Disclaimer - I don't own harry potter. This story is my own work but might draw inspirations here and there from the hundreds of fanfiction stories i have read. If anything seems similar it is not intended. I borrowed some of the cliches that i enjoy reading into my story though i intend to give them my own spin. Happy Reading.

Chapter 2 Similar Beginnings?

Little Wings Orphanage Homes, London

A small boy is crouched in the garden outside the Little Wings Orphanage. He is playing with a small snake, feeding and talking to it. The snake is hissing and swaying its head, sort of like talking to the boy, strangely. The boy is wearing old soggy clothes, although his face looks fresh and clean. He has long uncut hair that seems washed, and although his attire looks poor, his features seem high-born and handsome even. He is scrawny and small for his age. He seems aloof, but the other boys are not fooled, 'He is a weird fellow' one of them thought, this is not the first time they have seen him doing this, 'hissing to a snake, who does that, a bloody snake!. He is satanic' another one of the boy in the group who is watching him thought, 'even his room looks weird, with all sorts of strange things, spider webs lair that is! and His eyes creep me out no wonder even Wiley is afraid of him'.

Harry Potter has been here in the Little Wings Orphanage for around 6 years now. He has built sort of a reputation for himself among the other boys. He is not the strongest among the children living there, in fact, he is one of the shortest and scrawniest of them. He is not the cleverest, studies wise, that is Jacob who gets highest marks in school subjects. 'I do okay though' he thought. But what really separates harry from the rest of the flock as he likes to call them , is the fact that he is special, in that, he can do things not everybody can do. He conciously observed this pattern recently, around a year or two back, when he is first able to talk to snakes. Most of the times during his younger years, he did these things out of desperation, spite or anger in that order, with anger most recently. The first time this happened, it is when Dudley and his goons are chasing Harry when Harry called Dudley 'hairy pig'. He is trying to escape and hide when somehow he ended up on the rooftop of the building. Starting with that, strange things kept happening around Harry, one time when a teacher is scolding him, the teachers hair turned blue. Another time, when petunia tried to cut his hair short it ended up growing overnight to regular size, no matter how many times she tried, she is never able to cut Harry's hair short for more than a day. All these strange incidents happening around Harry made the Dursleys extremely angry, the punishments grew harsher and harsher and with that their cruelty. The final straw happened when Harry questioned back Vernon on one such incident where a tree branch unexpectedly fell on a Neighbour that tried to bully Harry. When Vernon came to know of this he got angry and tried to hit harry but his hand somehow blistered. The next day, Vernon took leave to his office, drove harry in his car and left him at this orphanage. The orphanage had been his home since then. He grew shy and reserved. Coupled with the fact the same nasty incidents kept happening to people who bothered harry meant that other boys are either scared to approach him, or thought of him as a weirdo and avoided him.

"Hey look at that!" said Bill Frankler, one of the 134 boys living in the Little Wings Orphanage Homes, he is new here, only been here a few days, after his adoptive parents returned him back. He is pointing to harry talking to the snake.

"What?" said another, Sam his name is, who is busy tending to a plant.

"What is he doing?!" Bill asked with a bit of a laugh to his voice.

"oh him. Err, He does that. No one knows why though, we don't really talk to him" said Sam in a serious tone.

"why not?" Bill asked surprised.

"well" Sam said slowly. "Apparently, He does satanic rituals that does bad things to people, all the other boys are scared of him, even Wiley" He looked at Harry a bit scared, like Harry could somehow hear him say this.

"That's bollocks!" said Bill, "there are no such thing like that. Look at him, he looks tiny and bit weird, like my old school mate Peter Bycott". He laughed, he always liked to make fun of Peter, oh how he missed those days, now that he is transferred from that school.

Sam ignored Bill and went back to working on his plant. "you are serious?!" Bill said surprised again. "I don't know. But you have seen Wiley right?, I heard something happened between Harry and him, If he scares someone like Wiley then something must be true." Sam shrugged.

Bill threw the digging spade he is holding, and walked towards Harry, he is not about to be scared of some tiny scrawny boy. He told himself. As he got closer to Harry, he heard him hissing to the tiny snake baby and the snake hissing back, this creeped him out, which only made him angrier.

"sssssss,sss" Bill made a snake like sound, pretending like Harry.

"What are you doing?" asked Harry. "What are YOU doing?" replied Bill mockingly pointing at the snake.

"Are we supposed to believe you are talking to the snake? and you think that scares us? " he said.

"The snake is still a baby, he can't really talk but he understands what i am saying" said Harry deciding to be polite.

"reeeeally? does he understand me?" Bill said again mocking. "ssssssssssss" he made another snake like sound "i just said bugger off in snake" said Bill and started laughing.

"No, he does not understand you, but you are scaring him" said Harry controlling himself. He is being mocked in front of everybody and he is not about to raise to the bait, he knows how to put this guy in his place. His mind already started working on how to teach his arsehole a lesson. Rising to the bait, fighting back each and everytime is not the right thing to do, harry understood that a long time ago, you gotta plan it, think it through, when you have every piece in place, go all out.

"I am watching you, snake boy" said Bill and walked away still laughing.

Harry went back to feeding the baby, when his mind came up with a brilliant idea. A slight smile crept up his face. 'He won't know what hit him' he thought. He hissed something to the snake and left it , it slithered away. 'Now that's done i need to know where his room is'. He thought. He kept an eye on him till night time, and followed him to where his room is, he is situated one floor above him. He went back to the woods, and saw the party starting. He hissed something to his gathered subjects and went back to his room and slept peacefully.

Unlike harry, Bill is not having such a peaceful and productive evening. He noticed harry watching him, which unnerved him a bit, though he is not about to admit to that. He went back to sleep that night, thinking of ways on how to make fun of the snake boy tomorrow,and how best to teach him a lesson, he thought of a few ways, laughed to himself and went to sleep. When in the middle of the night he woke up to something slithering up his spine, he jerked awake and shook his body trying to get it off, that's when he noticed his room. In the dim light of the moonlight shining from the windows, he can see every inch and corner of his room is filled with snakes, small, big, hissing, sithering, some are hanging from his cupboard. Most of them are looking at him, they are not doing anything but most of them are just watching, with their hoods open. He was scared silent for a few seconds, and then, he started screaming.

Harry heard the scream in his sleep, opened his eyes and smiled a little to himself. He checked time, it is 6 minutes to 12 in the night. The screaming and crying continued. He sat on his bed, and rubbed his eyes and started to count the minutes to 12. When the clock struck 12 he wished 'Happy Birthday' to himself with a slight smile. 'Tomorrow is going to be peaceful day' He thought. He stretched and got comfortable on the bed, and went back to sleep.

Little did harry know, that tomorrow is his eleventh birthday, and his whole world is about to be turned upside down.