Chapter Text
IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS
BENEATH GHOULS AND GARGOYLES
Harry Potter takes another spoonful of his ice cream. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia begrudgingly allowed him to accompany them and Harry’s cousin Dudley to the zoo for the first time in his life. He expected to be left in the company of their mad old neighbour Mrs. Figg and her numerous cats, as is usual whenever his uncles take Dudley and a friend of his to some adventure park or another for his birthday, but today, he got lucky.
Before they left the house, Uncle Vernon made it clear to Harry that he was to refrain from any and all ‘funny business’, or it would be back in the cupboard for him. His uncle, he thinks, was referring to the strange things that often seem to occur to Harry without his wanting. Of course, there's never any point in telling the Dursleys that he has nothing to do with things like his hair growing back completely overnight of its own accord or Dudley’s plastic bow or air rifle suddenly breaking after he practiced his aim on Harry. But today seems to be different.
Aside from the typical remark or command from his uncles, they have let him be, though he has been careful to walk a little ways off from them as they looked at the monkeys, birds, bunnies, and others.
Having thoroughly enjoyed his knickerbocker glory, given to him when Dudley complained about how little ice cream it had before being given another, larger one, they make their way to the reptile house. Dudley and Piers Polkiss, his cousin’s lackey, wander in search of the largest lizards and the most venomous vipers.
The darkness of the hallway gives Harry an excuse to lag behind after one particular snake catches his eye. Or rather, the snake's eyes catch his. Massive, green eyelids giving the appearance of rings or goggles around its black pupils look back at him. The snake is quite small, Harry thinks. It wraps around the end of a tree-branch-like piece of plastic. The sign next to the glass makes it clear that the grey snake is quite young, and will grow longer and larger as it matures into adulthood.
“You know, I think we’re kind of the same, you and me,” he whispers into the glass. He considers that at least he can leave his cupboard, when Uncle Vernon doesn’t decide to punish him. His frown turns into a small smile as the snake seems to shift a little closer to the glass, as though interested as to exactly how they are alike.
He can’t help but rest his fingers on the glass. For a second it appears as though they can touch. “Right now, we’re weak and small and trapped, but one day I bet we’ll grow big and strong, so that we can escape.” A feeling of nausea hits him as he hears a stern voice, “Boy — Harry!”
He really does hope so, but that day decidedly isn’t today. Today, he had the best morning in years and he doesn’t want to ruin it now. Unfortunately, Dudley and his friend collectively decide that it’s time to pick on him.
“Dad!” the pudgy boy exclaims. “He’s over here!”
Piers runs behind him and grabs him by the arms as his cousin jabs him in the stomach, forcing the air out of him.
He has been hit harder before, but it doesn’t stop him from letting out a painful moan. He gets his breath knocked out of him as Piers shoves him to the floor. “What were you doing here anyway? Found something cool, didn’t you? Let’s see it, then,” Dudley says as his eyes lay on the snake beneath the glass.
“It’s just a little snake,” Piers realises aloud. Dudley leans in and pounds his fist on the glass. “Of course you would stay to look at the weakest and boringest animal,” he says, glancing over to Harry.
Harry frowns as his knuckles clench. He hates him. He wishes the fat boy would blow up into a million pieces.
The window pane suddenly cracks, but his cousin continues to absentmindedly bang his hands against it until half of it shatters into pieces. Dudley leans backwards from the railing, falling with his behind on the concrete floor. Harry can’t help but smile at this. His face quickly darkens when his cousin looks at him in anger, and then down at his own hands. A few bits of glass had lodged themselves between his knuckles. He calls for his parents.
Not one moment later, Harry's aunt and uncle come, his aunt screaming at the top of her lungs and his uncle looking around to find some culprit. Some of the other zoo visitors leave hurriedly while a few others stay to observe.
Uncle Vernon grabs Harry by the arm, lifting him up, his reddened face scrutinizing him. He realises he can’t bring himself to say anything when there’s something crawling under his trousers and up his leg, though.
