Chapter Text
Harry sat in the boat in front of the huge man he had only met at midnight tonight about five hours ago. The man hadn’t used the little engine like his uncle had when they had come to the rock in the sea. No, he stuck the tip of his pink umbrella into the water and said something and they moved.
Even over the smell of saltwater and ocean, he could smell the man. He didn’t stink, but it was an unfamiliar smell. Part of it he could distinguish. It smelled like burning wood.
Harry was distracted by the sea. It was grey and infinite and as the sky was grey as well, it looked like one turned into the other. Like a watercolor painting done in grey. Was he in a boat in the sky? Or was the sky the sea? The whole journey had a dreamlike quality.
He felt tiny and lost. The man had been nice, but now that he was alone with him, what did he actually know about him?
He shivered in his oversized hand-me-downs where the stupid t-shirt was so big and its collar so wide, it threatened to slip down his body leaving his thin and scarred upper body for all to see. He wrapped his thin arms around himself, to prevent that. At least the wide clothes made Uncle Vernon careful about hitting him. People might notice.
“Yah cold Harry?” Hagrid asked in his loud voice. He sounded kind, but Harry shrunk back instinctively.
Hagrid was at a loss. The boy was not as he had expected at all!
“I didna mean ta scare ya!” Hagrid said, and the boy shrunk even more into himself. What to do?
Better keep quiet, like with a young hurt animal, letting it come to him.
It was a good strategy and Harry seemed to relax again. Unfortunately, Hagrid did not connect the dots from a young hurt animal to a young hurt boy. Dumbledore had assured him that Harry was well loved and so all evidence to the contrary was overlooked by the loyal man. Quite the feat, but there you have it; a prime example of blind loyalty.
When they arrived at the docks, together with other boats, coming back early this morning, they moved quietly to the train station by foot. It was quite a walk and Harry grew even more hungry than he already was. He went to the really disgusting loo at the station, to wash his hands and face and to drink some tap water at least. Better than nothing. He had learned to take what he could get.
Now, that he was back in civilization Harry’s courage slowly returned. With it, his little snarky inner voice started commenting on everything again. He helped the big man, to buy tickets to London and soon they sat on the rather bumpy train to the capital.
Hagrid chatted on about the world Harry would enter now and Harry listened carefully. This went on for about an hour. The other passengers tried to ignore the strange duo, thinking the big man, who needed two seats was telling a fantasy story to the boy, that definitely did not need a full window seat! But the two had gotten into a nearly empty train when their ride had started at the seaside.
After that long with Hagrid being reasonably nice, Harry decided to ask the question he had since leaving the rock.
“Hagrid?”
“Yes, Harry?”
“How did you get to the little island without a boat?”
“Well, a portkey, wha’ else?”
“Uh, ok. And how will the Dursleys get off the rock in the sea?”
“With a boat, wha’ else?” Hagrid looked at Harry like he was stupid to ask all these questions. To him it seemed to be clear cut.
Harry was amazed. Was the man really that thick? Well, nothing to it, “But we did take their only boat.”
“Oh! Didna think of tha’!”
Harry waited for more than that answer, but none came. He stared at the wild man.
Well, Uncle Vernon and Dudley had enough fat to live on for a while, but what about Aunt Petunia? And what about water? Didn’t a human die after 3 days without? He tried to remember the lesson at school, but Dudley had sat behind him and had kicked his chair repeatedly, so it had been hard to concentrate. Even if he found the lesson quite essential to him.
“Uh, will you go back and save them at some point?”
“Why should I do tha?”
Man was that man dumb! Well, Harry would need to inform a constable or someone then. He really disliked his relatives, but he didn’t want them to starve to death on a rock in the sea!
Later! Now they were on a journey to buy Harry’s school supplies for a magical school! Not that Harry really believed that. Even with the information, Aunt Petunia spilled about his mum and the little pigtail on Dudley’s backside. Not even the umbrella drive on the boat was quite enough.
But didn’t he turn his teaches wig blue? And didn’t he regrow his hair overnight? And didn’t he jump up to the roof of a school building? And... wow. Many instances of inexplicable situations flooded his mind. Magic was real! Even if his relatives had insisted that it was not. They adored the ‘normal’ and judged everything by that standard. Normal was good, every discrepancy was bad. Like magic, like a too big man, like talking to snakes.
Harry grinned in remembrance and said, “Hagrid?”
“Yes, Harry?”
“Can all magical people talk to animals?”
“Nah. Wish I could. Yah can talk ta animals?” Hagrid looked quite excited at the thought, but not disbelieving at all.
So, Harry said still grinning, “I talked to a snake once. It said, ‘thanks amigo’ when I freed her.”
Hagrid felt like he was standing under an ice-cold waterfall. Fear and hate rose in remembrance of the hated Tom Riddle, who had been the one responsible for Hagrid’s expulsion, as well as his fear of all things Slytherin and his memories of You-Know-Who’s horrible, horrible misdeeds.
“Ya can talk ta snakes?” He choked out.
Harry had noticed something was wrong, the moment he had said the last sentence. He had very fine antennae for the moods of others, after all. It was an ingrained survival instinct, and the big man was not safe anymore. That was clear!
So, he looked out of the window, noticing they were in a big city already. London, he guessed.
“Do yah?” Hagrid demanded an answer.
