Emboldened by his morning, as soon as the library comes into view, Harry grabs Petunia's hand and hurries as fast as he can to the doors.
As they pass through the outer doors, Harry carefully wipes his feet, and waits for Petunia to do the same. Then he rushes into main library and stops eagerly at the counter.
The librarian looks up in surprise, as the bubbly child in front of her is barely recognisable to the downtrodden child that has visited the last couple of days. When an adult follows him in, her eyes narrow slightly.
Harry interrupts the librarian's inspection, "Hi! This is my auntie Petunia. She's the nice one. I'm sorry I never got your name, but this is the librarian auntie."
The librarian's eyes lose their suspicious cast, and she puts on a smile, "Hi, I'm Karen, are you ok?"
Petunia hesitates before answering, "I'm doing ok, I think."
Karen nods sceptically, "Let me get his book out, and I'll be right with you."
Karen pulls the book from behind the front counter, and hands it to Harry. As soon as he's got hold of it, he runs off to his desk, and starts reading it.
Once Karen's sure Harry's occupied, she pulls out her review copy of 'A family that fights', "Look, 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."
Petunia slumps against the counter as her legs threaten to give way. In a defeated voice she says, "Yes, we both are. Something happened yesterday, and I think it knocked something loose. I…I pretended to be someone I'm not because it stopped him from taking it out on the boy. On Harry. I got stuck in that role for a long time, and, and I think I might have hurt Harry more than if I hadn't."
Karen looks at Petunia for a long moment, before looking at Harry and how happy he seems today. With a nod, she goes over to a display of pamphlets and takes two from the stand. "I don't know anything about that. But Harry seems to be happy with you. We do carry leaflets for local services that could help you." She slides the pamphlets across the counter, "This one is for a support group and counselling service, and it's a no questions asked service. This one is for the local shelter. You don't have to do anything with them now, but please keep it in mind."
Petunia looks extremely uncomfortable as she slides the pamphlets into her handbag, "Thanks. Um. Listen, could I get Harry a library card?"
Karen smiles supportively at Petunia's change of subject, "Sure, let me get the forms."
The two of them spend the next few minutes filling out the forms, and at the end of it, Petunia is the proud owner of a library card in Harry's name.
As Petunia turns the card over in her hands, she glances at the book Harry's reading, and then up at the clock, "Would we be able to borrow that book Harry's reading?"
Karen shakes her head apologetically, "Sorry, but that's a reference book. We can reserve them for people, but they aren't allowed to leave the library."
"Do you have any other books on meditation?"
Karen shakes her head, "I don't think so, but I'll double check."
While Karen is looking at the card catalogue, Petunia slides Harry's library card in front of Harry's book, and watches amused as Harry doesn't even notice.
Returning to the counter, she waits while Karen finishes her search.
Karen checks a few books out for a customer, and then returns to Petunia, "No, sorry, we don't have any other books on meditation, or that might contain meditation exercises. There might be some in the main library in Guildford though." As Petunia's face drops Karen adds, "We do have a new video lending service though. There's a selection of Open University videos on the display that you could look through. Why is he so interested in meditation anyway?"
Petunia's surprised at how smoothly she lies when she says, "He heard that it helped clarity of thought, and calmness, and decided it would help him at his new school."
Karen just smiles, and nods knowingly.
In order to escape that look Petunia walks over to the video section on the opposite side of the library, in clear view of the front desk, and starts to flick through them. Most of them seem to be for popular films from a few years ago. Walking around to the other side, Petunia finds the section for educational videos and starts to look through them.
After a few minutes she finds a couple that look promising, the first one is an introduction to religions, and the blurb on the back says it has a section on Buddhism. The second one is completely dedicated to Buddhism. Picking up the empty cases, she carries both of them back to the front desk.
Once Karen has dealt with a customer bringing a stack of books back, Petunia pushes the videos over, "Can we check these out please?"
Karen nods, "Sure, you'll need to leave a £5 deposit, that you can get back at any time, as long as there are no videos outstanding."
Petunia checks the money in her purse, and purses her lips. It would make food shopping a bit tight, but she could do a midweek shop next week when they return the videos.
With a final nod, she takes out a five pound note and hands it over before grabbing the library card from Harry's desk, where it has remained untouched, "Here you go."
