Chapter 2
Mr. Lee might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no signs of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed on the far corner of Privet Drive.
It didn't so much as blink when a car door slammed on the next street, or flinch when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was almost midnight before the cat moved at all.
A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appearing so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of thin air.
The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.
Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt.
He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.
Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots were very unwelcome.
He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."
He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it.
The closest street lamp went out with a little pop. He clicked it again, the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him.
If anyone looked out of their window, even sharped eyed Mrs. Lee, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement.
Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.
"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."
He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a slightly severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.
"How did you know it was me?" she asked.
"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."
"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.
"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."
Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.
"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no — even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Lees' dark living room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls . . . shooting stars. . . . Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent, I'll bet that was Eric Lee. He's never had much sense."
"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."
"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."
She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on.
"A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You- Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"
"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"
"A what?"
"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."
"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone —"
"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense — for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort."
Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."
"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."
"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."
"Only because you're too — well — noble to use them."
"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."
Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"
It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for as long as they'd know each other, Professor McGonagall had never fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now.
It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe until Dumbledore himself said it was true.
Though at the moment, Professor Dumbledore was busy choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.
"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the kims. The rumor is that kim Soojin and Woobin are….that they're....dead."
Dumbledore bowed his head and Professor McGonagall gasped.
"Soojin and Woobin…..ohhh, I can't believe it . . . I don’t want to believe it . . . Oh, Albus . . ." Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know . . . I know . . ." he said heavily.
Professor McGonagall's voice wavered as she went on.
"That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Kims' son, Hongjoong. But,…he couldn't. He couldn't kill the little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Hongjoong, Voldemort's power broke somehow….and that's why he's gone."
Dumbledore nodded glumly.
“It's……it's true?" Gasped Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done and all the people he's killed . . . he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding . . . all the things to try stop him, how in Merlins name did Hongjoong survive?"
"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."
Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it.
It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose he was the one who told you I'd be here, by the way?"
"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"
"I've come to bring Hongjoong to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."
"You don't mean…..you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four.
"Dumbledore,…..you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son,…I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Kim Hongjoong can’t come and live here!"
"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."
"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting heavily back down on the wall.
"Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous,….a legend, I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Kim Hongjoong Day in the future, there will be books written about him, every child in our world will know his name!"
"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses.
"It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"
Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes…..yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?"
She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Hongjoong underneath it.
"Hagrid's bringing him."
"You think it wise to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"
"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.
"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly,
"but you can not pretend he's not careless. He does tend to,….what was that?"
A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky……and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.
If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing compared to the man sitting on it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide.
He simply looked too big to be real, his wild, long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins.
In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.
"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"
"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Choi Wooseok lent it to me. I've got him, sir."
"No problems, were there?"
"No, sir,…house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."
Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair and over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.
"Is that where…..?" whispered Professor McGonagall.
"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."
"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"
"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well….give him here, Hagrid, we'd better get this over with."
Dumbledore took Hongjoong in his arms and turned toward the Lees’ house.
"Could I…could I say goodbye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid.
He bent his great, shaggy head over Hongjoong and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.
"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "you'll wake the Muggles!"
"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it….Soojin an' Woobin dead…..an' poor little Hongjoong off ter live with Muggles…"
"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found,"
Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door.
He laid Hongjoong gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Hongjoong’s blankets, turned, and went back to stand with the other two.
For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes was long gone.
"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."
"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'd best get this bike away. G'night, Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore, sir."
Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.
"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall only blew her nose in reply.
Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer.
He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets sat on the step of number four.
"Good luck, Hongjoong" he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.
A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen.
Kim Hongjoong rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him as he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Lee’s scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, or that he would spend the next few weeks being poked and prodded by his cousin Sunwoo.
He couldn't know that at this very moment, people were meeting in secret all over the country and holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices:
"To Kim Hongjoong,…the boy who lived!"