Book One - 1. Violet Potter and the Very Bad Beginning
Most children the age of 10 wake up from their sleep each morning to their mothers soft cooing, or coddling. They would go downstairs to a good breakfast of bacon and eggs, some toast, or at least sugary cereal that would sufficiently rot their teeth. Their fathers would be reading the newspaper and cheerfully comment on the weather and call their kid "champ" or "sport" or "little prince or princess". Their mother would serve the food and laugh and talk and all would be bright. They would love spending time with their child that they brought into the world and wouldn't at all be bothered by their presence. That's how mornings with the family should be for most children.
Unfortunately for me and my twin brother, we were not most children
"Up! Now! Get up!" Came the incessant shrieking that was the usual morning call for us.
Sadly for us, there was no soft morning cuddles or hugs or pancakes and syrup, no no, what we were faced with was a shrieking, skulking dragon lady. But maybe even dragon was too kind for her. At least dragons were cool.
"We better get up." Harry, my twin brother, younger by ten minutes might I add, groaned from beside me as he woke up. No one would be able to sleep with such yelling.
"And if I don't want to?" I sighed from beside him, squished against the cool wall.
"You know that's not an option."
Ever since our parents passed away ten years ago, my brother and I were sent to live with our Aunt Petunia, her husband Vernon, and their child, Dudley. "Oh you are so fortunate," some would say, "that your sweet aunt and uncle took you in rather than having you sent off to some orphanage!"
Besides telling two orphan children they were rather "fortunate" that their parents had died and they wound up there, they were wrong about one other thing. Harry and I would have been much happier at an orphanage.
"Up!" Aunt Petunia shrieked again.
I rolled over as best I could and shoved my face in my brothers back. "Don't make me go out there. I hate them."
"I do too, but at least they take care of us... kinda." Harry sighed. I looked up at him as I cleared the sleep from my eyes. Harry and I looked a lot alike, then again, what could we expect? We were twins. We had the same pale skin, the same knobby knees and small skinny body type. We had the same black hair, though mine was long and wavy and fell down to my hips, parting in the middle of my forehead. His was short, cut across his forehead with bangs, and stuck up every which way. Luckily I had a softer jaw line then him, fuller lips and a smattering of brown freckles across my cheeks and nose so we weren't completely unidentifiable besides the hair. Oddly enough though, we both shared the same scar; a small lightning bolt shaped cut in our foreheads. His lay on the right side, and mine on the left, almost as if the scar from his forehead carried onto mine in a perfect match. We had always wondered where they came from, but Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon hated questions more than anything.
"Are you up yet!?" The woman continued to squawk.
"Nearly!" Harry called.
"Well hurry it up then, the bacon will burn!"
Harry was always the voice of reason. Out of the two of us, he was the calm one and I was the troublesome one. Harry always minded his words, tried to be the best he could within reason for our awful aunt and uncle. He took so much hatred from them and tried to wear it out. That didn't mean he was spineless of course, there was times when he lost his temper, but his threshold of handling such situations were better than me. I, on the other hand, could often be seen getting in trouble. Specifically by Aunt Petunia. Since I was a girl, she believed that I should act just like a lady, but that was a load of bull toad. I was hot headed, loved to play in the mud and rough house with Harry. The only slightly feminine thing I did was read, and that wasn't even very feminine! One time, Aunt Petunia had tried to send me to some etiquette class where all the little girls raised their pinkies as they sipped tea. I showed up in my ratty overalls and braided hair and needless to say I was kicked out the very first day.
If it weren't for the fact that I loved Harry so much, I would have snuck away years ago. Maybe as soon as I was able to talk and walk.
"Where are the..." Harry mumbled, trying to look around the small space we called a bedroom, which just so happened to be the closet underneath the stairs.
"Glasses?" I asked and slowly sat up, careful not to smack my head against one of the stairs like I had done so many times before. "Here." I passed over the wire frame glasses we both shared. It was apparent early on that we both had poor sight, and when Uncle Vernon came home with one pair of glasses, we were both quite confused. "Why waste perfectly good money on two pairs of glasses when you can just share?"
Out of the two of us, I believed Harry deserved the glasses more, so I often told him I was fine without them, but only needed them for reading. So the glasses were his during the day, but mine during the night. It wasn't ideal, but it had worked for the past years. I would take having blurry vision for my whole life if it meant Harry could see.
