Chapter 2: Meeting Hagrid
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30 July. 23:59. In a minute, Harry Potter would turn eleven.
A terrible storm was raging outside the window. The storm was pounding the walls of the dilapidated shack with all its fury. It seemed that if it hit a little harder, the house would collapse. But it was an illusion, the storm was gaining and gaining momentum, and the house stood, and its efforts caused only a terrible rumble. But this rumbling did not prevent the temporary occupants of the hut from sleeping.
A married couple slept restlessly on one bed in a separate room. The couple had terrible dreams. They were caused by the same reason - mysterious letters addressed to their nephew. Vernon and Petunia were terribly afraid of mysterious things that might become part of their lives.
In the next room two boys, who were cousins to each other, were sleeping. One of them lay under a mat in the far corner. The other, having taken the pillow and blanket from the first boy, lay in the centre of the room. He had one pillow wedged in his legs, was covered with two blankets, and lay on another pillow. Physical comfort, however, failed to affect spiritual comfort. Dudley, and that was exactly what he was, was in severe suffering, by his standards. He had missed a number of television programmes he had intended to watch, the food was faded and unpalatable, there was little entertainment, and his parents did not spoil him much either: his mother was too strict with him, and his father was obsessed with some kind of persecution.
The only happy creature in the house, however, was Harry Potter. He had only been this happy once, on his eighth birthday. Although, looking at his appearance, it was hard to come to that conclusion. He was dressed in old baggy clothes that belonged to his cousin Dudley. Harry hadn't taken it off this night, as the house was cold and the rug Harry was covering himself with didn't give him enough warmth, though it was extremely comfortable.
Harry Potter had a scar on the right side of his neck, a burn on his chin, messy dishevelled hair, he was also extremely thin due to constant malnutrition. However, despite his appearance, Harry Potter slept with a smile on his face.
There were many reasons for his good mood: the absence of Pierce and his gang; the terrible storm outside his window, which would make the person who sent Harry letters definitely unable to find him; the hermitage surrounded by water, which Harry liked the fact that there would be no other people around. Harry Potter allowed himself to dream that when he grew up, he would buy this house and live in it all alone. Yes and he was having exceptionally good dreams right now, a few minutes ago the dream had changed again. Harry began to dream about being given a cupcake for his birthday.
Unfortunately, Harry would not be able to enjoy the imaginary cupcake. Exactly twenty-two seconds later, and already twenty-one seconds later, the door would shudder open with the impact of one half-giant who, contrary to Harry's hopes, managed to find him after all.
Dudley Dursle's electronic clock showed four zero. Immediately there was a loud bang on the door, waking everyone in the house.
- Where's the gun? - Dudley, who was still awake, asked with a silly look.
Uncle Vernon, who was breathing heavily, quickly ran up to him with a gun in his hands, it was not entirely clear where he had got the gun from, but the speed with which it had happened meant that the man was prepared for this turn of events. He pointed the gun at the door and took a step back.
- Who's there? - Uncle Vernon shouted. - I'm warning you, I'm armed!
With a loud crack, the door flew off its hinges and fell into the house. A huge giant walked into the cabin. Harry had never seen such a large man before, and it was the kind of thing that inspired fear with its appearance, so he huddled in a corner in terror and hid completely under his blanket rug. Potter was sure it was this giant that was sending him letters.
Maybe if he didn't notice him, he'd leave?
- Well, why don't you make some tea, eh? It is not easy to reach you, yes... I am tired...' said the giant.
Without waiting for an answer, he looked round at everyone in the hut, came up to Dudley and asked him:
- 'Are you Harry? I had a slightly different impression of you. A little skinnier. Oh, well. Here's your letter, it's time you read it.
With those words, the giant handed Dudley the letter. At least that's what Harry thought, who was lying under the carpet and could see nothing, barely moving with terror.
He was right! The giant was really looking for him! What should he do? Something urgent must be done.
Harry quietly peeked out from under the rug. As if in slow motion, Potter watched the look of understanding on Dudley's face.
- I'm not Harry, Harry over there,' his cousin said, pointing a finger at the corner.
Harry felt his hands trembling. There was no way out. He watched with bated breath as the giant slowly approached him.
- There's our Harry! - said the giant cheerfully. - The last time I saw you, you were just a baby.
'Our' Harry looked for a way out. He wanted to jump out the window, but he remembered that there was water all around, and nowhere to go. When the giant came close to Harry, he finally found the strength to act, so he quickly jumped up and ran to the other corner, closer to Uncle Vernon and his gun.
