Hood and set upon Harvey and Wendell when the attempt to escape the House. Marr - sister of Jive and Rictus serves the same purpose of serving Mr. Hood who lured Harvey, Wendell, and Lulu into the Holiday House. Swick - Harvey Swick's parents who are happy to see him returned but have trouble believing his story. Griffin - the kind-hearted housekeeper of the Holiday House who helps Harvey escape. Hood into the body of a gray fish, to be later transformed by Harvey back into her human form. Lulu - a young girl who is trapped by Mr. Wendell - another resident of the Holiday House who quickly becomes Harvey's best friend. Harvey - an innocent boy who has done no crime except to be bored with his life. Hood stole from them, Harvey and Wendell return to the house to defeat him and set free the children in the pond, setting back time so each child could return home as if they had aged with the years taken from them. He comes to realize that every day spent in the Holiday House was a year in the real world.

When he finds home and he and Wendell part ways, he returns to discover that his parents have aged incredibly and are now frail elders.

Hood, is trapping children's souls in the sad gray fish back at the house. Harvey now knows that an evil spirit or monster of some sort, Mr. Hood's minions, and make it back to the real world. Wendell and Harvey escape the grounds of the Holiday House, nearly being eaten by Carna, one of Mr. When he goes looking for Lulu and finds her at the pond, not quite herself, he is horrified to discover that she has become a gray fish. After spending a few days at the Holiday House, he wanders the grounds and discovers a slimy, creepy pond and inside, large gray fish making small circles. When Harvey makes a seemingly impossible Christmas wish and it comes true, he begins to have suspicions about the house being a true work of magic. That night, Harvey and Wendell celebrate Halloween and later in the evening, as white snow blankets the lush gardens, Christmas.

Harvey soon realizes that something is up with the house when a warm summer quickly fades to fall in the course of an hour or two. During the feast he meets a boy his age, Wendell, who speaks of another resident of the house named Lulu. At the House, he attends a large feast prepared by the housekeeper Mrs. Harvey agrees to go with the man to the Holiday House, a large house that has the aura of old magic. One day, as Harvey is sitting in his bedroom feeling bored with his life, a mysterious man appears in his room, speaking of excitement and fun. In 'The Thief of Always,' Harvey Swick, a boy by the age of eleven, finds himself trapped inside a mystical prison invented by the elusive Mr.

The thief of always 2