Hello it Selena Jacy here this is my first time really uploading anything so I am super nervous but I decided to try and its all thanks to my best friend Piper-Audrey-Freeman whose wrote a few stories on here and pushed me to post this. Also thanks to her this chapter was awesomely edited with her help. So please go check her out! Anyways I really hope you enjoy the story of Vivian. :)
Chapter One: Beginnings
My earliest memory is the fire and the hot burning embers of my falling home.
The night my mother died at the hands of those monsters will forever haunt my young mind. Sometime I can still remember her screams and sobbing cries. I remember my own cries as the hot embers fell from the ceiling, burning my young skin.
Then th there was a man. He gently lifted me from my crib. He looked like the other yet somehow different in some way... I remember the cold I felt in his hands as we traveled eventually handed me over to some woman and that's whom I lived with her for almost a year. At the end of that year, the dark monsters returned… The woman, along with her husband, died at the hands of that evil, as well, and I was left with their young son at the age of two. From there we were left to the only relatives of my adoptive brother, the Dursley's. I was left there to live the rest of my miserable life... but maybe one day, just maybe, I'll escape.
*10 year later*
I woke up from my nightmare in a cold sweat. My hand immediately flew up to my face and gently traced one of the burns that marred the pale skin of my cheek. I let out a shaky breath. I was no longer in my burning house. I was back in the 'room' I shared with my brother, Harry, who seemed to be awake still, staring up at the ceiling, with a lack of anything to do while he fell asleep. I moved the hand from my face and nudged Harry with it, still feeling unsettled by my mother's screams, which echoed in my head, leftover from my dream.
"Harry," I whispered.
"Yeah Viv?" Harry replied next to me, "Nightmares again?"
I nodded. Harry and I shared a 'room' and a small bed under the stairs inside a small cupboard, since the Dursley's just hated us. I rolled over in bed so I could face Harry.
"Do you ever dream about them?" I asked
"Who?" he asked his head cocked to the side.
"Your parents" I replied.
"Well…" Harry said, "Yea sometimes, the pictures are pretty helpful..."
"Yea…I wish I could I remember mine" I said sadly "No one seems to know anything about them, I wish I just knew something."
Harry looked at me sympathetically and reached and clasped my hand and brought it up between us. "You'll find someone who will know something, Vivian… I know you will, someday"
I shook my head a tear falling from my eye.
"You won't ever leave me, right Harry?" Harry shook his head in silently agreement, and I let go of his hand in order to hold out my pinky, "Promise?"
"Promise." he replied linking my pinky with his own.
I smiled as me and my brother curled up together and fell asleep.
In all the ten years my little brother Harry and I have lived in 4 Privet Drive nothing has change not even the way Aunt Petunia decide to wake us up every morning. Her shrill voice was the first noise of our day.
"Up! Get up! Now!" she screeched as Harry and I jolted upward. Then she pounded on the door again. "Up!" .
I groaned as I heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. I fell back into bed rubbing my eyes
"Harry, you up?" I asked.
"Yep" he replied.
"How was dreamland?" I asked.
"Good, it had some sort of flying motorcycle in it" he said
"Cool" I said, getting up and crouching in what we both had for a room.
Harry sat up in bed and scratched at his head "I feel like I've had this dream before."
I was just about to reply when my aunt returned to the door.
"Are you up yet?" she demanded.
"Nearly," Harry called out.
"Almost aunty" I yelled out after.
"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And Vivian you watch you brother. Don't you dare let him burn it, I want everything to be perfect for Duddy's birthday." She instructed.
Harry and I groaned in unison as I hit my forehead with the palm of my hand
"I completely forgot his stupid birthday" I complained, forgetting that my aunt was still at the door,
"What did you say?" our aunt snapped through the door.
"Uhm, nothing, nothing..." I called out nervously as I heard her walk away.
I searched for some decent clothing and ended up with one of my little brothers old shirts. To go along with it I had a lovely pair of old jeans, some hole ridden socks and I don't think you wanna know about the underwear. I had to turn around so Harry could get dressed and once he was done with that, he stepped out so I could do the same After I emerged from the cupboard, fully dressed, we both headed down the hall into the kitchen.
