Chapter 3
As time went on, life at the Dursley household continued as it always had. Harry was tasked with cleaning, laundry, gardening, by now he was the one running the daily chores at home, while Petunia started drinking more and more. It was often you could see her passed out on the sofa with an empty wine bottle beside her. Harry had never liked his aunt, but he still felt bad seeing her like this. He knew the drinking was her way to deal with her unhappiness. The only reason she stayed with Vernon, even during getting abused, was for Dudley’s sake.
Harry had grown to be an exceptionally kind person, because he would never treat anyone like he had been treated. He decided this early on, when he first realised how badly he had it, that he would grow into the kindest person he could be. So seeing his aunt laying on the sofa, mouth open and stained with wine, he went and got her a glass of water, that he put on the table, and a blanket to cover her with. Afterwards he went out to the garden to start tending to the plants.
The summer had arrived with gusto this year, and the warmth and sun made the poor plants suffer under the heat. Harry went and filled up the watering can, which oddly enough never got empty until he was done with the watering. Most of the plants were drooping, looking miserable because of the weather.
“If I just could help you more than giving you a little water”, Harry said.
Since he really didn’t have anyone to talk with during the summer, he had started talking to the plants. They might not answer him, but he always imagined they perked up a bit more during their conversations. While he was out in the garden, the neighbour Mrs. Figg, with all the cats as you may recall, came up and started talking to him.
“Hello there Harry, isn’t it a bit warm out for gardening right now”, she said.
“Hello Mrs. Figg, no I’m fine here thank you. The garden needs me right now”.
“Well dear can you take a little break then and come over for a glass of lemonade?”
“That sound lovely Mrs. Figg, please just let me finish the watering first.”
“Right you are then, I’ll go home and wait for you to finish up here.”, she said and started walking off toward her home.
“Time to finish up then my friends.”, he told the plants, and he could almost swear that they seemed to thank him for his work.
Walking down the road to Mrs. Figg’s house didn’t take very long. He greeted the cats that were laying around in the shade outside her door. Then he knocked on the door and opened it.
“Hello Mrs Figg, it’s me Harry”
“Hello Harry, I’ve just taken the lemonade out of the fridge, why don’t you come join me out back under the parasol.”
“Sure thing Mrs. Figg, can I help you with something?”
“No no dear, you have done enough work for today I’d say.”
Walking through the house, he couldn’t help but notice a piece of parchment laying on the table. What a weird thing to have around, he thought to himself, but as Mrs. Figg was a bit… let’s call it excentric, he decided to put it out of his mind.
Sitting down together under the shade of the parasol was pretty nice actually, a small breeze even started to blow, and his favourite cat came around for some snuggles.
“So Harry how is everything back at home?”, she asked. It felt nice having someone that always seemed to care at least about him.
“Oh you know Mrs. Figg it’s the same old, same old”.
“Hmm if you say so”, she said. “I haven’t seen Petunia in a while, is she ill?”.
This part Harry didn’t like, cause sometimes it felt Mrs. Figg wanted to know more than Harry wanted to share.
“She is fine, thank you for the concern. The heat is affecting her, so she stays inside most of the time”. Harry didn’t add that mostly she was drunk all of the time, but he felt a need to protect his aunt still.
“Alright then, and how about the other two?”.
Severely overweight, dumb as rocks, and in need of baths and some industrial strength deodorant, he wanted to say. Yes Harry may be a kind-hearted person but he allowed himself free thoughts, just for the enjoyment it gave him. So instead he answered:
“They are doing as well as they could Mrs. Figg. Dudley has his friends, and Vernon is out working a lot nowadays.”.
She seemed to be happy with all the answers, and with the lemonade finished it was time to start walking home. As he said goodbye to Mrs. Figg, he startled because right there outside in a tree, an owl was sitting, like it was waiting patiently. How odd, Harry thought, but he went down the street until he reached home.
That evening Petunia still hadn’t awoken when Vernon came home, fortunately he was in a good mood after a big order was placed, so instead of an all out war, he ordered some take out for dinner. Of course Harry and Petunia didn’t get any, but Harry was just relieved that there wouldn’t be any beatings tonight.
Summer went on, and soon it was time for Dudley’s birthday. As if living with him wasn’t enough, his birthdays were complete nightmares. There were always big parties and activities planned, and Harry always had to help set them up, while being taunted the whole time. Harry was still not allowed to help in the kitchen though after the “Huge cake disaster” of Dudley’s 7th birthday.
What could have possibly happened you wonder? Well Harry was tasked with making the birthday cake, and that year Dudley had wanted a huge chocolate cake. The problems started early for poor Harry. Since Harry has really bad eyesight, he mistook the sugar for salt in the cabinet, and put that in the batter. Next he was supposed to start mixing it with an electric mixer, but unlucky as he is in the kitchen, the phone rang, startling him into lifting the mixer while it was on, so all of a sudden the kitchen was splattered with cake mix all over. And if that wasn’t enough he burned the cake, got the chocolate cream grainy, and of course he dropped the cake right on Vernon’s lap. Needless to say he was banned afterwards, and couldn’t sit for days.
This year things would be different, for the first time there was not going to be a party, instead Dudley and his friend Piers, were getting to go to the zoo with Vernon and Petunia. The universe wanted something different this year though. Harry was always sent over to Mrs. Figg, whenever the Dursley’s all went out, since they didn’t trust him in the house alone. However by some mischievous spirit, Mrs. Figg had to go out of town this time. So while Dudley whined, there were no other options than to bring Harry with them to the zoo.
For once Harry got excited as they were driving in the car. He never really go to go anywhere, and this would be his first time at the zoo, seeing animals that he’d only seen in photos previously. Arriving at the zoo, Dudley still whining, they entered the large area and started walking around. Harry was amazed with all the different sights and sounds around him. When they got to the hippos’ Harry really had to wonder if they hadn’t unknowingly gone to a family reunion of Vernon’s relatives.
As they went on, they arrived to the reptile area. Now Harry liked most things, but one thing he couldn’t stand was snakes. He was terrified of them! When he worked in the garden he sometimes saw them, and they all seemed attracted to him in some way, but Harry only screamed and ran inside. Seriously, he truly hated them. So this certainly wasn’t his favourite area of the zoo.
Walking inside it was dark and humid, and the hair on Harry’s arms rose in anticipation. Luckily there were no snake demonstrations going on at the time. Dudley and Piers ran up to every exhibit and knocked on the glass to get them to move. After a while they got bored, so they went up to Harry and started pinching, and bully him instead. Now Harry was pretty patient, so he took this without much complaint. But he couldn’t help thinking it would be nice to pay them back sometime. Again getting bored Piers and Dudley went up to the largest snake in the reptile area, and put their hands on the glass.
So guess what happened? One moment the glass was there, the next moment it was gone! With two screams, the boys fell into the exhibit together with the snake. Chaos soon erupted with Vernon and Petunia yelling, the boys crying and the personnel looking chocked. This wasn’t the worst thing though as Harry started to shake in fear, as the snake came slithering out, looking right at him. Harry thought he had gone insane when he thought he heard the snake thanking him, but as soon as his feet started working again, he ran as fast as he could toward the entrance of the park.
The drive home was miserable, Dudley was wet and cranky, Petunia worried sick, but worst of all Harry could see the rage building in his uncle. Preparing for a beating, Harry silently started picturing another life in his head, just waiting for the time he could leave the Dursley’s. As he thought when they got home, Vernon soon started beating him and yelling about what a freak he was. After this treatment Harry was thrown into the cupboard, being told he would be in there for a month, before he passed out and didn’t hear anything else.