Disclaimer: Harry Potter is a puppet… I'm a puppeteer. I don't own him I just make him do crazy stuff.

Story Summary: Harry was looking forward to a nice normal holiday then he finds out that Aunt Petunia has had a baby, and as if that wasn't enough. A strange boy shows up and turns Harry's life upside down. Then there's the school year!

This Chapter: Harry comes home from fourth year to find a surprise…

Author Notes:

Chapter 1

Dreams, Babies and Snakes

Harry Potter was simply following Uncle Vernon out of the station, but just as they left Uncle Vernon stopped so suddenly Harry nearly crashed into him.

"Listen up boy, your Aunt Petunia has had a baby girl so we're both very tired from taking care of her. That means no funny business, none what so ever. Got it?" Uncle Vernon whispered to Harry. Harry just noticed how tired he looked. He could tell that he'd better behave if he didn't want to be locked the cupboard again. So he nodded. Uncle Vernon turned and started walking again. Harry was full of questions but decided this wasn't the best time to ask them all so he settled on one.

"Uncle Vernon?" He asked cautiously

"What?" Grunted Uncle Vernon in reply

"What's her name?" He asked

"Denekar." Came the short reply. They traveled home silently.

Uncle Vernon walked through the door, leaving Harry to cope with his trunk. Harry dragged his trunk upstairs as quietly as possible and dragged it to the end of his bed. With nothing better to do he lay on the bed, but realizing how tired he was, drifted off to sleep.

He was running through the endless path, hedges lining the way. Seeing the end he ran faster. He turned the corner and was faced with Wormtail

"Kill the spare." A croaky voice said from somewhere. Cedric's dead body collapsed on his, knocking him over. He scrambled to his feet and ran. The once straight path had now become a labyrinth of twists, turns and dead ends. He kept running all the while hearing 'Kill the spare' in the raspy voice that had been Voldemort. He came to a dead end and turned to face whatever was behind him. He looked up and there was Cedric's ghost holding up what used to be Cedric.

"You killed me." The ghost said, Harry shook his head and tried to back further into the bush. "YOU LET ME DIE!"

"NO! It wasn't me it was Wormtail!" Harry protested

"YOU killed me!" Cedric's ghost insisted. Harry closed his eyes and dug into his pockets for his wand. He heard an evil laugh and opening his eyes saw the fully revitalized Voldemort standing over Cedric's body, holding Harry's wand. Voldemort chuckled evilly.

"Morsemorde!" he shouted and held the wand to the sky. The huge skull and snake emblem shined in the sky, glaring down at Harry. Then Voldemort turned on Harry and with Harry's own wand cried out "Avada Kedavra!" A green light rushed toward Harry.

Harry sat up on his bed in a cold sweat. He looked toward the window, but it wasn't there. He took a good look around and realized his bed had been moved so a cot could fit into the room. Well at least he knew where baby Denekar would be sleeping. He examined the layout of the room, cot to the left and feeding stuff on the table. Hedwig softly clicking her beak interrupted him. He went over to her cage thankful she hadn't started screeching.

"Thanks Hedwig, I'd better send a letter to everyone before they send an owl here, especially pig," Harry opened his trunk and took out a roll of parchment and a quill and placing it on the quarter of the table that was left after the feeding stuff and Hedwig's cage had been put there. He thought for a while then wrote a quick note.

Dear Everyone,

DON'T SEND ANY OWLS! My Aunt has had a baby. She's sleeping in my room so I can't have owls coming in and out, so until further notice NO OWLS! I'll have Hedwig come around when I have worked something out.

Please cross your name off the list, give the letter back and tell Hedwig who to deliver to next.

From Harry

The Weasleys

Hermione

Snuffles

Dumbledore

Hagrid

He tied the letter to Hedwig's leg and took her on his arm over to the window.

"OK Hedwig, this has to go to lots of people, I want you to take it to the Weasley's first. Better deliver it to Mrs. Weasley. That way the whole house will know, ok?" Hedwig nipped his ear affectionately and flew out the window that Harry had opened. He watched as Hedwig flew out into the night in, what he assumed was, the direction of the Weasley's house. He continued to watch until Hedwig had completely disappeared from the sky.

Suddenly Harry jumped and after a few seconds he realized what the strange noise was. Baby Denekar was crying. Harry wasn't sure what to do, so instead he stood, back to the window and stared and the screaming infant. Uncle Vernon came in wearing his night robe.

