Year One| Chapter One

The first time that Harry James Potter talked to a snake was when he was three. It was a cool windy, summer morning and he was sprawled out on the picnic blanket while his aunt was sitting against the tree trunk of the only tree on the property.

She was dressed in a simple summer dress and there was relaxation upon her almost bird-like features, though there were bruises that lined her pale skin on her arms but also against her cheekbone. Her name was Petunia and she had been greeted with the boy at her front doorstep two Halloweens ago, her husband had beat her until she had to stay in the bed upstairs for a whole week and her husband's mean sister, Marge, had taken care of her nephew, Dudley, but dismissed her nephew's cousin, Harry.

Harry didn't remember what he had said to the snake but sometimes he would have snakes come through the cracks of the house and into the cupboard so they could hold conversations. Aunt Petunia in the beginning wasn't that crazy about the snakes but over time Harry would slowly allow Aunt Petunia to know they weren't ever going to bite her (partly because he told them not to) and another being that none of them were poisonous. He was even able to have the snake rest in his aunt's palms but never anywhere else because he didn't want to push her.

When Dudley learnt of the snakes being Harry's friends, he would make sure to stomp on whatever head he could find that was nearest to him when it came to the snakes. He would keep stomping on the snakes until their little heads would be squashed. Harry would fall on the ground and cry as he would pick up the corpses of the snakes and hold them in his hands despite the fact that he would have blood spread across his tan skin.

Today, it was the day before Dudley's eleventh birthday, and Aunt Petunia was in the kitchen making Dudley's birthday cake. Dudley was down the street with his friends while Harry was quietly helping Aunt Petunia make the cake. He knew their relationship with each other was fragile, if anyone ever saw them bonding with each other they would be beaten enough they would have to be on bedrest for a few days. It was even worse now because Aunt Petunia was pregnant, and Harry feared for his future cousin that hadn't had a chance to be born yet.

Harry perked up when he could hear the mail going through the mailbox, allowing him to know that the mailman must have forgotten to hand something else to them earlier this morning. Aunt Petunia gave him a small smile to let him know that he could go and get the envelope. He craned his head to the side when he reached the envelope, before he let his hand reach and pick it up.

He knew he was pathetic looking. He was extremely malnourished, and his height was stunted due to the malnourishment. Uncle Vernon had already begun teaching Dudley how to abuse not only Harry but now Aunt Petunia for whenever they wouldn't do what the child wanted. He was allowed to take one of his father's belts from his collection in his closet and make sure both his mother and his cousin would do whatever he asked them to do.

"Aunt Petunia?"

"Yes, darling?"

Harry slowly turned around and entered the kitchen again. Aunt Petunia had just finished pouring the cake mix into the pans when she turned to look at her nephew. She dropped the glass mixing bowl that she had been holding onto the title. The glass immediately broke and spread throughout the title, and she blushed as she reached down to pick up the pieces of glass.

Harry sat the envelope down onto the circular table before he went over to where the broom and dustbin before he came forward. He began to push the glass into the dustbin so he could throw away the glass properly. Aunt Petunia went to pick up some of the glass again, but Harry shooed her hands away before he cleaned up the rest of the glass. He didn't want her to have any cuts on her or any blood spilling from her, since she already had enough blood spill because of Uncle Vernon.

Aunt Petunia got up from the tiled floor and went over to where the envelope was. Harry heard her gasp where she was before he got up from the tile floor. He went over to where she and noticed that her face was even paler than before, she was already pale enough as she was. Her blonde hair made her more washed out but the paleness from her face now only made her even more whitewashed.

"Aunt Petunia?"

She didn't say anything, instead her hands were shaking. She had tears that were flowing down her face, and she cried though she didn't make any sound. Harry took the envelope from her and had his eyes widen when he saw the address that was written on the envelope.

Mr. H. Potter

The Cupboard under the Stairs

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

He tried to call her name again, but she didn't say anything. He opened the envelope and noticed the words Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry. He turned his attention towards his aunt, where she was sitting at the table and sobbing louder than before. She kept crying in her voice, "I'm sorry!", over and over again. Harry reached his hand out to touch her only for her to pull away from him, shaking her head at him.

"I'm sorry! I just can't! I…I.."

"Do you know Hogwarts?"

Aunt Petunia took a deep breath before she reached her hand out for Harry to take. He sat down next to her and put his hand in hers. She closed her eyes and whispered, "Lily was a witch. You're a wizard, Harry. Your mother and father went to Hogwarts."

