Heres chapter 2 ^^
The Vanishing Glass
Morning came and went that fateful day Duo arrived on his aunt and uncle's doorstep. As a matter of fact, just around eleven years had passed since Duo had arrived on their doorstep. This morning, although, he was still asleep, in the cupboard under the stairs. Not for long, though, as his Aunt Petunia banged on the door with her fist and began shouting at him with her shrill voice.
"Up! Get up, now!"
Duo suddenly woke with a start as his aunt banged on the door again.
"UP!" she yelled.
Duo heard her walking towards the kitchen, and then he heard the sound of eggs cracking and the frying pan sizzling. Duo sighed and rolled over onto his back and tried to remember the dream he'd been having before he was rudely interrupted. There had been a gigantic flying motorcycle in it, with an equally large man sitting atop it. He had the funny feeling in the pit of his stomach that he'd had the same dream before...
"You up yet?!" his aunt shouted, once again by the cupboard door.
"Nearly," said Duo, sitting up.
"Well, hurry up! I need you to look after the eggs. It's Duddy's birthday and I want everything to be PERFECT so don't you DARE let them burn!" she threatened, walking away again.
Duo sighed. How could he have forgotten Dudley's birthday? It was only the worst day of the year to him, besides his birthday which the Dursley's ignored every year. Duo slowly got up from the cot set up in the cupboard and picked up a sock, peeling a spider off of them before putting them on.
When he was completely dressed, Duo opened the cupboard door and walked down the hall to the kitchen. The table groaned and sagged under the weight of Dudley's many birthday presents. It looked like Dudley had gotten the racing bike he had wanted, Duo thought, eyeing the bike-shaped package beside the table. Why Dudley even wanted a racing bike was the biggest mystery to Duo. Dudley was very fat, and hated exercise. Unless it involved punching somebody -- usually Duo -- but he almost always could escape Dudley's clutches. He didn't look it, but Duo was very fast.
Duo looked small and skinny for a ten year old boy. He looked even smaller and skinnier due to the fact the Dursleys had never bothered to buy him his own clothes -- they gave him Dudley's old clothes, which were four times bigger than he was. Duo had a sort of round shaped face, with rare indigo colored eyes. His hair was a dark chestnut brown color, very long, and kept in a braid that reached to the small of his back. But the thing Duo liked the most about his appearance was the thin, lighting bolt shaped scar. He'd had it as long as he could remember, but when he'd asked Aunt Petunia how he'd gotten it, she always said he'd gotten it in the car crash where his parents had died.
"And don't ask questions," she snapped at him when he'd asked one day. 'Dont ask questions' was one of the Dursleys golden rules for him.
Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen just as Duo was flipping over the eggs in the frying pan.
"Do something about your hair!" he barked, thinking this was some type of morning greeting.
Always, around once a week, Uncle Vernon had to make it known that Duo needed a haircut. Duo must have had more haircuts than the boys in his class put together. He couldn't help the fact that his hair grew unnaturally fast.
Duo was just putting the bacon into the frying pan by the time Dudley waddled into the kitchen, his five chins wobbling. Aunt Petunia often said Dudley looked like a baby angel, the way his blonde hair lay thickly atop his fat head. Duo always said Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.
Duo slid the plates of egg and bacon onto the kitchen table, trying to push the presents aside at the same time to make room. Meanwhile, Dudley was eyeing his presents and counting them carefully.
"Thirty-six," he said, looking pitifully up at Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. "Thats two less than last year."
Aunt Petunia, who could obviously see a tantrum coming on, pointed out the present he had missed from his Aunt Marge.
"Oh all right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going slightly red in the face. Duo could also see the tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his breakfast as quickly as possible in case Dudley upturned the table.
"Why don't we buy you two more presents while were out today? How's that?" she said sweetly, smiling down upon her fat son.
Dudley nodded slowly, and Duo could just see the gears turning in his thick head. Uncle Vernon chuckled to himself from the other side of the table.
"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father," he said, and he ruffled Dudley's blonde hair.
