I will warn you right now, do not expect the chapters to be uploaded this quickly for the rest of eternity. I start college in a week and i have two foreign language classes (because trig is totally a foreign language okay) and an art class run by a drill sergeant to deal with.

See end notes for important crap.

Every single day began and ended exactly the same as the days before.

"Brat! Get up and make breakfast, Vernon and Dudley will be down soon and if the food isn't on the table by then, there will be hell to pay!"

He shuffled out of his cupboard, pushing the sleeves of his hand-me-down shirt up to his elbows. The neckline was stretched out, and the collar dripped off one shoulder, but it was one of the smaller shirts he owned, and thus the best for cooking in.

He rushed to the kitchen and set to work, cooking the shockingly large amount of food his uncle and cousin required for breakfast; a package of bacon, four eggs each, two sausages a piece, two pieces of toast a piece, and a bowl of fresh fruit and yoghurt for his aunt, who was sitting primly at the table, watching his every move like a hawk.

He was lucky he'd woken up early enough to comb out his hair with the broken brush he'd squirreled away, and braid it back out of his face. If he didn't, she would stand behind him and pull it if she thought it was getting too close to her food.

He hefted the heavy pans off the range and shifted them onto the counter, spooning portions onto easier-to-carry plates and rushing them to the kitchen table mere minutes before his remaining family thundered down the stairs.

"Boy! Did you finish breakfast?"

"Yes sir," he replied meekly, keeping his head bowed.

His uncle sat at the table, the chair groaning under his weight. He was both eagerly awaiting and dreading the day it gave in and collapsed under the large man's bulk- waiting because it would be the perfect demonstration of karma, and dreading because he knew he'd be blamed for it.

"This piece is burnt!" Vernon snarled, throwing a still spitting-hot piece of bacon and successfully hitting him in the face with it, the burning grease searing his skin on contact, "You get nothing for breakfast today, freak, and nothing for lunch either if you don't do your chores perfectly!"

He skittered out of the dining room and back into the kitchen, hurriedly dabbing at his face with a paper towel. Rubbing at the hot grease on his face would only take off the skin underneath it, and he knew from personal experience how unpleasant that was. He ran the sink with cold water and splashed it on his cheek, thankful that the loud conversation and chewing from the dining room would drown out the soft sound of the water. He couldn't cover the three-finger-width burn swiftly forming under his eye, but washing it would hopefully prevent it from becoming too infected.

That done, he got to work on the dishes, cleaning up as much as he could before he was forced to pick up the rest of the mess in the dining room, which only added to his overall workload.

"Brat."

He swiftly placed the last dish in the dishwasher and darted into the living room, standing with his head bowed in front of his aunt, who was looking around the living room imperiously.

"Your usual chore list will be cut in half today," she began, brushing some imaginary dust off the arm of the couch, "Instead, you are to go to the garage and bring the boxes of furniture into Dudley's second bedroom, after you clean it out. You will then follow the directions on the box and set up everything, do you understand?"

"Yes ma'am," he responded, fingers twitching as he reigned in his curiosity. Questions were not allowed in the Dursley house, none whatsoever. A question would get him a hit, slap, or, if he was lucky, and angry dismissal, but no answer.

Asking questions was stupid but he still really, really wanted to.

Fortunately, his aunt was a gossip, and, as a gossip, she was used to talking to anyone in hearing range about anything that was happening at any given moment. He lingered behind, absently dusting off a few shelves, and to his delight, she began to ramble.

"I can't believe Rose actually managed to bear a child," she huffed dramatically, elegantly perching herself on the couch and reaching for the remote, "She was always such a successful bint, but then she ran off to Russia with that commie bastard husband of hers on some sort of ill-fated business trip. She died almost eleven, twelve years ago, and this is the first I'm hearing of it! I can't believe it! And now I'm expected to care for her child! As if I don't have enough to focus on, with my poor Duddykins and Lily's wretched excuse for progeny!"

He finished dusting off the tables and shelves and quietly folded up his dusting rag, trying to sneak out of the room before his aunt fully noticed his presence.

"Hopefully he won't turn out to be as much of a disappointment as his father... and we are getting a fairly large stipend for his care... perhaps it won't be all that bad..."

He crept out of the room and up the stairs, opening to the door to Dudley's second bedroom and stopping short.

It was a complete and utter disaster.

The entire room was a wreck, filled with broken and shattered pieces of plastic, melted and damaged toys, video game equipment, old television sets and computers, anything and everything one could think of, tossed about the room like a tornado had hit.

"Boy!" his aunt yelled up the stairs, the shrill voice catching him by surprise, "That room needs to be done by tomorrow or you get punished, do you understand!"

He groaned quietly but trudged though the mass of broken materials to the middle fo the room, looking out on the carnage with dismay. It would take him all day to complete this, and he still had other chores and the furniture to set up.

Today was going to be a very long and hard day.

Hey guys, next chapter's up. Look, I really appreciate all the notes and follows this has gotten, but I really do need some reviews.

If you've read the original, I want to know what you think about the changes- did you like the original better? Is this better? Are you missing things?

I want to know how you feel about this as a whole. Is there too much description? Not enough? Is there anything you ant to see?

I usually don't beg for reviews but come on, guys, I am really rolling on the floor and begging here. I can't make it good without feedback.