*TW ABUSE*

CH 4: Sleep

'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.

…

Harry came to his senses just in time to duck out the way and stop of Vernon's large purple fist making contact with the side of his head.

'Whaadya doing?' Harry asked gruffly, his throat felt rather sore.

'teaching you manners, you little freak. Your up here making all that racket while your Aunt was talking to her friend' Uncle Vernon spat back.

'Oh, I'm sorry Uncle Vernon, I didn't mean to make a racket'

'But you still did you ungrateful brat, every year you come back from that school and something goes wrong, last year out front room was blown up, the year before you worked your freaky ways and hurt my dear Marge. I'm not having it anymore, it's the end of it I tell you, starting right now your going to act normal'. As uncle Vernon was saying this, he had travelled back to the bedroom door and Harry watched in fear as he shut it still standing in the room.

'From now on boy you act with respect, you will not make a noise, you will complete all your chores and then you will return to your room, where you will stay until the morning, you hear me?'

'yes, Uncle Vernon… is that everything?' Harry asked nervously waiting for Vernon to leave the room.

'No, I should have done this years ago, but your Aunt wouldn't have it. Things have gone too far; this is what will happen if you do not follow the rules' Uncle Vernon said and then lunged at Harry before he knew what was happening.

Harry struggled to get out of his clutches, but his size was nothing in comparison to Vernon's giant frame. Before he could get away his Uncle managed to rip down the back of his shirt, and he then heard the sound of his Uncle unbuckling his belt. Harry shrank into the corner in the shadow of his Uncle.

'Turn around.' Vernon said in a malicious voice.

Harry had no choice but to do what he said, and he turned shaking, trying to make himself as small as possible.

Harry had never felt pain like what happened next, one second he heard a sound like a whip, the next he felt a sharp fiery pain across his back. The pain made Harry's head spin and he nearly fell, but he didn't want to give Vernon the satisfaction so with all his strength he kept standing.

Two more hits later and Harry had no choice but to fall to his knees, his whole back felt like it was on fire, he reached to feel his back and his fingers came back with traces of blood on them.

'That was just a taster boy'. Uncle Vernon said as he started to make his way out of the room, stopping at the door. 'Tomorrow you will stay in your room with no food….'.

'Reply to me boy.' Uncle Vernon snapped.

'Yes, Sir.' Harry replied with a croaky voice.

'That was only a taste of what you'll get if you cross my rules again, I'm going to beat the freakiness out of you if it's the last thing I do'

'Yes, Sir' Harry replied before Uncle Vernon left the room with the sound of the click of the lock on the outside of his door which let Harry know he was locked in.

Harry crumpled to the floor in a ball, he couldn't quite believe what just happened, Uncle Vernon had never been kind to him, but he didn't think he could ever go this far. It hadn't even been his fault, who could control what they did in their sleep? His first thought was to contact someone to come get him, he knew he had to stay here to keep the others safe, but surely Dumbledore didn't mean this…

Then he remembered the look Dumbledore had given him in his office…

… If he told someone, they would definitely take him away, they would have to… and he would put all the Weasleys and Sirius in danger. How could he put the people he called family in danger?

He had already been the cause of his parent's death, could he really let himself be responsible for the deaths of Mr and Mrs Weasley too? could he subject Ron to the same problems he himself faced with no parents?

No. He couldn't. He was going to have to figure this out on his own, as long as he kept quiet and did his chores, he would be okay, he would get by, its not like Vernon was going to kill him.

The only problem was keeping quiet, he didn't know how he was going to control his nightmares, its not as though he could go the entire holiday without sleep, he didn't have a clue how he was going to solve this problem.

Deciding sleep wasn't going to be a problem that night, for he was in far too much pain, he pulled himself up onto his bed and sat on the edge. He didn't have a clue what he was going to do, he couldn't exactly lie down could he. Carefully he got the old rag he had used to clean last night and dabbed his back; the cloth came back with a few blood spots but nothing major. Once he had cleaned his back the best he could, he found a t-shirt in his wardrobe and pulled off the old ripped one and placed it in the small bin in the corner of his room.

Harry glanced at the clock; it was half past ten, he thought maybe he had better look at ways of solving his sleeping problem so he retrieved all of his school books from the last four years of Hogwarts from his trunk and carefully sat at his small desk, ensuring his back did not make contact with the back of his chair. Seeing as he couldn't do magic at home, he decided to start with herbology textbooks, if he could find some type of plant that could stop him sleeping or stop him dreaming he could order it by owl mail from the apothecary in Diagon Alley, and then he may be in with a chance of surviving the summer holidays…