This is my first fanfic, so please be gentle. In this AU, Voldemort was arrested, tried, and convicted not long after graduating from Hogwarts because everybody knew he was a creepy, murdering psycho. As he later died in Azkaban, he will have no part in this fic. I started writing this as a "what if," and it only recently gained an actual plot, so the beginning is a bit slow. Anyway, please enjoy (and leave comments!).
And of course, all credit and worship to the stupendous J.K. Rowling. Some of the dialogue is based on the beginning of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
Harry awoke in a sleeping bag on the floor of his cousin Dudley's bedroom. When he opened his eyes, he was a bit surprised to find himself staring directly into the face of a broken toy robot that had been hastily shoved underneath Dudley Dursley's bed. There were several other toys of varying sorts that had also been abandoned to the abyss beneath his cousin's mattress. He knew from a conversation he had overheard between his mother and Aunt Petunia that his aunt had originally planned for Harry to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs, but his mother had rejected that plan, insisting instead that some of Dudley's numerous toys could stay in the cupboard while Harry shared Dudley's room.
Harry would have been perfectly content to stay in the cupboard rather than Dudley's room because Dudley's room had a very interesting odor, and Dudley had a tendency to snore. However, he was sure that he could put up with it for one more night before he and his parents returned to their home in Godric's Hollow.
While Harry was glad to have finally met his aunt and uncle and satisfied his curiosity about these muggles, he would be even happier to head home. He knew that his Hogwarts letter should be arriving soon, and he didn't want to miss it. Plus his eleventh birthday was just a few weeks away.
Harry rolled out of the sleeping bag quietly, not wanting to wake Dudley. He wandered downstairs toward the kitchen. He passed the enormous pile of presents waiting for his cousin, since it was his cousin's birthday. From what he had overheard, he thought that Dudley's birthday (and the possibility of more presents and attention for the precious "Dinky Duddydums") was the only reason his aunt and uncle had allowed them to visit. He had overheard many interesting things in the past few weeks. He had never purposefully eavesdropped - it's just that the adults always seemed to be having such intriguing conversations, and he knew that they would stop as soon as he walked into the room.
He came across another such conversation as he paused for a moment to admire the size of Dudley's pile of presents.
"...be glad to have them out of the house. All this magic rubbish might have a bad influence on Dudley - spells, and potions, and brooms, and that kidditch or quiddock or whatever it's called," Uncle Vernon complained irritably. Harry could imagine the squinty-eyed, grumpy expression and agitated hand gestures that probably went along with the speech. "I won't have it, Petunia," he continued. "I thought your sister promised that there would be no funny business in my house!"
"Yes, dear," said Aunt Petunia, "and they haven't done anything...unnatural while they've been here. Although Lily offered to make the dishes wash themselves for me." Harry could hear her shudder of distaste at that last statement. "And the boy hasn't done anything except talk about that silly game, but he gave up when he saw that our Dudley wasn't interested."
"Hummph," Uncle Vernon grunted. "Smart boy, our Dudley. That's why he'll do just fine at Smeltings. A fine school…"
It's true that Harry had tried to become friends with Dudley, but they had absolutely nothing in common. Harry loved quidditch, the newest broomstick models, and seeing what new potions his dad was working on. Dudley on the other hand loved food, watching television, food, and bullying smaller people with his group of bully friends. Once Harry had established that they would probably never be friends, he had mostly done his best to avoid Dudley and his gang. However, Dudley and his friends were going to be impossible to avoid today. Today, they were all going to the zoo for Dudley's birthday, and one of Dudley's friends would be joining them.
Harry walked into the kitchen once it didn't seem like he was going to hear anything else. He didn't really have plan since his parents hadn't come down yet, but he decided to get a glass of water so it wouldn't look like he'd come down just to eavesdrop.
"Hmmph," Uncle Vernon grunted again when he saw Harry. "Haven't you combed your hair yet, boy? You look like a haystack." Uncle Vernon always talked a bit too loud, so it always felt like he was shouting at you no matter what he was saying.
Harry tried to pat his hair down self-consciously. He had thick black hair that stuck out every which way no matter how short it was cut, and combing it didn't really make that much of a difference. He was a small, skinny boy, with eyes the exact same shade of green as his mother's. It was much remarked upon. But other than that, he didn't really resemble either of his parents. His mother's hair was red, and while his father's hair was black, it was so dark it was almost blue, unlike Harry's hair. Harry had been told that he was a throwback to his maternal great-grandfather.
Harry didn't answer his uncle. He just sipped his cup of water and ignored the growing silence. After draining the cup, he decided that the best thing to do might be to go back upstairs and get ready for the trip to the zoo.
After he finished getting ready, he passed his Aunt Petunia as he went down the stairs. Apparently, she was going to wake Dudley up. He entered the kitchen to see his father and Uncle Vernon both seated at the kitchen table while his mother made pancakes and bacon. No one was talking, so the only sound was the hiss of the stove and the pop of bacon grease.
His mother looked up and smiled at him. Her smiles were wonderful, and receiving one was like eating a chocolate chip cookie fresh out of the oven or drinking hot chocolate by the fire when it's cold outside; something warm and cozy and wonderful.
"Would you set the table, Harry?" she asked him.
He headed over to the cabinets and started gathering plates. As he finished setting the table, Aunt Petunia entered the kitchen, followed a few moments later by a sleepy-looking Dudley.
