Speak Up - Female Deaf Harry Potter AU

Letters

The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and 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 under all the hair.

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. He turned to look at them all, then strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear. He gave Dudley a little push. Dudley ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.

The giant said something to Hari.

Hari looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face. She could only make out random words, his face nearly impossible to read.

"............  baby..............." said the giant. "....... look............ but .............eyes."

Uncle Vernon appeared to have a shouting match with the giant. He pointed his gun. The giant simply 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.

The giant, turning his back on the Dursleys and began to speak to Hari again. Hari held up a trembling hand, terrified that this man would hurt her, and silently asked him to wait. Then she pulled the whiteboard out of her jacket. 

She shakily wrote I'm deaf, sorry on it, hands shaking from fear and cold, then showed it to the giant. He looked perplexed.

She erased the board and then wrote I can sometimes read lips, but not yours at all because you have a beard, sorry

The giant nodded, smiled, and then gently took it from Hari's hands. He wrote, in a messy scrawl, what I said before was you look a lot like your dad, but ye've got your mom's eyes.

Then from an inside pocket of his black overcoat, he pulled a slightly squashed box. Hari opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Hapy Birthdday Heri written on it in green icing.

Hari looked up at the giant. Took the whiteboard and wrote Thank you. Who are you?

I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Ground keeper at Hogwarts.

He held out an enormous hand and shook Hari's whole arm, then seemed to take in her shivering.

His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shrivelled chip bags in it. He walked over to it, glaring at Uncle Vernon, then 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 Hari felt the warmth wash over her as though she'd sunk into a hot bath. The giant then started frying sausages, which he passed to Hari, who was so hungry she had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. 

Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, she wrote. I'm sorry, but I still don't understand who you are.

Call me Hagrid everyone does he wrote, then erased to write  I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts -- yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, of course.

Hari shook her head, confused

Hagrid looked shocked.

Sorry Hari wrote quickly

 Hagrid took up angrily and started yelling, Hari flinched away and moved into the corner, hiding. She didn't want to get hurt.... She was always punished.

In his anger, Hagrid seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall. He appeared to shout at them for several minutes, before walking over to Hari. Hari ducked, curling into a ball and covering her head to avoid being hit in the face, those took the longest to heal. Hagrid looked so sad at that, he picked up the forgotten white bored and wrote I'm not going to hurt you, and helped Hari to her feet. 

You are a witch, he finally wrote, like both your mother and father.

Hari shook her head, she wasn't a witch, magic was forbidden, and not real! It wasn't real!

He handed Hari an envelope, who took it, realizing that she had finally got her letter. The yellowish envelope was addressed in emerald green to Miss. H. Potter, The Floor, 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 Hari head like fireworks and she couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes, she wrote owl?

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

Dear Professor Dumbledore,

Given Hari her letter.

Take her to buy her things tomorrow. Slight problem, not sure if you knew, but she's deaf.

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.

Where was I? Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.

He shook his head angrly, yelling, the message was clear, Hari wasn't going. Hari determined right then and there that she would sneak out to go with Hagrid if she had to, she wasn't staying here no matter what. Anywhere, anyone was better than this.

Hagrid appeared to start shouting at them again.

Hari did her best to read what her Uncle was saying, catching bits and pieces "-----we'd put a stop to that rubbish--------  stamp it out--------- Witch ------- Freak!--------"

You knew? Hari quickly wrote, holding it up. You knew I'm a -- a witch?

"Knew!" said Aunt Petunia, Hari struggling to keep up despite the fact that she was clearly going slowly so that Hari could catch every painful word.. "Knew! Of course we knew! How ---------------- dratted sister being what ------------ a letter just like ----------------school -------- home every vacation with her pockets ----------- teacups into rats. I was -------------- saw her ---------- -- a freak! ---------mother and ---------- Lily this and Lily --------------------- witch in the family!"

She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.

"Then she met that Potter at school a------------- got married ------------ you, --------- I knew -----------just as strange, ---------- abnormal -- ------------ got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"

With that Hagrid pointed his umbrella at Dudley, who grew a pig's tail, grabbed Hari by the arm and marched out the door. In the boat, he began to explain. Light came out of the tip of his umbrella so that Hari could read.  He erased after every sentence, making room for the next one.

A wizard went bad. Your mum and dad were good. 

Maybe he just wanted them outta the way.

 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 and, he killed them. 

And then he tried to kill you too, but he couldn't do it.  

You was only a baby, and you lived.

Something very painful was going on in Hari'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, the only thing she could ever remember hearing, it must have been before she lost the ability.

I obviously do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters, settings or story. This is my first time writing a deaf character and I'm sorry if I mess up. I appreciate suggestions or corrections.