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Jessica Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Chapter 4
The Keeper of Keys
BOOM. They knocked again. Remus reached the door and wrenched it open. "Hagrid, I'm so glad you made it, but you don't have to smash the door open." 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.
The giant squeezed his way into the house, stooping so his head just brushed the ceiling. "Couldn't make us a cup o' tea could yeh?" He strode into the living room, and sat down on a sofa, which creaked and groaned under his weight.
After Jessica's grandmother entered the room with tea, the giant drank it in one gulp. "Hagrid, we need to talk," began Remus
"What about?" asked the giant
Err... Jessica, could you come over here for a minute?" as Jessica walked over towards Remus, the giant's expression softened.
"Can you show Hargid your scar Jess?" asked Remus,
"Wait, who are you?" she asked the giant
"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. Yeh can call me Hagrid, everyone does." Satisfied, Jessica turned and lifted her hair off her neck, and Hargid gasped.
"That scar, is she who I think she is? She looks jus' like 'er mum-"
"You knew my mother?"Jessica asked, intrigued, however Remus continued like she had said nothing. "Hagrid, this is what I need to talk about." Remus' voice had an undertone of seriousness.
"Yes, you're perfectly correct. This is in fact Jessica, and we want you to make sure of one thing, make sure he doesn't find out."
"Who?"
Remus glanced over to Jessica, as if afraid of how much to say in front of her.
"You know perfectly well who, you're going to see him tomorrow."
"How do yeh know that? That's 'tween me an' Dumbledore, that is."
"Well I have my sources..."
Hagrid simply sat and stared at him. Jessica thought he looked quite taken aback about how Remus knew so much about what was obviously supposed to be a secret.
After a few quiet minutes filled with only the sound of Remus sipping his tea, Hagrid spoke. "So what is it yeh want me to do then?"
"Just a simple task: We're going to Diagon Alley on the 31st, if you would kindly ensure we don't have any... unexpected meetings with him that will be greatly appreciated."
"Why? Don' yeh want them ter meet?"
"No! Not yet anyway, l'll wait until they've at least properly met."
"Who?" Jessica asked, and Remus jumped, he had forgotten she was in the room.
"No one. Jess, how about you head up to your room for a bit, Hagrid and I have a lot to catch up on."
"Oh, alright then." She mumbled as she left the room, and walked upstairs.
Jessica stayed there for over two hours, but when she heard movement downstairs, she sprinted down the stairs, eager to catch a hint of the conversation. "You must stay for tea Hagrid, I insist." Jessica sighed; it was only her grandmother extending her usual warm welcome to their guest.
That night, the dinner table was crowded; Hagrid had a full side of the table to himself, and the others had to squeeze around the rest of the small table. While eating, the conversation mainly consisted of stories from Hagrid, and many looks of warning from Remus, when Hagrid got close to revealing anything about their secret conversation. However, from what she heard from the stories of Remus in his youth, he was very different, and quite a prankster along with his three best friends. These stories filled Jessica with hope that when she attended Hogwarts, she would find a group of friends that would stick by her, all the time.
When all the plates were magically cleared by Jessica's grandmother, and Hagrid stood up to leave and Jessica was almost sad to see him go, but reminded herself that he would be at Hogwarts when she got there in just over month. "Bye Jessica, I'll be see'n yeh at Hogwarts. An' Happy Birthday for the 31st." Out the corner of her eye, Jessica thought she saw Remus send Hagrid a warning look
"Oh, um Remus said your birthday was the day after tomorrow..."
"OK then, bye Hagrid" said Jessica.
After Hagrid left and some of the furniture had been magically repaired, it was beginning to get late, and Jessica needed to go up to bed. After getting into her pyjamas, Jessica lay in bed thinking, rather than going to sleep. What had Hagrid and Remus been talking about earlier? It definitely involved Hogwarts, and something was happening on her birthday... Defeated, she decided to assume they were planning a celebration for her birthday or for her getting accepted to Hogwarts.
The next day seemed to pass in a blur to Jessica; she got up, got dress, went downstairs and ate breakfast. She spent the rest of the day out in the garden. She read, tended to some of the plants and cloud-gazed. But no matter what she was doing, she was thinking. Thinking about her upcoming schooling at Hogwarts, thinking about her birthday the very next day, thinking about their trip to buy her school things tomorrow. But the thing she thought about the most was what Remus and Hagrid had spoken about the previous day when she hadn't been able to listen. She knew there was one huge puzzle piece that she was missing, and once she knew what that was, everything else would fall in place.
At dinner that evening, Jessica soon forgot all about yesterday's conversation, as the realisation of tomorrow dawned on her. "So, it's your last night being ten. Are you looking forward to tomorrow? We'll be heading off to Diagon Alley. Although you probably already know that." Said her grandmother to break the silence, "Yeah, I'm really excited about getting my wand."
"Everyone gets excited about that."
After much idle conversation, when dinner had been cleared away, and there was nothing but silence, Remus was the first to break it "Well Pup, you'd better head up to bed, it's a long day tomorrow." However, when Jessica got into bed, she couldn't sleep, for she was far too excited about tomorrow. So Jessica was completely unaware at what time she fell asleep, she only knew when she woke up.
