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Chapter Text

There were some students already turning towards Hagrid, who was blushing under his thick beard and was wringing his hands nervously. Thankfully, Flitwick came to his rescue before they could ask questions.

“Should we start the next chapter?” He asked, redirecting their attention to the book glowing yellow.

“I think we have time to read a couple more of chapters before we’re due for a break, Filius,” Dumbledore nodded.

“Let’s continue then. I’m dying to find out who broke the news to Mr. Potter about magic,” the tiny professor said, flicking his wand at the book. He smirked impishly at the blushing half-giant. The next chapter was going to be very interesting.

The Keeper of the Keys

“Keeper?” Seamus repeated. “Like in quidditch?”

“I doubt they’ll mention quidditch in this chapter, Seamus. Harry doesn’t even know that magic is real and he hasn’t received his letter yet,” Susan snorted. She looked at Harry. “Should we guess that you finally receive it in this chapter?”

“Yeah,” Harry grinned, trying to seem friendly while gritting his teeth to keep them from chattering.

“Besides, it says Keeper of the Keys. There are no keys in quidditch,” Lisa pointed out.

“Then what keeper is it talking about?” Justin asked confused.

“It’s a position in Hogwarts. The Keeper of the Keys and Grounds,” Hermione explained quickly, wanting to continue the reading as soon as possible so Harry could finally warm up.

“We have that?” Dean asked surprised. “Who is it?”

“The Keeper of the Keys and Grounds is in charge of tending the gardens, looking after various beasts at the school and taking care of whatever needs to be done in the Forbidden Forest, among other things,” Anthony chipped in. “I think I read it in Hogwarts: A History.”

“There’s someone in charge of all of that?” Ernie asked surprised. “Sounds like an awful lot of work.”

“But I have no clue about who it could be,” Hannah frowned.

“The Keeper of the Keys is also in charge of escorting the first-year students on the boats when they first arrive to Hogwarts,” Hermione smirked. She knew that would be enough for everyone to make the connection.

It worked. Like a bulb had been lit in everyone’s brains at the same time, all the students turned to look at Hagrid. The huge man was blushing furiously under his beard and was wringing his hands in his lap.

“Hagrid? I thought he was the gamekeeper!” Terry exclaimed.

Hermione rolled her eyes. “That’s another name for the Keeper of the Keys and Grounds.”

“Because that’s a mouthful of a title for Hagrid,” Ron snorted distractedly. He was much more focused on the shivering lump pressed against his side. They really needed to continue the reading.

“Whoa. You work a whole lot more than I ever imagined,” Dean stated, staring at Hagrid with respect.

The man blushed even more. He wasn’t used to being praised or even acknowledged. He was just… always there, in the background, and that was fine with him. He didn’t need anyone’s praise. He was just doing his job.

“Wait, what’s Hagrid doing there?” Padma realized. Her eyes lit up. “He gave you your letter?”

“And told me the truth,” Harry nodded. “He was awesome. You’ll see,” he added, trying to steer everyone back to the readings. Fortunately for him, it worked.

BOOM … knocked again.

“That’s not knocking. Blimey, Hagrid, were you trying to bring the whole cabin down?” Fred exclaimed.

“My ears are ringing and I’m not even there. They would’ve fallen off if I had been present!” George exclaimed dramatically.

“You’re such a pair of drama queens,” Bill snorted.

“Thank you for noticing, dear brother,” George grinned.

“We live to entertain all of you,” Fred said.

“It is true that it was a tad too loud,” Tonks said, glancing at Hagrid. “He could’ve really brought the roof down on Harry’s and the Dursleys’ heads.”

“He does need to control his strength more sometimes,” Charlie agreed. He grinned at the gamekeeper. “He’s always getting better at it, though.”

Dudley jerked … the cannon?” he said stupidly.

“A cannon? What’s a cannon?” Lee Jordan asked confused.

“It’s a weapon. It’s large and heavy, so it’s usually transported on wheels,” Hermione explained. “It fires projectiles towards the enemies.”

“What kind of projectiles?” Ernie asked confused. When he thought about a weapon, he thought about his wand and what he could do with it. But his wand shot spells, and he very much doubted that the muggles could use things like that.

“Arrows? It could be arrows, like the centaurs,” Seamus mused.

“Cannons don’t fire arrows. Arrows are fired with bows or crossbows,” Dean snorted. “Cannons fire heavy balls of metal.”

“How heavy are we talking about here?” Michael asked.

“Very,” Hermione said. “Up to around forty pounds, I guess.”

“Alright, this talk about cannons is fascinating and everything,” Alicia intervened. “But why did Dudley think that there was a cannon there, in the middle of nowhere?”

“Because he’s stupid?” Fred offered.

“It says so right there in the book,” George pointed out.

“And because when cannons are fired, they make a loud noise like Hagrid did when he knocked on the door,” Hermione said. Her patience was thinning the longer they kept losing time with this nonsense.

There was a crash behind them and Uncle … been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.

“A rifle?” Terry blinked. “What’s a rifle?”

“Think about a cannon miniaturized,” Hermione spat through gritted teeth. “He bought a rifle? Why did he buy a rifle?”

“T-To defend himself?” Harry answered, cursing inwardly when he stuttered.

“Why is it so horrible that he bought a rifle?” Percy asked confused.

“A rifle isn’t a toy. It can hurt a lot, or kill someone if people are careless when using it,” Justin said seriously.

“But that man wouldn’t be careless with his son in the room, would he?” Mr. Weasley asked hesitantly. A while earlier, he wouldn’t have doubted it. Now, they had read how that man had dragged his family to a tiny cabin on a rock in the middle of the sea while a storm raged around them.

“He just has to make a mistake. People usually need a permit to have and use guns like that,” Dean grimaced. “You can’t simply walk into a store and buy one.”

“Sounds to me that it’s exactly what Vernon Dursley did,” Bill said.

“It’s illegal,” Hermione spat. “He could be arrested for that.”

“Dursley could be arrested for a lot of things he has done,” Ron pointed out.

“Besides, if what you’re saying it’s true, he couldn’t have just bought it like that. Someone had to be willing to sell it to someone without a license and they’d risk getting themselves into trouble too,” Anthony pointed out.

“It could be a bad rifle. Maybe it doesn’t even work,” Lavender said.

“If it doesn’t work right, I think that’s even worse,” Dean winced.

“If he hurts Harry…” Sirius growled. He was going to kill that pig of a man.

“He didn’t,” Harry cut him off.

There was an uncomfortable silence as people felt the strain between Sirius and Harry, who didn’t seem able to see quite eye to eye. Nobody wanted to intervene, though. This was between them and they had to solve it themselves.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” Justin said, breaking the silence. “I was right.”

“About what?” Ernie asked perplexed.

“I said that he had bought an air rifle,” the muggle-born said smugly.

Ernie snorted. “You weren’t right. He didn’t buy an air rifle.”

“I was righter than you,” Justin replied. “You said that he bought lights for the basement he was going to shove all of them in. But guess what? No basement and no lights. Which means I win.”

Ernie opened his mouth to argue, but he couldn’t find anything to defend himself. Finally, he closed it and crossed his arms over his chest with a huff.

“Who’s there … I’m armed!”

“You think he could hurt Hagrid?” Charlie asked, only slightly worried about the gamekeeper.

“Hagrid can look after himself,” Tonks scoffed.

“The way Hermione and the others described it, it sounded like a rifle could do a lot of harm,” Charlie insisted. He knew that muggles weren’t to be trifled with. They could be just as dangerous as wizards when they wanted to be.

“He was fine,” Harry told them with a smile.

“And you, dear?” Mrs. Weasley fretted. She knew that Harry had the tendency of overlooking his own wellbeing.

“Not a scratch, Mrs. Weasley,” he reassured her.

There was a … SMASH!

“Holy Merlin!” Colin screamed. “The roof!”

“What? Don’t be…” Angelina frowned.

“It could be the roof,” Tonks chipped in. “It sounded like something heavy had hit the floor quite hard.”

“But Harry’s fine,” Neville said, pointing at his roommate. Well, Harry was fine except for the fine tremors that he was successfully hiding from almost everyone.

The metamorphmagus paused and stared at the shivering black-haired boy. “Point taken,” she conceded.

“Maybe it didn’t hit him,” Hannah mused. “Could only part of the roof have fallen?”

“It wasn’t the roof,” Harry huffed, rolling his eyes. How did they convince themselves of these theories?

“Oh. That’s good then,” the girl from Hufflepuff grinned.

The door was hit with such force … landed flat on the floor.

“Merlin’s bal… beard,” Terry said wide-eyed. “He broke down the door?”

“He’s a beast,” Blaise Zabini scoffed.

“He’s not a beast,” Charlie glared at the boy. “He’s just strong. He has a hard time controlling it.”

“He should be more careful,” the boy from Slytherin huffed, turning his nose up.

“Hagrid wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Ron said, annoyed with the boy.

Blaise rolled his eyes. They were all stupid. It didn’t matter if that goof would or wouldn’t. What matter was the fact that he couldn’t control whether he did or not.

A giant of a man … beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.

“That description sounds a bit intimidating,” Dennis Creevey pointed out shyly. He knew that the gamekeeper would never hurt anyone, but he was just so big.

“It does, doesn’t it?” Katie mused, staring at the half-giant. “It’s accurate, though.”

“It makes you wonder what our descriptions are gonna be,” Bill grinned, staring at Harry curiously.

“Not bad,” Harry grinned. At least, he hoped they weren’t bad. He didn’t exactly remember what he had thought of each person he had met the first time he had seen them.

“That better be true,” Ron joked. He put the arm he had around Harry higher, curling it around his shoulders with the pretext of giving him another noogie. When the door of the cabin had opened in the book to let the icy wind enter, the shivers racking Harry’s frame had increased tenfold again.

“I’m sure that Harry didn’t think anything bad about anyone one of us,” Hermione said.

The giant squeezed his way … picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame.

“Better?” Ron muttered when he felt Harry relax beside him.

“Yeah. A b-bit,” Harry sighed, letting his eyes close for the briefest of moments. Being so cold for so long was sapping his energy faster than he had anticipated.

“I think your hands are a bit warmer,” Hermione smiled weakly.

“And hopefully it’ll be over soon,” the redhead said, discreetly rubbing Harry’s arm up and down.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Great Hall was completely oblivious to what was going on between the three of them. They were busy watching the Weasley twins.

“Now, that’s the way to make an entrance, Hagrid!” George congratulated him.

“You scared the crap out of them!” Fred laughed.

Hagrid blushed, but a pleased grin could be seen under his beard. Usually he hated scaring anyone, even though he knew that some people found him intimidating just because of his sheer size. However, he couldn’t honestly say that he regretted having scared the Dursleys.

What he had seen about the treatment that Harry received under their care had angered him so much… He had told the Headmaster, but Dumbledore had only looked sad, not surprised. Hagrid had been shocked when he had learnt that Harry had to return to his relatives regardless of what he had told Dumbledore, but he had hoped that the Headmaster had at least talked to those people to make them see reason. Perhaps if they understood, they wouldn’t treat poor Harry so bad.

Now, after reading what they had read so far, he wasn’t sure that the Dursleys could learn. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to give them the chance to do that. Harry deserved better. Hopefully, now that the Headmaster found out about what really happened in Privet Drive, he would allow Harry to stay somewhere else during the summer holidays.

The noise of the storm … make us a cup o’ tea, could yeh? It’s not been an easy journey…”

“You told them to make you a cup of tea?” Remus said incredulously.

“It was a long journey an’ I was soaked ter the bone,” Hagrid defended himself. It was the polite thing to do.

“Hagrid, you broke into their house!” The werewolf exclaimed exasperated. “They were hoping that you wouldn’t find them.”

“That’s stupid. O’ course, I’d find them,” the half-giant scoffed. “Not too bright, those Dursleys.”

Harry snickered quietly. Hagrid’s attitude reminded him of how he had acted that night towards his relatives. It was fantastic. It had been the first time that someone had put them in their place and had refused to listen to their nonsense.

Remus sighed. “The point is that they weren’t expecting you. They wouldn’t know that they should have tea prepared for you,” he said, which wasn’t the point he had been trying to make, but it was something that Hagrid would understand and agree with.

“And they didn’t have anything to prepare tea with in that cabin,” Bill pointed out.

“And I have the feeling that they wouldn’t have offered it to you even if they did,” Tonks added.

Hagrid frowned indignantly. “Why not?”

“You’ve seen how they treat Harry just because he’s a wizard. And he’s their nephew,” the metamorphmagus explained with a dark scowl.

She wasn’t going to forget about that any time soon. She had become an auror because she wanted to protect people, especially children and other people who couldn’t protect themselves. She was going to make sure that the Dursleys paid for all of it.

“Perhaps they treated him worse because he’s their nephew,” Luna said softly, but she was frowning in displeasure. “They want to be normal and Harry’s presence makes it very difficult for them.”

“Maybe,” Harry conceded.

It was true that the Dursleys wanted nothing to do with magic. Being related to it, even if it was just through him, had to be unbearable for them. Maybe it would have been better if he weren’t related to them at all.

He strode over to the sofa where Dudley … mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.

“Hagrid, you didn’t have to do that,” Mrs. Weasley frowned disapprovingly. “He’s just a child and you scared him.”

“Hagrid didn’t do anything wrong. He just told him to make some space instead of occupying the whole couch,” Charlie defended the gamekeeper.

“But it’s true that Dudley was only a child. Of course, he was gonna be terrified of someone who entered their house and spoke to him like that. Especially if that someone is as big as Hagrid,” Mr. Weasley pointed out with a frown. “It doesn’t surprise me that he ran to hide behind his parents.”

“Harry didn’t run to hide behind anyone,” Ron huffed.

“Ron,” Harry groaned. Why did they have to pull him into this argument?

“What? It’s true,” the redhead defended himself.

“Even if I w-wanted to, Uncle V-Vernon would’ve kicked me out before allowing m-me get close to them,” Harry huffed, trying not to bite his own tongue as he spoke.

“Maybe you’re right,” Ron said, letting the matter drop when he noticed that Harry was still freaking freezing. If it didn’t stop soon, people were going to begin to notice. It was a miracle that they hadn’t already.

“An’ here’s Harry … shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.

“See? As harmless as a teddy bear,” Charlie grinned. “He wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“He’s still scary,” Neville mumbled.

“The first time we saw him when he was gonna take us to the boats, he scared Zacharias to badly that he tripped and he fell flat on his arse,” Justin snorted as he remembered it.

“Shut up,” Zacharias Smith, from Hufflepuff, growled at him. His face was brilliant red in embarrassment. “I didn’t trip because I was scared. I tripped on a root because it was dark.”

Daphne Greengrass snorted. “You can tell yourself that all you want, but I saw it too. There was no root,” she intervened. She had been walking behind them when it had happened and she had had a good laugh at his expense.

“I have to admit that I hid behind Susan,” Hannah said, blushing and smiling embarrassedly.

“I think I left my sister’s fingers without circulation because of how tightly I was squeezing her hand,” Padma said, sharing a smile with her twin.

“You left me bruises,” Parvati teased her gently.

“But Hagrid helped me this year when I fell into the lake!” Dennis shouted.

“That’s right! Hagrid’s great!” Colin agreed with his little brother.

“He is,” Angelina agreed, smiling at the gamekeeper.

“Las’ time I saw you, you was only … like yer dad, but yeh’ve got yer mum’s eyes.”

“The first time out of many that they told you that,” Ron grinned in amusement.

“Prat,” Harry replied, elbowing him in the ribs.

“I’m just saying,” the redhead laughed. “Sometimes it seems like it’s the only thing people ever tell you about them.”

“Ron!” Hermione glared at him.

“It does s-seem like it sometimes, d-doesn’t it?” Harry said with a longing smile. He was happy that he had pictures of them that allowed him to know what they had looked like, but he would like to know more things about them.

What was their favourite food? What was their favourite subject? What did they like to do in their free time, besides playing quidditch and pranks in his dad’s case? Where did they go on holiday? Which places would they have liked to visit in the future? Would they have wanted more children? What had happened to his grandparents? Had his mum taken his dad to visit the muggle world? Was his dad as hopeless as the Weasleys when it came to muggle technology? Did they like animals? Did they have a pet? If his dad’s best friends had been Sirius, Remus and Pettigrew, who had been his mum’s best friends? Were they as easy to anger as Mrs. Weasley or were they more like Mr. Weasley? Did his mum like jokes? Did she like to wear jewellery and make-up? Did she like to read like Hermione, and what kind of books did she enjoy in that case? Did they know how to sing? When had they met? Had they laughed a lot together?

Those were only a few of the questions that plagued his mind, but nobody had ever answered them. All they had ever told him was that he looked like his dad, he had his mum’s eyes, they had been in Gryffindor, his dad had played quidditch as a chaser and he had liked pranks. All in all, not much compared to what other children knew about their parents.

He wished that he could have the courage to ask other people about them, but everyone always seemed to get teary-eyed and that made him uncomfortable. He didn’t know what to do when people started crying. Worse, they always stared at him with so much pity because they had known his parents while he hadn’t and he hated that. After a while, he had simply stopped asking and had contented himself with paying attention to any detail he could learn without asking.

Besides, maybe with Sirius and Remus here he could learn a few more things. Perhaps they would be willing to tell him about James and Lily Potter.

Uncle … funny rasping noise.

“What was that?” Katie frowned.

“It sounded like he blew a raspberry,” Neville suggested hesitantly.

“Maybe he was having trouble keeping his flatulencies to himself,” George smirked.

Fred mirrored his expression. “Maybe he was having trouble controlling his bowels and he shit himself when Hagrid mentioned Harry’s parents.”

“Fred and George, watch your tongue!” Their mother scolded them.

“Just saying,” Fred shrugged. “I hope he remembered to pack another pair of trousers.”

“Or that he was wearing brown ones,” George joked, earning himself several snorts of laughter.

“I demand that you leave … breaking and entering!”

“Sir? He called Hagrid ‘sir’?” Anthony snorted. “I can’t believe he’s more polite to someone ‘breaking and entering’, like he said, than to their own nephew.”

“I’d hex anyone I found in my home in the middle of the night uninvited,” Tonks crossed her arms with a frown.

“What if you thought that it was ‘one of their lot’, like he calls us and whom he’s so afraid of?” Alicia asked with a raised eyebrow. If Vernon Dursley had had any idea about what a wizard could do, it came to reason that he wouldn’t want to pick a fight with one.

“Especially then!” Tonks huffed. “I’ve had that paranoid bastard as my mentor for a long while now. Something had to rub off on me.”

“Like the hex first and ask questions later?” Bill smirked.

She smirked in return. “Exactly.”

“What if it was someone like Hagrid? He’s so big,” Colin said, glancing at Hagrid quickly. He knew that the gamekeeper was as gentle as they came, but nobody could deny that he was intimidating.

“If it was someone like Hagrid, I’d go for the strongest hexes in my repertoire first,” the metamorphmagus said, eyeing the half-giant with narrowed eyes like she was thinking the best tactic to take him down.

Hagrid squirmed uncomfortably under the scrutiny. “I… I wouldn’ enter yer home uninvite’…” He murmured nervously.

“You entered their home uninvited. After harassing them for a week with letters,” she pointed out.

Hagrid frowned and bristled slightly. He regretted nothing about what he had done to those muggles. In his opinion, it was only part of what they deserved for their treatment towards Harry. “The Dursleys… They don’ coun’. They were bad ter Harry. An’ they were keepin’ him away,” he justified himself.

The metamorphmagus pursed her lips. She turned towards Harry and tilted her head. “So, if I kidnapped Harry and locked him up in my house, you’d take the door down and barge into?”

The poor black-haired boy startled. “W-What?” He asked wide-eyed. Nobody was kidnapping him!

Hagrid actually growled. “Yeh’re not kidnappin’, Harry,” he warned, sounding more threatening than anyone had ever heard him.

Much to everyone’s surprise, Tonks only grinned. “You’ve got a pretty good friend there, Harry. I’d keep him close if I were you,” she told the flabbergasted boy.

Harry shook his head to snap out of his stupor and grinned at the half-giant, who was blushing once again. “I know,” he said quietly.

Hagrid had been the first person he had met of the wizarding world and the first person to give him a present and wish him a happy birthday. He was always going to have a special place in Harry’s heart for that.

“Ah, shut up … a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.

“H-He bent the rifle?” Justin stammered astonished. He gawked at Hagrid. “How strong are you?”

What little they could see of Hagrid’s face was as red as the Weasleys’ hair. “Not that much…”

“Not that much?” Dean repeated with an incredulous laugh. “You bent a rifle into a knot! That’s awesome! I thought that only happened in cartoons!”

“Car-what?” Parvati repeated confused.

“Cartoons. Like, movies for kids. They can be pretty funny,” Dean shrugged. He turned back towards Hagrid. “If I bring you a rifle, can you bend it into a knot in front of me?”

“I… I suppose?” Hagrid agreed in confusion.

“Mr. Thomas, you’re not bringing a muggle gun to the school. If I hear or see anything that hints that you’ve brought one, you’ll be serving detentions with me till the day you graduate, you understand me?” Professor McGonagall cut in immediately. She glared at her student until he bowed his head in defeat. Only then did she turn towards her colleague to add more quietly, “And you, Hagrid, if any student approaches you with a muggle gun, I expect you to confiscate it and contact me immediately.”

Hagrid squirmed and wring his hands in his lap. “O’ course, Professor.”

Uncle Vernon … mouse being trodden on.

“Oh, my,” Fred said wide-eyed. “Vernon Dursley sure is a source of curious noises today.”

“And Harry’s descriptions… Magnificent,” George smirked. “He sounded just like a mouse being trodden on.”

“How do you know what sound a mouse makes when it’s being trodden on?” Padma frowned in confusion.

“I d-don’t,” Harry smiled, cursing the shivering once again. How much longer had it been until Hagrid had lit up a fire? He hoped that it hadn’t been much longer.

“But it must have sounded like that for sure,” Ron intervened quickly, taking the attention off his best friend. He rubbed his back discreetly, hating that the shivers weren’t abating at all yet.

“How would you know that? What did you do to Scabbers before it died?” Percy asked with a raised eyebrow and a disapproving frown.

Ron scowled at his big brother. “I didn’t do anything to Scabbers!” He exclaimed indignantly. He had defended that rat when it had really been the man that had sold Harry’s parents to You-Know-Who. Sometimes he wished that Crookshanks had really eaten that traitor.

“Besides, Scabbers was a rat, not a mouse. It’s not the same,” Hermione cut in smoothly before they could begin arguing. She knew that Scabbers was a delicate topic for Ron.

“It’s not that big of a difference,” Percy grumbled under his breath.

“Anyway — Harry,” said … mighta sat on it at some point, but it’ll taste all right.”

“Oh, Merlin,” Ron moaned under his breath.

“It was g-good,” Harry smiled. It was the first and only birthday cake he had ever received in his life. At least, that he remembered.

“Harry, Hagrid can’t hear you right now,” Hermione murmured, staring at Hagrid apprehensively. They all knew that Hagrid’s food wasn’t exactly a delicatessen, even though they always thanked him for it and pretended that it was good in front of him.

“Not j-joking,” Harry insisted amused.

Hermione turned to look at him sceptically. “He said that he sat on it, Harry,” she said.

Harry shrugged as best as he could when he felt like a block of ice. “Still g-good.”

From an inside pocket … opened it with trembling fingers.

“CONSTANT VIGILANCE, POTTER!” Moody roared, startling everyone.

“Alastor!” McGonagall snapped at him, righting the hat on her head. She was ignored.

“You have enemies out there!” The ex-auror continued to scold the teenager. “You’re making it too easy for them by accepting things! You can’t accept things from anyone you don’t trust implicitly without checking them thoroughly! Even if you trust them, you should check regardless! You can never be too sure that someone’s whoever they say they are or that they’re acting of their own accord!”

“Alastor, that’s enough!” McGonagall snapped again more firmly. Finally, the man turned to look at her. “Potter was eleven years old, for Merlin’s sake! He was just a child!”

“Then it would’ve been an even bigger tragedy if he was killed because he was careless!” He replied stubbornly. He rounded on the wide-eyed, black-haired teenager. “Are you gonna learn your lesson?” He snapped.

Harry gulped and nodded minutely. “Yes?”

“Do you know how to check for foul play to make sure there aren’t any traps?”

“Uh…”

“Poisons?!”

“Hum… I…”

“Curses?!”

“Mm… not e-exact…”

“Then what the hell have you learnt?! You’re a sitting duck for your enemies!” The ex-auror shouted at him.

“He was talking to Hagrid! He would never hurt Mr. Potter!” Sprout argued, wanting to defuse the tension. “Nor would he ever allow any harm to come to the child if he could help it!”

“Potter didn’t know that, did he?! He didn’t even know the name of the person breaking into his house and he was already accepting things from them! He needs to learn! He’ll regret it much more if he doesn’t and something happens!”

“He’s fourteen, Alastor!” Flitwick intervened with a stern voice, trying to rein in the man’s temper. “He has more than enough time to learn those things in the future!”

