Hi, I know there was a bit of a long wait for this sequel but here it is! I just needed some time to figure out how exactly everything was going to go down. Now it's ready to go. If you've stumbled upon this story by chance then I urge you to read it's predecessor 'Harry Potter and the Family who Lived', everything will make much more sense that way. However, if you don't want to I won't get in your way...read onnnn!

I will now shut my virtual gob and get on with it...

Disclaimer: Everyone knows JK wrote Harry Potter...

Chapter 1

The Reptile House

Harry blinked his eyes open blearily and sat up in bed. Outside his window he saw a perfect summer morning, fresh, bright and sparkling. He smiled throwing the cotton sheets off his body and hopping out of bed, on his way over to his bedroom door he paused and looked back at the Comet Two Sixty propped against the wall in the far corner. His parents had got him the broom the year before as a late birthday present. He would definitely be riding it later.

As he rushed down the stairs he heard voices coming from the kitchen and smelt the scent of scrambled eggs frying. His stomach gave a loud growl at that he ran into the kitchen, almost skidding to halt on the polished wood floors.

"In a hurry Prongslet?" he heard the laughing voice of his God-Father, Sirius Black, say.

He was sitting, as he did about three days a week, at the Potter's kitchen table. A plate of half eaten scrambled eggs on toast and a mug of tea was before him. Sirius looked, as he always did, energetic and cheerful, although in his eyes you could still see an eerie hauntedness that lingered there since his stay in Azkaban.

On the opposite side of the table his Father sat looking slightly worse for wear. He had had a hard day at work the day before and had come home late, he still looked tired. Both he and Sirius had become fully trained Aurors a few months before but unlike Sirius, James Potter found he did not have insurmountable hoards of energy at his disposal. His glasses were even more crooked on his face than usual and his eyelids were drooping slightly but he grinned as he saw Harry enter the room.

"Morning Harry," he said pulling out a chair for his son, "sleep well?"

"Yeah, I did," Harry said eyeing his Father and God-Father's breakfast, "you?"

"Hungry are you?" James asked in response noticing Harry's preoccupation.

"Yes, it certainly looks as though he is Prongs," Sirius smirked, "Shame that."

"What?" Harry asked suspiciously, "why is that a shame?"

"Well, I'm sorry Harry but we've just eaten the last of it," James sadly shaking his head, "to think, if you had only gotten up a little earlier..."

"You could've had the most delicious meal your mother has ever cooked I believe," Sirius finished gravely, "Wasn't it Prongs?"

"Oh yes Padfoot," James said quite seriously, "the most delicious indeed."

Harry looked over at the stove half expecting to see a frying pan sitting there, he was sure he'd heard one sizzling away before he entered the kitchen, but there was none there. He aimed another suspicious look at the two men at the table. Their identicle mischievous grins not making him feel inclined to believe them. Also, there was the fact that his mother, far from not making enough food for him to have breakfast, was practically obsessesed with making sure he ate enough.

"Where's Mum?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

As if by magic a door off the kitchen that led out to a little garden swung open and in through that door came Lily Potter, a highly unimpressed look on her face and a frying pan brimming with scrambled eggs clutched in her hand.

"Does anyone care to explain what my frying pan was doing hanging off the window ledge?" She asked, her eyes narrowed eyes, identical to her son's, focused directly on her husband.

"Don't ask me!" James said quickly, "It was Padfoot!"

"What!" Sirius cried, "Don't blame this on me it was entirely your idea!"

"My idea? I was just sitting here minding my own business and you suddenly said-"

As the argument escalated Lily made her way over to her son and kissed him good morning before summoning a plate to the table and piling a mound of scrambled eggs on it. Harry tucked in hungrily and didn't even look up to see his Mother smack Sirius and James round the back of their heads. The argument ended abruptly as both men quickly raised their hands to rub the backs of their heads.

"Ow woman!" Sirius exclaimed clutching his head, "Why'd you do that? I'm not your husband!"

"Oh, I know that well enough Sirius," Lily said rolling her eyes, "but with the number of times I've cooked you meals, one might begin to get a bit confused!"

"Ah there's a thought!" James said momentarily distracted, "when're you getting yourself a wife Padfoot? I always thought you'd get married first."

"Really?" Sirius said dubiously, "That's odd, I always thought it would be you, you were after all the one who happened to be in love for most of our friendship."

James grinned up at his wife who tried to hide a smile as she sat down at the table. James turned back to his best friend, his expression clearly stating, 'So?'.

"Well you've taking the good one eh?" Sirius said teasingly, "I let you have Lily, now there's no one left."

James spluttered while Lily once again rolled her eyes.

"As if you even had a chance Black," Lily said simply. James beamed.

"Ha!" He said happily, "let me have her...humph!"

Sirius merely shrugged. "Keep telling yourself that darling," he told Lily and offered her a daring wink. She snorted.

"You know," Lily said as James sidled closer to her under Sirius' smirk, "If you had your own wife, you wouldn't have to leave your house every morning for breakfast."

"What's all this talk of marriage?" Sirius said wrinkling his nose slightly, "Are you lot trying to get rid of me?"

"No mate," James said, "we want you to be happy."

"I am happy," Sirius said grinning widely, "I'll have you know I've got a different girl every week."

Lily glared at him and shot a meaningful glance at Harry who appeared to be entirely engrossed in his breakfast and not paying them much attention at all.

"Let's leave him alone Lils," James laughed, "I'd say he's happy enough, let him have his fun."

Sirius glanced at the clock on the wall and sat up quickly.

"Galloping Griffins!" he exclaimed, "I'm late for work!"

