A/N: Sorry, it's unedited. I'm feeling lazy. Hope you like it.
Bang, Bang, Bang. "Up! Get Up! Now!" a shrill voice was screeching.
Harry woke with a start. Where was the fire? Where was Ginny? Where was he? He felt around for his glasses, which he found beside where he had just been laying.
"Up!" the voice called again.
He slid the glasses on, and was startled to see that he was in a certain cupboard under a certain set of stars which he had never wanted to visit again. He heard whoever it was outside the door walk away, followed by some crashes coming from down the hall. It had to be Aunt Petunia.
It's strange, he thought, he had never really dreamed about Privet Drive before, even when he was living there. Why was he having this dream now?
"Are you up yet?" the voice that had to be Aunt Petunia demanded. She was back outside the door.
"Hardly…" Harry said.
"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." His aunt said.
"Dudley's birthday?" He wondered what birthday Dudley was having. One before Harry had gone to Hogwarts, obviously, otherwise he wouldn't be in the cupboard under the stairs.
"What did you say?" Aunt Petunia snapped through the door.
"Nothing, Nothing..." he heard the woman walk away again. He was curious, this was a strange dream, and he wanted to see how it went.
He looked around for some clothes, finding them under the bed. He pulled them out and looked at them. They looked too big, and rather worn out. He hadn't worn anything like that in years. As he dressed he looked at his body. He was young, and thin- thinner than he ever remembered being. As he pulled on the baggy, moth eaten shirt he wondered why no one had ever come in to check on him. Muggles had child protective services, didn't they? The Dursleys had to have filled out some paperwork when he was a baby so that he could live with them. Muggle adoption was a long process from his understanding, why had no one ever gone to see if he was still alive? Why had no one at school ever inquired into why he was so thin and dressed in such shabby clothes?
He got up and went down the hall into the kitchen. He was greeted by a huge mountain of presents, and the smell of bacon. He tried to recall if he had ever gotten a birthday present from the Dursleys…
He went and flipped the bacon. It was strange to move. He was so much smaller than he was normally. No one ever remembers being small. They remember being a child, but they never seem to remember how small children are.
"Comb your hair!" Harry turned to see Uncle Vernon walking into the room. He looked younger than when Harry had last seen him. It was strange. Harry stood there watching him for a moment.
"What are you staring at? Go on, make breakfast." Uncle Vernon said as he sat down beside the mountain of birthday presents.
Harry turned back to the stove. He hadn't really cooked in a long time. Ginny usually did the cooking, except on Sundays when they went to the Burrow for brunch, then it was Molly who would do the cooking. And when he did cook now, it was by magic.
He was frying eggs when Dudley and Aunt Petunia came into the kitchen. Aunt Petunia looked younger too, and Dudley was a fat little child, opposed to the fat little man that he would eventually become. The sight of the young Dudley made Harry want to laugh, but he put in a valiant effort to keep a straight face.
As he was serving up breakfast he got splashed buy a bit of the hot bacon grease. He winced. That had hurt. Actually hurt. Things weren't supposed to hurt in dreams… Were they? His scar used to hurt when he drempt, but that was because he had a dark wizard burrowing into his mind. This was just a bit of dream grease. It was odd…
He took the plates over to the Dursleys and took a seat at the table.
"Thirty-six, that's two less than last year." Dudley said. Harry had seen people react better to death eater attacks, than Dudley was reacting to birthday presents.
"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy." Uncle Vernon said, trying to amend the obvious mistake.
"All right, thirty-seven then," Dudley said, looking as though he was about to throw a hissy fit.
"And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?" Aunt Petunia said, doing her best at damage control.
Dudley screwed his face up in concentration, "So I'll have thirty . . . thirty . . ."
"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia, still a little on edge.
"Oh, all right then." Dudley said, grabbing the nearest present. Aunt Petunia let out a breath.
"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" Uncle Vernon said proudly as he ruffled the young Dudley's hair.
Harry vowed that if he ever had children, that he would do everything in his power to prevent them from being like Dudley.
The phone rang, and Aunt Petunia got up to get it. Harry watched as Dudley opened his gifts, chewing idly on his breakfast. Dudley's eleventh birthday had been the one where they went to the zoo, right? He smirked as he thought that maybe this time around the snake would eat Dudley.
"Bad news, Vernon, Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." Aunt Petunia said as she came back into the room.
Why a broken leg would prevent you from watching a child was beyond Harry. Didn't most people send their children to visit with old ladies when they broke their legs?
Aunt Petunia glared at him, "Now what?"
"We could phone Marge," suggested Uncle Vernon. Oh dear, Aunt Marge. The last time Harry had seen her, she had been floating away after being blown up like a balloon… It was great.
"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy." Aunt Petunia said. Harry wondered if they realized he was sitting right there.
"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?" Uncle Vernon suggested. Harry for the life of him couldn't remember anyone named Yvonne. He wondered if she was a nice lady.
"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.
"You could just leave me here?" Harry suggested. He was nearly twenty two after all.
"And come back and find the house in ruins?" his aunt said with a rather foul look on her face. In all fairness one day Ginny had come back to the house in ruins, but that was after having a boy's night with Ron, Neville, Dean and unfortunately Seamus. Needless to say Seamus and fire whiskey tend to not mix well, but Aunt Petunia wouldn't know about that.
