Chapter 6 – Back to Hogwarts
And so Harry found himself that early September hugging his Aunt and Uncle goodbye outside of the barrier to 9 ¾. On the trolly sat his new school trunk, filled with books and supplies and topped with a cage holding a beautiful owl – a parting gift from his sobbing Aunt. The previous weeks had been fun – the Dursleys had taken him to Diagon Alley with Hagrid, and he and Dudley had started a chocolate frog card collection on the spot.
At Gringotts, while the Dursleys sat at Fortescue's eating ice cream, Hagrid introduced him to the goblins and his vault, since he had other 'Hogwarts Business' to attend to. Eyes popping at the amount of money left him from his birth parents, he looked around at the other items for clues about his missing child hood. He decided on removing a box labeled 'important documents' and a couple of photo albums and rejoined his family. When they returned to Privet Drive his Aunt was able to identify several people besides his parents in the photos, and he gladly shared the pictures with her.
Harry gazed at the train with a smile of nostalgia. Papa had taken him to meet the Express several times as a young boy. With a feeling of content he dragged his trunk on board and found an empty compartment. He gazed out the window, wishing his aunt and uncle could have entered the barrier, but felt good knowing Papa Hagrid would be waiting at the other end of the ride.
He leaned back in his seat and admired his new owl trying to decide on a name. Hedwig – he recalled that name from one of his new magical books. That was a dandy name for an owl. Unconsciously he rubbed the itchy patch of skin on his head where his scar used to be – the laser surgery took care of it with no problem, but it still itched a bit when he was sweaty. It would be completely healed soon enough, and hopefully nobody would realize that Harrison Hagrid was in fact, Harry Potter.
The door to his compartment slid open and a red haired freckled youth looked at him inquisitively. "Is this seat taken? All the other compartments are filled" he asked hopefully.
"Ron? Ron Weasley?" Harry set Hedwig's cage to the side and stood up in excitement, grinning from ear to ear.
"Do I know you?" Ron asked in confusion, looking at the green-eyed boy beaming at him. He did look sort of familiar, but he couldn't recall for the life of him.
"Ha!" Harry laughed out loud. "Picture me with dreadlocks and a lot of dirt!"
"No!" Ron walked right up to him and gave him a playful punch in the arm. "Harry Hagrid? What happened to you? Mum and Dad said you went to live with muggles!"
Harry nodded in happy agreement. "Yep – some long-lost relatives. They cleaned me up some, eh?"
"Boy I'll say!" Ron plopped down in the seat across from Harry. "You look great – love the hair, though Charlie always thought your locks were cool."
The remainder of the train ride was spent catching up on the last few years. The twins were now notorious pranksters at Hogwarts, Bill was in Egypt working for Gringotts and Charlie in Romania working with dragons. Harry decided his Papa must not have known about that or he would have been talking about nothing else.
The remaining ride was spent meeting Hermione and Neville, and very briefly Draco Malfoy, who opened the compartment door only long enough to verify Harry Potter was not on the train.
The sorting hat wanted to put Harry in Slytherin at first – Harry certainly had a thirst to prove himself and a love of changing odds in his favor. But the hat eventually decided on Gryffindor when Harry begged it to let him stay with the Weasleys, much to Rubeus and Dumbledore's delight.
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The beginning of the year was a blur. Harry was a natural on a broom and snatched up as the youngest seeker in a century. Draco Malfoy was a bit jealous of Harry's prowess with a broom, but compensated by teasing him about his 'oaf of a father'. Harry just shrugged it off – better to be teased about a loving giant of a dad than to be gawked at as 'The-Boy-Who-Lived'.
It was difficult at times not to share who he really was with his friends, but he didn't want his friends to look at him any differently. It was really, really nice to be Harry Hagrid.
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Dear Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon,
Thanks again for the beautiful owl! I named her Hedwig. She is so smart – I swear she can understand every thing I say.
Hogwarts is great. The food is fantastic (although I miss your cooking, Aunt Petunia – especially your cookies), and I've got two best friends – Ron Weasley (who I use to know before I met you) and Hermione Granger. She's really smart.
I got sorted into Gryffindor. We have four houses here, and Gryffindor is the house mum and dad Potter were in! I'm playing on the Quidditch team, which dad did too.
How do you like this letter? I wish wizards used ball point pens. Ink and quills are sort of sloppy to use.
It feels sort of weird being back. Its nice seeing Papa every meal, but I don't miss living in the hut one bit. Please don't tell him that – I don't want to hurt his feelings. Aunt Minny and Poppy and Uncle Sev missed me – it's really nice to see them again.
I ran into Fluffy while sneaking around the castle one night. Remember Fluffy – Papa's three-headed dog? I guess he missed me – nothing like being slobbered all over by three giant dog heads. My friends Ron and Hermione were quite impressed.
