"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.
"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer). Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.
"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.
"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.
"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "...and leave him in the car...."

"That's illegal" Ted tonks said, appalled.

Lily looked so done, Alice held her hand in comfort.

"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone...."

The occupants looked shocked

Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying -- it had been years since he'd really cried -- but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.

Many rolled their eyes. Ofcourse.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.

The hall burst out laughing, the earlier tension reducing a bit.

"Dinky d-duddydums!'" Sirius wheezed,. leaning onto James.

"I... don't... want... him... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp- spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms. Just then, the doorbell rang -- "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically -- and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers
Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

"Ofcourse, can't let your fake friends see you cry" Marlene scoffed.

Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle
Vernon had taken Harry aside.
"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right upclose to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy -- any funny business,
anything at all -- and you'll be in that cupboard from now until
Christmas."
"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly..

" The audacity" James snarled.

" We will lock you up in our dungeons" Fleamont Potter Snapped.

Lily vowed that this time she will take him to zoo until he was bored.

"Inhumane" A Slytherin mumbled to himself. Even their parents didn't punig them this much.

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.
The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was
just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.

"Accidental magic" Remus said excited

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking
as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors
and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which
she left "to hide that horrible scar."

Lily's knuckles turned white. She was ashamed to say that petunia was her sister.

Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

"That Bitch" Lily hissed, unable to control anymore. Petunia was well aware of accidental magic.

James took a deep breath to calm himself down.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting
old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls) -- The harder she
tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until
finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit
Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to
his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.

Many, though relieved, thought that he shouldn't be punished for any of it. Accidental magic was celebrated in magical world, not something to be punished for.

On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on
the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as
usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was
sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter
from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school
buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon
through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash
cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have
caught him in mid- jump.

Many adults stared at the screen amazed. How powerful was this boy?

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with
Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school,
his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.

"I feel like he jinxed it" Evan Rosier mumbled.

While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to
complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the
bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning,
it was motorcycles.

"I have a hunch that he likes harry very much" Fabian said dryly

" You are right brother of mine" Gideon agreed.

"... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a
motorcycle overtook them.
I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It
was flying."

"Oh harry" Alice said softly.

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right
around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet
with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"
Dudley and Piers sniggered.
I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."
But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the
Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking
about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a
dream or even a cartoon -- they seemed to think he might get dangerous
ideas.

James and Sirius looked at each other."maybe we should watch cartoons."

Lily and Remus shook their head immediately.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The
Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the
entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry
what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap
lemon ice pop.

"What a sweet lady"Andromeda Said

It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.

Many laughed, looking at the gorilla on the screen and agreeing with harry silently.

"He got lily's sass" Dorcas Smirked.

Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to
walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who
were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall
back on their favorite hobby of hitting him. They ate in the zoo
restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker
glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him
another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.

"Well..that's something" Lucas Leroy mumbled.

" Spoiled brat" many hissed.

Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.

"Called it" Evan mumbled again.

After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in
there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts
of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and
stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick,
man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the
place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car
and crushed it into a trash can -- but at the moment it didn't look in
the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.

The Slytherins and animal lovers stared at screen in awe and anger. For one, it was a beautiful snake with blank scales but why was this creature needed to be trapped in a glass cage?

Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the
glistening brown coils.
"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the
glass, but the snake didn't budge.

"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly
with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.

Everyone looked at the screen shocked. The Students tried not to think about the consequences they will face if they behaved like this, while the adults shook their head at the parenting.

"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.

Rodophulus Lestrange sneered in disgust.

Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He
wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself -- no
company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying
to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a
bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door
to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.

" He is comparing himself to a snake?" A Hufflepuff said "that's honestly sad"

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised
its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's. It winked.

" Snakes don't have eyelids" many people chorused in confusion whereas the others just gasped at the screen. Sirius mumbled what was going through their minds

" He is a parseltongue?" He said, looking at James stunned.

The Potter heir couldn't form a reply back, not having one. He instead looked at his father with a questioning gaze.

