Title:Legacy
Author: Shutsumon
Pairings: None yet. We'll see in the sequels.
Summary: How would Harry's life have been different if Petunia had acted like a Human being, if Dudley had been a wizard too and if Lily had left a legacy for her beloved son? Just another AU of book 1.

A/N: Betaread by Shippo. Thanks Shippo. Yes, I know that it's a lot like the original in place. There will be some fairly strong plot differences but equally being a Book One AU there will be quite a few points of concurrence. I have, however, tried to avoid taking whole blocks of text wholesale. Oh and I'll be placing Review Responses in my LiveJournal (see my profile for link).

Disclaimer: Not mine.

LEGACY

Chapter One

Talking to Snakes

"Harry? Are you awake?" Aunt Petunia's soft knocking drew the Boy who Lived up from sleep.

"I am now." He muttered to himself before replying in a louder tone. "Nearly!"

"Well, hurry up. I need you to help with breakfast. I want to get the housework done before we leave." She paused then added. "Please, I want Dudder's birthday to be perfect."

Harry rolled his eyes and suppressed a groan. His cousin was a mean, bullying git with the physique of a whale but Aunt Petunia thought that he was perfect and spoiled him rotten. Harry picked up his clothes and started dressing himself, praising the day Aunt Petunia had decided that he looked ridiculous in Dudley's Old clothes and had taken him shopping over Uncle Vernon's objections. His Uncle has refused to pay for his clothes but fortunately his mother had left a trust fund to provide for him so they'd used that.

Uncle Vernon had still not been amused. Harry wasn't sure if this was just because he didn't like him or because he'd intended to steal the money. Harry rather suspected a little of both. He didn't understand why his Uncle didn't like him and why he wanted to keep him 'in his place' – whatever that meant. It was an odd thought but sometimes it seemed to Harry that he was the only thing that his aunt and uncle ever argued over.

There would be another argument today of course. Harry knew that for certain. They were going to the Zoo for Dudley's birthday and neither his cousin nor his uncle would want him there. Aunt Petunia would insist that he came along. He certainly hoped that she won the inevitable row or he'd have to spend the day at Mrs Figg's and he really didn't fancy spending his time looking at photos of her old cats.

By the time Dudley and Uncle Vernon came into the kitchen Harry had nearly done cooking the bacon and Aunt Petunia had done with the hoovering.

"Comb your hair!" Was Uncle Vernon's closest attempt at a morning greeting. He seemed to think that Harry's hair was some kind of crime against humanity just because it grew all over the place. It was the one thing about Harry that his Aunt and Uncle seemed to agree on. Even Harry agreed to a degree. His perpetually messy hair got him laughed at school and no amount of haircuts seemed to help.

After breakfast was over Harry watched with faint amusement as Dudley started to have tantrum over not having enough presents. It seemed that his cousin was never satisfied with what he had. Aunt Petunia only managed to forestall an explosion by promising to buy him two more gifts while they were out.

"I'll phone Mrs Figg and see if she can babysit the boy." Uncle Vernon said while Dudley started unwrapping his presents. Every year the argument started like this. Uncle Vernon would state as fact that Harry would not be coming with them and then Aunt Petunia would take issue and…

"Oh, hadn't you heard?" Aunt Petunia said mildly. "She tripped over one of her cats and broke her leg yesterday. Lois from down the road told me this morning while I was putting the bin out."

Uncle Vernon went a darker shade of puce and glared in Harry's direction as if this was somehow his doing. "We could phone Marge."

"There's no way that 'm leaving Harry with someone who hates him."

Uncle Vernon muttered something about not understanding why not before suggesting. "Your friend? What's her name? Yvonne?"

"She's on holiday in Majorca." Aunt Petunia snapped. "Give it up, Vernon, he's coming with us."

It was at this point that Dudley voiced his two penneth by throwing a tantrum complete with crocodile tears and huge, pretend sobs as he wailed about not wanting Harry to come with them. This was the dangerous part. Aunt Petunia was a sucker for Dudley's acting and usually gave in. Indeed…

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry." Aunt Petunia hugged him. "Harry won't spoil your special day – will you Harry?"

"No, of course not!" Harry said quickly.

"I don't want him to come!" Dudley screamed loudly.

Crack! A bottle of brown sauce on the work surface exploded and showered the kitchen in its contents, making Harry jump and bringing Dudley's act to an abrupt halt. Aunt Petunia began calmly cleaning the mess up but Uncle Vernon rounded on Harry.

"How dare you? Look at the mess you've made of Petunia's kitchen!" He raised one meaty hand as if to hit Harry.

"I think it was my fault, Vernon." Aunt Petunia's interruption stopped his hand short. "The hob was still hot and I left the bottle next to it. It must have heated up and exploded. You remember Marge's story about the jam jar."

Uncle Vernon did not look at all convinced and Harry knew that the bottle hadn't been that close to the hob. Any further discussion was halted by the sound of the doorbell.

"Oh, Good Lord, they're here!" Aunt Petunia threw the surface cleaner and cloth to Harry. "Finish wiping this up, please." She gasped and rushed to open the door. Harry started doing as she asked and a moment latter Piers Polkiss walked in with his mother. Harry suppressed a wince – the rat faced boy was Dudley's best friend and as big a bully as he was.

Half an hour later Harry was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' care and rejoicing that Aunt Petunia had won this round even though Uncle Vernon had, as usual, threatened him before they left.

"I'm warning you now, boy, put a foot wrong and you'll be in the cupboard until at least Christmas no matter what Petunia says."

Harry had just nodded because it was no arguing with him. Uncle Vernon would still blame him for every odd thing that happened.

