You don't want to hear it twice, trust me. I am not that good to sing that song again. Once was painful enough, but since it has to be said, maybe I'll try this.
A lawyer of J. K. Rowling walks up to me with a lawsuit regarding my story and says:
"I am Sprite, you are Thirst." And I know better than to say otherwise.
It was quiet and peaceful evening on the normal-looking street of Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey. Well, if a street where everything looks exactly the same is normal. And it would be a quiet and peaceful if not for inhabitants of house number four on said street, talking quite animatedly, raised voices included, with their guests about trauma their kids endured on today's trip to the zoo. Reason for said trauma: escaped boa constrictor.
The main point of this debate was who to blame for it. But, in spite of all the names adults in the living room would point the blame to, a boy locked in the cupboard knew that he wouldn't hear the end of it from his relatives. And he was using his situation to tell about it, in as many details that he could, to his own guest.
At least, he was trying.
"Magie, why did you remove that glass?" he asked, giving a tired sigh. It usually ended like this. Him wanting to be angry with her, but she proving to him that it was completely futile.
"Dudley wanted to see that snake up close, so I thought I could help," said the girl resting in her usual position. Sitting on the end of the mattress, hugging her legs and with her chin on her knees.
"Then why put it back?" he knew he wouldn't get any straight answers while she stayed playful.
He was proven right.
"Because if you borrow something, then you should put it back where it belongs."She said it like it was some kind of old family motto, underlined with respect and not a small hint of its greatness. She tried to straighten her posture to further the act, but it was hard as her back was pressed against the underside of the stairs. He could only smile at her antics.
"Come on Harry, I know that you enjoyed that one as much as I did," she finally stated, loosing all the appearances of being sorry.
"Well, as fun as it was, now I am locked in here and probably won't be out for quite some time." he replied, dragging the blame game just a little longer.
"You can be such a whiner some times Harry, you know that, right?" she asked, rolling her eyes at him. "It's not like we aren't by ourselves most of the 'll just have more time to talk, and I'll bring you food like I always do. It won't be so bad. But now get some sleep, it's getting late."
"Yes, mum," Harry smiled sweetly, which gained him mock glare from her. Sometimes he thought that her moods were contagious.
"If you wake up in a mood as good as that, what would you say to me bringing someone to get the fun going along with breakfast? How about Odis and Desi?"
"No, you wouldn't!"said the horror-struck boy." Anyone but those two. You might be playful but you do nothing compared to them. Even Nessie is better company."
"Good to see that I still have something to hold over you when you misbehave." she told him with a slight smirk.
Harry snorted at that, but at the same time he had to acknowledge that it was true. Even with her appearance being that of a girl his age and all the strange things she did, it was she that played the responsible one. She took care of him, what with all the things she did for him. That in itself gave her the right to wave her finger at him. But being herself, she couldn't even be serious about that.
"Now sleep", she said with finality, reacheding her hand out and scratched his head. He liked when she did that. It always made him relaxed and calm. When he opened his eyes for a second, she wasn't there, so he laid back and waited for sleep to take him.
At first it was hard for him to adjust to having an "imaginary friend". Especially in a form of a girl looking approximately his age with sky blue eyes and hair colour stuck right between light brown and dark blond, making it impossible to tell which she really had. Nevertheless, they talked and got to know each other, as even as she would appear to be creation of his imagination, she had history of her own. Magie would tell him stories about the place where she stayed when she wasn't with him and people who lived there - Nessie, Odis and Desi to name a few. He tried to do the same, but that topic ran out quickly and he mostly spoke of his thoughts about certain things.
Magie stopped being an imaginary friend by definition when she started to interact with her surroundings, even if only he could see why certain things happened. Mirages don't do that, right? Well, she could. First noticeable thing that she did was to bring him real food in his cupboard, not leftovers like the Dursleys gave him. And when his relatives went out of town and didn't get back as fast as they planned, leaving him locked away without couple of meals... Well, that was where real fun started.
Earlier, those moments were trials of sorts. Full of doubts and a sense of powerlessness, leaving him to question everything and everyone. Even himself. With her, however, those days where he knew for sure that there was no one around changed into his private holidays. They could do as they pleased without worrying about being interrupted. Talk for hours on end about anything at all. Even the simple meals that she brought seemed to be picnics or parties of their own. All of that in the confines of his cupboard which seemed to be a lot larger than it ever could be.
From the moment she appeared she would always aid him when he needed it, as with that escape from Dudley's gang that somehow ended on school's roof.
