Chapter 2
The Giant and the Truth

We drove for what seemed like forever. We stopped at a few towns, but at each location, the letters somehow found us. And so, Mr. Dursley frantically kept driving. We finally came to a short stop in front of one of the ugliest, tiniest shacks I'd ever seen. It was perched on top of a large rock, but it looked like it was just barely managing to balance on top of it. This is where we're staying? I hate to say it but I prefer the Dursley's.

"This is it!" Mr. Dursley said enthusiastically, with both of his large, purple fingers pointing towards the miserable shack. "The perfect place!"

I scoffed loudly, causing Mr. Dursley to glare evilly at me.

"All this just to stop Harry and me from reading a few measly letters? Why? What could be so bad about those letters?" I challenged him.

"Don't. Ask. Questions," the large man seethed. I grit my teeth.

"No, of course not. We're just gonna stay in a cold, filthy shack until the letters can't find us, right?"

"Watch it, girl," Mr. Dursley hissed, pointing a fat finger in my face, "or you'll be sleeping outside in the rain."

I forced another remark down when Harry stepped on my foot pointedly. I huffed, crossing my arms angrily, but said nothing further.

The inside of the shack wasn't the slightest bit better than the outside. It was cold, the fireplace had no wood to start a fire, and it only had two rooms. Mr. and Mrs. Dursley occupied one of the rooms while us kids were in the next room over. Mrs. Dursley took some blankets and made up a bed for Dudley on the small, uncomfortable couch, giving Harry and me only two thin sheets.

When the adults had gone up to bed and Dudley passed out on the couch, Harry and I set up a little place for ourselves; Harry on the dirty ground and me next to him.

I turned my nose up at a dead spider near my head on the hard ground. "You think I should put this in Dudley's mouth?" I asked Harry, flicking at the bug. Dudley snored on above us.

Harry couldn't help his smirk of amusement. "Probably the healthiest thing he's ever eaten."

"This is so unfair!" I exclaimed, a little too loudly. Dudley merely gave a sleepy snort, and turned over on the couch. "Yeah dream on, piggy," I grumbled.

"Whoever's writing to us will probably give up soon," Harry frowned. "Either that, or Uncle Vernon will have us leaving England next."

Well, on the plus side, I'd finally be able to see a different country.

I fell asleep soon after, tangled up in the loose sheet and feeling rather sneezy from the dust on the ground.

BOOM!

A sudden, sharp bang echoed throughout the tiny room, causing both Dudley and me to wake with a start. A frightened Mr. and Mrs. Dursley burst out of their room, a rifle in Mr. Dursley's hand and Mrs. Dursley grasping onto her husband's large arm.

With a second loud SMASH, the door flew right off of its hinges and came crashing to the ground. A giant sized man stood in the doorway. Most of his face was covered by a long, tangled mess for hair and a shaggy beard. Even though the man looked frightening, his eyes were kind and gentle. The large man managed to squeeze inside the small hut. Without hesitation, he walked over to my best friend and me. Even though I probably should have been, I wasn't scared. I mostly felt curious. Who was this man and why the hell was he so tall?

The man peered down at the two of us and smiled. Almost like he was greeting two long lost friends.

"I haven' seen either of yeh since you were babies," the giant said in a deep, pleasant voice, and then he turned to my best friend. "'Arry, yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh have your mother's eyes." He turned to me next and continued, "And Lydia, yer the same. Yeh 'ave yer mother's eyes too."

My mother? This man knew my mother?!

Before either Harry or I could respond, Mr. Dursley interrupted, "I demand you leave at once! You are breaking and entering!"

"Shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant. He jerked the rifle from Dursley's hands and bent it into a ninety degree angle. The three Dursleys whimpered at this, and cowered together. I couldn't help but smile a little bit at someone making a fool out of Vernon Dursley.

The giant walked back over to Harry and me. "Anyway," he started, pulling a large blue box out from his overcoat and handing it to my best friend, "Harry— happy birthday to yeh. An' Lydia, I know yer birthday's this week too. I figured yeh wouldn' mind sharing. Mighta sat on it at sometime but I'm sure it's jus' as good," the giant added happily.

