Can Things Change

 Regulus cleared his throat and read, "The Keeper of the Keys," 

BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. 

"Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly. 

“Does he speak any other way?” Peter asked, looking at Aurora. 

“When he was 11, no way,” she replied, only one person noticed the death grip that she had on Fred’s hand.

There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands – now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them. 

“How did he even get one!” Hermione shouted.

“He brought a rifle, into a run down shack, where my DAUGHTER IS!” Lily yelled, “What were you thinking, leaving my baby there!” She turned her fury onto Dumbledore.

“I’m afraid that I do not know my future thought processes Ms. Evans,” Dumbledore replied calmly.

Draco leaned over to whisper in Aurora’s ear, “Bet 5 galleons he’s already figured out why he placed you with them.”

“That's a suckers bet,” she snickered back.

"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you — I'm armed!" 

There was a pause. Then — 

SMASH! 

Everyone but Aurora jolted as Regulus shouted the word, causing the two to laugh at them. 

The glare on Alastor’s face made Aurora laugh harder, and yell out “Constant Vigilance!” It took several minutes for people to calm down enough for Regulus to continue.

The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor. 

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. 

“Hagrid was sent to get you?” Flitwick asked, looking confused.

“That will not go over well with Petunia and Vernon,” Lily said. 

“I love Hagrid, but he’s not the best person to send to a muggle raised person,” James added.

Aurora just nodded. She loved Hagrid as well, but he was not subtle at all, and not the best person to deal with magic hating muggles.

The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm 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 an easy journey…" 

He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear. 

"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger. 

“Well that wasn’t very nice, the boy is obviously terrified,” Molly scolded. She might not like the Dursleys all the much for their treatment of Aurora, but this was still a child who didn’t know any better.

Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon. 

"An' here's Aurora!" said the giant. 

Aurora looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile. 

“Hagrid has very kind eyes.”

"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 mom's eyes." 

“Aww the first time you heard that,” Fred teased. She swatted at him, but he just caught her hand and kissed the back of it, the both of them laughing.

“I take it you get that a lot,” Sirius joked.

Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise. 

"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!" 

"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room. 

“Oh thank Merlin,” Hermione, Lily, Alice and Marlene muttered, thankful the gun was finally gone.

Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on. 

"Anyway — Aurora," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "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. Aurora opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Aurora written on it in green icing. She had never gotten a birthday cake before.

“We are doing something really special for Hagrid’s birthday this year,” Lily announced to James.

“Maybe a trip to a couple of the dragon reserves,” James suggested.

“No dragons!” Aurora, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Draco all shouted.

Aurora looked up at the giant. She meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to her mouth, and what she said instead was, "Who are you?" She quickly flinched back, she wasn’t supposed to ask questions, and here the first thing she did was break the rules.

Flitwick let out a soft growl of annoyance. “She grows out of it very quickly,” Hermione said. “It’s just not coursework that she asks questions about,” she added fondly.

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 Aurora's whole arm. 

"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind." 

His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Aurora felt the warmth wash over her as though she'd sunk into a hot bath. 

“He’s not supposed to do that,” Barty said.

“I think in this case we can look the other way, don’t you Mr. Crouch,” Dumbledore said.

With a quick glance at Aurora, then to the book, he nodded his head in agreement.

The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. 

Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley." 

The giant chuckled darkly.

"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry." 

“While that is true, this child is used to having three meals a day, and his father has just dragged him across the family and he hasn’t had a proper meal in several days,” Andromeda groused. 

He passed the sausages to Aurora, who was so hungry she had never tasted anything so wonderful, but she still couldn't take her eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, she said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are." 

The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. 

"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts — yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.”

“He was sent to fetch her from muggles, in the middle of the night, how does he assume that she knows about Hogwarts,” Lucius sneared.  

 "Er — no," said Aurora. 

Hagrid looked shocked. 

"Sorry," Aurora said quickly.  

"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?" 

"All what?" asked Aurora. No one had ever told her anything about her parents, other than his mention earlier that she looked like her dad but had her mothers eyes. She didn’t even know their names. She was desperate to learn anything about them.

"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. 

"Now wait jus' one second!" He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall. "Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this girl — this girl! — knows nothin' abou' — about ANYTHING?" 

