A.N.: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to start the story on Chapter 2, The Vanishing Glass. Achoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bye-bye!
Disclaimer: Me not own.
Dedication: I loyally dedicate this to Draco Malfoy and Gilderoy Lockhart.
Almost ten years had Harry happily lived with the Dursleys. The garden was very pretty and the rising sun lit up the brass "4" on the Dursley's front door.
"Rise and shine, Harry dear!" called Petunia. Harry heard her walking towards his room. "Are you up yet?" she asked.
"Almost," said Harry. "I can't believe it! It's Dudley's birthday!" You could barely see the table from all the presents Harry had given Dudley. Harry gave Dudley a new computer, his second television, and a racing bike.
"Ahhh!!!!!! My son!" chortled Vernon to Harry. Harry wondered why he looked different from the Dursleys. Harry had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair and bright green eyes. He wore the best glasses in his school. He thought it was very too bad that he looked different from the Dursleys. He also had a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. He guessed he got in a fight at school, got knocked out, and someone gave him the scar.
"You look wonderful!" said Vernon. Harry was frying eggs as a surprise for Petunia and Vernon and Dudley. Dudley came in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked like his father, and Harry envied him for that. Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel -- and she also said that Harry looked like a baby angel.
Harry put the plates of eggs and bacon on the table, which was difficult because of Harry's many presents to Dudley. Dudley's face fell.
"36!" he moaned. "That's two less than last year." Harry felt a surge of anger.
"Dudley, you haven't counted Aunty Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Harry."
"All right, 37 then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry's anger lessened a bit.
"And we'll buy you another two presents. How's that?"
"And I'll buy you ten more presents, Dudley," said Harry.
"All right," said Dudley.
"Ahhh! He wants his money's worth. Just like his father! Atta boy, Dud!"
At that moment, the telephone rang, and Harry answered it while Vernon watched Dudley unwrap more presents from Harry, the racing bike, a video camera, and a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR from Vernon and Petunia.
He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Harry came back from the telephone. "Good!" he said. "Piers is coming soon." Dudley's arms jerked up in a cheer. Every year, on Dudley's birthday, Petunia and Vernon took him, Harry, and a friend out for the day...to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry, Dudley's friend, and Dudley could be by themselves. Harry loved it.
Dudley smiled broadly. "I can't -- wait! Oh, good! He's here!" he said, as the doorbell rang. Harry spent the time in the car thinking about how much he loved his mum and dad, Petunia and Vernon. They always gave him very good clothes, very good haircuts, the royal treatment.
Today, nothing could go wrong. He was going to the zoo with Piers and Dudley. While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia, and Dudley, Piers, and Harry agreed. This morning, it was motorcycles. "Roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums!" he said, as a motorcycle whizzed by.
"Yeah," said Harry, "They should be banned from the world." Dudley and Piers agreed.
It was a very sunny Saturday, and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley, Piers, and Harry large chocolate ice creams at the entrance. Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was so happy that it was Dudley's birthday, and he hoped that Dudley was happy on this very special day.
But soon Dudley, Piers, and Harry started to get bored with the animals, and by lunchtime, they started to talk about motorcycles. They ate in the zoo restaurant, and Dudley complained because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top. Harry hated the guy at the ice cream counter.
Harry felt that the day should slow down. After lunch, they went to the reptile house. It was dark and cool in there, with lit windows along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone.
Dudley, Harry, and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Harry quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could've wrapped it's body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can, and at the moment it looked just in the mood.
Harry, Dudley, and Piers stood with their noses pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils. Suddenly, the glass disappeared. The snake started attacking people. "Go, go, go!" Harry, Dudley, and Piers screamed. "Yay!
The keeper of the reptile house was in shock. "But the glass!" he kept on saying. "Where did it go?"
"Who cares?" said Dudley. By the time they were all back in Vernon's car, Dudley, Harry, and Piers were telling fabulous stories of escape. Leg-biting, attempts at squeezing them to death, and the sort.