"No funny business," snarled Uncle Vernon as we stepped out of the car.

"Yes Uncle Vernon" Harry droned monotonously while at the same time I scoffed what I thought was quietly. Vernon glared at me and shoved a sausagey finger in my face.

"You will behave," he turned away and I rolled my eyes.

Pig saw the gesture and glared at me. I shot a glare right back and Dudley, looking slightly frightened, turned away. He'd brought along one of his friends, Piers Polkiss, Dudley's right hand man.

Dudley was the 'leader' of his little gang, and their favourite thing to do was beat other kids up; kids who were usually younger or smaller than himself. Their favourite target used to be Harry and me, until they'd encountered me when I was still frustrated at Vernon for confiscating my school supplies so I'd get in trouble at school, and all left with bruises and black eyes. From then on they became frightened of me, and left me to my business. Then they'd moved onto Harry, but Harry was much too fast, and I'd always step up to defend him.

We paid to get into the zoo, and went to get ice cream before going to see the animals. Dudley and Piers were both pigging out on triple scoop chocolate ice cream cone, and before Vernon and Petunia could hurry us away, the cheery lady had asked Harry and I what we wanted. Vernon and Petunia grudgingly bought us each a lemon ice lolly, not wanting to make a scene.

Harry and I walked a little ways away from the Dursleys, and kept to ourselves, as to keep from getting yelled at, or anything else that could ruin the morning. We happily ate our lemon ice lollies, and chatted to one and other happily, pointing to animals and laughing.

We walked first to the mammals, I loved the lions. I even got a few pictures on my iPod, without the Dursleys noticing. I turned to Harry, who looked just as mesmerized as I. We watched as one lion raised its head, and looked towards the glass where it must have noticed movement. It walked over, and stood at the glass. I smiled, and put my hand to the glass.

I was slightly disappointed when we had to leave the lions, but I knew we needed to keep close to the Dursleys, as they would surely leave without us. Dudley and Piers then became hungry, so we stopped to get some lunch. When Dudley and Piers both threw tantrums because their knickerbocker glorys weren't big enough, they were given to Harry and I, while new ones were ordered for Pig and Piers.

After we ate, we headed through the rest of the zoo, and I once saw a large pig that resembled Dudley enough that I took a picture of it. Harry snorted loudly when I told him what I thought of it, and I considered telling Dudley as well. I decided I didn't want to be grounded for the rest of the summer, though.

We kept walking until we got to the reptile house, it was dark and damp. The only light was coming from dim light bulbs hanging on the ceiling, and lights from behind the tanks. I sighed in the comforting cool air, and marveled in wonder at the dark room.

"Daddy! Come and look at this one!" yelled Dudley excitedly as he and Piers ran towards a big tank taking up an entire wall.

I looked at the sign on the tank it read, Brazilian boa constrictor. All of a sudden he started banging on the glass with all his might yelling. "Move!"

"Stop!" Harry said quickly "It's sleeping."

"It's boring," Dudley groaned walking away.

Harry, being the kind hearted person he was, went up to the tank and leaned against the rail, sighing slightly. He offered a sorry gaze into the snakes eyes, which almost felt returned. I came up beside him and watched.

"Sorry about him," said Harry sadly. "He doesn't know what it's like locked up with people banging on the glass all day. I know I do. He does it on my bedroom door about every day."

The snake looked up and nodded. It slowly moved closer toward the glass, raising itself to our eye level. Its golden eyes shone with an understanding that I'd never seen in an animal before. I was stunned.

"Can you understand us?" Harry asked, surprised.

The snake nodded again. Its movements were smooth, and the closeness of it amazed me. I longed to be able to reach through the glass.

"Do you talk to people often?" Harry wondered aloud.

The snake shook his head again. For a moment, I questioned whether this was real, or if it were just another crazy dream of mine. I had a lot of those. From flashing green lights to a large deer running around a living room that wasn't ours.

"Where do you come from?" Questioned my brother.

The snake jabbed its tail towards the sign. I read it again. Underneath the species of snake it said in all capitals "BRED IN CAPTIVITY". I smiled sorrowfully into the beady eyes that had locked with my own.

"I see," Harry said. "That's us too."

"Harry that's weird," I muttered as I ripped my gaze from the snake and turned to my brother. "One, we weren't bred. Two, we were sent to them when we were one, so we weren't put into captivity until then." I shivered, "Bred."

Harry laughed, "Yeah, you're right."

