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Harry Potter/Granger and the Philosopher's Stone
And suddenly, the three Grangers (Well, two Grangers and one Potter) found themselves staring up at a tall man in a massive brown coat with a huge black beard, easily tall enough to touch the hall ceiling just by standing up.
"Ah, ye're in!" the man said, smiling brightly at Mrs Granger before he looked past her at the two children, who were staring at the 'giant' in shock, and grinned even wider. "Harry! There ye are!" He chuckled slightly as the nearly-eleven-year-old's eyes widened in surprise.
"Ye, I know you don't remember me, but I did last see yer when you was only a baby," the man explained as he walked into the house, smiling slightly as he got a closer look at Harry. "Ye look a lot like yer dad, but ye've got yer mum's eyes."
Harry's eyes widened.
"You… you knew my parents?" he asked, staring at the man in surprise. He loved the Grangers like they were his family, of course, but it didn't stop him from wondering what his birth parents had been like.
"'Course I knew 'em!" the giant smiled, before he glanced over at Mrs Granger. "Sorry to interrupt, Mrs Granger, but kin I come in? I've got a lot ter talk about, and it needs ter be said to all three of yer- I'm guessing yer husband's not in?"
Mrs Granger nodded, a slightly dazed expression on her face.
"C… come in, Mr…" she asked as she stepped aside.
"Rubeus Hagrid," the man said, smiling as he stepped into the hall (Harry and Hermione noted that their assumptions about his height were correct; his head nearly touched the ceiling). "Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts- don't worry, yer wouldn't know of it," he added, noting everyone's confused expressions. "I've got some stuff ter say that ye all may find hard to believe, but trust me; it's true."
He glanced around the house. "Anywhere in partic'lar we c'n talk?"
"Well… the kitchen seems best; Harry and Hermione were just starting breakfast," Mrs Granger said by way of explanation, as she indicated the room in question. "Uh… I'm not sure if any of our chairs will…" she began, before stopping; evidently, she wasn't sure how to phrase her comment without sounding insulting.
Hagrid, however, just smiled. "That'll support my weight?" he asked, smiling politely. "Eh, no worries; I'll just stand."
"Um… OK…" Harry said, as he and Hermione sat back down at the table to eat. "So… how did you know my parents?"
"As I said, I'm Keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts; it's the school that yer parents went ter," Hagrid explained, as Mrs Granger sat down beside her children, looking at Hagrid curiously. "Knew when they were there, and only got ter know 'em better after they left." He chuckled slightly, as though at a fond memory, as he looked at Harry. "They were great people, Harry; ye should be proud o' them."
"Really?" Harry asked, trying to conceal his eagerness to avoid hurting Mrs Granger's feelings; he was fairly sure she'd understand his desire to know, of course, but he still didn't want to hurt her feelings. "Uh… what were they like?"
Hagrid smiled slightly at that. "Simple question to answer, Harry," he said, as he looked at the young boy. "They were the best witch and wizard of their ages I've ever seen."
"Oh, and ye and yer sister should be brilliant too, once ye've spent some time at Hogwarts," he added, almost as an afterthought.
Harry was grateful he'd just swallowed his bacon before Hagrid had finished speaking; he'd most likely have choked on it from surprise at that last statement. Glancing over at Hermione, he noticed her coughing slightly, and gave her a hard thump on the back until she could breath again.
"Wh… what?" Mrs Granger spoke. Glancing over in her direction, Harry saw that his adopted mother was staring at Hagrid with wide eyes; she must have been as surprised at his statement as he was.
Hagrid just smiled at the three of them. "Yeah, I know it's a bit o' a surprise, but trust me; yer children are a witch nd a wizard," he smiled, as he reached into his pockets and pulled out two letters. "And thumpin' good 'uns, I'll wager, once ye've both been trained up a bit. Anyway, now I reckon it's time ye got yer letters."
