Ten years later, Harry Potter and Selena Potter are sleeping only to be waken up by their Aunt Petunia's shrill voice. They wake up with a start and Harry rolls onto his back trying to remember his dream. It had been a good one with a flying motorcycle. Selena, on the other hand, immediately starts dressing and opens the door just as Mrs. Dursley returns to the outside of the door. "At least one of you are up. Get a move on. Look after the bacon, I want everything to be perfect for Dudley's birthday," she snaps.
"Yes Aunt Petunia," Selena says dutifully. She knows that her twin has likely forgotten all about their cousin Dudley's birthday and sends a secret eye roll with her bright emerald eyes to her brother when their Aunt leaves. Harry smiles at his sister, his similar emerald eyes twinkling with mirth. He slowly gets out of bed knowing that Selena is the more capable one when it comes to cooking. He looks for socks and finds a pair with spiders on them. They don't bother him as the cupboard under the stairs where him and his sister sleep are full of them.
When he finishes dressing, he walks down the hall into the kitchen and rolls his eyes. The kitchen table is almost hidden underneath all of Dudley's presents. Exactly why their cousin wants a racing bike is a mystery to the twins. Their cousin hates exercise unless it involves punching someone, his favorite punching bags being Harry and Selena. More often Selena than Harry, as the boy is very fast and can't be caught often. Though he loathes to leave his sister behind she's the one who always insists. Harry doesn't look like he would run fast being too small and skinny for his age. His sister is no better but he's the one who can outrun them. It also doesn't help that the both of them wear Dudley's old clothes, four sizes too big for Harry and five for Selena.
Being twins Harry and Selena have similar characteristics. Green eyes hidden behind round glasses that are kept together with scotch tape, thin faces and black hair. However, Harry has knobbly knees while his sister does not, Selena's hair is straight where Harry's is wild, and Harry has a very thin scar on his forehead shaped as a lightning bolt while Selena's is unmarked. They are both fascinated by the scar. Although they lost some of their curiosity when their Aunt told them that Harry had gotten it in the car crash their parents died in. When Selena tried to ask why she didn't have any scars from the car crash they learned the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursley's, "Don't ask questions."
Their Uncle, Vernon Dursley, enters just as Harry takes out another pan to start on the eggs. "Comb your hair!" He shouts as a greeting. Selena snorts, if haircuts couldn't make a difference what makes him think hair combs would? A boy with blue eyes and thick blonde hair comes into the kitchen. He is Dudley Dursley and looks remarkably like his father in size as well. Aunt Petunia calls him a baby angel while Selena often sneers out that he is a baby whale. It never ends well, thankfully it seems like she has decided to keep her mouth closed just this once. Selena takes the eggs off the stove and serves it with the bacon. Dudley is counting his presents and is about to start a tantrum when he notices that there are only 37 presents where as last year he had 38. Petunia pacifies him by telling him they'll buy him another 2 presents when they go out. Dudley can't add up to see that he would have 39 presents until his mother tells him so. Selena resists the urge to roll her eyes.
Uncle Vernon chuckles, "Little Tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. Atta boy Dudley!"
The phone rings while Dudley unwraps his presents. He is ripping off the paper of his wristwatch when Aunt Petunia comes back looking angry and worried. She tells Vernon that Ms. Figg has broken her leg so she won't be able to take the twins. Once the Dursley's talk they realize nobody else will be able to take the twins and they refuse to leave them alone in the house. Selena does feel sorry that their babysitter broke her leg while Harry is reminded that it will be a long while before he has to look at her cats again. Dudley tries to whine until Aunt Petunia forces them to stay, shooting the twins a nasty look through the gap in his mother's arms, but is interrupted by the doorbell before she can cave into his whims. For once in years, Harry and Selena feel hope. Instead of looking at the photos of all the cats Mrs. Figg has owned they might get to go to the zoo.
A moment later, Dudley's best friend, a scrawny boy with the face of a rat, comes in with his mother. His name is Piers Polkiss and he's usually the one who holds people's arms behind their backs as Dudley punches them. Their cousin stops pretending to cry immediately. During the car ride Selena and Harry stay as quiet as they can, not believing their luck. Their Aunt and Uncle weren't able to think of anything before they left, one grand victory for the Potter twins. "I'm warning you now," Vernon says threateningly to his niece and nephew, "Any funny business, any at all and whoever did it will be in that cupboard until Christmas." Harry looks like he wants to respond but his sister cuts him off with a nod, knowing that their Uncle won't believe whatever he was going to say. Nobody ever believes them.
