Chapter 2
“Careful with that, boy.” Uncle Vernon ordered from his usual spot at the table.
Harry feigned not hearing him, despite having put in his left hearing aid that morning knowing that he would not get another moment.
As he flipped the next pancake around, perfectly golden brown, he stole a quick bite of a piece of bacon. With Vernon busy with the paper, and his aunt still fussing over the pile of presents far too tall for any one person, it was the easiest breakfast he had stolen yet. With barely any hiding, he stuffed a mini pancake into his mouth and smiled as he worked the eggs.
A loud shriek had Harry ripping the hearing aid from his own ear as it screeched and popped. He glared at the door that Dudley had just entered and watched the boy have an absolute meltdown. With practiced ease, he switched the aid off and pocketed it into his too big trousers before he turned back to the food before it burned.
Dudley continued to shriek and cry his fake tears at something probably ridiculous as Harry moved to serve the now empty seats. He took his chance, serving himself a plate, being careful to take the ugliest parts of breakfast so as to not draw attention. When he glanced up and read that Dudley was screaming about one too few presents he could not help but snort a small laugh.
He sank into his seat at the table and turned the abandoned paper towards himself as he scanned for the weather. Hot and sunny, at least it wouldn’t rain on his first and probably only trip to the zoo.
The paper vanished from under his hand before he could read much more and Harry turned an innocent gaze upwards. Vernon’s angry red face glared down at him and Harry pulled his hand into his lap and away from the paper striking zone.
“Just what do you think you are doing?” Vernon’s lips moved.
Harry bit his tongue. Today was not the day to smart off. He had to think, to be careful, he did not want to ruin the outing before it had even begun.
“I was only checking the weather, sir. It will be sunny today.” Harry said, though he ached to add more.
Whatever Vernon had wanted to spit back died when he too checked the weather and found Harry to be right. He grumbled something instead and slumped back into his chair, paper on the opposite side of his plate and away from Harry. Without another glance Vernon started a conversation with Petunia and Harry turned back to his own breakfast.
It had come as a shock to them all, when, last night they had gotten a call that old Miss. Figg had broken her leg and would be unable to take Harry in for the day. It had caused a few hours of scrambling, some heated calls, and an unexpected conclusion that Harry would just have to come with.
He had never been anywhere with the Dursley’s, so he was buzzing with excitement. If he could just keep his mouth shut and head down today, maybe he could keep going on these trips.
The only problem was that today was not a good day for hearing in general. Dudley had made sure of that, he had spent a good three hours last night screaming about the change to his birthday. Harry was somewhat surprised he had a voice at all this morning, but that came with years of screaming he supposed.
As Harry finished the last of his sad little breakfast and got up to clean the dishes a piece of hard bacon smacked his cheek. He whipped around to glare at the source, Dudley, who used the split second of attention he got to sign ‘don’t be freak.’
Harry scowled and rolled his eyes, as if he didn’t already know Dudley and his friends were about to be the worst. He had no intention of spending any time near them, lest they get the urge to start a Harry Hunt and cause a scene that he would have to pay for.
‘Wouldn’t dream of it.’ Harry signed back without looking to see if Dudley even saw him.
After Harry had started to learn sign language, the teachers had thought it a good idea to teach his fellow classmates basic sign. Nothing more than time, alphabet, and basic phrases but it had been a huge help those first few years.
Most students took it upon themselves to learn more, usually swears, so it had come as a shock when Harry had seen Dudley working with his tutors to learn more than just the basics. He had learned, and was still learning it from what Harry could tell. While Dudley was not that smooth with his words, and his structure was lacking, the general meaning of his sentences was clear.
Harry had felt an odd feeling of connection to his cousin, until he had shown that the only reason he had even continued was to make sure Harry knew every insult and stupid threat he gave. Still, Harry found that the times they stole words in silence were his favorite. No one to police their arguments. His aunt and uncle refused to learn a single sign, and thus often didn’t even realize what was happening.
A few times, Dudley had lied and cried to his parents as he claimed that Harry said something awful with his weird hand speech. Even that had become far and few, only when arguments got too heated for either of them and Dudley needed a win.
Since this day was about to be all about Dudley, Harry had to keep his hands from moving through the first few thoughts. If there was ever a day for Dudley to want to win more than usual, it was his birthday.
The others suddenly left the dining room in a hurry. Harry was about to put away the pan he had cleaned when it was ripped from his hand and a good shove had him stumbling away from the sink all together. He looked back at his aunt who glared.
Petunia tapped her left ear and Harry fished the aid from his pocket to fix it to his glasses. Once it was turned on he looked back at his aunt expectantly.
