Disclaimer: This is purely for entertainment purposes, and as such, all characters and the world of Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling. I am not profiting in any way by this story. I do not own Harry potter, and therefore, all rights belong to her.
A/N: I don't want to confuse you, so while this is technically 'chapter 1', I will put this as chapter 2 simply because it fits with the chapters button.
Chapter 2
"Oi! Get up in 5 minutes, or I'll beat the lot out of you!" uncle Vernon's gruff voice shouted at the door.
"I'm getting up," said Harry, somewhat resigned. Of course, how could he forget? Today was the day of Dudley's birthday and he'd be hard-pressed to forget it after his relatives drilled it into him for the past week. It was disgusting how, every year, they gave him an absurdly large amount of gifts and basically fawned over him. What's worse, he would pout if he got less than what he deemed was satisfactory. Every year, on Dudley's birthday, they would spend half the morning going over presents and eating cake. Later, Vernon and Petunia would invite one of Dudley's friends, and they would go to some sort of place for fun and relaxation, most times a theme park or a zoo. This day was no different.
Today, they would visit a zoo near the east of Surrey, one that was quite famous for its various snakes, both rare and , if he was fortunate, would be spending the day at Mrs. Figg's house. On certain days, when the rest of the family was busy, he would be sent to Mrs. Figg's house to be taken care of for a few hours. He did not mind this in the least, as it meant that he didn't have to hear two to three hours of insults hurled at him. Mrs. Figg always had cookies or tea when he came over, and the place always smelled strongly of cats. However, that made sense since he had seen cats once or twice inside the house. Apart from mundane things, they really had nothing much to talk about. They would talk for perhaps five or ten minutes, and then most of the visit would be in silence, with Harry sitting on the couch while Mrs. Figg ran off to do other things. Nonetheless, he was glad for the company. Really, anything was better than being in the company of the Dursley's.
He was broken by his musings by a rather loud knock on his cupboard door.
"We are not telling you again, get up now! I won't have you ruining Dudley's birthday, you lazy, good-for-nothing runt!" aunt petunia said in that girly shriek of hers before going away.
Harry sighed, surely it couldn't have been that long? Maybe two or three minutes at most. Nonetheless, he turned on the light in his cupboard and, after swatting away the cobwebs, starting dressing. His clothes were far too big for his size, leading him to look like a poor beggar. They were hand-me-downs from Dudley, who always got what he wanted no matter what the cost, Harry thought bitterly.
When he finally emerged from the cupboard, he saw Dudley on the floor of the living room, counting his presents. Petunia and Vernon were nowhere to be seen, probably in the kitchen. He had almost entered the living room when his aunt and uncle came back from the kitchen.
Before his uncle could say anything, Dudley whined "How come there's only 32 presents this year? That's worse than last year."
"Oh, I'm sorry duddykins, but we thought that since you're growing up, you wouldn't want as much." aunt petunia responded and went to Dudley's side to try and comfort him.
"But mom, this year really has been awful to me. Don't you think that I've dealt with enough already?" Dudley said and put on his best pouting face.
"Eh, give him a break Petunia, I do agree that this year he deserves extra presents for his troubles. Don't worry Dudley, tonight, you'll have 5 more presents gift-wrapped and ready to go." Vernon said to try and appease his son.
"Oh, alright, but it better be good." Dudley lightened considerably at this and went to go eat. Vernon chuckled heartily and gave a wink at Petunia.
Harry snorted to himself quietly. The only two things that had happened to Dudley this year was one, he came back with his report card one day, and his grades were so low that his teachers recommended getting private tutors or signing up for remedial courses. Vernon and Petunia had obviously scoffed at this and said that it was the teacher's fault they couldn't teach such a talented boy, and went off for hours on end both comforting the boy and insulting his teachers. The other incident was a run-in with the law. Harry didn't hear much, as he was constantly confined in his cupboard, but he did get some snatches of conversation that said that Dudley was held at the police station for quite a while for harassing a girl on the streets. Naturally, to them, Dudley was the sweetest person on earth and wouldn't harm a soul. If only they saw what happens when Dudley was frequently alone with Harry. The boy often intimidated Harry, and took pleasure in hitting him and causing him pain. In addition, whenever something bad happened, he would frequently blame it on Harry. He enjoyed seeing Harry getting beat up.
He wasn't alone either. Whenever his gang showed up, with his most frequent accomplice being piers poltkiss, they would constantly chase Harry down, hitting him whenever they could and trying to stuff his face down toilets. Indeed, whenever Dudley's gang came over, he would be quite happy to be shut up in his cupboard, as then, he wouldn't have to deal with Dudley and his gang of idiots. Harry really couldn't understand how Dudley managed to make it this far. He was by far the most stupidest of the gang, and if his grades were any indication, he was very close to being kicked out of school. In addition, he was sort of the school bully, and attended the same school that Harry did. For this reason, Harry had no friends as, while indeed big and stupid, Dudley's gang did instill some fear into the students, and seeing as how Dudley constantly picked on Harry at school, the other kids wanted to stay as far away from him as possible, so they wouldn't become their next target.
Harry, like most of the time, spent most of the morning in his cupboard just wondering about life in general when someone knocked on the door.
"Get up, it's time to go." he heard Vernon grunt.
Harry actually didn't mind today, as it was planned that while Dudley and his friend Piers Poltkiss was to visit the zoo, he would be sent to Mrs. Figg's house. After all, any company was better than the Dursley's. That all changed though, when he caught sight of Vernon's now purple face.
"Mrs. Figg broke her leg, so she can't take you. This leaves us no other choice. No one else would take your sorry bum, so you're coming with us." Vernon spat in his face.
"You are not to bother Dudley in any way, shape, or form. You are not to touch him, you will not speak, you will not even look at him. Are we understood?" Vernon said in a dangerously low voice.
"Yes," replied Harry in as even a tone as possible, although in his mind he was nervous with excitement. Dudley never missed a chance to brag to Harry about how cool his birthdays were, and how he went to the most amazing places. Ha! That'll teach Dudley, Harry thought. As expected, Dudley pretended to cry.
"I don't want him to go with us...h-he ruins e-everything!"
"Oh, I'm sorry Dudders, but there's nothing we can do. Now, you try and make the best of it and forget about that ungrateful little rat, ok? Let mommy and Daddy take of this." Petunia said, trying to console Dudley, and glared at Harry. Even this action could not dampen Harry's spirits. He was going, on a trip, to the zoo! He was finally going to see what Dudley had bragged about to him all these years.
Ironically enough, Dudley's friend Piers Poltkiss, who looked like a rat, rang the doorbell and they all went to the front door to prepare for the upcoming trip, Harry bouncing off his toes in excitement. Little did they know that they would be in for much more than a simple trip to the zoo.
