The messenger had described this kind of talent as extremely serious. If Hermione refused to study at Hogwarts and wasn't properly guided, it could very well lead to some rather serious consequences!
And if they also took their daughter's wishes into account...
"All right, my dear Hermione. Your mother and I can agree to let you go to Hogwarts."
The Grangers were open-minded parents, after all. Although they were genuinely worried about their daughter's safety, in the end, they chose to respect Hermione's decision.
"But you have to apologize to Harry first!"
Of course, agreeing to it was one thing. They still had to mediate the dispute between the two children.
"I know that, Dad!" Hermione shot her father a displeased look, then instinctively glanced at Harry, her expression turning a little uneasy.
"Hey... Harry, I was wrong earlier. Can you forgive me?"
"..." But Harry didn't respond to Hermione's apology. He just stood there with a blank expression.
"C-can you not be like this?" Hermione looked at Harry pitifully. "I thought you were looking down on me, so I..."
"I have never looked down on you!" Harry looked Hermione in the eye, his expression serious. "The so-called Muggle-borns those wizards talk about are just the result of a narrow-minded sense of superiority, as far as I'm concerned! And the Hermione Jean Granger I know is far nobler than they are! Because... you're my family, and you're important to me!"
"Harry... you?!"
Hermione froze. Only then did she truly understand that Harry wasn't angry about their argument. He was angry that she'd thought so little of herself and her identity!
What he really hated was the wizards' attitude of thinking they were so far above everyone else, along with that unpleasant word, "Muggle"!
"All right, all right, my dear Harry, my good little brother. I really know I was wrong. I won't say that word again, okay?"
Hermione clung to Harry's arm and shook it, pleading with him, "From now on, I can do your laundry, make you breakfast, and write those troublesome assignments the teachers threaten to expel you over if you don't hand them in. So please stop being angry~"
"Wait, what did you just say?" Harry, who was weathering Hermione's pleading assault, seemed to have suddenly thought of something.
"I said, don't be angry anymore..."
"No, the sentence before that."
"I can help you write those assignments the teachers threaten to expel you over if you don't hand them in..."
"Exactly! That's it!" Harry suddenly perked up. "I've decided. I'm going to Hogwarts too!"
Expulsion... How had he not thought of that just now? He could use that trick!
As a man from the Great Celestial Empire whose soul had crossed over, Harry was a bit of a chauvinist. So even though the Grangers had agreed to Hermione's decision, he still couldn't accept it!
As he saw it, Hermione was just a little kid excited by something new. She had no idea how vast the world was, let alone how dangerous Voldemort really was!
So if he couldn't stop her, he might as well go to school with her and then find a way to get them both expelled!
Thinking of this, Harry once again felt, just as Scamander had said, that everything had suddenly clicked into place~
Besides, there was another matter he no longer needed to agonize over.
"I've decided. I'll go to Hogwarts too. That way, Hermione and I can look out for each other." Harry looked at the Grangers earnestly and called out in a slightly trembling voice, "Dad, Mom..."
"C-child? What did you just call us?!" Hearing Harry's words, Mr. Granger froze in place.
"He called me Mom! Honey, did you hear that? Harry called me Mom! Oh... this is just wonderful!" Mrs. Granger was already sobbing too hard to speak.
It had been more than a year. The Grangers truly loved Harry, and had always hoped he would call them by those names. At last, the day they'd been waiting for had come.
And from now on, the Granger family would truly be Harry's closest family in the world!!
"How wonderful. He's already calling them that~" Hermione was a little touched, but also a little envious. "What about me? Will you start calling me your big sister too?"
"That's the one thing that will never happen!"
"You jerk! Harry, you little brat!" The Little Lion flared up at once and pounced on Harry, claws bared.
The living room, which had been tense just moments before, was now filled once more with the laughter of a family.
It was settled: Harry and Hermione would go to school together. After that, they both sent Hogwarts letters accepting their places.
In Harry's reply, he signed his name as—Harry Evans P. Granger!
That's right. Harry asked the Grangers to change his name, giving up Harry James Potter, the name he'd used for eleven years.
As someone from the Celestial Empire in his previous life, Harry wasn't used to sharing a name with his parents, so he chose to use his birth parents' surname as his middle name.