At that moment, the telephone decided to ring, and Aunt Petunia excused herself to go answer it. Meanwhile, Duo and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote controlled airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a brand new VCR. He was taking the paper off of another present when Aunt Petunia came back from the kitchen, a sour look on her face.
"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head over in Duo's direction as she spoke.
Dudley's jaw fell, revealing bits of chewed up bacon and egg, but Duo's heart gave a leap. Every single year, the Dursleys took Dudley and a friend out for the day for his birthday. They went to any plave you could think of; amusement parks, hamburger resturaunts, or the movies. Every single year, Duo was stuck with Mrs. Figg, a crazy old lady who lived just down the road from the Dursleys. Duo hated it there -- her whole house smelled lke cabbage and all she ever let him do was look at old pictures of all the cats she'd ever owned.
"Now what? We surely can't take him with us!" She glared at Duo, as though he'd planned it all. Duo knew he SHOULD feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it also meant it would be another year before he had to look at Tibbles, Paws, or Mr. Snowy again.
"Couldn't we call Marge?"
"Don't be ridiculoud Vernon, she hates the boy."
The Dursleys always spoke of Duo like this, as though he wasn't there, or like he was a bit of filth they couldn't understand, like a slug.
"What about your friend, Yvonne?"
"She's on vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.
"Maybe," Duo cut in, hopefully. "You could just leave me here?"
Aunt Petunia looked at him as though she had just swallowed a large rock.
"And come back and find the house in shambles? Do you think we're mad?!" she snapped.
"I won't blow up the house, promise!" Duo said, but as usual, they weren't listening to a word he was saying.
"I suppose maybe we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia very slowly, as if this were the most horrid thing in the world. "...and leave him in the car..."
"That car's new, he's not staying in it alone!!" shouted Uncle Vernon.
At that moment, Dudley chose to begin to cry very loudly. As a matter of fact, it had been years since he'd really cried -- he just knew if he screwed up his face, his mother would give him anything he wanted.
"Dinky Duddy Dear, dont cry! Mummy won't let him ruin your special day!" Aunt Petunia cried, flinging her arms around her massive son. Dudley shot Duo a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms and continued bawling.
"I...don't w-wan't him...t-t-to come!" Dudley wailed between enourmous pretend sobs.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
"Oh good Lord, (AN: no pun intended ^-~) they're here!" cried Aunt Petunia, and she hurried to the front door. Moments later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss walked into the kitchen with his mother. Piers was a very scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He usually held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley say Piers and stopped pretending to cry at once.
Half an hour later, Duo, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursley's car, wedged between Dudley and Piers. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon couldn't think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had pulled Duo aside.
"I'm warning you," he said, putting his great purple face right up close to Duo's. "I'm warning you, boy, any funny busniess, and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."
"But, I'm not going to do anything," said Duo, trying to defend himself. "Honestly..."
But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did, anyway. The problem was, Duo seemed to be prone to strange accidents and happenings. It was no good telling the Dursleys it was just a coincidence, or he didn't make it happen, they never believed him.
One time, Aunt Petunia, tired of Duo coming home from the barbers looking like he hand't been at all, took an enourmous pair of shears and cut all of his hair off so only his bangs remained to "hide that horrid scar". When Dudley had first laid eyes on him with his new haircut, he'd laughed himself silly. Duo spent a sleepless night wondering how much more he was going to get laughed at, for he was already made fun of for his long hair and baggy clothes. Although, next morning when he woke, he found his hair exactly the way it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off -- it was even pre-braided. Duo had gotten a week locked in his cupboard as punishment, even though he couldn't exactly explain how his hair had grown back so quickly.
Another time, Aunt Petunia had beed trying to stuff him into a grotesque old sweater of Dudleys that was brown with little orange puff balls. It seemed like the harder she tugged, the smaller the sweater became. It got to a point where the sweater MIGHT have fit a hand puppet, but it certainly wouldn't fit Duo. Aunt Petunia supposed it might have shrunk in the wash and (suprisingly) he didn't get punishment.
