Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original Harry Potter characters, the only thing that belongs to me is
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Diagon Ally
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The green misty smoke was all around the house of Gordic's Hollow. Ethan Granger stepped out of his house to meet see what happened to his neighbor's house. At the first sight of the wreckage, his first thought was wondering how to explain this to the neighbors. As he walked around the ruins, he saw two men. One extremely large man with a messy beard and a handsome man on a gigantic motorcycle were talking in the smoke.
"Give Harry to me Rubeus, I am his godfather after all, it is my responsibility to take care of him if James and Lily are... in no condition to." The man in the motorcycle said calmly to the giant's fierce face.
"I'm sorry Sirius, but I can' allow `hat. Professor Dumbledore gave me direct orders to bring Harry ter number 4, Privet Drive. Oh, pretend yeh didn't 'ear that, that's top secret-" After his last line he clamped his mouth.
Sirius seemed to have given up; it was as if there was no way to change this Hagrid's mind if it was a direct order from this Dumbledore fellow. "Fine, I just hope Dumbledore knows what he is doing. You can't apparate could you?" Hagrid stared at his shoes. "Use my motorcycle, I have no use of it anymore."
"Yeh sure Sirius? Yeh love that bike." Sirius nodded. "Alrigh', thanks," With that, the giant sat on the motorcycle which all of the sudden grew to match the giant's size. "Goodbye Sirius," and with a roar of the engine, the Hagrid and the motorcycle disappeared from sight. Once Ethan looked down to see where Sirius would go, Sirius already apparated away.
Not a minute later after Sirius left, people who seemed to be news crews sprang from nowhere with questions like "What's your name?" "Is You-Know- Who dead?" and "How does it feel to be 'The man who lived?'"
All Ethan could say was "No comments" as if he was some famous man going through some press. He heard several of the reporters say, 'Hear that folks? Not only is the man who defeated You-Know-Who strong, he is also very modest."
After trying 10 minutes trying to get as far as he could from the magical cameras, he finally made it to his home. His wife came from the kitchen with a grim face. "Are… the Potters.... dead?" was all she could say.
"All 'cept the boy. He is being taken to Dumbledore. As for You-Know-Who, he disappeared."
"Is he gone then Ethan? I don't want the same fate for dear Hermione. She is only a year old, she is too young to die"
"Don't worry Martha, I am sure You-Know-Who wont be back… hopefully he is gone… for good."
"How is that possible? Who defeated him? Was it Dumbledore? Why do you seem to be so happy?"
"I defeated him Martha," He said with a giant grin, "guess why such a big crowd is outside?" He pushed aside the drapes and a millisecond later blinding flashes came from outside. He quickly set the drapes back to stop them from blinding his wife. He was surprised at Martha's reaction when she regained her composure, instead of being delighted and proud of him, she was, however, extremely mad.
"You didn't defeat him, did you?" She asked getting her answer from his guilty face. She later gave into her relief that he is at least alive. She gave a sigh whilst giving him a stern glare, "Well, can we at least move to some place secluded? I don't want the fame to go to Hermione's head."
Ethan gave a huge grin as her wife finally accepted fame, "Where do you have in mind?"
"How about somewhere near Number 4, Privet Drive of Little Whinging in Surrey? I have a cousin who lives there, but don't tell them we are magical, they will be freaked out. I hear his wife is the aunt of Harry Potter, more or less Dumbledore would send him to his only relatives."
~* 10 Years Later *~
"MUM! Harry is going to burn my breakfast and we are going to be late to go to the zoo. I want to be the first one there!" A fat boy screamed at his mother. After scolding Harry for making perfect sausages "on purpose to insult his cousin", he was sent to Aunt and Uncle Granger's home next-door. Even though Harry was in no way related to the Grangers, he was forced to called them Aunt and Uncle.
Within no time, he became good friends with their daughter Hermione. Whenever they were walking around town, he would always find it strange that strangers would always greet her, shake her hand, and even bow to her, and believe it or not, a crazy pregnant woman even asked to pray in front of Hermione so her child could be blessed.
As they were walking down around the park on the birthday of his cousin, Dudley, he commented on a new group of people in cloaks in a wide variety of colors that he didn't even knew of, "You sure are Ms. Popularity around this town even though half the school doesn't even know your name."
"I thought you knew, practically the whole wizarding world knows me," in her usual matter-of-fact tone, she said it as if it made all the logic sense in the world.
"Yea… Wizarding World, well, I thought it might be of interest to you that I myself am from the Land of Oz," He said in mock pride with a strong drag of sarcasm.
