SOLVED. boy is switched at birth, HE is magical royalty. [s]

[Brittany]

Boy is the servant of a family. The boy he works for is a total tool. A magical family is looking for their son. The problem is that they can only access the human world every even years or so through scattered portals. The mainc haracters looking for the boy are a wizars and 2 other people. The lady looking for him wears a hat with vegetables and has a basket of food. The boy sees a kelpie and is not afraid (water horse) and another magical creature who has clear skin so that you can see its organs. There is a bad character who is an older woman, she kills a goldfish with her knitting needles. The matriarch of the family he works for uses a very distinct bath perfume. This is a YA book I read in 2000-2004 it has a dark green edged cover that showns the wizard and two othr characters.

[[deleted user]]

Eva Ibbotson, The Secret of Platform 13.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Definitely the Ibbotson book. Well called Polly.

[Brittany]

yes omg yes. thank you so much!