One thing is sort of strange here. My Defense teacher, Quirrell, is really weird. I know it sounds kooky, but I swear a couple times when he has looked at me, the place where my scar was hurt really really bad. I don't trust him – he acts like he's hiding something.
Is Dudley coming home for Christmas? I want to, if that's ok with you.
Thanks again for getting rid of my scar. Everyone here is all 'where is Harry Potter' and all that junk. You would not believe how girls talk about him! It makes me blush. Lots of kids ignore me because they think Papa is too 'uncultured'. Fine with me – I have friends who like ME!
Oh, Aunty – if you want to send cookies or anything (like cookies!), Hedwig can carry them, no problem!
Love you!
Harry
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Dear Harry,
So good to get your letter! We miss you and Dudley so much – the house is so quiet now. Hedwig is a smart owl. I asked her to wait so I could bake you a batch of your favorite cookies, and she understood! Hope you enjoy them. Did you know she really loves bacon?
Your uncle got a good laugh over wizards still using quills and ink. At least they are pretty.
Why would your papa keep Fluffy in the castle? He was rather large from what you said.
We are concerned about your scar. Please tell your headmaster about it. As it is a 'curse scar', perhaps this Quirrell is one of those Death Eaters, and he's somehow causing the pain? Your uncle has enclosed a gift to use in case of an emergency. Do NOT open his box or play with it without reading the directions first, ok? He says you will remember it from his stories.
Of course you can come home for the holiday! We would miss you terribly if you didn't. But if your Papa insists on your staying, we understand.
Much love,
Aunty and Uncle
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Dear Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon,
Thanks for the cookies! My dorm mates agree – muggle cookies are the best.
I wish Dudley could have spent Halloween here! Magic world Halloween is the BEST! We had a banquet, with floating pumpkins and lots of great food – so spooky! The coolest thing, however, is when a TROLL got loose in the castle! Everyone was suppose to go back to their dorms for safety, but Ron and I remembered that Hermione didn't know about it – he sort of hurt her feelings earlier in the day and she was hiding in one of the less used girl's rooms crying. So we went to tell her, and had to fight the troll ourselves! Don't worry – we are all fine. I wish I hadn't stuck my wand up its nose though – troll bogies are the worst. Because we saved Hermione we didn't get detention or anything! Wish I had one of your rifles, Uncle Vernon. That would have been much quicker than all the silly spells we had to use on it.
Well, that's all for now.
Love,
Harry.
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Albus Dumbledore sat sifting through his morning mail. The elves had removed the howlers that any headmaster will receive on a daily basis, the accounting department took the bills, and now he had the small stack of letters from concerned or angry parents. It was all part of being a headmaster.
One letter stood out – it was written on muggle paper with muggle ink. Ah – it was from the Dursleys. Such nice folks – they had done a wonderful job with Harry. He'd open that one first.
Dear Headmaster Dumbledore,
Harry tells us in a letter home that a TROLL was loose in the castle, and three first-year students, he being one of them, actually had to fight this thing for their lives? HOW is this possible? I thought Hogwarts was (and I quote your very words) 'the safest place in all of Britain'.
From what I've read, trolls are around 20 foot high. Just how does one of these beasts wander into a castle unobserved? What kind of security, if any, do you have at that school?
From what we understand there are around 40 first year students at Hogwarts, 120 pre-teen students. There are 24 prefects and 15 members of faculty. Do you mean to tell me that 39 people in charge cannot keep track of 120 kids in an emergency, and three missing first years go unnoticed? I wish I had access to howlers – I would send you one every day for the rest of the year.
If we hear of anything dangerous happening to Harry again, I will send you the muggle equivalent of a howler. Trust me – you will not like it.
Petunia Dursley
Albus chuckled to himself. He really did have to look into how that troll entered Hogwarts. Probably something to do with the Weasley twins – they were such pranksters. 'Muggle equivalent of a howler'? What do muggles think they could possibly have that would catch a wizard by surprise. Ah well, back to work.
Author Notes: There's a bit of a debate in the reviews about Hagrid's parenting skills. Should Harry be runty? I'm looking at it from this angle – he's an awful cook (look at his rock cakes), he doesn't look at dangerous creatures as dangerous, and his hut is small. I don't think Harry would have many places he could go that Fang wouldn't steal his food from him. I don't think that they would eat in the Great Hall once Harry was old enough to run around out of control - remember Hagrid is the groundskeeper and nota professor yet.
Would the rest of Hogwart's teachers be so uncaring? Hey – In the books Dumbledore left Harry with the Dursleys for all those years without even checking on him! Same with Remus! I think they are a very cold bunch that takes a lot for granted. Minerva, Severus, Poppy and Molly are trying to get Dumbledore to do something, but it takes years. He's so old nothing seems like it needs to be in a rush…