After breakfast was finished and the dishes were gathered up, the doorbell rang. It was Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, and his mother, who had come to drop him off. Since they wouldn't all fit in one car, Harry's parents were going to drive their car while Vernon drove everyone else in his car. Somehow, Harry ended up squeezed in the backseat with Piers and Dudley.
It was a sunny day, so the zoo was crowded with families and children. Harry was enjoying the trip and the chance to look at all the different animals. Being a young boy, he was naturally most interested in the large predators and such. At one point, he even noticed a strong resemblance between Dudley and a gorilla; the only difference between them being that Dudley was blond. As Dudley and Piers began to get bored with the animals, Harry hung back away from them so that they wouldn't be tempted to use him to relieve their boredom.
After they ate lunch at the zoo restaurant, there were only a few more places to visit. One of these places was the herpetarium, or reptile house. Dudley focused on the largest snake in the place, a giant burmese python about twenty feet long. The snake seemed to be asleep.
Dudley turned to Uncle Vernon and whined, "Make it move!" Uncle Vernon rapped on the glass, but the snake didn't even twitch.
"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon tapped the glass again, but the snake showed no sign of stirring.
"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.
Harry moved up to the glass, admiring the snake's large, glossy brown coils. He turned to his father, who had stepped up next to him. "Dad, isn't the sign of Slytherin House a snake?"
His father nodded. "Slytherin has a snake, Gryffindor a lion, Ravenclaw a raven, and Hufflepuff a badger." His father put a hand on Harry's shoulder before moving on to the next exhibit.
As Harry continued to watch the snake, it moved, uncoiling and slithering around the enclosure. The snake continued slithering until its head was right in front of Harry's. Harry grinned.
"Dudley! Mr. Dursley! Come and look at this snake!" Piers yelled from directly behind Harry, making him jump.
Dudley waddled over toward them, pushing Harry out of the way. Harry was getting really tired of Dudley's shoving and pushing whenever the adults weren't watching, and he was sick of Dudley acting like a spoiled brat, even if it was his birthday.
Dudley was pressed up against the glass of the enclosure when the glass suddenly vanished, sending Dudley tumbling over the snake and into the exhibit, where he landed in the snake's artificial pond. The python was quick to make its escape while everyone stared in shock. Then pandemonium broke out. The adults, who had been on the other side of the reptile house came running back as they heard Dudley wailing.
Harry was having trouble containing his laughter. The look on Dudley's face was hysterical, and he resembled a drowned pig as he struggled to get back out of the enclosure. However, Harry quickly lost his grin when he caught sight of his parents' faces. His mother was scowling furiously as his father looked on disapprovingly, and he knew he was in for it.
The keeper of the reptile house was in shock and couldn't make sense of the incident. The zoo director himself came and made Aunt Petunia a cup of tea while he made sure Dudley got a towel to dry off. He kept apologizing, and Harry felt kind of sorry for him, since it was actually Harry's fault. As they left the reptile house, Harry heard people talking about the escaped snake. None of the keepers had found it yet.
His parents had Harry ride back to the Dursley's house in their rental car. While he was trapped with them, his mother gave him a lecture that blistered his ears.
"That was a fine example of an irresponsible waste of magic. Not only are you underage and untrained, which could get all of us into trouble with the Ministry, you also caused a lot of trouble for a lot of innocent, unsuspecting people like that poor zoo director. Not to mention what happened to Dudley. That was completely unacceptable in every way, and until I feel you've learned better, we are taking away your broomstick. If you've shown that you understand that what you did was wrong and irresponsible, you might get to ride it again before the school term starts. And that's a big if. And if I find you ever doing such a thing again, you can completely forget about quidditch."
"But Mom," Harry tried to interject, but his mother wasn't finished yet.
She had turned around in her seat to glare at Harry with the fear-inducing Mom Stare of Doom. "You know what, if we get a notice from the Ministry, you will definitely not be playing quidditch. I might even -"
"But Mom," Harry tried again. "I didn't exactly do it on purpose."
"Oh?" Her eyebrows rose, and the mom stare of doom got even worse. "So you weren't thinking about how great it would be if the glass disappeared right as Dudley was leaning on it?"
"Well," Harry hedged, "I was, but I didn't think anything would actually happen!"
His mother opened her mouth to deliver another blistering tirade, but Harry was grateful when his father interrupted.
"Now Lily, if he said it wasn't on purpose then it wasn't. Accidents happen as your magic is developing, you know that, and no harm was done to anyone as a result. Don't be too hard on him."
His mother found a new focus for her wrath. "Severus, are you saying we should just ignore this? This isn't about whether or not any harm came to anyone. It's about using your gifts responsibly."
His father nodded in agreement. "Which is why he will be grounded from riding his broomstick until further notice once we get home."
The rest of the trip passed by in silence. Harry was staring dejectedly out the window, thinking about how boring the rest of the summer would be if he couldn't ride his broomstick.
Harry's parents decided it would be best if they left immediately rather than waiting until the following morning. Perhaps they might see the Dursleys in another seven or eight years, after the memory of the reptile house incident had had time to fade.
Dudley didn't come out to say goodbye. Uncle Vernon offered a stiff nod of farewell and muttered under his breath, "And don't come back!" Aunt Petunia gave his mother an awkward, stilted hug before Harry and his family got in their rental car and left.