Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
I would like to write a lot more of this. I have some big differences in mind that I think you will enjoy. Tell me how you like it so far.


Here Comes Hagrid

"Sorry 'bout that," the giant reached down for the door and replaced it in its frame. Hermione's mouth fell open.

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had run downstairs at the noise and Uncle Vernon now brandished a shaking shot-gun in the intruders direction. "I demand that you leave at once Sir. You are breaking and entering."

Two large steps and the shotgun was being bent in half in one of the giants fist.

"Dry up Dursley you old prune." He said unflinching as the shotgun misfired and blew a hole in the ceiling.

"Now where is she?" he said turning to look about the dank dark room with a smile obvious even under his beard.

"M-me?" Hermione asked barely able to find the breath for one word, she stepped out into the light and fiddled with her skirt. A lot of adrenaline was swirling about in her stomach, making her feel entirely unbalanced.

"Hermione," he said happily, rolling the 'r' in a way she had never heard before.

"I've got somethin' fer yeh, 'fraid I might have sat on it at some point. I imagine it'll taste fine just the same."

Hermione didn't remember ever having seen this large man in her life. She watched transfixed as he reached into his enormous overcoat and produced a white box, tied with a thin purple ribbon. It did look rather squashed but she bit her lip as she took it, excited to see its contents.

"Baked it myself, words an' all." He might have blushed as he waited for her to open it but it was too dark to tell for sure. Happee Birthdae Hermiony, written in green icing in a large unsteady hand just fit on the surface of the cake.

"It's not everyday our young woman turns eleven now is it?" he said bending to sit on the low sofa in front of the fire. He pulled a pink umbrella from one of his pockets and shot balls of fire into the empty grate from its tip. Hermione's face swung from the now lit fireplace back round to the hand holding the unusual umbrella. Depositing the cake on the end of the sofa she sat down heavily and tried to process what she had just seen.

"It couldn't have been magic." She hadn't intended to say it out loud but it had caused him to peer down at her quizzically none the less.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Hermione said finding her voice in the face of curiosity.

"Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." His large beard was illuminated from below by the fire as he spoke. "I knew your parents 'course, when they were there."

"My parents? Went to…" Hermione's head might have been spinning. No one had mentioned her parents in years and they had never been talked of in a positive manner.

"'Course they did. Didn' yer ever wonder where they learnt it all?" his thick accent was strangely comforting.

"All what?" Hermione had never felt quite so confounded.

"Yeh're a witch Hermione."

Hermione's eyebrows shot up, "I'm a what?" she rose uncertainly from the sofa. The fire felt too hot against her skin and she tried to breathe evenly. Maybe a week without food had been too much for her to withstand, perhaps she was unconscious in a hospital bed somewhere.

"A witch and a thumpin' gud'n I'd wager, once yeh're trained up a little." Hagrid seemed more enthused as he spoke. Hermione found herself almost believing what he was saying.

"No. You've made a mistake. I can't be a witch." She brushed her hair out of her eyes and her forehead felt clammy.

"There's no such thing as magic." Hermione knew this to be true, she had been stuck with the Dursley's long enough to have had the magic sucked out of life, let alone out of her.

"Did yeh never make anything happen Hermione?" Hagrid caught her eye. "Anything you couldn' explain, when you were angry or scared?"

Hermione's eyes lit up as she thought of the snake incident and the vanishing glass, she almost wanted to laugh again. Hagrid's eyebrows rose in triumph. Out of another pocket he handed her what revealed itself to be the letter that had tried to find its way to her all week.

Gingerly turning it in her hands she broke the seal and unfolded the letter with shaking fingers.

Dear Miss. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Uncle Vernon was ambling across the room as fast as he could but nothing could dampen the thing growing in Hermione's chest. She was finally going to leave the Dursley's.

"She will not be going!" Vernon snapped as he came up alongside them.

"You knew?" Hermione saw a new level of hatred for these people.

"Of course we knew," Aunt Petunias voice spat, "How could you not be. My perfect sister being who she was. My mother and father were so proud, the day she got her letter." Her nasal voice was thick with disgust. "A witch in the family. I was the only one to see her for what she was, a freak." She was coming nearer and nearer as she spoke until Hermione didn't want to breathe in.

"Then she met that Potter and she had you, and I knew you would be the same. Just as strange, just as abnormal and then if you please she went and got herself blown up and landed us with you."

Hermione's shocked face must have amused her because Petunia smiled cruelly. "Yes, it wasn't a car crash after all," she bit out.

"A car crash?!" Hagrid's booming voice carried over Hermione's head like a sledge-hammer and Petunia stumbled back. "A car crash, kill Lily an' James Potter?!" Hermione might have been afraid if she had not felt so very angry.

"We had to say something," Petunia mumbled turning to Vernon archly.

"It's a scandal," Hagrid said, sounding beside himself and growling.

"She'll not be going." Vernon said rather unwisely glaring up at Hagrid.

Hagrid laughed, "A great muggle like yerself is gonna stop her are yeh?"

"Muggle?" Hermione said not having heard the word before.

"Non magic folk," he said in explanation.

He turned back to Vernon, "This girls had her name down since she were born. She'll be goin' to the finest school of Witchcraft an' Wizardry, an' she'll be under the finest headmaster that Hogwarts has ever seen! Albus Dumbledore." He roared.

"I'll not pay to have some crackpot teach her magic tricks." Uncle Vernon turned a hideous shade of puce at the thought of paying for anything for Hermione.

Hagrid's eyes flicked to the wiggling form of Dudley with his face in Hermione's birthday cake. Her face fell at the loss of the present but the thought of leaving stopped her being overly sad. Hagrid however thought a little retribution wouldn't go a miss and flicking his umbrella at the large younger Dursley's behind, a pig's tail broke through his hideous pyjama trousers to the screams of both his parents.

An enormous grin hit Hermione right in the face and she watched happily as they screamed their way out of the room. Turning to Hagrid she beheld this amazing giant of a man who had appeared to save her.

"I'd appreciate it if yeh didn' tell anyone 'bout that. Strictly speakin' I'm not allowed to do magic.' Hagrid said conspiratorially.

"Okay," Hermione nodded eagerly and looked about the empty room that had seemed so hopeless only moments ago.


What do you think?