Aurora thought this was going a bit far. She had been to school, after all, and her marks weren't bad. In fact if it wasn’t for fear of punishment she would be top of her class, or at least second if Dudley could act smart enough to be first. Sadly his test scores meant that despite her doing his homework for him he was still in the bottom half of their year, and she had to be lower than him so she was barely passing.

“I do hope, Miss Potter, that you tried your hardest once you were away from them,” McGonagall asked forcefully.

Aurora looked rather sheepish, and chose not to answer. The first couple years she didn’t want Ron to stop being her friend for doing well in school, so she hadn’t tried very hard, and then they got a good Defense Professor, and she started doing better, then she was forced into the tournament so she started doing her best. 

"I know some things," she said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff." 

“Which is why you should have done Arithmancy with me,” Hermione said, swatting Aurora on the arm.

But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, 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, whispered something that sounded like “Mimblewimble." 

Hagrid stared wildly at Aurora. "But yeh must know about yer mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous." 

"What? My — my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?" 

“Of course that’s what you hear,” Draco sighed. “Not that you are famous but that your parents are.”

“Well I never wanted to be famous in the first place,” Aurora snapped, “especially not for something that killed my parents.”

Snape looked at Aurora curiously, as much as she might look like James Potter, she was very much like Lily. And once you looked past the messy hair and the glasses, she looked more like Lily than James as well.

"Yeh don' know… yeh don' know…" Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Aurora 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 to tell the girl anything!" 

“He can’t honestly believe that him forbidding something is going to stop Hagrid from telling you about yourself, and your birthright,” Amelia questioned.

A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage. 

"You never told her? Never told her what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer her? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from her all these years?" 

"Kept what from me?" said Aurora eagerly. 

"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic. 

Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror. 

"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Aurora — yer a witch." 

There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard. 

"That’s rather rude of you,” gaped Aurora.

A smile crossed both Lily and Severus’ faces and they glanced quickly at each other. Aurora happened to see this and started laughing at them. 

"Not ‘hat type of witch, one ‘hat has magic," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good 'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter." 

Aurora stretched out her hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Miss A. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. She pulled out the letter and 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 Miss Potter, 

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. 

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. 

Yours sincerely, 

Minerva McGonagall, 

Deputy Headmistress 

Questions exploded inside Aurora's head like fireworks and she couldn't decide which to ask first, her parents had gone here was the first thing that came to mind. After a few minutes she stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?" 

“That’s the first thing you ask,” Remus asked.

“Well it was July 31st, I didn’t know if they would get the reply in time or not,” Aurora answered.

"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 that Aurora could read upside down: 

Dear Professor Dumbledore, 

Given Aurora her letter. 

Taking her to buy her things tomorrow. 

Weather's horrible. Hope you're well. 

Hagrid 

“I can’t even read his writing right side up and you could do it upside down,” Amice said.

“That is rather impressive, Miss Potter,” Professor Sprout said.

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 into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone. Were owls like carrier pigeons? Would it make it to where it needed to be in time? Would the owl be okay?

Aurora realized her mouth was open and closed it quickly. 

"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight. 

"She's not going," he said. 

Hagrid grunted. "I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop her," he said. 

"A what?" said Aurora, interested. 

"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on." 

“It is a rather rude term,” Hermione huffed, Lily nodding her head in agreement.

“Sounds better than no-maj,” Aurora disagreed. “It also hides the secret better. Someone here could assume that you’ve made up a silly name for someone, where in America you call someone a no-maj and you are telling them that they don’t have magic.”

“Of course in America if you have magic you aren’t allowed to interact with muggles in any way,” Amos added.

"We swore when we took her in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, “swore we'd stamp it out of her! Witch indeed!" 

"You knew?" said Aurora. "You knew I'm a — a witch?" 

"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? 

James hugged Lily close to him, tears forming in her eyes.

Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that — that school — and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was — a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!" 

She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years. 

"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as — as —abnormal — and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!" 

“That wasn’t our choice. I’m sure we did everything we could to keep ourselves safe,” James yelled. “I don’t want my daughter growing up with you either!”

Aurora had gone very white. As soon as she found her voice she said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash because they were drunk!" 

"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Aurora Potter not knowin' her own story when every kid in our world knows her name!" 

"But why? What happened?" Aurora asked urgently. Lily and James - she finally had the names of her parents. And they didn’t die in a car crash, they were murdered from the sounds of it. 

“Oh Ro,” Ginny sighed sadly.

“We’ll tell you anything about us you want to know,” Lily looked at her daughter softly. 