“He has to learn them to have more time!” Mad-Eye barked at them. “He should’ve learnt long ago! Albus told me what that letter Potter received yesterday said! The war is coming quickly for all of us and Potter will be one of the main targets!”

Harry flinched. That was true. And the more he thought about it, the sillier and naiver did Mad-Eye’s words made him feel. He knew that he had enemies, the whole wizarding world knew that he had enemies, and yet he was doing nothing to help learn to protect himself. Like the ex-auror had said, he was sitting duck and, unless something changed, he wouldn’t be ready when Voldemort returned like the letter had warned them about.

“Potter!” Moody roared, abruptly bringing him back to the present. “You will learn how to detect those things one way or another!”

Harry gulped, but he nodded determinedly, straightening his spine as much as he could when all he wanted to do was curl into himself to conserve body heat. “Yes, sir.”

The ex-auror narrowed his eyes at him. Even his magical blue eye was fixed on him, but Harry didn’t squirm, refusing to show how uncomfortable it made him.

“I’m warning you,” the ex-auror said, finally lowering his voice. “You better learn if you want to avoid a few nasty surprises in your way these days.”

People reared back in shock. Had they heard correctly? Because that sounded awfully like Moody was warning Potter that he was going to hex him.

“Are you threatening my godson?!” Sirius snapped, standing up.

However, Harry only kept the eye contact with Moody. “Yes, sir,” he replied simply, filling himself growing more determined. He was going to learn.

He wasn’t afraid of what Moody might do. He had the feeling that the man wouldn’t actually try to cause real harm. At worst, he’d probably have to spend the night in the infirmary, but he really felt that the man wanted him to learn for his own good. Moody wasn’t doing this just to have some fun at his expense.

“Are you out of your mind, Alastor?! You can’t curse a student!” McGonagall screamed horrified.

Moody snorted. “Better me than the sucker out for his blood or one of his followers,” he argued.

“I swear to Merlin, Moody, if you hurt my godson, I’m gonna kill you,” Sirius growled, clenching his fists furiously.

“If he learns and he’s careful like he should be, he won’t be hurt,” the ex-auror dismissed.

“That’s not the point!” The animagus shouted.

“Sirius,” Harry called him. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay!” Sirius said incredulously.

“But you’re not gonna be able to make him change his mind, so let it go,” Harry insisted.

“Are you serious?!” The man snapped at him.

Harry couldn’t help it. He didn’t even think it about it. It just came out without his biding. “No, you are,” he replied cheekily.

Sirius blinked, the anger draining out of him in an instant as his lips twitched upwards unexpectedly. “Did you just…?”

“Make the worst joke in history?” George groaned.

“He did,” Fred lamented.

The animagus’ lips curled into a grin as he sat back down. “You have no idea,” he said, remembering all the times the Marauders had made that very same joke. It never failed to amuse him.

Remus watched his friend in amusement. Harry had shocked his godfather so much that Sirius didn’t even seem to notice that the teenager had effectively ended the previous subject and had calmed him down at the same time with a single sentence. That was a truly impressive feat.

Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake … in green icing.

“Thank you, Hagrid,” Harry spoke up, making an effort to keep his voice steady. He had remembered that, with everything that had happened and all the questions he had had that night, he hadn’t gotten around to thanking the man properly.

Hagrid waved a hand dismissively. “It was nothin’,” he said with a kind smile.

“It was really good,” Harry said through gritted teeth but being sincere.

Hagrid blushed. “Glad yeh like’ it,” he said, pleased with himself. Maybe he could make another one for him for his next birthday.

“You can never go wrong with a chocolate cake,” Remus said, smiling gently. “The birthday cake for your first birthday was made of chocolate too.”

Harry’s head whipped around to stare at the werewolf. “It w-was?” He asked surprised.

Remus hummed and nodded. “It was huge too,” he added. He smiled amused. “Which turned out to be a good thing, because when we gave you a piece, you ate with your hands and smeared it all over yourself and everything around you. In the end you played with it more than you ate it.”

Harry turned beet red, but he was hanging onto every word the man uttered. He didn’t want to miss anything.

“James thought it was hilarious, remember, Sirius?” Remus said. He elbowed his friend, trying to bring him into the conversation.

The animagus smiled reluctantly as the memories assaulted him. “Lily didn’t find it so funny, though. Still, she didn’t have the heart to scold you on your birthday when you were clearly having so much fun,” he told his godson.

Ron snorted and nudged him with his shoulder. “You were already causing trouble and getting away with it back then,” he joked.

Harry smiled, slightly embarrassed but a little more at peace. It was incredible to discover little details like this. They helped him make the picture that his parents had made together.

Harry looked up … what he said instead was, “Who are you?”

“Harry, that wasn’t very polite,” Mrs. Weasley said reproachfully.

“He should’ve started demanding answers long before that,” Moody grumbled under his breath. He had his work cut out for him if they wanted Potter to survive this war.

“To be fair, a complete stranger had entered his house, scared his relatives, refused to leave and given him a birthday cake,” Charlie chuckled. “I think that Harry’s taking all of it pretty well, all things considered.”

“I’d be screaming bloody murder,” Lee murmured.

“I certainly wouldn’t have accepted food from a stranger,” Lisa frowned. She looked at Harry. “Didn’t your relatives ever tell you not to accept things from strangers?”

The boy shrugged. “They told me to accept anything a stranger gave me. And to go with them if they wanted,” he said as succinctly as possible. Not only did he want to hide his chattering teeth, but he also wasn’t that comfortable offering more details about the Dursleys.

Angelina frowned at the youngest and smallest member of her team. “That’s not surprising. Disappointing, but not surprising,” she sighed.

The giant … Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts.”

“That’s what you all said,” Hannah smiled at Hermione and the other Ravenclaws that had explained what that position entailed.

“That explanation will clear up nothing for Harry, though,” Remus winced. With that simple sentence, Harry was going to have so many questions that it was going to make Hagrid’s head spin.

“Didn’ expec’ him ter know nothing. Blaste’ Dursleys,” Hagrid grumbled with a dark scowl on his face.

“Y-You told me,” Harry tried to cheer him up.

“Oh, Merlin, this is what this chapter is gonna be about, isn’t it?” Lavender said wide-eyed. “It’s gonna be about Harry learning all he should’ve known growing up. All about his parents, and You-Know-Who, and magic, and Hogwarts…”

“It won’t be just about that,” Hermione cut her off with a glare. She knew that it was mostly going to be about that, but she didn’t like how uncomfortable her roommate’s words were making Harry.

“It’ll also be about Hagrid’s reaction to the Dursleys,” Ron smirked a little forcefully. “It’s bound to be epic.”

Harry grinned. “It was.”

The redhead looked at him surprised. “Really?”

“Totally epic,” Harry nodded.

Ron grinned much more genuinely. “Brilliant!”

He held out … shook Harry’s whole arm.

“Goddammit,” Harry grumbled, but he was grinning in amusement even as he rubbed his suddenly aching shoulder. Hagrid’s handshakes weren’t for the fainthearted.

Ron snorted in amusement. “Doesn’t surprise me. You were a tiny thing back then.”

Harry glared at him. “You were small too.”

“But not tiny. You’re still smaller than me,” the redhead replied. Using the arm that he still wrapped around him, he shook him gently. “If it makes you happy to think about it, Hermione’s shorter than me too.”

The witch raised an eyebrow. “You’re like a bean pole, Ron. There are very few people taller than you in our year,” she said dryly. She gave them a mischievous tiny grin. “Besides, Harry’s shorter than me.”

Harry sent her a betrayed look. “Hermione!” He protested. “I thought you were on my side!”

She snickered. “I am. That’s why I tell you the truth.”

“What about that tea … not say no ter summat stronger if yeh’ve got it, mind.”

“Something stronger?” McGonagall repeated. Her glasses flashed as she turned to glare at Hagrid. “I hope you’re not speaking of what it looks like, Hagrid.”

The gigantic man squirmed like a kid caught with his hand in the biscuit jar. “I… I didn’… Professor, I…” He stuttered. It did nothing to reassure any of the other adults.

Pomona sighed in defeat. It was no use getting angry about it now. “At least tell us that you didn’t offer any to Mr. Potter or his cousin,” she pleaded.

“Uh… No, Professor. O’ course not. Wouldn’ even think abou’ it,” the gamekeeper reassured them.

“I should hope so, Hagrid,” the head of Gryffindor warned him.

She inwardly sighed. One would think that after so many years, Hagrid would have acquired some common sense to stop make questionable decisions and quit giving her headaches. Unfortunately, that day had yet to come.

His eyes fell on the empty … Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he’d sunk into a hot bath.

Harry relaxed against the back of the couch and Ron’s arm, which was still around his shoulders. He hadn’t even noticed how tense he was to try to suppress his shivering until it all melted out of him.

“Better?” Hermione murmured. She already had her answer, though, since it seemed like her efforts to warm up Harry’s hands were finally being fruitful.

“Much,” Harry sighed, smiling contentedly and closing his eyes momentarily to enjoy the warmth, as fake as it was. He opened them again to look at his two best friends, who were staring at him with thinly veiled concern. “Thank you,” he said sincerely.

“Anytime, mate,” Ron said sincerely as he got his arm back.

“Did you get sick?” Hermione asked with a frown. In other words, did they have to worry about Harry suddenly feeling sick in the middle of the Great Hall?

Harry shook his head. “No. Not even a cold. Hagrid lent me his coat when we went to sleep so I was okay even though the fire eventually went out.”

The witch smiled satisfied. “Good,” she nodded.

“Seems like Harry’s okay now,” Bill observed quietly. He was discreetly keeping an eye on the three younger teenagers sharing a couch.

“He’s not shivering anymore,” Charlie smiled. He had been about to send it all to hell and fire a warming charm at Harry in hopes of it helping somewhat. “And Ron and Hermione have gotten their arm and hands back, respectively.”

Tonks grinned. “They take good care of each other,” she said happily. Her grin faltered. “Do you think Harry got sick that night?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Charlie winced. Their mum was going to be a worrywart if Harry got sick now.

“We can continue to keep an eye on them just in case,” Bill murmured. He smiled when the three younger teenagers relaxed in their couch. “I think they’ll be okay, though.”

The giant sat back down … of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea.

“Those are a lot of things he took out of his pockets,” Susan blinked in surprise. Not only food like sausages and chips, but the equipment necessary to cook it. Even a poker to hold the sausages over the fire!

“Is Hagrid really that big or is it because of all the things he carries with him everywhere?” Parvati asked, staring at their professor of Care of Magical Creatures.

“He’s that big,” Terry said. They had all seen Hagrid without a coat during the summer months of the school year and the man really was that big.

“How can he keep so many things in his pockets?” Dennis asked wide-eyed. “He’s like Mary Poppins!”

“Mary who?” Michael repeated confused.

“Mary Poppins!” Dennis repeated with a bright grin.

“She’s a woman from a movie. She’s a nanny with a magical bag where she keeps everything you can think of,” Justin explained.

“Like an Undetectable Extension Charm,” Anthony grinned. “That’s incredible.”

“How could muggles think of that?” Blaise intervened, half confused and half indignant. Muggles should have no idea about magic or their world. How could they have things that resembled it so closely?

“Perhaps the director of the movie was a wizard or a squib?” Terry suggested.

“Or witch,” Padma said bitingly.

“Or witch,” Terry conceded quickly.

“Wouldn’t they get in trouble with the Ministry?” Neville asked nervously.

“Muggles don’t believe that it could have anything based on reality,” Hermione shook her head. “Besides, the movie, which came out about thirty years ago, was based on a series of books for children that are even older. I believe the last one came out a few years ago.”

“Do you have to know everything?” Ron asked, half amused and half exasperated.

Hermione glared at him. “For your information, I loved those books when I was a kid, even more than I liked the movie,” she defended herself.

“And then you found out that you had magic,” Harry intervened before the argument could really begin. He grinned. “Bet you felt like you had suddenly stepped into the story of Mary Poppins.”

Hermione smiled shyly. “Maybe,” she admitted.

Harry chuckled. “Did you reread all the books when you found out that you had magic?” He asked knowingly.

Her cheeks turned pink. “Maybe,” she repeated. She shoved Harry when he snickered. “Stop laughing, you prat! I was excited!”

Harry grinned at her. “I know. I was excited too when I found out.”

“I was excited too, but I didn’t reread any of the stories for children that my mum used to tell us,” Ron frowned in confusion. He didn’t understand why Hermione had done that. He knew that she loved to read anything she could get her hands on, but wouldn’t she prefer to read something else?

“You’d understand it if you suddenly thought that a story from your childhood, something that you only believed was there to entertain you, could be true,” the girl huffed. “I bet that if that happened, you’d reread the story too.”

Ron tilted his head and thought about it. Would he reread the stories of The Fountain of Fair Fortune or The Tale of the Three Brothers if he suddenly believed that they could be true? “Maybe,” he accepted.

Soon the hut was full of … slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little.

“He wanted to eat Hagrid’s food?” Fred asked sharply.

“More importantly, he wanted to eat the food that Hagrid had made for Harry?” George asked narrowing his eyes.

None of the Weasleys ever even thought about taking Harry’s food, even though they had no qualms about stealing food from each other’s plates if someone was distracted. Harry barely ate enough as it was, so there was absolutely no way that they would take it. Instead, they made it a group effort to sneak more food into his plate and bully him into eating all of it.

“He was hungry. We didn’t have much dinner,” Harry shrugged.

“You didn’t have much dinner either,” Angelina pointed out. “And you were thinner and tinier than your cousin. I think you needed the food more than him.”

“He hadn’t ever gone so long with so little food,” Harry excused him.

‘Unlike me,’ was what went unsaid. There was no need to voice it aloud for everyone to understand it. Dudley, who had always had more snacks than he knew what to do with on hand whenever he wanted, would of course have a harder time putting up with the odyssey than Harry, who went days without eating.

Uncle Vernon said … touch anything he gives you, Dudley.”

“Well, there went the problem of Dudley stealing Harry’s food,” Percy said.

“Although, he could’ve given that warning to Harry too,” Arthur frowned. “He’s perfectly content with allowing Harry to accept food from a stranger.”

“I bet he was hoping that I’d be poisoned,” Harry murmured morosely under his breath. He received twin slaps on the back of his head for his comment. “Ouch!”

“Don’t say that! You’re not gonna be poisoned!” Hermione hissed at him.

“According to Mad-Eye, I could be,” Harry argued.

“Fuck Mad-Eye!” Ron replied, making an effort to keep his voice down. He didn’t want his mother using a cleaning charm on his mouth if she heard him. “You’re not gonna be poisoned!”

Harry blinked surprised at their vehemence. “It’s not like I want to. It was just a comment. But you have to agree that he’s got a point,” he tried to placate them.

“Which is why we’re gonna learn with you how to detect curses, poisons and other type of potions,” Hermione said firmly. She was already thinking of what books may be useful to them and what section of the library they should look in.

Harry stared at them. “You are?” He asked, surprised and more than a little touched. Every time he thought that Ron and Hermione wouldn’t surprise him again, his best friends went and did something that completely threw his world for a loop.

“Of course, we are,” Ron scoffed, shoving his shoulder gently. “Besides, we spend so much time together that we’re bound to end up poisoned too if someone tries it with you.”

Harry’s face immediately crumpled with guilt. That was true. He knew that he would be a main target and he was so close to Ron and Hermione that they would become targets too just by association. It wasn’t fair to them.

“Oh, come off it, Harry,” Ron huffed, shoving him again. This time he wasn’t so gentle. “No thoughts about guilt. The only one at fault would be the bastard trying to mess with you.”

“And that’s why we wanna learn,” Hermione said softly. She grinned in excitement. “Besides, it has to be incredible. I bet there’s a whole field that works with detecting and identifying curses and potions.”

Harry and Ron could only grin at her enthusiasm before sharing an amused look. They could already see a trip to the library in their near future.

The giant … puddin’ of a son don’ need fattenin’ anymore, Dursley, don’ worry.”

“Hagrid, don’t you think you may be going a little too far?” Molly suggested uncertainly. “Dudley is only a kid whom you’re making fun of.”

“He didn’ treat Harry right,” Hagrid huffed, completely unrepentant.

“He was only doing what his parents taught him to do,” Arthur said sadly. “I’m not saying that that makes it less bad, but it’s not totally his fault.”

“And technically, you didn’t know how they treated Harry,” Angelina told the gamekeeper.

“I saw enough. Tryin’ to flee from wizards, keepin’ the letters away from Harry, makin’ him sleep on the floor while they took the bed,” Hagrid growled. “It wasn’ right.”

“Wait, is that right?” Fred asked astonished.

“Does that mean that you sent Harry the letters?” George asked in awe.

Hagrid’s anger vanished as the embarrassment crept in. “Perhaps,” he admitted.

Dean let out a laugh. “You put the letters inside the eggs? That was brilliant!”

“And making them enter through the chimney on a Sunday just when Vernon had calmed down? Awesome!” Justin laughed.

“You scared the crap out of them when the letters were sent to the hotel they stayed in,” Hannah bit her lip to unsuccessfully try to hide his grin. She wanted to feel bad for enjoying someone else’s fear, but they had treated Harry so badly that it was difficult to feel any pity for them.

Hagrid blushed under all the praises. “I was just tryin’ to give Harry his letters.”

He passed the sausages … had never tasted anything so wonderful,

“They were just some sausages…” Hagrid said downtrodden.

He couldn’t help but remember that night. As soon as he had laid eyes on Harry’s emaciated figure, he had known that he needed to get some food into him. However, that hadn’t stopped him from feeling so sad and angry at the sight of the tiny child wolfing down the food like it was going to be taken away from him. He had been so close to throwing the Dursleys outside to the sea, but he had restrained himself, thinking that Harry wouldn’t appreciate anyone doing that to his relatives, even if they didn’t treat him right.

Now, knowing what he knew now, he wished that he had thrown them outside to fend for themselves.

“They were great sausages, Hagrid,” Harry said, bringing him back to the present.

The half-giant smiled at him, shoving the sadness down to a dark corner of his mind since it wouldn’t help Harry. “I’ll make more,” he decided.

Harry barely managed to keep the smile on his face. “Great,” he said, trying to infuse as much enthusiasm as into his voice.

When Hagrid looked away, Ron elbowed his best friend in the ribs. “Look what you did, mate!” He protested under his breath. He knew that if Harry had to try the sausages that Hagrid made for him, Hermione and he were part of the deal too.

“Harry was just trying to be nice,” Hermione said, but she didn’t look happy either.

“Well, he shouldn’t have,” the redhead grumbled.

“What did you want me to do?” Harry argued defensively.

“I don’t know! Having said nothing!”

“You saw how Hagrid looked! Someone had to tell him something!” Harry insisted. He wasn’t going to give in on this. Having to try the damn sausages and pretend that they liked them was a small price to pay to bring Hagrid out of his misery.

Ron’s shoulders slumped in defeat. He knew that Harry just wanted to help Hagrid, but dammit, Hagrid’s food was horrible. “You’re eating my share,” he grumbled.

“We could always feed them to Fang under the table,” Harry grinned.

The redhead perked up and returned the grin. “Now, that’s a plan. I like that.”

“We better not get caught, though,” Hermione warned them. They were going to have to take turns distracting Hagrid, but it would be worth it if they didn’t have to eat the sausages then.

but he still couldn’t take his eyes … I still don’t really know who you are.”

“About time you insisted, Potter,” Moody growled.

“I wanted to finish eating first,” Harry shrugged. He hadn’t wanted to risk having the food being taken away, even though he now knew that Hagrid would never do that.

“Which you shouldn’t have done in the first place!” The ex-auror roared.

“Not again, Mad-Eye,” Tonks groaned, rolling her eyes. “We’ve already heard you going on about Harry having to be careful and all that. You don’t have to repeat it.”

“I’ll repeat it as many times as I have to until it’s gotten into that thick head of his!” Moody barked at her.

Snape snorted. “It’s gonna take him a while. I’ve been trying for more than three years and I haven’t managed to teach Potter anything substantial,” he said under his breath.

“Severus,” McGonagall said sharply. She wasn’t going to tolerate him talking about a student like that.

“I still say that you’re not being fair to Harry,” Poppy said quietly.

Snape rolled his eyes. They never saw Potter like he did. They always overlooked his arrogance and his laziness. “Why exactly am I not being fair?” He drawled out.

“You always say that he’s a pampered prince, but I think we can all agree now that that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Pomona pointed out, clenching her fists. She was itching to plant some nasty surprises in the Dursleys’ garden.

Snape faltered for a moment, but he schooled his expression to remain blank. “Be as that may be, that doesn’t excuse Potter’s behaviour in the school,” he argued. He wasn’t going to begin to pity Potter and comply to his every whim just because he had a hard homelife. He wasn’t the only one that hadn’t had a good childhood.

“What behaviour, Severus?” Flitwick asked exasperated.

“He never listens in class. He’s lazy, always depending on Granger instead of doing his own work like he should. He’s arrogant, always wanting to be in the spotlight and thinking that the world spins around him. Just like his father,” Severus snapped angrily. It wasn’t the first time he said this and he had no indication that it would work any differently than the other times, but he still tried.

“That doesn’t match what I’ve observed of him in my class,” McGonagall shook her head. “Of course, he gets distracted sometimes and I have to call him to attention, but we all have to do that with all the students at some point or another.”

“And he’s never failed to hand in an assignment on time, even if sometimes it was clear that it had been done in a rush. But then again, that happens to all the students,” Flitwick pointed out. “And I know, because I’ve seen it myself, that while Ms. Granger helps Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley with some assignments, she doesn’t complete them for the boys. She just tells them if they’ve made a mistake somewhere.”

“He always tries hard in my class. He isn’t the best,” Pomona said, thinking of the shy Gryffindor that had the most impressive green thumb she had ever seen. “But that doesn’t mean that he’s ever tried to push someone else to do the hard work.”

“I’ve never seen him behaving arrogantly,” Poppy chipped in. “He’s always so surprised when he receives visits or a present when he’s staying in the infirmary. And he’s always so polite, even though he’s not that good of a patient and he hates staying there.”

Snape gritted his teeth and shook his head. “He may not have seemed arrogant in the book so far, but I bet that it’ll change when he arrives to Hogwarts and all the fame gets to his head. He’s… infuriating, and you never see it. You’re blind. You all think that he’s so perfect that you don’t see how he really is,” he spat.

“Have you thought, Severus, that perhaps you’re the one that thinks that he’s so bad that you don’t see how Mr. Potter really is?” Filius asked him slyly. He grinned satisfied when his question managed to stop the head of Slytherin in his tracks. “We all know that James Potter and his friends weren’t kind to you…”

Snape growled at him. He didn’t like to talk about that. He didn’t like being reminded of the bullies that had made his life hell.

“But Harry’s not like that,” Filius continued, not intimidated in the slightest.

“You don’t know that,” Snape insisted stubbornly.

“And you do?” Pomona replied with a raised eyebrow. “I’ve never seen him bullying anyone. If anything, I’ve seen other students harassing him from time to time.”

“You’re talking about Draco,” Severus clarified, narrowing his eyes. They were entering dangerous territory if they began to speak badly of his godson.

“Among others,” the head of Hufflepuff nodded. “It’s no secret that Mr. Malfoy is often seen going to the table of Gryffindor when Mr. Potter is there, but I’ve never seen the situation happening in reverse.”

Snape gritted his teeth, unable to deny this. Still, he knew what his godson had told him about the first times he had met Potter and he knew that the Gryffindor boy was exactly like his father. “Potter knows that there’s often one teacher of another in the Great Hall. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t harass other students at other times.”

“No, it doesn’t, but I’ve never seen proof of that,” McGonagall said, pursing her lips. She was determined to defend her little lion against these foolish accusations.

“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen,” Severus snapped at her.

“I guess it’s a good thing that we’re reading these books then,” Poppy said calmly. “We’ll be able to see if Mr. Potter is really as arrogant as you’re portraying him to be.”

Snape relaxed slightly and smirked. “You’ll see it.”

“And if we don’t?” Minerva asked him seriously. “What happens if we don’t see it and you’re proven wrong? Are you gonna keep making his classes of Potions miserable?”

“I don’t make his classes miserable,” he scoffed.

“That’s not an answer to my question,” the head of Gryffindor said, refusing to change the subject. “If the books prove that Harry isn’t like his father, will you stop treating him like he is?”

Snape gritted his teeth. “Fine,” he spat. It wasn’t like it would ever happen.

“You have to keep an open mind, Severus,” Filius told him seriously. “If we have to consider that perhaps Mr. Potter only behaves correctly in front of us, you have to consider that perhaps you’re seeing things that aren’t there.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know,” Snape huffed irritably.

The giant took a gulp … his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Hagrid, you didn’t have a napkin in one of the dozens of pockets you have in your coat?” Molly asked exasperated.

The half-giant stared at the woman like a deer caught in the headlights. “Um… I… Perhaps? I’m not sure?” He said uncertainly.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” She asked sharply.