The giant thought this behaviour strange. He stopped, thought of something in his head, and then said:
- Harry, you need not fear me, I am Hagrid, keeper of the keys of Hogwarts.
Don't be afraid? Yeah, no shit.
- I brought you a present, here,' Hagrid handed him some kind of box.
At the same time, taking advantage of the fact that the giant's attention was focused on Harry, Petunia grabbed Dudley by the arm and ran off with him into the next room.
Potter looked at the box with fear, it looked rather ordinary, but that meant nothing at all! If he had been afraid of the giant before, now he was in outright terror. A gift? Definitely a trap! Pierce had given him tea first, too.
He hid behind Uncle Vernon's back.
- Shoot! - Harry whispered faintly to him. He didn't want the giant to hear him.
Uncle Vernon, however, took no action. Harry looked at him in surprise, he had thought the man was his ally in this confrontation. But it turned out that the latter was just as much a victim, he feared the giant almost as much as the boy himself.
- Harry, don't run away from me, I won't hurt you,' Hagrid handed him the ill-fated envelope. - 'Take the letter. I promise, if you don't want to, you don't have to go to school.
'If you don't want to, you can choose not to' sounded good, almost too good to be true, but at the same time good enough to believe it.
Harry approached cautiously and, taking care not to touch Hagrid's hands, took the envelope.
Taking a couple of steps back, he opened the envelope and took out a letter.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Commander of the Order of Merlin First Class, Grand Wizard, Supreme Wizard, President of the International Confederation of Wizards).
Dear Mr Potter!
We are pleased to inform you that you have been granted a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please see the attached list of required books and items.
Classes begin on the 1st of September. We look forward to receiving your owl no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonagall, Vice Principal!
Harry didn't even bother to read the list. A very stupid attempt to lure him out of the house.
- What kind of nonsense is this? If you want to hit me, hit me, but you can't trick me! - Harry said loudly, daring Harry to speak up.
Hagrid looked at the boy with more horror than he looked at the giant, despite his ostensible bravery.
- Harry... What are you talking about? Don't you know? You're a wizard! - Hagrid said cautiously.
- Very plausible! - Harry said sarcastically.
He realised that the giant could crush him with one hand, but he was determined not to let himself be fooled. He was never good at fighting back against bullies, the only thing he was good at was not letting himself be fooled.
- Wait, wait, Harry! Do you remember any strange things that happened to you when you were upset or angry? - Hagrid asked hastily.
Harry thought for a moment. There had indeed been such an occasion. Dudley had ripped up his homework notebook right in front of his teacher, for which the woman, instead of punishing Dudley, had punished Harry. She refused to believe that it wasn't Potter himself who had done it, in order to disguise the fact that he hadn't done his homework. Harry was very upset, and it just so happened that he had somehow dyed her hair pink. All his classmates laughed the whole lesson, and the cherry on the cake was that the dye wouldn't wash off for some reason, and that teacher got fired from her job the next day for coming to school looking inappropriate. The principal didn't seem to like her much either.
From that day on, pink became Harry's favourite colour. Every time he spotted it somewhere, he remembered the feeling of joy he had felt at no longer being the outcast of the collective for a small amount of time. Even Dudley had gained a little respect, stopped hitting him and bullied him only spitefully... True, a month later Piers had come along and everything had changed.
For a moment Harry allowed himself to believe he was a wizard. And then he was immediately angry with himself for it. Why then, after another round of torture, had he not been able to heal his leg with magic? Then he would have been able to go to the zoo for Dudley's birthday for the first time in his life. Or when Dennis burned his chin... Why didn't he turn into a toad, Harry had strong emotions too? But there was still the incident with the teacher's hair... and there was no way to explain it.
We need proof.
- Are you a wizard? - Harry asked Hagrid.
- Erm... Something like that,' the giant hesitated.
- Prove it! - demanded the boy.
- But, Harry, there'll be plenty more demonstrations at Hogwarts,' Hagrid tried to dodge.
- Prove it! Or I'm not going anywhere! - Harry was adamant.
He really wasn't going to leave even after the proof, but still.
- Don't you dare! No magic in my house! - came a voice.
Harry looked at Uncle Vernon in surprise. He had already forgotten about the fact that it wasn't just him and Hagrid in the house. Vernon had been silent the whole time Harry needed help, and had only raised his voice when it was about something strange. Harry disliked Uncle Vernon even more, he hated him more than he hated Petunia and Dudley. He decided to ignore his words now, feeling a little encouragement from the giant, which he turned to again.
- Come on, if you want me to go to this Hogwarts of yours, then prove to me that magic exists.
