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Hi...how goes it?

Not much to say right now...which is strange for me... O.o

So here's the next chapter!

Enjoy!

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Listening to- Blow by Ke$ha

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Disclaimer- I own nothing!

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CHAPTER 2- THE VANISHING GLASS

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Ten years had passed since the Dursleys found their niece on the front step and Number Four Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.

Ten years ago the pictures on the mantle showed what appeared to be a large pink beach ball in large frilly dresses and bonnets.

But Daphne Dursley was no longer a baby.

Now the pictures showed a fat blonde girl riding her first bike, swimming at the beach, riding a merry-go-round at the fair ground, playing with her Barbie dolls with her mother and being dotted on by her father.

There was no sign in that room, or any other room in the house for that matter, that another little girl lived there too.

Yet Holly Potter was still there fast asleep at the moment but not for long as her uncle's loud voice made the first noise of the day.

"Up!" he yelled. "Up! Get up now!"

Holly yawned and rolled over.

It was Saturday! Couldn't she have five more minutes?

She had been having a really cool dream about a flying motorbike...what she wouldn't give for one of those!

"Get up girl!" her uncle yelled banging on the door. "I want you to watch the bacon and don't you dare let it burn! I want everything perfect on my princesses' birthday!"

Holly groaned. Daphne's birthday? Oh no, how could she have forgotten?

"What did you say?" her uncle snapped.

"Nothing" said Holly reaching under her bed for a pair of socks. Upon finding a pair she brushed a spider off them and put them on.

Holly was used to spiders because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them and that was where she slept.

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When Holly walked into the kitchen her uncle practically shoved her over to the stove.

Her Aunt Verna was sitting at the table, reading the newspaper and sipping coffee. Not much milk and about five sugars, Holly was sure of that.

"Brush your hair!" her aunt snapped at her by way of morning greeting.

Holly ignored her.

There was no point in brushing her hair.

Her hair hated her, she was certain of that- it was jet black and fell past her shoulders. (Holly had grown it long in the hopes that the weight would tame it) But no matter what length it was it stuck out and up, especially at the top of her head. She had at least half a dozen cow licks and her fringe fell into her eyes. Cutting it just made it worse!

Just then her cousin Daphne walked in.

"There she is!" said Uncle Pete beaming at Daphne fondly, "The birthday girl!"

"Good morning Daddy" said Daphne smiling at him. She always acted like a sweet innocent little girl that could do no wrong around her parents, especially around Pete.

Daphne looked a lot like Aunt Verna- she was fat, very fat, and had no neck to speak of and beady watery blue eyes. She had Uncle Pete's blonde hair though.

Daphne's hair was the exact opposite of Holly's hair; Daphne's hair was very long, almost to her waist, it was straight and neat and bright blonde.

Uncle Pete often said that Daphne looked like a princess, Holly often said that Daphne looked like a pig in a wig.

Holly looked nothing like her family.

Aunt Verna looked exactly like a walrus, except she had no moustache. (It would have been amusing if she had one, though she did have a lot of hair on her upper lip) The only things that made her look different from Daphne were her height and her hair, which was dark and cut in a bob.

Uncle Pete looked like a horse. He had an extremely long neck and he was very bony, his blonde hair was always neatly combed.

Daphne, as was mentioned before, looked like a pig in a wig.

Holly on the other hand was small and skinny for her age, she always had been and she felt she always would be.

Holly wondered if she was so small because she lived in a small cupboard but perhaps it was genetics.

Her hair was, as mentioned, jet black, long and messy no matter what she did. She had a thin face and knobby knees.

The only thing Holly liked about her own appearance were her eyes which were emerald green and almond shaped but they were hidden behind her large round glasses, which were celotaped in the middle because Daphne was always pushing her to the ground or smacking her so hard her glasses fell off.

There was also a strange lightning bolt shaped scar on her forehead and the first question Holly ever remembered asking, was asking Uncle Pete how she got it.

"In the car crash when your parents died" he snapped. "And don't ask questions.

