Chapter 2: Perfectly Ordinary/The Eyes in the Bush
Starting off slow.
It was a perfectly normal Tuesday morning down Privet Drive. The Dursley family were busy with their ordinary morning ablutions; Petunia powdering her nose, Vernon straightening his collar, and their darling boy Dudley still snoozing peacefully in his crib. The clock chimed eight, punctual as time ever is, and Vernon left his lovely wife to keep the house in order while he drove off to work.
At eight fifteen, the matron of the Dursley house had folded the laundry, finished the dishes in the kitchen, and had fed her toddler tot his second bottle. She took a cup of tea and congratulated herself on a morning well spent.
It wasn't until nearly quarter of nine that the creak came.
Petunia Dursley firmed the line of her thin lips and set down the empty tea cup. It always came between nine and ten, she thought as she rose from the kitchen to inspect the hallway where, of course, the door to the cupboard under the stairs had swung wide.
The Potter's only son. Her nephew.
The strange, unusual, frustrating bundle in a blue onesie had made it to the doormat this time.
Petunia huffed. "Of all the ungrateful…" She muttered, glad no one was around to observe her muttering to herself, which couldn't be too normal, as she only did it whenever something unnatural happened. Which was too frequently for her liking ever since she took the Potter tot in.
How she wished her sister hadn't gone! How she hated her for selfishly dying, her husband too, and landing her with the toddler not even old enough to properly walk!
"Always crawling, always squirming on your stomach," Petunia sniffed as she scooped up the boy, determined to have that talk with Vernon again about adding a padlock to the cupboard door, "When my Dudley was your age he was on his knees and hands! Trying to stand, trying to walk, but no. Not you."
The emerald eyes of her sister's son met her disappointed gaze.
Petunia frowned deeper and tried to make him see reason though he was not yet two years old.
"You just crawl and wiggle around, like you're trying to slide everywhere. It's not right. You're a boy, not a snake!"
Harry hissed at her.
Petunia squawked in surprise, nearly dropping the boy.
She promptly put him back where he belonged, shut up under the cupboard under the stairs, with the cupboard door locked from the outside.
The rest of the day went by in a determinedly ordinary fashion. Amelia Whitcomb came over for tea at two, and the gardener put in an appearance at four. She spent an hour with her precious baby boy in his room on the second floor reciting the alphabet and crooning sweetly when he repeated it incorrectly. He could already recite his numbers to nine, which was more than the Potter boy could, wriggling little monster that he was. There wasn't a question in her mind who was the more gifted child.
"…L, M, N…"
Dudley twisted his lips together and pronounced the letters all at once. "El-em-en! El-em-en!"
Petunia shook her head as well. "L and M and N, darling! Try again. Let's say them together, shall we? L…"
When they got to Q R and S, a third voice joined in.
Dudley started crying when Petunia shrieked. Young Harry Potter made a pleased face and hissed again.
"S, eehsssss. S."
That was the night Petunia Dursley finally convinced her husband to put a padlock on the cupboard door.
Sunlight shown down on the six orderly rows of purple and pink petunias in the Dursley's back yard. The hedges had grown back and Mrs. Dursley had them trimmed into nice, neat squares. Threaded through these ordinary garden hedges were wound tiny tendrils of green, curling and grasping, and growing slowly with new buds nosing around for the best place to bloom.
Harry Potter knew these hedges well. He liked the color of them, and the way they sometimes grew eyes.
The sunlight was warm that day, and Harry loved nothing more than to wiggle out into the yard when his relatives had left for the day; Mr. Dursley to work, Mrs. Dursley to her afternoon tea, and Dudley to a day-care. He would leave the cool dark cupboard after tapping the door twice (which always made it open) and crawl about on his stomach and elbows until he got to the back door. He would tap that twice, listen to the lock click open, and let himself out.
On days like this, with the clouds all gone and the sun shining gently, Harry Potter loved nothing more than finding the perfect patch of soft grass and settling down for a nap.
Sometimes he would dream. In his dreams, a great long shape came winding to him, all wiggling and curving, green like the hedges with black and brown patterns. The shape would bow its head and Harry would climb up on its back and together they would go on the most exciting adventure anyone had ever had.
The dream always ended just as they left the hedges of Mrs. Dursley's back garden, but Harry just knew that the adventure would be the best, because when he dreamt that dream he woke feeling like he could do anything.
Like he was special.
Harry finally found his patch of soft grass, green like the mint growing in the corner of the yard, when the hedges grew eyes.
He sat up to look at them, excited. Yellow eyes, brown eyes, eyes with long slits down the middle like splinters… there were so many! He smiled, trying to count all the eyes in the hedges as they blinked in and out of sight.
"One, two, three, four…"
From the hedge, a voice.
"He speaks!"
Harry stopped counting.
"Who said that?"
The hedge's many eyes blinked all together and from the nice neat square hedges came slithering five shapes, all different colors. Harry's eyes blinked wide and he sat up in his patch of grass. There was a small, thin shape, all black with yellow eyes; a yellow shape with white and gold eyes; a brown one with black and green flecked eyes; another brown shape with blue eyes; and a long, thick red shape, with bronze eyes. They were in the same shape from his dream. Harry's heart raced and he leaned forward.
"Are you here to take me on an adventure?" He asked. His heart was full of hope. Harry could feel it beating in his ears.
The shapes consulted one another, swaying with the blades of green grass.
"Is that your wish?"
"The first wish of the Emperor," one hissed, "An adventure!"
"He wishes to travel and explore…"
Harry watched them speak, tongues flicking and jaws clicking softly. They turned their heads to better see him. He saw now that their eyes were on either side of their head. They were long and sunlight shone off their scales. Each was different from the last and yet all five were similar. They had the same shape. He asked what to call them, catching all their eyes at once.
"My name's Harry. What are you?"
"Snakes," said the red shape, "I am Aniliidae."
"I am Cylindrophiidae," announced the black shape with yellow eyes, "These are Viper and Asp; the longest is Taipan."
Harry licked his lips and twisted his tongue trying to repeat the names. "Viper, Asp, Anilee… Anileeday… Cylan… Cylindrop…" His eyes crossed with the effort and the snakes hissed encouragement. The black one snapped its jaws at the others and turned to face Harry as they fell quiet.
"Cylindrophiidae," the black snake repeated, "Cylindrophiidae."
It was hard to say, and Harry reported so after dutifully attempting to repeat the name several more times. The snake nodded and after consideration would consent to answer just Dae.
All of the snakes came close. Their tongues flickered out to taste the air around Harry. He watched them move gracefully, admiring the color of their scales. A breeze blew. The warm gust reminded Harry of his nap, and despite his excitement at finding new friends, he found his eyes falling shut. He made a noise of content as he lowered himself to the ground and curled into a small circle. A voice asked what he was doing, was he alright?
"It's nap time," Harry yawned.
The snakes came close and one bumped its snout against Harry's elbow. Harry felt the cool scales slide against his skin and sleepily reached around to pull the snake around him. The viper made a quiet noise of surprise but forgot its protest in favor of draping around the small human, so warm!
Blue eyes consulted yellow eyes, and bronze eyes asked what they should do.
"Be quiet," answered a sleepy Harry, "Come settle down for nap time, or I'll get angry."
He had heard Aunt Petunia say something similar to his cousin who always made a fuss at naps. That seemed to settle him; it worked on his new friends, too. The last thing Harry thought before the sunlight and warm air helped him drift off was what fun he might have with five new friends to adventure with.
End Chapter 2