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Chapter 4

The Keeper of Keys

Uncle Vernon drove up to the dock and parked the car beneath a small shabby car port. He got out indicating everyone else should follow. He looked severely overtired with his hair sticking out in odd directions and had a manic, rather unnerving glint in his eye. Aunt Petunia seemed very scared of her husband at the moment and simply walked briskly by his side pushing her son forward who seemed beyond miserable. Harry and Cosette seemed to think that Uncle Vernon was not to be trifled with at the moment and got out of the car into the cold rain. They hurried to catch up with the Dursleys, their oversized clothes acting as soft rain coats. They caught up with Uncle Vernon who was handing a number of bills to a small portly man that smelled strongly of garlic even in the spray of the sea. The man had a very rough aged voice as he thanked Uncle Vernon for the payment. He surveyed everyone in the group with a wary gaze. He was a very old man with a lined grey face that seemed to have aged with the sea. He looked at Harry as though he was making second thoughts about the deal he made with Uncle Vernon.

"Well?" Uncle Vernon said in a voice quite unlike his own. "Where is the boat?"

The man did not respond for several moments and when he did it was in his rough voice, but it seemed more solemn since had spotted Harry and Cosette.

"Yes…" he said. "Follow me."

He led the group down a short set of steps to a small side-dock where a large rowboat was tethered.

"Here it is," he announced indicating the boat. "Will you need anything else?"

"No," Uncle Vernon said shaking his head.

"Alright," said the man as he walked past the group huddled on the dock and back up the stairs.

He walked a short distance and disappeared into what must have been a boat house. Uncle Vernon seemed rather giddy with excitement as he got into the boat and beckoned the rest to do the same. Aunt Petunia followed with her miserable son who was not at all pleased with sitting in the shaky wet boat.

"Come on then," Uncle Vernon said to Harry and Cosette. "Untie the boat so we can get a move on, those letters aren't going to avoid themselves!" he said excitedly as he placed both oars in the water.

Harry and Cosette grimly followed Uncle Vernon's demands and got into the boat. Uncle Vernon still had an unpleasant glint in his eye as he began to row the boat out towards a small island lined with fog in the distance. No one noticed this island for a while however since it was nearly impossible to see in the thick fog.

"Let's see if the post delivers to this address!" Uncle Vernon chortled as he rowed on; seeming to get more and more energy from his tiring work.

The rain fell hard and Harry began to shiver as the water on his seat soaked through his pants. Cosette wasn't faring much better considering the fact she was wearing a sixties floral miniskirt. The large waves also shook the boat rather unpleasantly, and made one think it was not ideal weather to be rowing in. For every stroke forward the boat was pushed half a stroke back, not to mention the boat almost always came dangerously close to capsizing, which made the miserable Dudley by Aunt Petunia rather terrified. But none of this seemed to daunt Uncle Vernon as he rowed on. By the time the group had reached the small island everyone was soaked in salt water, their clothes clinging to their skin. Uncle Vernon wasn't depressed despite also being soaked. On the contrary, Uncle Vernon seemed to be moving with renewed vigor in his step now that they had arrived at the island. Cosette at this point was clinging rather desperately to her brother for warmth who returned the gesture by placing a kind reassuring arm around her. Despite this, neither of them could stop shivering.

After Uncle Vernon tied the boat to a small wooden post on the rocky shore, everyone clambered out, with some difficulty since the shore was raised about two feet above the rim of the boat. Uncle Vernon clambered out of the boat first and walked up the rocky shore to the dingy worn down house that looked more like a well aired shack. This left Aunt Petunia to haul her son out of the boat, no easy task given his size versus her frame; not to mention his terrible mood which made it difficult for Aunt Petunia to coax him into putting any extra effort into getting out of the boat to help her. When the Dursleys had all gotten out, Harry and Cosette were not surprised to find themselves left in the boat. Despite knowing they would have to rejoin the Dursleys afterwards, they were not inclined to stay in the boat which was shaking more heavily without the Dursley's combined weight to weigh it down. Not to mention the rain was still falling as hard as ever and both of them were freezing.

"Come on," Harry said encouragingly to his poor sister. "It might not be a whole lot but at least we can get dry," Harry indicated the shabby hut near the top of the island.

