CHAPTER THREE | the giant

𝔚hoever was at the door knocked again, causing Dudley to wake up.

"What's going on?"

"There's someone at the door," Charlotte replied, the cousins scrabbling back towards the bedroom door behind them. There was a crash and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hand, which must have been what the long package was.

"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 a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles. 

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 you? It's not been an easy journey..."

Dudley and Charlotte stood behind Petunia, both of them peering around her to look at the man.

"An' here's Charlotte!" said the giant.

Charlotte looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile. The girl sent him a smile in return, still trying to figure out how he knew her. Had they met before?

"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "You look a lot like your mum, but you've got your dad's smile."

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, you 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.

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

"Anyway — Charlotte," said the giant, turning to the girl, "a very happy birthday to you. Got something for you here. I might have 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. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Charlotte written on it in emerald green icing.

Charlotte 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?" which sounded slightly rude.

The giant chuckled.

"True, I haven't introduced myself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."

He held out an enormous hand and shook Charlotte's whole arm to the point that she thought it might fall off.

"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no to something stronger if you'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, when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Charlotte felt the warmth wash over her as though she'd sunk into a hot bath.

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.

"Your great pudding of a son don' need fattening anymore, Dursley, don' worry."

He passed the sausages to Charlotte, who was incredibly hungry, yet she didn't take her eyes from 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 you, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts — you'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.

"...no," said Charlotte, turning to look at her aunt, who was pale. 

Hagrid looked shocked.

"Sorry?" Charlotte replied, before throwing a sausage at Dudley, who sent her a grateful nod.

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

"Learnt what?" Charlotte raised an eyebrow.

"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 back against the wall.

"Do you mean to tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this girl —this girl! — knows nothin' abou'...about ANYTHING?"

Charlotte thought this was going a bit far. She had been to school, after all, and her marks weren't that abysmal as long as you didn't count science.

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

But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Your 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 Charlotte

"But you must know about your mum and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."

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

"You don' know...you don' know...." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Charlotte with a bewildered stare. "You don' know what you 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!"

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 for 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 Charlotte eagerly.

"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic. Charlotte turned towards her aunt, who was paler than a ghost.

"Ah, go boil your heads, both of you," said Hagrid. "Charlotte — your a witch."

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

"I'm a what?" gasped Charlotte, her jaw dropping.

"A witch, 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 you've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would you be? An' I reckon it's abou' time you read your letter."

Charlotte stretched out her hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Miss. C. Potter, The Sofa, 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 Charlotte's head like fireworks and she couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes she stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"

"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, rather ruffled-looking owl — a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Charlotte could read upside down:

Dear Professor Dumbledore,

Given Charlotte her letter. Taking her to buy her 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.

Charlotte 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 to see a great Muggle like you stop her," he said.

"A what?" said Charlotte, interested. Any insult to throw at her uncle, she'd take.

"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "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."

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

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

"We knew!" Vernon cried. "Petunia's sister disappeared to that school and then got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"

"Vernon," Petunia hissed, shaking her head. 

"Blown up?" Charlotte turned back towards her uncle. "You told me 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! Charlotte Potter not knowin' her own story when every kid in our world knows her name!"

"But why? What happened?" Charlotte 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 you, how much you didn't know. Ah, Charlotte, I don' know if I'm the right person to tell you — but someone's gotta — you can't go off to Hogwarts not knowin'."

He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.

"Well, it's best you know as much as I can tell you — mind, I can't tell you 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 you 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, Charlotte, 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?" Charlotte 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' for 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, Charlotte. Didn't know who to 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, your 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 to Dumbledore to want anythin' to 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 to your house an' — an' —"

Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn, causing the family to jump.

"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad — knew your mum an' dad, an' nicer people you 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, too. Wanted to 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 your forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what you get when a powerful, evil curse touches you — took care of your mum an' dad an' your house, even — but it didn't work on you, an' that's why your famous, Charlotte. No one ever lived after he decided to kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age — the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts — an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."

Something very painful was going on in Charlotte'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. Hagrid was watching her sadly.

"Took you from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought you to this lot..."

"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Charlotte jumped at his voice. 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 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," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor. Charlotte, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.

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

"Good question, Charlotte. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried to kill you. Makes you 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 to 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, Charlotte. 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 Charlotte with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Charlotte wasn't getting the same feeling. She wasn't special. A witch? Her?

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

To her surprise, Hagrid chuckled. "Not a witch, eh? Never made things happen when you was  scared or angry?"

Charlotte paused. Now, she thought about it, she had probably made that snake leave it's crate at the zoo and almost set her on her uncle. So, looking back at Hagrid, she smiled and saw Hagrid positively beaming at her.

"See?" said Hagrid. "Charlotte 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 to go, a great Muggle like you won't stop her," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's daughter goin' to Hogwarts! Your mad. Her name's been down ever since she was born. She's off to 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, for 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 HER MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.

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, Charlotte saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.

Her cousin had a pig's tail!

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. Petunia looked like she wanted to reach out and grab Charlotte, but Vernon was too quick.

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 to turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left to do."

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

"Be grateful if you didn't mention that to anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm — er — not supposed to do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed to do a bit to follow you an' get your letters to you an'stuff — one o' the reasons I was so keen to take on the job."

"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Charlotte.

"Oh, well — I was at Hogwarts meself but I — er — got expelled, to tell you 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?"

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

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

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

Hiya,

Hagrid's here and Charlotte knows she's a witch, which we love to see. Vernon doesn't like Lily, but Petunia does so we're gonna see how this plays out. Can't lie, am very excited for next chapter cause we're meeting someone :)

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx