Author's Note:
Now, to be honest, I can't really take credit for a lot of this chapter. I've taken quite a bit straight out of Book 1. It's basically Chapter 4: The Keeper of the Keys with my OC in it.
Chapter 2
Brandon could hardly believe how far his father had gone to keep these letters from Harry. Here they all stood, on an island outside a pretty desolate looking shack, in some desperate attempt to lose someone that had an exact pinpoint location on them, judging by the addresses on the letters.
Granted, it was scary that whoever it was always knew where they were, but surely Vernon didn't actually think they could all live like this for any extended time period, away from any and all civilization. He would have to go back to work at some point.
Inside the shack were only two rooms. It was damp and smelly, but at least it was out of the weather for the most part. The roof kept the rain out, although the wind whistled between the gaps in the wooden walls. Still though, it was better than outside.
They all gathered round on the moth-eaten sofa, with Harry and Brandon each getting a spot on the floor, and Vernon gave them all their rations, which turned out to be a small bag of chips and a banana for each of them. After they'd all finished with their chips, he used the bags to try and light a fire, but they just smoked and shriveled up.
None of this seemed to bother him, however. "Sure could use some of those letters now!" he said very cheerfully.
Brandon and Harry shared a look. As far as they were concerned, Dudley had been right earlier that day: Vernon had gone mad.
When they settled in for the night, Vernon designated everyone's sleeping areas. He and Petunia would be sleeping in the bedroom, which they would get to themselves, Dudley would get to sleep on the sofa, and Harry and Brandon would be sleeping on the floor.
Petunia found a few ragged looking blankets in the bedroom. "There aren't enough for everyone, so you and Harry will have to share," she told her youngest son.
"That's fine," he told her.
She gave them the better of the two blankets than she gave to Dudley, both thicker and less ragged, to which Dudley complained, "Why do they get a better blanket than me?"
"Because you get the sofa and they're sleeping on the floor. Now don't ask questions, and let's try to go to bed," she told him firmly.
Dudley groaned miserably and rolled over on the sofa. Fortunately for Harry and Brandon though, he fell asleep fairly quickly, not leaving any time for him to try and get retribution or quietly steal the better of the two blankets.
Both Brandon and Harry lie awake on the floor though, watching the minutes pass by on the light up dial of Dudley's watch, where his arm hung down.
"You'll be eleven years old in just a few minutes, Harry," Brandon whispered to his cousin.
"Joy of joys, spending my eleventh birthday in a shack with this lot. Better than some birthdays I've had, I suppose," Harry said wryly.
The two of them watched the time slowly tick away to midnight. When there were only five seconds left to go, Brandon was ready to say, "Happy birthday!" as loudly as he dared, but just as the clock ticked to 12:00:00, a loud BOOM shook the whole shack. Was someone actually outside knocking to get in?
Harry and Brandon sat bolt upright, as they knocked again. BOOM!
"Where's the Canon?" Dudley said stupidly as he jerked awake on the sofa.
Vernon crashed through the door from the other room, holding a rifle in his hands of all things.
"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you, I'm armed."
The booming paused for a moment before - SMASH!
The door was hit with enough force to knock the whole thing clean off it's hinges. In the doorway stood a giant of a man, his face hidden mostly by a shaggy mane of hair and a wild tangled beard, but you could still see his eyes, glinting like black beetles.
He squeezed his way into the hut, stooping, and bent down to fit the door back onto its frame. He turned to look at them all and said, "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."
Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouched, terrified, behind uncle Vernon.
"An' here's Harry!" the giant exclaimed with a smile. "Las' time time I saw you, you was only a baby. Yeh look a lot like yer Dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes."
Vernon made a funny rasping noise before finding his voice, "I demand you leave at once sir! You are breaking and entering!"
"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," the giant said, reaching behind the sofa, grabbing the gun, which he proceeded to bend into a knot like it was made of rubber. This elicited another funny noise from Vernon, like a mouse being stepped on.
