Buoyed by the morning he'd just had, Harry fair dragged his Aunt into the Library just in case she changed her mind on the way. When he reached the counter he stopped and introduced his Aunt.

"Hi! This is my Aunt Petunia, I'm sorry that I never got your name, but this is the Librarian."

Looking a little non-plussed at the bubbly child in front of her, so much more alive than he was the previous two days, the Librarian introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Karen, are you OK?"

"I'm, doing ok I think." Petunia responded hesitantly, unsure of just what Karen had been told.

"Let me just get his book out and I'll be right with you." With that, she handed Harry the book on Buddhism he'd been reading, and he bounded off to sit at the table and started reading to the low mummer of the adults talking.

"I don't know what's going on in your home life, but I do know that either you or Harry are being abused by his reaction to this book. Now I'd report it, but I don't know where you live." She pulled out the pre-release book that she lent Harry yesterday.

With a defeated look Petunia responded carefully, "Yes, we are. Something happened yesterday, and I think it knocked me out of whatever… headspace I'd been in. I've been trying to protect him so long that I think the mask got stuck."

"I don't know anything about that, but we do carry leaflets for local services that can help. This one is for a support group and counselling service, and it's a no questions asked service. You don't have to do anything with it now but keep it in mind." She slipped a couple of leaflets over the counter to Petunia, who slipped them into her handbag.

"Thanks. Listen, could I get Harry a library card?"

"Sure, let me get the forms."

They both spend a few minutes filling out the forms and Petunia is the proud owner of a new library card in Harry's name.

"Can we borrow the book that Harry's reading?"

"Sorry, but that's a reference book, so they can only be reserved not lent out."

"Do you have any other books on Meditation?"

"I don't think so, let me check." Karen goes over to the card catalogue and looks to see if they've got anything that's applicable.

"No, sorry, there might be some in the main library in Guilford though. We do have a new video lending service though, and a selection of Open University videos you could look through. Why is he so interested in Meditation anyway?"

"He heard that it helped clarity of thought and calmness and decided it would help him at his new school." She lied smoothly; Karen just nodded knowingly.

Petunia went over to the Videos and had a look through the videos, most of them seemed to be for popular films from the last few years, but there was a section for educational videos. She found one called Introducing Religions, that was supposed to contain a section on Buddhism, and a second one dedicated to Buddhism, bringing the cases back to the desk.

"Can we check these out please?"

"Sure, you'll need to leave a £5 deposit, and you can ask for it back at any time as long as there are no videos outstanding."

Checking her purse Petunia pursed her lips, this would make food shopping a little tight, but they can get the money back next week when they return the videos.

"Ok, here you go." She handed over Harry's Library card, and put the videos in her handbag.

"Harry, we need to go sweetheart." Harry obediently packed up the book and handed it back to Karen.

"I borrowed a couple of videos on Buddhism that we can watch while Vernon is out tomorrow, and I also got you a library card. We'll get it back once we return the Videos".

After that they finished the shopping and headed for home, picking up Dudley on the way. Harry saw his Aunts mask slip back into place when they got within sight of the Polkiss' house, and he decided that he much preferred the Aunt he spent the day with. Once they got back he was sent upstairs to get cleaned up and put his "uniform" away, which he was careful to put behind his normal clothes. He hugged his fox before he put it with the new clothes, in the bottom of the bag he found a pre-packaged sandwich and a bag of crisps. He then rushed downstairs to help with the unpacking, only to see that Dudley had decided to "help" already, and currently had a bar of chocolate in his hands with the pack left open on the side. Carefully moving around the lump, he quickly helped his Aunt get all of the food away properly. Just as they finished they heard Vernon's car pulling up to the drive.

As his Aunt had predicted, Vernon came in with a bouquet of Petunias, Tulips, and Roses, even though tulips were out of season.

"These are for you my pet" Vernon cooed at Petunia as he handed her the bouquet.

"Aww, they're beautiful. Boy! Put these into water, I'll deal with them in the morning.

"Honey, we've only just got home, so how about we take Dudley to Beefeater and have a meal out?"

"That sounds like a good idea. Boy, head up to your room, we're going out for dinner, but because you made your Aunt late you can go without."

Sullenly Harry goes upstairs to his room, before he remembers the sandwich and crisps, and the Mars bar hidden behind his drawer. Was this his Aunt protecting him again?

After thinking about it for a while, he decided he didn't know, and ate the sandwich and crisps for dinner, and savoured the Mars bar for dessert. He then settled down to try and meditate. A fruitless few hours later he was thoroughly bored and looking around for something to do when Vernon's car drove onto the driveway.

"Come on Vernon, let's get you inside."

"I'm fine pet, I know you don't like to drive but I can get us home."

"No Vernon, we're already home. Just turn around and like that, that's right, now this way."

"That's home, how did we get home, there better not have been any freakish stuff going on."

"No, I just drove us home and you fell asleep in the car. Dudley, get the door open and then go to bed."

"Yes mum."

The sound of the front door opening, and Dudley's footsteps came up before his bedroom door was slammed open.

"You better watch out freak, Dad said that we're getting my uniform tomorrow, and it includes a beating stick. He said that he's going to show me how to use it, and that I can practice using it on you."

That one statement made Harry freeze, and start to shake. He didn't even notice Dudley leave, or his Aunt manhandle Vernon into bed. He did notice when his Aunt gently opened the door and softly said "Goodnight sweetheart" before the soft click of her bedroom door was heard through the house. Once he heard his Uncles snores, he quietly pulled his drawer open and took out fox before padding downstairs to the cupboard.