'Tell Me Pretty Lies,' by moongirlel

Chapter 54: Broken Glass

[Treehouse - Alex G, Ft. Emily Yacina]

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Before Hogwarts
Fri. 23rd June 1989 - 9:30am...

Banging on our bedroom door caused me and my brother to wake up frantically.

"Wake up, cousins! Wake up! We're going to the zoo!!" Dudley's voice was loud, and impatient. He kicked the bottom of the door, his exaggerated cheers traveling down the stairs. His footsteps shaking the whole house.

Harry pulled on his glasses, adjusting them on his face. "I'll use the bathroom first."

"Alright," I yawn, stretching my arms out. "I hope there'll be an animal to gobble him up, so we won't have to deal with his excitement the whole day."

Harry laughs, "Yeah. Like a snake or a lion to put him in his place for once."

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The smell of freshly cooked bacon and eggs filled the kitchen and entry hallway.

Walking into the kitchen, I finish tying my hair up into a ponytail.

"Hurry up! Bring my coffee, boy." Vernon called to Harry, hitting the palm of his hand off the dinner table.

Turning my head, a massive tower of presents swarmed the living room space. Piled high on the sofas, and scattered across the floor.

Dudley rummaged through them all, his eyebrows knitting together. "Mummy?"

"Yes, my little Duddy?" Petunia leans down to him, her smile wide.

"How many are there?"

Vernon cleared his throat, sipping on his coffee, which Harry had placed down a second ago. "Thirty-six, I counted them myself."

"Thirty-six?!"

Great, here we go again.

Glancing at my brother, he makes eye contact with me and rolled his eyes dramatically.

"Thirty-six, but last year I had thirty-seven!"

Petunia massaged Dudley's shoulders once he had stood up from the carpet.

"Well, son - Some of them are a lot bigger than last year."

In a fit of childish rage, he kicked a perfectly wrapped up box. "I don't care how big they are!"

Petunia levelled herself with him. "Diddy-kins, how about this-" She kissed his nose, "Whenever we're out today at the zoo, we'll buy you two new presents. Bigger ones. Then it'll be thirty-eight presents. How about that?"

"Fine." Dudley points at me and my brother, "I don't want them anywhere near my presents! And they can't walk with me and my friends at the zoo!"

"Don't worry about that, Pumpkin. We'll deal with your nasty, little cousins today. Don't you think about bating an eye on that." She reassured him, glaring at us over her shoulder. "Am I making myself clear?"

"Crystal." Harry replied, his tone monotone.

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11:26am...

School students, and tourist groups weaved in and out of every and all possible exhibition venues within the zoo.

Reaching the spot with the reptiles, Dudley and his friends hit and banged on the glass enclosures.

Poor animals.

The last thing they want to see today is their ugly mugs pressed up against the dirty glass.

Harry held my hand. We trailed after Vernon and Petunia, making sure to keep our distance - If anything happened, no matter how far away we placed ourselves, we'd still manage to get the blame for it.

Stopped by the snakes and bearded dragons, we watched Dudley scream for the snake to wake up.

He claimed it was dead, and moved on from it quicker than he had even set his eyes onto it.

The Dursley's walked to the other side of the room.

Approaching the snake with my brother, Harry let my hand go. "It must be really boring lying there... day after day."

"Mhm," I cross my arms, reading the sign next to the enclosure.

Harry pat my arm repeatedly, gesturing to the snake who raised itself off the rock. "Jane, look. I think it can hear me."

The snake hissed, nodding it's head. It slithers close to the glass, sticking it's tongue out at us.

"Maybe it finds us more interesting than Dudley and his friends?" I ask, the snake didn't bat an eye at me, solemnly focused on my brother.

"Or just me," Harry smirked, playfully nudging my arm. "I wonder if it misses it's parents?"

Shaking it's head, the snake turns in the direction of the sign.

"Oh." Harry nods, "I see. Me and my sister, we didn't know our parents either."

One moment Harry was talking to the snake, the next his head hit the ground, dragging me down with him.

Dudley shoved past us, crawling up the glass with his greasy hands. "Mummy! Look! The snake's awake! It's moving!"

Holding his own head, I helped Harry stand. Checking him for any injuries, the glass magically disappeared and Dudley crashed down into the dirty, brown water.

The snake hissed, wiggling across the floor to escape. It paused, speaking quietly to us as it passed by, "Thanks."

Keeping our composure, Harry grins. "Uh... Any time?"

"Snake!"
"There's a snake!"
"Snake on the run!"
On lookers yelled. A crowd gathered at the exit, chanting the escape of the wild animal.

Unsure of what we had both witnessed. We could only draw one conclusion.

The glass disappeared with magic.

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