Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies - this is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.

Summary: Harry, Ron, and Hermione have the run of #4 Privet Drive when the Dursley's leave town for an open ended trip. Content to be away from his overbearing relatives, Harry introduces Ron to the joys of Dudley's computer and this thing called the internet.

AN: This story was originally written in response to a challenge introducing the trio to the world of Fanfiction by Pureblood Muggle SAYS and originally posted on. I hope you enjoy the story. – Jenn

Chapter 1: Home Alone At Last

Harry leaned out the window as inconspicuously as he could, straining to catch a glimpse of his aunt and uncle as they packed the car with several suitcases. Behind him Hermione and Ron were waiting for Harry's signal with baited breath as they watch him through the half open door of Harry's wardrobe. Echoing through the house is the unmistakable roaring whine of Dudley, Harry's cousin, as he throws the biggest tantrum in years.

A thundering of footsteps rattle the upstairs bedrooms and Harry darts away from the window and lands on his bed, stomach down, as the footsteps come to a stop outside his bedroom door. He tries to slow his rapidly beating heart as the rattling clicks of multiple locks being keyed open is heard from just outside his door. Hermione eased the wardrobe closed as the last lock is undone and the bedroom door swings inward to reveal the beefy and very purple face of Harry's Uncle Vernon. Harry sucked in a calming breath and casually rolled over so he could meet the angry, and somewhat shocked, glare of his uncle.

"We're going," Uncle Vernon barks out in a high-pitched strangled voice. "I don't know how long we'll be gone, but don't think we can't come back at any time – day or night!"

"Fine," Harry replies as evenly as he can.

"You're to stay out of our food," Vernon continued, "I've laid out enough rations to feed an army for a month." Meaning Aunt Petunia had set out a single loaf of stale bread, a half empty jar of peanut butter, two old and slightly wilted apples, and a tin of crackers on the counter where Harry could not miss seeing them. "I expect it to last you the entire time we're gone, and then some, boy. You're not to leave the house, nor are you allowed to have any of... of your... your kind over while we're gone. I don't want any freaks setting foot in my house. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," Harry ground out, his own temper flaring slightly with embarrassment as he realized that Ron and Hermione could hear every word his uncle was saying.

Vernon glared at Harry for nearly a full minute, as if making certain Harry was being truthful and sincere, before storming away in a huff. Harry counted his uncle's retreating footsteps for half a minute before leaping off the bed and returning to his previous position at the window. Two heartbeats later, as the front door slammed shut, he saw his aunt and uncle half shoving Dudley into the back seat of his uncle's car. A minute later the engine shrieked into life and the Dursley's fairly flew out of the drive way as they left for their 'vacation'.

Harry let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding, and called warmly to his two best friends. "Ron, Hermione, you can come out now, they're gone."

"I thought they were never going to leave," Ron commented as the wardrobe door practically shot off its hinges.

"How can they be so horrible to you when their son is the one that is causing all the trouble?" Hermione asked belligerently as she stepped out of the small cupboard after Ron.

"Ah, but Diddykins is the apple of their eye," Harry quipped with feigned reverence, "And, me? I'm just a nasty bit o' foul, loathsome rubbish that stains their otherwise untarnished lives."

"Harry!" Hermione gasped, somewhat shocked at the bitterness that laced Harry's voice as he spoke of himself. "How can you think that?"

"Oh, I didn't say I thought it," Harry countered with a sad grin. "I was just pointing out the truth of how they feel about me. It's nothing new, Hermione, after all; my aunt hated my mother back when she was still alive."

"It's horrible though," Hermione insisted, "that after all this time, they can still be so blind to who you really are."

"Some people are just like that," Ron pointed out a bit philosophically. "Take Percy for example, even though he was proved wrong he has still yet to admit he made a mistake in judgment during our fifth year. Never once has he offered up an apology for the way he treated mum and dad."

