I do not own any characters other than Evangeline Potter

Evangeline Potter was not a morning person. Like Aunt Petunia cared. Her shrill voice was one of the first things Evie heard every morning.

"Up! Get up children! NOW!" she screamed at the door while pounding on it.

"Ev, it's time to get up," said her brother, Harry.

Pound. "Are you up yet?" Aunt Petunia yelled.

"Yes, Aunt Petunia," harry said.

"Get going. I want everything perfect on my Duddykins' birthday." a note of pride went into Petunia's voice on the last three words. "Up!" she screeched one last time and gave the door a good rap, then went to the kitchen.

"Evie, you need to get up," Harry coaxed.

Okay okay I'm up," she said with a groan. She had forgotten it was Dudley's birthday.

Evie was a very thin girl, with light red hair, pale skin and light amber- brown eyes that in the right light, almost matched her hair. Her brother, Harry, was a thin boy with very untidy hair, knobby knees, and bright green eyes. That was one thing that made Harry stand out in a crowd, his eyes. Of course, as he and Evie were twins, one always knew where the other was. It was one of the many strange things about the two children. They both had a lightning shaped scar. Harry's was on his forehead, and Evie's was on her right cheekbone, close to her eye. Once, she and Harry asked where they had gotten the scars. "In the car crash, when your parents died. Don't ask questions." don't ask questions. It was the first lesson of living with the Dursleys.

As she entered the kitchen with Harry to make breakfast, and saw the table piled high with gifts for Dudley. When harry finished the bacon, and Evie finished eggs, Dudley entered the room. He was a very fat boy, with no neck, like his father, and fat arms and legs. He waddled to the table and started to count up gifts.

"But Mum! I only got thirty six presents. That's TWO less than last year!" His face turned a light shade of red, and then got darker.

Aunt Petunia looked very nervous. "Duddykins, you didn't count the big one from your Auntie Marge."

"Well then that's thirty seven. STILL one less than last year!"

Evie sensed a Dudley tantrum coming on, and started to eat her eggs quickly in case something happened. Aunt Petunia obviously felt the same way, as she then told Dudley that when they were out today, they would buy him "another TWO presents. Then that would be thirty nine." Dudley's fat face squinted in concentration. "Then that would be more than last year?"

"Yes Dinky Duddydums." Aunt Petunia said nervously.

"Alright," he said.

Just then, Uncle Vernon came into the kitchen. He looked a great deal like a pink walrus, without tusks. Dudley took after him quite a bit. He chuckled, "My little tyke wants his money's worth. Atta boy, Dudders!" Uncle Vernon seemed to see Harry for the first time. "Brush your hair!" he barked to him as a morning greeting. Harry's hair was always untidy; it simply grew all over the place. On the other hand, Evie's hair was brushed into her ballerina's bun, which she wore even outside of dance class. The only reason she was allowed to take classes was some scholarship a benefactor set up to promising students. It covered the cost of clothes, shoes, and lessons at the studio. Evie wanted to be a professional dancer, and stretched every day, but her teacher, Ms. Hartman, said Evie would not be ready for pointe shoes for at least another year. Evie was very disappointed, but Ms. Hartman knew what she was doing, as she taught many soloists.

The phone rang, and Aunt Petunia went out in the hall to answer it. Evie was serving the bacon when Aunt Petunia stalked into the kitchen. "Bad news, Vernon. Mrs. Figg's broken her leg, and can't take those two."

Dudley stopped eating and his mouth dropped in horror. But the twins became slightly hopeful. Every year for Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out to theme parks, movies, and restaurants. And every year, Harry and Evie went to stay with Mrs. Figg, who lived down the street. Her house reeked of cabbage, and she made them look at pictures of all of the cats she had ever had. They knew they should look sad, but it was hard to look sad when they knew that it was an entire year before they had to look at dead cats.

"What about your sister, Marge?" Aunt Petunia asked Uncle Vernon.

"Don't be silly, Petunia. She hates them. What about your friend, Yvonne?" Vernon replied.

"On vacation." Petunia said shortly. "Can we leave them here?"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Uncle Vernon raged. "I will not come back to find the house in shambles!"

Harry muttered under his breath, "we won't do anything," but nobody heard him. They were always referred to as "the children," "those two" "boy" or "girl," like something the Dursleys didn't understand.

"We could take them to the zoo, and then just leave them in the car..." Aunt Petunia trailed off.

"No Petunia, I won't stand for it. That car is new." Vernon was turning a pale shade of pink.

The front doorbell rang. "Oh good Lord, they're here!" Aunt Petunia cried. By 'them" she meant Piers Polkiss, a friend of Dudley's. Piers was a scrawny boy with the face of a rat. He usually held people's hands behind their back while Dudley punched them.

In the end, it was decided that Harry and Evie would go with the Dursleys to the zoo. Before they left, Uncle Vernon pulled them into the hallway. "Now," he said threateningly, "no funny business. At all. Or I swear you will never see the outside of your cupboard again."

"We won't do anything," Evie protested. But Uncle Vernon did not look very happy. He did have some reason to, though. Many weird things happened to the twins.

