Harry relaxes as the hug seems to go on forever. The only thing he can compare it to, is curling up in the corner of the cupboard, right under the stairs, where Vernon can't reach him. But this feels better. This is something he's wanted for years, and only ever seen Dudley or other children receive.
When the sun starts to shine through the window, Petunia stirs, and gently pulls away from Harry, "I'm sorry Harry, but I've got housework that I need to do before Vernon comes home."
Harry looks up at his aunt, as his basic intelligence is still there, and she's said enough to understand the end of the sentence, and the tensing of her hand as she said it.
Hesitantly, he asks, "Can I help?" Silently amending, 'Protect us from his anger'.
Petunia shakes her head, "No boy, not with this. But do you want to make us sandwiches while I make the tea. Then you can go out for the afternoon."
As he looks back up at her, he recognises the look on her face from the mirror, even if he can't put a name to it. "Sure… I think that would be nice."
As Harry starts to stand up, Petunia places her hand on his arm, "Harry. Before we go, we should put Lily's letter away somewhere safe. You can keep the other one too."
Harry turns back to the bed and picks up his mum's letter. As he's looking around the room for somewhere to hid them, Petunia sits down at his desk.
"Harry, you can put it behind the drawer in the desk here. There's a trick to it, so come here and I'll show you."
As Harry watches her, Petunia pulls the drawer most of the way out, and starts to feel around inside, "Vernon bought this for Dudley, and started to put it together. However, he gave up when he couldn't understand the instructions, and stormed off to the pub." Her eyes tighten at the memory while she continues, "I put it together while he was out, so that Dudley could use it. Ah, here it is. Put your hand in here, and feel for my hand."
Harry does that, and Petunia guides his hand to a cold metal catch, "This catch stops the drawer from coming out when you open it. Can you feel the lip there? If you pull that down with your thumb, you can then pull the drawer out with your other hand."
It takes Harry a few tries to get it, but once he does, Petunia gives him a broad, sad smile, "Well done. This drawer is only about ¾ the width of the desk, while the hole runs the full width of the desk. So you can put anything you want behind the drawer, and Dudley and Vernon won't be able to find it."
Together, they both put the letters in the back, before replacing the drawer.
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As Harry works beside Petunia in the kitchen, he's surprised to find himself smiling. When he glances at his aunt, while he's getting the beef from the fridge, she smiles back at him.
The two of them have just put the sandwiches, and Petunia's tea on the coffee table, when the sound of a key in the door draws both their attention.
At the same time Harry's shoulders and head hunches, he sees Petunia's face drop into the haughty expression she always wears. His jaw goes slack as he realises that they're both doing the same thing in different ways.
A moment later, Dudley walks in, and calls, "Hi Mum."
Petunia positively gushes, "Oh Dudleykins, I was just thinking about you, and had the boy make sandwiches."
Dudley walks forward, and pushes Harry out the way before he takes the sandwich, "Great, I'm starved. Cool, beef and mustard, my favourite."
Petunia snaps at Harry, "Boy! You've done all your chores; I don't want to see you hear until six, when you need to start dinner."
Years of conditioning has Harry grabbing his bag, shoes, and key, and bolting out of the door.
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As he sits on a low wall to put his shoes on, Harry tries to fit the hug in the bedroom into everything else he knows about his aunt. Standing up, he puts the key around his neck, and grabs his bag before heading off in a random direction.
As his thoughts wander, so to do his feet, and it's only when he trips over a stone in the park that he becomes aware of himself again. No closer to fitting those two aspects of his aunt together, Harry looks around for Dudley or his gang, before leaving the park towards the high street.
When he catches sight of the library, he grins. He has that book to finish reading. Setting off at a jog, he makes his way to the library and carefully cleans off his feet before going into the main library again.
As he opens the door, the Librarian looks up from her work and turns her stern gaze on him, "Good afternoon, I see you came back."
Nervously, Harry nods, "Would I be able to read that book again?"
The librarian pulls the book out from behind the counter and hands it to him, "You can use the same table as yesterday."
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Harry looks up with a start when a chair on the other side of the desk is pulled out with a slight scrape, that seems loud in the silence of the library.
Sitting down opposite him, the librarian asks, "What's the matter?"