Fleamont answered his unasked question, sounding a bit unsure himself " I suppose it can be due to ancestral blood showing its magic now" but he trailed off muttering to himself "how are we related to Salazar Slytherin?"

While the hall discussed among themselves, whether it being about the future potter being a parseltongue or the fact snakes could wink, the eldest Malfoy and Black males fixed their eyes upon the house of potters

" I thought they came from Gryffindor lineage" Abarax said skeptically.

" Riddle" Arcturus Black asked thoughtfully " he was a parseltongue, was he not?" Earning a nod back. He didn't explain anything further as the screen began moving again, causing the small bit of murmur to die down.

Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was
watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.

Many couldn't hold back their snort.

"Only your son mate" Sirius wheezed.

The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised
its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:
"I get that all the time.
"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the
snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."The snake nodded vigorously.

" How can he thinks it's normal?" Ted mumbled confused.

" Considering how he was raised, he is probably more happy to have someone to talk rather than focusing that it is an animal " Andromeda Said sadly.

"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.
The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry
peered at it.
Boa Constrictor, Brazil.
"Was it nice there?"

"H-how" Rabastan mumbled, looking from the screen to his friends baffled " he is having a conversation about Brazil...with a snake?"

Barty just patted his head, which Rabastan pushed away.

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on:
This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see -- so you've never been to
Brazil?"

"Poor snake" Pandora lovegoods airy voice said, startling people around her.

As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of
them jump.
"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU
WON'T BELIEVE
WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.

The hall guffawed at the scene displayed, showing the blond kid waddling like a penguin.

"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by
surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened
so fast no one saw how it happened -- one second, Piers and Dudley were
leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with
howls of horror.

The laughter immediately died down, as many felt anger rush into their veins.
They were sure it was not a one time thing, considering how the elder treated him the child was no different.

Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank
had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering
out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and
started running for the exitss

The occupants looked at the screen agaped

"What a powerful display of accidental magic" Amelia bones said,eyes filled with awe. The Potters couldn't help feeling proud, despite the anger they felt earlier.

"The vanishing glass" Marlene whispered, recalling the title. Dorcas nods muttering a "makes sense".

As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low,
hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come.... Thanksss, amigo."

"How polite" Regulus smirked.

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.
"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea ........But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"

" Bloody snitch" Remus cursed and then pretended to ignore the look professor McGonagall gave him

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before
starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to
say, "Go -- cupboard -- stay -- no meals," before he collapsed into a
chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.
Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He
didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were
asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen
for some food.

A tense silence surrounded the hall.

James , feeling his heart ache and hand shaking in anger open seeing what his future son had to indure, was about to shout at Dumbledore for keeping him there when he heard a sniffle. Beside him, Lily had her head in her hands, shaking as her tears flood out. James, a bit hesitantly as to not make her uncomfortable, wrapped his arms around her.

She looked at him, eyes red with crying making James heart ache again. " They-no food-" lily's stuttering was cut off by James calm voice " we will change it.. don't worry okay? We will..I promise"

He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as
long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents
had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when
his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long
hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding
flash of green light and a burn- ing pain on his forehead. This, he
supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green
light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and
uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask
questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.

" He remembers?" Asteria whispered to herself, looking at her brother who gave her a look saying "that kid is something"

"They have a special place reserved in hell" Sirius muttered darkly.

When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the
Dursleys were his only family. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped)
that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers
they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once
while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry
furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the
shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in
green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long
purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and
then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these
people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get acloser look.

"Wait a minute" James said slowly, looking at the authorities " So people from the wizarding world saw his condition and did nothing?" His voice grew louder by each word

"Mr Potter -"

" It is obvious he is being abused " Lily cried out, cutting of the minister.

The authorities remained quiet, not knowing how to defend themselves. The were questioning they future self, wondering why the didn't take care of the future potter, especially since he was the savior of the world.

At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated
that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and
nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.

Silence surrounded the hall as the chapter ended, the screen turning black as it waited the occupants to digest the given information before proceeding.

The Potters, marauders, Lily and her friends seemed to have multiple questions running in their mind. But no one was there to answer them.

After a few minutes, the screen lit up with