You're a protagonist Harry
Chapter 04 – You're a protagonist Harry
…
The storm broke over the shack soon after their arrival. Lightning leapt like courting bullfrogs to the romantic rumble of thunder that shook the shack with every roll. Rain fell in heavy sheets, blanketing the world in water.
"This must be how Noah felt," Harry mused, lying on the floor unable to sleep.
It wasn't the lying on the floor that was keeping him awake, nor the tempest raging outside. If forced to pin down the cause he'd probably blame the looming sense of dread that had been growing since the first letter arrived.
Ever since he'd started secondary school, he'd been able to dance around the various unexplainable oddities that upset his relatives. It wasn't easy, but he'd been able to manage it. Now it was chasing them, and Harry hadn't learned to dance on the run.
In some corner of his mind a watchful little eye was focused on the door to the bedroom where Vernon and Petunia had retired for the evening. He half expected his crazed uncle to emerge at any moment, wielding some twisted archaic implement of death and come after him.
He thought he'd seen everything his uncle had to offer. He'd thought. He was beginning to think otherwise.
"Some birthday," he muttered, putting the finishing touches on his dirty floor cake.
Not that any of the birthdays he could remember had been any great shakes. He's spent his ninth huddled in the cupboard under the stairs with a broken arm.
This wasn't quite a broken arm… yet, but the day had yet begun.
The large clock on the wall loudly ticked the last seconds away, and then it was tomorrow. No fanfare, no explosion, just… tick.
"Happy birthday Harry," he said quietly so's not to wake Dudley. "Just three more, and I can finally get away from these people."
That was the goal after all. Freedom. The moment he hit his majority he'd be gone, and it was with that happy thought he took a breath and blew his drawing away.
Then he jumped, not for no reason. The door shook, and not from the thunder. Something had hit it, hard. It happened again, waking Dudley, and a third time, drawing a startled exclamation from the bedroom.
It happened once more, and the badly battered door flew the white flag and toppled inward, landing with a thunderously accompanied BOOM! Lightning flashed, revealing a tall dark silhouette.
And when I say tall, I mean tall. Bend down just to get through the doorway kinda tall. And dark, like the ace of spades is dark, like midnight without a moon is dark, like the shriveled heart of a used car salesman is… well, that last one might be going a bit far, but you get the point.
He was also wet. His equally dark, and long, coat dripped like a sprinkler forming a puddle beneath him as he surveyed the room.
"Sorry bout that,' he said in a surprisingly genial, rumbling basso.
Cowering behind a shotgun, Vernon shambled 'bravely' into the room, "Sir! You are trespassing. I must ask you to leave."
"Trespassing?" the black giant said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "yeah, I'm also breaking my parole but being out of country. Oh well."
Vernon blustered learning the invader was a habitual criminal, but the criminal wasn't paying him any mind. He'd noticed someone else standing behind the corpulent man.
"Hey there baby," he rumbled, tossing a wink at the scandalized Petunia.
Vernon did not take this well. Being ignored or having another man flirt with his wife.
"Now see here you filthy neg…"
The hand that snapped out, cobra quick, was almost large enough to cover Vernon's entire face. It grabbed low, gripping his head just beneath the nose, leaving the eyes plenty of room to bulge in fear.
Reflex pulled the trigger and the gun went off, at point blank range, right in the giant's chest.
Casually, he dusted the buckshot from his coat, never once loosening his grip.
"Probably for the best if you don't finish that sentence," the giant said, completely ignoring the fact he'd been shot.
"I didn't know dad was a racist," Dudley whispered from his hiding place behind the couch.
"You should here him talk about the Chinese." Harry had.
Releasing the quivering corpulent, the giant took the gun and snapped it between his two massive hands like so much dried kindling.
That done, he turned to the two boys, "Which of you is Harry Potter?"
Harry chuckled as his cousin cowered further behind the couch, "That's me."
The giant nodded and pulled a familiar letter from one of his pockets, handing it to Harry, "I hear the last few of these must of missed you."
"You could say that," he said, glancing at his trembling aunt and uncle as he tore off the top and pulled out the letter within.
At the very top was a fancy seal proudly proclaiming Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His skepticism must have shown because the giant chuckled.
"What?"
"Hagrid said you might not know," he rumbled, grinning.
"Know what?" the possibilities seemed infinite.
The giant just pointed to the letter, "Read."
