Secret Relations
Chapter Five
Complete silence fell over them and Elle studied Harry, who seemed completely shocked.
"I'm a what?" Harry finally managed.
"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, "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 this letter."
He handed Harry the letter, who stretched out his hand to take the yellowish envelope. He pulled out the letter and began reading it immediately. Elle reached into her coat pocket and felt her own letter, happily taking it between her fingers, assuring her that this was real — it was finally happening.
Harry finished reading the letter and asked, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"
"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid as he pulled several things out of his pockets, including a live owl, a long quill, and a roll of parchment. He began scribbling something down, rolled it up, gave it to the owl, and sent it out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as if it was a perfectly normal thing.
"Where was I?" Hagrid said.
"He's not going," Mr. Dursley said suddenly, but Hagrid grunted.
"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him."
"A what?" said Harry.
"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 Mr. Dursley, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"
"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a — a wizard?"
"Knew?" Mrs. Dursley scoffed. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? 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. I was the only one who saw her for what she was — a freak! 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."
Mrs. Dursley took a deep breath and continued her ranting.
"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!"
Harry looked shocked for a moment, as if lost for words. When he finally found some words to say, he said, " Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"
"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping to his feet. "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!"
"But why? What happened?" Harry asked.
Hagrid grew solemn, and Elle paused — she had never heard exactly what happened to Harry's parents, or her own. The Chadwicks had always told Elle her mother's death was a mystery, and that no one knew who her father was. As for Harry's parents. . . . Well, they never said much when Elle asked.
"I never expected this," Hagrid said in a low voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble getting' 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'."
Hagrid gave the Dursley's a dirty look.
"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh — mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great mystery, parts of it . . ."
Hagrid sat down and stared at the fire before he said, "It begins, I suppose, with — with a person called — but it's incredible you don't know his name, everyone in our world knows—"
"Who?"
"Well — I don't like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."
"Why not?"
"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 that worse. His name was . . ."
"Could you write it down?" Elle and Harry suggested simultaneously.
"Nah — can't spell it. All right — Voldemort." 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 getting' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards of witches . . . terrible things happed. 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, Harry, 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 mystery is why You-Know-Who never tried to get them on his side before . . . probably knew they were too closer ter Dumbledore ter want anything' ter do with the Dark side.
"Elle, yer mum was quite the lady. She was close to Lily an' James — amazing witch, really," said Hagrid. "She went to school with Lily an' James. . . . You could never find Lily without Elle, they were quite the pair."
"And my father?" Elle said eagerly — she had never heard anything about him. However, Hagrid said nothing — in fact, he looked just as uncomfortable at the mention of Elle's father as he did saying 'Voldemort'.
"I'm, uh. . . . I'm not the one to ask about that. . . . But anyway. . . . Maybe You-Know-Who 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' —"
Hagrid pulled out a handkerchief and blew his nose.
"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad — knew both o' yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find — anyway . . .
"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then — an' this is the real mystery of the thing — he tried to kill you too, Harry. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on your forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touched yeh — took care of yeh 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 — an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."
Elle watched as Harry began to slowly digest what Hagrid told him. She felt guilty, not telling him the truth earlier, about him being a wizard and everything, but she had been forbidden to say anything.
"I arrived at Godric's Hollow to come get you, and that's when I also got you, Elle," said Hagrid.
"Do you. . . . Do you know what happened to my mother?" said Elle curiously — this was the first time she had ever heard anything about that fateful night, and she wanted to learn as much as she could.
Hagrid frowned some, scratching his chin through his wild beard. "Ah, well. . . . A woman by the name Bellatrix Lestrange killer yer mother, Elle. Bellatrix wanted to steal you," he said. Elle's eyes widened some — Bellatrix wanted to steal her when she was just a child? But why? However, Hagrid continued. "Luckily, yer mum's friend, Remus Lupin, he was able to stop her from takin' yeh, but he wasn't able to save yer mum. . . . But he brought you to Godric's Hollow, an' that's where I met him."
Elle hd never heard anything like that — her parents had never mentioned a Remus Lupin any of the times they told Elle about that day. They hadn't told her a lot of things apparently. . . .
"Then I took Harry from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot. . . ," Hagrid finished.
"Load of tosh," scoffed Uncle Vernon. Elle and Harry both jumped; they had forgotten the Dursleys were still there. Mr. Dursley was now glaring at Harry and Elle, but mostly Harry.
"Now, you listen here, boy," he growled, "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 weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion — 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 —"
Hagrid leapt to his feet and pointed his umbrella at Mr. Dursley. "I'm warning you, Dursley — I'm warning you — one more word . . ."
Mr. Dursley fell silent and he took a few steps backwards.
"That's better," said Hagrid, letting out a sigh and sitting back down.
"But what happened to Vol-, sorry — I mean, You-Know-Who?" Elle asked just as Harry was about to asked something.
"Good question, Elle. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill Harry. Makes yeh two even more famous. That's the biggest mystery, see . . . he was getting' 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. 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 outs. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done it 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 something' 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 was smiling at the two of them with warmth and respect, and Elle returned the smile. She then looked to Harry and realized he wasn't smiling. He seemed to be debating something in his head.
"What's wrong, Harry?" she asked, sitting up slightly.
"Hagrid," Harry said softly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."
Hagrid laughed.
"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"
Harry paused and began thinking. Elle couldn't help but let her memory wander — the incident at the zoo was obviously the most recent memory that came to mind, but then she also recalled the time where she and Harry had been running from Dudley and his friends and ended up on the roof.
Hagrid, upon seeing Harry was remembering things he made happened, smiled.
"See? Harry Potter, not a wizard — you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."
"Haven't I told you he's not going?" hissed Mr. Dursley. "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," said 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 Mr. Dursley.
That did it. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it 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 the 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, Elle saw a curly pig's tail poking through the hole in his trousers.
Mr. Dursley roared. Pulling Mrs. Dursley 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."
He cast a sideways look at Harry and Elle under his bushy eyebrows.
"Be grateful if yeh two 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 letter 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. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."
"Why were you expelled?" Elle asked him.
"It's getting' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."
He took of his thick black coat and threw it to Harry and Elle.
"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."