"Anyway - Harry," the giant began, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."
He pulled a large squashed box, which Harry opened to find a large sticky chocolate cake with the words Happy Birthday Harry written in green icing.
Harry might have said thank you, but clearly this was all a little too much for him to take and the words that came out of his mouth were, "Who are you?"
The giant then proceeded to introduce himself, "Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." Whatever that was. He then proceeded to make himself at home. He bent over the fireplace for a second and when he pulled back up, there was a roaring fire. He pulled all sorts of things out of the never-ending supply of pockets in his coat. Sausages, a kettle, several chipped mugs, and a poker. Soon the hut was filled with the sound and smell of sizzling sausage.
Brandon felt his mouth watering, and Dudley could be seen fidgeting behind their mother.
"Dudley, Brandon," Vernon began, "I don't want either of you touching anything he gives you."
"Yer great puddin' of a son, hiding behin' yer wife, don' need fattenin' anymore than he already is, Dursely, don' worry. The younger one here though, is almos' skinny as Harry here."
Hagrid passed Harry and Brandon the sausages. They were slightly burnt, but that didn't matter; the both of them were so hungry that they didn't think they'd ever tasted anything so wonderful.
Finally, after he'd eaten his share of sausages, Harry said to the giant, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."
"Jus' call me Hagrid. Everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts. O' course, yeh'll know all about Hogwarts."
"Er - no," Harry replied.
Hagrid was shocked. "But - blimey, Harry. Didn' yeh ever wonder where yer mum and dad learned it all?"
"All what?"
"ALL WHAT?!" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait here jus' one second." He turned on the Dursley's. "Now do you mean ter tell me, that this boy - this boy! - knows nothing abou' - about ANYTHING?!"
"Well, he can be a bit simple sometimes, but really that's going a bit far," Brandon put in teasingly.
"Tha's not what I mean. I mean about our world. About his parents' world," Hagrid said with a wave of his hand.
"What world?" Harry and Brandon asked simultaneously.
Hagrid almost exploded, "DURSLEY!"
Vernon only managed to mumble something that sounded like, "Mimblewimble."
"But Harry, yeh mus' know about yer mum and dad. They're famous. You're famous!"
"Famous?" Harry said disbelievingly.
"Yeh don' know . . ." Hagrid said bewilderedly. "Yeh don' even know what yeh are!"
"Stop!" Uncle Vernon shouted, having somehow found his voice again. "I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"
Hagrid stood, towering over the Dursley patriarch. "Yeh never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him! How could you keep that from him for all these years?!"
"Kept what from me?"
"STOP!" Vernon commanded. "I forbid you!"
"Yer a wizard, Harry."
At these words, a silence fell over the shack, broken only by the sound of the sea and rain outside, and the whistling wind.
"I'm a what?" Harry said bemusedly.
"A wizard, o' course," Hagrid said, sitting back down on the sofa. "An' a thumpin' good'un I'd wager, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' Dad like yers, what else could yeh be? An' I think it's time yeh read yer letter."
Hagrid pulled from one of his many pockets, an envelope, like all the others, addressed:
Mr. H. Potter
The Floor
Hut-on-the-Rock
The Sea
Harry read the letter quickly, and handed it over to Brandon, who took the time to quickly read:
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)
Dear Mr. Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you've been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed list of necessary books and equipment.
Term begins September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
"Now comes the hard part," Hagrid said grimly. "I don' imagine this'll be easy fer yeh ter accept, Dursley, but I've been told ter tell yeh, and yeh'll be needin' ter know. Yer young son Brandon 'ere is a wizard too."
"What?!" this time it was Petunia, who spoke. "No! That can't be!"
"He's like Lily was, Petunia. A wizard born of muggle parents."
"NO! Oh, Vernon!" she wailed. "No, you can't take my baby boy! I'll not allow him to go to that monstrous school!"