And because the Potter name was simply too famous, he shortened his birth father's surname to the single letter P.
That made Granger Harry's true and only surname since his rebirth!!
(p.s. I'll add a little more explanation about the protagonist's plan to 'go to school first, then get expelled,' so people won't keep fixating on it.
Please keep a few important points in mind:
1. The protagonist may be mature in mind, but he is only eleven. He's lived with the Grangers for just one year, and he can't do anything too outrageous yet, like urging them to emigrate;
2. The Grangers are good people, but Harry is their adopted son, and they'll consider Hermione's wishes first;
3. Think about when the messenger arrived, then imagine what else the messenger might have persuaded them to do;
4. Hermione was determined to go to school from the outset and strongly identifies with Dumbledore. Her mind won't change for a long time;
5. Dumbledore sent the messenger to 'kidnap' Hermione's thoughts. Will he have more tricks up his sleeve right after that?
6. If Harry were to invoke his powerful connections, would that expose his relationship with Scamander early?
7. Harry already knows the Royal Family is trying to use him too. Would asking the heir to the throne for help really work?
8. Harry doesn't know his true connection to Voldemort, so he doesn't know that Dumbledore definitely won't let him leave school. So, following normal logic, which headmaster would tolerate a student who repeatedly breaks school rules?
9. Suppose he tried to stall for time. When Hagrid arrived, there'd be another argument, and things would definitely be worse then;
So, in the current situation, is there a better way to make Hermione change her mind immediately, make Dumbledore abandon his schemes, and keep Scamander's identity secret?
If you have one, feel free to share it. If, like Sanmiao, you can't think of another way, then please stay calm and take a closer look at the clues Sanmiao left behind, all right?)
Chapter 20: Birthdays Bring Special Visitors
For a while after that, the Grangers didn't follow the instructions in the Hogwarts letter to go to the wizarding shopping district called Diagon Alley and buy all sorts of magical items.
The reason was that Harry's birthday was coming up.
The Grangers had spent a long time preparing for this birthday, hoping to celebrate properly for their little boy, Harry Granger.
And for Harry, it would be an unforgettable birthday too.
His previous birthday—the first one since he'd crossed over, ten years earlier—had also been spent at the Grangers' home. But at the time, he'd been more like a guest than a true member of the family.
"Happy birthday!" *3
In the warm living room that morning, Harry's adoptive parents and Hermione (Hermione: Objection! I'm his big sister!) happily showered him with colorful streamers.
Wearing a birthday hat, Harry sat in front of the cake and was about to make a wish over the eleven lit candles.
"My dear Harry, you can make your wish now," Mrs. Granger reminded him kindly.
"Okay~"
Harry obediently closed his eyes. As someone who believed in science, he didn't really believe in wishes coming true, but his family's good intentions were always lovely.
(I hope Hermione and I can successfully get expelled from Hogwarts...)
Knock knock knock!
But just as Harry closed his eyes and was about to make his wish, someone pounded heavily on the Grangers' front door.
"Who could be visiting at a time like this...? I'll go see." Mr. Granger furrowed his brow in confusion and got up from the table.
But the moment he opened the door, Mr. Granger felt all the blood in his body freeze!
"Y-you're a Giant... No! Wh-what are you? No! I mean, who the hell are you?!"
At that moment, Mr. Granger was completely lost for words.
A terrifyingly huge man stood before him. He was almost twice the height of an ordinary person and wider than the doorway. His thick hair hung untidily over his shoulders, and tangled whiskers covered most of his face and mouth, leaving only two enormous ox-like eyes staring at him.
Mr. Granger even wondered if the Giant before him might open his hidden, cavernous mouth the very next second and bite his head off!
"Th-this... Aah! What on earth is that?! Honey, come back, it's too dangerous over there!!"
"So this is what a legendary Giant looks like? How fascinating~"
Mrs. Granger and Hermione came running at the commotion and saw the scene outside the door too. Unlike the terrified Grangers, Hermione was simply curious.
Children's thoughts were always simple. Now that she knew the Wizarding World existed, she instinctively connected anything strange to it, and the Giant before her was no exception.