The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious. 

"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Aurora, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh — but someone'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, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it…" 

All the time travelers snorted, looking at Dumbledore. 

He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with — with a person called — but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows —" 

"Who?" 

"Well — I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does." 

"Why not?" 

"Gulpin' gargoyles, Aurora, 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 name was…" 

Hagrid gulped, but no words came out. 

"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested. 

"Nah — can't spell it. All right —Voldemort. "

“You actually got Hagrid to say it,” Peter asked, looking very impressed.

“Don’t know why anyone is afraid of a stupid made up name,” Aurora grumbled.

That doesn’t sound very frightening, Aurora thought to herself, not wanting to interrupt the giant’s story. It sounded French, something about flight and death, if she was remembering her lessons correctly. 

“I knew you could speak French!” Ron shouted, standing up and pointing at Aurora.

She hunched in on herself, “Oops,” she said, hiding behind Fred. “You speak Romanian, what's the big deal?”

Ron huffed and sat back down, “So do you, and Bulgarian, and some Hindi, and how many other languages? And the big deal is I would have liked to know what I was being called after making a fool of myself thank you very much.”

Leaning forward in interest, Barty asked, “How many languages do you speak?”

“At least 30, though not all of them are fluent. So nowhere near as many as your father,” Aurora answered. “I’m really good at languages, and since I’m an auditory and practical learner it's easier for me to pick up.”

“Ron, Ginny and I know about 10,” Fred said.

“I’m at about 15,” Hermione continued.

“Draco and I are about the same, with 15 also,” Amice added.

“I’m at about 20, but Neville is closer to Aurora with 25,” Luna finished.

The rest of the room looked shocked, they knew several languages as well but nowhere near as many as this group of people, except for Barty.

Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty 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, Aurora. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards 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 was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway. 

"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I 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… 

“He did,” James said quietly.

“What!” the other Marauders yelled.

“He attacked the manor this summer,” James whispered. “Tried to get mum and dad on his side. Said that Mum was a Black, I was a Black, and my best friend was a Black. He could give us power that we had never dreamed of.” James chuckled at the thought, “Mum and I fought him off long enough for dad to power the wards and kick him off the property.” He sat up a little straighter, and spoke clearer, looking at Sirius, then to Regulus, “Right after that Mum looked at me and said, ‘I might be a Black, but I will never let my name, or my family, make my choices for me, and I want you to do the same. No real Black will ever bow to anyone.’”

Regulus looked contemplative for a few moments before nodding. Sirius just looked mad, “Why didn’t I know about this?”

“I didn’t want you to worry,” James replied.

“So you are where Aurora gets it from,” Neville growled.

probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side. 

"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em… maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' — an' —" 

Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief 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 — anywa… 

"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then — an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing — he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh — took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even — but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Aurora. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age — the McKinnons, 

“No!” Alice, Lily and Sirius yelled, as Sirius pulled Marlene into his side.

the Bones,

“Not all of them,” Aurora said, cutting Amelia off. 

“You raise your niece, Susan,” Neville explained.

the Prewetts 

Molly cried out, reaching for her brother’s, Bill climbed onto his Uncle Fabian’s lap, he didn’t want his Uncles to die.

— an' you was only a baby, an' you lived." 

Something very painful was going on in Aurora's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, she saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than she had ever remembered it before — and she remembered something else, for the first time in her life: a high, cold, cruel laugh. Then she was being sung to, she was warm and everything would be okay because she was protected.

“How did you survive?” Alastor asked.

“It’s in one of the books,” Aurora answered. “I’m not sure which, most of it was learned over a long period of time, but I finally piece together the full story in book seven.”

Hagrid was watching her sadly. 

"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot…." 

“Hagrid sang to you,” Frank asked.

“Hagrid didn’t actually take me from the house, he took me from the person that did,” Aurora said. “It was just easier for him to say it that way.”

“Or he was told to tell you it that way,” Draco murmured. Aurora shrugged, she wanted to at least give Hagrid the benefit of the doubt, after all he thought that Sirius was a murderer, better to say that he had taken her from the house then a mass murdered who betrayed her parents had.

"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Aurora jumped; she had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched. 

"Now, you listen here, girl," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a few more good beating wouldn't have cured — and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion — asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types — just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -" 

But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley — I'm warning you — one more word…"

“Threatening them isn’t going to endear them to you at all,” Sprout gasped.