"Shut that window boy! Do you want the baby to get sick?" he grumped as he picked up Denekar. Harry hastily shut the window and had only just turned around when Uncle Vernon handed Denekar to him. Harry instinctively raised his arms to cradle the infant. "Make yourself useful boy, and feed her. I have work tomorrow."

Harry watched the retreating figure of Uncle Vernon walk out of the door and around the corner. Then he noticed Uncle Vernon's snores and realized that Denekar wasn't crying and as he recalled, now that he thought of it, she had stopped the instant Uncle Vernon let her go. Harry wasn't sure what to do. He went over to the table and looked at the feeding stuff. There was some kind of contraption with a bottle in it. He took the bottle out and discovered that it was warm. There was some baby formula in the bottle so Harry tested it on his arm. It didn't feel hot, just a nice warm temperature. He sat down on the bed and held the bottle to Denekar's mouth. She latched on to it and started sucking. Harry held the bottle for her and thought about what he was going to do all summer. There wasn't really anything he could do. He'd have to think about it in the morning. Before he knew it Denekar had finished. He patted her on the back, learning from Muggle health class you had to do that with little babies. Denekar let out an almighty burp, for a baby her size, and Harry took her to the change table. He changed her nappy and put on a fresh one. By that time Denekar was sleeping again. He lay her back down gently in the crib. He sat down on his bed again and looked at the clock. It was only 4 am. What was he going to do until it was light? He lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Just thinking about nothing in particular. He looked at the clock after what seemed like an hour. 4:10, Damn. He looked over to the cot again to see baby Denekar staring at him in silence. Harry didn't claim to be an expert on babies but he was pretty sure that if they weren't sleeping they were screaming, eating or being entertained. Truth be told it actually spooked him a bit, but for some reason he knew she would grow up on his side. Denekar smiled at him and then closed her eyes again. Harry lay back and closed his eyes as well.

"GET UP BOY!"

Harry sat up quickly to hear Aunt Petunia's voice screaming at him. He hadn't even realized he'd fallen asleep again. He was rubbing the sleep from his eyes when Aunt Petunia laid Denekar into his arms.

"Feed her while I get Vernon's breakfast and be careful."

Harry did what he had done the night before and selected a bottle from the warmer and held it for Denekar. He had noticed that she hadn't been crying at all when Aunt Petunia was holding her but she seemed pleased to be back in Harry's arms. He fed her and changed her but instead of putting her back in her cot he lay her down on his bed and got changed. He tossed his dirty clothes on the bed next to her and opened his trunk to get clean ones. He didn't notice that his wand had fallen out of his pocket. But he did notice when Denekar grabbed hold of it and accidentally let loose some red sparks. He took the wand from her and put it under the loose floorboard, which was hard to get at now that it was under the cot. He finished getting changed and then he picked her up. She flashed a cheeky smile. He looked around for a ministry owl. But one didn't come.

'Maybe they didn't see it.' he thought 'They've got to be really busy now that they have Dumbledore trying to convince them that Voldemort's back.' He carried Denekar downstairs to see that Uncle Vernon had left for work and Aunt Petunia was trying to get Dudley to calm down. He was having another temper tantrum about the diet. She gave up and turned around.

"Denniekins! Did my precious little girl have her breakfast?" Aunt Petunia took Denekar from Harry and gave her a cuddle.

"I fed and changed her." Harry said Aunt Petunia looked at him, but remarkably the loathing wasn't there.

"Good. Your breakfast is on the table." She said, not thankful, not loathing just… neutral.

Harry looked at his plate as he walked over to the table. Breakfast consisted of a banana and two plain rice cakes. He snapped a piece off a rice cake a tried it. It tasted like Styrofoam. He handed the rest of the rice cakes to Dudley, who wolfed them down without thinking about the taste. Harry ate his banana and noticed that Dudley must have had to cope with the diet at school too because he looked a bit thinner. Harry looked around and wondered what he should do. He spotted Uncle Vernon's discarded newspaper and decided he'd look at that for the morning. He picked it up and took it into the lounge room. Splurged across the front page was a story with the headline 'SNAKES GO APE!' Some snakes that the zoo had bought had bitten the zoo snake keeper. And because they were new to the zoo they hadn't had their venom removed yet. The story told about how the snake keeper was in hospital and would take a few months to fully recover and until that time they were looking for a temporary replacement. Harry thought for a while and decided to go for the job. He knew he didn't have any qualifications, but how many snake keepers could talk to their charges?