I reached over him to grab my overalls, my usual attire. Whatever shirt I had slept in with my overalls slapped on top was often what adorned my small body. I rolled around in the tiny bed we had to share under the stairs, trying to pull them on. When I had finished fussing and Harry too had gotten dressed in his oversized hand-me-downs, he grabbed the brush and began to comb through my hair as he always did, braiding them into two neat cords down my back. I was no good at things like that, so I was glad Harry had figured out how.
Fully dressed and ready for the day, despite my desire to just stay in bed and read all day, the two of us crawled out from the cupboard under the stairs and stretched. Ten year old children shouldn't be cracking the way we did.
Aunt Petunia spotted us from the kitchen and waved us forward with her bony skeleton claw that had perfectly manicured French tip nails.
Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were insufferable. If there was a prize for the most dreadfully, awfully, terribly boring people in the whole world, these two would win it. And they would be happy to win too!
Aunt Petunia was a tall, skinny, severe looking lady who had far too much neck, scaly looking saggy skin and reminded me of some kind of Giraffe, lizard hybrid. She spent her time being a "wonderful" stay at home mother to her child, an "extraordinary" wife to her husband, and all around "good" neighbour. If being a good neighbour meant sneakily thieving the coupon pages from next door and craning her long neck over the hedges to spy on those living close by.
"Violet watch the bacon. Harry, set the table. I need everything perfect for ickle Duddykins birthday." She demanded
Harry and I looked at each other and both internally groaned. How could we have forgotten? It was Dudley's birthday.
Dudley was our cousin, the monstrous devil spawn of Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. He had grown up with a gold spoon in his mouth, absolutely spoiled rotten by his parents. And as such, he was the biggest, most annoying pig on the planet. His hobbies included picking on Harry, picking on me, picking his nose, and then picking on Harry and me some more.
"Mummy! I don't want Violet to touch my bacon! She'll give it all her girl cooties!" Dudley cried to his mother when he entered the kitchen and saw me standing at the stove, giving me a nasty smirk when she wasn't looking.
"Oh of course my baby Duddy-dumpling!" She turned and glared at me. "Violet set the table. Harry do the bacon and don't let it burn."
I frowned. Dudley knew I hated to set the table because it meant I had to do dishes after breakfast. And dishes were so dreadful. I felt like sobbing every time I touched a soggy bit of food.
Once his attention wasn't set on terrorizing both Harry and I, he was quickly caught up by the sight of all his presents. "Thirty five... thirty six... thirty six!?" He exclaimed, "That's two less than last year."
Seeing as her son was about to go into full meltdown mode, she came forward and part his head. "Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."
"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.
"And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?" Petunia urged quickly, looking to her husband who was quite unaware of the meltdown and was glued to the newspaper. "Right honey?"
Vernon looked up. He reminded me of a giant red tomato. He was round with multiple chins, was rather pink in the face and had an awful caterpillar like moustache on-top of his lip. "Huh? Ah yes. More presents for the young tyke!" He said.
"So I'll have thirty ... thirty..." Dudley muttered, trying to do the math in that thick skull of his.
"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.
"Oh. Alright." This seemed satisfactory for Dudley because he didn't go nuclear tantrum mode.
Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.
Just then, the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia whisked off to grab it. Meanwhile, Dudley set to work at opening his presents; a new bike, a new tv, a vcr player, many vcr tapes, a new computer with new computer games. By the time Aunt Petunia got back, he had tore through half of his birthday presents.
"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take them." She jerked her head in Harry and my direction.
Harry looked at me, I looked back, and we shared a secret, excited smile. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to theme parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry and I were left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. The whole house reeked of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made us look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.
"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at us as though we'd somehow planned this.
I prayed that she just let us stay home. We were rarely ever left alone in the house. If we were, we would have the chance to play outside, or watch the TV or read any book we wanted.
"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested. "Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the lot of them." Aunt Petunia shook her head.
"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"
"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.
"You could just leave us here," Harry suggested hopefully.
Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.
"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 might." I mumbled.
"I suppose we could take them to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave them in the car..."
"That car's new, they're not sitting in it alone..."
This was when Volcano Dudley decided to erupt. He let out a ear numbing wail that would make dogs cry. He flailed his thick arms and legs. Of course, he wasn't actually crying, but he knew if he acted as if the world was ending, his mother and father would give him anything.
"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let them spoil your special day!" Aunt Petunia cried, flinging her arms around him.
"I... don't... want... them... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "They always sp-spoil everything!"
The doorbell chimes and Aunt Petunia let out a sigh of relief as she skittered off to the front door while saying, "oh goodness they're finally here."
