DISCLAIMER: I OBVIOUSLY DO NOT OWN THE WORLD OF HARRY POTTER OR IT'S AMAZING CHARACTERS. ALL RIGHTS GO TO THE AMAZING WOMAN THAT IS JOANNE ROWLING.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

Hope woke with a start. Her aunt rapped on the door again.

"Up!" she screeched.

Hope heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of pots and pans.

She rolled onto her back and thought about the dream she had just had. It had been a good one. She remembered the flying motorcycle and the amazing view of the sky. She had been wrapped up all warm and was able to see more stars than she ever had before. The sound of the motorcycle had been comforting. She had been content for the first time in years. Sadly it was just a dream.

Her aunt was back outside the door.

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"No." she replied. She was still annoyed about being woken up.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."

Hope groaned.

"What did you say?" her aunt snapped through the door.

Hope groaned again.

Dudley's birthday - how could she forget? It's all the hippo had been raving about for the past two weeks.

Hope got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. She found a pair under her bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Hope liked spiders, because they were the only company she had in the the cupboard under the stairs and that was where she slept. Plus they happened to be very good listeners.

When she was dressed she went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, and the leather jacket he begged Aunt Petunia for. (He only wanted it cause he had seen her eying it in a store window) Not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Hope, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favorite punching bag was Hope(even though Petunia didn't approve), but he couldn't often catch her. Hope didn't look it, but she was very fast.

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Hope had always been small and skinny for her age. She looked even smaller and skinnier than she really was because the only shirts she had to wear were old ones of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than she was. The only reason she had pants and underwear that fit was because her aunt felt just a little bit of empathy towards her.

At school she was usually laughed at for her baggy shirts and scruffy appearance.

Mainly it was the girls that laughed and whispered. They stopped picking on her to her face when in third year Hope had turned all their hair rainbow colors.

No one could prove it, but everyone suspected it was her.

Apparently she's a "troubled child" .

The boys mainly just stared and kept their distance. Hope sometimes liked to stare back and see how red their faces could get.

Hope had a thin face, black hair, and piercing bright green eyes. It didn't take much to realized she was beautiful child, but the Dursley family's hate for anything strange blinded them of this fact.

Hope liked her appearance. Especially the very thin scar on her forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning. She thought it was wicked, and the first question she could ever remember asking Petunia was how she had gotten it.

"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions."

Don't ask questions - that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.

Of course she never followed this rule. Her favorite question was "why".

Vernon entered the kitchen as Hope was turning over the bacon. "Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.

About once a week, Vernon (she never thought of him as Uncle in her head) looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Hope needed a haircut. Hope must have had more haircuts than the rest of the kids in her class put together, but it made no difference, her hair simply grew that way - all over the place. She could use her hair ability to calm it down, but the Dursley's didn't need to know that. Her hair was one of the things that kept here sane while she was locked up in the cupboard. She would spend her time trying to recreate hairstyles she sees other girls wearing at school or on TV. She was rather good at it. When she was about seven, she was practicing how to do a french braid and she accidentally turned her hair red after making a mistake for the fourth time. After that changing her hair color became one of her favorite thing to do.

Hope was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Hope often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.

Hope put the plates on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. 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.

Hope, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began sneaking some bacon into her pocket as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.

Aunt Petunia obviously could tell he was about to through a hissy fit 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 all right?"

Hope wanted to gag.

It can't be healthy to spoil a child like that and it was disgusting to watch.

"So I'll have thirty ... thirty..."

It looked like the math was hurting his brain.

"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Petunia.

"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."

Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.

Hope actually did gag this time which earned her a dirty look from Petunia, who was the only one close enough to actually hear her.

At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Hope and Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, a VCR, and a black leather jacket which he put on right away, all the while smirking at Hope.

Hope couldn't help but internally laugh. It was 80 degrees outside and he was going to be miserable.

Idiot.

He was 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 her." She jerked her head in Hopes direction.

