i know its been a very long time, and when authors dont update the stories i read i get REALLY annoyed so you might be feeling this way as well and if you are im really sorry! i dont really think im cut out for writing maybe ill stick at the reading? please give me your thoughts on this, im very conflicted on what to do.

well here it is...

PS please try to mind the spelling and grammar(im dyslexic)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the characters in it.

"Chapter two "The Vanishing Glass"

"sounds like some accidental magics about to happen" remus guessed and the others nodded their heads in agreement.

Nearly ten years had passed

"that makes harry around 11 right?" wondered james,

since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step,

"i still cant believe they really did that" lily sighed

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. 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-coloured bobble hats

"god, that one poor excuse of a child" said sirius amused.

they others laughed along with him.

but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large, blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a roundabout 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 another boy lived in the house, too.

"maybe me and moony saved him!" sirius spoke up

"moony and i, padfoot" remus corrected

"ohh i hope so" lily prayed while james looked conflicted

"but padfoot,why didn't you come for harry that night, i mean if you gave hagrid that bike, that would mean you saw him with harry, but why wouldn't you take him then? why wait?" james asked his best friend.

it seemed like no one had an answer, so lily continued.

Yet Harry Potter was still there,

"DAMN IT! i was sure one of us would go get him out of that horrid place!" sirius stormed, thinking about what james had sad alittle too much. where was he?

asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake, and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day.

"aww poor harry"

"Up! Get up! Now!"

"thats not a nice thing to hear, first thing in the morning" lily said having been through it all before.

Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again."Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking towards the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the cooker. He rolled on to his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorbike in it.

He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.

"its not a dream, it really happened!"

"paddy, your shouting at a book" james pointed out.

"hang on, harry remembering this shows he has a good bit of magic in him" remus started, thinking of a book he read in the library a while back.

"moony, ofcourse my son has 'good bit of magic in him' my lily flower and i are his parents.

lily went very red at this but didnt say anything, any time james came out with little things like that made her stomach dance in a way lily never felt before. the others, noticing her deep pink face laughed at her and james looked pleased that she hadnt objected to his new name for her. lily continued to read as if she didnt notice.

His aunt was back outside the door

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"shut up you hourse face" james muttered to hisself

"Nearly," said Harry.

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

"hes like 10 and she makes him COOK!" lily shouted in pure outrage. the boys started to mutter what they were going to do if they ever saw that horse

I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."

Harry groaned.

"What did you say?" his aunt snapped

"he didnt sayanything, you cow!" snaped sirius.

through the door."Nothing, nothing ..."Dudley's birthday - how could he have forgotten?

"you didnt forget, you just pushed the horrible date out of your head" sirius corrected his godson.

"emm, padfoot...your talking to a book" james sniggered

then his arms shot up in surrender, "just saying!"

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

"spider? i would have thought Petunia's house would be dirt free let alone spirders." lily said.

put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them,

"what...?"

and that was where he slept.

…

"are you serious! sirius! dont you dare make that joke! how could she let my son sleepunder stairs!"lilyshrieked

"lily, i know shes like your sister and everything, but if i ever meet her, my wand and her face are going to get very friendly!" vowed james in rage!

the other two marauders sat and mumbled their agreement, thinking up their own individual plan of action.

it took a few minutes for the storm to pass then lily began to read again.

When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents.

"aww surprise, surprise, the kids spoilt!" sirius huffed

lily eyed him in wonder "and what? your not?"

sirius gasped in fack hurt " as much as i looked like it evans, im anything but.."

It looked as though Dudley had got the new computer

"whats a computer?" james asked looking at lily

"its.. well... its a electronic thing that you can play games on and alot of businesses use them to keep information on"

"oh...okay"

he wanted, not to mention the second television

"whats a television?"

"james im not going to explain every muggle thing that is mentioned in this book." lily answered

"fine!" james pretened to huff like a little child

"oi!" lily shouted playfully

and the racing bike.

Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favorite punch-bag was Harry

"if that pig hurts my son, he'll wish he was never born!" james threatend

"james you do know thats your future nephew your talking about..." remus laughed

"so? he hurts my son... he's gunna pay! no matter who it is!"

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

"good!" they all said as one

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

sirius started to snigger looking pointedly at james

"shut it" james scolded

"what?" lily asked

"nothing, it doesnt matter." james said embarased

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

"they dont even buy him clothes?" lily said shaking her head in disgusts.

and Dudley was about four times bigger than he had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair

"so really hes his fathers double gainer" sirius roared with laughter.

they all laughed as james shouted "shut up!"

