Harry couldn’t believe his luck. When aunt Petunia woke him up this morning he had thought he would spend the day doing his usual chores around the house, but instead his aunt made him pack some things in a backpack and told him to be ready to leave after breakfast. Being a good boy he’d done just that, managing to ignore Dudley’s temper tantrum, because the large boy hadn’t had his usual three slices of toast next to his plate. Aunt Petunia made him wait in his cupboard and didn’t tell him why he was to be ready, or where he was going. Somewhat nervous Harry had sat in his cupboard hoping this wasn’t the day he would go to an orphanage. When the doorbell rang he had anxiously tried to listen, but he couldn’t hear things very well inside his cupboard. It didn’t surprise him when uncle Vernon came to open his door, after all the man was hard to miss due to his weight.

“Boy, get over here right now. You are to leave and we don’t want to see you until tomorrow. You will not do any freaky stuff and you will behave yourself.”

Harry quickly nodded and walked over towards the front door. Uncle Vernon grabbed him by his neck and pretty much pushed him out of the door. When Harry was outside, his uncle closed the door, leaving Harry on the front step with a strange lady.

He was a bit scared to look up at her, until she spoke to him in a friendly voice.

“Hello Harry. It is wonderful to see you again. You certainly have grown a lot over the years. Did Petunia or Vernon explain to you who I am?”

The lady sounded nice, even though Harry didn’t know who she was.

“How do you know me?” he risked asking, hoping she wouldn’t be angry at him. After all the first rule in the Dursley household was to not ask any questions.

“Well, I am an aunt of both Petunia and your mother Lily. So basically I am your great-aunt. I hadn’t known that you lived with Petunia otherwise I would have visited you much sooner. When I found out I travelled as quickly as possible to this place and today I can spend the day with you.”

Harry was in somewhat of a shock. A family member he didn’t know about, someone who had known his own mother, and she was taking him away for the weekend! It seemed that sometimes he could be a lucky boy. Looking at the lady he noticed she had a kind smile. Tentatively he smiled back.

“I am very much looking forward to getting to know you again little Harry. I have missed you very much.”

She then reached out her hand, clearly expecting him to hold hers! Wow, his day was off to a great start already. Aunt Petunia never liked it if he wanted to hold her hand, so he had quickly learned to walk by himself. Checking her face, to make sure it was alright, he then took hold of her hand. It wasn’t as soft as he’d imagined, in fact the hand felt somewhat rough in places, a bit like his own hand perhaps. And she had wrinkles on her hand, which Harry thought looked quite funny. Then he realized he didn’t know what to call the lady. Would she be offended if he did it wrong? Better to ask then.

“What should I call you then?” he softly asked her.

When she smiled again and replied “I would like it very much if you can just call me Aunt Susan. That’s what your mother and father called me, and that is what you will do too, I hope.” Harry knew that he would probably love this lady very, very much.

By now they had reached the car and a man was waiting outside holding the door open. Perhaps this was her son, although they didn’t really look alike. But after the man –Peter- introduced himself and got Harry settled into the car, he quickly realized they probably weren’t related. After all, Peter would probably call her mother or something. And if Emma was the daughter she would have used this word. Neither of them did so. Even though Harry was only five (nearly six!) he was quite smart, especially when he needed to figure people out. It was an important skill to learn when living with the Dursleys, after all if he could gauge their mood, he knew when to stay out of the way or when he could risk asking for something.

Harry had been amazed these people had driven their car for several hours just to see him, and he vowed to remember this always. Of course, as a young boy he was eventually more interested in the playground they were heading too. It was a pretty new one with an interesting concept.

Once he and aunt Susan had gotten out of the car and inside the playground his eyes grew wide. There was so much to see and do in here, where would or could he possibly start? His newly found aunt must have seen the look on his face, as she then said.

“Let’s go and have something to drink inside the café. We can then have a look at everything you can do here.”

Harry just nodded. They made their way to a building that was on the side of the playground. Strangely enough it was much, much bigger on the inside than it appeared on the outside.

