Disclaimer: Harry Potter isn't mine

Chapter Two

The Boa Constrictor

Ten years later, 4 Privet Drive had changed quite a bit. It was still immaculately clean and neat, but the halls were not filled with photos of pudgy babies anymore, but photos of blond haired children growing up.

If you looked at Diana in the photos, you could tell that she had changed as well. She was no longer a pudgy four month old baby with a thin amount of hair on her head, but a pretty ten year old girl with long blond hair and emerald green eyes.

The other child in the photo was Dudley, Diana's older brother. Dudley and Diana had always hated each other, Dudley being jealous of how well Diana did in school and Diana hating the fact that Dudley bullied Harry on a regular basis.

Harry had changed too. He had messy black hair and emerald green eyes, and was always rather skinny, probably due to living in a cupboard and to the lack of food Petunia and Vernon fed him. He had a thin lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead, but he never knew what it meant. Petunia and Vernon had told him he had got it from a car crash that killed his parents when he was a baby.

Harry and Diana had long since became friends. It had started when Diana had given him a crayon pack when he was in the cupboard nine years previously. Diana couldn't remember anything, but Harry said it was his earliest memory.

Diana awoke with a start. There was a huge weight on her chest, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

"Remember what day it is, ickle Di-Di?"

Diana groaned. She knew what the huge weight was.

"Get off me, Dudley."

Dudley smirked. "Not until you say what day it is, Di-Di."

"Fine, it's ickle Diddykins's birthday," snapped Diana.

With a grunt of effort, Diana managed to sit up, and doing so she tipped Dudley off her bed.

"Hey!" snapped Dudley. "You can't do that."

"Oh yes I can, Diddy," retorted Diana. She opened the door and kicked Dudley in the back. Normally she would've broken her toe, but Dudley went speeding out.

As Dudley smashed into a wall, Diana closed the door and started getting dressed.

Great, she thought. Now I'm in trouble.

Diana's parents, Petunia and Vernon, hated anything abnormal, which was unfortunate for Diana, because she was the definition of abnormal. Wherever she went, trouble followed. Whenever someone messed with her, they'd regret it. She truly was a freak of nature.

Once Diana was downstairs, she unlocked the cupboard door.

"Thanks, Diana," said Harry.

Diana had always thought of Harry as her brother. He was much kinder than Dudley, and he didn't call her nicknames. Plus, he also was what Petunia and Vernon would call 'a freak of nature.'

"It's Dudley's birthday today," Diana reminded Harry.

Harry sighed and banged his head on the wall, and kept doing it until Diana grabbed him and pulled him away.

"You're going to give yourself another scar," she told him.

"I'm fine," said Harry, rubbing the lump that had formed on his forehead.

Before he could resist, Diana dragged him into the kitchen, where Vernon was sitting, reading the newspaper.

"Good morning, Dad," Diana said.

"Hi, Diana," Vernon called from the table.

"Aren't you going to greet Harry, Dad?" asked Diana.

Vernon looked over his newspaper and focused his piggy little eyes on Harry. "Get a haircut!" he barked.

Diana dragged Harry to the kitchen counter, where they started making breakfast together. It was a tradition of theirs, to make breakfast together.

Diana checked the list of foods they need to make for breakfast. Dudley had made a list (or rather made Petunia write it for him) when he was six about all the things he wanted for breakfast on his birthday.

What I Want for Breakfast on my Birthday

•Eggs

•Bacon

•Chocolate pancakes

The list went on and on, but Diana and Harry only made the first three on the list. Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley came in, and his eyes were on only the massive pile of presents on the table.

Dudley looked a lot like Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, and small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. He was - Diana thought - rather obese, but that wasn't why she hated him. She hated him because he bullied Harry, and was a spoiled little brat. Diana was a whole year (and seven days) younger than Dudley, yet she was so much more mature than him.

Diana and Harry went to lay the bacon on the table, and Dudley's face fell.

"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at Petunia and Vernon. "That's two less than last year."

Diana rolled her eyes.

Petunia told Dudley, "Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big present from Mummy and Daddy."

"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face, a tantrum sign.

Diana scoffed. "Dudley, you can't possibly be upset because you only got thirty-seven presents? Harry only ever gets one, from me!"

"Shut up, will you?" asked Dudley rudely. "You're ruining my eleventh birthday like the brat you are."

