Chapter 3

The next morning, the group of teachers, Order members and students settled down in their chairs to read the next chapter. Professor Dumbledore said,

"I think you should read this next chapter, Harry. It will tell us about your life with the Dursleys from your perspective." Harry's face suddenly drained of all color as he turned pale. Professor Snape thought, "Why so terrified, Potter? Ah, surely it is a plea for attention. No doubt he will become even more egotistical and arrogant, much like his bloody father.

Harry read, "Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass."

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.

"Really? The Burrow is always changing!" said Charlie and Bill Weasley, speaking up for the first time.

Harry grinned.

Thse sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursley's front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful new report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets-

Petunia looked affronted.

The room exploded in laughter, even Professor Snape smirked.

but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby , and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother.

The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.

Most of the people in the room had worried, concerned expressions on their faces with the exception of Professor Snape, who sneered and thought, "Too high and mighty to have your picture taken, Potter?" The thought "He is Lily's son too," crossed his mind, but he shoved it away.

Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

Professor Snape, Remus, and Hermione winced.

"I feel for you, Harry," said Hermione.

"This idiot here," Remus said, pointing at Sirius ("HEY!"),

thought it would be funny to wake me up by screeching at me when he forgot with my werewolf hearing, I hear things 3 times as loud as normal people.

Sirius smiled sheepishly.

Harry just snorted and rolled his eyes.

Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.

"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove.

Remus frowned. "I used to visit Lily at her family's house sometimes. You shouldn't be able to hear the stove from any of the bedrooms on the second floor."

Harry looked nervous and there was an awkward silence when he didn't say anything.

He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it.

"My motorbike!" exclaimed Sirius.

"We know!" said Remus, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Sirius turned red.

He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.

"Nope, Harrykins, it was a memory." Said Fred and George, grinning.

His aunt was back outside the door.

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Nearly," said Harry.

"A little tired, are we, Prongslet?" teased Sirius.

"Oh, shut up," Harry muttered while blushing and glaring good-naturedly at Sirius. The Weasley twins were trying very hard not to laugh and succeeded.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday.

"SHE MADE YOU COOK?" shouted Madam Pomfrey, Mrs. Weasley, Professor McGonagall, and Hermione.

"That's appalling! My parents wouldn't let me touch the stove until I was 13!" said Hermione, indignant.

Harry blushed again.

Harry groaned.

"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.

"He didn't say anything!" exclaimed Ginny.

"Nothing, nothing…"

Fred and George snickered.

Dudley's birthday-how could he have forgotten?

Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them,

Ron shuddered. "Still scared of spiders, Ron?" asked Harry.

"You would be too, if your twin brothers turned your teddy bear into a real, live spider as their first accidental magic! said Ron. "Care to tell why I didn't hear about this, boys?" said Arthur mildly. The twins stuttered something like, "Didn'twanttotellyoucauseMumalreadyspankedourbums

goodwithherbroomstick."

Arthur raised an eyebrow at Molly and whispered to her,

"There was no need for that. They couldn't control it as it was accidental magic."

Molly flushed a dark red.

put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.

Silence filled the room as Harry stared at the floor, his face burning.

"Why didn't you tell us the Dursleys treated you this bad, mate? Said Ron.

"Didn't think it was important," mumbled Harry.

From the other side of the room, came,

"YOU LET MY GODSON SLEEP IN A BLOODY CUPBOARD! WHAT IN MERLIN IS WRONG WITH YOU, ALBUS DUMBLEDORE?" shouted Sirius.

Professor McGonagall said, "I told you those were the worst sort of muggles to place him with!"

Professor Dumbledore had a sad look in his eyes as he looked at the Dursleys and said, "Why did you not care for Harry like a son as I requested of you in the letter?

Uncle Vernon's moustache bristled on his now purple face and said, We fed him, gave him clothes on his ungrateful back-"

"Only after Dudley finished with them," added Harry coldly.

Sirius and Remus looked livid.

Professor Snape, however, was shocked. He thought, "How could I have missed the signs of him being abused?

I can't believe I ever thought he was spoiled and arrogant; he was treated the way I was, although he acts more like Lily than James. I have to apologize to him after these books are done."

When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise- unless it involved punching somebody.

"That better not be who we think it is, Harry, " growled Sirius and Remus.

Harry didn't say anything, he knew what was coming up.

Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry, but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.

Sirius and Remus looked slightly relieved at that, and let it go.

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.

"James was a midget at eleven too," laughed Sirius.

Harry grinned again.

He looked even smaller and skinner than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.

Suddenly a big plate of tuna sandwiches appeared in front of Harry with some vials of Nutritive Potion.

"Eat, Harry, you are far too skinny for a fifteen year old." Said Mrs. Weasley and Madam Pomfrey.

"You do realize this was in the past, don't you?" said Harry. Mrs. Weasley and Madam Pomfrey just looked at him. Resigning himself to his fate, Harry sighed and ate three of the sandwiches and downed two of the potion vials, then continued.

Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes. He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.

Sirius, Remus, and Severus growled.

The only thing Harry liked about his appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning. "You liked your scar?" asked Hermione, Ron, Fred, George, and Neville, incredulous.

"I had no reason to hate it then. It was the only reminder of my parents that I had."said Harry.

He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.

"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions."

"Lily and James did not die in a car crash!" said Remus, Sirius, and Severus, except Severus said it more quietly.

"I know that now!" exclaimed Harry.

Sirius and Remus flushed.

"If you can't ask questions, how are you supposed to learn?" asked Hermione.

Harry shrugged.

Don't ask questions-that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys. Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.

"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.

"That's not very nice!" Hermione huffed.

About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way-all over the place.

"It's the curse of the Potter hair!" grinned Sirius.

Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat, head.

Professor Snape was disgusted by the description.

Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley loosed like a baby angel-Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.

Cue laughter throughout with the room. Then came Fred and George's shout of "WHERE IN MERLIN DID ALL THIS HUMOUR GO, HARRY?"

Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.

"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father.

"That's two less than last year."

"36? Even I don't get that many," said Draco.

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."

"What is he, five?"snorted Hermione viciously.

"All right, thirty-seven then,"said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.

Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"

Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, "That's terrible parenting! You're not supposed to obey their every whim!"

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty…thirty..

"Great Merlin, he can't even count?" said Remus and Sirius incredulously.

"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.

"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then." Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair. At that moment the telephone and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried. "Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day to adventure parks, hamburger restauraunts, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.

Dumbledore started to chuckle at this. Only Arabella and her beloved cats.

"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy wjem he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.

Ron and Hermione giggled, while Harry shot a mock glare playfully at them and rolled his eyes.

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.

"Isn't she the one you blew up a couple of summers ago?" said Ron.

Snape, who had been taking a long drink of water, suddenly choked and barely covered up his laugh with a cough, although Remus looked suspiciously at him.

"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."

"The feeling's mutual," Harry said.

Snape looked at him curiously and wondered what Marge Dursley had said or done to Harry to make him hate her.

The Durselys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there-or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.

"What about what's-her-name, your friend-Yvonne?"

"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).

"Nice try, mate" said Ron.

Harry grinned sheepishly.

Aunt Petunia ;ppked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.

"She always looks like that though," Harry felt the need to explain. Snape snorted and Hermione giggled.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.

"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.

"Do it! Do it!" said Fred and George, egging book-Harry on.

"Not the house, just your aunt," grinned Ron.

"When was this?" said everyone in the room except Ron and Hermione.

"Third year, after Sirius escaped from Azkaban." Said Harry.

"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly"…and leave him in the car…"

"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone…"

Sirius and Remus growled murderously.

Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact he wasn't really crying-it had been years since he'd really cried-but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.

"Spoiled brat," said viciously Hermione, Mrs. Weasley, Madam Pomfrey, Professor McGonagall, and to everyone's surprise, Professor Snape, although a bit more quietly.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.

"I…don't…want…him…t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!"

He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms. Just then, the doorbell rang-and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them.

Sirius and Remus hissed at the reminder of their oncetime friend and traitor Peter Pettigrew also known as Wormtail.

Professor Snape thought, "People like me," and stared at the ground with his fists clenched as memory after memory replayed in his mind of James Potter and his gang of Sirius, Remus, and Peter Pettigrew humiliating him, beating him up, and picking on him.

Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore, and Madam Pomfrey looked sadly at him; Remus and Sirius looked deeply ashamed of themselves, and Harry looked confused and curious.

Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once. Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley,on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside. "I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's. "I'm warning you now, boy- any funny business, anything at all- and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

'I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly…"

But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.

