CHAPTER FOUR
THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS
"Hagrid"- all the teens exclaimed.
But before anything else could be said there was a pop and Daphne appeared.
"So how is it going?"-she asked looking around.
"It´s going okay, but I have a question how does it´s going to help having the teens of the nineteen's of different year? I mean a lot happens in one year and we as Hermione, Ginny, Ron, Neville, Luna and I know things ´bout a year that Draco doesn´t know and Draco and the others know things that the twins' doesn´t know…"-Harry asked something he has been thinking.
"Well as they are your friends I´m part of their guardian angel so it we get to convince this old coat we can implant in some way in their brains of the past of you the knowledge of all this or help to make this happen… It´s something rather difficult to explain. Now is me who has the question; Why hadn´t you told them ´bout the secondary effects? - She asked and made all the people curios.
"I… really haven´t found the time to tell them… you see we have been kind of busy with Hogwarts…"-Harry answers her looking at nobody.
"What is she talking ´bout Harry?"- Hermione asked nervous.
"He already told me"- Luna said surprising a lot ´cause it wasn´t with her normal dreamy voice. - But I did promise him that I wouldn´t tell without his permission."
"And I really don´t want to talk ´bout that now. Not here…"
"But you need to promise that you will tell them."
"Okay if you say so."
With that they asked Alice to begin reading.
BOOM.
They knocked again. 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 long, thin package he had brought with them.
-"Is this guy crazy?"- Draco asked to no one.
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 a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.
A giant of a man.
-"Harry dear, Hagrid is not a giant."- Hermione say with a smug smile.
-"Now I know that"- he said in return.
-"What do you mean? That Hagrid just has some grow problem…- Sirius asked sarcastically.
-"No just that his not a giant Padfoot"- Hermione said.
-"But he is so big!"- Padfoot said.
-"I don´t think that anyone can fight against that one Sirius"- Lily said.
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.
-"have you ever thought what he got under all that hair?"-James asked and everyone except Ron, who was nodding, looked at him silently asking if he was crazy.
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 its 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…"
-"Only Hagrid could ask something like that after taking down a door"- Professor McGonagall said shaking her head.
-"In other circumstances I could have ask for the same"-Dumbledore said but cover after receiving glares of almost all the females in the room.
-"I doubt that Petunia will give him anything else than very big monologue of why freaks were invading her temporary house… she did to me and then presume about Vernon"- Alice said.
-"I wasn´t aware that you were friends with Lily mom"- Neville said making the teens of the 70 to look at him surprised.
-"Saying that Alice isn´t friends with Lily is like saying that James doesn´t torture Snape because his jealous"- Remus said Harry and Neville looked surprised at that and James scowled at the reference.
-"That makes me think… Why didn´t you go and live with us I mean I´m sure that we already knew about you…or why did you got only two options Tonks or Dursleys?"- Frank asked while looking at the ceiling.
-"I… well I… think it was too dangerous there were too many death eaters out there and you already had a baby in your hands."- Harry said a little nervous making Remus to look at him trying to not think what that could mean.
-"Where am I?"- Sirius asked looking at the teens and the others.
-"Other way occupied"- Hermione said.
-"And me?"- Remus said.
-"The minister sees you as a dark creature that means that you can´t have a baby at your care without the help of another disinfected person, that´s why I think if I were to be left with Tonks then I could see you…"- Harry said.
-"And well what about us?"- Charlus asked while pointing at his wife and him.
-"Well I don´t really know"- Harry said.
-"You´re sick and, Dorea is already dead"- Minerva said trying to not cry as she talked about her great friends.
-"That´s horrible…"- Lily said a little chocked then looked at the marauders and then to Harry.-"What about Peter?"
-"He´s dead"- Ron said a little too harshly making the marauders looked at him surprised and Sirius looked for his wand.
-"Please read Alice"- Luna asked when she felt the tension in the room.
-"What?... oh right."
He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.
"Budge up, yeh great lump,"
And all laugh breaking the tension.
said the stranger.
Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.
"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.
Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.
"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mom's eyes."
-"It gets a little boring after a while to hear all the people said that after they meet me"-Harry muttered.
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 out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if 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," said the giant, turning his back on 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."
Everyone smiled fondly.
From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.
-"Happy Birthaday!"- all the teens of the ´70 shouted and Harry smile thanking everyone.
-"Aaaaah why is it green?"- Sirius asked after some seconds of silence.