The kitchen table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Although I had no clue why they would buy him a bike like that because Dudley wasn't exactly the healthiest person in the world and hated exercise anyway, unless, of course, it involved punching somebody. And everyone knew Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry. He wouldn't dare hit me though. Not after the ice-cream incident.
Let's just say Dudley tried to make me his little servant and I refused. He had tried to hit me, but I was much faster, and before I even knew what was happening I had stuffed his face into his bowl of ice-cream. I was able to get away with it until I told harry about it and as I did that, Harry had walked right over to Dudley and punched him in the face! It was the first and last time I'd ever seen him hit Dudley . As punishment Harry had to go a week without supper and was kept in our "room" under lock and key. But, of course, I got food to him as much as I could and I had stolen the key many times in order to let him out. Harry had always acted like the older brother even though he was a year younger and I loved him for it .
But even though Dudley and Harry did get into the occasional scrap, I was never afraid for Harry. Mostly because Dudley usually couldn't catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast. He never seemed to get hurt too often either.
Harry and I always felt so different in this house. Hopefully one day that would change.
Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon and I stared at the pan intently, as Aunt Petunia had instructed me to do so, making sure Harry didn't burn "Duddy's" bacon. And as with every morning my uncle immediately barked at Harry and I to "Comb your hair!"
For some reason every week he felt the need to tell us we needed a haircut, so we could look nice and decent. I had no idea why he bothered, though, because he knew I grew my hair out to cover my the burns on my face and neck and Harry's hair just kind of grew out that way.
Just as Harry started frying the eggs, Dudley arrived in the kitchen .
Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon, with a large pink face, and not a whole lot of neck to speak of. He had, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel – Harry and I often referred to Dudley as the pig in a wig.
Harry and I put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents when his face fell.
"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."
"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."
"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.
Oh great I thought to myself and I looked over to Harry. He knew as well as I did that Dudley was about to have one of his famous temper tantrums and from the looks of it, it was going to be a big one. Harry began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible which I would assume he was doing just in case Dudley turned the table over. I gently began to move out of my seat, away from the table and closer to my brother.
Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that alright?''
Dudley thought this over for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty..."
"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.
"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel.
"All right then."Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!"
He ruffled Dudley's hair. Harry and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes.
At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry, Uncle Vernon, and I watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He was just ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.
"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take them."
She jerked her head in me and Harry's direction. Dudley's mouth fell open in horror and I almost jumped out of my seat in joy and I could see my brother physically fighting to stay seated himself.
Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, or hamburger restaurants, or to the movies, and every year, Harry and I were left with Mrs. Figg, the mad old lady who lived two streets away. We both hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made us look at photographs of every cat she'd ever owned.
"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry and I as if we had planned this. I probably should have felt sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when I reminded myself it would be a whole year before I had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.I quietly let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.
"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates them both."
The Dursley's often spoke about us like this, as though we weren't there or rather, as though we were something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like slugs. Gross.
"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"
"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia pinching the bridge of her noise.
"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully.
"Yea" I added in, a hopefulness to my voice as well.
Aunt Petunia looked at us and laughed "And come back and find the house in ruins?"
"We won't blow up the house," I exclaimed, but they weren't listening.
"I suppose we could take them to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "...and leave him in the car..."
"That car's new, they are not sitting in it alone..."
Then Dudley began to cry loudly. Well, he wasn't really crying - it had been years since he'd really cried - but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.
"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let them spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.
"I... don't... want... them... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "They sp- spoil everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms . I looked at him and let a small growl and "Duddy" went back to crying into his mother's arms again.
Just then, the doorbell rang - "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother.
Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.
Half an hour later, and Harry and I couldn't believe our luck. We were sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in our lives. Our aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with us, but before we'd left, Uncle Vernon pulled both of us aside.