Harry and Hermione glanced over at Ron and blinked for a few moments, letting his deeper then usual comment have a few minutes to sink in. Ron blushed and shrugged his shoulders, obviously reading what his best friends were thinking.

"Come on, let's forget about the Dursleys and go find out what they have so graciously left us for rations," Harry commanded with a grin as he draped an arm around each of their shoulders and steered them towards the door.

In the kitchen Harry found that the rations were much as he had expected them to be, though there were a few slight differences; half a loaf of stale bread – looking slightly moldy on the heel end, two very squishy peaches that were oozing thick, fermented juice all over the counter, a cracker tin full of crumbs, a head of wilted lettuce, and a bottle of mustard. Oh, and hiding behind the lettuce was a sorry bunch of grapes that could have been better described as a bunch of near raisins still hanging desperately onto the vine.

Ron gagged noisily at the site of the near rotting food and Hermione offered Harry a pitying glance filled with compassion. Harry simply sighed and slid the entire lot of it into the rubbish bin and turned on the kitchen sink and let it run until the water was nearly too hot to the touch, and then he wet a wash cloth and wiped up the sticky juice from the fruit to prevent the liquid from staining the counter or attracting ants – both of which would have earned him punishment from his aunt and uncle.

"Good thing mum is sending us some food later tonight, we'd have starved if we'd have had to eat all that," Ron pointed out as he wrinkled his nose and sniffed forcefully to rid the rancid stench from his nose.

Harry fidgeted in embarrassment under the steady gaze of his friends, his face flushed as he stared at the floor for a few minutes. The awkwardness wouldn't last too long though, and in next to no time Harry was giving Ron the 'Muggle Tour' while Hermione tagged along and helped him to explain everyday items such as dishwashers, microwaves, and electric stoves.

Ron of course got a kick out of the television, disdained the simple radio – the wireless was better in his opinion – and wasn't completely sure of the purpose of the broken pellet gun that occupied Harry's wardrobe (the one Dudley had broken all those years ago when he'd sat on it.)

There was one item that drew Ron like bees to honey, and that was Dudley's newest computer – a fancy new top-of-the-line machine that was reported to be the very best on the current market. One hundred and twenty gigs of hard drive space, a full gig of RAM, a DVD/CD burner, stereo surround complete with sub, and a huge twenty–one inch flat panel monitor with picture quality that rivaled the portable TV down in the kitchen.

"What does it do though?" Ron asked as Harry pushed the power button and the machine whirred and hummed as it warmed up.

"Anything you want it too, short of do magic and write your essays," Harry answered with a huge grin on his face.

Ron reached out to touch the monitor, only to jump back when the screen flashed blue. Harry just laughed again and sat down in Dudley's chair as he picked up the keyboard and turned it over. Attached to the back was a small slip of paper that had the word BigDsBabeFinder scrawled across it in Dudley's sloppy hand. Hermione mouthed the words silently, a look of revulsion on her face, as Harry flipped the keyboard right side up and entered the password to log on the machine.

As the computer loaded the admin settings, Harry grinned as his two friends and asked, "What should we do first? Play a few games or surf the net?"

"Why would you surf on a net? Wouldn't it sink?" Ron inquired in confusion.

"You don't actually surf on a net Ron; it's just an expression that is used when Muggles look up information on the network. Computers all over the world share information – oh that is just gross!" Hermione began lecturing only to stop when Dudley's background image – which happened to be a picture of a half-dressed woman –loaded up onto the monitor. "Your cousin is a pig, Harry."

"You can say that again," Harry muttered as his cheeks, and Ron's, flushed bright red – though Ron seemed to be interested in looking much closer until Hermione socked him in the shoulder. "I wonder if Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia know what Dudders has on his computer."

Without waiting for an answer, Harry opened an Internet Explorer window and covered the offending image before looking over his shoulder at Ron and Hermione and repeating his earlier question. "Games or the internet?"