Cosette nodded simply as Harry helped her out of the boat. She then turned to help Harry clamber out and the duo made their way up against the gale to the hut where they found Uncle Vernon desperately trying to light a fire to no avail. Harry and Cosette felt almost instantly warmer. Even though the hut was very leaky, it was certainly loads better than being out in the rain. Plus it was a summer's rainstorm, the main benefactor to the chill it gave everyone was the wind and sea spray where as in here neither was a particular bother. Dudley however was mumbling incoherently, very un-used to getting so little attention from either of his parents.

Uncle Vernon gave a wide sneering grin as the twins entered the hut.

"I wonder if the post delivers here," he said with some form of a horrible laugh, apparently forgetting the fire.

The evening rolled on rather grimly for everyone, Uncle Vernon being the only one in a non-dampened mood. The group soon discovered that the only thing to eat was canned pork and beans which wouldn't have been so bad if not for the fact that they had no can opener. The bedding situation was also rather depressing. There was only one bed located in the second room of the shack. A moth eaten moldy mattress that looked as though it had soaked in the sea for a time, especially with its rusted bed frame and even moldier bed-sheets. The bed smelled terrible and creaked horribly at the slightest movement that not even Dudley was upset when his parents took it, making him to sleep with a moldy blanket on the couch on the hearth, Harry and Cosette made to sleep on the hard dusty ground of the hut, dried brine coating the twins messy hair and caking itself to their skin.

Despite being awfully uncomfortable in their wet clothes, everyone soon managed to get comfortable enough to be overcome by their own weariness; everyone except Harry and Cosette who both lay awake staring at the moldy ceiling.

"What do you think is written in those letters?" Cosette asked again quietly.

"I don't know…" Harry said wishing he knew the answer.

"Whoever they are they're certainly interested in contacting us, and the Dursleys must know them, otherwise they wouldn't go this far to prevent them from contacting us."

"Yeah…" Harry said absentmindedly.

Since his sister had pointed this out to him earlier it did nothing but pique his curiosity about the letters. It also depressed him more because he was sure Uncle Vernon's effort to go somewhere the letters wouldn't were not spent in vain. They were certainly well isolated despite the alarming nature of how the letters came. Harry felt sure that they would receive no letters while on this rock. He was almost inclined to row back across the water, abandoning the Dursley's on the island and find some place to spend the night just to see if he could read the letters in the morning, but as much as it pained him he seriously doubted his and Cosette's chances without at least the provisions the Dursley's gave. Out there without them they had even less than nothing but each other than with the Dursleys.

Cosette looked over at her cousin who was snoring loudly on the couch next to them, examining his wrist watch. It read 12:06 from what she could tell. She announced this to Harry who gave a weak smile.

"Happy birthday, Harry."

"Happy birthday, Cosette."

The two smiled weakly at each other, it was by far going to be one of the worst birthdays ever, even with their past birthdays with the Dursleys. Despite all this however, at the very least the two of them still had each other to comfort them.

"We best get some sleep. I don't suspect the Dursleys have a fun day planned for tomorrow," Cosette said with a sigh as she rolled over to a more comfortable position.

Harry followed suit trying to allow sleep to overtake him. It didn't work and there were several long minutes that seemed to be stretching into hours where he knew that neither he nor Cosette were asleep.

And then suddenly there was an enormous knock on the door, waking Dudley up instantly who whirled around to look at the door in alarm. Harry and Cosette shot to their feet as they heard a second knock, this one louder. Without thinking twice, Harry and Cosette ran to the small corner where the fireplace and wall of the shack met and hid quietly in the shadows. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon exited the second room, both of them looking very fearfully at the door. Uncle Vernon was holding a shotgun in his shaky hands trying to keep a steady aim at the door. Then, there was a final loud knock as the door was knocked off its hinges and fell to the floor. Aunt Petunia let out a loud scream as Dudley ran to hide behind her, a rather meaningless effort considering the difference in girth between the two people. Uncle Vernon was still struggling to hold the shotgun steady.

An enormous man was crouching low to sidle through a door severely undersized for him; for he, by the looks of it, was twice as tall as an average man, and three times as wide, only a little wider than Uncle Vernon. His face was shadowed by the lightning behind him and his bushy mane of tangled hair as he stepped through the door ominously. Harry hoped that the man would not notice him or his sister hiding in the corner.

"'ello there, sorry abou' the door," he said as he bent over to pick up the door and shoved it roughly back into place where it stayed.

Uncle Vernon seemed to finally find his voice as he spoke to the man.

