Hogwarts Herald

That someone, who is knocking at the door, of the shack, on a rock, in the middle of the sea, is Rubeus Hagrid. Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. He has come to wish Harry a happy birthday, and hand deliver his letter. Upon entering the shack, he is greeted by Vernon Dursley’s rifle. He is a giant of a man, and strong enough to knock the door completely off of this shack, but Uncle Vernon thinks his rifle will have some sort of effect on him. Hagrid laughs and promptly ties the gun into a knot. He sets up a roaring fire in the small grate and cooks up some sausages that he is keeping in his moleskin coat, along with several live animals, a teapot, tea, booze, and any number of other random things.

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.

Upon making himself comfortable, Harry discovers that Harry knows nothing about the wizarding world at all. Nothing about Hogwarts, and worse yet, NOTHING about his own parents. He takes some time, between hollering at the Dursley’s for not telling this child about his own heritage, to tell Harry some very important things about his life. Harry is a Wizard. His parents were a Witch and Wizard. Really good ones. Ond, oh yeah, they didn’t die in a car wreck. Thank you Aunt Petunia for your very touching statement about how your sister “went and got herself blowed up”. I’m sure that was very difficult for you… Snot.

Harry’s letter, which he is finally given and allowed to read, is topped by a very simple letterhead. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. One small sentence, that will change Harry’s life. And this Albus Dumbledore, whom we met in chapter 1? His official title is Headmaster. Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards. The note itself is very short and to the point. You have been accepted, this is when school starts, we await your owl.

Owl? We await your owl? So Hagrid shows him, by taking an owl a quill & ink and a piece of parchment out of his overstuffed coat. He jots a quick note to Dumbledore, gives it to the owl, and sends him right out the window. Apparently Wizards don’t use a lot of e-mail. Owl post seems to be their main method of distance communication.

Hagrid is eventually able to take a moment to tell Harry who killed his parents. A dark and powerful wizard named Voldemort whose name nobody (except, of course, Dumbledore) uses regularly. The very name strikes fear in them even 10 years later. He came to Harry’s parents house and killed them, destroyed their home, and tried to kill Harry. It didn’t work. Nobody knows why. For some reason though, Voldemort disappeared after that. Hagrid reckons that he’s not dead though. Thinks that there wasn’t enough human in him left to die, but that he’s broken and likely never coming back.

Poor Harry has been disappointed so many times in his life, that even after hearing this he thinks that Hagrid must be wrong. It couldn’t possibly be him that Hagrid was looking for. This was all going to end very soon, and he would end up at Stonewall High, just like Uncle Vernon said he would. Especially since Uncle Vernon said that he was never going to pay for Harry to attend this school. No, it all must be a huge mistake. Hagrid may have continued on, telling stories all night, but Uncle Vernon made a terrible mistake in this man’s presence. He called Dumbledor an Old Fool. Bad BAAAAD idea! Hagrid pulled a pink umbrella out and fired a violet spark out of it hitting Dudley and causing him to emit a yelp. Out of the back of his pants came a curly pink pigs tail.

Uncle Vernon & Aunt Petunia were so terrified by this that they hid in the room with Dudley, and Hagrid asked Harry to please keep his little act of magic a secret. He’s technically not allowed to do magic, it seems sometime in his past he was expelled from school and they broke his wand in half. He tells Harry to get some sleep because tomorrow is a big day. They have to go shopping for his school supplies tomorrow.