CH3: 'Home'

Unexpectedly Harry's reception at the Dursley's went rather well, going by the standards of the Dursley's anyway. The door was not slammed straight in his face, of course he was completely ignored (with the exception of Uncle Vernon's lecture on how he was to behave).

Harry was to keep up with his chores if he wanted to eat, every morning he would be presented with a list of chores which should be completed by the time Uncle Vernon got home from work. When he was not doing chores, he was to return to his room and pretend he doesn't exist or to be absent from the house, if harry broke these rules then he would be locked in his room with no food until he learnt to abide by the rules.

After Uncle Vernon's address, Harry made his way up to his bedroom with his trunk and Hedwig's cage to find it much as he had left it, dull and depressing. Trying to make the most of a bad situation, Harry decided to have a bit of a tidy, it sometimes helped him to keep busy when he was feeling anxious and returning to the Dursley's was enough to make anybody anxious.

Harry collected a rag from the closet on the landing and wet it under the bathroom tap so that he could give the room a much-needed dust, Harry suspected the Dursley's locked off his room when he was at Hogwarts, so they could better pretend that he didn't exist. He also unpacked some of his belongings that he would need over the summer, such as his muggle clothes, he was careful to put his most treasured belongings into the loose floorboard beneath his bed; his photo album containing his only photographs of his parents and his invisibility cloak. After the fiasco of the third task and the return of Voldemort to his body, Harry decided that it would be idiotic not to carry his wand at all times or to have it close by in his bedroom ready for an attack by death eaters, so he tucked his wand under his pillow for now.

Now that his room was in order, Harry lay on his bed, he was exhausted after his long day of travelling. Well I'm Home Harry thought, he couldn't stop the tears coming to his eyes at how unwelcome and unwanted he felt in his 'Home'. Just like many times over the last 14 years, Harry's thoughts wandered to what his life would have been like with parents, someone to care for him and love him, a proper home where he would actually feel welcome.

Before he got too worked up, Harry decided to get some sleep, he was extremely tired after all. Just as he was getting settled for bed, Harry had a sudden thought, he had been using silencing charms for the last week around his bed to stop his nightmares from waking his roommates… But he couldn't perform magic here. With a sinking feeling in his stomach he decided there was nothing he could do about it and hoped against hope that the change of setting would help his nightmares. Maybe now he was away from Hogwarts, away from the attention, his nightmares would ease off slightly?

…

Harry's hopes were dashed just a few hours later when he woke himself up screaming, he quickly shut up, but the damage had been done as he heard the sound of angry stamping in the hallway, then three booming bangs on his door.

'Shut up in there boy or there will be trouble'.

Harry let out a sigh of relief at the sound of his Uncle's retreating footsteps. Deciding it would be best to just stay awake to avoid a repeat incident Harry retrieved a book from his trunk and started to read, since the return of Voldemort he had taken a keen interest in advanced defensive spells, he couldn't stand to let anyone else die because he was not prepared to protect them, he couldn't let anyone else down as he had let Cedric down.

But as much as Harry tried to concentrate on his book, he just couldn't, he read the same sentence five times and he still couldn't tell you what it said, so he gave up and resorted to staring at the ceiling. All Harry could think about was how he was going to get some sleep over the summer, he couldn't use magic, so he was going to have to come up with a clever plan to stop himself shouting the house down.

The morning came far too quickly for Harry's liking, upon hearing the alarm clock from his Aunt and Uncle's bedroom he got up and dressed for the day, in some older jeans and t shirt, he guessed that the Dursley's would have saved up some rather difficult and unpleasant chores to celebrate his first day back and it wasn't worth ruining some of his better clothes, and boy was he right.

He arrived in the kitchen to a long list of gruelling chores, the grass needed mowing, the flower beds needed pruning, the drive and patio needed jet washing, the gutters needed cleaning, and the hedges needed trimming. This was only the beginning of the list, so he decided to get started straight away if he wanted to eat that night.

Around lunch time he had got a surprising amount of work done, just as he went to collect the gardening sheers to start on the hedges, when he was greeted by Dudley. Dudley had slimmed down slightly since the last time Harry had seen him, owing to his new-found interest in boxing, Harry wasn't surprised by his choice in activity he had been using him as a punching bag for years.

'Hey scar-face, heard your screaming last night, did you look in a mirror again'?

Harry looked straight at him and deadpanned 'no, I saw a picture of you again, the walls are lined with them it's difficult to get away really'.

Next thing Harry knew he was on the floor, after a punch to the gut from Dudley, he had to admit boxing had improved his technique, it hurt much more than he remembered. He looked up to see the large form of his cousin standing over him.

'Don't talk to me like that scar-face, or I'll tell dad you were doing something freaky'. Dudley then walked away leaving Harry to get himself off the floor to continue with his list of chores, although he enjoyed winding Dudley up, he regretted having to spend the rest of his day doing chores with a horrid pain in his stomach. Luckily Harry had got the worst of the chores out the way, trimming the hedge took way longer than it should have but all that remained on the list were indoor jobs, So Harry tidied up all the gardening tools into the shed, brushed himself off and made his way inside to get all the floors cleaned, the laundry done, the bathrooms cleaned top to bottom and he started preparing the dinner for that night.

When half six arrived, Harry was extremely proud that he had completed all of the chores on the list. He was also smug when he saw the look on Uncle Vernon's face when he learnt that Harry had managed to complete the list despite the fact he had purposely written the list so long that Harry could not possibly complete it. Grudgingly Uncle Vernon was forced to allow Harry to have some food, even if it was only scraps, he definitely wasn't going to get more than that.

Harry enjoyed the little food he was allowed, he had worked hard all day after all, after the Dursley's had finished their mountain of food, Harry cleaned up then disappeared up to his bedroom. It was only 7:30 but Harry was exhausted from his long day and besides, Aunt Petunia had a friend coming round and Harry was supposed to act like he didn't exist.

Being so tired Harry decided to have a nap then wake up later to get started on his summer homework.

…

Only his nap didn't really go to plan…

…

One second Harry was asleep with images of green light and blank eyes filling his vision, the next and Harry was awake after the sound of his door slamming open and he was met with the sight of Uncle Vernon's angry purple face.

'What do you think you are doing boy? Why are you making such a racket, is that what they teach you to do for attention in that freaky school of yours?'

All Harry could do was stare and shake, his senses still hadn't quite returned to him.

'well boy... what is the problem? Do you need me to beat some sense into you?'

Still Harry said nothing, he couldn't even process the words coming out of Uncle Vernon's mouth, his ears were still ringing with the echo of Cedric's scream.