With a sharp, gasping intake of breath, a disoriented Harry awoke with a jolt. Feeling something heavy weighing him down and restricting his movement, he began to struggle frantically against the offending object. Quickly, however, his mind fully engaged with the situation and he calmed, starting to take in his surroundings.
A brief look down promptly determined that the heavy object wrapped around him was a battered brown overcoat, made from thick cotton. Its heaviness came from the sheer bulk of the item, far too large to fit a normally sized person. With a sudden flash of realisation, Harry grinned and looked across at only other occupant of the room, who was currently snoring on an utterly collapsed sofa.
"Hagrid," Harry murmured happily, said individual shifting slightly in his sleep as he unconsciously heard his name being called.
Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts, was Harry's first and most endearing interaction with the magical world. He was a giant of a man, well over eleven feet tall, with shaggy black hair that covered most of his face, with the exception of his brown eyes glinting like beetles beneath.
Despite his rather intimidating stature, however, never had Harry known a more kind-hearted or gentler man. Hagrid was a very dear friend, and the first he had ever made in the magical world. While he thought of his friend, a confusing feeling of wrongness began to settle in his mind.
Why did he feel like he had done this before?
The wheels in his mind began to turn, and a look of comprehension grew over his face as he remembered King's Cross, the reunion of the extended Potter family, and his conversation with the Goddess of Love, Amanda.
After a brief look around the room, he quickly recognised his surroundings. In 1991, shortly before Harry's eleventh birthday, Uncle Vernon dragged the whole family to a ramshackle cottage on an island during a storm. He did this in his sheer desperation to escape the 'Freaks' sending an army of Hogwarts acceptance letters at all hours of the day. However, it seemed magic could find them wherever his Uncle might take them.
Oh yes, he remembered this day very clearly. Today was the day that Hagrid had broken down the door in the dead of night and told Harry he was a wizard. A smile of pure joy blossomed across his face as he realised what this meant.
"It worked!" Harry exclaimed joyously, desperately trying to restrain himself so as not to wake his companion.
Amanda had successfully sent him back to his past, as she had promised! A rush of elation washed over him as he cherished this second chance at life. His delight, however, dimmed slightly as he took in his current renewed form.
Looking down at his body, Harry's heart skipped a beat as he stared at his tiny and skinny eleven year old body. With a huff of annoyance, he prodded at his thin undernourished form. He would be fixing this as soon as he possibly could, Harry thought to himself.
As the thought crossed his mind, his rescuer from the Dursley's let out a tremendous snore, before shuffling in his sleep. Feeling a wave of affection rush through him as he looked at his old and yet new friend, Harry resolved to renew his friendship with him as soon as possible.
'Tap, tap, tap.'
Harry froze. Did he just imagine that? He sifted through his memories of the future, trying to remember exactly what had happened on this day.
'Tap, tap, tap.'
There it was again. It appeared to be coming from a nearby window. It was definitely not his imagination, then. With a quick look at Hagrid to make sure he was still asleep, he untangled himself from the coat and crept across the floor to the window.
Pulling the ragged curtains open, Harry was face to face with a dark brown owl. Said owl pecked at the window once more, and so he quickly opened it and allowed the animal inside. Swooping into the room, the owl dropped a rolled-up newspaper onto the table, before settling alongside it.
The owl stared intently at Harry for a moment, waiting for him to act, before hooting impatiently. Startled into activity, he patted down his pockets and cursed quietly, realising that he didn't have any wizarding currency yet.
"I'm sorry," Harry whispered to the delivery owl, "I haven't got any money on me." The owl ruffled its feathers in annoyance, before hooting loudly. "Shhhhhh!" Harry hissed, looking over at Hagrid in panic. Said wizard, however, merely groaned at the disturbance, before burrowing deeper into the sofa. Harry sighed in relief, before looking back at the irritated owl. "Ok, ok, I'll have a look, just give me a minute!"
Glancing back at Hagrid's coat, he suddenly remembered that Hagrid had enough coins in his pockets. Harry had paid for the paper on his behalf the first time around, after all. Returning to the coat, Harry had a rummage through the many pockets and very quickly pulled out a collection of coins.
As Harry recalled, the paper had cost five Knuts the first time around, so he quickly selected five of the small bronze coins, and placed them into a pouch on the owl's leg. He had also found an owl treat in one of Hagrid's many pockets, and offered it to the delivery bird.
"Sorry about the wait," Harry apologised, giving the owl a gentle stroke on its chest.
The delivery owl hooted softly, as if to say not to worry, before gently nipping his finger in gratitude for the treat. With a quick flap, the owl took flight and disappeared out of the window. Harry smiled sadly as he watched it go, feeling a pang in his heart as he thought of his dear Hedwig. He quickly brightened, however, as he realised he would be meeting her again very soon.
Closing the window gently, so as not to wake Hagrid, Harry moved to the table and unravelled the newspaper that had been delivered. He wrinkled his nose in distaste as he looked at the name of the paper, the Daily Prophet.
As with many things in the wizarding world, the media outlets in magical Britain were very outdated and limited in scope when compared with mundane Britain. The muggle world had many different formats of media available to the public and continued to innovate on what they had. The magical world, however, was decades behind their counterparts in this field, having only just adopted radio a few decades prior.
Despite the introduction of the Wizarding Wireless Network, however, the dominant form of media in the magical world was still printed publications. And though there were a variety of papers available in Britain, depending on the speciality you wanted, there was only one mainstream newspaper.
