A/N: Wow! I can't believe in just a few hours I've already gotten 12 e-mails about my story! Thank you so much! More reviews, alerts, and favorites means more updates for you so if you like the story let me know! Now, back to the good stuff.
Chapter Two
How Did He Get Back There
It had been almost ten years since the night that old Dumbledore had left young Bella and Harry on the front stoop of their Aunt and Uncle's house, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose and the street would be flooded with light, onto the gardens and into the Dursley house. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece showed that it really had been ten years.
Ten years ago, one would have seen pictures of a large rather pink baby that resembled a beach ball in a bonnet. That baby, of course, was no longer a baby but a boy named Dudley Dursley. The mantelpiece sure showed that. The pictures now were of a large blonde boy riding a bike, or playing on the computer, or even just hugging his mother. But that was that the entire mantelpiece showed. That was all that the house showed,
No Harry. No Bella. No Potters.
But they where there. There was no doubt. Only if you really knew the Dursleys', and on one did, would you know that under the stairs in the cupboard of number 4 Privet Drive, were two small Potter twins.
Harry was dead asleep in the makeshift bed that he and Bella shared. Bella was up early again trying to read a book in the dark. It's not like she wanted to stay in a dark and dusty cupboard. No. Who would chose that over light, and open air? Bella had a good reason for hiding in the cupboard. She was hiding from her Aunt.
Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the Potter twins' day.
"Up! Get up! Now!" Bella through her book under her pillow and shook Harry. Harry jerked with a start.
"She's up," Bella whispered as soft as she possibly could.
Harry, still groggy looked at his sister like she was crazy and rolled back over. He was just starting to fall back into his dream when–
"Up!" Aunt Petunia screeched in a pitch so high it made Bella jump. They heard her waking towards the kitchen and heard something slam down on the stove.
Bella flipped on the light and handed Harry his glasses. She crossed her arms and looked fairly annoyed. Harry looked dumbfounded.
"Oh," he said at last. "Her." Bella still didn't uncross her arms. "Oh, come on, Bells! I'm tired! She made me stay up last night and clean up Dudley's stupid mess from dinner. He's such a pig."
Bella finally uncrossed her arms and even cracked a smile at the thought of her cousin as a pig. She could just see it now. Dudley in the middle of a table on Christmas, with and apple in his mouth. Harry was imagining Dudley rolling around in mud.
"So what were you dreaming about?" Bella asked as they started to walk out of the cupboard. "You sure didn't want to wake up."
"Oh, that," Harry smiled. "It was a great dream, Bells on was flying on a motorcycle with this huge guy over London and–"
"Look who's finally up!" Harry and Bella looked up from their conversation to realize they had now entered the kitchen. "Harry, go make breakfast for Dudley! He wants bacon."
"Why can't Bella do it?" Harry complained.
"Because, I will not have Dudley eating burnt bacon on his birthday!" She turned to bell with a sneer on her face. "And you, set the table and try not to break anything."
As soon as she turned around Bella made a blah blah blah motion with her hand and stuck her tongue out. Of course Harry started laughing. Aunt Petunia was almost out of the room until she heard that. She turned around and glared at them.
"What's so funny?" she asked, her voice coated in false sweetness. She turned directly on Bella.
"Oh nothing." Bella said mimicking the aunt voice perfectly. Harry now had his back turned to them and was biting on his fingers to keep from laughing. With one last glare, their Aunt left.
Bella turned around to set the table and almost gasped. She almost couldn't see the table. It was covered by Dudley's presents! Wait presents?
Bella looked at Harry. Of course he hadn't remembered either. The presents, the getting up early, the extra snippy-ness of their Aunt's voice. It could only mean one thing. It was Dudley's Birthday.
Bella tucked a piece of red hair behind her head and tried to move the presents over just enough to fit the dishes in. After about ten minutes she succeeded. Harry had finished the bacon and was onto Aunt Petunia's morning omelet. It was strange to see such a skinny wrist holding a spatula and flipping things.
Maybe it had something to do with living in the cupboard but the potter twins had always been rather skinny. Harry was skinny and about four foot eleven with a mop of jet black hair and striking green eyes under his round glasses. His hair covered up a little lighting bolt on his forehead. Bella was also very skinny and about four foot nine with wavy red hair. She had dark, chocolate brown eyes like her father. Her scar, however, wasn't covered by hair. It was a small storm cloud on her wrist.
Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Bella was helping Harry put the bacon on plates.
"Comb your hair!" he barked. This was Uncle Vernon's idea of a morning greeting.
About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than anyone else in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way – all over the place.
Bella and Harry were on to frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel –Bella liked to tell the girls at school that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.
Bella and Harry put the plates of eggs and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents.
His face fell.
"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."
"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."
"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, his face going rather red.
Bella and Harry knew this all too well. They saw a huge Dudley tantrum coming on. Uncle Vernon had already begun wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.
Aunt Petunia obviously knew this was trouble, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you two more presents while we're out today. How's that, pumpkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"
Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like it was very hard work. "So then I'll have forty presents!" he said finally.
Harry almost laughed again but he knew to be quiet. However, Bella didn't.
"It's thirty nine, genius." Dudley glared and Aunt Petunia jumped in.
"Well look who's getting an A in math," she smirked before turning back to her son.
Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest plate. "All right then."
Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!"
At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry, Bella, and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.
"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take them." She jerked her head in the direction of the twins.
Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry and Bella suddenly felt excited. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, they were left behind with Mrs. Figg. Mrs. Figg was a crazy old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. Bella didn't mind as much but the idea of an adventure was just so appealing. Mrs. Figg's whole house smelled like cabbage and she made them look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.