Harry's mouth fell open and he pulled his hand away from her as though he had been burnt. He remembered how they had told him that his parents had died in a car wreck and nature shaped lightning bolt on his forehead appeared because of it. He asked her as to why she had allowed Uncle Vernon to tell her that his parents had gotten drunk and died while he was in the car seat in the back seats. Aunt Petunia told him how Uncle Vernon would hurt her until she would end up in the hospital for at least a month if she told Harry anything other than what they had recited.

Harry reached forward and wrapped his arms around her, the both of them crying at the knowledge that Uncle Vernon and even Dudley had so much power over them. They were broken but at least they had each other. Aunt Petunia never laid a hand on him, and he was grateful that even if she had to act as though she didn't care about him in public, she would sneak him food during the night when Uncle Vernon and Dudley were passed out.

"I was about to sneak out and go to Godric Hollow to apologize to Lily, but she died before I could go. She died without knowing that I had wanted to heal things with us," Aunt Petunia whispered, before Harry let her arms unloosen from her.

Aunt Petunia reached her hand out to take the letter from her nephew. Harry handed it to her, and she looked through the school supply list and then she seemed relieved at the knowledge there was a letter for how to get to Diagon Alley. She turned to Harry and wrapped her arms around him, asking him if she could ever have him forgive her.

"I forgive you," Harry whispered to her, enough for his aunt to cry even more before they pulled apart from each other.

She took the envelope and the letters from Harry, letting him know that she would put them in a safe place since Uncle Vernon always made sure to look through the cupboard that Harry had been forced to sleep and live in. Harry handed it to her because he knew she was right. Uncle Vernon always checked his cupboard after he would come home from work so he would know if he had hidden any food or anything else that would help him in the end.

"I'll take you in about two weeks. Dudley is going to spend a week with Marge because she demanded it and Vernon will be away on a business trip," Aunt Petunia informed him, earning a nod from Harry since they had a game plan for the future.

Both of them stiffened when they heard the front door being slammed open, enough for Harry to stand up and move towards the sink so he could start cleaning up what had already been used for the cake. Aunt Petunia tucked the envelope and the letters in her bra, because the last thing she needed was for Dudley to see the envelope and letters. Uncle Vernon would be given the letters and the envelope before he would destroy them in the lit fireplace.

Uncle Vernon and Dudley both spent the evening eating the dinner that Harry had made for them while his left wrist still ached from when his uncle had broken it and it hadn't healed correctly. Harry never was able to go to the hospital when he was injured, it was another thing all entirely when it came to Aunt Petunia. She would have to go to the hospital, and Uncle Vernon was making sure not to damage her too badly since she was carrying their next child, a son he declared.

The way that Uncle Vernon spoke about the unborn baby made Harry and Aunt Petunia sick to their stomachs. He wanted another son, he wanted to teach his son to do everything that Uncle Vernon knew. He wanted to take him hunting with him when he was old enough, he wanted to teach his son how to properly skin an animal and prepare it to be taxidermized or eaten. A knife was very important when it came to anything that had to do with hunting, and Uncle Vernon had carved into Aunt Petunia's skin in the past as though he was trying to dig everything, he didn't like out of her.

Harry knew that his uncle carried around that hunting knife wherever he went. It was his grandfather's and had been passed down to Uncle Vernon's father and then to Uncle Vernon. Uncle Vernon had carved the word FREAK into Harry's torso when he first started to exhibit accidental magic, which was when Harry was three. He made sure that Harry was held down by his cousin so that his uncle could carve that word into a toddler's stomach with a damn hunting knife.

The next day came, and Harry found himself at the zoo with Dudley and his three friends. They were all bullies and beat up children, not teenagers, because they were just repeating what they had heard from their siblings. Their siblings would then get taken care of because Dudley and his friends had a reputation to uphold. They were to be spotless, the perfect Boarding Schoolboys.

Aunt Petunia was shuffling around in the reptile/amphibian section of the zoo. It didn't matter how many times Harry would try and get her to feel better around them she still didn't like snakes. She found them creepy, especially whenever Harry would talk to them–those hissing sounds that came from her nephew's mouth were downright disturbing. Still, she wanted to have a relationship with Harry, to let Lily know that she would try harder since he had inherited her magic, well and his father's, but still. She would be better this time when it came to the fact her nephew was a wizard.

Harry on the other hand had found a snake that was almost pacing back and forth within his exhibit. It was a nice exhibit, but the Boa Constrictor didn't seem overly interested in the decorations around him–the foliage and the water were pale comparisons to the real jungle. Of course the Boa Constrictor was quite young when he had been found.

