BOOM.They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake.
'Where's the cannon?' he said stupidly.
There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon cameskidding into the room. Hle was holding a rifle in his hands -now they knew what had been in the long, thin package hehad brought with them.
'Who's there?' he shouted. 'I warn you -I'm armed!'
There was a pause. Then ——SMASH!
The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off itshinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.
A giant of a man was standing in the doorway.His face wasalmost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair anda wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes,glinting like black beetles under all the hair.
The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so thathis head just brushed the ceiling.He bent down, picked up the door and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of thestorm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.
'Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been aneasy journey...'
He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen withfear.
'Budge up, yeh great lump,' said the stranger.
Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, whowas crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.
'An' here's Harry!' said the giant.
Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face andsaw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.
'Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby,' said the giant.'Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes.'
Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.
'I demand that you leave at once, sir!' he said. 'You arebreaking and entering!'
'Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune,' said the giant. Hereached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of UncleVernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had beenmade of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.
Uncle Vernon made another funny noise,like a mousebeing trodden on.
'Anyway - Harry,' said the giant, turning his back on theDursleys, 'a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yehhere - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right.'
From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled aslightly squashed box.Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy BirtbdayHarry written on it in green icing.
Harry looked up at the giant. Hle meant to say thank you,but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what hesaid instead was, 'Who are you?'
The giant chuckled.
'True,I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid,Keeperof Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts.'
He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.
'What about that tea then, eh?' he said, rubbing his handstogether. 'I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it,mind.'
His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shrivelled crisppackets in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace;they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back asecond later, there was a roaring fire there. Itfilled the wholedamp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth washover him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.
The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged underhis weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of thepockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package ofsausages,a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs and a bottleof some amber liquid which he took a swig from before startingto make tea. Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell ofsizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant wasworking,but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burntsausages from the poker,Dudley fidgeted a litle.Uncle Vernonsaid sharply, 'Don't touch anything he gives you,Dudley!'
The giant chuckled darkly.
'Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' any more,Dursley, don' worry.'
He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry hehad never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn'ttake his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about toexplain anything, he said, 'I'm sorry, but I still don't reallyknow who you are.'
The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with theback of his hand.
'Call me Hagrid,' he said, 'everyone does. An' like I toldyeh,I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all aboutHogwarts, o' course.'
'Er-no,' said Harry.
Hagrid looked shocked.
'Sorry,' Harry said quickly.
'Sorry?' barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys,who shrank back into the shadows. 'It's them as should besorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thoughtyeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud!Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learnt it all?'
'All what?' asked Harry.
'ALL WHAT?' Hagrid thundered. 'Now wait jus' onesecond!'
He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill thewhole hut.The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.
'Do you mean ter tell me,' he growled at the Dursleys, 'thatthis boy-this boyl-knows nothin'abou'-about ANYTHING?'
Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been toschool, after all, and his marks weren't bad.
'I know some tings,' he said. 'I can, you know, do maths andstuff.'
But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, 'About ourworld, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world.'
'What world?'
Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.
'DURSLEY!' he boomed.
Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whisperedsomething that sounded like 'Mimblewimble'.Hagrid staredwildly at Harry.
'But yeh must know about yer mum and dad,' he said. 'Imean, they're famous. You're famous.'
What? My-my mum and dad weren't famous, were they?'
'Yeh don' know ... yeh don'know ...' Hagrid ran his fingersthrough his hair,fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.
'Yeh don' know what yeh are?' he said finally.
Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.
'Stop!' he commanded. 'Stop right there, sir! I forbid you totell the boy anything!'
A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailedunder the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagridspoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.
You never told him?Never told him what was in the letterDumbledore left fer him?I was therel I saw Dumbledore leaveit, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?'
'Kept wbat from me?' said Harry eagerly.
'STOPI I FORBID YOUI' yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.
Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.
'Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh,' said Hagrid. 'Harry -yer a wizard.'
There was silenceinside the hut. Only the sea and thewhistling wind could be heard.
I'm a wbat?' gasped Harry.
