Disclaimer: I do not own any of these wonderful characters... I owned them once, but lost them all in a pyramid scheme.

This was published in 2005, and I'm doing some renovations. Don't worry, nothing too big - just to make it readable. Let me know how it flowsssssss

Here goes nothing...

Harry was back at the Dursley's for summer. He had already been there for about a week, and the Dursley's had left him by himself for the most part. His friends had all written him quite a bit in that short span of time, which was comforting as the memory of Sirius' death was still fresh in his mind. He had finally managed to convince himself it wasn't entirely his fault, but he still had along way to go.

He bit his lip as he read over Hermione's last letter promising to come and get him as soon as she could. He smiled, folded the parchment, and stuck it under the loose floorboard. Harry stood up and scratched his head trying to remember where he had placed his Barry Manilow CD.

"It can t have gotten far!" he whined impatiently to the empty room.

"Oh yeah…"

He suddenly remembered it was still in the CD player. When Harry arrived at number four Privet Drive, the Dursley's had been kind enough to give him Dudley's old CD player as a bribe to keep the Order away. Mind you, it was completely and utterly unable to be fixed in the muggle world, as Dudley had ran it over with the car on accident three times.

How a substantial sized stereo somehow wound up under the wheel of Vernon's car was beyond Harry, but he didn't voice this thought. As usual, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia bought Dudley the new, more expensive stereo system he'd wanted, and Harry received the smashed pieces of the old one taped together with scotch tape. Normally, it would have gone out with the trash, but feeling inventive, he sent it to the Order (i.e. Lupin) to do a simple reparo charm.

His plan worked out beautifully; though the CD player still looked as if it had been run over and taped together, it worked almost as good as new. He managed to go through all of Dudley's and Vernon's CDs while they were out to tea at the Polkisses. He returned with a plethora of music and hoped they wouldn't notice they were missing. Amongst the stolen merchandise was: Cher, Barry Manilow, Shania Twain (from Dudley's collection), Maria Carey (from Vernon's), and a Metalica album (he suspected was Aunt Petunia's).

Just as he was pushing play, there was a loud knock on the door. Harry jumped two feet in the air, screamed like a girl, and pushed stop. Uncle Vernon came crashing through the door causing a substantial dent in the wall where the doorknob had hit it.

"Oh, its just you. I thought you had some girl in here," Vernon said hastily. "I'm having a very important business dinner tomorrow night, and uh, I thought it best..."

He was interrupted by portion of the dry wall crumbling down onto his feet leaving a three foot long hole in the wall. Vernon tried to ignore the rubble at his feet and pressed on, "…And I thought it best if you stayed up here, and pretended you didn't exist again…" Though the last part sound more like a question.

"Err, all right," Harry replied, desperately trying not to look at the CD player.

"Excellent," Vernon grinned wildly, but then his expression changed as he spotted the wall or rather lack there of. "And do something with that wall while your up here, fix it or something I don't know," he barked as he was leaving, and marched down the stairs rather loudly.

Harry shrugged and closed the door. He wondered who was coming over for dinner and decided to go eavesdrop.

He changed into a black t-shirt and pants, but he had to go to Aunt Petunia's room for the stockings. Excellent, he thought as he chose lacy white pair imprinted with roses. He scrambled down the stairs, in what he deemed was silent, though it sounded rather like stampede of elephants or Dudley was coming down the stairs. He could hear the voices of the Dursley's in the kitchen from the hallway, and felt rather silly wearing a disguise he didn't need. Regardless, he scrambled under the coffee table in the living room for cover.

"Petunia, this is one of the most important deals of my career. Even more important than the one the freak show upstairs ruined," Vernon's voice drifted in from the other room.

"Oh! We'll need that boy to clean up round here, but everything else is set, of course," Harry heard Petunia's voice interrupted by a large belch he assumed was issued by Dudley.

"Dudder-lumpkins, your father is serious," Petunia simpered.

"Your mother is quite right, I need you on your best behavior, Champ. I think they have a boy your age, so you'll have someone to chat to," Vernon reasoned.

"FINE!" Dudley bellowed.

Harry decided he didn't want to be caught under the table wearing a pair of Aunt Petunia s stockings on his head, and made his way back up the stairs.

The next day Harry was given a list of tasks he had to accomplish in order to be fed that day. He finished all of them around 4:30. Petunia handed him a block of cheese and a box of plain cereal Petunia had failed trying to feed Dudley on his way upstairs. He showered and then sat on his bed for a bit devouring the cheese. Harry decided to take Hedwig out of her cage, and dressed her up in a small dress he had made in his spare time. One of Harry's and Hedwig's favorite activities was dress up. Over the summer he usually made a couple of outfits for her and gave them to her for Christmas. Occasionally, he would make a couple for himself. Humming a quiet tune, he was just zippering up the back of one of Aunt Petunia's dresses he had 'liberated', when he heard Vernon yell up the stairs.

"They're here! Boy, remember what I said!"

"Okay!" Harry yelled back. God, he thought, can't they just leave me alone for one second! He ran over to the window clipping on an earring he had found in Petunia's jewelry box. Upon fastening the other on his ear, Harry casually peered out the window, and nearly fainted. The last family he thought would ever come to dinner at the Dursley's were now walking up the front walk.