Previously:

Hermione nodded, opening the book once more.

"Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon…"

Severus chuckled quietly, bringing a smile to Harry's face as they settled into reading once more.

Now:

"…And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.

"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.

"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave him in the car. …"

"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone. …"

There were a few grumbles around the room but there seemed to be an unspoken agreement that people remained quiet. Most probably knew Harry wouldn't like them being upset, but only Ron and Severus knew how emotionally exhausted Harry was, as he curled between them.

"…Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying — it had been years since he'd really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him."

Two sets of loud laughter filled the room. One was light and almost breathy as he tried to stifle it, the other was almost booming in its volume.

Harry was probably one of the few people who can tell the twins apart with ease, but their laughs really gave them away, they were so different.

Harry mused on it for a moment.

"You know…" he said.

The noise quieted as he spoke.

"…if you want people not to tell you apart, you shouldn't laugh in front of them…"

"Well, little Harrykins…"

"It is one of the only things…"

"that gives us away!"

The twins' speech bounced back and forth.

Harry snorted.

"What's so funny?" The twins asked together.

"So many things give you away…"

Arthur looked at Harry in disbelief.

"I can tell them apart with ease." Harry said with pride.

"No, you can't." The twin jested.

"I can."

"Prove it."

Harry sat up; his face serious.

"You're Fred…" he said pointing to the twin on the left.

"…and you're George…" he said pointing to the twin on the right.

"How can you be sure?" Arthur asked gently.

Harry sighed.

"It's simple really…"

Harry was met with silence so he continued.

"…Well, their laughs are very different to start, but that's an easy one. George is the quieter of the two, while Fred is the loud one and does most of the talking. They have different hobbies, Fred loves Quidditch like Ron; but George loves to read, and he likes potions too. They also excel in different areas of study; Fred is much better at Charms and Transfiguration while George is better at theoretical subjects like Potions. They like different food, Fred won't touch fish or anything remotely bitter but George likes dark chocolate, especially Honeydukes' best. They look different too; George's eyes are a dark shade of blue and his hair is lighter than Fred's. Fred has more freckles on his face but George's arms are covered in them. See… lots of things…"

Harry ran through some of the main reasons shocking Arthur and Molly, who often struggled telling them apart. Harry thought it was due to the misconception that they were seen as two halves of the same whole when they are two very different people in reality. Most people didn't even bother to try and tell them apart, but the differences had always been obvious to Harry.

The silence echoed around the room; not even the twins could believe what Harry had just said.

Hermione could see the blush rising on Harry's cheeks so she quickly cleared her throat and began to read again, preventing any comments from the room.

"…I … don't … want … him … t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms. Just then, the doorbell rang — "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them."

Hermione stopped reading for a moment, scowling intently at the book as she imagined the bigger boy hitting Harry.

The small boy cuddled on the other sofa, giggling at his friend's scathing look. After the day he'd had, he couldn't conjure up any more negative emotions, so he just rolled with it completely exhausted, but happy nestled between Ron and Severus.

"…Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once. Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life."

"Hey, mum… we've never been to the zoo, have we?" Ginny asked.

"No dear… we haven't…" Molly replied, trying to figure out where her daughter was going with her question.

"Harry, after this is all over, why don't we all go to the zoo?"

Harry's eyes widened and he nodded eagerly.

"Oh! That would be wonderful." Molly chimed. Ginny was like her in many ways but was sensitive to the emotions of others just like her father.

"His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.

"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly…"

Hermione paused for a moment waiting for the response but the room stayed silent.

"But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did. The problem was strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen. Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all…"

"Accidental magic…" Remus whispered.

"Awesome!" Sirius spoke with a tone of awe.

"Harry might have some metamorphmagus blood." Chimed Tonks.

"That's only the beginning…" Harry whispered into Severus' robes.

"… she'd had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly."

"See?" Harry asked.

Hermione only smiled in response.

"Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls). The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.

On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings."

"You apparated?" Severus asked.

"Must have… didn't think that at the time…" Harry said nonchalantly.

"But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump…"

"Harry you come up with the strangest explanations." Hermione giggled.

Harry just shrugged, smiling back.

That small smile made Hermione's heart race.

"But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room. While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.

"… roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.

"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a moustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"

Dudley and Piers sniggered.

"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."

"NO! It wasn't a dream; it was a memory…" Harry sighed.

"You remember that?" Sirius asked quietly.

"I remember everything that happened that night."

No one said anything but most of the adults wore sombre expressions, and even Harry's friends knew what he was referring to. Hermione knew Harry wasn't ready to talk about that yet and swiftly kept reading.

"But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas. It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families.

The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop. It wasn't bad, either Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond…"

A few laughs rang out.

"Harrykins…"

"Where have you been hiding…"

"This humour…" The twins asked.

Harry shrugged. "Never needed it before."

"Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him. They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first. Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last…"

Harry stiffened and Severus raised a hand to stop Hermione.

His face clearly asked whether Harry was okay.

"I'm fine…" Harry said dismissively "…go on Mione…"

"After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep. Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.

"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge."

Harry couldn't keep the grin off his face remembering what came next.

"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.

"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.

Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.

It winked."

"That's stupid…" Hermione said, "snakes can't wink, they can't even blink because they don't have eyelids."

