A/N: I did my best to get Hagrid's slang right! Not the easiest task for a non-native-speaker... If I failed at one point or another, please tell me so I can correct it!
The knock on the door was calm but decided. Hagrid knew the sound. Only one man produced it and about no other's visit was the half-giant ever this delighted.
"Com' in", he called out and Albus Dumbledore entered. He held a single letter in his hand.
Hagrid recognized it instantly for what it was, as every former or current Hogwarts student always would. It was a letter sent by the school to either welcome a new member or to greet an old one back. He himself still kept the three he had received all those years ago. Safely put away next to the few things he had from his father. They were amongst his most treasured belongings.
"Hagrid", the older man greeted.
"Professor Dumbledore, sir. Wha' brings yeh down here?"
"A favour I have to ask of you and not a small one."
Hagrid's chest swell with pride at once. He didn't even need to know what Dumbledore wanted from him. The mere fact he was the one asked was enough.
"There is a certain student we want to take into our midst come September and there appears to be a slight disturbance in delivering his letter."
Hagrid was bewildered. There was no such thing as a disturbance when it came to delivering the Hogwarts letters.
His confusion obviously showed on his face because Professor Dumbledore chuckled. "Let me clarify. The boy I'm talking about lives amongst Muggles and they are not used to our ways of going about things."
Hagrid's face lit up in understanding but only for the second it took the headmaster to continue.
"In fact, Hagrid, you know the boy."
He was about to protest that he knew no Muggle-born, didn't even know the child of two wizards, when it dawned on him.
"Yer talkin' 'bout Harry Potter, sir, aren't yeh?"
That earned him a smile. "Indeed I am."
"Always wondered 'ow he fared with those Muggles. Always since we left him with 'em that night." The memory alone was enough to make him shudder. Never had he had to do something as heart-breaking as pulling that tiny little boy out of the debris that had once been Lily and James Potters' house. Hagrid was sure that for the rest of his life he would only have to close his eyes to be back there.
The once beautiful house in ruins and somewhere in the middle of it, completely unharmed as if by a miracle, Harry in his crib. There had been no immediate sign of his parents' bodies and Hagrid hadn't had the heart to look for them. He had just climbed as carefully as possible over the rubble and had picked the child up. The boy had barely filled his hands and his weight had been almost unnoticeable to the huge man. As tenderly as his sheer mass allowed, Hagrid had wrapped the crying baby in a blanket and soothed it. Amazingly, it had worked. And out of big, green eyes, Harry had looked up at him. Only then had Hagrid noticed the thin scar across the boy's forehead, the only sign of the dreadful things that had happened that night.
With barely contained tears in his own eyes, Hagrid had carried the boy out of the house. When he had reached the street, there had been a man standing there, white as a ghost and staring at the ruin behind Hagrid.
Sirius Black, James Potter's best friend from the day they both had started at Hogwarts. Hardly ever had Hagrid seen them apart and never had he had so much trouble with students trying to sneak into places they weren't allowed.
Almost unable not to cry himself, Hagrid had done his best to console the inconsolable man before him. Through his desperation, Sirius had tried to convince Hagrid to give Harry to him. That he was his godfather, that he'd care for him and that this was, what Lily and James would have wanted for their son.
And that gotten to Hagrid. Had he'd been given his orders by anyone but Dumbledore, he might actually have handed Harry over. But the old man's words still sounding his ears, he had told Sirius no and that the boy was to live with his aunt and uncle. Something had flitted across Sirius' face at the mentioning of Lily's relatives and now that Dumbledore had told him there were some difficulties with Harry's letter, Hagrid wondered in the back of his mind, if those two incidents were somehow connected.
In the end, Sirius had offered him his huge black motorcycle, a device so close to being illegal, Hagrid had always admired it.
"Take it", Sirius had said. "Take it, I don't need it anymore." And Hagrid had. He had used it to fly all the way to the small town in Surrey Dumbledore had told him to bring Harry to. And there they had left him, on the doorsteps of some strangers' house on a cold November night.
Ten years had passed and Harry Potter had been famous among people who didn't know him. But Hagrid had always remembered every detail of that night, and always had he wondered what had become of the boy he had rescued all those years ago. He had waited for the day Harry Potter would turn eleven and join them at Hogwarts. Because that he would, he had never doubted for a single second. The boy was a wizard if ever there had been one.
That Dumbledore had now chosen him to deliver Harry's letter was an honour Hagrid could barely grasp.
"Well, we are about to find out", the white-haired man said with that knowing glint in his eyes that meant he knew more than he let on. Something, Hagrid had come to accept in his mentor a long time ago. Dumbledore always knew more than everyone thought and when he didn't share his knowledge it was with good reason. Not once had Hagrid doubted that he was right to do so, and when he asked for information he wasn't voluntarily given, it was out of sheer curiosity, not because he thought Dumbledore kept something from him that he should know. So he just nodded at the comment and got up, preparing to leave for his mission,
"Hagrid", Dumbledore's voice came from behind him, "there might be some difficulties in delivering this letter. I authorize you to do what is necessary to give it to Harry."
Hagrid turned in surprise. "Wha'ever is necessary, Professor?"
"Whatever is necessary", confirmed the older man with sparkling eyes and Hagrid's anticipation for the task spiked.
"Thanks, Professor!", he said as earnestly as he could. "I won' let yeh down."
"I know, Hagrid. That's why I came to you." And with that, he walked out the door again, leaving behind a Hagrid whose face was glowing with pride and who eagerly reached for the pink umbrella leaning on the wall, waiting to be used.
A/N: Although I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd I somehow never wrote for the fandom. Until I got bored during one rather uneventful nightshift at the hospital... I know, this isn't much, more of a drabble than a real one-shot, but maybe you liked it anyways. If so or not, feel free to tell me ;-)