/ AN: Not perfectly pleased with how this turned out but I want to reach the points of the story I have in my mind. Also this is a bit longer than usually. Maybe I should keep writing longer chapters..ANYWAY../
A second later he came up again with a surprised face. "It checks out...so when are you leaving?"
Hagrid smiled at both him and Archie. "Tomorrow evening."
Hagrid spent that night sharing a small drink with Sirius and Archie, for the future. Not for an easy time, but hopefully a happy ending. They would all have to be weary around people in the upcoming years .
To start with in Hagrid's case, if anyone found out what Hagrid had in his bag, he would end up in Azkaban for real this time. But not only that, he had a feeling Albus only let him go because he knew Hagrid wasn't allowed out of the country. That was why he had to leave as soon as possible, before Albus changed his mind. He didn't even have time to wait for a trial and whatever to see if he could use a wand again. He had his umbrella, that had to be enough for now.
"So what are your plans Hagrid? I'm sure you've had a couple of dreams during your years as a gamekeeper!" Hagrid gave a booming laugh to Sirius' question. "Indeed. I have several things in mind." His eyes lit up with passion and both Sirius and Archie were taken aback with the glow to Hagrid's expression. They were glad that he could finally chase his dreams even if it was a long time coming.
"I want to talk to the Sphinxes in Egypt, I want to pet the Thunderbirds of Arizona, I want to see a Nundo chase its prey in the savannahs in Tanzania, I want to go visit the northern Giant colonies and go see my mother" There was a slight bit of sadness when he spoke of that one but picked up where he left off quickly. "I want to see the Vampires in Transylvania and Romania, maybe I could sneak in a visit to the legendary dragon reserves while I'm there!" He belted out a laugh.
They raised their glasses of firewhiskey "To Hagrid and his misunderstood creatures!" and they drank to that. Boy did they drink to that. Then Hagrid remembered "Speaking of which! I have two I can show you right now!" Both raised their eyebrows as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small green cocoon.
"Meet Wally!" and then 'Wally' spread his wings and exposed his skeletal head to Sirius and Arch. They both quickly jumped back. "Hagrid, that's a swooping evil! They eat human brains, you know!" They looked at Hagrid as if he was insane for a few seconds but seeing as that he only kept stroking the little guy's back, they figured he had it under control. It was Hagrid after all.
"I know. Fascinating and beautiful, isn't he? Reminds me a bit of a black swallowtail so it'd have to be Wally as a name." To Sirius' amusement, the creature seemed to like its name as he seemed to be more and more at peace the longer Hagrid stroked his back.
Finally Arch spoke "He sure has a particular charm to him. The striking colours are eye catching to say the least!" Hagrid nodded and gave the little one a bit of food before it curled back into its cocoon state. Then he looked at the two. "But that's just the start! Just wait and see what I got from Newt!" He opened the suitcase again and quickly jumped in. The other two just shrugged and followed him in.
"This is it. This is where I'll keep Bellatrix" He even had a cage down here should it be necessary, and it probably would be to start with. "And this is also where I can help any animal I come across on my travels!" he almost ran over to the workbenches as the others looked around in amazement.
"It's incredible! No wonder the Scamander name is praised across the globe.." Arch said with quite a lot of admiration to his tone. "Yes yes, but look here!" Hagrid shoved them other to the egg. Sirius looked at it and blinked. "Hagrid, is that what I think it is?"
Hagrid nodded enthusiastically "A welsh green is what it is. He was abandoned by his mother so I'll take care of him until he's strong enough to be let go in the welsh reserve. Hopefully I can get myself a licence there as well, but that's in the future!"
After that they got back up to their table, shared a few laughs and then talked the night away. Before he went to sleep he visited little Harry, tucked him in, kissed his forehead and bade him farewell. He'd leave early tomorrow and he had coordinated with Lucretia to take her ticket to America seeing as she had to remain in England for the Black family meeting.
The only two he'd see before it was time to go tomorrow was Lucretia and Bellatrix, then it was off to Phoenix, Arizona. Maybe he'd get lucky and find the Potter man, Dorea's son, while he was there. But what are the odds of that?!