“Dudley’s friends are here. Hurry up and get ready and don’t take that out again, you hear me?” Aunt Petunia said. She put a good amount of force behind the last three words, like she always did, and Harry nodded.
“Yes, ma’am.” He muttered.
“And wear the hat.” She added.
“What?” Harry looked back to her and she scowled deeper.
“Did you hear me?”
“I- yes. I heard you.” Harry quickly corrected. “I’m just confused. You said to wear my hat?”
Aunt Petunia sucked her teeth as she turned to scrub at the plates. “How is something that simple confusing, boy?”
Harry blinked slowly. “But it’s going to be hot and sunny today and-”
“Did you just ‘but’ me?” Petunia stopped her scrubbing and turned around slowly.
Harry recoiled instantly, ice flooded his veins. In his upset he had mistakenly said one of the few words that ever got his aunt to match Vernon in rage. With a muttered apology, he fled from the room to snatch his old gray beanie from his cupboard.
The hat had been one of two true gifts he had been given. It had come for one reason, to hide his hair and ears. Harry was expected to wear it on outings that required public viewing, mostly with the school. He had never worn it in the heat so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
As soon as the scratching sound settled from the fabric being rubbed over the hearing aid, he slipped from his space and hurried to meet the others in the doorway. Dudley glanced towards him and grinned wide. One of his favorite games was to rip this very hat off of Harry’s head, causing him to get into trouble.
Harry instinctively gripped the side of the beanie as he was shoved into the far back of a minivan. The other three boys piled in after him, blocking his exit fully as they took over the front of the van.
‘Hi freak.’ One signed while he said, “Hiya Harry!”
Piers Polkiss, a boy from Dudley’s class and long time friend of his. The two of them had become friends early in grade school and were a pair of bullies to any kid that even so much as accidentally crossed their path. Piers was tall and slim, almost opposite Dudley, making him the speed while Dudley was the raw power. His straight blond hair hung in his face in some new style. Harry thought it looked ridiculous, as the boy had to keep flicking his neck to move his hair from his face in a way that looked painful.
The other boy signed what Harry believed he thought to be a swear or some other fowl word, but was actually just nonsense. This boy was a newer addition to the little bully brigade and Harry was unsure what his name was. He had moved to the school late last year, when his father had taken a job under uncle Vernon, and was more of a lackie to the first two than anything.
Harry simply nodded to the two, not wanting to keep their attention. Uncle Vernon slid into the drivers seat as Petunia took the front passenger spot and they were off. No turning back now, Harry supposed.
He watched as the house shrank away into the distance and wondered, not for the first time, if he had made a mistake when he had agreed to come with. All too quickly signs for the zoo began to wiz passed and the van rolled to a stop in a sea of other larger vehicles. Harry swallowed hard and turned to face the front as his aunt barked out little orders mixed into praise for her sweet Dudders. Harry held back his snicker at the names, Dudley had already shoved her hand away and looked as red as a tomato as his friends laughed.
Good, Harry thought, maybe they would be distraction enough. As they filed out of the van they were each handed a ticket of entry and money for lunch. Harry stared in awe at the simple paper that sat offered in his hand. He did not even care that it was half what the others got, it was the first time he had ever been willingly handed money before.
As soon as they entered, that money had found its way into Dudley’s hand. He had pulled it rather harshly from Harry with a half mocking thanks for his supposed birthday gift from his favorite cousin.
‘I’m your only cousin.’ Harry signed with a roll of his eyes as he watched the bill get balled up and stuffed into a pocket to be forgotten.
“And thank someone for that! Could you imagine, more freaks like you running around ruining my families good name?” Dudley exclaimed and his friends roared in fake laughter.
“You do realize I have a different last name, right?” Harry not so gently reminded.
The flash of something dangerous in Dudley’s eyes had him shuffling back a step, not that he was scared. Dudley had not been a true danger in quite some time. Piers, on the other hand, was quick.
“Look who actually found his voice.” Piers snarked as he snorted a laugh. “Thought the deaf and dumb couldn’t speak.”
“I’m hard of hearing, not deaf. Their is a difference.” Harry corrected.
“Coulda fooled me with those old people headphones you use.” The other boy chirped and beamed at the laughs he got.
“Hearing aids, and if I wasn’t sure that the amount of wax in your ears would prevent sound from getting passed, I’d say you should all try them.”
Before Piers could even take his first half step forwards, Harry had pivoted and sprinted into the crowd of people. So much for not back talking today. There had not been a rule that they had to stick together. Harry was about to make the most of that and stay as far from everyone as he could.
The day had turned out rather great. He had looped the zoo, only having the sneak away or double back five times as he crossed paths with the others. The animals were for the most part fantastic, though he had little more than his school textbooks to reference when it came to most of them. Some animals here he had never even seen or heard of before!
