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. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of Dudley Dursley and Harry Potter as babies, playing and laughing together, but they were no longer babies, and now the photographs showed Dudley and Harry on their first bicycle, on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with their father/uncle and being hugged and kissed by their mother/ auntie.

The room held no sign at all that a little girl lived in the house, too. Yet, Aleena Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. Her Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!" Aleena woke with a start. Her aunt rapped on the door again. "Up!" she screeched. Aleena heard her walking towards the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the cooker.

Aleena sat up and tried to remember the dream she had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorbike in it. She had a funny feeling she had the same dream before.

Her aunt was back outside the door. "Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Nearly."

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon, and you better not burn it this time. I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."

Aleena groaned.

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

"Nothing, nothing …"

Aleena rolled out of bed and started looking for her socks. She found a pair under the bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. She was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that's were she slept.

When she was dressed, she walked into the kitchen and saw that the table was almost hidden beneath all of Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had got what he asked for, then again, he always did, same with Harry. They were both spoiled rotten.

Aleena glanced on the floor and saw that Dudley had gotten the racing bike he wanted. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Aleena, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching someone. Dudley and Harry's favourite punch-bag was Aleena.

But Dudley and Harry couldn't often catch her. Aleena might not look it, but she was very fast. Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Aleena had always been small and skinny for her age. She looked even smaller and skinnier than she really was because all she had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's and Dudley was about four times bigger than she was.

Aleena had a thin face, knobbly knees, red hair and bright-green eyes. She wore round glasses held together with a lot of Sellotape because of all the times Dudley and Harry had punched her on the nose. The only thing Aleena likes about herself was a very thin scar that was shaped like a lightening bolt on her forehead.

She's had it for as long as she could remember, and when she asked her aunt where she got it, Aunt Petunia had told her that she got it in the car crash that killed her parents, then Aunt Petunia snapped at her not to ask questions. After that day, Aleena never asked her auntie anything again, mainly because she didn't like talking to her family unless she has to. If she needed to know something then she would either go to the school library or ask one of the teachers.

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Aleena was turning over the bacon. He sat down at the kitchen table and grabbed the newspaper, a few seconds later, Dudley walked into the kitchen with his mother and Harry following him. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He has a large pink face, not much neck, small watery blue eyes and thick blond hair.

Harry looked a lot like Aleena. He had black hair and the same bright-green eyes. He wasn't has skinny as Aleena was though, and he got to wear all new clothes that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had bought for him. He often rubbed it in Aleena's face that he's more loved than her. He would always brag about all the new things he had gotten for Christmas or his birthday, and he never misses the opportunity to bully his little sister.

Aleena couldn't understand why her brother hated her so much, especially since she's been nothing but nice to him, not that Harry cared much. He enjoyed making her life hell, he liked making her cry, and he loved that she was scared of him.

Aleena put the plates of eggs and bacon on the table, whilst Dudley counted his presents. Aleena did the same and saw that there was only thirty-six which is two less than last year, so he's not going to be very happy about that. Just as she expected, Dudley's face fell when he realised how many present there was.

"There's only thirty-six" he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

"Darling, you haven't counted Aunt Marge's present, see, it's here under that big one from mommy and daddy" Aunt Petunia said, as she pointed to it, not that it made Dudley any happier. Aleena, who could see a hug Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down her eggs and bacon as fast as possible.

Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger too, because she quickly said, "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 blinked a few times before he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty ..."

"Thirty-nine" Aleena answered without thinking. Harry, who was close by, hit her on the back of the head and ordered her to say sorry. "Sorry for talking out of turn" she mumbled, as tears filled her eyes.

"Don't mumble, freak" Harry hissed, grabbing her face and making her look at him. "Say it again, but more clear this time."

"I'm sorry for talking out of turn" Aleena said, with confidence in her voice.

Aleena has always been a confident person but she never felt quite as confidence around her family. She always felt like she was walking on eggshells half of the time and she hated that. She hated how weak her family made her feel. She hated that she flinches a lot when she's around them. And she hated that she's scared of them. No child should be scared of their own family.

