**BOOOM! **
The hut shaked again. Dudley flinched and woke up immediately.
"Where is that cannon?" Uncle Vernon asked dumbly.
Behind them, they heard banging, and uncle Vernon and aunt Petunia pushed into the room. Uncle Vernon was squeezing a rifle in his hands, now, not just Harry and uncle Vernon know what was in that box, but so do aunt Petunia and Dudley.
"Who's there?!" Uncle Vernon yelled. "I'm warning you - I'm armed!"
There was silence for a while. And then.
Another- BOOM!
Something pushed at the door with so much force it flew out of the hinges and heavily fell to the floor.
Harry immediately noticed the person at the door, it indeed is Hagrid! Harry is suppressing his smile, he's glad to meet him again. But he can't reveal that he knows Hagrid, becuase nobody knows that Harry somehow timetraveled, and he can't tell anyone, not yet atleast.
Hagrid, despite his looks, is a really kind and caring person.
Harry knows that Dursleys are absolutely terrified right now. Dudley, aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon are terrified of Hagrid. His aunt and uncle are terrified becuase they were found.
Hagrid hunched over, but his head was still touching the ceiling and pushed inside. He bent down, grabbed the door and without any problems put it back. The storm outside calmed a little.
Hagrid turned around and looked at them.
"Couldn’t make us a cup o’ tea, could yeh? Been a long journey..."
Hagrid got to the couch, on which Dudley was sitting, green from fear.
"Shove off fatty," he said.
Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind mum, which was terrified, hiding behind uncle Vernon.
""O'right, Harry, there you are!" Hagrid called out, just as Harry got fully into the act.
Hagrid's eyes are staring at him kindly while he smiled. It hurts Harry slightly that he has to pretend infront of Hagrid... the person who watched his death. But before the feeling could grow Hagrid continued:
"Last time I saw yeh, you were just a wee babe, and blimey, yer the spitting image o' yer dad, 'cept fer yer mum's eyes, o' course."
Harry just looked at Hagrid, trying his best to act like an eleven-year old who has no idea who he is. But it's slowly getting harder, but no matter, it doesn't matter now. And yet, the green light still flashed in his flashback, as if it was real. "But it's not!" Harry reminded himself in his thoughts *"it's not real! It's just a memory! It's not-" *
His thoughts were interrupted by uncle Vernon letting out a choked noise.
"I'm asking you, sir, to immediately leave," he told Hagrid.
Hagrid leaned over the couch in which he's sitting and grabbed the rifle out of uncle Vernon's hands, and without any force, bent it and made a knot on the main line, and then threw it to the corner of the room.
"Right then, Harry, happy birthday. Got somethin' for yeh 'ere – might've sat on it a bit, but it's still gonna be tasty, I reckon." Hagrid told him kindly.
Harry smiled at him, mostly still in the act of a confused ten-year old, but also in relief that Hagrid didn't seem to notice his change in mood.
Hagrid pulled out a bent box and gave it to Harry. He took it and opened it. Inside it was the same birthday cake he remembers. It was a big, sticky chocolate cake and on it was written: To Harry, happy birthday.
Harry looked at Hagrid, "thanks-" and then he remembered that this time Hagrid hadn't told him who he is yet.
And Hagrid seemed to understand it just like Harry wanted: "Blimey, where's me manners? Haven't even said who I am yet. Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."
He then held Harry's hand and shook it.
"Now, what's this about tea? Are yeh deaf as a post or somethin'?"
Hagrid's gaze landed on the empty fireplace with nothing, just the empty bags of the crisps, and he just stayed quiet. Then he bent over the fireplace, no one saw what Hagrid was doing but when he sat back in the couch, there was fire in the fireplace. Harry always suspected that Hagrid kept his broken wand, and now, he thinks Hagrid used it to start that fire. The heat spread around the hut and it was suddenly very hot. So hot it reminded him slightly of his divination lessons he had.
Hagrid took out a kettle and tea bags, but also much more: porks, beat-up teacup, a bottle with a amber-red liquid, (firewhiskey, Harry remembered, it sure does make you feel better when you drink it.) And much more.
After a while Hagrid began boiling the water in the pot, in which he was making the sausages to be edible. Shortly after they were done and the smell of them was spreading across the hut, Harry noticed just how hungry he is.
Dudley looked nervous, as if he wanted to take atleast a bite, but uncle Vernon quickly turned it down:
"Don't you dare touch anything."
Hagrid laughed, "Yer fed up son ain't gettin' nothin' anyway, Dursley, so don't be frettin' yerself."
Then he gave Harry one of sausages, who was incredibly hungry, so he ate it, it tasted just as tasty as it did the first time.
Then Hagrid looked like he remembered something, and just as Harry started wondering what it was, his question was answered:
"Blimey, I clean forgot ter introduce meself, didn' I? You can jus' call me Hagrid, like everyone does. Now, as I was sayin', I'm Keeper o' Keys an' Grounds at Hogwarts - but yeh know all about Hogwarts, don' yeh?" (Please ignore that I semi-repeated this, I have no idea how to fix it)
Harry remembered, that when he was living this moment originally, he had no idea what Hogwarts are (becuase of the Dursleys).