-"I happen to like the green"- Lily said and at the same time "Hey green is not that bad"- Harry said.
-"But that means snakes which takes us to Slytherin which takes us to baaaad things"- Sirius said.
-"That a very one side tracked mind"- Hermione muttered.
Harry looked up at the giant. He 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?"
-"Such nice manners"- Dorea said smiling a little but the sarcastic hedge was there.
-"Always grandma"- Harry said smirking.
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.
"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."
-"For Merlin´s beard how does Hagrid dare to asked that"- Hermione asked.
-"Give it a rest ´Mione it´s Hagrid after all"- Ron said.
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.
"Oh Hagrid…" Lily and Alice both moaned.- "he isn´t supposed to do that"-Lily said.
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.
The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, 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 a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make 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 from the poker, 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."
-"I can´t Imagine him fatter"- Sirius commented.
He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about 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 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."
"No," Lily said sadly. "No he doesn't."
"Er — no," said Harry.
Hagrid looked shocked.
"Sorry," Harry said quickly.
-"I think that you´re the first Potter to use the word"- Frank murmur.
-"OI"- Charlus and James reclaimed.
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 thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?"
-"This doesn´t sound good for them"- Neville said frowning a little.
-"Are you worried for them?"- Draco asked incredulous.
-"Not really"-Neville answer looking grim."I´m more worried what they will think to do to them and the trouble they could get"- he said while pointing at the Marauders who were trying to look innocent as well as the twins
"All what?" asked Harry.
"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered.
"Now wait jus' one second!"
He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.
"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy — this boy! — knows nothin' abou' — about ANYTHING?"
-"Now Harry will be all indignant and say he knows things"- Ron said shaking his head.
-"That sounds something that Lily AND James would do"- Alice said.
arry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.
"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff."
" Harry, Harry, Harry, he's talking about magic." Sirius told him as if he were talking to a small child; Harry glared at him, and if looks could kill both Sirius and James would be dead.
But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."
"What world?"
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 Harry. "But yeh must know about yer mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."
- "Yeah bloody famous."- Harry said.
- "Harry language."- Lily said.
- "You´re one to talk"
- "I… oh well"
- "Harry don´t talk like that to your mother"- Dorea said and Harry blushed.
-"Sorry grandma, ma"
"What? My — my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"
"Yeh don' know… yeh don' know…" Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry 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 boy 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 him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"
"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.
"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.
-"Oh that´s sad there will be little of tha´ Dursleys for us"- Sirius said.
Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.
"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry — yer a wizard."
There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.
"I'm a what?" gasped Harry.
-"A wizard you know one that has a wand and all that"- Draco said dryly.
-"Oh and here I was thinking a wizard one that transfigures people into ferrets."- Harry said and Draco paled.
-"Oh yes in bouncing ones"- Ron said blissful.
"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good 'un, 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 letter."
Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out 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 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
-"That sounds like mine"- Charlus and James said at the same time.
-"Oh that´s unnecessary to said"- Hermione said.
Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"
"That was your first question? Harry really?"- Neville asked a note of incredulity said.
-"Hey that was the last thing that I read."- Harry said pouting.
-"One track minded"- Hermione teased.
-"Humph"- Harry said trying to act indignant.
"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, 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
"Poor owl." All the girls said, as the guys shook their heads.
— a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
Given Harry his letter.
Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.
Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.
Hagrid
"To the point isn't." Luna said.
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.
Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.
"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.
"He's not going," he said.
"I would love to see you try to stop him." James growled along with Sirius and Remus.
Hagrid grunted.
"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.
"A what?" said Harry, interested.
"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "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 him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"
"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a — a wizard?"
"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was?
"Oh Petunia, don't tell him like this, please, please, don't." Lily cried, James sited her on his lap and hugged her.
-"She´s one to hold grudges"- Snape said making several people to raise and eye-brow.
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.
"But we can't use magic outside of school."- One of the twins said.
-"You can ask especial permission to the headmaster to show your parents that you are learning something"- Hermione said.
-"Oh I didn´t know that"- James said.
I was the only one who saw her for what she was — a freak!
"Shut up! Lily is not a freak!" James yelled at the book in Alice's hands.
-I think I know from where Harry got her temper."- Ron said smiling a little.
-"You just saw Lily´s temper before… don´t you think it´s more like that?"- Neville asked.
"Well maybe but James was happy and now I´m afraid to sleep"- Ron said.