Although, he'd gotten into trouble one time for being found sitting atop the kitchens at school. Dudley's gang had been chasing him when, as much as to his suprise as anyone else's, he was sitting on top of the chimney. The Dursleys had recieved a very angry letter from the Headmistress telling them Duo had been climbing school buildings.
All he was trying to do was dive behind the cluster of old trashcans beside the door. Duo supposed the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.
But today, Duo was determined to stay out of trouble. This could be the best day of his life and he surely wasn't going to ruin it this time. It was worth being with Dudley and Piers the entire day.
As he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. Uncle Vernon liked to complain about different things as he drove: people at work, Duo, the council, Duo, the bank, and Duo were just a few of his favorite things to complain about. This morning, however, the subject was motorcycles.
"...roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle passed them with a roar of it's engine.
"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Duo, suddenly remembering. "It was flying."
Uncle Vernon almost crashed into the car infront of them as he slammed on the brakes. He turned completely in his seat and bared down upon Duo, his face like a gigantic plum with a mustache. "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"
Dudley and Piers snickered at Duo.
"I know they don't!" exclaimed Duo, trying to calm Uncle Vernon down."It was only a dream."
But secretly, Duo wished he hadn't said anything. He had had ten years of experience knowing the Dursleys hated anything that was slightly out of the ordinary. No matter if it was a dream, or a cartoon -- Duo seemed to think they thought he might get dangerous ideas.
It was a very sunny Saturday, and the zoo was packed with different families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers huge chocolate ice creams at the ice cream truck by the entrance. Since the grinning lady behind the counter had asked Duo what he wanted before the Dursleys could usher him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.
So far, Duo was having the best morning of his life. He was careful to walk a little ways from the Dursleys so Dudley and Piers wouldn't get bored and remember their favorite punching bag wasn't far away. They ate in some zoo resteraunt, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his Knickerbocker Glory didn't have anough ice cream, Duo was allowed to finished the first while Uncle Vernon ordered another.
After lunch, they went to the dark, cool reptile house. The house had lit windows all along the walls with different kinds of snakes and lizards were either napping or slithering over pieces of stone and wood. Dudley, unsuprisingly, found the largest and most dangerous-looking snake in the place. It could have wrapped itself around Uncle Vernon's car twice and crushed it like a tin can. Although, it didn't look in the mood to do so -- as a matter of fact, it was sleeping.
"Make it move," Dudley whined to his father. Uncle Vernon rapped on the glass with his knuckles, but the snake slept on.
"Do it again," Dudley demanded, and Uncle Vernon knocked on the glass again. The snake didn't budge.
"This is boring," complained Dudley, and he shuffled away.
As they moved to the next window, Duo moved so he could see the enourmous snake. He sort of felt sorry for the snake -- no company except annoying people tapping constantly on the glass and waking him up. Suddenly, the snake opened its black, beady eyes and leveled its head with Duo's.
It winked.
Duo stared, slightly shocked at the snake. Snakes didn't wink -- did they? Duo quickly looked around to see if anyone else was watching and winked back. The snake jerked its flat head over in Uncle Vernon and Dudley's direction and raised its eyes to the ceiling, giving Duo a look that quite plainly said, "I get that all the time."
"I know," Duo muttered quietly, so no one would get suspicious. "It must be terribly annoying."
The snake nodded.
"Where do you come from?" Duo asked.
The snake jabbed its pointed tail to a small wooden sign next to the glass and Duo peered at it.
Boa Constrictor. Brazil.
"Was it nice there?"
The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Duo read on with interest: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, so you've never seen Brazil?"
The snake shook its dead sadly as a deafening shout behind Duo made both him and the snake jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT THIS SNAKE IS DOING!"
Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as his short, stubby legs could carry him.
"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Duo in the ribs. Duo fell to the floor, caught by suprise, his braid flying out behind him. What came next, no one expected. One second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.
