A/N: Hello, people!

I don't own Harry Potter. Quotes from the movie aren't mine.

I have no beta.

ENJOY!

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NOTES:

EDIT 1: This chapter was revised on July 29th 2016. Fixed what I could see. The Parseltongue was fixed for this chapter at least.

EDIT 2: This chapter was revised on May 12th 2017. Added some more detail.

~.O.~

Hadrian Jameson Evans Potter was nearly eleven years old and he liked to think of himself as a pretty smart child, despite what his relatives did to try to make sure he wouldn't get a proper education. Despite their excuses and lies to the teachers and such, Harry knew deep down that he was smart and that his cousin Dudley, wasn't. And that was something he could at least pride himself over.

Harry was an orphan, whose parents had died in a car crash ten years prior. He was then dumped on his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, from what they had told him, and no such by your leave. Ever since his fourth birthday, he was like Cinderella for the Dursleys. And most of the time he could pass for a girl which was a problem most of the time.

His relatives were so stingy when purchasing him clothing, his aunt actually bought him ragged dresses from the local Charity Shop. Dresses, not trousers and jumpers like other boys. Instead of paying extra for three jumpers and three pairs of trousers, she settled on three heinously drab, grey dresses and three pairs of undergarments. He had one pair of black plimsolls that went easily with every dress and one pair of stockings which were stained and tattered in the knee area from continued wear.

They told everyone that he was home-schooled when his first few years in a real school didn't go well and he had to be pulled form the system. 'Freaky' things kept happening around him. Instead, he was 'home-schooled' and then had to go in for a test every few months. He always passed perfectly, which was why the police had yet to come to the house and demand he return to a real school. However, he passed on his own merit and not because his aunt ever actually helped him with anything. God forbid the woman do her job as his guardian.

She wouldn't help him even if her precious Dudders was in danger, and that was pathetic.

Harry was forced to grow his hair long after she decided he would be a girl, because 'good and proper young ladies had long hair'. Not the rat nest she had once described it to be.

Since he didn't go to the school anymore, the neighbors thought he was a problem child. He was a 'stubborn little chit' and needed a good caning to keep him in line, according to his uncle.

The long hair bit wasn't so hard if the truth must be told, since his hair had always grown fast. Every time Petunia cut it, it would grow back twice as long by the next morning. So when she shaved his head bald and he awoke the next morning with his hair down to his waist, she didn't reprimand him for being a 'freak', for once. He had finally managed to do something good in her eyes. Though he didn't know how he did it. It had just happened.

The only good thing about his dresses, was that they were made of wool. At least he didn't freeze in the winters. At least he was still small in physical size. Petunia hadn't had to buy him new clothes in four years because he wasn't very tall for a ten-year old. He had a feeling it as the malnutrition and poor upbringing he had. The books in the library had described such ailments and he had determined that they were the most suited to his issues.

Being forced to live in a dark cold cupboard for seven years of your life, tended to keep you pale and sickly looking. At least in his opinion, he looked sick. And then if he didn't finish the ridiculous list of chores he was given for the day, he'd get no meals, because someone once got the bright idea that refusing a child any nourishment, was a splendid punishment. If he ruined even one thing in any of the meals he cooked for his 'family' he'd get no food for the rest of the day, and double chores the next day. Because of such brutal living conditions, Harry was small and extremely malnourished.

Harry hated that people everywhere thought he was a girl. He just had one of those faces. Androgynous was the word that the dictionary had thrown in his face. He embodied it completely and hated it. He wasn't a girl and he didn't want to be walking around looking like one and being mistaken for one, though sometimes people he didn't know were a lot nicer because they thought he was a 'respectable young lady'. But that didn't make it okay to force him into something he didn't want nor agree with.

So on this day of 23 June 1991, Harry or better known to the world as Hadrianna, was finally getting out of the house to go with his fat spoiled cousin and his friend Piers to the Zoo! Why? Because there were laws against leaving children home alone until they reached a certain age and since the old lady they used to pawn him off on was injured after falling over one of her many felines, they had to take him along. He didn't yet know if he should be grateful or not.

