They knocked again. Dudley woke up.
"Where's the cannon?" Dudley stupidly said. Nicole facepalmed.
There was a crash behind them as Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands - now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with him.
"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you, I'm armed!"
There was a short pause and then -
"SMASH!"
The door was hit by such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor. A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, rough, mane of hair and a scruffy, tangled, beard, but you could make out his eyes, just about, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.
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 easily fitted it back into its frame. He turned to look at them all.
"Couldn't make a cup of tea, could you?" was the first thing he said. "It's not been an easy journey." He strode over to the sofa, where Dudley sat, looking scared out of his mind.
"Budge up, ya great lump!" he said. Nicole already liked him. She could tell Harry felt the same.
Dudley squeaked behind and ran behind his mother, who was also just as terrified as Dudley. The twins were just happy someone else was here.
"An here's the twins!" the giant said. Nicole looked at the giant, and saw very vividly that his beetle eyes were crinkled into a smile. "Last time I saw the two of you, you were only babies. Harry, you look like your dad, but you have your mum's eyes, and Nicole, you look more like your mum, but you've definitely got your dad's eyes 'ter." All the twins did was stare at the giant.
"I demand you leave at once, sir!" Vernon said making a weird rasping noise. "You are breaking and entering!"
"Ah, shut up, Dursley, you great prune," the giant said. He reached over the back of the sofa, snatched the gun out of Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as if it was made of rubber, and threw it to a corner of the room.
"To be fair, he did knock," Nicole pointed out.
"Anyway, you two," the giant said. "A very happy birthday to both of you! I got summet for the both of you here! I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."
From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. The twins opened it, and inside was a large sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry and Nicole written in green icing. The two looked up at the giant.
"Thank you," Nicole said.
"Who are you?" Harry said at the same time, obviously being more inquisitive.
The giant chuckled. "True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry and Nicole's whole arms. It hurt a little bit.
"What about that tea then, eh?" Hagrid said. "I'd not say no to summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."
His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled up chip bags and he snorted. He bent down to the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing, but a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and the twins felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath. He then sat back down on the sofa, taking all sorts of things out from his coat, many foods, a poker, a teapot, and several mugs. He also had a bottle of liquid which he started using to make tea. Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."
"Yer great puddin' don't need fattenin' anymore Dursley, don't you worry."
He passed some sausages to Harry & Nicole, and Nicole was so hungry that she took them immediately, while Harry hesitated a bit.
"Harry, these are delicious," Nicole pointed out, but Harry turned to the giant.
"I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are," Harry said, making a good point.
"Same," Nicole added.
"Call me Hagrid," he said. "Everyone does. And like I told you I'm the Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."
"No," Harry said.
"Never heard of it," said Nicole.
"Sorry?" Hagrid barked, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who stepped away a bit. "It's them that should be sorry! I know you weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought the two of yer' wouldn't even know about Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh ever wonder where your parents learnt it all?"
"All what?" asked Nicole, suddenly confused.
"ALL WHAT?" he shouted. "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 started. "That these two - two TWINS - know nothin' about - ANYTHING?!"
To be fair, Nicole had never done well in school, but Harry always got quite a bit of marks.
"I know some things," Harry said, clearly a little offended. "Like math and stuff."
"I know a few things too," Nicole said. "I'm not that good at English, or Maths, but I can do good art."
Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. My world, yer' parents world?"
"You live in a different world?" Nicole questioned, confused.
Hagrid looked like he was about to explode.
"DURSLEY!" he shouted.
Uncle Vernon, looking very pale, whispered something, which sounded like "Fimblecrimble." Hagrid stared at the twins.
"But yeh must know about your mum and dad," Hagrid insisted. "I mean, they're famous, Harry's famous!"
"Wait, is he famous and I'm not?" Nicole questioned immediately.
"Nicole, he just said our parents were famous!"
"Oh." Nicole said, and paused. "What?"
"Yeh, don' know, yeh don' know?!" Hagrid said. "Yeh don't know what you are!"
Vernon suddenly spoke. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell those two anything!"
A braver man than Vernon Dursley would've quailed under the furious look Hagrid was giving him. When Hagrid spoke, every syllable trembled with rage. He was angrier than any of the Dursleys had ever been with the twins. Well, so far.
"YOU NEVER TOLD THEM?!" he shouted. "NEVER TOLD HIM WHAT WAS IN THE LETTER DUMBLEDORE WROTE FOR THEM? I WAS THERE, DURSLEY, I SAW HIM LEAVE IT! AN' YOU'VE KEPT IT FROM THEM ALL THESE YEARS?"
"Kept what from us?" Nicole said, who was starting to get angry with the Dursleys herself.
"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" Vernon butted in in panic.
Petunia gave a grasp of horror.
