Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, sat in his chair at his desk in his office, staring at the letter in his hands.
It was another of L’s brief missives. As before, the letter had simply appeared on his desk. As before, it was to the point: “He is ready. They are preparing to move. She knows what they need to know. You will see them within the month.”
The story had never broken: an entirely different world, where magic was considerably more powerful though less versatile; a world where gods and demons walked among men. Harry Potter had been raised by that world’s most powerful sorceress, one who specialized in extremely destructive magic. He hoped that the sorceress had not taught Harry any of those spells. All that was left was to wait, and he’d learn.
It would make for an interesting time, he believed. Great things were ahead, he decided: terrible, perhaps, but great.
~_~
Days later...
It had been as if a door had opened onto nowhere. There had been a brief flash of light, but no people were around to register it. And that had been all.
Harry Inverse had returned to the world in which he was born. He surveyed the nearly empty field in which they appeared. He thought about the sort of magic he was soon to learn. His mother had said it was a relatively low-power world, but that didn’t mean the magic couldn’t be of interest. In the end, knowledge was knowledge. Always learn, and use what you can: if you can’t use it, discard it, but never ignore the knowledge. He’d gotten that insight from his mother.
His mother. That was something else he had to get used to: the woman who had raised him was not his mother. His own parents were dead, and his “mother” had raised him from infancy. The name he’d grown up using wasn’t real: he wasn’t Harry Inverse, he was Harry Potter.
Shaking his head, he looked up at his mother, who was reading a piece of paper to herself. She noticed him watching, and wordlessly handed him the paper. He read it twice and handed it back to her. She read it over, and the two walked east to the named town. They would be met there, and led to a place called Diagon Alley, where they could buy the things Harry would need.
There was a small coffee shop on the town’s main road. Harry and Lina found a table and sat down to wait. Supposedly the man who would be meeting them would arrive within the hour.
As it happens, he arrived not fifteen minutes later. Harry and Lina stared at him, for he had to be the largest man either had ever seen. He was twice as tall as a normal man, and at least three times as broad. He had huge shoulders and arms, tree-trunk legs, and his feet in their titanic boots looked as big as baby dolphins. He had long black hair and a thick black beard. His eyes were beetle-black, but were full of life and warmth.
“Good to meet yeh, Harry; las’ time I saw you, you was only a baby. And yeh must be Miss Lina. Dumbledore mentioned yeh. He sent me. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at”, and he suddenly looked around, and nodded, “Harry’s school.” He sat down in the booth, taking up virtually his whole side, by himself.
Harry and Lina were still gaping at the man’s sheer size. Thinking that they were being rude, Harry shook his head. “We should get going. Have shopping to do, don’t we, mum? Mr. Hagrid, you’re coming?”
Hagrid nodded. “Call me Hagrid, Harry. Everyone does. And yeah, I’ll be leading you. Yeh can’t get into the alley alone just yet. But the alley’s not here. We need to be in London fer that.” He got out of the booth. The three left the coffee shop. People watched them leave, but the strange trio paid them no attention.
They rode the train to London, and found Charing Cross Road. Hagrid pointed out the Leaky Cauldron, which was situated between a bookshop and a music store. People walking by didn’t glance at it; their eyes slid from one side to the other. Harry had the insight that only he, his mother, and Hagrid could see it. Hagrid pushed the door open and the three walked through. The three walked through the pub, not stopping, not even to talk to the people who all seemed to know Hagrid.
They walked out the back into a walled courtyard. Hagrid pointed out the trashcan. He pointed at the wall, from the lid. “Three up, two across.” He tapped the brick at that spot three times. Harry noticed suddenly that Hagrid tapped it with a large pink umbrella, which looked totally out-of-place being carried by a man like Hagrid. The wall opened up and the trio walked through.
“Yeh’ll need to go ter Gringotts first, Harry, to get money from yer vault, what yer parents left fer yeh.” Hagrid’s face was warm, but his voice was sad.
“Did you know my parents, Hagrid?” Harry had a neutral look on his face, but his eyes betrayed curiosity and a measure of loss, for the parents he never knew.
Hagrid nodded. “I did. Head boy an’ girl at Hogwarts in their day, Harry! A nicer witch an’ wizard yeh’d never meet, if they were alive. They died fightin’, Harry, fightin’ in the war. Yeh be proud of them Harry, fer what they did; they’d be proud of you.” He nodded once more and became silent.
Harry and Lina looked around as the trio walked down this street, which Hagrid said was called Diagon Alley. Hagrid pointed out various shops, and said a few things about what you could buy at the shops. He pointed out Gringotts, straight ahead. It was the largest building in the alley, by far: many floors, huge and gleaming white.
“Harry, you go with Hagrid to get the money from your vault. I have to open an account for us.” Lina Inverse marched ahead, pushing open the great wooden doors with little effort, and walking through. At these actions, Harry raised his eyebrows but said nothing. He noted the goblin standing by the doors, read the poem on the doors, and walked through.
Inside, there were many more goblins, each at a teller stand. Hagrid and Harry went to the nearest free stand, and Hagrid walked forward. Harry looked around as Hagrid conducted whatever business would need to be done before going to the vault. Absently, he noted that Hagrid had pulled many items from his coat, including an envelope and a small golden key. He heard Hagrid speaking, but paid little attention to the words; his interest was elsewhere. Some of the many goblins were counting and weighing mounds of gold and silver and bronze coins; others were inspecting precious gems. One had an emerald that Harry could have sworn was as big as one of his own fists.
Harry then followed Hagrid and one of the goblins to a cart, which sped underground, through a long series of twists and turns. Eventually they stopped before a small door in the wall. The goblin unlocked the door and opened it.
Harry’s jaw fairly dropped. Inside were mounds of gold; columns of silver; heaps of bronze. “All yours,” smiled Hagrid.
Hagrid helped him pile some of it into a bag. “The gold ones are Galleons, the silver ones are Sickles, and the bronze ones are Knuts. Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle; it’s easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o’ terms; we’ll keep the rest safe fer yeh.” Hagrid turned to the goblin, and Harry tuned him out. The three got back into the cart, and sped down to another vault.
Harry thought it was curious that this vault had no keyhole. He thought it still more curious when the goblin stroked the door with a long finger, and the door vanished. There was a grubby package inside. Harry dismissed it as unimportant.
They got into the cart and sped back to the main floor of the bank. Hagrid and Harry walked up to Lina, who was holding a leather bag similar to Harry’s. She nodded at him, and the three left the bank.
Hagrid turned to him. “Harry, I need ter get back to the school. Dumbledore’s orders.” He handed Harry a simple envelope. “Yer ticket fer Hogwarts. First o’ September - Kings Cross - it’s all on yer ticket. If yeh want to write, get yeh an owl, send me a letter with her - she’ll know where to find me. See yeh soon, Harry.” He walked away, and somehow vanished within an instant. At that, Harry and Lina both smiled, and each resolved to learn how it was done.
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(Posted Sat, 06 Sep 2003 23:01)
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