There was one area he had chosen to spend a large portion of his time. The reptile house was located close to the center of the park and most groups of people seemed to either speed through the place or skip it all together. As it was one of the few air conditioned areas without a time limit, Harry chose to learn all he could about the animals.
“Thought you needed the bumps to read.” A nasally voice cut through Harry’s reading of one particularly interesting viper.
“That’s for the blind.” Harry corrected without looking over.
“Aren’t you blind?” He asked.
Harry turned slowly to face the group of three boys and leveled his cousin with an exasperated look. Dudley, at least, seemed to share some of the feeling as he slapped the back of his new friends head.
“Not when he is wearing his glasses, idiot.” Dudley muttered. “Find anythin’ interesting?”
Harry blinked. He had not expected his cousin to ask such a simple question but the anger and need to chase looked to have been melted out of him. Maybe a hot day was good for something.
“Yeah, actually.” Harry risked a small smile and motioned to the wall of snakes. “Vipers, all are really cool. I was just reading about the difference between venom and poison here and -”
As soon as he turned his back to the group he felt a flash of warning burst through his nerves. Before he could duck the hat that had been so perfectly placed to hide his freakishness was ripped away.
The friction roared through his hearing aid and he rushed to pull it out and away as the ringing returned. Dudley knew that always aggravated his tinnitus, which only seemed to spur him into action.
Harry glared at the group as the dull echo of their laughs became background noise to the awful ringing. He spun on his heel and stomped deeper into the reptile house. His eyes burned and his face felt warm. He did not care if they laughed or followed. All he wanted to do was hide away until they left but he couldn’t do that, not here.
“Jerksss.” A crackly voice worked its way through his ears. Both ears.
Harry jumped. He cupped a hand over his right ear, yet he heard no change as it sat silent as ever. He had never heard something from that side before and he began to frantically search the sea of people for the source.
“Kidsss can be ssso cruel.” Those wheezed words spoke again but not a single person seemed to be saying them. No ones lips had matched the words, no one was close.
“Can you hear me, child?”
Harry spun to face the large glass wall. That time, the voice had felt like it had whispered down his spine and he was sure it had come from behind. He had expected to see a zookeeper or some person in the large tank. There was no one. Instead, sat a large python looking every bit asleep.
If he had not seen the snake move its head to look towards him more, he would have believed that false sleep.
Almost on reflex, Harry signed his answer and watched the snake stare blankly at him. Right, it was a snake. Snakes don’t talk. He was hearing things after his hearing got blown out.
“I do not have handssss.” Said the voice just as the snakes head lifted so that its tongue could flick for the duration of the words.
Harry jumped. It had been one thing to think those words had been his imagination, and another all together to watch them from the source. The words flowed easily through both his ears, and he wondered if this was how others heard things. It was disorienting, all consuming, like it wrapped his brain and stole his focus.
“I do.” Harry said, this time out loud in what he hoped to be volume appropriate. No one had looked his way, so he assumed it was fine. “Hear you, I mean.”
The snakes head raised, almost like it was shocked that Harry actually answered. He was unsure why a talking snake would be shocked to be answered, but who was he to judge.
“Can you hear me?” Harry asked, just to be sure this was a two way conversation and he wasn’t completely mad.
“I do,” the snake said as they dipped their head low. “A Ssssalazar blessed. Never thought I’d meet one.”
“I’m sorry?” Harry asked. He had not a single clue what that had meant, though before now he had never spoken to a snake so he figured that maybe it was a snake thing.
“A sssnake speaker.” The snake clarified unhelpfully. Harry was not the one talking weird right now, the snake had spoken English first.
“Do you often talk to people?” Harry asked. He was sure he would have heard about or read something had the report of a talking snake gotten out. The shake of the snakes head answered that question before it even spoke.
Harry read over the general tag information again. Python, original habitat Burma. Max size around 23 feet in length.
“You are from Burma? What was it like there? Was it nice? Do you miss your family?” Harry asked. He knew it was rude to ask so many questions at once without waiting for an answer, but he was just so excited. Who else could say they got to interview a python!?
“Keep reading.” The snake said, the raspy words felt saddened somehow.
Harry did as told and realized his mistake, there in italicized letters, was bred in captivity. His heart sank.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend-”
“No offensssse taken.” The snake cut in as it laid its massive head back down.
“If it makes it any better, I know how that feels.” Harry said and leaned on the rail. He rested his forehead against the glass as he debated. It felt odd, dumping everything on a snake, and one he had just met. Who else could he speak to that would maybe understand, however? “See, I never knew my parents either. They died when I was a baby. I’ve been told they were no good, just a bunch of drunks and that the world is better off for the accident. I’ve been living with my aunt and uncle ever since, though it feels more like a house than a home.”
