A/N I don't own Harry Potter, J.K Rowling does. The only character that's mine is Elizabeth

Chapter Three

BOOM. Something knocked again. Dudley suddenly jerked awake.

"Where's the cannon?" he asked sleepily. Why Dudley would think that there would be a cannon in the middle of nowhere, Elizabeth did not know.

Suddenly Uncle Vernon skidded into the room, a rifle held firmly in his hands.

"Who's there?" he shouted authoritatively. "I warn you-I'm armed!" While Dudley looked like he felt safer with Uncle Vernon holding a firearm, Elizabeth was simply more convinced that they were going to die.

For a second the booming stopped. Then-

SMASH!

The door fell straight off its hinges and fell to the floor. Elizabeth wasted no time in scrambling to the back wall as far away from the door as she could get.

A giant man was standing just in front of the doorway. He was so tall, that Elizabeth wouldn't have even come up to his shoulder level if she stood on Uncle Vernon's face was more hair than face, and the only visible parts were his black, beady eyes.

The giant somehow managed to squeeze his way into the small hut, bending down to avoid hitting his head on the roof. He turned around and put the door back into its frame. The noise outside finally died down a little. He then turned back to look at them.

"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey. . ."

Uncle Vernon seemed to have gone into shock, based on the fact that he was staring at the giant with a vacant expression in his eyes and his arms were shaking just the tiniest bit. The giant, seemingly unaware of the surprise and terror that surrounded the Dursleys and the twins, strode over to the sofa where Dudley was doing an impressive imitation of a statue.

"Budge up, yeh great lump,"

Dudley hastened to obey and quickly ran to try and hide behind his mother.

"An' here's Harry and Elizabeth"

Harry, how does he know our names.

Maybe we've met him before?

I think I would remember meeting someone as large as him.

Elizabeth was starting to feel cornered by the big stranger and wished that he would move. The only thing that relaxed her was the friendly, genuine smile that the giant had on his face.

"Las' time I saw you, you were only babies," the giant said. "Harry, yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes, an' Elizabeth you look like a combination of the both of 'em."

Lots of thoughts and questions were racing through Elizabeth's head after he made these statements, but her mind was in such a flurry that she couldn't focus on any one of them.

Uncle Vernon made a noise that sounded like he was choking on something.

Then suddenly finding his voice he said, "I demand that you leave at once, sir! You are breaking and entering!"

"Ah shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant. He then reached over and grabbed the gun right out of Uncle Vernon's hands. Then he proceeded to twist it into a knot like it was the easiest thing in the world.

Uncle Vernon made another noise but was otherwise quiet.

"Anyway- Harry, Elizabeth,"the giant said, turning back to face the twins, "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 one of the many pockets of his overcoat he pulled out a slightly squished box. With slight trepidation Elizabeth and Harry opened the box. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry + Elizabeth written on it in green icing.

Of all the things that Elizabeth had thought the giant would hand them, a cake was not one of them. She was very touched, it was the first real birthday present that she could ever remember receiving. She looked up at the giant and was going to say thank you, but Harry beat her to it by saying, "Who are you?"

The giant chuckled a bit.

"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."

He then shook Harry's entire arm before turning to shake Elizabeth's, almost making her drop the box in her hand.

You haven't happened to hear about Hogwarts before have you Harry?

Nope.

Alrighty then.

"What about that tea then, eh?" said Hagrid. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."

He looked down and saw Uncle Vernon's sad attempt at a fire and snorted. He bent down, blocking the entire fireplace, but when he came back up, there was a fire. Elizabeth's skin finally lost the gooseflesh that had been covering every inch of her.

The giant sat down on the sofa, which looked close to its breaking point with him on it, and began taking things out of his many pockets, including: a copper kettle, a package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several old mugs, and a bottle of amber liquid that he quickly tipped back before making tea and cooking the sausages. Everyone was glued to their spots as he made tea, but when he slid one of the sausages off of the poker, Dudley made a slight movement towards the giant. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."

The giant chuckled again, but this time it held no warmth.

"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."