"Uh, I think I scared Harry's Muggle adoptive parents..." The Giant scratched his head awkwardly. "This is a bit of a problem. I'd been hoping to come celebrate Harry's eleventh birthday."
"Dad, Mom, don't worry. He's not a bad person." Harry came forward to reassure the Grangers, though he still instinctively put himself in front of Hermione.
"Haha, it's Harry! Wonderful, I finally get to see you again! Honestly, the last time I saw you, you were just a little baby!" The Giant burst into delighted laughter when he saw Harry. His laugh was so loud that it made the Grangers' ears ring.
"All right, I know you're happy to see me, but you really did scare my parents." Harry reminded the Giant sternly. "Also, please don't use the word 'Muggle' in our house!"
"All right. But aren't they... Oh, got it. I won't say it."
The Giant seemed genuinely friendly, and he also seemed to listen to Harry. He swallowed the word "Muggle" that had been on the tip of his tongue.
"Still... Harry, how do you know me?" the Giant asked, scratching his head in confusion.
The last time he'd seen Harry, Harry had been a baby only a few days old. There was no reason he should remember him.
"I don't know you, but you seem familiar." A trace of reminiscence appeared on Harry's face. "When I was little, I used to dream that someone was carrying me through the air on a motorcycle. I was asleep the whole time, but I could still feel someone holding me... and your beard kept scratching me~"
"All my life, I've been waiting, hoping a motorcycle like that would really appear and take me away from the Dursley family. But it never came, so in the end, I had to rely on myself..."
Harry's words were half true and half made up. He did know the man, but what he'd just described wasn't a dream. It was something that had really happened to him as a baby!
Without a doubt, this Giant was Hagrid, an important character in the original story. He was also the person who had taken Harry from the ruins eleven years ago.
"Oh, dear! I never imagined... Harry, you actually remember me! Boohoo... I'm so happy!!" Hearing Harry's words, Hagrid, who was always so emotional, started sobbing loudly. "You're right, that was my beard! Oh, dear... I'm sorry, truly sorry... The Dursleys... I really should have come to see you sooner!!"
"Harry, you know... you look so much like your father, but you've got your mother's eyes! Seeing you is like... Boohoo~"
Watching Hagrid, Harry couldn't help feeling a little guilty.
At least half of what he'd just said was a deliberate lie to get on Hagrid's good side. But Hagrid had not only believed him, he'd become incredibly emotional.
Hagrid might have come at Dumbledore's orders, but there was no denying he genuinely cared about Harry.
Dumbledore might too... but Harry couldn't agree with the way he did things!
"Please come inside. There's no need to stand in the doorway, and it's troubling my parents." Harry steadied himself and invited Hagrid inside.
"Oh, sorry! I forgot!"
Hagrid smacked his forehead at the reminder and carefully stooped, sucked in his stomach, and squeezed into the living room. Even so, he nearly broke the Grangers' door.
"Here, this is for you! It might've gotten a little squashed, but it should still taste the same~"
Hagrid carefully took a slightly crushed box from his pocket. Inside was a chocolate cake whose shape had been completely ruined, though the words written in icing on top were still just barely visible.
Happy birthday, Harry!
"Thank you very much! And if you don't mind, please join us for the meal."
Harry nodded gratefully, then set Hagrid's cake beside the cake and other food the Grangers had prepared.
No one would look down on a cake with such a terrible appearance.
For the Grangers, knowing there was someone like Hagrid in the Wizarding World who treated Harry kindly made them happy.
"I can join you too? Haha, Harry, I have to say, your Muggle—uh, I mean, adoptive parents are ten thousand times better than the Dursleys!"
Hagrid laughed delightedly. Then, as if remembering something, he quickly straightened up and gave the four people in the room a somewhat clumsy bow.
"You're supposed to introduce yourself before sitting down. I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts!"
Chapter 21: Diagon Alley Has a Very Distinctive Sound
After everyone sat back down, Hagrid began sharing the food on the table with the three Grangers... while Harry sat to one side, massaging his arm with an exasperated look.
Hagrid was incredibly strong. Even though Harry had been exercising for over a year and had become quite fit, Hagrid's rough, hearty handshake had nearly shaken him apart just now.
The Grangers and Hagrid got along quite well over the meal.
Before you continue