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Nearly 10 years later
Things hadn't changed much on the outside of number 4 Privet Drive but things had definitely changed a lot on the inside.
A young 10 year old girl with dark, curly hair and a lightning bolt scar on her head lay asleep on a cot, clutching two stuffed animals, a lioness and a tabby cat, with two photos pinned above the cot. Other than that the room was bare.
The little girl's name was Camille Lily Potter, she was dreaming, it was a wonderful dream too, her parents were with her, and they were alive too! Camille usually dreamed that she was in Heaven with her parents, who died when she was just a baby in the car crash where she had gotten her scar, she dreamed of this often, that she was loved and with her parents, but she always woke up and had to face the horror that was her life. Just as she did right now.
"Up! Get up! Now!" her Aunt Petunia screeched at her through the door and she slowly rose, wincing in pain as she ached all over as a result of last nights beating from Uncle Vernon, and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she got ready on autopilot.
"Are you up yet?" her Aunt screeched so loudly that a spider fell from the ceiling, but that didn't faze her, the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where she slept. She was grateful though, that she wasn't out on the streets.
"Nearly" she murmured quietly
"Good. Now get out here and make breakfast! I want everything perfect for my Duddy's birthday!" and her heels clacked away.
Oh, that's right, Dudley's birthday! I had nearly forgotten…
She always hated Dudley's birthday. Usually at the end of the day, Uncle Vermin (her nickname for him) was in a bad mood because Dudley had thrown some kind of fit and he would let his anger out on her. It would be the worst beating of the year except for her birthday.
Dudley would always get to go somewhere cool for his birthday while she was shipped off to an old cat lady's house. Her name was Mrs. Figg; Camille didn't have much of a problem with going there except that it smelled funny… she loved cats though, and her favorite one was a black kitten with white paws, muzzle, underbelly and bright blue eyes. Camille loved the cat so much that Mrs. Figg promised to give her the little kitten when she was older. Her name was Minx and Camille looked forward to when she was old enough to have her.
Camille stretched her limbs and walked out of the cupboard and into the kitchen. She had just started making the breakfast when Uncle Vermin yelled at her.
"BRUSH YOUR HAIR, GIRL! AND PULL IT UP WHEN YOU COOK! I DON'T WANT YOUR FREAK HAIR IN OUR FOOD!" she sighed and did as he said, brushing didn't do much though, her hair was just naturally messy. Pulling it up helped though, and that was how she normally wore it.
Camille was a very short and petite girl with long, messy, black hair, a somewhat elegant face, emerald green eyes (A/N she has her mother's vision so she doesn't wear glasses) and a lightning bolt shaped scar that she hid by parting her bangs to the side. The only things that she liked about her appearance were her eyes and the way that sometimes her hair would become a different color, she figured out that the colors correspond with her emotions, like blue was sad, read was mad, and when her hair was a dulled black or going on grey, that meant she was detached and depressed. She guessed that she may be a little pretty by the way some boys stared at her, but that could just be because she was a freak…
Once she put the food on the table, Dudley came down and started to count his presents, he soon had a look on his face that suggested a tantrum and Camille wolfed down her food incase of the table being flipped in a fit of rage.
"that's 28! It's two less than last year!" he whined to his parents and Camille just couldn't help her thought's What an ungrateful brat! I get a beating on my birthday while you get more presents than you can count! she had a sour look on her face that Aunt Petunia caught and shot her a warning look.
"Duddy-kins," Camille stifled a giggle, "you havent counted Auntie Marge's gift!" she seemed to sense a tantrum too.
"okay, 29 then." he still looked unhappy
"don't worry Sweetums, we'll get you two more at the zoo! Two more okay?"
"that'll be 30... 30... Umm…" Camille let out a small giggle that she covered up with a cough The idiot cant even count! Though, I should know, since I do all of his homework!
"31 Sweetums." he smiled, satisfied, and sat at the table. Then Uncle Vernon spoke up.
"The Cat Lady cant take her today, she's out of town." Camille looked up shocked, was she going to be able to go to the Zoo?
"well… cant we leave her in the car?"
"No, the car's new! We cant do that! What about your friend Yvonne?"
"On vacation in Majorca."
"well… I guess we have to take her…." he didn't look happy at all with this new development. And apparently, neither did Dudley, for he burst into the fake tears her used to get what he wanted.
"B-but I d-don't w-want her t-to go!" he cried into his mother's arms and smiled nastily at her but then the doorbell rang and Vermin went to get it. It was Piers Polkiss, a scrawny, rat faced boy who was friends with Dudley. Dudley's tears stopped at once.
