"Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their niece and nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. "The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls

."but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby""and now the photographs showed a large blonde boy riding his first bicycle

on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother."

The room held no sign at all that other children lived in the house, too.

"yet Harry and Persephone Potter were still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. TheirAunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

Percy woke up rolled onto her back and tried to remember the dream she had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it.

She had a funny feeling she'd had the same dream before.

Harry stirred "Five minutes"he groaned

Percy wanted to give him time to sleep but knew that there would be trouble if she did. In order to prevent this from happening she removed her pillow from the floor and hit him with it.

"Their aunt was back outside the door.

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Nearly." said Harry.

"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."

Harry groaned.

"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.

"He didn't say anything,you cow" Percy snapped although keeping the last part quiet.

The twins shared a look Dudley's birthday - how could they have forgotten? Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks,while Percy was looking for a rubber found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them,

put them on. The twins were used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them,

and that was where they slept.

When Harry was dressed the twins went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.

Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and Percy was just trying to fix Dudleys old camera so she could take a photo of him once he fell/broke the bike. Harry smiled at the thought but knew they would probably get punched for it.

Dudley's favourite punching bag was Harry,and he and his gang enjoyed holding Percy back and making her watch Harry was fast and Percy was as could also to wonders with healing minor wounds but he had keener eyes than her so he could always spot Dudleys gang twins were both made fun of by Dudleys gang for being smaller than the rest of their class,Percy reasoned this to be from living in a dark was also made fun of for having ADHD and Dyslexia.

Harry had a thin face,jet black hair,knobbly knees and green eyes Percy had similar features but her eyes were a more sea twins had identical lightning bolt thought it was the only cool thing about himself and Percy would slap him round the head for thinking it.

Percy and Harry often wondered how they had gotten their they asked their aunt she replied,

"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said.

The twins had always felt this wasn't the whole knew that it was generally safer not to ask questions. Curiosity was frowned at in the Dursley house.

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon. "Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning sniggered at 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 the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way – all over the of course found this hilarious and showed of to him how perfectly straight her hair was.

Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large, pinkish face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes and thick blonde hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel, Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig and Percy told him to stop being so cruel to animals.

Harry put plates of egg and bacon on the kitchen 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

it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over."Percy did the same.

Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right''
Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty..."

Percy chuckled and Harry gave her a warning look he loved his sister but she really did dangerous things.

"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.

"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."

Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!"

"He ruffled Dudley's hair.

At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Percy did the dishes and Harry 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 Harry's direction.

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. 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, the twins were left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away."Percy exchanged a look with him full of hope and excitement.

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.

"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates them"
The Dursleys often spoke about the twins like this, as though he wasn't there - or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug."

"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"

"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer)."

"Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.

"I won't blow up the house," said Harry,

"Speak for yourself" Percy said

"I suppose we could take them to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "...and leave them in the car..."

"That car's new, they're not sitting in it alone..."

"Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, 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, his mother would give him anything he wanted."

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.

Percy snorted and Harry thumped her on the arm to shut her up so she wouldn't get into trouble for laughing.

"I... don't... want... them.. t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "They always sp- spoil everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms."

Just then, the doorbell rang – 'Oh, Good 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 hit them. Percy always thought him to be a creep because he often tried to kiss her when holding her back.

Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

Half an hour later and the twins who couldn't believe their luck, were sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in their lives.

His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken the twins aside.'I'm warning you,' he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, 'I'm warning you now, boy – any funny business, anything at all – and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas,you too girl.

'We're not going to do anything,' said Harry, 'honestly ...'

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.

The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barber's looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his fringe, which she had 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 Sellotaped glasses. Next morning, however, he had got up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. He had been given a week in his cupboard for this,with Percy sneaking in food for him,he had tried to explain that hecouldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

The same sort of things happened to Percy. Once Aunt Petunia had been trying to force her into a revolting old jumper of Dudley's (brown with orange bobbles). The harder she tried to pull it over her head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a glove puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to her great relief,Percy wasn't punished.

On the other hand, they'd got into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to the twins surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from their headmistress telling them that the twins had been climbing school buildings. But all they'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big bins outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught them in told him it was a sad excuse but couldn't think of anything better.

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, his 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, Percy,the bank Harry and Percy were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning, it was motorbikes.

'... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums,' he said, as a motorbike overtook them.

'I had a dream about a motorbike,' said Percy, remembering suddenly. 'It was flying.'

Percy sighed as Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beetroot with a moustache, 'MOTORBIKES, DONT FLY!'

Dudley and Piers sniggered.

'I know they don't,' said Harry. 'It was only a dream.'

But she wished she hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than the twins asking questions, it was their talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon – they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys brought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice-creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady had asked the twins what they wanted before they could hurry them away, they brought them cheap lemon ice lollies.

It wasn't bad either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head and looking remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't twins had had the best morning in a long were careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunch-time, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting them.

They ate in the zoo restaurant and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory wasn't big enough, Uncle Vernon brought him another on and the twins were allowed to finish the first.

Harry felt, afterwards, that he should have known it was all too good to last.

After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in here, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. 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 dustbin – but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.

Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.

'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 shuffled away.

The twins moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. They wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself – no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up – at least he got to visit the rest of the house.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly., it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with theirs.

It winked.

Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. Nobody was except Percy. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.

The snake jerked its head towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry 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.' Percy said.

The snake nodded vigorously.

'Where do you come from, anyway?' Harry asked.

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

Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

'Was it nice there?'Percy asked.

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. 'Oh, I see – so you've never been to Brazil?'

As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. 'DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!'

Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could.

'Out of the way, freaks,"he said, pushing the twins. Caught by surprise, they both fell hard on the concrete floor.

What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened – one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.

Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out on to the floor – people throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.

As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, 'Brazil, here I come ... Thanksss, amigo.'

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.

'But the glass,' he kept saying, 'where did the glass go?'

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong sweet tea while he apologised over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as the twins had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed but 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 the twins at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "You two were talking to it, weren't you?"

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on the twins. 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.

Harry lay in his and his sisters dark cupboard much was sneaking to the kitchens for some she was back they broke down and sobbed together.

When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take them away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry or Percy tried to get a closer look.

They were so tired and to make him feel better Percy started to sing softly

"There is a castle on a cloud,

I like to go there in my sleep,

Aren't any floors for me to sweep,

There is a room that's full of toys,

There are a hundred boys and girls,

Nobody shouts or talks too loud,

Not in my castle on a cloud.

Not in my castle on a cloud,

There is a lady all in white,

Holds us and sings us lullabies,

She's nice to see and she's soft to touch,

She says my dears I love you very much,

I know a place where no ones lost,

I know a place where no one cries,

Crying at all is not allowed,

Not in my castle on a cloud,"

She finished her lullaby as they finished eating and crawled into bed in Dudley's old pyjamas.

"Goodnight Harry"Percy whispered."Love you"

"Love you too Percy" He replied as they fell into the clutches of sleep together


A/N This chapter was brought to you by the British insomniac Starkidlover100

Disclaimer-not mine

Please review every reviewer gets a cookie (::) om nom nom nom

I go a bit weird when sleepy anyway read and review

Goodnight