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Hopes heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Hope was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a nice but crazy old lady who lived two streets away. Hope didn't like it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made her look at photographs of all of her cats.

"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Hope as though she'd planned this. Hope knew she should feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had

broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when she reminded himself it would be

a whole year before she had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.

"We could phone Marge," Vernon suggested. "Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the girl."

The Dursleys often spoke about Hope like this, as though she wasn't there - or rather, as though she was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug... or a shoe.

"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"

"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.

Hope wished she was in Majorca.

"You could just leave me here," Hope put in hopefully (she'd be able to have free reign on the house for a change. Maybe she can steal some of Petunia's hairpins so she could practice her lock picking, she figured it would be a handy skill if she got good enough).

Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.

"I won't blow up the house," said Hope, but they weren't listening.

"I suppose we could take her to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave her in the car..."

"That car's new, she's not sitting in it alone..."

Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying -but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give in to his demands.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let her spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.

How can someone be so gullible?

Hope prided herself when it came to her intelligence. And to watch her aunt get manipulated so easily by her cousin was just cringe worthy for her.

In school she was never able to show off. She wanted to stay on the down low. At least for now.

"I... don't... want... her... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled as he fake cried pathetically. "She always sp- spoils everything!"

He shot Hope a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.

Just then, the doorbell rang - "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said 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 creepy. Hope could usually find him staring at her with his beady little rat eyes. He was also usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them.

Half an hour later, Hope, who was very uncomfortable, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley on either side of her, on the way to the zoo for the first time in her life. Her aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with her, but before they'd left, Vernon had taken Hope aside.

"I'm warning you," he had said, getting into Hope's kicking distance (in her opinion if your close enough to kick you are too close) and putting his pudgy purple face inches in front of hers, "I'm warning you now, girl- any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

To this family, funny business usually meant anything fun or even mildly entertaining.

"It's not like I'd be able to do anything too bad," said Hope rolling her eyes, "Honestly..."

But Vernon gave her a look that said he didn't believe her. No one ever did.

The problem was, strange things often happened around Hope. It's not like she meant for these things to happen. They just do. It's part of who she is.

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Hope coming back from the barbers looking as though her hair had grown even longer, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut her hair so short she was almost bald except for her bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar."

Hope was mortified.

Dudley had laughed himself silly at Hopes misery. She had spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where she was already laughed at for her baggy boy clothes.

Next morning, however, she had gotten up to find her hair exactly as it

had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off .

That was when she learned that she could change the length of her hair and not just the color.

She had been given a week in her cupboard for this.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force her into a revolting old dress that had belonged to Mrs. Figg's niece (bright pink and very poofy...gross) - The harder she tried to pull it over her head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Hope. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to her great relief, Hope wasn't punished.

On the other hand, she'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing her as usual when there she was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys received an angry letter from Hope's headmistress about how she had been climbing school buildings.

But all she'd tried to do (as she shouted at Vernon through the locked door of her cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors.

Hope tried to convince herself that the wind must have caught her in mid- jump, but her brain wouldn't accept that.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong.

It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, her cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.

While he drove, Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about people at work, Hope, the council, Hope, the bank, and Hope 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 passed them.

"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Hope, "It was flying."

Vernon nearly crashed the car while he turned right around in his seat and yelled at Hope, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache:

"MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"

"Obviously," said Hope with an eye roll.

If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than her asking questions, it was her talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon - they seemed to think she might get dangerous ideas.

They weren't entirely wrong.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families.

It only took Dudley five minutes before he realized the reason he was sweating a lake was because he wore a leather jacket in the summer.

Idiot.

Going through the entrance Dudley, Piers, and Hope got ice creams. Vernon hadn't wanted to get her one, but before she could get ushered away the lady had already asked what she wanted. She took advantage and got the most expensive thing on the menu just to make Vernon's face go purple.

Hope surprisingly, had the best morning she'd had in a long time. She was walked a bit of a distance behind the Dursleys so that no one thought she was there with them.