And strange things happened a lot around Harry for some reason … around Dudley too for that matter – a fact Vernon resolutely ignored or still blamed Harry for. It was most unfair.

Perhaps the most notable incident was when Uncle Vernon had dragged him to the barbers and insisted that they give him a skinhead cut because he was fed up of Harry's messy hair. It had looked awful, Dudley had thought it was hilarious and Harry had been able to imagine the laughter he'd be subjected to at school the next day but when he'd got up it had grown back. Even Aunt Petunia had been taken aback by that development and Uncle Vernon had been apoplectic. Harry had actually been banished to the cupboard under stairs for a couple of days after the one in spite of him saying he didn't know how it had grown back and Aunt Petunia's protests.

Harry was looking forward to the zoo trip and was even willing to put up with Dudley and Piers' jibing – they wouldn't dare do any worse in front of Aunt Petunia – and with Uncle Vernon's constant moaning in order to go.

He did enjoy the morning looking at the animals … especially the gorilla that looked a lot like a brunette version of Dudley. Lunch in the Zoo's restaurant was also fun and he somehow managed to ignore the uneasy feeling that something was going to go wrong that was growing in his stomach.

After they'd eaten they visited the Reptile house. Harry wondered if Dudley would try to climb in with the crocodiles like he had as a toddler but unfortunately he wasn't so lucky. Indeed what Dudley and Piers were really interested in this time was in seeing dangerous, man killing snakes and soon tracked down the largest snake in the place – an unusually long Boa Constrictor. It was probably capable of doing major damage to a car when it wasn't snoozing the day away like now.

Dudley put his nose against the glass and stared at the long brown snake for a moment before whining at his father to make it move. Uncle Vernon tried twice to rouse it by rapping on the glass but it just snoozed on. After that Dudley shuffled away moaning about how bored he was.

Harry moved to look at the snake and thought that it had more reason to be bored than Dudley considering how it was cooped up. It made him grateful for what he had. As he watched it he somehow became aware that the snake was not really asleep. He had the impression that it had opened its eyes. Except that that was impossible since they hadn't been closed because snakes had no eyelids. It slowly raised its head and looked at Harry. He could have sworn it winked at him but that was impossible as well for the same reason.

Still… Harry looked around to check no one was watching and then winked at the snake. It responded by gesturing towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley before looking up. Harry blinked as the snake met his eyes because he could quite plainly read its body language as saying "I get that all the time." This was very odd even for his life.

"That must be annoying." He whispered even though he was pretty sure that it couldn't hear him through the glass and even if it could it wouldn't understand English. So he nearly jumped out of his skin when it nodded vigorously. This was beyond odd.

"So you come from Brazil?" He asked it after glancing at the sign by the glass. "What's it like there?" He wanted to keep the conversation going not just because it was interesting but because he wanted to know if it was a coincidence. The snake jerked its tail at the little sign and Harry read it more carefully. "This specimen was bred in the zoo." He looked back at the snake. "So you've never been to Brazil? Would you like to?"

The snake nodded sadly just as Piers shouted to the others. "DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

It was at this point that the day became a shambles. Dudley, in his haste to see the snake pushed Harry out of the way so roughly that he fell to the ground winded. As he struggled to catch his breath he glared at Piers and Dudley who were leaning up close to the glass staring at the snake. He growled to himself under his breath and felt something click inside his head. Piers and Dudley leapt back as the glass separating them from the snake disappeared. The snake took advantage of this and slip rapidly out of its tank. People panicked, of course, and ran for the exits. As it slithered past Harry it looked over at him and he quite clearly heard it say. "Brazil, here I come … Thanksss, amigo."

Harry grinned at it and whispered. "Good luck."

With Aunt Petunia in shock, Dudley and Piers reduced to gibbering idiots and Uncle Vernon apoplectic with rage – again – the trip ended soon after that. Uncle Vernon managed to restrain himself until Piers had left the house before turning on Harry and physically dragging to the cupboard under the stairs, tossing him inside and locking the door. He was so angry that he could barely speak but Harry made out something about no meals.

Much later Harry lay there in the dark hoping that Uncle Vernon would go to bed soon because he knew that as soon as he did Aunt Petunia would sneak him some food. If she wasn't still in shock that was. If she was, and he wouldn't blame her, he probably wouldn't see any food until after Uncle Vernon went to work in the morning.

Living with the Dursley's for ten years had not really been a happy experience for Harry but he supposed that it could have been worse. At least Aunt Petunia cared about him and if she loved Dudley more well that was only natural wasn't it? Dudley was her son after all while Harry was just the nephew she'd taken in after his parents were murdered. An event which she would never explain in detail. She always said that he was too young and she would explain at the right time. From what little he did know he knew that he had received the lightning bolt scar on his forehead at the same time.

He couldn't remember his parents at all. A fact which often saddened him. Uncle Vernon had nothing good and a great deal that was bad to say about them but Aunt Petunia was more positive about her sister but apparently disliked his father as well. All the same she had no photos of them and his questions were always met with the same "I'll explain when you are old enough".

Sometimes though the weirdest people seemed to know him. Like the tiny man in the violet top hat who had bowed to him a shop and thoroughly alarmed Aunt Petunia in the process. She had chewed him out about talking to strangers after that incident even though he hadn't said a word. Then there was the wild old woman in green who'd waved to hi on the bus once. Yes, the people who seemed to know him were all extremely odd and even weirder was the fact that they seemed to vanish when he tried to get a closer look.

Yes, at home he did have Aunt Petunia and the strangers in the street were interesting but at school Harry had no friends thanks to Dudley and his gang. Everyone knew they hated him and no one wanted to disagree with Dudley's gang because the consequences could be nasty so they avoided him.

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R&R