The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly

at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it

had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

"You're a Metamorphagus, Harry," said Tonks.

"You mean I can change my appearance at will?" said Harry without thinking.

He suddenly was the recipient of many odd looks from everyone in the room. "How do you know what a Metamorphagus is, Harry? Even I didn't know what one was until just now." Said Hermione.

Harry blushed and said, "The Dursleys mostly ignored me if I stayed in my room, so I read my books a lot."

Draco and Snape stared and Snape thought, "Another misconception that I was wrong about. Lily used to love to read too…"

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls)

"Ewww…" came from Hermione and Ginny.

The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until

finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to

his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.

On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on

the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was

sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have

caught him in mid- jump.

"Really, Harry? Mid-jump?" laughed Hermione and Ron.

"I was eleven!" exclaimed Harry.

"You apparated?" asked a very astonished Remus.

"Actually, I think I flew…" Harry mused.

"Just like Lily all those years ago…" Severus thought.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room. While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to

complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects.

"Awww, I think he loves you Harry," said Sirius in a mock baby voice. Harry threw a pillow at him in response.

This morning, it was motorcycles.

"... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.

I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"

Dudley and Piers sniggered.

I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."

But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a

dream or even a cartoon - they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.

Fred and George got identical smirks on their faces and Mrs. Weasley shouted, "I FORBID YOU TO WATCH THESE CARTOONS!"

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The

Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the

entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop. It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they

watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley,

except that it wasn't blond.

Remus pretended to look stern while saying, "Don't insult the gorilla!" However it was ruined by his lips twitching. Sitting next to him, Sirius had no such qualms and burst into laughter and couldn't stop for five minutes.

Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him. They ate in the zoo

restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbockers glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.

Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last. After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and

stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car

and crushed it into a trash can - but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, 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 snake 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.

"You have depressing thoughts, Harry. I expect your mind is infested with Nargles." Said Luna dreamily.

Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not; after all, he didn't want to hurt her feelings.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised

its 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 its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised

its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:

"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."21

The snake nodded 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:

This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see - so you've never been to

Brazil?"

The only person who was surprised that Harry was a parselmouth was Sirius.

Sirius stared at Harry. "You can talk to snakes?" he asked, incredulous.

Harry flinched, than wrapped his arms around himself. His voice shaking, he said, "Y-y-yes. V-Voldemort transferred some of his powers to me the night he tried to k-kill me. Y-You're not going to hold that against me, a-are you?" said Harry tremulously. Remus glared at Sirius pointedly as he gathered in Harry and embraced him in a hug. Sirius looked ashamed and said "Of course not, Harry! I'm sorry if I overreacted a bit, but I always hated Slytherins with a passion because it reminded me of everything my family was and everything I was not. They believed in the whole pureblood thing; They worshiped Voldemort with devotion and tried to get me to take the mark, but I refused and was disowned. I ran away at the age of sixteen and stayed at your father's house during the next two summers and holidays. My brother, Regulus, took the mark in my stead and look where it got him," Sirius said bitterly. "Regulus couldn't stomach the gruesome things Voldemort would do to Muggles and other wizards, so he tried to get out of being a Death Eater. Voldemort found out and killed him personally." There was an awkward silence as Sirius stared at the floor. Remus, who had already heard this story a few years ago when the Marauders were in their seventh year of school at Hogwarts, looked at him sadly.

Severus, however, was experiencing a paradigm shift.

He thought, "Is this why he was the main Marauder that picked on me most of the time? Maybe this is why he tried to set Lupin on me because his brother had just been killed and he wanted revenge."

Severus spoke quietly so only Sirius could hear him and said,"Could I talk to you privately for a moment, Black?"

Sirius looked at Snape quizzically, and when it seemed apparent that Snape would offer up no more information, he said, "If you must. We'll go to the Shrieking Shack where no one else can hear us." Severus nodded in appreciation and thought wryly, "Ironic that we're going to the Shrieking Shack!"

Sirius looked at Dumbledore and said, I'll be right back. Snape wants to talk to me about something privately so we'll be going to the Shrieking Shack."

Dumbledore looked at both of them seriously and said to Severus, "Make sure no one sees Sirius. The Ministry still thinks he is a convicted murderer and will not hesitate to arrest him if he is seen."

