When Hailey left the car, it was cold and it had started raining. Vernon pointed to a large rock out in the sea which had a miserable looking little shack on it, that Hailey was sure it looked ready to come down with just a gust of wind.

Vernon gleefully said, "Storm forecast for tonight." Hailey thought that it was pretty smart for Uncle Vernon. No one would ever think to go out to the shack in the middle of the storm.

They got on a boat that a toothless old man had leant to Uncle Vernon. It was freezing, with icy sea spray, and chilly winds whipping their faces. Hailey wished that she wasn't wearing a grey dress at the time.

She wasn't sure how long it took, but they eventually got to the shack. When they got inside, it smelt like seaweed, the wind whistled through gaps in the walls, and the fireplace was empty and looked damp.

They ate a bag of crisps and a banana, which Uncle Vernon called rations.

"Since you're so damn smart, try starting a fire for us." Vernon ordered, handing her a box of matches and the empty crisp bags. Hailey tried starting it, but since she was shivering, she couldn't strike the matches and she ended up making the crisp bags smoke and shrivel. He looked at his niece and cheerfully said, "You could use some of those damn letters, now, huh?" He was obviously in a good mood, thinking that his plan would work.

Aunt Petunia made a bed for Dudley with moldy blankets on the couch, while she and Vernon took the bed in the next room. Hailey ended up with a thin blanket and she had to find a soft spot on the floor that she could lay on. Her stomach was rumbling with hunger and the storm outside was raging on, which was two things that would make it difficult to fall asleep to.

She looked at the watch that was on Dudley's wrist which was dangling over the couch. She had ten minutes till her eleventh birthday and she watched as the time counted down to midnight. She couldn't help but wonder what the mysterious letter writer was doing or why they were writing to her.

She had five minutes to go and there was a creak outside. She pulled the thin blanket tighter to her and thought, the shack is going to fall in on us, right? She noticed that she had four minutes to go. She wondered if Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back and if she would be able to grab one. She had three minutes to go and heard the sea slapping hard against the rock. Two more minutes to go and she heard a funny crunching noise. Was that rock hitting the ocean? She thought and looked down at the watch. One minute to go. Maybe I should wake up Dudley to annoy him. She smiled at the thought and got on her knees. She was ready to grab his arm and shout at him to wake up.

Three…two…one.

BOOM!

The shack shivered and she looked over at the door. It sounded like someone had knocked on the door to come inside. Maybe it was thunder? She thought. No one would be brave enough to go out in the sea in this weather. She certainly wasn't brave enough to do it, even in the rain.

BOOM!

Dudley jerked awake, "Where's the cannon?"

Hailey stood up as Uncle Vernon ran in holding a rifle. Vernon shouted, "Who's there? I'm warning you! I'm armed!" He was trying to look intimidating, but it looked like he was the one who looked intimidated.

There was silence and

SMASH!

The door hit the ground and Hailey squeaked. She ran over and hid on the other side of the fireplace. She looked over the edge to see someone standing in the doorway. She can see that the giant man's face was hidden by scraggly hair and a wild, tangled beard. She averted her eyes.

"Sorry 'bout that," the man said gruffly and she looked over to see him put the door back on.

Uncle Vernon pointed the rifle at the giant. "I demand you to leave at once! You're breaking and entering."

"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," the man said. He reached over, grabbed the gun, bent it into a knot, and tossed it into the corner. He examined the room and his beetle eyes landed on Hailey. "Ah, there you are."

Hailey's heart was beating rapidly as looked over at the giant, confused. There she was? He was looking for her? She looked into the fierce, wild, shadowy man's beetle eyes to see that they were crinkled at the edges. Was this the mysterious letter writer? She realized she was shaking although she couldn't be sure if it was from nerves or the cold. She stepped away from the fireplace. "Here I am?"

The man turned his back to the Dursleys, "A very happy birthday to yeh." He started looking through his overcoat. "Got summat for yeh here—I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right." He took out a slightly squashed white bakery box and handed it to Hailey. She took it and with shaking fingers, managed to open the box. She saw that inside the box was a chocolate cake with the words Happy Birthday Hailey written in green icing.

She looked up at the giant tears, coming to her eyes, a little stunned at receiving a gift, even if was sat on. She managed to say, "I-I…th-thank…who are you?" She sat the box down on the coffee table.

