Harry had the best morning he’d had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunch time, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of punching him. They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn’t have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry got too eat the rest of the first one. Harry felt that it wasn’t going to last long and he was right. After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, which made Harry feel calmer for some reason. It had 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 a 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 crushing it. 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, the snake just snoozed on. “This is boring.” Dudley moaned and shuffled away. Harry moved in front of the tank and started intently at the snake. He wouldn’t have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself without any com[any except stupid people banging their hands on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard for a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake him up. At least he got to visit the rest of the house. The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised it’s head until its eyes were on a level with Harry’s.
It winked
Harry stared. Then he looked around quickly to see if anyone was watching. They weren’t. He looked back at the snake and winked too. The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly; “I get that all the time.” “I know,” Harry murmured through the glass, he was sure the snake could hear him even if he was quiet. “It must be really annoying.” The snake nodded vigorously. “Where do you come from?” Harry asked. The snake jabbed its tail at the little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.
Boa Constrictor, Brazil.
“Was it nice there?” The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on; This specimen was bred in the zoo. “I see - so you’ve never been to Brazil.” As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. “DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT IT’S DOING!” Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could. “Out of the way you.” he said, punching Harry in the ribs but missed. In the hurry to get out of the way Harry fell to the ground. What came next came so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they leapt back with howls of horror. Harry started laughing but gasped as he saw that the glass in front of the boa constrictor’s tank vanished. In fact ALL the snakes glass had vanished! There were grader snakes, vipers, cobras, pythons and they were slithering onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for exits. As the boa constrictor slid swiftly past him Harry could’ve sworn a low hissing voice said “Brazil, here I come… thanksss amigo.”
The keeper of the reptile house was in shock. “But the glass,” he kept saying. “Where did all the glass go?” The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snakes hadn’t done anything but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon’s car Dudley was telling them how one had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing another had tried and squeeze him to death. But worst of all, at least for Harry, was that they were calming down enough to say, “Harry was talking to it!”
Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. “GO! Cupboard! And stay there! No meals!” he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. After a couple seconds Harry shifted his body into a slightly more comfortable position and to his surprise saw a, bit dirty, but otherwise silver wristwatch. Harry reached for it and picked it up. I wonder, Harry thought, where this came from. He put it on anyways. The clock showed it was about ten twenty p.m. Harry smiled to himself, the Dursley’s wouldn’t be awake now. He tried to open the cupboard door and found it was locked.
All hope for food was erased from Harry’s brain. He should’ve known it was going to be locked, he’d lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten depressing years, as long as he could remember.