"Ah, go and boil your heads both of yeh'," Hagrid turned to the twins. "You two are magical. A witch and wizard."
"We're what?" the two said simetaneously.
"A wizard and witch of course," Hagrid explained. "An' thumping good ones, I'd say, once you've been trained up a bit. With a mum and dad like yours, what else could you two be? An' I reckon it's about time to read your letter."
They stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H & Ms. N Potter, The Floor, Hut on a Rock, The Sea. How specific. They 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. and Ms. Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have both been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed list of necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl no later than July 31.
Yours sincerley,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
Nicole's head exploded. She didn't know whether to jump in the air or not. She had so many questions. And she could tell Harry did too.
"What does it mean, await your owl?" Harry asked first.
"Gallapin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over 2 cart horses, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat, he pulled out an owl, a real live ruffled-looking owl, a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth, he scribbled a note which the twins could read upside down.
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
Given the twins their letter.
Taking them to buy things tomorrow.
Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.
Hagrid.
Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in his beak, went out the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. He then came back and sat down as though this was as normal as eating a bag of chips. Harry opened his mouth, but quickly closed it after. Nicole stayed silent.
"Where was I?" said Hagrid, who seemed to have calmed down a bit, but Vernon, on the other hand, seemed very, very, angry.
"They're not going," he said.
Hagrid grunted. "I'd like ter see a great muggle like you stop them."
"A what?" Harry said.
"What's a muggle?" Nicole asked.
"A muggle," Hagrid said. "It's what we call non-magic folk like them. And it's bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest muggles I ever laid eyes on."
"We swore when we took them in that we'd put a stop to that rubbish," Vernon said. "Swore we'd stamp it out of them! Wizard and witch indeed!"
"You knew?" Harry said. "You knew - I'm a wizard."
"You knew this all along?" Nicole said, angrier at her aunt and uncle than ever before, feeling like she was about to break everything in sight.
"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia. "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 school and came home every vacation full of frogspawn, 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, Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family." She stopped to draw a breath and then went ranting on. It was like she's been wanting to say this for years. "Then she met that Potter at school and left and got married and had you two! And of course I knew you'd both be the same, the same just as strange, just as abnormal, and then if you please, she got herself blown up and we got landed with the two of you!"
Nicole wanted to punch Petunia. "I thought you told me they died in a CAR CRASH!" she said. Harry agreed.
"CAR CRASH?" roared Hagrid, starting to lose his temper again. "How could a car crash kill Lily and James Potter? It's an outrage! It's a scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his story while every kid knows his name!"
"But why?" Harry said. "Why my name and not Nicole's? What happened?"
"I never expected this," Hagrid said. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me that they'll be trouble gettin' hold of yeh two, how much yeh didn't know. I'm not sure if I'm the right person to tell ya both, but you can't go to Hogwarts not knowin'." He gave a dirty look at the Dursleys. Nicole was getting impatient. "Well, it's best you know as much as I can tell ya - mind I can't tell ya everythin', great mystery parts of it..."
"Just tell us!" Nicole said, impatiently.
"It begins, I suppose," Hagrid explained. "With a person called - well, it's incredible you don't know his name, everyone in our world knows-"
"Who?" Harry and Nicole asked at once.
"Well - I don't like saying the name if I can help it. No one does."
"Why?" Nicole said, confused.
"Gulpin, gargoyles, people are still scared," said Hagrid. "Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went bad, as bad as you go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was..."
"Why are you afraid of a name?" Nicole asked.
"Can't you write it down?" Harry suggested, wanting answers.
"Nah, I can't spell it. All right - Voldemort," Hagrid said. "Don' make me say it again." Nicole didn't know why Hagrid was so scared of a name - this wizard must've done so many bad things if people were afraid of even his name being spoken. "Anyway, this wizard started lookin' fer followers, Got 'em too, some were afraid, some just wanted a bit of his power, cause he was getting himself power, all right. Dark days they were. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards and witches, terrible things happened. He was taking over. Course, some stood up to him. And he killed them. Horribly. One of the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who's afraid of. He didn't dare try and take the school."
Nicole paused for a second - she knew what was coming, her parents were murdered by this dark wizard. This was the truth about her life. Her and Harry's. This is why the Dursleys had been so mean to them. Why everyone was so mean to them. They were different in a way she thought was pure fantasy. It was an escape from this life and into a new one. She pictured this world to be new and better. For both her and Harry. Hopefully, anyway.
"Now yer mum and dad were as good a witch an' wizard I ever knew," said Hagrid. "Head boy an' girl in Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the mystery is why You-Know-Who never got them on his side before. Probably thought they were too close to Dumbledore ter want anythin' to do with The Dark Side. Maybe he thought he could pursuade them, maybe he just wanted them out the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up at the village where you were all living on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came to ter yer house an' - an' -"
"Killed them," Nicole interrupted. "That is what you were going to say, right?" Nicole guessed, but she had tears in her eyes, but was more angry than anything.