"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia. She looked furiously at a nervous Harry and a smug Bella as though they had been planning this. They knew they should have felt sorry for Mrs. Figg and her broken leg, but it wasn't easy.
"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested. Bella shuttered at the thought.
"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates them." The Dursleys often talked about Bella and Harry like this, as though they weren't there – or like they were something disgusting that couldn't understand them, like a slug. Like they weren't human.
"What about what's-her-name, your friend –Yvonne?"
"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.
"You could just leave us here," Harry put in hopefully.
Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just tasted something sour.
"And come back and find the house in ruins." she snarled.
"We won't blow up the house," said Bella, but they weren't listening.
"I suppose we could take them to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "...and leave them in the car..."
"That car's new! I will not let them sit in it alone..."
Dudley began crying. He wasn't really crying – it had been years since he'd really cried – but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, Aunt Petunia would give him anything he wanted.
"Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let them spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.
"I... don't... want... them... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "The always m-m-mess up everything!" He shot Harry and Bella a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.
Just then, the doorbell rang – "Oh, Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically – and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley would hit them in the face. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.
Half an hour later, Harry and Bella were sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in there life. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with them, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.
"I'm warning now you, boy," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "any funny business, anything at all – and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas. You and that bloody sister of yours."
"You know we're not going to do anything," said Harry, "Honestly..
But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.
The problem was, weird thing would often happen around the Potter twins. Every time that they would tell their aunt and uncle that they didn't do, they would just be shut up in a cupboard.
Once, Aunt Petunia had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut Harry's hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Bella had tried to comfort him with no success.
But when he had woken up the next morning, he found that his hair was the same as it had been before Aunt Petunia had cut it. Aunt Petunia had a tantrum and blamed Harry. He was shut in the cupboard for having his hair grow too fast. The only food he got was what Bella could sneak for him from the kitchen.
But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, the cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.
While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Bella, the bank, Harry, the economy, and Bella were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.
I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying and there was this huge hairy man in a trench–"
Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!" Dudley and Piers sniggered.
It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry and Bella what they wanted before the Dursleys could walk away, they bought them two cheap lemon ice pop. It wasn't bad, either. They licked it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley.
This had been the best morning the Potter twins had had in a long time. Of course they were careful not to walk to close to Dudley and Piers. They even got to eat in a real restaurant.
Bella and Harry should have known it wouldn't last.
After lunch they went to the reptile house. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can – but at the moment was fast asleep.
"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 smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.
"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He walked away.
Harry and Bella moved over toward the snake. Despite the fact that it was asleep, they still found it very interesting. There was no company for that snake, nothing to do all day but have people watch you. It looked even worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom.
"I how you feel," Harry told the snake. Then the strangest thing happened.
The snake's eyes shot open.
Very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with the children'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 them 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 his head. Bella backed away but Harry hardly noticed.
Then there was a loud yelling sound from Dudley. "DAD, MUM, PIERS! GET OVER HERE QUICK! YOU WON'T BELIVE WHAT THE SNAKE IS DOING!" Dudley and Piers pushed Harry out of the way to get a better look.
But Bella and Harry didn't like that. They didn't like that at all.
It all happened very fast. For the first few seconds, no one really noticed that the glass was gone. Then Dudley went to press his face upon the glass. Piers tried to warn him but he was too late. And so Dudley fell face forward into the snake habitat.
The great snake was slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.
As the snake slid swiftly past, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigo."
The Dursley family was quite the sight to see. Dudley trapped behind the glass yelling for his mommy. Aunt Petunia screaming for her Dudleykinz. Uncle Vernon rushing to find the manager. Bella trying to hold in her laughter. And a very very scarred looking Harry.
By the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.
But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"
Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.
When he and Bella were safely inside dimly lit cupboard, Bella finally lost it.
"What the bloody hell was that?" she hissed.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean what were you saying?"
Harry was puzzled. Surely Bella would have heard him. She was standing right next to him after all. "Bells, I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You, you talked to the snake. You weren't speaking English."
"Of course I was speaking English," Harry argued.
"Really? I've never seen words like hash ha sa sesse ah in a dictionary before. It's just strange."
"I never said any of those words before, Bells! You've gotta believe me."
Bella sighed. "I want to believe you, Harry. I really do. I think I might be going mad."
"Mad?" he asked. "Why would you be going mad?"
"It's just that," Bella paused, "Never mind. It sounds stupid."
"Stupider that talking to snakes? Come on, Bells." Harry batted his eyelashes like a little girl and jutted out his lip.
"I'll tell you," she began, "if you promise me you will never make that face again." Harry's puppy dog face immediately melted. "Okay, well remember when Piers and Dudley came up and pushed you?" Harry nodded. "Well they just made me so, so angry. I mean, no one can mess with my brother but me. And then I wished that they would just fall through the glass. Then they could see what it felt like to be the animals for once. And then it happened."
Harry was speechless for a moment. "I believe you," he said finally.
"Really?"
"Of course. It's spooky but I believe you."
"I wish some had the answers. I don't understand we can do so much, without meaning to."
"Me either. And who knows?" Harry joked. "One day someone might bust us out of this prison cell and take us somewhere we can really live."
"Even if it doesn't happen, we can always dream," Bella smiled at her brother.
And with that they turned off the light hoping that the rest of the week would pass quickly.
A/N: Like it or hate it? Also I've been getting a lot of questions about parings. Obviously a lot will be changed. I've been told that people don't want Bella to be with Edward. I'm planning on writing my on Potter Twins version of all of the Harry Potter books so please keep in mind that this will go on for a long time. Please Review!
