Harriet Lily Potter was not easily surprised.

As a prankster, she had to think of the all the possible outcome of her actions, because she needed to know what's she be up against if she did get caught.

She wasn't ready to be faced with a giant.

Her uncle had gotten up in a fraction of a second, with her aunt in tow. He was pointing a shotgun at the giant, but Harriet had a gut feeling that even if he was shot, it wouldn't have to much of an effect through all those layers.

The giant was quite large- in fact bigger than Uncle Vernon, but taller as well. He wasn't nearly as round, but still his shape could possibly compare to that of a balloon. His face was covered with long, shaggy, wild hair and beard, but two bright, excited, and beady eyes peered underneath his hair. He had a huge, thick coat over what was probably more thick layers of clothes considering the weather.

His large size made squeezing through the door without collapsing the building a bit of a challenge, but he managed. The roof was only an inch above his head, and he was towering over Harriet, who silently scooted away from the giant to avoid accidentally being crushed. He bent over and shoved the door back into the frame, quieting down the noise in the shack. "May I 'ave a cup o' tea? There's a bit o' a chill," he said, marching over to the couch. "Move yeh lump."

Dudley scrambled off the couch and seemed to have hide behind Harriet, who was frozen in fear of the large man, who was looking her over. "Yeh must be Harry?"

"Harriet," she corrected. "I hate being called Harry."

He nodded, "Yeh may look like yer mum, bu' yeh have a firey personality like yer dad- and his hazel eyes as well. You've grown up in ten years. When I first met you, was a bit of a baby!"

Her uncle was not pleased in the pleasant tone between the giant and Harriet. "I demand you get out! This is breaking in and entering!"

Before the giant could respond, Harriet jumped in with, "The door just fell down in a what's supposed to be abandoned house. This house already broke."

"Listen to her- a prune like yea woul' do well," the giant said, pulling the gun out of his hand and easily tying it into a knot. He then turned to Harriet. "Anyway, happy birthday to yeh... Here, I may have sit on it a bit..." He pulled out a slightly crushed white box, which Harriet took graciously and opened it.

It was a cake. It was squishy, and in sloppy green frosting on pink, was Happy Birthday Harri. "Sorry, didn't have much room." Harriet had never had a cake before, and this one wasn't prize winning, but she immediately loved it despite Harry written instead of Harriet. However she was stilll wary of the giver. "Who are you?"

"Ah, forget to introduce meself. I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Ground and Keys at Hogwarts," he introduced himself.

"What the heck is a Hogwarts?" Harriet asked.

"Hogwarts! Don't tell me yeh don' know anything 'bout Hogwarts! I knew yeh weren' getting yer letters, but nothing 'bout Hogwarts? WHere'd you think your parents learned it all?" Hagrid boomed.

"Learn what? Math? I would think my local school... Or at least my mum considering she lived in my house ..." Harriet shrugged, but Hagrid was spewing off the the Durselys.

"Do yeh mean to tell me, that this girl- this girl- know NOTHIN' abou' who she is?"

"Well, I wouldn't say nothing..." Harriet said.

"Nothing. About yer world. My world. Yer parents' world."

"This might be rude, but right now, you sound a bit loopy." Harriet commented. "We all live on Earth right now, correct?"

Hagrid seemed as if he was on the verge of exploding.

"DURSELY!" He shouted at her aunt and uncle. "Didn't yeh tell her abou' anythin' in the letter Dumbeldore had with her? I know he lef' it! I saw it!"

"What letter? Is it about my parents?" Harriet asked.

"You don' know anythin' abou' yer parents? They're famous. You're even more famous."

"My parents weren't famous," Harriet shook her head. "They can't be. And I'm not famous at all."

"Yeh don' know... Yeh don't know..." Hagrid mumbled.

"Don't know what?" Harriet asked, glancing over at her aunt, who paled considerably.

"Stop." Aunt Petunia growled.

"Harriet... yer a witch."

To Harriet, even the storm quieted to comprehend what he said. "Aren't witches supposed to be green?" Harriet asked, trying to lift the density of the situation. "No seriously, I'm sure you're mad."