"I'm warning you," he had said, grabbing our shirts and putting his large purple face right up close to ours, "I'm warning you now, you - any funny business, anything at all - and you two will be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."
"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly..."
Uncle Vernon then turned to look at me and I raise my hands in the air, innocently. But of course Uncle Vernon didn't believe us. No one ever did. Still, I silently prayed please please please let nothing go wrong today.
When we had gotten into the car I had made sure I was next to Dudley instead of my brother, that way if he tried anything I would be in close enough range to hit him if he tried anything funny.
As we drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia.
He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, me, the council, Harry, me, the bank, me again, and Harry. And those were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles. "... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.
"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry suddenly. "It was flying."
Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front of us.
He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"
I muttered under my breath "Don't yell at harry it was just a dream"
"What was that young lady?" Uncle Vernon growled.
"Nothing" I muttered.
Dudley and Piers started to snigger but I shot them a look, growling slightly and watching them back off in fear. I looked over at Harry who gave me a quiet shrug and sighed.
It was a very sunny Saturday at the zoo and families crowded the space excitedly . The Dursleys bought Duddy and his stupid friend two large chocolate ice creams cone at the entrance, and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry and me what we wanted, the dursley's reluctantly bought us a cheap lemon ice pop to share. It wasn't bad, Harry and I both took turns licking it before passing it to one another.
As we licked we went over and watched a gorilla, who strangely resembled Duddy, scratching its head. Surprisingly this had beens a pretty great morning and nothing had even gone wrong! I wanted to try my best to keep it that way so I made sure that Harry and I had plenty of space between us and the Dursleys.
As it got later I could tell that Duddy and Pier were starting to get bored with the animals, so we headed to the zoo restaurant. When Dudley had a tantrum because his Knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry and I were allowed to finish the first. But then afterward a horrible feeling hit the pit of my stomach told me that this perfect day wouldn't last much longer.
After lunch we all went to the reptile house.
It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Duddy and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons, so as soon as we entered Duddy found the largest snake in the place. The thing could have wrapped itself around Uncle Vernon's car twice and crushed it into a trash can - but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it looked like it was fast asleep.
Duddy stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the giant snake
"Make it move," Duddy whined at his father.
Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.
"Do it again," Duddy ordered.
Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.
"This is boring," Duddy moaned, before shuffling and I moved toward the snake tank, quietly.
Harry began to stare intently at the snake, and I began to wonder what he's thinking about.. Then, to my surprise the snake suddenly opened its beady eyes, and slowly, very slowly, raised its head until its eyes were level with Harry's. I raised my eyebrows in confusion when all of the sudden the snake did something really unexpected… it winked! Harry stared at it as I was in a state of shock.
"Did you see that?" he asked. When I shook my head yes, Harry looked back at the snake and winked, too.
The snake moved its head toward Uncle Vernon and Duddy, before raising its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: "I get that all the time."
Harry leaned in and said something quietly although I was just close enough to hear a sound, almost like hissing, coming from my brother. The snake nodded his small head vigorously and I stood there in complete confusion. A lot of weird things had happened to me before, but this was arguably the strangest, watching my baby brother was making conversation with the snake by hissing at it . This strange conversation continued on for a few more minutes and I didn't dare interrupted them. After a while of watching, I not only found this weird, but completely fascinating as well. But the whole scene came to a screeching halt when a deafening shout cause me, Harry and even the snake to jump.
"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!" screeched Piers.
Dudley came waddling toward us as fast as he could.
"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.
Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. Instinctively I ran over to help him up. I soon felt anger swell up inside me and I tried my hardest to contain it but that stupid cousin of ours always seemed to get on my nerves. It seemed like harry was angry too but I didn't have time to dwell on it because what came next happened so fast, no one seemed to see, or understand, how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, and the next, they had leapt back with cries of terror.
"What in the bloody!" screeched Duddy, waving his hand inside were the glass had once been and I could see the snake struggling to escape.
Duddy screeched as it jolted upward trying to get out. Then in anger he turned to Harry.
