Disclaimer; this it JK Rowling's world not mine, I'm just playing here. JKR and various publishers own all characters from the books and films. All original characters are mine (although they appear later).

Return To The Dursleys

The man ducked the ray of green light, then stood up yelling

"Is that the best you've got?"

Suddenly a second jet of light hit him in the chest. He fell through the curtain behind him, the laughter still on his face.

"Sirius! No!" Harry shouted out.

Jerking upright on the bed Harry blinked owlishly for a couple of seconds, then looked for his glasses. He looked at the clock, and seeing that it was four thirty, fell back onto the bed, pondering the recurrent dream. He lay there, silently grieving the death of his Godfather.

Sometime later there came a hammering at the door,

"You better get up boy!" his uncle began to yell through the door. "Get up! There is plenty of stuff for you to do!"

Harry groaned, and checked the clock again. He saw it was five o'clock, and wondered what could possibly need doing this early? Quickly he pulled his clothes on and hurried downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Right, now you're down. We're going to have a talk about how this holiday's going to work. As this is your last full summer in our home, we feel that it's time that you started paying us back for all the kindnesses we've shown you over the years. Here's a list of tasks. They will be completed by time I get home, or there will be hell to pay."

Harry looked down at it. Apparently he was supposed to do a week's housework, cooking, cleaning, and gardening, in a single day.

O0O0O0O0

Harry worked all day. The house was spotless, despite Dudley's best attempts, the evening meal was almost ready and Uncle Vernon was due home any minute. However Harry had not even made a start on the garden.

The front door opened, and Uncle Vernon came in, just as Harry was serving up dinner.

"Boy!" he roared, "What have you done to my garden?" looking up Harry saw Uncle Vernon advancing on him, already an alarming shade of puce. Harry replied quickly,

"I haven't done anything . . ."

"Damn right! You haven't done anything!" Uncle Vernon yelled. He was only a few paces away. Spittle was spraying over Harry. "What did I tell you this morning?"

"That you wanted everything done." Harry said trying not to anger his Uncle anymore.

"Right and what did I say if they weren't?"

"That there would be hell to pay, Sir." Harry said pleadingly. He looked down, trying not to appear confrontational, so he never saw the fist flying towards him.

The next thing he knew was when he felt a blinding pain in his cheek, before he hit the cabinet and fell down to the floor. He looked up blearily, his glasses having been knocked askew, to see Uncle Vernon standing over him, before a kick to the head knocked him out.

O0O0O0O0

The first thing that Harry became aware of was a bright light across his eyes. He tried to open them but could only seem to open them a crack. For that matter he couldn't move, although he didn't seem to be held down by anything. Deciding that it was disturbing, but not life-threatening, Harry let himself slip back into unconsciousness.

Some time later he awoke again, this time to the application of a wet cloth on his forehead. Gradually, he tried again to open his eyes, and this time he was met with more success, getting one eye fully open, although the other refused to move. He saw two tennis ball eyes looking back at him.

"Dobby?" Harry croaked through his dry throat. He looked around the room, but everything seemed to be in place. Harry was surprised normally Vernon would have relished the chance to confiscate everything that he owned. Suddenly Harry noticed, the corner where Hedwig's perch normally stood was empty. There was no sign of either the perch or Hedwig.

"Harry Potter is awake. You have been asleep for two days sir." Dobby replied slightly too loud for Harry's brain to cope with.

"Dobby, not so loud." There came a thumping on the stairs as he was saying this.

"Someone is coming sir. Dobby will have to go now although he does not know when he will be able to come back. There is much to do at Hogwarts." With his words still hanging in the air, there was a crack, and the house-elf disappeared.

Uncle Vernon put his face around the door and saw Harry.

"Good, you're awake. You can restart working tomorrow, although with that eye, I don't want you even thinking that you can go out of the house. Now it's a Saturday tomorrow and your aunt, Dudley and I are all going over to the Polkiss' house for Piers's birthday party. I will leave you another list of tasks, and I expect these to be done." For some reason, even as he was saying this, he was getting angrier and angrier, causing him to steadily turn that unhealthy shade of purple. He turned to leave the room when Harry said,

"Uncle, where's my owl?"

Vernon turned, smiling nastily, and said,

"In the shed. Where the ruddy bird belongs. Maybe if you are good I will give her back to you when you leave. Oh and if I catch any of your friends' birds in the house, I'll wring their necks." With that he left the room.

Harry struggled into a sitting position, his bruised body protesting all the way. Grabbing his glasses, he looked into the mirror on the back of the door. His appearance was shocking; he looked almost vampire-like. His skin, normally pale, was almost translucent, apart from one eye which was swollen shut.

Although he couldn't get all the way up, neither could Harry fall back to sleep. He realised that he was immensely hungry, probably a result of not having food for two days, but evening came, and then night, without anyone bringing food for him.

Finally Harry forced himself upright, waited a few minutes for his head to quit swimming, and tried to walk to the door. Unfortunately, his legs didn't want to obey him. Barely a step away from the bed, Harry collapsed in a heap on the floor.

Giving it up as a lost cause, Harry crawled back into the bed. Even the little he had just done had drained him immensely. He fell asleep almost immediately.

O0O0O0O0

The next morning dawned bright and clear over Privet Drive, waking Harry with its light. He lay there in bed for a while, trying to work out whether he had the strength to make it to the door. He didn't want last night's occurrence to happen again. He decided that he had enough strength to get to the door, and call for help.

Harry got out of bed, again having to wait for his head to stop spinning. While he did so, he was also wondering, exactly how much damage had Vernon done to him.

While it took him far longer than normal, eventually Harry was at the door to his room. Harry started to pull it open, but soon found that he was using it more for support, than actually opening it. Slipping through the small gap he had managed to open, Harry stumbled over to the banister. Clutching it for dear life, he made his way downstairs.

Somehow, Harry made it to the kitchen.

O0O0O0O0

A/N

First fic please don't criticise too harshly
thanks go to my wonderful betas Silverdevilboy and Dangams. All errors are mine.

Please RnR

Albaholly