Birthday Disaster

Chapter 3

Rose's POV: I was roused from my sleep due to a sharp rap on the door and the shrill voice of Aunt Petunia. '' Harry and Rosaline Potter! Wake up this instant and take care of the bacon and the eggs. Don’t you dare let it burn. I want everything perfect on my duddykins birthday.''  I slowly sat up and rubbed my eyes. Of course, today was fatso's 11th birthday, how can I forget.  I reached over and shook Harry. '' Harry wake up!! Its Dudley's birthday.'' Harry stirred for a moment, only to go back to sleep again. I tried again and again, but Harry didn’t budge. This time I grabbed his shoulders and shook him with all my might. '' HARRY JAMES POTTER! WAKE UP THIS INSTANT!!'' I yelled, a bit rudely but accurately mimicking Aunt Petunia. Harry jumped out of bed so fast that he bumped his head with the roof of the cupboard. '' Blimey Rose, what was that for?'' he asked rubbing his head while I laughed myself silly. I gathered myself long enough to glance up at my poor brother's face when I burst out laughing again because of the look on his face. '' I'm sorry! That’s what you get for not waking up THIS INSTANT'' I said.'' Anyway its Mr. Fatso's birthday. I'm going to get dressed. Take care of the bacon and don’t let it burn. When I come back, you can go change. OK?'' ''Alright. Just hurry up'' replied Harry. I went to the bathroom and had a quick shower and secretly used Aunt Petunia's hair dryer. Then I got dressed in this. After that, I made my hair. Aunt Petunia gives Harry Dudley's old clothes. She tried to give them to me too but I refused. I have a talent of winning arguments, regardless the topic. At last, she accepted her defeat and ever since then I am allowed an outfit every two months. I am allowed to buy a shirt, a pair of jeans and shoes. Sometimes, I skip one of my things to buy something for Harry as the poor boy has nothing but clothes that are four sizes too- large. During another argument  session , I asked them to allow me and Harry 5 bucks a month. After 20 days of arguing, they finally allowed us that much money. Honestly, compared to Dudley's allowance, 10 bucks seemed nothing. He got 30 bucks every fortnight, so in a month Dudley had 60 bucks, which was our yearly allowance. I saved my pocket money to buy gifts for Harry on our birthday. Harry did the same, so that made up the one and only reason for us to look up to our birthday. I went into the kitchen and   nudged Harry. He handed me the spatula and went to get a quick shower. Uncle  Vermin Vernon came in and sat down on the chair. His face was blocked from my vision because of Dudley's presents, that covered most of the table. I sighed and then cracked open the eggs and proceeded to scramble them. Harry entered the kitchen  and moved towards the bacon without a word. One of the many qualities Harry posses is that he knows when to do what and that’s why he is the best twin I could ask for. My train of thoughts was interrupted at the very moment because Dudley had entered the kitchen. '' Happy birthday, Dudders'' said uncle Vernon. Aunt Petunia followed Dudley into the kitchen. '' I can't believe my little baby is 11 already'' said Aunt Petunia, her eyes brimmed with tears. I tried not to laugh out loud and ended up with a smirk. I looked around at the rest of the family. Uncle Vernon was large and neck less, Aunt Petunia was bony and horse-faced and Dudley was pink and porky, with blue watery eyes. Me and Harry looked nothing like the rest of the family. In fact, we didn’t even resemble each other. Harry had jet black hair that was always  untidy, whereas my hair were ginger-red and wavy, which I thought looked very beautiful. Harry had emerald green eyes, while mine were sapphire blue. The only thing that was similar about us was our lightning- shaped scars on our foreheads. We got those in the same car crash that took our parents away from us.   Harry's was on the right side while mine was on the left side. Dudley was counting his presents. Just as Harry and I set down the breakfast, Dudley spoke up. '' 36 presents. That is 2 less than last year''. '' You haven’t counted aunty Marge's present. There, under the big one from Mummy and Daddy'' replied Aunt Petunia. '' Alright, 37.'' Dudley's face contorted with fury. Me and Harry, sensing the upcoming storm, began wolfing down our breakfast before Dudley decided to turn over the table. Aunt Petunia, sensing danger, quickly said, '' When we're out today, we'll buy  said, '' When we're out today, we'll buy you 2 more presents. How's that? Two new presents!'' Dudley paused to process what aunt Petunia had said. 