She opened the door, and none other than my worst nightmare walked through. Piers Polkis. He was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.
Dudley liked to focus the brute force of his bullying on Harry, maybe because I was less interesting than Harry, or maybe because I fought back more when Dudley attacked me, even more likely because I was a girl. Which was completely unfair, because I could totally kick his butt. But no, I got stuck with Piers. He was my personal assailant.
Whenever he saw me, he would take to pulling my braids, calling me names like "wussy girl" or "stupid idiot girl" which I thought were the least creative names one could imagine. He liked to tell me I had cooties, and not only that I was an orphan, I was also diseased with being a girl. According to him and Dudley, girls were far inferior beings. I felt sorry for whichever poor sods ended up with these brick heads.
Half an hour later, Dudley, Piers, Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and Harry and I were standing outside the house on 4 Privet Drive, all staring at the car.
"Well he haven't enough room." Aunt Petunia huffed.
"What are you talking about? Three can sit in the back and one will go in the boot of the car." Uncle Vernon said indignantly, as if that wasn't a terrible idea. It was obvious the only going in the trunk wouldn't be Dudley or Piers.
"You can't be serious! That's dangerous!" Harry said in disbelief.
Uncle Vernon turned those dark eyes on Harry. If there was one thing he hated, it was us questioning him, talking back or talking in general. Before he could subject Harry to a good screaming, I stepped in front of him.
"I'll do it!" I volunteered. "I'll go in the trunk."
"What!?" Harry gasped and looked at me like I was crazy. "You could get hurt!"
"I have tough skin." I assured him and gave him the best smile I could.
Uncle Vernon snorted. "There, you see, at least one of you little retches has some sense!"
Piers and Dudley got a kick out of this, chuckling happily as they slid into the back seat of Uncle Vernon's car. Uncle Vernon popped the boot of the car opened and looked at me. "C'mon then."
I turned to Harry's worried face and gave him my best smile. "Don't worry. I'll be fine. It's only a short ride anyways!"
"What if you're hurt?" He asked and I smiled. Harry was always so kind to me.
I snorted and waved him off, "What? I'm your tough older sister. Do you not believe in me?"
"You're only ten minutes older." Harry sighed, but didn't say more because Uncle Vernon was getting impatient, so I gave Harry a quick hug in case it was, by chance, the last time I would see him and I would end up dying in the boot of the car.
I made sure Harry was in the back before I climbed into the trunk. There was various objects in the back, old smelly golf clothes, some mulch for the garden, but nothing that could seriously injure me.
"Listen you," Uncle Vernon growled at me. He hated me the most out of Harry and I, for I wasn't afraid of giving him some lip. "No funny business back here. Be quiet. And don't throw up in my car!"
"No promises!" I barked back.
He looked absolutely furious at my attitude. He growled, his big cheeks turning red, and he slammed the trunk down, engulfing me in darkness. Well this would be fun.
The ride there was no more brutal than being tossed around by Dudley and Piers. Each bump though, sent my small body skyrocketing around. I found out quickly that I would jumble around a lot less if I clung to the heavy bag of mulch.
I was sure Harry wasn't having a very fun time witting with Dudley and Piers, but at least he wasn't in as much physical danger. Some people may find it odd and weird, but to me, I was Harry's older sister. I would do anything to protect him. Sure I was only ten minutes older, but in my eyes, Harry was my precious younger sibling. He was all I had in this world and was one of the only things that filled me with joy. I would do anything for him, including laying my life down for him.
An indefinite amount of time later, the car lurched to a stop and I felt the car shift as the people got out. I heard Harry's muffled voice urging Uncle Vernon to hurry up and let me out, and Uncle Vernon hissing back at Harry to "quiet up, I don't want anyone to notice we had a brat in our trunk!"
The boot of the car popped open, and the bright light assaulted my eyes. Harry was there next to Uncle Vernon, offering me his hands to help pull me out. Uncle Vernon didn't seem liked he cared all too much. "Hurry up now, before someone sees!" He growled.
Harry assisted me out so I wouldn't tumble onto the pavement, and held onto my hand tightly as we followed the others. We often got made fun of, but Harry and I took comfort in holding hands as we walked around. Maybe it was a twin thing, but we agreed that we felt much more whole when we were together.
They had brought us to the zoo for Dudley's big birthday excursion, and we couldn't have been more pleased. We both loved animals.
