GROWING UP WITH THE DURSLRYS 3

Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around uncle vervon's car and crushed it into a trash can........ but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. Infact, it was fast asleep.Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils. "Make it move,"he whined at his father. Uncle vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge. "Do it again,"Dudley ordered.Uncle vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snakes just snoozed on."This is boring,"Dudley moaned.He shuffled away Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself... No company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long.It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt petunia hammering on the door to wake you up, at least he got to visit the rest of the house.The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raise fits head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's. It winked Harry stared.Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching,They weren't.

He looked back at the snake and winked, too. The snake jerked it head toward uncle vernon and Dudley, then raise dits eyes 👀 to the ceiling."I get that all the time''.I know, "Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying. The snake nods vigorously. "Where do you come from, anyway? "Harry asked. The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it. Boa constrictor, Brazil. "Was it nice there? "The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on:The specimen was breed in the zoo. "Oh, I see.... So you have never been to Brazil? As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY!!! MR. DUDLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING! "Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could. "Out of the way you, "He said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened so fast no one saw how it happened.... One second, piers and Dudley we're leaning right up close to the glass, the next, They had kept back with howls of horror. Harry sat up and gasped, the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor, people through out the reptiles house screamed and started running for the exits as the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a lot, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come.... Thanksss, amigo. "The keeper of the reptile house was in shock. "But the glass, "he kept saying, "where did the glass go? The zoo director himself made aunt petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber.

As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in uncle vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while pier was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"Uncle Vernon waited until piers was safely out of the house before starting at Harry. He managed to say, "Go... Cupboard.... Stay....No meal, "before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were a sleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.He had lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he had been a bady and his parents had died in that car crash.He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision :A blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. This he supposed was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the greenlight came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions.There were no photographs of them in the house. When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened the Dursleys were his only family. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange stranger they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with aunt petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, aunt petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buyiny anything. A wild looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his land in the street the other day and then walked away without a word.The weirdest thing about all these people was they seemed to vanish the second Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that old Harry potter his baggy old clothes and broken glasses and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.