A/n I don't own Harry Potter. It all belongs to J.K Rowling. The only character that is mine is Elizabeth.

Chapter One

"Up! Get Up! Now!"

It was to the sound of shrill shrieking that 10 year old Harry and his twin sister Elizabeth woke up to. Though after almost 10 years of it you'd think it wouldn't surprise them as much as it did. Their aunt knocked on the door again.

"Up!" Elizabeth reckoned that it was a similar screech to the ones velociraptors used to make. Elizabeth groaned and made a motion that somewhat resembled sitting up. She looked over to see her twin simply shifting to his side and closing his eyes. She lightly put her hand on his arm to try and see what he was thinking through the twin bond, all she caught was something about a flying motorcycle. She and Harry had found out that they could "hear" what the other was saying when their skin touched years ago. Neither of them could explain it and figured that it just had something to do with being a twin.

Suddenly their aunt was by the door.

"Are you up yet?" she asked in the same shrill tone.

"Nearly," mumbled Harry.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."

"I wouldn't dream of letting the bacon burn," said Elizabeth sarcastically at the same time that Harry groaned.

"What did you say?" Aunt Petunia snapped.

"Nothing," Exclaimed Harry and Elizabeth.

Dudley's birthday, one of Elizabeth's least favorite days of the year. Not only did it involve a pampered Dudley fussed over and spoiled, but it also included making an even larger breakfast than usual and being left while the Dursley's went out. Elizabeth slowly got up and saw that Harry was doing the same. They went through their usual morning routine of staying on opposite sides of the cupboard and making small movements to avoid hitting one another. While Elizabeth hated the small space and the spiders that came out of nowhere, she had to admit that it was a feat that two 10 year olds could fit into the tiny cupboard.

When both of them were dressed, they went to the kitchen to find the table hidden beneath a mound of presents. Elizabeth was impressed that the table wasn't buckling under all their weight. Elizabeth looked at all the presents and was vaguely surprised that she didn't see a punching bag shaped one, she thought with how much Dudley like to punch things he would want an easy target that couldn't run. While she and Harry were Dudley's favorite punching bags, he could rarely catch them. Not to mention there wasn't a lot of them to hit. Both were skin and bone and pretty short for their age. Though both of them looked tinier than they really were since they both wore hand-me-downs. Harry had the unfortunate luck of having to wear Dudley's while Elizabeth at least got hers from one of Aunt Petunia's friends who had a daughter. Luckily enough, the daughter was smaller than Dudley so Elizabeth's clothes were only a few sizes to big. Like her brother Elizabeth had black hair, a thin face, and knobbly knees. Though her hair wasn't nearly as wild as her brother's and hung somewhat straight. Unlike her brother she had hazel eyes that appeared almost black when she got angry. She also had a very thin lightning shaped scar over her right eye like her brother's that she had had for ages. She remembered Aunt Petunia's answer for how they had acquired them.

"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don ask questions."

Elizabeth hated the don't ask questions rule, she was a naturally curious person and wanted to know why and how. She never understood the car crash answer for their scars. It just didn't make sense for a car crash to give them identical scars in the perfect shape of a lightning bolt.

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry and Elizabeth were flipping the bacon in their respective pans.

"Comb your hair!" he barked.

You'd think he give up on trying to control your hair. It's simply a lost cause. Elizabeth pointed out to Harry through the bond.

I guess he's hoping that one day a miracle will happen and my hair will magically straighten out.

Eventually Dudley managed to find his way to the kitchen with Aunt Petunia. Elizabeth was impressed that both Uncle Vernon and Dudley were able to fit through the door with relatively little trouble. Although there had been one day where Uncle Vernon had had to suck in his breath in order to slide through. Elizabeth and Harry put the eggs and bacon on the table, or at least what part of the table was visible. While they were doing this, Dudley was counting his presents. His face fell.

"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

Elizabeth was surprised that he was able to count that high.

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy." Elizabeth rolled her eyes at her aunt's parenting skills.

"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, using his inherited skill of going red in the face. Elizabeth saw Harry start gobbling his food and quickly joined him.

Aunt Petunia quickly said, ''And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"

Dudley looked as close to thoughtful as he got and finally said, "So I'll have thirty… thirty...thirty"

Elizabeth rolled her eyes again at his stupidity, something she seemed to do often when he opened his mouth.

"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.

"Oh." Dudley said calming down and grabbing a present. "All right then."

Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!"

How in the world did Uncle Vernon come up with that conclusion? Elizabeth asked Harry.

I have no clue. Responded Harry.

The telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Dudley unwrapped his presents. There were so many being unwrapped in quick succession that Elizabeth lost track of what he had opened. Eventually Aunt Petunia had come back looking frustrated and worried.

"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take them." She jerked her head in the direction of the twins.