That was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys; don't ask questions.

But Holly couldn't help it! She was naturally curious!

Holly also had to wear Daphne's hand-me-down's.

Daphne was a very girly girl and liked frills, glitter and pink. Lots of pink!

So Holly was forced to wear pink glittery T-shirts, pink skirts that fell way past her knees (would you believe they were mini-skirts on Daphne?) and sandals with even more glitter.

This led to Holly hating the colour pink and anything girly. Over the years she had become quite a tom boy. The only problem was no-one took her seriously in those girly clothes!

Damn her cousin's sense of fashion!

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Speaking of her cousin Daphne was counting her birthday presents and her face fell.

"Thirty six" she said looking at her parents. "That's two less than last year."

"Well honey, some are quite bigger than last year's" said Aunt Verna.

"I don't care how big they are!" said Daphne going very red in the face.

Holly could sense a Mega Daphne Tantrum coming on and was very glad that she wasn't finished the bacon yet. Being near the table at this time could be disastrous!

Uncle Pete obviously sensed danger too because he said to Daphne "When we go out we'll buy you two new presents. So you'll have thirty eight presents. How's that princess?"

Daphne shrugged. "Alright" she said and sat down and started opening her presents.

Aunt Verna laughed. "Wants her money's worth!" she said happily, "Atta girl Daph!"

The phone rang and Uncle Pete left to answer it while Daphne made comments about her presents such as "Doesn't Uncle Maurice know I don't like Bratz?" or "Ooh I love Hello Kitty!" or "Yay it's pink!"

Uncle Pete came back into the kitchen looking like he swallowed a lemon.

"Bad news Verna" he said. "Mr Figg broke his leg. He can't mind her today." He jerked his head at Holly.

Holly knew it was mean but she couldn't help but feel very glad that she wasn't going to see Mr Figg.

Every time the Dursleys went somewhere nice she was sent over to Mr Figg's house.

Holly hated it there. There whole house smelled like cabbage and cat poop, Mr Figg treated her like she was five years old and showed her the photos of his many, many, many cats and went through their names and stories until Holly could go through each cat in her sleep...which she had a few times, which disturbed her greatly.

So even though Mr Figg was nice enough Holly was very glad that she wasn't going to see him and she was especially glad she wasn't going to have to look at Snowy, Mr Paws and Tufty again.

"Now what do we do?" said Uncle Pete glaring at Holly as though she had somehow planned this.

"We could phone Maurice" suggested Aunt Verna.

"Don't be silly Verna, he hates the girl!"

To be honest the feeling was mutual.

"What about your friend? What's-His-Face? Isaac?"

"He's on holiday in Majorca" snapped Uncle Pete.

"You could just leave me here" suggested Holly hopefully. That way she could watch what she wanted on TV for a change and have a go on Daphne's computer.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" growled Uncle Pete, again looking like he swallowed a lemon.

"I won't blow up the house!" said Holly but they weren't listening, still trying to think of something to do.

"I suppose we could bring her" said Uncle Pete slowly. "And leave her in the car..."

"That car's new" said Aunt Verna, "She's not staying in it alone."

Daphne started to cry.

She wasn't actually crying, it had been years since she really cried, but she knew if she screwed up her face and wailed her dad would give her whatever she wanted.

After all Pete couldn't have his Precious Princess upset could he?

"Oh sweetheart, don't cry Daddy won't let her ruin your special day!" said Uncle Pete flinging his arms around Daphne.

"I d-d-don't w-want her t-to c-c-come!" wailed Daphne "S-she always s-s-spoils everything!"

She shot a nasty grin at Holly between the gap in her father's arms.

The doorbell rang.

"Oh Lord they're here!" said Uncle Pete rushing to the front door to let in Daphne's best friend Paris Polkiss who walked into the kitchen with her mother.

Daphne stopped pretending to cry immediately.

Paris was a scrawny girl with a face that resembled a rat. She was usually the girl who pinned people down while Daphne hit them.