He asked Aunt Petunia if he could go for a long walk and after she said yes went down to the shed. He pulled out Dudley's street bike, which he had only ridden once, took the helmet off the handle bar and put it on his head. That done he snuck off to the zoo. It wasn't long until he was at the Surrey zoo. When he arrived he asked if he could see the manager and the ticket booth operator looked at him skeptically. When he said he was serious, the ticket man called over a security man and asked him to escort Harry to the manager's office. Harry followed the security man, ignoring the stares from other families that had already come to spend the day. When they reached the office Harry thanked the security man and knocked on the door. It opened straight away and a woman greeted him. She pointed to a chair and left. Harry sat down in a comfortable chair facing the desk. The manager was a stocky man but not fat like Uncle Vernon.

"Well. What can I do for you, young man?" he asked. He sounded nice enough. Harry told him that he wanted to become the temporary snake keeper. The manager looked stunned. "That's a dangerous job. What's your name, son."

"Harry Potter, sir." Harry replied simply. The manager squinted as if he knew Harry but was trying to remember where from.

"Would that be the Harry Potter my sister is always talking about?" Harry was stunned. He hadn't expected this reply.

"Uh, depends, what does your sister do?" Harry asked cautiously. He always knew he was a topic of conversation, complaint even, when Aunt Petunia was chatting over the fence. The manager rubbed his chin, deciding on how to phrase this.

"She works in a shop in Diagon Alley." Harry grinned; his sister was a witch, not one of Aunt Petunia's gossip buddies.

"Then I most probably am." Harry waited for the manager to say something. If his sister was a witch and he still talked to her than he can't be that bad.

"Well, Harry. What makes you think you can handle the job?" The manager asked sitting back in his chair

"Do you know what a parseltounge is?" Harry asked.

The manager shook his head.

"Do you know who Voldemort is?"

The manager nodded.

"You probably know why your sister knows me then," the manager nodded again, "Okay, well when Voldemort tried to kill me somehow some of him got put in me, he's a parseltounge too. Parseltounge is supposedly dark magic. Anyway, one thing Voldemort is famous for is his ability to talk to snakes, when he tried to kill me somehow that trait must have passed on to me as well." Harry finished. The manager seemed to be considering it.

"Okay, I'll take you to the reptile house and see how you get on with the snakes. If you do good, the job is yours." Harry smiled and they both stood up.

"Did you catch that Brazilian Boa that got loose a few years ago?" Harry asked as they walked out of the office.

"Yes he didn't get that far before we caught up to him, how do you know that?" The manager looked at Harry as they made their way past the monkeys and the lions. Harry looked sheepish.

"I accidentally let it out… you might remember me, my cousin got trapped in the enclosure." He replied. The manager put on an expression of recognition.

"Ah yes I remember that now." The manager chuckled and opened the door to the reptile house. "How is your cousin these days? Lost some weight I hope." Harry smiled

"Smeltings have put him on a diet. Seems to be working, slowly though." They both chuckled and they stopped in front of the enclosure of the Brazilian boa constrictor. "Hi there remember me?" Harry hissed at the snake. The boa looked up and, what seemed like to Harry, sighed.

"They caught me," it said simply. Harry smiled

"I noticed. Hey, if I make a good impression I might be taking care of you for a couple of months."

"Where isss the other man?"

"He's in hospital, some new snakes bit him, three at the same time. He's recovering."

"Oh. Would you like me to help you make a good impresssssssion?" With that the boa reared up as much as it could and started dancing somewhat. The manager looked stunned

"Good Lord! What is it doing?"

"Trying to help me give a good impression." Harry said laughing and smiling. The manager laughed.

"Well then I suppose I have to give you the job now." He said as they walked on toward the staff area. The manager stopped suddenly and frowned into an enclosure. "Harry these are the snakes that bit Paul, could you ask them why for me?" Harry was surprised but looked at the snakes nonetheless.

"Hi there." Harry hissed at the snakes. They all looked up.

"You sssssspeak our language." they said simply Harry shrugged.

"Yeah, it's a skill I kind of picked up when some evil wizard tried to kill me." Harry paused a moment to let that sink in. "But anyway, why did you bite that man?" He was sure they would have shrugged if they had shoulders.

