Keeper of the Keys
BOOM.
They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake.
“Where’s the cannon?” he asked stupidly.
There was a crash behind us as Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands—I guess now we knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with us.
“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 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 his long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but I could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all of his hair.
The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the fallen door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at us.
“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,” the stranger said.
Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind Aunt Petunia, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.
“An’ here’s Harry and Jessamine!” the giant said.
Harry and I looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.
“Las’ time I saw yer two, yer were only babies,” the giant told us. “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 are breaking and entering!”
“Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune,” the giant said dismissively. 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’d been made of rubber, and threw it into the corner of the room.
Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on, which was surprising given his massive size.
“Anyway—Harry, Jessamine,” the giant said, turning his back on the Dursleys. “A very happy birthday to yeh two. 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 took it and brought it between the two of us. He held it while I opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry + Jessamine written on it in green icing.
Harry and I looked up at the giant. I think my brother meant to say thank you, but what he said instead was, “Who are you?”
I nodded in agreement, and 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, leaving me to hold the cake. Afterwards, he took my own arm and shook me like a salt shaker.
“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 shrivelled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace, and we 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 I felt the warmth wash over me.
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 sausages. None of us said a thing while the giant worked, 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.”
He passed the sausages to Harry and me. I was hungry enough that I took it without any complaint. I felt like I’d never tasted anything so wonderful, but both Harry and I still couldn’t take our eyes off the giant.
Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, I swallowed my bite of sausage and said, “I’m sorry, but we still don’t really know who you are, sir.”
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.
“Er—no,” Harry and I said together.
Hagrid looked shocked.
“Sorry,” Harry and I added 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?” Harry asked.
“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 cowered against the wall.
“Do you mean ter tell me,” he growled at the Dursleys, “that these two—these two!—know nothin’ abou’-about ANYTHING?”
I thought this was going a bit far. We had been to school, after all, and both of our marks weren’t bad.
“We know some things,” Harry said. “We can, you know, do maths and stuff.”
But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, “About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents’ world.”
“What world?” I asked.
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 me and my twin. “But yeh must know about yer mom and dad,” he said. “I mean, they’re famous. You two’re famous.”
“What? Our-our mom and dad weren’t famous, were they?” Harry asked, sounding just as confused as I felt.
“Yeh don’ know... yeh don’ know...” Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing us 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 them anything!”
Any man would have quivered under the furious look Hagrid now gave Uncle Vernon, braver or not. When Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.
“You never told ’em? Never told ’em what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer ’em? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An’ you’ve kept it from ’em all these years?”
“Kept what from us?” I asked, and Harry nodded eagerly.
“STOP! I FORBID YOU!” Uncle Vernon yelled in panic.
Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.
“Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh,” Hagrid told them dismissively. “Harry, Jessamine—the two a yeh are a witch an’ wizard.”
There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.
“We’re what?” Harry gasped as I huffed, “Well, that explains the strange letter, I guess.”
“A witch an’ wizard, o’ course,” 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 both 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 letters.”
We each stretched out a hand to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to us. The same words again.
Miss J. Potter
The Floor
Hut-on-the-Rock
The Sea
I looked at it before telling Hagrid, “We already read it.”
Hagrid gaped at me as my brother smiled beside us. But, before anyone else could say anything, Uncle Vernon exploded behind us.
“WHAT?”
We turned to face him and his enraged expression.
“Yeah,” Harry told him. “I read it at the hotel, the first night we were there.”
“W-wha-? H-how?” Uncle Vernon spluttered.
“I did it,” I told him confidently, my chin up as I stepped forward. “I opened my own letter, hid the contents in my shirt, and lied about it. I read it on the first day, and I’ve kept it here all this time.” I reached down my shirt to pull out my letter as well as Harry’s, which I’ve held on to for safekeeping. “Then, when they exploded into the kitchen, I swiped some while Harry distracted you. I gave it to him to read yesterday.”
Everyone in the room but my twin gaped at me. I held my head even higher, my eyes flashing, daring someone to deny or accuse me. No one did.
Harry and I turned back to Hagrid, who had regained his posture, and my brother asked, “What does it mean, they await our owls?”
“Gallopin’ Gorgons, that reminds me,” Hagrid said, 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 in a comical expression of focus, he scribbled a note that Harry and I could just barely read upside down.
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
Given the twins their letters.
Apparently, Harry and Jessamine had already gotten them.
Taking the twins to buy their things tomorrow.
Weather’s horrible. 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 into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.
I elbowed Harry, and he seemed to realise his mouth was open, and closed it quickly.
“Where was I?” Hagrid asked, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.
“They’re not going,” he said.
Hagrid grunted.
“I’d like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him,” he said.
“A what?” I asked, intrigued.
