BOOM.
The door hit the floor and stayed there. The wind shoved its way in, dragging rain with it.
The hut didn't take long to notice the change. Blankets shifted, a tin cup rolled, and the air turned colder in the space of a breath.
Dudley screamed like someone had stepped on his shadow.
Petunia clutched the blanket to her chest and Vernon grabbed the rifle he had kept close all night.
He held it upright in the way people hold things they hope will make them braver.
Then someone stepped into the doorway.
The man more or less filled all the space. The ceiling caught at his hair as he stooped inside. The rain caught at his coat.
His beard looked like it had been grown for ages.
And the hut, which never had much room to spare, lost what little space it had.
The giant bent, picked the door up with one hand, and fit it back into the frame.
"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh?" he said. "Not been an easy journey."
He moved toward the sofa where Dudley sat frozen. "Budge up, yeh great lump."
Dudley didn't budge.
He squeaked, slid off the edge of the seat, and hid behind Petunia, who hid behind Vernon.
And Vernon hid behind the rifle.
The giant looked around the hut once, then found what he had clearly come for.
"An' here's Harry!"
Harry didn't know what to do with the sudden attention. All his childhoy, attention was never a good thinh.
He looked up to the man. His face was half shadow under the hair, but the eyes were clear, brown bright.
"Las' time I saw yeh, yeh was only a baby," the man said. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes."
Vernon protested and demanded him to leave, his rifle still in his hand.
The rifle which was not up to the job as the giant reached over, took it out of Vernon's hands as if removing a broom from a child, and bent the barrel with one easy twist.
The metal gave in without complaint. The giant tossed the useless shape into a corner.
So much for that plan.
Vernon made another sound, similar to that of a mouse. Can you blame him though?
The cannon he thought was his lifeline turned out old and rusty.
The giant ignored him.
"Happy birthday, Harry."
He reached into the inner pocket of his great black overcoat and pulled out a slightly flattened box. "Mighta sat on it at some point, but it will taste all right."
Harry took it with careful hands. The icing read Happy Birthday Harry in green letters. He swallowed and tried to speak.
All that came out was, "Who are you?"
'Right, I haven't introduced meself."
The giant grinned, wide and unembarrassed.
"Rubeus Hagrid. Keeper o' Keys an' Grounds at Hogwarts."
He held out a hand big enough to be mistaken for equipment. Harry took it. His own arm was lifted and lowered in a single shake.
Hagrid glanced around the room. His eyes landed on the fireplace. "What about that tea, then? I wouldn' say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it."
Hagrid leaned down before anyone could object. The man did something small with his fingers and the fireplace, which was empty and a moment earlier, roared into life.
Heat reached the hut fast.
Harry felt it on his cheeks.
Actual warmth.
Hagrid sat on the sofa. The furniture sagged like it had lost a war immediately.
He pulled items from his coat... kettle, teapot, sausages, mugs, a fork that looked more like a tool. Each object seemed to belong somewhere in one of those endless pockets.
He speared sausages on the poker and held them over the fire. The hut filled with a smell that had not been present in the Dursleys' "rations." Dudley's nose lifted first.
"Don't touch anything he he gives you, Dudley!" Vernon barked.
Hagrid gave a low chuckle.
"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' more, Dursley. Don' worry."
Dudley sat down like he'd been pushed.
Hagrid slid the first sausages off the poker and handed them to Harry.
Harry didn't wait.
The food was hot and perfect. What else was there to think?
He ate with an astonishing speed.
Harry kept cutting pieces off his portion, but his eyes didn't leave Hagrid.
Finally, he said,
"I am sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."
"Call me Hagrid," he said, taking a drink from a chipped mug. "Everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts. Yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."
"Er- no," Harry said confused.
The boy whose whole life was inside a cupboard, obviously didn't know. Especially, when his aunt and uncle went through everything to prevent it.
There was just silence and Hagrid stopped entirely.
"No?" he repeated.
Harry apologised and shook his head.
Hagrid turned, very slowly, to the Dursleys. His eyebrows lowered in the same way storms do when they're preparing for devastation.
Hagrid barked. "It's them as should be sorry!"
Vernon twitched.
Petunia tried to press herself into the wall. Dudley developed the sudden instinct to become a statue.
A good instict actually.
"I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters," Hagrid growled. "But I never thought" he paused, "never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou: Hogwarts! Fer cryin' out loud!"
His voice shook the hut.
The Dursleys shrank another inch.
"Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?" Hagrid demanded.
"All what?" Harry asked.
Hagrid stood.
"ALL WHAT?" he thundered. "Do yeh mean ter tell me this boy knows nothin' about ANYTHING?"
He asked the Dursleys and Vernon squeaked something that couldn't be interpreted in any known language.
Hagrid let out a breath through his teeth, turned back to Harry, and looked down at him with disbelief.
"Harry," he said, his voice steady,
"yer a wizard"
The Dursleys held their breath.
Hagrid waited.
And Harry?
Harry just stared at him dumbfounded.