--------------- And so, ten more years went by the one-year-old kids, and the children of Potter grew up. ---------------

"Potters, get out of there and serve breakfast! It's Dudley's birthday, so you have to make it perfect!" Aunt Petunia yelled, as she opened widely the door of the cupboard under the stairs. She then closed the door again, opened the small vent on the top of it, and marched to the kitchen. Harold James Potter helped his sister, Cherry Judith Potter, to rise from the old mattress they had to share. Every night they switched sides, and last night she had gotten the bad one.

They removed the shirts they used as pyjamas. With the little light coming from the vent on the door, they stuffed them inside the large, old suitcase they used as a wardrobe, and pulled out a couple of dark green sweatshirts, a grey pleaded skirt and a pair of khaki shorts. All of their clothes seemed to have seen better days, but they ignored this as they pulled them on.

"Lest go Cherry, before they come for us." - Said Harry, as he handed her glasses to his sister. He was very skinny, bordering rachitic, but still had bright in his green eyes. His jet-black short hair looked like her sister's, but was much more messed up than hers; perhaps because gravity had more to pull on her shoulder-length hair, or perhaps because she used it in a braid.

"Okay Harry." - She followed her answer with a sigh, after taking her glasses. Her complexion wasn't any better than his brother, but both her face and voice were just slightly less jagged than his. Perhaps that the Dursleys preferred to hit her on the legs, while they favoured her brother's face. Her eyes were a mirror of her brother's in every way.

He opened the door, but as soon as he had done so, a boy around their own age and height, but about the weight of the two of them, appeared and shoved them back inside. As they were standing in front of the mattress on the floor, when he shoved them they lost their balance and fell heavily on the mattress.

"Good morning, eight eyes!" - The obese boy snickered, and ran into the kitchen. They picked themselves up again, and after that they went out of their cupboard, and to the kitchen.

" ... But last year I had 38 presents!" They heard as they came in. Of course, they knew the Dursley had the custom to buy him an even bigger batch of presents the next Sunday after his birthday, and that he would whine from today (a Tuesday) until he got it. Both of them wished they could make themselves scarce during said week, but of course...

"Boy, serve the omelette! Girl, get us something to drink!"

They obeyed. Harry took out four plates and one platter, and after filling half the omelette on the platter and putting it in front of Dudley, moved to serve the rest to Vernon, Petunia, his sister and himself. Of course, if he served himself or his sister more than to even Petunia, he would pay dearly, so he tried to make the difference noticeable. Meanwhile his sister had gotten Vernon a cup of coffee, Petunia a glass of orange juice, and Dudley half a pitcher of milk. Finished that and knowing the routine, she went to the front entrance to pick up today's bottles of milk and to get the mail. When she picked the mail, she saw one very curious letter on top of it. It was made out of parchment. She got curious and reed the address, which was written in bright green ink.

"Harold James and Cherry Judith Potter.

The cupboard under the stairs

# 4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey"

Cherry was thrilled, as she didn't remember either Harry or herself ever receiving a letter. She just stood there looking at it baffled.

"Judith, come back this instant!" - Aunt Petunia yelled. The Dursley never called her by her first name, as they said that 'she was not as special as to be called Cherry'; on the other hand, they called Harry by his first name because the other was the name of their father, which was taboo for the Dursley. She walked back to the kitchen, and after setting the milk in the counter, she walked over and handed Petunia the rest of the mail. Then she walked up to Harry and happily handed him the envelope, as she sat by him in the bar, and started to pummel down her part of the omelette. Just as she and Harry were finishing their eggs, staring at the letter, Dudley screamed.

"Mom, the Potters didn't give you one of the letters!"

"Give that to me, you thieves!" - Roared Petunia. She turned around from her sit at the table and snatched it from Harry.

"Hey, that letter is for us!" - Yelled Harry, quite mad.

"Yeah, that's for us!" - Cherry joined in.

"Shut up, you lying good-for-nothings. Besides, who would ever care to write to you?" - Petunia spat back. Then she turned to the letter, and took a good look at it. She lost the colour of her face.

"Vernon, look at this!" - She said, quite panicky. She handed the letter to Vernon.

"What's that, Petunia?" - He said, frightened. Then he looked at it, and paled as well. After gasping a few seconds, he finally recovered the capability to speak. "Potters ... cupboard ... now!"

"But what about our letter!" Harry spat back.

That made Vernon react. He walked up to the bar, and slapped Harry with his entire arm. Harry went to land in the middle of the kitchen, barely conscious. Cherry was in an instant at his side, helping him up.

"That what your letter is about! Now into the cupboard!"

Harry was still too numbed to understand, so Cherry had to almost drag him into the cupboard, were she settled him in the good side of the mattress, while she let herself fall on the bad one. Her brother was now starting to react, but she shocked her head in his field of vision, and spoke to him.

"That was brave, Harry, but please don't expose yourself like that."

"Okay sis. Thanks."

