Disclaimer: I still don't own it.

AN: I got the next chapter up! Don't expect this posting rate to continue, I had a some ready by the time a posted chapter 1, but I've got quite a bit less ready after this. And I'm going to be busy for the next week and a half.

Chapter 2: Hagrid and Diagon Alley

There was another thud. Uncle Vernon yelled out, "I'm warning you, I'm armed!" There was another thud, this one louder than the last two, then the door fell in with a crash. In the doorway was framed a massive bearded figure, wearing a huge coat and carrying, of all things, a pink umbrella.

"Sorry 'bout that." The figure stepped inside and set the door back in place. "Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey." He turned toward Harry "Now then, you must be Harry."

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Ya look just like your father, got yer mother's eyes though."

"You are breaking and entering and I demand that you leave at once!" Harry snorted at Vernon's command. The man had tracked them here and knocked down the door, why would he fear a man like Vernon?

"Oh, dry up Dursley, yeh great prune." As the man spoke he reached over and bent the barrel of the gun so it pointed towards the ceiling. Then he returned his focus to Harry. "Anyway, Harry, a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here, I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste alright." With that he pulled out a rather squashed looking box and handed it to Harry. Inside was a (also rather squashed) cake with 'Happy Birthday Harry' written on it in green icing.

"Who are you?"

The man chuckled. "True, I haven't introduced myself. Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts."

"Is that the place that's been sending me letters?"

Hagrid began to reply, but was interrupted by Vernon. "Stop! Stop right there, sir! I forbid that you tell the boy anything."

"Oh, and I suppose a great muggle like yourself is gonna stop me?" Then Hagrid turned to Harry. "Of course it is. Haven't this lot told you anything?"

"I know about maths and stuff."

Hagrid rose from his seat in a fury, and to Harry's surprise he could actually see the anger. It looked a bit like he was glowing red, only without really being light at all. "YEH NEVER TOLD HIM ABOUT ANY OF IT! Did yeh even have the decency to tell him who he is and why he's famous?! Or about his parents?!"

Harry while a bit scared of Hagrid, decided to act on his anger instead. "The only thing they told me about any of those is that my parents died in a car crash bec-"

"A CAR CRASH?! A CAR CRASH KILLED LILY AND JAMES POTTER?! It's an outrage! How could you not tell him when every child in our world knows his story?"

Vernon made a noise that sounded like "Mimblewimble."

Hagrid turned back to Harry "Guess I'll have to tell you then. Can't have yeh going off to Hogwarts not knowing. When you were just a babe there was a wizard who went bad-"

"A wizard?" Harry asked.

Hagrid turned towards the Dursleys again, his anger returning in full. "YEH NEVER EVEN TOLD HIM THERE WAS SUCH A THING AS WIZARDS?!" The Dursleys retreated as far back as they could, whimpering. He turned back to Harry. "Yer a wizard, Harry."

"I am?" He was silent for a moment. "That explains so much." After another moment he asked Hagrid to continue his story.

"The bad wizard, he came after your parents. Maybe he thought he could get them on his side, maybe he just wanted them outta' the way. No one knows exactly what happened that night. The bad wizard killed your parents, then he tried to kill you. But he couldn't, and he disappeared that night, after givin' yeh that scar. So yer famous Harry, cause that was the end of the dark times."

"What was his name? The bad wizard." Harry asked. "And what happened to him?"

"People don't like to say his name, but it's… Voldemort. Some people think he's dead. Hogwash if yeh ask me. I think he's still out there, but he's lost his powers."

"Oh." There was silence for a few moments. Then Hagrid spoke again.

"Almost forgot why I came here." He pulled a letter like the one's that had been arriving out of his pocket and handed it to Harry. "Yer acceptance letter for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

The rest of the night went well, as the Dursleys weren't willing to go near Hagrid. In the morning, Harry woke ready to go shopping for his school supplies.

As Harry followed Hagrid into The Leaky Cauldron, his ring said "Warning, yellow light detected."

"What did yeh say there, Harry?"

"Ah, nothing. It just seems like this is a strange place to get school supplies."

"We're just passing through. You just wait and see."