Aleena looked at her brother and saw Aunt Petunia giving him a motherly hug. She couldn't help but feel jealous about that. Aleena hasn't never been hugged like that before. The closes thing she's got to a hug is when Harry or Dudley holds her around the waist so the other one can hit her.

At the moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it whilst Aleena watched Dudley unwrap his presents. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came from into the kitchen, looking both angry and worried.

"Bad news, Vernon" she said. "Mrs Figg's broken her leg. She can't take her" she jerked her head in Aleen's direction.

Dudley's and Harry's mouth fell open in horror, but Aleena's gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's or Harry's birthday Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon would take them and a friend went for the day, to either adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema, and each year, Aleena was left behind with Mrs Figg.

She was a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Aleena didn't really like it at her house, mainly because the whole house smelled of cabbages and Mrs Figg had loads of cats that liked to climb all over Aleena when she's there. She wouldn't have minded that much if she wasn't allergic to cats. Aleena does nothing but sneeze when she's there, and by the time she gets home, her eyes are red and puffy and she has a chesty cough for a few hours.

"Now what?" Aunt Petunia asked, looking furiously at Aleena as though she had planned this.

"We could phone Marge?" Uncle Vernon suggested.

Aleena's head shot up and she looked at Aunt Petunia with pleading eyes. She was hoping that she would say no to that. Aunt Marge is just as bad as Harry and the Dursley's, if not worst. Whenever she comes to visit, she would always criticise Aleena for being too skinny or being too ugly because she wears baggy clothes and broken glasses. It's not like Aleena can do anything about it though, and Aunt Marge knows that, but she just loves criticising the young Potter girl.

"Don't be sill, Vernon, she hates the girl."

Aleena sighs in relief.

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

"On holiday in Majorca" Aunt Petunia snapped.

"You could leave me here" Aleena said, thinking about all the things she could do while they're out. She could watch television, play on the computer and take a nice long shower instead of a lousy 1 minute shower that she's allowed to take every other morning.

Aunt Petunia looked as though she's just swallowed a lemon, and from that look, Aleena knew there was no chance she was being left alone in the house.

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

"I won't blow up the house" she said, but they weren't listening.

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

"That car's new, she is not sitting in it alone ..."

Aleena couldn't help but rises her eyebrow a little. What exactly did her uncle think she was going to do in his car? All she would be able to do is sit there, what's so bad about that?

Dudley and Harry began to cry loudly. In fact, they weren't really crying, it had been years since they had cried, but they knew that if they screwed their face and wailed, then Petunia and Vernon would give them anything they wanted.

"Don't cry, my sweet boys" Aunt Petunia cried, flinging her arms around them. "I won't let her spoil your special day."

"I ... don't ... want ... her ... to ... come!" Dudley yelled between huge pretend sobs.

"She always spoils everything!" Harry whined. He shot his sister a grin through the gap in his aunties arms. Aleena rolled her eyes and looked away.

Just then, the doorbell rang. "Oh, Good Lord, they're here!" Aunt Petunia said frantically, and a moment later, Dudley and Harry'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 back while Dudley and Harry hits them.

Piers looked at Aleena and smirked, which made her shiver. She doesn't like Piers that much, mainly because he acts so creepy when he's around her and he keeps telling her dirty jokes. Dirty jokes that no 10 year old should know, not that Aleena really understood them anyway.

Half an hour later, Aleena, who couldn't believe her luck, were sitting in the back of the Dursley's car with Harry, Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in her life. Aleena couldn't wait to get there so she can get out of the car and away from Piers. Dudley had made her sit next to him because he knew that she didn't like him that much.

But before Aleena had gotten into the car, Uncle Vernon had taken her aside.

"I'm warning you" he had said, putting his face right up close to hers. "I'm warning you now, girl - any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

"I'm not going to do anything" she said. "Honestly."

