Emily Potter: The Girl Who Lived-Book 1

Chapter 1

"HARRY!!! EMILY!!! GET UP!!! MAKE ME BREAKFAST! ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!" Dudley screamed, while jumping on the stair that shakes so hard, dust falls onto us.

I get up slowly, making sure not to hit my head anywhere on the spider webs or shelves in the cupboard under the stairs. I see Harry trying to find his glasses, and quickly found them and hand them to him.

"Get up you good-for-nothing waste of space!" Uncle Vernon spat at us, while rapping his knuckles on the door.

Harry and I sat up and didn't bother getting dressed, for we have no clothes to change into anyways. In fact, the only things we do have are Harry's glasses, Dudley's huge hand-me-down clothes, and lightning shaped scars on our foreheads. Aunt Petunia told us that a piece of glass from the windshield of the car came and hit us each in the head while we were in a car seat. That's how we ended up here. We were in a car crash at 1 years old, and we survived but our parents didn't.

"DON'T BURN THE BACON!!! Everything on Dudley-kins birthday will be perfect!" Aunt Petunia shouted, breaking my train of thought.

Harry and I shrug and walk out. Harry starts cooking the bacon and the delicious aroma fills the kitchen air. I breathe in deeply, relishing in the smell. We usually never get bacon, Dudley and Uncle Vernon eat it all up before we can have any left overs. I look back at the eggs, which are about to burn. I hastily turn off the burner and bring the pan over to Aunt Petunia first.

"Glad to see you didn't burn them." She remarks.

I slightly smiled, knowing that I would be able to eat this week, if everything went okay for the rest of the day.

Next I went to Dudley, who was currently counting presents.

"How many are there?" He said in a snobby voice.

"36, counted them myself." Vernon boasted. However, Dudley somehow found that unacceptable.

"36???? Last year I got 37!!!!" Dudley shouted, clearly annoyed, but for no good reason.

"Well this year some of them are quite large, don't you think? Dudley?"Vernon asked, then being concerned with no response. He looked at Dudley and found him pouting, about to throw a 12 year old tantrum.

"It's ok Dudley-kins, when we go out, we'll buy you 2 new presents, how's that sound?" Aunt Petunia reassured him. He just nodded. Harry and I rolled our eyes at his greediness.

*phone ringtone*

"Hello, this is Vernon Dursley speaking....yes...I understand....no it's quite alright....are you ok?....ok now, bye then." Vernon answered the phone.

"Who was that?" Aunt Petunia curiously asked.

"None other than Mrs. Figg. She's fallen and broken a leg. She can't take Harry and Emily today. What do we do with them?" He replied.

"You could leave us here." I piped up. If we could have the house to ourselves...we could make our food for us to eat first, we could watch what we wanted to watch, and we could play on games in Dudley's extra room.

"No, no. That won't do. I don't see any other option than to take them with us, Vernon." Aunt Petunia concluded.

Harry and I squealed with joy. We're going to the zoo!!! We ran back to our cupboard and grabbed a light jacket for the aquariums (it was always cold according to Dudley's friend, Piers, he was taking to the zoo).

The ride to the London Zoo wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Not that it was pleasant, but I imagined that I would be stuck next to the fat Dudley, squished up against the car door. Instead, I was in the way back with Harry. It felt really roomy, but considering we were used to Dudley, maybe it wasn't that roomy. Anyways, I digress. We've just arrived at the London Zoo!

As soon as we got out of the car, Dudley and Piers went running for the gates. Both of them are rather chubby, though, so it was more like they were fast waddling. I laughed at the sight of them, and Harry laughed with me.

Before we walked into the gates of the zoo (Harry and I were very eager), Uncle Vernon turned to us and spoke soft, yet harshly,"If you have any funny business, any at all, either of you, you'll have no meals for a week! Understand?"

"Yes Uncle Vernon." we said unanimously, in a mono tone.

We finally caught up to Dudley and Piers at the gates and went in. We wanted to wander around, but we were partially afraid of getting lost in the park and partially afraid of our Aunt, Uncle and Cousin abandoning us.

"Harry! Emily! Hurry up!" a shrill voice said, coming from Aunt Petunia.

"Coming!" we called back.

We ran over to where we caught a glimpse of Aunt Petunia, before she disappeared into the Reptile Enclosure. We went right to the nearest snake, a Brazilian one. I never knew why, but I always found snakes interesting.

Dudley and Piers came over to where we were, thinking we saw was something cool. When they saw the snake wasn't moving, Dudley called out to Uncle Vernon. "Why isn't it moving? Make it move!"

Uncle Vernon rapped his knuckles loudly on the glass, like he did earlier on the cupboard's door. "Move!" He said. The snake didn't budge. Dudley gave up and him and Piers went to see the crocodiles.

"Sorry about him. He's a bit annoying. I bet you get that all the time." I empathized. Then the snake sat up and got his head eye level with mine and Harry's. This is why I find snakes intriguing.

"Can you hear us?" Harry asked, dumbfounded. The snake nodded.

"How was Brazil? You know, before you came here." I asked, remembering the sign. I could swear he sighed, but he turned his head towards another sign that read 'BRED IN CAPTIVITY'.

"Never knew your parents. Us too. Our parents died before we could know them." Harry replied.

Dudley glanced over at us, and saw what the snake was doing, and quickly 'ran' over to us, and left Piers behind. He shoved Harry one way and me the other way so hard that we fell to the ground.

"Mum! Dad! Come see what this snake is doing!!!" He shouted. They started coming over to where we were on the ground and Dudley was next to the glass (they were all the way at the other side of the place). I now noticed that he was pressed up against the glass so hard his nose was practically getting flattened. It would be hilarious if somehow the glass disappeared and he fell into the terrarium. Suddenly, it did just that. The class somehow disappeared and Dudley fell into the terrarium. The snake slid out of his old home and turned first to me, then Harry.

"Thanks." He hissed.

"Anytime." We replied.

I saw Harry turn back to the terrarium, where Dudley had fallen into the pond. I let out a chuckle, and Harry did the same. Dudley stood up as Vernon and Petunia finally got over to us. He was about to climb out of the terrarium when he put his hand out and, get this-the glass reappeared! He was stuck in there! Now I couldn't hold in my laughter, and clearly, Harry couldn't either; he was rolling on the floor. Aunt Petunia shrieked, Piers came running, and Uncle Vernon looked to Harry and me (Harry had rolled himself all the way around Vernon to be next to me) and scowled before he spoke.

"I know it was you two. You'll be in that cupboard for a week with no food! Maybe that'll teach you a lesson." He remarked, sounding happy about it.

I could see Harry opening his mouth to talk back, but, knowing we'd get into more trouble, I just shook my head, and he got the gist.

--------back home--------

Dudley was still shaking from the 'cold' water in the terrarium. Aunt Petunia had gotten him a towel at the gift shop, yet he was fake-shaking violently. Uncle Vernon dragged us by our ears into the cupboard, shoving us inside.

"No food for a week." he said, clearly amused.