'A wizard, o' course,' said Hagrid, sitting back down on thesofa,which groaned and sank even lower, 'an' a thumpin'good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With amum an' dad like yours,what else would yeh be? An' I reckonit's abou' time yeh read yer letter.'
Harry stretched out his hand at last to take theyellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr H.Potter,The Floor,Hut-on-tbe-Rock, Tbe Sea. He pulled out the letterand read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF
WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster:Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin,First Class,Grand Sorc.,Chf.Warlock,Supreme Mugwump,International Confed.of Wizards)
Dear Mr Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place atHogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.Pleasefind enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on I September. We await your owl by nolater than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minena McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworksand he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few min-utes he stammered, 'What does it mean, they await myowl?'
'Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me,' said Hagrid,clappinga hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a carthorse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat hepulled an owl - a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl -a long quill and a roll of parchment. With his tonguebetween his teeth he scribbled a note which Harry could readupside-down:
DEAR MR DUMBLEDORE,GIVEN HARRY HIS LETTER.TAKING HIN TO BuY HIS THNGS TOHORROwWEATHER'S HORRIBLE.HOPE YOu'RE WELL.HAGRID
Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clampedit in its beak,went to the door and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was asnormal as talking on the telephone.
Harry realised his mouth was open and closed it quickly.
'Where was I?' said Hagrid, but at that moment, UncleVernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved intothe firelight.
'He's not going,' he said.
Hagrid grunted.
'I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him,' he said.
'A what?' said Harry, interested.
'A Muggle,' said Hagrid. 'It's what we call non-magic folklike them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' thebiggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on.'
'We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to thatrubbish,' said Uncle Vernon, 'swore we'd stamp it out of him!Wizard,indeedi'
'You knew?' said Harry. 'You knew I'm a - a wizard?'
'Knew!' shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. 'Knew! Of coursewe knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being whatshe was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared offto that - that scbool -and came home every holiday with herpockets full of frog-spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was theonly one who saw her for what she was - a freak! But for mymother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, theywere proud of having a witch in the family!'
She stopped to draw a deep breath and then wentranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all thisfor years.
Then she met that Potter at school and they left and gotmarried and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just thesame, just as strange,just as-as-abnormal-and then, if youplease,she went and got herself blown up and we got landedwith you!'
Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voicehe said, 'Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!'
'CAR CRASH!' roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily thatthe Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. 'How could a carcrash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal!Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in ourworld knows his name!'
'But why?What happened?' Harry asked urgently.
The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenlyanxious.
'I never expected this,' he said, in a low, worried voice. 'Ihad no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might betrouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah,Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh - butsomeone's gotta - yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'.'
He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.
'Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh -mind, Ican't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it ...'
He sat down,stared intothe fire for a few seconds andthen said, 'It begins, I suppose,with-with a person called-but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in ourworld knows -'
'Who?'
Well- I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No onedoes.'
'Why not?'
'Gulpin' gargoyles,Harry, people are still scared.Blimey,this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went ... bad.As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His namewas...
Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.
'Could you write it down?' Harry suggested.
'Nah-can't spell it. All right-Voldemort.' Hagrid shuddered.'Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this - this wizard, abouttwenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em,too-some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power,'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry.Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strangewizards or witches...Terrible things happened. He was takin'over. 'Course, some stood up to him - an' he killed 'em.Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts.Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who wasafraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then,anyway.
'Now,yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard asI ever knew. Head Boy an' Girl at Hogwarts in their day!Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get'em on his side before...probably knew they were too closeter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.
'Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em ... maybe hejust wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Hallowe'en tenyears ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house
an'- an'_'
Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spottedhandkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.
'Sorry,' he said. 'But it's that sad - knew yer mum an' dad,an' nicer people yeh couldn't find - anyway -
You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then - an' this is thereal myst'ry of the thing - he tried to kill you, too. Wanted termake a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' bythen. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got thatmark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's whatyeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh - took care ofyer mum an' dad an' yer house, even - but it didn't work on you,an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after hedecided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o'the best witches an' wizards of the age-the McKinnons,theBones,the Prewetts-an' you was only a baby, an' you lived.'
Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind.AsHagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flashof green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered itbefore-and he remembered something else, for the first timein his life-a high, cold, cruel laugh.
Hagrid was watching him sadly.
'Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore'sorders. Brought yeh ter this lot...'
Load of old tosh,'said Uncle Vernon.Harry jumped,hehad almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there.Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. Hewas glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.
'Now, you listen here, boy,' he snarled. 'I accept there'ssomething strange about you, probably nothing a goodbeating wouldn't have cured - and as for all this aboutyour parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, andthe world's better off without them in my opinion - askedfor all they got, getting mixed up with these wizardingtypes - just what I expected, always knew they'd come to asticky end'
But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew abattered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this atUncle Vernon like a sword, he said, 'I'm warning you, Durs-ley-I'm warning you - one more word ...'
In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by abearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; heflattened himself against the wall and fell silent.
'That's better,' said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sittingback down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down tothe floor.
Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds ofthem.
'But what happened to Vol-sorry-I mean,You-Know-Who?'
'Good question,Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Samenight he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous.That's the biggest myst'ry, see ... he was gettin' more an' morepowerful-why'd he go?
'Some say he died.Codswallop,in my opinion.Dunno ifhe had enough human left in him to die.Some say he's stilloutthere,bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People whowas on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outakinda trances. Don' reckon they could've doneifhewascomin' back.
'Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but losthis powers.Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about youfinished him,Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that nighthe hadn't counted on-I dunno what it was, no one does-butsomethin' about you stumped him, all right.'
Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazingin his eyes, but Harry,instead of feeling pleased and proud,felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard?Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life beingclouted by Dudley and bullied by Aunt Petunia and UncleVernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turnedinto warty toads every time they'd tried to lockhim in hiscupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in theworld,how come Dudley had always been able to kick himaround like a football?
'Hagrid,' he said quietly, 'I think you must have made amistake. I don't think I can be a wizard.'
To his surprise,Hagrid chuckled.
'Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when youwas scared, or angry?'
Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think aboutit...every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he,Harry,had beenupset or angry... chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehowfound himself out of their reach ... dreading going to schoolwith that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it growback ... and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't hegot his revenge, without even realising he was doing it? Hadn'the set a boa constrictor on him?
Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagridwas positively beaming at him.
'See?' said Hagrid. 'Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait,you'll be right famous at Hogwarts.'
But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in withouta fight.
'Haven't I told you he's not going?' he hissed. 'He's going toStonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read thoseletters and he needs all sorts of rubbish - spell books andwands and-'
'If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him,'growled Hagrid. 'Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' terHogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he wasborn.He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardryin the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself.He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'llbe under the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts ever had,AlbusDumbled-'
I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLDFOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKSI' yelled UncleVernon.
But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrellaand whirled it over his head. 'NEVER-hethundered,-INSULT-ALBUS-DUMBLEDORE-IN-FRONTOF-ME!'
He brought the umbrella swishing down through the airto point at Dudley-there was a flash of violet light, a soundlike a firecracker, a sharp squeal and next second, Dudleywas dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over hisfat bottom,howling in pain. When he turned his back onthem,Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole inhis trousers.
Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudleyinto the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagridand slammed the door behind them.
Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked hisbeard.
'Shouldn'ta lost me temper,' he said ruefully, 'but it didn'twork anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig,but I supposehe was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much leftter do.'
He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushyeyebrows.
'Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone atHogwarts, he said. 'I'm - er - not supposed ter do magic,strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an'get yer letters to yeh an' stuff - one o' the reasons I was sokeen ter take on the job -'
Why aren't you supposed to do magic?' asked Harry.
'Oh,well-I was at Hogwarts meself but I - er -gotexpelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year.They snappedme wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let mestayon as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore.'
'Why were you expelled?'
'It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow' saidHagrid loudly. 'Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an'that.'
He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.
'You can kip under that,' he said. 'Don' mind if it wrigglesa bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets.'