Harriet Potter book 1

Bye Muggles. Hello Magic

After he finished his story Hagrid watched Harriet with sad eyes.

"Took yeh from the ruins o' the house meself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot..."

"What a load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harriet jumped, she'd almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there too. Uncle Vernon seemed to finally have regained his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid, with his fists clenched.

"Now you listen to me girl," he snarled, "I accept that there's something off about you, but it's probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured- and as for all this rubbish about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying that, and the world is far better off without them in my opinion- asked for what they got, getting mixed up with those wizarding types- just as I expected, always knew they would come to a sticky end-"

In that moment Hagrid leapt from the couch once more, however this time he withdrew a battered pink umbrella from inside of his coat. Pointing it at Uncle Vernon like it was a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley- I'm warning you- one more word..."

In light of the danger of being speared on the end of a beat up old umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon had lost his courage again; he fell completely silent and flattened himself against the wall.

"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which finally gave up and drooped completely to the floor.

Harriet, meanwhile, was going through her hundreds of questions to figure out which she should ask next.

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

"Great question, Harriet. Vanished. Disappeared. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh that much more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, yeh see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful- why'd he go?

"Some think he died. Codswallop, in my own opinion. Dunno if he had enough human still in him to die. Some even say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe that. People who was on his side came crawlin' back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta a kinda trance. Don' reckon they could've done it if he was comin' back.

"Most of us believe he's still out there somewhere but he's lost all his power. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about yeh finished him, Harriet. There was somethin' happenin' that night he hadn't been countin' on- I dunno what it was, no one does- but somethin' about yeh stumped him, all right."

Hagrid looked at Harriet with respect and warmth running wild in his eyes, but Harriet, instead of feeling pleased and proud of herself, felt pretty sure that there had been a terrible mistake. A witch? Her? How could she possibly be one? She'd spent her entire life being clouted by Dudley, bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if she truly was a witch, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads or something like that every time they had tried to lock her into her cupboard? If she'd actually defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how is it possible Dudley was always able to kick her like a football?

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

To her surprise, Hagrid laughed.

"Not a witch, eh? Never made myst'rious things happen when yeh was scared or angry?"

Harriet stared into the fire. Now she started to think about it... every odd, out of place thing that had ever filled her aunt and uncle with rage had been when Harriet had been angry or upset... been chased by Dudley's little gang, she had somehow found herself out of their grabby reach... or dreading going back to school with that ridiculous haircut, she had somehow managed to make it grow back... and the with that very last time Dudley had hit her, had she not gotten her revenge, even without realizing she had done it? Hadn't she set a boa constrictor on him?

Harriet smiled back up at Hagrid, and saw that he was positively beaming at her.

"See?" said Hagrid. "Harriet Potter, not a witch- yeh wait, you'll be right famous once at Hogwarts."

However Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without putting up a fight.

"Haven't I already said that she isn't going?" he snarled. "She's going to go to Stonewell High and she'll be grateful to us for it. I've read those dreaded letters and she needs all sorts of rubbish- spell books and wands and-"

"If she really wants to go, a great Muggle like yeh wouldn' be able ter stop her," growled Hagrid. "Tryin' ter stop Lily an' James Potter's daughter goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. Her name has been down ever since she was born. She's goin' 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 other youngsters of her own sort, fer a good change, an' she'll be able the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had, Albus Dumbled-"

"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HER RUBBISH LIKE MAGIC TRICKS!" screamed Uncle Vernon.

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

He brought the umbrella swishing back down through the air to point at Dudley- there was a bright flash of violet light, a sound identical to a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and for a second, Dudley was dancing in the spot he stood with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, weeping in pain. When he turned his back to them, Harriet saw a curly pink pig's tail poking trough a hole in his trousers.

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

Hagrid gave a defeated sigh as he looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.

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

He casted a sidelong look at Harriet under his bushy eyebrows.

"Be grateful ter yeh if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm- er- not really supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' all- one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on this job-"

"Why aren't you allowed to use magic?" asked Harriet.

"Oh well- yeh see I was at Hogwarts meself but I- um- got expelled, ter tell yeh the whletruth. In me third year. They snapped me wand righ' in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man he is."

"Why were you expelled?"

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

He took off his big thick black coat and threw it on to Harriet.

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

Hi everybody! I know that I literally just put up a chapter but I had plenty of free time and was actually in the mood to write today so I've gotten another one all ready for you. Please don't start to expect me to update constantly just because of this because I can guarantee you that things will likely slow down once more after I finally get a job again. Thank you for reading and please shoot me reviews, I love hearing what you guys think.