Duo sat up and gasped; the glass infront of the snake's tank had vanished and the great snake was slithering onto the concrete floor. Screams echoed throughout the reptile house as they started running for the nearest exit.
As they snake slithered past him, Duo could have sworn he heard a low, hissing voice say, "Brzail, here I come...Thanksss, amigo."
After that incident, the Dursleys had decided to leave the zoo, much to Duo's dissapointment. Although, in the car, Piers and Dudley could only talk excidedly. Dudley was telling them how it had almost chewed off his leg, while Piers swore it almost choked him to death. As far as Duo had seen, the snake had simply snapped playfully at people's heels as it passed. But, much to Duo's dissapointment, Piers had calmed down enough to say, "Duo was talking to the snake, weren't you, Duo?"
Once at home, Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of earshot before rounding on Duo, his face a nasty shade of red. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before he collapsed in a chair. Much later, Duo lay in his bed, wishing he had a clock so he could sneak out and steal something to eat.
It had been this way for ten miserable years, as long as Duo could remember, since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash he couldn't remember. Sometimes, when he strained his memory, he could remember a flash of bright green light, and a stabbing pain in his forehead, which was probably from the crash; he had no clue where the green light could have come from. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and there were no photographs of them in the house.
When he was much younger, Duo had dreamed of some unknown relation to take him away, but it had never happened. Although, he had the strange suspicion that strangers in the street seemed to know him. A tiny man in a violet top hat bowed to him once in a shop, and Aunt Petunia ushered him out of the store without a backwards glance. A wild-looking old lady, dressed in all green had actually shaken his hand once while on the bus before disspearing down the aisle. The weird thing about these strangers was the second Duo had tried to get a good look at them, they seemed to dissapear.
At school, Duo had absolutely no one. Everyone there knew Dudley's gang hated that very odd Duo Maxwell with his baggy clothes and ridiculously long hair. And nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.
*End Part 2*
This chapter seems awfully cut and pasted...even though I didn't cut and paste it. o_o;;
The Vanishing Glass
Morning came and went that fateful day Duo arrived on his aunt and uncle's doorstep. As a matter of fact, just around eleven years had passed since Duo had arrived on their doorstep. This morning, although, he was still asleep, in the cupboard under the stairs. Not for long, though, as his Aunt Petunia banged on the door with her fist and began shouting at him with her shrill voice.
"Up! Get up, now!"
Duo suddenly woke with a start as his aunt banged on the door again.
"UP!" she yelled.
Duo heard her walking towards the kitchen, and then he heard the sound of eggs cracking and the frying pan sizzling. Duo sighed and rolled over onto his back and tried to remember the dream he'd been having before he was rudely interrupted. There had been a gigantic flying motorcycle in it, with an equally large man sitting atop it. He had the funny feeling in the pit of his stomach that he'd had the same dream before...
"You up yet?!" his aunt shouted, once again by the cupboard door.
"Nearly," said Duo, sitting up.
"Well, hurry up! I need you to look after the eggs. It's Duddy's birthday and I want everything to be PERFECT so don't you DARE let them burn!" she threatened, walking away again.
Duo sighed. How could he have forgotten Dudley's birthday? It was only the worst day of the year to him, besides his birthday which the Dursley's ignored every year. Duo slowly got up from the cot set up in the cupboard and picked up a sock, peeling a spider off of them before putting them on.
When he was completely dressed, Duo opened the cupboard door and walked down the hall to the kitchen. The table groaned and sagged under the weight of Dudley's many birthday presents. It looked like Dudley had gotten the racing bike he had wanted, Duo thought, eyeing the bike-shaped package beside the table. Why Dudley even wanted a racing bike was the biggest mystery to Duo. Dudley was very fat, and hated exercise. Unless it involved punching somebody -- usually Duo -- but he almost always could escape Dudley's clutches. He didn't look it, but Duo was very fast.
