Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter characters, since I'm not JK Rowling ((Looks down to double-check....No, I'm not JK Rowling...)) and I do not own Roman - she owns herself. All I do own is, well, this storyline.
Chapter One
"Yer a wizard, 'arry," Hagrid said to the small boy across the
table. The boy, who looked about five or six, had unruly black hair
and round black glasses. Just underneath his hair, was a scar in the
shape of a lightning bolt.
"You mean magic is real, Haggie?"
Harry asked, eyes wide.
Hagrid nodded emphatically, "Aye,
'arry, it is. Yer mumma and papa were strong wizards indeed.
Yeh've inherited it 'arry. Do yeh want ter know the story of yer
family and how yeh got that scar?" he asked.
Harry paused and
then nodded nervously. Hagrid took a deep breath and began, "It
was a night when yeh were just a little baby…"
#-#-#-
"Noooooo!" A bloodcurdling scream split the night air, followed by an evil laughter. Inside the house, in a dark room lit only by the moon, there was a baby, protected in the arms of its mother and father. The evil laughter was coming from across the room, where a faceless, shapeless man stood with an evil grin. A wand was in the man's hand, glowing with a strange, sickly green light. He raised the wand high above his head and cried, "Avada Kedavra!" The sickly green light expanded to fill the room and screams of anguish resounded around the house. The faceless man began laughing with satisfaction. Suddenly the screaming stopped and the green light faded back to the moonlight. Bodies lay on the ground where the two adults and child had been. The faceless man approached the bodies and inspected them. The adults lay as if asleep, unmoving. As the man looked down, the child opened its eyes and began to cry. The man recoiled as if struck. How could the boy still be alive? The faceless man screamed in anguish and frustration. He waved his wand again and disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke, leaving the child, crying, where it was…
#-#-#-
"An' tha's where I found yer, 'arry," Hagrid said, "Alone
in the world, no parents ter bring yer up and so I took o'er the
role." Harry sat silently for many moments. As the silence
stretched out, Hagrid feared that maybe the boy was too young for
such a story.
Harry suddenly looked up and asked, "Haggie, who
was that man? And what does that spell mean?"
Hagrid sighed,
partly in relief, "Tha' man, 'arry, was a very powerful wizard.
A wizard whose name yeh mun ne'er say. We dun know why he
attacked yer family yet, but we are trying to find out. The Avada
curse is one of the three Unforgivable curses. It kills a person
without e'er leavin' a mark on 'em," Hagrid replied.
Harry
looked thoughtful and then asked, with all the innocence of a child,
"So, why am I alive?"
Hagrid grinned and said, "Yer
special 'arry. Yer the only one to survive an attack by
You-Know-Who. Ne'er say his name, 'arry – yeh'll draw him to
yer and ne'er be safe."
Harry looked at Hagrid and nodded,
"I'm going to bed now, Haggie. G'night," he said, and left
the room.
Not long after Harry had left the room, there was a knock on the door
of the hut. Hagrid got up and opened the door. Standing there was a
shorter man, with a long flowing, greying beard and glasses perched
on the end of his nose. "Professor Dumbledore," Hagrid said,
with obvious delight, "Come in! Come in! 'arry's in bed so we
can 'ave a chat."
"Thank you, Hagrid," the newcomer said,
and walked over to the said that Harry had just left. Sitting down,
he made himself comfortable, before asking, "So, how did it go,
Hagrid?"
Lowering himself back into his chair, Hagrid replied,
"Well Albus, 'arry seemed ter take it very well. He accepts the
fact that is a wizard and I believe he is understanding of the story
about his parents."
Albus nodded, looking very fatherly right
then, "Good. Good," he said.
Unbeknown to the two men, Harry was silently crying into his pillow. "Mumma. Papa. Why'd you have to leave me?" he wailed, seeming older than his young years. "I will pay him back for you," he resolved, "I'll get him for taking you away for me."
#-#-#-
The next morning, over breakfast, Harry was unusually silent. Hagrid looked concernedly at the boy, "Are ye al'ight, 'arry?" he asked. Harry nodded, but still didn't say anything. Trying to cheer the boy up, Hagrid said, "Why dun we head down ter Diagon Alley and begin yer collection of wizarding items today?" Harry visibly brightened at this suggestion and immediately left the room to prepare himself for the trip to Diagon Alley.
Returning to the room, just a few short moments later, Harry was now
dressed in a sensible outfit of jeans and a T-shirt. "Okay,
Hagrid," he said, "Let's get to Diagon Alley." He walked
over to the door, pulled it open and stepped out into the bright
sunlight, waiting for Hagrid to follow.
A few seconds later,
Hagrid stepped out of the hut and said, "Let's travel the wizard
way, 'arry. Come back inside." Harry looked a little confused,
but followed Hagrid back into the hut. Hagrid walked over to the
fireplace and picked up a small pot from the mantlepiece. Harry
looked up at the tall man, wide-eyed. "Right 'arry," Hagrid
said, "We'll go tergether." He pulled a pinch of powder out of
the pot and flung it into the fire. The fire flared green and,
before Harry could do anything about it, Hagrid had grabbed his hand
and pulled him into the green flames. Still holding Harry's hand,
Hagrid said loudly, "Diagon Alley." Suddenly, Harry felt as
though he was spinning in circles and he squeezed his eyes shut,
although that only made him feel dizzy. Finally, the spinning
sensation stopped and Harry carefully opened his eyes. They were no
longer in Hagrid's hut, but in what appeared to be an inn or a pub.
