but the cat was gone. Instead, there was a note in her place.

Harry glanced around to see if he was being watched, then quickly scurried over and grabbed the note before bending down again, pretending to weed.

Dear Mr. Potter,

I hope that you are well this summer, and are working hard on getting you out of that home. Professor Dumbledore has stated that you need to spend the majority of the summer with your relatives, but then you may be taken to the Weasleys' for the remainder of the summer. We will be in contact with your family when the time is closer to your stay with the at the Burrow. Do not forget your nutrient potions.

Madam Pomfrey

P.S. Hopefully the bag I charmed to refill with sandwiches from the Hogwarts Kitchen has been helpful.

As Harry read the post script, he silently started crying.

The cat with spectacle markings around her eyes had been watching, and dashed off between two houses, then disappeared with a crack