Vernon's chubby hand brandished his silver car key in Harry's face and muttered, 'no funny business or no meals for a week'. Harry had nodded, though he knew he couldn't really promise such a thing. 'Funny business' just happened around him and he couldn't control it. It wasn't his fault that things either changed colour or exploded whenever he became too emotional. At least, most of the time it wasn't willingly his fault.

The ride to the zoo was painful. Dudley had punched him twice and his friend Piers had attempted to steal a kiss after each try to make up for what 'Dudley was doing to such a sweet girl'. The Dursleys didn't tell the boy's parents that Harry wasn't a girl, so the boy had been trying to get Harry's first kiss for the last year. Which was weird because they were too young for that, weren't they? Why was Piers so intent upon having Harry's first kiss?

That was another thing that annoyed him about being androgynous. He was prettier than all the little girls on Privet Drive or in Little Whinging as a whole. Most of the children, including Dudley, didn't like him for this fact and found reasons to try to bring him down one way or another. But Piers had nothing against Harry and the young boy wanted so much to tell the daft moron that he wasn't a girl, but a look in Aunt Petunia's direction warned him against such an action. He didn't even want to imagine the punishment he'd be given if he blabbed the truth now of all times.

The Zoo was large and full of various animals that Harry had only ever seen in photos on the glossy pages of his textbooks. Dudley and Piers wanted food as soon as they arrived and Vernon gladly paid for them. It was by a stroke of luck that the vendor noticed Harry at all, standing beside his incredibly thin and horse like aunt. Harry got a free cup of sorbet and a Drumstick Lolly for being such a 'pretty little girl'.

So there were a few good points to being mistaken for a girl, but the cons outweighed the pros greatly. Like how he was whistled at on the street when working on his garden. That was creepy. And yes, it was his garden seeing as he put all the work into it.

After the food bit, they finally got to venturing around the place. Harry was mainly interested in the Reptile House, because he had always liked snakes. They were amazing and there were so many of them to stare at.

When they finally reached the destination he had been longing for, Dudley made an embarrassment of their group by screaming about how boring the snakes were for not moving when he demanded. Harry just rested himself near the glass of a Burmese Python and watched as Petunia tried to calm the annoying child she'd given birth to. He did cease his fake sobbing after a promise of five more presents, to add to the thirty-eight he had already gotten at home. Spoiled prat.

Dudley and Piers came over to where he was stood and stared at the sleeping serpent behind the clear wall that separated them. Dudley groaned that it wasn't moving and Piers was too busy smiling at Harry to care much about what the snake was not doing.

Dudley's sudden rapping on the glass startled the other two children into giving him horrified looks of embarrassment when others turned to look their way. He then yelled for the creature to move in some way, but Harry just had this feeling that it was ignoring him. Dudley then grabbed Piers' hand and proceeded to drag him away to look at the 'cool snakes', saying that the one Harry had taken root by was 'stupid'.

Harry turned to the poor reptile and decided apologies were in order.

"Sorry about him. He doesn't know what it's like. Lying there day after day. Watching people press their ugly faces in on you."

For the first time in his life, Harry was blow away by something.

The snake's eyes opened and it's body raised, until it was eye level with Harry. It winked!

"C-can you hear me?" he asked, trying to put it all together. A snake winking seemed a little farfetched, even to his imagination.

It nodded!

The snake understood English!

Harry couldn't be too sure, be he had a feeling the snake's eyes were sparkling. As if it possessed some hidden knowledge he was unaware of.

"I've never talked to a snake before. Do you talk to people often?"

It shook its head 'no'!

"You are the most amazing reptile I've ever come across," Harry confessed. Not that he had come across many in his life.

§Thanks.§

Harry's jaw dropped. The snake spoke English with an accented 'S' sound. Dear Lord, was it a magic snake or something?

