While Vernon drove, he of course complained to Petunia about things. People at work, Harry, Nicole, The Council, Harry, the bank, Nicole & Harry were just some of his favourite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.

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

"I had a dream about a motorcycle," Harry said. "It was flying!"

"MOTORCYCLES CAN'T FLY!" Vernon shouted.

"Settle down, Uncle Vernon," Nicole said. "It was just a dream he had once."

Nicole gave Harry a look, as it could've got them both into trouble, because as we've established, if one of them gets in trouble, they both do. No exceptions. And acting in a way that they shouldn't, by their own judgement, it didn't matter if it was a dream. Of course, sometimes little comments slipped out of Nicole's mouth too, sometimes on purpose because she just wanted to wind her stupid family up sometimes.

It was a very sunny Sunday and the zoo was crowding with other families. The Dursleys brought Dudley & Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then the smiling lady asked the twins what they wanted, before they could hurry them away, and bought them both cheap lemon ice pops.

Harry liked it, while Nicole thought lemon tasted like vomit.

"At least it's food," Harry says.

The two had the best morning they'd had in a long time. They were careful to walk a little way apart from The Dursleys so that Dudley & Piers, starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby by hurting them. They ate in a zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on it, Vernon bought him another one and Harry & Nicole were allowed to share the first.

Nicole felt afterward, that she & Harry should've known it was too good to last.

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. Dudley & Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras, and thick man-crushing pythons. Dudley found the largest snake in the place rather quickly. It was asleep.

"Make it move!" Dudley said, as Vernon tapped on the glass.

"Do it again!" Dudley commanded. Vernon obeyed his son, but the snake did nothing.

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

Nicole stared at the snake, she had always been interested in snakes, they weren't the best animals, but they were okay. A snake like that might die of boredom - living alone like that with no company, other than a few rude people drumming on the glass. Animals weren't treated nicely here, which of course, Nicole really didn't care about.

The snake opened its eyes. It woke up, as Nicole saw, it looked interestingly at Harry, and then winked. Nicole looked at her twin brother weirdly. Harry winked too. Even though they didn't know what they were winking at. The snake hissed, as fell and then...

Harry spoke in a snake-like voice, and Nicole had no idea what he was saying. Was Harry secretly part-snake?

"Harry, what are you saying and who are you talking to?" Nicole asked after a while.

"You can't hear him?" Harry questioned.

"Hear who?" Nicole said, confused.

"The snake," said Harry, as they both heard a sound which made them both jump, and maybe the snake too. "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, you two!" Dudley said, pushing Harry into Nicole, as they both fell over. 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.

The two sat up and gasped - the glass of the 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.

The snake flew swiftly pass them, as the snake hissed, escape and went.

"Can you speak snake somehow?" Nicole asked Harry, very confused.

"I don't know," Harry said.

The keeper of the glass was in shock.

"But the glass," he kept saying. "Where did the glass go?"

The zoo director made Petunia a cup of tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers & Dudley could only gibber. From what Nicole could've seen, the snake hadn't really done much, other than slightly snap after he went passed. She was still wondering about Harry though. But by the time they got back to the car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, and Piers was swearing it tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down to say "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"

Vernon waited until Piers was out of the house until he started on the twins. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "GO! BEDROOM! NO MEALS!", before collapsing into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
The twins got back to the room, where The Dursleys left them to starve.

"So, tell me what was going on," Nicole said. "Were you talking to the snake?"

"No, yes," Harry said. "I don't know."

"The vanishing glass was a mistake," said Nicole. "It was impossible you could've done it, but then again how did it happen?"

"I didn't do anything, Nicole!" Harry insisted.

"I believe you, don't worry," Nicole walked over to her brother. "When they're not looking, I'll be on food duty today."

Occasionally, when the Dursleys locked the twins in their room, they would usually sneak out to find food while The Dursleys were asleep. It was of course risky, and they have been caught before, but it was worth the risk.

"It's okay," Harry said. "I was probably hallucinating when I heard the snake talk to me anyway."

"I can imagine so," Nicole responded.

"It ruined such a good day too," Harry said. "What caused this?"

"Harry, I don't think anyone will ever know," Nicole said. "But there's an explanation for everything. We just have to be determined to find out."

The twins had lived with The Dursleys for ten years, ten miserable years, as long as they can remember, ever since they'd been babies and their parents apparently died in a car crash. She obviously couldn't remember being in the car, or however they died, and she didn't think Harry did either. She couldn't remember her parents at all. Petunia & Vernon never talked about them, and of course they were both forbidden to ask questions.

When she had been younger, she dreamed about an unknown relation taking her and her brother away, but because it was just a dream, it never happened. Something like this, always too good to be true. The Dursleys were their only family. It's not like strangers knew them on the street, as much as she wanted them to. Harry once told her about times when a guy in a shop bowed to him while she was staying home, and she once saw a random guy shake his hand recently without saying a word. It was like these random people knew Harry very well but had no idea who she was.

At school, they only had each other. They stuck to themselves. They were nicknamed 'The Odd Twins' by Dudley's gang, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.

"Well, I wonder when they're going to let us out," Nicole said.

"Let's hope it's not until the summer," Harry joked.