‘expergiscere! surge! statim!’ Harrius subito experrectus est. matertera rursus ianuam pulsavit. ‘surge!’ clamavit strident. Harrius eam audivit ad culinam euntem et tum sonitum sartigens in foco impositae. versus in tergum somnium recens meminisse conatus est. optimum fuerat somnium. in eo fuerat birotula automataria. nescio quo modo sensit se idem somnium prius habuisse. matertera regressa ante ianuam stabat. ‘an iam surrexisti?’ rogavit. ‘paene’ inquit Harrius. ‘festina modo. tuum est laridum curare. cave be illud torreas. volo die natali Duddliculi omnia optime fieri.’ Harrius gemitum edidit.
‘Up! Get up! Now!’ Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again. ‘Up!’ she screeched. Harry heard her walking towards the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the cooker. He 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. His aunt was back outside the door. ‘Are you up yet?’ she demanded. ‘Nearly,’ said Harry. ‘Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don’t you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy’s birthday.’ Harry groaned.
dimidia post hora, Harrius, qui fortunae suae credere non poterat, sedebat in posteriore parte autocineti Dursleorum, iter faciens ad saeptum ferarum quod nunquam antea viserat. matertera enim et avinculus non poterat excogitare quomodo aliter eum curarent, sed priusquam discesserunt, Avunculus Vernon Harrium seduxerat. ‘te admoneo,’ dixerat, faciem amplam et purpuream ori Harii prope admovens, ‘nunc te admoneo, puer – ne quid temptes ridiculi, qualecumque- nisi vis morari in armario isto usque ad diem natalem Christi.’ ‘nil faciam,’ inquit Harrius, ‘sine fraude dico…’ sed Avunculus Vernon non ei credidit. nemo unquam ei credebat. causa erat, quod res mirae saepe circum Harrium factae sunt, nec ullo modo ei proderat Dursleis dicere se ipsum extra culpam esse.
Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn’t believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys’ car with 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, but before they’d left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside. ‘I’m warning you,’ he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry’s, ‘I’m warning you now, boy – any funny business, anything at all – and you’ll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas.’ I’m not going to do anything,’ said Harry, ‘honestly …’ But Uncle Vernon didn’t believe him. No one ever did. The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn’t make them happen.
Boa Constrictor, Brasilia. ‘an iuncundum ibi erat?’ boa constrictor titulum rursus cauda fodicavit et Harrius plura legit: hoc exemplum in saepta ferarum natum est. ‘intellego – itaque nunquam in Brasilia fuisti?’ angue abnuente, clamor ingens post Harrium ortus utrumque perterruit’ ‘DUDLEY! DOMINE DURSLEY! HUC VENITE HUNC ANGU INSPECTURI! NUNQUAM CREDETIS QUID FACIAT!’ Dudley ad eos quam celerrime anatis modo incessant. ‘heus, noli me obstare,’ inquit, Harrium in pectore fodicans. ex improviso oppressus, Harrius in pavimentum concretum graviter concidit. quod proxime accidit tam celeriter factum est ut nemo videre posset quomodo fieret. Piers et Dudley modo proxime adstantes ad vitrum se inclinabant, modo clamoribus horrendis resiluerant. Harrius sedere coepit et anhelavit; frons vitrea cisternae boae constrictoris evanuerat. angius ingens rapide evolvebatur et in pavimentum elabebatur – passim per domum reptilium orti sunt clamores exitus celeriter petentium. Harrius, angue cito praeterlabente, iurare potuit se audivisse vocem summissam et sibilantem, ‘iter in Brasiliam facio… tibi gratiasss ago, amigo.’
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. ‘Oh, 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 towards them as fast as he could. ‘Out of the way, you,’ he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened – one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror. Harry sat up and gasped; 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. As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, ‘Brazil, here I come … Thanksss, amigo!’
multo postea Harrius in armario tenebroso iacebat, horologium desiderans. nesciebat quota hora esset nec pro certo habebat Dursleos iam dormire. nam priusquam illi dormierunt, ipse non ausus est furtim in culinam ire ut aliquid cibi quaereret. paene decem annos cum Dursleis vixerat, decem miseros annos, tam diu quam meminisse potuit, ex quo infans fuit et parentes interfecti sunt illa collisione autocinetiorum. non potuit meminisse se in autocineto fuisse ubi parentes mortui essent. aliquando, cum memoriam intenderet diutissime in armario inclusus, occurring ei visum mirabile: fulgor lucis viridis oculos occaecans et dolor ardens frontispice.
Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing 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 couldn’t risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. He’d lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he’d been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn’t remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.