"I ain't mad. Here's yer letter..." Hagrid pulled out a letter, addressed to Miss H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea.

"Are magical people supposed to this stalker crazy?" Harriet ripped open the letter and read out-loud:

"HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

Dear Miss Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find the enclosed list of all the necessary books and equipment.

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

Yours Sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress"

Harriet paused, attempting to comprehend what she had just read, but everything was just swirling around in her head. It did explain all the letters appearing everywhere... and the owls... "Do owls deliver mail in the wizarding world?"

"Oh, that reminds me..." Hagrid pulled out an owl from his overcoat, scribbled down a message, tied it to the owls leg, and threw it out the door.

Harriet took that as a yes.

Her aunt also had a scrunched up face as if she laid eyes on the world's most disgusting creature. "She's not going."

"I'd like to see a great lump of a muggle like you stop her."

"A what?" Harriet asked.

"A muggle- a non-magical folk like them. In fact these are the best examples you could ever see. Unfortunately for you, you had to live with 'em for ten years."

"We swore we'd stamp out that rubbish!" Her uncle shouted. "A filthy witch!"

"You knew?" Harriet said.

"I knew alright," her aunt spoke up. "How could you not, being the child of... those FREAKS! I knew it alright... She got that letter from that freak school, and disappeared for months only to come home with frogspawn in her pockets and to turn tea cup into rats. My mother and father, they thought she was special! But I knew who she really was... a freak! Then she went off and married that Potter, had you, and then got herself and Potter blown up and we got stuck with you!"

"Blown up? You told they died in a car crash!" Harriet shouted.

"CAR CRASH!" Hagrid boomed, advancing on the Dudleys who cowered in the corner. "How coul' a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? This is an outrage! A scandal! Harriet Potter knows less about herself than every child in our world knows her story!"

"What story? What happened?" Harriet asked curiously.

"Well, I'd better started with who started it all... It was a person called... well, it's incredible yeh don't know his name considering what he's done to yeh..."

"Who?" Harriet begged.

"Well, I don' like sayin' the name. No one does."

"Why not? It's just a name," Harriet said.

"We're still scared. Harriet, those were terrifying times Harriet. That particular wizard... He went bad. As bad as a man could go. Then he went beyond that, and he... He did truly terrible things. His name was... Voldemort." Hagrid shuddered, as if he could shake off the word from his tongue. "Don' make me say it again! Anyway, this wizard, he's normally called You-Know-Who, about twenty years ago, he started looking for followers. Got 'em too. Some were scared, some wanted power- and he gave 'em power alright. He was gettin' more an' more powerful. Dark day. You didn't know who to trust, didn' dare to get friendly with strange folk... An' terrible things happened. Those who stood up to him- they were killed. Hogwarts soon became one of the las' safe places to hide- Dumbledore was the only wizard he was afraid of. Never trie' to take the school, at least not yet.

"Yer mum an' dad- they were one of the few greastes' magical folk there coul' be. Head boy an' girl back in their day! Don' know why he didn' go after 'em sooner- probably they were too close to Dumbledore...

"So, one Halloween, when you was 'bout a year ol'... He came to yer house an'... an'..." Hagrid suddenly choked up, and pulled out a filthy, spotted handkerchief, not unlike one of the moldy blankets Dudley was clutching like a lifeline, and blew into it like a foghorn. "Sorry, but its sad- I knew yer mum and dad, an' yeh couldn' find nicer people...

"You-Know-Who just killed 'em. An' then, he turned to you, probably wanting a clean job or jus' havin' the thrill of killin' an innocent child, about to kill yeh, but... it was a miracle that occurred. He trie' to kill yeh but he couldn't do it. You know that mark on yeh forehead? It's no ordinary cut."

Harriet's hand involuntarily shot up to her scar, feeling the lightning shape. It was too perfect to be from a car crash...

"Yeh get that from a powerful curse- nothing else could compare... yer mum an' dad, not even yer house could survive it, nor thousands of other great witches an' wizards... but you was only a baby, an' yeh lived."

Harriet tried to wrap her head around everything... But one memory came at her like a bullet. It was a flash of green light and... Laughter. High, cruel, and cold. It was like a monster's laugh.