Soon the morning came and Hagrid went down to the ritual room to get Bella. When he entered, she was asleep and it was easy to see the young girl she once was. In that peaceful state you couldn't see the crazed woman she had become, you could only see the traces of absolute beauty that came with her maturity.
Deciding it was best if she remained asleep for it, he picked her up and jumped into the suitcase while holding her. Once there, he placed her in a cage overlooking the fantastic landscape and left some breakfast. He gathered a mattress and pillows etc to make it as comfortable as possible and then he locked the cage with her in there. A part of him broke just seeing her as a caged animal but it had to be done. As he stepped up towards the exit he heard her wake up and rushed out to avoid the initial rage she'd let loose.
He made sure to put Bella's wand in his inside pocket and then he floo:ed Lucy. He said his goodbye to both her and her husband, there was a whole load of hugs and well wishes there. He told them to send his regards to the rest of the house of Black and they promised to do so with a grin, all of house black wouldn't be over the moon with seeing the head and heir so close to a "halfbreed" and that would be fun for Lucy to see.
Then he was off with her ticket. He'd never been on an airplane before! But boy was he glad she had a ticket to the magical version. He wondered how on earth he'd fit into the normal muggle seats. With that on his mind, he took the knight bus to a place near Heathrow. It was more or less the magical entrance to Heathrow. He was a bit scared when he saw how small the entrance was but it expanded as he got closer so no worries.
It seemed not many enjoyed a magical flight around here. The place was almost empty. Maybe it was because of the time, he wondered. No matter, he had a private plane to catch. He showed his suitcase at security and it passed easily due to some fine magic from Newt to make it seem perfectly muggle even to magical folk. Although security wondered how he could possibly fit clothes big enough for himself in a muggle suitcase, they let him through and soon he was on the airplane.
It was a fascinating thing. Some magicals used international portkeys, but getting a permit to one of those requires you to be well into the upper class or have a LONG time to wait. You need contacts and respect to get permission so the rest had to travel by boat, planes, busses or other similar forms of transportation.
Hagrid was not one with contacts in high places, so he had to use general transports. He was just glad they looked a lot bigger on the inside as when he entered the plane, there was a bed large enough for him in his little compartment.
He lied down, locked his door, and went into his suitcase. As soon as he got down there he was met by a glaring Bella. But even though her face showed rage and disgust, her eyes twinkled with something resembling hope. Her voice only displayed the former two qualities however, "So now you show your ugly halfbreed face? What are you going to do with me then? You can't keep me here, one day I will find my way out! Or, Master will come find me here. You can't hide me forever!"
Hagrid walked up to the woman and smiled at her "I don't intend to Bella. You're free! Voldemort is no more and we released you from the rituals. You will be completely free, you just have to truly want it and soon it will be over." For a brief moment a smile flashed on Bella's face before she caught herself. "No! I've always been free. I am who I am, you can't stop me!"
Hagrid ignored anything after the smile he saw and gingerly walked over to fetch some food for her. He placed the plate of food within reach of her, and then went over to the egg to feed it some magic. "I will keep you here until you're back for real. I can see the real you, just keep fighting Bella!" And then without actually telling her where they were or where they're heading, he left the suitcase. He took a piece of parchment with him and started writing to spend the time. Although quicker than muggle transportation, planes still took about four hours to fly around the globe.
He picked up his self inking quill and wrote about the state of Bellatrix. He decided to write down every positive moment he could get out of her, in the form of a diary showing her progress. The specific smile he saw today was especially vivid in his memory, so he made some attempts at drawing it. The two hours it took to fly to Phoenix was mainly spent sitting there, drawing Bella's face. Over and over again.
He was never good at drawing really, but he had a guidebook for how to sketch creatures to help him. Some old magizoologist thought that the illustrations were the most important part of a book of creatures, and decided to teach others how to draw them. How much more difficult could a human face be?
Finally the plane landed and although he hadn't made much progress, he wouldn't let that bring him down. He was finally out of the country! For the first time ever, he would be in America! Not just anywhere in America either, he would be just a ride away from where the Thunderbirds nested. Hagrid would make sure to go there very soon but he had something to do first.
He stepped out of the plane and smiled widely at those who seemed surprised and a bit scared because of how large he was. They don't have any giants in America after all, so Hagrid was expecting that. But since he showed nothing but respect and joy, they let him through without trouble.