"Really? You have to tell me about it sometime. I mean, my father has always told me you were a wizard too, but I never knew the Land of Oz really existed." As soon as she said it, she regretted it. She forgot that Harry never knew and was supposed to be told so as soon as they finished their walk. To her relief, Harry stopped talking or made any reply to her comment and just walked silently ever since.
Once they made it back to the Granger house, Ethan and Martha were already there with serious faces. "Harry, sit." Harry was about to come back saying he was no pet dog but gave into his stern glare.
"Harry, you may not know this, but you are a wizard, as much of a wizard as our darling daughter. Now, don't go thinking being a witch or wizard is a bad thing, not all of us are bad. However the wizard who murdered your parents are. To stop you from joining the dark side, let me tell you this; good always win, just as I defeated the powerful dark wizard. Voldemort," Martha gave him a glare, but Harry and Hermione didn't notice.
"This is a really funny joke Mr. Granger," Harry rolled his eyes, "did Uncle Vernon put you up to this?" Harry got up to leave; he was seriously tired of all this mumbo jumbo of magic and a world of magical people.
"Stay where you are! Petrificus Totalus!" The spell headed straight for Harry, but for some reason, it rebound a centimeter off him and rebounded for the Caster himself! "Protego!" A barrier formed around a round-eyed Ethan and defended him against his first spell.
"What just happened? You don't have a wand; you didn't even mutter an incantation! How did you rebound my spell?!" Ethan kept babbling on and on. Harry, though not affected by the spell that nearly hit him, was affected by his conscious, he went rigged and collapsed. Once Harry woke up, it toke about half an hour to get him to accept that Magic was real and that he himself has the ability to harness it along with the magical creatures all around the world.
"Anyway, about your education on magic, we have received your letter of acceptance to Hogwarts along with Hermione's-"
"REALLY?" Hermione screamed, she had read "Hogwarts: A History" only a million times, and now she finally gets to go there, even her parents had only been to Beauxbaton and she gets to go to the best school in all of Europe.
Ethan nodded and gave the letters to their owners. Harry looked at his letter being addressed to:
Mr. H. Potter
Living Room
Granger House
Little Whinging
Surrey
Dear Mr. 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 first. We await your owl by no later than July thirty-first
After reading a few times with eyes wide open, he was instructed to look at the second page, it had all the items needed for school. After 5 minutes of reading in amazement Hermione finally broke his trance with a scream if frustration, "I can't believe they don't let us have our own brooms, that's not fair!" Harry smiled meekly; magic, flying brooms, hidden world of magical beings, plants he never heard of, and a whole new culture was getting to be too much.
"Now you two, a old friend of mine, Rubeus Hagrid, will pick you two up at 9 sharp in the mourning, sadly we have work tomorrow and can't join you two in shopping." Hermione smiled at this, now she could stay in Flourish & Blotts for as long as she wants. "Of course, you have to follow Mr. Hagrid wherever he goes." Hermione's smile quickly faded.
The next mourning, Harry woke from his little room (a gift from the Dursleys on his 7th Birthday) with a knock at approximately nine in the morning. He groggily got up from his bed and went to open the door. Hermione would have smiled and said hi until she saw him standing only in is boxers. Instead she turned away blushing. "Um. Harry, maybe you should put something on." Harry looked down on himself, blushed as well, and quickly put on a pair of navy blue jeans and a plain white T- shirt.
They left the house and Hermione was still red. Harry looked at the giant standing not too far away. "'Arry! I haven't seen yeh in ages. Yeh were a wee lad when. Ahem. Sorry, trailed off there for a sec. Anyway, me name is Rubeus Hagrid. You can just call me Hagrid, that's what everybody does."
"Hi," Harry and Hermione said in unison.
After their introduction, Hagrid pulled out a wooden stick and waved it. As if on cue a purple bus with gold lettering "The Knight Bus", Hermione shrieked with joy, "Oh, the Knight Bus, I read about this-"
"Hermione, a bus is not really a subject to talk about, no offense, you are very smart and all, but not a bus." Harry said with a grin. Hermione was blushing furiously at his comment although she couldn't understand why. Her parents commented her on being smart, but it never had this much effect on her.
Harry finally noticed Hermione's face was all red. "Hermione, are you feeling okay?" He placed a hand on Hermione's forehead, which made her go into a deeper shade of red. "Merlin, you're burning up, maybe we should take you back home."
"Harry, I'm fine, really." She mustered a lot of energy to stop herself from squeaking. "Besides, I need to get my supplies and I feel like going out on a beautiful day like this."
"So tell me more about this school," and they spent the rest of the bus ride talking about the houses, Quidditch, classes, and the Hogwarts Express.
"Alrigh' first stop, Gringott's Wizarding Bank," Hagrid quickly stopped as soon as he said those words. "Um, Hermione, yeh been ter Gringotts, err, maybe yeh should take him ter get his money, I 'ate them inferno carts. Makes me sick"
"Okay." Hermione said uneasily, for some reason, she was no longer as comfortable being alone with him as she usually is. *Don't worry; you will at least have the goblin along with you. * This calmed her a little, but not a whole lot of use.
Not a moment later, god came to her rescue as Hagrid came bustling to them. "I forgot ter give yeh Harry's key." She instantly started doubting the Lord's existence.
Once they got to Harry vault, she began to explain, "The gold coins are galleons, silver are sickles, and the bronze are Knuts. There are 29 Knuts to a Sickle, and 17 Sickles to a Galleon." She explained it rather quickly, even for herself. Harry however found this cute. They got to Hermione's vault; it was slightly smaller than Harry's but no one could really tell the difference. She grabbed what she needed and got on the cart. For the remainder of the time, she was quite, even for herself when she was angry.
"Hermione, did I do something to make you angry?" Harry asked innocently as they walked towards Hagrid. "You seem awfully quite all of the sudden…" "." Harry was beginning to worry. "Mione? Hermione, maybe we should take you home and come back a few hours later… that is if it is okay with you Hagrid."
"That is fine with me," Hagrid said pulling out his wand.
"No, I am fine, I just dosed off for a second, really, and I am okay." Hermione said finally free from her trance.
"Okay Mione, if you say so." After going to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions and the Apothecary, they headed for Flourish and Blotts. Harry and Hagrid restrained Hermione from buying all the books as they drew nearer. Once they had to leave, they had to drag her kicking and screaming. "I'm not done, everything I need is in here and I belong here. Let me go!"
They finally convinced her that it was time to get their wands and Hermione, with a scowl, went along. Their walk was quite short before they entered a dark shop filled with what seems to be wooden sticks placed inside shoeboxes with velvet cushions.
"Ah! Ms. Granger I believe. I never had the honor of selling a wand to your father or mother, but it would be a pleasure to sell you one, my dear." Mr. Ollivander stepped forward and put on his spectacles, "Now, which is your wand arm?" Hermione stuck out her right arm and he measured it.
"Hmm, interesting, I believe this is the wand for you, pine and unicorn hair, 10 inches, rather springy. Give it a wave." Hermione did so and before she could lift it into the air, Mr. Ollivander snatched it from her fingertips and handed her another one. One after another, "Here, ten and three quarter inches long, dragon's heartstring, swishy, made of redwood. Go on, try it." Hermione felt a warm feeling in her right fingertips and her wand let out a steady stream of lime green sparks. "Yes! Bravo! It is the wand that chooses the witch or wizard, and I would say the wand has wisely chosen well." Hermione's cheeks flushed a bit through appraisal.
"Ah, Mr. Potter! It seems only yesterday when your parents were in here, getting their wands. Sit, sit. Now raise your wand arm. Harry raised his right arm as Hermione did and Mr. Ollivander measured it. "Interesting, here, try this, maple, and phoenix feather, seven inches, try it." And like Hermione, his wand was snatched away. "No, no, that won't do, here, ebony, unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy." As soon as Harry touched the wand, he yanked it away.
"Tricky customer, eh? Don't worry, we'll find the wand for you. Hmm… yes, interesting. Eleven inches, holly and phoenix feather, one of my rarest creations… Go on, give it a wave." Harry raised the wand, half expecting Mr. Ollivander to just yank it away, waved it after feeling small warmth in his fingers. A stream, not as neat as Hermione's, of red and gold sparks shot from the opposite tip of Harry's wand.
"Hurray! That wand has made it's choice, it has been in my shop for over fifty years! Now… curious…" Mr. Ollivander started mumbling to himself.
"Sir, nuthin' wrong with them wands, is `er?" Hagrid asked, deeply concerned for the children's sake.
"No, no, well… no necessarily. You see, the wand that chose Mr. Potter here… well, lets just say it shares a same core with the one that gave him that very scare." Pointing at Harry's lightning bolt-shaped scare planted on his forehead. "Remember, the wand chooses the host, it is just curious that destiny chose Mr. Potter here to have this wand."
"That will be 7 Galleons each, have a nice day, thank you, and come again!"
The return trip was quite eerie; the silence around them was so thick, Hermione felt like she was suffocating. She had to keep herself from glancing at Harry once in a while… *Oh no!* She thought to herself, *I think I got a crush on my best friend!*