Harry opened the box gently and saw a small, round chocolate cake with 'Happee Birthday Harry & Lydia' written on it with green icing. It was without a doubt, the nicest birthday gift we'd ever received. But when we only had the Dursley's hand-me-downs to compare it to, it wasn't much of a competition.

I grinned widely, looking up at the giant. "Thanks," I said. The giant merely chuckled, a twinkle in his kind eyes.

"Who are you?" Harry asked, astounded.

The giant said cheerfully, "Sorry, I haven' introduced meself yet. I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. Yeh can call me Hagrid." Hagrid held out a huge hand and we both shook it.

Hagrid lifted an umbrella I hadn't noticed he was carrying and pointed it at the fireplace. The rest of us couldn't see what the giant was doing but when he drew back a second later, a warm fire roared to life in the fireplace.

Ignoring the obvious question of 'how in the world did you do that?', I looked at him quizzically and asked, "Sorry, Hagrid, where exactly was it that you said you came from?"

"Hogwarts," Hagrid answered. It sounded like some sort of disease to me. "Yeh know all about Hogwarts, of course."

Harry and I exchanged a look. We were both lost.

"Er, no."

Hagrid stopped at Harry's response, a shocked look passing over his face.

"Are we supposed to know what that is?" I added. "Cause I know of a lot of places in England from school, and that doesn't sound like one of them."

"Yeh mean ter tell me that they haven' told yeh?!' Hagrid cried, glaring at the Dursleys. "Yeh don't know 'bout Hogwarts! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts! Did yeh ever wonder where yer parents learned it all?!"

"Learned what?" Harry asked. He looked over at me again to see if I had any idea of what the man could mean by that. I shrugged.

"Yeh mean to say that yeh two don' know a single thing 'bout your world?!"

"What world?" I asked, now getting quite frustrated with the lack of straight answers.

Hagrid rounded on the Dursleys furiously, "You never told them! You never told them what was in tha' letter Dumbledore left for them!? An' you've kept it from them all these years?!"

"Kept what from us?" I yelled, now quite angry. I felt the hair on my head changing color with the force of my emotions.

Hagrid stared wildly at Harry as the Dursley's continued to whimper in the corner of the room. "But yeh must know about yer mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."

My eyebrows shot up at that. Famous as in… they were movie stars? Singers? I think we would have known something about that, wouldn't we?

"What? My — my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?" Harry questioned.

"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair. He fixed on me next.

"Lydia, yeh don't know anything 'bout yer dad?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. "My dad? I only know that my parents were criminals. That's what they told me," I jerked my head towards the quivering Dursleys. Hagrid looked over at them again, furiously.

"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally to Harry and me.

Suddenly, Mr. Dursley found the fury to respond. "I FORBID YOU! I forbid you to tell either of them ANYTHING!" he shouted, his face turning purple. Hagrid ignored him. He turned to Harry, who was curious, and me, who was very annoyed.

"Harry — yer a wizard. Lydia— yer a witch."

Silence.

A witch? Like a magic witch with a pointy hat in broomstick? But… that only happened in stories. Magic wasn't real. And if it was, there's no way in hell I could do it.

I allowed myself a small chuckle. "You're insane," I whispered.

Hagrid raised his eyebrows. "Oh? Lydia, have yeh ever done somethin' that yeh couldn' explain? Maybe caused somethin' ter happen ter someone else? Or tha' thing yeh just did with yer hair?" he said. He laughed merrily. "I couldn' believe me own eyes, it seems like yer a young Metamorphagus."

This man had to be insane.

"A what?"

Harry interrupted. "Sorry sir, but do you mean 'wizard' like… magic?"

"Well, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting down on the sofa, which groaned and sank low to the ground, "an' a thumpin' good wizard at tha'. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time the both of yeh read yer letters."

Hagrid handed us each a yellow letter that we had been dying to get our hands on for a week now. Harry and I exchanged a meaningful glance and together ripped into them. Inside it read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

HEADMASTER: Albus Dumbledore

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find an enclosed 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

This had to be a prank. A cruel final joke the Dursley's were playing on us before the summer ended. This couldn't be real. Things like this didn't happen to Harry and me. We weren't like other kids. Good things didn't happen to us.