“Oh, what’s all this then?” his aunt asked.

A kind lady that worked at the playground overheard her, and came to answer the question, recognizing a customer slightly out of her debt. “Hello madam, and you, young man.”

Harry was blushing slightly at being called a young man. This lady was also very nice.

“Am I right in saying this is your first time coming to our playground?”

Aunt Susan and Harry both nodded.

“Let me explain things then, to help you out. As you can see we have a large outdoor play area, not just with all the swings, seesaws, monkey bars etc.  but we also have several large trampolines and a track where you can either cycle with one of our bikes, or you can get on a go-cart, which is easier for you to handle as it’s got four wheels instead of two. Knowing the British weather, we also have a very large indoor play area with inflatable obstacles, slides, and area for very young children and some more challenging play things for the older children. There is the café in a central position, so the children can play as everything is enclosed, and you can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee. Outside we also have the petting zoo that you’re allowed to go into, and if you like you can buy some food for the animals at the café. Once you’re a few years older, we also have a tree climbing obstacle course, but that’s really for kids aged 8 or older. Oh yes, toilets are also provided in the hallway beside the café. I think that’s everything we have. Do you feel you can find your way now?”

Aunt Susan looked slightly overwhelmed, and so did Harry but they nodded anyway.

“Thank you, dear, “ aunt Susan said.

The lady smiled and walked away to clear a few tables. Harry followed Aunt Susan to a table and sat down after she did.

“Well Harry, I believe we should be able to enjoy ourselves for several hours in here, don’t you think so too?”

“Yes Aunt Susan. I think so. There is a lot to do in here I think.” Harry was looking around; he really wanted to go on the slides, or maybe the swings. The ones indoor were made of rope and had old tires tied to ends. The ones outside looked like some sort of birds nest, and he could see children actually laying down in them. It all looked so exciting. He was quite keen to try out the go-cart too.

“Would you like some lemonade, Harry? And perhaps a chocolate biscuit to go with it?” his Aunt asked him.

Harry smiled at her. “Yes please, I really like chocolate biscuits.” Not that he had a lot of opportunities to try them, because if he wasn’t careful Dudley would eat his share, if aunt Petunia even gave him anything. And lemonade, he only had that at school once because the school had celebrated the birthday of the principal this year.

His aunt went to the counter and ordered their snacks and drinks. When she came back she gave Harry his lemonade in a tall glass which even had a funnily shaped straw in it. The chocolate biscuit was very big, and Harry wondered if they would share it. But then he noticed aunt Susan had her own biscuit too.

“Eat up Harry, and after that you can go and play.”

Harry didn’t need telling twice and enjoyed every bite and every drop of it. In between sips and bites he kept looking around, trying to decided where he would start. How could he pick something, and would he be able to do everything he wanted today?

Aunt Susan laughed at his face. “Relax Harry. You will have plenty of time to try everything out today, and we will have lunch here too. I don’t think Emma and Peter will be back before three at least. Emma rather likes shopping after all.”

“Okay aunt Susan, but it’s just very hard to decided where I want to start. That’s all.”

Aunt Susan smiled in that lovely way again, and reached out to pat his hand. “I know, Harry. Why don’t we start outside, as the sun is shining and it’s dry. Perhaps we should start all the way at the back of the playground and work our way towards the café. By the time we want lunch we’ll be very close by after all.”

His aunt sure was smart. That was a brilliant idea, and also meant that Harry could start with the go-carts he’d been told about. So grabbing their stuff they walked all the way to the back where there was a nice circuit you could ride. It even had pedestrian crossings, roundabouts, crossroads, traffic lights and everything. Like a real street, except then as a playground. Some larger kids were riding bicycles, but Harry picked a go-cart and after aunt Susan helped him adjust the seat so he could reach the steering wheels and the pedals, he started pedaling around the track. This was great! Aunt Susan even decided to join in by crossing at the pedestrian crossing, so Harry had to wait for her, or she would press the button at the traffic lights. When they turned green Harry tried to go fast very quickly, but it was pretty difficult. Harry and Aunt Susan stayed on the circuit for quite a while, until it got busier. Harry saw that one of the little girls was waiting for a go-cart and having sore legs, decided she could have a go.