Duo looked small and skinny for a ten year old boy. He looked even smaller and skinnier due to the fact the Dursleys had never bothered to buy him his own clothes -- they gave him Dudley's old clothes, which were four times bigger than he was. Duo had a sort of round shaped face, with rare indigo colored eyes. His hair was a dark chestnut brown color, very long, and kept in a braid that reached to the small of his back. But the thing Duo liked the most about his appearance was the thin, lighting bolt shaped scar. He'd had it as long as he could remember, but when he'd asked Aunt Petunia how he'd gotten it, she always said he'd gotten it in the car crash where his parents had died.
"And don't ask questions," she snapped at him when he'd asked one day. 'Dont ask questions' was one of the Dursleys golden rules for him.
Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen just as Duo was flipping over the eggs in the frying pan.
"Do something about your hair!" he barked, thinking this was some type of morning greeting.
Always, around once a week, Uncle Vernon had to make it known that Duo needed a haircut. Duo must have had more haircuts than the boys in his class put together. He couldn't help the fact that his hair grew unnaturally fast.
Duo was just putting the bacon into the frying pan by the time Dudley waddled into the kitchen, his five chins wobbling. Aunt Petunia often said Dudley looked like a baby angel, the way his blonde hair lay thickly atop his fat head. Duo always said Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.
Duo slid the plates of egg and bacon onto the kitchen table, trying to push the presents aside at the same time to make room. Meanwhile, Dudley was eyeing his presents and counting them carefully.
"Thirty-six," he said, looking pitifully up at Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. "Thats two less than last year."
Aunt Petunia, who could obviously see a tantrum coming on, pointed out the present he had missed from his Aunt Marge.
"Oh all right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going slightly red in the face. Duo could also see the tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his breakfast as quickly as possible in case Dudley upturned the table.
"Why don't we buy you two more presents while were out today? How's that?" she said sweetly, smiling down upon her fat son.
Dudley nodded slowly, and Duo could just see the gears turning in his thick head. Uncle Vernon chuckled to himself from the other side of the table.
"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father," he said, and he ruffled Dudley's blonde hair.
At that moment, the telephone decided to ring, and Aunt Petunia excused herself to go answer it. Meanwhile, Duo and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote controlled airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a brand new VCR. He was taking the paper off of another present when Aunt Petunia came back from the kitchen, a sour look on her face.
"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head over in Duo's direction as she spoke.
Dudley's jaw fell, revealing bits of chewed up bacon and egg, but Duo's heart gave a leap. Every single year, the Dursleys took Dudley and a friend out for the day for his birthday. They went to any plave you could think of; amusement parks, hamburger resturaunts, or the movies. Every single year, Duo was stuck with Mrs. Figg, a crazy old lady who lived just down the road from the Dursleys. Duo hated it there -- her whole house smelled lke cabbage and all she ever let him do was look at old pictures of all the cats she'd ever owned.
"Now what? We surely can't take him with us!" She glared at Duo, as though he'd planned it all. Duo knew he SHOULD feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it also meant it would be another year before he had to look at Tibbles, Paws, or Mr. Snowy again.
"Couldn't we call Marge?"
"Don't be ridiculoud Vernon, she hates the boy."
The Dursleys always spoke of Duo like this, as though he wasn't there, or like he was a bit of filth they couldn't understand, like a slug.
"What about your friend, Yvonne?"
"She's on vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.
"Maybe," Duo cut in, hopefully. "You could just leave me here?"
Aunt Petunia looked at him as though she had just swallowed a large rock.
"And come back and find the house in shambles? Do you think we're mad?!" she snapped.
"I won't blow up the house, promise!" Duo said, but as usual, they weren't listening to a word he was saying.
"I suppose maybe we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia very slowly, as if this were the most horrid thing in the world. "...and leave him in the car..."
"That car's new, he's not staying in it alone!!" shouted Uncle Vernon.
At that moment, Dudley chose to begin to cry very loudly. As a matter of fact, it had been years since he'd really cried -- he just knew if he screwed up his face, his mother would give him anything he wanted.
