The Christmas holidays are nearly there

Harry could hardly wait until school was let out for the day. He had been excited ever since his uncle Vernon had picked up the phone earlier in the week. As it turned out, Aunt Susan did want to spend time with Harry! He was asked to come and stay for two weeks during the Christmas holidays, and Peter and Emma would pick him up from school this afternoon. Harry had been able to hear some of the phone call that Uncle Vernon had had, and he was sure Aunt Petunia had lied to him when she said Aunt Susan made up a story about having a stroke. Even Uncle Vernon had been angry enough that he argued with Petunia about it.

“Harry, please pay attention now. Tell me, how much is 3 plus 4?”

Harry forced his attention back on the lesson, but oh, it was so hard to do. This morning Aunt Petunia made him pack some clothes, his toothbrush and a comb in his old backpack. Then she had brought both him and Dudley to school, only telling him to not come back too soon. Harry hadn’t cared that she had fussed over Dudley for ages, exclaiming how they would have a nice family Christmas this year, and wouldn’t Dudley enjoy his stay with Aunt Marge for the weekend, so that she and Vernon could go away for the weekend. Harry knew Dudley only enjoyed it because he knew he would get presents from both his parents and Aunt Marge for staying with her. But Harry was getting his own present; he was going away for two whole weeks!

Finally the bell rang and all the children happily got up to enjoy their Christmas holiday. Harry picked up his backpack and went to wait on the curb outside. When he left the school however he was called over straight away.

“Harry! Here we are. It’s good to see you again.”

Peter and Emma were already waiting for him. Harry smiled and ran up to the couple, enjoying the hug he got from Emma and the handshake from Peter.

“Hello Peter and Emma. I’m very happy to see you too.” He said politely.

They smiled at him and gestured for him to climb into the car. His backpack was put in the back as well.

“All right Harry, it’s going to be a bit of a drive, so we’ll stop a few times along the way for a break, and depending on traffic, we might get some dinner too. Do you need to go to the toilet first, or shall we go?”

Harry shook his head, he’d just been to the toilet, and he was too excited to leave and finally see Aunt Susan again.

“It’s a good thing your school only had a half day today because of the holidays. This way we can hopefully be back so you can still see some of the farm in daylight. You just relax and look out of the window, and we’ll be off.”

They’d been driving for a while now, having stopped once so everyone could stretch their legs and visit the toilet. Harry had been looking at the changing landscape in amazement. He’d never been very far from Surrey, and now the hills were changing, and the roads were quite busy too.

“Harry, how much do you know about what happened to Susan this summer?” Emma asked him.

“Aunt Petunia said she just made up a story and didn’t want to see me anymore. But I think she was really in hospital. Uncle Vernon thinks so too.”

Peter and Emma looked shocked to think that Petunia, a niece of Susan, would go so far as to say Susan would not want to see Harry anymore. It was completely ridiculous. It was good to hear that her husband didn’t believe the woman however.

“Oh Harry. That’s certainly not what happened. Susan was so looking forward to your visit this summer, she’d redecorated the guest room, she was all set for you to come, but unfortunately she suffered a stroke which caused her to be in the hospital. Because of the stroke she also fell down and broke her right leg. There was no way she could let you come, as she spent several months getting therapy to make sure she could live on her own again. When you see her, you will notice that she’s not able to walk very well anymore. Also, when she is tired or doesn’t focus enough her speech might become a little slurred. The families that work for the farm have set up a system to check in on her, and we come by quite regularly as well, so she is fine right now, but you need to be aware she isn’t quite the same as she was this summer.”

Harry looked worried and slightly stricken. “What is a stroke” he asked.

“Sorry Harry, I didn’t realize you might not know this. A stroke is a bleeding in the brain. The cause for it can vary, but don’t worry! The doctors and all of us keep a close eye on her. You just enjoy your holiday with her, all right?”

Harry nodded, feeling somewhat relieved and eventually fell asleep in the car.

After a while he was woken up by Emma. “Harry dear, we are just about to enter the farm. Will you not wake up and have a look, it’s dusk but you can still see some of it.”

Slightly sleepy Harry started looking around. It appeared they had entered a valley, because he could see the outline of hills on either side. The road was somewhat narrow and bendy. Then they took a turn to the right. The road became even narrower.

“This is where the farm starts Harry. There are fields on either side of the driveway, but we don’t have any sheep in them at the moment, as it’s winter.”

Harry looked over the hedges and stone walls into the empty fields. He thought he could see a stream on the right side, but he wasn’t sure as it was getting darker. Too bad it was winter and it got dark so early, otherwise he would have a lovely view, he was sure of it.

“Where is the house?” he asked after several minutes of driving. It seemed to take a long time before they were there.

“The house is a few more minutes away from here. The farm is rather large, so to get to the house we need to pass quite a few low lying fields first.” Peter replied, his attention on the darkening road.

Wow, Harry was very impressed. His aunt must be very rich to have such a long driveway. Most people with a lot of money had long driveways he had decided, after having watched several movies in the past.

Finally he could see lights on in the distance and a house started to form in the darkness. Curious he was wide awake by the time they pulled up to the farmhouse. The door was pulled open as Peter turned of the engine, and Aunt Susan came walking out of the house.

“Aunt Susan!” Harry cried happily. He struggled to undo his seatbelt, until Emma helped him. Then he flew out of the car and into Susan’s arms.

“Oh Harry, I’ve missed you so much little one.” Susan said to him, while she gave him a big hug.

Harry carefully squeezed her back, noting that she did seem a little wobbly sometimes. He’d best be extra careful with her he decided.

Then Aunt Susan pulled back slightly to look at his face. “You have grown a bit over the last few months Harry. And you are looking very happy. Are you hungry, because I made dinner for all of you.”

She then led the three into the house. Harry was trying to take it all in, the wooden beams on the ceiling to many windows and the rooms they passed, but it was very difficult because well, he was only a little boy who was tired and hungry.

Aunt Susan let them into the dining room, where a table was set for four. There was a small fire going in the fireplace, making it nice and comfortable to be there.

“Do you want any help, Susan?” Emma asked her, whilst helping Harry into a seat.

“Yes please, if you could put some of the dishes on the table that would be fine.”

Emma carried a few of the dishes in, and helped serve everyone. They had a lovely bangers and mash meal, and Harry ate quite a lot. For dessert they had a small pudding, which Aunt Susan confessed, she had bought in the supermarket as she was no good at making pudding. Grinning Harry had eaten the whole piece he received.

When the adults were enjoying a cup of tea, Harry was slowly starting to nod of. He’d hardly slept the night before, as he was so excited, and after travelling for so long he was ready to go to bed. Noticing this, Peter offered to carry him upstairs, and slowly following them was Aunt Susan, who still had some trouble with the stairs. She refused however, to have a chair lift installed.

Peter brought Harry to the guest room and was laying Harry down, when he woke up enough to go to the toilet first, brush his teeth and put on some pajamas.

“Harry, where are the pajamas we gave you this summer. They were slightly too big, so you should still fit them?” Aunt Susan asked.

Very sleepily Harry didn’t realize what he said when he replied “Aunt Petunia was angry and didn’t like my new clothes. So she threw them inna bin and put pastasauce over it.” Then he turned over and fell asleep.

Susan was ready to blow up at her niece, but calmed down enough to pull the covers over Harry’s sleeping form and carefully walk out of the bedroom. Peter, Emma and herself would discuss this when their fourth guest would come on Christmas day.