"CHAPTER FOUR THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS" Amelia read
Sirius, shouted "HAGRID" he smiled, and punched he two friends in the arms, the both smiled with him. Harry and the rest of the kids who would soon be going to Hogwarts turned and looked at him, clearly wanting an explaintion. Remus flicked his over to Ameila who nodded.
" Well Hagrid, is the Game-keeper at Hogwarts. He tends the grounds, he is half giant. He is really friendly, and a great friend. Although i wouldn't trust his cooking" Remus explained, he smiled at the meomory of the first time they went down to for tea with him. He put a plate of out scones, he tried to hold his laughter in as Sirius tried to eat one whole and nearly choked. Remus missed his school days, life had been so much easier then. And now he would be responsible for a ten year old boy. He was filled with pride and terror at the idea. He looked at Harry, then to his own son from the future. Teddy looked healthy and happy. But he was sure that was mostly due to the boys mother care. He was also looking for any signs that the boy transformed, at the full moon.
"cool" choursed all the kids
"Mum, why would Hagrid, be coming to see me?" asked Harry, Lilly looked at her son.
"Im not sure darling, it might have something to do with you going to get your school things. At least i hope it is" Lilly looked at Dumbledore, who nodded. Yes it would seem likely he would have asked his friend to collect Harry and make sure he got everything he needed.
BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. "Where's the cannon?" he
said stupidly.
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!
All the kids laughed at this, the was also a calls of Awsome, and thats cool and a very loud YES that came from sirius. Meanwhile all the other adults smiled. The dursely looked horrfied. Dudely glung closer to his mother.
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 outside 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..."
McGonagall shook her head and smiled, she genuienally liked Hagrid, this was so typical of him
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 Harry!" 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, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a
lot like yet dad, but yeh've got yet mom's eyes."
Harry stole a glance at his parents, he had alwasy liked his eyes. And now he knew where they came from. He was so pleased. That something of his parents had survived in him. Ron and Hermione both smiled an nodded to him to confrim it was true. All three of them smiled. Lilly and Prongs watched them. And felt a little bit of piece creep in, their son would have friends, who truely cared for him.
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," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "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."
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 written on it in
green icing.
Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words
got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "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.
"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together.
"I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."
His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and
he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he
was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire
there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt
the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.
The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and
began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a
copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several
chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from
before starting to make tea. Soon the hut was full of the sound and
smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was
working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."
The giant chuckled darkly.
"Yet great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don'
worry."
He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted
anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the
giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said,
"I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."
The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his
hand.
"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm
Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.
"Er - no," said Harry.
Hagrid looked shocked.
"Sorry," Harry said quickly.
"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
gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou'
Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet 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.
"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy -
this boy! - knows nothin' abou' - about ANYTHING?"
Nearly every face in the room turned to glare at the Dursely's still trapped in their magical cage. Each person was having their own reaction to this news
Lilly got up and walked over to the cage she moved her hand to her wand to removed the cage, but it wouldn't budge, she turned her eye to her gran-daughter with a slient plea for her help, Lilly Luna got up to stand next to her Gran mother. Together in perfect sync they removed the cage.
They heard Prong commemt " amazing arent they. Thats my girls" they heard a quiet laugh and sirius reply " yeah mate, wouldn't want to piss them off though" and a few more snickers round the room.
Both Lilly's pointed their wands at the Dursely's Lilly Luna watcher her gran-mother look at Petunia the woman looked white, and the fear on her face was radiating off her.
"you never told my son, what he was?" she asked coldly, the other woman shook her head.
"you treated my son so badly because of who he is, and where he came from" is wasnt a question but a statement. Petunia nodded.
"Why? Lilly asked, he voice held pure rage now. The other woman just looked at her sister, but didnt speak. Lilly moved to slap her sister. When Severus moved quickly to her side.
" Lilly, dont, allow me" he said. Petunia looked perterifed. She wondered breifly if this man she had tried so hard to forget would actually hit her.
Snape, lower his eye to meet hers, and porbed her mind. He wondered through her memories. Seeing hiself and Lilly as children. He read her feelings about her sister. The pain, angery and jealously. And the resentment she felt for Harry. Snaped pulled back out of her mind.
Lilly looked him expectantly.
"she is jealous, she wanted to be magical, she missed you when you left to go to school, she felt like she lost her sister they day your letter came. Harry reminders her of all that pain, over the years she turned bitter, when Harry was left on her door step, it opened all her old wounds" Snape explained
He then turned to Dumbledore "Headmaster, it should be noted with the minstrey, she is a squib, and so is her son." Lilly looked like she was going to fall to her knees, Snape put his arms round her, and gently pulled back to the seat he was sharing with her and her husband. Prongs looked at Snape and nodded. It was the most civial thing Jamse Potter had ever done to Severus. While Snape was taking her Grand-mother bck to her seat, Lilly-Luna cast the charm back round the Dursely's giving them a death glare. She sat with her brother who then wrapped his arm round her.
Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after
all, and his marks weren't bad.
"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff." But
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.
"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're
famous. You're famous."
"
What? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"
"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, sit! I forbid you to tell the
boy 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 him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore
left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An'
you've kept it from him all these years?"
"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.
"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.
Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.
"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry - yet a
wizard."
There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind
could be heard.
"- a what?" gasped Harry.
"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which
groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un, 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 read yer letter."
Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope,
addressed in emerald green to
Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock,
The Sea. He pulled out the letter and 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,
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
Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't
decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does
it mean, they await my owl?"
"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 that Harry could
read upside down:
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 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.
Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.
"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still
ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.
"He's not going," he said.
Hagrid grunted.
"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.
"A what?" said Harry, interested.
"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like thern.
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 him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said
Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"
"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a - a wizard?"
"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!"
Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown
up? You told me 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 not knowin' his
own story when every kid in our world knows his 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 gettin' hold of
yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right
person ter tell yeh - but someone 3 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? "
"Well - I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."
"Why not?"
"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 gettin'
himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust,
didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... terrible
things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him -
an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was
Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of.
Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.
"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew.
Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why
You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before... probably knew
they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the
Dark Side.
"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em
outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where
you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old.
He came ter yer house an' - an' -"
Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew
his nose with a sound like a foghorn.
"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer
people yeh couldn't find - anyway..."
"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is the real myst'ry of
the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of
it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no
ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a Powerful, evil curse touches
yeh - took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't
work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after
he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the
best witches an' wizards of the age - the McKinnons, the Bones, the
Prewetts - an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."
Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story
came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more
clearly than he had ever remembered it before - and he remembered
something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel
laugh.
Hagrid was watching him sadly.
"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought
yeh ter this lot..."
"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost
forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to
have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were
clenched.
"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something
strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured
- and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no
denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion -
asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types -
just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"
But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink
umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a
sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley -I'm warning you - one more
word... "
In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant,
Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the
wall and fell silent.
"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on
the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the , meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.
"But what happened to Vol-, sorry - I mean, You-Know-Who?"
"Do not be afraid to say his name Harry, Fear of a name, only increases fear of the thing itself, this is one of Voldermorts, most powerful tools" Dumbledore explained
The rest of the room shuddered at the sound of Voldermorts name, poor Neville sunk closer to the wall, he had been sitting close to, until Luna put her hand on his. This small piece of comfort was enough to encourage Neville to move closer to the girl. Something about his girl. Made him feel braver than he was.
The Malfoy's had a strange reaction. Although Lucious had been in his inner circle he hadn not enjoyed it. He was in constant fear for his life and that of his wife and son. Draco looked whiter than normal. He reached fro his mothers hand. Tonks curled closer to her mother. Hermione, Ron and Harry shuddered, and almost right away they found two sets of arms round them, Prongs and Lilly pulled all three children onto their laps, and simply held them.
"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter
kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see...
he was gettin' more an' more powerful - why'd he go?
"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough
human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his
time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back
ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don~ reckon they
could've done if he was comin' back.
"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers.
Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry.
There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on - I dunno
what it was, no one does - but somethin' about you stumped him, all
right."
Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but
Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had
been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd
spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and
Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned
into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If
he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley
had always been able to kick him around like a football?
"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I
don't think I can be a wizard."
To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.
"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or
angry?"
Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it... every odd
thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had
happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry... chased by Dudley's
gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach... dreading going
to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow
back... and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa
constrictor on him?
Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively
beaming at him.
"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait, you'll be
right famous at Hogwarts."
But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.
"Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall
High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters 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," growled
Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter' s son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad.
His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest
school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he
won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a
change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had
Albus Dumbled-"
"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL To TEACH HIM
MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.
But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled
it over his head, "NEVER," he thundered, "- INSULT- ALBUS -DUMBLEDORE IN-FRONT- OF- ME!"
He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley
- there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a
sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with
his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned
his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in
his trousers.
A few giggles could be heard around the room, Dumbledore's eyes twinked and he shook his head in amusement. He knew Hagrid was loyal to him. But it was nice to hear
Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other
room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door
behind them.
Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.
"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work
anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like
a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."
He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.
"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he
said. "I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was
allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff
- one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job
"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.
"Oh, well - I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er - got expelled, ter
tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an'
everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man,
Dumbledore." "Why were you expelled?"
"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid
loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."
He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.
"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I
think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets."
"That is the end of the chapter" Amelia said with relief. She didnt want to hear anymore about, the death of her child and his wife.