“That was very kind of you,” said his aunt, when they were making their way to the swings that looked like a birds nest.

“I just thought she looked as if she wanted to have a go, and my legs were getting tired.”

“Still, not everybody would have even noticed her” Aunt Susan sounded proud.

Once Harry climbed on the swing, he lay down on the roped that formed the nest. His aunt started pushing the swing, and Harry enjoyed it very much. Aunt Petunia never pushed his swing if they were in a park. It was always Dudley who got the attention, unless of course Harry had done something wrong.

After the swing, Harry had a go on the monkey bars, but found them a little scary, so after that they made their way back to the café, where aunt Susan ordered them both lunch. It came in a brightly coloured box for Harry, and contained two sandwiches with cheese, tomato and cucumbers. There was also a small red apple, a fruit drink, a small biscuit and a surprise! The surprise was wrapped in plastic, so Harry couldn’t see what was on the inside, but he sure was curious. Aunt Susan had a grilled cheese sandwich, an orange juice, apple and a small biscuit too.

“You can open the surprise after you’ve finished your sandwiches.” His aunt said.

Eating the sandwiches was no trouble at all for Harry. They tasted great, and he was rather hungry after playing so much. He even ate his apple in one go, before trying to open the plastic. This was very difficult for his small fingers, and eventually Aunt Susan managed to open it. Inside was a little plastic figurine of a dragon. Carefully Harry traced the shape with his fingers. The little dragon was a dark brown with some golden hints of color on his belly and under his wings. It was about the size of his palm and it would be wonderful to play with.

“Shall I keep it in your bag for now Harry? That way we won’t lose it here in the playground.”

Harry nodded and gave her the small dragon. He watched as she put it in his old backpack, knowing he could probably play with it tonight.

“Now then, do you want to feed the animals in the petting zoo, or do you just want to pet them?”

“Could we please just pet them aunt Susan. I don’t want them all to come over like they did with the other boy we saw.” Just before coming in for lunch they had passed the petting zoo where a boy was feeding the animals. Unfortunately the young goats he was trying to feed were all coming over at the same time and had pushed the boy over and then grabbed the bag of food. The boy had been crying, and his mother had quickly taking him out of there. Harry didn’t want the goats to push him over too!

So, in they went to pet the animals, and Harry decided it was very nice. The goats obviously had enough to eat by now, and let him pet them without trying to push him over. But Harry really liked the small and very soft rabbits. He had even lifted one up and held it in his arms! The rabbit had floppy ears, and was brown and white colored. Harry loved it very much indeed.

“Too bad aunt Petunia doesn’t like animals, or we could have had a rabbit too.” Harry said to his aunt.

“As it happens, I have a farm with quite a lot of animals there. I have a lot of Herdwick sheep, and some of the children of my farm workers have their own rabbits as well. Then there’s the Border Collies that need to herd the sheep and some cats to keep the mice away.”

Harry could hardly believe it. This Aunt Susan was so different from his aunt Petunia. And to have a farm, and so many animals. How he wished he could live there.  

“Perhaps you can come and stay sometime, alright Harry? I do need to arrange it with Petunia, as I can’t just take you with me without asking.”

This pretty much crashed Harry’s hopes of ever seeing her farm. Aunt Petunia wouldn’t agree if it meant that Harry would be enjoying himself. Of course, he conveniently forgot that she had let him go on this outing.

After the petting zoo Aunt Susan said she was getting a bit tired, and took up a table at the café from which she could easily see the indoor playground. Harry went and played on the swings inside, took a turn on the trampolines (which had inflatables around it so you always landed softly) and eventually was too tired to do anything else. That’s when he made his way to his aunt. And it was also around the time they saw Peter waving at the entrance of the playground. It appeared that this part of the trip was now over with. And Harry couldn’t be happier. This was truly shaping up to be a very, very lucky day for him.