Author's note: Parseltongue will be written like this "-Wordsss-"
Chapter One:
Harry woke up to the smell of bacon frying in the kitchen. He groaned and rolled over, pulling his sheets up to block out the sun. He brought his right arm up to his face, squinting at it to see what ungodly hour he had woken up at, when he realized what day it was. The 23rd of June. Dudley's 11th birthday.
Harry squeaked with alarm and rolled over, knocking over his glasses with his flailing arm, and landing on his carpet with a thump. He shook off the morning sleepiness, wiped his crusty eyes off, and shoved his glasses on, grabbing his brother's present and card from under his dresser.
Harry skipped down the hall, down the stairs, and into the kitchen, smiling wide, excited for Dudley to see his gift. He skidded across the tiles to avoid his mum carrying the hot tray of bacon to the table. Harry was happy to see that Dudley was yet to come down, and he put the present and card next to the others.
Harry helped his mother set the table for breakfast, and poured glasses of orange juice for each seat, against his mum's protests that she could handle it just fine. When Dudley came down, rubbing his brown eyes sleepily, Harry jumped up and hugged him tightly, causing Dudley to squeak in protest.
After breakfast, the two boys got dressed to go pick up their friend, Piers, to go to the zoo. They played yellow car on the way over, Piers and Harry letting Dudley win on purpose.
"COME ON DUDS, HURRY UP!" Harry called, laughing in amusement when Piers almost ran into an older couple and started apologizing profusely.
"Okay, okay I'm coming Hare," Dudley said, walking at a much more civilized pace than his sibling.
The boys walked (*ahem* ran *ahem*) over to the reptile house after having a nice lunch, complete with ice cream for dessert. Vernon and Petunia both looked at each other, mirrored expressions of realizations shown across their faces, knowing that there was no way Harry would not try to talk to the snakes. They had both talked to Harry about his, er, 'talent', and tried to tell him that it was somethin best kept secret, but Harry, like all young kids, tended to forget things when he was excited.
You see, Harry knew that he was different. He knew that the strange things that happened were because of him, and it was nothing to be worried about, because it was normal for someone like him, whatever that was supposed to mean. He knew that his bond with snakes was not normal, and that it was to be kept a secret to all but his family, which he was really sad about because he wanted to show his schoolmates Clo, his garter snake friend, but his parents said no. He was told that his first parents were special like him, and he would find out more when he was older. Dudley was not said to be like him, but he also had weird things happen when he was emotional, so Harry suspected he was different too.
The Dursley parents fast-walked over to the reptile house, determined to try their best to hide Harry's ability so others were not notified of Harry's differences. They were not ashamed of Harry, nor his abilities, but they were scared for him, and wanted to keep him safe, and that meant also keeping his talents under the radar.
Dudley was also aware of Harry being different, and he was worried that maybe Harry wouldn't like him for not being different too, but as he would learn later, he did not need to worry about that.
Harry walked over the first snake he saw without anybody else looking at it. Dudley, knowing Harry would want to talk to it, took Piers over to see a monitor lizard, so Harry could be alone with the snake.
"-Hello, my name isss Harry Potter, and I ussse he/him pronounsss what are your pronounsss and your name, if you have one?-" Harry asked the snake, knowing by now that some snakes never have names, or take time to "earn" one.
"-Ahhh, a ssspeaker,-" the banded snake said, slithering over the logs to come closer to Harry. "-Very unusual indeed. Well, sssmall one, my title isss Hoal, and I am fine with any pronounsss. It is a pleasure to meet you, ssspeaker. What bringsss you to my corner?-"
"-I wasss jussst visssiting thisss zoo and I like meeting sssnakesss to talk to. Sssnakesss are much easier to ssspeak to than humansss,-" Harry replied.
"-Agreed, ssspeaker. Emotional creaturesss humansss are. Much proper beingsss sssnakess act like. Of courssse I mean no offenssse, ssspeaker,-" Hoal nodded respectfully, purple forked tongue flicking in and out.
"-None taken Hoal. I better be going now, it'sss my brother'sss birthday today after all, ssso I should be ssspending time with him. No matter however nice it isss to be ssspeaking to you,-" Harry added.
"-Sssure thing ssspeaker. I ssshould be getting back to sssleep anywaysss.-"
Harry waved to Hoal, who flicked their tail good-bye. He skipped over to his family, who was waiting by the exit, and smiled to himself, always enjoying meeting a new friend.
Author's note: So, that was the first chapter. I was planning on making it go longer, to Harry's birthday maybe, or at least to the letter, but this ended up longer than expected. And autocorrect officially hates me. It really does not like the extra s'es I'm adding. And yes, it's on purpose that some words only have one s instead of 3, it's just the way that makes sense in my head.
Also, IMPORTANT NOTE SO GO AHEAD AND READ THIS PEOPLE. Asking people their pronouns, and introducing yourself with your pronouns is really wonderful, and helps reduce misgendering. If someone does not give their pronouns to you, gender neutral pronouns are always a safe way to go (they/them). And if you think that that is not valid or grammatically correct, remember, "Roses are red, violets are blue, singular 'they' is older than singular 'you'."
If you are against trans people, feel free to leave this story, because I am trans nonbinary, and proud. So, transphobes, roses are red, violets are blue, my hand has five fingers, and the middle one's for you. -
Thanks for reading, please review! (or don't, I can't make you)
Set fires to those haters folks -Arson Kelp (they/them)