"I took yeh from the ruined house meself. Bought yeh here-"

"Load of tosh, that's what it is," her uncle spat once again. Harriet remembered who she was with and the amount of mush in their heads in an instant.

"He's right, Potter. You're nothing more a freak show, just like my sister! I knew, from the moment she got home from her little clown school, she'd find her way down to a horrid ending with that Potter boy... And then they just had to stick us with you! I knew I had to get rid of all your weirdness by squeezing it out of you... 'Perfect' Lily got what was coming to her-"

"SHUT UP!" Harriet screamed, standing up, and the storm outside got considerably stronger in an instant. For once in Harriet's life, Petunia complied, possibly due to increase of weather caused by the young redheaded girl.

"That's better," Hagrid sighed.

"But what happened to Voldemort-" Harriet stopped when Hagrid cringed. "Sorry, I mean, You-Know-Who?"

"That's a strange thing too. He vanished. Disappeared. The most moment he tried to kill yeh, he was gone- made you even more famous. It was the bigges' myst'ry... He was the most powerful he'd ever been... but A baby made him vanish.

"Some say he died. I say codswallop to that. Not human enough to die in my opinion. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, bu' I don' believe it. People on his side came back to ours- claiming he forced them to work for him- some came out of trances.

"Some reckon he's still out there, just without his powers. Too weak to move on. That Halloween night he lost his powers, he didn't count on something about you. No one knows what that somethin' is, but you caused it."

Harriet sat in silence. This couldn't be true, right? She's been pushed around by her aunt for who knows how many years- couldn't she have done something? "Is this some kind of prank? I'm not a witch- I can't be."

"Oh, not a witch, eh? Who caused the storm to get stronger with your temper? I bet certain things happened when you felt angry or scared."

Harriet avoided eye contact. He was right. This was a perfect explanation to all the strange things happening around her- didn't she end up on the roof when Dudley was about to catch her? Didn't she talk to the snake and set him after her cousin and remove the glass?

Harriet was grinning when she looked up.

"Harriet Potter, daughter of the two greatest magical folk- you'll fit in jus' fine." Hagrid nodded, but her uncle wasn't done.

"I already told you, she's not going!" He shouted. "Stonewall's where she's going- and she'll be happier too. I ain't buying her all that rubbish magic books and fancy wands-"

"I'd like to see you stop her, you great big ol' muggle. Stop the Girl-Who-Lived from going to Hogwarts- rid'ulous, I say. She's been on the list the moment she was born- the finest school of witchcraft, and seven years from now, she won' know who the heck she was. You wait and see Harriet- you'll be among kids jus' like yeh, taught under Albus Dumbledore, the greatest Headmaster ever known in the history of-"

"I'M NOT PAYING SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HER MAGIC TRICKS!" Vernon shouted, but he finally got on Hagrid's last nerve.

In a dangerous tone, Hagrid growled, "Never. Insult. Albus. Dumbledore. In. Front. Of. Me." And with that, Hagrid brought down his pink umbrella onto Dudley, who was pigging out on Harriet's cake, and a violet light came down on him along with a squeal. Dudley's hands shot to his bottom, not hiding his pink pig's tail that had sprouted.

Harriet couldn't help it as she burst out laughing, satisfied with the trick as the Durselys ran into the next room. Hagrid nodded firmly and smiled towards Harriet. "Yer laugh sounds like yer father's after he pulled a prank. You take after him."

Harriet grinned.

"Be grateful if yeh didn't tell anyone at Hogwarts," Hargid shyly itched the back of his neck. "Not s'posed to do magic. I was jus' offered to give yeh yer letter..."

Harriet recollected herself to ask, "Why aren't you allowed to do magic?"

"Oh, well... When I was in Hogwarts, I -er - I got expelled to be honest. In me third year, snapped my wand in half an' everything."

Harriet stayed silent and nodded, even though her curiously was about to ask why. Hagrid threw his coat at her, which she took greatly.

"Kip under that. An' don' mind if it wiggles a bit- I might have a dormouse or two in there."

Harriet shuddered. Even though she wasn't afraid of spiders, she never particularity like mice or rats.