Chapter name: Bureaucracy strikes again.
Harry Potter was in somewhat of a unique position in the magical world. No, it was not because he defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort (although that also had its effect) but rather because he was a pure blood wizard orphan who had no contact or prior knowledge of the magical world.
The majority of pure blooded orphans from Voldemorts last reign of terror were put with any surviving family members and if they had no remaining family then they were put with a suitable magical family that could support them. It would be a controversy to stick pure blood children with Muggleborns let alone, god forbid it, Muggles themselves. The pure blood families would never have stood for it and it was them who held political power in the British Wizarding World.
Therefore the bureaucracy had assumed that anyone who was pure blooded would have sufficient knowledge and access to the Wizarding World, in order to send a reply back to Hogwarts. Unlike the Muggleborn who needed a representative to be sent out to each of the families explaining what the magical world was like, a most costly and timely enterprise.
Harry having been put with the Dudleys by Dumbledore for his own safety was somewhat of an exception and so therefore had absolutely no idea how to either respond or find out more about the school he had been informed of. In fact before he received the letter he wasn't sure that there were any other magic users in the world, he knew Lilith was searching magic in the world and all she had found was a few old magical items. It also didn't help that Lilith could be entirely closed lipped about certain subjects or knew how to worm her way around questions.
So, Harry having nothing he could do to respond to the letter decided to ignore it for now and get on with enjoying the rest of the summer playing his newest game Dungeon Keeper.
At the moment Harry was engaged in building a large dungeon ready to repel the waves of Knights and Wizards that the computer would be throwing against him soon, when the doorbell rang.
Harry sighed and tabbed the pause button as he got up, hoping this wasn't another group of Jehovah's witnesses or something. They seemed to come calling every single day, Harry was getting the sneaking suspicion that the Dursleys had put themselves on some sort of religious list or something. At least there were not exorcists turning up and trying to free him of demonic spirits, small mercies at least.
Harry came down the stairs, practically jumping down the stairs and opened the front door.
On the other side of the door was the largest man that Harry had ever set his eyes on, the giant of a man had to stoop slightly just to fit under the porch. There wasn't much that Harry could make out of his face as it was hidden behind a thick, long, shaggy mane of hair and tangled beard. The only features that were visible was his long thick nose and two eyes that glinted like black beetles.
"Harry!" bellowed the giant in greeting as he set eyes on the boy, "Yeh looking great!"
Harry stared at the giant that apparently knew him. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" Harry asked with simple confusion, pretty sure that he had never met the man before although oddly he felt a dim recognition with the man.
"Ah 'course las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," the giant thought out aloud to himself, "Yeh've grown, look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes. Them were the days, yer..."
The giant slipped into a reminiscence that he quickly shook himself out of and turned to look at Harry who looked confused. "Havin' forgot to introduce meself haven't I?" the giant asked, "me names Rubeus Hagrid, I'm Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. Call me Hagrid, everyone does."
That caught Harry's attention and he looked sharply at the giant, having recognized the name of the school. "Did you say Hogwarts?" Harry asked for clarification whilst his mind reached out for a presence that was always at the back of his mind.
'Lilith!' Harry thought somewhat sharply to catch her attention
'What?' Lilith replied curiously yet instantly, wondering what had caused such a sudden emotional stirring in her host.
'Where are you??' Harry demanded urgently.
Harry could feel Lilith's mental blink. 'I'm in Tibet' Lilith responded cautiously 'Why?'
It was Harry's turn to be confused. 'Why on Earth are you in Tibet?'
'I'm lizard hunting' Lilith responded smugly 'be very, very quiet.'
'I... don't even want to know...' Harry replied, have realized that calling Lilith on these random acts was more trouble than it was worth. 'I've got some man... Giant... here that says he knows about Hogwarts. Could you get back here?'
There was half a second of silence that stood out in Harry mind before Lilith voice purred back in his mind. 'So you need me huh?' her voice purred through his mind and Harry could feel the little hearts that she'd attached to that statement.
Harry was about to try to shoot a barb back at her when Lilith forcefully poked his mind, causing a sharp sting to rip through his mind. 'Big Boy heres talking... pay attention!' Lilith bit into his mind as she dragged his attention back to Hagrid, the conversation between Lilith and Harry had only lasted a second thanks to its mental nature.
"Yeh, I said Hogwarts," Hagrid responded to Harry's question, "actually its the reason I'm here. Can I come in?"
Harry shrugged, he didn't know the man but Harry doubted much could go wrong with Lilith around. "Sure," Harry said stepping back from the door and gesturing for Hagrid to come inside whilst he rubbed his forehead to help clear the headache Lilith had caused.
He lead Hagrid into the front room and motioned Hagrid to take a seat on the couch, about the only piece of furniture that the giant would fit on. The couch squeaked loudly as Hagrid sat down on it and it was not springs type squeak but more like a living mouse. Something Hagrid quickly picked up on.
"Blimey, what was that?" Hagrid questioned as he quickly stood back up again and looked at the couch dubiously, "I ain't killed yer pet or nothin' have I Harry?"
"Don't worry about it," Harry answered with a shake of his head as he sat down on one of the other chairs, "its just the couch, had a little accident. Never been quite the same since."