Harry turns his eyes back to the book, "Nothing."
Gently the librarian says, "I know it's not nothing, as you've taken an hour to read three pages. Yesterday you were reading as though it was the most interesting book in the world."
Harry looks up at the clock above the library counter in surprise, "But. I mean, it wasn't." Harry looks back down to the book and mumbles, "It's my aunt, she… I shouldn't talk about it… It will only make it worse."
The librarian gives him a long, searching look, as he tries to read the same line he's been reading for the last five minutes. Giving herself a nod, she stands up and walks to the back of the library for a few minutes.
When she comes back, she places a small bundle of pamphlets on the desk beside Harry. The top most one is red, with ChildLine written in white across the top. "I know you don't want to talk about it. But these are for you. The phone number for ChildLine is a free phone number, so you can use any payphone for it if you want." [If you feel you need to call Childline because of your own situation, call 0800 1111 from any land line or mobile. If you're on O2, call 116 111 until they fix the problems with their systems]
As Harry slides the bundle into his bag, as though someone might take them away, the librarian puts a loosely bound hardback book, with a plain white cover. Printed in black on both the front and side is, 'A Family that Fights. Sharon Bernstein. Review copy only, not for sale.' [This is a real book aimed at children, and it is about domestic violence and how to spot it]
"This also came in last week. It's a pre-release copy of the book for review, I sometimes get them because of one of my degrees." Harry looks up at her questioningly, so the Librarian smiles, "I can't let you take it home, but maybe it would be something easier to read than a textbook on Buddhism. Then you could come back tomorrow after a good night's sleep, and continue reading about Buddhism."
Not having a better idea, Harry reluctantly puts the index card in the book on Buddhism, and opens the new book.
This book is much easier to read than the one on Buddhism, and Harry devours three chapters in the time it took him to read three pages. It's on the forth chapter that he has to stop, and discretely wipe his eyes, as the book describes a situation just like the one he experienced this morning. Swallowing hard, he pushes the feelings down, and continues to read in a slower, but much more focused way.
By the time the librarian's alarm goes to signal it's time to close up, Harry feels like he's been worked over more thoroughly than Dudley and his Gang have ever done. Even so, he desperately wants to finish the book.
Reluctantly, he allows the librarian to put the books behind the counter as he leaves. Knowing he's got over an hour to get home, Harry ducks into an alleyway between shops. Once there, he crouches down behind a bin, making sure not to get his clothes dirty, and lets himself express the emotions the book brought up.
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As Harry gets home, he can hear the sound of Dudley's game through the open window to Dudley's room. As his shoulders slump, he braces himself for whatever aunt Petunia will say to him.
Almost as soon as the door closes, Petunia shrill shriek fills the house, "It's about time you got here! Go upstairs and get cleaned up. Then start peeling potatoes."
Harry flees upstairs, and pushes open his door. Before he can close it, Dudley comes out of his own room and pushes the door to Harry's room open.
In a low voice, Dudley growls, "Ha! I knew it was you. I don't know where you've been hiding, but you know you're just making it worse for yourself. If we don't get to play Harry Hunting soon…" Dudley thumps his fist into his open hand, "And now you're in trouble with mum too."
With his threat given, Dudley turns around and walks back into his room to resume his game.
Swallowing hard, Harry closes the door and leans against it for a moment. Shaking his head, he pushes up from the door and puts his bag on the desk while he pulls the drawer out.
As he's putting the pamphlets at the back of the drawer runner, his hand brushes across something that wasn't there before. Curiously, he pulls the thing out, and gasps as he sees a MarsBar with a note attached to it.
Happy Birthday Harry, I'm going to take you shopping tomorrow.
Tears start to form in his eyes, that he quickly dashes away, before returning the treat to its space behind the drawer, along with the pamphlets. With his treasures secured, Harry quickly washes up and rushes downstairs to the kitchen.
When he sees Petunia in there, he gives her a quick hug, and mouths 'Thank you' before they both start on dinner.
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At 6:30 on the dot, the sound of Vernon's car pulling onto the driveway floats through the living room windows. In the kitchen, both Harry and Petunia glance at each other worriedly. As their eyes meet, they widen in surprise, before they both go back to preparing dinner.