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe her. No one ever did. The problem was, strange things often happened around Aleena and it was just no good telling the Dursleys that she didn't make them happen. Once, Aunt Petunia, who was getting sick of Aleena's hair being to long, took a pair of kitchen scissors and cut her hair so short she was almost bald.

Aleena was so upset that she cried all night. Aunt Petunia once let it slip that she had the same hair colour as her mother, and ever since then, Aleena as loved the idea of having the same hair colour as her mother. That's the only piece of information she's got about her mother, another than that, Aleena has no idea what her mother and father look like.

Aleena wasn't upset for long though, because when she got up the next day, she had find her hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had cut if off. She had been given a week in her cupboard for that, but Aleena didn't care, she was just happy that she had got her hair back.

One time she got in terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley and Harry's gang had been chasing her as usual, when, as much to her surprise as anyone else's, she was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Aleena's headmistress telling them that Aleena had been climbing school buildings, but all she tried to do was jump behind the big bins outside the kitchen doors.

She tried to explain this to Uncle Vernon but he got very angry and slapped her across the face and send her to her cupboard with the promise of no meals for a week. He didn't stick to that promise though but he did only give her one meal a day.

Harry has also made some strange things happen too, but he never gets punished for them. In fact, he gets praised for them, mainly by Aunt Petunia, something that Aleena could not understand. If she made a lamp explode on accident because she was angry, then she would get sent to her cupboard, but if Harry did it, then he would get taken to the shop so he could buy some sweets.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Aleena, the council, Alena, the bank and Aleena 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" Aleena said, suddenly remembering about her dream. "It was flying."

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Aleena. "MOTOBRIKES DON'T FLY!"

Dudley, Harry and Piers all started sniggering when they saw Aleena flinch.

"I know they don't" she mumbled. "It was just a dream."

It was very sunny and the zoo was crowded with families. Aleena watched them with a hint of jealously in her eyes. Why couldn't she have a loving family like those children?

Uncle Vernon had bought Harry, Dudley and Piers a large chocolate ice-cream at the entrance, and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Aleena what she wanted before Uncle Vernon could hurry her away, he bought her a cheap lemon ice lolly.

Aleena had the best morning she has had in a long time. They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Harry had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory wasn't big enough, Uncle Vernon brought him another one and Aleena was allowed to finish the first.

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. Aleena walked off so she could look at the lizards and snakes without Harry, Dudley and Piers annoying her.

She looked around and saw a tank with a massive snake behind it. She walked over there and gasped when she saw how beautiful the snake was. The scales of the snake were blue, green and yellow, but it looked like it was glowing because of how the light was shinning on it.

"Woah" she whispered. "I don't think I've seen such a beautiful snake before."

"Thankssss" someone hissed. Aleena jumped and looked around but saw that no one was around her. She looked back at the snake and watched it carefully. Was it the snake that talked?

"No!" she said, shaking her head. "Snakes can't talk! I just thought I heard something. Yeah, that will be it" Aleena's mouth fell open when the snake winked at her as if it was letting her know that it could in fact hear her.

Aleena looked around and still saw that no one was around her. She looked back at the snake. "Can - can you hear me?" she whispered. The snake nodded. "Woah" she breathed out. How is this even possible? How could she talk to snakes? How could she understand what the snake was saying? Could Harry talk to snakes too?

Aleena smiled at the snake and without thinking, she asked, "Where are you from anyway?" The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. She looked at it. Boa Constrictor, Brazil. "Was it nice there?" The snake jabbed its tail at the sign again and Aleena read on, This specimen was bred in the zoo.

"Oh, I'm sorry you have never been to Brazil" Aleena said, putting her hand on the glass. "My name is Aleena, by the way. Do you have a name?"

"Sssssammy" the snake hissed.

