Basilisk Eyes

Chapter 25: Dudder's beefy foot

After breakfast, Aunt Petunia cleared the dishes while Harry washed them. Uncle Vernon continued to read the paper as Dudley watched obnoxious Saturday morning shows on the telly in the kitchen.

Harry was a little grateful for it (even though he hated the noise) because he was pretty sure it was the reason Dudley hadn't started in on him yet. He was braced for the usual harassments he received from his cousin and more, now that he had a new vulnerability that his cousin was sure to exploit. But Dudley hadn't seemed to notice yet.

Strange.

And Harry was still waiting for the other shoe to drop about the clown-barf serviette. Surely Aunt Petunia hadn't let it go so easily. He was certain she was thinking of all sorts of jobs for him such as washing all the bins, cleaning the toilets, and clearing out the tub drain. Consequently, he wasn't too shocked when that pretty much summed up the rest of his morning.

Oi! I should have been more creative if I was somehow planting the list of work in her head, Harry scolded himself as he carried all the bins from each room out to the backyard to be emptied, hosed out, scrubbed, and dried. He was able to use the staff (in its collapsed form) to locate the bins and then navigate through the house while carrying them.

Dudley tried to trip Harry as he walked through the kitchen to the back door carrying the largest bin, but Harry heard his chair creak ominously and his staff described the obstacle in time for Harry to skirt around Dudley's outstretched foot.

That's more like it!

Harry was tempted to keep some of the soggy remnants from the bin to deposit somewhere for Dudley to sit on, but resisted the urge knowing from past experience how badly retaliation could backfire on him (even if he felt completely justified).

Harry's reverie was interrupted by a lisping little voice near his feet. "Hello, Big Friend!"

Harry hadn't heard him rustling in the grass and guessed it was because it was wet from the hose. A warm feeling spread across his chest as he crouched down to greet Nio.

"Little Friend! I'm so glad you found me! I've been thinking about you."

"I've been missing you," Nio said with a heaviness in his hisses that Harry hadn't heard before.

"Would you like to perch on my neck while I work?" Harry offered. He knew he couldn't spend too much time crouching beside the bins talking to the little snake before Aunt Petunia with her penchant for peering out windows would wonder what he was up to.

Nio crawled onto Harry's offered hand and he gently guided the snake to his neck, loving the feel of his sleek scales against his skin. He tucked in his shirt again as a safety net.

"What are you doing with these big tubs?" Nio asked curiously.

"Cleaning them," Harry explained.

"You have a lot of things to clean," observed the snake.

Harry grumbled at this, though he actually preferred having something to do and an excuse to go outside that didn't get him in trouble with the Dursleys. The sun when it peeked out from the clouds, though it was too bright to tolerate with his eyes open, felt really good on his skin. He liked the breeze whispering through his hair and how it rustled the leaves. Against the backdrop of the hum of Little Whinging's traffic and the train in the distance, bird songs trilled and squirrels chittered, all punctuated by barking dogs and shouting children. It was as much peace as Harry ever experienced at Number 4 Privet Drive.

Nio's guidance was easier to follow than the staff's which described everything in the vicinity even if it wasn't relative to the task at hand. He liked his little snake friend, too, even when he wasn't particularly interested in helping Harry do his work. Like today, Nio just wanted to hang out on Harry's neck and nap and that was fine. He didn't really need the snake for this job, he could just enjoy the softly snoring form draped around his neck. Harry took as long as he possibly could cleaning the bins in the yard until Aunt Petunia yelled at him from the kitchen window to stop lollygagging around and get to work on unclogging the bathtub drain. Nio was startled awake by her shouting.