"I know Mione… Mika taught me that but I was just a kid."

"Oh, right. I forgot about Mika."

Confused looks painted the faces of several people except Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna and Neville.

Harry looked down at Kreacher.

"Would you mind?"

The old house elf shook his head and disappeared almost silently; a skill Dobby hadn't perfected yet.

Seconds later Kreacher returned with a huge glass tank almost three times bigger than him.

He levitated over to Harry and set it down gently on the table.

Hermione could see the writhing mass of colours within. Harry's snakes set her on edge a little but caring for them seemed to calm Harry.

Harry reached in and pulled out a pure white snake, it was only about a foot long but it seemed to glow in the fading sunlight.

As Harry cradled the reptile to his chest, Hermione watched Severus lean away as Ron leapt to his feet.

"WHAT IS THAT?" Ron bellowed.

"shhhh…" Harry hissed, "This is Mika and he's my pet."

Ron paled as the snake reared up, its forked tongue flicking in the air.

"He's scenting you…"

Ron nodded but looked rather scared.

"He's a Blizzard Corn Snake, completely harmless as are most of the others…" Harry explained.

"Most?" Severus asked.

Harry smiled and began to talk seemingly to himself. From the tank he drew out a 5 foot long green snake that bore white spots all down its body.

"This is Tree, she's a green tree python, they are found in New Guinea and Australia and can grow up to 6 feet so she's almost fully grown. She likes to wander as they like trees and bushes. I've found her in the Whopping Willow more than once but she's a gentle giant."

No one spoke as Harry set Tree down and drew out another snake. This one was almost completely red except for some black saddling.

"This is Flame and he's a Bloodred Corn Snake. Again, completely harmless…" The small red snake slithered up onto Harry's shoulder, peering back down into the tank.

"The tank itself is charmed to be a lot bigger on the inside than it looks." Harry explained as he drew out a 6 foot long snake, it was a soft yellow and looked like it had white stripes but what stunned Hermione was the shocking red eyes.

"This is Daisy, she's an Albino Ball Python which is why she has red eyes, she's a constrictor so she wraps around her prey and crushes it. Snakes this size can do serious damage to a man so don't piss her off." Harry warned.

The next one he brought out was jet black but as it wrapped around Harry's wrist, Hermione could see the red stripes on its underside. She gasped.

"Harry, that's a spitting cobra, right?"

"Yep, this is Midnight, she and Mika were my first snakes. She's not native to Britain so she must have been someone's pet but they abandoned her."

Midnight flared out her hood showing off her shiny black scales.

"Aren't you beautiful." Harry whispered, stroking her head. "She's about 5 feet long now but she will grow to just over 7 feet. She's one of my most deadly snakes as she is venomous. Their bite can be fatal but they also spit venom when threatened."

"How many more?" Ron squeaked.

"Just one…" Harry said as he drew out the most beautiful creature anyone had ever seen.

"Oh, she's beautiful Harry." Luna sighed dreamily.

"She is." Harry said as she petted her gently, her scales were every colour of the rainbow, hence her name.

"She's a California Garter snake and her name's Rainbow. She's a little softy and loves cuddles."

"Can I hold her?" Ginny asked.

"Sure." Harry replied, draping the 3 foot snake around Ginny's shoulders. The snake instantly ducked it's head inside Ginny's shirt making her jump.

"It's cold."

"She's not cold, snakes are cold blooded, meaning, to be warm, they have to bask in the sun or absorb body heat from a warm blooded animal like us."

"She's not going to bite, is she?" Ginny asked nervously.

"No, Rainbow's a little shy. Just relax, Gin."

At Harry's smile, Ginny relaxed as Rainbow made her way inside Ginny's shirt, stretching her body around Ginny's narrow waist.

"Shall I take them back now?" Kreacher wheezed.

"Just leave Mika, Rainbow and Midnight. They are the best behaved."

Kreacher quickly rounded up the others, showing no fear even as they hissed at him.

He handed Harry Midnight and Mika. The smaller snake wrapped himself around Harry's forearm while the deadly Midnight settled around his neck, her head resting just below his throat.

"How did you get so many?" Charlie asked.

He had retrieved Rainbow from Ginny and was petting her.

"Some have been abandoned and I've rescued them, some I bought and some just found me." Harry said as he sat. Severus and Ron were both weary of Midnight but moved back into position on the sofa as Harry assured them, she was safe.

Hermione took a moment to observe the snake and the instant calming effect they had on Harry before dragging her eyes back to the book.

"…Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too. The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: "I get that all the time."

"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."

The snake nodded vigorously.

There were a few quiet gasps, but Hermione ignored them.

"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked. The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it. Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"Was it nice there?"

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?" As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!" Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.

"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror. Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.

As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come. … Thanksss, amigo."

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock."

"Well that's an understatement…" Hermione said to herself.

"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?" The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.

But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.

Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food."

"Is that why you keep a lot of food in the dorms?" Neville asked shyly.

Harry just nodded but made no comment, his painfully thin body speaking for him.

"He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead."

No one commented on this but Harry said, almost to himself, "I told you I remembered."

"This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.

When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look. At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang."

Hermione took a deep breath.

"That's the end of the chapter," she handed the book to Ron, "you should read next."

"Ok." Ron grumbled.

"Chapter 3 – Letters From No One…"