"I suppose we could take him to the zoo. . . and leave him in the car. . . ." said Aunt Petunia, looking as though those were the last words she wanted to be saying
"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone. . . ." Uncle Vernon said. There was great comfort taken from the fact they were more concerned with the state of their new car, than with the ten year old boy that they were planning on locking in the car in the middle of a rather hot summer.
It was then that Dudley started to pretend to cry. Harry had to try very hard not to burst out laughing at the theatrics. It was a wonder Dudley didn't get into the theater.
"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" Aunt Petunia cried and flung her arms around the nasty little boy.
"I . . . don't . . . want . . . him . . . t-t-to come! He always sp-spoils everything!" Dudley wailed. Then he shot Harry the nastiest grin that he had ever seen, and he had unfortunately been acquainted with Bellatrix Lestrange. Though she looked less cruel, and more crazy.
The doorbell rang, and Aunt Petunia let go of her son, "Oh, good Lord, they're here!"
The next thing Harry knew he was being taken aside by Uncle Vernon.
"I'm warning you. I'm warning you now, boy - any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas." He was leaning in close, trying to look as menacing as possible. It was a bit comical.
"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, why on earth would he intentionally do anything? He knew last time he had accidentally unleashed a dangerous snake, but he didn't really want to go through that again.
Soon enough after, the Dursleys with Harry, and Dudley's friend Piers Polkiss were in the new car, driving to the zoo. A strange thought hit Harry, this was the second time that Harry had ever been to the zoo, and the first time was the last time he had lived through this day. He should take Ginny to the zoo tomorrow, she might like that.
". . . roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," Uncle Vernon said, as a motorcycle overtook them.
"I think I would like a motorcycle, one that could fly though." Harry said. The truth be told he had a flying motorcycle. He had taken the idea form Sirius and bought a muggle motorcycle and charmed it so that it could fly. It was nice to go out for a fly on the weekends, and the motorcycle was more comfortable than a broom.
Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front of them. He turned right around in his seat to yell at Harry, "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"
He was tempted to fight him, but he thought better of it.
It was a nice day out, and the zoo was full of people with small children. They looked around the zoo for a while, Harry soon remembering that when on an outing with the Dursleys that you don't stand too close to Dudley, or else you may end up with some nasty bruises. He was a bit alarmed when he actually felt the hits that he was taking. He wished he knew more about dreams.
After a surprisingly tolerable lunch Dudley and Piers decided that the wanted to go to the reptile house. There was a certain amount of uncertainty about this, if he let the snake go again, all hell would break loose again, but he was a fully grown wizard now. He knew how to control his magic, and he wasn't sure he would even be able to make the glass disappear wandlessly now. He couldn't even think of what spell he would use if he wanted to, things generally didn't just disappear.
Dudley and Piers were determined to find the biggest snakes, and within a few minutes they came to Harry's old friend. Dudley went and pressed his nose up against the glass.
"Make it move," the fat boy demanded.
Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, which, surprisingly, did absolutely nothing.
"Do it again," Dudley whined, and Uncle Vernon complied; still now getting any sort of a reaction out of the snake.
"This is boring," the boy said, before he walked off to find something better.
Harry looked the snake over. It looked an awful lot like Nagini. The thought sent a shiver through him, there was something creepy about that snake, which he assumed had to do with the bit of Voldemort's soul that was lodged in her… But Nagini was dead, she had been for years.
The snake then winked at him.
"I get that all the time," the snake said as it looked after the Dursleys.
"I know. It must be really annoying." Harry said.
The snake nodded.
"I wish I could help you," Harry said.
"I understand…" the snake said.
"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!" Piers said, excitedly.
Harry gave the snake an apologetic look, "You can't swim to Brazil from here anyways, or I might help you."
"Thank you anyway," the snake said.
"Out of the way, you," Dudley said as he punched Harry in the ribs, sending the smaller boy to the floor. Dudley and Piers pressed their faces to the glass, as the snake coiled itself back up. He felt terrible that he couldn't help the snake, but honestly how far could a giant ruddy snake get in the muggle world? The last time the snake was probably caught the day after it was released. Poor snake.
Harry got up and brushed himself off. The glass had remained intact, and Harry had saved himself a lot of trouble.
The rest of the day was much like the first bit. He enjoyed the zoo, and avoided his cousin and Piers. Even on the car ride home, there was hardly any conflict. If anything he had had a decent day. He had surely had worse days. The day he encountered Quirrell on his hunt for the stone, the day that a house elf tried to save his life, the day he decided to follow the spiders, the day he met Tom Riddle, battled the basilisk and saved Ginny, the day he found out Sirius Black was his godfather (before he knew the truth of course), the day he nearly got mauled by a werewolf, the day he got his name drawn from the goblet of fire, all the challenges in the triwizard tournament, the day he saw Cedric die, saw the dark lord rise, found out his teacher was an imposter who was trying to kill him, and realized no one believed him about Voldemort (that had been a busy day), the whole summer everyone ignored him, the day he got expelled from Hogwarts, the year that the entire wizarding world had turned on him (the first time)… well it can just be said that he had a lot of worse days, now that he thought about it…
That evening when he when he put his pajamas on he couldn't help but smile, he figured that once he fell asleep in the dream, he would wake up again in real life. He could wake up next to Ginny and tell her all about the strange dream he had, and then they could go to the zoo, maybe they could take his bike. That would be nice.
These were the things Harry Potter thought as he fell asleep.