The weather in Britain always changes suddenly — it was sunny in the morning, but by evening it started to rain heavily.
Far away from London, on the vast sea, stood a giant reef, on which sat a crooked and shabby little house.
The bone-piercing cold wind brought by the storm seeped through the cracks in the wooden walls, whistling inside, making the four people in the house shiver.
Despite this, the atmosphere inside the house was still tense, as if a sword and crossbow were poised.
"What you see are nothing but foolish lies. Now, hand over that damned letter to me!" Vernon Dursley said, his face flushed, panting heavily.
Standing opposite him was a frail boy with round-framed glasses, and a scar on his forehead.
He was clutching an opened envelope, with the Hogwarts crest particularly conspicuous.
Harry Potter looked somewhat bewildered.
"Is this the thing you've been stopping me from seeing?" He frowned: "An entrance notification from a... Magic School?"
"Shut up!" Uncle Vernon shrieked, his face almost purple.
"This world, has no, Magic!" He said word by word, "Quickly give me that damned letter, and then we'll go home!"
"No!" Harry stubbornly shook his head, holding the letter protectively to his chest, "This is meant for me!"
Uncle Vernon was almost driven mad with anger; he never expected that after coming all this way, that damned owl would still find them.
And he had never seen such a large owl, spreading its wings like a monster, it landed directly on their boat.
Uncle Vernon was terrified; he wanted to drive away the owl, but before he could even pull out his newly bought rifle, the owl snatched it away with its claws and threw it into the sea like trash.
Then it stood there, glaring at them with a scarred face, its dagger-like talons left several deep scratches on the boat, seemingly threatening them.
None of them dared to make any other move.
"Monster!"
That owl was absolutely abnormal; it was a monster just like those people!
Vernon screamed in his mind.
Luckily, the owl left after Harry finished reading the letter. There's still time, just destroy that letter... there's still time.
"Give it to me!"
Uncle Vernon roared and rushed at Harry, trying to snatch the letter by force.
Harry turned and ran, maneuvering quickly in the small room, evading Uncle Vernon's large hands.
His small physique made him more agile, and surprisingly, Uncle Vernon couldn't even touch his clothes for a while.
But the room was only so big, and once Aunt Petunia and Dudley reacted and joined the chase, Harry was quickly pinned to the ground.
"Give me the letter!"
Uncle Vernon collapsed there, panting heavily, while trying hard to pull Harry's arm.
The process was simple, and soon, Uncle Vernon managed to pull Harry's arms away from his chest.
But just as he reached out to grab the letter...
"Boom!"
A sudden knocking on the door shook the whole small house, everyone was startled and stared horrified at the door.
"Boom!"
Another knock.
Dudley shrank into Aunt Petunia's arms, fearfully saying: "It seems like something is coming in."
"Who's out there?" Uncle Vernon wobbled to his feet and shouted outside with fake courage: "I warn you, I've... I've already called the police, you're trespassing!"
The outside quieted down for a moment, then a crack, and the door was directly taken off.
A burly man stood at the doorway.
"Could you make me a cup of hot tea? It's quite a trip..." Hagrid squeezed into the house with effort, fixing the door back in place as he did.
"This rain is really heavy, I should have listened to Kai and taken the Knight Bus... what are you doing on the floor?"
He bent down and pulled Harry up from the ground, smiling: "You must be Harry."
Harry looked up at that fierce, rugged, indistinct face, with a faint smile.
He could feel this person was very friendly towards him.
Hagrid smiled and said: "The last time I saw you, you were just a little lad. You look much like your father, but your eyes are like your mother's."
Uncle Vernon had an outburst, like he'd been hit by an electric shock, his entire face turned purple-black.
He wanted to drive Hagrid out, but clearly, it was impossible.
"Get lost, you big fool."
Hagrid didn't pay any attention to Vernon's yelling and lit the fireplace himself.
No one knew what he did.
It just took a minute, and the fireplace was ablaze with flames, quickly warming the surroundings.
"How are you feeling, Harry," Hagrid said with a smile, "Feeling much better?"
"Yes." Harry looked a bit nervous, "Sorry, but I really don't know who you are."
Hagrid said, "Just call me Hagrid, that's what everyone calls me. I'm the Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts, you must have heard of Hogwarts."
"The magic school?"
Harry glanced at the letter he had been clutching all along.
"That's right, so you've received it already."
Hagrid patted the pocket of his jacket, where there was an identical letter, but it seemed unnecessary to take it out now.
"It was delivered by a very large owl," Harry explained, "It was bigger than any bird I've ever seen."
"Oh, that was Sa... well, it's called Ladon now."
Hagrid took a greasy, slightly burnt sausage off the tongs and handed it to Harry.
"Ladon? Is that the owl's name?"
Harry took a bite of the sausage, the rich flavor made him squint his eyes in enjoyment, he had never tasted anything so delicious in his life.
"Yes, it likes that name."
Hagrid seemed to think of something, looking a bit melancholy.
But this melancholy quickly disappeared, and no one, including Harry, noticed it.
"Oh, almost forgot... Happy Birthday, Harry."
Hagrid took a brown paper box out from his coat pocket. "It might be a bit squashed, but it tastes just as good."
"For me?"
Harry found it hard to believe he could still receive gifts on his birthday.
He opened the box to find a large cream cake inside.
The cake was squished and looked flat, the green icing had smeared on the box, making it hard to read, but you could still vaguely make out "Happy Birthday" and his name.
"Have a taste," Hagrid said with some anticipation.
Harry nodded, scooping a little cream and syrup into his mouth.
Sweet... sweeter than anything he had ever eaten, as if he had stuffed an entire jar of sugar in his mouth.
"And this," Hagrid placed a toffee next to the cake.
"Candy?!" Harry's eyes lit up, but he didn't eat it.
Because that piece of cake was so sweet, he couldn't take any more sweet stuff, while Dudley beside him gulped down his saliva, his gaze glued to the cake.
He hadn't eaten much all day, and was very hungry.
"Don't you dare eat any of his stuff, Dudley!"
Vernon said sharply, then he looked at Hagrid, "Listen, I'm not paying money for him to learn how to do conjuring tricks."
Hagrid chuckled contemptuously.
As if Harry Potter would be unable to go to Hogwarts due to a lack of Galleons, come on.
But Uncle Vernon didn't know this, he kept complaining about something.
It was at this moment Harry realized that his uncle and aunt had already known about the magic school, but had kept it a secret from him all along.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, a sharp scream came from behind them.
Aunt Petunia was frantically holding Dudley, whose tongue had started to swell rapidly, soon reaching four feet long.
Uncle Vernon also forgot about arguing with Hagrid, he howled and rushed over, trying to stuff the tongue back into Dudley's mouth.
Dudley held his mouth, wailing in pain.
The whole tiny house was in complete chaos.
Hagrid looked at Dudley, then at the umbrella in his hand, utterly confused.
Did he just use magic?
No way!
But if it wasn't him, how did the kid turn out like this?
Could it be the broken wand malfunctioning? But it had never done this before!
Harry was dumbstruck watching from the side.
No more explanations were needed, he was now completely convinced of magic.
Magic was simply incredible, he hadn't even noticed Hagrid doing anything, yet Dudley turned out like that.
Harry's eyes were shining brighter, the Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts? He must be an amazing wizard!