Chapter 2

The Vanishing Glass

Ten Years Later

Harry Potter awoke to the sounds of his cousin, Dudley Dursley, screaming and banging on the door to his cupboard. While the rest of Privet Drive inhabitants held rooms furnished in the typical way: with doors, furniture, beds, and possessions. Harry's living space was confined to the small cupboard under the stairs where a makeshift cot had been placed. Harry's possessions could be summed up in three words. He had none. He had a broken cot, taken from his cousin Dudley's room after Dudley's friend Piers had purposefully cut the wires; a collection of clothing that Dudley had outgrown; and an empty stomach. Harry laid there, bruised and tired, having never achieved a peaceful sleep throughout the night, and remembered.

Harry thought back to the various times he had woken up bruised like he had today. He thought of the great variety of things that had gotten him into situations like this. The first time he had been beaten was when he had asked his Aunt Petunia where he had gotten the lightning-shaped scar that sat above his green eyes on his forehead. She had scowled and shrieked "In the car crash that killed your parents!"

Harry learned that night just what questions could cost him. Later that week, uncle Vernon had taken Harry to the hospital where he had received twelve stitches for falling down the stairs. The next time that Harry had been this sore was when he attempted to run from one of Dudley and Piers' boxing sessions with him in the school yard. He had been sprinting full speed when suddenly he was on the roof of the school, looking down at them. When the teachers found him, Dudley and Piers insisted that he had been up there throwing stones at them. When Uncle Vernon found out he had banned Harry from eating for two weeks after beating him bloody.

There were many similar occurrences throughout Harry's life that had led to him being beaten, but Harry had no time to remember them. Yesterday's pain was enough. Somehow, while Harry was locked in his closet for 'being such a lackwit', as Vernon had put it, a glass vase had shattered, seemingly of its own accord. Vernon had turned to the boy and viciously whipped him with a belt before throwing him in his room. Harry thought on all this and groaned as he rolled out of bed. Each of his arms had mottled bruising, his back was purple in several places, and the place where his face had caught an unfortunately aimed strike was swollen and painful. The thin, dark-haired boy had just stood up when the locked cupboard door was thrown open and Harry saw Uncle Vernon's severe form standing above him.

"Boy," Uncle Vernon said, "I just received a call from Mrs. Figg. She's broken her leg. You will have to be coming along with us to the zoo, I won't be having you alone in this house to wreak your mischief."

Harry held his face calm and nodded. As much as the thought of a trip to the zoo pleased him, he knew that Dudley would be furious. It was his birthday, and he had always enjoyed taunting Harry when the family left him with the old Mrs. Figg to help her garden and feed her cats while Dudley and Piers went off to participate in some form of special birthday celebration.

"Don't look so smug about it, boy." Vernon whispered menacingly. "Now get out of there and make the bacon for your aunt."

Harry stood up quickly and said "Yes, Uncle Vernon." before walking out of his cupboard and through the hallway into the kitchen. There he saw his aunt busying herself with cooking a breakfast of bacon, eggs, biscuits, and gravy. She turned when he entered the room.

"Could you move any more slowly?" She asked Harry angrily. He said nothing and quickly took over the pan containing the bacon as Aunt Petunia began to add water to a pancake mix. Suddenly, Harry felt pain bloom in his side as Dudley had thrown his weight into a quick strike under Harry's ribcage. All the breath whooshed out of Harry's stomach and he doubled over as Dudley laughed out "You little weakling. Needed to teach you to be on guard."

Vernon had entered the room along with Dudley and smiled approvingly. "That's a good boy, Dudley. Always trying to educate those who aren't as smart as you." He stood over Dudley and ruffled his hair as Harry attempted to catch his breath. Vernon looked down at him. "Get off the damn floor, boy. That bacon won't cook itself."

Petunia let out a gruff chuckle. "Remember, if you'd like to eat you must do enough work to outweigh the cost of your food. Now, Dudderkins, you mustn't lift a finger on your special day. Go out to the living room and sit down. Your favorite program is on the telly. I'll have Harry bring you out a lemonade."

Dudley shot a wicked grin at Harry and ducked out of the rectangular kitchen through the long hallway and dove onto the sofa in the living room. Harry quickly opened the refrigerator and prepared Dudley's drink before taking it out to him. Dudley took it and made a move as if to punch Harry. Harry jumped back wildly and Dudley laughed loudly. "Did you hear I'm coming with you today?" Harry asked goadingly. "Mrs. Figg broke her leg so I have to come." Even as he spoke Harry knew his words would only earn him pain.

Dudley's grin fell off his face. "Dad! Harry says he's coming with us!" He shouted whiningly toward the kitchen. "He's not is he?"

Vernon stomped into the living room like an angry rhinoceros and gave Harry an angry look. "We have no other option, I don't want him staying here where he may meddle with any manner of things."

"Why not just lock him in the closet, Da? He couldn't do anything there."

Vernon turned a shade of dark red and looked at Dudley. "Are you questioning my judgment, boy?"