Strange things always seem to happen around Selena and Harry. One time, Harry came back from the barbers as though he never went. Not long after that, Selena's hair turned red when she got angry at Dudley for punching Harry in the face and breaking his nose. Another time, Aunt Petunia tried to force Harry into one of Dudley's horrid old sweaters but it just got smaller as she pulled it over his head until it was the perfect size for a hand puppet. He wasn't punished for that. He thinks his Aunt must have decided it shrunk in the wash. There was also the time when Selena was given multiple bruises for messing up Dudley's 8th birthday cake and the next day she woke up without any marks. Another strange occurrence was when Harry found himself on the roof of the school's kitchen after he ran away from Dudley and his gang. Selena never mentioned that they didn't go after him because they were a bit preoccupied with her, so Harry thinks it was just luck that got him out of that punishment
But today nothing is going to go wrong and Selena is making sure of that by keeping herself and Harry as quiet as can be. However, silence never comes in the car due to Vernon's constant complaining.
The Dursley's buy Dudley and Pier large chocolate ice creams and are forced to buy the twins cheap lemon pops when the lady asks them what they want. Selena almost chokes on her's when she sees a gorilla scratching it's head, it looks remarkably like Dudley. Hearing Harry snigger beside her tells her that he is thinking the same. The two also get to enjoy a knickerbocker glory since Uncle Vernon bought Dudley a new one when Dudley threw a tantrum over the lack of ice cream it contained. They even find some change on the floor, one of them is a pound!
They enter the reptile house and Dudley immediately finds the largest snake there. He quickly grows bored because the snake doesn't wake up to entertain him. Harry moves in front of the glass once Dudley walks away. "At least we leave the cupboard," Selena says standing beside her brother. "This poor guy is stuck here, day after day, with stupid people banging against the window."
Her brother nods in agreement and is left there alone when his sister moves on to look at the next tank. Without anyone noticing Harry and the snake share a wink, and a short conversation. "Where do you come from anyway?" Harry asks. The snake uses its tail to point at a sign next to the glass:
Boa Constrictor, Brazil
He looks at the snake, "Was it nice there?"
"Harry, who are you talking to?" His sister asks from over his shoulder.
"Er...uhh...nobody. Um, oh, this snake was bred in captivity, like us he never knew his parents either."
Selena nods solemnly, "Poor snake."
A shriek breaks the moment of camaraderie, "DUDLEY! MRS. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!" Dudley goes as quickly as he can, pushing Harry and his sister down hard on the concrete floor. Harry lands on Selena and groans of pain are heard. Harry glares at Dudley when he sees that his sister has a slight bump on her head. What happens next cannot be explained, the glass of the boa constrictor's tank disappears. Pier and Dudley quickly jump away from the tank in horror. The snake uncoils itself and slithers to the floor, causing a terror-filled evacuation. As the snake passes by the twins, in a hissing voice it says, "Brazil here I come. Thanksss amigos."
The zoo director makes a personal apology while Pier and Dudley exaggerate their story. All would have been fine if Pier didn't calm down enough to comment on how Selena and Harry were talking to the snake. Pier is taken home and once they enter the Dursley home the twins are assaulted by their Uncle.
"So which one of you did it?" He huffs angrily while pulling them along the hallway by their hair.
"I-I don't know," Harry says wincing when Uncle Vernon tugs with more force.
Selena gives their Uncle a menacing smirk, "He deserved it."
Vernon throws his niece into the staircase wall, so angry he can barely speak. "Go. Cupboard. Stay. No meals."
"Well that's new," she sneers as she goes into the cupboard.
Still holding Harry by the hair he pushes him to the kitchen, "Get me a brandy boy!"
Much later, Harry comes into the cupboard to see his sister lying in the dark humming to herself. He hands her a loaf of bread that he had managed to nick and she takes it only to break it in half and give the other half to Harry. Harry doesn't argue knowing that it will be pointless, the argument always ends up with him eating anyways.
"We've been here for ten years, you know, sometimes I have this dream of a green light and a burning pain on my forehead. Do you suppose that's the car crash?"
"Car's don't have green lights Prince Harry," his sister says with a small smile. "I highly doubt they died because they crashed in a traffic light. I don't know how our parents died but I don't think Aunt Petunia is telling us the truth when she says they died in a car crash."
"Why do you think that Moony?" The younger twin asks curiously.
"Why should we trust any of them to tell us the truth?"
She brings up an excellent point and she knows she won when her brother moves onto a different subject. "Do you think we'll ever get out of here?"
They both think about all those strange people who greet Harry on the streets as if they know him but vanish within seconds. All the Potter twins have are each other, even at school everybody knows that Dudley hates them and nobody likes to disagree with him and his gang.
Selena doesn't answer, instead she grabs a book from her school bag and turns on the cupboard light. "The librarian from the public library gave me this the other day, you want me to read it to you?" Harry nods and joins his sister on their twin-sized bed.
"Thousands of years ago, in ancient China there lived a beautiful young girl named Mulan…"