"Chapter Two: The Vanishing Glass," Lily read.

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls.

"I bet it hasn't, Petunia hates change," Lily remarked before continuing.

Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets – but Dudley

"Okay, I bet we've laughed at this before, but still, Dudley is a crap name!" James laughed.

Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blonde boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother.

"Ew."

The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house too.

"Did you escape?" Sirius asked Harry.

"No, but I wish I had," he replied.

"Dammit!"

Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.

"Yeah, I hate it when she wakes me up like that, too," Lily said to Harry.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

"She sounds about as nice as my mum," Sirius remarked.

Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.

"Up!" she screeched.

Lily gave Harry a sympathetic look.

Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove.

"She can't cook to save her life."

He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.

"You mean you can actually REMEMBER your dreams?!?!" Sirius exclaimed.

"No, it just said that I had the feeling I'd had that dream before," Harry corrected.

His aunt was back outside the door.

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Nearly," said Harry.

"Either you're up or you aren't, Harry," James said in his best 'fatherly' voice.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Dudley's birthday."

James and Lily looked up with a snap. "She made you cook, when you were only ten years old," Lily said in a soft voice that was filled with unspoken anger.

Harry squirmed. "Actually, I'd been cooking since I was eight."

James and Lily had to be tied to chairs for a little while, and since Lily was the reader, the group needed a new one. Ron volunteered.

Harry groaned.

"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.

"Nothing, nothing…"

Dudley's birthday – how could he have forgotten?

"Easily," Ron remarked.

Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on.

"I hate spiders," Hermione, Ginny, and Ron muttered.

Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.

There was instant silence following this last sentence. Harry sunk low in his seat.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Ron asked softly.

"We're family," Ginny said in a voice so quiet that only Harry could hear. "Family looks out for each other." Harry's head was now roughly at the same level as his knees.

Still sending Harry angry looks, they continued reading.

When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.

"Why a fat person would want a racing bike, I don't know."

Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry,

"It is to us, too," Remus remarked.

as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise – unless of course it involved punching somebody.

There were many growls of resentment at that statement.

Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry,

"WHAT THE F***ING HELL?!?!"

No one even tried to calm James down, actually they were glaring at the book like they very much wanted to rip Dudley dursley into shreds.

But he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.

There were many cheers from the room.

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.

Everyone looked at James, who started sulking.

He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's,

"I'm surprised she even gave him anything to wear," Lily commented venomously.

and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes.

"It's a mini Prongs!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Except for Lily's eyes," Remus added, which made Lily blush.

He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.

Many colorful swear words were heard.

The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.

"Do you really?" everyone from the past asked. Harry blushed and nodded, and when asked he lifted up his bangs to show it.

He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.

"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said.

Everyone snorted.

"Now THAT'S a lie if I've ever seen one," Remus remarked.

"And don't ask questions."

"But how is he going to learn?!" Lily and Hermione screeched.

Don't ask questions –that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as harry was turning over the bread.

"Comb your hair!" he barked,

"I resent that!" Sirius shouted. Lily gave him an odd look.

by way of a morning greeting.

About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut.

"I know, it's the Potter Hair Curse," Sirius told the room.

Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way – all over the place.

"Thank you for explaining the Potter Hair Curse."

"Sirius, you do realize that you're talking to the book, right?" Ginny asked.

"I knew that," Sirius said, not looking anyone in the eyes.

Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon.

"That must be… unfortunate."

He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blonde hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.

"Definitely a charmer," Ron chortled loudly.

Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel –

There were many snorts of disbelief throughout the room.

Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.

Everyone burst out laughing.

"Truer words have never been spoken," James said, wiping a tear away from his eye.

Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.

"I bet it fell on the ground, from all the weight on it," Lily said. Everyone looked shocked, as Lily never insulted anyone, except for James.

"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

"Thirty-freaking-six?!?!" Sirius exclaimed. "Even Regulus never got that many!"

"Darling, you haven't counted Aunt Marge's present, see, it's right here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."

"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.

"Good idea, I hate it when Regulus does that," Sirius told Harry.

Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that popkin?

Everyone chuckled.

Two more presents. Is that all right?"

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty…thirty…"

"Jesus F***ing Christ! He can't even count?!?!" James, Sirius, Remus, and Ron exclaimed. They all looked at Harry when they didn't hear him yelling.

"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.

"I think we will have to pay the Dursleys a visit," James told Sirius. Lily heard, though.

"Why?"

"So that we can…um…punish them!" James exclaimed. Lily gave him an odd look.

"Oh." Dudley at down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."

Uncle Vernon chuckled.

Sirius turned to James.

"I think I've got a new name for that guy!" he shouted.

"What?"

"Vermin!"

Everyone started laughing.

"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" he ruffled Dudley's hair.

At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.

"How can you feel that at once?" Ron asked. "Wouldn't that make your head explode or something?"

"Ron, has anyone ever told you that you have the emotional range of a teaspoon?"

"Yeah, you Hermione."