“I mean… I just… I put things in the pockets an’ sometimes… I forge’ they’re there?” He asked with a wince. He knew that his answer wasn’t going to be well received.

“You… You forget they’re there?” Molly repeated incredulously.

“I have a lota pockets,” Hagrid said defensively.

“And you never empty them?”

“Why would I?” He asked confused.

“Why would…?” She spluttered. “Don’t you ever wash your coat?” She demanded. She knew that Hagrid worked with creatures. He had to wash his coat sometimes.

“I… No? I mean, yeah? There’s this spell…” Hagrid fumbled. What answer was he supposed to give to get the woman to leave him alone? He was sixty-five years old, for Merlin’s sake! He didn’t need a woman younger than him telling what to do with his clothes!

“A cleaning spell isn’t enough!” Mrs. Weasley said exasperated. “You still have to wash it sometimes!”

“It’s fine,” he said, waving a hand dismissively.

The woman gritted her teeth, but she didn’t bother arguing anymore. Some people were just a lost cause.

“Call me Hagrid,” he … Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts — yeh’ll know all about Hogwarts, o’ course.”

“He should have,” Sirius growled, gritting his teeth. “He should’ve grown up knowing all of it, all the secrets we found out and more.”

“Hagrid told me, so it was okay,” Harry shrugged, like he didn’t care. “And we’ve found a few secrets of our own, so that’s okay too.”

“You have…” The animagus began to say.

“I don’t mean things that appear in the map,” Harry cut him off.

“What map?” Ernie asked confused.

“None,” Harry, Ron, Hermione, the Marauders and the Weasley twins answered at the same time. Harry, Ron, Hermione and the twins knew that it was an almost sure thing that the map would appear in the books, but it was instinctive to try to keep it secret.

Unfortunately, they reacted all at the same time. Which wasn’t suspicious at all.

Ernie blinked and tilted his head. “Okay?” He said confused and a bit intimidated.

It wouldn’t be the first time that he didn’t understand what Harry, Ron and Hermione or the Weasley twins were talking about, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Everyone had learnt pretty quickly not to but their noses into their business, which was why everyone had been so excited with these books’ arrival.

“Besides, it’s better this way,” George intervened quickly to change the subject. “Think about it.”

“We can see how Harry reacted to learning that he was a wizard and he could do magic,” Fred grinned. He had always thought that it had to be awesome to suddenly find out that you could do all sort of cool things, but since he had always known it, he couldn’t be sure.

“Er — no … Harry.

“Exactly, Harry. Don’t sugar-coat it at all,” Tonks snorted. “What better way to shock a wizard than to tell him that Harry Potter doesn’t know anything about Hogwarts.”

“Hagrid isn’t gonna take it well,” Charlie said knowingly.

“Do you think he could punch the Dursleys?” Colin asked eagerly. He certainly wanted to punch them.

Padma snorted. “That would be a sight.”

“I don’t think he will, though,” Charlie said, but he was smiling in amusement at the third-year Gryffindor.

Colin deflated. “Oh. Well, I hope he at least scares them some more.”

“He did, Colin,” Harry grinned. “He scared them alright.”

Hagrid looked … Harry said quickly.

“Why are you apologizing?” Ernie asked Harry, confused. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I thought I might have,” Harry shrugged. “He seemed to think that I should’ve known what he was talking about.”

“It’s not your fault that you didn’t, though,” Susan said, pursing her lips. It was his relatives’ fault. They were the ones that had known and had kept him in the dark.

“It never hurts to apologize. So, I did it just in case,” Harry insisted, not seeing a problem with that. It was a habit he had developed from living with his relatives and being blamed for absolutely everything, from Dudley getting a bad grade at school or breaking something to the food being burnt or Uncle Vernon having problems with a client at work.

“You shouldn’t…” Sirius began with a growl.

“He shouldn’t have to apologize for everything. I know! I’ve been telling him that for years!” Ron interrupted him, elbowing his best friend at the same time. “He’s stubborn, though.”

“We’re working on it, though,” Hermione said, smiling at Harry reassuringly. They were going to help him keep Sirius in line until the animagus came to his senses.

“Sorry?” barked Hagrid… them as should be sorry!

“Well said, Hagrid,” Anthony grinned enthusiastically.

“It was about time that someone told the truth to those dunderheads,” Daphne huffed under her breath. Those muggles had been grating on her nerves since almost the first moment they had appeared in the reading.

“I doubt the Dursleys will learn any better, though,” Luna said, frowning slightly.

Harry grinned at her. “They didn’t, but it was funny to see Hagrid giving them a dressing down,” he said happily. It was the first and last time it had happened, so he cherished that memory.

I knew yeh weren’t gettin’ yer letters … yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?”

“Oh, boy, that’s only gonna confuse him more,” Angelina groaned.

“The conversation I had with Professor McGonagall when she explained magic to me certainly didn’t go like this,” Hermione admitted, a bit amused in spite of her better judgement. She knew that it wasn’t funny, but she couldn’t help it.

“And he’s brought up his parents. He’s not gonna let it go now,” Dean winced. He knew that if he ever found information about his father, he would want to know more. If not for other reason than to punch him for leaving him and his mum.

“All what?” asked Harry.

Fred laughed. “That’s perfect, Harry!”

“You’re saying exactly what you need to say to anger Hagrid as much as possible and make him blow up,” George grinned enthusiastically.

“Hagrid has quite a temper, though. He could get into trouble if he doesn’t control it, and he does something to the Dursleys,” Tonks said, biting her bottom lip nervously.

“He’ll be fine,” Charlie said dismissively. “It’s not like Harry will tell on him and I think the Dursleys would rather be nice to Harry than get close to our world, even if it’s just to sue Hagrid.”

“Charlie, I’m serious,” Tonks said annoyed. “He could get into a lot of trouble for using magic on a muggle.”

“I know,” Charlie said, becoming more serious. “But I also know that it won’t happen. If someone tries to get him into trouble, we only have to say that they were abusing Harry. Everyone will be so furious over the boy-who-lived being abused that they’ll wanna go hex the Dursleys themselves and they’ll forget about Hagrid.”

“Charlie, we can’t do that,” Bill growled at him, grabbing his shoulder to force his younger brother to look at him. “You wanna put Harry’s homelife in the open? You know that’d make the first page in The Prophet. You’d do that to him?”

Charlie winced. “Perhaps that wasn’t the best idea,” he admitted. No one deserved to have that situation displayed across the newspapers. It was bad enough that it was being talked about like this in the open among the students and teachers.

Bill softened. “Not that we’d be able to, either way. We made a vow not to reveal anything we’ve learnt in the books, remember? The only one who can is Harry, and he’d never say anything willingly.”

“That means that Hagrid’s safe too,” Charlie grinned. “Nobody can accuse him of anything. And Harry made sure that nobody would face consequences for anything that was discovered.”

Tonks smirked. “He’s quite sneaky, isn’t he?”

“Quite,” Bill nodded in agreement. “I can’t wait to read about him at Hogwarts.”

“ALL … wait jus’ one second!”

“Oh, Merlin,” Alicia snickered.

“I’ve never heard Hagrid like that,” Lavender said hesitantly. “He sounds furious.”

“We’re all furious at the Dursleys,” Padma pointed out.

“He sounds like actually wants to punch them,” Colin said, sounding much less contrite than he should have when he was talking about fistfights.

“Harry told you that Hagrid wasn’t gonna punch them,” Dennis said, pulling at his sleeve.

“Yeah, but it’d be awesome if he did,” Colin shrugged.

He had leapt to … Dursleys were cowering against the wall.

“Good,” Sirius said darkly. “About time that someone bigger than them put the fear on god in them like they did with my godson.”

“They didn’t put the fear of god in me,” Harry spluttered indignantly.

He wouldn’t deny that he had been terrified of his relatives when he had been much younger, but not anymore. Never again. Not to mention that to think that they ‘put the fear of god in him’ was ridiculous. He wasn’t like that.

Remus sighed and rolled his eyes. “Ignore him, Harry. He’s always been a little dramatic when he’s angry and feeling vindictive.”

“Damn right I’m angry and feeling vindictive, Remus!” Sirius shouted at him. “I hope that Hagrid makes them pay for what they did, but since I very much doubt that, I’ll have to finish what he started.”

“See? Dramatic,” Remus shook his head again. He really needed to have a talk with his childhood friend about how what Sirius wanted and what Harry needed wasn’t the same thing. If the animagus wanted Harry to trust him, he had to learn how to put what Harry needed first.

“Do you mean ter tell … this boy! — knows nothin’ abou’— about ANYTHING?”

“There’s no need to call him stupid, Hagrid,” George said mockingly.

“After all, we know that Harry is a very bright boy and has a big brain under that mop of hair that our dear mother wants to tame,” Fred nodded with mock-seriousness.

“I know tha’ Harry’s smart!” Hagrid protested, not catching the sarcasm. He turned towards the small black-haired boy. “I know tha’, Harry,” he assured him.

Harry stifled a groan. “I know, Hagrid. Don’t worry. Fred and George are just being idiots.”

The twins gasped, clutching their chests with one hand like they had been stabbed in the chest.

“The betrayal, brother. Never saw it coming,” Fred said dramatically.

“We defend him and call him bright and he calls us idiots. How will we ever get over it?” George shook his head sadly.

Harry rolled his eyes. “You’ll manage.”

Harry thought this was going … said. “I can, you know, do math and stuff.”

“Oh, Harry,” Hermione said, smiling in amusement. “He didn’t mean that.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Well, I couldn’t very well know that, could I? He was making it sound like I had my head full of air like Lockhart.”

Ron snorted and shook his head. “Not that bad. Nobody can be that bad, mate.”

“Lockhart? Gilderoy Lockhart?” Sirius asked with a frown.

“You know him?” Harry asked him.

“Not personally. He was a Ravenclaw… what? Three? Four years below us in Hogwarts?” The animagus asked, looking at Remus for help.

“Four. He entered in our OWL year, remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” Sirius grimaced. “A pompous git he was. He entered the Great Hall like he was expecting everyone to bow and kiss his feet. He tried to tell us the best way to prank the Slytherins, like we hadn’t already been doing a marvellous job of that for four years.”

“James and Sirius decided to put all of Lockhart’s suggestions into practice on Lockhart himself,” Remus revealed. He winced and looked sheepish. “He didn’t take it too well.”

“Served him right, though,” Sirius huffed under his breath. “He even tried to take credit for some of the pranks that we planned. Idiot.”

Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged a look and snorted. That sounded all too familiar.

“What’s so funny?” Hannah asked curiously.

“Some people never change,” Ron shrugged with a slightly bitter smile. That man was a coward who would have left his little sister to die without even trying to help save her.

“How do you know Lockhart?” Sirius added, realizing that it didn’t make much sense for them to know that incompetent wizard.

“We met him in Diagon Alley when he was signing books. He was an idiot,” Harry scowled, trying not reveal everything and not lie. If they did, Sirius would want to know what had happened to him and they would be dodging his questions the whole day.

“That man has written books?” Sirius asked horrified. “And people read them and want them singed?”

“Awful books. They don’t really have a lot of useful content,” Hermione frowned. She took Lockhart’s lies and fraud as a personal offence. She had believed that that man had done a lot of good things and deserved their respect even though he had been a bit… odd, but it had all been a lie.

Fred and George almost fell off their couch when they heard her words.

“Have we heard that right or am I having an hallucination?” George asked perplexed.

“If you’re having an hallucination, I’m sharing it with you. Awful books?” Fred repeated flabbergasted.

Hermione pursed her lips. “Awful books,” she spat, getting angrier the longer she thought about it.

The twins stared at her curiously. It wasn’t often that you saw the witch that angry with a teacher. It was even more rare than to see her insulting some books.

“He must’ve done something really bad,” Fred said tentatively. He didn’t want to anger her or put his foot in his mouth.

“Care to share what it was?” George inquired with a raised eyebrow.

“You’ll see,” Harry shook his head. “For now, let’s just say that if Ron and I hadn’t gotten to him first, you would’ve made him beg you to kill him.”

Now the twins were really curious. What could have that git possibly done?

“You’ll see,” Ron said moodily. He still got angry when he thought about that man.

But Hagrid simply waved his hand … world. My world. Yer parents’ world.”

“The world that Harry has no idea about,” Padma shook her head.

“The world he should’ve known about his whole life,” Ernie said with a frown.

Harry shrugged. “Things happen. Not a big deal. I just found about it a little later, like the muggle-borns.”

“Professor McGonagall was the one who came to tell me and my parents,” Hermione remembered with a fond smile. That had been one of the best days of her life.

“She told me too,” Dean smiled. “My mum thought that she was trying to con us. She tried to kick McGonagall out, but, obviously, she couldn’t and in the end allowed McGonagall to explain.”

“My mum threatened to call the police. She was a bit hysterical,” Justin revealed, blushing a little bit.

“What polish?” Neville asked confused. How could a polish help them against Professor McGonagall?

“Not polish,” Justin sniggered. “Police. They’re like the aurors in the wizarding world. They catch the bad guys and people who break the law.”

“Oh. That’s a weird name,” Neville blushed.

“What world?”

“Oh, Harry,” Mrs. Weasley sighed under her breath. He had been robbed of his heritage, his family and his childhood all in one night.

“It’s like you’re purposefully trying to anger Hagrid,” Charlie said in amusement.

“Hagrid wasn’t explaining himself too well either,” Harry defended himself. He remembered how desperate he had been that night. He had wanted to know the truth, to know anything about his parents, more than he had ever wanted anything, and the one who had all the answers hadn’t seemed able to deliver them.

Charlie grinned. “Touché.”

Hagrid blushed. “Sorry, Harry. It was the firs’ time I explaine’ it to anyone. I was only suppose’ ter give yeh yer letter an’ take yeh ter buy yer school supplies.”

“You did great, Hagrid,” Harry smiled at him reassuringly. “You were just shocked at first.”

The half-giant smiled at him fondly and a little relieved that he hadn’t let him down.

Hagrid looked … “DURSLEY!” he boomed.

“Oh, boy. Now they’ve angered him,” Bill snorted.

“He shouts so loudly,” Colin said wide-eyed. “I’d never heard Hagrid raise his voice.”

“He doesn’t shout often,” Hermione smiled at him. “He talks loudly, but I’d never heard him shout until now.”

“I only heard him shout that night,” Harry agreed with her.

“He could shout at Malfoy in class sometimes, though. It may be what would finally do the trick and shut the pompous git up,” Ron huffed under his breath, but he was smiling in amusement as he imagined Malfoy cowering in front of Hagrid.

Uncle Vernon, who … that sounded like “Mimblewimble.”

“What? That’s impossible!” Hermione exclaimed incredulously.

“What? Why?” Harry asked alarmed.

“You uncle couldn’t have said Mimblewimble, Harry,” she shook her head agitated.

The boy raised an eyebrow. “Why not?” He asked, not trying to argue with her just yet.

“Mimblewimble is the incantation for the Tongue-Tying Curse,” she explained impatiently.

Harry’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really? But my uncle…”

“Hates magic,” she finished for him. “Not to mention that he knows very little about it. I very much doubt that he’d know the incantation for any spell.”

“Then what did he say? Because Harry’s right. It did sound like his uncle said that,” Dean argued, referencing to the fact that they could actually hear what was going like it was happening in the room next door.

“I don’t know, but it couldn’t have been Mimblewimble,” she insisted stubbornly.

“Well, it’s not like it matters for the story,” Harry tried to calm her down.

“I’m curious now, though,” Parvati said teasingly.

Harry smirked at her. “You’re welcome to visit my uncle and ask him yourself what he said that night,” he said innocently.

The girl grimaced and leant back. “No, thanks. I’m not that curious.”

“Can we go pay your uncle a visit, Harry?” George asked, smirking mischievously.

“We’re just dying to know what he said,” Fred agreed with a dangerous expression on his face.

“No,” Harry said firmly. “You can’t visit him. I retract the invitation. Nobody can go visit him.”

“Pity,” the twins said at the same time. They would do whatever they wanted in the end, even if they had to go behind Harry’s back.

Hagrid stared … about yer mum and dad,” he said. “I mean, they’re famous. You’re famous.”

“No. Really? Harry Potter’s famous?” Fred gasped.

“Wait. Harry who?” George asked, pretending to be confused. He scratched the side of his head. “I think I remember. Isn’t there a boy in Ottery St. Catchpole who’s called Harry?”

“That’s Henry,” Bill corrected them in amusement.

“Then, maybe Harry was that guy we pranked when we first arrived to Hogwarts because he was a prick to us,” Fred mused.

“Oh, yeah. The one who thought that he could order us around,” George nodded with mock-seriousness.

“That was Harvey,” Charlie snickered. “You made him talk backwards for three days. He didn’t dare mess with you after that.”

“Oh. That’s right. Poor guy. Didn’t even have a decent name. I mean, who names their child Harvey?” Fred asked with a grimace.

“Horrible name,” George agreed. “Harry’s much better. Although, I still don’t remember any Harry Potter that’s famous.”

“Boy must hate being in the spotlight to have avoided it so successfully,” Fred snickered.

“We might have heard some rumours about him in the corridors, but they were most outlandish. Totally impossible,” George agreed.

“I think you’ve made your point clear, boys,” Arthur interrupted them gently. He was smiling in amusement, though.

“Have we, dad?” Fred asked.

“That’s good,” George nodded.

“What? … weren’t famous, were they?”

“James and Lily Potter almost as famous as you,” Anthony said amused.

“Why didn’t you ask about your fame? Didn’t you want to know why you had it?” Zacharias Smith asked with narrowed eyes.

“I wanted to know more about my parents,” Harry shrugged. “I only knew that my mum was Aunt Petunia’s sister and that they had died in a car crash because they were driving while drunk.”

“Most of which wasn’t true,” Terry frowned. “It’s true that you didn’t know much about them.”

“See why I asked about them first?” Harry pointed out.

“But you must’ve asked about your fame later?” Zacharias insisted.

Harry frowned at him. “No. I don’t think I did,” he said slowly, trying to remember all the details about that night. He didn’t remember asking, and he didn’t think that he would have asked Hagrid about that anyway. His frown became more pronounced. “What is it to you anyway?” He asked warily.

The blond boy from Hufflepuff gritted his teeth and shook his head.

“What’s your problem?” Ron demanded protectively.

“Everyone wants to be recognized, even Potter. No matter what he says,” Zacharias spat at the redhead.

“Dude, what are you talking about?” Dean asked perplexed. That Zacharias had definitely got off on the wrong foot that morning.

“I don’t want that,” Harry shook his head. It wasn’t the first time that somebody thought that he wanted more fame and money than he already had, so he wasn’t too surprised.

“And I don’t believe you,” Zacharias snarled at him. “After living with those people, you must have wanted to shine, to be better than them and anyone else. It must have been a dream come true when you found out that you were famous in a hidden world.”

“Looks like you’ve finally found a kindred spirit there, Severus,” Filius chuckled quietly. “He seems convinced to think the worst of Mr. Potter too.”

“Don’t compare me to that brat,” Snape huffed. He had nothing in common with that skinny Hufflepuff with an upturned nose.

“His words are remarkably similar to what you’ve been saying for years about Mr. Potter,” Poppy smiled teasingly.

“A dream come true?” Harry spluttered incredulously, getting everyone’s attention once more. He glared at the Hufflepuff boy as his temper rose and got the better of him. “As far as I remembered, I had spent all my life ignored in a cupboard under the stairs and being told that I was nothing but a waste of space and air. And then I was shoved into the wizarding world, where everyone knew my name and my past and they told me that I’m apparently a hero. Everyone expected me to be incredible when I had been told all my life that I could never do better than Dudley. Everyone wanted to shake my hand or hug me or be my friend after I spent years with the Dursleys treating me like the plague and making sure that the neighbours did the same.”

He knew that he was revealing too much. This was something that he had never wanted anyone to know. He had never told anyone about the struggle that had been adjusting to the wizarding world. The only ones who knew part of it were Ron and Hermione, the former more than the latter because they hadn’t befriended Hermione until they had already been two months in Hogwarts. Everyone else was mostly in the dark about this because he had never let anyone, other than his best friends, in as much as them.

Now though, all his secrets were being brought to light in the cruellest of ways and he hated it. He wanted to shout at them that they knew nothing, that the fact that they were reading this didn’t mean that they suddenly knew him. That wasn’t how this worked.

“Suddenly, everything I had learnt with the Dursleys was wrong,” he continued, unable to stop himself. “But everyone still expected their poster boy to be perfect and know everything, even though my relatives had made their best to assure that I had zero social skills and zero studying habits. So, I had to pretend until I learnt while every move I made was being examined. Although, that part hasn’t changed. It was a freaking nightmare. And it certainly wasn’t any of you who helped cope with all of it. It was Ron and Hermione. Nobody else. Which means that you have no right to tell me what I wanted back then and what I want now. You don’t know me. So, keep your opinions to yourself and leave me alone.”

Harry was breathing hard by the time he finished. He felt everyone’s eyes on him. He was already regretting his outburst. He should have ignored that prick instead of letting his temper get carried away.

Zacharias looked taken aback, unsure of how to react. In fact, no one knew exactly what to say. It had been made clear to all of them that Harry’s homelife with the Dursleys was worse than any of them had ever imagined. However, a small part of them had believed that, once Harry had come to the wizarding world, everything had magically gotten better. Obviously, Harry had just shattered those illusions in a million pieces.

“Still think that he likes his fame and he’s as arrogant as his father, Severus?” Minerva muttered, sounding a little choked up. Why hadn’t she helped her little lion? Why hadn’t she approached him? The answer was easy: she had expected him to approach her if he needed help. With his past, though, he would never do that, and she hadn’t been able to see that.

Snape refused to answer. Potter’s words had shaken him to the core. They were nothing that would have ever come out of James Potter’s mouth. Lily would have never said those things either. But he refused to believe it yet. Until they got to the part where Harry arrived to Hogwarts, until the book mentioned how he interacted with the other students and he behaved in class, he refused to believe that he had been wrong all along about him.

Fortunately for Harry, who didn’t want to deal with the aftermath of what he had revealed, Flitwick’s spell decided that the silence had lasted long enough and continued with the reading. However, no one forgot about Harry’s words. Sooner or later, they were going to ask him about it.

“Yeh don’ know… … don’ know what yeh are?” he said finally.

“Hagrid, I think you’re only making him feel worse,” Molly pointed out tentatively. The silence was still thick with tension after Harry’s outburst, but she wanted to get past it for the boy’s sake. Later, she could try to talk to him, and then, only after Harry didn’t need her anymore, she would cry and rage for what her almost-son had been through.

Hagrid winced. “I just… I didn’ expect him not ter know.”

“It’s okay, Hagrid. Don’t worry about it,” Harry sighed. The half-giant had explained it as best as he had been able to, after all. It wasn’t his fault that his education about the wizarding world had been sorely lacking at that point.

Uncle Vernon suddenly … right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!”

“They were still trying to keep you from finding the truth?” Katie asked incredulously. “Don’t they know when to give up and admit defeat?”

“I’m all for trying again and again until you get it right,” Susan said, shaking her head in disbelief. “But even I can see that there no way they can stop Hagrid from telling you everything.”

“They’re terrified of magic. It was bad enough that I had it, but in their eyes, it would’ve been ten times worse if I knew that I had it, that I wasn’t just imagining things,” Harry explained.

“You can’t learn to use what you don’t know that you have,” Remus nodded.

“But Harry said earlier that he could open and close the door of his cupboard,” Tonks frowned. That was controlling his magic, even though Harry hadn’t put a name to it.

The black-haired boy shrugged. “I was desperate,” he justified it. That was explanation enough in his eyes. People could do amazing things when they were desperate, things that they normally wouldn’t be able to do.

“Still, that meant that, no matter what your relatives were telling you, you were already slowly beginning to learn to control your magic,” the metamorphmagus grinned. “That’s incredible, Harry.”

“And useful,” Bill smirked.

“Maybe that’s why Vernon Dursley was so against Hagrid telling Harry about magic,” Luna said softly. She stared at Harry and tilted her head. “If Harry was already learning without knowing what he was doing, he’d be able to do much more when he found out the truth. Knowledge can only help you achieve more things.”

“Afraid or not, Vernon Dursley,” Angelina said, spatting the name like it was a curse. “Won’t be able to stop Hagrid. Hagrid’s much stronger than him, he has magic and he doesn’t intimidate easily.”

“Can you imagine your uncle trying to put a muzzle on Hagrid?” Ron grinned in amusement.

Harry snorted at the mental image of Hagrid batting his uncle aside like he was an annoying fly. It was priceless. “That would be a sight to see.”

“Almost as good as the bouncing ferret,” Ron snickered under his breath. He had no wish to get into an argument with Malfoy now.

A braver man than … under the furious look Hagrid now gave him;

“I think the fear of magic was bigger than the fear of Hagrid. My uncle wasn’t about to back down,” Harry said, pursing his lips and frowning.

“They’d have to be scared out of their minds, because Hagrid’s terrifying when he’s angry,” Charlie joked weakly.