Hagrid looked around the house, searching for something to enchant. His gaze stopped on the fireplace, which Vernon was unsuccessfully trying to melt with bags of crisps.
- You just don't tell anyone, okay? - Hagrid asked and, without waiting for an answer, continued: - 'I'm going to use magic to light the fireplace.
- No!' Harry exclaimed, fearing the consequences. For a second a picture appeared before his eyes of a huge fire from the fireplace coming over him. - 'No fire. Let's have something else.
- If you get that thing in here, I'm not responsible for myself,' Vernon said loudly.
With shaking hands he pointed the gun at Hagrid. He abruptly pulled out a pink umbrella from somewhere. A red flash flashed.
'Fire?!' - Harry thought with horror. After a moment, however, the flash disappeared and he saw Uncle Vernon lying unconscious on the floor.
That was the proof.
It seemed to Harry as if an explosion had gone off in his head. Magic is real! The giant is a wizard. He's a wizard too! Harry looked at the pink umbrella with admiration and wild joy.
- When can I get one of these things? - Harry asked, looking at the umbrella in awe.
- Did you believe it? Great! - Hagrid glared. - You can't get an umbrella like that anywhere else, but you can get something better in Diagon Ally, you can buy a wand!
Harry remembered the magicians who came to their school waving their wands and shouting something like, 'Hocus Pocus.'
Potter cringed. That kind of magic didn't really appeal to him.
- Isn't there any way to get an umbrella like this? - Harry asked.
- No, I'm the only one who has it. Why do you like it better than a wand? - Hagrid wondered.
- It's pink,' Harry replied briefly.
Hagrid looked at him with a little surprise.
- 'Well, let's go to sleep, or your relatives will be here soon, or that one will wake up,' Hagrid said, nodding at Uncle Vernon. - And I don't think you'd want to have to explain yourself to them as much as I do.
Sleep was indeed needed, even despite the boost of happiness associated with the discovery of magic.
Harry took Dudley's bedding and, trying not to think about the discovery that had fallen on his head, went to sleep in the far corner. Maybe if he went to bed quickly, none of this would be lost tomorrow?
Before going to bed, Hagrid took Uncle Vernon's gun and gave it a hard bend.
- Just in case he wants revenge,' Hagrid explained.
Harry didn't hear him, however. With a smile on his face, he slept with his head tucked into his pillow. It was his happiest birthday ever!
* * *
Harry woke up to a terribly annoying knocking on the window. He tried to ignore it for a couple of minutes, because he wanted to sleep badly, since Harry hadn't had much sleep since Hagrid's arrival last night, or rather tonight. However, the knocking still didn't stop.
The boy got up and found an owl with an envelope in its beak at the window. Harry wasn't even surprised, surprisingly the events of the night somehow fit too well in his head, and so did the arrival of the bird. He calmly opened the window, allowing the living creature to fly into the room and quickly flew up to Hagrid.
'Great, let him deal with her,' Harry thought and walked back to his sleeping place.
- Pay her,' Hagrid muttered in a disgruntled voice.
Apparently the owl was disturbing his sleep as well.
- I don't have any,' Harry replied and without wasting any time, he lay down on his bed to fall asleep instantly.
An hour or two later, he was woken up by Hagrid.
- Wake up Harry, we have some shopping to do,' a voice broke through his sleep.
Taking Potter's mumbling as agreement, Hagrid went back to his work.
The boy stood up and started looking for his clothes. After searching for a minute or two, he remembered that he had gone to bed with his clothes on. Harry mentally slapped himself on the forehead. Well, what was there to say? Stupidity.
As Harry was leaving the hut, the door behind him slowly opened and then abruptly closed. The boy had time to turn around and spot Aunt Petunia.
'Checking to see if we've left,' he realised.
Hagrid was already sitting in the boat. He tried to take Harry's hand to help him climb over the side, but he bounced off in a flash, yanking his hand away.
- Hagrid, can you please not touch me,' Harry tried to calm his pounding heart, the simple attempt knocking him off balance. - 'Let me get in the boat myself and you sit on the other end.
- Uh... Okay, Harry,' Hagrid stretched out uncertainly.
By the time they reached the shore, Harry had learnt the answers to all his questions. Who were his parents, and what had become of them? Why couldn't Voldemort kill him? Who was Albus Dumbledore? When will he be able to cast spells? What spells are there? How does studying at Hogwarts work? Who are muggles? And so much more.
Harry even stopped fumbling when Hagrid looked at him, but he still wouldn't let him touch him.
