2 02. Whispers of Magic: A Storm Brings an Unexpected Visitor

Harry rested his head against the glass of the window and peered out into the bright blue sky, admiring the sun... in his mind. In reality, it was pouring rain. In fact, it was raining so hard and heavy that it felt like God himself was peeing on them through a strainer. The rat-a-tat-tat on the roof of the house sounded like machine gun fire, filling the quiet house.

The Dursleys had left him home while they took Dudley out for his birthday. It was just Harry's luck that they had put a large filled suitcase in front of his cupboard to keep him locked in while they were away. "They must have figured out I can open the latch from the inside," Harry thought, disappointed in himself. He wasn't sure how they discovered it, as he had always been careful not to leave any evidence of his excursions. Maybe it was the letters?

Every day, another letter appeared, increasing in number with each unanswered one. He had checked the first couple, and each was identical to the first one he had received. Not wanting to be caught, he quickly stuffed them in his pants and disposed of them in the fireplace when given the chance. He wasn't sure how he had managed to do it with eight letters the last time because his belly looked quite large and obvious. His aunt and uncle hadn't noticed, though.

Harry disposed of the letters in the fireplace and, to his surprise, the fire wasn't any larger or louder. "Maybe they really are made of magic," he thought. Even a normal stack of papers that large would have caused a huge surge of fire.

Harry was broken out of his reverie by the sound of rumbling thunder. He hadn't heard anything like it before, and it only got louder and louder, then it stopped. Not long after, there was a very loud banging on the front door. "Oh, no!" Harry said in a panic. "Uncle Vernon forgot his keys!"

Harry tried desperately to get out of the cupboard to go and get the door open because he knew that he would be severely punished if he didn't help Uncle Vernon as soon as he was needed. He was still very weak, so after he unlatched the cupboard door, he only managed to move the suitcase a little bit. In his panic, he never once thought that his trying to get to the door to help would be the thing that would damn him in his aunt and uncle's eyes. They would have the proof that he could get out of the cupboard on his own.

Harry summoned all of his strength and pushed hard on the cupboard door, then he barely managed to squeeze out through the space he had made. He scrambled over to the door just as another series of bangs came. "I've got it! Just a minute!" Harry said loudly, in order to be heard over the din of the rain, and he unlocked the locks on the door and pulled it open... only to be met with the largest man he had ever seen.

Completely scared out of his wits at the sight, Harry wet himself. He was so scared of the beast of a man in front of him that he couldn't even move to close the door and just stared up at the man's face. The giant man, dressed like a homeless man with hand-sewn clothing and covered in patches, peered down at the little boy. "Blimey, Harry," Hagrid said in a thick gravelly voice. "The rain's not tha' scary." He said and bent down as he stepped into the house, then he closed the door. He folded up his pink umbrella and shook the water off of it. "Lemmie get tha' for ya," he said and pointed the umbrella at Harry's crotch.

"NO!" Harry yelled and covered himself. He had taken the school warnings of strangers to heart and he knew what to yell when being approached by one. He curled up into a little ball and started to yell at the top of his lungs. "HELP! HELP ME! A STRANGER IS TRYING TO ABDUCT ME! HEELLLP!"

Luckily for Hagrid, he had shut the door and the rain covered up Harry's blood-curdling yells for help. "Harry! HARRY!" Hagrid yelled and Harry's yells cut off. "I'm not a stranger, Harry. My name's Hagrid."

The giant knelt down onto the floor and used the simple clean-up spell he knew to clean Harry's soiled clothing. He carefully patted Harry's side with his huge hand, as he wasn't sure what to do with the boy while he was in this state. He stayed there with Harry for nearly ten minutes before he remembered why he had come to visit. "Oh, right! I came to deliver yer letter," Hagrid said and reached into his coat and pulled out a large yellowish envelope. "We figured yer aunt and uncle have been keeping 'em, so I brought it to ya meself."

Harry's panic started to recede. "L-l-letter?" He asked, his voice shaky, and moved his arms to uncover his face. "Yer Hogwarts letter," Hagrid said and waved it in front of Harry's face. Harry stared at the letter in the giant's hand, his mind working overtime as he thought about everything. "You sent it?" Hagrid shook his head. "Naw, the school did. I'm jus' delivering it." He smiled at Harry's interest. "They send them out to all the young boys and girls that earned a spot at the school." He held out the letter. "There ya go. Go ahead and open it."

"I've read it already," Harry said as he uncurled himself.

"Huh? Wha'?" Hagrid looked at the boy, stunned. "Then... why didn'tcha respond?"

"I didn't know how, you big oaf!" Harry spat. "It doesn't tell me anything about that!"

Hagrid looked taken aback at his words. "But... everyone knows how ta..."

"I'M NOT EVERYONE!" Harry yelled, gathering his courage for the first time in his life. "The school sent me a letter, and I can finally escape this hell, and it doesn't tell me how to accept!" He said, anger clear in his voice. "It's been ten times worse here the last week, knowing I was going to miss leaving this place, all because I couldn't send a letter back!"

"It's all right now, Harry," Hagrid said, not really understanding. "I'll tell the school that you'll be coming in September and...""I want to go now!" Harry said and stood up. "Right now! This instant!" "MY THINGS!" Harry yelled in sudden inspiration and grabbed the unopened letter from Hagrid's hand and shook it in the giant's huge face. "I need to go buy that cauldron thingie and my books!"

Hagrid's face went from sorrowful to happy. "I'm glad that yer enthusiastic about yer schoolin'." He said and stood up. He took out a pocket watch and checked the time. "Yeah, it's still early. I'm sure we can get to Diagon Alley and back before your aunt and uncle come back."

Harry didn't care one lick about that anymore. "Let's go!" He said and squeezed by Hagrid to go to the front door.

"Yer gonna need yer slicker if we're going out in this, Harry." Harry barked a laugh. "I don't have one." He said and opened the door, then realized his mistake. He ran back to the cupboard under the stairs and closed and latched it, then tried to push the suitcase back into place. "Are ya tryin' ta take it?" Hagrid asked. "No, I'm... pushing it back... into place." Harry grunted. "Oh." Hagrid moved it like it weighed nothing. "Okay, let's go." Harry said and went back to the front door.

"Jus' a sec. Yer gonna need somethin' fer the rain." Hagrid said and opened up his huge coat, then he draped it over a completely unprepared Harry. Both the coat and Harry fell to the floor with a loud thud. "Blimey! I'm sorry about that, Harry." He said and lifted the heavy coat to reveal Harry, slightly squished and unconscious.

The giant of a man laid the coat down and put Harry into it, wrapping him up into a bundle, and picked it up. Then he unfurled his large pink umbrella. He stepped out into the pouring rain with what he believed was the most precious bundle to ever exist in the world. It never occurred to him that it was almost the exact same thing that he had done when he had delivered that precious bundle all those years ago.