In time she would bring others so he wouldn't get bored or just someone who could help with a problem that he was contemplating. She would appear and go at her leisure but even when he couldn't see her, Harry knew that she was still somewhere around.
He could be happy like this if not for everyone else blaming him for all the things that happened. He couldn't complain much because firstly, complaining in this house wouldn't gain him much more than additional trouble, and secondly, telling people that it was caused by an imaginary friend wasn't really an option. Besides, it wasn't like he wasn't blamed for everything before. He had to admit that now it was more bizarre than before, but at least he had someone to share it with.
And so, days following the zoo trip were spent on talking and goofing around in "their little world". Because even if Harry couldn't go wherever he wanted or do what he would like to, or perhaps because of it, he could go by living on little things, like a decent sandwich now and then or small talk with someone. Especially if it was someone like her.
When finally he was let out, he was welcomed with a mile-long list of chores and a feeling that his relatives hadn't exactly missed him while he was away.
His mental preparations for a long, hard day were instantly thwarted by Magie. But he should have been expecting that.
Her first order of business was a diatribe from the top of the kitchen table about their wrong doings that topped the actual Riot Act.
When she finished and noticed the lack of response from the Dursleys, she went on by acting like them, mimicing their voices, and miming their behavior, while giving a running commentary on what complete imbeciles they were. Even thick-headed people without patience to run out of (like Vernon) would be impressed by her stamina and considering she was at most eleven years old, this was quite a feat.
The only person who could see her was Harry, and at the moment he was doing everything possible to hide his amusement. The only thing that saved him from laughing out loud was his uncle sending him for the post.
But as he picked through the mail his mind went blank when he became aware that he was holding a letter addressed to him. Dazed, he automatically went to kitchen and quickly found himself without his letter and under a barrage of questions that ended when adults noticed what was written on the envelope. In his total confusion, Harry saw Magie staring at the letter with a pensive look on her face.
The next days were a blur of letters flooding the house like tidal waves, each one always bigger than the one before, mixed with a mad uncle whose anger increased with the amount of post. Even when he was allowed to have the smallest bedroom and later taken on a trip to nowhere, he couldn't comprehend what would make his uncle this worked up. This was a passing thought, however, as he was concerned with why his friend wouldn't speak to him about the letters.
As he was laying on the cold floor, he wasn't expecting to hear "Happy birthday, Harry".
He looked up and saw Magie perched on the windowsill, looking out into the stormy night.
"Is it today?" he whispered, not really that excited about the fact.
"It's close to midnight so let's say that it already is. How could you forget about your birthday?" she asked, throwing him an annoyed look over her shoulder, agitated that he really didn't care.
"Had other things on my mind lately." he replied, and even though she went back to staring at the stormy sea, he caught her faint smile.
"Go on, make a wish." she said. And even though he knew she meant it, he coud tell that she wasn't sure about something.
'I wish I could know what's troubling her.' Harry thought. It was the same thing that bothered him when the first letter came.
'You can.' was a reply in his thoughts, but before he could check if he imagined it, the door was blown open and biggest man Harry ever saw entered the room.
"Sorry about that, meant to knock." The man was looking straight at Harry. He picked up the door like it was nothing and started to put them back in the door frame.
"Well, you did knock it down, I think that counts." Harry replied, out of habit he aquired by spending his time with Magie. Nowadays, whenever he didn't know what to say, he simply said the first thing that came to his head. A nonsensical statement like that usually did a nice job at preventing that uncomfortable silence.
"Very funny, Harry." was the reply from the giant that was trying to make the door stay in frame against the wind trying to blow it inside.
Some may say that when a person the size of a small hill destroys a doorway, it's terrifying. Well, yes, a man that size would be capable of wrestling a bear or two, not saying what he could do to humans. But if said person then apologizes and proceeds to fix the damage, it's only shocking at most.
But there had to be someone to be shocked by it, and Dursleys were too miserable to even be conscious of it. With the thunderstorm outside, there was enough loud noise like waves crashing against the shore, wind blowing against the walls making them creak, and thunder sounding throughout the air, that the door slamming against the floor didn't make that much difference. With all the cracks and holes in the hut, the temperature inside wasn't that much different than outside; the inside was only less damp and windy. A small gust of air didn't do much more than make inhabitants of the hut bury themselves deeper under what they were covered with. All in all, the appearance of this hill-sized man wasn't that much of a emergency.