'So that means I'll have thirty…thirty…'' ''thirty-nine ,'' I muttered under my breath, causing Uncle Vernon to glare daggers at me. ''39 sweetums'' said Aunt Petunia. Dudley just humphed and reached for his first present. The phone rang and aunt Petunia went to get it. She was gone long enough for us to watch Dudley unwrap a racing bike, a remote-control aeroplane. He was in the middle of ripping the wrapping paper off a golden wristwatch when Aunt petunia returned, worry visible on her horse-like face. ''Vernon, bad news. Mrs. Figgs broke her leg. She can't take them'' she said, indicating us with an out thrust chin. My heart leapt. Every year, aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon took Dudley and one of his friends somewhere fun, while we were left with our old neighbour. Mrs. Figgs made us look at pictures of her cats.'' Maybe we can leave them with your friend, what's her name…Yvonne?'' ''Out in a holiday in Majorca'' Aunt Petunia replied. '' We can phone Marge,'' Uncle Vernon suggested. '' Vernon, she hates the pair.'' Aunt Petunia replied, exasperated. '' Maybe, you can leave us alone in the house'' Harry and I said in unison, the hope in our voices prominent because we could do and eat whatever we wanted. '' And come to find the house in ruins? No thanks,'' Uncle Vernon retorted. '' Maybe if we took them to the zoo and left them in the car-'' Aunt Petunia was interrupted by Uncle Vernon. '' The car is brand new! No way they are sitting in it alone.'' So this went on and on and half an hour later, I found myself sitting in  the backseat with Harry, Dudley and Dudley's rat-faced friend, Piers Polkiss. Aunt Petunia forced me to wear a scarf on my head because of my colour-changing hair. When she said that, I was livid and my hair turned dark green, but in the end I agreed. Harry's POV: I wore the  new shirt Rose had given me for our 10th birthday. Before we sat in the car, Uncle Vernon pulled me and Rose to the side. '' I'm warning you, no funny business today. If you do something, anything at all, then you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas.'' But we're not going to do anything…..honestly…'' But uncle Vernon wasn’t listening. Nor did he believe us. We were sitting in the car and I made sure that Rose had a seat by the window so that Piers wouldn’t tease her or anything. Whenever Piers saw Rose, he would give her a look creepy enough for her to cower behind me. His look must be really creepy because most of the time, Rose holds her ground. Rose sat on the left side, me next to her, Piers next to me and Dudley on the far right. Uncle Vernon loved to complain about things. Some of his favorite topics were banks, the council, me, people at work, Rose and today the topic was motorbikes. '' …..roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums'' he said as a motorbike overtook them. '' I had a dream  about a motorbike. It was flying.'' I said, remembering my strange dream.  Uncle Vernon jammed the breaks and the tires screeched. We all flew into the front seats. He  faced me and thundered,'' MOTORBIKES DON’T FLY!!!'' '' Okay, okay'' I said warily. Geez, it was just a dream. Dudley and Piers sniggered but stopped abruptly when Rose and I send death glares their way. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. Soon signs flashing in the sun could be seen pointing towards the zoo. Rose's POV:  The ride was uneventful except for uncle Vernon shouting at my poor twin. As soon as I heard Harry say '' … motorbike. It was flying'' I immediately sensed the oncoming danger and mentally prepare myself for the experience.  We soon arrived at the zoo and the birthday boy's first wish was a  ice cream, so the Dursleys bought both Fatso and Rat Face large  chocolate ice creams. They had to buy us cheap ice lollies because the nice lady in the ice cream truck asked us before the Dursleys could object. So we trailed behind  our family, keeping a little distance from them so it looked like we weren’t with them.   Me and Harry were staring at a gorilla. '' Looks like Dudley except that it's not blond'' said Harry and I sniggered. Lunch at the zoo cafeteria was not particularly eventful except for  Dudley's tantrum about his knickerbockers glory not being big enough. Uncle Vernon bought him another sundae meanwhile me and my twin got to finish the first one. Things started to take a bad turn after lunch. The reptile house, our next stop, was cool and dimly lit. I shivered slightly and clutched Harry's arm because I had this feeling that something is about to go terribly wrong. It started after my fifth birthday that whenever something was bad going to happen, I had this weird feeling like my stomach was tied into a knot. Over the years, me and Harry had come to see the intensity of this feeling hence we respected it. '' Harry I have that feeling again,'' I whispered so that only he could hear me. Harry frowned and began looking here and there as if to see