chapter one
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
What sounded like cannons being shot at them filled the air all around the small hut on the rock. Perplexed, Dudley stood up and asked where the cannons were. Harry could only point to the door, where the noise had came from before another *Boom* shook the hut and the door, which was made out of rotting wood, came crashing down, revealing the source of the loud shaking. It was a man. Not just any man but a giant of a man, easily twice as tall as any grown man and even wider than uncle Vernon.
Speaking of Vernon, he came running into the room, a shotgun in his hands, screaming, “Whoever you are, get out, this is private property”
Wordlessly, the giant pointed his pink umbrella at Uncle Vernon and the shotgun in his hands transformed into a rubber chicken, which a surprised Vernon let fall to the ground.
Harry immediately sprang up asking, “Wow, how did you do that? What was that? Can you teach me?”
“You make it sound as if ye didn’t know magic existed”, the giant chuckled.
“But I don’t! I thought magic was just all tricks and smoke”, Harry responded.
“They never told ye about yer parents”, the Giant stated, perplexed, before turning to Uncle Vernon, “You never told him?! How dare you?!”
“When we took him in, we swore to ourselves that we would snuff out that dangerous Bollocks”, Vernon nearly shouted, “We don’t want any more of your kind around, you all are barmy and I will not have my nephew going to that school, learning magic tricks”
“And what are ye going to do to prevent it? What can a big muggle like ye do to stop us wizards?”
“What’s a muggle?”
“Muggle is the word for non magical people, like your relatives here”, the giant explained, “Oh bollocks, I completely forg’t to introduce meself, I ‘m Rubeus Hagrid, ye can call me Hagrid and I am the groundskeeper for Hogwarts, the best magical school in all of great britain”
“I’m a wizard?”
“That ye are”, Hagrid chuckled, “Let us sit down and I’ll explain everything”
Over the next few hours, Hagrid explained many things about the magical world to Harry. He explained the school system with its four houses(Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Ravenclaw), the money(29 knuts to a sickle, 17 sickles to a galleon), the different types of magic(Charms, hexes, jinxes, curses, transfigurations, potions, divination, runes and so on and so forth), the different school subjects(Transfiguration, charms, potions etc.), how mail was delivered via owls and so many more things.
After some time, they fell asleep, Harry underneath Hagrid’s big, warm coat, better than any blanket in his opinion, though he only ever got the worst blankets at home. The next day, they left the island via boat and once they reached the mainland, they went via train and buses towards london. On their way there, Hagrid finally gave him his letter, which he had been pining after for quite some time. Every other letter had been burned by uncle vernon. The letter invited him to study at Hogwarts and also held within it a list of supplies for him to buy for his first year at hogwarts.
“How am I going to buy all of this? I don’t think Uncle Vernon will lend us any money for this, is there some kind of fund for orphans?”
“Aye, there be such a fund but ye don’t need it”, Hagrid explained, “Yer parents were quite wealthy, rich even. Not the richest out there but -had they survived- they would never ‘ave had to work a day in their life and neither would ye or ye children. ‘course, they still worked, yer father was an auror before they went into hiding and yer mother was a potioneer”
Hagrid had already told him that they went into hiding because of the man that ultimately killed them. He’d also already told him about how he was famous for having survived the killing curse and supposedly ended the dark lords reign.
“I wish I had something to remember them by, like a photo or something”
“I can help yer with that”, Hagrid practically beamed, “It’ll take a while but I can get yer a photo album of them, would have to go around to their friends and gather some photos. How ‘bout this, that’ll be yer birthday present from me”
“You don’t have to get me a gift”, Harry blushed.
“Yes I do”, corrected Hagrid,”tis the least I can do”
The ride continued in comfortable silence as they sped along the countryside.
Once they were in London, they entered a pub called the leaky cauldron. Muggles didn’t seem to notice the pub at all, their eyes just looked at the record shop next to it and right onto the other shop besides the leaky cauldron, never quite landing on the pub.
Inside, it was warm and dusty.
Candles burned, floating above their heads, spending well needed light all over the small pub.
“The usual Hagrid?”, the bartender asked.
“No am on official business for ‘ogwarts”
This seemed to appease the barkeep and the two of them left the pub to the back entrance, which revealed a blocked off path, a walled off zone. Hagrid tapped a certain stone three times with his umbrella and the stones moved on their own, forming a stone archway leading into a long, narrow street with magical shops all around, cauldrons and brooms, wands and potion ingredients, books and robes, you could find anything there. At the very end of the long alley(Diagon alley, as Hagrid had called it) was a huge, marble building, with two, small, long eared, hook nosed creatures with black beady eyes standing before its entrance in medieval armor and carrying spears.
“That’s Gringotts, the wizarding bank, it's where everyone stores their gold. Run by goblins, tricky little creatures, always read the fine print when dealing with them”, Hagrid warned him.