Hey guys! You guys have been so great to me...I almost cried :) haha, tears of happiness, of course. So, I've decided that I'm gonna try to update every week from now one, probably Sunday, if that's alright with ya'll.
So, thank you to...
Booksandmusicandmusicandbooks - Haha, love your name. That's pretty much my life :) Thanks, and don't worry, I am writing.
Macbethwannabe (again) - You've been terribly kind to me. It makes me so happy :) Thank you SO much!
Thanks to everyone who added the story to their favorite/alert etc.
Well, here you go. Chapter Three!
BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. "Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly. It took everything Ellie had not to bust out laughing, but her face oddly turned bright red like a tomato.
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 long, thin package he had bought with them.
Isn't that supposed to be illegal?
"Who's there?" he shouted loudly, trying to seem intimidating. "I warn you - I'm armed!"
There was a silent pause. Then -
SMASH!
The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a 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, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.
Harry, immediatly, pulled his sister behind him, expertly shielding her while the other Dursleys were completely transfixed.
The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into the frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.
"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."
He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat, frozen with fear.
"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.
Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.
"An' here's Harry! And little Ellie, too!" exclaimed the giant happily with a large and broad smile that, too, was unseen because of his facial hair.
Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and spread his arms out a little bit. The stranger noticed this and his face seemed to stretch into an even bigger smile, if that was possible.
"Las' time I saw you, you were only babies," said the giant. "Harry yeh look a lot like your dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes. And Ellie, you look like yer mum, but yeh've got your dad's hair, and where did those pretty gray eyes come from?"
Uncle Vernon made a funny, rasping noise.
"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"
"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun from Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot easily as it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.
Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.
"Anyway - Harry, Ellie," said the giant, turning his back to the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."
From an inside pocket of his black overcoat, he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers, Ellie peering over his shoulder. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with 'Happy Birthday, Twins,' written on it in green icing.
Harry and Ellie looked back up at the giant. Harry meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?" Ellie smacked him lightly at his rudeness.
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 Harry's whole arm, then bent and kissed Ellie's hand; it was very scratchy and whiskery and it made her giggle. Ellie now pushed her brother aside; she didn't need protection from such a sweet person.
"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 shriveled 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 Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath. Ellie shivered with relief.
The giant sunk back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of his pocket: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. Soon, the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages, Dudley fidgeted a little.
Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."
The giant chuckled darkly.
"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."
He passed the meat links to Harry and Ellie, who were so hungry that they'd never tasted anything so wonderful, but Harry still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."
The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his large 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."
"Um, not really," Ellie said timidly, speaking for the first time.
Hagrid looked shocked.
"Sorry," Harry told him quickly.
"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never though yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh ever wonder where yer parents learned it all?"
"All what?" asked Harry.
"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"
He had leapt to his feet. His anger seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall in fright.
"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that these children - this boy and girl! - know nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"
"This is getting a bit too far," Harry whispered silently to Ellie and she nodded. After all, they weren't stupid. They could math and stuff, granted, Harry and bit more smarter than his sister, but still.
"We know some things," Harry told him. "We can, you know, do math and stuff." But Hagrid simply waved and his hand and said, "Abou' our world, I mean. Yur world. My world. Yer parents' world."
"What world?" Ellie asked, confused. There were two worlds?
Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.
"DURSLEY!" he boomed loudly.
Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Harry and Ellie.
"But yeh must know about yer mum and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're both famous."
"What? Our mum and dad weren't famous, were they?" Harry questioned.
"Yeh don' know...yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry and Ellie with a bewildered stare.
"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 the children 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.
"You never told them? Never told them what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer 'em? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from them all these years?"
"Keep us from what?" Ellie asked eagerly, her brother and her with huge smiles gracing their lips.
"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.
Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of utter horror.
"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry, yer a wizard and Ellie yer a witch.
There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.
"- a what?" gasped Harry and Ellie at the same time, both with surprised expressions and disbelief written across their faces.
"A wizard an' witch, 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 both been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad likes yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letters."
Both Harry and Ellie stretched out their hands at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. Harry pulled out the letter and read aloud:
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 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 September first. We await your owl by no later than July thirty-first.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
Ellie's had said the same thing, but of course it had been addressed to her as Ms. Potter. Questions exploded in her head like fireworks and she could tell her brother was just as confused.