They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because didn't have enough ice cream on top of his dessert. Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Hope was allowed to finish the first.

Hope felt, afterward, that she should have known it was all too good to last.

After lunch they 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. So far this was Hope's favorite place in the whole zoo.

Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and man-crushing pythons. It didn't take long for Dudley to find the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body around Vernon four times over and crushed him into thinness- but at the moment it didn't look in the mood.

In fact, it was fast asleep.

Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass trying to wake the poor thing.

"Make it move," he whined at his father.

Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.

"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.

"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He waddled away.

Hope moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. It truly was a beautiful snake with green and brown scales that seemed very well taken care. Judging by how shiny they were.

She wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself - no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long.

It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Hope's.

It winked.

Hope stared. Then she looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching.

They weren't. She looked back at the snake and winked too.

The snake jerked its head toward Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Hope a look that said quite plainly:

"This isn't the first time some idiot has done this to me."

"I know," Hope murmured through the glass, though she wasn't sure the snake could hear her. "It must be really annoying."

The snake nodded vigorously.

"Where do you come from?" Hope asked.

The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Hope peered at it.

Boa Constrictor, Brazil. "Was it nice there?"

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Hope read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see - that must suck. Being stuck here, I mean?"

As the snake nodded its head. The poor thing looked miserable. She wished she could help him,but there was nothing she could do.

A deafening shout behind Hope made both of them jump.

"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE

WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.

"Out of the way," he said, pushing Hope away. Caught by surprise, Hope fell hard on the concrete floor.

Hope sat up and glared at Dudley.

The glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People started to scream.

The snake slithered out of the now glasses case, Hope heard a hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, Missstresssss."

Hope had been called many things, but mistress had to be s new one.

Hope was baffled. She knew that snake had talked to her. There was no mistaking it.

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.

Hope noticed that it looked like everyone was in shock.

"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"

Thats what she wanted to know too.

She knew she must have been responsible. But did she make it nonexistent or did it appear somewhere else? Then there was how did she do it? There were so many questions, but she had no idea how to get the answers.

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.

As far as Hope had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, the snake was just trying to scare them a little, but it seemed they got more than just a little scared.

By the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley and Piers were hysterical. Hammering on about how they almost died.

But worst of all, for Hope at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Hope was talking to it, weren't you, Hope?"

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Hope. He was so angry he could hardly speak and his face had turned the purple color that Hope thought was hilarious. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before he collapsed into a chair.

Hope lay in her dark cupboard much later. She didn't know what time it was, but she was sure the Dursleys were asleep. Soon she'd be able to sneak out and steal some food.

She'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as

long as she could remember, ever since she'd been a baby and her parents had died in that car crash. Well that's what her aunt said happened. She never really believed it. Hope's really good at spotting lies (she liked to think of it as her superpower) and she was certain that was one.

Hope had a very good memory and she can remember some things from her life with her parents. She remembers her moms soft red hair and bright green eyes. She remember her dads lopsided smile and crazy hair that was exactly like hers. She even remembered other people. People who she couldn't put names to, but their faces were clear and so was the love that shown on them. One man had grey eyes and long hair that she loved to tug on. The other man had warm light brown eyes and he always smelt like chocolate.

Those are the happy memories

But then sometimes when she strained her memory during long hours in the cupboard, she came up with a strange vision: a blinding

flash of green light and a burn- ing pain on her forehead.

Those were the bad memories.

Her aunt and uncle never spoke about her parents.

There were no photographs of them in the house.

When she had been younger, Hope had dreamed and dreamed of one of her "uncles",as she likes to call them in her head, coming to take her away, but it had never happened; the

Dursleys were her only family.

Yet sometimes she thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know her. Very strange strangers they were, too.

A tiny man in a top hat had bowed to her once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After that, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything.

A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at her once on a bus.

A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken her hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word.

The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Hope tried to get a closer look.

At school, Hope had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Hope Potter in her baggy old boy clothes, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.