Harry offered,"What about my invisibility cloak, Sirius? I mean, since Lucius Malfoy is pretending to be in Minister Fudge's good books, he'll have told him all about you being a dog animagus."

Sirius cursed and said, "I forgot about that."

Sirius draped the Invisibilty Cloak over himself and he and Severus left and went to the Whomping Willow. Severus levitated a twig so that it pressed the knot on the tree and made its branches stop whirling about.

They made their way upstairs and, after casting privacy charms and wards to keep anyone from seeing or hearing them, sat down on the couch in the back of the room.

"What did you want to talk to me about, Snape?"

Severus looked at him seriously and said, "I want to apologize for treating you the way I did and want you to know how sorry I am that your home life was not ideal. If I had known, I assure you I would have made the effort to be friends." Sirius looked embarrassed and muttered,"No, I'm the one to blame. I was blinded by the Slytherin-Gryffindor prejudice that James pressed onto me and didn't see the difference between my family and the Slytherins that were on the side of the light. Can we still be friends now?"

For the first time in years, Severus' face was beaming as he smiled and said, "Friends. Call me Severus."

The pair headed stealthily back to the Room of requirement in time to hear Hermione say, "I wonder what they're talking about that could be taking so lon-"

Hermione broke off as Professor Snape and Sirius walked in. Everyone stared at the two in amazement; Sirius looked as though the weight of the world had been taken off his shoulders. Severus, however, had a beaming smile on his face. Mostly all the people in the room were in shock since they had never seen the potions professor smile once; and here he was, beaming widely.

Dumbledore's eyes looked suspiciously moist; clearly Sirius and Severus had somehow, finally overcome their differences. Harry looked on in astonishment and asked, What happened, Sirius?" Sirius grinned and said, "We apologized for treating each other the way we did for all these years, became friends, and I called him Severus for the first time." A loud thump sounded behind them. They turned around and started laughing uncontrollably; Ron had fainted. Severus got control of himself enough to say, "Well, that's new," amused. Harry shook his head fondly and laughed; he didn't know his potions professor could be so funny. As if reading his thoughts, Severus looked at everyone in the room and said, "It's high time I told you this, especially now that Sirius and I are on good terms (Ron spluttered). The reason that I had to treat the students and other teachers the way I did(his eyes slid towards Remus) is because I had to put on a façade, a mask. If The Dark Lord had found out from Death Eaters' children like Theodore Nott that I was favorable towards children of the light side as well as the dark side, he would have found out that I am a spy. However, that does not give me an excuse for certain people." Severus looked at Harry. "I apologize for the way I have treated you. When I used to look at you, I would only see James and remember how he used to humiliate and pick on me. But, as I have come to realize, that was a unfair assumption and you are much more like Lily." Harry said happily, "I've been waiting five years to hear you say that." Severus asked, shocked, "You were so sure I would apologize for that?" Harry simply replied, "Mum came to me in a dream last night. She said that you had admitted to yourself that you had misconceptions about me and were going to apologize to me after we finished reading all the books, but I guess it happened earlier that she thought!" Then Harry did something that shocked everyone in the room except Dumbledore, Hermione, Professor McGonagall, Mad-Eye Moody, and Madame Pomfrey. He walked over and hugged Severus. Severus' arms came down and wrapped themselves around Harry in a tight embrace. Harry mumbled in Severus' chest, "Can we continue reading the books now? I'm hungry!"

For the second time that morning, Severus laughed long and loud. "Yes, of course," he said. Harry sat back down on the sofa sitting next to Severus and continued.

As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of

them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Dudley came waddling toward 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 concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were

leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt 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 throughout the reptile house screamed and

started running for the exits. As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, 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 Piers 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 on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.

"NO MEALS?" said Remus, Severus, Mrs. Weasley, and Madam Pomfrey dangerously.

Harry just looked at the floor.

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 asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.

He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby 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 green light 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 strangers 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 buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in

green had waved merrily at him once on a bus.

"Professor McGonagall?" Harry asked incredulously.

Professor McGonagall blushed.

A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. "Sounds like Kingsley," Tonks said surprised.

The weirdest thing about all these

people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.

At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.

"That's the end of the chapter," Harry said.

"I can go get some food from the kitchens," he offered.

"That sounds good," said Hermione.

"I'll come back in a little while then!" smiled Harry happily.