Harry (who was the only one to notice the giant) wasn't concerned, as he thought that this was another one of Magie's friends. That would at least explain how this someone already knew his name. But after a quick glance towards the windowsill and noticing that she wasn't there, that train of thought stopped, as she would always be with them. Still, the man seemed friendly enough, so there was no point to being afraid for the time being. Truth be told, Harry couldn't notice anything about the man that would hint that he was in any kind of danger.
"Since you know my name, can I ask who are you and where do you know me from?" Harry asked in the end.
Finally putting the door back on the hinges, the man turned and looked at him again.
"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts, but call me Hagrid, everyone does. And I know you, because you look just like your father. Except your eyes, they're your mother's."
"You knew my parents?" Harry asked, sitting upright at the revelation. With the Dursleys any questions at all were bad, but anything regarding his parents was particularly sensitive subject.
"Sure did, while they were at Hogwart's and after. Which reminds me." Hagrid reached into his coat and handed him the letter which by was all too familiar."And," he added, raising his finger to show that there was more. This time it was slightly squashed box."Might have sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right. Happy birthday."
"Thank you," the boy replied, smiling at the pleasant surprise in the form of a small birthday cake. The very first birthday cake in his life.
"I'll make some tea. It's terribly cold in here."
Hagrid went to the fireplace, started a fire and went to make tea and something to eat, nearly squashing Dudley while sitting on the couch. Startled by the manner in which he was awakened, boy went for cover to his parents room, screaming his head off along the way. That in turn made his parents running from their bed to look what was wrong. It just so happened that they collided in the doorway, making Vernon pull the trigger of the rifle he was holding and fire it into the much-abused wall. Said wall had enough and went to rest on the floor, knocking the Dursleys out cold, providing them with several hours of sleep more than they would normally have, and aches and pains for a couple of days.
But Harry didn't pay attention to any of this. Not the warmth from the fireplace, smell of food, or the scene that his relatives were causing. His mind was focused on the letter. Mainly what things written in it meant.
'This is a joke...' was his first thought before his logic kicked in on it's own. 'No, that's unlikely. It would be stupid if someone someone sent all those letters and now Hagrid just to have fun out of someone as unimportant as me. Maybe someone is looking to have something out of this. But as I don't have anything to offer... Then there are witches and wizards. They might have been since Merlin or earlier, but it's safe to assume they are here long enough for some people to be capable of teaching. Most likely they're hidden. Someone believe that I can do, or learn to do it too. But everything like that is Magie's thing. She does funny stuff.'
'Only if you want me to.' replied that voice from before.
Harry started to look around to see where his friend could be. He noticed the fallen wall with legs sticking out from underneath. Seein that, he couldn't help but to chuckle a bit.
'Cold,' came the clue where to look for her, and that she was playful again.
Then he looked to Hagrid who was pouring water to a teapot from a copper kettle.
'Warmer,' Magie continued to enjoy her time.
He turned and looked at the window that she was reclining by before Hagrid's entry. Instead of her, he saw himself in the glass. With the stormy night behind it, it acted like a mirror.
'Disco,' she called like if he had won something. He froze, staring at his reflection in the uneven glass. Because he knew her enough to know that the way she said it could mean only one thing. That the glass he was staring at was indeed her hiding place.
Bewildered, he stared at his reflection. Usually he would think of what it meant, or how could have he missed it all this time. But right now he simply didn't know where to start.
'Oh, come on. Don't act like you didn't know it was something like this. After all I started as an imaginary friend,' she commented with a laugh.
'You're in my head?' was the first question that popped into Harry's mind, stunned by the sudden revelation.
'If you want to say that I'm part of you, then yes I am.' she said, not bothered in the least by the strange manner they were talking in. Well, from the moment he met her, she hadn't been bothered by anything at all.
'And you knew this all along?' he asked, getting over the shock and slowly getting used to the situation.
'No. Remember when you first saw me?'
'Thought you were a hallucination from lack of food,' The memory of their first meeting made him smile.
'Well, before that I felt... forgotten. Didn't really know where, or even what I was, just that I was omitted. There wasn't that much beside a sort of calling from time to time. Then I had an odd feeling: I thought I would cease to be at all. But then I found myself in your cupboard. I didn't really know what was going on, but I felt connected to you. And despite what you're thinking, I can't read your thoughts,' she said. Harry snorted with laughter.