"so thats what" lily sniggered

"yep" sirius laughed boomed all over the room

and bright-green eyes.

"just like lily flowers!" james cooed squesing lilys shoulder

the two boys who were used to this kind of behaviour just rolled their eyes while lilys thought her stomach would never settle

wore round glasses held together by a lot of Sellotape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.

"that fat git!" james swore

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

"yeah it is pretty cool" said sirius

"i dont know if it is or not" mentioned remus

"what do you mean?" lily asked

"well if you had a scar like that, you would like it if you didnt know how you got it, but harry is meant to be famous, so when people from the wizarding world see him they will probably look at his scar more than him and when they see the scar they'll know who he is" he expressed.

"your probably right remus, my poor baby" lily sniffed

He had had it as long as he could remember and the first question he could ever remember asking his aunt was how he had got it.

"In the car crash when your parents died,"

...

"what!? how dare she lie to him like that! how dare she!" lily went mad ranting and pacing around the room and even though on one was happy about this new information, james got up to calm lily down. he got behind her and put is hands on her shoulders, turned her round to face him.

"lily calm down, its ok" he said in a smooth voice

lily looked into his eyes and then started to cry again.

"i just cant believe she would hate me and our world that she would lie like that!" she wepted in james arms. it took her a few minutes to compose herself, when she did james took her to the sofa and sat down beside her.

"sorry" she muttered to remus and sirius, they brushed off her apology and she began to read

she had said. "And don't ask questions."

"how can he learn if he doesn't ask questions?" remus said appalled

"aye, trust it to be you moony to worry about him not learning!" sirius joked

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 bacon.

"Comb your hair!" he barked,

"wont work. it just grows that way, all over the place" james laughed, ruffling his hair.

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.

james grinned from ear to ear, he had just said that! it looked like his son and him thought in similar ways.

Harry was frying eggs

lily sighed closing her eyes for a second and told herself not to get worked up over her son cooking at such an early age

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 muck neck, small, watery blue eyes

"so really hes a pig!" sirius said seriously

and thick, blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.

Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.

they all burst out laughing

"see even harry agrees with me!"

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.

"who counts presents?"

His face fell."Thirty-six,"

"he has thirty-six presents and he wants more?" lily said disgraced.

"spoilt brat" sirius muttered

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

"i dont think ive got thats many presents in all my life let alone for one birthday!"

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

"hmm, i wonder how many presents harry gets?" remus supplied

"he better get some...or else!" james muttered, thinking what he would love to do with the people he would some day know.

"All right then, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.

"spoilt brat" muttered sirius

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.

the room chuckled at this.

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

"i wonder if tuney ever said 'no' to that child" lily expressed

"i wonder if she ever said 'yes' to harry!" james pointed out.

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work.

Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty ..."

"ha, that child is worse than sirius when it comes to maths!" remus laughed.

"yeah...wait, what?"

james' laughed boomed around the room as he gave remus a high five as sirius pouted

"Thirty nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.

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

Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tykewants his money's worth, just like his father.

james snorted in disgust,

"no really?" he said sarcastically

Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair. At that moment the telephone rang

sirius and james looked at the two prefects for help

lily sighed "it doesnt matter and if you even payed the slightest attention in muggle studies you would know!"

"lily its like you dont even know us, if you think we would actually listen in class!" sirius mocked in a shocked voice

everyone, lily as well, laughed at sirius' sarcasm

"it's a way the muggles communicate with each other, they talk into it and the person there trying to talk to can hear them and vise versa." remus explained when they settled down to read again.

and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a cine-camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games and a video recorder.

"dont even ask ja-potter"

james grinned at lily mistake then sighed. back to potter was he? and there he thought he was improving!

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 him."

"he has a name, you giraffe" the stag said in annoyance

She jerked her head in Harry's direction. Dudley's mouth fell open in horror,

"naw, it was probably 'cause he couldnt hold it up any longer" sirius sniggered at his own joke while the others just gave him amused looks

but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday his parents took him and a friend to adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema.

"i see they didnt take harry with them..." remus pointed out

Every year, Harry was left behind

"what did i tell ye"

with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away.

"isnt there a pureblood family called figg?" sirius asked

"sirius, how do you know if their pureblood or not?" lily asked in confusion

"aww my sweet little tiger-lily, did you not know that all purebloods are related in some way or another?"

lily blinked bewildered

"what? are you serious?"

