As I said in the last chapter, I am re-doing this story a bit - again. Here is the new chapter two!
(By the way, this story will eventually have slash and femslash relationships, but hopefully realistically. If you want to know the pairings - spoilers! - just ask. Any requests? I'll think about them :)
Chapter 2: In Which We Meet A Giant..
BOOM.
Dudley jerked awake.
"Where's the cannon?" He said stupidly.
There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands – now they knew what had been in the package he had brought.
"Who's there?" He shouted. "I warn you – I'm armed!"
There was a pause. Then –
SMASH.
The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with deafening crash landed flat on the floor.
A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glittering like black beetles under all that hair.
The giant squeezed into the hut, and Ivy dragged her siblings into a corner on the other side of the fireplace to hide. Perhaps he would kill the Dursleys and leave them? The triplets might be able to paddle the boat back to shore by themselves…
"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey…" They heard him say in a deep voice. The next second, he seemed to addressDudley.
"Hullo there, Harry!" he said happily. "Haven' see you since you was a baby, o' course, but your looking a lot rounder than I remembered. Where're your sisters?"
Dudleysquealed and ran to hide behind his mother, but the triplets thought the giant sounded kind. They decided to take the chance.
"He's not Harry," Harry said bravely, stepping out from the corner. "I am."
The giant rolled his eyes, smiling. "Well o' course you are!"
"I'm Juni." Said the red-haired triplet, stepping out.
"And I'm Ivy," said Ivy.
"Yeh look a lot like your dad, Harry, but yeh've got your mother's eyes. You two – "
Uncle Vernon cut him off.
"I demand that you leave at once, sir! You are breaking and entering!"
"Dry up Dursley, yeh great prune," The giant said, reaching over the back of the sofa and grabbing the shotgun, then twisting it into knot and throwing it into the corner of the room. Uncle Vernon made a funny noise.
"Anyway – Juni, yeh look just like yer mother at yer age, though yeh've get yer dad's eyes. Ivy, yeh've got yer dad's colour, but your grandmother's straight hair…o' course, ya already know that."
The triplets just stared at him. How could he know so much about their family?
"A very happy birthday to you three, by the way," He added, reaching into his coat. "I got summat here for yeh – might've sat on it, but it'll taste fine – "
From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled out a slightly squashed box. He handed it to Ivy, and Harry lifted the lid while they peered in. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry, Ivy, and Juni written on it in green icing.
The triplets looked up at the giant.
"Who are you?" blurted Harry. He had meant to say thank you, but the words had gotten lost on the way to his mouth.
The giant chuckled.
"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."
He held out an enormous hand, and shook each of the triplets' whole arms.
"What about that tea then, eh?" He said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."
His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shrivelled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and the triplets felt the warmth wash over them as though they'd sunk into a hot bath…not that they'd know what that was like.
The giant sat back down under the sofa and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and an amber bottle of something that he took a swig of before starting to make tea. Soon the hut was filled with the sound and smell of sizzling sausages. Nobody said a thing while he was working, but when he slid six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages off the poker,Dudleyfidgeted a little. UncleVernonsaid sharply, "Don't eat anything he gives you, Dudley."
The giant chuckled darkly.
"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."
He passed two sausages each to Harry, Ivy, and Juni, who were so hungry they had never tasted anything so wonderful. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, Ivy wiped her hands on her overlarge skirt and said, "I'm sorry, but we still don't really know who you are."
The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Call me Hagrid," He said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts – Yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."
"Er – no," Juni said, feeling confused.
Hagrid looked shocked.
"Sorry," said Harry quickly. "We've just never heard–"
"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them that should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?"
"Learned what?" asked Harry, Ivy, and Juni in unison.
"LEARNED WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"
He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole shack. The Dursleys covered against a wall.
"Do you mean ter tell me," He growled to the Dursleys. "That these kids – these kids! – don't know nothin' abou' – about ANYTHING?"
Now, Harry, Ivy, and Juni thought this was going a bit far. They had been to school, after all, and their marks weren't bad.
"We know some things," Harry said. "We can, you know, do math and stuff."
But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."
"What world?" asked Juni, eyes wide.
Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.
"DURSLEY!" He boomed.
Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at the triplets.
"But yeh must know about yer mum and dad," He said, "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."
