Understanding

The next day, after getting a bollocking from Uncle Vernon for sleeping outside where the neighbours might see him, he was sent to school with bruises up and down his legs. Much to his surprise, once he got there he found that Mrs Geraldine had resigned and left. Strange, given that even the other teachers found it odd.

Still, school went on. The substitute teacher Miss Candle didn't seem to like him, and it sounded like she knew his aunt and uncle with how she spoke to him. Thankfully her lesson wasn't that long, leaving him alone for the rest of the day.

The other thing, other than the Miss Candle that upset Harry was Dudley's new friends, Peris and Dennis. They'd been playing 'tag', and by that he meant they were running around pushing kids over as if they were playing rugby. That is, until Dudley spotted him.

"Hey, it's the freak!" the rotund boy glances at his buddies, "Come on, let's get him!"

"Dudley wait-" Harry started but couldn't get a single sentence out when the boy barrelled into him. A hard shoulder to the chest and he hit the ground grasping for air, which only got harder when the boys started dragging him around the playground by his shirt.

"S-stop! Let me go!"

"Shut up! Wanna see if we can go all around the swing?" Dennis says, nodding his head at the swing that quickly became vacant on their approach. Harry struggled to escape, but his emaciated body wouldn't allow him to overpower three boys.

He was stuck on the swing as they started pushing it, adding more and more speed until Harry was beginning to see the rooftop of the school building. "WAIT! STOP! PLEASE!"

"Hahaha! Look at him go!" Piers cackles at his distress.

"I reckon he can get higher!" Dudley says as he and his friends position themselves on the other side of the swing, prepared to add more momentum.

Harry grips the chains tightly but it isn't enough as they get one final push. One moment he's seated on the slippery rubber seat, the next he's flying through the air, thankfully missing the road as he hurtles towards some grass.

*CRACK!*

He lands on an outstretched arm and cries out in pain as it bends unnaturally, pointing in the complete opposite direction to which it should. The eyes of the three boys widen as they scatter, leaving Harry sobbing on the floor until break ended... It took ten minutes more for a teacher to find it, Miss Candle...

"What did you do!?" she all but shrieks, leaning over and roughly grabbing Harry by his broken arm, uncaring of his wails of agony as she pulls him to his feet... It's only after it flops backwards from the joint that she finally takes notice of his injury. "C-come with me, we'll let the nurse sort you out!"

He sniffs but can't wipe the snot and tears from his face due to having to keep his arm stable, "T-thank you, M-m-miss Candle..."

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Nurse Lira, upon seeing the severity of his injury called an ambulance to get him. Harry, still blinded by pain doesn't notice her looking over the bruises on his arms and stomach, or the new ones on his legs.

He tells her that Dudley and his friends were responsible before he was carted off to the hospital, unaware that this was the last time he'd see her.

His arm gets put in a cast before the Dursleys come to pick him up, the Doctors question Vernon on Harry's other injuries but the man plays it off as boys rough-housing... But by the side-eye the man was giving him, Harry knew he'd also be punished for this.

The car ride home was as quiet as it was tense, and once they were home Vernon slammed Harry in the wall with a hand on his neck. The boy choked and gagged as he was lifted from the ground, held there in a stranglehold.

"Trying to get Dudley in trouble for hurting yourself? Telling fibs to the doctors!? I've had it up to here with you! Shut your damn mouth and stay in there until you learn your ruddy lesson!" he throws Harry into the cupboard without care and slams the door closed, leaving Harry in darkness muttering sobbed apologies.

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Four days pass, in which Harry was held back from school on 'doctors' orders, with one and a half slices of bread a day to keep him alive. He'd cried, and cried, wishing to explain that it wasn't his fault, yet achieving nothing.

He'd all but accepted his situation when he heard a familiar voice in the middle of the night. ~Speaker...?~

~Speaker!?~

He peeks through the slit in his cupboard and his heart skips a beat when he spots Kaa slithering through the hallway after sneaking in through the letterbox. ~K-Kaa! You can't be here! They'll find and hurt you!" he hurriedly whispers.

~Hurt us? Like they hurt you?~ Kaa raises himself and peeks an eye into the cupboard, seeing both his broken arm and the bruises on his face, a consequence of questioning Uncle Vernon.