If Elizabeth hadn't been so far out of her element, she would have snorted.

Then Hagrid gave the sausages to Harry and Elizabeth, who were hungry enough to not even question the food that a stranger had just handed them.

"I'm sorry, but I still don't understand who understand who you really are," said Harry.

The giant took a large gulp of tea and wiped his mouth off.

"Call me Hagrid everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts- yeh'll know all about Hogwarts o' course."

"No, actually, we've never heard of it," Elizabeth said quite bluntly.

Hagrid looked at them affronted.

"Sorry," Harry said quickly.

"Sorry? It's them who should be sorry. Didn't you ever wonder how yer parents learned it all?"

"Learned what all?" Elizabeth asked confusedly.

"ALL WHAT? Now wait jus' one second! Do you mean ter tell me that these kids- know nothin' abou'- about anything?"

Elizabeth took a break from cowering at the giants words to become insulted.

"We do know things!"

But Hagrid simply waved her statement off and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."

Elizabeth was confused, wasn't there only one world?

"What world?" Asked Harry.

Hagrid looked like they had insulted his ancestors.

"DURSLEY!" he boomed.

Uncle Vernon seemed to make a small squeak that vaguely resembled the word "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared at Harry and Elizabeth.

"But yeh must know about yer mom and dad. I mean, they're famous. You're famous."

"What? Our-our mom and dad weren't famous, were they?" Asked Harry.

Elizabeth didn't know how Harry was even able to vaguely think with all of Hagrid's booming and bomb dropping information.

"Yeh don' know what yeh are?"

"Stop." Uncle Vernon said, finally being able to speak. "I forbid you to tell them anything more."

"Ah go boil yer heads, the lot of you. Harry, Elizabeth, yer wizards." Hagrid said with a serious face.

Elizabeth stared blankly at him and waited for him to say that he was just joking, or to wake up from whatever weird dream this was.

"I'm a what?" Asked Harry. Elizabeth was still impressed by his ability to speak.

"A wizard, o' course," Hagrid said, sitting down on the sofa, which continued to sink, "an thumpin good ones, 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."

Elizabeth looked over at Harry and saw that he seemed to be buying this. She supposed she had always been the more cynical twin, but come on, this was ridiculous. A strange giant shows up in the middle of the night with the exact letter that Uncle Vernon had been trying to drive away from, and they are just supposed to trust him? And what was all this talk of wizards and witches? Nevertheless, when Harry reached for his, Elizabeth followed suite. The letter was addressed to Ms. E. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. She finally opened the letter 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 Ms. 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 boos and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

The letter itself had done nothing to stop the influx of questions rushing around Elizabeth's brain. Finally, Harry asked, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"

"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping his forehead, and from somewhere in his coat pulled out a live owl. Elizabeth thought that that was a tad bit cruel to the owl. He also pulled out a quill and parchment. He scribbled out a note and Elizabeth could see that it read:

Dear professor dumbledore,

Given harry and Elizabeth their letters.

Taking them to buy their things tomorrow.

Weather's horrible. Hope you're well

Hagrid

Then Hagrid rolled up the letter, gave it to the owl, and threw the poor owl out into the storm. Elizabeth hoped that the poor bird would be ok. Hagrid then came back and and sat down as if it wasn't weird to have an owl in your pocket and then to send it out with a letter.

Elizabeth glanced over and saw that Harry's mouth was hanging open. She nudged him and he quickly shut it.

"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but Uncle Vernon, still as pale as a ghost, somehow managing to look furious, chose that movement to speak up.

"They're not going," he said.

Hagrid snorted in response.

"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop them," he said.

"A what?" Elizabeth finally spoke up, confusion and curiosity getting ahold of her.

"A Muggle," stated Hagrid like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "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 out of them! Wizards indeed!"

"You knew?' said Harry incredulously. "You knew that we are-wizards?"

"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia out of nowhere. "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!"

A dam had seemed to burst in Aunt Petunia and now that she had started she couldn't seem to stop.

"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, 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 two!"