"Dinky Duddy Dear, dont cry! Mummy won't let him ruin your special day!" Aunt Petunia cried, flinging her arms around her massive son. Dudley shot Duo a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms and continued bawling.
"I...don't w-wan't him...t-t-to come!" Dudley wailed between enourmous pretend sobs.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
"Oh good Lord, (AN: no pun intended ^-~) they're here!" cried Aunt Petunia, and she hurried to the front door. Moments later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss walked into the kitchen with his mother. Piers was a very scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He usually held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley say Piers and stopped pretending to cry at once.
Half an hour later, Duo, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursley's car, wedged between Dudley and Piers. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon couldn't think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had pulled Duo aside.
"I'm warning you," he said, putting his great purple face right up close to Duo's. "I'm warning you, boy, any funny busniess, and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."
"But, I'm not going to do anything," said Duo, trying to defend himself. "Honestly..."
But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did, anyway. The problem was, Duo seemed to be prone to strange accidents and happenings. It was no good telling the Dursleys it was just a coincidence, or he didn't make it happen, they never believed him.
One time, Aunt Petunia, tired of Duo coming home from the barbers looking like he hand't been at all, took an enourmous pair of shears and cut all of his hair off so only his bangs remained to "hide that horrid scar". When Dudley had first laid eyes on him with his new haircut, he'd laughed himself silly. Duo spent a sleepless night wondering how much more he was going to get laughed at, for he was already made fun of for his long hair and baggy clothes. Although, next morning when he woke, he found his hair exactly the way it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off -- it was even pre-braided. Duo had gotten a week locked in his cupboard as punishment, even though he couldn't exactly explain how his hair had grown back so quickly.
Another time, Aunt Petunia had beed trying to stuff him into a grotesque old sweater of Dudleys that was brown with little orange puff balls. It seemed like the harder she tugged, the smaller the sweater became. It got to a point where the sweater MIGHT have fit a hand puppet, but it certainly wouldn't fit Duo. Aunt Petunia supposed it might have shrunk in the wash and (suprisingly) he didn't get punishment.
Although, he'd gotten into trouble one time for being found sitting atop the kitchens at school. Dudley's gang had been chasing him when, as much as to his suprise as anyone else's, he was sitting on top of the chimney. The Dursleys had recieved a very angry letter from the Headmistress telling them Duo had been climbing school buildings.
All he was trying to do was dive behind the cluster of old trashcans beside the door. Duo supposed the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.
But today, Duo was determined to stay out of trouble. This could be the best day of his life and he surely wasn't going to ruin it this time. It was worth being with Dudley and Piers the entire day.
As he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. Uncle Vernon liked to complain about different things as he drove: people at work, Duo, the council, Duo, the bank, and Duo were just a few of his favorite things to complain about. This morning, however, the subject was motorcycles.
"...roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle passed them with a roar of it's engine.
"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Duo, suddenly remembering. "It was flying."
Uncle Vernon almost crashed into the car infront of them as he slammed on the brakes. He turned completely in his seat and bared down upon Duo, his face like a gigantic plum with a mustache. "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"
Dudley and Piers snickered at Duo.
"I know they don't!" exclaimed Duo, trying to calm Uncle Vernon down."It was only a dream."
But secretly, Duo wished he hadn't said anything. He had had ten years of experience knowing the Dursleys hated anything that was slightly out of the ordinary. No matter if it was a dream, or a cartoon -- Duo seemed to think they thought he might get dangerous ideas.
It was a very sunny Saturday, and the zoo was packed with different families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers huge chocolate ice creams at the ice cream truck by the entrance. Since the grinning lady behind the counter had asked Duo what he wanted before the Dursleys could usher him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.
So far, Duo was having the best morning of his life. He was careful to walk a little ways from the Dursleys so Dudley and Piers wouldn't get bored and remember their favorite punching bag wasn't far away. They ate in some zoo resteraunt, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his Knickerbocker Glory didn't have anough ice cream, Duo was allowed to finished the first while Uncle Vernon ordered another.