"He won' be goin'," Hagrid confirmed. "Not 'til nex' year at least. He's abou' a year younger than Harry here, righ'?
"I'll be ten on August seventh," Brandon put in.
"That means yeh'll be eleven by September first o' next year, which means that yeh can attend Hogwarts then."
"NEVER!" Vernon growled. "No son of mine will go to that - that - school!" He was almost panting for how angry he was, and Petunia actually was hyperventilating. "And Harry won't be going either!"
Hagrid scoffed, "An' I'd like to sea a great Muggle like yerself try an' stop him."
"There's that word again," Brandon said. "Muggle?"
"Muggle," Hagrid confirmed. "It's what we call non-magic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck that the two of yeh grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."
"We swore when we took him in that we'd put a stop to all that rubbish!" Vernon exclaimed. "And now he's gone and corrupted my son!"
"Tha's not the way it works yeh great idiot," Hagrid said.
"You knew," Harry spoke out, with far more venom than he would usually dare with his caretakers. "You knew all along that I'm a - a wizard? And you never told me?"
"Knew?" Petunia shrieked suddenly. "Of course we knew! And how could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got her letter and disappeared off to that - that school - and came home every vacation with pockets filled with frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was - a freak! But oh no! Mother and Father were so proud of having a witch in the family! Then she met that Potter at school and they got married and had you. And I knew you'd be the same, just as strange and - and abnormal! Then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up, and we got landed with you!"
"Blown up?" Harry said angrily. "You told me that my parents died in a car crash!"
"A CAR CRASH!" Hagrid boomed, jumping up so angrily and abruptly that the rest of 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 not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"
"Why would every child know Harry's name?" Brandon asked.
All anger faded from Hagrid's face, then. Suddenly he looked a bit anxious. "First off, yeh've got ter know I didn' expect any o' this, Harry. Dumbledore told me yeh might have trouble gettin' yer letter, 'cause o' this lot, but I had no idea how much yeh didn' even know. I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh, but someone's gotta. Yeh can' be goin' ter Hogwarts without knowin'." He threw a dirty look at the elder Dursleys with that statement.
"I'll tell yeh everythin' I can - mind - I can't tell yeh everything, some of it's a great mystery." He sat down again and stared at the fire before continuing.
"It starts with a person. Yeh wouldn' know his name - how could yeh? But it's a name everyone in our world knows, and fears. No one even says it if they can help it."
"Why not?" Harry asked.
"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went . . . bad. As bad as you can go. Worse. Worse than worse. And his name was . . ." The name seemed to catch in Hagrid's throat.
"Could you just write it down?" Brandon suggested.
"Nah," Hagrid said, "Can't spell it. Alright - Voldemort." Hagrid shuddered as he whispered the word.
"Voldemort?" Harry and Brandon asked together.
Hagrid looked like he might have a heart attack. "Don' say the name!"
The two cousins briefly shared a look as Hagrid pulled himself back together. "Anyway - this wizard, 'bout twenty years ago now, started gatherin' followers, some were afraid of him, others that wanted to share in the power he was gettin' for himself. Dark days, didn' know who to trust. Some stood against him - an' he killed 'em. Horribly. There weren' many safe places left. Hogwarts was one o' the few. Reckon Dumbledore was the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of.
"Yer mum an' dad were as good a witch as ever I met, he might've wanted 'em on his side, but never would have. They opposed him. So he showed up at the village where yeh all lived on Halloween ten years ago. Yeh were just a year old an' he - he - "
By this point, tears were rolling down Hagrid's cheeks and he pulled a dirty handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn. "I'm sorry," he said. "It's just so sad. Yer mum and dad - nicer people yeh couldn' find anywhere, an' You-Know-Who killed 'em." He paused momentarily to pull himself together, before continuing, "But the real mystery is that he didn' stop there. He tried ter kill you too. No one knows why, but for whatever reason, it didn' work. That scar on your forhead? That was no ordinary cut. Mark like that only comes from a powerful, evil curse. The same curse that killed yer mum and dad, an' even destroyed the house. That's why yer famous Harry. No one lived once he decided to kill 'em; he killed some of the best witches and wizards of the day, but he couldn't kill you."
