A Trip to the Zoo

"Rose, Harry! Wake up, now!" Her aunt's voice screeched outside her bedroom door. She let out a soft moan and rolled over. She heard Harry rustling around, obviously looking for socks. However, she was content to simply lay there and think about the dream she'd been having. There had been a man with dark hair and a smiling haughty face. However, she found that the more she tried to remember the dream, the faster it faded away.

Knowing she would have to get up sooner or later, she stretched out like a cat and flipped over so that she met the ground much sooner than she actually wanted to. "Ow," she uttered, while Harry looked at her with a bemused expression. She shrugged it off and sat up yawning.

She pulled an old hairbrush out from under her bed and began untangling her beautiful auburn hair's terrible bedhead. Sighing heavily, she said, "Come on, Harry, we have to go down there eventually." A thought passed through her head, and she added dully, "Today is Dudley's birthday." Harry sighed too. He raked his hands through his jet-black hair and walked out of the room.

Rose quickly checked the bathroom mirror for any of those annoying pre-pubescent acne bumps but was pleased to find none. She patted down her bangs to hide her lightning bolt scar and joined Harry for the long walk down the stairs.

She looked with uninterested eyes at the presents that adorned the table. Knowing that something doesn't belong to you certainly changes how you look at the object. Aunt Petunia finished cooking the eggs and bacon and gave the plates to the ones which they belonged since there was no space on the table.

"Thirty-six? That's two less than last year," Dudley commented. He'd been counting his presents.

"Who cares, Dudley?" spat Rose. "Don't be such a spoiled brat," she hissed, jabbing her fork at him. Dudley lowered his head in shame and Harry looked at Rose in awe; he didn't know how his sister always handled Dudley so easily.

"Did you count the one from Aunt Marge, dear?" Aunt Petunia asked.

"Thirty-seven then," Dudley said with his head still down.

Rose ate her breakfast with satisfaction. Plus, she was to go to the zoo today with the Dursleys.


The ride over to the zoo was uneventful. Uncle Vernon had taken Rose and Harry aside to make sure that none of that "funny business" would go on. And they promised that they wouldn't do anything. It wasn't as though he believed them anyways.

Rose was transfixed by the wolves when they passed by that cage. She'd never seen one before, and they just seemed to call to her, but when she turned around, she noticed that the Dursleys and Harry were nowhere to be seen. She bit her bottom lip and determined that they would have continued on the way that they hadn't gone yet. So, that's the way she went.

Up ahead was the reptile house, and Rose knew that Dudley wouldn't give up the chance to see a bunch of huge snakes. So, she moved quickly in the hopes of not losing the Dursleys again. She finally spotted them at a glass cage, but Dudley appeared to be getting frustrated and soon moved away. She walked up to the cage that he had been so interested in and saw a humongous snake; it was sleeping. She let a giggle escape her lips and started to move on, but a movement in her peripherals stopped her.

The snake had lifted its head and was looking right at her. She moved back in front of the glass and looked at the snake with curiosity. Her bright green eyes studied its yellow ones until one of them winked at her.

She smiled, but she didn't know why. She winked back and whispered, "I bet you get that all the time." The snake nodded his head vigorously, and Rose sighed. She looked at the sign next to the snake: Brazilian Boa Constrictor, Bred in Captivity. "That's terrible for you. Would you like to see Brazil?" It nodded vigorously again.

Rose looked around, not wanting to get in trouble by the Dursleys; she knew that they hated what she and Harry could do. They weren't looking at her, so she closed her eyes and imagined the glass disappearing. Sure enough, when she opened her eyes, the glass was gone, and the snake was quickly uncoiling itself. She stepped back into the shadows of the reptile house and watched the entire scene with people screaming and running. As it passed her, she thought she heard a hiss of, "Thanksss, amiga."

However, one person did not run; Rose noticed that Harry was watching her from the other side of the room. They were the only two left in the building. "What's your problem, Rose? Do you like just making trouble?" His vivid green eyes were glaring into her equally as vivid green eyes.

"Maybe," she whispered. "maybe it's more fun than just looking at animals in cages. I don't know why you don't do it more often. I doubt if you even could any more." He narrowed his eyes at the challenge and closed them in concentration.

Rose turned toward the cage that had previously held the boa constrictor. The glass began to materialize back into its original place. She smiled innocently at him and leaned over close to his ear whispering, "I knew you could do it, brother."

Harry looked away as if in shame. She grabbed his hand and quickly pulled him away from the reptile house so that the Dursleys would not find them there.

"Why do you talk to snakes, Rose? I can't do that," Harry commented on their way back to the Dursleys' car. She looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I'm not sure, but as soon as our real family comes to get us, we can ask them." Rose said, entirely sure of herself.

Harry just stared at her sadly; he wasn't quite the optimist that she was.