Chapter 1- Family

Harry Pov

Now in the Country of England on the outskirts of London you will find a place called Surrey and if you look close enough you will find the housing estate located on the street called Privet Drive and if you looked at all the houses on that road you will notice that each of these houses look very similar to one another. However, there is one house that stands out and that in number 4, the house itself is the same but the gardens are the reason it is different to the others. One of the members of the Dursley household puts all their efforts into the garden as a part of their chores, that would be because of me Harry James Potter I spend any free time I have working on our garden as a fun pastime that makes Aunt Petunia proud and the neighbours green with envy.

I first came to the Dursley household at the tender age of 1 when a madman murdered my parents on Halloween, and my Aunt was the only living family member to take care of me. I had a good childhood, sure I got the smaller bedroom and didn't get as many toys as Dudley did nor as many birthday presents but they treated me like a second son. After getting full A's on my A levels, which were English Literature, Law, Mythology and Physics I was treated to a surprise holiday to Seattle in America with the Dursleys as a present along with $500 spending money whilst we were there (although at this point I had my inheritance from my parents available to use).

I was so excited about this trip! I'd never been out of Europe on holiday before and France gets kind of boring after going for 10yrs which meant I was almost bouncing in my seat on the plane and the car journey to the airport, even if it meant being up at the crack of dawn to get a full day exploring the day we got there.

Turning toward my cousin I asked him "So Dud what're you going to be doing in Seattle?" although he wasn't as smart as I was Dudley still got B's on his A levels but with how well Rugby and Boxing were going for him, he was planning on going into a career in the sports which made his Father immensely proud. "Dunno yet Harry, might just go look at the sights and see if American football is as big of a thing as they make it out to be. Oh and the Zoo, they have a brand new exhibit on snakes I really wanna go see" Nodding in agreement with my cousin I found myself nodding off for the rest of the journey waking up to my Uncle shaking me awake.

Walking out of the airport all our bags fully intact we piled into the large rental car Uncle Vernon hired to take us place to place in the large city, gazing up at the tall skyscrapers a very different skyline to the normal one back in Surrey I took out my camera and started to take photos of pretty much anything that caught my eye.

Arriving at the hotel I was glad to see it wasn't too big or fancy and me and Dudley had separate rooms to his parents giving us free range at night to sleep and do what we wanted before bed.

As soon as I unpacked all my stuff and claimed the bed next to the window because of the awesome view I ran over to my Aunt and Uncle's room to ask if it was ok for me to go out and once I had heard my Aunt's voice give her assent I was out the hotel and down the road faster than you can say 'photograph'.

Calling a taxi I asked for the driver to take me to the space needle and during the journey I was in awe of the architecture of the city I thanked and paid the driver as I made it to the bottom of the tower I looked up and suddenly felt miniscule against the grand scale of almost everything in y the city after taking a good amount of photos I went to the nearest fast food place to grab something to eat before I went back to the hotel, I could feel the jetlag finally catching up with me.

Thanking my driver and giving him what I owe him with a tip I dragged myself up the staircase that lead to our rooms before stripping into my pants and pulling on a pyjama top before crawling under the covers and attempting to block out the sounds of Dudley's snoring as he'd succumbed to the jetlag not long after eating at a restaurant with his parents.

Next day

Stretching as I woke up from the glaring sun that was penetrating the thin curtains beside me I yawned as I went to the bathroom as Dudley did the same I'd done seconds before as he took over the bathroom as I got dressed for whatever we were doing today.

15 minutes later we were all dressed and fed as we headed toward Woodland Zoo to go see the new exhibit along with the other animals that were different to the ones found in the London Zoo. As we all piled out of the car we queued for a good half an hour to get our tickets and get in as we planned a specific route that would let us see everything with time to spare.

Due to the layout of the zoo we started out in the reptile house which would mean we saw the new exhibit first to mine and Dudley's delight. However the exhibit was highly underwhelming and Dudley got bored after a couple of minutes, all I could think about was how sad the poor Anaconda looked in its tank. "I bet you get pretty bored in there don't you big guy?" as I stared at the snake, the snake returning my gaze and nodding. Shocked I pulled away from the glass and shook my head thinking I was just seeing things. "I wish I could get you out of there so you could be free" I muttered and jumped away as the glass holding the snake smashed and the Anaconda broke free and made its way to freedom.

Before it completely vanished though as people separated to let the snake pass it seemingly nodded at me in thanks for apparently freeing it. Looking back at the now empty enclosure I took a closer look at what had caused the glass to break and was shocked to see that all the greenery that was in the enclosure had grown to a degree that they'd put that much pressure on the glass simply smashed. I looked at the crowd now gathering around the exhibit and when I saw the expressions on my families faces I knew it wasn't going to end well.

Weaving through the crowd toward my family we walked out in complete silence as I waited for the volcano that was Vernon when it came to unusual things to explode, messily and loudly. "BOY! WHAT WAS THAT FREAKISHNESS YOU JUST DID IN FRONT OF ALL THOSE PEOPLE!? DO YOU THINK ITS FUNNY TO EMBARRASS THE PEOPLE WHO LOOK AFTER YOU? WELL. NOT LIKE IT MATTERS ANYMORE YOU ARE 18 AND SO I AM KICKING YOU OUT OF THE FAMILY. WHEN WE GET BACK TO THE HOTEL YOU WILL COLLECT YOUR BELONGINGS AND NEVER SHOW YOURSELF TO US AGAIN! UNDERSTOOD BOY?" The very red faced Vernon bellowed at me spit flying (thankfully avoiding me) and I nodded meekly half expecting this response.

We all sat I complete silence as we drove back to the hotel packing my stuff under the watchful gaze of my Aunt I heard her apologise about Vernon before I left the hotel wondering what I was going to do now. At the very least I still had my credit card linked to the account my parents had set up for me as a child.

The real question was how on earth did I manage to break the enclosure and how did the snake understand me.

An: ne ne how was it? That was so horrid to try and word the snake enclosure bit