Harry’s frown smoothed into an expression of sadness. “They were,” he said softly. “I’m not sure if the book will mention it, but they were beyond scared out of their minds. Dudley was trembling like a leaf, Aunt Petunia was close to hysterical at some points and Uncle Vernon seemed to be about to suffer a panic-induced heart attack.”

“But why were they so scared?” Dennis asked with a frown. “Magic’s fun.”

Harry shrugged. “Not for them. For them, it’s scary. I don’t know what exactly Aunt Petunia told Uncle Vernon, but they were both horrified with it. And Dudley’s first experience with magic, knowing what it was, wasn’t so… positive. You’ll see what happened later. He didn’t enjoy it at all.”

“Harry, you can’t make excuses for them,” Ron said through gritted teeth. He hated it when his best friend began to justify his relatives’ actions.

“I’m not making excuses, but…” Harry tried to explain. “It helps if I understand what made them act that way and become that kind of people.”

“It’s because they’re sick bastards,” Ron spat. “That’s why. I don’t need another reason.”

“But maybe I do,” Harry murmured, staring at his best friend pleadingly. He needed Ron to have his back on this. He couldn’t do it without his and Hermione’s support. He needed them to understand why he had to find an explanation.

The redhead didn’t last two seconds when faced with Harry’s pleading expression. Harry asked for so very few things that, more often than not, neither he nor Hermione had a will strong enough to refuse to give in.

He groaned quietly and nodded at his best friend. He smiled slightly when the tension drained out of Harry’s frame, knowing that he had made the right choice.

when Hagrid spoke… saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An’ you’ve kept it from him all these years?”

“That’s right. They could’ve just given him the letter Dumbledore wrote to them to explain how his parents died,” Michael realized. “It would’ve saved them the uncomfortable talk of having to tell a kid that his parents were murdered.”

Padma glared at her housemate and swatted him on the back of his head. “Could you be any more tactless? That’s no way of telling a child something like that!” She hissed at him, incensed.

“I was saying,” Michael murmured embarrassedly as he rubbed the back of his head. “If they didn’t want to talk about it, they could’ve at least given him the letter. Better than the lies.”

“I wouldn’t have been happy with just the letter if I were Harry,” Neville murmured. “I would’ve wanted to know exactly what happened to them and why.”

“And asking my relatives questions of any kind was never a good idea for me,” Harry smiled bitterly.

“Which I still think is horrible,” Cho growled. “You can’t keep someone from learning forever. The truth can’t remain hidden forever.”

“They tried their best,” Harry said, avoiding to look at the girl. He still wasn’t comfortable with his crush knowing about all of this. He didn’t want that.

“They probably burnt that letter too, like they did with the ones from Hogwarts,” Katie grumbled upset.

“Do you think they even read it?” Susan asked with a grimace. Those people disgusted her so much.

“Yeah, they probably did, if only to see if there was a way to return me to my parents or anyone else from the wizarding world,” Harry said, half bitter and half resigned about the whole thing.

Hermione grabbed his right hand, squeezing it between hers while her heart clenched in sympathy for one of her best friends. She hated seeing him like this. She hated hearing him talk like that about himself. She hated even more that she couldn’t refute his words.

Ron could only grit his teeth and clench his shaking fists. He wanted to punch the Dursleys so badly. He wanted to break them like they had tried to do with Harry. He wanted to rub in their faces that, in spite of their best efforts, Harry had become so much better than they could ever hope to be.

“Kept what … Harry eagerly.

“Oh, Harry,” Molly sighed sadly.

She looked at the black-haired boy who was looking so uncomfortable there on the couch between his two best friends and wanted nothing more than to sweep him into her arms and hug the life out of him. She wanted to erase all that pain that she could see marring his features.

Arthur hugged his wife, drawing her to his side until her head was resting on his shoulder. “He’ll be fine, dear,” he whispered.

“It just makes me so mad. He sounds so… so young, and so lost. And it kills me to know that it didn’t have to happen, shouldn’t have happened,” she sniffed as she fought back tears. “They hurt him so much by hiding the truth from him. They had no right to do that and I just wanna make it better for him.”

Arthur tightened his arm around her. He pressed a kiss between her eyebrows before resting his forehead against hers. “We will make it better,” he promised fiercely. “But you and I both know Harry enough to know that he won’t appreciate either of us going there to comfort him in public.”

Molly closed her eyes to hide the tears. She just wanted all of her children to be okay, but they weren’t going to be. These books were going to hurt all of them one way or another.

“STOP! I FORBID … Vernon in panic.

“That’s not gonna stop Hagrid,” Ginny snorted. “Yelling louder won’t make Hagrid feel intimidated by that idiot.”

“Ginny,” Molly chastised her half-heartedly. She was still resting against her husband, but her eyes were dry now as she fought to pull herself back together.

Ginny frowned. Her mum couldn’t possibly have anything good to say about those people, could she? A few insults that they couldn’t even hear were the least they deserved. She opened her mouth to offer a scathing reply when she took a good look at her mother and she automatically shut it.

“Sorry, mum,” she answered instead of defending her actions.

She had nothing that she had to defend. Not when her mother agreed with her, along with possibly everyone else in the Great Hall. Still, her mum didn’t want her to say any insults and… well, when her mum looked like she did at the moment, Ginny felt inclined to give her whatever she wanted. And then go hex whoever had put that expression on her face.

It was merely another reason to add to the long list of things the Dursleys were going to pay for.

Aunt … gasp of horror.

Snape snorted. “She was probably expecting her husband to be turned into a toad,” he sneered, keeping his voice low enough that only those around him could hear him.

“It’d serve him right,” Minerva scoffed. Maybe she would go practice some complex transfigurations on those monsters and see how long they would last.

“I’m surprised she hasn’t tried to stop him yet,” Poppy said with a grimace of disgust. “She must be aware that Vernon Dursley has no chance against Hagrid.”

“She’s stupid,” Snape sneered.

Petunia Dursley hadn’t changed one bit since she was a whimsical gossipy little brat. She had always wanted to be in the middle of everything and have everyone envying her. She had never been able to accept that there were some things that she just couldn’t have, and when she annoyed people, she always reacted dramatically and like she was a victim.

“Ah, go boil yer … yer a wizard.”

“‘Harry, you’re a wizard’?” Bill snorted. “Could you be any blunter, Hagrid?”

The half-giant blushed. “I didn’ know how ter tell him,” he said sheepishly.

“I think I understood him well enough in the end,” Harry defended his friend.

“In the end?” Ron caught on. He grinned at his best friend when Harry blushed a little bit. “What did you do in the beginning?”

Harry ducked his head to avoid everyone’s gazes. “You didn’t expect me to just believe him, did you?” He muttered defensively.

Ron’s grin widened. “What did you do? Did you try to deny that you were a wizard or something?” He snorted. His eyes widened when Harry’s blush deepened and he laughed. “You did!”

“Oh, shut up, Ron,” Hermione huffed, rolling her eyes. “I didn’t believe Professor McGonagall at first either. I don’t think any muggle-born ever does.”

“But perhaps it’d be easier for Harry to believe him if Hagrid eased the idea to him a little bit,” Hannah cringed. Hagrid had been way too blunt for her tastes.

The black-haired boy shook his head. “No, better this way. It’s better to get straight to the point as quickly as possible, like ripping a band-aid in one go.”

“Oh, that’s true. Ripping them slowly is so much worse,” Seamus winced. “They pull at every single hair you have and it feels like they’re taking your skin away.”

Dean snorted and shoved him away. “Don’t be a wimp. Taking off a band-aid is nothing compared to burning off your own eyebrows and you’ve done that plenty of times.”

Seamus paused to think. “Touché,” he conceded.

There was silence … a what?” gasped Harry.

“Well, that’s a better reaction than I could’ve hope for,” Justin shrugged. “I laughed in McGonagall’s face when she told me,” he admitted embarrassedly.

“I thought she was insulting me when she called me a witch,” Hermione confessed as her cheeks turned pink. She was less than proud of her reaction.

“You did?” Ron asked, half confused and half amused by this information.

Hermione winced slightly. “I may have… expressed my opinion and displeasure with being called that quite vehemently,” she admitted quietly.

Ron began chuckling under his breath, trying to imagine Hermione ranting at Professor McGonagall. Hermione was a force to reckon with when she was angry or annoyed.

Harry grinned at her and nudged her with his shoulder. “You mean, you made your opinion known like you always do?” He teased her.

Hermione blushed and pushed him away, sending him against Ron, who was still laughing quietly. This only made the two boys laugh harder.

“We’re just saying, Hermione, you always have an opinion about everything you know,” Ron snickered as he pushed Harry off him and straightened.

“Not that that’s a bad thing,” Harry hurried to reassure her before she could take offense. “It’s in fact, a very good thing.”

Hermione huffed and rolled her eyes, determined to ignore them. Sometimes she wasn’t sure why she put up with them.

“Oh, c’mon, Hermione. We just thought that it was funny to imagine you arguing with McGonagall why everything she was saying was utterly ridiculous and impossible,” Harry said with a smile. He pressed close and wrapped an arm around her. He knew that she wasn’t really angry when she didn’t swat his arm away.

“Of course, we’d both bet for you if you were facing McGonagall. You’d kick her arse any day,” Ron grinned as he leant forward to see the girl.

Hermione couldn’t fight against the pleased and fond smile that spread across her face. Yeah, sometimes she wasn’t sure why she put up with them, but then they did things like this and she was reminded all over again of all the reasons they had given her.

“A wizard, … once yeh’ve been trained up a bit. With a mum an’ dad like yours, what else would yeh be?

“Way to put pressure on him,” Daphne scoffed. “You might as well tell him that he better be at least as good as his parents were.”

“I… I… I didn’ mean it like that,” Hagrid stammered. He never wanted Harry to feel like he had to grow up to fill his parents’ shoes. Not that Harry wasn’t doing a marvellous job of that, and wasn’t a fine young man on his own right, but Hagrid only wanted him to be happy.

“Don’t worry about that, Hagrid,” Harry smiled at him.

It wasn’t Hagrid’s words that had put pressure on him. It wasn’t even what his parents had done, even though that had influenced him quite a bit too. It was mostly the expectations of the wizarding world what threatened to break him sometimes.

An’ I reckon … read yer letter.”

“Finally!” Lee shouted.

“I didn’t have that much trouble and my parents wanted to call the police when I received it,” Colin grinned enthusiastically. “They thought that I had a stalker who wanted to mess with me.”

“A stalker?” Ernie raised a sceptical eyebrow.

“It had my bedroom written on the address,” Colin shrugged as his grin impossibly widened. “They completely freaked out.”

“I didn’t have half as much trouble, though,” Dennis grinned as he bounced on his seat. “We already knew what it meant so we didn’t even need McGonagall to come explain things.”

Harry stretched out his hand … Deputy Headmistress

“Exactly the same words that were written in my letter,” Charlie grinned. “Except for the ‘Mr. Weasley’ on the greeting instead of ‘Mr. Potter’ bit, of course.”

“It’s still plenty special,” Hermione grinned fondly as she remembered how excited she had been once the implications of all of it had sunk in. That letter had changed her life in the best way possible.

“I don’t understand why they mention Dumbledore, though,” Blaise grimaced.

“Why wouldn’t they? He’s the Headmaster,” Ernie frowned at him.

“But he’s not the one writing the letter. McGonagall is,” Blaise pointed out.

“I bet it is to intimidate the new students with all those titles,” Terry smirked. “They occupy almost as much space as the rest of the letter.”

“They do occupy quite a bit, don’t they?” Dumbledore mused in barely concealed amusement. He couldn’t deny that he liked to be reminded of everything he had accomplished in his life, even though he knew what power had cost him in the past.

Questions exploded inside Harry’s head … it mean, they await my owl?”

“‘What does it mean, they await my owl?’ Seriously? That’s the first thing you asked?” Ernie snorted.

“It’s true that you could’ve asked about that supposed school of magic that you’ve just read about,” Hermione pointed out in amusement. “Or about the fact that you were apparently a wizard. Or you could’ve taken a look at the list with the books and other school supplies.”

Harry shrugged. “The most pressing matter was figuring out what that bit about the owl meant,” he explained nonchalantly.

“Was it?” Ernie asked sceptically.

“The letter said that I had to respond with an owl no later than July 31, which was that very same day. I had less than twenty-four hours to answer. I supposed that not complying with that would mean that any chance I had of going to that place, if I decided that I wanted to go, would vanish. Knowing what everything else meant wouldn’t matter at all if I lost my chance,” Harry reasoned.

“Wait, you actually thought that through?” Ron gasped in mock-astonishment. “That must have been a first. And possibly the last time it happened,” he teased his friend.

“Yeah, I thought it through, you prat,” Harry snorted and shoved his face, ignoring the redhead’s cackles.

“You have to be more practical, Weasley!” Moody roared, startling Ron so badly that his laughter was abruptly cut off. “When you’re in a bad situation and someone’s offering you a way out, you can’t always start questioning all the details right away! Potter did the right thing asking about what he had to do to accept first!”

“Y-Yes, sir,” Ron stuttered quickly, staring at the ex-auror wide-eyed as he tried to become smaller on the couch. Merlin, he was even scarier than his doppelganger, and Barty Crouch Jr. had been a Death Eater who had shown them the Unforgivables.

“Gallopin’ Gorgons, that reminds … he pulled an owl —a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl—

“You carry an owl in your pocket?!” Susan exclaimed alarmed.

“Just a small one,” Hagrid waved a hand dismissively. “And only sometimes, when I know tha’ I’ll have ter send a note.”

“Like that day,” Harry grinned.

“But that poor owl…” Susan stammered. It couldn’t be healthy for an owl to be put inside a pocket.

“They have enough space there,” Hagrid reassured her. “The pockets are bigger than they seem.”

“But…” The girl tried to insist.

“Hagrid would never hurt an owl or any other creature,” Charlie intervened, smiling kindly at the girl. “He knows more about them than anyone else I know and he always makes sure that he does the best thing for them. I promise.”

Susan relaxed slightly. She knew that Hagrid was good with magical creatures. She had seen him taking care of the creatures he showed the students in class and it was rather sweet, to be honest.

a long quill, and a roll … scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:

“You actually understood what it said?” Hermione asked, eyebrows raised in surprise.

“When I first met him, I had trouble understanding Hagrid’s writing,” Ron admitted. It had taken several letters and notes until he had gotten used to deciphering their gigantic friend’s writing with ease.

Harry shrugged. “Hagrid’s writing is much better than Dudley’s,” he explained.

He had had to spend a lot of time completing Dudley’s homework, so he had gotten used to reading chicken scratches since he was fairly young. Besides, it wasn’t like his own writing had been much better in the beginning of their first year since he had never written with a quill before. It was much more difficult than it looked like and he had had to repeat several essays before they had been decent enough to hand in to his teachers.

Dear Professor … Hagrid

“You told him about the weather? Why would Professor Dumbledore care about the weather?” Cormac McLaggen asked, scrunching up his nose.

“It’s not about whether or not Dumbledore would care or not about the weather, McLaggen,” Katie huffed, glaring at him in disgust. “It’s about being polite and making small talk.”

“I think that Katie doesn’t like that boy,” Harry whispered.

“You think?” Ron snorted quietly. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard her sound so cross with anyone.”

“Are you two serious?” Hermione huffed under her breath. She gritted her teeth. “That’s Cormac McLaggen. He’s in Katie’s year. He’s arrogant and aggressive and thinks that the whole revolves around him. I heard that he wanted something with Katie last year, and he didn’t take it very well when she rejected his advances.”

Harry narrowed his eyes at the older boy. “Did he?” He asked quietly. He didn’t like anyone harassing his friends, and Katie was a good friend of his.

“Don’t worry. Katie took care of him,” Hermione smirked. “He didn’t dare get close to her for the rest of the year after what she did.”

“What did she do?” Ron asked avidly.

Hermione grinned. “That’s a secret among girls. I can’t say.”

“Hermione!” Both boys whined, but she only giggled and ignored them.

Hagrid rolled up … as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.

“Using owls to send letters is more normal than talking on the feletone,” Ron huffed.

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Telephone, Ron,” she corrected him for the umpteenth time. Sometimes she wondered if he was doing on purpose. “And talking on the telephone is normal for muggles and anyone who knows their way around the muggle world.”

“Vot’s a teletone? You said that muggles use post-people to deliver letters,” Viktor Krum intervened, frowning heavily. The muggle world confused him a lot.

“Not all muggles use letters to communicate with each other,” Justin said eagerly, staring at the star seeker with wide-eyes. “They also use telephones.”

Viktor’s frown became more pronounced. “Vot’s a telephone?” He repeated, correcting the name this time.

“It’s a device that allows them to talk like they’re sitting next to each other even if they’re miles apart, like the Floo Network allows you to talk to someone on the other side of the world. The difference is that you don’t have to stick your head inside a chimney to talk with someone, but you can’t travel to their side in an instant either,” Hermione explained quickly, and somewhat impatiently. She had lost count of the amount of times she had explained someone what was the telephone.

Viktor’s face twisted in confusion. “Oh,” he said, looking a bit disappointed for some reason.

Ron frowned. “What is his problem?” He asked confused.

“Maybe he expected a telephone to be something else,” Harry shrugged.

“If he had an idea about what it was, why did he ask at all?” The redhead insisted.

“Maybe he didn’t understand Hermione’s explanation very well,” Harry suggested then.

Ron scoffed. “Hermione’s explanation was just fine,” he defended her.

The girl smiled pleased at him. “Thanks, Ron.”

The redhead’s ears turned red, but he shrugged nonchalantly. “Just the truth. Something else must be bothering Krum,” he huffed.

“Well, unless you wanna go ask him, you’re not gonna figure it out now,” Harry rolled his eyes. “Are you gonna ask him?”

“No!” Ron exclaimed horrified. He couldn’t simply stand up and go talk to Krum like it was nothing.

Harry shared a look with Hermione and they both had to stifle their snickers. If they could somehow force a situation where Ron had to talk to Krum, they were sure to get something to laugh about.

Harry realized his mouth … Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.

“He doesn’t give up. I have to give him that much,” Remus sighed.

“That’s not a good thing,” Sirius growled. “Why doesn’t he just disappear already?”

“Would you chill already, cousin?” Tonks snapped at him irritably. She had half the mind to draw her wand and knock some sense into him.

The animagus startled, not expecting that hostility at all. “What’s your problem?” He snapped back at her.

“My problem is that you’re not giving it a rest,” she growled. “You know that Hagrid would never let anything happen to Harry, so you could stop with that overprotectiveness for a while.”

Sirius’ face darkened. “You think I shouldn’t protect my godson?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re impossible. I’m not gonna lose my time arguing with you. Just shut up and let us continue reading,” she said annoyed.

Later, when he tried to corner Harry, because nobody doubted that he would try it at the first opportunity he saw, she would help the green-eyed teen. Then she would give her cousin a piece of her mind and would set him straight. It was a pity that her mum wasn’t there, because she would be able to keep Sirius in line with a look.

“He’s not … said.

“There he goes again,” Angelina huffed, rolling her eyes.

“Do you think he believes that it’ll become a reality if he repeats again and again that Harry isn’t coming to Hogwarts?” Katie asked, half serious. “I mean, it’s the only reason I can think for him insisting on fighting a losing battle.”

“He can’t seriously think that they can stop Harry Potter from coming, can he?” Michael asked incredulously.

“He’s trying his best,” Hannah smirked. “We all know that he won’t succeed, though.”

Hagrid grunted … like you stop him,” he said.

“The whole wizarding world would revolt if that happened,” Seamus said, shaking his head.

“They would’ve tried to go get Harry?” Colin asked wide-eyed.

“They wouldn’t have just gone get Harry,” Cho said, shaking her head. “They would’ve brought the Dursleys to justice. They would’ve had a trial and then they would’ve probably been sent to Azkaban.”

“There’s never been muggles in Azkaban,” Percy contradicted her.

“There’s always a first,” Cedric said.

“If what they did to Harry became known, it’d be a miracle if they even reached Azkaban,” Bill agreed. “People would want to deal with the Dursleys themselves.”

Harry watched all the arguments in silence. They weren’t making him feel any better. Just like before, they were only making him think that all those people only cared because he was Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived. They wouldn’t be so quick to jump to his defence if he was just another kid, another muggle-born.

How different would his life be if he was just Harry? Would he still be friends with Ron and Hermione? Would he have met the Weasleys and would Mrs. Weasley still send him a jumper every Christmas? He wanted to think that he would, but he couldn’t be sure. He hated it. He hated his doubts and his inner turmoil, but he couldn’t get rid of all of it.

“A what?” … An’ it’s your bad luck you grew up in a family o’ the biggest muggles I ever laid eyes on.”

“The worst luck,” Hagrid agreed with his past words.

“You’re saying it like it’s a bad thing to be a muggle,” Hermione accused, staring at him with narrowed eyes. “And may I remind you that my parents are muggles and are perfectly nice people.”

Hagrid stared at her with wide eyes startled. “N-No,” he stammered. “There’s nothin’ wrong with muggles. I just… I wanted… The Dursleys…”

“Are not a representation of all the muggles in the world,” Hermione cut him off. “There are lots of muggles that are good and lots of muggles that are just asking to be punched, but the same can be said about wizards.”

Ron smirked. “It takes someone special to punch a wizard, though,” he teased her.

“Not everyone has the guts to do it,” Harry grinned.

Hermione’s annoyance disappeared as her cheeks turned pink. “He was asking for it,” she mumbled in her defence.”

“We’re not arguing about that,” Harry told her.

“One of the best moments of my life,” Ron grinned, closing his eyes for a moment as he replayed the memory in his head. It had been fantastic.

“Are we hearing that right?” Fred asked wide-eyed. “Did out little future perfect prefect punch someone?”

“Whom did she punch? And what did he do to anger her so much?” George inquired eagerly.

“You’ll see,” Harry and Ron replied at the same time with mischievous smirks on their faces. They couldn’t really do the memory justice and there was no way they were going to spoil it for everyone, so they would keep quiet and they would enjoy their reactions.

Besides, watching Malfoy redden in anger and embarrassment across the room was rewarding enough for now. There was no way that anyone would let him live it down when they found out about it and the blond knew it.

“We swore … we’d stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!”

“Stamp it out of him?” Neville repeated wide-eyed. It was the opposite of what his family had tried to do to him. “Are they talking about Harry’s magic?”

“It sounds like it,” Susan said, sounding scared.

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Molly said as her heart sped up. What had those people done to Harry?

“Harry,” the animagus growled.

Harry only managed not to cringe because of all the practice he had had to conceal his reactions. “Sirius,” he replied calmly, like he couldn’t see his worst nightmare coming towards him like a train wreck.

“Harry, what did they do?” Sirius demanded, not in the mood for games.

“What does it sound like?” His godson replied, trying to evade the question. He wasn’t going to give them more information than they had already gotten.

“Did they put a hand on you?” The animagus demanded to know.

“Why does it matter now?” Harry counteracted, hiding the panic that having everyone so close to knowing the truth caused him.

“It matters because I say it matters!” Sirius shouted. “Did they or did they not put a hand on you?!”

Harry’s expression closed off even more in the face of his godfather’s anger. “That’s none of your business,” he spat calmly.

“None of my… What do you mean it’s none of business?!” The animagus stuttered. “I’m your godfather!”

“So?” Harry replied. “That doesn’t mean I have to answer you.”

Sirius wasn’t able to hide how much those words hurt him. It was like being punched in the gut and having the air knocked out of his lungs. But he wasn’t going to allow it to distract him from what he really wanted to know.

“I’m gonna assume that that means that they did put a hand on you,” he said instead of shouting how unfair everything was, like he wanted to do. It wasn’t fair that his godson was keeping secrets from him, that he didn’t trust him. It wasn’t, and he was going to fix it as soon as he could. First, though, he had to make the Dursleys pay.

Harry growled and fought the urge to hex his godfather. What was wrong with him? Why was he acting like this? It was like all he cared about was knowing how much the Dursleys had hurt him.

“Assume whatever you want. It seems to me like you’ve made up your mind already,” he spat, trembling with fury and hurt.

“Harry, it’s just… If they hurt you…” Remus intervened, trying to calm down everybody while at the same time trying to find out if they really had abused Harry physically besides withholding food from him.

“If they did, what are you gonna do about it now?” Harry snarked. “If it happened, you can’t do anything about it now because it’s in the past and anything they could’ve done would be already healed. If it didn’t happen, you’re making up a whole new lot of problems out of nothing.”

“Then tell us if they did hurt you or not,” the werewolf half demanded and half pleaded.

“Why would I do that? I’ve already said that I don’t wanna talk about my relatives and these stupid books are bringing up my homelife much more than I would’ve liked,” Harry said defensively.

Remus stared at him sadly. “You can’t keep it all bottled up inside, Harry.”

“Who says I’m doing that?” Harry said exasperated and annoyed. “Just because I don’t wanna talk about them with you…”

“But you’re talking about it with someone else,” Sirius latched on to that piece of information. “Whom are you telling? And why can’t you tell us?” He demanded.