“A Muggle,” Hagrid informed me. “It’s what we call non-magic folk like them. An’ it’s your bad luck you grew up in a family o’ the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on.”
“We swore when we took them in we’d put a stop to that rubbish,” Uncle Vernon hissed angrily. “Swore we’d stamp it out of them! Witch and wizard indeed!”
“You knew?” my brother asked incredulously. “You knew I’m a-a wizard? That Jessie’s a witch?”
“Knew!” Aunt Petunia shrieked suddenly. “Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? 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 the two of 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!”
Beside me, Harry had gone very white. I assumed I looked the same. As soon as I found my voice, I shouted, “Blown up? You told us they died in a car crash!”
“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! Harry and Jessamine Potter not knowin’ their own story when every kid in our world knows their names!”
“But why? What happened?” Harry asked urgently.
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, Harry, Jessamine, 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....”
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?” I interrupted.
“Well—I don’ like sayin’ the name if I can help it. No one does.”
“Why not?” Harry pressed.
“Gulpin’ gargoyles, yeh two, 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.” 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, yer two. 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... 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 two 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. I briefly wrinkled my nose out of disgust.
“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 the real myst’ry of the thing—he tried to kill you two, 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 two got that mark on yer foreheads? Those are no ordinary cuts. 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 the two o’ you, an’ that’s why yer famous. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill ’em, no one except you two, an’ he’d killed some o’ the best witches an’ wizards of the age—the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts—an’ you was only babies, an’ you lived.”
Something very painful was going on in my mind. As Hagrid’s story came to a close, I saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than I had ever remembered it before—and I remembered something else, for the first time in my life. A high, cold, cruel laugh.
Next to me, I saw Harry flinch as he probably remembered the same things as I did.
Hagrid was watching us sadly.
“Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore’s orders. Brought yeh ter this lot....”
“Load of old tosh,” Uncle Vernon interrupted out of nowhere.
Harry and I jumped; I had just about forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have regained his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.
“Now, you listen here, kids,” he snarled. “I accept there’s something strange about you, probably nothing another 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...”
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,” Hagrid said, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.
Harry and I, meanwhile, still had questions to ask. Hundreds of them.
“But what happened to Vol-, sorry, I mean, You-Know-Who?” Harry asked.
“Good question, Harry. 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. 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 two finished him. There was somethin’ goin’ on that night he hadn’t counted on—I dunno what it was, no one does—but somethin’ about y’all stumped him, all right.”
Hagrid looked at us with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but instead of feeling pleased and proud, I felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake.
A witch and wizard? Us? How could we possibly be? We’d spent our lives being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if we were really a magical pair, why hadn’t they been turned into warty toads every time they’d tried to lock us in our cupboard? If we’d once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick us around like a pair of footballs?
“Hagrid,” Harry said quietly. “I think you must have made a mistake. I don’t think I can be a wizard.”
Apparently, he was thinking along the same lines as I was. And to our surprise, Hagrid chuckled.
“Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry? And you, Jessamine?”
Harry looked into the fire. I mimicked him.
Now that I started to think about it... every odd thing that had ever made our aunt and uncle furious with us had happened when Harry or I had been upset or angry...
When we were chased by Dudley’s gang, we had somehow found ourselves out of their reach...
When Harry was dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he had managed to make it grow back...
That stupid sweater...
And the very last time Dudley had shoved us, hadn’t we gotten our revenge, without even realising we were doing it?
Hadn’t we set a boa constrictor on him?
Harry and I turned in sync to look back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at us.
“See?” Hagrid said matter-of-factly. “Harry and Jessamine Potter, not a witch or wizard—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 they’re not going?” he hissed. “They’re going to Stonewall High and they’ll be grateful for it. I’ve read those letters and they needs all sorts of rubbish—spell books and wands and-”
“If they want ter go, a great Muggle like you won’t stop,” Hagrid growled. “Stop Lily an’ James Potter’s twins from goin’ ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. Their names’ been down ever since they was born. They’re off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and they won’t know themselves. They’ll be with youngsters of their own sort, fer a change, an’ they’ll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled-”
“I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH THEM MAGIC TRICKS!” Uncle Vernon yelled.
He had finally gone too far, it seemed. 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 us, Harry and I could see a curly pig’s tail poking through a hole in his trousers.
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.”
He cast a sideways look at us 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?” I asked.
“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?” Harry asked, curiously. I elbowed his ribs and gave him a look.
“It’s gettin’ late and we’ve got lots ter do tomorrow,” Hagrid said loudly. He was avoiding the question, and I understood. It was rather personal. “Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an’ that.”
He took off his thick black coat and threw it to us. Harry caught it, staggering under its weight.
“You two 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.”