“And that awful boy.” The snake added.
Harry chuckled wetly. “Dudley? Yeah, he can be the worst but he has some good moments.” When the snake somehow gave a skeptical look Harry relented. “Sometimes, not often.”
The snake nodded their head slowly as they shifted more into the open. Harry wondered just how rough those scales would feel. He had been so focused on the animal, he had not noticed the incoming stomps of his cousin until the snakes head snapped up.
It hissed a deep warning just before Dudley drove his elbow deep into Harry’s ribs. With little effort on Dudley’s part he had Harry shoved to the floor like an afterthought as he made room to ogle the snake now poised threateningly high.
“Speaker!” The snake bellowed as its tail thrashed.
“‘M fine.” Harry mumbled and looked back towards his cousin now flush against the protective glass. What he wouldn’t give for that glass to just go away. To put his cousin on display, to make him see how it felt to be ogled and talked about like he wasn't there for once in his life.
As that feeling grew so intense it felt like it would bubble out, the glass poofed into a powdery layer of cloud the hung in the air. Dudley, ever the top heavy fool, tipped right through the mist and landed hard into the pool of water at the base of the snake tank.
Said snake sent a warning hiss at the boy before it took the chance given and slithered up and out of the cloud. It landed with a deep thump not a foot away from Harry as he watched in no small amount of shock as it coiled up. With a last nod back, the snake simply hissed its thanks and made a quick charge for the exit. Where it was going, Harry had not the faintest idea.
Harry supposed the fun was over when he saw his aunt and uncle hurrying from the far end of the house. Of course they would not be far from their dear sweet boy. He ready himself for the lecture and realized that they had not stopped at him, no, they had stopped just short of him and were banging on glass.
Glass that had not been there a moment before.
Glass that now held his cousin, Dudley, on display.
Harry couldn’t help it. He laughed so hard his lungs burned and he didn’t even care that his uncle had looked down right murderous. This was the best day ever. Even if he was about to lose any sense of freedom.
The ride home was silent, and not just because he could hear nothing over the still present ring from when the hat had been ripped away. Not a person in the van uttered more than small words of comfort to the boy that was a shivering mess of towels provided by a very flustered zookeeper.
From what Harry had gathered, the search was still on for that python. Harry hoped they got to where they wanted to go.
As soon as they made it back to number 4, Privet Drive, aunt Petunia rushed Dudley inside. Harry hung back, hoping to avoid attention, but that had been short lived. He was all but dragged out of the back of the van by large hands as his uncle tried to not burst a blood vessel. The vise grip threatened to break his small wrist and Harry twisted in the hold desperately.
He was thrown inside the house and felt when his pocket had been forced open as the large hand dragged out his old hearing aid. The device was shoved hard into his ear and uncle Vernon’s voice cut deep.
“What did we say about causing problems, boy?” He growled.
“I didn’t do it!” Harry argued back as he continued to fight the too tight grip. His ear throbbed as the aid was set far too high for such close use.
“You were the only one there. Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not!” Harry yelled, he didn’t care how loud he was being. “I had nothing to do with the glass! One second it was there, the next it wasn’t, it was like magic!”
Harry knew the second he heard his own tinny voice say those words that he had doomed himself. Uncle Vernon hated nothing more than magic and any kind of play against the natural rule to things. With a rough yank followed by a shove, Harry found himself sprawled on his cupboard floor. The door swung shut before he could throw himself against it and the mail hatch opened to show Vernon’s ugly teeth.
“Hear me, boy. There’s no such thing as magic.” He spat and slammed the vent and hatch closed.
Harry banged against the door as hard as he could and shook the handle but it was no use. The door had been locked from the outside. Out of all the things the Dursley’s did, this was always the worst. He hated being left in the tight space, one with no exits, one he had not put himself into.
The old cot, which took up about half the room, creaked loudly under his weight as Harry threw himself into the bed. He ripped out his hearing aid and moved to throw it against the locked door and froze. No matter how much he had wanted to be rid of the damn thing, he knew he would never actually throw it. It was all he had of his grandmother and that meant something to him.
Instead, Harry pulled the device to his chest and dug under his pillow for the old CD player Dudley had thrown out awhile ago. It was large, scratched deeply around the joints, and most of the buttons were worn and unreadable. The CD inside meant little, as he wasn’t looking to hear music.
Harry pushed the old play button and placed a hand to the speaker. He did not care how loud he was being, let them be mad. All he wanted was to feel the music as it danced along his skin and helped lull him into a dreamless sleep.