Aleena giggled. "Sammy the snake. I like it" she grinned when the snake put her tail on the glass right where Aleen's hand was. "Aww, you're cute, Sammy. I wish I could hel -"

"Dudley! Piers! Uncle Vernon!" Harry shouted, cutting Aleena off from what she was going to say. "Come and look at this snake! You won't believe what it's doing!"

Dudley came waddling towards Aleena as fast as he could. "Out of my way, freak!" he said, punching Aleena in the ribs. caught be surprise, she fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast that no one saw how is happened - one second, Harry, Dudley and Piers were learning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.

Aleena sat up and gasped; the glass front of the snake tank had vanished. Sammy the snake uncoiled herself and slithered onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. Sammy slithered over to Aleena.

"Thankssss" she hissed, flicking out her tongue so that it touched Aleen's cheek. Aleena giggled. She couldn't believe that she just got kissed by a snake.

"Stay safe and I hope you make it to Brazil."

Sammy the snake nodded and slithered out of the door, playfully snapping at people's ankles as she passed. Aleena gasped when someone grabbed her top and pulled her to her feet. She looked and saw that it was Harry who had her.

"What did you do?" he growled angrily.

"I-I didn't do anything."

"Don't lie to me, freak! I know this was you."

"It wasn't. I don't even know what happened, I swear I don't."

"I will make you pay for this, freak" he hissed, pushing her away from him. Aleena stumbled backwards but managed to stay on the feet.

Once Aunt Petunia had gotten over the shock, Uncle Vernon dragged them all out of the zoo and into the car. On the drive home, Harry, Dudley and Piers were talking about how the snake had squeezed them to death. Aleena couldn't help but roll her eyes. The snake didn't even go near them.

"Aleena was talking to the snake, wasn't you freak?" Harry said. Aleena felt the colour drain from her face when she saw the look on Uncle Vernon's face. She glanced at Harry only to find him smirking at her. "Told you I would make you pay" he whispered, making Dudley and Piers snigged.

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Aleena. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say. "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals."

Aleena sighed and went to her cupboard, she closed the door behind her, lied down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. She let a little smile fall on her lips. Today had been amazing, weird, but amazing. Aleena can't remember the last time she had fun like that before, come to think of it, she doesn't think she's ever had fun like that before.

The most fun Aleena has had is when her uncle made her go to the stop on her own. She took the long way around just so she could spend longer out of the house, but something strange happened that day. When Aleena was walking home from the shop, a bald man in a very long purple coat had came up to her and shook her hand, then walked away without saying a word.

Aleena stood there for a few seconds, before she turned around only to find the man had disappeared. This confused the hell out of Aleena because she thought that she would have seen him walking down the street, but he was nowhere to be seen.

She has had a lot of weird moments like that since that day. This one time when she was shopping with Aunt Petunia, Dudley and Harry, a tiny man in a violet top hat bowed to her. Aleena didn't know what to do so she just smiled at the man which caught Aunt Petunia attention. She kept asking Aleena if she knew the man, Aleena told her she didn't so Aunt Petunia rushed them out of the shop without buying anything.

Just the other day she had an old woman dressed in all green wave at her when she was siting at a bus stop. Aleena waved back which made the lady smile and wave at her again. Aleen has no idea if these people know her or not, but every time she tries to get a second look, they all seen to disappear.

Aleena looked around her cupboard and sighed when she remember that she had no clock. She has no idea how long she's been in there. She got out of bed and pushed her ear to the door and groaned when she heard the television coming from the living room, that meant that the Dursleys and Harry were still awake. She sighed and got back into bed. She couldn't sneak out to get something to eat just yet.

Aleena is used to sneaking out at night for food. How can she not be? It's been this way for ten years now. Ten miserable years. When Aleena was little she would spend hours in her cupboard, hoping and praying that some unknown relation would come to take her away, but it never happened; the Dursleys and Harry were her only family.

At school Aleena had no one either. Everyone knew that Harry and Dudley's gang hated Aleena Potter in her baggy clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with their gang, so instead of helping Aleena, they all bully her too.