Brandon looked over to his cousin, a sad, thoughtful look on his face, before Hagrid continued, "I took yeh from the wrecked house, myself, on Dumbledore's orders and brought yeh ter this lot."
"Load of old tosh!" Vernon said, getting another surge of courage. "I accept there's something strange about you, boy, and maybe Brandon too. But it's nothing that a solid beating can't cure. As for your parents, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world is better of without them, in my opinion - asked for all they got -"
At this point, Hagrid leaped out of the sofa and pulled a battered pink umbrella from the inside of his coat, which he pointed at Vernon like a sword. I warn you now, Dursley - I warn you - one more word . . ."
Vernon's courage died again and he went silent once more, cowering in the corner with his wife and eldest son.
"That's better," Hagrid said as he sat back down on the sofa.
Brandon's mind was still on Hagrid's story though, and he couldn't help but wonder -
"What happened to Vol -, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?" Harry said, voicing his cousin's thoughts.
"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night as when he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. An' that's the biggest mystery, see . . . He was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go?
"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. I dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. I reckon he's still out there somewhere, but lost his powers, too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him that night, Harry. No one knows what, but somethin' was goin' on that night that he didn' count on, an' you stumped him."
Brandon was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all this, so he was sure Harry definitely would be too, especially with the warm smile Hagrid was giving him, like he was some kind of saviour.
"Hagrid, I think you've made a mistake," Harry said finally. "I don't think I could be a - a wizard."
Hagrid chuckled at this, "Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"
Brandon had been about to express similar thoughts that he couldn't possibly be a wizard, but then he thought to some of the things that had happened in the past . . . .
When he was seven and Harry was eight, he overheard Dudley with his gang in his bedroom, talking - plotting really - how they were going to surprise Harry and beat him up together. This wasn't so unusual, but at the time, Dudley's gang had been being especially cruel to Harry, who was already bruised and hurting, and his parents didn't even seem to care. Brandon had been angry and without warning, the Door slammed shut jammed itself locked with them all inside it. Vernon had had to get a ladder to let the kids all out from a window and call a locksmith to replace the doorknob.
Another time, when Brandon was in school, Dudley and his gang had been giving him a hard time, which was unusual, because they usually left him alone, as his parents would actually get mad if they hurt him. He remembered looking at a fire alarm, wishing that it would go off, so that he could get away from them, and he watched in awe as the alarm seemed to pull itself and it did go off.
In fact, if he thought way back, when he had been only five, his mother had taken he, Harry, and Dudley to the park, and he had climbed to the top of the tallest slide in the playground, and jumped off, but landing safely on the ground below, almost seeming to float down. Harry had been too busy being tormented by Dudley for either of them to notice, but Petunia had, and she had had a fit. In his short years, Brandon had never seen his mother so angry. She had seemed so worried at the time. Had she suspected then, what he might be?
Hagrid's voice pulled him out of his own thoughts. "See? Harry Potter not a wizard - you wait, yeh'll be right famous at Hogwarts."
Vernon interupted then, clearly not ready to give up without a fight. "I told you, he's not going. He'll go to Stonewall High and he'll be gratefull for it. I've read that letter and he needs all sorts of rubbish - spell books and wands and -"
"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," Hagrid growled. "Lily and James' son not go to Hogwarts? Yer mad! His name's been down since he was born. He'll be at the finest school of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the world, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbled -"
"I WILL NOT PAY TO HAVE SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" Vernon yelled. "AND IF YOU THINK I'LL ALLOW MY SON TO ATTEND THAT JOKE OF A SCHOOL, YOU HAVE ANOTHER THING COMING!"
