The next morning began the same as the previous day with Harry crawling from his cupboard to start breakfast. Since no one was in the kitchen, he hummed a quiet tune. Cooking was rather enjoyable and he didn’t mind the chore as long as he wasn’t starving. It was pure torture when he was forced to cook on an empty stomach.

The bacon was nice and crispy when he removed it from the frying pan and onto the plate. He continued humming quietly as he flipped the frying eggs over and removed them when they were done. He quickly toasted and buttered several pieces of toast and began setting the plates on the table.

Just as he put the last plate on the table, his aunt entered and shrieked loudly. He dropped the plate on the table, thankfully it didn’t break, and turned toward her.

“Wha-what did you do!?” her screech caused Vernon to come barrelling down the stairs.

“What’s wrong Pet?” he asked as he approached, wearing his ruffled nightshirt. She just pointed at Harry. Vernon’s face began purpling.

“BOY! What-how-” he stammered angrily. “Turn it back this instant!”

Harry looked around confused. Nothing around the kitchen area looked any different than before. What could they be getting upset over now? “What are you talking about?”

Vernon just marched towards him with his arm extended. Harry flinched away and tried to avoid the massive hand but it still managed to snatch him by the collar. His uncle marched him towards the bathroom where he gasped in surprise at seeing that his hair had grown back over night. How’d that happen?

“Boy! You’d better turn it back right now or you’ll be sorry!” he threatened, still very much purple-faced.

“I-I don’t know how! I didn’t m-mean to do it,” Harry cried. It wasn’t like he knew how he changed it in the first place.

“GO!” he furiously shoved the boy. Harry shakily went towards his cupboard but was stopped by his uncle’s arm pushing him towards the basement door.

Vernon opened the basement door and motioned for Harry to go down there. “Get down there and wait for me,” he snapped, clearly irritated. The basement was where he was sent when punishments would be especially bad. He’d only been down here once before and that was when his uncle gave him his first lashing with his belt. He shuddered at the memory.

He stumbled down the steps and descended into the dark and dreary basement. The small boy made his way over to a corner and pulled up his knees and hugged them to his chest. He was in for it now. Growing his hair back must be another one of his freakish traits. Harry shivered, half in coldness and half in anticipation for his upcoming punishment. Above, raised voices were heard.

“I’ll not have a freak in my house! I won’t stand for it!” the voice of his aunt cried. “I thought you’d beaten it out of him since we haven’t seen the boy do anything freakish for years!” What exactly were they trying to beat out of him? It’s not like he does things on purpose. Sometimes he doesn’t know how it happened. Like his hair growing back.

“I’ll take care of the boy and later you can try cutting his hair again,” Vernon soothed his upset wife. She calmed down slightly and he sent her off to finish getting Dudley ready for school.

Oh no, Harry thought. That meant he’d loose all his hair again. Maybe this time, she’d just shave it all off, he hoped.

Vernon made his way down to the basement where his nephew was crouched in the corner. “Take off your shirt!” he barked as he pulled off his belt. Oh no, not the belt again!

Harry unsteadily got to his feet and peeled off his shirt. Moments later, his uncle’s belt came down towards him and struck his back. Harry cried out.

“Shut it boy!” Vernon snapped before he brought the belt down again. By the fourth strike, Harry had slumped to his knees, as his legs could no longer support him. Several strikes later, he slipped into the awaiting darkness

Harry awoke to someone slapping his face. He opened his eyes and gazed up briefly at his aunt before he shifted his gaze downwards. She must’ve come to tell him it’s time for his second hair cut.

“Be in the bathroom in five minutes,” she ordered before she retreated back upstairs.

He moved slightly, gasping at the pain. It was rather difficult to sit up since his back screamed in agony at the slightest movement. He managed to sit up and reached one hand behind his back to feel if he was bleeding anywhere. Mostly the skin was very tender, but his uncle had repeatedly struck one spot near the base of his neck and it had split his skin open.

Harry grabbed his shirt and painfully pulled it over his head then slowly got to his feet. Going up the stairs was agonizing as his shirt constantly rubbed his tender back. He finally made it to the bathroom and stood still while his aunt once again mangled his hair. He sighed dejectedly, wishing that he could get away from here. He probably could run away but then again, how would he survive? He didn’t have any money and didn’t want to end up in an orphanage either.

After Aunt Petunia finished cutting his hair, she assigned him some chores. Might as well make him do something useful since he wasn’t at school. At least Dudley’s messy and stinky room was cleaned yesterday.