So, he did. "Dear Mr. Potter, you have been accepted at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry," well that much he'd guessed from the header, what he was still trying to wrap his head around was, "witchcraft and wizardry? You mean magic?"
The giant nodded.
Skeptical brow raised, "Really."
"Really, really," he said.
Yeah right, he wanted to say, but that tiny traitor at the back of his head cried mutiny, and he had to admit, there was an argument to be made. If he were to accept it, magic, it would explain a great deal.
Ultimately, it was the look on Petunia and Vernon's faces that clinched it.
"It's true then," he said, addressing them. "Magic."
"No!" Vernon snapped, which was as good as an admission.
"Lies," Harry said, feeling… uncertain how he felt, which left his mouth running on autopilot while his brain tried to sort it out. "All lies, all my life. Every strange occurrence, every weird little quirk. And you knew. Of course you knew, you wouldn't have treated me like some sort of monster if you didn't. I suppose my parents didn't really die in a car crash either then."
They didn't say it out loud, but the looks on their faces were loud enough.
"Unbelievable. Actually, I take that back. I can totally believe it. From you two, I can absolutely believe it! You on the other hand," he said, turning back to the giant, "I don't know what to think about you. Who are you anyway, and who is Hagrid?"
"Names Abner," the black giant said, "friends call me A-train. Hagrid's my cousin. He was supposed to bring this to you, but he had a bit of an accident. One of his pets got a little too playful and knocked him for a loop."
Harry boggled, "What kinda pet are we talking about?"
"The four-legged kind," he said. "Three-headed, bout yay high! Ouch!" he muttered, cracking his wrist on the ceiling that was nearly sitting on his head.
"That's his pet?" Three heads, four legs? Yeah, he knew what that was. He couldn't quite believe it, but he knew what it was.
"Calls it Fluffy."
"… oh now you're just making fun of me."
Whether he was or not, the giant laughed, loud enough to shake the shack.
"I like you kid," the towering black colossus grinned. "So whatchu say we get outta here. I'm supposed to take you shopping for school stuff and it's a bit of a trip back to London?"
Sounded good to Harry, there was just one problem and it chose that moment to make itself known, "He will not be going!" Vernon thundered with more fortitude than Harry would have believed possible under the circumstances. "When we took him in we vowed we'd put an end to this nonsense! Wizard indeed!"
Abner took this new information, mulled it a bit, "Tried to beat it out of him, did ya?"
"A few times," Harry offered, which was true. Vernon did have a temper, a temper which was getting him into a bit of trouble now that he was faced with someone much bigger than he was.
His blustering red face paled when his underused survival instinct finally kicked in, granting him the realization something bad was about to happen to him. He was half right.
A slim bit of wood was produced from the long black sleeve and Vernon trembled. But it was not for him. "Hey kid, this your dad?"
Dudley stared, unsure if he should claim his father, but in the end it didn't matter. The stick flashed, and in the blink of an eye, Dudley Dursley vanished, replaced by a large squealing piglet.
As you'd expect, chaos ensued. The piglet, having some understanding of what had just happened, panicked, and began running around the room. Petunia screamed and cried, watching in dumbstruck horror as her precious son snorted about the room.
Vernon, in a bout of shellshocked uselessness, tried chasing his piglet son down. Even if he hadn't been a three-hundred-pound tub of lard it probably wouldn't have helped as Dudley Dursley on four legs proved faster than Dudley Dursley on two legs had ever been.
It was all pathetically hilarious. When he was eleven, he probably would have found it the funniest thing he'd ever seen. At fourteen, "Change him back."
A flick of the stick, Dudley Dursley made a magnificent crash as he was returned, mid stride, to a two-legged form. His parents were quick to seize on the opportunity and hauled their human son into the bedroom, slamming the door behind.
"Pigs not your thing?" Abner asked.
Harry shook his head, "If you'd done that a few years ago I probably would have said leave him like that. Now…" it was hard to explain. "He's a useless little twat, but he doesn't deserve that."
"Wouldn't have left him like that," the giant said. "And a few years ago, I wouldn't have been around to do it anyway. I just got outta the clink a month ago."
Two massive steps took him to the door which fell open at the barest touch, "You wanna go then?"
Harry smiled, "Yeah."
Sliding on his shoes he scurried to join the black giant who placed one massive hand on his shoulder, "Hang on. First times always a bit rough."
"First time for wha…" he never got to finish, because somewhere between wha and t, Harry Potter disappeared.