"Oh, better go then," James said glancing at the clock as well, "It's been right hectic at office these days, use the fireplace."

"Thanks," Sirius said looking up at the clock again, "Great breakfast Lils, see you Harry."

"Bye Sirius," the three of them said almost in unison as he dashed out of the room. A moment later there was a soft whoosh as he floo'ed to the Ministry.

"Alright," James said, a little while later as he carried their plates over to the kitchen sink, "I'm off today, what shall we do?"

Harry shrugged. His attention was caught by a calendar pinned near the door. He hadn't remembered.

"It's Dudleys birthday today," he said softly, he was thinking about how his life had been, only a year ago, it seemed so far away.

"Oh, is it?" James said distantly, "what did you usually do for his birthday?"

"Er," Harry shifted uncomfortably, he didn't like to tell his parents much about his life with the Dursleys, his Dad would look angry, an expression that seemed foreign to his face, and his mother would go red and mutter under her breath.

"Usually," Harry began hesitantly, "Dudley would go out with Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and one of his mates at school, I stayed with Mrs. Figg, one of their neighbours."

"You mean they left you behind," Lily stated more calmly than she felt. At Harry's timid nod, she shook her head angrily and scowled.

"They are so lucky they'll not see me again," Lily said in a dark tone.

"Well why don't we go out today?" James said coming over to put an arm around his wife, he tried to smile brightly, "We can do something fun ourselves, where'd you like to go Harry?"

A few two hours later they arrived at London zoo. Harry had always wanted to go there, he'd seen the adverts on TV and when Dudley had been taken there a few years ago Harry had felt a bit zealous.

By the time they arrived at the zoo it was very hot and sunny, the zoo was teeming with people. Harry's parents bought him a large chocolate ice cream at the gate, and he licked it happily as they strolled around the zoo looking at all the animals. As they paused infront of an enclosure that housed a large gorilla, Harry commented to his father that it looked rather like Dudley and they both shared a laugh.

Harry was enjoying himself greatly, it felt wonderful to be out and doing something fun with his parents on Dudley's birthday when for the past years of his life he had bee cooped up in a house with a batty old lady who spoke of nothing but her cats. They had lunch in the zoo's restaurant, Harry enjoying a double decker burger and chips along with his father while Lily complained jokingly that her own greasy lunch would make her fat.

After lunch they went to one of the only exhibits they had visited, the reptile house. Inside was dark and cool and filled with lizards and snakes which slithered behind glass enclosures. Harry wandered over to one which housed a large muddy brown coloured one. Despite the snake's sze it merely sat there, coiled up, and sleeping, not doing very much at all. Harry noticed that around the room people were tapping on the glass fronts of the cages, trying to get the snakes to do something. He thought it must be quite tiring, having people knocking on the glass all the time, trying to get you to do something entertaining.

The snake suddenly looked up at him and winked. Harry stared. Quickly he looked around him. His Mum and Dad were looking at a bright purple lizard a few feet away. He looked back at the snake which nodded it's head quite certainly.

It gave Harry a look which plainly said, 'I get that all the time.'

"It must be really annoying," Harry said leaning his head against the glass, uncertain of whether the snake could hear him.

The snake nodded again.

"Where're you from?" Harry asked it curious. It pointed the end of it's tail at a sign stuck to the glass. Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"You're from Brazil," Harry asked interestedly, "Was it nice there?"

The snake pointed to another sign. Bred in Captivity.

Before Harry could ask another question he heard a horrible familiar voice.

"DUDLEY! ! COME QUICK! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT THIS SNAKE IS DOING!"

It was Piers Polkiss' voice. Harry knew him from Primary school, he was one of Dudley's best friends. Sure enough Dudley came waddling up and shoved Harry out of the way, not even seeming to notice who he was. Caught by surprise, Harry fell over onto the concrete floor, he glared at Dudley feeling a lifetime's worth of anger towards the boy and what happened next could not have been anticipated. One moment the glass that Piers and Dudley were leaning against was there and the next, it simply vanished. Harry stared in astonishment as the boa constrictor uncoiled itself and slithered out onto the floor. Pandemonium erupted, people started screaming and running for the exit, Harry was frozen on the floor along with Piers and Dudley who were white with fright. As the snake passed Harry he was sure he heard it hiss, 'thanks amigo'.

Suddenly Lily and James were there hauling him up and tugging him away from the scene as his Aunt and Uncle appeared around the corner, Petunia almost hysterical as zoo keepers arrived attempting to catch the snake. His parents pulled him away, out to the parking lot and into their car. It was only when the doors were completely shut that his parents began to laugh. Harry stared at them in amazement, He had been sure they would be angry with him.

"The glass," Harry finally said as his Mum pulled onto the road, "the glass just...I didn't mean to..."

"Of course you didn't Harry," James laughed, "It was accidental magic, quite funny, there I was ready to tell that kid off for shoving you like that, next thing you know you go and vanish the glass! I think that skinny one wet himself!"

"You're not angry then?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"Of course not Harry!" Lily said , "You didn't do it on purpose, it's happened to everyone, I certainly have some stories!"

"Me as well!" James said, "Wow! Imagine that, certainly not the end of the day I expected."

"The zoo keepers will certainly be stumped," Lily said, "They'll wonder where the glass went."

"No they won't," James said, "I put it back as soon as I got over the shock, it won't stop them being confused though, how else would the snake have gotten out?"

They all laughed, Harry beginning to relax. As his parents cheered him up by telling him how lucky it had been that it was Dudley who got frightened by the snake he completely forgot to mention the fact that he had spoken to it.

So what do you think of that as a beginning? Reviews make my heart sing!