Dudley's face quickly took on an expression of horror, but Harry and Elizabeth started feeling hopeful. Through the bond Elizabeth could feel Harry's thoughts speeding up with excitement. She didn't blame him. Every year on Dudley's birthday, the two of them were left with a strange old lady named Mrs. Figg while the Dursley's went somewhere fun. Mrs. Figg seemed a tad bit out of it and had an obsession with her cats and made Harry and Elizabeth look at pictures of them.

"Now what?" asked Aunt Petunia, glaring at Harry and Elizabeth like they had broken Mrs. Figg's leg.

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested. Elizabeth's heart dropped like a stone. Aunt Marge was ten times worse than Mrs. Figg and at least none of Mrs. Figg's cats bit her.

"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates them."

Thank goodness for that. Thought Elizabeth.

I know. Maybe they'll let us stay by ourselves this year!

I doubt that. They don't trust us at all. While staying home by themselves would be great, the chances of the Dursleys ever leaving them home alone were slim.

While the twins had been communicating, the decision of what to do with them had continued. "What about what's-her-name, your friend- Yvonne?"

"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia while looking at Harry and Elizabeth like it was their fault she was on vacation.

"You could just leave us here," Harry put in sounding hopeful.

Aunt Petunia looked like that was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.

"We won't blow up the house!" Exclaimed Elizabeth indignantly, but they were back to pretending like Harry and Elizabeth weren't there.

Told you. Thought Elizabeth sadly.

Was worth a try. Harry thought just as glumly.

"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia carefully, ". . . and leave them in the car. . ."

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

Suddenly Dudley began wailing really loudly and screwed up his face.

Aunt Petunia's reaction was instantaneous, "Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, somehow managing to throw her arms around him.

"I. . . don't. . . want. . . them. . . t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between "sobs". "Th-they always sp-spoil everything!" He grinned at Harry and Elizabeth through the hole in his mother's arms.

Then the doorbell rang - "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically- a moment later Piers Polkiss walked in with his mother in tow. Piers had the exact opposite build of Dudley with his scrawny arms, narrow face, and light brown hair. Magically, Dudley stopped crying as soon as Piers walked in.

Half an hour later, Harry and Elizabeth found themselves sharing a seat in the back of the Dursleys' car next to Piers and Dudley. Their aunt and uncle were unable to think of what to do with them and decided that the easiest way to prevent anything burning down was to bring them along. Though that hadn't stopped Uncle Vernon from taking them aside.

"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his face uncomfortably close to their faces, "I'm warning you now- any funny business, anything at all-and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

Harry said "We're not going to do anything, honestly."

At the same time that Elizabeth asked, "What would we even do?"

But Uncle Vernon didn't trust or believe them. Though to be fair, no one did.

The trouble was, that weird things seemed to happen to them and it made no difference telling the Dursleys that they didn't make any of it happen.

Once Aunt Petunia had decided to give Harry a hair cut herself and decided that while she was at it, she would give Elizabeth one too. By the end Harry had had almost no hair and Elizabeth's hair didn't reach her chin. By the next morning Harry's looked like it had never been cut and Elizabeth's was back to its normal length of just above her waist. Aunt Petunia had not been pleased and would not accept that fact that neither of them knew how it happened. Elizabeth in the end had said that it was like magic. That turned out to be a mistake. Elizabeth had never seen anyone go to white and then to bright red as quickly as her aunt had that day. In the end she and Harry were given a week in the cupboard and Elizabeth learned not to say the m word.

Another time Harry and Elizabeth had been locked in their cupboard and Elizabeth was really angry and hungry. All she wanted to do was get out of the cupboard and suddenly when she leaned against the door, it swung wide open. Her aunt had not been happy, but decided that one of the locks had simply been old and had broken. Luckily enough that meant that she and Harry didn't get in even more trouble.

Although once their aunt and uncle had been furious when Harry and Elizabeth had somehow ended up on the roof of the school. To this day Elizabeth could not figure out how they got on the roof. Harry figured that the wind picked them up mid-jump, but that didn't make any sense. No matter how tiny they were, they weren't that tiny. In the end all Elizabeth really remembered from that experience was a lot of yelling when Uncle Vernon had gotten the letter from the headmistress that they had been climbing buildings.

Hopefully today nothing would go wrong . Though thinking back on all of the weird experiences that she and her brother had had Elizabeth wasn't so sure. She took a deep breath and focused on Harry's confidence that nothing would go wrong today.

While they were driving to the zoo, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. Complaining just happened to be one of Uncle Vernon's favorite past times. Today he had decided to complain about motorcycles.

". . . roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, while a motorcycle drove past them.

Suddenly Harry said, "I had a dream about a motorcycle. It was flying."

Elizabeth cringed, Uncle Vernon was not a fan of things acting abnormal. She was right to be nervous because Uncle Vernon nearly crashed the car once what Harry said registered in his mind as abnormal. He turned in his seat to yell at Harry, "MOTOCYCLES DON'T FLY!"

Dudley and Piers seemed to find the situation funny.

"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."