Harry violently flinches as the front door opens with a loud thump where it crashes into the wall, and Vernon storms into the house.
Leaving the briefcase by the door, Vernon throws his suit jacket over the banister, and marches through the dining room, into the kitchen. There, he reaches into the fridge and pulls out a can of beer. Staring at the can, he comes to a decision, and puts it back in the fridge and slams the door.
As he turns around, Harry has just enough time to put let go of the knife he's using, before Vernon roughly shoves him to one side and opens the cupboard. From the top shelf, he pulls out a bottle of scotch whiskey and grabs a glass tumbler from the bottom shelf.
Walking back to the dining room, Vernon sits in his chair, and pours himself half a glass of whiskey.
In the kitchen, Harry quickly returns to his task, and the two of them quickly and quietly finish cooking dinner.
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As Harry sits at the table eating his dinner, Vernon keeps drinking glass after glass of whiskey. Not even Dudley makes any sort of fuss, as everyone knows not to get Vernon's attention when he's like this.
Halfway through the meal, the silence is broken by Vernon slapping his hand on the table.
"How dare they. What does Steve have that I don't? I've been there longer, I've got more clients, I bring in more money, and they promote Steve to Senior Manager over me?"
Harry hides his wince when he sees Petunia flinch at Vernon's sudden outburst. As Vernon continues to eat, he'll occasionally slap the table again, and give another outburst. Each and every time, Petunia flinches. And each and every flinch hurts Harry as he knows just what she's afraid of now.
Once dessert has been eaten, Harry quietly clears the table while Vernon continues to drink in his seat. Neither Petunia, nor Dudley dare move from their seats as he starts to wash up.
While he's drying up the plates, Vernon pounds the table and roars unexpectedly. As Harry jumps in fright, a plate jumps out of the drying rack, and Harry scrambles to catch it. As he's reaching out to catch it, he catches sight of Petunia sitting ramrod straight beside Vernon, and just, doesn't close his hand.
As the plate crashes to the floor, Harry knows what's going to happen next, and he's already tensing himself when Vernon pushes the table away and storms over to him.
Harry doesn't even resist as Vernon grabs him by the back of his neck, and drags him into the living room. There, he is unceremoniously dumped across the back of the sofa.
As Vernon takes off his belt, Petunia and Dudley both walk into the living room, and stand there silently. Then Vernon folds the belt in half, raises his hand, and brings it down hard across Harry's backside.
As he builds up a rhythm, Vernon starts to shout, "Stupid fucking freak, break our fine china will you? Do you think we're made of money?"
The beating and diatribe continue in a similar vein until Vernon starts to get tired. Then his aim starts to slip, and the belt hits Harry's back and legs as often as it does his backside. Near the end, the buckle slips out of Vernon's grip, and catches Harry across the back, leaving a deep and bloody gouge where it passed.
That's when Vernon finally stops, "Off t' y'r room boy, an' don' get blo'd on t'e carpet."
Harry slips off the sofa, and holds himself up while the pins and needles leave is legs. As soon as he can walk, he grasps the sides of his t-shirt, and pulls it down so the fabric is pressed against the wound while he staggers upstairs on unsteady legs.
While he's doing that, Vernon sways and staggers round to his armchair, before falling into it and turning the TV on.
Once he's made it to his room, Harry pulls his blanket off the bed, and lies face down on the mattress, his face a mask of indifference.
There, he lays, his back burning with agony, while thoughts fly through his head. About what he just did, about the book he read earlier, and about the pain in his back.
The sounds of snoring soon reach Harry's ears through the floor, and he picks up the sound of the creaky stairs as Dudley makes his way to bed.
Some time later, he can hear Petunia shaking Vernon awake, "Vernon, Vernon, you need to come to bed as you have work in the morning… That's it, let's get you upstairs, come on."
As Petunia leads Vernon upstairs, Harry stuffs the corner of his blanket in his mouth so that he can't accidentally make a sound. It seems to take forever for Vernon to go through his nightly ablutions. But eventually Harry can hear his drunken snores through the walls.
Once he's sure that everyone's in bed, Harry takes his blanket and creeps back downstairs to his cupboard. Shutting himself in, he props himself up in the corner where he can hear anyone that comes downstairs.