1:1 - With the Dursleys

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Petunia Dursley's high-pitched scream surely had woken the whole neighbourhood that morning. Her husband, Vernon Dursley, rushed to her aid and saw the two babies on their doorstep. They were sleeping so soundly. The Dursleys carried them inside and Vernon ripped the envelope open. After he read it, what seemed like a hundred times, his face was a plum and his chair flew out of the veranda. This only lead Petunia to scurry into the garden and baby Dudley laugh his head off.

But all of the commotion didn't disturb the wrapped up two. Their eyelids low and tiny limbs hugging themselves. One of them, who was a boy, had hair the colour of charcoal whilst the other, who was a girl, had hair the colour of roaring fire. Many shades ranging from the scale of orange to red. The one feature to define them as siblings was the fresh, lightning bolt-shaped scars on their foreheads. These two were the only family left of the Potters. These two were Harry and Alice.

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"You two should be grateful that we didn't leave you on the doorstep that day!" Uncle Vernon shut the cupboard door and locked it, leaving Harry and Alice in utter darkness with a bare lightbulb dangling from the low ceiling above them. They had accidentally knocked a few pots of petunias when weeding the garden. Dudley and Piers were stealing the garden tools, making them run around the veranda and bushes. "Give them back!", they cry, only making the gang laugh more and continue to hobble about.

Harry sighed and pulled the switch, which made the lightbulb tumble onto the bed. Alice grabbed the scotch tape off the shelf and wrapped it around the nose bridge of Harry's glasses; Piers punched him when he was tackling for the pruner.

Harry took a moment to have a real good look at his sister. Her green eyes fixed onto his glasses. He had the same colour of eyes but her hair was nothing like his; neat, fire tamed into a high ponytail whilst his was a wild bundle of black hair. Alice cut the end of the tape with an old pair of scissors and put it back on the shelf. "There you go", Alice said, handing over the glasses to Harry. "Thanks."

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The sound of a rattling door startled the two. "Get up! Get up!" Shouted Aunt Petunia. Her shoes created a tapping noise along the corridor. Alice groaned and rose from the bed. "Come on Harry." She nudged his shoulder, urging him to wake up. Alice tied her hair up and stepped out of the cupboard. Harry brushed off a spider from his sock and his hair got coated from sand dust above him. Dudley must've been jumping on the stairs again. Speaking of Dudley, it was his 11th birthday... Great!

"Don't burn the bacon!" Aunt Petunia ordered to Alice, as she finished rearranging the presents laid in the living room. Harry walked in and closed the door behind him, to see Dudley counting his large collection of presents. Uncle Vernon told him there were 36 presents. "36?! But last year I had 37!" Dudley started throwing a tantrum, as usual. Aunt Petunia assured him that they would buy another two presents during their day out. Finally, he calmed down!

Fortunately, there wasn't anyone to look after Harry and Alice as the Dursleys were heading to the zoo, so they had to drag them along. Another tantrum was started by the big birthday boy as they drove out of Privet Drive. Harry and Alice were very excited because this would be the first time they ever went out as a holiday trip. They couldn't wait to see all the animals, especially the reptiles!

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"Make it move!" Dudley's face was against the glass, looking directly at the sleeping boa constrictor. Uncle Vernon rapped sharply, although nothing happened. Dudley left out of boredom to look at venomous frogs, leaving Harry and Alice gazing at the giant snake on the branch. Suddenly, it steadily rose from the leaves and went on eye-level with the two.

It winked.

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