Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Meet Harry ... and his friends.

Harry No. 5 and the Philosopher's Stone

Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass

"We're going to the zoo! We're going to the zoo!" Harry and his best friend Malcolm chanted as they hopped excitedly down the corridor. "We're going to th ... umph!"

Harry collided with something big and hard at the corner, bounced off and fell on his behind. His glasses slid down his nose and he had to right them before he recognised the item as another of his dorm mates.

"Sorry Dudley!" He apologised. "I should look where I'm going. But we're going to the zoo!"

"Yeah," said Dudley grinning widely. "We're going to the zoo!"

"Got to put on our shoes." Malcolm reminded them.

"Yeah, cause we're going to the zoo! We're going to the zoo!" Dudley and his best friend Pierce joined them in hopping and chanting the rest of the way to the wardrobe.

The trip to the zoo was an unusual treat, a last special event for them to share before they left the primary institute behind and went on to whichever secondary institutes their parents had chosen for them to continue their educations in.

Parting with friends and dorm mates that you'd lived with for six years was always hard and so the teachers arranged a special trip for the leaving class to take away some pleasant last memories of time spent together.

And so Harry and the others were soon sitting in an overfilled hover bus still chanting happily.

"Look," Pierce said suddenly. "There's a second bus."

Harry pressed his nose against the window pane. "It's the girls. The girls are going to the zoo, too!"

"That's a rhyme," Dudley said. "Zoo, too. Just like the poems in English."

"You're a poet, Harry," Malcolm declared.

"But I didn't do it on purpose," Harry reminded them. "I think poets do it on purpose."

"Hey, isn't that the one that won the institute spelling competition twice?" Malcolm pointed at a bushy-haired girl that was just getting on the bus.

"Hermione," Harry remembered. "Without a number."

"So there's only one Hermione in the whole institute?" Pierce asked amazed.

Pierce was really Pierce number 9, which, Harry thought, really wasn't bad at all. He himself was Harry number 28 and really hoped for a lower number at his secondary institute.

"Unique and smart," Dudley said longingly. "I want to be smart, too."

"Not a chance, pal," Malcolm shook his head. "The teacher says you're really slow."

"But you're tall," Harry added so Dudley's feelings wouldn't be hurt too much. "I think you're the tallest boy at the institute. The tallest Dudley for sure."

"Yeah, I should be Dudley number 1!"

The zoo was great. They each got an icecream on the way in and then they were sorted into groups and each group got a guide that led them around and told them all sorts of exciting things about animals.

"This is a boa constrictor," the guide explained. "The biggest snake in the world. They are not poisonous, but nevertheless dangerous. They can strangle you, you see ..."

Harry stepped close to the glass to get a good look at the snake. He liked snakes a lot. They were such cool animals.

"Hi, boa constrictor," he said. "You're very pretty."

The snake that had been lying curled up in a corner suddenly raised his head to look at him.

"Thank you, boy," he said loud and clearly.

"Uuuuh, he's moving!"

There was a sudden wild pushing and shoving as some children shrank back while others pushed forward eager to see.

Harry was squashed against the glass and for one panicked moment thought that he'd be squeezed to death by the weight of the children behind him, but then there was a bright flash and he toppled forward, the glass suddenly gone. The snake's strong, warm, rough-scaled body wrapped itself around him and let him slide gently to the ground.

"Got you," the snake said. "And thanks!"

And then he slid away.

"Bye!" Harry called after him.

Then he looked around. He, Dudley and Pierce were sitting in the snake's habitat, the rest of their group standing in front of it staring at them wide-eyed.

"Wow Harry," Duddley said finally. "What did you do this time?"

"I didn't do anything," Harry protested. "I was just looking at the snake."

"And hissing at him," Pierce added.

"Talking to him," Harry corrected. "That's not forbidden. I didn't do anything wrong."

Strange things like this tended to happen around Harry and his dorm mates were quite convinced that he caused them somehow even though that wasn't at all possible and their teacher had often told them so.

To help them get over their fright the group got another round of icecreams, this time for free from the zoo director who kept mumbling "But where did the glass go?" when he wasn't apologising to the institute staff.

All in all it was a good and memorable trip, Harry decided on the way back.