Thanks To A Snake

Chapter 1

A young pale skinned boy, thin and lanky with dark messy hair, badly repaired glasses and a lost look on his face sits quietly in the dark. His green eyes seem to flash as he spots a spider crawling around the barely lit confines of his cupboard under the stairs. He doesn't mind spiders though; they're amongst his only friends in the dark.

He reaches down and gently sets the spider on his palm. "You're just like me," He says softly. "Safe in the dark, but in danger as soon as the light hits you." He sets the spider down, carefully, and sadly watches it scurry away. Moments later, he falls into a doze.

A beautiful redhead with enchanting green eyes lets out a horrified scream. A flash of green light cuts through the air, followed by high, cold, maniacal laughter as the woman's body hits the ground. Then, a pair of glowing red eyes replaces the green of the fallen woman, followed by another flash of green light.

Harry shot straight up, panting and dripping cold sweat. 'Another nightmare.' He thought. He stretched his shoulders and rolled the stiffness out of his neck, slowly allowing his eyes to adjust to the dim light of his cupboard. After a few moments, he arose with a sigh, cramming his glasses onto his face as he opened the door to his little hidey-hole. He grudgingly trudged towards the kitchen to make 'ikkle Duddikins' special birthday breakfast. 'Stupid fat whale should be given a special diet, not special meals. Fat tub o' lard..' He thought venomously, as he started the bacon, eggs, kippers, and pancakes. Shortly after, Aunt Petunia walked into the kitchen.

"Freak!" She called, her voice shrill, cutting through Harry's bleary morning.

"Freak! You'd better not ruin my precious Dudley's birthday, or you'll wish you'd died along with your freakish parents." She spat, beady eyes glaring holes into the back of Harry's skull.

"Yes, Aunt Petunia." Harry replied in a sullen seconds later, the stairs creaked and groaned, announcing the arrival of Harry's morbidly obese male relatives. Whale Sr.: Uncle Vernon, and Whale Jr.: Dudley.

"Boy! You'd best have that breakfast done and Dudley's presents out!" Vernon shouted, his face nearing its familiar shade of waddled to a chair in the kitchen, fat jiggling with each step, and plonked himself down with a grunt.

"Mummy! Why does the freak have to come today?" He whined. His greedy eyes darted around as he swiftly counted the pile of presents on the table.

"Thirty six?!" he yelled. "Why's there only thirty-six presents! I had thirty-seven last year!"

Petunia, ever the doting mother, sensed the oncoming tantrum, and in an effort to circumvent it, replied, in a sickeningly sweet, loving voice. "Duddikins, we'll stop on the way to the zoo and get you two more presents. How's that sound pumpkin?" She bustled around the table and draped herself over her small mountain of a child in a very odd approximation of a hug. "The freak," She said, pausing to emphasize the word. "Has to come because old Mrs. Figg is going to visit her son."

'Yeah, visiting her son. Wonder whose brilliant suggestion that was? Good going Harry, you get to visit the snakes at the Zoo.' Harry thought, congratulating himself silently.

The year prior, Harry had discovered one of the many reasons his relatives considered him a freak. While planting Aunt Petunia's rose bushes that summer, Harry had heard a quiet voice complaining that there were not enough mice around. Looking around he only spotted a small, smooth snake.