They both just rested on the bed, trying to get some sleep. Harry wished they could read a book and Cherry wished they could play checkers, but without any light in there, and without wishes to speculate what the letter was all about, the best they had to do was sleep. Anyway, yesterday they hadn't gotten too much, since Petunia had ordered them to clean the kitchen, after Dudley had a tantrum and splashed ketchup all over the walls.

About two hours later, they were rudely awakened, again.

"Potters, get out of there!" - Petunia yelled thru the open door. Then she cleared it, so the two still groggy children could stumble thru. She guided them to the living room, where Vernon waited for them."

"Well Potters, as you already know I'm taking Dudley to the zoo for his birthday, but unfortunately that old hag Figg is nowhere to be found. Since I value my house more than to leave you two alone in it, I'm taking you along; however, if I see a single thing out of the ordinary, a single abnormality, you two will wish you had never been born!" - He yelled on their faces, pointing his words by poking their foreheads. As soon as Vernon had turned they smiled to each other and joined their hands; after all, they had never gone to the zoo.

The entire stay at the zoo was very enjoyable for both Harry and Cherry, even if they had to follow the pretty fast pace set by the "short attention span" family. Unfortunately, the good time ended at the reptile house. Among many smaller ones, there was a big enclosure occupied by a five metre long Amazonian python, with a body as thick as one of Dudley's thighs, and a look about as menacing as a fluffy little white rabbit. In fact, it just looked bored. Both Dudley and Vernon were tapping the glass and yelling at it to move, but after a very short time lost interest and moved along. Harry and Cherry took their places, and after looking with empathy to the expression on the snake's face, started speaking to it.

"Sorry for those two. They just don't understand what it is to live on a cage, and have people rattling its walls." - Harry spoke up.

The snake moved. It faced them, and then lifted its head slightly like a cobra, to face them.

"And how would you know? You are free!" - It spat.

"We sort of live in another, but at least every now and then we get to see the outside." - Cherry finished, as she was the first to react. It seemed to relax the snake, as it lowered its head, and placed it on a curl of its body, as a pillow.

"And having people hitting the hard-air isn't the worst." - Harry wondered what 'hard-air' meant, but Cherry touched the glass wall and he understood. - "The worst is that I always get to eat birds that are already dead, so they are mine to take. And they are always so terribly cold that I can hardly breathe after eating, and right then is when those pink monkeys come and take me out so little monkeys can touch me while I'm defenceless. Right then is when I miss home the most."

"And ... where would that be?" - Harry asked.

"I think it says up there." - Answered the snake. Then it started to lift its head pointing an overhanging sign. Cherry started to read it.

"Well, It reads 'Northern Amazonian Anaconda. South of Venezuela / North of Brazil This specimen was captured at an approximate age of three years, and has lived in this zoo for the past eight'. I see what you mean."

"I'm sorry. I wish we could do something for you." - Continued Harry.

They would have continued the conversation with the anaconda, but Dudley had other ideas.

"DAD, LOOK AT THE PYTHON!!" - He screamed, and then he ran to where the Potter twins were standing, shoving them hard in the process. Both of them fell hard on the concrete floor, side by side, and as soon as they saw the other was more or less fine, they glared at his back with all their hatred. And suddenly, Dudley had fallen thru the glass wall, and went to land on one of the curls of the anaconda, which was so surprised, that didn't react. Dudley scrambled back up to the glass wall, but seeing that it had closed behind him, he ran to the other extreme of the tank, and started hitting the door and screaming of pure terror. The Dursleys were also howling in panic, but even on top of all that noise, the twins could hear the screams of gratitude of the anaconda.

"Thanks, my little amigos! I promise I'll make the best of this one!" - And once it had properly cornered Dudley in front of the door, it gave a final cry. - "No more cold food for Maura!"

It jumped on Dudley, and rolled him away from the door as it curled on him. Unfortunately it had also unblocked the door, from where five handlers came almost instantly, and started to wrestle it off from Dudley. Meanwhile Petunia was crying on Vernon, Harry and Cherry were among a crowd looking into the enclosure, and the snake was giving the fight of its life.

"NO, please! Let me have this ONE!" - It yelled in desperation, as it kept trashing around the four handlers trying to overpower it, while the fifth one was trying to uncurl its tail off Dudley's left ankle.

After Vernon had a shooting match against the chief herpetologist and the zoo administrator (he wanted to get the animal killed, while the others called him 'irresponsible parent'), and after Dudley was freed from the infirmary with nothing but minor bruises, Vernon shoved the twins in the car. Once everyone was on board, he kicked into gear and was off for home faster than either Harry or Cherry had ever seen him. They knew he would never hit them outside of home, and from the hurry he right now had to get home, they knew they had a great punching session on the horizon. They were cowering in fear, while Dudley made his best impression of being in great pain, and Petunia kept cleaning her nose.

At last they reached Privet drive, and the twins were shoved into the house. As soon as Dudley had closed the door behind him, Vernon kicked them both into the floor, and started to remove his long and thick belt. After showing them the heavy buckle that was dangling from it and sneering at their terrified faces, he started to bring it down on them. Thank the Lord for his obesity, that made him be too tired to continue in less than ten minutes; not that it mattered, as the twins had been unconscious the last two.

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