"why lily i am always sirius!" the animagus pointed out, "but yes, sure me and prongs are like second cousins or something and wormtail and moony are stuck in the branches of the family tree as well"

lily thought that this sounded strange but shrugged it off, thinking that she would ask alice about it tonight as alice was a pureblood as well.

Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage

and Mrs. Figg made him look at all the cats she'd ever owned.

"arrrr cats!"

both werewolf and stag shot the dog looks to tell him to shut up

lily catching these looks raised her eyebrows, then turned to sirius and asked what was so bad about cats

"well...umm, you see...he..."james muttered trying to cover up his best friends mistake, but found he couldnt lie under the gaze of the girl he loved.

"well, its like this tiger-lily, when i was just a small, young and Innocent little boy" lily snorted at the word innocent, knowing the boy infront of her was never in his life innocent. "well i was attacked by a vicious kitty!" sirius finished with a look of glee

james and remus had a look on their faces that clearly asked if that was the best he could came up with but padfoot just gave them a happy grin and the thumbs up in responds

lily just sighed realising that she wasn't going to get an answer

"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this.

"she better be nicer to my baby!" lily huffed

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.

"ha i dont blame ye mate!" said sirius

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.

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

"and im sure he hates her just as much!"

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.

lily and james scowled at this wishing that this would not happen in their future

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

"On holiday 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.)

"ahhh harry ma boy, if only it were that simple and these people were kind, nice try though" james approved

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

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

"hes not going to blow up the house" james said exasperated

"I won't blow up the house,"

james suddenly had a big goofy smile on his face

"prongs, it looks like you and our mini marauder think very alike" sirius said.

when his best friend said this, james felt closer to his future son. he looked down at lily and gave her a warm smile which she returned

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.

"baby..." muttered sirius

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.

lily snorted, how could her sister be so stupid to fall of that act?

"Dinky Duddydums,

the marauders sniggered at the nickname while lily giggled

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 through the gap in his mother's arms.

"that little brat!" sirius thought that this over grown baby was looking alot like his kid brother regulus, whom he had not had a civil conversation in over a year, simply because he wanted to join the death eaters when he left hogwarts.

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.

the three boys laughed thinking of their close friend peter pettigrew who looked and sounded like a rat, not to mention he transformed into a rat on full moons

He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them.

Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.

"ofcourse he did" sighed remus shaking

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

"he sure did get lucky on that one"

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

"cant he give the child one minutes peace?" the dog animagus sighed

"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's,

"get away from my son, you fat owff!"

"I'm warning you now, boy -any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

"i cant believe Dumbledore thought, this man was best to look after our son!" lily huffed tears burning under her eyes. James gave her a comforting hug, in his own head he thought the same but he also noticed, that this was the first time she had referred to harry as 'our son'. He smiled slightly at this.

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

"ha, like he'll believe that prongslet!" Sirius laughed

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him.

"told you!"

"no one ever doubted you padfoot" said remus

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

"well you kinda did make them happen"

"sirius what are you on about this time?"

"tiger-lily, the strange stuff happening is obviously accidental magic!" said sirius smirking.

lily thought about it for a minute then said, "you know what sirius? you more smart than you let on to be..."

"I know" he said smugly, "just dont tell anyone, it will ruin my reputation"

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barber's looking as though he hadn't been at all,

two of the three mauranders laughed at this while james just sighed and ruffled his raven hair self-consciously.

had taken a pair of scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his fringe,which she left 'to hide that horrible scar'.

lily scrowled in discusted, who was this person who had once been her best friend and close sister?

Dudley laughed himself silly

"shut up, you fat pig" growled sirius, he was siriusly (mind the pun) starting to get peeved off by his best friends future nephew.

at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and his Sellotaped glasses.

"what?! no son of a maraunder get laughed at on my watch!"

"sirius...sit down...talking to a book cant be good for your health... let alone pointand shoutat it" remus said, while not liking that harry was getting picked on, he found sirius very amusing at this point in time.

lily and james on the other hand looked outraged at each other, and silently agreed, with one look, that they would make sure there unborn son would never have to go through this.

lily started to read again after a few moments.

Next morning, however, he had got up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.

"good!" stated the three mauranders and lily at once, they all smirked at each other.

He had been given a week in his cupboard for this,

there smiles quickly turned into frowns.

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 him into a revolting old jumper of Dudley's (brown with orange bobbles).

"eh, dont blame ye there harry" sirius said in disgust.

