The Letters
Eight years had passed since Harry Potter had lived with the Dursleys. He now lived with his best friend's family, the Sandovals. Moryen's dad Theodore, Violet, Moryen, and Harry. Moryen and Violet's mother, Laura, passed away three years ago.
Violet was the eldest since she was nearly twenty-nine years old, worked as a freelancing cursebreaker, and was currently writing a book. She was the one who picked Harry up from the Dursleys. Then came Moryen at ten, and Harry brought in the rear also at ten. Moryen was two months older than him, and she never let him forget it.
Over the years, Violet had collected pictures of Harry's parents, and Harry had put them up in his room. At first, he was afraid that they were going to be upset about the pictures since the Dursleys would, but the Sandovals always made sure that Harry knew he was a part of their family. Whenever Theodore introduced his family, he always said he had three kids. two daughters and a son. Theodore was his father as much as James was, and Laura was his mother as much as Lily was.
The mantle had pictures of Violet, Moryen, and Harry. It even had one of Lily and James, and Harry had gotten misty-eyed when Laura had put it up. Losing Laura was one of the hardest things Harry had ever done.
Even though Harry knew about the magical world, Theodore and Violet wanted him to have a normal childhood, so they enrolled him in muggle school along with Moryen. They didn't want to shelter him from magic entirely, so he grew up with a healthy balance of magic and muggle things, with school during the weekdays and fun on the weekends.
Moryen, or Mor as harry called her, was already friends with Blaise Zabbini when they met, so Harry gradually grew to be good friends with him too. They often went to his house for playdates.
It happened on Mor's birthday. Blaise had come over to visit them and play when he said something that really upset Mor and Harry. 'Father says muggle-borns shouldn't be allowed to attend Hogwarts. They're not magic enough.'
Violet had attended Hogwarts with Harry's parents, even though she was two years their junior. At Harry's behest, she had told Harry all about his parents. His father, the brilliant prankster, who made school life entertaining for everyone, and his mother, who was a muggle-born, but one of the brightest witches of her age. Hearing Blaise talk about muggle-borns that way made Harry really angry, so he refused to talk to Blaise.
More interesting things happened that day that pushed Blaise out of harry's mind. Mor got her Hogwarts letter from an owl that day, and Harry could not be more jealous. She waved the letter in his face all day until Violet made her stop. After that, they were excited for Harry's birthday to come so that he could get his letter and they could go shopping together.
Two months flew by quickly, and just like that, it was the morning of Harry's Birthday. He was woken up by a hyper Mor, who was dragging him down for breakfast before he was even awake.
'Get up Harry, your letter came earlier today.' That woke him up. He raced downstairs at lightning speed and saw his letter on the table, waiting for him to open it. He rushed towards it, only for Violet to levitate it out of reach. 'Good Morning Harry, Happy Birthday.' She said, grinning behind her mug.
'Good morning Vivi, now give it back.' He glowered at her, and she laughed. 'Vivi, don't tease your brother, give it to him.' dad said from behind the paper, failing to hide the amusement in his voice. The letter dropped to the table, and Harry hurriedly picked it up and ripped it open.
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 at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all the necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
All of a sudden, there was a knock at the door. Violet went to answer it, seeing that Harry was absorbed in his letter and Mor was devouring her breakfast. Not a moment later, she popped back into the kitchen and said 'Harry, it's for you.' Harry was confused but followed Vivi toward the door.
A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a 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 house, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling.
‘An’ here’s Harry!’ said the giant. Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw 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.’
‘a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here – I mighta sat on it at some point, but it’ll taste all right.’ From an inside pocket of his black overcoat, he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.
Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, ‘Who are you?’ The giant chuckled. ‘True, I haven’t introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts.’
He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry’s whole arm. Then he turned to Violet. ‘What about some tea then, eh?’ he said, rubbing his hands together. ‘I’d not say no ter summat stronger if yeh’ve got it, mind.'
As if just remembering that he still hadn't introduced himself, he turned to harry once again. ‘Call me Hagrid,’ he said, ‘everyone does. An’ like I told yeh, I’m Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts.'
Questions exploded inside Harry’s head like fireworks and he couldn’t decide which to ask first. After a few minutes, he stammered, ‘What does it mean, they await my owl?’
‘Gallopin’ Gorgons, that reminds me,’ said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl – a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl – a long quill and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note which Harry could read upside-down:
Dear Mr. Dumbledore,
Harry got his letter. Taking him to buy his things tomorrow. Hope you’re well.
Hagrid
Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.
Dad and Hagrid caught up, and after a while, Hagrid got up to leave. Right before he left though, he gave dad a few things, said goodbye to Harry, and then left.
Harry shut the door behind Hagrid and quickly ran to the kitchen where dad was now eating breakfast. 'Dad what did he give you?'
'It's a surprise for when we go shopping for your school things tomorrow.'
Harry pouted for the rest of breakfast and kept asking again and again, but soon forgot it in favour of cutting his cake and opening his presents.