“Because, Sirius!” Harry shouted at him. “You don’t need to know and I don’t want you to know! And that’s all I’m gonna tell you! You’re not gonna find out anything more than what these books reveal and not a single detail more!”

“Why?!” Sirius shouted right back at him.

“Because I want it that way and you can’t force me to tell you!”

“Harry…” Remus sighed tiredly, rubbing his forehead to try to get rid of a building headache.

“No,” the teenager cut him off. “That’s enough. I’m not gonna talk about it.”

“Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin,” Arthur intervened. “Perhaps it’d be better to have this conversation somewhere in private at a later time.”

“Preferably when they’ve calmed down,” Charlie murmured under his breath as the two Marauders reluctantly agreed and backed off.

“They’re working up Harry into quite a state,” Bill observed as he watched the black-haired boy, who was tense as a bow string and looking ready to be attacked.

“I don’t think any of them handled it well,” Tonks sighed.

“They can’t exactly demand answers from Harry, though. He’s only known them for a year, Black for less than that, and neither of them has been there for him as far as I know,” Bill argued quietly.

“I don’t think Harry received a letter from either of them when he was with us in the Burrow this summer,” Charlie pointed out with a frown. “If he really didn’t, it doesn’t surprise me that he’s a little peeved with them now.”

“Harry, mate, you okay?” Ron whispered, putting a tentative hand on his best friend’s shoulder. He counted it as a victory when Harry didn’t even attempt to shrug it off.

“I’m not gonna apologize to them or tell them anything,” Harry scowled.

Ron raised an eyebrow. “That’s not what I asked.”

“We’re not asking you to tell them, Harry,” Hermione said soothingly. She hesitated. “Just remember that they care about you.”

“They have a funny way of showing it,” Harry snarled.

“Harry,” Hermione sighed. “I agree that they’re not handling it well, but don’t forget that they care. You know that’s the truth.”

Harry relaxed slightly. He knew that they cared, but they had such an odd way of showing it. Sometimes… Sometimes he wasn’t sure if they cared about him because he was Harry or because he was the last connection they had to James and Lily.

He knew that the year before, when Sirius had offered to take him in, he had agreed to get away from the Dursleys, not because he really felt a connection with the man. And he knew that he really wanted Sirius and Remus to tell him more about his parents. So, in a way, he was using them just like they were using him, but it wasn’t the same. He wanted to get to know them and maybe have a chance to become family, even if it wasn’t in the same way it could have been.

He had begun to get close to Remus before he had even known that the man had known his parents, and then Remus hadn’t bothered to write to him once the whole summer. And Sirius… He wasn’t sure what to make of Sirius. He had sent letters, which had made Harry so happy that he had been smiling for days at the Dursleys’. But in every one of them, he kept making remarks that gave Harry the feeling that the man was expecting some things that Harry couldn’t give him.

First of all, he wasn’t going to call him Padfoot nor was he going to call Remus Moony like his dad had done. That had been something between the Marauders and Harry wasn’t one of them nor did he want to become one. He wasn’t one for pranking and the like. Nor was he going to call either of them ‘Uncle’. Just no. That title held too many bad memories and feelings for him to even consider it. He wanted to try to see if they could become family, but not like that.

Secondly, he wasn’t a child. He wasn’t the baby they had known and changed the nappies of. He had gone through a lot of things that had made him become a whole new person that they didn’t know. And they couldn’t come demanding answers just for something that Harry didn’t even remember. It didn’t work like that. Things weren’t fixed so easily, and Harry didn’t want them to. That would mean that everything he had gone through was that easily erased and that wasn’t true.

If they could understand just those two things, maybe they could have a decent conversation that wouldn’t involve shouting and throwing around hurtful words. He wasn’t holding his breath, though. Maybe later, when he didn’t feel the urge to punch them or hex them, they could try to talk again.

“You knew?” … I’m a — a wizard?”

“They couldn’t not know,” Snape snorted quietly. “Petunia had to know that there was a possibility that he would be one.”

“And with the accidental magic that we’ve heard about, there’s no way they wouldn’t know. They punished the child for it, for Merlin’s sake,” Flitwick agreed.

“I still can’t believe that they didn’t tell him,” Pomona sighed sadly. “I’m sure that it would’ve made Mr. Potter feel better if he knew why those strange things kept happening around him.

“Maybe so, but I think that it’s better that they didn’t tell him if they were just gonna punish him for it,” Flitwick argued. “The boy could’ve tried to reject his magic if he knew that it was the reason they hated him so much.”

“That would’ve been a disaster,” McGonagall said, paling slightly. There hadn’t been a case of a child rejecting their magic in decades, but no one forgot the disastrous consequences it always had.

“Indeed,” Severus agreed quietly. For all that he despised Potter, he had to be grateful that the idiot child had at least managed to do that right. If he had had to try to protect Lily’s son from his own harmful magic, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything else. Protecting him was a full-time job as it was.

“Knew!” shrieked Aunt … I was the only one who saw her for what she was — a freak!

“A freak?!” Remus repeated, his eyes amber with anger. “Lily wasn’t a freak.”

“It’s not my mum especially. According to them, everyone with magic is a freak,” Harry told them.

“If anything, I think they’re the freaks,” Lisa sneered. “They’re so obsessed with being normal that they don’t see that they’ve become the monsters of the story.”

“I can’t believe that she’s talking about her sister like that,” Padma grimaced in disgust. “What’s wrong with her?”

“She’s green with envy. That’s what’s wrong with her,” Seamus scoffed. “What a bitch,” he added quietly. He had no wish to see if the teachers were willing to take points for insulting those people.

“Ten points from Gryffindor for such a foul language, Mr. Finnigan,” Snape said.

Apparently, yes, they were willing.

“Oh, c’mon! You can’t possibly agree with what she’s saying, Professor,” Seamus argued, barely managing to keep his tone polite.

“How in Merlin’s name did Snape hear him?” Dennis murmured wide-eyed.

“He hears everything,” Colin whispered in his brother’s ear.

Snape sneered. “Whether or not I agree with what that poor excuse of a woman is saying, there’s no reason for you to talk like that and I’m perfectly within my right to deduct points, Mr. Finningan.”

“He’s the one insulting her now,” Seamus grumbled, even more quietly this time. “Why can he do it and I can’t?”

“Because he can take points and you can’t. Shut up before you lose us more,” Dean hissed at him.

“You just did that because you’re angry with Petunia’s words,” McGonagall accused her colleague.

Snape raised an eyebrow. “You have no reason to think that,” he replied, keeping a tight lease on the anger and loathing that was bubbling just beneath the surface for Petunia Dursley.

“You could’ve just insulted her too instead of taking points off my lions,” the head of Gryffindor huffed, but she didn’t try to argue any further. It was no use since, technically, Severus was, like he had said, well within his rights to take points for foul language.

But for my mother and father… proud of having a witch in the family!”

“That’s because it’s something to be proud of,” Hermione huffed, crossing her arms. “My parents are proud of me.”

“I think your parents would’ve been proud of you whether you were a witch or not,” Ron smirked.

Hermione blushed, but she was grinning with pride. “Still, they were so happy for me, because I had a whole new world with thousands of possibilities open for me. And they were proud that I could do things that were special and that not everyone could do.”

Harry smiled at her. “That’s brilliant, Hermione,” he told her sincerely. Even if his relatives hadn’t been happy for him, he was glad —and very much grateful— that Hermione’s parents had been happy for her.

She stopped to draw a deep breath … had been wanting to say all this for years.

“Maybe to Potter’s face, but it’s nothing that she didn’t spout for years as she grew up,” Snape scoffed.

“I think I remember an incident when Petunia confronted Lily when she was going to board the train one year,” Flitwick said hesitantly.

Snape’s face darkened at the memory. “You remember right. She shouted all sort of insults at Lily in front of everyone, much like she’s doing now,” he spat. “She’d probably been waiting for years to shove it all into Lily’s son’s face.”

“Lily’s son?” Poppy repeated quietly.

It was the first time ever that Severus referred to Harry in such a manner. He had always called him ‘Potter’, Harry had always been James Potter’s son in his mind. Now, something had changed to make the professor of Potions think differently. Why had he suddenly thought of him as Lily’s son? He couldn’t do that. He didn’t want to do that. He was quite happy hating Potter’s guts.

Snape pursed his lips and refused to answer. He refused to grow fond of boy and become one more of those sheep that sang his praises like he was the new Merlin. He absolutely refused.

“Then she met that Potter … got herself blown up and we got landed with you!”

“‘Got herself blown up’? That’s how you tell a child that his mother has died?” Parvati exclaimed horrified.

“She’s even more tactless than Michael,” Padma huffed, glaring at her housemate briefly.

The boy raised his hands defensively. “I just made a suggestion, Padma. Nothing more,” he smiled sheepishly. “Besides, this way is much worse than simply handing Harry the letter that Professor Dumbledore wrote.”

“Still, it isn’t the truth either,” Sirius said disgruntled. “James and Lily didn’t die in an explosion. They were killed with the Avada Kedavra.”

“Perhaps Petunia went to see their house at some point,” Remus suggested pensively. “It does look like something blew up in Harry’s nursery, which I supposed was because of the rebounded killing curse.”

Harry perked up. “Their house?” He repeated, paling a little bit.

The werewolf looked at him with curiosity and sadness. “In Godric’s Hollow. That’s where they were hiding. The house is still there, exactly as it was all those years ago,” he explained.

“I-I didn’t know….” Harry said, feeling his mouth dry and his mind racing.

Why had no one told him that the house was still there? Were there things that had belonged to his parents? Were there photos, or mementos, or anything? How could he get there to see it for himself?

“I guess that nobody has ever told you,” Remus said subdued, looking at him with so much pity that Harry could barely stand it. “Then I suppose that nobody has ever taken you to see where they’re buried.”

Harry almost flinched when he heard that. Buried. Of course, they were buried somewhere, and he had never even thought about visiting them once. What kind of son did that make him?

Still, now that the seed was planted, it was like an itch that he couldn’t scratch. He needed to go visit them to… What? Talk to the gravestones that were nothing more than pieces of rocks? Bring them flowers that they were never going to be able to smell or put somewhere special? Try to see if he felt some kind of connection with them even though there would be six feet of dirt between them?

He didn’t know what he would do, but he knew that he needed to visit them at least once.

“It can’t be that difficult to visit it,” Hermione’s voice cut through Harry’s inner ramblings.

“What?” He asked dazed as he stared at her wide-eyed.

She smiled softly at him and took his hand. “I said that it can’t be that difficult to visit it,” she repeated.

“Visit it?” Harry repeated dumbly. That warmth in his chest felt suspiciously like hope and fondness.

“Godric’s Hollow,” Hermione explained. “We can go together. I’ve read that it’s one of the most magical places in Great Britain.”

“We can take the Knight Bus! I’ve always wanted to ride it!” Ron chipped in enthusiastically. “We’d get there in no time at all!”

“And we’d have more than enough time to visit all of it,” Hermione added, her eyes bright as she prepared the trip mentally. “Oh, Harry, it’d be fantastic!”

“Fantastic?” Sirius repeated under his breath. How could it be fantastic to visit James’ and Lily’s graves? How could it be anything but horribly depressing? His shock began to give way to fury and indignation.

“Sirius, don’t,” Remus warned him quietly, grabbing his arm tightly enough to leave bruises.

“Remus,” Sirius hissed betrayed. Why wasn’t Remus as angry as him?

“Harry can visit his parents’ graves whenever and with whomever he wants,” the werewolf insisted seriously. “If he wants to go with his best friends, that’s perfectly fine. We can offer to go with them if he wants, but you can’t force him.”

“They want to make some kind of… of… adventure trip out of it!” Sirius hissed. His indignation grew the more he thought about it.

“If it makes Harry feel better about going to see his old house and the cemetery, I don’t care if they want to make up some tour in Godric’s Hollow,” Remus said firmly. “This is about Harry, about him seeing where he could have grown up. If he wants to see more than his parents’ graves and the house that has turned into some kind of monument, then I’m all for it.”

Sirius deflated slightly. When it was put like that, he couldn’t argue with Remus, even though he didn’t like it. Damn that werewolf and his arguments.

Harry … very white.

“Do you think he’s so pale now because of the book or because of what Remus has just told him about his parents’ graves and house?” Bill murmured quietly, his eyes fixed on the black-haired boy. He was really a bit much too pale.

Tonks stared at Harry pensively. “I don’t know. To be honest, I’m not sure which option I’d prefer,” she said in concern.

“He’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it,” Charlie tried to reassure them. He ignored the pang of concern he himself was feeling. “No matter which option it is, he’ll be fine. If it’s the book, it’ll pass when it passes in the book. If it was Remus’ words, he’ll calm down soon.”

“And he has Ron and Hermione with him. They can distract him,” Tonks added, relaxing in her seat. It was true, after all. Hermione was still grabbing Harry’s hand tightly and Ron kept murmuring what they guessed were plans for their trip to Godric’s Hollow enthusiastically, which was managing to steal a smile or two out of Harry. They would be just fine.

As soon as he … told me they died in a car crash!”

“And now it’s when Hagrid’s gonna blow up a casket,” Fred snickered.

“Just like almost everybody did here when they heard that same lie,” George nodded.

“Do you think Hagrid will punch them now?” Colin asked eagerly.

Alicia closed her eyes for a moment, asking for patience. “Colin, why do you keep going on and on about Hagrid punching people?!” She asked, raising her voice until she was almost shouting in the end.

“They deserve it,” the younger boy insisted.

“Deserve it or not, Harry has already said that Hagrid didn’t punch anyone,” Alicia grumbled, glaring at him. It wasn’t that difficult to understand that, was it?

“CAR CRASH!” roared … Potter not knowin’ his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!”

“It’s kind of ironic,” Anthony said. He looked at Harry apologetically. “And a bit sad too.”

“Anthony!” Lisa exclaimed, whacking him on the back of his head.

“Ouch, woman!” Anthony protested, rubbing the sore spot. “I was just saying!”

“It’s the truth either way, even if you don’t like it. Harry should’ve known his story better than anyone else, but he didn’t even know his parents’ names,” Terry argued.

“Terry!” Padma said, hitting him too. “It wasn’t Harry’s fault that his relatives didn’t tell him anything!”

“I’m not saying that it was!” Terry complained, inching away from her.

“But it’s true that the wizarding world would’ve flipped if they had found out that he didn’t know,” Michael added warily. Seeing the girls’ murderous expressions, he rushed to add, “I’m just pointing that out!”

Padma and Lisa exchanged an exasperated look. “Boys,” they huffed at the same time, crossing their arms over their chests.

“But why? What … Hagrid’s face. He looked suddenly anxious.

“It’s never easy to explain a child how a member from their family, or just someone they cared about, has died,” Molly said sadly.

She still remembered as if it had been the day before when her brothers Fabian and Gideon had been killed. They had had to tell Bill, Charlie and Percy that their uncles were never going to come back. It had been one of the hardest things she had ever had to do, and the children had been devastated. The twins had been merely four —not to mention Ron, who had only been two—, not old enough to understand why their older brothers were crying, but they had had a hard time too.

She wasn’t sure if Hagrid’s situation had been harder than hers and Arthur’s had been. At least they had known their children, they had known the best way to break the news to them and comfort them afterwards. Hagrid hadn’t known Harry enough to predict his reaction.

“It was hard. I never thought I’d have to tell him that,” Hagrid admitted. He had been completely out of his comfort zone when he had been faced with two green eyes begging him for answers that he hadn’t known how to give.

“You did great, Hagrid,” Harry smiled at him. “If anyone had to tell me, I’m glad that you did it, and that you did it the way you chose. Other people would’ve just let me figure it while I made a fool of myself in front of everyone.”

“I wouldn’ do tha’,” Hagrid shook his head.

“I know. Thanks, Hagrid,” Harry told him sincerely.

“I never expected … trouble gettin’ hold of yeh, how much yeh didn’t know.

“You knew?” Sirius demanded, glowering at the headmaster. “You knew how they treated my godson?”

“I knew that the Dursleys would have some reservations when it came to his magic and they may be a little reluctant to allow him to come to Hogwarts,” Dumbledore confessed.

“Some reservations? A little reluctant?” Sirius repeated. Rage like he had rarely felt before was welling up in his chest.

“I suspected that Petunia would probably have some difficulties treating Harry the same way she treated her son, and that she would pass those misconceptions to her husband,” Dumbledore elaborated his answer.

“Those aren’t misconceptions or difficulties! That’s abuse, Dumbledore, and you knew it!” Sirius accused him. His fists were trembling by his sides.

“I didn’t know the extent of their actions,” the old man denied.

“You should’ve known,” the animagus spat at him.

“Gentlemen,” McGonagall intervened. “Perhaps we should have this discussion later, somewhere privately.”

“I think it wouldn’t be amiss to take a break when we finish this chapter,” Sprout commented. The tensions were high and there had been too many heated arguments and discoveries since they had begun to learn about the Dursleys. With a bit of luck, they wouldn’t appear in the following chapter and things would be better after the break.

“I believe that’s a marvellous idea,” Dumbledore smiled happily.

“Oh, it is. You have a lot of things to explain,” Sirius warned him, still glaring at him with all the hatred he could muster.

Ah, Harry, I don’ know … yeh can’t go off ter Hogwarts not knowin’.”

“That would’ve been a disaster,” Susan shook her head.

“People would’ve made so much fun of me,” Harry huffed. He scrunched up his nose. “Or they would’ve pitied me when they figured out that my relatives had lied to me. I don’t know what would have been worse.”

“They could’ve lied to you, make you believe anything they wanted,” Blaise said pensively. What would have happened if Potter had made friends with a Slytherin first? How would have things changed? Would they have a better relationship with him? Or perhaps the boy-who-lived would have ended up in another house?

“Thankfully that didn’t happen,” Harry sighed in relief.

“Can you imagine what would have happened if Hagrid hadn’t told you and you hadn’t known that you were famous?” Fred asked in delight as he imagined that scenario.

“It would’ve been a nightmare,” Harry shuddered.

“It would’ve been awesome,” George contradicted him with a smirk. “You would’ve been constantly asking everyone how they all knew you and why they were looking at you, and everybody else would’ve thought that you were joking. After all, how could the boy-who-lived not know his own story.”

Harry glared at them. “That’s not funny,” he said deadpanned.

He threw a dirty look … I can’t tell yeh everythin’, it’s a great myst’ry, parts of it…”

“A big part of it is still a mystery,” Cho pointed out. “Nobody knows how you survived the killing curse.”

“And apparently there’s another mystery surrounding Black, since the letter says that he’s innocent when it’s common knowledge that he betrayed the Potters,” Cedric added.

“And why he had to stay with the Dursleys after that,” Tonks said, sending the headmaster a dirty look. She didn’t appreciate that a child had been abused and Dumbledore had condoned it for some obscure reason.

“The answers to the first two questions are in the books. I know that for a fact because I’ve found out the answers over the years,” Harry intervened before they could begin to debate about it.

“You did?” Angelina asked surprised.

Harry hummed and nodded. It was good that the second question would receive answers soon, but he wasn’t sure if he liked that everybody would know the answers to the first question too.

“And about the Dursleys?” Tonks inquired.

Harry hesitated. “I’m not sure,” he admitted. He had always wondered why he couldn’t simply stay with the Weasleys the whole summer, or with Hermione for part of it. They had both said that their families were more than willing to offer him a place to stay for a few weeks.

Many people turned to glare at the headmaster, but the old man didn’t seem perturbed by that in the slightest. He kept staring back at them calmly, with that twinkle in his eyes that was seriously getting on some people’s nerves.

“You better have your explanations ready, Dumbledore,” Sirius grumbled under his breath.

He sat down, stared into the fire … yeh don’t know his name, everyone in our world knows —”

“Oh. That’s true,” Fred realized wide-eyed.

“Everybody but Harry knows, and everybody would call him You-Know-Who, but Harry wouldn’t know who is You-Know-Who and whom they’re talking about. He’d think that they were making fun of him,” George snickered, looking like Christmas had come early.

“What?” Seamus asked confused. “That’s a tongue twister.”

“That, my friend,” George grinned.

“Would be what would make it so perfect,” Fred finished for him.

“I would’ve gone crazy,” Harry huffed, but he was smiling in amusement.

“I would’ve been happier if you had never learnt that name. My life would’ve been so much calmer,” Ron protested, shoving his best friend away with a scowl.

Harry smirked at him. “You should get over it already.”

“I don’t wanna,” the redhead said firmly. “I don’t need to.”

“Some people have to say it,” Hermione pointed out. “Otherwise, the younger generations would be in the same quandary as Harry. They wouldn’t know his name either.”

“They can read it in some books,” Anthony observed. He grimaced. “Although, not all of them use his name instead of You-Know-Who.”

“Are you telling me that people have to do research to learn his name?” Terry asked perplexed.

“How did you learn it?” Susan asked. “Because I know that my aunt told me.”

“I… I don’t know,” Terry realized with a frown. “No one in my family says his name.”

“So, you probably read it somewhere,” Anthony shrugged.

“I can’t believe this. It’s ridiculous that people actually have to research his name,” Harry scoffed under his breath.

“Or they don’t. Maybe they simply call him You-Know-Who and they don’t know his name,” Ron said, amused in spite of his best intentions.

Harry sent him a deadpan look. “If they don’t know it, they’re afraid of something that doesn’t exist for them. That’s even more ridiculous.”

“Or maybe they simply wait until someone says the name aloud, like Dumbledore or you do,” Hermione said. “And when they see people flinch, they realize that’s the name. Fear can spread among people, even if they’re not afraid of it in the beginning.”

“So, they’re making each other be afraid of it,” Harry summed up.

“Basically,” Hermione shrugged. “It’s a theory, though.”

“That’s even more ridiculous,” Harry grumbled quietly.

“Maybe, but you can’t control what you’re afraid of, mate,” Ron pointed out.

Harry didn’t reply to that. He knew what fear could do to you, how badly it could control you, but he also knew that that was the main reason you had to do everything in your power not to let it control you. Still, it wasn’t the time to get into an argument over it.

“Who?” … don’ like sayin’ the name if I can help it. No one does.”

“Which is why our ickle Harrykins is gonna have a problem now,” George smirked.

“Because everybody knows that Hagrid doesn’t say the name even under the threat of torture,” Fred added. “So, ickle Harrykins, how did you learn the name?”

“Did you look for it in a book like our dear Ravenclaws have suggested?”

“Did you ask everyone, earning weird looks, until someone took pity and told you?”

“Did you wait until you arrived to Hogwarts to ask Dumbledore?”

“Did you guess it?”

“How would I guess it?” Harry asked perplexed.

“How are we to know that?” Fred shrugged.

“That would be your problem. We’re not the ones who’d have to guess,” George added.

“I didn’t guess it,” Harry denied.

“Then you found it in a book,” Anthony said smugly. He knew that that was a good idea.

“I didn’t find it in a book either,” Harry shook his head amused.

“So, someone told you,” Susan reasoned.

“It couldn’t be Hagrid,” Charlie said immediately.

“Maybe his aunt knew it,” Bill said. “Although, I don’t know why she would tell him.”

“Maybe Hagrid threatened to punch her if she didn’t tell Harry,” Colin suggested.

“Hagrid didn’t threaten anyone,” Harry denied quickly. He refrained from rolling his eyes, but it was difficult. Colin sure was determined to have Hagrid punch the Dursleys.

“Did your uncle know?” Percy asked, frowning in confusion.

“No. And, before you ask, neither did my cousin,” Harry said amused.

“But that only leaves Hagrid in the cabin,” Remus pointed out flabbergasted.

“You’ll see,” Harry said, trying to let the reading continue.

“Why … wizard who went . . . bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was . . .”

“Hagrid wouldn’t say it,” Charlie repeated his earlier words, but he didn’t sound so sure now. It was the first time that he heard Hagrid trying to force himself to say the name, which was more than he had ever imagined that the half-giant would do.

“The whole seven years that we were in Hogwarts, we tried to get him to say it,” Remus said, staring at the half-giant in awe and accusation. “He always argued that he had no reason to say it.”

“Like me,” Ron said, grinning at Hagrid. There was no reason to torture oneself, so why say it?

Hagrid smiled back at him. It was true that he had never had any reason to say until that night, which was he had never bothered, no matter how much the Marauders had insisted. However, that night, Harry had needed him to say, so he had manned up and he had done what he had had to do. That was how he had always lived his life and he wasn’t going to change it now.

Hagrid gulped… write it down?” Harry suggested.

“I think he’d have the same problem, wouldn’t he?” Justin asked curiously. “I mean, if he doesn’t wanna say it, he’s not gonna want to write it.”

“There are more authors who write the name than people who say it, so there have to be people who refuse to say it but have no problem writing it,” Anthony pointed out.

“Was that how you learnt the name, Harry?” Lavender asked. “We didn’t think about that option earlier.”

“No, it wasn’t like that,” Harry shook his head.

“Did you learn it that night?” Dean asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Yeah,” Harry answered in amusement.