Taking the letters from Hagrid, Harry and Hermione opened them with a confused glanced over at each other, took the paper inside out, and began to read.
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 Mr. Potter/ Miss Granger,
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 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
"Mr Hagrid, couldn't you be… well, making a mistake?" she asked the large man before her as politely as she could. "I mean, even if Harry's parents were a witch and a wizard, how could I be a witch? As much as I love Harry, I'm not his biological sister…"
"Oh, family don't matter to magic!" Hagrid smiled, indicating Harry. "I mean, Harry's mum was just as muggle as you, and she ended up being Head Girl o' Hogwarts when she graduated!"
"Really?" Hermione said, staring at Hagrid with a slight smile on her face, along with her typically eager-yet-inquiring expression that she always assumed when she wanted to know more about something, but Harry interrupted.
"Uh… what does it mean, they await our owl?" he asked in confusion.
"Oh yeah, I'll 'ave to remember ter attend ter that in Diagon Alley," Hagrid said, as he glanced over at Mrs Granger. "Would ye and yer husband be available ter come down ter London with the kids any time soon? They'll need ter pick up their school supplies, and-"
"Uh… Hagrid?" Harry put in, looking over at the giant with a slightly apologetic look. "I… you must have made a mistake. I mean, Hermione and I… we're just, well… us. We can't be… magic…"
Hagrid just chuckled slightly. "Can't be magic, eh? Ever made anything happen? Something you couldn't explain?"
Harry was about reply in the negative, but stopped himself as he thought back to his time in the Dursleys. Come to think of it, anything that had made them particularly angry at him had always occurred when he'd been upset or angry at them… That incident with the pot of boiling water (Funny what you remember after so long, Harry thought to himself) had occurred just after Aunt Petunia would only give him a lump of bread when she was preparing lasagna for Dudley…
And even since his adoption, whenever someone tried to pick on him or Hermione in school, he recalled that something always seemed to happen to them. One bully's hand had suddenly caught fire after grabbing Hermione roughly and trying to shove her to the side… another had been left dazed and confused when he tried to attack Harry up for not letting him cheat off Harry in a test, apparently just from making eye contact with Harry… And on this one occasion when a teacher had accused them of cheating and made them both sit a harder test, hadn't he ending up getting several drawing pins sticking into his legs when he sat down?
Glancing over at Hermione, he noticed a similar inspiration apparently striking her, and swallowed as they glanced back at Hagrid, who just chuckled slightly.
"See?" he said, apparently guessing their train of thought. "Not magical, indeed… just wait, you two'll be right famous at Hogwarts."
"What?" Hermione said, looking at Hagrid in confusion. "Famous? For what?"
"For what Harry did, o'course!" Hagrid said, smiling as he indicated Harry. Then his face fell as a thought occurred to him. "Oh, righ'… there's not been anybody ter tell ye, has there?"
"Tell me what?" Harry asked, looking at Hagrid curiously. "What did I do?"
Hagrid sighed as he looked around the room. "Well, I don't if I'm quite the one ter tell ye this, Harry, but ye can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowing…"
He swallowed as he looked around. "See- years 'n years ago, there was this wizard who went- bad. As bad as yer could get. Worse. His name was-" he shuddered slightly "-Voldemort."
He looked at the children nervously. "Don't make me say it again, Harry; nobody likes ter say it if they don't have ter. Anyway, he started ter gather some followers; either they wanted a bit o' his power, or they were just scared. Anyone tried ter stand up ter 'im… and 'e killed them. Died horribly, the most of 'em. Some places—Hogwarts, fer one-You-Know-Who couldn't get ter. E'eryone reckons Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of...
"Then there was yer parents, Harry. Don't know why he didn't try ter kill 'em earlier; probably s'pected they was too close to Dumbledore. He'da bin right too; they'd stopped some of his plans themselves at least three times already."