"I demand that you leave at once, we never asked for your company!" Uncle Vernon said loudly.

The giant walked over to Uncle Vernon who seemed to falter under the giant's glare.

"Ah, shut up Dursley, ya great prune."

As he said this, he yanked Uncle Vernon's shotgun from his hand and tied the thick metal in a neat knot and handed the useless gun back to Uncle Vernon. At this, Harry couldn't help but feel intrigued by the man. He knew the Dursleys so he wasn't a complete stranger. What's more is he didn't at all seem to like the Dursleys. The giant sat down on the couch which seemed to be the size of a comfortable armchair for him.

The giant surveyed the room as if looking for someone, his eyes fell on Dudley briefly but he continued to look around the room. He couldn't be looking for us could he? Harry thought to himself. Was he the mysterious return address of the letters? This question seemed to be answered as he asked in his loud booming voice.

"Where's the Potters? Where's Harry?"

Half curious to answer his questions, half sure that the giant was friendly from the way he treated the Dursleys, Harry slowly crept out of his hiding spot, his sister giving him petrified stares.

"I'm here…" he said simply, half petrified and half intrigued.

The giant man beamed at Harry and stood up, surveying Harry with a look of warm delight.

"Ah, Harry Potter, spittin' image of your father you are. Cept your eyes, you 'ave your mother's eyes," he said smiling widely. "I don' think ye'll remember me," the giant said in an almost nostalgic tone.

"Last time I saw ya I could hold ya in just one 'and."

Harry simply stared at the man unsure of what to say. What was he supposed to say, the man was absolutely right; he didn't have the vaguest memory of him. Apparently this man knew him when he was a baby, but it wasn't exactly a great conversation starter.

"I got sumthin' for yeh, 'fraid I might a sat on it at one point but I 'spect it will taste fine jus' the same," the man said as he reached into one of the many pockets in his moleskin overcoat and pulled out a small white cardboard box which he handed to Harry.

Harry accepted the box and peeled the lid back to find his first ever birthday cake, which also had Cosette's name sloppily placed on it in green icing next his own in blue. Harry couldn't help but feel grateful as he read the icing which said:

"Happy Birthday Harry and Cozette!"

It was one of the first kind things another person had ever done for him and his sister.

"Thank you!" Harry faltered somewhat as the man simply beamed back.

"Don' worry, it was nuthin'."

As he said this he sat himself back down and pulled out a frilled pink umbrella, flourished a bit and pointed it at the fire place where flames erupted from the tip, setting the fireplace ablaze. Harry stared in amazement, the Dursleys all shaking in the doorway to the second room; none of them seemed to want to even look at the giant man. The man on the other hand proceeded to pull things out of his pocket as if what he just did was the simplest most normal thing in the world. The first thing he pulled out of his pocket was some kind of cubic cage which he placed over the fire. He then took out a large frying pan and a paper package that he opened to reveal several sausages. He placed the frying pan on top of the square cage and unceremoniously placed several sausages in the pan which immediately began to sizzle. There was a long silence save the sizzling of the sausages which began to fill the shack with a warm smell, banishing the old moldy smell. After a while Harry finally broke the silence by asking a question he desperately wanted to know the answer to.

"Excuse me, who exactly are you?" he said placing the cake down.

"Rubeus Hagrid, keeper o' keys and grounds at Hogwarts," the man said not turning from the sausages. "Though everyone jus' calls me Hagrid. Though as the groundskeeper at Hogwarts, firs' name basis with students is fine too, don' think they 'spect me to be formal or nothin," he said as he thought over his own words.

"Course yeh know all 'bout Hogwarts."

Harry shook his head, still wondering who this man was. Hagrid looked rather alarmed and perplexed at Harry's response.

"No? Didn' ya ever wonder where you're mum and dad learned it all?"

Harry was both confused and intrigued. On one hand this man seemed to have known his parents, on the other he hadn't the foggiest idea of what he was talking about.

"Learn what?" Harry asked genuinely interested now.

"Learn what?" Hagrid said raising his voice slightly. "Ya mean to say yeh don' know?"

"Know what?" Harry said feeling as though he was repeating himself.

Hagrid turned sharply around to face the Dursleys who faltered slightly as his attention turned to them.

"Dursleys!" Hagrid bellowed standing up to his full intimidating height.

None of the Dursleys responded but Hagrid didn't seem to be waiting for an answer as he continued to yell at them.

