2. Rubeus Hagrid
"BOOM"
There was a crash behind them and Uncle 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 them.
"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you — I'm armed!" There was a pause. Then — SMASH!
The door was hit with 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, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, 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 fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm out-side dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.
"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey. . . ." He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.
"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.
Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.
"An' here's twins!" said the giant.
Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.
"Las' time I saw you both, you were only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad harry, and yeh jus' like yer mom but yeh both 've her eyes." Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.
"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"
"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.
Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.
"Anyway — Harry, emma," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh both. Got summat fer yeh 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. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry and emma written on it in green icing.
It was lovely , "thank you" I said, but my brother said "who are you??"
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's whole arm and then mine.
"what 'bout the tea now, eh??" said the giant man with rubbing his hands together "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."
The giant sat on the sofa and started rummaging in his pockets taking out everything from it bags, sweets, some sausages then a poker, a teapot and several mugs, and then He took out a drink and took a sip before working on his tea.
"Don't touch anything the man gives you, Dudley" said uncle Vernon
"like yer son needs some more fattening, eh" said the giant man.
I giggled a bit, and Harry smiled, giant man gave both of us, some sausages and we were both Hungary, so we started eating, I was still thinking who this man really was but Harry voiced my question.
"I'm Sorry, but we still don't who you really are?" said Harry
Hagrid gulped his tea and wiped his mouth with his giant hand and said "call me Hagrid, everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts — yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."
"Er, No" we both replied
Hagird looked shocked
"Sorry" we replied
"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't getting' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?"
"All what?" asked Harry
"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "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.
"You mean to tell me" barked Hagrid at Dursley's " that both of them knows nothing about- about anything"
"I know some things," my brother said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff."
Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."
"What world?"
Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.
"DURSLEY!" he boomed.
Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Harry and me.
"But yeh must know about yer mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."
"What? My — my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?" said harry
"Yeh don' know . . . yeh don' know . . ." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.
"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.
Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.
"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy and girl anything!" A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.
"You never told them? Never told them what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer them? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from them all these years?"
"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.
"What is it" I said too
"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.
"No, I want to know, you JUST SHUT YOUR FAT MOUTH" I shouted at Uncle Vernon, he was looking at me with anger but Harry was quite pleased, Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.
But finally "Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid to dursleys.
"Harry, Emma — yer a wizard and witch."
There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.
"I'm a what" said Harry
"what, witch" I asked, I don't know I've to find it offensive or good.
"A wizard and a witch, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un both of you, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh both read yer letter."
I and Harry stretched out her hand for the yellow envelope which Hagrid provided us it was same as the previous one and this time address was floor of house on a rock in sea, I smiled to it, when I opened the envelope and saw my letter
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 Miss. Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a 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.
"what does it mean by they await our owl" said Harry said confusingly
"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl — a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl — a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note mentioning about meeting us.
Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm.
Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.
I looked and saw my brother's mouth open, I closed it by pressing his chin.
"They are not going anywhere" said uncle Vernon
"l'd like a muggle like yeh to stop 'em" grunted hagrid
"A muggle" I said
"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."
"we swore when we took them, that they both are not going to attend some freaks school" said uncle Vernon with the last bit of courage he had " we swore we will stomp it out of them the freakiness"
"you knew" I shouted "I'm-m a witch"
"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! 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 — that school — and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, 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 and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"
She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.
"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as — as — abnormal — and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you two!"
I had gone very white then I heard my brother shouting, "Blown up? You told us they died in a car crash!"
"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter and emma potter not knowin' thier own story when every kid in our world knows their name!"
But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.
The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.
"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble getting' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, emma, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh — but someone's gotta — yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'." He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.
"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh — mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it. . . ." He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with — with a person called — but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows —"
"Who?" I asked
"Well — I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."
"Why not?" asked harry
"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went . . . bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was . . ." Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.
"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.
"Nah — can't spell it. All right — Voldemort." Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was getting' himself power, all right. Dark days, now we didn't kno' who to trus' who not, he killed so many pe'ple horribly, only safe place was hogwarts – reckon Dumbledore was the only man he feared, didn't dare taking on school, you-know-who"
" Yer moth'r and father was as good as a wizard and witch can be, as your dad and mom were head boy and head girl in their days at Hogwarts, they fought against you-know-who, you-know-who knew your parents were close to Dumbledore, maybe you-know-who wanted to pursuade your parents maybe get them out o' the way, it's still a my'tery but one day you-know-who turned up in the village where your parents were hiding with you two, found 'em and killed both of 'em, then he tried to kill you Harry but somehow you survived, never wondered how yeh got that cut on yer head Harry, it's not an ordinary scar, destroy'd everythin' that powerful curse but yet you survived and your sister survived"
"but how" my brother said, "yeah how" I thought to myself
"that's still a my'tery harry, we don't know anythin' abou' it, but I found ye and yer sister there, and got you here on Dumbledore's orders" he glared at dursleys..