A/N ~~~ I'm so so so so so so so so so sooooooooo sorry for taking so long to update, I have no real excuse, please forgive me! Now onto the story~ Where you will find out if only one twin is a parseltongue! And if it is only one, you will find out which one!

Chapter Two- The Vanishing Glass

Almost 10 years had passed since the Dursley's had woken up to find their niece and nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy 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 the night Julia and Harry came. Only the photo's could tell how much time had passed. Ten years ago, what there had been lots of pictures of hat looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different colored bonnets — but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photos 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. The room held no sign at all that any other children lived in the house as well.

Yet Harry and Julia Potter were still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. Their aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day. "Up! Get up! Now!" Harry woke with a start. Petunia rapped on the door again. "Up!" She screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled on his back and woke up his sister, who then immediately tried to remember the dream she'd been having. It was a good one there was a flying motorcycle in it. She had the funny feeling she'd had the same dream before. Her aunt was back outside the door. "Are you up yet?" "Nearly." replied Julia.

"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 Duddy's birthday." Harry and Julia groaned. "What did you say?" "Nothing, nothing. . ."

Dudley's Birthday –– how could she have forgotten? Harry slowly got out of bed and stated looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and slowly pulled a spider off of them. They were used to spiders because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them and that was where they would be sent if they were in trouble, (which was a lot).

Julia gathered her clothes hurried to the bathroom and changed ASAP then headed into the kitchen.

When Harry was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all of Dudley's presents. It looked like Dudley got the new computer he wanted along with a second television and a racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Julia as Dudley was fat and hated exercise — unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favorite punching bag is Julia, but he can't often catch her. Julia didn't look it, but she is very fast. So instead he settled for Harry.

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

Harry looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair, and hazel eyes.

He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose. Julia had the same thin face and knobbly knees, but had curly red hair and bright green eyes.

They both shared a very thin scar on their foreheads that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.

They had had it as long as they could remember, and the first question Harry and Julia could ever remember asking Aunt Petunia was how they had gotten it.

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

"And don't ask questions."

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

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Julia was turning over the bacon.

"Comb your hair!" he barked, to Harry 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. 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.

Julia was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.

Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel — Julia often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.

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.

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

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy 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.

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? 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…"

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

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

Uncle Vernon chuckled.

"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, Julia, 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.

"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take them."

She jerked her head in the twins direction.

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, Harry's heart gave a leap and Julia felt bad. 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 and Julia were left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there, but Julia didn't think that it was to bad. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made them look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.

"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, Vernon, she hates them."

The Dursleys often spoke about Harry and Julia like this, as though they weren't there — or rather, as though they was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.

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

"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could just leave us 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).

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

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

"We won't blow up the house," said Julia, (though she'd love to she knew Harry wouldn't let her) but they weren't listening.

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

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

Dudley began to cry loudly. 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.

"Dinky Duddydums,

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

"I… don't… want… t-them… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "They always sp-spoil everything!" He shot Julia a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.

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

Half an hour later, Harry and Julia, who couldn't believe their luck, were sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in their life. Their aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with them, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Julia aside.

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

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

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe her. No one ever did, except for Harry.

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

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been 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 had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

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

The harder she tried to pull it over her head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Julia.

Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to her great relief, Julia wasn't punished.

On the other hand, she'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing her as usual when, as much to Julia's surprise as anyone else's, there she was sitting on the chimney.

The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from their headmistress telling them Julia had been climbing school buildings. But all she'd tried to do (as she shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of the cupboard) was jump behind the big trashcans outside the kitchen doors. Julia supposed that the wind must have caught her in mid-jump.

It didn't help that Julia could change her appearance at will. At one point she had also started to change into animals. When that happened she was left in the cupboard without food for a week.

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, their room, the 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, Julia, the council, Harry, the bank, and Julia were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.

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

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

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 beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"

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 their asking questions, it was talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think they might get dangerous ideas.

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 and Julia what they wanted before they could hurry them away, they bought them both a cheap lemon ice pop.

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

The twins had the best morning they'd had in a long time. They were careful to walk a little way 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 them.

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

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

After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. 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. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. 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.

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

"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. He shuffled away.

Julia moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. She 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 she got to visit the rest of the house.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Julia's.

It winked.

Julia stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. No one was, they were all busy looking at some other reptiles. She looked back at the snake and winked, too.

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

"I get that all the time."

"I know," Julia murmured through the glass, though she wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."

The snake nodded vigorously.

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

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

Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"Was it nice there?"

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Julia 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 Julia made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.

"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Julia in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Julia almost fell hard on the concrete floor, but, Harry showed up just in time to catch her.

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.

Julia sat up and gasped, then her brother followed her gaze and did the same; 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.

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

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.

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

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

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

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

She'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as she could remember, ever since her and Harry'd been babies and their parents had died in that car crash. She couldn't remember being in the car when her parents had died. Sometimes, when she strained his memory during long hours in the cupboard, she came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on her forehead.

This, she supposed, was the crash, though she couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. She couldn't remember her parents at all.

Her aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course she and Harry were forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.

When they had been younger, Harry and Julia had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take them away, but it had never happened;

the Dursleys and Harry were her only family. Yet sometimes she thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know them. Very strange strangers they were, too.

A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to them 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 old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at her once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken their hands 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 or Julia tried to get a closer look.

At school, Harry and Julia had no one but each other. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated those odd Potter kids in their baggy old clothes and in Harry's case, broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.

A/N ~~~ Once again, soooooooooo sorry for taking so long to update! I know I shouldn't ask this, but please review! I will not beg, I merely wish you could find it in your hearts to do so. 'till next time!