"Ye mean to say, ya never told Harry anythin', 'bout nuthin'?" Hagrid bellowed.

"About what?" Harry asked desperately wishing that Hagrid would stop berating the Dursleys and just answer him.

Hagrid turned back to Harry surveying him with a rather wary gaze not at all unlike the one the man at the dock gave him.

"Gee, Dumbledore said there migh' be some trouble but I never 'spected that you wouldn' even know who you were, not when every child knows yer name."

At that moment Uncle Vernon seemed to have found his voice as he walked forward suddenly, shaking his head violently.

"I forbid you to say anything to him!" Uncle Vernon said quickly in a very strained voice. "We swore when we took them in we would put a stop to all this rubbish!"

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked growing impatient.

Hagrid glared venomously at the Dursleys, particularly Uncle Vernon who seemed to falter slightly from his gaze. He then turned back to Harry and cleared his throat, as if unsure where to begin.

"I forbid you to say anything more!" Uncle Vernon yelled now that the giant wasn't focused on him.

"Ah go boil yer heads," Hagrid said dismissively.

He looked down at Harry and said in a solemn voice,

"I guess the best way is to just tell yeh straight out."

"No!" Uncle Vernon bellowed, but Hagrid was completely ignoring him.

"Listen 'arry, you're a wizard and Hogwarts is a school, where they teach ya how to use magic. That's the school your parents went to," he said simply.

Harry felt that this was a very anticlimactic answer because what Hagrid suggested was impossible.

"I'm a what now?"

Hagrid seemed to continue talking, not favoring Harry with an answer.

"I 'spect ye'll be a thumpin' good wizard too, once ye've trained up a bit. Also, I bet yer sister will be an excellent witch. "

Hagrid said sitting down as he pulled two small envelopes from one of his many pockets.

"Speakin' of which, where is yer sister?"

Harry immediately pointed to the corner by the fireplace where a terrified Cosette stood still hiding. Hagrid looked into the corner or several moments before he spotted Cosette in the shadows. He held the letter up.

"It's alright, I ain' gonna hurt yeh. I jus' came to make sure yeh received yer letter this time 'round."

Hagrid pulled a plate out of his pocket with his othr hand and tilted the sausages in the pan onto it.

"Why don' yeh come out, yer great puddin' of a cousin don' need no more fattenin' but it looks as though you could use some," he said gently.

Terrified beyond words, and wishing her brother had not told Hagrid where she was, Cosette slowly crept out from the corner, only taking a sausage once he saw Hagrid eat one. Harry followed suit and the three of them shared what was possibly the best meal in either Harry or Cosette's lives. Hagrid smiled at Cosette.

"Yeh look just like yer mother yeh do," Hagrid said smiling. "She was a quite a beauty like yerself."

Cosette looked up at Hagrid with a terrified and confused expression. Hagrid handed each of them one of the letters which Harry tore open eagerly. Harry was glad to finally read the letter even if the whole wizard thing was some form of an elaborate joke. He read his letter out loud as Cosette read hers silently.

"Dear Mr. Potter, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all the necessary books and equipment. Term starts September 1st. We expect your owl no later than July 31st. Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress."

Uncle Vernon marched up, shaking his head violently.

"He will not be going, neither of them will. We were sure a good thrashing would beat all this nonsense out of them, but we most certainly will not allow them to go learn this rubbish."

Hagrid seemed beyond livid with Uncle Vernon.

"Not let Lily and James Potter's children learn magic? Ya have to be bleedin' yer brains out!"

Uncle Vernon shirked back slightly as Aunt Petunia joined him by his side.

"They will not be going!" Aunt Petunia said in an unnaturally shrill voice. "We decided to thrash out any of this nonsense from my sister!"

Harry felt a sudden pang of anger as he looked up at his Aunt and Uncle, not very unusual but this anger was somewhat different than the anger he was used to feeling towards them.

"You knew!" he found himself with a slightly raised voice. "You knew this whole time and you never told me!"

Aunt Petunia suddenly looked down at him as if she had just noticed he was there.

"Of course we knew, how could we not?" Aunt Petunia said shrilly. "My dear sister was so proud the day she got her letter; our parents were also foolishly proud as it happens," Aunt Petunia said spitting her words venomously.

