𓏲 . THE BOY WHO LIVED . .៹♡
                                                          CHAPTER ONE
                                        ─── THE VANISHING GLASS

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephews on the front step, but Privet Drive would change practically nothing. The sun was rising behind the closed curtains in the Dursley family's small room, the walls almost completely filled with pictures and pictures of something that looked like a small ball, Dudley Dursley when he was still small.

But he was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large, blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. There was no sign in the room that there were any other boys living in the house.

Yet Harry and Charlus Potter were still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. Their  Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day. "Up! Get up! Now!"

Petunia knocked on the door, which scared Harry and Charlus who almost jumped out of bed. The younger Potter putted the glasses on his eyes as their aunt rapped on the door again. "Up!"! she screeched.

Charlus and Harry  heard Petunia's heavy footsteps leave the small room and head towards the kitchen. The woman picked up the frying pan and placed it on the stove while  Charlus rolled on to his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorbike in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.

"I was dreaming that night." He said to his twin brother after they had both wished each other a good morning. "What was it with?" Harry asked his brother with a raised eyebrow. "It was a flying motorcycle." " I had the same dream." replied Harry with a smile. 

Charlus had a look of surprise on his face, but before he could say anything back, Petunia returned towards the small room under the stairs and knocked on the door again. "Are you up yet?" she demanded from them. "Almost." Harry and Charlus answered her at the same time, to which they looked at each other before they smirked. It was their twin thing.

"Well, get a move on, I want you, Harry, to take care of the bacon and you, Charlus, to make Dudley's favorite juice." Petunia explained the twins their tasks and at the same moment the twins looked at each other, Charlus had a mischievous smile on his face, which he shared with Harry.

"And Harry, don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday." Charlus rolled his eyes when he heard his cousin's name. "Huge jerk."  He mumbled to no one but himself and Harry groaned when he remembered what day it was. "What did you say?" their aunt asked sharply through the door. "Nothing, nothing ...." Harry and Charlus answered again at the same time.

Dudley's birthday – how could they have forgotten? Harry and Charlus  got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks.  Charlus found two pairs under  their bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, hand a pair to his brother before the other pair put on. The twins used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where  they slept.

When they were dressed  they went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had got the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike,in addition to the numerous smaller wrapped gifts.

Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Charlus, as Dudley was very fat and about four times bigger than Charlus and Harry was. Harry was an inch shorter than his brother, he was very skinny and weak.

Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright-green eyes.  He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Sellotape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.  Charlus, meanwhile, had a slightly square face, was slightly muscular,had light brown hair and bright green eyes as well.

The only thing Harry and Charlus had in common was a very thin scar on their foreheads in the shape of a lightning bolt. They had had it as long as they could remember and the first question Harry could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how they had got it. "In the car crash when your parents died." she had said. "And don't ask questions." Don't ask questions – that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.

Charlus took a glass jar from the cabinet, while his brother turned on the stove. Placing the jar in the sink, Charlus walked to the fridge and opened it, the fridge was full of things that neither of them could take, despite having a lot of food, their uncle's never let them eat, which meant that they both never had one. He sighed before he grabbed a bottle of cold water and closed the fridge, heading back towards the sink.

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon and Charlus took the juice from the cupboard. "Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting. Then he sat down at the table while Charlus gritted his teeth with slight anger.

Harry and Charlus had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in their class put together, but it made no difference, their hair grew just like that - everywhere.

As soon as Harry finished the bacon, Charlus finished stirring the juice and added his special touch to make it good: He spat in the juice and then stirred it again. "Do you need help?" Charlus asked and looked at his brother who denied it. He walked to the fridge and took the eggs, then closed it again and returned to the stove.

While his twin fried the eggs,Charlus took the cups from the cupboard and placed them on the table. Sitting at the table, Vernon was reading his newspaper and at the same moment Dudley appeared in the kitchen with his mother. At the same moment, Harry finished frying the eggs and went towards the table with the frying pan. He poured the freshly fried eggs onto the empty plate on the table and sat down at the table with his brother.

 Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell. "Thirty-six." said Dudley, looking up at his parents. His eyes exuded anger. "That's two less than last year."

Harry had to smile, while Charlus just shook his head in annoyance. "I'd be happy if I at least got a present." he whispered to Harry, fortunately without causing much of a stir.  "Me too. But Dudley's just bloody spoiled." he whispered back.

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."  Petunia tried to reassure Dudley and pointed to the large pile of presents. " All right, thirty-seven then." said Dudley, going red in the face.

Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.  Charlus, meanwhile, took the juice and filled up the glasses without his family asking him to. Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"

Charlus rolled his eyes. It was mean how Dudley got everything and Harry and Charlus had to watch every time. Whenever it was their birthday or they made a wish, it was always skillfully ignored.

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Charlus didn't even think his cousin had the brains to know how many presents he would get.   "So I'll have thirty ... thirty ..." Dudley said slowly. "Thirty-nine. " Charlus corrected him, before Petunia added an affectionate nickname at the end of his sentence.