After a few minutes, Harry stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"
"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a car horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat, he pulled out 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 Harry and Ellie could read upside down:
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
Given Harry and Ellie their letters.
Taking them to buy their things tomorrow.
Weather's horrible. Hope your well.
Hagrid.
Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and thew the owl out into the storm. Then, he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.
Ellie realized Harry's mouth was hanging open, and she nudged him lovingly and closed it for him. Harry felt his cheeks spread with warmth.
"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.
"They're not going," Vernon said.
Hagrid grunted.
"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop 'em," he said.
"A what?" Ellie asked, interested. Harry was still quiet, blushing, as he stared (inconspicously) at his sister.
She looks really pretty...Wait, what?
"A Muggle," said Hagird, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you 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 right out of them! Wizard and witch, indeed!"
"You knew?" said Harry angrily, seeming to come out of his state. "You know that I'm - We're - Wizards?"
"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "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 - that school - and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw 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. Ellie glared, knowing that Petunia was just jealous of her mother.
"Then she met that Potter boy at school and they left and got married and had you two, and of course I knew you'd be 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 lot!"
Harry and Ellie had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice, Harry said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"
"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping 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 and Ellie Potter not known' their own story when every child in our world knows their names!"
"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently, taking Ellie's hand in his own. Her face was still chalky white.
The anger faded from Hagrid'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 be might trouble gettin' a hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, Ellie, 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 myst'ry, 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' know his name, everyone in our world knows -"
"Who?" Harry asked, now rubbing circles on his sister's hand while they both listened intently.
"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."
"Why not?"
"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, 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.
"Maybe you could write it down," suggested Ellie sweetly.
"Nah - can't spell it. All right - Voldemort." Hagird shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry, Ellie. 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 to 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 was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You two were 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' -" Ellie let out a strangled gasp as tears pooled in her eyes - "An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill the two of yehs. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he jus' liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got them marks on your foreheads? Those were 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 - but it didn't work on you, an' that's why your both famous. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age - the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts - an' you two were only babies and you lived."
Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind that made him squeeze his sister's hand. She looked at him curiously. In his head, he saw a blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before - and he remembered something else for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.
Hagrid watched both with great sympathy.
"Took yeh from the ruined house meself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh te this lot..."
"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped and gripped the hand more tightly, this time, Ellie running circles on it; he had alost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.
"Now you listen here," he snarled. "I accept there's something strange about you two, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured - 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 warnin' 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 to the floor. Ellie had to bite back a soft giggle.
Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.
"But what happened to Vol-, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?"
"Good quesion, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you two. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see...he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go?
"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.
"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry and Ellie. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does - but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."
Hagrid looked at Harry and Ellie with warmth and respect and Ellie felt herself blush lightly and return the stare. But Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard and witch? Him and Ellie? How could he possibly be? They'd both spent their lives being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if they were really magical, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him and his sister in his cupboard? If they'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick Harry around like a football?
"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I - we - can be wizards."
To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.
"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry or upset?"
It was true. It had even happened, the last time, when he'd seen Dudley hit Ellie in the gut. In white rage, he'd been the one who sent the snake of him, right?
Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that the giant was positively beaming at him and his sister.
"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry and Ellie Potter, not magical - 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 both going to Stonewall High and they'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and they need all sorts of rubbish - spell book and wands and -"
"If they want ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's daughter and son from goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. They're names have been down ever since they was 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 they're own sort, fer a change, an' they'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbled -"
"I AM NOT PAYING SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH THEM MAGIC TRICKS!" bellowed Uncle Vernon loudly.
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 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, Harry and Ellie saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers. Ellie giggled loudly while Harry's face broke into a grin.
Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudly into the other room, he cast on 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 hi into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."
He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.
"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that 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 Ellie softly. She was getting sleepy.
"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."
"Why were you expelled?" Harry questioned.
"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."
He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry and Ellie.
"You can kip under that," he told them. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' doormice in one o' the pockets."
Well, that's it :)
Review please!
Update next Sunday, so see you then :)
Much Love,
Tiggerzandpoohbearz123