It turns out that passing through took a bit of time, as everyone in the tavern wanted to meet Harry, but after a few minutes they made it through and Hagrid led Harry into Diagon Alley.

Diagon Alley was the single most incredible place Harry had ever seen. Everywhere he looked there was too much to see. Signs advertised toy wands, dragon livers, books about magic, bags of holding, talking mirrors, and cauldrons. The buildings were of every style Harry could imagine, and a few he couldn't. There was one store built underneath another one so you had to go down stairs from the street to get to it.

As they walked down the street a problem uncured to Harry. "Hagrid, I haven't got any money."

"Don't you worry about that, your parents left you quite a bit in Gringotts."

Indeed, when they entered the goblin bank and reached Harry's vault, he found that he probably had enough money to buy the Dursley's house several times over, if he wanted to go near the place. They took out a reasonable sum to buy school supplies, and Harry used his ring to grab a bit more when Hagrid wasn't looking.

Then Hagrid told the goblin that he needed to get "you-know-what, in vault you-know-which." Vault 'you-know-which' turned out to be vault number 713 and 'you-know-what' was the sole occupant of the vault, a small bundle of cloth. Hagrid refused to say what it contained, only that it was 'top secret Hogwarts business'. Harry began to grow frustrated at the secrecy, but then as they were leaving a thought occurred to him.

"Ring, scan the package Hagrid has."

"Scan complete, insufficient data to identify."

"Hmm. Well make sure you store the data for later."

"Confirmed."

As Harry approached Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, his ring spoke again. "Warning, orange light detected." Harry jumped slightly, and was glad to note that Hagrid hadn't noticed.

Feeling annoyed, he whispered "Do you have a setting that only I can hear?"

"Negative, however there is a lower volume."

"Well use it. Now, what does orange mean?"

"Orange light is avarice." The volume was indeed lower, and he was confident Hagrid wouldn't hear it.

"Now Harry, I need to get some supplies for Hogwarts, you go in there and get fitted for robes." Harry walked in. There was a blond boy already there being fitted for robes, and as he walked in a woman's voice from the back of the store told him that she would be there to help him in a moment. He immediately noticed the orange ring on the boy's finger. The boy also noticed Harry's ring.

The other boy spoke first. "Well, this was unexpected."

"That it was. Should I be worried about you trying to steal my ring?"

"No, at least, not unless you make it easy for me and I'm bored. I'm Draco Malfoy by the way."

"I'm Harry Potter."

Draco's jaw dropped. "You're Harry Potter?!" Then he recovered from his shock and his gaze became calculating. "I'm surprised you ended up with the ring you did. But, if you need an ally, I can help you."

Harry snorted. "Like I'd have any trouble finding allies with my reputation."

"True, but house Malfoy would be a better ally than most. And I've got a power ring too, so you don't have to worry about me distrusting you because of yours."

Harry considered. "I think I would like that. I'm not ready for anything official yet though."

"Of course, you've only just met me, and secret alliances are at least as good."

After that Madam Malkin returned to the front of the store and began fitting Harry for his robes.

At the bookstore called Flourish and Blotts Harry found himself drawn to a book called Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch your friends and befuddle your enemies with the latest revenges) by Professor Vindictus Viridian. Hagrid dragged him away from it, saying that Harry wasn't allowed to use magic away from school until he was of age anyways, but Harry slipped back under the pretense of needing to use the loo and bought it with some of the extra coins he had taken.

The final stop in their shopping trip was to a shop labeled 'Ollivanders: makers of fine wands since 382 BC'. Ollivander was creepy, he knew who Harry was without asking and apparently remembered every wand he had ever sold. The whole process was confusing, but Harry decided there was only one question that was worth the likely headache to ask.

"What does it mean that my wand is a brother to Voldemort's?"

"It means that the cores of both your wands came from the same phoenix. It's likely that if the two of them were ever to be used against each other there would be strange effects, but that hardly matters with the master of that wand gone."

Eventually, the trip was over, and to Harry's frustration he had to return to Number Four Privet Drive. He knew he would get in trouble if he did anything major against the Dursleys, but with his power ring there was little they could do to force him to do chores, and he enjoyed tripping and scaring them at random.