𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝; 𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐡.𝐩

𝓨𝓮𝓪𝓻 1, 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 2: 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓚𝓮𝓮𝓹𝓮𝓻 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓚𝓮𝔂𝓼

Y/N's eyes twinkled as she looked at the cake; all she had for her birthdays at the orphanage were pancakes with whipped cream on top. If she and Harry split the cake, she'd get more in one serving than she had ever gotten before.

Harry admired her as her eyes twinkled; he admired how the little flecks of ocean blue danced in her pools of sea green with delight. Her smile was back now, wider than he had ever seen it; she smiled as if she hadn't smiled her whole life.

He looked back up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"

The giant chuckled.

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

He held out both hands and shook their whole arms.

"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."

His eyes fell on the empty gate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth rush over him as though he'd been 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 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. Mr. Brunson said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."

The giant chuckled darkly.

"The great puddin' of a boy don' need fattenin' anymore, Brunson, don't worry."

He passed the sausages to Harry and Y/N, both of whom were so hungry they had never tasted anything so wonderful, but they still couldn't take their eyes off the giant. Finally, Y/N was the first one to speak, as nobody seemed about to explain anything. "I'm sorry, but we 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 yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."

"Er - no," said Harry.

Hagrid looked shocked.

"Sorry," Y/N added quickly.

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

"All what?" asked Harry.

"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"