Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and the bolded belongs to Rowling, not me as well.
Author's Note: This is a random idea I had when I reread this particular chapter and I often wondered if the snake reached Brazil, so here is what would be a sort of sequel to that chapter I guess... not sure what to call this.
Harry remembered the day quite clearly:
Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He 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; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.
The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.
It winked. '
Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.
The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:
"I get that all the time."
"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."
The snake nodded vigorously.
"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.
The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.
Boa Constrictor, Brazil.
"Was it nice there?"
The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?"
As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry 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, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.
Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor.
What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.
Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.
The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.
As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigo."
Since that day, he had come to wonder every once in awhile whether that snake really did reach Brazil. It seemed to think it could, but he wondered if it did; perhaps it could swim or something? Although without arms or legs, it would have to float on a log or something…
Hardly any of the other snakes he met were friendly. There was the Basilisk in his second year, it tried to kill him and whether it was because it (he was unsure if it was a girl or a boy) was hungry, under Voldemort's control, or just a killer; sometimes he thought all-of-the-above.
There was Nagini, he was unsure when he first met that snake. It tried to kill to him too, but that might have been because it was practically a familiar to Voldemort much in the way Fawkes was to Dumbledore. He often wondered if that snake would show the same loyalty or if it would desire freedom…
He met a few more snakes since then, but most of them just snapped at his heels playfully and hissed at them until they realized he could talk back and understood what they were saying. Usually they left after that, not liking that someone with feet understood them.
Still, he had to believe that the Boa Constrictor, which he refers to as Boa when he comes across his mind since it was just easier, had been the friendliest and, even in the brief time they met, a friend in some ways.
Of course he never imagined him to write.
So when the day came that Harry was sitting in the great hall, eating his food and listening to the people around him giggle and talk as they went about their simple lives with no worries of Voldemort or anything of the sort.
When the owls came, he was surprised to see Hedwig had a letter. He knew Hagrid was still out and the Dursleys didn't write to him either. His Godfather didn't either, since he was still on the run and often sent other birds to bring back messages for him.
The letter dropped in his bowl of oatmeal (with peanut butter and chocolate) and he gazed at it curiously.
"Going to open it?" questioned his best friend, Ron, from beside him.
"Huh?" he started, "Oh yeah!"
He slit the envelope open, not recognizing the writing on the cover and going to great caution to open it slowly. A piece of parchment with green stains on it and written in barely legible letters saying:
Dear Harry (I heard that kid that looked like a whale say it),
I didn't get the chance to thank you properly, you see I had to leave before the keepers came or else they'd just put me back in the room. By the time I got away from prying eyes, I'm afraid I couldn't find any paper to write to you and I wasn't going to risk going back.
I stole this from some person with feet somewhere around Mexico… had to practice my writing, quite hard to use your mouth since you don't have hands and haven't attempted writing before, but I got the hang of it.
So yeah, thanks for freeing my from my prison at that zoo, although you probably have no idea who I am since it's been a couple years.
I'll let you know, I did reach Brazil and to answer your questions from before:
It's great here, the people with feet run with fear whenever I come by and the rats are good, touchy flavor. Only problem is people start hunting me, got to watch out for the shovels people try to use to cut me in half; I find it rude, they make it think I'm going to eat them or something. Snakes don't eat people, we just eat rats and we only bite people when they annoy us or try to hurt us.
In another of your questions; yes, now I have been to Brazil.
I've enclosed a picture I stole from some person with feet to show you how I live now.
-Boa
P.S your owl found me, no idea how that happened.
He pulled up the picture and snorted. In perfect color was the picture of three muggles, all of them girls, sitting on at a picnic table and chatting while the boys on the very side of the picture tried to put up a tent. Quite clearly underneath the table was the Boa Constrictor snake, looking like he was grinning as he ate the sandwich he stole from their tipped sideways ice chest thing.
"What are you snorting at?" Ron and Hermione asked.
He handed them the letter and waited for them to tell him they were finished so he could give them the picture.
"I…I don't understand."
"How can you not understand? It says quite clearly in English what he was writing!" Harry asked them.
"Harry, all we can see is a bunch of s's," Hermione told him. "I can see the sentences and the separate words, but I can't understand what they say…"
"Oh, I guess this is the written language of Parsletongue."
She stared at him, "so Voldemort, being the only Parsletongue you know, sent you a message?"
"No, that's Boa." They looked at him so he sighed and explained what happened, before translating the letter for them and handing them the picture.
They snorted too.
"Well, at least I know he got to Brazil…"
"You are happy to know he got to Brazil and not at all curious as to how a snake wrote a letter and got a picture to you?" Ron asked, looking confused as Harry nodded.
"Well yeah, he was one of my friends in a way," Harry told him.
Harry thought it great that his friend was doing well in life from what he could tell. It also concluded to him that in the likely event that they needed to, snakes could swim across a body of water and he just hoped they didn't breed with sharks… he could only imagine the horrors that may come from that…
Author's Note: Probably not that good, but I did it for the fun and really once I finished the letter I didn't know what else to do. I suppose I could do a mini series or something someday with Harry and Boa talking. Each chapter a letter (or picture) of what life was like or something, but I don't think that'll happen for awhile. If someone decides to do that, let me know!
Also, if anyone has done this before, it's just a coincidence... I, in no way or form (I think that's how you word it?), stole this from somebody.