Piers was one of the boys who stared at her. Just as he was doing right now. She internally groaned and then they went to the car. She of course sat between the window and Piers. Wonderful.
The car ride to the Zoo was torture, for one, Uncle Vermin kept rambling on and on about things that he hated, Camille, Hooligans, Camille, Slackers, Camille, Motorcycles and oh! Would you look at that! Now he was rambling about Camille!
What a shocker. she thought, rolling her eyes and focusing on the next problem
Piers.
She got as close to the car door as possible, trying to put a lot of distance between them but he kept getting closer and closer. He put his hand on her leg, right on her bruise, and she snapped.
"Get your grubby hands off of me!" and swatted his hand away. He looked a bit shocked at the sharpness and hostility in her voice but didn't let it phase him otherwise and kept annoying her
"WATCH YOUR MANNERS GIRL!" Vermin screamed, his face turning purple and Piers smirked. Dudley just looked weirdly at him for even touching a freak like me but turned away and looked out the window then shrieked,
"Look! The Zoo! We're finally here!" and for the first time in her like, Camille mentally thanked Dudley, as Piers jumped away from her to look out Dudley's window.
As they got out of the car, Vernon pulled her aside.
"Ok girl, I want none of your funny business today! Dudley must have a perfect birthday! And if it turns out bad, you will have the beating of a lifetime! Understand?" as he said the last word, he shook her shoulders hard, she fearfully nodded and rushed away from him and walked behind them, shaking all the way, thinking about what that beating would entail.
After a while of walking around and looking at animals, like a Gorilla that she thought looked remarkably like Dudley except for the fact that it wasn't blonde, they stopped to get ice-cream. Both Dudley and Piers got Knickerbocker Glory's and then the woman asked what she wanted, Camille's eyes went wide and she looked between her Aunt and Uncle, when her Aunt piped up.
"She'll have a lemon ice." she smiled at the woman when she got her lemon ice.
When they sat down they ate what they had ordered, she rather liked her lemon ice and then when she thought things couldn't get better, Dudley complained about there not being enough ice-cream on his Knickerbocker Glory. When Vernon came back with a new one, he even let her eat the rest of the first!
But she should've realized that it was all way to good to last.
After eating they went to the reptile house, currently, they were in front of an enclosure that held a snake that Camille was sure could wrap itself around Uncle Vernon's car three times.
Dudley whined to his father,
"Make it move! I want is to move!" so Uncle Vernon 'smartly' knocked on the glass, waited, and when the snake did nothing he turned to his son
"It's not going to move." Dudley frowned at the answer
"Stupid, boring snake…." he grumbled under his breath and walked away with Vernon and Piers, she stayed though.
Once she turned back to the snake, she was shocked to find that it was looking at her with it's head raised curiously. And then, it winked! She was taken aback because she had been sure that snakes didn't have eyelids, but eventually, she winked back, then giggled at her foolishness.
Winking at a snake, you must be going mad! Might as well go along with it…
"Bet you get that a lot" she motioned to the boys and the snake gave her a look that clearly said tell me about it! and nodded it's head
She looked at it sympathetically, "So, what kind of snake are you?" it jabbed it's tail towards the sign on the enclosure that she had missed.
It read: Brazilian Boa Constrictor
"oh, so what was it like in Brazil?" she questioned thoughtfully, it sounded nice. It pointed its tail at the sign again with a sad look.
Right under the type of snake were the words: Bred in Captivity
"Oh… I'm sorry, it must be terrible not being where you're supposed to be!" the snake nodded sadly and then a voice sounded behind her.
"DAD! DAD! LOOK WHAT THE SNAKE IS DOING!" Dudley was screaming, and ran over. He punched her in the gut and she fell to the floor as Piers and Dudley were glued to the glass, and she suddenly saw red, she knew her hair would be red as well but at the moment, she didn't care to turn it back.
They had no right! her mind screamed angrily, and suddenly, it wasn't just her mind that was screaming, the two boys fell into the enclosure as the glass disappeared and they were screaming their bloody heads off as the snake slithered out and went past her. But as it went by, she swore she heard it hiss,
"Thanksss, amiga. Brazil, here I come!" her smile was not long lived as Vermin shot her a death glare and she gulped, knowing what was to come when she got home.
A/N hope you liked the second chapter! I'm going to be working hard on this story J but I cant wait until the good part!
By the way, I'm putting a Poll up on who she'll end up with. I already know but I want you to take a guess. The Poll is on my profile J