I heard an odd hissing sound, and turned to the snake. I saw what was an unmistakable look to me. The snake was smirking, and had let out a laugh along with it. The smirk that was almost ever present on my face matched that of it, and Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad Dad!!!" Yelled the voice I last wanted to hear. "Come and see what the snake is doing!!!"

Dudley elbowed Harry hard in the ribs and Piers pushed me out of the way. Soon the both of us were lying on the floor as they squished his faces up against the glass. I glared at them. Suddenly Pig let out a cry and fell forwards into the water in the tank, taking Piers with him. The glass had disappeared! The snake slithered by him and he whimpered.

"Thanks amigos," the snake hissed, looking at me and Harry on the floor beside it.

I was too in awe to talk. I did sit up, however, and reach out to touch the smooth scales of the snake's long body. It didn't seem to mind. In fact, I could have sworn it moved closer to where I lay, in what I thought may have been an act of thanks.

"Anytime" replied Harry, looking shaken.

"Brazil here I come," said the snake, slithering out of sight toward a bush.

"Come visit sometime!" I exclaim with a laugh.

"How do you suggest I locate you, hm?" The boa said, in what I detected was a cheeky tone. The smirk that I always wore had returned.

"However. Adios er... Eric!" I said, quickly deciding on a name for the snake.

"Eric? Hm. Not a name I would have assumed for myself, but I suppose it'll do."

The snake nodded and within seconds after that was gone. Dudley got up and just as he was about to get out of the tank the glass reappeared. Dudley was stuck. Aunt Petunia came and pressed her hands up against the glass screaming. Harry lay on the floor chuckling and I laughed my head off. Dudley and Aunt Petunia looked like mimes. Vernon ran over soon after, and comforted Piers Polkiss, who was crying like a baby beside Dudley.

Some frightened worker came to get Pig and gave him a towel, to dry off. We left soon after, dropped poor Piers Polkiss off at his home, before heading back to 4 Privet Drive. Minutes after we got home Uncle Vernon grabbed us by our hair and threw Harry in the cupboard and me down the stairs. I snarled obscenities as I climbed back to the top of the stairs.

"What happened?" Vernon growled.

"We don't know," Harry started.

"One minute the glass was there and then it was gone," I explained. "How could we have had anything to do with it?"

Uncle Vernon turned expectantly to Harry, clearly not satisfied by my answer. Harry was taken aback. "It's like she said. It was like... magic."

The last thing I heard was Uncle Vernon yell, "There's no such thing as magic!"

Then two doors slammed and the light was gone. I climbed slowly down the creaky wooden stairs, and sighed heavily. I threw myself roughly down on my mattress and pulled out my iPod to text Harry. I lay down and pulled open my messages.

L: Well this sucks.

H: Thank you Captain Obvious

L: Shut up. What happened? No such thing as magic Vernon says? How does he explain the glass disappearing? Us talking to a snake? All those other times all that weird stuff happened to us?

H: I don't know Lily. It doesn't make any sense to me either. Maybe we just both had the same dreams, maybe those crazy things didn't happen.

L: Why would we both dream you ended up on the roof of our school Harry?

H: I don't know Lily. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I'm just as confused, and as in the dark as you okay?

L: Yeah I know. Sorry. I just need to walk it off or something. Vernon just makes me angry.

H: The doors aren't locked. Want to go on that shopping trip you were talking about?

L: Sure.

I put my iPod back into my pocket, grabbed some money from where I had stashed it in a sock at the bottom of my clothes bin, sneaked up the stairs, and out the front door, where Harry stood waiting for me. The warm summer air hit my face as soon as I stepped out the door, and I squinted to see.

"We're off then?" Harry asked, and I nodded, and we walked the short distance towards town.

We walked the short distance into town, and went into the first cheap clothing store we saw. It was a used clothing store, but I didn't mind. There wasn't much more we could afford. We bought as much as we could with the amount I had grabbed, having nearly no fitting clothing. We split up to do our own stuff. I bought a few pairs of jeans, a jumper, a plaid button up shirt, three T- Shirts, one having the Nirvana band logo plastered on the front, and a few pairs of socks.

I went to find Harry by the cash, and he had four pairs of jeans, two button up plaid shirts, a polo, socks, and a few t shirts. One had a logo for an unknown company on it, but we shrugged it off.

We checked out, using nearly all of the money I'd brought with us. I figured it was worth it considering neither of us had any clothes yet. I knew we could collect enough money before we grew out of these.

I laughed as we got back to the house, and sneaked our bags into our rooms and hid them. I went back up to see Harry and Vernon was standing in my doorway. He had a smile on his face, and a set of locks in his hand.