“Especially since they already dislike magic,” Augusta agreed. 

In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent. 

"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor. 

Aurora, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them. 

"But what happened to Vol-, sorry — I mean, You-Know-Who?" 

“Yes! Blaise owes me 10 galleons!” Draco exclaimed. 

“You and Blaise made a bet that I have called Voldemort by You-Know-Who before?” Aurora asked, incredulous.

Draco just nodded, while Amice hid her laughter in her hand, and Ginny put her face in a pillow.

"Good question, Aurora. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see… he was gettin' more an' more powerful — why'd he go? 

"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. 

The trio looked at each other for a moment, Hagrid knew more than he thought he did.

Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back. 

"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Aurora. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on — I dunno what it was, no one does — but somethin' about you stumped him, all right." 

Hagrid looked at Aurora with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Aurora, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. 

A witch? Her? How could she possibly be? She'd spent her life being clouted by Dudley, and beaten by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if she was really a witch, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock her in her cupboard, or beaten her till her bones were broken? If she'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick her around like a football? 

The Marauders and Lily all growled, Sirius and Remus sounding the most ferocious. Remus’ eyes were flashing yellow, his wolf very near the surface. Everyone else, even the considered blood traitors and muggle lovers, looked very afronted that a muggle would dare to do this to a magical child. 

"Hagrid," she said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a witch."

To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled. 

"Not a witch, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?" 

Aurora looked into the fire. Now she came to think about it… every odd thing that had ever made her aunt and uncle furious with her had happened when she, Aurora, had been upset or angry… chased by Dudley's gang, she had somehow found herself out of their reach… dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, she'd managed to make it grow back… and the very last time Dudley had hit her, hadn't she got her revenge, without even realizing she was doing it? Hadn't she set a boa constrictor on him? 

“You are very powerful, even with magical blocks on yourself,” Flitwick announced. “I look forward to teaching you.”

Aurora looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at her. 

"See?" said Hagrid. "Aurora Potter, not a witch — you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts." 

But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight. 

"Haven't I told you she's not going?" he hissed. "She's going to Stonewall High and she'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and she needs all sorts of rubbish — spell books and wands and —" 

"If she wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop her," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's daughter goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. Her name's been down ever since she was born. She's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and she won't know herself. She'll be with youngsters of her own sort, fer a change, an'she'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled—" 

"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon. 

“He shouldn’t have done that,” Fabian and Gideon said.

Dumbledore shook his head, he understood how loyal Hagrid was to him, and feared for these muggles for the insult, not that he thought Hagrid would hurt them. It was after all something that he had been called before, and never had it bothered him.

But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER —" he thundered, "— INSULT — ALBUS — DUMBLEDORE — IN — FRONT — OF — ME!" 

He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley — there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Aurora saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.

The current students, plus Fabian and Gideon and the time travelers all laughed at the image.

McGonagall tried to stifle her smile, and huffed, “Well that’s just going to make their attitude on magic worse.”

Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them. 

Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard. 

"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do." 

“That poor boy,” Molly sighed. She was worried about his health if he was as overweight as it was implied.

He cast a sideways look at Aurora under his bushy eyebrows. 

"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," 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 so keen ter take on the job." 

"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Aurora. She thought it was a little rude to tell her that he took the job just to be able to use magic.

"Oh, well — I was at Hogwarts meself but I — er — got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore." 

"Why were you expelled?" 

“He won’t tell,” James said.

“We’ve asked,” Sirius continued.

“Doesn’t matter how many drinks we feed him either,” Remus continued, ignoring the glares from the adults in the room.

“Or offers to buy him a dragon or any other creature he may want,” Peter finished.

The Aurora, Ron, Hermione and Neville all smirked at the Marauders.

“No way!” Peter exclaimed.

“Your daughter is so cool,” Sirius sighed.

"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that." 

He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Aurora. 

"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' doormice in one o' the pockets." 

“That’s the end of the chapter,” Regulus announced, holding the book out for the next person to take.

“Mum, dad, Sirius,” Aurora announced, looking at each person, “one of you may want to read the next chapter.

“I will,” Sirius said, getting up to get the book. Before taking it he pulled Regulus up and gave him a giant hug. It took a moment but Regulus returned the hug with a squeeze before they both released each other and Sirius headed back to his seat, book in hand.