Chapter 2: Harry's fourth birthday…

Duddley pov

I love to be on secret mission…..

Mama has given me a Mission, I have to wake up Harry, wait for him to get ready, and then close his eyes before coming into living room. Today is Harry birthday. Daddy did not come to my birthday last month. Mama said he is will not come here because he likes another house more, and that he does not want this house anymore. I can understand. He was always hitting me and Mama. Now he won't because he does not live here anymore. I am happy. My birthday was great. We had a chocolate cake and we went to a park with roller coaster. It was fun.

Now it is Harry birthday today and Daddy will not come today too; Mama said so. I slowly opened Harry's room's door and peeped in. Awww! Harry was not in bed. I wanted to tickle him like he tickled me on my birthday. Just then bathroom door of his room opened, and he came out in his new dress.

"Good morning Harry" I said, "Happy Birthday to you."

"Thank you Duddley." He said. He had cute rosy cheeks like me, which were now a little red.

"Are you ready?" He nodded. "Then let's go. I have to close your eyes for your surprise. It is the secret mission Mama gave me."

"Oh really! Wow let's go."

And we raced down the stairs. Just before entering the room, I closed his eyes with my hands and we came into the living room. Mama had decorated it with lots of balloons. I helped. Just like Harry said he helped when she decorated the room with lots of car pictures for my birthday. I love cars; Harry likes balloons.

"Happy Birthday Harry!" both Mama and me shouted at him. He had a big smile on his face. We went through the cake cutting and gift opening. Mama gave him a new color box. Hmm, it's okay, he likes drawing, so he may like it. Mama gave me a very big car poster, it's in my room. We are going to the zoo today after breakfast.

After breakfast, in the zoo….

"Hey Duddley, look here, look here, there are so many parrots."

Harry and I were going for cage to cage looking at the animals. Till now, we had seen the giraffes, hippopotamus, lions, tigers, monkeys, crocodiles, and many more. The parrots were the last of birds. The reptiles' was the last section. Then we will go home. We were already walking with an ice cream each. Mama was trailing a bit back, letting us run to the animals. Mama smiles a lot after Daddy left.

The moment we entered the reptile section, I saw Harry suddenly stop and look around. He looked tensed. I went next to him as Mama went ahead and took his hand.

"Harry, what happened?"

"Can you hear it?"

"What?"

"All of them… talking?"

"All of who?"

"The snakes."

"Haha, of course, there are lot of snakes and all of them are hissing."

"Hissing? No, they are talking."

My eyes grew big, "You mean..? Can you hear them?"

He nodded and shivered. But I was excited. He can understand snakes, must be his magic. Mama said that he has special magic that only very few kids had. I was sad to hear that I don't, but then Harry said that it did not matter; he would protect me with magic and I can protect him with strength. Of course! I am stronger than him.

So I dragged Harry to the snakes one by one, asking him what they were saying. It was funny. The grass snake was saying to a baby 'such a sweet smell'. The anaconda snake was saying to a boy who had bird in a cage 'I am hungry. Give me that bird. Come here juicy juicy bird'. Some snakes were sleeping. Some were just watching. In one of the cages, there were many small small snakes wriggling over each other. They were funny. When we came to the cage of black cobra, we tried to find it amongst its branches. It wasn't there and a small part of its glass cage was broken.

"Mama! Mama!" I shouted. Mama came rushing to us.

"What happened?"

"Mama look look" I pointed to the cage, "there is no snake. Is he sick? There is a snake like dress in there. Can I open the door and look inside, please." I asked excitedly.

But Mama was not excited. In fact, she looked very scared. I wonder why. She immediately took us both in her arms and said, "Follow me boys and stay close okay?" We both nodded and followed her. She took us to the manager's room at the end of the hall.

"Excuse me sir"

The manager was a smart looking guy who was sitting at his desk and writing something. There were many pictures of snakes on his walls.

"Umm, just making sure, but did you take out the black cobra out of its cage?"

"That's a peculiar question. I don't recall so. Is there a notice somewhere saying the snake is not there?"

"Oh my god! No sir, but you may need to evacuate, because the glass cage of the snake is broken and the snake isn't in there."