Then a zookeeper comes in, diverting attention away from him. For now. He makes use of the distraction to move some apart from the scene. Well, waddle is more appropriate.
“What are you doing?” he says in a hushed tone. Is it going to bite me? Maybe it’s angry that its home got attacked.
“I can bring you back to your home, please don’t hurt me.”
The snake is dangerously close to his thigh when he thinks he hears a muffled word.
“...sscape.”
What?
But before he can make sense of things, his uncle makes his way to him and drags him over. He can’t exactly coax the little animal out of his pants right now and leave it in the exhibit, or Uncle Vernon will definitely pin this whole ‘funny business’ on him.
This is how Harry finds himself shifting every so often in the leftmost backseat. At one point the stowaway snake manages to worm its way through a hole on the inside of his baggy, hand-me-down trousers and peep out a single viridian eye. Harry whispering at the thing to not come out now earns him an immediate shout from his uncle to shut his mouth. Back at the zoo director’s office, his uncle had practically gotten into a shouting match with the zookeepers. Harry thinks that it was generous of them to remove the glass from Dudley’s hand and bandage it. He had almost let slip that Dudley and Piers had been banging quite heavily on the glass. Enough to make it break?
His cousin and his friend were initially quieted by the whole affair, but it doesn’t take long for them to snigger and snort at the stupidest things. Then Piers mentions that Harry spoke to the snake behind the glass, and Harry can see Aunt Petunia’s eyes widen and Uncle Vernon’s face begin to shake.
Harry’s stomach twists into knots as they wait for Mrs. Polkiss to pick up Piers. Dudley, for his part, speaks to Aunt Petunia about wanting another present as he and Piers work his way through the several dozen presents littering the living room.
Immediately after Aunt Petunia and Pier’s mother exchange pleasantries and their car leaves the driveway, Uncle Vernon grabs him by the back of the collar of his raggedy shirt and brings him to the narrow hall connecting the kitchen and the front door.
His uncle shoves him against the wall. He growls, “What happened?”
He opts to stay his gaze at his feet. “I didn’t do anything. Dudley kept hitting the glass and it broke.”
His uncle grabs him by the hair and smacks right across the face with his other hand. Twice. “What did I tell you, boy? Did you not hear me before we left the house?”
Still holding him by his hair, his uncle shakes him around in frustration before opening the cupboard door, shoving him in, and slamming it behind him.
“Look here, boy — best get comfortable. You’ll be staying where you are for a long, long time,” his uncle growls before shutting the golden grille of his cupboard door.
Harry sniffs. He brings his fingers to his tender cheek; it stings and feels a little swollen. He hasn’t made his uncle this angry in a long time, he realises. Even though his morning went so well. Before today he never saw any of those animals in person, only whatever Dursley saw on the telly while Harry did chores or from the pictures in the school biology books. And he certainly never touched a snake in his life.
Hissing from his pocket brings him out of his rumination. He hastily turns on the dim light bulb attached to the base of the stairs. Then, with as much care as his uneasy hands provide him, he opens his pocket. “Are you okay? I’m sorry for this. I wanted to leave you in your home,” he tells the snake, making sure only to whisper.
Just as slowly, the grey-scaled creature slithers out of pocket and into his lap. “Are you hurt?” he asks, to no one in particular. He supposes he doesn’t really know how to tell if a snake is hurt, or if it has bones it can break. It doesn’t seem to be bleeding, at least. It hisses softly.
Harry never makes friends at school. Dudley and his minions would never allow it. Everyone was too scared to try. At some point, he stopped trying to speak to his classmates. The thought of it brings some anger to the surface.
A small part of him feels guilty. Though, it’s not like he wanted for that glass to break, he thinks. But the damage is done: stuck here for weeks, if his uncle’s words are anything to go by.
He rubs his fingers softly against the snake’s body. It recoils at first, but doesn’t leave his lap. At least he has a new friend. A smile makes its way onto his lips. My first friend.
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