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

"atta boy, pj!" laughed sirius, the others laughed along with him until james piped up.

"wait, sirius who is pj? my future son is called harrynot jp!"

"sure he is! pj! as in prongs junior, get it prongs?"

they all siggered at sirius' way of thinking.

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

"good!" lily huffed, she still on a little more than angry that her sister would treat her son in such a way. while james just sighed. he couldnt get over the fact that mr and mrs evans had raised such a beautiful, smart, honest, hot headed, opinionated, courageous, selfless daughter (he wanted to go on but realised he could never run out of things to say) and yet they had also raised an ugly, pig headed selfish twat aswell. it didnt make any sense to him but he let it go for the time being. he was sure he would ask lily about it when he had a chance.

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

"well, what was he doing on a roof anyway?"

"hes a marauders son!"

"aye it's what you expect"

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.

"oi my god...we have a flying mini prongs on our hands!" sirius shouted out in a parody voice of someone in shock

The Dursley's had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings.

"thats hardly fair! harry getting into trouble for something he didnt mean to do and because of people bullying him!" lily cried in outrage.

"aw dont worry about it flower, how many letters has been sent home to the potters between us both now, eh prongs?"

"ha, at least 350, i would be disappointed if it was any lower" smiled james

"yes well that may be so, but its still not fair on harry! and why would your letters be sent to his house sirius?"

"lily-cakes, do you really think my parents would care what i got up to here? the potters are more of a family to me then them two pure-blood maniacs ever will be! and minnie knows rightly that mrs p would take the head off me and does and will do again. sure i stay there now anyway"

"and were glad to have you mate" james slapped him on the back, "even if you do eat all our food!"

lily raised her eye brows in surprise, she was aware that the black boy didnt get along with his family because he was against the whole "pure-bloods are better than everyone else" thing but she didnt know that he now lived with the potters. their friendship must really run deep.

But all he tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big bins outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.

"i still say he flew"

But today, nothing was going to go wrong.

"why do i get the really bad feeling that something is going to go wrong?" sighed remus, where was peter, sirius and himself?

"because this is a marauders child? and not just any marauders child, this is james prongs potter co founder of the marauders! takes whos child this is. of course its going to go wrong this thing in his blood" joked sirius. but remus wasnt in for seeing the funny in the horror that was that his friends were dead and their child was in a living hell.

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.

"hmmm, i wonder what his all time favorite subject that he complains about is?" james said sarcastically

" yes, i wonder, couldnt be harry, 'cause that who totally be just out of the question!" played along sirius

This morning, it was motorbikes.

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

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

"it wasnt a dream! it was real! and it was mine!" shouted sirius

"shh!"

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 beetroot with a moustache, "MOTORBIKES DON'T FLY!"

"thats what you think, you muggleton!"

"muggleton? seriously sirius?" smirked remus

"what? he is! and no puns, thank you very much!"

Dudley and Piers snickered.

"twats"

"james, shh!"

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

sirius was about to pipe up but was silenced

"yes, we know it wasnt a bloody dream, no need to remind us again!"

But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even in a cartoon - they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.

"just because they know hes one of us, and that kind of stuff is real for us!" sighed remus

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with people. 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 lolly.

"selfish stingy prick!"

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

laughter bursted through the room

"god, that child of yours sure does have a good imagination"

Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time.

lily smiled sadly, and looked over at james. all she could see was the future and the possibilities of what could come next in his eyes.

"it should have been us taking him to the zoo, on hisbirthday." she said, her eyes wattery

james nodded,"it will be lils, dont you worry, it willbe"

He was 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 him.

They ate in the zoo restaurant and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbockers glory wasn't big enough,

Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.

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

"and here it come" remus rolled his eyes, he just knew it was going to happen, now he just needed to know what was the 'was'.

After lunch they went to the reptile house.

It was cool and dark in here, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes werecrawling and slithering over bits of wood and and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons

Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place.

"im surprised he didnt soil his knickers at the sight of the beast"

It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car,and crushed it into a dustbin -

but at the moment it didn't look in the mood.

In fact, it was fast stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.

"poor snake, having to look at that thing!" joked james

"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.

"your boring"

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 people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long.

It was worse than having a cupboard for a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up

- at least he got to visit the rest of the house.

"aww hes so thoughtful"

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were level with Harry's.It winked.

…

"what?" sirius said in a very serious and even voice

lilys eyebrows pulled together "thats what it says... "...level with...it winked!"