"Brat," scoffed Diana. She turned to Harry and said, "Apparently Dudley thinks I'm a brat."

Harry, not wanting to get into the fight, muttered something about making pancakes, and dashed off into the kitchen area.

Dudley glared at his parents, ignoring his sister. "I want more presents!"

When his parents didn't respond immediately, Dudley yelled, "I WANT MORE PRESENTS!"

Diana sighed and rubbed her temple. Dudley's birthday was the worst day of her life, and it always went very slowly.

Dudley's face grew more and more red, until Petunia said quickly, "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. "So I'll have thirty... thirty..."

His tiny little brain was probably having quite the workout.

"... forty-one?"

"Oh, for goodness sake Dudley, you'd have thirty-nine!" Diana snapped. She was honestly at her wits end with her brother.

"No one asked you!" said Dudley heatedly.

"I was just trying to help you, because obviously your tiny little brain can't do simple math like that!" retorted Diana. She turned on her heel and went out into the garden before anyone could stop her.

Diana wandered the garden for a while before sitting down between two bushes. Her brother was so infuriating!

Diana recalled the time when Dudley had broken her bed by jumping on it. Ooh, she'd been mad. She hadn't spoken to him for a week. And when Dudley slapped her on the cheek to get her attention once, his bed suddenly caught fire. Then they were even.

Vernon had been very angry at Diana after she accidentally made Dudley's bed catch fire.

"We should disown you!" a drunken Vernon had yelled. "You're lucky we haven't sent you to Marge's already!"

Diana, being a six year old girl, didn't really understand Vernon, but she knew one thing: a Dursley hated abnormal things, and any abnormal Dursley would pay.

That day had changed Diana forever. She started trying to cover up the 'abnormalness' with other things. Diana had started to become a bookworm, and soon became the class nerd. She'd started getting teased and bullied, but at least the school didn't call Petunia and Vernon about the freaky events that happened around Diana, but rather the teasing and bullying.

Diana also learnt how to control her freakishness, mainly directing at Harry. Once, she made him appear on the roof of the school when Dudley's gang (a group of bullies just as mean and thuggish as Dudley) had been chasing him, and once she'd made all his hair grow back after Petunia sheared it all off. It was like a two-for-the-price-of-one meal - she'd be able to control her freakishness and protect Harry. The only downside was that Petunia and Vernon blamed Harry for her magic. That was how she'd been living for five years now, living as if her life were playing a game of chess, and thinking about every move she made and how it would affect her and Harry.

"Diana! Come back!"

Diana looked up from the soil and saw Harry running towards her.

"Great news!" exclaimed Harry. "Mrs Figg broke her leg!"

"I didn't know you hated her so much," said Diana exasperatedly.

"No! It means I can come to the zoo with you!"

Diana jumped up and down in the soil. Every year on Dudley's birthday, Petunia and Vernon would take him and Diana somewhere, like the cinema or an aquarium, and Harry would be left at Mrs Figg's house, which Diana found incredibly sad. It would be great if Harry got to come!

"When are we leaving?" Diana asked.

"Now!" cried Harry. "Piers just got here! We're leaving now!"

He grabbed Diana's hand and dragged her to the car, and before she knew it she was sitting in between Piers Polkiss and Harry, who couldn't believe his luck. Diana made sure to block Harry from Piers, as while Harry was always bullied by Dudley and could stand it, Piers was worse, so Diana blocked Harry from Dudley's best friend.

While he drove, Vernon complained to Petunia. He liked to complain about things; people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. Today's subject was motorbikes.

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

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

Vernon nearly crashed the car. He turned right around and faced Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a moustache. "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"

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

But Vernon didn't care. If there was one thing he and his wife hated, it was anything abnormal. Diana didn't really know why, or how, they just did. She wished she knew what happened.

Diana was smart enough to know something had happened a long time ago. Her parents couldn't have just started hating 'abnormalness' out of nowhere, something must've happened. All she knew was that Petunia and Vernon would not stand anything abnormal, meaning they couldn't stand Harry.

It was a very sunny Saturday at the zoo, and it was crowded with families. Petunia and Vernon bought Diana, Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance, but Diana knew she couldn't persuade her parents to get Harry one. But as she licked her ice cream, she couldn't help but notice Harry's downcast face, and she let him have the rest.

Diana made sure Harry didn't walk near Piers or Dudley by walking in between them. If Dudley and Piers got bored, they would fall back onto a hobby of theirs, hitting Harry.