"He took usssss near the griffin. Sssssnakes and griffinsssss are enemiesssss you know." Of all the answers Harry expected to hear that was not one of them.

"Griffin? Where?" Harry was stunned and then it came to him. Griffin… Griffindor…. The emblem. The Lion! So that's why it seemed to be interested in them when they passed.

"The Lion's a griffin?" he asked the snakes and they merely nodded. Harry was shocked and he must have shown it because the manager asked him what was wrong. "Uh…" Harry noticed the family looking at the snake next to them, "Could we, um…" he indicated to the door labeled 'Staff Only'. The manager nodded and they walked through. Before Harry could explain a man rushed up.

"Mr. Heath! The snakes need feeding and no one is willing to do it after what happened. Who's this?" He said the last part while indicating Harry.

"Ah, Samuel, this is Harry, he'll be the snake keeper till Paul recovers," the manager said

"HIM? But he's got to be like twelve or something!" Samuel protested

"Nearly fifteen actually, and you'll find that I am quite capable. I'll prove it if you like." Harry said indignantly. Samuel raised an eyebrow.

"How?" Samuel asked, while Mr. Heath watched bemused. Harry thought a while.

"Okay… I'll feed the snakes and while I'm doing that you'll see."

Mr. Heath handed him a bundle of keys and indicated that Samuel show Harry what to do. Samuel showed Harry the mouse and rat tanks. Harry watched as Samuel showed him a chart of what to feed each snake, how often and the vitamins they have to take. Harry pulled out a tray and Samuel loaded it with a rat in a paper bag (as it was still alive) and a few pills.

"This is for the Brazilian Boa. But I warn you he hates the vitamins."

Samuel said. They walked over to a hatch about a meter off the ground. On it was a label

'Brazilian Boa Constrictor' The padlock was painted blue. Harry flicked through the keys until he came to one that was blue. He opened the pad lock and looked inside. He put the tray on a branch and climbed into the enclosure, as Dudley had proven it was big enough for a person, or two people. People watched on the outside as Harry closed the enclosure hatch over and let the rat loose. The Boa snapped it up and gulped it down whole. Harry picked up the vitamins and he could have sworn that the snake groaned.

"Aw come on, they're good for you." Harry hissed at it.

"If you sssssay sssso." the boa replied and opened its mouth. Harry tossed the pills in and the snake swallowed them with a look of disgust. The people on the other side of the glass applauded. Harry blushed and waved. He picked up the tray, then climbed out of the enclosure and shut and padlocked the hatch. Samuel looked him up and down and noting that he didn't have a single bruise nodded.

"I suppose you'll do. I'm the assistant vet. I'll show you around tomorrow. Introduce you to everyone." Harry shook Samuel's hand and walked back over to the feed area to collect food for the tiger snake. Mr. Heath and Samuel left and Harry walked over to the hatch labeled 'Tiger Snake' with an orange colored padlock. He pulled out the orange key and unlocked the hatch. As soon as he did he heard the snakes constant hissing.

"Bite the Human, Bite the Human, Bite the Human…" It chanted, eyes locked on Harry, just waiting for him to lower his arm enough for it to reach. Harry looked at it while it continued to chant.

"You're a hostile one aren't you? Well if you bite me you don't get food, 'cos no one else wants to risk feeding you." Harry hissed at it. It seemed shocked.

"You sssspeak. Very well, I will not bite you. But I will not eat the sssmall lifelessssss thingsssss. The tasssste issss not appealing." it hissed drawing out the Ss like every other snake Harry had met.

"How about this? I'll stuff the vitamins in the mice and then you eat the mice. That way you won't taste them." Harry suggested. The tiger snake seemed to consider it.

"I will try it." The snake replied simply. Harry rested the tray on the doorway of the enclosure and dug his hand into the paper bag that contained two mice. He caught a mouse, which squeaked ferociously. Harry picked up the pills and stuffed them down in mouse's mouth. The mouse made a hacking noise but seemed to recover and went back to struggling uselessly in Harry's hand. When Harry had stuffed the pills down the mouse's throat he tossed both mice into the enclosure and watched the tiger snake snap them up and swallow them whole.

"Much better," the snake said and curled up on the rock for a nap. Harry waved to the young boy on the other side of the glass, who waved back. After he closed the hatch Harry took the tray back to fill up for the next snake.