"Just checking."

"Bad news Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her hear in Harry's direction.

"Hey! If you're going to talk about my son, at least use his name!" James exclaimed. Everyone looked at him.

"James, you're talking to a book again. Did you take your medicine?" Remus joked.

"What medicine?" James said, not getting the joke.

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Fig made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.

"I think I'm in love," Lily and Ginny sighed dreamily. Everyone gave them strange looks as they returned to the book, leaving the two of them in their stupor.

"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.

"Don't be silly, she hates the boy."

"Why would anyone hate Harry? I mean, he's the spitting image of me, and I'm awesome."

"Sure you are."

The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there – or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.

Everyone growled threateningly.

"What about what's her name – your friend, Yvonne?"

"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).

"What's television? And computer?" James asked Lily, but it was Sirius who answered.

"They're both things muggles use to watch things." Everyone stared at him with their mouths hanging open. "What? I took muggle studies."

"Yeah, but I never thought you'd pay attention during it," Remus said, shaking his head.

Aunt Petunia looked as though she's just swallowed a lemon.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.

"He wouldn't do that, but I bet my brothers would," Ginny snarled back.

"Who're your brothers?" the Marauders all asked.

"You're their forerunners," Hermione interrupted. The Marauders looked at each other with looks of complete glee on each of their faces.

"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.

"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly,"…and leave him in the car…"

"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone…"

Dudley began to cry loudly.

"Awwww, is the wittle baby cwying?" Ron said in a mock baby voice.

In fact, he wasn't really crying – it had been years since he'd really cried – but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.

"That f***ing pampered brat!" Sirius almost screamed.

"Dinky Diddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.

"I…don't…want…him…t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" he shot Harry a nasty grin between his mother's arms.

" I repeat, that f***ing pampered brat!" Sirius yelled.

Just then, the doorbell rang – "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically – and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.

"Then we shall call him Ratty!"

He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

"So he doesn't want his friends to know he cries to get what he wants?"

Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursley's car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life.

The women all looked Harry sadly.

His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.

"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy – any funny business, anything at all – and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

"But that's child abuse! How could people let them do that?!" Lily cried. James put his arm around her in an attempt to comfort her a little, which seemed to work.

"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly…"

"You tell him!"

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.

Everyone's eyes began to mist over from sorrow.

The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barber's as if he hadn't been there at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

"That f***ing b****!" James screamed. "She KNEW you couldn't control your magic, and she punished you anyway!"

"Thanks…dad," Harry said in a low voice. James smiled at him.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls).

Everyone shuddered at the thought.

The harder she tried to force it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until it finally might have fitted a hand puppet, but it certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.

On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.

The Marauders and Ron cheered, and the girls all groaned loudly. Harry just grinned.

Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do ( as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.

Everyone snorted almost simultaneously.

"Yeah, 'the wind caught you.' More like you apparated," Ron remarked. All of the smart people (Hermione, Lily, and Remus) looked thoughtful.

"You apparated at such a young age, without a wand?" Hermione asked Harry.

"I guess so," he replied. "I'm not really sure exactly, since that happened a while ago."

"Because if you DID apparate, then your magical potential is about the same as Professor Dumbledore's," Remus told him. Lily and James looked very pleased at this news.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.

While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects.

"Does anyone else get the feeling he doesn't like Harry?" Sirius asked.

"Noooo, Padfoot, it's just your imagination," James answered sarcastically.

"Oh, okay then," Sirius said, the sarcasm missing him.

This morning, it was motorcycles.

"I'd like a motorcycle," Sirius said dreamily.

"You did have one," Ginny reminded him.

"I meant right now, not in my future."

"…roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.

"That's the whole point of a motorcycle."

"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."

"Brilliant Harry, just brilliant, now he'll yell at you."

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beer with a mustache:

"How does that relate to anything?" Harry wondered.

"MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"

"How do you know?"

Dudley and Piers sniggered.

"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."

But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than him asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting any way it shouldn't,

"What, you mean brooms or something?" James asked.

no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon - they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.

"Hey everyone, I just got a really dangerous idea!" Sirius shouted

"What is it, mate?" James asked.

"Let's treat the Dursleys the same way they treated Harry, just to see how THEY like it!"

"Yeah, let's start with-" James was cut off when he saw Lily's face. "Nothing. Let's start with nothing. Sirius, I can't believe you would say something like that."

"No, I wasn't trying to stop you two, I was just about to ask you to let me join you," Lily told them. "And me," Remus added.

"Guys, let's at least try to finish the story before you go charging off," Ginny said, trying to keep the peace, even though it looked like she wouldn't have objected if the four had gone anyway.

It was a very sunny Saturday, and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.

There were many growls of resentment at this.

It wasn't bad either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley except that it wasn't blonde.

Everyone burst out laughing.

Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him.

James and Lily started tearing up, and Remus and Sirius started getting glassy-eyed, for they all knew that this wouldn't be happening if they had been there for Harry.