Hagrid chuckled, "Yeh ain't been transfiguring the Muggles furniture have yer, eh?"
"No, presuming you are talking about transmogrification or transformation type magics, right?" Harry asked, not exactly recognizing the term but working out its meaning from the name pretty easily.
"Yeh, thats what transfiguring is all about," Hagrid agreed as he sat back down on the couch again, this time a little more daintily, "there be other types 'course, like metamor'smagnus and 'em animagus types. Yeh can learn abou' 'em at Hogwarts, hell, the 'ead of Gryffindor Professor McGonagall be a animagus."
A black raven swooped down from top of one of the cupboards and landed on the chair near to Harry, cawing softy bringing Hagrids attention to it. "'Ere Harry, what's that yeh got there?"
Harry smiled warmly at the raven. "This is my pet," Harry said stroking the raven under its beak, "Lilith, she's a Corvus corax, common raven. Beautiful isn't she?"
Hagrid smiled back at the boys enthusiasm, he knew what it was like to have exotic pets. "Yeh, be a right nice bird yer got there Harry," Hagrid said appreciatively, it was a beautiful raven and more interesting then all those cats or owls other students came to Hogwarts with. "Speakin' of birds, yer happen to get an owl with a letter?"
Harry tore his attention away from Lilith and nodded, "Yeah, I did."
"Ah, we was wondering back at the school whether yeh got yer letter. Yeh ain't sent an owl back and the owl we sent out ain't come back yet neither," Hagrid explained as he shifted he bum on the couch, damn thing was lumpy. Muggles could never make proper furniture, all of there stuff was made for twig people and the house was bloody freezing too! Maybe it was one of them Muggle Air Converter things he heard about, though he thought they only came in automobiles.
"Ah... yeah, got the letter... but the owl? One of the neighborhood dogs got it," Harry lied effortlessly, not wanting to deal with the effort of explaining that Lilith had ate it as a wolf, especially considering Hagrid though Lilith was a raven. "And I didn't know any other ways of getting in touch with Hogwarts."
"Ah, Bleedin' Hell," Hagrid grumbled, "daft birds ain't got 'nough senses to stay alive. And whats this about not knowing how yeh can get in touch with Hogwarts?"
"The letter only told us to send a reply by owl and I haven't got an owl, especially one smart enough to deliver mail," Harry explained his dilemma to Hagrid with some frustration as he stroked Lilith, "if you need a bird I could have stuck the letter on Lilith but damned if she knows where to fly."
"Nah, that'd never work. Yeh need a magical bird to fly yer mail, 'wise they get lost with yeh mail," Hagrid stated firmly as if an expert on the subject, which he most likely was.
Harry was hardly going to point out that Lilith was magical and so decided to go with the obvious question. "And where am I going to get a magical bird from?" he asked somewhat sarcastically, "I never knew anything about Hogwarts before you sent that letter to me, how am I supposed to get a magical bird if I haven't learned anything about magic yet?"
"What yeh mean yer never knew?" Hagrid asked curiously, looking confused under that mane of hair.
"I never knew about Hogwarts before the letter came," Harry spelled it out for him as Lilith hopped away from him and up onto the back of the chair.
"Did yeh never wonder where yeh parents learnt it all?" Hagrid asked incredulously.
"All what?" asked Harry confused.
"All what?" Hagrid replied shocked before his voice started rising, "now wait jus' one second! Yeh mean to tell me yeh didn't know yeh parents could do magic?!"
"My parents could do magic?" Harry confused as he seized onto that piece of information.
"Parents do magic?!? Of course yeh parents could do magic!" Hagrid blustered as if he had just heard the most ridiculous thing ever, "did them Muggles not tell yeh anything?"
"Well it would help if I knew what a Muggle was..." Harry deadpanned to the giant who was looking more and more agitated.
Hagrid calmed down slightly at the question, it was something he could handle. "A Muggle," said Hagrid, "It's what we call non-magic folk like them bloody Dursleys. They never told yeh nought? Yeh don't know about our world?"
"Our world?" Harry asked cautiously, having the feeling that Hagrid was talking about some magical world.
Hagrid rubbed his face with the palms of his huge hand. "I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried 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't know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh... but someone's gotta... yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."
"Not knowing what?" Harry asked, getting frustrated.
"Well yeh gotta know. Right, it begins with... with a person called... but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows..."
"Who?" Harry asked interestedly and with some slight frustration. Hagrid was being almost as difficult to get answers out of as Lilith, speaking of Lilith the raven seemed to be leaning forward to listen into to the conversation.
"Well... I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does." Hagrid explained.
"Why not?" Harry pressed, not seeing why anyone would be afraid of a name and totally unafraid to use a name.
"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..."
Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.
'This is ridiculous... he's never going to say it. Offer him him pen and paper, then tell him to write it down,' Lilith ordered, getting sick of tired of waiting for Hagrid to get to the point.
"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested, grabbing a pad of paper off the table next to his chair.
"Nah... can't spell it. All right... Voldemort," Hagrid shuddered, "Don' make me say it again. Anyway this wizard..."