"N-no!" Dudley spluttered out before Vernon cut him off.

"Good. Now let's look at your birthday presents." He said before gesturing to the low coffee table, clearly stacked high with presents between a large sheet, obscuring the overall shapes. Dudley looked at the table longingly and grinned, kicking at Harry. "Go finish my bacon."

The last thing you need is bacon. Harry thought to himself, looking at his large cousin, before walking back to the kitchen. He was busying himself about in the kitchen contemplating the concept that Dudley eating bacon was close to cannibalism when his aunt interrupted his thoughts.

"If you're to be seen in public with us today, you had best brush your horrid hair. I won't be having people thinking you're some urchin off the street because you refuse to make your appearance respectable."

"Yes, Aunt Petunia." Harry said respectfully. He knew that there was little to no point for him to brush his hair, but agreed with her anyway to avoid punishment. His hair had always been unruly, both of them knew that. Petunia looked at him with disdain, as if she knew his thoughts, and turned back to the pancakes she had been pulling off of the griddle. Suddenly they heard a shout from the living room.

"Thirty-six!? Only thirty-six presents!? Last year I had thirty-seven!"

"Yes, yes. But these presents are significantly bigger than last year." Vernon said in a rush.

Petunia quickly exited the kitchen and Harry heard her say "Dudley, if you'd like we can pick you up two more presents while we're out, so that way you'll have more than last year."

Dudley nodded vaguely, clearly attempting the arithmetic in his head as if calculating the force of gravity between the moon and the earth. Vernon looked down at Dudley with pride in his eyes. "That's my boy, making sure that you get what you deserve and no one pulls one over on you. You keep doing that and you'll have no choice but to succeed."

Piers arrived soon after this exchange and, after serving everyone their food at the table, Harry retreated with his food into the cupboard so as not to become the punching bag of any of the males at the table. After this, Dudley opened his presents. He received everything he had asked for: a new bike, over a dozen video games, and a pair of fighting gloves that Harry knew would be put to use on him before the end of the day.

Later, as the group left the house, Uncle Vernon pulled Harry to the side. "If you cause anything to happen that is less than desirable I'll give you twice the whipping you had last night. You don't deserve to be here, and you must be on your best behavior."

"I won't do anything." Harry said, but Vernon didn't believe him. Things just happened to Harry. Things neither of them could explain.

Once, while Harry was being punished for spilling juice onto a lace tablecloth, he had been banned from food for a week. During the night Vernon had entered the kitchen to prepare a snack and had found that two loafs of bread and a pitcher of milk had all disappeared from the kitchen. He immediately opened Harry's cupboard and found the food lying on the floor near the sleeping Harry. Harry had insisted that there was no way he could've gotten out of the locked cupboard, but still he had been beaten black and blue for that offense.

Vernon walked away and they all loaded into the car, pulling off toward the zoo. While on the way there, Piers began talking of a new video game that his parents had purchased him.

"It's got state of the art graphics!" he said loudly. "And you get to choose what type of creature you want to be. Some creatures have magic powers like invisibility and teleportation! There's even—"

"There is no such thing as magic!" Vernon cut off the boy. "And I'll not have you filling Dudley's head with such nonsense.

After this, the vehicle remained quiet for a time. Not long after, they arrived at the zoo. They saw one animal after another with Dudley screaming at them in the hope he would receive a response and complaining loudly to his father when none was given until Vernon began gesticulating and screaming along with the ten-year-old boy. Petunia seemed to hold a particular penchant for the bears and had the children and Vernon screaming at them in no time.

Harry, for his part, remained completely quiet, trailing along after them. He knew it had been sheer luck that had brought him here and had no desire to tarnish his apparently lucky day with punishment of lost food or pain. Vernon bought Piers and Dudley each an ice cream and stared at Harry as if daring him to ask why he hadn't received one. Eventually they entered the house of reptiles where Dudley and Piers quickly moved off to gaze at the exotic snakes and lizards.

They stopped in front of the cage of a boa constrictor. Dudley shouted at it and pounded on the glass. He had used this method to make most of the smaller snakes react to him; even getting a king cobra to sit up, open its hood, and hiss at him. This large boa seemed far less concerned than the smaller snakes had been however, and remained stoic. Harry stood several feet away, angered at his selfishness and lack of care for the animals. When the boa constrictor refused to move Dudley turned and whined to his dad, "Make it move!"

Vernon approached the glass and wrapped on it with his knuckles, half-shouting "Wake up snake! Move snake!"

When Dudley had determined that no amount of cajoling or some such could make the snake move: he, Vernon, and Piers moved off down to the next exhibit. Harry slowly approached the boa cage as they departed.

He stared into the snake's cage as it lay unmoving while people attempted to provoke it for their own entertainment. "I know how you feel." Harry said to the snake. "Like you're locked up in a cage with nowhere to go, and everyone around you enjoys prodding you just to see your reaction. It's horrible."