"hmm, im not liking the sound of this..."james mused

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.

"nooo! dont encourage the thing!" remus told the book

The snake jerked its head towards 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."

everyone one was silent, nobody could understand! how could he be a parseltongue?

lily slowly turned to james, "you dont by any chance speak parseltongue and just forgot to mention it?"

james licked his lips and turned his head from side to side

remus was the next to speak

"james, have you ever looked at your family tree? maybe the ability to speak it skips a few generations..."

james was still shaking his head " no way, my whole family has never been able to, they all have been in gryffindor...i don't see harry could be able to do it! its not possible!"

"hmmm, and lily are you sure that no one in your family has magical blood? even if its a far out relative?"

" well, ehh... i dont think so? i cant be sure...ive never really thought about it! my parents would have told me! im completely muggle-born! im sure of it! why is he like that? is is dangerous? will he get into trouble? whats going to happen him?" lily was quickly going into a panic attack

james graded her shoulders, " lily calm down. its okay. hes going to be fine! as long as the wrong people dont find out, he will be ok!"

lilys heart rate slowly began to go down.

"are you sure? you promise?"

james looked straight into those big green eyes, he loved so much "yes i promise!"

"but voldemort can speak parseltongue?"

"it might just be a coincidence lily..." remus piped up now that she had calmed down

"yeah lily, no biggie, no need to through a psycho!" sirius black, always trying to lighten the mood, always.

"sure i bet one of these books has the explanation in it somewhere"

"yeah lets keep reading lils"

"yeah, yeah okay"

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

james was so confused, how could his son speak parseltongue?

The snake nodded 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 boa constrictor 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?"

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

"erh! no, i cant be bothered to listen to that twat again!

Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could.

"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.

"dont you dare touch my son you fat ugly bas-"

"james, please! im not happy about it either dont im not swearing and blinding at the book!"

Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the 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 had leapt back with howls of horror.

Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.

"hahahahaha he made it disappear! what a legg!" laughed padfoot.

The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out on to the floor - people throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.

"not surprised with a great big dirty snake running round the place!"

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

"its really creeping me out that he can speak not bloody snakes!" james mumbled while lily nodded in agreement

"are you serious? oh wait none of you could live up to this!", sirius waved his hand up and down his body, " but really i would love to be able to talk to snakes!"

lily, james and snorted,

"of course you would! but we ( she waved her hand between herself and james) would rather something that can eat our son doesnt start to have a nice wee chat with him before dinner!"

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.

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

"it went puff!" laughed padfoot and prongs

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong sweet tea while he apologized over and over again.

"no need, didnt the two lads a favour if ye ask me"

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,

"should have done more than snap!"

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.

all four of the teenager tuted

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

"shut up you stupid ejit!"

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals,"

"you better feed my baby, you worthless piece of crap!" lily huffed

before he collapsed into a chair and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.

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 in to the kitchen for some food.

"yup, theres not a doubt now"

"no doubt that what remus?"

"thats definitly your child prongs, sneaking out to get food? i can only imagine him at hogwarts!"

james only smiled, it was nice to here

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.

james and lily looked at each other at the reminder of their death. they didnt need to say anything, they both knew they would do anything to make sure they lived to see their son grow

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

"oh my god"

"the killing curse"

"how could he survive that?"

"he must be the only one whose ever done it!"

and a burning pain on his forehead. This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where the green light came couldn't remember his parents at all.

lily had to stop. tears welled up in her eyes and she begged herself not to lose control.

"lily, do you want me to read the rest?" asked james, when he heard that his only son didnt remember him, he felt a pang at his chest where his heart was. but he knew he needed to be strong for his future wife.

"no, no its okay, just...just give me a moment"

after lily took a feww very deep breaths she carried on

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.

"he doesnt even know what we look like!"

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

"ahhh, why didnt sirius or i not come? where were we?"

the Dursleys were his only family.

Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him.

"thats odd"

"maybe not, remember mc gonagall said everyone would know his name...maybe it was true"

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 in all green has waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple cloak had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day then walked away without another word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.

"yup definitely wizards!"

At school, Harry had no one.

"wait till you get to hogwarts, harry! you will love it! ture gryffindor you are!"

lily and james smiles at the thought

Everybody 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.

"well thats the end of that chapter"

"i dont know about the rest of ye's but padfoot is quite hungry..."

"ill read the next chapter and then we'll get some food, okay?"

"okaaay" sirius huffed

and james began to read "letters from no one..."