"Err, Hagrid?" the boy said, clinging tighter to Hagrid's
hand, "Where are we?"
Hagrid laughed and pulled the boy out
of the fireplace, while saying, "We're at the Leaky Cauldron.
Yeh've just had yeh first experience with Floo Powder."
Harry
just looked more confused as Hagrid pulled him, blinking, out into
the sunshine of Diagon Alley.
Finally, their eyes adjusted to the light, they paused just outside
the door to the Leaky Cauldron and Hagrid looked at Harry, "Right
'arry. First stop is Gringott's bank. Otherwise, we canna buy
yer items," he said. Harry nodded. Turning, Hagrid headed towards
the bank. As they got to the bank, Harry's attention was drawn to
a young girl, not much older than himself, standing by herself next
to the door. Hagrid, noticing Harry's distraction, said, "Why
dun ye sta' out 'ere an' I'll get the money an' meet yer
out 'ere?" Harry nodded, still distracted by the girl. Hagrid
shook his head in a most fatherly way, and walked into the bank. By
this time, the girl had seen Harry staring at her and had wandered
over to him.
"Hello there," she said, brightly, "And who
might you be?"
Harry replied, "I'm Harry," taken by
surprise that she had noticed him.
"Well, pleased to meet you
Harry," said the girl, sweeping off her top hat and bowing low to
him, "I'm Roman." Harry nodded. "Well you are a
quiet one," she said, a little huffily. Harry opened his mouth and
was about to reply, when Hagrid suddenly appeared behind him.
"Ready t' go, 'arry?" Hagrid asked.
Turning around
to face Hagrid, Harry said, "Sure! In a minute." Harry turned
back to Roman and asked, "Are you a wizard too? Are you going to
be at the same school as me?"
Roman laughed and said, "Of
course I'm a wizard silly! Otherwise I wouldn't be able to get
here. And I will be at Hogwarts with you. So I guess I'll see you
there. Bye!!"
She waved, put her top hat on at a jaunty angle
and ran off to join the woman that had just walked out of the bank.
Harry watched as she left and then turned back to Hagrid, "Ok,"
he said, "I'm ready now!"
#-#-#-
Back at the hut, Harry flopped into the closest chair to the door,
dropping his bags onto the floor in front of him. "I'm so tired,
Haggie," he said, wearily.
Hagrid laughed, a big booming sound
that filled the small hut, and said, "Well, o' course yer are,
'arry. Yeh've 'ad a big day fer such a youn' boy! Time fer
bed fer yeh methinks!"
Harry nodded in agreement and, leaving
the bags where they were, headed for bed, yawning widely.
#-#-#-
The next morning, Harry woke up early and wondered if it had all been
a dream. Could he really have travelled to another place by throwing
some powder onto a fire and then jumping into it? Quietly slipping
out of bed, Harry padded silently into the main room. Hearing
Hagrid's snores from his bedroom, Harry walked over to the chair
closest to the door and saw the bags sitting there, where he'd left
them the previous night. So, he thought, I did go
to Diagon Alley through the fireplace. Now, what did Hagrid call
that powder? Floo Powder? It must be in one of my books. Sitting
down in the chair, Harry started to pull out all of his school
supplies, sorting them out. Ink bottles and quills in one pile,
parchment in another, new clothing in yet another pile and, finally,
a pile of books. Harry glanced at the titles of each. He was young,
but living with Hagrid had taught him many things, and he had taught
himself to read at the tender age of three. Picking out a book,
Harry began to leaf through it, looking for any information about
Floo Powder.
Finally he came to it, and he began to read, Floo
Powder is a magical compound of many different herbs, silvery in
colour, invented by Ignatia Wildsmith in the 1200s. It allows a
wizard to travel instantly from one place to another, so long as they
know the name of the place they are travelling to. All a wizard has
to do is throw a small amount of Floo Powder onto a fireplace,
causing the flames to turn emerald green. The wizard then only has
to step into the emerald flames and state the name of the place they
wish to travel to. It has been known for a wizard, with unfortunate
speech impediments, to travel to a completely different place than
they intended on going, or simply never appearing anywhere. It is
vital for the wizard to pronounce the name of the place clearly and
loudly to avoid any unfortunate accidents such as this. It can also
be used to communicate with other wizards across great distances. In
order to do this, one only has to insert their head into the emeral
flames, once again stating the name of the place they wish to connect
to. Harry glanced up, amazed. Determined to learn more, Harry
began reading other sections of the book.
It was there, in that chair, that Hagrid found him a couple of hours
later, still reading the book, although it was another one of the
books they'd bought at Diagon Alley than the one Harry had begun to
read earlier that morning.
Chuckling, Hagrid walked over to him
and asked, "Yeh readin' yer books 'arry? Wanna get ahead in
yeh classes, eh?"
Harry, startled, looked up and said, "Yes
Haggie, I was just curious about Floo Powder and then I got really
really interested."
"Well, 'arry, methinks it's time fer
a youn' boy like yerself ter 'ave some breakfast," Hagrid
replied, "There's eggs out on the table waiting fer yeh."
Harry nodded and reluctantly put his book down, stood up and
headed to the kitchen.
Harry walked into the kitchen and pulled up a chair at the old wooden table. Delicious smells wafted from the bowls and plates on the table. As he sat down, his stomach growled loudly and he wasted no time in filling a plate with all kinds of foods, eggs and crusty bread, bacon and tomatoes. He ate his fill and sat back in satisfaction. Standing up, he cleared the table and washed up all the plates and bowls.