Karen smiles, "Thank you, you need to return the videos by Friday next week, or come in to renew the loan."
Petunia nods and puts the video's in her handbag. Walking over to Harry's desk, she touches him on the shoulder and winces as he jumps violently, "Harry, we need to go sweetheart, otherwise we'll be late home."
Reluctantly, Harry marks his place and hands the book back to Karen, "Thank you for letting me read here."
Karen smiles, "You are always welcome here. We also have a children's library if you're ever interested in looking, it's through the first door on the left as you go through that door."
Harry shakes his head, "I couldn't go in there, um, I just couldn't."
Karen walks around the counter and crouches down, "If you did want to go in there, you could find a book you wanted to read and then come back in here. But only if you tell the librarian that's what you're doing."
Harry nods doubtfully, before following after Petunia as she leaves.
In the entrance room, Petunia turns round with the library card, "Harry, I've got this for you. It will allow you to borrow up to seven books from the library to bring home. I want you to use it if you find anything you want to read in your room."
Harry takes the card and turns it over. His eyes widen in surprise when he sees his name and address written on one side, "Auntie, are you sure?"
Petunia nods, "I'm sure. I also found a couple of videos on Buddhism, and I thought we might watch them together in the mornings." With an unusual vulnerability in her face and voice, she continues, "I wondered if you'd also like to practice meditating together too."
Harry looks up from his card and nods, "I think I'd like that."
Petunia smiles, "Well, put the card somewhere safe in your bag, so that you can't 'lose' it. Then we need to go."
Harry quickly slips the card into the lining between the back and the inside, and puts the bag back over his shoulders.
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By the time they've got home with Dudley, Petunia's mask is back in place. As he trails behind the two of them under the load of all the bags, Harry muses that he much prefers the other aunt, than the one in front of him.
As she opens the front door, Petunia turns back to Harry, "Leave the food here and put your uniform away. Be quick about it, as you still need to help me put the food away."
Harry ducks his head at her tone, and answers, "Yes Aunt Petunia."
Without any further prodding, Harry puts the Bejam bags down, and runs up the stairs with the clothes bags. The bag that contains Petunias clothes, he hangs on the door knob to their bedroom before he heads into his room and closes the door.
Tugging open his drawer in the chest of drawers, Harry carefully folds his new clothes and pushes them behind all of his older clothes. When he gets to the bottom of the last bag, he lifts out his fox reverently, before giving it a hug, and squeezing it in the back of the drawer with the rest of his new clothes. At the bottom of the bag, where the fox was, Harry finds a pre-packaged sandwich and a bag of salted crisps. Swallowing hard, as tears come to his eyes again, he pulls out his desk drawer, and carefully rearranges everything so that the sandwich and crisps won't be squashed when he puts the drawer back.
As the drawer clicks back into place, Harry realises how much time he's spent putting things away, and rushes downstairs to the kitchen to help with the unpacking.
As he arrives, he can see that Dudley has already 'helped' with the unpacking, as all the bags are in the kitchen, and Dudley has found a pack of chocolate bars, and opened them in the kitchen.
Together, Harry and Petunia both finish putting the food away just as Vernon's car pulls up on the driveway.
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As the front door clicks open, Petunia grabs a washcloth and quickly rubs the chocolate from Dudley's face. Throwing the cloth into the sink, she wipes her hands on her apron and walks out to greet Vernon.
In the living room, Vernon presents Petunia with a bouquet of Petunias, Tulips, and Roses, despite the fact that tulips are out of season.
As she takes the flowers, Vernon leans forward and kisses her on the cheek, "These are for you my pet."
Petunia looks down at the flowers and almost throws up. Instead, she makes a happy sound, "Aww, they're beautiful. Boy! Put these into water, I'll deal with them in the morning." As she blindly holds them out, Harry takes them from her hand, and she caresses Vernon's cheek, "Vernon Honey, we've only just got home. So how about we take Dudley to Beefeater and have a meal out?"
Vernon smiles broadly, "That sounds like a grand idea." Turning to Harry he snaps viciously, "Boy! Head up to your room, we're going out for dinner. Because you made your aunt late, you can go without."
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As the rest of the household get ready to leave, Harry sullenly walks up the stairs to his room. As he opens his door, he remembers the sandwich and stuff that Petunia gave him.