While Harry and I processed the letters, Hagrid wrote to someone, pulled out a ruffled-looking live owl from his coat, and sent the note off in its beak. I'd heard of carrier pigeons, but never carrier owls. This couldn't be real.

After a long silence, Mr. Dursley said dully, "They're not going."

"I'd like ter see a Muggle like you stop them," Hagrid replied.

"Muggle?" I asked curiously.

"A Muggle is what we call a non-magical folk like those lumps. An' it's yer bad luck that yeh ended up with a family o' the biggest Muggles I've ever seen."

"When we took them in, we swore we'd put a stop to it," said Mr. Dursley. "We swore we'd stomp it out of them."

This caught my attention. The rough man, always so hostile when it came to the mention of any form of magic or fantasy, didn't seem to be denying Hagrid's claim. Stomp it out of us. If Harry and I really did have magic, then these oafs knew the entire time. And they lied to us.

"You knew?" Harry exclaimed, sounding just as angry as I felt. "You knew that I'm a wizard? That Lydia and I have magic?"

"Knew!" shrieked Mrs. Dursley suddenly, causing me to jump. "Of course we knew! How could we not, my dratted sister being what she was? She got a letter just like those and disappeared off to that school and came home every vacation, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was— a freak! But to my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"

She took a deep breath, eyes glinting with a sort of indignation I'd never seen before.

"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you. And of course I knew that you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as— abnormal. And then she went and got herself blown up. And of course, there was the Blacks. Hoodlums, just like him. It was only a matter of time before they got jailed away and then we got stuck with the both of you."

Harry and I had both gone pale. Jailed? So my parents really were criminals? Harry exclaimed angrily, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"

"CAR CRASH!" Hagrid roared so loudly that all three Dursleys jumped back. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? This is an outrage!"

"We had to say something!" Mrs. Dursley retorted.

"What do you mean my parents were jailed? What did they do?" I demanded, fists balled. But I was promptly ignored.

"They will not be going to that school!" Mr. Dursley interrupted.

"A great Muggle like you won't stop them," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. An' this girl, the last heir of the Black family? One of the oldes' wizarding families aroun'?" Hagrid gestured to me. My jaw dropped. Me? A member of an ancient magical family? "Blasphemy to stop her from goin' to Hogwarts. They're off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. An' o' course, they'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled—"

"I am not going to pay to have some old fool teach them magic tricks!"

This was a big mistake.

A fire raged in Hagrid's eyes. He walked up to Mr. Dursley and pointed the tip of his umbrella to his large chest. "Do not insult Albus Dumbledore in front of me!" he said threateningly. He noticed Dudley out of the corner of his eye.

Hagrid shifted his hand so that the umbrella pointed straight at Dudley. A zap was heard and right out of Dudley's bottom sprouted a curly pig tail. Dudley screamed along with parents and did a funny sort of dance as he tried to rid himself of the tail. I couldn't help myself and let out a loud bark of laughter.

"Brilliant," I beamed at Hagrid.

Hagrid turned to us in the midst of the chaos, "I would appreciate if yeh didn' tell anyone 'bout tha'." With that, he walked over to the door that was still flat on the ground, lifted it up and shoved it clumsily in the doorway.

"I'm runnin' a bit late, so we best be off. Unless yeh want ter stay, o' course,'' Hagrid joked. I'd love to say that I took even a moment to think about it, but I didn't even blink before following the giant through the door, Harry a step behind me.

Our dream of someone coming to whisk us away had at last come true.

Outside, the storm had cleared, though the sky was dark and cloudy. I had forgotten that it was the middle of the night. The little boat that Mr. Dursley rented to sail us to the cabin was still there, wading sadly in the water.

"This'll have ter do," Hagrid said, gesturing to the boat. "Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh two."

"How'd you get here then if you didn't take a boat?" Harry asked, voicing my thoughts as well. We were able to see the land from where the cabin stood, but it was quite a bit away to swim, and Hagrid hadn't seemed wet when he burst in through the front door.