"You speak English!" he exclaimed, barely managing to keep his voice down so as not to gather the wrong sort of attention.

§No, you speak Parseltongue. Snake language.§

"Uhh... I don't think that's a real language."

§Of course it is. Only magical beings can speak it though, and you are a witch.§

Harry frowned. Even the bloody snake mistook him for a girl! Would there ever be an end to it?

"My uncle said that magic doesn't exist. Also, I'm a boy in case you didn't notice."

The snake then gave him a very detailed once over that clearly stated its response to his statement. He was being sassed by a bloody snake!

"I swear, I'm a boy. My aunt doesn't want to buy me clothing and waste money on something not worth it, so she bought me this dress and I've had it for four years, 'cause I haven't grown much. She makes me dress like a girl and won't cut my hair."

Harry had a feeling that the snake didn't like his answer, but whether it did or not, it never responded to his claims. Instead, it focused on something else. §Magic exists. You are a wizard. Only magicals can speak Parseltongue and you are a Parselmouth. Tell me, has anything strange ever happened to you or around you that you could not explain?§

Harry froze at the question. How did the snake know? "Yes," he whispered, eyes going wide.

§Tell me.§

"I turned a teacher's hair blue for yelling at me. Whenever my hair is cut, it grows back twice as long in the course of a single evening. I once appeared on the top of my school after running from my bully of a cousin and jumping over a rubbish bin only to end up on the school roof instead of the other side of the bin. Sometimes my cupboard gets warmer when I'm too cold and other times it'll cool down when it's too hot. A flower bloomed after I touched it. Windows explode when I scream. I can make the broom move on its own if I imagine hard enough. And now apparently I can talk to snakes."

Before either of them could say anything, Dudley reappeared and elbowed Harry out of the way. The pre-teen fell to the cold floor and glared at his cousin who was currently pressed to the glass, fat face squished against his own reflection.

Fat, ruddy walrus in training, he was. Bet he'd like to be in there with the snake. Harry would certainly get a laugh out of it.

Dudley screamed in horror and his large body suddenly teetered forward and he fell into the snake tank! The glass was gone.

The snake slithered out of the large box and people screamed and ran for the exit. Harry just sat on the floor even as the entire hall was cleared of people and Dudley was laying in the water in the tank, not moving.

The snake looked up at him.

§That was your magic. I am coming with you.§

Harry was flabbergasted. §How are you going to hide yourself?§ he asked.

§Place your hands upon my form and think of making me smaller. Quickly!§

Harry did as instructed and hoped beyond all hope that the snake would shrink before anyone saw him doing any 'funny business'.

It did! The large, several foot long Python was suddenly as long as his arm. It then wrapped around his hand and coiled around it, before slithering up his sleeve and into his dress.

Then the Zoo workers were everywhere and they managed to pull Dudley out of the tank. He was soaked. Petunia, Vernon, and Piers were worried for him. Harry was asked about the snake and he said that it moved from the tank like the glass wasn't there and slithered out, snapping at people. He was shocked when they believed him. Idiots. How do you explain the missing glass wall that had been there earlier?

His relatives knew he was behind it though. When they returned home, he was tossed into his cupboard and locked in. That meant no food for a week. Again. He sighed.

§Is this a common occurrence?§ the snake hissed after slithering out from his sleeve.

§Yes,§ he nodded.

§Disgusting muggles, locking a magical child up in such a way. What is your name, boy?§

Harry didn't know what a muggle was, but didn't ask. He just answered the question.

§Hadrian Jameson Evans Potter. Do you have a name?§

§A Potter living with muggles. Disgraceful,§ the snake hissed, shaking its head.

§May I have your name, please?§ Harry repeated firmly, catching the snake's attention once more.

Those green eyes, which he had never thought possible for a snake, stared at him with bright interest. It was dark in the cupboard, but Harry could see the eyes just fine and the outline of the snake's form was easy to spot.

Finally, the snake hissed, §I am Tom Marvolo Riddle.§

A/N: First chapter is done.

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