The giant chuckled, "True. I haven't introduced myself. I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of The Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." He held out an enormous hand and shook Hailey's whole arm. "What about some tea, eh?" He rubbed his hands together and looked at the grate with the shriveled chip bags. He snorted and bent down to the grate. She watched his back and he leaned back. There was a roaring fire inside that instantly warmed Hailey.

Hagrid sat on the couch and began taking things out of his coat: a copper teakettle, chipped mugs, a few plates, a fire poker, a squishy packet of sausages, and a bottle of amber liquid which he took a swig of, before he started in on making the sausages.

Soon the hut was filled with the smell of cooking sausages, which stirred Hailey's hunger more and caused her stomach to rumble. It was silent in the hut as Hagrid slid the sausages off the poker onto a plate and Dudley fidgeted a little.

"Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley!" Vernon barked at his son.

Hagrid chuckled darkly, "Yer great puddin' of a son don't need anymore fattening up, Dursely." Hagrid gave the plate of sausages to Hailey, who took them gratefully and ate one.

She never tasted anything so good and she realized that since no one was explaining things, she had to say, "I'm sorry. I still don't know who you are."

Hagrid took a drink of his tea, "Call me Hagrid. Everyone does. I'm the groundskeeper at Hogwarts."

He said Hogwarts so casually, as if Hailey knew what that was. "I'm sorry. What's Hogwarts?" Hagrid looked shocked, "sorry?" she added quickly.

"Sorry?" Hagrid shouted and looked at the Dursleys who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them who should be sorry! I knew yer weren't gettin' yer letters, but not knowin' about Hogwarts? Did yeh wonder where yer parents learned it all?"

Hailey stared up at Hagrid, with wide eyes. "Learned what?"

"Learned what?" Hagrid thundered, "Now wait just one second!" He leapt to his feet and turned to the Dursleys, who cowered more into the wall if it was possible. "You mean to tell me that this girl doesn't know nothing—bout anything?"

Hailey thought that insulting her intelligence was going too far. She was quite intelligent since her marks were excellent. "That's not true. I'm very smart. I can do math and I know science. I even got a reward for getting the highest marks in my grade."

Hagrid waved his hand, "About yer world. My world. Our world. Yer parents' world."

Hailey was slightly intrigued with the thought of multiple worlds existing. "What world are you talking about?"

Hagrid looked at the Dursleys and boomed, "Dursley!" Hailey jumped a little at that and looked at Uncle Vernon who went pale and whispered something. Hagrid looked at Hailey who looked back at the giant. Hagrid was looking at her wildly. "But yeh must know about yer mum and dad. They're famous. You're famous."

The Potter girl stared up at the giant. "What? My—my mum and dad weren't famous, were they?"

Hagrid ran his hands through his hair, "Yeh don' know…yeh don' know." He looked at Hailey in bewilderment, "Yeh don' know what yeh are?"

Before Hailey could respond with "I know I'm a girl, if that's what you're asking," Vernon ordered, "Stop! Stop right there, sir! I forbid you from telling the girl anything!"

Hagrid turned to Vernon and spoke every syllable with rage, "Yeh never told her? Never told her what was left in the letter Dumbledore left fer her? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' yeh kept it from her, fer all these years?"

"When we took her in, we swore to stomp that nonsense out of her!" Vernon yelled. "I forbid you from telling her!"

Hailey looked at the Dursleys and Hagrid. "Keep from telling me what?" She figured out that when she was moved from the cupboard to Dudley's second bedroom, there was something that they were terrified of. Maybe what Hagrid and the Dursleys were arguing about had to do with this mysterious world that Hagrid was talking about. "Is it this mysterious world what has them scared?"

Hagrid turned to Hailey, "Hailey—"

"Stop! I forbid you!" Vernon yelled and Aunt Petunia gasped in horror.

Hagrid ignored them and continued, "Yer a witch."

"That's a rude thing to say to someone who you just met." Hailey was a little stunned about being called that since she thought she was being nice and hadn't done anything bad.

"It's the truth," Hagrid said. "You'll be a thumpin' good one if yeh trained up a bit."

Hailey looked at the Hagrid, confused. Trained up a little? "I'm just Hailey."

"Tell me "just Hailey", have yeh ever had summat strange happen to yeh?" Hagrid asked.