Elizabeth could tell that Harry was about to explode. His face was as white as a ghost, but his fists were clenched and his eyes were narrowed dangerously. He screamed, "Blown up? You told us they died in a car crash!"

"CAR CRASH!" Hagrid added his own bellows to the mix, Elizabeth tried to make herself even smaller against the wall, but there was nowhere else to go. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry and Elizabeth Potter not knowin' their own story even when every kid in our world knows their names!"

"Why would every kid in your world know our names? What happened?" asked Elizabeth desperately. She didn't understand how they could be famous for something that she doesn't remember.

The anger in Hagrid seemed to leave in a big woosh. He shuffled around uncomfortably and muttered some words that Elizabeth couldn't catch. She stepped a bit closer as he started saying, "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?" asked Harry.

"Well- I don't like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."

"Why not?" asked Elizabeth. It seemed silly to not say someone's name.

"Because people are still scared. See, there was this wizard who went. . .bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than Worse. His name was. . ."

Elizabeth waited anxiously, but no words came out. She noticed that Hagrid tended to repeat himself. He had been speaking for five minutes and all she had gathered was that people were scared of a bad wizard.

"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.

"Nah-can't spell it. All right-Voldemort. Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this-this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers."

Hagrid continued his story about who Voldemort was and that somehow Elizabeth and Harry made him disappear, at least for a little while. By the end of his tale, Elizabeth had slowly made her way next to Harry and reached out her hand to touch his.

What do you make of this Har?

I think there has been a horrible mistake. How could we have done any of that? I mean Dudley and his gang are able to push us around. If we were able to defeat the most powerful wizard, don't you think that we would be able to stand up to Dudley?

To be fair, there was that one time Dudley seemed to trip on thin air and sprain his ankle when he was chasing us.

I suppose that's true

The time that Dudley had sprained his ankle had been one of the most peaceful times in Elizabeth's life. He was unable to run, and without him, none of his friends felt like chasing Harry and Elizabeth. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had tried to blame the twins, but some of the teachers on the playground had seen Dudley fall and claimed that it couldn't have been Harry and Elizabeth's fault.

Elizabeth's "talk" with Harry hadn't seemed to convince him because he asked Hagrid, " I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."

This made Hagrid chuckle, "Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"

This sent Harry into deep thought. Elizabeth rolled her eyes, when she pointed out the strange things that they had done he didn't believe her, but a stranger pointing out the exact same thing was obvious proof that they were wizards.

"See? Harry Potter, not a wizard-you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."

Uncle Vernon seemed determine to make this entire evening as difficult and as painful as possible.

"Haven't I told you they're not going? They're going to Stonewall High and they'll be the better for it. I've read those letters and they need all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and-"

Hagrid's temper had quickly come back. "If they want to go, a great Muggle like you won't stop 'em. Stop Lily an' James Potter's children from goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. They'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbled-"

"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH THEM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.

"NEVER- INSULT ALBUS DUMBLEDORE- IN-FRONT- OF ME!" thundered Hagrid. His yelling made the entire house shake and Elizabeth grabbed Harry's wrist in a vice grip before dragging him a little farther away from the angry giant.

Hagrid suddenly pointed his umbrella at Dudley -there was a flash, and then a few seconds later Dudley was doing a jig with his hands over his bottom. When he turned his back toward them, Elizabeth saw the pink curl of a pig's tail.

Uncle Vernon finally looked terrified and quickly dragged Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the room before slamming the door shut.

Hagrid looked back at the twins, all traces of anger gone. "Shouldn'ta lost me temper. Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts. I'm er not supposed ter do magic strictly speaking."

"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.

"I was at Hogwarts meself but I er got expelled. But Dumbledore let me stay on as groundskeeper. Great man Dumbledore."

Harry eagerly agreed not to mention the incident at Hogwarts. Elizabeth nodded along, but decided to keep the incident at the back of her mind. Hagrid seemed nice enough, but it never hurt to have some leverage.

Harry tried to ask Hagrid why he was expelled, but Hagrid brushed off the question and instead gave the twins his coat and told them to go to sleep.