Harry was dusting the living room when he dropped his feather duster by the couch. As he slowly bent down and as he retrieved the duster, he noticed a small pocket mirror half hidden under the couch. He grabbed it and looked it over. It wasn’t one of his aunts so it must belong to one of her friends that she regularly gossiped with. She constantly had “tea parties” with the ladies but all they did was gossip the whole time. The day before those parties, Aunt Petunia always worked him especially hard since she demanded everything to be perfect. Can’t have the ladies noticing any imperfections now can we?

Harry stuffed the small mirror in his pocket and completed the rest of his dusting. His aunt then sent him off to his cupboard. After this morning and the chores, he was quite tired. He curled on his stomach, to avoid aggravating his back any further, and drifted off to sleep.

Harry woke up a while later at the sound of his aunt slamming the door on her way out to pick Dudley up. He sat up slowly and fearfully placed a hand on his, hopefully bald, head. A few tears slipped out when he felt hair up there. His aunt and uncle would have kittens once they discovered his hair had already grown back and he’d get punished once again for something he couldn’t control. He felt doomed.

A thought occurred to him as he sat there. Obviously he had a talent of sorts with growing his hair back and it made him curious to see if he could do anything else with his hair.

Harry slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the mirror. Reaching up, he pulled the little string to turn on his cupboard light. As the cupboard lit up, Harry looked into the mirror and concentrated on trying to change his hair back to bald. Nothing happened.

He sighed and tried something new. Instead of trying to get rid of his hair, he focused on something that seemed easier. After several minutes of concentrating, he managed to make his hair change into light shade of brown.

Harry panted with exhaustion. That was hard to do. He focused on returning it back to normal before he slumped down on his cot and promptly fell asleep.

Petunia opened the cupboard door later that afternoon and peeked inside. The boy was asleep and his hair had grown back again. She scowled. She did NOT want another freak in the family. It was bad enough growing up with her perfect freaky sister.

She reached forward and shook the boy’s shoulder. “Up. Get up now.” The boy didn’t move at all. She leaned closer to make sure he was still breathing. He was. She let out a sigh of relief that the boy wasn’t dead or else Vernon might’ve gone to jail if someone found out. She tried shaking him again but he didn’t even stir. She frowned and backed away from the door. She slammed it closed and left the boy there. Might as well let Vernon deal with the little freak.

Harry remained sleeping until later that evening when his uncle came home. He slammed the door loudly, jarring Harry awake. He rubbed his eyes sleepily, wondering why he’d slept so long and why his aunt hadn’t made him get up to start dinner. He then heard Aunt Petunia telling Uncle Vernon that his hair had grown back again. She started mentioning something about him not waking up earlier either. What was that about? Surely he hadn’t slept that soundly.

His uncle could be heard grumbling loudly and his aunt was once again whining about having a freak in the family. She pleaded with Vernon to do something.

“Fine,” Vernon agreed. “Take Dudley and go get something to eat. I’ll be back later this evening,” Vernon waited until they were gone before approaching the cupboard door.

Vernon pulled the door open and it reached in. He viciously yanked Harry out by the arm with a pop, as his arm was dislocated. He cried out in pain and clutched his arm to his chest as soon as his uncle released it. Oh, how that hurt! He didn’t think he could stand moving his arm at all.

“I’ve had enough of you boy! You’ve caused this family nothing but problems from the start!” he bellowed, spittle flying everywhere. “We’ve had it with you and you’re gonna get it now!”

Harry stared at his uncle in horror as the beefy man removed his belt. No! Not the belt again! Harry made to run towards the door but his uncle grabbed him and threw him on the floor.

Harry cried out as his dislocated arm was jolted. Before he could move again, his uncle’s foot came crashing against his ribs. Vernon made to kick him again but Harry managed to move aside somewhat, causing his uncle to kick his leg. The kicking stopped but instead, Vernon brought the belt down on Harry. It only took a couple more hits before Harry’s weakened body could take no more and he succumbed to the darkness for the second time that day.

Once the boy was out of it, Vernon stopped whipping him and retrieved his keys. He picked up the boy, muttering in disgust, and tossed him on the backseat floor of his car. He didn’t want the boy to dirty up his car after all. He backed out of the garage and drove until he reached the outskirts of London. He drove around for a while until he found a dark empty alleyway, where no one would see him.

Vernon looked around just to make sure no one was nearby. He didn’t see anyone so he lifted the light body from his car and tossed it carelessly on the ground.

He jumped back in his car and drove off. Never once did he look back.