Slumping on his bed, he buries his head in his hands while he tries to think. Is this auntie Petunia trying to protect him again? Did she know this would happen? What was it she said at lunchtime?
When he can't come up with any good answers, Harry pulls the sandwich out from behind his drawer, and slowly munches on it for dinner. He almost eats the crisps and chocolate bar too, but he stops himself as he recalls other nights he's been sent to his cupboard without food.
Once he's finished the sandwich, Harry carefully makes his way downstairs without turning on any of the lights, just in case his Relatives come home early, and buries the empty package under the rubbish in the bin.
That done, he returns to his room just as carefully, and closes the door with a relieved sigh.
Not daring to touch the toy pile, and with nothing else to do, Harry sits on the bed and tries to meditate without much success.
After a while, he's forced to give up, as his mind just keeps wandering from subject to subject, and his mother's letter said not to use a technique that focuses on breathing.
As he looks around the room with so much stuff, and so little he can do, Harry wishes he was still in his cupboard, where it wasn't so busy.
It's not much later when the sound of the car pulling up on the driveway catches his attention. The sound of it subtly wrong for Vernon. Now fully alert again, Harry strains his ears for the sound of anything.
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Tiredly, Petunia pushes the driver's seat of Vernon's car back, and gets out of the car. Walking around to the passenger door, she pulls it open and takes Vernon's hand.
"Come on Vernon, let's get you inside."
Vernon tugs his hand back and slurs, "I'm fine pet, I know you don't like to drive, so I'll get us home."
Petunia tugs his hand again, "No Vernon, we're already home, see. You just need to get out of the car."
Vernon looks at the house owlishly, "That's home? How did we get home? There better not have been any freakish stuff going on."
As Vernon undoes his seatbelt, and falls out of the car, Petunia puts her shoulder under his arm and starts to lead him to the front door, "No freakishness, I drove us home, and you fell asleep in the car. Just turn around, just a little more, that's right, now this way."
With her spare hand, Petunia holds out the keys, "Dudley, can you lock the car and get the front door please?"
Dudley takes the keys and turns back to the car, "Yes mum."
Vernon pulls his own keys out of his pocket, "Don't worry, I can get us in."
With a tired sigh, Petunia calls to Dudley, "Can you grab your father's keys and wallet from the floor too."
Dudley grabs both, and Petunia pretends not to notice him taking a £20 note from the wallet, and putting it in his pocket.
While she's steadying Vernon through the front door, Dudley thunders up the stairs, and she hears him slam Harry's door 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."
Petunia's heart drops at that dire threat, and she starts to wrack her brain for a way for Harry to avoid that fate. Unfortunately, Vernon's drunken bulk quickly pulls her attention back to the hear and now.
Petunia frantically tugs on Vernon's arm as he lurches towards the sofa while undoing his fly, "Vernon, no! That's the sofa, the toilet is upstairs, come on, it's not far."
Fortunately, either Vernon listens, or he gives way to the tugging, and she manages to get him onto the stairs. Slowly, one step at a time, she manages to get Vernon up the stairs and into the toilet.
When he sits down on the toilet without taking his pants down, she lets out a despairing sigh, and grabs an old nappy bag from the cupboard, and manhandles the soiled underwear off of Vernon while he continues obliviously. When he lurches to his feet, and leans heavily against her, petunia peers around his bulk to make sure there's nothing solid in the toilet.
Heaving another sigh of relief, she struggles to guide Vernon into the bedroom, and undress him before he collapses onto his side of the bed.
Looking at the clothes on the floor, Petunia walks out of the room, and carefully opens Harry's door. When she sees him staring sightlessly at the doorway, she glances back to her bedroom nervously.
Once she's sure that Vernon's not going to move, walks through Harry's room and kisses him on the forehead, "Good night sweetheart. Sleep well."
As she leaves, she turns the light off before returning to her own room. There, she picks up Vernon's clothes and softly walks out, shutting the door behind her. From the bathroom she gets the nappy bag and flushes the toilet, before going down to the kitchen.
As she's putting the washing in the washing machine, on a quiet wash, she pretends not to notice Harry coming downstairs and slipping into the cupboard under the stairs. Instead, she cries silent tears at the fact she seems to be so good at pretending not to notice things, and waits for a while so that Harry can go to sleep.