They ate in the zoo. Vernon bought Dudley and Piers knickerbockers glory's for dessert, and Diana got a brownie, which she shared with Harry.

"It's the best day of my life," stated Harry as he took a bite of brownie.

Of course, it was all too good to last.

After lunch, they all went to the reptile house, much to Diana's displeasure. She'd always found snakes rather creepy, but if Harry was alone with Dudley, Piers, Petunia and Vernon... well, the situation might not end well.

Dudley and Piers quickly found the largest snake, a Boa Constrictor that could probably wrap its whole body round Vernon's car twice, but didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.

Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass.

"Make it move!" he whined at Vernon.

Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake stayed fast asleep.

"Do it again!" Dudley ordered.

Vernon rapped on the glass, but the snake still c stayed fast asleep.

"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He, Piers, Petunia and Vernon walked away.

Diana and Harry stayed watching the snake. Diana wondered how boring it must be to be trapped in a cage all day; a bit like Harry living in the cupboard.

Slowly, the snake opened its beady eyes, and raised it head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.

It winked.

Diana immediately started panicking. If her mum and dad came back, Harry would be in deep trouble. She decided to go and stop them.

"Mum, Dad, have you seen the Komodo Dragon?" Diana asked Petunia and Vernon.

"No, Di-Di, I haven't," said Petunia. "Why don't you go and show me and Dad?"

Diana dragged them over to the Komodo Dragon, which was far away from the Boa Constrictor.

"Very interesting, Di-Di," said Petunia.

Diana sighed.

She hated the nickname 'Di-Di', given to her by her mother when she was four, which Dudley was ecstatic about. The only reason she put up with it this time was because of the seriousness of the situation.

As Petunia and Vernon started walking away, Diana said, "Wait! You haven't seen the Chameleon yet! It changes colours and it's really interesting!"

Diana dragged her Mum and Dad to the Chameleon, which was lying lazily on a log, but she realised she stupidly forgot about Dudley and Piers.

Before Diana could immerse them with horrible fanged serpents, Piers yelled, "DUDLEY! DIANA! MR AND MRS DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Diana sprinted over to Harry and looked at the snake. She only had time to mutter, "Oh no," under her breath before Dudley came along and pushed her into a bin.

While all Diana could feel was the pain of being shoved into a metal bin, Harry's face was red with anger.

What happened next happened so fast that nobody knew what happened - one second Dudley and Piers were leaning right up close to the glass, the next second they had leapt back in horror.

Diana sat up and gasped. The glass keeping the Boa Constrictor had vanished, and the snake was slithering across the floor. People in the reptile house screamed and ran for exits.

Dudley and Piers were in shock. As far as they were concerned, the Boa Constrictor had tried to bite their legs off (though Diana knew for a fact that all it had done was snap playfully at their heels.)

Vernon was glaring at Harry, as he always did whenever something abnormal like that happened. But the worst happened when Piers said, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you Harry."

Diana squirmed uneasily in her seat in the car. Harry was in for a lot of trouble.

Hours later, Diana crept down the stairs. She figured she owed Harry an apology.

"Harry," she whispered, "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Harry asked quietly.

"I forgot about Dudley and Piers. I distracted Mum and Dad, but I forgot about them. It's my fault."

Diana saw Harry put a hand on the bars (added by Vernon the day after Harry arrived, as it was against the law to suffocate a child, and even Vernon obeyed some of the laws.) "Diana, without you, I'd probably have died of injuries after being beaten. Everyday you creep downstairs and talk to me when I'm in the cupboard. Everyday you hang out with me when no one else does. Every time Uncle Vernon beats me, you heal me. Privet Drive would be horrible without you. While I hate this house, you're the light in the dark. You've sacrificed your parents's real love for me, and your life at school. Don't you ever say stuff like this is your fault."

"But I was the one who made your hair grow back," Diana protested. "I was the one who made you end up on the roof of the school."

"You helped me," said Harry. "You protected me and stopped me from being bullied further. Believe it or not, that helped me."

Diana sighed. "You're right. I guess it's Piers's fault."

"Yeah. It's Piers's fault."

As Diana walked back upstairs, she wondered if what Harry said about her parents's love was true. While Petunia and Vernon both loved her, they didn't treat her like Dudley. But Diana didn't care. She'd rather protect Harry than be loved by her parents.

The things we do for the ones we love are incredible.