The snake looked up toward him and he heard a girl's voice to his left saying to her father, "But daddy it's so lonely. It's in there all by itself and it has nothing to do. It's horrible that it's kept like this." She said sincerely. Harry looked toward the voice and saw a young girl with bushy, brown hair staring up at a middle-aged man with a pleading look in her face.

"We have to do something." She said firmly, tugging at the sleeves of her forest green pullover in rhythm with the words. "We can't just let them continue to mistreat the poor thing."

Her father chuckled. "What do you recommend we do Hermione? Storm the doors of the management and demand it be released?" He picked her up and spun her around, causing his leather jacket to flutter about like a cloak in the wind. "There's nothing we can do about it honey, sometimes you just have to accept that."

Hermione looked up with tears in her eyes. "No, I won't, dad. If no one else is going to help the poor thing then I will."

A woman standing beside the pair shot the girl's father a scathing look. "Johnathon stop antagonizing the poor girl. Can't you see how upset she is?"

Johnathon looked between his daughter and wife and the smile fell slowly from his face. He knelt down in front of Hermione. "Honey, I know you want to help. I know you wish it was different. But right now, we don't have any way to fix this. If it'll make you feel better, we can write a letter to the zoo about it when we get home. Okay?"

Hermione looked at her father, brown eyes still wet with tears, and nodded, then looked back at the snake in the cage and gasped. Harry's eyes followed hers and he saw the snake staring directly at him.

It winked. Harry looked around, wondering if he was imagining things, but everyone's eyes were focused on the moving snake. He looked back to the snake and returned its wink. The snake slowly uncoiled itself and began to move toward him.

"Get me out…"

The words drifted past Harry's ears as like the whisper of a distant instrument. He almost wasn't sure if he had heard them. He looked in the snake's eyes and said, "Was that you?"

The creature nodded and he heard the voice repeat, "Get me out of here."

Then a loud shout broke Harry from the stupor he had entered when he saw the snake wink. It was Piers. "Dudley! Dudley, come quick! You won't believe what the snake's doing!"

The fat child and the similarly fat adult ran toward the glass. When Dudley reached the glass he grabbed Hermione by the arm and forcibly threw her to the ground, grinning at the snake manically. Harry turned and saw Hermione lying on the floor at her father's feet, openly crying, just as her father looked up toward Dudley and Piers, whose faces were pressed against the glass. Harry stared at Dudley and a fierce anger rose in him. He shouted, "What are you doing?!" just as Johnathon said "Now, young boy—"

Both became quiet immediately after having spoken, for the glass had vanished. Both Piers and Dudley fell forward into the water of the boa cage and the snake rose up to slither over and past the lumps of their bodies. Harry swore he heard it say "I'll owe you one." as it passed him.

Then everyone in the room was shouting things like "Snake!" or "Run!" and Vernon was fishing the boys from the pond. When Harry looked next, Hermione and her parents were gone. Once the boys were confirmed to be safe and things had calmed down, he turned to Harry and fixed him with a look that let him know just how many levels of pain would be beaten out of him that night. He froze in fear. He wanted to run. To scream. Anything to get away from Vernon. But he knew he would only make it worse. So he stayed standing by the railing as the zookeeper apologized and repeatedly muttered "I don't know what happened."

On the return trip, Piers and Dudley never stopped telling stories of how the snake had tried to bite them, but due to their quick thinking and heroics, they had saved everyone in the zoo. Harry wished they would stop redressing the subject, but knew there was no hope of that. It would be their favorite story for months. It almost wouldn't have mattered if Piers hadn't said, "Harry was talking to it." within hearing distance of Vernon.

After Piers left, Vernon grabbed Harry by his mop of unruly hair and threw him to the ground between the kitchen and the hallway. "You tried to kill my boy!" he screamed in Harry's face. "Tried to feed him to the damn snake!"

He kicked Harry in the midsection. Hard. "Not going to waste any time denying it, are you?" Vernon said maleficently before delivering a kick to Harry's face. Harry heard a distinct crack and felt his nose crack as blood sprayed. He pulled his arms up in an effort to protect his face from the next kick, only to hear Vernon scream. "I should kill you for what you tried today, boy!"

Harry panicked. All rational thought left him and he attempted to flee. He scrabbled down the hallway frantically, reaching the door and scratching at the lock through blood-blurred eyes. He felt Vernon grab the collar of the oversized gray sweater he wore and use it to yank him to the ground.

"How dare you try to run away?" Vernon said incredulously before stomping on Harry's chest, causing another distinct cracking noise. Harry reached for a nearby walking stick and swung it in the general direction of Vernon's face. It struck the portly man with all the force of a ten-year-old boy lying on the floor covered in blood, which is to say, not that much. Harry realized he had made a grave mistake when he saw Vernon stalk to the fireplace and grab an iron poker. He attempted to stand, but nearly passed out and had to clutch an end table for support.

"You would strike me?!" Vernon bellowed, clearly having lost all control. He waited for Harry to finish standing before swinging the poker into the side of his head. Harry felt a flash of pain, then everything went black.