"WHAT!" the manager exclaimed and hurried out to the said cage. When he reached it, he said a bad word. He immediately went to the reception desk of the hall and spoke in the mike there.

"ATTENTION EVERYBODY! PLEASE EVACUATE THE HALL SLOWLY AND WITHOUT MAKING MUCH NOISE. WE HAVE A BLACK COBRA ESCAPED FROM ITS CAGE. MAKING NOISE WOULD STARTLE IT AND MAY PROVOKE IT TO ATTACK. PLEASE EXIT QUITELY. ATTENTION PLEASE….."

He continued to announce. The people started going out slowly. We followed too. Suddenly a big boy, maybe a college student who was there with his friends, shouted loudly to everybody,

"Oii! Look out, there's the snake in that corner."

One of his friends hit him on the head for shouting and alarming others, but the damage was done. The people near that corner screamed and backed away from that corner into other people. The snake, which was just lying coiled on the ground, sprung its head up and hissed dangerously. It struck its head forward as if to strike whenever anyone came anywhere near it. The stupid big boys from earlier tried to scare it away by throwing small things, like pens, at it. And that made the snake move from its position. I could not see where it was, we were pressed on the other side of the hall and were not moving due to all the people rushing over each other to get out of the door. Mama told me later that it was a stampede. The stupid big boys tried to get away too and in that effort they pushed a mommy with her baby on the ground. The other people rushing by stamped on her foot, which made her let out a large cry. The baby fell down too and started crying. By this time almost everyone was out of the hall and we were just getting out. I don't know where the snake was till now, but it suddenly appeared moving towards the mommy and baby. I pointed that to Harry.

"Harry look, the snake!"

Harry looked at it and suddenly decided something. He looked at me,

"I will use my magic. Will you be not scared and use your strength to help me, Duddley?"

I decided to be strong too. I nodded. And anyway, Harry is there with me and we are always helping each other. Without telling Mama, we rushed to the mommy and baby. The snake was reaching them at the same speed as us. Everyone had cleared out near them and the mommy had fainted. The baby was still crying. Harry whispered urgently to me.

"Pull the baby out of the snake strike and then guard the mommy, okay?"

I nodded. When we reached there, I saw the snake was ready to strike the baby. I rushed ahead and pulled the baby to me and stepped back. The snake had stuck but luckily only hit the ground. I heard Harry hiss at the snake. He was lying in front of the snake looked at it straight in the eyes and hissing at it. I don't know if anyone saw that, but everyone was trying to get out, not look back. The snake bumped its head as if nodding and went away near a window. Harry rushed after it and threw the snake outside. Then he came to me and pulled me to the door.

"Harry the baby…"

"It's okay, baby is safe near mother. But if anyone sees us then it will not be good. Didn't Aunty say that we have to remain secret? Come."

When we rushed out of the door, I sighed in relief that no one saw us. I turned to say that to Harry but he was standing still, scared, looking ahead and then he gulped. He was looking at Mama who was sitting near the door with her hands on her heart. She was looking very scared and very angry. I gulped too.

When we reached home…

"Would you both care to explain what possessed you to do whatever you did?" Mama was very angry now. I stepped forward to explain.

"Mama, the snake. It was going to bite the baby. I pulled the baby out."

"Are you stupid? The snake may have bit you."

"The big boys who threw the pens were stupid. They made the snake move. And Harry said he would use magic, so we were safe. He can talk to snakes."

Mama turned to Harry. I saw Harry shivering in fear. Why?

"I'm sorry, Aunty. I am very sorry. Duddley is faster than me. I told the snake to stop and it stopped. But I was late anyway. If Duddley hadn't pulled the baby…. Please Aunty, I promise never to try save anyone again. Please don't send me to Old Dumbell."

I understood now. Harry was scared that Mama would send him away. Mama sighed and her anger vanished. She sat down in front of Harry on the floor so that she was face to face with Harry and me.

"Harry, I am angry, yes, but that does not mean I will send you away. You are mine now, just as Duddley is. Just because someone is angry does not always mean that they do not love you, that they will separate from you. In this case, my anger is out of fear. Can you imagine how terrified I was watching the whole scene. My two dear boys", she looked at me too, "going near a poisonous snake."

"But Harry can talk to it, so it was safe." I argued.

