The next morning, Harry woke up in front of a fire, under a blanket. His clothes felt incredibly soft for some reason, and when he looked down, he realized that he was wearing pyjamas.
That was really weird, because Harry had never owned pyjamas. Even if he had, they wouldn't have been such soft, comfortable ones like these.
Then Harry remembered where he was, and what had happened last night. After Henrietta had given Harry her ticket, she had thrown out his soggy sandwich from his pocket and made him a new one, even fuller and better.
Happily, Harry had eaten the sandwich while she took his too-small jacket and too-small shoes with too-big socks and went upstairs somewhere.
When she came back down, he was finished the sandwich and the glass of water she had poured him, so she took him upstairs where he had been running him a bath.
Harry had never in his life taken a bath before, so he was a little bit frightened, but Henrietta told him exactly what to do, gave him some soap and shampoo and left to wait outside the door in case he needed any help with anything.
After Harry had taken his lovely, warm, incredibly relaxing bath, he had asked Henrietta what he should use to dry off. She had told him to take any of the towels on the rack, with Harry had found amazing. All of the towels were big and fluffy, and there were red ones and blue ones and green ones and white ones.
Harry finally picked a big, soft, warm blue towel and dried off, then wrapped the towel around him.
When Henrietta had come back in, she had given him a soft pair of pyjamas that was only a little big. He had thanked her so many times she had to leave to get him to stop.
Then he had gone back downstairs, where Henrietta gave him a big, warm blanket to lay in in front of the fire, where Harry had fallen asleep.
Now that he had woken up, Harry felt awkward and intrusive in the big, empty quiet house. He had been sitting there fearfully and almost too warm when Henrietta came out of the kitchen.
"Oh, sorry dear, did I wake you? Here, come on, Harry, I made breakfast for us."
Harry followed her into the kitchen and wondered, not for the first time, if he was in a dream. If so, he decided, he hoped he never woke up.
After breakfast, which was eggs with bacon and some fruit, Henrietta left to get Harry some new clothes. When Harry asked why, she said it was because his old ones were "falling apart at the seams," and "much too big for a little boy such as himself," and "just plain ugly."
As Harry sat pondering all of this in the kitchen, he had to agree with this last statement. The clothes were ugly, and old; they were grey and covered in food and sweat stains that had never been washed out when they were Dudley's, even the jeans.
When Henrietta finally returned, she was holding a soft, warm-looking woollen black turtleneck sweater and a comfortable, loose-looking cotton green t-shirt. She was also holding brand-new jeans, which were dark blue and very comfortable-looking.
She told Harry to get changed in the bathroom, which he did. When he returned, she had shiny new shoes, which were the warm, comfy running shoes that everyone at school had had but him, and brand-new wool socks that were brown with pictures of dogs and cats on them.
Harry grinned and laughed. He felt like he was on cloud 9. No one had ever in his life done a fifteenth of the nice things Henrietta had done for him, and now here she was giving him new clothes, a place to sleep, free food, hot cocoa, and even a one-way ticket to Canada, for crying out loud!
Harry was beginning to feel like a whole new person, and something else, too: Special. No one had ever treated Harry like he mattered before, and even though he hardly knew Henrietta, he decided that she was the nicest person in the entire world.
And he was about to find out that she was nowhere near finished with the nice things.
After Harry had put on the nice shoes, he went back to the fireplace to see what time it was. 7:00.
"Henrietta!" he called.
"Yes, dear?" was her quick reply, from the kitchen it seemed.
"What time is the boat leaving at?"
"7:30, don't worry, it's almost time to go. I just have a few more things for you."
"You have more?" Harry could feel her smiling.
"Of course, just come here into the kitchen,"
Harry practically skipped into the kitchen, noticing how comfy his feet felt, and how well his clothes fit, and how well-rested and warm he was, and how nice Henrietta was treating him, and how his stomach felt full for the first time since he could remember, and how clean he felt, and how not-scared he was that he was going to get hurt today, and the list went on and on and on.
When Harry came into the kitchen, Henrietta smiled at him, but her eyes were sad.
"What's wrong, Henrietta?" he asked, sad that she was sad.
"Oh, nothing, you just remind me so much of my own son," she replied, trying to sound cheerful.