"You're right, Nicole," Hagrid said. "But this is all very sad. An' the real myst'ry of this thing - he tried to kill Harry too, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it." He wondered over to Harry. "Ever thought of how you got that cut on your forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what you get when a powerful curse touches yeh, took care of your mum an' dad an' yer house even, but it didn't work on you, that's why yer famous, Harry. No one lived after he decided to kill 'em, no one except you, and you were only a baby an' you lived."
"What about me though, Hagrid?" Nicole said, eager to know. "What happened to me?"
"Nothing," Hagrid said. "I guess he never got around to you and decided to get Harry out first. You were lucky."
"So I'm just the Girl Who Was There?" Nicole said. Maybe, when they get to this school, everyone's going to want Harry's autograph, while no one even bats an eyelid at her. Harry's the famous one, it looks like. She loves her brother though, and this small difference isn't going to tear them apart. Harry looked shocked for a minute, like he was remembering something.
Hagrid watched them both sadly. "Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh both to this lot."
"Load of old tosh," Vernon said. Nicole almost forgotten the Dursleys were there. It's like Hagrid was talking to her and Harry alone. Vernon certainly seemed to have gotten back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.
"Now, you two listen here," he said to the twins. "I accept there's something strange about you two, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured - and as for all this about your parents, well they were weirdoes, 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."
Nicole wanted to punch him. Hagrid jumped off the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Vernon, he said "I'm warning you, Dursley, one more word." And then Vernon just went back to sitting against the wall. Guess he didn't like being speared on the head with an umbrella by a giant.
"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back on the sofa. The twins still both had hundreds of questions.
"So, what happened to Vol- I mean You-Know-Who?" asked Harry.
"Good question, Harry," Hagrid said. "Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. The biggest myst'ry you see, he was gettin' more and more powerful, why'd he go? Some say he died, codswallop in my opinion. Don't know if he had enough human in him left to die." From how Hagrid described him, Nicole agreed. "Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, but I don't believe it. People on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kind o' traces. Don' reckon they could've done 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 something goin' on the night he hadn't counted on - I dunno what it was, no one does. But somethin' about you stumped him, all right."
Nicole didn't understand any of this. But it was real. She was a witch and Harry was a wizard. This would explain both their freakouts, including The Vanishing Glass on Dudley's birthday. They have had the worst childhood ever, and now they know why. Now they know why the Dursleys hated them so much - why those weird people would always bow to Harry - even the haircuts could be explained. It all made sense now. Yet it was still thought of as pure fantasy - she didn't understand it.
"Hagrid," Harry started to say. "I think you must've made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."
"What?" Nicole responded. "He just told you this whole story and you suddenly think none of it is true? What about the Vanishing Glass on Dudley's birthday? The haircuts? The people bowing to you? Harry, we KNOW this is true! It explains everything."
Nicole's not sure if she's fooling herself here. She might just want this so much to be true - they could all be just mere coincidence - but how could they be? This wasn't a dream. It's an explanation for everything in their lives. But it was obviously harder to take for Harry, who was taking Nicole's words into consideration.
"See?" Hagrid said. "Harry Potter - not a wizard - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."
"And I'll be there with you," Nicole said.
But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in.
"Haven't I told you they're not going?" Vernon said. "They're both going to Stonewall High and they'll both be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sort of rubbish - spell books and wands and-"
"If they want to go, a great muggle like you won't stop him!" Hagrid said. "Stop Lily & James Potter's kids goin' ter Hogwarts? Yer mad. Their names have been there since they were born. They're off to the finest school of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the world! Seven years there and they won't know themselves. They'll be with youngsters of their own sort for a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had, Albus Dumbled-"
"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" Vernon yelled in response.
Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head. "NEVER - 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 blinding light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next minute, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, the twins saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers. Nicole laughed more than she had ever laughed before.
Uncle Vernon roared. As he pulled Petunia & Dudley out of the room, he cast one last look at Hagrid and left the room. Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.
"Shouldn'ta lost my temper," Hagrid said. "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 to change." Nicole continued to laugh. "Be grateful if neither of you mentioned that at Hogwarts. I'm not supposed to do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeah and get yer letters an' stuff. One o' the reasons I was so keen to take on the job?"
Nicole was confused. "Why are you not allowed to do magic?"
"Oh well - I was at Hogwarts myself," Hagrid explained. "But I got er - expelled ter tell you the truth. In my third year. They snapped my wand in half and everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Good man, Dumbledore."
"Why were you expelled?" Harry asked.
"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid, changing the subject. "Gotta get up to town. Get all your books and that."
He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.
"You can kip under that," Hagrid said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple of doormice in one o' the pockets."
"Are we supposed to share this?" Nicole asked.