"This was you stupid potter why do you always have to ruin everything!?" he yelled and th punched Harry in the stomach, causing my brother to fall to the ground once again. I clenched my fist.
"You stupid…" I began but before I could throw a punch there was a strange tug in my stomach and all of a sudden Duddy dearest went flying backwards as if he'd been pushed even though I hadn't even touched him! Nobody was there and he fell into the now open snake tank, screaming. I heard harry gasped and I rushed over to him. The snake, a boa constrictor, from inside the tank had now begun to slither all over Duddy's massive body, trying to get out. Dudley was too busy screaming like a girl to move. I could help myself and immediately started to giggle a little.
The snake soon found himself outside of his prison, slithering through the reptile house as visitors screamed and ran for the exits. The snake passed us slowly before stopping in front of Harry and letting out a soft hiss There was a moment when Harry stared back at the thing in some kind of strange understanding before watching it slither away. I swear it was almost like the snake was thanking him.
"Harry? What the heck just happened?" I asked. "I don't have a clue" Harry replied.
I pulled Harry to his feet but suddenly stopped short when I heard a banging sound and loud screaming. I turned around quickly, only to see Dudley, still in the snake tank, pounding on the, now returned, glass.
"Oh no," I whispered as Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon turned the corner to see duddy in the tank and began to scream in hysterics… Of course I knew the rest of the day would not be going well….
It wasn't too long before they were able to get him out and the keeper of the reptile house was standing there in shock of what had just played out.
"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go? How did it come back?"
The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber, although as far as Harry and I had seen, the snake had only crawled over precious little Duddy in order to get out of his cage and snap playfully at Piers heels as it passed But despite this Dudley was going on and on about how it had nearly killed him, on the way to the car, while Piers was swearing the thing had tried to bite off his foot.
But worst of all was when Piers had calmed down enough to blurt out, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry? And Vivian pushed Dudley into the tank."
"Oh great…" I grumble, turning to Harry who was staring at me in surprise, Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry and me. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a special drink.
A little later Harry and I found ourselves sitting in the dark cupboard on each side of our small bed, staring up at the ceiling in stunned silence.
"Harry has anything like this happen to you before?" I asked. "Making stuff disappear and…other stuff?"
There was a long long silence, and I heard Harry clear his throat.
"Yeah, all the time" Harry said, trying to sound casual.
"WHAT!" I said unexpectedly loud and I quickly shut my mouth with my hand with soft slap trying to bring my voice back down to a whisper, "Why didn't you tell me?."
"Well… I thought you would think I was crazy" Harry whispered
"I wouldn't have thought you were crazy! Things like that happen to me all the time!" I argued, a bit of anger in my voice.
"Really!? Why didn't you tell me!" he argued back.
"Ah uh uhm I thought you would think I was crazy..." I admitted.
"You could have told me" he replied softly "I would have believed you"
"And I would have believed you too, Harry" I quickly replied. There was a moment of silence until I spoke again "Let's make a promise to tell each other everything, no matter how crazy it is."
"Alright" Harry agreed and I scooched a little so I could next to him.
"So do you know what this is" I said shaking my hands.
"I don't know" Harry said shaking his head.
"Well... maybe we're like Superman and our parents sent us to earth to protect us." I suggested.
"Na don't think our parents would have been so cruel as to set us on a collision course to the Dursleys unless we really were related to them and they're definitely human…well, if you consider that human." Harry replied.
"Well" I began again "maybe we were like exposed to like radioactive chemicals or something and our powers are like a side effect."
"I always expected this place was poison" Harry said shaking his head in agreement.
"It would certainly explain why Dudley looks like a mutant" I laughed then all of a sudden harry blurted out "Maybe we're, like, wizards or something!"
Harry and I looked at each other for a moment before bursting out laughing.
"Now that would be crazy" I laughed.
That awful day actually ended up ending on a pretty good note. I spent the rest of the night with my brother naming off crazy reasons why we had these powers and laughing it off with each one. Little did we know that the missing piece to our puzzle would arrive in the mail the next day.