Once, Aunt Petunia, sick of Harry's untidy hair, cut it to about a quarter of an inch, except for his bangs which she said would hide 'that ugly scar.' Harry was so scared of going to school the next day. They were already teased and humiliated so much already. But the next day, Harry's hair was normal, like it was never cut! The Dursleys were so mad, that they gave Harry a week in the closet under the stairs. Evie made them put her in too, just to be with Harry. Another time, Evie knocked over the toaster, but instead of crashing to the floor, it stopped a foot from the floor, and then set itself gently down. She got two weeks in the closet for that one, and Harry made the Dursleys put him in too, just to be with her. But neither could explain why that happened. It just did.

But today was going to be different. For the first time, Evie and Harry were going to the zoo. They were sure that nothing would go wrong. On the way to the zoo, Uncle Vernon complained about a lot of things. The twins were his favorite subject. But this morning, seeing a pack of motorcyclists, Uncle Vernon got going about motorcycles. "Ruddy things, why can't they just use a car, and they're so loud," he complained.

Harry piped up. "I had a dream about a motorcycle once," he said.

"It was flying," Evie finished for him. They always had the same dreams.

At the stop light, Uncle Vernon turned around in his seat, his eyes looking suspiciously smaller than usual. "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!' He yelled to them. Piers and Dudley snickered.

That morning was one of the best mornings Evie and Harry had ever had with the Dursleys. They were careful to walk a little away from Dudley and Piers, in case they fell to their old hobby of punching them. Harry motioned Evie to the gorillas. "It looks like Dudley, doesn't it," he said. Evie had to smother her giggles, for at that moment, Aunt Petunia shot her a nasty look. They ate lunch in the cafeteria in the zoo, and even the twins got dessert when Dudley threw a loud and very public tantrum because his Knickerbocker Glory didn't have enough ice cream, and Uncle Vernon got him another one.

But it was all too good to last. After the lunch, they made their way to the reptile house, where it was cool and dark. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, man-crushing pythons, and venomous snakes, and then they found one. This snake could have easily crushed Uncle Vernon's precious new car, but at the moment, didn't look frightening. It was asleep. Dudley pounded on the glass, trying to make it move. "Dad, Dad, make it move! Make it do something!" he whined to Uncle Vernon. Uncle Vernon tapped the glass twice, but the snake stayed asleep. Dudley got bored, and moved on. Harry pulled Evie to the case where the snake was sleeping.

And then, suddenly, it moved. It raised itself up to the twins' eye level, and it winked. Harry glanced around then winked back. Evie, always more cautious, observed the other people in the reptile house for a while longer, then proceeded to wink back. It then proceeded to give them a look that said, quite plainly, "I get that all the time."

'I know, said Harry.

"That's horrible," Evie said. "I'm sorry." the python gave her a look that said, 'It's not your fault." "I know," she said, echoing Harry, "but that is still so sad."

Harry interrupted her, "where do you come from?" the snake pointed its tail at the sign outside its cage. BOA CONSTRICTOR, BRAZIL.

"Have you ever been to Brazil?" Evie asked.

The snake pointed again to its sign. BRED IN CAPTIVITY. "I'm sorry," Evie said.

"MR. DURSLEY! DUDLEY! COME HERE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT THE SNAKE IS DOING!" Piers came running up behind the twins.

"Out of the way," Dudley commanded, and pushed Harry to the ground, while Evie danced out of the way. She felt a red-hot flash of anger, and then the glass disappeared. Dudley had to grab the railing to keep from falling over, and there were gasps and screams of horror as the snake slithered out of the cage. Evie heard it say, "Brazil, here I come. Thanksss, amigo." the snake slithered out of the house quite quickly. The zoo director was in shock. He kept asking where the glass went, and brewed everyone hot cups of tea. Evie only saw the snake playfully nip at the heels of people, but by the time they were at the car, Dudley barely got away with his life, and Piers said it almost bit off his leg. But, Piers calmed down enough to ask Evie and Harry why they were talking to the snake.

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before grabbing both of the twins by their arms, and saying "into the cupboard- stay- no meals," before collapsing into the chair. Aunt Petunia rushed off to get him some brandy.

"I wish we had a watch, and then we would know how long we've been in here," Harry told Evie sadly.

"Harry, just go to sleep, it makes time pass faster," Evie said, but she knew she or Harry could not sleep. They had lived with the Dursleys ten miserable years, since their parents had died in the car crash. But they could not remember a car crash. Sometimes, when they strained their memories, all Evie and Harry could come up with is a green light, and pain, Harry's on his forehead, Evie's on her cheek. The pain must be from the crash, but they couldn't think what the green light was. They did not know what their parents looked like, there were no pictures.

Many times, Evie hoped and wished and dreamed that someone would take her away from the Dursleys. And it seemed that people knew her. Once, in a shop, a man in a purple top hat bowed to her and Harry. Aunt Petunia asked angrily if she knew the man, then rushed them out of the shop. A woman dressed in all green waved to them merrily on a bus. But apart from those few times, Evie and Harry had nobody. Dudley made sure of that, and nobody disagreed with Dudley and his gang.