Harry nodded slowly. Ready to duck and run, should the man turn violent.
Hagrid stood up abruptly, nearly bumping his head on the ceiling of the train, and said, “I hafta go.”
Harry had ducked away, as soon as the man moved and hid behind one of the passengers, who looked quite uncomfortable.
The train was rather full by now and Harry and Hagrid had been eyed with great interest by most of the commuters. At last, the ones, who didn’t manage to sleep, while on the really bumpy train.
Hagrid moved in the other direction, the other passengers parting for him easily, and disappeared through the door of the carriage. Not to be seen again.
Harry stood there alone. His seat had been taken quickly but he never thought to protest that.
What now?
He looked around.
Every one of the other passengers looked out of the window or slept, not wanting to get involved.
He moved through the people easily to go to look for the man. He had Harry’s letter and ticket, after all!
Harry’s heart was beating hard. His hands felt clammy. He was totally alone, without anything or anyone. Hadn’t he often wished for that? To be free? He just hadn’t thought of the helplessness he would feel then!
When he left the carriage and entered the loud part between the wagons, there was no sight of Hagrid!
The man could impossibly fit into one of the tiny loos, so Harry walked through the whole train, to look for the man. He was hard to miss, after all. But he was gone!
Harry stood at the end of the last wagon, thinking. What did he want to do now? Go, find this wizarding world himself? Ask a constable for help to get back to his relatives? Who still sat on a rock, he remembered. Tell everyone, who he was, or keep quiet?
He was easily identifiable by the scar on his forehead. He would need to hide it. He had often thought of running away and how he would hide his identity. He had even thought of a few names he would give himself. Like ‘James Croaker’, ‘James Evans’ or ‘Sebastian Walker’ if he needed something totally unconnected to his identity. The first two might be too easy.
He decided, he wanted to find this hidden world and look around unbeknownst to anybody. And if it were possible in any form, he would not go back to the Dursleys. That place was no home. Not his home at least! But he really needed to be careful with giving information. His being able to talk to snakes had made Hagrid run and magically disappear!
Ok. Now a plan. He knew his train would end in Waterloo Station and Hagrid had told him, one could walk to Charing Cross Roads from there to the entrance of the hidden world. Supposedly it was a pub called the ‘Leaky Cauldron’.
When the train stopped at Waterloo Station, Harry was one of the first to disembark. He immediately went to one of the boards, to look where he needed to go.
He was actually thankful to his aunt at the moment. She had always expected him, to navigate in a strange place all by himself. She sent him shopping in the next town by bus and such. So, he had learned to read maps rather quickly. Dudley would have been lost, Harry realized.
Ok, so he needed to cross the Thames. The closest way was the Charing Cross Bridge, but that one was for trains and Harry was not sure if pedestrians could use it too. But he was in the middle of London and the next bridge was Westminster Bridge! The on, with Big Ben! He really wanted to see it and so decided on taking that road. He just needed to remember to turn right into Parliament Street and then he would walk by Trafalgar Square as well! He hoped there was a board with a map there as well, but he was quite confident, he would find the way to Charring Cross. He just needed a cap now! And something to eat!
He jealously watched a woman bite into her just-bought sandwich, crunch her face as if she didn’t like it, pack it back in the plastic wrap and throw it away into the trash, right next to Harry! As soon as she was gone, Harry moved like a viper, picking up the food, that lay innocently on a newspaper and quickly moved away, stuffing the wrapped sandwich into his too-wide pocket. Thankfully, it was much bigger than the holes in it.
He followed the signs that directed him to Westminster Bridge and when he was there, he sat on a bench and ate his sandwich, while enjoying the iconic sight of Big Ben and Westminster Palace, and the River Thames.
Whatever happened now, at least he had that moment. A delicious sandwich, no screeching and bellowing relatives, and a historic view.
Harry really loved history. It was the subject he liked most at school, next to math.
After he had finished, he walked across the bridge leisurely, past Westminster, and then in the direction of Trafalgar Square.
At one tourist shop, he walked really close by a stand with caps and snatched a blue one on the lowest tier with the Union Jack on it and stuffed it into his pocket. All while walking.
He was good at this stuff. It was wrong, he knew, but due to necessity, he had learned to steal anyway. He walked off slowly within a group of tourists, which were too busy looking around to care for the child in their midst.
At Trafalgar Square, he ripped off the price tag of the baseball cap and planted it on his head. He adjusted the size and happily walked on. Now he had one new clothing item that did fit, at least!
He looked at the statue of Nelson on its high column. Wow, the Vice-Admiral really was a hero to the British Empire, considering the pedestal he had been put on!
Well, better move on.
He found another board with a map and saw, that he just had to walk to St. Martin Pl. and then the street would turn into Charing Cross Roads.
On his way, he found an abandoned fatty newspaper that wrapped a nearly complete portion of fish and chips on one of the benches! He devoured that, two benches over as, well. There was too much vinegar on the food, but he didn’t care! It was still delicious!
He cleaned his hands on his already gritty jeans and moved on. One Bobby had looked in his direction, so he really needed to leave!
Soon he was on Charing Cross Road and started looking at all the storefronts, theatre fronts, and pubs for the Leaky Cauldron.
After ten minutes of walking, he saw it! It looked quite delipidated and dirty, but Harry didn’t care! He rushed to the entrance and slipped in.