Elizabeth loved her brother, but sometimes he used no common sense or thought before he said anything to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. Sometimes she thought he had no self-preservation.

After and uncomfortable car ride, they finally arrived at the zoo without any incident, and the day seemed to be going well. To start off the Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers ice cream, and before they could leave the vendor had asked Harry and Elizabeth what they wanted. In the end they had bought each of them a lemon ice pop. Later after looking at some of the animals, they went to get lunch at the zoo restaurant. There Dudley had gotten upset when his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, so the Dursleys ordered another and Elizabeth and Harry were able to finish the first.

Unfortunately things had been going too well.

They went to the reptile house after lunch. It was cold and dark and seemed a little foreboding. Behind the glass, several species of lizards and snakes slithered and crawled. Dudley and Piers were drawn toward the huge, poisonous cobras and huge, deadly pythons. They made their way towards the largest snake in the place. It could have killed several men at once, if it wasn't fast asleep.

Dudley pressed his face right against the tank, but no matter how hard he stared, the snake refused to move.

"Make it move," he whined. Uncle Vernon tapped the glass, but the snake still didn't move.

"Do it again," Dudley commanded. Uncle Vernon tapped harder, but the snake didn't seem to notice or care.

"This is boring," Dudley said, his limited patience already stretched. He walked away.

Elizabeth and Harry moved a bit closer to get a better look at the snake.

I wouldn't be surprised if it had died of boredom. Harry thought.

Neither would I. The poor thing doesn't have a lot of room to move and all it can really do all day is watch people point and stare at it through the glass.

All of a sudden the snake opened its eyes and stared right at Harry and Elizabeth. Slowly its head came their eye level. And then, it winked?

Are snakes supposed to wink? Elizabeth asked.

I don't think so.

Elizabeth watched Harry glance around and then wink back at the snake. Elizabeth followed his example and quickly winked at the snake too. She didn't want to be rude to the snake. All though what were the proper manners to use when dealing with a snake?

The snake suddenly jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, than rolled its eyes towards the ceiling. It gave the twins a look that said quite clearly:

"I get that all the time."

"I know," Harry said, though Elizabeth couldn't tell if the snake could hear or understand him. "It must be really annoying."

The snake nodded vigorously.

Elizabeth blinked. Was it normal for snakes to understand humans and respond?

"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.

The snake pointed its tail at a sign near the glass. Elizabeth read it.

Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

Bred in captivity

"Do you want to go there?" asked Elizabeth finally finding her voice.

The snake nodded its head vigorously again. Suddenly a loud shout behind Harry and Elizabeth caused all three to jump. "DUDLEY! ! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

"Sorry," murmured Elizabeth quickly.

Dudley hurriedly waddled towards the snake.

"Out of the way, you," he said, pushing Harry to the side. Before Elizabeth could move, he was falling on top of her and both of them landed roughy on the concrete floor. What happened next happened in a blur- one moment, piers and Dudley were leaning against the glass, the next, they had leapt back with screams of terror.

Harry and Elizabeth sat up and gasped; the glass that had been in front of the boa constrictor's tank had disappeared. The large snake had wasted no time and was quickly uncoiling itself, slithering down the hall. Soon the reptile house was in pandemonium with people screaming and running towards the exits.

As the snake slid past them, Harry and Elizabeth heard a low voice say, "Brazil, here I come . . . Thanksss, amigos."

The keeper of the reptile was in shock.

"But the glass," he repeated, "where did the glass go?"

The zoo director made Aunt Petunia a cup of tea and apologized profusely. Piers and Dudley by this point were only able to gibber. It wasn't even like the snake had attacked them. It simply snapped at the back of their heels. After all, if the snake had wanted to kill them, they would be dead. By the time they had made it back to Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling the tale of how he had nearly lost his leg, while Piers was saying it tried to squeeze him to death. If Elizabeth hadn't been so worried about how Uncle Vernon would react once they were in the car, she would have rolled her eyes. Elizabeth had thought at the time that things couldn't get any worse, but then Piers eventually calmed down enough to say, "Elizabeth and Harry were talking to it, weren't you guys?"

Uncle Vernon held his temper and tongue until Piers was out of the house before turning toward Harry and Elizabeth. He was extremely purple and only managed to get out, "Go-cupboard-stay-no meals," before he collapsed in a chair and requested a brandy from Aunt Petunia.

Elizabeth and Harry sat in the dark cupboard hours later, bored to death and wishing they had some food. But they wouldn't be able to sneak out to get food until the Dursleys were asleep.

It was at times like this when Elizabeth thought back to the wish that she had had since she was little. She had dreamed that someone would come and take her and Harry away. Now that she was older she realized that that wasn't likely, so she had come up with a new dream, a more plausible dream. She dreamed that one day after she left the Dursleys she would get revenge for the way that they treated her and her brother.

A/n the first few chapters will follow the book pretty closely, but once they get to Diagon Alley it should diverge.