Harry was confused. "Why is that a sad thing?"
"Well, he died three weeks ago. There was a bad car crash and he was caught in the middle of it as he walked home from school. He was just like you, same height, same eyes, same kind, gentleness as you. That's why I have all of these clothes that fit you so well. The shoes were going to be his birthday present."
"Oh," said Harry. "Well, you can have them back, if you want. I wouldn't want to take his birthday present away."
Henrietta laughed. "No, of course I want you to have them. I'm sure he would have wanted you to have them as well, since you need them so much more than he would have."
"Oh. Well... thank you. And... thank him, too. He sounds - sounded - very nice." Harry stuttered.
"Of course, you sweet dear. You're too sweet! Now, enough with the sadness, I have a few more things to give you before we leave."
Harry, in spite of himself, was excited. He never got presents, not for christmas, not for his birthday, not for straight A's or getting Dudley straight A's. And now, here was this incredibly kind lady, giving all sorts of presents just for showing up! It made him feel more special than he had ever felt over the last seven years of his life combined.
Henrietta chuckled when she noticed how excited Harry was. She held out a backpack. It was made out of jean material, only it was dyed a deep red, and closed with a drawstring and a button. It also looked very full, and in the pocket on the side, there was a shiny red, stainless steel thermos.
Harry's eyes widened. He had never seen such a nice backpack before, and now here he was getting one! "Thank you," he whispered breathlessly.
Henrietta smiled, "Well now, don't you want to see what's inside the backpack?"
Harry nodded. Inside the backpack was his mathematics book, which he had completely forgotten about, but was very happy to have back. There was also a decently-sized container full of food, which would probably last him a good eight days, plus his jar of peanut butter, which hadn't even been opened yet that would last him a good while longer.
There was two plastic water bottles, a notebook, a pen with black ink and a pencil with black wood, and a pink eraser. There was also a strange looking contraption, it was deep blue, small and square shaped, and was about half a centimetre thick. It fit into his palm easily and weighed almost nothing, and there was a white circle in the middle with weird symbols on it.
"What's this?" he asked Henrietta.
"Oh, that's called an iPod," she answered with a smile. "I'm surprised you've never seen one before, but I probably shouldn't be. When you put in these earphones," she pulled out a thin wire with two knobs on the end,
"...and push that button there, it will play music. This button will pause it, this button will stop it, and this one will change the song. There are 700 songs loaded on here, so don't worry about getting bored," she smiled. "Also, this switch on the bottom turns it off. If you want to put it away, always turn it off first, or it will run out quicker. And when it does run out, just plug this thing into this plug attached to your bag. There's a solar panel there, so as long as your bag is in the sun occasionally, it will generate electricity to keep your iPod going."
Harry stared down in awe at his new iPod. "Would you like to try it?" Henrietta asked, smiling of course. Harry nodded and smiled. Henrietta leaned down and placed the earbuds in each of Harry's ears. "Push play," she said.
Harry did, and the reward was magical. A beautiful song began playing right in his ears. A grin inched across his face. Harry began dancing in the kitchen. Henrietta laughed and told Harry he was very sweet, but there was still more in the bag. Harry paused the music and turned the iPod off.
The rest of the bag consisted of a new book, a story for him to read if he was ever bored, a fork and spoon for his food, a pocketknife that had three knives, a magnifying glass, and a mini flashlight on it (not that he would he would need it), and two bundles of money: fifty euros, and fifty canadian dollars.
Harry was overjoyed as he carefully put everything back into the bag, making sure the biggest things weren't crushing the smaller things and that the tiny things were in a special pocket on the inside with a zipper. Then he hid the money behind the biggest things, closest to his back so that it would be hardest for anyone to steal.
Harry went to put the backpack on his back, but Henrietta stopped him. She then smiled and handed him a beige sheepskin coat with a big, furry hood and mittens in one pocket and a deep red beanie in the other.
The jacket was big, too big for Harry, but Henrietta said it was so that he could grow into it. Harry almost started crying again out of gratitude but he didn't want to seem sad in front of Henrietta.
Instead, he thanked her profusely as he put on the coat, the mittens and the hat, and the backpack with everything inside, and the unlikely pair stepped into the cold and walked to the harbour.