"I did not know that. And just because he can talk to it does not mean that the snake will obey him, does it?"

I nodded my head. She leaned back and looked at both of us, "Now tell me what happened there."

Harry and I told her everything. By the time we finished, Mama was calm enough, "That was a reckless but a very brave and noble thing both of you did. I am proud of you. And I am happy that you took care not to let anyone know. God knows what would have happened if anyone saw. All our effort to remain secret would go out of the window. Now, tell me what you learned from this."

Harry spoke up first, "We should not assume that anger means hatred, though it sometimes may be. You love us more than anything. Assuming the snake would listen to me was dangerous. We should never assume."

I added to that, "You should never throw anything at any animal and make it angry. That's it, I guess. I love you Mama."

"Oww, I love you both too. Come here." She hugged us both tightly. Suddenly Harry stiffened in her arms and spun around to look at the sofa near us. The black snake was there.

Snake's pov

I was scared and angry. The fat human pulled the baby human away and I turned to strike the female next. Suddenly, the four eyed human was lying in front of me and shouted to me in my language.

:: STOP PLEASE. ::

I was surprised. I knew there were humans who could speak to us, but never met one. This human was a small one, in comparison to others. He continued.

:: Go to the window and I will set you free. Please don't bite anyone. Please go home into jungle or eat rats or something, don't hurt anybody, please. ::

I nodded and he helped me escape out of the window onto the grass. I was free. But before finding my way home, I decided to speak more with this human. So I followed his scent and got into what he climbed into behind him. I was surprised when it suddenly started moving.

When it stopped, I stayed for a while and followed the humans into their nest. It was warm in here. Good. I saw the two small humans entwined with their mother, so I climbed onto the soft rock beside them and greeted.

:: Hello human. Thank you for helping me. ::

I stayed still as the four eyed human looked at me with wide eyes and the others followed. I stayed still as they talked a bit and then finally he spoke to me.

:: Ummm hi. Why are you here? ::

:: To thank you. And I never met a human who could talk to us. So I came to talk to you. ::

He talked back to the other humans and then to me.

:: I did not know I could talk to snakes before today. Will you bite us? ::

:: No, I will not. You are interesting and do not harm me. So why should I? ::

:: Can you make others talk to you to? My brother wants to. ::

:: Hissss, I cannot just make anyone talk to me. You have to be born with this ability. But I can sense that you can use the nature's gift to your will. ::

:: Do you mean magic?::

:: If that is what you call it. When I was in my captive, I came across many humans who used their magic to do what others could not. Maybe you can make him understand me. Or even better, make me understand humans so that I can remain safe. ::

He talked to his mother and brother. They talked for a while.

:: Okay, I will try. Do you know how to do it? ::

:: How would I know? You just have to sense the gift in you and ask of it, maybe. ::

The human nodded and closed his eyes. After a while, I could sense his gift, his magic, flow out of him and encircle me. The human staggered and his brother helped him steady. He turned to his mother.

Petunia pov

"I think I made him understand us, but only the three of us. I could not reach out and do it for all humans, or give him the gift of understanding humans. He was right, it is a gift given by god; you cannot create it. But I shared my ability with you, sort of. As in, a small magic of mine is in him. So he can understand us. I mean, my magic serves as the translator."

"Is that why you are tired? Will you always be tired?" Duddley asked, excited and yet nervous.

"I don't think so. My magic says that I am safe to do this."

"You can talk to your magic? Lily could never do that, nor did she tell me anyone can." I had to ask, it was surprising.

"Yes. It also says that the reverse is also possible. Would you want that Aunty?"

"If you are sure you can do it Harry. I want you safe first and foremost."

I nodded with a scared and excited anticipation. I know I should not ask this of a small child, but really, this is a chance not even many wizards would have. So Harry closed his eyes again and concentrated. As I was consciously looking for it, I got a feeling like a mental rope was being tied to the snake. Very faint, but there.

:: Looks like it is done. ::

The snake said. Duddley looked at it wide eyed, "Woah! Harry, you did it. Thank you! Thank you!"

I looked at Harry to thank him too, but he was on the couch asleep with a smile on his face. I felt sad that Lily was not here to experience all this, but thankful all the same for Harry being in my life.