Harry spent hours feeding all the snakes, that needed feeding, on both sides of the reptile house, sometimes waving to the people on the other side of the glass and smiling at the occasional applause. After he had finished he left through the door he and Mr. Heath had come through. As soon as the door closed, however a boy ran up, he was about ten or eleven.

"Hey, I think one of your snakes is sick," he said.

"Which one?" Harry asked in return.

"That one," the boy said pointing to the Australian Brown snake. Harry thanked him and hurried back through the door marked 'Staff Only'. He walked to the hatch labeled 'Australian Brown Snake' and unlocked the padlock which was, ironically, brown. He hadn't needed to feed this snake today, it wasn't due for a feed for a week. As soon as Harry opened the hatch he saw the boy on the other side of the glass. He also saw the snake. It did indeed look sick. It was lying upside down.

"Are you alright?" He asked it. It seemed to look at him groggily.

"Will the two of you pleassssse keep it down, I have a headache," it replied looking at Harry. He took the fact that he had a headache for a bad sign, not to mention he thought there was two of Harry. Harry carefully picked up the snake, which was supposed to be very venomous, but appeared too ill to bite him. Harry closed and locked the hatch and walked down the hall that Samuel had left down hours ago. He saw him within minutes he was in a room with a woman in a coat, checking over various small animals. Harry opened the door and they both looked up.

"This area is for staff only," the woman said looking worried at the very dangerous snake coiled around his forearm, as if she thought it would bite him at any second.

"I, uh…" Harry wasn't sure what to say

"It's okay Dr. Martin, That's Harry, I told you about him," he said then he turned to Harry "Do you even know what you have coiled around your arm young man," he demanded as if still skeptical of Harry's abilities.

"Australian Brown Snake, supposed to be deadly only this one doesn't seem to well." he replied matter-of-factly. Dr. Martin still looked a bit skeptical.

"Put him on the table, and we'll have a look." she said. Harry complied and stood back. He watched as she set to work on the snake and after checking it over and performing a quick surgery Samuel put the snake in a cage to recover. Dr. Martin came over to him, piece of paper in hand. "Add this to his diet list." She said simply "You may have just saved that snake's life. He probably would have been dead by tomorrow."

Harry smiled.

"You know, Sam said you got on well with snakes but I guess I underestimated you."

Harry shrugged. Samuel interrupted them then,

"I'm going home now Doctor." Dr. Martin nodded.

Harry looked at the clock on the wall and was shocked by what he saw. It was 4 pm. The day had just flown by. Harry left after Samuel while the doctor went back to checking raccoons, penguins and various other animals. He copied the vitamins on the piece of paper onto the food chart then went straight to the manager's office barely noticing anything along the way. After being admitted he sat down and waited for Mr. Heath to say something.

"Well, Harry, it looks as if you have yourself a summer job," the manager said at last then he handed Harry a small bag. Harry curiously looked inside. There was a belt with a few attachments, like a notepad and pen and a radio. There was also a blue cap and a staff pass, Harry had no idea when he had taken the picture but he knew it was from that day.

Mr. Heath seemed to notice his confusion because he said, "It's a still shot from the security camera." Harry thanked him and said he had to go home. The manager nodded and Harry left. Harry collected Dudley's bike and headed back to Privet drive. He managed to get the bike back into the shed without anyone seeing him but as soon as he walked in the door he heard Aunt Petunia's accusing voice.

"Where have you been all day?" She asked, she was annoyed but still seemed quite neutral and Harry wasn't sure what prompted the niceness. Quite frankly he wasn't sure if it was a good sign.

"At the zoo." Harry replied immediately, no point lying, "I got a job there."

"What kind of job?" Uncle Vernon asked from his seat, Harry could practically see what he was thinking, 'Take away his pay and tell him it's for board.'

"I'm replacing the snake keeper for the summer, I'm sure you read about it, it was on the front page." Harry replied in a kind of emotionless tone so Uncle Vernon couldn't accuse him of being insolent. "Sirius will be so glad to hear I'm earning some money of my own for a change." Harry smiled inwardly as he saw Uncle Vernon's face fall. Just the mention of Harry's criminal godfather and he knew he wouldn't be able to touch the boy's pay. Harry ate the small meal that was supposed to be dinner and headed upstairs to see if he could find some left over wizard sweets in his trunk to fill up on. That night he fell asleep smiling.