Hailey thought about the strange things happening to her. Once Dudley and his gang had pinned her to the ground and forcibly shaved her head to where her bangs covered her lightning bolt scar and had tufts of hair poking out. That night she was dreading going to school the next day and the next morning her hair grew back, in the same length it always was in. The other time, Petunia was trying to force her into an ugly light green sweater with red fluff balls and snowflakes that had smiley faces, and with every attempt, the sweater shrunk until it was small enough to fit a hand puppet. Petunia assumed it shrunk in the wash, but Hailey wasn't sure. The other thing was Aunt Marge's dog turning blue. The latest incident was with the Boa Constrictor and slowly she nodded. "So, I'm a witch?"

"Thought so," Hagrid said and reached in his coat. "I think it's time ter read yer letter." He took out the envelope that she had always wanted to read, but had it ripped out of her hands or destroyed before she could even grab it.

She didn't bother looking at the address and opened the envelope to read it.

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 H. 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 longer than July 31.

Yours Sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

Hailey had a bunch of questions spring to mind. Witches and wizards were real? What is Hogwarts? Magic is real? Am I really a witch? Were my parents a witch and wizard? How does one train to become a witch?

She always thought that witches and wizards only existed in fantasy, something that people can escape into, like the books that she read at the public and school libraries. Her aunt and uncle had forbidden her and Dudley to never watch fantasy movies for some reason, but that didn't stop her from hearing about them at school where classmates talked about the latest movies. She was sure that Dudley watched fantasy movies at his friends' house. There was one question that she asked, "What does we await your owl mean?"

Uncle Vernon stomped his foot, "she's not going! I refuse to let her be a part of that rubbish!"

It dawned on her that they knew. That "dangerous nonsense", "stomping the nonsense out of her", "part of that rubbish", getting mad over stuff like the glass disappearing at the zoo, the odd instances that she had no control over…

"You knew. It all makes sense now," she said, looking at the Dursleys.

"Of course I've known! How could you not be? My perfect sister being who she was! Mother and Father were so proud of her when she got that letter! It was always Lily that and Lily this! Instead I saw her for what she really was… a freak," Petunia ranted. "She would come home with her pockets full of frog spawn and turning teacups into rats. She and that god-awful boy would always play stupid tricks and show off! Then she met that Potter boy and then had you! I knew…I knew that you would turn out just like them! Abnormal! A freak just like them!" She took a deep breath, "And then she went and got herself blown up and we got stuck with you!"

Hailey was stunned to learn the real reason her parents died. She didn't mind being called a freak, because she heard worse from Dudley and his gang, but lying about how her parents died? "Blown up? You told me that they died in a car crash!"

Hagrid jumped up to glare at the Dusleys, "Car crash!" The Dursleys went back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter?

"We had to tell her something," Petunia said. "We couldn't have let her go on thinking that she was ours."

Hagrid continued, "It's an outrage! A scandal!"

"She's not going and that's final!" Vernon shouted, stomping his foot for emphasis.

"I suppose a great Muggle like yeh is goin' to stop her?" Hagrid said.

Hailey repeated, "Muggle?"

"It's what we call non-magic folk," Hagrid said. "Unfortunately, yeh got stuck with the biggest ones of all."

"I said she's not going! She's going to Stonewall and she's going to be grateful for it!" Vernon shouted, his face red.

"Yer mad if yeh think she's not going to stop her! Tryin' to stop her from going to the finest witchcraft and wizardry school in the world! She's going to be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has even known: Albus Dumble—"

"I will not be paying for some old crackpot to teach her magic tricks!" Vernon yelled one more time.

Hagrid took out a pink umbrella from his coat and swished it over his head. "Never insult Albus Dumbledore in front of me!" He pointed it at Dudley's back who was staring down at the chocolate cake and there was a flash of purple light. Dudley went face first in the cake and then he jumped up, grabbing his arse and started doing what looked like a jig. She saw that he had a pig's curly tail poking through his trousers.

Uncle Vernon roared and took Petunia and Dudley into the bedroom. The door slammed shut.

"I'll be grateful if you don' mention that to anyone." Hagrid said a little sheepish and Hailey nodded in agreement. "Good, now we have a busy day ahead of us. So, yeh better get some sleep."

Hailey went to take her spot on the floor, but Hagrid insisted that she sleep on the couch and gave her his overcoat to use as a blanket.

It was the warmest thing she ever had to a blanket. She was so excited about learning she was a witch, she didn't know how she was going to fall asleep, but somehow she did.

A/N: I was going to say to insert a line from Hagrid about she has her mother's hair and her father's eyes, but I realized that would've been a little jarring since it would've slowed it down a little and had no point in the chapter.