Daddy Dearest

Chapter 3 - The Lake

That Night

As they got off the train Harry saw a lantern bobbing over the heads of the crowd, accompanied by a familiar, booming voice. "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!"

Harry and Ron joined the stream of first year students following the gigantic Hagrid, who gave Harry an amused look.

"Yer stepfather said to see tha' you don' push an'one into the lake, 'Arry."

Harry grinned.

"C'mon, follow me--any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

The crowd of eleven-year-olds followed Hagrid down the dark, slick path, apparently lined with trees, no one speaking much. Neville, the toadless boy, sniffed a few times.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec, jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud, "Oooooh!" as the path suddenly opened onto a great black lake. High on a mountain on the other side was a castle with many towers and turrets, the windows sparkling in the light of the moon and stars.

As Hagrid directed them into the little fleet of boats waiting on the water, four to a boat, Harry automatically looked up at the moon. "It's full," he whispered. Moony would face his monthly transformation that night, and Padfoot would run with him in his Animagus form. It would be better with another large animal, but James Potter was dead.

"Why d'you care that it's full?" Ron asked as they climbed into a boat together.

Harry rolled his eyes and gave Ron an exasperated look. "I just said that it is, not that I cared. There is a difference."

"Oh. I suppose it is, isn't it?" Ron said, looking up at the moon as well. Hermione and Neville, the toadless boy, climbed into the boat with them.

"Everyone in? Right then--FORWARD!"

"Why did your stepfather tell him to make sure you don't push anyone out of the boats?" Hermione asked, looking at Harry disapprovingly.

"What?" Harry asked, wrenching his gaze from the moon to look curiously at the bushy-haired girl. "Oh, yeah. My dad pushed my stepfather into the lake because he was calling someone a Mudblood."

Ron and Neville gasped.

"What's that mean?" Hermione asked.

"It's a really rude word for a Muggleborn," Ron said, staring at Harry. "It's calling them common, you know, that they've got dirty blood 'cause their parents aren't magic."

Harry shook his head. "He's way different now... Mum was Muggleborn, and the person he got pushed in the lake for calling a Mudblood wasn't even Muggleborn. In fact, he was a member of a real old magic family, as Dad would have know if he'd bothered to ask his name. Of course, now he's in Azkaban, but back then he was just stupid."

"Azkaban. That's the Wizard prison, isn't it?" Hermione looked slightly intrigued. "I've read about it... it was in some of the extra books I got... for background reading, you know." She looked wistfully across the lake. "I've memorized all my course books, of course, I just hope it's enough."

Harry stared. "Hermione? No one memorizes all their course books. Not even I did, and my stepfather teaches here!"

"Really?" Hermione asked, sounding relieved. "Then maybe I won't be too far behind, coming from a Muggle family and all."

"Loads of people come from Muggle families!" Harry exclaimed. "Even then, Dad says that the purebloods have to work as hard as the rest, as there's so much to learn. Besides, we're not only here to go to school. The Muggleborns need to get into the Wizarding society and it cuts down on problems with magic-Muggle marriages by letting young witches and wizards meet."

"Did your stepfather tell you all that?" Hermione asked, obviously thinking he'd made it all up.

"No, only most of it. Padfoot told James and Romulus and I the last part--about problems with magic-Muggle marriages--before Dad and Moony could shut him up. He'd started to tell us a story about a witch who married a Muggle,* but they wouldn't let him. Of course, he's a half-blood himself."

"Then why is he against us marrying Muggles?" Neville asked.

Harry shrugged. "Lots of Muggles don't react well when they find out that they married a witch or wizard at the same time that they discover that magic is real. He says that it's best to marry Muggles that are related to Muggleborns or descended from Squibs, so that magic doesn't come as a shock. I think the story was supposed to explain it."

"That's not exactly fair, now is it?" Hermione asked, looking rather disgruntled. "There's no reason not to marry someone just because they're not magic."

"Yeah, well, Padfoot meant to be careful which Muggles you marry more than anything. His wife's a Muggle. He claims it's a family thing--his mother was one, too."

"Heads down!" Hagrid yelled, and everyone ducked as they went through a curtain of ivy and into a long, dark tunnel. Everyone was silent as they floated through the darkness and into some kind of underground harbor and climbed out onto the rocks and pebbles.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" Hagrid asked as he checked the boats as the eleven-year-olds climbed out.

"Trevor!" Neville cried, holding his hands out blissfully.

They walked up a flight of stairs, out of the caves, and stopped in front of the huge oak front door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"

Hagrid raised his gigantic fist and knocked on the door three times.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**This is in reference to the witch who married Tom Riddle... how Padfoot found out, you'll never know. Unless I decide to tell you when Harry finds out the story.