"Flew."

My eyebrows shot up into my hairline. "I'm assuming you don't mean by plane, do you?"

Hagrid merely chuckled.

We settled into the boat, and Hagrid (with another promise from us to not rat him out) tapped the side with his umbrella. We sped off across the water towards the harbor, no paddles needed.

All that I had learned tonight swarmed my mind. This man, Hagrid, knew my parents. He knew who they were, where they were and… what they did. Mrs. Dursley's words clawed at my brain. If they were really criminals, were they dangerous? Did they hurt somebody? And most of all, why did they abandon me?

"Hagrid?" I asked hesitantly as the boat sped on. He turned to me and smiled.

"Yes, Lydia?"

I sighed. "Who were my parents? What did they do?"

This brought the smile off Hagrid's face. He seemed to debate with himself for a moment before deciding upon his answer. I noticed that Harry leaned forward curiously too, and I didn't blame him. We both had known nothing about our parents before today. I was eager to know about James and Lily Potter as well as my own parents.

Hagrid frowned and finally replied, "It's not my place ter tell yeh."

My heart dropped a bit. I considered pressing it further, but I don't know if I wanted to test my luck with this stranger. Defeated, I gave a single nod. I guess I'll find out eventually. They can't just keep it from me forever.

After about ten minutes, we stopped at the harbor wall and were able to clamber wobbly onto the street. Hagrid found us a place to stay for the night, with the promise that we had a big day coming tomorrow.

~o~

In a matter of so little time, I had learned so much about the magical world. We were brought a newspaper early the next morning called "The Daily Prophet", which was a type of enchanted newspaper. My jaw dropped open wide when I realized that the man on the front page was waving back at me.

Wizards apparently had their own money source. We had to give the owl that brought the paper a small payment. It took me a minute to understand the new little coins, but I think I got it down; Knuts are the bronze ones, Sickles are the silver, and Galleons are gold.

We also learned that there was a Ministry of Magic, the magical world's form of government, complete with a Minister of Magic. One of the Ministry's jobs was to keep the magical world hidden from Muggles. There were great consequences to the magical world being revealed.

Before we left for London, we ate a hearty breakfast of sausages and eggs and juice. I had never had such a full meal before and by the end of the meal, I was left feeling stuffed to the brim. I heard Harry sigh beside me.

"Um—Hagrid?" he started. Hagrid nodded to him. "Lydia and I haven't got any money. The Dursleys never give us anything. And you heard Uncle Vernon last night; he won't pay to let us go."

I frowned at this, realizing he was right.

"Don't worry about that," Hagrid said, standing up from the breakfast table. "D'yeh think that your parents would have left yeh nothing? That's our next stop. Gringrott's Bank."

"My parents left me money?" I questioned slowly.

"O' course they did!"

But that didn't make sense. From what it seemed like, they abandoned me. Why would they leave me anything?

"Gringrotts is a wizard bank?" Harry asked, stunned.

"Sure is. Run by goblins."

My eyes widened. "Goblins? There's such a thing as goblins?"

Hagrid nodded. "And lots of differen' creatures yeh don't often find in the muggle world." I was rather surprised by this; I had no idea. All my life I thought that wizards, witches, dragons and other magical beings were stories made up to either entertain or frighten little kids. I couldn't believe just how wrong I was.

"Anyways," Hagrid continued, "Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins. Gringrotts is the safest place in the world—'cept for maybe Hogwarts. I got ter visit Gringrotts as well fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." At this, Hagrid straightened himself up proudly. "I usually get ter do important stuff fer him." He led the way out the door of the small inn we'd spent the night in and onto the sunny streets.

"Why would you be mad to try to rob Gringrotts?" Harry asked. We fell into step beside the giant as he led us to the small train station housed within the tiny town.

"Spell and enchantments all around it. They say there's dragons guarding the high security vaults. An' then yeh got to find yer way—Gringrotts is a hundred miles under London; yeh'd die of hunger trying ter get out, you see."

I shuddered.