“This makes no sense. The only option left is for Hagrid to say it and he would never do that,” Charlie insisted, grumbling under his breath.

“I think you’re not giving Hagrid enough credit, Charlie,” Tonks told him, poking him in the side.

“Quit that!” The redhead hissed, swatting her hand away. “I give Hagrid plenty of credit, but he told me himself that there was no force on Earth that could force him to say it.”

“Well, Hagrid had never imagined that he would meet a Harry Potter that wouldn’t know his own story, had he?” Bill reasoned.

The younger redhead stopped in his tracks and gritted his teeth. “Maybe,” he admitted.

“Nah — can’t spell it.

“You can’t spell it?” Zacharias snorted cruelly.

“Can you spell it?” Hermione snapped at him, staring at him challengingly.

The boy huffed. “Of course, I can.”

“Prove it,” she told him immediately. “Right now. In front of everyone in case not everyone knows it.”

“It’s written exactly as it sounds,” the boy from Hufflepuff scoffed, squirming uncomfortably under all the stares. “B-O-L…”

“Wrong,” Hermione interrupted him. “It’s with V.”

“Dunderhead,” Daphne snorted under her breath. She was enjoying the show of watching that girl rip Smith a new one, even if she was a mudblood.

“How do you know it’s with a V?” Zacharias snapped back at her, face red in embarrassment.

“I know it because it’s French,” Hermione told him.

“It is?” Harry asked surprised. He hadn’t known that. Voldemort knew French?

“It is,” the veela-look-alike blond girl from Beauxbatons, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “It means ‘flight from deaz’. A most ridiculous name, I zink.”

“Flight from death?” Harry repeated pensively. It fitted with what he knew of Voldemort. The man didn’t seem to be the type who would be die quietly, so he probably was terrified of death.

All right — Voldemort … shuddered.

He wasn’t the only one that shuddered in the Great Hall. A few even flinched in their seats, even though they had known that it was coming.

“He said it,” Charlie said bewildered. “Hagrid, you said it.”

The half-giant squirmed uncomfortably. “Harry needed ter know,” he explained.

“So, you said it just because Harry asked you to?” Sirius asked indignant.

“He needed ter know,” Hagrid repeated firmly.

“That’s so unfair. We asked you too!” Sirius protested. “For years we asked you to say it!”

“I didn’ wanna,” Hagrid shrugged, unperturbed. “Yeh just wanted me ter say fer fun, not because yeh didn’ know it. It’s differen’.”

“Good for you, Hagrid,” Tonks grinned at him. “Stick to what you wanna do.”

“Don’ make me … some just wanted a bit o’ his power, ’cause he was gettin’ himself power, all right.

“He doesn’t seem to be the type who shares, though,” Justin observed.

“I bet isn’t. If he found something to make him more powerful, I bet that he kept it all to himself,” Hannah nodded. “He wouldn’t want competition.”

“People say that’s why he’s afraid of Dumbledore, because he’s as powerful as him, or even more,” Terry chipped in.

“People still followed him for the promise of power,” Harry shrugged, thinking of Quirrell and how Voldemort had told him that there was only power and those who were too afraid to use it. “People can be greedy, and that blinds them. Like money. Or fame.”

“Do you think You-Know-Who wanted money too?” Ron mused. “Because he had power alright, and everybody knows him, even though no one says his name.”

“If he wanted money, he could just order his followers to give it to him,” Harry reasoned. “After all, many of them are purebloods or rich families who have big vaults in Gringotts.”

“But he can’t have a vault in Gringotts to his name, can he?” Ron asked perturbed. It was so wrong to think that You-Know-Who could have something as normal as a vault in Gringotts.

“Why couldn’t he?” Harry shrugged. “Maybe he does.”

“That would be weird. And the goblins would allow it?” Dean asked.

“The goblins don’t meddle with the affairs and wars of wizards,” Bill explained. “They care about money and riches, not about who is considered good and who is considered bad. As long as they had gold, they allow anyone to have a vault.”

“So, You-Know-Who may really have a vault,” Ron shuddered. “Horrible.”

“I can’t imagine him going to the bank to take some money out, though,” Hermione frowned. “People would’ve freaked out in Diagon Alley.”

“Maybe he has family treasures that he keeps there, things that he doesn’t want anyone to touch,” Michael shrugged.

Harry scrunched up his nose. “Maybe,” he said pensively. What could Voldemort keep in a vault in Gringotts if he had one?

He knew that Voldemort’s father had been a muggle whom Voldemort had loathed and that he had grown up in an orphanage. Harry suspected that he wouldn’t have wanted to keep anything from that place, since he seemed to have hated it as much as Harry himself hated Privet Drive. So, maybe he wanted to keep things that he had found over the years while in Hogwarts. But what could he want to keep that he needed a vault of Gringotts to do so?

Dark days, Harry. Didn’t know who ter trust … some stood up to him — an’ he killed ’em. Horribly.

“If you couldn’t trust people you didn’t know because you couldn’t be sure if they were Death Eaters, and you couldn’t know for sure that the people you trusted weren’t controlled by the Imperius or something, whom could you trust?” Michael asked confused.

“Nobody!” Alastor roared, startling them again.

Poor Michael Corner almost fell off his seat as he instinctively jumped to get away from the shout. “N-Nobody?” He stuttered.

“Nobody, boy! You trust nobody but yourself, and maybe not even that!” Moody said, punching the armrest of his seat. “You don’t know if the person sitting next to you is waiting for the right moment to stab you in the back! You don’t know if you’re being controlled or if your senses have been muddled by a spell!”

Some people were looking around wildly, staring at each other warily. They knew that their friends wouldn’t really stab them in the back, but the ex-auror had a way of making them feel stupid for not being paranoid. It was unsettling.

“Not everyone can live like that, Mad-Eye,” Tonks scoffed. “Stop scaring the children. You have enough fun with the recruits!”

“It’s not about having fun!” The ex-auror shouted. “It’s about having the skills and care to live to see another day!”

“If you can’t trust anyone, you might as well say that you’re just surviving instead of living,” Harry dared to point out. He would swear on his magic that the two people sitting on the couch with him would never betray him and stab him in the back. He trusted Ron and Hermione completely, and nothing Mad-Eye could say would ever make him change his mind.

Moody stared at him, even the magical eyeball was fixed on the black-haired boy. “Maybe, boy,” he admitted slowly. “But how do you know that you’ve placed your trust in the right people?”

“You just know. You give them a chance to stand by your side or fail you, and they pick to stay with you every single time,” Harry said firmly. He felt Hermione grab his hand again to squeeze it while Ron squirmed next to him, uncomfortable with the praise, like Harry had known that the redhead would be. “I’m not saying that you have to trust everyone, but there are people who’ve earned my trust and have never made me doubt them. I’d never insult them by retracting it.”

“Then I hope you never find yourself with a knife between your shoulder blades, or tied up inside your own trunk for months,” the ex-auror told him solemnly.

“If I do, I’ll know that it won’t be because of what my friends did or didn’t do,” Harry said, his voice softening as he remembered that Moody may seem like a paranoid bastard, but he had every reason to be.

“If you’re right, you’re lucky, Potter. Most people spend their lives afraid to truly trust anyone.”

“I know I’m lucky, but I also know that you can’t win if you don’t take a risk,” the boy reasoned.

One o’ the only safe places left was Hogwarts … Didn’t dare try takin’ the school, not jus’ then, anyway.

“Not just then?” Dennis repeated nervously, and maybe a little afraid too. “Does that mean that You-Know-Who would dare try take the school at some point?”

“Not as long as Dumbledore is the headmaster,” Cho shook her head.

“And Dumbledore is like, part of Hogwarts or something,” Lavender added. “He’s been here forever.”

“Nobody can live or work forever. At some point, Dumbledore will have to retire and give the post to someone else,” Theodore Nott pointed out with a small sneer. He didn’t particularly like Dumbledore and he never would.

“I assure you, Mr. Nott, that I still have a few good years left in me before that point arrives,” the headmaster smiled. It went a long way to reassure some of the students who were already imagining the Death Eaters and Voldemort himself storming the castle without Dumbledore there to stop them.

No one answered, but they were all thinking the same thing. What if Voldemort came back after those few good years had come and gone? Or what if he outlived Dumbledore? Like Lavender had said, the headmaster had been forever a part of Hogwarts, so the end couldn’t be that far, could it? What would happen then?

“Now, yer mum an’ dad were as good … why You-Know-Who never tried to get ’em on his side before…

“James and Lily would’ve never joined his side,” Sirius denied vehemently. “They hated him and everything he represented.”

“Not to mention that he would’ve never tried to recruit Lily just because she was a muggle-born, no matter how good of a witch she was,” Remus said sadly. He missed her, missed both of them, so much that it still hurt thirteen years after they had died.

“Besides, he killed so many of their friends, so many people that we knew, that there would be no way that any of us would join him,” Arthur said, sad but determined. He was remembering his wife’s brothers, whom he had been close to and whom he still missed. He had held Molly while she had cried devastated after they had received the news of their deaths, she had been hurting so much that he could never forgive Voldemort and the Death Eaters for doing that to her, her brothers and his whole family.

probably knew … ter want anythin’ ter do with the Dark Side.

“You don’t have to be close to Dumbledore to want nothing to do with You-Know-Who,” Blaise scoffed.

“Are you talking for experience?” Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t enjoy being tortured for fun every time the man is angry or bored, which everyone knows that it’s what he would do on a daily basis,” the boy from Slytherin sneered.

“You don’t like muggle-borns. You call them mudbloods,” Ron spat, glaring at him accusingly.

“That I don’t like them and I believe that they’re destroying our world doesn’t mean that I wanna join a madman, Weasley,” Blaise snapped.

“We’re not destroying your world! And it’s our world too!” Hermione argued.

“You’re destroying all the customs that have been held for centuries!” Daphne joined the argument. “All of you muggle-borns arrive believing that you know how to do things better, that you can demand to do things differently! Why should we change when we, when our customs, have been here first and we enjoy them? If you want to celebrate muggle customs, you should celebrate them in the muggle world and leave us alone.”

Hermione opened her mouth before closing it with a snap. She didn’t know what to respond to that. It was a fair argument. When you visited a foreign country, you learnt their culture and customs and you adapted to them. You didn’t try to force your own customs just because they worked in your own country.

Was that what muggle-borns were unconsciously doing?

“Of all the times for Hermione to be speechless and lose an argument, it has to be now?” Ron grumbled quietly under his breath. Worse, he just knew that Hermione was going to want to keep arguing about this. This was going to be one of those topics she was going to get passionate about, like the house-elves’ rights and freedom.

“Maybe he thought he could persuade ’em… … was just a year old. He came ter yer house an’— an’— ”

Sirius closed his eyes as the images of that night flashed through his mind. He wanted to forget it just as much as he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to forget his friends and what they had fought for, what they had all lost, but the nightmares that accosted him every time he closed his eyes were horrible. He could still remember it like he had found them just the night before.

He had found James first, in the small entrance hall in the cottage. His glasses had been knocked off and his mouth had been slightly open, like he had been caught midscream. And no matter how much Sirius had shaken him, had begged him not to leave them, had shouted that it wasn’t funny… James hadn’t moved. The unseeing hazel eyes had been haunting Sirius for thirteen years.

Then he had run upstairs, knowing that James would have tried to buy Lily some time to flee with Harry and hoping against hope that she had managed to do it. But she hadn’t. He had found her on the floor in Harry’s nursery, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Her fiery red hair had been spread around her head like a halo, but her expression had been anything but peaceful. Her green eyes had seen him either when he had begged her to.

He had been distracted when he had heard Harry crying. The toddler had still been in his crib, but his forehead had been bloody and he had been calling his parents desperately. He had only calmed down marginally when Sirius had picked him up, more relieved than he could express with words that his godson was miraculously still alive and unharmed except for that wound in the shape of a lightning bolt. Sirius knew that he wouldn’t have survived that night if he had found Harry as still and unresponsive as his parents.

The animagus shuddered and shook his head to dispel the memories. He didn’t want to think about the worst night of his life more than he had to. He saw it enough every night without torturing himself further over it when he was awake.

Hagrid suddenly pulled … ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin’ by then.

“That’s true. Why would he bother with trying to kill you if he had already killed your parents?” Ernie wondered, looking at Harry. He blushed and looked mortified when he realized what he had said. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean it like that…”

“I know,” Harry cut him off gently. “I wondered about that too.”

“And?” Padma pushed when he didn’t seem inclined to elaborate.

Harry shrugged. “And nothing. I wondered and I’m still wondering. I haven’t found the answer to that. The people who have it aren’t all that willing to give it to me.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think I’d be willing to ask a mass murderer why they wanted to kill me when I was a baby. I’d probably use the time to run in the opposite direction,” Anthony said weakly.

Harry didn’t answer except for a tiny smile. He let them think that he was talking about Voldemort, whom, of course, he hadn’t had the chance to ask. Meanwhile, he stole a glance at the headmaster as he remembered the conversation they had had in the infirmary at the end of his first year. Would he find out the answer to that question in the books or would he be left wondering for a while longer?

But he couldn’t do … no ordinary cut. That’s what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh

“That’s not exactly true, Hagrid,” Hermione corrected him. Or his past self. “The killing curse doesn’t leave a mark on the people it kills, and they’ve been touched by it.”

“But Harry…” Hagrid argued.

“Is the only one who has survived it,” Terry agreed with Hermione. “You can’t base a theory on a single case since it could be an exception.”

“Well, no one’s gonna volunteer to be a Guinea pig to try to prove that theory,” Dean snorted.

“Yeah, but if it wasn’t the curse, what could’ve left Harry that mark?” Bill pointed out. “Like Hagrid said, it’s no ordinary scar.”

Harry rubbed it unconsciously. No, it wasn’t an ordinary scar. Ordinary scars didn’t hurt years after someone had gotten them.

“That’s another mystery then. How did the killing curse leave you a mark, and didn’t kill you, when it’s known to do exactly the opposite?” Ernie asked, staring at Harry like he was an interesting specimen.

“The only other one who was there that night is You-Know-Who, apart from baby Harry, and I don’t think Anthony Goldstein’s the only one reluctant to ask him anything,” George pointed out.

“I wouldn’t ask him to tell me the time, much less about the night that he was defeated by a toddler,” Fred shuddered. They may have crazy ideas, but they weren’t suicidal.

— took care of yer mum an’ dad … didn’t work on you, an’ that’s why yer famous, Harry.

“Wait, are you famous for surviving the killing curse or for destroying You-Know-Who?” Ron wondered.

Harry blinked at him and shook his head. “How am I supposed to know? You knew about me before me. You’re more likely to know,” he said.

“I think that it’s a bit of both,” Hermione said pensively. “But mostly for defeating You-Know-Who since that’s what allowed people to live in peace. If you had defeated a Death Eater instead of You-Know-Who, you wouldn’t have been as famous, I think.”

“I didn’t do anything. I just… sat there, I suppose,” Harry shrugged.

Ron snorted. “You probably cried,” he teased him.

Harry shoved him away. “You probably would’ve cried too!”

“But I didn’t,” the redhead smirked.

No one ever lived after he decided … some o’ the best witches an’ wizards of the age — the McKinnons,

“Marlene and her family,” Remus said sadly.

“She was amazing,” Sirius agreed, clenching his fists.

“You knew them?” Harry asked hesitantly. He didn’t know how they would take being asked about the people they had lost, even if they were James and Lily.

“Marlene was a good friend of ours, especially your mother,” Remus explained. Suddenly, he looked a decade older. “She was killed by Death Eaters in July of 1981, just a few months before You-Know-Who came to your house. Lily was devastated when she heard about it.”

“She fought like a demon, though,” the animagus said, grinning proudly. “She took three Death Eaters with her before they managed to get to her.”

the Bones,

“Your family?” Anthony exclaimed horrified.

Susan glared at him, clenching her fists in her lap. “I’m not living with my Aunt Amelia just because, Anthony,” she snapped at him irritably. For being a Ravenclaw, he sure could be dumb when he wanted.

“Sorry,” Anthony replied, shrinking in his seat like he could disappear between the cushions.

Susan sighed and deflated. “They all died years ago, my parents, my uncle and aunt and my cousins. That’s why I live with my Aunt Amelia,” she explained curtly.

“Mrs. Bones is amazing. Strict but amazing,” Hannah smiled, putting a hand on her friend’s arm to comfort her. She sent Susan a concerned glance, but it seemed like the other girl was just a little shaken.

the Prewetts

Molly pursed her lips and blinked furiously to stave off the tears. There was a threatening burning behind her eyes, but she refused to cry. Her brothers wouldn’t have wanted her to, they would have wanted her to smile and laugh when she remembered them, but it was so, so difficult. It was a little easier when she looked at Fred and George, who carried her brother’s names as their middle ones, but sometimes the grief just caught her by surprise all over again.

— an’ you … an’ you lived.”

Harry squirmed uncomfortably. He didn’t like to be talked about like that, like… like he was better than those people who had given their lives to fight Voldemort and protect other people. He wanted to scream that he wasn’t better than them, that they were probably ten times the wizards and witches he could ever hope to be.

Nobody would be happy with him if he did that, though. They would tell him that he was a good wizard, or they would think that he was fishing for compliments, but none of them would really grasp what he was trying to tell them.

Those people who had died deserved to be remembered and honoured much more than he deserved to be. It wasn’t fair at all. Were there books written about them like there were (according to Hermione) written about him? He had done literally nothing as far as he or anyone knew, but they still told him that he was the saviour like the actions of all those people who had fought to protect others didn’t count for anything.

Perhaps that was why the wizarding world seemed content to wait for others (mainly him, their boy-who-lived) to come and solve their problems. After all, if those who had died could have been saved if they hadn’t fought until after the boy-who-lived had vanquished Voldemort, why were they going to risk fighting now? Why were they going to risk their lives when someone else could do it?

It wasn’t fair.

Something very painful was going … first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.

“Merlin’s balls,” Tonks swore when the sound of You-Know Who’s laugh seemed to bounce around the walls. The students shuddered or huddled together like the temperature had dropped twenty degrees in the Great Hall.

“Tonks!” Molly protested.

“Sorry, Molly,” the metamorphmagus said automatically. She knew better than to argue with Charlie’s mum. “It’s just… That laugh, I didn’t expect it to be so creepy.”

“It’s more than creepy. It has given us goose bumps,” George shuddered.

“And not of the good kind,” Fred added.

“Boys!” Their mother snapped at them scandalized.

“Sorry, mum,” they said quickly.

“Merlin’s beard, Harry, how can you remember that?” Seamus said with a grimace.

“I’m just that lucky,” Harry deadpanned. He refused to tell them that he remembered so much more now —courtesy of the dementors—, or that he had heard that laugh more times in the last few years. When they got to that point in the story, they would find out, but there was no reason to give anyone anxiety ahead of time.

“That’s enough to give anyone nightmares,” Neville murmured.

Hagrid was watching … ruined house myself, on Dumbledore’s orders. Brought yeh ter this lot…”

“In fact, I was the one that took Harry out of the ruined house and I handed him to you outside,” Sirius corrected him. He glared at the half-giant. “Only because you promised that he would be safe.”

“I… He was…” Hagrid stammered.

“Leave him alone, Sirius,” Harry huffed. “Hagrid’s always taken care of me.”

“Like he said, he took you to the Dursleys,” the animagus argued.

“On Dumbledore’s orders. And because you handed me to him,” Harry snapped at him. He refused to allow anyone to blame Hagrid for his childhood. That couldn’t be further from the truth. “Whose fault it is then that I ended up growing up with the Dursleys? Because it certainly isn’t Hagrid’s.”

Sirius stared at him with wide-eyes. What did his godson mean by that? He couldn’t… Harry couldn’t possibly blame him for the fact that he had grown up with those monsters! He had been in Azkaban, for Merlin’s sake! And he had escaped to protect Harry!

Remus, on the other hand, just sighed and closed his eyes briefly as his suspicions were confirmed. A small part of Harry did blame them for what he had gone through, for not having been there for him in twelve years. And the worst thing was that the werewolf didn’t blame the teenager for it.

“Load of old … Vernon.

“Oh, crap. He’s still there,” Katie exclaimed startled. “I had forgotten about that.”

“Me too. They had been silent for so long that I completely forgot,” Alicia cringed. “Should’ve known that it was too good to be true, though.”

“He seems to think that Hagrid’s lying,” Luna pointed out calmly. “I think he probably has an infestation of wrackspurts.”

“Wrack-what?” Ron asked confused. This girl was even more confusing that Hermione when she began to sprout about magical theories.

“Wrackspurts,” Luna repeated, smiling softly. “They float into people’s ears to confuse them.”

“People would be able to see creatures flying around their heads,” Charlie pointed out hesitantly.

“They’re invisible, of course,” the blond told him merrily. “Except with Spectrespecs, which can help you see them, but they aren’t that common.”

“I’ve never heard of creatures like that. I’m not sure that they’re real,” Hermione said sceptically.

“Of course, they are,” Luna contradicted her.

“You can investigate later,” Harry cut Hermione off before she could argue further.

Harry jumped; he had … He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.

“Vernon Dursley can’t possibly think that something has changed since Hagrid began his explanation,” Tonks huffed. “If he didn’t manage to intimidate Hagrid earlier, why does he think that he’ll be able to do it now?”

“He’s an idiot,” George concluded. It said a lot about how much his mother despised the Dursleys that she didn’t scold him for insulting Vernon.

“And delusional,” Fred added.

“He’s desperate,” Harry corrected them.

“Yeah, but he really has to see that he’s lost the battle now,” Lavender said bewildered. “I mean, what can he do now that you already know the truth.”

“He could try to keep Harry from going to Hogwarts to learn magic,” Ron gritted his teeth.

He remembered clearly how he had had to go with the twins to rescue Harry from his relatives. The bars on his window, the locks on the door, the flap to push in food without letting him out, the bruises Harry had had because of how tightly his uncle had grabbed his ankle to stop him from leaving… Yeah, he had no problem believing that Vernon Dursley would have tried to stop Harry from going to Hogwarts.

“He can’t do that. We’ve already made that clear. Nobody would allow that,” Lisa scoffed.

“He tried something else,” Harry denied.

“I don’t know what else he could have tried,” Angelina murmured.

“Now, you listen here… nothing a good beating wouldn’t have cured

“They tried to make you think that you shouldn’t go,” Hermione gasped horrified.

“What? That’s ridiculous,” Ron scoffed.

“No, Ron, it isn’t,” Hermione glared at him. “The Dursleys couldn’t stop Harry from going because the wizarding world wouldn’t allow it.”

“Exactly,” the redhead smirked smugly.

“But,” she continued, raising her voice a little bit. “What if it was Harry who didn’t want to go?”

That made everyone stop in their tracks. What would they have done if Harry Potter had refused to be part of the wizarding world?

Would they have dragged him kicking and screaming? …Which sounded like a horrible option since that violated about every law that existed since there wasn’t one that said that all children had to attend Hogwarts. There wasn’t one because all children wanted to go. There was nobody who didn’t want to go learn about magic.

Would they have let him leave in the muggle world with his abusive relatives? …That sounded like an even more horrible option. And much less likely. They wouldn’t have allowed him to remain in an abusive household to begin with, but there were people the likes of Fudge who would have loved to have the boy-who-lived under his thumb. There was no way those people would have allowed Harry to simply vanish and live his life.

“But, why wouldn’t Harry want to come to Hogwarts?” Colin asked hesitantly. He had been ecstatic when he had learnt that he had magic and that he was going to go to a special school with other wizards and witches.

“Because they could’ve made him think that magic and anything related to it was bad news, like they did with their son,” Hermione explained. Her face paled a little as she thought about that again. Things would have ended up so badly for her best friend in that case.

“But we’ve already said that they didn’t manage to do that because I have a head too thick for them to be able to push in any of their beliefs,” Harry cut in through her spiralling thoughts.

She relaxed. “I know,” she said. She hesitated before adding more quietly. “They could’ve also made you think that you didn’t deserve what Hagrid was offering you.”

Harry flinched minutely at that. It was all the reaction Ron and Hermione needed to know that the girl had hit the nail with her theory. It was that farfetched to imagine, to be honest. The Dursleys had beaten into him for years that he didn’t deserve anything, not friends or good grades or food or a room or toys or presents or absolutely anything that he wanted. How would he not question whether or not he deserved magic?

Hermione smiled sadly at him, looking close to tears. “You know now that’s not true, don’t you?” She whispered.

“I don’t think I have another option,” Harry shrugged.

“You do,” Ron said, nudging his shoulder. “I mean, I don’t understand the muggle world, but Hermione and you do. You two have two worlds open for you. You could choose whichever you want.”

Harry smiled at his best friend. “I think I prefer the wizarding one.”

“Good. It’ll be easier for me to drop in by your place whenever I want then and I won’t be so lost when we talk,” the redhead grinned, making Harry laugh.

“But… he said that he gave you a beating,” Lavender pointed out horrified, attracting everyone’s attention.

Harry inwardly cursed as he waited for the inevitable.