They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on the top, Uncle Vernon bought him a new one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.

"They're actually being somewhat nice to Harry! THE WORLD IS ENDING!!!" Ron cried.

Everyone chuckled a little, but there was no heart in it. They were still too mad at the Dursleys to laugh at that point.

Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.

After lunch they went to the reptile house.

Lily shuddered.

"Lily doesn't like snakes. Or spiders," James explained when he saw Harry's inquisitive look.

"The answer's still no, James," Lily told him. "You may be a handsome stalker, but that doesn't mean I'll go out with you. Yet," she added to herself.

Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons.

"You two do realize that if they weren't in cages they would eat you?" Ron asked. Hermione groaned.

"You do realize that you're talking to the book like certain other people, don't you?" she asked at his questioning look.

Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crush it into a trash can – but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.

Lily sighed with relief.

Dudley stood with his nose against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.

"You'll flatten your face if you keep doing that Dudders," Harry tsked, making everyone laugh.

"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.

"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.

"This is boring," Dudley moaned.

"Well, Dudders, sometimes life can be very boring sometimes, and you need to make things not boring."

"That made no sense whatsoever."

"Thank you."

He shuffled away.

Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself – no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to see the rest of the house.

"So true," Harry mused.

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.

"What the f***?" James exclaimed.

"I know, snakes don't even have eyelids!" Remus cried. James just stared at Remus.

Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. he looked back at the snake and winked, too.

"What are you doing, Harry, winking at an unknown snake?!" Ron cried. The people who didn't know that Harry had been a parseltongue (the past people, and Ginny) stared at him until he began reading again.

The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:

"I get that all the time."

"So you're a parseltongue?" Lily asked Harry. After he explained the circumstances that lead to him receiving and losing the ability, Lily leaned back with a surprised look on her face. "I never knew that could happen to someone," she said, mostly to herself.

"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 its head vigorously.

"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.

The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.

Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"Was it nice there?"

The snake 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?"

Sirius snorted. "Brilliant, kid." Harry reddened.

As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout from behind Harry made them both jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

"Bad Ratty! You'll get Harry in trouble! Seriously, bad Ratty!" James scolded, while Sirius smirked.

"Why does everyone like to say my name so much?" Sirius asked, while everyone else groaned at his annoying joke.

Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.

"Waddle? As in, duck waddle?" Remus asked.

"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell on the hard 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 left back with howls of horror.

"Why? What happened?" Lily said in a frantic voice.

Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.

"It was fun payback," Harry remarked with a grin.

As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come…. Thanksss, amigo."

"So you're definitely a parselmouth, then?" James asked Harry, who repeated the same explanation he had given Lily.

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.

"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"

"I kind of feel sorry for him," Ginny remarked. "He was just a muggle who was confronted with something he didn't believe in, even if he didn't know it was magic."

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.

"Melodramatic idiots," Hermione remarked.

But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"

"Evil Ratty," Sirius muttered under his breath.

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry.

"You know, giant fatty, if you keep treating someone like crap, it'll eventually come back to bite you in the ass," James said to the book.

He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go – cupboard – stay – no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.

"I repeat, that'll come back to bite you in the ass. Lily, how long could you get for child abuse?"

Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking into the kitchen for some food.

"Ah yes, the number one rule of stealing and pranking: never get caught," Sirius announced.

He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash.

"Great, the 'car crash' again," James said in an undertone. He would be having some serious words with the Dursleys at some point, sooner rather than later.

He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died.

"That's cause there WAS no car crash!" Sirius exclaimed loudly.

Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from.

"You survived the killing curse, not a car crash!" Ron said hotly.

He couldn't remember his parents at all. his aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.

"And where were me and Sirius at this time?" Remus asked.

"Sirius was in Askaban, but you I'm not sure about," Harry answered. Everyone from the past's jaws dropped.

"How did Sirius get in Askaban?" James asked.

"Long story short, he was arrested for a crime he didn't commit," Hermione replied.

When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family.

"They lavish their son with all kinds of crap, yet Petunia treat her only blood relative like crap?!" Lily exclaimed. Everyone looked at her shocked, for Lily Evans was not someone you usually caught swearing.

Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking woman dressed all in green had waved merrily to him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.

"It's apparition, Harry, haven't you heard?" Ginny teased.

"I know that now, but I was an innocent little bugger back that," he replied, grinning.

At school, Harry had no one. Everyone knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.

There were many outbursts after the chapter was finished, and it took almost ten minutes before the room was calm again. Ginny took the book to read the next chapter.

"The Letters from No One," she read before she was cut off by the still-simmering potion in the corner giving off a large belch of smoke and enveloping the room's occupants in a smelly green cloud. Everyone began coughing as the smoke cleared to reveal six figures, four of which were teenagers, and the other two adults.

"No…it can't be…" Harry said in a shocked voice.

A/N: what do you think? A bit of a cliffhanger at the end, with the people. Try and guess who they are!