Hey sorry I haven't updated, I had some family issues this week and that meant I haven't been in a state to write, I do apologise.
HPHPHP
THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS. Hermione read.
"Who's that" asked Sirius.
"If you would let me read you would find out" Hermione snapped causing Sirius to pout magnificently.
BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. "Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.
"That boy really is a genius isn't me." Remus muttered.
There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands –
"He brought a GUN. What in the name of Merlin does he think he's playing at!" this surprisingly came from Sirius, when he noticed the others incredulous look he felt the need to defend himself.
"What I took Muggle Studies"
"Yes but you actually paid attention?"
"I pay attention to the cool things!"
"Whatever."
- now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.
"Hmph" Lily pouted
"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you - I'm armed!"
"Lot of good that will do him against a wizard." Ginny laughed. She was feeling more comfortable with Hermione beside her.
There was a pause. Then -
SMASH!
"Yea, break down the door and crush those bullying gits." James cheered.
"James!"
"Sorry Lils."
The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.
All the Marauders cheered, even Remus. Who was too thrilled that Harry was getting out of there to hold himself back.
A giant of a man was standing in the doorway.
"Hargid" James and Sirius shouted at the same time.
"You can't possibly know that!"
"A giant of a man. Lily who else could it be?"
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.
"That's actually a really good description of him, isn't it?"
The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame.
"Yes respect the building Hagrid."
The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.
"The first time you see him, he really can be intimidating." Remus nodded.
"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh?
Everyone laughed at this "that is just so typical Hagrid, got to love him." Hermione giggled.
It's not been an easy journey..."
He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.
"Good, stupid idiots, FEAR HAGRID!" Sirius shouted.
"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.
"He really is a great lump isn't he, good for nothing and all that."
"Sirius shut up, you're just rambling know."
"Make me." And with that Lily silenced him, now he was just opening and closing his mouth silently, looking scarily like a fish.
Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.
"The fact that they could both fit shows just how wide the whale is."
"You know I think whale might be too small to describe him." Hermione sighed.
"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.
Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.
"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yet dad, but yeh've got yet mom's eyes."
Lily smiled sadly at this, "He really does, you know." Ginny said kindly.
Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.
I demand that you leave at once, sit!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"
"Right. That's going to have his running screaming. Shut up Dursley, no one wants to hear what you think!"
"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune,"
"Hear, hear!"
said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.
"Thank Merlin I did not like him having that gun" Sirius sighed, relieved. Receiving odd looks from everyone in the room, it wasn't normal for him to be this serious. They put it down to the fact that he was still in shock about Lily and James' murders.
Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.
"Anyway - Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."
"As long as he didn't bake it himself that is."
From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.
"What's with all the green in this book?" Remus mused.
"Maybe he thought it would match his eyes?"
"That must be it."
Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"
"What good manors he's got." Sirius scoffed.
"Well what do you expect, the Dursleys brought him up" Ginny snapped. Sirius cowered away from the petite girls glare.
"Ginny, leave him be. He didn't mean anything by it you know that." Hermione scolded
"Sorry." She smiled sheepishly at Sirius, "reflex reaction."
The giant chuckled.
"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."
The marauders all cheered.
He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.
"I hate when he does that, I swear he doesn't realise his own size."
"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."
Everyone chuckled at this. "Oh, Hagrid."
His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.
The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea.
"How many pockets are in that coat?"
Hermione smiled "The whole coat is made of pockets"
"Sweet!"
Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage.
"Ah, the one thing Hagrid can cook well. Recon if we go visit him he will make us some." Sirius asked hopefully.
"Yea, we'll have to go see him soon."
Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."
"Like he was going to give him anthing!"
The giant chuckled darkly.
"Yet great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."
"Well said, good chap" Remus said in his most pompous voice.
He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."
"See there are his manors, he was in shock before."
"It's amazing he has any, the Dursleys don't even teach Dinky Duddikins manors."
The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.
"No" everyone sighed sadly.
"Er - no," said Harry.
Hagrid looked shocked.
"Sorry," Harry said quickly.
"It's not you who should be sorry, Harry."
"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It' s them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents learned it all?"
"All what?" asked Harry.
"Hagrid's not going to like that." Sirius smiled gleefully.
"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"
He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.
"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy - this boy! - knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"
"Harry's not going to like that." Hermione said shaking her head.
Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.
"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff." But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."
"What world?"
"If I didn't know better, I'd say he was doing this to see if he could get Hagrid to kill the Dursleys" James chuckled.
Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.
"DURSLEY!" he boomed.
Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble."
"I wish I could have seen that."
Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.
"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."
"What? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"
"Yea, for dying."
"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.
"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.
Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.
"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sit! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"
"Right Dursley, right know you are lucky you're not dead. Hagrid is fiercely loyal and protective."
A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.
"Wow, I've never seen him that angry. His Dursley values his life at all, he wont speak another word."
"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"
"They're ignorant prats, what did you expect Hagrid."
"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.
"Tell him. Tell him. Tell him. Tell him" Sirius chanted
"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.
"TELL HIM. TELL HIM. TELL HIM. TELL HIM."Remus joined the chanting.
Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.
"Ah, go boil yet heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry - yet a wizard."
"A tad anticlimactic, but at least he knows now."
There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.
"- a what?" gasped Harry.
"It is kind of hard to believe when you're first told." Lily said. Hermione nodded in agreement.
"I never thought what it must be like for muggleborns when they get their letters."
"We don't just get letters, one of the members of staff comes to give it to us."
"Really, who came to you?" James asked earnestly
"McGonagall"
"Wow, I can't imagine her outside of Hogwarts."
"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "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?
"THANKS HAGRID!"
An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."
"Yes, yes it is indeed."
Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr. Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
"That's the same as mine!"
"Well you are both Mr Potter."
Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"
"That's his first question?"
"Well, it is the last thing he read."
"Fair enough."
"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl –
"Poor owl."
- a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:
"I can hardly read it the right way up."
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
Given Harry his letter.
Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.
Weather's horrible. Hope you're Well.
Hagrid
"Short and sweet!"
Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.
"It is to us."
Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.
"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.
"He's not going," he said.
"You would think he would realise it is futile to argue now."
"Yes well he is not exactly the brightest now is he."
Hagrid grunted.
"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.
"Yea!"
"A what?" said Harry, interested.
"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like thern. 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 Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"
"Stamp it out," James said in a deadly calm voice. "If you hit my boy I swear, I will KILL you."
"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a - a wizard?"
"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew!
"And here we go." Lily shrunk down in her seat, not wanting to hear what Petunia was going to say about her."
Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was?
"Lily is not dratted!" James bellowd at the same time that Remus yelled. "She's a better person than you could ever hope to be!"
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.
"Stop exaggerating Petunia!"
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!"
"No they were proud of Lily, there's a difference!" Sirius spat.
She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.
"That's likely because she has, mum and dad wont let her say any of it to me." Lily shook her head. Everyone else in the room gave her pitying looks.
"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!"
"THAT'S HOW SHE TOLD HIM THE TRUTH ABOUT HOW WE DIED!" Lily exploded.
"I'm going to kill your sister." Sirius stated through gritted teeth. "a little sensitivity would go a long way. She just told you your parents were murdered, I mean come on!"
"You actually know the meaning of sensitivity do you?" Ginny asked mockingly.
"I do, doesn't mean that I use it though … ever."
Everyone snorted at this "Got that one right."
Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"
"Well, Hagrid's not going to take that well." James snorted
"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter?
"It couldn't!"
It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"
"Every kid? Did you know about him?" Lily asked the two girls from the future.
"Well, I'm muggle born so I didn't but I had heard of him before I got to Hogwarts."
"I'd heard of him." Ginny nodded.
"A bit of an understatement there Gin"
"SHUT IT" everyone watched the exchange with bemused looks on their faces.
"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.
The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.
"He's just realised he's going to have to tell him."
"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' 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 3 s gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."
"Poor Hagrid, he didn't expect this."
He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.
"Can't he just throw the couch? Much more effective"
"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh - mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it..."
"Yea well we want to know!"
"Sirius, you will find out everything by the end of the books and if you don't you can ask us questions, okay?" Hermione reasoned.
"Fine!" then he mumbled "Doesn't mean I have to like it."
He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with - with a person called - but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows -"
"Who? "
"He's not going to say it, we've been trying to get him to say it for years. He wont."
"Well I don't blame him, it must be really scary for him to think about." Ginny said sympathetically.
"Why would it be any harder for him?" Lily asked confused. Ginny's eyes got as round as saucers, realising she had said too much.
"Umm, you – agh – find out in the next – ah – book."
"Okay." James had his eyebrows raised.
"Well - I don' 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 than worse. His name was..."
"Come on Hagrid, he's got to hear it at least once before he goes to Hogwarts."
Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.
"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.
"Nah -can't spell it. All right - Voldemort. "
"Wow pup got him to say it." Sirius said impressed.