“So, he really hit you,” Sirius growled as his face darkened and his muscles tensed. He wanted to go find those muggles in that instant and tear them limb for limb.

“He said that it was nothing a good beating wouldn’t cure. He didn’t say that he actually hit me,” Harry counteracted quickly.

“Did he?” The animagus demanded.

“We’re not gonna have this discussion again,” Harry replied firmly. “I didn’t tell you earlier. I’m not gonna tell you now.”

“Harry…” Sirius growled. Why did he have to have a godson that was s stubborn?!

“No. We’re not talking about this,” Harry insisted, getting annoyed again.

Sirius glowered at the teenager. One way or another, he was going to find out the truth, the whole truth, about what had happened to his godson. And then he would go pay the Dursleys a visit.

— and as for all this about your parents … world’s better off without them in my opinion

“What?!” The Marauders blew up.

“How dare he talk about James and Lily like that? In front of Harry, no less,” Remus growled. Merlin, he had never hated some muggles so much. He hadn’t thought that it could be possible.

“They always talked about my parents like that,” Harry gritted his teeth. He hated it too, but for so long he had been powerless to do anything about it unless he wanted to earn himself a beating. Even now, he couldn’t push their buttons too much if he wanted to eat something every day.

“I’m gonna kill them,” Sirius swore. Nobody talked like that about James and Lily and remained unscathed.

Harry looked at him sharply. “No, you’re not,” he denied.

“Watch me,” the animagus spat.

Harry gritted his teeth. He couldn’t believe that his godfather was going to force him to fight to defend his relatives like he had had to do with Wormtail. He was supposed to be the teenager here, the one that wanted revenge and didn’t think about the consequences. Sirius was supposed to be the adult that would want to bring them to justice, that would want to make sure that he, Harry, was okay.

Why didn’t things work like that?

— asked for all they got … what I expected, always knew they’d come to a sticky end —”

“For having magic?” Justin spat angrily. “Muggles die in wars too! Many more die with a single hit from terrorists!”

“I can’t believe that they think that the wizarding world is a barbarian one,” Hermione huffed.

“There are some things where it’s a little stuck, like parchment and quills,” Harry pointed out reasonably.

Hermione scrunched up her brow. “Maybe, but you know that the wizarding world is a lot about elegance and appearances, especially where purebloods are concerned. And parchment and quills are much more elegant, when one knows how to use them properly, than pens and notebooks, even if those are undeniably more comfortable to use. Plus, it’s much easier to implement some of the charms they put on quills and parchment than it’d be on pens and notebooks.”

“Point taken, but still,” Harry shrugged. “I don’t understand why we can’t use pens and notebooks to take notes in class at least.”

“Me neither,” Hermione sighed. It would be so much easier to keep her notes organized if they were all together in a notebook. “Either way, that has nothing to do with the ridiculous notion about your parents dying because they were wizards.”

Harry shrugged again. “From Aunt Petunia’s point of view, it was a bit like that. Her sister was suddenly whisked away to a school of magic where she met a wizard, married him, had a son with him before they had to go into hiding because a melomaniac was after them and they were killed. My mum would probably still be alive if she hadn’t been a muggle-born.”

“That’s some twisted reasoning, mate,” Ron shook his head. “If she hadn’t been a muggle-born, she wouldn’t have met James Potter and you wouldn’t have been born.”

“I know,” Harry admitted. “I’m just telling you my aunt’s line of thought.”

But at that moment, Hagrid leapt … I’m warning you — one more word…”

“You tell him, Hagrid,” Charlie grinned at him.

“Thank Merlin that you told him, because I think my cousin would’ve begun to have smoke coming out of his ears with how red he is,” Tonks said nonchalantly.

“Shut up,” Sirius snapped at her.

The metamorphmagus glared at him. “Don’t talk to me like that,” she snapped back at him. “You’re the one acting like a child.”

“Either way,” Arthur intervened before they could fight. Not that he believed that it would be a long fight since Tonks had her wand while Sirius wasn’t armed. “I don’t think that Hagrid’s warning will manage to keep Vernon Dursley silent for long.”

“No, it didn’t,” Harry shook his head.

“Pity,” George shrugged.

“We’ll enjoy the silence for as long as we can then,” Fred said.

In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella … flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.

Charlie snorted. “You threatened them with your pink umbrella?”

Hagrid shrugged, a little embarrassed. “I was angry with him.”

“Why haven’t you threatened Malfoy in class with it then? He may even stop being a nightmare,” Ron huffed. It wasn’t likely to happen, but he could dream.

“Uh… He’s a studen’. Professors can’ threaten students,” the half-giant said, stealing a glance at the deputy headmistress.

“Students aren’t supposed to threaten other students either and Malfoy does it all the time,” Ron grumbled under his breath.

“Which everyone will see in the books when we get to that point,” Harry whispered.

They shared a knowing smile. That would be good.

“That’s better,” said Hagrid … still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.

“Only hundreds?” Hermione teased her best friend. “I had thousands of questions and I didn’t receive half the surprises got when I found out about magic.”

Harry snorted. “Maybe that’s exactly why. Too many shocks too quickly.”

The girl’s gaze softened and turned a little sheepish. “True. Sorry,” she said.

“Did you keep asking questions about owls or did you finally decide to ask things a bit more important?” Ron asked Harry, smirking at him.

“Prat,” Harry huffed. “You know that asking about the owl was important. And I did ask more things now.”

“Important things?” Ron snickered.

Harry huffed again and shoved him away. “Very important things.”

“But what happened to Vol- … You-Know-Who?”

Ron gasped and glared at his best friend. “You did avoid saying his name in the beginning!” He accused.

Harry sniggered. “I didn’t know any better. And I knew that Hagrid wouldn’t like to hear it if he didn’t wanna say it.”

“I don’t wanna hear it either and you keep saying it whenever you want!” The redhead protested.

“You’ll survive,” Harry said dismissively, unable to keep a grin off his face.

Ron narrowed his eyes at him. “You’re cruel.”

Harry laughed. “Sometimes. Just like Hermione’s cruel when she forces us to study when we want to play quidditch.”

The redhead shuddered and glared at the girl sitting on Harry’s other side. “Yeah. She’s cruel too.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Shut up, you two.”

“Good question … night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous.

“Oh, so you’re actually more famous for surviving the killing curse than for defeating You-Know-Who,” Anthony blinked confused. “I’m not sure if that’s logical.”

“Does it matter?” Katie rolled her eyes. “Both things are related. You-Know-Who was defeated because Harry survived the killing curse. If he hadn’t survived, You-Know-Who wouldn’t have disappeared.”

“How did people know that he had disappeared? I mean, the only other person there was Harry and it wasn’t like he could contact anyone when he was one year old,” Justin wondered. “Someone had to have found out.”

“All the Death Eaters immediately knew,” Terry explained.

“How?” Justin asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Those that had his mark on their arms knew when the mark faded and almost disappeared. And suddenly people that had been bewitched by him were freed. Aunt Amelia told me that it was pure chaos,” Susan chipped in.

“But how did they know that it was because of Harry? Someone else, like Dumbledore or the aurors, could have defeated him,” Seamus insisted.

“Some of us knew that he was coming after the Potters,” Remus intervened sadly. “When we began to hear rumours and things began to seem a bit off, people went to the place where they were hiding. They found… well, you know.”

“My parents dead, the house destroyed and me with a new scar on my forehead,” Harry finished quietly. “How did they know what had happened? If Voldemort…”

“Harry!” Ron hissed, hitting him in the arm. He was ignored.

“…had disappeared, how did they know what had happened? I mean, that the one-year-old crying had defeated the Dark Lord wouldn’t be the first guess that would come to my mind,” he said.

“There were traces of dark magic, very dark magic. It was Voldemort’s,” Dumbledore explained, ignoring the shudders the name caused. “But he had vanished. And there were traces left by the killing curse left on your scar too.”

“Could those traces still be there?” Hermione inquired, narrowing her eyes. Could those traces be the cause for the connection between Harry and You-Know-Who, the connection that caused her best friend so much pain?

Something flashed across the headmaster’s eyes, but it was too fast for almost anyone to notice it. Those who saw weren’t even sure that they hadn’t imagine it. It had been gone too quickly for them to examine properly.

“No, Ms. Granger. Those traces vanish quickly,” the old man reassured her. “However, it was enough to know that Mr. Potter had been struck by the killing curse and had somehow survive it. That, and the fact that Voldemort wasn’t anywhere to be found nor had he finished what he had started, led to the conclusion that Mr. Potter had somehow vanquished him.”

Harry frowned. There was something odd about Dumbledore’s explanation. If he hadn’t known any better, he would have said that the headmaster knew something that he was refusing to explain. Either way, Harry decided not to worry about it. Whatever it was, if it was important for Voldemort’s defeat, it would probably appear in the books.

That’s the biggest myst’ry … Some say he died.

“He did,” Cornelius Fudge grinned brightly. He turned towards Harry. “Thanks to that marvellous young man over there, that monster died.”

“Cornelius,” Dumbledore sighed tiredly. “You’ve heard yourself the letter that Mr. Potter received, warning us about Voldemort’s imminent return.”

“We don’t even know who wrote that letter. For all we know, it could be a prank,” the Minister insisted stubbornly.

“If it was a prank, they sure went through a lot of trouble to convince us. They put Hogwarts in a time bubble, they brought people through the wards that are supposedly impenetrable, they found out an impostor who was using Polyjuice Potion and a someone under the Imperius Curse, they delivered books that tell us a very descriptive story of Potter’s homelife, they were sadistic enough to make him feel the consequences of all the instances where he rushed into danger recklessly and stupidly and they made sure that we couldn’t read the books without his express consent,” Snape drawled. He was staring at the Minister in a way that made it perfectly clear what he thought of the man’s intelligence.

Harry frowned. “I’m not even sure if that was supposed to be an insult for me or not,” he muttered confused.

Fudge spluttered, turning red in embarrassment. “That doesn’t mean that they have any knowledge of future events! That they somehow know the past doesn’t mean that they know what’s gonna happen!”

“The things that they proved to know and be able to do are enough for us to listen,” Sprout argued. “From what I’ve understood, no one, bar Mr. Potter and his relatives, knew about his homelife in detail, yet it’s all in the books.”

“Then the boy could’ve organized all this himself!” The Minister accused him.

“Is he serious?” Tonks asked, perplexed and angry.

“A minute ago, I was a ‘marvellous young man’ who had defeated a monster and now I’m a boy,” Harry spat. He hated that word so much. “That has the masochist wish of telling everyone about being abused and feeling it all over again. Why doesn’t it surprise me?”

“He’s an idiot,” Ron said, grounding his teeth as he glared at the Minister. Did the man really believe the nonsense he was sprouting?

“Cornelius, you can’t possibly believe that Mr. Potter has organized this himself,” McGonagall huffed. “He’s the one who’s going to be hurt by reading these books and whose thoughts we’re finding out.”

“Not to mention that he’s mediocre at best. He’s lazy and gets by on his classes on his fame alone,” Snape sneered. “He doesn’t have a fraction of a talent needed to do all of this.”

Harry raised an eyebrow. “Now, that’s an insult without a doubt,” he huffed quietly.

“He could’ve had help!” Fudge argued.

“There’s a very easy way to find out if these books are telling the truth, Cornelius,” Dumbledore told him calmly. “We just have to keep reading and decide if the books speaking about the future are true or not. I’m sure that we’ll find enough details that will allow us to make a reasonable decision.”

The Minister didn’t seem happy with this. Despite what the letter had said, he was reluctant to even think about the possibility of You-Know-Who returning to spread terror and death like he had done all those years earlier. He didn’t want to believe it. He wouldn’t believe it until he saw proof with his own two eyes, not because of some stupid books that a schoolboy could have created to get attention.

Codswallop, in my opinion … trances. Don’ reckon they could’ve done if he was comin’ back.

“Biding his time?” Alicia repeated incredulously. “There are people who believe that You-Know-Who is perfectly fine and just decided to stop killing people because… What? He wanted holidays or a long day off or something? That’s ridiculous.”

“Who could have enough patience to wait for thirteen years doing absolutely nothing? And what exactly could he be waiting for?” Dean snorted. “He couldn’t have simply left unscathed.”

Harry pursed his lips. He knew because he had seen with his own two eyes that Voldemort hadn’t come out unscathed of their confrontation. What he didn’t know, and he wasn’t sure that he wanted to know, was what he had become exactly and how he had gotten to that state.

“And it’s true that all those people that came out of trances couldn’t have been freed if You-Know-Who hadn’t died,” Susan added.

“Some people faked it to avoid going to Azkaban,” Ron pointed out. His eyes went unbidden to Malfoy. Everyone knew how Lucius Malfoy had faked it, but nobody ever did anything about it because he had the Minister deep in his pocket.

The blond Slytherin glared at him. “What are you suggesting, Weasel?” He snapped.

“I haven’t said anything, Malfoy!” Ron growled at him. “But maybe I should make it clear!”

“Mr. Weasley, Lucius Malfoy is a respected citizen who’s made very generous contributions to the Ministry. I don’t appreciate anyone speaking about him like that,” Fudge intervened, turning up his nose on Ron like he was a stupid kid who didn’t deserve his attention.

The redhead’s eyes narrowed. “I never mentioned Lucius Malfoy, Minister,” he said through gritted teeth.

Fudge spluttered for a moment, realizing in horror that he had really put his foot in his mouth. He should have just left the two children to their petty arguments and ignored them instead of trying to defend a man whose honour hadn’t even been outright questioned.

Draco closed his eyes and pushed down the urge to facepalm. The Minister was one of the most useless and dumbest people he had ever met, on par with Crabbe and Goyle. How could his father even put up with him? How hadn’t he hexed him yet? Why did he keep flattering him?

“Most of us reckon … lost his powers. Too weak to carry on.

“How does something take your magic away? I didn’t know that was possible,” Justin said wide-eyed. He didn’t want to lose his magic.

“Because it’s not, idiot,” Daphne scoffed. “Your magic is always yours and there’s no way to steal it.”

“Then how did Harry take You-Know-Who’s powers away?” Justin replied defensively.

“I didn’t do anything,” Harry huffed under his breath.

“Mr. Potter didn’t take his powers away. He killed You-Know-Who and got rid of him for us for good,” the Minister insisted stubbornly.

“Cornelius…” Dumbledore sighed, rubbing his forehead. Merlin, that man could be blind and stubborn when he wanted to.

“If You-Know-Who was really dead, the marks on the Death Eaters’ arms would’ve all disappeared, but that’s not true. Susan said that they faded and almost disappeared,” Hermione argued firmly. “That points to the theory that he’s still alive but weakened and without his powers.”

“Little girl…” Fudge began.

“My name’s Hermione Granger, Minister,” she interrupted him incensed. Her name was not ‘little girl’ and she was not going to be patronized like a three-year-old.

“Ms. Granger,” he corrected, staring at her in annoyance. “I don’t think you can speak about things that you don’t understand.”

“With all due respect, sir, I very much doubt that you know more about what happened that night than me,” she snapped at him, barely managing to keep her tone polite.

“Now, see here, girl…” Fudge said, straightening in his seat with an indignant expression on his face.

“My name’s Hermione Granger, sir,” she repeated, glaring at him.

“Cornelius, perhaps it would be best to continue with the reading and then, when we have more information, we can continue this argument,” Dumbledore intervened when the Minister was opening his mouth to offer a scathing reply.

“Hermione, let it go,” Harry murmured, grabbing her arm at the same time. Merlin’s beard, what had gotten into his best friend? They all knew that Fudge was an idiot that couldn’t be reasoned with.

Hermione gritted her teeth. She knew that Fudge wasn’t worth it, but he was getting on her nerves with his stubbornness in ignoring the proof in front of him. Why couldn’t he see that the facts said that You-Know-Who would be back soon?

“Hermione, that was brilliant…” Ron breathed in awe.

“It was more than brilliant. Speaking to the Minister like that…” George said, not having to fake how impressed he was.

“We knew that we’d rub off on you sooner or later. You’ll make us proud yet,” Fred said, wiping a tear of his cheek.

’Cause somethin’ about you finished … somethin’ about you stumped him, all right.”

Harry stifled the urge to roll his eyes. He wanted to shout that it had been his mum the one that had stumped Voldemort that night. He wanted everyone to know that it had been Lily Potter the one that had defeated him by sacrificing herself for him and it had been James Potter the one that had given her a chance to do that by buying her time to reach Harry.

Thankfully for him, everyone in the Great Hall would know the truth by the time they had finished the first book. Well, as long as the conversation he had had with Dumbledore in the infirmary appeared, but he didn’t know why it wouldn’t appear.

Either way, if it wasn’t mentioned, he would make sure to tell everyone the truth. He had never liked the fact that everybody hauled him as a hero when he had only survived because of his parents. They had been the real heroes that night. It wasn’t fair that nobody seemed to remember it.

Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect … felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake.

“A mistake?” Bill asked somewhat sadly. He suspected that this was partly because of the Dursleys’ treatment. If the people you lived with and who were supposed to love you spent every day of your life belittling you, how could you ever think that you were a hero?

“How could it be a mistake? Hagrid’s explanation was pretty clear. You-Know-Who attacked you, you vanquished him. That’s it,” Dean said exasperated.

“There wasn’t anyone else who could’ve done it,” Hannah agreed shyly.

“It wasn’t about that,” Harry shook his head. “I didn’t even want to think about that, about being my parents being killed by a crazy wizard whom I then somehow killed.”

“Why in Merlin’s name wouldn’t you think about that?” Zacharias scoffed sceptically.

“Would you want to think about your parents being murdered after having believed for years that they were drunkards who had died in a car crash?” Harry snapped at him. He was getting fed up with that kid’s bullshit. “Yeah. Thought so,” he said when the boy didn’t answer.

A wizard? … he possibly be?

“That’s what you thought that was a mistake?” Angelina asked sadly.

“Well, I wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I imagined a wizard,” Harry shrugged uncomfortably.

Fred snorted. “You mean that you didn’t think that a scrawny kid…”

“Blind as a bat,” George added.

“Could be a powerful wizard?” Fred finished.

“You’re incognito, ickle Harrikins,” George smirked.

“How do you know what being incognito means?” Justin asked surprised. He was used to having to explain muggle terms like that to his friends, who had grown up in the wizarding world and didn’t understand things like that when they could just use glamours, potions or spells to change their appearances.

The Weasley twins smirked at the Hufflepuff. The younger boy blanched and leant as far away from them as he could without standing up from his seat.

“You’d be surprised by the things we know,” George grinned.

“We’re not just pretty faces who can pull off pranks like the best of them,” Fred scoffed.

He’d spent his life being clouted by Dudley … had always been able to kick him around like a football?

“I don’t think that’s exactly how it works, Harry,” Charlie said, forcing a smile on his face as he looked at the younger boy.

“You couldn’t exactly control your magic. You didn’t even know that you had it,” Tonks agreed with her childhood friend. “And you didn’t even have a wand, nor did you know any spells.”

“It just felt stupid to think that I could be a wizard when I had been pushed around by my relatives all my life,” Harry shrugged comfortably.

“I don’t think you allowed yourself to be pushed around exactly, especially not since you found out that you had magic and you came to Hogwarts,” Ron told him, nudging his shoulder comfortingly.

Harry stared at him disbelievingly. “Ron, don’t you remember the summer before our second year?” He hissed. How could Ron that they hadn’t pushed him around when he had been locked up and barely fed?

“But that was because they found out that you couldn’t do magic,” the redhead argued. “Before that, you managed to make the best out of a bad situation. And the summer after that you almost managed to blackmail your uncle into signing the permission to go to Hogsmeade.”

“And this last summer you managed to use the threat of Sirius to get your relatives to treat you better,” Hermione added softly.

Harry struggled to believe their words. He knew that they were true, but he couldn’t help but remember the time he spent with his relatives and how his freedom was viciously cut down until it was practically non-existent. Every day, he had to argue and sneak around to get something to eat, and the first two summers he had had to fight and do more sneaking around to simply let Hedwig out or have some of his textbooks? How was that not being pushed around?

“Hagrid,” he said … made a mistake. I don’t think I can be a wizard.”

“You argued with him about it?” Ron let out a laugh.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Harry shrugged.

“Like I told you, I argued with Professor McGonagall when she told me too,” Hermione chipped in. “I think it’s perfectly normal to have doubts when you’re told something like that. I would’ve been more surprised if you didn’t have them.”

Harry only smiled at her. He thought it prudent not to mention that he hadn’t had a problem believing that magic existed. In fact, he hadn’t doubted Hagrid for a minute. No, what he had doubted had been the fact that he, Harry, could be a wizard. Why would he have something as wonderful as magic when he was just Harry? That had been what he had thought that Hagrid had been mistaken about.

Of course, if he mentioned that to Ron and Hermione, they would get this part furious, part sad and part understanding expression that made him so uncomfortable. So, it was best to keep that to himself.

To his surprise, Hagrid … made things happen when you was scared or angry?”

“Accidental magic can happen when little kids want something a lot, right? Like, when they want a biscuit or a toy that’s too far away,” Padma pointed out.

“That could be because they’re angry that they don’t have it,” Ernie argued.

“What about children that make their toys float just for their amusement when they’re bored? They aren’t scared or angry then,” Alicia counteracted.

“Then you can say that accidental magic happens when the children’s emotions are high, whatever they are,” Lisa shrugged. “That sounds better anyway.”

Harry looked into the fire … he was doing it? Hadn’t he set a boa constrictor on him?

“You didn’t set a boa constrictor on your cousin,” Hermione huffed, rolling her eyes.

“A did a bit, if you think about it,” Harry said sheepishly. It hadn’t been his brightest moment —no matter how annoying his cousin was, he would never do something that could potentially kill him—, but it had been funny back then.

“I am thinking about it,” Hermione said indignantly. “You didn’t set the boa on him. You just made the crystal disappear.”

“When Dudley had his face pressed against it,” Harry pointed out. “Ouch! Hermione!” He protested when she flicked his forehead.

“You didn’t tell the boa constrictor to attack him, Harry,” Hermione insisted. “You just wanted to free the boa and your magic acted accordingly when your cousin annoyed you and your emotions were high enough.”

Harry blinked. Put it like that, it made sense. It made him feel a little less guilty about the whole incident. “Maybe you’re right…”

“She’s always right, mate. I don’t even know what you were doing arguing with her,” Ron snickered.

Harry sent him a dirty look. “You realize that you argue with her about five times more than me, right?” He pointed out. “And you lose like… every single argument, right?”

Ron’s mirth vanished as he glared at his best friend. It wasn’t his fault that Hermione could rile him up nor was it his fault that she got riled up too.

Harry looked back … Hagrid was positively beaming at him.

“And that’s it? That convinced you that you were a wizard?” Dean asked incredulously. “He tells you, ‘Hey, Harry, don’t you remember that you’ve done a ton of weird things you got punished for?’, and you automatically believe that you were a wizard?”

“What else was I supposed to believe?” Harry asked perplexed.

“That he was crazy, for example,” Dean rolled his eyes.

“Hagrid doesn’t seem like a crazy person,” Harry argued. “Not even that night, when he was so angry with the Dursleys.”

“Then you could think that he was playing a prank on you,” Seamus chipped in.

“Why would someone I’ve never met go to a cabin on a rock in the middle of the ocean when there was a storm just to play a prank on me?” Harry asked incredulously. That was as stupid as Fudge thinking that the books were a prank that he, Harry, had organized.

Seamus winced. “Yeah, good point.”

“See?” said Hagrid … be right famous at Hogwarts.”

“Would’ve preferred to go unnoticed,” Harry grumbled under his breath. Being famous had only complicated his life ten times over.

“And this year’s been even crazier than usual with all the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang apart from the students from first year,” Ron scoffed. The first-years had already calmed down and didn’t stare so much anymore every time they saw Harry —it always took a few weeks until the hype died down for the youngest ones—, but then the guests had arrived and there had already been students who had approached Harry for an autograph or something.

“Ron, you want to ask Krum for his autograph too,” Hermione pointed out quietly, but she was grinning in amusement.

“T-That’s not true!” Ron spluttered, blushing furiously.

Hermione chuckled. “Yes, it is. You stare at him every time you see him and you look for him every time we’re eating in the Great Hall,” she said. She smirked mischievously. “Some would say that you’ve got a little crush on him.”

Harry couldn’t hold it anymore and he burst out laughing. It was all true.

“Hermione!” Ron whined. He could deny it all he wanted, but he whined alright.

She chuckled again. “It’s cute,” she teased him. Her grin widened when he groaned again before she took pity on him. “You could actually talk to him and ask for his autograph like you talk to Harry. It’s not like your best friend isn’t famous or anything,” she said sarcastically.

“That’s different! Harry’s different! I’m not gonna talk to Krum! Stop insisting on it! And I’m definitely not gonna ask him for his autograph!” Ron hissed, his face as red as his hair.

She shrugged. “Your loss then. I don’t know when you’ll have another opportunity once this year ends.”

Ron actually whined again, burying his face in his hands.