"Oh. " said Dudley before he got up from his chair and grabbed one of the closest gifts. " All right then." Uncle Vernon laughed proudly at his son. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. Atta boy, Dudley!" he compared him to himself and ruffled Dudley's hair.

After the scene at the table,Charlus and Harry watched their cousin unwrap the birthday present, while Petunia went to answer the phone that had rung. Dudley unwraped the racing bike, a cine-camera, a remote-control aeroplane, sixteen new computer games and a video recorder.

He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone, looking a little angry and worried. The woman's eyes went to her husband. "Bad news, Vernon."  she said.  "Mrs Figg's broken her leg. She can't take them." She added  and  gestured with her head in the direction of the Potter twins.

Dudley's mouth fell open in horror but Harry looked at his brother with shining eyes, his heart gave a  leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema. Every year, Harry and Charlus were left behind with Mrs Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry and Charlus hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs Figg made them look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.

"And now?" asked Petunia. Her angry gaze went towards the twins, as if they had both planned this. "We could phone Marge." Uncle Vernon suggested and Charlus made a face. He hated that woman and the woman hated him too, so the feeling of hatred was reciprocal. "Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boys."

It was common for them to talk about the two of them as if they weren't there. In time, Harry stopped caring, while Charlus just ignored it. "What about what's-her-name, your friend – Yvonne?" "On holiday in Majorca." snapped Aunt Petunia.

"You could just leave us here." Charlus suggested to them, hoping that he and Harry could eat delicious sandwiches and watch whatever TV they wanted for a change,and  maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer.

Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon. "And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled. "We won't blow up the house. " Harry responded quickly, but they were no longer paying attention to anything the two of them said. Then Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia talked about the possibility of going to the zoo with them.

Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying, it had been years since he'd really cried, but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him
anything he wanted.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!"  she cried, flinging her arms around him. "I ... don't ... want ... them ... t-t-to come!"  Dudley yelled between huge pretend sobs and pointed at the twins. "They always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry and Charlus a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms, but his grin stopped when Charlus gave him a angry look.

Before they could say anything else, the doorbell rang and Petunia despaired, letting go of her son. "Oh, Good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically – and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss,another idiot, walked in with his mother.

Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was Dudley's boss, he was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Peter teased the twins, but picked on Harry more, because for some reason, Charlus scared him and that made the older twin use it to his advantage, Peter's fear of Charlus kept him away from him and his twin.

Upon seeing his friend, Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once and ran towards it, while Petunia looked at the twins with disgust. "Let's go, you pests!" Petunia said pulling Harry's arm and Charlus followed her. Charlus pulled his brother towards him and took him out of Petunia's clutches, making her snort, so the trio headed towards the stairs and went to Dudley's room .

Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, would be sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with his twin brother, Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him and his twin brother.

Beside him, the older twin saw Petunia and Vernon approaching, the latter grabbed the older twin's arm and held it tight, making Potter growl at his uncle and close his eyes angrily. "I'm warning you."  he  said, putting his large purple face right up close to Charlus'  "I'm warning you now, boy – any funny business, anything at all – and you and your brother will be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

Charlus didn't respond at first, but he felt his thin arm being squeezed by Vernon and he looked at him as if he were challenging him. But soon Charlus swallowed his pride and looked at his brother who shook his head. "I'm not going to do anything." said Charlus, but, as expected,  the uncle didn't believe him. No one ever did that except his brother. "I swear ..."

The problem was, strange things often happened around Charlus and Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys  they didn't make them happen.

Like the time Petunia got tired of sending Harry and Charlus to the barbershop and coming back the same way as before, she took the scissors and cut their hair leaving them almost bald. That day they became a laughing stock for Dudley, all two of them went to sleep, but when they woke up the next day to find their hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. They had been given a week in their cupboard for this, even though they had tried to explain that they  couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

Or when Charlus strangely ended up in the Headmaster's office for pushing Dudley and his gang into a fountain without a touch when they were bullying Harry, although the boy had no idea how it had happened. He was simply seen standing next to them with his hands outstretched,whereupon he was accused. Maybe it was him, but we'll never know.

"I really hope so!" Vernon said, letting go of Charlus' arm and starting to walk away from the twins. Charlus waited for his uncle to walk away and huffed in anger, he looked at his brother and sighed deeply, looking at him.

Being called by their aunt, the twins almost ran outside and waited for Dudley and Peter to sit in the back seat, with Dudley next to the window, Peter was forced to sit next to Charlus, who got in before his brother and left space for it to sit next to him. Soon Vernon and Petunia joined the children and got into the car, and the car was started, sending them towards the zoo.

While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council,Charlus, the bank,Charlus and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning, it was motorbikes. ".. roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums."  he said, as a motorbike overtook them.

"  I had a dream about a motorbike." said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying." Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beetroot with a moustache, "MOTORBIKES DON'T FLY!"