~Yes.~

~Why do you allow it, Speaker? They are not kin if they harm you.~

~I can't do anything to stop them! Everything I do makes them mad! Speaking, staying quiet, standing, sitting, doing chores, doing nothing... Nothing I do will ever be right! But I need them!~ he rambles, his tone becoming more desperate as he goes on.

~Why do you need them...?~

...

~B-because, they're family... They only family. There's no one else!~

~You lie. You are no kin to them, but a slave. Do you know what a slave is?~

~I'm not trapped here! I'm not held against my will! They're my family and I'll make them like me. No matter what!~

~Do you truly believe that?~

...

~J-just go away. Before they find you and punish me for more freakishness...~

Kaa squints at him in irritation but relents, sliding back to the door and exiting where he came, leaving Harry even more alone than before...

"They'll come around. I know they will..."

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Kaa continued to visit Harry every night for two weeks, and slowly Harry was coming to understand what the snake was trying to say. All his life the Dursleys had been his family, the only one he'd ever known. And sure, on the telly things seemed to be different, but many things were exaggerated or made up for entertainment. And if the teachers and doctors thought it was fine then, it must be fine... Right?

Well, from the short time he'd known the snake, it'd been far kinder to him than he could remember his relative being. If this was what having a friend was like, did that mean his understanding of his aunt, uncle, and cousin was wrong?

He didn't know... It made his head hurt thinking about it, particularly that weird scar on his forehead, which pulsed with pain seemingly whenever he thought too deeply about it. They said he was a freak, so he must have done something to deserve it... But then, why did Dudley get treated so well despite everything he did?

Was it because he was their son? Was he, as their nephew supposed to be treated like this?

Kaa, as a snake, didn't know for certain. But his logic became more sound the longer he listened to him...

Harry nods to himself in his cupboard in the morning, deciding to ask Kaa to observe other families to see what it really means to be part of one...

Unfortunately, the snake hadn't appeared that night. Or the night after that, or the night after that...

Two more weeks passed, and his family were surprised that his arm had already healed. Vernon gave him a harsh slap across the face for his freakishness, but forced him to dress up for school anyway.

It was when he went through the door behind Dudley that he felt bile rise up in his throat. There, amongst the recently cut grass was Kaa. Or at least, what's left of him.

Uncle Vernon had been forced to mow the lawn due to his broken arm, and unbeknownst to Harry, had gone over Kaa in his haste. The snake's body was intact, but his head had been reduced to ground-up blood and bone, with only one eye intact, cloudy and staring up at the sky lifelessly.

~Kaa... Kaa! Say something!~ he hissed, dropping to his knees and resting a hand on the reptile's scaled body. He was cold, colder than usual, and while Harry knew there was nothing to be done, he wished with every fibre of his being that there was.

His first friend, killed by his family while trying to visit him in his imprisonment. He died for nothing. Died trying to make Harry understand the reality of his situation. That his relatives would not only never love him, they were hard-pressed to tolerate his mere existence.

"Come on, boy! We haven't got all day! And if you make Dudley late I sweat to god!" Vernon shouts from the car while revving his engine.

Harry, wiping his face clear of tears tucks Kaa's body into his bookbag, intending to keep him near, even in death. It's what his friend would have wanted... The snake had loved his presence, his warmth, maybe even himself...

That was gone now, never to be returned.

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"AND STAY THERE!" Harry's thrown into his cupboard once more. After finding Kaa's body in the morning the whole day had been weird. Dudley's booklet suddenly burst into flames. Miss Candle's hair turned blue. And anyone who even looked at him the wrong way found themselves tripping over nothing.

He'd tried to keep his temper, but found himself snapping at people all day, his scar throbbing worse than ever before... Vernon quickly heard about everything and imprisoned him once more as they got home.

This was fine... This was where he needed to be.

He gently takes Kaa's body from his bookbag and hides the corpse under his pillow. He'd be safe there. Warm. Where he should be.

~But I won't feel blue... Like I always do... Because somewhere in the crowd. there's you...~ he quietly sings with eyes closed despite the tears dribbling down his cheeks.

Unaware of the bulb above him flickering...