The Boa Constrictor paused as he kept moving, his head lifting up before he turned his attention to the malnourished and beaten child in front of him. He studied the child in front of him and slithered closer to the boy with too big clothes and glasses that seemed to be moments away from falling off his nose because they kept gliding down.

"You don't look like the others," the snake said, making Harry frown and look at himself before looking back up at the Boa Constrictor. He immediately noticed this before he added, "can you hear me, hatchling?"

Harry felt his mouth fall open and he nodded his head, "yes. I can hear you. What do you mean that I don't look like the others?"

Behind him Dudley and his friends ran rampant throughout the room, high off of the sugar they had consumed and the knowledge that Mr. and Mrs. Dursley would let them do anything. The other guests to the zoo didn't seem that thrilled with having to deal with the rowdy children. Of course this was Dudley and his friends that they were dealing with, they wouldn't stop being rowdy unless Uncle Vernon told them to and he was too busy shadowing his pregnant wife.

"Well fed. The other snake lings take care of their hatchlings. You are hurt. I was taken care of by my mother before she was killed and I was captured as a hatchling," the snake informed Harry, enough for a frown to appear upon his face.

"I'm sorry, do you wish you were free?"

The snake noticed how Harry had dismissed his concerns about him being hurt and not well fed. He knew the hatchling was dismissive and afraid of telling him about the obvious abuse he had received from the snake lings that were taking care of him. Instead, he focused on the fact that the Boa Constrictor should have a say if he wanted to be free.

"I was very tiny when I was taken here. I barely knew my mother. I would bite and tear and maimed those that killed her and took me from her. The snake lings that take care of me now are good. They are bearable. I will stay."

Harry opened his mouth as though to tell the snake in front of him that he was an orphan too. He had lost his mother and father when he was a baby, he wanted to tell him that he found out he was a wizard. Was it common for wizards and witches to be able to speak to animals, to speak to snakes? Would he be able to meet those at Hogwarts that shared the same ability as him?

He had barely opened his mouth before Dudley came stomping up to the exhibit and stared at the snake in front of him. "Of course the freak would try to be friends with a snake."

The Boa Constrictor opened his mouth and lunged forward to attack Dudley, his fangs out and ready to sink into the chubby skin. Harry imagined the glass that was between the snake and Dudley was gone, and before the snake attacked Dudley the glass disappeared. Dudley squealed as a little girl when he fell backwards with the snake wrapping itself around Dudley.

"I shall rid you of this rotten egg! I will feed for days!"

The Boa Constrictor proclaimed this and tightened its body faster and harsher against the boy. Harry stood there with his eyes widened at the sight in front of him, of the pleasure that rolled out of him at the thought of this actually happening, of Dudley actually dying in front of his eyes.

Yet, the cry that came from across the room made Harry bring his attention away from the snake to the sight of Aunt Petunia rushing over. Some of the zoo employees were rushing into the room, making sure to shoo the rest of the zoo guests out of the room. Harry, Dudley's friends, and his aunt and uncle were the only ones left other than the snake handlers.

As one of the snake handlers came forward with the snake handler tongs so they could pick up the snake and carry it away, Harry knew this snake would end up being put down. From the way the Boa Constrictor had acted and the way he had spoken, he really didn't have a life to look forward to. He would welcome death with no issues.

"Harry! Stop him!" Aunt Petunia screeched, there were tears that were flowing down her face as she commanded this to her nephew. Despite the fact that her own son was horribly abusive to her she still loved him and held power over her.

"Stop, please."

The Boa Constrictor had been distracted by Harry speaking to him again that he didn't notice the tongs going around his neck and pulling him away from where Dudley was. Dudley began to gasp for breath and reach his hands up to wrap around his neck to make sure he was breathing. His blue skin was still too ill hued, allowing them to know that he was very close to death on his own eleventh birthday. He could have been killed by the Boa Constrictor if Harry had decided that he wanted the boy to die.

To be honest, if Aunt Petunia didn't accept him going to Hogwarts, if Aunt Petunia had ever struck him with her hand, Harry would have allowed his cousin to be suffocated to death by the Boa Constrictor. Yet he allowed the boy to live, even if everything inside of him wanted to go back in time and allow Dudley to be consumed by the snake.

As the snake was taken to another part of the zoo so they could euthanize him, the ambulance came and had to struggle with picking up Dudley so he could be on the ambulance table. The stronger fit paramedic nurses were having to be used, since Dudley was twice the weight he was supposed to be. To say the least he had gotten his father's figure and his baby like attitude ended up having him get way overweight for his age and height.