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Fifteen minutes later Holly (who couldn't believe her luck) was sitting in the back seat of the car going to the zoo for the first time in her life. Daphne and Paris of course kept shooting her nasty looks as though they hoped Holly would drop down dead any moment.

Before they left Aunt Verna had pulled her aside and glared at Holly, her face very close to Holly's.

"I'm warning you now girl" she said dangerously. "Any funny business any at all and you won't be getting any meals for a week!"

"I won't do anything" said Holly but Aunt Verna didn't listening to her. No-one even did.

The problem was strange things always seemed to happen around Holly.

One time Uncle Pete got tired of her coming back from the hairdresser's looking as though she hadn't been and had cut her hair so short she looked like a boy, leaving only her fringe to "hide that horrible scar!"

Daphne had laughed herself silly and Holly hardly got any sleep that night, worrying about school the next day where she was already teased for her height, glasses and boyish attitude.

But the next day when she got up Holly found her hair even longer and thicker than it was when Uncle Pete cut it off.

She had been given a week in the cupboard for this even though she tried to explain that she couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

Another time Uncle Pete had been trying to force her into a horrible old party frock of Daphne's (pink, extra frills, white smocking with little hearts and heart shaped buttons on the front) but the harder he tried to pull it over Holly's head, it shrunk. It shrunk and shrunk until it might have fit one of Daphne's Baby Born dolls but it certainly wouldn't have fit Holly. Uncle Pete supposed that it shrunk in the wash and (to her great relief) Holly wasn't punished.

On the other hand she had gotten in terrible trouble for being caught on the roof of the school kitchens.

Holly didn't know how it had happened. She had been running from Daphne and her gang and had tried to climb up a tree outside the kitchens when there was a popping noise and suddenly Holly was sitting on the chimney.

She had tried to explain this to Aunt Verna when she had been locked in her cupboard. Holly had to wonder what had happened. Maybe the wind had caught her mid-jump?

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Aunt Verna was driving and complaining. Aunt Verna liked to complain about a lot of things; Holly, the bank, Holly, the council, Holly, people at work, traffic, Holly, bad weather and Holly were just a few of her favourite subjects.

This morning she was complaining about motorcycles while Uncle Pete nodded in agreement, but he did not seem to be really listening occasionally saying "Yes dear" or "You're certainly right Verna."

"Roaring along like maniacs the young hoodlums!" said Aunt Verna as a motorcycle overtook them.

"I had a dream about a motorcycle!" said Holly suddenly remembering "It was flying!"

Aunt Verna nearly crashed her new car as she spun around to face Holly. He was very purple in the face. It was quite fascinating.

"MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!" she shrieked.

Daphne and Paris giggled.

"I know they don't!" said Holly folding her arms and slouching in her seat. "It was only a dream."

The Dursleys did not like her talking about anything out of the ordinary. They didn't even like her to watch cartoons. They seemed to think she would get dangerous ideas.

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When they got to the zoo Uncle Pete and Aunt Verna bought Paris and Daphne two large strawberry ice creams, and then because the smiling lady in the van asked Holly what she would like, Aunt Verna bought her a cheap lemon ice lolly.

'It wasn't bad either' Holly thought licking it as she looked at a gorilla that bore a striking resemblance to Daphne except it wasn't blonde and Holly was certain it wasn't female, which (in her opinion) made the resemblance even funnier.

After that they went to the reptile house which was a large cool building.

Daphne and Paris immediately went to find the biggest, coolest reptile there was and came across a Boa Constrictor that was so large it could have wrapped around Aunt Verna's car three times and squished it to the size of a dustbin.

Although it didn't look up to it at the moment. In fact in was fast asleep.

"Make it move!" Daphne whined to her mother.

Aunt Verna tapped the glass smartly with her knuckles.

"Move!" she said.

Daphne smacked the glass with both her hands yelling "Move!"

"He's asleep!" Holly snapped at her with narrowed eyes.

Daphne rolled her own eyes. "He's boring" she said and walked off with Paris, Uncle Pete and Aunt Verna.