the danger. '' It's gonna be fine. Just stay close to me,'' he whispered back. I nodded and tightened my grip on his arm. Dudley wanted to see the biggest snake in the entire exhibit and he quickly found it, so Uncle Vernon was dragged by him to see the Brazilian Boa Constructor. Unfortunately for Dudley, it was fast asleep.''' Make it move!' he yelled. Uncle Vernon rapped his knuckles smartly on the glass a few times but the snake snoozed on fitfully. '' This is boring'' Dudley mumbled and shuffled away. After Dudley was gone, me and Harry went towards the snake and regarded it with a pitiful expression. Then suddenly, the snake opened its eyes and slowly started to rise until it was eye-level with us. It did something that shouldn’t have been possible for it. It winked at us. No it couldn’t have because, according to scientists and biologists, almost all reptiles can't blink or wink because they have no eyelashes to keep their eyes from sticking. They have thin membranes to guard their eyes from wind( I remember my science lecture in school)but the membranes close vertically, not horizontally. I think the light must have been playing tricks on my eyes, but I couldn’t be sure. Strange things happened around me and my brother. For instance, my hair changes color, mine and Harry's scars sometimes hurt ( which shouldn’t be possible because they are mere scratches that should heal after a while), not to mention the time Aunt Petunia made Harry almost bald by cutting his hair only to find it perfectly fine the next day, the time I somehow turned my teacher's wig blue, the time me and Harry jumped behind the school dustbins to escape Dudley's gang only to find ourselves on the school roof. If all that could happen so why couldn’t a snake wink. Me and Harry quickly glanced around for onlookers and when we were absolutely sure no one was looking we winked back at it. Harry, being a bit faster than me, said ''I'm sorry. They don’t know what it's like to have people pressing their ugly faces at you all the time''. Huh, not the way I'd put it but everyone has their own style. The constrictor just glanced up at the ceiling and I could swear its expression said I get that all the time.'' Can you hear us?'' I asked. It nodded.'' Umm.. not wanting to be rude or anything but are you a boy or a girl'' I asked again, feeling a bit stupid about talking with a snake. The corner of its mouth twitched slightly before it nodded at Harry. '' A boy?'' questioned Harry. The constrictor nodded again. ''Where do you come from anyway?'' I asked curiously. Our friend jabbed his tail towards the sign on the side.'' Boa Constrictor, Brazil'' I read out loud.'' What was it like there?'' Harry interrogated the snake. He jabbed his tail yet again towards the sign. ''This specimen was bred in captivity'' I read, intrigued.'' So you never got to know how was Brazil.'' It honestly felt like we were interviewing the snake. He shook his head slowly, his eyes betraying sadness. I smiled sympathetically at it. '' Do you have a name?'' He nodded and hissed,' Nigel' . '' Nigel?'' I mused. Nigel nodded enthusiastically. Harry was about to say something to Nigel before a voice rang in the reptile house.'' DUDLEY, MR.DURSLEY, YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT THIS SNAKE IS DOING!!!'' Piers, aka Rat Face, had apparently noticed Nigel's strange behavior. Dudley came as fast as his sorry excuses for legs could carry him. He came over and deliberately knocked over me and Harry. We both fell on the floor hard. I was fuming and both me and Harry were glaring at Dudley from where we sat at the floor. If only looks could kill, then Dudley would be long gone. The next few moments were the most bizarre ones I had ever witnessed. One minute Dudley and Piers were leaning against the glass their faces pressed to it and the next they were on the floor too, scrambling away as fast as they could because something mysterious had caused the glass to disappear and Nigel was slithering out of his cage. Everyone was screaming and sirens were blaring. Me and Harry were still on the floor and I was thinking Come on people, he isn’t harming anyone then why all the fuss. Nigel slithered past me and Harry and  I heard his low, hissing voice say,'' Brazil here I come….. thanksss.'' '' Your welcome'' we replied in unison. Just then Dudley tried to get up from the floor but he slipped and landed on his back. Me and Harry, unable to control ourselves, started snickering but we stopped when Uncle Vernon glared at us. It wasn’t his normal death glare. This glare was full of murderous rage and, maybe I was imagining this, but a tiny bit of fear. I exchanged  quick glance with Harry and we both seemed to be thinking the same thing Uh-Oh, because we knew that we were in serious trouble