Aunt Petunia went to put her hand on her son's only for Uncle Vernon to wrap his arm around his wife and pull her off to the side. Harry stood still, as his emerald irises flickered back towards the exhibit where the snake had originally inhabited. He knew the snake would be fine if Dudley hadn't come over and insulted the snake he wouldn't be sent to the hospital.

When Aunt Petunia came over to him, she whispered, "I'm going to drive us back to the house. Vernon will have one of his work friends drive him and Dudley back home."

Harry nodded his head to let her know that he understood, before they left the zoo and got into the car. The ambulance was already gone, so that meant they wouldn't have the pressure of continued glaring from Uncle Vernon for Harry almost allowing the snake to slaughter his cousin. He knew he would also be horribly beaten when Uncle Vernon would come home from the hospital, so the absence of him in the parking lot didn't help him feel relieved.

When they arrived back at the Dursley residence, Aunt Petunia ushered him into the house and shut the front door behind her. He barely was in front of his cupboard before she threw her purse off to the side and fell down onto her knees. She wrapped her arms around him and held him against her, she could hear his heartbeat against her ear. If she closed her eyes and focused hard enough, she was imagining she was hugging a little version of Lily all over again.

"Thank you, thank you for not killing him," Aunt Petunia sobbed into his big, baggy shirt he had been forced to wear–it was a hand-me-down shirt from Dudley. In fact, all of Harry's clothes were hand-me-downs and needed to be burnt, not worn by the child.

"Only for you, Aunt Petunia," Harry merely responded before she stood up and reached into the pocket of her pants–where there was a handkerchief for her to use. She dabbed away the runny makeup while she studied herself in the hall mirror.

Ushering Harry into the cupboard, only after she had made sure he had eaten a good bit of food to not go hungry that night, Aunt Petunia shut the cupboard behind him. She locked the door and Harry sat down on his cot that was in the tiny cupboard. He glanced around the small room, at how there were spiders that were hanging throughout the room from cobwebs in the corners. There was the soft hissing that allowed him to know some of the snakes that traveled throughout the neighborhood had managed to sneak into the house again.

Harry sighed as he plopped back against the cost of his bed, his eyes flickering in the direction of where the closed cupboard was. He knew that he was going to get it when Uncle Vernon would come home. He was insanely possessive of his son, though he seemed as though he was even worse when it came to the fact that he would have his second son. It was too early for them to know the sex of the baby, and Harry hoped that his aunt would have a son because he didn't want to imagine the pain and abuse, she would go through if she had a daughter.

When Uncle Vernon came home, he stomped into the house with a determination to make sure his nephew wouldn't be able to leave the cupboard for at least a week. He knew if he beat his nephew to death, it would only make things even worse. He would have to come up with a solution on why the 'delinquent' nephew of his suddenly disappeared. He didn't need to be a suspect for a murder, he had a reputation to uphold not only at his job but also in society in general.

Harry had slowly developed a strong pain tolerance by the time he had turned seven. That didn't mean that sometimes he wouldn't feel the intense pain that came with the abuse his uncle gave him. He let his uncle beat him with the belt when he dragged him out of the cupboard and tried to hold back the tears when he pulled out his hunting knife. He made sure to carve the word upon his nephew's abdomen once more so that it would never disappear.

Aunt Petunia came to him in the middle of the night and held him as he sobbed quietly, shushing him and letting him know that she didn't want this to have been his fate. To some this was wrong of her, she shouldn't let this happen to Harry. She was just as bad as her husband but unless someone went through the same thing that she was experiencing then they had no true right to have an opinion towards this. It would be difficult enough as it was if she were the only one that was being abused but having her nephew deal with it too was a living hell for her.

Harry had gauze wrapped around his abdomen though it was obvious he would need it changed before long since the blood seeped through. He laid down onto the cot as his aunt snuck back upstairs to slip into her bed without her husband's knowledge.

Uncle Vernon and Dudley never found out about the letter that let him know he had been accepted into Hogwarts. He hoped that he would make his parents proud when he would go to the same school they had gone to. He wanted to imagine that his mum and dad would have brilliant smiles upon their lips at the knowledge their son would attend the same school as they did.

Most of all, Harry hoped he would be happy at Hogwarts.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of 'Death is in the Air'. Next chapter, Harry and Aunt Petunia go to Diagon Alley.

as always: Harry Potter doesn't belong to me

-Emmy