After lunch, they went to the dark, cool reptile house. The house had lit windows all along the walls with different kinds of snakes and lizards were either napping or slithering over pieces of stone and wood. Dudley, unsuprisingly, found the largest and most dangerous-looking snake in the place. It could have wrapped itself around Uncle Vernon's car twice and crushed it like a tin can. Although, it didn't look in the mood to do so -- as a matter of fact, it was sleeping.
"Make it move," Dudley whined to his father. Uncle Vernon rapped on the glass with his knuckles, but the snake slept on.
"Do it again," Dudley demanded, and Uncle Vernon knocked on the glass again. The snake didn't budge.
"This is boring," complained Dudley, and he shuffled away.
As they moved to the next window, Duo moved so he could see the enourmous snake. He sort of felt sorry for the snake -- no company except annoying people tapping constantly on the glass and waking him up. Suddenly, the snake opened its black, beady eyes and leveled its head with Duo's.
It winked.
Duo stared, slightly shocked at the snake. Snakes didn't wink -- did they? Duo quickly looked around to see if anyone else was watching and winked back. The snake jerked its flat head over in Uncle Vernon and Dudley's direction and raised its eyes to the ceiling, giving Duo a look that quite plainly said, "I get that all the time."
"I know," Duo muttered quietly, so no one would get suspicious. "It must be terribly annoying."
The snake nodded.
"Where do you come from?" Duo asked.
The snake jabbed its pointed tail to a small wooden sign next to the glass and Duo peered at it.
Boa Constrictor. Brazil.
"Was it nice there?"
The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Duo read on with interest: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, so you've never seen Brazil?"
The snake shook its dead sadly as a deafening shout behind Duo made both him and the snake jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT THIS SNAKE IS DOING!"
Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as his short, stubby legs could carry him.
"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Duo in the ribs. Duo fell to the floor, caught by suprise, his braid flying out behind him. What came next, no one expected. One second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.
Duo sat up and gasped; the glass infront of the snake's tank had vanished and the great snake was slithering onto the concrete floor. Screams echoed throughout the reptile house as they started running for the nearest exit.
As they snake slithered past him, Duo could have sworn he heard a low, hissing voice say, "Brzail, here I come...Thanksss, amigo."
After that incident, the Dursleys had decided to leave the zoo, much to Duo's dissapointment. Although, in the car, Piers and Dudley could only talk excidedly. Dudley was telling them how it had almost chewed off his leg, while Piers swore it almost choked him to death. As far as Duo had seen, the snake had simply snapped playfully at people's heels as it passed. But, much to Duo's dissapointment, Piers had calmed down enough to say, "Duo was talking to the snake, weren't you, Duo?"
Once at home, Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of earshot before rounding on Duo, his face a nasty shade of red. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before he collapsed in a chair. Much later, Duo lay in his bed, wishing he had a clock so he could sneak out and steal something to eat.
It had been this way for ten miserable years, as long as Duo could remember, since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash he couldn't remember. Sometimes, when he strained his memory, he could remember a flash of bright green light, and a stabbing pain in his forehead, which was probably from the crash; he had no clue where the green light could have come from. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and there were no photographs of them in the house.
When he was much younger, Duo had dreamed of some unknown relation to take him away, but it had never happened. Although, he had the strange suspicion that strangers in the street seemed to know him. A tiny man in a violet top hat bowed to him once in a shop, and Aunt Petunia ushered him out of the store without a backwards glance. A wild-looking old lady, dressed in all green had actually shaken his hand once while on the bus before disspearing down the aisle. The weird thing about these strangers was the second Duo had tried to get a good look at them, they seemed to dissapear.
At school, Duo had absolutely no one. Everyone there knew Dudley's gang hated that very odd Duo Maxwell with his baggy clothes and ridiculously long hair. And nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.
*End Part 2*
This chapter seems awfully cut and pasted...even though I didn't cut and paste it. o_o;;