"Up! Get up! Now!"

But Henry was already awake, his green eyes staring up at the dusty ceiling of the cupboard under the stairs. Harry woke up as Aunt Petunia rapped on the door again.

"Up!" she screeched. Henry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove.

Harry groaned and rolled onto his back while Henry tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one.

"Are you honestly trying to remember one of your weird dreams, Henry?"

"Yes," answered Henry. "And this time, it had a flying motorcycle on it. It's sort of like déjà vu. I feel like I've experienced something like it before."

Harry rolled his eyes.

Aunt Petunia was back outside the door.

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Barely," said Harry at the same time Henry said, "Almost."

"Well, get a move on either way. Harry, I want you to look after the bacon and don't you dare let it burn. Henry, you better serve that coffee with just the right amount of cream and sugar. I want everything to be perfect on Duddy's birthday."

Harry groaned.

"What did you say?" Aunt Petunia snapped through the door.

"Nothing, nothing..." answered Harry as he grabbed his glasses and started dressing.

"Can't you keep your mouth shut for one moment? Honestly, it's like you want us to get in trouble!" Henry complained as he finished slipping on his day shirt and grabbed his pair of glasses, the ones that were taped together due to Dudley punching him in the nose once.

"Well maybe if you went to bed early, didn't get hungry, have the need to have me go get something for you to eat from the kitchen in the middle of the night, and have Aunt Petunia catch me, then maybe she'd be nicer to us." said Harry angrily as he shoved the door open and went out. Henry followed his angry twin silently into the kitchen.

The table in the kitchen was almost hidden beneath all of Dudley's birthday presents. Of course, there was the new racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry and Henry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - aside from punching someone. Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry. There was also Henry, but Harry's need to defend his slightly shyer brother earned him more beatings and a bigger target on his back. The upside to it was that Dudley couldn't always catch Harry and Henry when he wanted to beat them up. The two Potter twins may not seem like it, but they were agile and fast, especially Harry.

Harry was frying eggs and Henry was pouring coffee into two mugs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table as Henry placed the mugs of coffee already mixed with cream and sugar onto the table. Meanwhile, Dudley was counting his presents.

"Thirty-six," Dudley said angrily, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

Harry and Henry looked at each other and rolled their eyes as Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon tried to assure Dudley that they would buy him two more presents.

After the bargain was made, the telephone rang, which Aunt Petunia went up to answer. Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap his presents when Aunt Petunia returned with a worried and annoyed look on her face.

"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broke her leg. She can't take them." She jerked her head in Harry's and Henry's direction.

As Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia tried throwing around suggestions of where to put Harry and Henry, the Potter twins looked at each other in excitement. It was not every day that they were given an opportunity to go to a place of entertainment such as the zoo.

Just then, the doorbell rang. Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

Half an hour later, Harry and Henry could not believe their luck as they were in the car on the way to the zoo with the Dursleys and Piers. But before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken the two Potters aside and jabbed a finger at them both.

"Now I'm warning you," he said as he put his large purple face right up close to theirs, "I'm warning you now, boys - any funny business, anything at all - and you two will be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

Harry, who had his arms folded lightly across his chest, said, "We're not going to do anything."

"Really," added Henry, who was carelessly rubbing his left shoulder with his right hand.

But Uncle Vernon did not believe them. They didn't expect him to, though.

It was the best morning Harry and Henry ever had. As Harry pressed his nose up against the glass to see the animals more clearly, Henry, out of curiosity, read the descriptions of each animal in front of each habitat. They tried their best to avoid upsetting the Dursleys and just stayed quiet. It lasted for a good while, but of course it didn't last forever. Something strange was bound to happen.

After lunch, they went to the reptile house. Harry, Henry, and even Dudley took a special liking to the fast asleep boa constrictor. Harry let Dudley press his nose against the glass to get a better look, wanting to avoid a fuss.

"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 again but the snake kept snoozing.

"This is boring," Dudley moaned and shuffled away.

Harry went up to take the place of Dudley, his eyes intently piercing the snake. Henry, after reading the description of the large snake, went to stand next to Harry and look at it.

"It's cool, isn't it Henry?" said Harry in slight awe, not taking his eyes off of the snake.

"Yes, it is," answered Henry. He then turned to the snake and said, "We're sorry about Dudley. Sometimes they don't understand what it's like to lay around all day, doing nothing at all."

Apparently, Henry's conversation with the snake meant to be one-sided, because shock overcame both of the Potter twin's faces when the snake raised its head to face Henry and Harry and winked.

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

"I get that all the time."

"I know," Harry murmured through the glass. "It's sometimes really annoying."

The snake nodded vigorously.

"Where do you come from?" asked Henry.

The snake jabbed its tail at another little sign next to the glass. Harry and Henry peered at it.

Boa Constrictor, Brazil

"Was it nice there?" asked Henry.

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry and Henry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo.

"Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?" said Henry.

"That's a downright crime, being bred in captivity," contributed Harry.

As the snake shook its head, Piers yelled, "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Dudley waddled toward them as fast as he could.

"Out of the way, you two," he said, punching Harry in the ribs, causing him and Henry to topple to the ground. Henry got the best of the fall to the concrete floor, groaning.

What came next was the strange part, but yet it was so fast that no one could see. One second, Piers and Dudley were leaning against the glass, and the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.

The glass had vanished and the snake uncoiled itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor and heading for the exit. The ruckus the snake made caused no one to notice a hissing voice say to Harry and Henry, "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigos."

Piers and Dudley afterwards interviewed Henry in a not so friendly way if he and Harry talked to the snake. Henry stutteringly gave in, which caused Uncle Vernon to shove them back inside the cupboard once they got back to the house.

"Come on."

"No."

"This is ridiculous! We both know we're hungry and we need food. Come with me."

"Absolutely not."

Henry refused to sneak out of the cupboard with his brother. Yes, Henry was hungry, but not hungry enough to let himself get caught by Uncle Vernon. Harry has always been the riskier twin, willing to sneak out for anything they needed. He even snuck out once when he was seven years old to get Henry a blanket. But that was more out of a need for adventure than out of brotherly love.

Harry groaned as Henry dismissed the whispered conversation. The two Potter boys couldn't tell for sure what time it was, nor if the Dursleys were asleep or not. Harry tried opening the cupboard door, but it wouldn't budge. Harry sighed and palmed his hand through his untidy jet black hair, one of the many physical traits that he shared with his brother.

"At least pick the lock for me," pleaded Harry.

Henry's stomach grumbled, indicating that he needed food right now. The slightly shorter and shyer twin put down the book he was reading and got up on his knees. He took out a bobby pin that Aunt Petunia had dropped on the floor once and bended it so it was like a stick. He picked the lock as quickly and quietly as he could and opened the door. Harry flashed Henry a quick thumbs up before stepping his bare feet out into the hall, checking the kitchen.

Henry nervously focused his eyes towards the bottom of the stairs, anxiously waiting for a Dursley member to come down. If he heard footsteps upstairs in the distance, he'd need to signal Harry back by imagining he was talking to a snake and whispering: "Hurry up! They're coming!" Henry tried doing it in front of Dudley before and he didn't understand, but Harry did, so it naturally became their secret language.

Harry sneaked back into the hall, closing the kitchen door behind him, and jumping back into the cupboard. Henry immediately closed the cupboard door and locked it again with his bobby pin, so that there wouldn't be any proof that they'd snuck out.

Henry grinned at the piles of snacks Harry laid out in between them. They were going to fall asleep with full stomachs tonight.