Harry swallowed slightly, only vaguely registering that Hermione had taken his hand and was giving it a comforting squeeze. As incredible as it was to finally hear something about his parents- apart from the occasional wild rant from the Dursleys that he'd never paid much attention to- it was still tempered by the fact that something terrible must have happened to them…
"Anyway," Hagrid continued, "one Halloween night, he came ter yer parent's hidin' spot. Anyway, he came ter yer house and fought yer parents. Put up a good fight too, from the looks o' the place. He 'n yer dad dueled. And You-Know-Who —"
Hagrid broke up as his shoulders shook for a moment, taking a large handkerchief out of his pocket and blowing his nose.
"Sorry," he said, looking at Mrs Granger sheepishly as she stared at him slightly critically after blowing his nose so loudly. "It's just… sad. His parents were some o' the nicest people I'd ever met, and You-Know-Who just… just killed 'em! He killed yer dad first- we think he put up a good fight, but we found yer dad on the ground floor, murdered… and we found yer mum up top, not two feet from you.
"You-Know-Who killed everyone 'e ever set out ter, but after he'd killed yer parents…. He turned his wand on you- nobody's really sure why. He cast the same curse that he'd used ter kill 'undreds of the best wizards in the world, yer mum and dad included—and it failed. From what Professor Dumbledore says, the curse backfired on him, just bounced righ' off o' yeh. That's the truly 'stoundin' thing—You-Know-Who, the most evil wizard o' all time, toppled by a little boy. He lost his powers, vanished—all you got was that scar on yer head."
Reaching up to his forehead with his free hand, Harry gently touched the scar on his forehead. At least that mystery was cleared up; he'd never understood how a car crash could give him a scar like that, no matter how often he'd read up on cars in his spare time…
Noting her brother's distraction, Hermione took up the questioning, looking inquiringly at Hagrid.
"And… what happened to Vold-" she began, but stopped when she saw Hagrid flinch. "Sorry, I mean, You-Know-Who, after he tried to kill Harry?"
"Good question, Hermione," Hagrid said, looking over at her with a slightly approving expression, evidently proud of her getting to the heart of the matter. "Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill Harry. Makes yer brother even more famous; nobody's really clear on how it happened, ter be honest.
"Some say he died; codswallop, in my opinion. Don't know if he had enough human left in him ter die. Most think he's still out there, somehow, but lost his powers; too weak ter carry on…"
Hagrid shrugged and looked over at Harry. "Anyway, that's not all that important now, is it? What I need ter know is, are the two of ye interested in going ter Hogwarts, or shall I just let Dumbledore know ye're not interested?"
Harry and Hermione looked over at each other for a few moments, and then Hermione shrugged.
"Well, we've already taken everything normal school has to offer us and come out on top; why don't we try something else?" she said casually, as she looked over at her brother.
Harry smiled back at her, and then glanced over at Mrs Granger.
"Well, Mum?" he asked, looking at her with a slightly hopeful expression. He'd really enjoy the chance to learn more about the world his parents came from and the school they'd gone to…
And, of course, the chance to learn something new and unexpected wasn't exactly unappealing to him either.
Mrs Granger looked at her two children's eager faces, and then glanced over at Hagrid.
"What are the school fees like?" she asked.
Hagrid smiled. "Oh, no need ter worry about that; James 'n Lily sent some money ter Hogwarts ter cover their kid's school fees as soon as they got hitched. Harry's fees are already paid up, 'n as for Hermione…"
He shrugged. "Well, they always wanted ter have another kid once the war was over; I'm sure they wouldn't mind the money they deposited fer that kid being used ter cover Hermione."
Mrs Granger sighed as she looked over at her children, and then smiled and looked back at Hagrid.
"Well, let's be off," she said, looking over at Harry and Hermione. "I'll call your father while you two finish breakfast; I'm sure we can reschedule a few appointments for an occasion like this."
"YES!" Harry and Hermione cried, leaping out of their seats and running over to hug their mother, Hagrid just smiling as Mrs Granger hugged her children back, a small smile on her face.