'Well, that didn't come out well,' she continued after a while, 'But what I meant was that in spite of the way we are talking, my connection to you tells me what you needed or intended to do. Then I simply do what I can to help, be it some food, getting you out of harm's way, or lightening your mood when you felt like you could use it.'
Even though he couldn't see her, he could tell that she shrugged right there, as if it weren't all that big of a deal.
'Well, then how do you know that you're a part of me?' he asked, wanting to explore this unexpected side of their friendship.
'First of all, I am only able to be myself, if you know what I mean, around you. And for the most part, that place I told you about, where I'm staying. When I get tired, or you're busy with something I don't help you with, I go to where I was before. Since I know things now, I started to put them there because it would be difficult to live in nothing at all. I made my own house, forest, lake... well, you heard all about the place where I live. But in time others would come, and watching them and you, I came to conclusion that you take the "wandering thoughts" phrase too far. I might have something to do with it but you know the results.'
'So, everyone I've met...' Harry started the conclusion she was leading him towards, but honestly, he had no idea what to say.
'They're your thoughts. Well, that isn't exactly true. They are a manifestation of your thinking categories, or something like that,' Magie came to his rescue.
'Thinking categories?' he asked, laughing a little at the best way she found to describe it.
'Well, stereotypes doesn't seem to be the right word. Each of them is a state of mind. Let's start with our favourites. The twins started as anything that would seem odd, but as there was more and more of it, they became odds. They would always remind you that there was another way to do things.'
'Well, Odis and Desi sure can come up with what you want to do, just not the way you would expect anyone to act.' he agreed with a nod.
'They were the main reason I knew that I was somewhere that is close to you, as anything that you would trouble your mind with was main point of mischief they caused. Then there is Marvin, our pessimist; Merin, with his delusions of grandeur; Nessie, I don't have to tell you she's weird. I could count out for days, because there is quite a lot of them in here.'
'And that would make you my... magic?' he asked, barely believing it himself.
'It would seem so. But I don't know how to feel about it.' Until this point, she was in her storytelling mode, but this was said with more restraint.
'Why?' Harry asked simply, not knowing what had upset her so suddenly. As a matter of fact, he didn't know what would upset her at all.
'When I came, all you really wanted was to be "normal", what with those people you're living with. You accepted me as a friend and that was fine. But the more I suspected the more I didn't like the day that you wouldn't want me any more, because normal people don't see things...' she said, leaving it hanging.
Harry didn't know how to reply to that. From purely logical point of view, what she was saying was true. But logic without practice got you as far as a theoretical proof without a practical application. Still, was he really that simple-minded? He shook his head, returning his attention back to Magie when she spoke again.
'And when that letter came, I got a feeling, something familiar so I wasn't scared. But I knew that it would be important, and that got me worried. If you would learn something you were unprepared to, it could end sooner that I would want it to.' The longer she talked, the softer she spoke, until it wasn't much more than a whisper.
'Beside the point that you are a part of me and would stay even if I didn't want you to, why would I want my best friend gone? You're fun and playful when I need to relax, but right to the point when something needs to be done. We could spend all day and not get bored, even if it's just talking. Well we did spend days like that. And your friends, though a eclectic bunch, are a plus too.'
'Maybe I do those things because you need me to be like that?' If he didn't know better he'd think that she was embarrassed by what he said, but he felt that she was still worried.
'Well, considering that you spend all that time with my thoughts, or the like, you really don't know how I think do you?' Now she knew he was playful, which seemed to calm her more than anything he could say.
'Git.' was her reply, though she was just a little too happy about it for it to be an insult.
"Harry, you want something to eat? Sausages almost ready," Hagrid yelled from the couch, and they both acknowledged it as a proper time to end their conversation.
'Well, let's go learn something more about this new world.' Harry thought as he stepped away from the window and made his way to the offered food.
The rest of the time before they went to sleep was filled with Hagrid telling Harry's story. To lighten the mood, Hagrid told him all about Hogwart's, what to expect on Diagon Alley (where they would be shopping next day), and pretty much everything that came to his mind, with stories of Harry's parents being the majority. All accompanied with sausages, tea and slightly squashed birthday cake.
AN. Instead of a full rewrite I decided that fixing all the stupid mistakes and adding some new scenes is a much better solution. I know that it could be even better, but I like the idea that this story shows how my writing improved over time.
And yes, The Bitter Kitten is still keeping watch. As a personal morale boost, I'm proud to announce that there weren't as many "What were you thinking?" notes in this chapter as there were in the first one.