Uncle Vernon stopped us before we could head through the ticket booth though. "I'm warning you," he said, putting his large, red, veiny face right up close to our faces. "I'm warning you now, any funny business, anything at all, and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."
"We're not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly.."
But it wouldnt matter what we said, because the truth was, weird things happened around me and Harry all the time.
One time, Uncle Vernon had spotted Harry's hair from overtop of his newspaper and exclaimed that Harry needed a "bloody haircut to stop it from going every which way". It's not like Harry could help it, it just grew that way. But Uncle Vernon wouldn't have that. He had Aunt Petunia shave his hair, leaving only his bangs to cover the scar on his forehead. It was bad enough mine was visible. That night, I had to hold Harry as he cried and worried about what the kids at school would say the next day. But wouldn't you know it, the day after, Harry's hair had all grown back.
Another time, I had been sneaking around outside the cupboard at night, trying to steal some treats for Harry and I, and I couldn't quite see. "It's so bloody dark in here." I had muttered, but suddenly, the room had been flooded in warm light. All of the candles in the kitchen and living room had suddenly flicked on. I had been so shocked I didn't know what to do.
And of course there was other times that I hadn't even told Harry about because I was so surprised. Like the one time I was forced to help Aunt Petunia shear her dead roses from the garden, but they game back to life with just my touch. Or the time I picked up a baby bird at school that had fallen from a tree and broken a wing, only for it to suddenly get better only seconds after I took it. How was I supposed to explain that to Harry!? Maybe I was possessed by a demon or had some magical powers!? But that couldn't be real.
But not today. We wouldn't do anything today. We just couldn't. It was one of the first times we were allowed outside of the house without the reason being school, chores or going to Mrs. Figg's cat house.
Harry and I had a wonderful morning; one of the best ones we had had in a long time. We got to see all kinds of animals like colourful birds, shiny insects, a cheeta and even an hippo (that may have thought Uncle Vernon was its brother). The two of us walked a little ways back from the others so that we might steer clear of Piers and Dudley's torturing if they got bored. We even were allowed to order off the kids menu at the restaurant and both got oily, salty chicken fingers and fries which to two kids who mainly ate porridge and eggs and bread, was quite the treat.
Of course, we really should have known such happiness wouldn't last forever.
After lunch we headed to the reptile house, a dimly lit sanctuary that held all the reptile and amphibians cages. The air was cool against my skin and it felt rather welcoming despite how some may thing it seemed creepy.
Harry squeezed my hand excitedly and pointed out different types of lizards to me, reading their signs since he was in charge of the glasses and I couldn't read well without them. Dudley and Piers, on the other hand, wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, deadly, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly spotted the largest snake in the reptile house and pressed his face up close. 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.
"Well, make it move!" Dudley whines as he rapped his knuckles on the glass, knowing full well that the lady who greeted them had said not to.
Both Uncle Vernon and Piers joined in at calling the snake and tapping at the glass, but the snake continued to sleep.
"Ugh! What a boring snake!" Dudley groaned and moved on.
Harry, being the kind boy he was, walked up to the snakes tank and sighed softly. "Poor snake. Has to deal with buffoons like them all day."
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.
Harry stared. Then looked at me with wide eyes. "Did you see that?" I laughed and nodded. "Looks like you made a friend." The snake turned to look at me and flicked its tongue out to smell the air, I stuck my tongue out back at it with a giggle.
The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then rolled its eyes. It gave us a look that said: "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 back.
"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked and I watched in amusement as my brother talked to the snake. Harry Potter, snake whisperer!
The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.
"Boa Constrictor, Brazil." He read aloud so I could know as well, before looking at our new scaly friend. "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 us made all of us jump.
"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!" Piers yelled and ran up beside me.
Dudley came waddling toward us as fast as he could with his rolly polly legs. How he didn't have a heart attack was beyond me.
"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.
The glass which had once been there, had suddenly disappeared, and Dudley and Piers, having almost fell into the tank, were putting up enough fuss to draw Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. I quickly grabbed Harry and pulled him to his feet, pushing him behind me slightly.
The giant snake uncoiled itself from the heap it was laying in, and slowly slithered out and onto the cool floor. Dudley was beside himself, screaming like a little girl, and Piers had nearly fainted.
The snake slid by us, giving one more wink as it went. Harry and I looked at each other with wide eyes when we swore we heard the same thing.
"Brazil here I come... Thhhanksssss amigossss."
The two of us looked at each other.
Had the snake just talked!?