Disclaimer: I don't own HP yadda yadda yadda I'm not getting money yadda yadda yadda

The ride from Kings Cross to Privet Drive was one long, awkward silence. Harry sat in the backseat, staring out the window, pretending not to notice the nervous glances Uncle Vernon was giving him through the rearview mirror.

Mirror. Sirius had given him a mirror…if only he had used his present, Sirius might still be alive. If only he had checked upstairs. If only he had tried harder at Occlumency. If only…

"Erhem." Uncle Vernon cleared his throat decidedly. Snapping back into reality, Harry noticed they were parked in the driveway of #4. Uncle Vernon made no move to unlock the door.

Locking eyes with his uncle, Harry nodded to show he was listening.

"Smeltings sent home a letter, about Dudley's grades. Poor gifted boy, terribly misunderstood. It's the ruddy teacher's fault, mark my words. But we've been forced to hire him a tutor for the summer. The man is arriving tomorrow, and…"

"By that time I'll be living back in my cupboard, school things hidden under the bed, and Hedwig sent out with a letter warning my friends not to write to me." Harry said in a flat voice. If a true muggle were living with them, he'd have no choice. He didn't want to risk expulsion again. If he resigned to his fate now, perhaps the Dursleys would be a bit nicer.

Uncle Vernon sputtered for a moment, and then glared at the boy suspiciously. "Very right you will, only your freak things will be locked in the attic." He pushed a bit further.

"No." Harry said firmly. "The tutor won't find them, and unless you want a visit from those same friends you met at the station, you'll leave me be."

With that, Harry manually unlocked the door, grabbed his things out of the car, and dragged them to the house. Uncle Vernon scowled, and pushed by Harry, walking in first.

With Aunt Petunia and Dudley nowhere in sight, Harry dragged his trunk to the cupboard and opened the door. He pulled on the string dangling from the ceiling, and got a good look at his old room.

It was just as small as he remembered, a bit dustier though. Spiders scuttled away from the sudden light. "Hey guys, I'm back." He muttered, kicking open his trunk. He took out his clothes, wand, books, homework assignments, ink, quill, and spare parchment. Closing his trunk, he crammed it in under his bed. Then he turned and considered the mess on his worn mattress.

First, he took the folded clothes and stored them neatly on the shelves above the bed. Then he felt along the far wall. He found the spot where the wallpaper covered a small hole. Pulling it back, he revealed his old hiding space. Smaller than the loose floorboard in Dudley's second room, but still big enough for his purpose.

He reached in and took out a few grade school assignments, a book, a couple odd trinkets, and a ripped stuffed bear. Harry looked at the book, "War and Peace" by Tolstoy. Maybe he should keep that. Throwing the other things in the garbage in the kitchen, he returned. He neatly stored his books, ink, parchment and quill in the space. He stuffed his wand into his pocket.

Now the problem was how to hide the hole. He couldn't put more wallpaper over it, then he wouldn't be able to get to it. Sighing, he reached in and took out two pieces of parchment, ink and a quill, and propped his pillow against the hole. It would have to do for now.

Sitting down on his bed, he leaned on his wall and began to write.

Dear Hermione,

The Dursley's have hired a tutor for Dudley, so we'll be having a full-blown muggle living here. That means NO POST. Don't send me any letters, I'll be fine. I can't risk being discovered as a wizard. If you must contact me, call. If something is the matter, I will call you. Have a good summer,

From,

Harry

P.S.: Forward this to Ron

Setting that letter aside, he began a new one.

Dear Professor Lupin,

There will be a muggle living here for the summer, Dudley's tutor. I can't risk him finding out anything, so I won't be able to write every 3 days, as promised. In fact, I won't be able to write at all. And please don't write to me, you know how muggles get with owls. I'll call Hermione if anything goes wrong, don't worry. Could you please inform everyone of this, and keep Hedwig for the summer? Thanks.

From,

Harry

He read both letters over, and then opened Hedwig's cage. She hopped out, and he took her cage and stored it under the bed with his trunk. He tied the letters to her leg, and stroked her feathers.

"Deliver Hermione's first, okay girl? And then stay at Professor Lupins, you'll be safe there."

The owl hooted sadly, and hopped on his arm. Putting the ink and quill back in his hiding spot, Harry got up and opened the front door. He watched sadly as she flew off. If only he could do that…

"No! I don't want to! It's summer, I don't HAVE to do schoolwork!" Something crashed in the kitchen. Harry closed the door and ran in just in time to see one of Dudley's world-class tantrums. The kitchen table was overturned, and dishes scattered the floor.

He found a broom shoved in his hands. "Boy, clean this up." Uncle Vernon was red in the face. Behind him, Aunt Petunia tried to reason with the now bawling Dudley.

"Come on Diddums, it won't be all that bad. I'll even let you have some sweets, you want sweets, right?"

Harry began sweeping, and snorted. Sweets were the last thing Dudley needed. Unfortunately this led him to be noticed.

"HIM! He'll get to laze around while I work!" Dudley whined.

"Of course not, sweetums. Harry will be doing all the homework right along with you."

"WHAT?" Harry yelled. He had his own homework to do!

"You'll do it or you'll be sorry, boy." Uncle Vernon leered at him. Harry turned away.

"Fine." Brushing up on his muggle knowledge wasn't a bad thing necessarily.

Straightening up, Uncle Vernon handed him a 20-pound note. "Good. Now go to the store and buy notebooks and pens."

Grumbling, Harry took the money. He went to the front door, and walked down to the sidewalk. From there he jogged the 2 miles to the store. Searching the shelves, he found a bunch of 3 subject notebooks, and black pens. Grabbing two notebooks and a handful of pens, he made for the register.

He passed a rack of posters, and stopped for a minute. A poster…that was perfect! He could hang it over the hole. Searching through them, he found one he rather liked. It was black, and had a bunch of cool pictures of people playing guitar and drums with pyrotechnics in the background. The name "Weezer" was printed across the top. It seemed a perfect size.

A girl walked by, in black trainers, baggy black sweatpants, a black shirt that also said "Weezer", and a black bucket hat with a pin on it with a =w= sign. She saw his choice, and smiled.

"Ah, the 'Kiss' style Weezer poster. A good choice. But you might want to get the bigger one." She pulled out an identical poster, only much larger. It would definitely not fit in his cupboard.

"I don't have that much room, but thanks anyway." He smiled at her. He walked towards the cash register. The girl smiled, put her headphones back on, grabbed the box of Weezer posters, and walked out of the store.

Harry made it back before dark. He dumped the school supplies on the kitchen counter, and took a pushpin out of the drawer. Going back into his cupboard, he moved the pillow, and pinned the poster on the top edge, over the hole. It fell neatly over the hole, concealing it completely. He pushed it to the side, and he could access his supplies with ease.

Going back into the kitchen, he opened the refrigerator and began to make dinner. He was all prepared for the arrival of the tutor the next day.