"We have a witch in the family! Of course however, I was the only one who saw her for what she was; a freak!" Aunt Petunia continued. "And then she went and married that Potter man, and I knew from there that you two would be just as strange—just as—abnormal. And then if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we were landed with you two."

"Blown up?" Harry said feeling himself grow increasingly hot with anger as well as intrigued by curiosity at this statement. "You told me my parents died in a car crash!"

At this Hagrid coughed loudly and interrupted Harry.

"A car crash? A car crash killed Lily and James Potter?" Hagrid said looking absolutely livid. "You listen to me Dursleys, Lily and James Potter were two o' the finest sorcerers of their day, an' a car crash is the last thin' that could've got 'em!" Hagrid breathed, although he wasn't done.

Uncle Vernon's face was contorted and twisted in a way that made him look even more like a large red walrus than usual.

"They will not be going," He muttered miserably, refusing to meet Hagrid's intimidating gaze.

"I suppose a great muggle like yerself is gonna stop him now are yeh?"

Harry wondered what a muggle was, he quickly interrupted Hagrid's tirade to ask him.

"A muggle is what we wizards call non-magic folk, the opposite of a wizard is a muggle, yeh see?" Hagrid turned to survey the Dursleys once more. "And it's a bunch of rotten luck yeh was raised by the biggest bunch of muggles the world has ever seen."

Hagrid paused, staring coldly at the Dursleys.

"Now yeh listen here Dursley, these two kids have had their names down ever since they were born, they'll be off to the finest wizarding school in the world and be under the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts has ever seen; Albus Dumbledore!"

"I will not pay for some crackpot old fool to teach them magic tricks!" Uncle Vernon said, managing to match the volume of Hagrid's voice.

At this, Hagrid's eyes seem to lose their warmth as they burned in rage. He picked up his umbrella and pointed it straight at Uncle Vernon's throat. This alone seemed to almost knock Uncle Vernon over. He looked threateningly at Uncle Vernon, rage still burning in his eyes and excitement building up in Harry's despite how he knew he should be feeling.

"Never—Insult—Albus—Dumbledore—In Front—Of Me!" Hagrid breathed, placing deadly emphasis on each syllable.

Hagrid pause for a moment in which the Dursleys tried their best to look brave as they cringed and sealed their eyes shut, bracing for what was to come. Hagrid looked down in the direction of a moist chewing noise which only now surfaced due to the silence that had fallen. In the corner, by the door to the second room of the hut Dudley was crouched over a small white cardboard box, his pudgy backside facing them; oblivious to the other people in the room as he greedily ate cake from the box. Hagrid seemed to change his mind almost instantly , he flung the umbrella around to point at Dudley.

There was a loud noise not unlike a whip crack as violet light shot out the end of Hagrid's umbrella, striking Dudley's bottom which made him jump in surprise as he clutched his bottom. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia heard their son's cry and their eyes shot open as they ran over to him trying to pry his hands from his bottom to see what Hagrid had done.

Poking out a small hole in Dudley's trousers was an unmistakable curly pink pig's tail. All the Dursleys panicked frantically as they yelled at each other in frantic desperation for the other to do something. Eventually they all filed clumsily into the second room still yelling. Uncle Vernon shot a deadly look at Hagrid before slamming the door shut, muffling the noise only slightly.

Hagrid sat down on the couch again, causing it to sag under his weight as he shook his head.

"That was brilliant!" Harry said immediately.

"It didn' work right. I meant to turn him into a pig, yeh see. Guess he was already so much of a pig only the tail came out."

Despite this, Hagrid seemed somewhat flattered in a way as Harry continued to stare in amazement. At this moment of silence, Cosette finally spoke up; Harry jumped slightly as he almost forgot she was there.

"Err… I have a question."

"Yes?" Hagrid said curiously.

Cosette seemed very fearful at the moment but she continued despite how flustered she was.

"What exactly does it mean in the letter when it says it expects our owl?"

At this, Hagrid slapped his forehead as if he was just reminded of something vitally important.

"Ah that reminds me, Dumbledore will be wantin' to know what's happened!" he said as he quickly drew out a quill and ink bottle, shortly followed by a small piece of parchment.

He wrote on the parchment a very short letter that Harry could barely read in Hagrid's scrawled hand writing.

Deer Professor Dumbledore,

I just met up with the twins and gave them theree letters.

I'll be taking them to London to get ther stuff tommorrow.