Beside him, Charlus heard Dudley and Peter laugh at Harry and he sighed. "I know they don't." said Harry. "It was only a dream." After Harry's speech, the trip was a huge bummer, every now and then Peter and Dudley made fun of Harry and received a deadly look from Harry's twin, which made them immediately shut up, but other than that,Charlus tried to get his attention,changing to something else, his and Harry's attention turned to the city they saw from the car window.

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. Upon getting out of the car, Charlus felt his eyes light up as he faced the entrance to the place, but he contained his excitement, as he had been forced to follow his aunt and uncle with Harry.

The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice-creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry and Charlus what they wanted before they could hurry them  away, they bought them two ice lollys. Charlus was enjoying a strawberry lolly, while Harry had gotten a lemon one. It wasn't bad either, Charlus  thought, licking it.

Walking alongside his twin, Harry observed the gorilla scratching his head and Harry quickly compared him to Dudley, but the gorilla didn't have blond hair. Beside him, Charlus watched the gorilla in awe, he heard him hit his chest and let out a scream, making most of the children perk up to look at him.

Charlus had to admit, that was one of the best morning he'd had in a long time . Both Charlus and his brother were careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys. At some point, around lunch, Peter and Dudley started to get to get bored with the animals, they wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting them.

As if his day couldn't get any better, lunch was one of the things Charlus liked most, it was the first good lunch Charlus and Harry had, as they managed to get a portion just for them, after Dudley  had a tantrum because his plate wasn't big enough. A then Vernon bought him another, giving that one and Peter's, which wasn't big enough either, to the Potter twins.

After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in here, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone.

Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a dustbin – but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep. Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.

"Make it move."  he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge. "Do it again." Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on. "This is boring."  Dudley moaned. He shuffled away,with his parents and Piers following behind.

Harry and Charlus moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. They  wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself – no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with  the Potter twins. It winked. The both of them widened their eyes. Then Harry and Charlus  looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. They  looked back at the snake and winked, too.

The snake jerked its head towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry and Charlus  a look that said quite plainly: "I get that all the time."  "We know."  Charlus  murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying." The snake agreed with an emphatic nod.

"Where do you come from, anyway?"  Harry asked her. Slowly the snake pointed with its tail to a sign next to the glass and the twins looked at it that said: boa constrictor, Brazil.  " Was it nice there?" innocently, the youngest Potter asked. The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry and Charlus read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo.

"Oh, I see – so you've never been to Brazil?"  Charlus asked.  As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry and Charlus  made both of them jump. " DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"

Dudley turned his attention to where the twins were and noticed that the snake was awake. The blonde ran to his friend as fast as he could. " Out of the way, you." he said,punching Harry in the ribs. The youngest almost fell to the ground, but his brother ended up holding him, preventing him from going towards the ground.

Charlus narrowed his eyes, as did Harry and at the same time, they both stared at the glass with extreme anger and suddenly, the glass to which Dudley and Piers leaning disappeared, causing the Dursley and Piers to fall into the boa constrictor's tank.

The glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out on to the floor – people throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.

Confused, that's how the twins were, the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanishedand they really didn't know how. The attention of both of them went to the snake,which was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out of the cage on to the floor – people throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.

The snake looked in the direction of the twins and said: "Brazil, here I come. Thank you, friends." said the snake, hissing. "Anytime!" Charlus replied with a laugh. Then the snake crawled away across the zoo floor, leaving behind a laughing Charlus and a completely confused Harry.

Charlus' gaze wandered back to Dudley and Piers, who was about to climb out of the terrarium, but they realized that the glass seemed to be back in place and they were locked in. They immediately panicked and when Aunt Petunia saw Dudley and Piers, she panicked too. She tried to get them both out of tank.

The keeper  of the reptile house couldn't explain this mess, pacing back and forth in the zoo director's office, muttering in shock to himself the whole time: " But the glass. Where did the glass go?" The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong sweet tea while he apologised over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber.

As far as Charlus had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.  But worst of all, for Harry and Charlus at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry and Charlus were talking to it, weren't you, Harry,Charlus?" 

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry and Charlus. "What happened?" He asked Charlus angry, tilting the boys head up to meet his gaze. "I swear, I don't know!" He exclaimed in pain as Vernon turned to Harry.

"What happened?" He asked the same question, hoping that Harry would answer him. "One minute the glass was there then it disappeared!" He seethed through his teeth in pain. "It was like magic!" Charlus added after the boy before Vernon dragged them both towards the cupboard, growling.

He pushed them into the cupboard and slammed the door shut. Through the vent in the door, he told them "There's no such thing as magic!" He shut the vent and locked the cupboard, walking to his family.

Much later, as they lay in their dark cupboard closet, Harry wished he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he and Charlus couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.

The silence was interrupted by the sound of Harry's stomach. The boy looked at his brother in embarrassment. "Am I the only one hungry?" "You can be sure not."

━━ AUTHORS NOTE

Hope you enjoyed the chapter one! I tried to change as many
things as possible to fit Charlus in, so I hope you liked it!

Please feel free to like, comment, vote, and share!

Until next time < 3