"Hagrid, why did you say you shouldn't mention being a half-giant?" Harry quietly ask Hagrid.

They had just finished up a long, exhausting day of shopping for Harry's school supplies, and were working their way through a meal. Hagrid had just explained about Voldemort, and his apparently famous scar, and his parent's death, and Harry was trying to fill in the awkward silence that had followed. Harry didn't know how to process that, and figured he would have plenty of time before school started to review those discoveries.

Hagrid started a bit, being lost in memories, and Harry blushed at the shrewd look Hagrid gave him, telling him Hagrid had caught on to his tactic. "Well, Harry, yeh see... It's this. A lot'a people don't really like giants. Misunderstood creatures, giants. They're jus' a bit rough. Yeh see, giants really respect only two things: size and strength. Well, people thin' that makes 'em violent, and don' like tha."

Harry held onto every word his large friend said, and it made sense. Hagrid was just like him. "Well people are stupid!"

"Harry!"

"what they are! Trust me, I know. People pick on you because you are a half giant, Dudley's gang picked on me because I am so short, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia picked on me because I am a freak..in wizard! They are all stupid!" Harry mentally applauded his quick recovery there.

"Obviously, not all giants are like that, or else your Mom and Dad... well, you know, and you're the nicest person I have ever met! If they don't want to get to know you, just because you are a bit big, well forget about them! Dumbledore trusts you, obviously, and he's some super smart awesome wizard, right?, so who's opinion really matters?!"

Hagrid coughed, and wiped at his eyes as discretely as a man whose arm was more massive than an average person's entire body can. He studiously avoided looking at Harry as he said, heavily, "Thank ye, Harry."

Harry, sensitive to his friend's plight, restrained from laughing at the half-ton man's voice cracking, and was glad he did, as Hagrid's next words took his breathe away: "James said somethin similer once, tho I probablen shouldn' repea' the exac' words he used. Lily jus gave me this look when I let it slip at an Orde... er um, at a club meeting, like, of course she knew, and of course it didn't matter, and how dare I thin' otherwise. Good people they were. They'd be so proud of you."

It was Harry's turn to look around the room, struggling to keep his composure. A strange feeling in his chest, heavy and warm, made it hard for him to speak, and he found himself unable to, as each time he began, he felt like he would sob, or scream.

Harry mentally reminded himself to send Tom, the bartender, a thank you card, and some nice counter polish or something. When they had arrived for lunch, Harry had been nearly mobbed by excited witches and wizards. After a strong shout from Hagrid, Tom had verbally torn into his patrons, and ushered Hagrid and Harry to the room they had slept in last night, with a warm meal in hand.

Harry was doubly thankful for the privacy as he gathered his composure. Crying in front of Hagrid was a bit embarrassing. In front of strangers, he would be utterly mortified. Taking a deep shaky breath, he turned back to Hagrid, and nearly sobbed again as he saw the tear tracks on Hagrid's face.

With bright, pleading eyes, and a trembling voice, all Harry could manage was a choked, desperate "please."

The whisper barely carried in the room, but it seemed to reverberate through Hagrid's heart like a thunderclap. Technically, he wasn't supposed to have even stopped for a meal, but to get Harry and the Stone in his pocket behind their respective wards immediately.

Those thoughts were summarily dismissed before they had formed, as he looked into Harry's eyes. He may be no Dumbledore, but a flobberworm could understand what the boy was asking, and Hagrid doubted that Dumbledore, the Four Founders, or even Merlin himself would have had the power to deny this boy.

Gathering himself, and this time openly wiping his eyes, Hagrid searched his mind for every memory of Lily Evans and James Potter. That evening would be the first time of many that Hagrid and Harry would spend, talking, telling stories, laughing and crying together.

At this point, neither knew they were establishing a tradition that would last a lifetime, and a friendship which would drastically alter their own fate and that of their entire society. In the years to come, they would be asked what had motivated them, what had inspired them. They would look at each other and remember this moment of time, before providing a more prepared answer.

In that moment, however, in a small, unkempt room, in a small, dingy pub, none of that was important. All that mattered was a kind-hearted half giant, and a desperate, lonely orphan.

"Well, you see Harry, the first thing you need to understand is that the very first time they met on the Hogwarts Express, James loudly declared that he would one day marry Lily Evans. Unfortunately for him, Lily Evans could not stand James Potter..."