As we walked down the street, Hagrid kept pointing out perfectly normal things and saying that it was amazing the devices that muggles thought of. He also casually mentioned that he'd always wanted a bloody dragon. Once we boarded the train bound for London, Harry and I took out our letters and looked through the supplies list.

Many items on the list were very unusual, I noticed. Most of the books on the list included the word 'magic' on them, while the other supplies included wands and cauldrons.

"Can you really find all of this stuff in London, Hagrid?" Harry asked doubtfully, still staring at the list. The giant looked back at him and smiled, with a glint in his warm eyes.

"If yeh know where to go," was his only reply.

When we finally arrived in London, Hagrid led us towards a small, shabby-looking pub.

"This is the Leaky Cauldron. It's famous," Hagrid announced.

Most people on the street passed it without a second glance. I probably would have as well, had Hagrid not pointed it out. I got the feeling as well that only Harry, Hagrid and I could see it. We entered the pub slowly and if it really was famous, it didn't look the part. Inside was dark and looked quite worn down in my opinion. However, everyone inside seemed to know Hagrid.

"The usual, Hagrid?" the old, bald bartender greeted, reaching for a glass.

"Can't, Tom. I'm on Hogwarts business," Hagrid said, pulling Harry and me towards him by our shoulders. The force of it almost made me stumble. The bartender's eyes fell upon us and widened. The rest of the bar had gone deathly silent.

"Bless my soul…" whispered Tom in an admiring voice. "Could it be…Harry Potter, what an honor." While Tom reached out to clasp Harry's hand, the bar was suddenly filled with murmurs of excitement. When I looked around, everyone was staring at us.

"Looks like you got some fans," I said to Harry. Harry was completely bewildered. How did these people know Harry? Hagrid had mentioned earlier that Harry's parents were famous. Is that why people knew him?

The sound of my voice caused the bartender to turn his attention to me. He examined me closely, his gaze making me somewhat uncomfortable. At last, he seemed to come to a conclusion as his eyes widened further.

"You must be little Lydia Black," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. I was taken back.

"Oh, er, yeah that's me. How exactly do you know me?"

Tom never got the chance to answer. The visitors of the pub crowded around us in the hopes of shaking Harry's hand or just to get a mere glimpse of him. Some greeted me as well, either joyfully or interestedly. But some ignored me all together, even casting looks of disgust in my direction. I tried to avoid the eyes of these people, not understanding what I could have possibly done to them.

The last person to approach us was a pale man with a turban wrapped tightly around his head. He stepped forward rather nervously.

"Professor Quirrell!" Hagrid exclaimed. "Harry, Lydia, Professor Quirrell here will be one of yer teachers this year at Hogwarts."

"P-P-Potter, B-Black," he stuttered, nervously grasping Harry's hand first, "I c-can't tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you b-both."

The frightened energy he was emitting instantly put me off.

"What do you teach, Professor Quirrell?" Harry asked.

"D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts," he stammered. "N-Not that you n-need it eh, P-Potter?" He laughed nervously to himself. I didn't really have a great first impression of him so far.

We'd manage to break away from the excited crowd roughly ten minutes later.

"What was wrong with that Quirrell bloke?" I couldn't stop myself from asking once Harry and I were alone with Hagrid. Harry elbowed me in the arm, reminding me to be nice. "Ow! Geez sorry, but don't tell me you weren't wondering the same thing."

"He did seem pretty nervous," Harry agreed.

Hagrid tutted. "Poor guy. Brilliant mind. They say he got caugh' up with some vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag — never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject — now, where's me umbrella?"

"Sounds like we'll have loads of fun with him," I muttered sarcastically under my breath, causing Harry to jab me with his elbow one more time.

Hagrid led us to the back of the pub where he drew out his umbrella and simply tapped the brick wall three times. The bricks gave a little wiggle and one by one started to hop away. In the middle of the wall, a small hole appeared and it grew bigger and bigger until we were able to fully step through. I gasped loudly, clutching onto Harry's arm.

On the other side of this simple brick wall was an entire bustling street, loaded with whimsical shops on either side and flooded with the strangest people I'd ever seen in my life.

"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."

~o~