Hagrid looked angrier than ever as he rose from the sofa once again. "NEVER -" he thundered, "- INSULT - ALBUS - DUMBLEDORE - IN - FRONT - OF - ME!" He pulled out his umbrella once again and pointed it at Dudley, but glanced at Brandon at the last second before he actually did anything. He lowered the umbrella. "Be thankful that yer other son needs yer permision ter be able to attend Hogwarts, or I'd give yeh a lesson on what magic can really do."
"NEVER!" Vernon cried. "I WILL NEVER GRANT PERMISION!"
"Seems Dumbledore will have ter come have a talk with yeh himself at some point after all," Hagrid said sadly. "Perhaps he can explain better than I can, that Magic isn't something yeh can just make go away. It's part of who and what yeh are. He has to learn to control his magic, an' Hogwarts is the best place fer that."
"Poppycock!" Vernon yelled.
"I'm tired of listenin' ter yeh, Dursley, Why don't yeh go back ter bed?" Hagrid said with a yawn. "Unless yeh'd like that lesson on what magic can do, after all?" Hagrid made a point of brandishing the umbrella as he said that last.
"Fine," Vernon replied with as much defiance as he could muster. "And good riddance. Come on into the other bedroom, Dudley," he paused momentarily. "Brandon, you too."
"I'm fine, thanks, Dad," his son said angrily. "The freaks can stay out here, and Muggles in there."
"Brandon!" Petunia said mournfully.
To which Brandon replied, "How long have you suspected what I am, Mum?"
Her eyes fell to the floor.
"How long have you, suspected that I'm a freak, just like your sister?" He asked.
Vernon looked at his wife, wearing a confused expression. "What does he mean by that?" he asked her, but his wife did not answer, instead withdrawing into the bedroom, her eldest son following her, Vernon not far behind.
Once they disappeared behind the door, Harry asked Hagrid, "What's this part of the letter that says, "We await your reply by owl no later than July thirty-first?"
"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me!" Hagrid exclaimed, pulling a real, live, ruffled looking owl from his pocket. As well as a quill and a roll of parchment.
He hastily scrawled a quick note:
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
Given Harry his letter.
Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.
Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.
Hagrid
Hagrid rolled up the bit of parchment and tied it to the owl's leg, then proceeded to open the door and throw it out into the storm.
"That explains what Dad thought he was doing," Brandon said suddenly. "He thought that if you didn't get a reply by the end of the day on the thirty-first - today - it would be too late, and Harry wouldn't be able to go to the school."
Harry looked at him with wide eyes. "Of course! That explains the mad chase Dad led us on up and down the country!"
"Right," Hagrid said. "Well, anyways, we'd best be getting some shut-eye. Busy day tomorrow, Harry. Got ter get ter town, buy yer books an' all that."
"What about me?" Brandon said. "Dad will never let me go to Hogwarts. What can I do?"
"I'll tell Dumbledore 'bout the situation when I see him, an' he'll probably come himself at some point before nex' term ter sort things out with yer parents," Hagrid said reassuringly. "He'll be a lot better at gettin' through ter 'em than I am."
"Is it usual for the Headmaster to get involved in this sort of thing?" he asked the giant.
"I woudn' say it's usual," Hagrid said, scratching his beard. "Normally that'd be summat Professor McGonagall would handle, but these aren' the usual circumstances. Fer starters, yeh're the cousin o' Harry Potter, and yer parents are the most stubborn Muggles I ever had the displeasure o' meetin'." He quickly threw in, "No offense to you o' course."
"None taken," Brandon replied.
"An' as great a witch and as qualified as she is, I don' think Professor McGonagall has the patience to deal with the Dursleys. I know I sure don'."
Brandon nodded his understanding, but still seemed worried.
Hagrid took off his massive, thick black coat and tossed it to them. "Here, yeh can both kip under that." He told them. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit. I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."
Author's Note: There you have chapter 2. I have three more chapters already written out, but I'll probably wait a bit before I post anymore than this. Enjoy.