Chapter 6

"Hagrid!" Lily exclaimed. "What are you doing down here?"

"Well, I'll be damned if that's not Miss Evans!" he said cheerfully. "I'm down 'ere on special assignment from Dumbledore. Don' ask, 'cause I won' tell." He looked down, having just seemed to notice Harry for the first time. "And who's this little tyke?"

Harry gulped, looked as his mom who smiled and nodded encouragingly, then looked at the stranger and said, "I'm H-Harry, sir."

The giant chuckled and extended his hand. "Any child of Lily an' James can' be all that bad! School shopping, I s'pose?"

Harry calmed his nerves before answering. "Yes, sir. We're headed to Diagon Alley now. My dad's going to buy me a broomstick while we"—gesturing to his mother— "go book and robe shopping!"

"Oh, drop this 'sir', business, 'Arry! My name's Rubeus Hagrid: Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. But you can just call me Hagrid. Not 'sir', not 'professor', none o' that. Well, maybe professor one day…" He lost his thoughts as the cart began to rocket off topside.

They emerged on the bank floor, to be rejoined by Sirius and Remus as they bid goodbye to Hagrid, with the promise he would look for Harry at school after he got off the train.

James looked at Remus, asking him where he went. "Oh, I just wanted to get Harry a little something. Sorry it's late," he said apologetically, holding out a small parcel. "It's not much, but I thought you'd like it."

"Thanks Uncle Remus!" Harry said, starting to open the package.

"Remus, you really didn't have—" started Lily, but was quickly hushed as Harry finished opening the package and withdrew 3 books on Quidditch: Quidditch Through the Ages, Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland, and The Official Guide to the Quidditch World Cup. Harry was ecstatic. If possible, James was even more ecstatic.

"Thanks Moony! He'll be the best Quidditch player in at least 50 years with all this knowledge!"

"James…" Lily sighed. "This is about—" "Right. Harry. Sorry."

"Thanks Uncle Remus! I can't wait to start! Can we go shopping already?"

Lily looked at James. "We have entertained him long enough. I think we should start already. If you and Sirius want to head over to Quality Quidditch Supplies and look at brooms, me and Harry can go robe and wand shopping, and Remus, if you wouldn't mind—" as she dropped a few galleons into his hand, "—would you go pick up his books?"

It was almost a chorus— "Yes, ma'am!" and running feet. No one dared to cross Lily Evans. If she said she wanted something done, she wasn't going to ask twice. "So, Harry—robes or wand first?"