"Pup?" Ginny asked
"Well he's my godson son. He gets a petname, and pup works perfectly."
Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers."
"I never under stood why, he treats them like crap." Sirius said baffled.
"Power" Hermione and Ginny answered darkly.
"Got 'em, too - some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... terrible things happened. 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."
"Why don't I like the sound of that?"
"Of what?"
"Not just them, anyway. It makes it sound that he will"
"You-Know-Who killed 'em."
"Blunt and to the point. Typical Hagrid."
An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose,
Lily let out a wimper.
or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a Powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care of yer 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,
"Marline!" Lily gasped for her best friend.
the Bones,
"All them?"
"No there's a Susan bone in our year."
the Prewetts –
"Gideon and Fabian!"
- an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."
"Thank Merlin for that!"
Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light,
"He survived the avada kedavra? That's not possible!" Remus muttered.
"Harry's the exception to many rule." Ginny smirked.
more clearly than he had ever remembered it before - and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.
Everyone shuddered at this, people form the past, people form the future at the memory.
Hagrid was watching him sadly.
"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot..."
"I'm still not happy about that." Lily mumbled.
"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.
"Hit him Hagrid, knock him out!"
"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you,
"There's nothing strange about him!" all the readers shouted.
probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured - and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos,
"James and Lily aren't weirdos!"
no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion –
"NO IT'S NOT!"
"You mark my words Dursley, I'm gonna get you!"
- asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types –
Sirius and Remus were both growling now.
- just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"
But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley -I'm warning you - one more word... "
"Go on Hagrid, stab him!" This, surprisingly, came from Remus.
In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.
"Damn!"
That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.
"I really think he forget how big he is sometimes." James chuckled.
Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.
"But what happened to Vol-, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?"
"Harry, don't be afraid of the name."
"Don't worry, he does." Hermione placated "he just says You-Know-Who when he knows it will upset the person he's talking to and he needs them to listen to him."
"Oh, good."
Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go?
"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion.
"So he's not dead?"
Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die.
"Funny he should say that." Ginny giggled causing Hermione to join.
The people from the past just gave them questioning looks, but Hermione just waved for him to continue.
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 ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don~ reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.
"Well that gives some relief. At least he has no powers."
"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on.
"Wait, so Harry's famous for killing someone who isn't even dead. Interesting.
'Cause somethin' 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 –
"Bet Dumbledore does."
- but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."
"That's why he is really famous, he stopped him." Hermione started.
"Even if it was indefinitely!" Ginny finished.
Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him?
"He's not going to believe it is he?"
Harry, who was currently under his invisibility cloak, was itching to get out and talk to his parents as well as Sirius and Remus. He couldn't stand it, he knows Hermione and Ginny said no but he couldn't just hide. This was his family, one he had never met before. Even though he knew Sirius and Remus and loved them, he wanted to know them when they hadn't spent 12 years in Azkaban or thinking one of their best friends killed their other three best friends and were totally alone. He wanted to know the real them the ones without the years of bitterness and brooding.
This was his chance to know them, so he did something he knew he would get in trouble for later.
"No I didn't."
Six head suddenly snapped to look at him. Every pair of eyes widened, the two from the future narrowed their eyes at him after the initial shock wore off, Harry skilfully avoided their glares.
The eyes from the past were still staring in a stat of shock at man in the corner of the room. Slowly Remus, Sirius and Lily started looking from the man in the corner to James who was like a statue, frozen still. They were identical except for the eyes, he had Lily's eyes. There was no denying it he was their son.
Lily was the first to break from her stupor. Like lightening she was hugging him.
"Hi mum." He chuckled.
"That sound weird coming form someone older than you." Sirius barked a laugh. Harry turned around to face the man who would become like a father to him and beamed brightly at him, he was the one he missed the most, he had never really known his parents and it was hard to miss someone you never knew. Sirius though, he had been like a cross between a brother and a father. He still hadn't been able to move on from that pain.
"Hey Sirius." He walked over and gave him a huge hug, before turning to Remus and doing the same. James was still staring at him frozen, 'I knew the book said he looked like me but wow, we could be twins. Well except the eyes, he has Lily's eyes, her beautiful eyes. And now I'm staring great, I look like a freak.'
James cleared his throat awkwardly. "Hey, I ..." he trailed off.
"Feel like you're looking in the mirror? I know the feeling." James strode forward enveloping his son in a hug.
"It's brilliant to met you."
"You too, you have no idea how much I've wanted to met you all." There was two heart beats silence before the questions came in one go.
"What age are you?"