But Uncle Vernon … all sorts of rubbish — spell books and wands and —”

“Oh, c’mon,” Terry groaned. “Give up already.”

“Why would you be grateful to go to that Rockwall school when you could go to Hogwarts?” Lavender asked, scrunching up her nose.

“It was Stonewall High,” Harry corrected her amused. “And, according to them, I should’ve been grateful that they were trying to get rid of my freakishness. I should’ve, of course, been grateful that they were allowing me to go to a normal school for normal people with no freakishness like me.”

His voice had sounded so bitter towards the end that some people weren’t sure how to answer. They sure as hell wouldn’t have been grateful if they had been in his place. What were the Dursleys thinking?

“That’s because they’re idiots,” Fred broke the small pause before it could become awkward.

“Who would prefer a boring muggle school when you can go to a magical castle with secret passages? There’s no contest,” George shook his head.

“If he wants ter go, a great Muggle … the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbled —”

“Wow, Hagrid, that’s some great endorsement for Hogwarts. Mine wasn’t like that,” Dean grinned. “Maybe they should let you go more often to convince muggle-borns to attend the school.”

“Are you saying, Mr. Thomas, that the introduction I gave you to the wizarding world was in anyway lacking?” Professor McGonagall asked, staring at him over the rim of her flashing glasses.

Dean blanched immediately. “N-No, Professor. It was, uh, brilliant,” he assured her. He cringed when her eyes narrowed further. “I-I just… I thought that you’d appreciate having some help telling the muggle-borns,” he said quickly, thinking it up on the spot.

Minerva made an effort to stop her lips from even twitching in amusement. “I assure you, Mr. Thomas, that I’m perfectly able of completing the tasks that fall under the Deputy Headmistress’ jurisdiction. Including, of course, telling the new students that they have a place in the school if they aren’t already aware of the wizarding world.”

“Why didn’t you tell Harry then, Professor?” Dennis asked, raising his voice to ensure that he was heard. He looked at Hagrid nervously. “Not that you didn’t do a great job, Hagrid.”

“He did,” McGonagall nodded. “But if we had known that Mr. Potter had absolutely no knowledge about magic or Hogwarts, it would’ve been my responsibility to explain it all to him,” she said. She looked at Harry with something akin to regret. “I’m sorry for the confusion there, Mr. Potter,” she said, apologizing for one tiny thing out of the huge list that he was deserved apologies for. If only she had been the one to go, she would have made sure that he wouldn’t have to see those people ever again.

Harry shook his head. “Don’t worry, Professor. Like you said, Hagrid did a great job.”

“I AM NOT PAYING … TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!” yelled Uncle Vernon.

There was a moment of shocked silence in the Great Hall where no one knew what to say or how to react.

“H-He… He insulted… He insulted Professor Dumbledore,” Neville stammered shocked.

It was true that some people weren’t particularly happy with him at the moment, that they were itching to demand explanations about the decisions he had made regarding Harry. But never had any of them even considered calling Dumbledore a ‘crackpot old fool’. That just wasn’t done.

“Damn right he did. In front of Hagrid, no less,” George whistled.

“I don’t whether to laugh or imagine his epitaph,” Fred snickered. “Hagrid’s gonna crush him.”

“What happened to the last person who insulted Dumbledore in front of him?” Charlie murmured.

“Wasn’t it that boy, a couple of years older than us… I think he was a Ravenclaw, but I’m not sure how he got into that house when he could do something so monumentally stupid,” Tonks shook her head in bewilderment. “Anyway, he got detention and Hagrid was in charge of it. I believe he insisted on it.”

Charlie snapped his fingers. “That’s right!” He exclaimed as he remembered. “He said that he needed help with something in the Forbidden Forest. The boy was white as shit for days afterwards and wouldn’t even look at Hagrid. Nor did he say a pip against Dumbledore again.”

“Do you think Hagrid beat him up?” The metamorphmagus asked sceptically. She didn’t believe so, but it was a possibility to keep in mind.

Charlie shook his head. “Nah. Don’t think so. Hagrid wouldn’t hurt a fly,” he said, completely sure of that. “I think Hagrid must’ve showed him some of the pets that I’m sure he keeps in that forest and terrified him a little bit.”

Tonks stared at the half-giant pensively. It was possible, she had to admit it. Everyone knew that Hagrid loved dangerous creatures and that he often ventured into the Forbidden Forest. He probably knew exactly what to show the boy to terrify him.

“He can’t show the Dursleys a dangerous creature now,” Bill pointed out. He paused and reconsidered. “Unless he carries some in one of the pockets of his coat. Would he do that?”

Charlie paused to think. “I… don’t think so? I hope not, at least,” he shrugged.

But he had finally gone too far … ALBUS — DUMBLEDORE — IN — FRONT — OF — ME!”

“Whoa, Hagrid, calm down,” Anthony said wide-eyed.

“He shouted even louder than when he found out that Harry had been told that his parents had died in a car crash,” Colin squeaked. Hagrid must really respect Dumbledore a lot. “Now he’s really gonna punch the Dursleys!”

“That’s it. I give up,” Angelina huffed. “I don’t understand why he’s so insistent on the Dursleys getting punched.”

“They do deserve to be punched, at the very least,” Alicia pointed out. “Even though we know that Hagrid would never do it, if only because he knows that he can’t always control his strength.”

“Maybe he hit them with his pink umbrella,” Katie said pensively. He was, as the book had said, ‘whirling it over his head’.

“Thank you for defending my honour, Hagrid, but it wasn’t necessary,” the headmaster said, smiling at the gamekeeper kindly.

“O’ course, it was. Those people were slanderin’ yer name,” Hagrid grumbled under his breath.

Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled. “An insult coming from a terrified and angry man isn’t going to harm me in any way,” he assured the half-giant.

He brought the umbrella … to point at Dudley

“At Dudley? Why would you do that?” Molly asked startled. “Wait, you weren’t about to hit him with your umbrella, were you?!” She screeched, scandalized. She would not support that. Not that she believed that she would support whatever Hagrid was going to do.

“No! No! O’ course not!” Hagrid exclaimed horrified, which only seemed to pacify Mrs. Weasley slightly. He squirmed uncomfortably when she kept staring at him expectantly, silently demanding an explanation for his actions. “Huh… I… I was a bit angry,” he admitted. “I wanted ter scare those muggles good.”

“But it was Dudley’s father the one who had insult Dumbledore!” Molly protested. “What were you planning to do to the child?”

“He bullied Harry,” Ginny pointed out, not looking very worried about Harry’s cousin. It wasn’t like Hagrid was going to do something really harmful to him.

Molly pursed her lips and clenched her fists in her lap. “I know that he deserves a good scolding, a punishment and some firm rules for what he did as he grew up. However, bully or not, he doesn’t have to pay for what his father has done,” she insisted firmly. If Hagrid had hurt that child, she was going to have some words with him after she had finished with Dumbledore.

“He was okay in the end, Mrs. Weasley,” Harry tried to calm her down. It was true that in the very end —after having a pig’s tail for a month before it was surgically removed— his cousin had been okay.

— there was a flash of violet … his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain.

“Oh, Merlin, you keep your wand inside your umbrella,” Arthur gasped in shock. And, if he knew a little of Hagrid’s past at all, it was that he had been expelled in his third year and his wand had been snapped. Which meant that he was doing spells with a broken wand. That never ended well.

“What did you do to him?” Molly demanded, scared for the child in spite of how he had treated Harry. She knew that Hagrid was a good man with a heart much too big for his own good sometimes, but he could be rather impulsive and got carried away too.

Hagrid blushed, wringing his hands in his lap. It was especially horrible that they were hearing Dudley’s howls of pain because of Flitwick’s spell. Of course, it had been made clear that Dudley could be a bit of a cry-baby, complaining about everything, but Hagrid had never wanted to hurt anyone.

“I just… I wanted to scare him a little. All of them,” he confessed. “I though’ the best way would be ter scare the child so the parents would back away too. It wasn’ anythin’ too bad,” he assured everyone.

“You should never perform magic on muggles unless it’s an emergency, especially to attack them,” Fudge accused him, something wicked shining in his eyes.

“Hagrid did it to protect Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore jumped to the gamekeeper’s defence immediately.

“Still, he shouldn’t have attacked a muggle. That could be punished…” The Minister began.

“With what exactly?” Harry interrupted. He had seen the panic rising in Hagrid’s eyes, very similar to the terror he had seen in his second year when the Ministry had decided to send Hagrid to Azkaban. The half-giant was clearly expecting something similar in this occasion, but Harry would be damned if he let his friend go down with all the blame.

“Excuse me?” Fudge demanded.

“What would he be punished with if you have no proof of what he did?” Harry demanded in return.

“No… What do you mean no proof, boy? I’ve heard with my own two ears what he did and what pain he caused that muggle boy,” Fudge pointed out.

“But you can’t tell anyone of that proof,” Harry reminded him. “Only Hagrid and I can because we were the only ones who didn’t learn it from the books and we’d be the only ones the oath wouldn’t stop from telling anyone about it.”

The Minister’s face began to redden in fury and embarrassment. He had never liked Hagrid too much, he had never trusted him, with his love for dangerous creatures and his fierce loyalty to Dumbledore. This had been an opportunity to get rid of him, or at least remove him from Hogwarts or make his life more difficult.

“I could ask your family,” he spat. He grinned triumphantly when Harry paled. “They could tell too and they could press charges.”

Harry glanced at Hagrid briefly, seeing how terrified his friend was. He clenched his jaw in determination. He wouldn’t allow that threat to come true. If that was how the Minister wanted to play, he could play that game too.

“You could ask. I bet they’d be thrilled to help you get Hagrid in trouble,” he nodded, glaring at Fudge with all the hatred and contempt that he could. He waited until the man’s expression lit up in triumph. “Then again, perhaps they wouldn’t be so thrilled,” he added.

Fudge raised an eyebrow. “Any why wouldn’t they want to get justice for what was done to their son?” He sneered at the boy.

“First, because you’re a freak just like me, just like everyone with magic,” Harry told him, making a titanic effort to keep his voice calm. If he shouted, there was a bigger chance that someone would try to shut him up. “They wouldn’t want to get within fifty feet of anything related to the wizarding world.”

“They wouldn’t have to. A statement would be enough to get him into trouble,” Fudge scoffed.

Harry’s eyes hardened in response. “If they agreed to do that, and it’s a big if, they would have to deal with the fact that I’d reveal to everyone why Hagrid felt the need to that,” he warned the Minister. He smirked in satisfaction when the man froze in horror. “I’d tell how Hagrid felt the need to defend me, the boy-who-lived, because the Ministry hadn’t bothered to check on him for years. How do you think the public would react to knowing that those in charge allowed their little saviour to be abused?”

Fudge was pale as a sheet. “That… That isn’t… It’s not true… The Ministry… You wouldn’t dare…” He spluttered.

“I wouldn’t dare?” Harry repeated. “Oh, please. If I’m already putting up with everyone reading and commenting about it now, you can bet everything you have that I’d reveal it all to the public to make sure that you can’t hurt Hagrid.”

“They wouldn’t believe you. Anything you say could be lies,” the Minister said, sounding unsure.

Harry raised his eyebrows. “Lies? Would they believe that I’m lying when they see the scars?”

There was another long moment of stillness as the Great Hall processed those words.

“Scars?” Sirius choked out. That could only mean that the abuse had been physical too. They had really beaten up his godson.

“Not now, Sirius,” Harry snapped, not taking his eyes off Fudge. Thankfully, his godfather listened to him this time and didn’t insist. “So, Minister, do you think my relatives would even risk having what they did splayed across the papers? Because you know that the Daily Prophet would have a field day with that story. And if you try to force them to tell anyone, I’ll tell the newspapers regardless, and you’ll go down with them too.”

Fudge straightened in his seat, even though he was pale and his forehead was covered in sweat. “Is that a threat, Potter?” He demanded.

“Not a threat,” Harry shrugged. “It’s a promise of what I’ll do. Nothing more.”

Fudge gritted his teeth as they remained locked in a stare contest. However, this pitiful excuse of a Minister had nothing on Dumbledore’s twinkling eyes, or Voldemort’s terrifying stare, or Uncle Vernon’s outraged expression, and Harry had withstood all three of them. There was no way that he was going to be intimidated by Fudge of all people.

In the end, it was the Minister the one who looked away.

“Harry can be very scary,” Colin muttered, staring at his idol in awe.

Harry slowly relaxed in his seat, letting out the air he had been holding and unclenching his fists, which were trembling minutely. He really, really hoped that Fudge didn’t try anything, because it hadn’t been an idle threat. He would hate allowing everyone to know about the abuse, but he wouldn’t allow Hagrid to be punished without putting up a fight.

“Harry?” Hermione murmured concerned.

“Hm?” Harry hummed, showing that he was paying attention even if he wasn’t looking at her.

“That was wicked, mate,” Ron said, nudging his shoulder.

“Ron,” Hermione glared at him. “This isn’t a joke.”

“I’m not laughing,” the redhead shook his head. He really wasn’t. He had been about to slap a hand over Harry’s mouth and drag him away to shut him up. Fudge could make Harry’s life very difficult if he wanted.

Hermione looked back at Harry. “You okay?” She asked quietly.

“Uh-hm,” he nodded. He sent her a tiny smile. “Fine. As long as Fudge leaves Hagrid alone.”

“You threatened the Minister, Harry.”

Harry sent her a knowing look. “Like you wouldn’t have done the same if you had had some leverage over him. He already proved last year that he’d rather screw us over for the sake of the Ministry’s reputation and his own career than to help an innocent man get justice. I wasn’t gonna risk the same thing happening to Hagrid, Hermione,” he told her sincerely.

The witch sighed and gave in. That much was true. The Minister wasn’t a good man.

Harry grinned a little. “And you were arguing with him earlier too,” he teased her.

Hermione blushed slightly and poked him sharply on his side. “Shut up.”

Harry turned towards Ron. “And you ridiculed him before that,” he added with a smirk.

Ron snorted. “What? You were feeling left out or something?”

It was Harry’s turn to snort then. They were all ridiculous, and apparently utterly uncapable of letting some things pass.

“Guess you were right when you said that Hagrid would be safe,” Bill murmured to his brother. He was shocked that little Harry had stood up to the Minister that way, but maybe he should have seen it coming. You couldn’t do half the things that his siblings had told him that Harry had done if you backed down from a challenge when there was a risk.

“Not what I had in mind, though. I didn’t expect him to threaten Fudge,” Charlie replied.

“I wish I had had a camera to immortalize this moment. It was incredible,” Tonks grinned. Her hair, which hadn’t turned its usual pink for long since the nature of the Dursleys had become known, had a cheerful bubble-gum pink colour.

When he turned his back … pig’s tail poking through a hole in his trousers.

“You… You gave him a pig’s tail?” Fred said in awe while several students laughed or smirked.

“That’s… brilliant. Absolutely fucking brilliant,” George said wide-eyed.

The twins exchanged a look, their thoughts racing together in the same direction. They both knew what they were planning. Human transfiguration was difficult and often dangerous, but it was so, so funny if done carefully and right. If they could make something, like a sweet or a toffee that people ate and it gave them something characteristic of an animal… That would be wicked.

“You gave him a pig’s tail?!” Molly screeched, completely ignoring her son’s language. “It’s not funny! That’s dangerous!”

Hagrid stared at her wide-eyed. “I didn’ hurt him,” he defended himself. It had just been the first thing he had thought of to make the Dursleys shut up already.

“No wonder Harry said that his relatives were terrified of magic!” Mrs. Weasley berated him. “That child was as much in dark as Harry and his first experience with it, instead of being something funny or wonderful, was something that scared and hurt him! That’ll make him hate and fear Harry much more!”

Hagrid looked at the black-haired boy with wide eyes full of regret. “I didn’… Harry, I didn’…”

“Even if you hadn’t done that, he’d be scared and making my life difficult,” Harry assured him. “Aunt Petunia told him how horrible and dangerous magic was, and how the wizarding world was full of freaks of nature.”

“I just wanted ter scare him a little,” Hagrid said remorseful.

“You did. He didn’t stay with the pig’s tail forever,” Harry shrugged.

“Still, I have to admit that it was a little funny,” Justin mumbled under his breath, unable to stifle a grin.

“We’d been talking about how he ate like a pig and then Hagrid… Puff!” Terry snickered.

Uncle Vernon roared … one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.

“At least it worked to get rid of them,” Angelina sighed.

“If they had left them alone earlier, instead of trying to keep anything magical away from Harry, Dudley wouldn’t have ended up with a pig’s tail,” Michael huffed. They had accomplished nothing but anger Hagrid, which was never a good nothing.

Lisa rolled her eyes and slapped the back of his head. “Don’t be an idiot. It may have been funny, but it was Vernon Dursley the one who deserved it, not Dudley.”

“Dursley Sr. would’ve been better off with tusks and whiskers like a walrus,” Seamus snorted.

Harry scrunched up his nose. “Now, that’s an image I didn’t need in my brain,” he said with a shudder. He couldn’t help but picture his uncle shouting at him while sporting the whiskers and tusks and it was horrifying.

Hagrid looked down … was so much like a pig anyway there wasn’t much left ter do.”

“Hagrid, you wanted to do a full human transfiguration?” McGonagall said slowly, turning to look at him.

The half-giant leant away from her. “Uh, maybe?” He said hesitantly. He didn’t like at all the look in her eyes. It didn’t promise anything good for him.

“Of all the irresponsible things, Hagrid!” The witch blew up. “You’ve never been taught how to do something like that and you didn’t even have a working wand! How did you expect the transfiguration to work properly?!”

“I… I…”

“You could’ve seriously hurt that boy! You could’ve killed him!” She kept shouting. “And then what?! What would you have done if you had accidentally killed a muggle child, huh?!”

“I didn’… It was just a scare?” Hagrid tried to justify his actions.

“Transfiguration isn’t a game, Rubeus Hagrid!” She scolded him harshly. “If I ever hear that you’ve been attempting things you’re not ready for, I’m going to have you in detention for months!”

“But… I’m… I’m a teacher,” Hagrid protested weakly.

“I don’t care if you’re a teacher!” She snapped at him. “If you behave like a teenager who doesn’t know better than to play around with things he doesn’t control, I’ll treat you like one of my students! Have I made myself clear?”

Hagrid gulped. “Yes, ma’am,” he mumbled, opting to take the safest route. No one wanted to argue with Minerva McGonagall when she was enraged.

“Merlin’s balls, Moony,” Sirius swore under his breath. “How angry do you think she’s gonna be when the books reveal that we became animagus on our own without asking anyone for help?”

Remus cringed. They were so dead.

He cast a sideways look … to yeh an’ stuff — one o’ the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job —”

“Hagrid,” Charlie half sighed and half laughed. Asking an eleven-year-old to be his accomplice in doing magic illegally. Great.

“Could’ve thought about how he wasn’t allowed to do magic, especially in front of witnesses, before hexing a muggle boy,” Pomona muttered under her breath as she rubbed her forehead. She really hoped that the butchered transfiguration hadn’t caused any more problems or Minerva was going to go on a warpath.

“I wanna know some of the spells he used to deliver the letters,” Anthony said interested. “Like the one to make the letters being spat out of the chimney.”

“That was good, but I know how he put the letters inside the eggs. That was awesome,” Dean grinned.

“I wanna know how he found the Dursleys so quickly,” Tonks muttered pensively. “Unless he had stuck a tracking charm on one of them, I don’t understand how he was constantly on their heels. I mean, it’d be easy to follow the letters being delivered, but I don’t think that’s how he did it.”

“Muggles aren’t so difficult to follow,” Bill shrugged.

“For those who know how to move around the muggle world,” Tonks huffed lightly. “But Hagrid, as far as I know, doesn’t know much about it. He couldn’t have used a car or something similar, nor any other muggle method, without attracting a lot of attention. So, he had to have used magic.”

“Are you really that curious or are you just rambling?” Charlie sighed exasperated.

Tonks looked at him affronted. “I’m an auror, Charlie,” she scoffed, hitting him on the arm. “I need to know how to track people and how I can be tracked. It’s part of my job.”

“Okay, okay. Jeez, calm down,” Charlie hissed, rubbing the sore spot.

The metamorphmagus rolled her eyes. “Don’t be a baby. You work with dragons. A little tap isn’t gonna kill you.”

“Why aren’t you … do magic?” asked Harry.

“Harry,” Hermione sighed, but she had a fond smile on her lips. “You shouldn’t ask personal questions when you’ve just met him.”

“How was I supposed to know that asking why he couldn’t do magic was a personal question?” He defended himself. “For all I knew, it could be because of some kind of rule that wizards had to follow. I wanted to know in case I broke it.”

Ron snorted. “Mate, you have no qualms about breaking any rule.”

Harry glared at him. “For good reasons, not just because!” He exclaimed. “Can you imagine if they didn’t let me attend Hogwarts because I broke some stupid rule I didn’t know about and I had to stay with the Dursleys forever?”

The redhead grimaced. He couldn’t imagine Hogwarts without Harry. It just wouldn’t be the same.

“Oh, well — I was at Hogwarts … were you expelled?”

“And that? Asking why he was expelled was a personal question, no matter how you look at it. What’s your excuse this time?” Hermione asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry blushed slightly. “I just wanted to know what not to do to avoid being expelled too,” he argued unconvincingly. It was the truth, but it wasn’t the whole truth.

“Uh-huh,” the witch said sceptically. She raised her eyebrow even more, until it had almost disappeared beneath her hairline.

Harry blushed even more. He could see that he wasn’t convincing many people. “And maybe I was a little curious,” he admitted after a few seconds.

Hermione grinned in amusement. It wasn’t anything she hadn’t already known, but she liked to see that she could still see through her best friend’s bullshit. It was a very necessary skill for her to have.

“Don’t worry, Harry,” Remus smiled at him. “Many people ask Hagrid about that since there are so very few people that are ever expelled from Hogwarts.”

“He never answers, though,” Sirius sighed defeatedly. “It’s the one secret that he never babbles about, no matter how much he drinks.”

“Sirius,” the werewolf poked him in the side. It wasn’t a good idea to talk about drinking alcohol in the school grounds in front of the teachers.

“I hope Hagrid doesn’t mind that everyone’s probably gonna find out why he was expelled,” Ron murmured, staring at their big friend apologetically.

“Maybe it’ll be enough to have him pardoned. He could get a new wand and perhaps continue his education if he wants,” Hermione said pensively. She was already trying to remember if that was possible or not. Was there an age limit for studying in Hogwarts? Maybe the teachers could help him privately instead of him joining the classes? Because that would be weird.

“It’s gettin’ late … get up ter town, get all yer books an’ that.”

“That’s zero stealth in changing the subject,” Tonks sighed.

“Stop trying to analyse everything according to the auror manual book,” Charlie rolled his eyes. “Not everything is like that.”

“I’m just saying that anyone could see that Hagrid doesn’t wanna talk about that. They could see that it’s a sore topic for him and use it against him.”

“Tonks, you’re beginning to remind me to your mentor,” Bill told her bluntly.

The metamorphmagus glared at him affronted before her expression slowly turned into shock and horror. “Oh, Merlin, I’m becoming paranoid,” she breathed out as her hair took an obnoxious orange that would have made the Chudley Cannons proud.

Charlie and Bill exchanged a look and had to bite their lips to keep from bursting out loud. Tonks’ expression was just too priceless.

He took off his thick black coat … still got a couple o’ dormice in one o’ the pockets.”

“You don’t keep just owls in your pockets?!” Susan exclaimed horrified. “How do you know if the dormice are still okay if you don’t even know if they’re there.”

Hagrid shrugged. “If they are, they’re in one o’ the pockets with enough space for ‘em an’ some food. Besides, if they don’ like it, they can always get out if they want.”

“Why would you have dormice in your pockets?” Parvati asked with a grimace of disgust.

“Fer the hippogriffs, o’ course,” he replied, like it should have been obvious. He had explained hippogriffs to them the year earlier, so they should know those things already. “I think I had been takin’ care o’ ‘em earlier that day.”

“You carry their food with you every day?” Lavender asked horrified.

“Not every day. Just when I visit ‘em,” the half-giant explained. “They like it when I give ‘em a treat.”

“Please, if I can have your attention for a minute,” Dumbledore intervened, standing up. “I think it’s time to have a little break so we can let everything we’ve learnt for now sink in,” he announced, nodding once towards the floating book. It was glowing yellow once more, showing that they had finished the third chapter.

“And because he knows that many of the adults are just itching to rip him a new one and they aren’t gonna wait another whole new chapter for it,” Ron snorted under his breath. The headmaster looked directly at him, his eyes shining with mirth. “Crap. You don’t think he could’ve heard me, do you?” He muttered wide-eyed.

“If you don’t want him to hear you, shut up already, Ronald,” Hermione snapped at him in a whisper.

Dumbledore smiled slightly. “I believe that an hour is more than enough for everyone to stretch their legs, go to the bathroom and relax for a while. I believe that the weather is surprisingly good today. Off you go, everyone. Please, don’t be late.”

With those words, everyone began to stand up and leave the Great Hall in small groups.