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 she had been wanting to say all this for years.
"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!"
"What a way to find out." Alice muttered sadly.
"I hate her"- Sirius said while glaring at the book.
Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me 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 Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"
"Wish they didn't." Harry muttered.
"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.
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 might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, 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'."
"Got that right."- Fred said.
-"Imagine that"- George said.
-"Oh well he didn´t even know his name."- Fred said making Harry blushed remembering when he meet the twins.
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't know his name, everyone in our world knows —"
"Who?"
"Well — I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."
"Why not?"
"Because they are bloody idiots, that's why." Sirius said.
-"Mr. Black I think it would be good for all of us to refrained the use of such a language."- McGonagall said.
"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.
"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.
"Nah — can't spell it. All right —Voldemort. "
"Bloody hell, you actually got him to say it," James said in surprise.
-"James watch your language or you know the consequents"- Dorea said and James pailed and ducked behind Lily.
Hagrid 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. 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.
-"I could prefer to die before I went with Moldywarts… I wouldn´t have fight so much with my family if I believed all that things"- Sirius huffed.
-"But your family is all blood supremacy how did you escaped?"-Draco asked.
-"I got really good friends and the Potters practically adopted me the summer before six year"- Sirius said.
-"Oh"
"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 was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' — an' —"
-"Why did they have to mention it?"- Remus asked.
But misery no one could answer hi.
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 — anywa…
"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then — an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing — he tried to kill you, 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.
"B-but why?" asked Lily.
Harry just smiled and said: "You'll get to know later".
Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. 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, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age — the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts
"Oh, God"- Lily and Alice said
-" Nooooo! Why Marlene?"- Sirius asked worried.
-"Sorry wha´dda you mean?"- Hermione asked.
-"Marlene is Sirius´s girlfriend off and go…"- Remus said while he went up to hug his friend.
Lily and Alice were been hugged by their boyfriends and McGonagall looked grave.
"Bill said that our uncles were awesome!"- Fred said. All the teens of the 99 smile a little sad when they heard him, it was after all still difficult to see him.
— an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."
Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the 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.
Most of the people shivered.
Hagrid was watching him sadly.
"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot…."
"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there.
Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.
"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured — and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion
"Git" James muttered.
— 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.
Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.
"But what happened to Vol-, sorry — I mean, You-Know-Who?"
-"Never feel sorry or afraid to say the name young Harry"- Dumbledore said.
-"I´m not sorry or afraid to say the name I´m sorry to discomfort others Professor"- Harry said.
-"Which sometimes makes big problems"- Ron mutter and Harry glared at him
"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. 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.
"Does that mean he's not dead?" asked Remus, confused.
-"I´m afraid he is not"- Dumbledore said and the some people looked nervous at this revelation.
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. 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 with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?
"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."
To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.
"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"
"No not at all" said Sirius. "Unless you count the snake, the hair, the sweater and the accidental Apparition."
Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it… every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry… chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach… dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back… and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?
"That´s pretty awesome magic you have done there Harry"- Charlus said.
-"Yes you´re awesome!"- Sirius said.
Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.
"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard — you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."
"He wasn't kidding about that", said Ron, Hermione, Neville and the twins.
But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight. "Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and - "
"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbled - "
"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.
-"Man that´s was kinda stupid."- Frank said.
-"That´s a stupid thing to said in front of Hagrid"- Tonks agreed.
But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled 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 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 saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.
Everybody started laughing.
"Hagrid's the best!" yelled Sirius.
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."
-"Agree!"- The marauders said.
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 Harry.
"Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year.
"Professor, why was Hagrid expelled?" asked Sirius, looking at Dumbledore.
"Ah, I'm afraid that he was expelled for something he didn't do, Mr. Black" said Dumbledore sadly.
"Then who did?" asked Remus.
-"Someone!"- Harry said before Dumbledore could say anything and the professor nod in understanding, the other students could find out later.
They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."
"Why were you expelled?"
"Looks like Harry wants to know too" said Frank.
"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly.
"Wow, how subtle, Hagrid" said Severus sarcastically.
"Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."
He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry. "You can kip under that, he said. "Don't' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."
"And there ends the chapter"- Alice said with a sigh.
-"Well that was interesting indeed."- Severus said.
After Frank received the book he opened it in the necessary paged and clear his throught.-"The next chapter is: "Diagon Alley" I hope everything goes well…"