Hope your well,

Hagrid

Hagrid then rolled up the parchment and replaced the quill and ink bottle in one of his many pockets. He then pulled a barn owl out of another pocket and placed the parchment under its beak which it took eagerly, as if glad to be out of Hagrid's pocket. He then went over to the window and opened it and let the owl fly out into the rain. He then closed the window and went back over to the couch like what he just did was the most normal thing in the world. It was in that moment that Harry realized what the letter meant when it said they were awaiting their owl. That's how wizards sent mail and notices to each other, via owl.

"We best get some sleep, lots to do tomorrow," Hagrid said yawning, but Harry didn't feel at all sleepy; on the contrary, he felt quite awake.

There was so much he wanted to ask Hagrid, about Hogwarts, the wizarding world, and most of all his parents. However, Harry realized it would have to wait till morning since after all Hagrid did seem very tired from his trip here, and he needed sleep just as much as anyone else. Hagrid took off his moleskin coat and spread it out in front of the fire.

"You can sleep there," he said motioning to the coat. "Don't mind if it wriggles a bit, I 'spect I might have some dormice in there," Hagrid's voice was tired as he slumped deeper into the couch, causing it to creak horribly.

Harry looked at Cosette, who remained silent. He began talking excitedly to her about these newly surfaced revelations, particularly the existence of the wizarding world; however Cosette remained rather quiet and unenthusiastic contrary to Harry's mood. Harry didn't seem to take much notice of Cosette's quiet tone as he continued to whisper.

"…What do you think Hogwarts is like?" Harry asked Cosette eagerly.

"I don't know…" Cosette replied, looking at her brother with a mixture a fear and concern, that he didn't seem to pick up on.

"Hagrid said it's the greatest wizarding school in the world! It has to be something else; then again anything's better than the Dursleys."

"Isn't greatest school in the world rather um…biased?"

"Maybe…" Harry shrugged. "But for someone to say something like that it must be amazing."

"I guess…"

"Hagrid said he'll be taking us to get our school things tomorrow, I wonder what sort of things we'll need."

"Set of Hogwarts robes, a wand, and a cauldron, and some other stuff."

"How did you know?" Harry asked amazed.

"I read the school list that came with the letter."

"Oh…" Harry said, feeling rather stupid.

"It also says we can bring an owl, a cat, or a toad," Cosette continued somewhat seriously. "But all this brings up the question; how are we going to pay for all this? Uncle Vernon said he's not going to pay any tuition and I doubt even more he'd spend money on magic supplies."

Harry's heart sank, in the bliss of the moment he had completely forgot about all these worrisome things. Cosette gave Hagrid a nervous glance noting that he was snoring loudly before continuing.

"I was also wondering whether or not it would be smart to trust Hagrid."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked taken aback.

"Well think about it, we just met him less than an hour ago…"

"So?"

"And in that time he has shown us a few magic tricks and tried to explain to us how magic is real, to me something fishy is going on. He didn't even explain how he knew our parents, it seems all too convenient given our present situation with the Dursleys and I feel like we'd be acting gullible if we just accepted what he said."

At this Harry gave an immediate rebuttal.

"But the Dursleys didn't deny anything he said, they agreed! It's why they said they hate us so much; and besides, it's just like them not to want us to go off somewhere to be happy. This explains why the Dursleys were so desperate to keep us from getting those letters, and how they were able to appear in the way they did."

Cosette looked fearful; she wasn't sure what to say to her brother who seemed convinced Hagrid was trustworthy.

"But all this seems a bit too strange. We just met Hagrid," Cosette whispered rather desperately.

"And he's proven himself better than the Dursleys, and we've known the Dursleys our whole lives!" Harry said in a tone that seemed to make him feel he had just settled the argument.

"I just don't want anything to happen to you," Cosette said desperately to Harry. "Or me…" she added as an afterthought.

"Nothing is going to happen to either of us," Harry said reassuringly.

"How do you know, we just met Hagrid and your saying we should just leave with him tomorrow."

Harry shook his head, growing weary of the dispute at hand and as a result losing his awake-feeling.

"Let's talk about this tomorrow," he said as lay down on Hagrid's coat, which was very comfortable, acting a spongy mattress and thick quilt all in one, even if it did smell bad.

Cosette sulkily agreed and hesitantly dropped down into Hagrid's coat. The two of them slowly fell asleep much more comfortable than before, in Hagrid's thick coat, by the warm fire.