All in all, Harry got a lot of information that was very useful and interesting to him. There are four faculties at Hogwarts: for cunning dark wizards, Slytherin; for the clever, Ravenclaw; for the friendly, hardworking and honest, Hufflepuff; and for the brave, loyal, noble fighters against dark wizards like his parents, Gryffindor.
Harry suspected that Hagrid's opinion was somewhat biased, the man had been too flattering about Gryffindor and negative about Slytherin. 'If Slytherin is a faculty for dark wizards, why hasn't it been removed yet?'
Harry doubted he was friendly or even brave, but he didn't have any knowledge of the magical world either, and going to the faculty of the one who had killed his parents (a story Hagrid had told Potter only after he repeated his question for the third time) was not something he wanted to do. So the boy decided that it would be necessary to clarify the moment of distribution by faculties.
Harry learnt that there was some kind of spell of defence against fire, but he would not be learning it for a while yet, according to Hagrid's stories. The giant had reacted rather strangely to the request to teach him this spell. Potter assumed that Hagrid didn't know it himself. It seemed the boy would have to overtake the school curriculum to learn these spells on his own. Or ask someone. There would probably be other wizards there, after all.
Also Harry, to his horror, learnt that at the Dursleys' house he would not be able to witch until he came of age, as his house would be monitored by the Ministry of Magic. The only way of possible witchcraft without repercussions, however, was through magical discharge. But Hagrid said that it would be impossible to create it on purpose anyway. However, Harry decided not to despair and somewhere to buy literature to study this issue. By the way, where are all these books sold? Something Harry did not remember that in the shops he met something about magic. He would have noticed. Probably.
- Hagrid, can I ask you another question? - Harry asked for the umpteenth time.
- Let's go with the last one. We're almost there and we need to hurry since we got out late,' Hagrid replied.
Harry thought for a moment. The last question should be spent on something important, something he could ask another time. He thought of all the questions he wanted answered and finally chose the most interesting one.
- How do the Dursleys get back? - Harry asked his question.
- What do you mean? - Hagrid didn't understand.
- Well, they and I got to the hut on the boat that you and I are sailing back on now. So the question I'm wondering is, how are they going to get off the island? - Harry explained.
Hagrid said nothing. As he rowed, he stared thoughtfully into the void. The longer he thought, the more nervousness showed on his face. Even though Harry didn't get an answer to his question, he was satisfied.
Finally, they sailed in.
- Harry, don't tell anyone that I showed you magic. And about the Dursleys too,' the half-giant said, walking down the ferry.
- 'No, Hagrid, I'll be as quiet as a fish,' Harry replied honestly. Not that he had anyone to tell.
They walked for about fifteen minutes. Then they got on the Underground and quickly got off at a station that Harry had forgotten the name of as soon as he heard it. Harry was used to the underground, even though there were a lot of people here, but they all didn't care about the boy.
It was different on weekday mornings when the crush is heavy. Good thing it was summer and the Underground was almost empty.
While Hagrid was admiring the travelling staircases, Harry decided that he had forgotten about the 'last question' and now he could ask him something else:
- Hagrid, where exactly are we going?
- There's a place in the centre of London. A bar called the Hole Cauldron, it's invisible to Muggles. There's a passageway into the wizarding world. I'll show you,' Hagrid replied.
They stepped out of the Underground and almost immediately stopped outside a tiny, unassuming bar.
- Here we are,' Hagrid said. - 'The Hole Cauldron.'
The bar was very dark and, to Harry's delight, not very crowded. However, when he and Hagrid entered, everyone in the bar stared at them. Harry's heart sank into his heels.
The bartender reached for his glass with the words:
- The usual for you, Hagrid?
Harry exhaled. People are looking at Hagrid, not him.
- 'I can't, Tom, I'm here on Hogwarts business,' Hagrid replied and clapped Harry on the shoulder.
- Goodness gracious,' the bartender said, looking at the boy intently. - 'Is that... Is that... is that... Harry Potter!
'Oh no! Not again!'
Harry took a couple of steps back in horror. Now everyone was looking at him. The people who had been sitting in their seats a few seconds ago quickly approached him. They spoke almost simultaneously:
- Great honour, Mr Potter.
- Doris Crockford, Mr Potter. I can't believe I've finally met you!
- Welcome home, Mr Potter. Welcome home.
- I'm happy, Mr Potter, I can't tell you how happy I am. My name is Dingle, Daedalus Dingle!
- I've always wanted to shake your hand... I'm shaking all over.
Harry was thrashing around in a panic, all avenues of retreat closed. There were hands everywhere, presented to him to shake.
Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and fell into the saving darkness.
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