"What?" gasped Ivy.
"Our – our parents weren't famous…" said Harry, thinking of how they had died in a 'car crash'…where three different people had somehow received the same scar…hmm….
"Were they?" wondered Juni. "How much do we really know about them, you guys?" she said, looking at her siblings. "It could be true…"
"Yeh don' know….yeh don' know…" Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry, Juni, and Ivy with a bewildered stare. The triplets were glaring at their Aunt and Uncle.
"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" He said finally.
Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.
"Stop!" He commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell them anything!"
A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.
"Yeh never told them? Never told them what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer them? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from them all these years?"
"Kept what from us?" said all three children eagerly. Anything that bothered their uncle this much must be good.
"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic. Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.
"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," Hagrid said. "Harry, Juni, Ivy – yer wizards."
There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and wind could be heard.
"We're what?" gasped Juni, finding her voice first. "Wiz – what?"
"Wizards, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower. "An' thumpin' good 'uns I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letters."
And finally he took the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to the three children; The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. They pulled out their letters and read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc. Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Miss (or, in Harry's case, it read Mr.) Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy headmistress.
As could be expected, questions exploded inside Harry's, Ivy's, and Juni's heads, and they couldn't decide what to ask first.
Finally, they all stammered a different query at the same time.
"What does 'Order of Merlin, First Class' mean?" Ivy said.
"What is a Mugwump?" asked Juni.
"What does it mean, they await our owl?" stammered Harry.
"Gulpin' gargoyles, that reminds me," Hagrid said, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl – a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl – a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that the triplets could read upside down:
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
Given Harry, Juni, and Ivy their letters.
Taking them to buy their things tomorrow.
Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.
Hagrid.
Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down, as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.
Ivy nudged her brother, whose mouth was hanging open, and he closed it quickly.
"Where was I?" Hagrid said, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.
"They're not going." He said.
Hagrid grunted. "I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop them," He said.
"A what?" Harry asked, interested.
"A Muggle," Hagrid said, "It's what we call non-magic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you all grew up in a family o' the biggest muggles I ever laid eyes on."
"We swore when we took them in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of them! Wizards indeed!"
"You knew?" Harry said incredulously.
"You knew we're – wizards, and you never told us?" said Ivy angrily.
"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that school, and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one to see her for what she was – a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"
She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed that she had been waiting to say all this for years:
"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you three, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange just as – as – abnormal – and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"
The triplets were very white. As soon as she found her voice, Juni said, "Blown up? You told us they died in a car crash!"
"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry, Ivy, and Juni Potter not knowing their story when every kid in our world knows their names!"
"But why?" asked Juni. "Why does everyone know about us?"
"What happened?" said Harry urgently. The three of them looked empathically at Hagrid.
The anger faded from the giant's face. He looked suddenly anxious.
"I never expected this," He said in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, you three, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh – but someone's gotta – yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."
He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.
"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh – mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great mystery, parts of it…"
He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with – with a person called – but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows – "
"Who?" the triplets asked eagerly.
"Well – I don' like sayin' the name, if I can help it. No one does."
"Why not?" asked Ivy.
"Gulpin' gargoyles, Ivy, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went…bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was…."
Hagrid gulped but no words came out.
"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.
"Nah – can't spell it. All right – Voldemort." Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this – this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' for followers. Got 'em, too – some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was getting' himself power, all right. Dark days, you three. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches…terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up ter him – an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school – not jus' then, anyway.
"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before…probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.
"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em…maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you all were living, on Halloween ten years ago. You were all just a year old. He came ter yer house an' – an' – "
Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.
"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad – knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find – anyway…
"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then – an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing – he tried to kill you three, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got those marks on yer forehead? Those aren't no ordinary cuts. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh – took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even – but it didn't work on you three, an' that's why you're famous. No one lived once he decided ter kill 'em, no one except for you three, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age – the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts – an' you was only babies, an' you lived."
Suddenly the triplets remembered something – all three of them at once. A flash of green light they had seen before in dreams, but much clearer this time – and something else…a high, cold, cruel laugh. They scooted closer together.
Hagrid was watching them sadly.
"Took yeh from the ruined house meself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yer ter this lot…"
"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry, Ivy, and Juni jumped; they had forgotten the Dursleys were there. He seemed to have gotten his courage back; he was glaring at Hagrid, fists clenched.
