A Snake's Son

The Zoo

After Harry had finished cleaning the table and the pan he headed back to his cupboard to get ready to go out to the Zoo with the Dursley's for Dudley's birthday. The ride in the car was stressful for Harry to say the least. The whole journey was spent with him crammed into one of the folding seats in the back while Dudley and his friend (Harry couldn't remember their name and didn't care) took up all three of the seats in the middle and had thrown their coats all over him.

Every time he had so much as opened his mouth Uncle Vernon shot him a poisonous look that froze him to the spot. That look meant a punishment, one more move and he wouldn't live to regret it.

They always hit Harry if he did something, anything; wrong. Physical abuse was their favourite punishment. His short life has been filled with nothing but pain and sorrow up until now, there were a few exceptions of course but few and far between. Special people in his life that couldn't meddle but tried to help, the occasional good day or praise from a teacher, that one time they had left him alone for a week and he could make his own meals.

They loved to see him in pain, to hurt him. It must stop. He won't last much longer, and he knows it deep in his soul.

The car stops and the Dursley's and friend force their way out of their seats, Dudley was starting to compete with Uncle Vernon over the title of the family member looking most like an over grown, beached whale.

No one helped Harry out, he almost twisted his ankle climbing over the seats to get to the door before he got locked in. They found it funny, especially if when they came back he was close to collapsing from dehydration.

He almost fell onto his knees as he threw himself through the car door to get out in time. Dudley was chuckling behind his hand the friend copying the cruel behaviour, they immediately turned to the Zoo and set off as fast as Dudley's chubby tree trunk like legs could carry him. Vernon got out his wallet whilst muttering to himself about car parking prices these days and what he would do to the owner if he got a hold of them. There was a lot of strangling motions.

Vernon had bought Dudley and his mate (in his mind Harry calls them thing 1 and thing 2) giant chocolate ice-creams that dwarfed their faces as they tried their hardest to finish it in front of Harry along with sound effects.

Harry was starving at this point he had had almost no food in the morning and his stomach felt as if it was caving in on him, he could try stealing some food when they got home not that it would help much Aunt Petunia has a sixth sense for that sort of thing.

The had been following Things 1 and 2 around for half an hour or so and Harry had been lost in his thoughts. Ever since Dudley had taken up a boxing club that ran for 1 hour every week night Harry's aunt and uncle had insisted that he stay late too. To quote " No way is that freak staying in the house alone for an hour every day he will kill himself and get blood all over our nice clean carpets!". So, as a result Harry stayed after school every week day, this wasn't a bad thing though because although he looked like a proverbial walking noodle he had taken up every martial arts class his school had on offer. Few though they were.

At first this had been out of necessity, if Dudley cornered him he had to be able to defend himself. But he found out that he really enjoyed himself at these clubs and excelled at them. Soon he had mastered the martial arts that his school offered, as much as a young boy could, and his teachers were nothing but praise.

Harry was able to take down multiple opponents twice his size without breaking a sweat. He trained meticulously, and his teachers had even decided to teach him blade work. These skills had saved his life so many times that it was impossible to count. Dudley had a skill for finding him at his most venerable.

They rounded the corner to the reptile house.