"Do you ever get away from the Dursleys?"
"Where are me and Moony?"
"Moony and I Padfoot."
"Did you do well at Hogwarts?"
"Are you a prankster?"
"Are you married?"
"Do you have any children?" and many more, those were the only ones that Harry caught.
"Wow, wow, wow, okay I only caught some of them and I will answer them. But that is it, I'm going to follow the same code of conduct as my friends here." He smiled and the two ladies, who despite being disgruntled at the fact that Harry had ignored them, were smiling at his reunion with his family.
"So 20, yes, it's in the books later, I got okay grades, I don't have to look for trouble it finds me, I'm engaged and technically no I don't have any children but I do have a Godson who stays with me a couple of nights a week."
"Wow, okay." Sirius said looking confused.
"So let's continue reading shall we?" Hermione asked while the people from the past tried to work out his answers. Lily sat down next to Harry and James next to Lily.
How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard?
The teens from the past growled at the mention of the cupboard.
If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?
"It is truly unfortunate that it doesn't work that way." Remus said thoughtfully.
"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."
To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.
"Yea it is pretty funny, I mean you didn't even believe you were a wizard."
"I was 11 and abused. It was hard to think positively."
"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"
Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it... every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry... chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach... dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back... and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?
"That was brilliant!"
"Thanks"
Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.
"Of course he was you're Harry Potter."
"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."
"Great!" Harry muttered sarcastically.
"You don't like being famous?" James asked, he always thought that being famous would be brilliant.
"No, I prefer for people to see me as more than just a scar." All the people of the past now noticed a lightening shaped scar peeking out from under his fringe. They quickly looked away though as he had made it clear that he didn't like people looking at his scar.
But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.
"Oh, he's still there?"
"Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed.
"Right and good luck stopping him."
"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," growled Hagrid.
"Hear, hear!" Ginny and Hermione giggled at the Marauders antics.
"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 Uncle Vernon.
"Uh oh"
"Hagrid loves Dumbledore."
"This is going to be good."
"Yes, yes it is," Harry smiled.
But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER," he thundered, "- INSULT- ALBUS- DUMBLEDORE- IN- FRONT- OF- ME!"
"You really shouldn't."
He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley
"Ohhhh its getting good." Sirius rubbed his hands menacingly.
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, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.
"Brilliant! Brilliant Hagrid. Remind me to give him a present next time I see him."
"Will do!"
Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.
"GOODBYE!"
Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.
"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully,
"Don't feel bad Hagrid, they don't deserve your pity!"
"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."
"Truer words were never spoken hagrid."
He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.
"Be grateful if yeh 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 letters 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.
"He was expelled."
"Yea, I know that now."
"Just making sure." James smiled.
"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?"
"HARRY! That was rude." Lily scolded, Ginny and Hermione stifled a laugh.
"And besides he won't tell anyone" Sirius huffed. Harry just smiled knowingly.
"Do YOU know?" Remus asked incredulously, Harry merely smirked and shook his head.
"Maybe."
"Meanie!"
"How do you get him to tell you?" Lily asked sweetly, dying to find out herself. Again Harry simple smirked and shook his head.
"At least you're a equal opportunity meanie." Sirius pouted.
"It's gettin' 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 off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.
"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."
"Mice in the pockets? That's just gross."
"So Harry, tell us about your fiancée and Godson." Remus asked.
"Well my fiancée is the most beautiful woman in the world." He started, luckily no one from the past noticed Ginny blush bright red. "She is my world; I love her more than anything else in the world. Well anything but my Godson, if I didn't have anything else in the world but had those two, I'd be happy with my life. My Godson, Teddy, is 3 and one of the smartest kids I have ever seen. He's a metamorphagus but when he sleeps he looks exactly like his father." He carefully didn't give away any more detail on that.
"Who's his father?"
"Not saying."
"Mother?"
"Nymphadora Tonks." Ginny smiled, Harry shot her a glare. "Sorry!"
"My little cousin? Aw recon you're the father Moony?"
"Shut up Sirius."
"What? What's so funny?"
"Dora has a little crush on Remus. She followed him around like a little puppy last time we babysat." Remus blushed, Harry, Hermione and Ginny attempted not to burst out laughing.
"Well you'll be able to meet him later, we have a friend bringing him later."
HPHPHP
Hey, I am so sorry that I took so long to update. Like I said family issues that made me not want to write, but I am back into the swing of things now and I hope to have another update soon.
Thank you for all the lovely comments, I love you all so much and please keep them coming.
xoxo