"Now, you listen here, brats," Uncle Vernon snarled at them. Normally a speech that started like this would have terrified the children, but with Hagrid there, they didn't feel as scared. "I accept there's something strange about you all, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured –" Like you never tried that, thought Harry sarcastically. "– and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion – asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types – just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end–"
But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley, - I'm warning you – one more word…"
In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.
"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.
The triplets, meanwhile, still had questions to ask – hundreds of them.
"But what happened to Vol-, sorry, I mean, You-Know-Who?" asked Harry.
"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill yeh. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see…he was gettin' more an' more powerful – why'd he go?
Hagrid went on to say that some people thought You-Know-Who had died, but Hagrid didn't think so. Hagrid thought he had lost his powers, and was too weak to go on now. He said there was something about the triplets that stumped Voldemort that night. Then he looked at Harry, Ivy, and Juni with a mixture of warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but they – instead of feeling pleased and proud – felt that there must be a horrible mistake. Wizards? Them? They had spent all their lives being picked on byDudleyand ordered around by their Aunt and Uncle, starved, unloved, and occasionally beaten for things they hadn't even done. If they were a wizard and witches, why hadn't the Dursleys turned into frogs every time they had annoyed them?
"Hagrid," said Ivy quietly, voicing what the others were thinking. "I think you've made a mistake. I don't think we can be wizards."
To their surprise, Hagrid chuckled.
"Not wizards, eh? Never made things happen when you was angry or scared?"
Now that they thought about it, he was right. Hadn't every odd thing they had done happened when they had been upset or angry? When they had been chased byDudley's gang, they had somehow found themselves on the roof of the school. When Aunt Petunia had given Harry a horrible haircut, he had somehow made it grow back by morning. When their second grade teacher had yelled at Ivy for being a know-it-all, her wig suddenly turned blue. When Aunt Petunia had told Juni she wasn't allowed to readDudley's books – even though he never touched them – one had floated down the stairs and into the cupboard that night.
The triplets looked back to Hagrid, smiling, and saw that he was now positively beaming.
"See?" said Hagrid. "The Potter triplets, not wizards – you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."
But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.
"Haven't I told you they're not going?" he hissed. "They're going to Stonewall High and they'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and they need all sorts of rubbish – spell books and wands and – "
"If they want ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop them," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's kids from goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad! They're names have been down ever since they were born. They're off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and they won't know themselves. They'll be with youngsters of their own sort, fer a change, in the largest class Hogwarts had seen in decades. They'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever seen, too, Albus Dumble–"
"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH THEM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.
But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head. "NEVER – " he thundered. " – INSULT – ALBUS – DUMBLEDORE – IN – FRONT – OF – ME!"
He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley – there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, the triplets saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.
Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.
Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.
"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully. "But it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do – what?"
Harry, Ivy, and Juni had burst into laughter. Hagrid was looking at them like they were insane.
After a minute, Hagrid cleared his throat.
"Anyway – I'd be grateful if yeh didn't mention this ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm – Er – not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff – one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job – "
"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Ivy.
"Oh, well – I was at Hogwarts meself but I – Er – got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."
Harry started to ask why he was expelled, but the girls knew this wouldn't be polite, and nudged him casually.
"What did you mean when you said that we'd be in the largest class in decades?" asked Juni instead.
"Oh, well that another myst'ry, isn' it?" said Hagrid, his eyes gleaming again. "See, all the witches back in August o' 1979 through…oh, 'round January or February 1980 took these Potions that our Healers came out with for pregnancy health. Turns out that these Potions hadn't been fully tested, and tons of witches ended up havin' triplets, like your mum."
"Really?" gasped Harry.
"So how many sets of triplets are there now?" asked Ivy, trying not to be too shocked, because this was the most normal thing they'd heard all night, honestly.
"Oh, I'd say 'round a dozen. Maybe more. They're callin' all of you the Trinus Vomica – the Triplet Curse." Hagrid said, chuckling and pulling off his coat. "But enough abou' that now. It's late, and we've got a lot ter do tomorrow. Here – " he handed the coat the Harry. "Use this ter cover up with. Don' mind if it wiggles a bit – think there might be a few door mice left in there."