"Erm... no?" He said, acting the same way he did when it was the midnight of his first eleventh birthday.
"Yeh - yeh don'...?" That clearly caught Hagrid off guard "Blimey, how?" Then a suspicion crossed Hagrids features.
"They not told yeh, then?" He looked at Harry, almost in a pitiful way. Harry hates it when someone looks at him like that, especially if it's someone he's close to.
Harry's silence served as an answer to Hagrid. "They-..."
Then Hagrid immediately turned to face Dursleys, anger clearly felt in the air.
"DURSLEY! HOW DARE YEH?! HOW DARE YEH NOT TELL THIS BOY ANYTHIN' - NOT A SINGLE THING?!" He yelled at them.
Everyone was silent after that. Uncle Vernon extremely pale, kept mumbling something but no one understood him...
Then Hagrid looked back at Harry, fury gone.
"Yer gotta know who yer mum and dad were, Harry, tha' they were famous - tha' you are famous!"
Harry just stayed silent, not wanting to speak more lies to Hagrid. He cares deeply about Hagrid, but he still knows it's for the best if he doesn't know. So he just kept acting like an eleven year old.
"Yeh don' know? Blimey, yeh got no idea, do yeh?" Hagrid said sadly.
"Enough!" Uncle Vernon found his lost voice again. "Stop with this already! I forbid you from telling this boy more, not even a word!"
But Hagrid looked at uncle Vernon so furiously that even a braver man then uncle Vernon would shake.
"Oh, quiet, both o' yeh." Hagrid than turned to face Harry, "Yer a wizard, Harry."
Harry just stayed silent, he knows this, but he knows it's not good to reveal that he already knows, so he just kept pretending and repeated the same thing he said originally: "I'm a what?"
"Yer a wizard, an' a good one too, I reckon, if yeh learn a bit." Hagrid said, still stealing a few angry glances at the Dursleys. "Seein' as yeh had such a mum an' dad, yeh must be at least as good as them, eh? Best time fer yeh to finally read that letter, I'd say."
So Hagrid sat down on the sofa, which broke down completely now, reached into his pocket and got out a what seemed a letter, which Harry suspected to be his. When he took the letter he saw that, yes, it is indeed his.
The adress now says:
To hands of mister Harry Potter
Floor
Hut on a cliff
Sea
.
Harry opened the letter and began to read his acceptance letter again. As he read the letter a wave of nostalgia got him, but he suppressed it very easily.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Principal: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
(Merlin's order first degree, Doctor of magical sciences, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards)
Dear mister Potter,
we're glad to announce, that you've been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the addition we're sending you the list of all the student's books and school supplies.
The school year starts at 1. September. Send your owl at latest at 31. July.
With warm regards
Minerva McGonagal
Deputy headmistress
.
Harry stayed silent, and he took out the second paper with the list of books and school supplies he'll need to buy again and read through it.
"Blimey, hold on!" Harry was slightly startled "Clean forgot, I did. Gotta send Dumbledore an owl once I've given yeh this letter!"
So Hagrid took out an owl, pergamen and a quill out of his cloak. That sight made Harry suspect something he never did; does Hagrid have enchanted pockets on his cloak?
That seems to be the only explanation, how else would've he been able to fit an owl in there?
When Hagrid was writing the letter to Dumbledore Harry caught himself wondering how an owl survived in Hagrid's pocket. And exactly at this moment Hagrid signed it, rolled it and handed to the owl who took it in her peak, he opened the door and threw her into the storm and then sat back down.
The Dursleys just stared at bewilderment and utter confusion, well except for Petunia, who just looked unhappy. As for Harry and Hagrid, they were unfazed; Hagrid sat back down on the sofa and Harry continued to read the list of supplies (as far as he noticed they are the same as he had the first time).
"Now, where was I, eh?" Hagrid said, somehow, at the exact moment when Harry read the last word of the list.
But suddenly uncle Vernon came to the fireplace, his face pale but the anger is obvious.
"He won't go anywhere!" He announced.
Hagrid grinned, "Blimey, I woulda loved to see some cheeky muggle try ta stop 'im. Yeh really thought that'd stop Harry from gettin' to Hogwarts?"
"When we took him, we promised that we'll stop your bullcrap! That we'll end it and beat it out of him! A wizard, ha!"
Harry just stayed silent, no one is paying much attention to him, strange, as this conversation is about him.
And the arguing continued, even aunt Petunia joined, Hagrid, as Harry remembered, was the angriest he's ever seen him today. Maybe even angrier then originally.
"CAR CRASH, yeh say!" Hagrid yelled out, and that scared Dursleys into backing up, into their little corner, again.
