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After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in
there, 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 trash can - 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.
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Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake.
He 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. It was worse than having a
cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia
hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the
rest of the house.
The snake suddenly opened its beady
eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on
a level with Harry's. It winked. Harry stared. Then he looked
quickly around 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, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him.
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