Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their 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. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed.

Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of two children, a thin, wan, black haired boy, and a chubby blonde haired girl- but Rose Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a black haired boy riding his first bicycle, a blonde girl on a carousel at the fair, an older boy playing a computer game with his uncle, an older girl being hugged and kissed by her mother.

Harry Potter was there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.

"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one.

There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before. His 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 Rose's birthday."

Harry remembered.

Harry groaned.

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

"Nothing, nothing..."

Rose's birthday - how could he have forgotten? Harry got slowly out of bed and got dressed. When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Rose's birthday presents. Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes. He wore round glasses. The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning. He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.

"I'll tell you when you're older" she had said.

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.

"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way 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 the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way - all over the place.

Harry was frying eggs by the time Rose arrived in the kitchen with her mother. Harry had no idea how two not-very-pretty, not-exactly-nice people had ended up with a child like Rose. He and Rose often wondered if she was adopted, which Harry privately thought was true.

Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room.

At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Rose unwrap her presents

"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 real trouble from now until Christmas."

"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly."

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. It was one of the curses of being magical

The problem was, Harry's magic made strange things happen around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't deliberately make them happen. Padfoot understood, though, and had told harry that on his eleventh birthday he could say goodbye to the Dursleys for at least seven years.

He couldn't wait.

On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Morgan's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his room, or Padfoot's house.

While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to

Complain about things: people at work, Brexit, the council, the government, the

Bank, and Trump were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning,

It was motorcycles.

"... Roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The

Dursleys bought Rose and Harry large chocolate ice creams at the zoo. Harry thought, licking his ice cream, that that gorilla looked remarkably like Morgan, except that it wasn't blond.

Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time

After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, 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. Rose wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. She 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 it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.

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

"Does it move?" she asked at Harry. Uncle Vernon, overhearing, tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.

Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles again, but the snake just snoozed on.

"This is boring," Rose moaned. She shuffled away.

Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He 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 living at the Dursley's, although he only had to spend alternate weeks there.

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

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?"

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.

DAD! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU

WON'T BELIEVE

WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Rose came walking toward them as fast as she could.

"Out of the way, you," she said, pushing Harry out of the way. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Rose was leaning right up close to the glass, the next, she 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 onto 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?"