"Lily and James Potter, dyin' in some car crash! Never! Absolute rubbish, that is! It's a scandal! Harry Potter doesn't even know what made him famous?! Every little kid in our world knows his name!" Hagrid outraged.
Hagrid incorrectly interpreted Harry's silence as him not knowing that he's famous: "I can't believe this..." Hagrid went through his hair with one hair and then angrily looked at Dursleys, "how dare yeh?!" Then he looked away, "When Dumbledore said I might have trouble, I didn't know what he meant... but this?" Then he looked back at Harry once again, "Oh, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person to tell yeh this, explain it all – but – yeh can't go to Hogwarts not knowin' anythin'."
And thus he began explaining everything to Harry. Harry who knows all of this, forced himself to pretend that he's learning something new.
Hagrid began talking about how Harry got famous, why he has the scar on his forehead that looks like a lightning bolt, about Harry's parents, about murderer of the three famous Potters (although, since Hagrid has no idea that Harry timetraveled, here it should be adressed as two Potters), Voldemort and, of course, a little about Hogwarts and its headmaster.
At one point, when Hagrid was talking about his parents he started sobbing, and apologized for it, Harry tried to comfort him but he insisted that it's okay. And right after that he continued explaining.
That's when he got to the point when he told him about the Halloween night when his parents died, and he almost did too. If it weren't for his mom... But that Halloween night isn't just a day when his parents died, it's also a day when Voldemort disappeared for a while, and it's also the day when Harry became a horcrux, a first living horcrux, and hopefully the last.
Hagrid also talked about all the families Voldemort, and his Death Eaters, wiped out: McKinnons, Boneses, Prewets, and more.
He talked about how he got him out of the ruins of the house where his parents died, how he brought him to Dursleys becuase of Dumbledore's orders.
During and after the explanation Harry tried his best to keep from remembering all the terrible stuff in his life caused by Voldemort. Especially the one when he saw, from Voldemort's memory when he got into his mind once, the night when he murdered his parents.
Hagrid looked at him with pity and sadness in his eyes, understanding how hard this must be for him, not to the full extent, but he still does.
Suddenly, uncle Vernon walked infront of the fireplace, his face pale, but he was furious, "That's made up-!"
Hagrid stood up, "I'm warnin' yeh, Dursley - stop - jus' the more yeh say..."
Then he sat back down, and then he looked back at Harry and continued describing what he thinks happened to Voldemort. How, many people believe he died, but he believes he's not actually dead ("he's right about that, unfortunately..." Harry bitterly thought).
"Yeh somehow stopped 'im, tha's how it were." Hagrid finished explaining.
He was looking at Harry with respect and kindness. Harry didn't feel exactly proud of himself... it wasn't his doing that made him survive... his mom sacrifed herself, and right before he got thrown back into the past, he just got murdered but Lord Voldemort himself. God, how glad he would be if he actually got into the afterlife... Atleast he wouldn't have to relive everything all over again.
After a long quiet while, uncle Vernon regained his courage and fury: "I WON'T BE PAYING SOME OLD CRAZY MAN SO THAT HE COULD LEARN ABRACA DABRACA!"
But, once again, he went too far with this.
"DON'T - YE - DARE - INSULT - ALBUS - DUMBLEDORE - RIGHT - IN - FRONT - O' - ME!" Hagrid stormed.
He flipped his umbrella towards Dudley - suddenly a purple flash appeared. Dudley squeaked in fear and surprise, started jumping in place and was covering his butt, that's when Harry remembered what Hagrid just tried to do, and tried his best not to laugh. Dudley turned his back to Hagrid, and that's when Harry saw the pig's tail on Dudley.
Uncle Vernon screamed and pushed aunt Petunia and Dudley into the second room, leaving Harry and Hagrid alone.
"Lost me nerve again, I did..." Hagrid said somberly, "Still didn' work, though, did it? Wanted ter turn him into a pig, I did. But I reckon 'e looked too much like one already, blast it, nothin' left ter change!"
Harry noticed he's stealing glances at him, and Harry couldn't help but smile, "oh, don't worry, I think it was funny!" Harry said without thinking, but he didn't take it back.
"Now don't be sayin' tha' now..." Hagrid said.
"What's so wrong with little magic?" He asked, only realizing after the words left his mouth, that for Hagrid it is an issue.
"Well... fer me it is... I ain't allowed, see..." Hagrid started explaining, clearly uncomfortable, "Yeh, got meself expelled from Hogwarts, back in me third year, I did."
"I'm so sorry that happened... I-" Harry started apologizing, deeply regretting that he asked, but Hagrid interrupted him, forcefully changing the subject, "Too late now, here, use this as a blanket. If yeh feel somethin' squirming, don' mind it, jus' think I forgot some mice in there, tha's all."
So Hagrid put off his coat and put it over Harry's shoulders. After a while of silence, where both of them were staring, Hagrid out of the window and Harry at Hagrid, Harry sighed, layed down, pulled the coat over himself like a blanket.
Ten minutes later, and he was asleep.