The Daily Prophet, therefore, was pretty much your only choice to find out what was happening in the magical world. This was unfortunate, however, as the paper was more akin to a tabloid, printing sensationalised stories just to sell papers. Harry knew this to his cost, having been dragged through the proverbial mud in the paper on many occasions in his past life.
Pushing aside his annoyance at the makers of the paper, Harry focused on it and began to sift through, trying to catch himself up on current (or past) events. About twenty minutes after Harry had begun to read the paper, Hagrid began to stir from his slumber.
With a tired groan, Hagrid pulled himself upright and stared bleary eyed at the young boy he had come to collect. Harry Potter was sat at the table in complete silence, leafing through a copy of the Daily Prophet in rapt attention, much to Hagrid's surprise.
Hagrid watched the child reading the paper for a moment, before chuckling in amazement at how well Harry was taking to the magical world. Hadn't even known about it for a day, and he was already trying to find out more.
"Yer jus' like yer mum, Harry," Hagrid remarked fondly, in his distinctive West Country brogue, "she was always eager ter learn, too!" Initially startled by the half-giant speaking, as Hagrid's words registered, Harry beamed happily.
"Thanks Hagrid," Harry replied, his cheeks reddening at the praise, "that's kind of you to say." He grinned. "I'm just really excited to get started! I thought I could learn a bit from your paper." His smile dimmed slightly, and he averted his eyes. "I hope that's ok?" Harry asked, suddenly panicked. "It's just the owl came to the window while you were asleep, and it looked terribly impatient, and I didn't want to wake you up, so..." he paused, looking down at the table, "I used some of the money from your pocket." He finished quietly.
Seeing the rapid change in the boy, shifting from excited to afraid when he thought he'd done something wrong, boiled Hagrid's blood. Based on Harry's reaction, this was clearly something that happened regularly, and one more thing to blame Vernon Dursley for.
"Bloody Dursley," Hagrid muttered angrily to himself, "should've turned him into a pig, an all..." Pushing that aside, he looked back to Harry and smiled reassuringly. "Tha's alrigh' Harry, not ter worry." Harry looked relieved and smiled back. "Quick question though," he added, as thought crossing his mind, "'ow much did yer give the bird?" The look of panic reappeared on Harry's face.
"Er," Harry began nervously, averting his gaze, "I-I gave it five of the little bronze coins." He replied quietly. "When the owl was tapping on the window, you told me to 'give it five of the bronze ones' in your sleep." He bit his lip and chanced a look at Hagrid. "W-was that wrong?" Seeing Harry's reaction, Hagrid chastised himself.
If Harry hadn't known about the magical world until yesterday, then how on earth would he know about wizarding currency? His answer was perfectly reasonable, and he vaguely remembered hearing the owl tapping on the window in his sleep. He was getting him worked up for nothing. Beaming at the boy, Hagrid gently clapped him on the shoulder.
"S'alrigh' Harry," he replied reassuringly, "yer did nothin' wrong! I was jus' a bit surprised, is all!" A look of relief grew over Harry's face and he smiled. "Righ' then, should we get goin' Harry?" The boy grinned in response, nodding eagerly.
"Absolutely!" Harry exclaimed, and Hagrid chuckled in reply.
As Hagrid busied himself with putting his boots on and getting ready, Harry headed off to the small downstairs toilet of the cottage to change out of his pyjamas into some of Dudley's cast-offs.
As he shut the door and looked into the chipped mirror, he let out a heavy sigh of relief and wiped his sweating brow. That had been close. He had only been in this new timeline for just under an hour and he had nearly tripped himself up.
'I've got to be more careful,' Harry thought to himself tersely. 'The head start in occlumency Amanda gave us may protect me from Dumbledore and Snape, but it won't stop me from giving MYSELF away...'
Shaking his head of those thoughts, and resolving to be more careful, Harry finished getting dressed and looked at his appearance in the mirror. With a distasteful look at his clothing, he absently pulled at a loose thread on his jumper.
The second hand clothing from his baby whale of a cousin would not do anymore. Harry was not a vain person, by any stretch of the imagination, but he was unwilling to subject himself to what was another form of abuse from his relatives.
"New clothes," Harry muttered to himself, "are definitely a priority."
After a few minutes of packing the few items he wanted to take with him, Harry and Hagrid stepped out of the cottage and got into a small boat moored at the base of the hut. The storm of last night had abated it seemed, leaving a cloudless bright blue sky and a gentle but brisk breeze. As Hagrid stepped into the rather dingy boat, which rocked unsteadily as he did, Hagrid looked down at Harry with a glint in his eye.
"Seems a shame ter row, though." Hagrid said quietly. "If I was ter – er – speed things up a bit, would yer mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?" Harry smiled at the grounds keeper.
"Of course not." Harry replied excitedly. Hagrid grinned widely at him and pulled out his pink umbrella. A quick tap and they were speeding across the water at a leisurely rate.
As they settled into what would be a short journey back to shore, Hagrid pulled out the copy of the Daily Prophet Harry had been reading previously, and began to leaf through it himself. Occasionally, he would make minor grunts and mumble when something interesting turned up. Otherwise, however, he seemed content to read his paper.
Taking the chance for a moment of quiet introspection, Harry turned to look at the passing scenery and began to reflect on his new mission: defeating Riddle and Dumbledore. It had become clear that although they had differing methodologies, both wanted to control the world for their own ends, and needed to be stopped.
And so the powers-that-be had given Harry the job, putting the fate of the world once more on his shoulders. His past self would likely have raged against the injustice of this. Harry had done his job once, why should he have to do it again? However, following the meeting with Amanda and knowing what he now knew, he couldn't be too annoyed about it this time.