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a note from Lucretia. 'Twin Buttes Cemetery, Tempe, Arizona' was what it said. Hagrid let out a small sigh at the naming, muggles had such strange ways after all. He asked around for some magical transportation and was instantly directed to a small red car. The driver looked at him strangely for a second but didn't reject the three galleons Hagrid put in his hand.
A couple of minutes later, he arrived. Even tipped the driver with some sickles for the speed. Now he was off to find the graves he was looking for, but first some flowers. A quick stop to a flower stall later, he couldn't enter the shops, and he was looking through the cemetery row after row.
Luckily it was a very small cemetery so it wouldn't take long. It took even less time than he thought though, since his wonderings were interrupted by a voice. The voice was clearly not from a living being, it had that airiness that came from having no physical body. He looked over to find a young man sitting by one of the larger graves and a very thin ghost hovering in front of him. Hagrid listened to their conversation without meaning to...
"Come on boy! They wouldn't have wanted this for you. How do you think your mother would react if she knew you had wasted five years of your life feeling sorry for yourself and it's because of them? Do you think this is how to honour them? Don't you want to make them proud?" This made the man cry openly, well as openly as it was when you thought you were all alone.
Hagrid got a look at his figure from behind and if he didn't know any better he'd think it was James sitting there hunched over in despair. The uncontrolled jet black hair, the long thin outline and even the dress sense. He wore battle-robes disguised as muggle clothing, which was trademark James Potter. Then he spoke and it was clearly someone else.
"Of course I want to make them proud! But I'm nothing on my own Dave" the ghost was apparently called Dave. "Whatever I've accomplished in life, was all due to them! They tutored me in everything, bought me anything I wanted, handled all of my problems, heck even when I got in serious trouble Dad was right there to prevent me from falling too far."
He clenched his fists and as Hagrid slowly came closer he could see a little bit of his face. "But when they got sick, they didn't even tell me. They "didn't want to worry me" so figured I was best left unaware..My parents didn't think I was mature enough to know that they were dying. Because of that I missed their end."
By now he was screaming at the ghost and Hagrid stopped walking as he felt like he would be intruding. "I went off to Brazil in the summer and they didn't think to stop me. They didn't stop to think that maybe, just MAYBE I'd like to be able to say goodbye. Now I have nothing Dave. No family, no legacy, no job, no friends, NOTHING! All I have is a piece of paper that says I did decently well in school once, a house and a bit of money left behind by my father. Did you know that I never even knew their names Dave?" This shocked Hagrid. What could he possibly mean? Of course he knew their names, he grew up with them.
"I grew up thinking I was Abraham Dartwin, son of Charlus and Dorea Dartwin. Only to find out that when I look at their tombstone there's a different name there. A different name, Dave!" His voice was cracking and Hagrid could see tears falling from his face. "Potter. That was their name. Why couldn't they have told me? What was so terrible about having a common name like that?!" Now Hagrid cleared his throat and both Dave and Abraham turned around to look at him.
Hagrid's face lit up as he saw Abraham's face and his hesitation to talk because he didn't want to intrude quickly disappeared. "By Circe! You look like them! I came here looking for the grave of an old friend and her husband, only to find their lost son standing right in front of them." He walked up beside him, placed the small bouquet of purple orchids down at their graves and shut his eyes wishing them well. He was interrupted by a cough to his left and smiled as he saw Abraham's shocked face.
"You...you knew my parents?" Hagrid nodded "Aye, when they were very young. Before they went across the sea to new lands." He looked at the young man and could clearly see the inherited traits. The striking grey eyes and sharp cheekbones were from Dorea but the rest of him was pure Potter. The thin face, lips and eyebrows combined with a long nose were all familiar traits. He even wore round glasses with a thin silver rim!
The young man physically shook his head and took a look at Hagrid, all eleven inches of him. He looked slightly scared for just a second before steadying himself. "Back to that later but you mentioned I was lost? What do you mean?" Hagrid took a seat on the ground, barely able to fit in between the graves. "Well, your family back in England has been looking for you. Both sides probably I reckon!" He chuckled at that but the young man didn't chuckle with him. Abraham's eyes widened at a specific word. "M-My Family?"