Holly looked at the snake and felt rather sorry for it. It was stuck in that cage with nothing to do all day, rather like Holly in her cupboard but at least she got to visit the rest of the house.

"Sorry about that" she said to the snake, "She doesn't understand what's it's like; lying there day after day watching people press they're ugly faces in on you."

The snake looked at Holly and rose to her eye level...it winked.

Holly gaped in astonishment. "Can you hear me?" she asked.

The snake nodded.

"It's just, I've never talked to a snake before" said Holly. "Do you...I mean, do you talk to people often?"

The snake shook its head.

"You're from Brazil right?" Holly asked. "Was it nice there? Do you miss your family?"

The snake pointed the end of its tale at a sign that read; This specimen was bred in captivity.

Holly nodded in sympathetically. "I see" she said to the snake, "That's me as well. I never knew my parents either."

"DAPHNE, MRS DURSLEY!" shrieked Paris suddenly. "LOOK AT THIS YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT THIS SNAKE IS DOING!"

Daphne and Paris came running over.

"Out of the way you" said Daphne to Holly, pushing her so hard that she fell onto the hard concrete floor.

What happened next happened so fast that no-one really saw it; one moment Daphne and Paris were leaning against the glass and the next moment they leapt back with squeals and shrieks of horror.

Holly sat up and gaped in shock for the second time that day; the glass to the Boa Constrictor's cage was gone and the Boa Constrictor has unwound itself and was leaving the cage.

The snake stopped in front of Holly and blinked up at her and then hissed "Thanksssss."

"Anytime" said Holly in bewilderment. What had she done?

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The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.

"But the glass!" he kept saying "Where did the glass go?"

The keeper of the zoo himself made Aunt Verna a cup of strong sweet tea and apologised to Uncle Pete endlessly for what had happened, even though none of them were sure what had happened.

Holly had to admit though; it could have been a lot worse.

And it did get a lot worse in the car ride home when Paris calmed down enough to say: "Holly was talking to it weren't you Holly?"

That girl just made the top of Holly's List; next time they played football in P.E she was getting a ball to the face!

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Aunt Verna waited until Paris left to start yelling.

She was so furious that she couldn't form a complete sentence; "Go-cupboard-stay-no meals!"

And she collapsed on the sofa while Uncle Pete brought her a large glass of wine.

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God damn the Dursleys! Damn them and their obsession with normality to hell!

Holly was sitting in the cupboard hours later wishing she had a watch. She couldn't tell if the Dursleys had gone to bed yet and it wouldn't be safe to go to the kitchen and steal some food until they had.

Ten years, ten miserable years Holly had lived with the Dursleys and each year seemed to be worse than the last. Holly wished she still had her parents. Sometimes when she strained her memory as far as it would go she could remember a flash of light and a yell. This, she supposed, was the car crash, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what made that green light.

And why did all that strange stuff happen to Holly?

She didn't just make strange things happen, sometimes strangers would come up to her in the street. Very strange strangers they were too.

Once when Holly had been out shopping with Daphne and Uncle Pete a little woman in a violet top hat bowed to Holly and continued on as though it was perfectly normal to bow to little girls.

After asking Holly furiously if she knew the woman Uncle Pete dragged both Holly and Daphne out of the shop without buying anything.

Another time a tall black woman with gold earrings shook actually shook her hand and walked away without saying anything.

Once a merry looking man dressed all in green waved to her on a bus.

The strangest thing about these people was that they disappeared whenever Holly tried to get a closer look.

At school Holly had no-one. Everyone knew that Daphne and her gang hated That Weird Holly Potter with her tapped glasses, too large clothes and boyish attitude and no-one wanted to mess with Daphne's gang.

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A/N: As I'm sure you noticed I've made Holly a bit more...I don't know how to put it, independent? Sarcastic? Either way the girl's got an attitude. If you don't like it tough, I'm keeping her that way. I guess you could say she's putting up a tough front to make it seem like the bullying and loneliness doesn't bother her... *shrugs* Call it what you will. Please review :)