Harry frowned and tried to grab at the big mysterious red blob. It was blurry, but definitely there, as its bright, highly visible colour assured him.

If only he could reach it. In Harry's experience, things he couldn't hold onto vanished quickly, often never to be seen again.

He heard a noise above his head, a huffing tah sound, which he was coming to associate with the Cross Woman.

He didn't have anything else to call her, since she never asked him to call her anything. The fat Thing that sometimes pinched Harry called her "Mummy", but she wasn't Mummy. Harry still had a vague memory of Mummy being a soft place for his face, a nice smell and cuddly arms he could sleep in, along with hair that was red when he pressed it to his face. He used to do that often because it made her laugh and tickle him. Laughter and tickling were nice things.

The Cross Woman wasn't like Mummy. He was never close enough to her hair to see if it was red. The one time he had tried to touch it she had slapped his hand away and said something in a harsh tone he had never heard Mummy use. He didn't get to sit, let alone sleep, on her lap. The times she'd picked him up to move him she hadn't held him close, but even so she had felt hard, and she smelt of something that burned Harry's nose.

The voice above him didn't sound like the Cross Woman, though. It was a woman's, but it was a softer voice. She was saying something and he heard Harry, a word he recognised. He used to hear it a lot, so it was easier to remember. He turned his face in her direction and smiled hesitantly. Hearing Harry used to mean cuddles and voices with smiles in them and singing, after all.

Quite suddenly he was being lifted up, and he would have squirmed and kicked out if he hadn't had a smacked bottom the last time he'd done that.

The hands holding him were gentler than the Cross Woman's, though.

Now he was sitting on someone's knee, and he could make out brown eyes and a nose as they leaned towards them. A lock of hair fell towards him within his reach. It was brown, and Harry felt suddenly sad. He felt his face begin to crunch up as tears started, and tried to rub them away. The Cross Woman always used her nasty voice and left him alone by himself when he cried. Harry usually tried not to cry.

He certainly never asked for Mummy. The Cross Woman shouted when he asked for Mummy.

This time, though, the woman with the soft voice rubbed his back with an equally soft hand and bounced him on her knee, surprising a laugh out of him.

The woman called him a Good Boy in a voice with a smile, and her hand appeared in front of his face with the red blob again.

It was much closer this time, close enough to reach. He made a grab for it, but it moved away. He tried again, and this time it went in the other direction. It was also getting further away. Harry lunged for it, but it was fuzzy now, and when he looked up again it was just a blur of colour.

The soft hand steadied him, and he heard the woman's voice as she said something to the Cross Woman, who said something back.

There was a pause and the soft voice said more words. Harry heard glasses among them.

Harry remembered glasses. Daddy had glasses. Sometimes Harry got to put them on. They always fell off, but Mummy and Daddy and Paddy used to laugh.

Then there was more talking, which was boring, though Harry was quite pleased to be presented with the red blob, after all. He immediately put it in his mouth, and discovered it was round, though just a little too big for the whole thing to fit in. It also had a bumpy pattern, which was interesting for his tongue, and even better for the sore corner of his gum. Usually he chewed on his fist, but this was much better.

The blob took up most of his attention, but Harry occasionally recognised words floating over his head. Small was one, and quiet. The Cross Woman liked to use that word a lot. Strangely, the Cross woman didn't like it this time. She said something, fast and almost angry sounding and the soft voice replied in a Sorry tone.

Out of the corner of his eye Harry briefly saw a thin black stick appear in the Soft Woman's hand, then there was a rustling, shuffling of paper and a scratching.

Writing, his brain told Harry. Harry remembered writing. Drawing was better though. There used to be lots of drawing.

The writing soon stopped, then the Soft Woman was saying Harry, and Good Boy when he smiled at her. She jiggled him a little more, making him laugh, then all at once he was being lifted up again and now he was on the floor.

There were footsteps, then someone was crouching down next to him, and he could see the brown eyes and nose from before. She was smiling, and even waved (something moved in his peripheral vision, at least), then said Goodbye Harry!

She was brushing past him out of his reach before he could react.

He heard her voice say, Goodbye Dudley! But it was further away, too far away.

The Cross Woman was saying something in a voice she usually kept for Dudley, or the Shouty Man. The Soft Woman laughed, then there was the sound of a door shutting.

One week later, Harry and the Cross Woman and the Fat Thing all went to a new place. It was bright and had a strange smell, and a man who said lots of words to Harry too fast for him to understand.

He had to sit in a little chair and a funny thing was on his face. There were lots of lights and colours and moving things, and the Cross Woman talked to the strange man for a long time.

When they got home, Harry felt something being shoved into his hands. They were narrow and hard, and he would have put them in his mouth, but the Cross Woman shooed his hand away with her traditional Stupid Boy. Instead she shoved them onto his face and walked away, but Harry hardly noticed.

A strange thing had happened.

A lot of things were suddenly there, like they had all run up to surprise him, making him jerk back and overbalance. Harry rolled on the carpet, which he had always thought was one mass of cream, but which he could now see had lots of little zigzags where the material connected.

Harry felt a sharp pinching on his leg, and looked up to see the Fat Thing, though now he looked like a small person, just like Harry, though much chubbier. Being able to see the Fat Small Person also meant Harry could kick him back. The Fat Small Person howled and crawled away.

Looking in the other direction, Harry could also see a large black screen in the corner. It was shiny (kept aggressively polished by the Cross Woman) and in its reflection Harry could see a face looking at him, with messy hair and glasses.

Harry looked around wildly.

But no one was there.

Harry opened his mouth, but didn't say anything. 'Daddy', was an even less popular word than 'Mummy' with the Cross Woman.

He sucked his thumb instead and continued to look around, holding a fistful of his hair with his other hand.

Perhaps he was hiding behind the sofa? Daddy used to love that game.

Harry smiled for the first time since the Soft Woman visited.

Yes, he would definitely find them now.