I've had a whole bunch of Beta readers for this story, all of them awesome. My fiancée, Angel, my best friend from the FFML days, Zen, sjcrew, coworker and friend, Cheri, also coworker, Alpha Centauri, the Prime Saggitarian! from the old FFML days, although he goes by Polenicus now, And Brian, a friend I met at work one fateful night.

Please enjoy!

Monopoly of life

Chapter 1

Harry woke with a start; last thing he remembered was facing Voldemort after waking up in the forbidden forest. Looking around, he expected to see the Hogwarts express again, but instead he faced a faceless woman.

On the table between them, there appeared to be a game board already in play. The game looked familiar, but it seemed wrong. Four names on the board that stood out were Ron and Ginny on the dark purple squares, and Luna and Hermione on dark blue squares, all by the big square that said Go.

"What's going on?" Harry asked, still examining the board.

"It should be obvious to you, since you're dead again." The faceless woman spoke, as she also looked down at the board.

"If I'm dead again, how come I'm not at the Hogwarts express?" Harry asked, confused.

"We did the Hogwarts express the first ten times, and I just stopped counting after fifteen."

"What do you mean fifteen times? I only remember being dead once!"

"Harry, do you truly believe that mortals are meant to remember the gates of death? The time you remember was due to truly extenuating circumstances."

Harry asked, "So what's different now? Why am I remembering this?"

The faceless woman explained, "I've given up on you. You can't do this alone. I'm giving you a leg up."

Harry asked, "Isn't that supposed to be a hand up?"

"I've stopped giving you hands up long before this."

"What do you mean?" Harry wondered.

"Every time you pass through here something changes when you go back. The hand-ups were a bit more subtle than this. When you encountered the change, you would have a sense of Deja-vu. But as you continued to come through here the changes became more pronounced. Like this last time, calling Dumbledore an old goat fucker probably caused most of the problems for you."

"What problems were those, I didn't notice any."

"Well, for starters, he was drugging you seven ways from Sunday"

"He never gave me any potions"

"Three love potions, two loyalty potions, an intelligence blocking potion, and a power blocker every week."

"But, I don't remember taking any potions."

"The weekly food from Mrs. Weasley, as well as all the food from the elves in the kitchens."

"Supposing you're right, what about my love for Ginny?"

"What love for Ginny?"

"The love I…ummm…I honestly don't know."

"Exactly"

Flustered, Harry looked down at the game board in more detail. Now that Harry looked at the board more closely, it looked a lot like monopoly that his cousin played before destroying it. The names, however, didn't look like the avenues, but more like people's names. Close to harry, he saw mortgaged property cards for Ginny, Ron, Arthur, Gred, Forge, and Hermione. Most of the other names on the board harry couldn't make out, and many had houses and hotels on them. There were four pieces on the board that he could see, a dog, sitting in gaol, another piece, looking like a circle, with a triangle and a line inside of it, almost like the sign of the deathly hollows, sitting on start. A wheelbarrow, sitting where Water Works should be, but Ministry of Magic was instead, and lastly, a boot sitting on one of the railroad points

Another thing Harry noticed was that in the middle of the board, laid another set of tiles, which seemed to intersect at each of the railroads. And when he started from a railroad, four other boards, all currently name-blank, focussed up in the center of the board

Each of the railroad points, however, only showed up in that center board when he started from that railroad, otherwise it was a seamless inner board, almost like super monopoly, but currently...blank.

"I'm sorry," Harry stuttered, "but what is going on with the board? It looks strange, and I can't really focus on the centre of it,"

"Would you believe," the woman sounded, almost pleased, "that this was the first time you've seen the board in all of your visits? The very first time. And the center of the board, think of those as divergence points. Each of them is a path that you could add to your journey. Some of the paths you can choose will add friends, some add abilities, and some just add very relevant knowledge. You humans tend to get a new path every four years, until you reach the age of twenty one. And if your extra paths remain empty, you can still add them all the way until the end. Truly, humans are a most...interesting species."

"Divergence points? choice? How could I choose a divergence point?" Harry asked, confused.

"Most humans choose a divergence by deciding they would like to do something new. These choices can be influenced by people you know, things you see, things you _read_, things you imagine, things you remember. All of this can go into a divergence. And you don't always get what you want, but sometimes, you get what you need. Any _skill_ you want would have to be practiced religiously for an extended period, to retain any of it, and you would always need to practice it to get more."

Harry stared at the board, thinking. After a few minutes, he looked up at the woman, "Who are you? Why are you helping me like this?"

"My name? I have been called many things, mostly uncomplimentary. What I am, is an aspect of Death. The path eternal and ever ending. I have existed before the universe began, and when everything has finally died, I will lock the universe behind me. You can call me Orchid. And as to why I help you? Your first death...was literally centuries before its scheduled time. And in such pain, that I couldn't help but look. I am helping you, because I want to help you get it _right_. Two centuries were allotted to you, and you have yet to make it past two decades. Betrayal aplenty, intrigue galore, not a single person who was honestly on _your_ side. I have tried over and over to keep you on the path, and a few times you've specifically asked to forget.

On the board, in the centre, a pile of money, and a stack of what looked like cards, whether tarot or standard, harry did not know, but the cards in particular flashed when Orchid mentioned the forgotten memories.

"Some of those memories, I think you _should_ know. But even I am bound by the terms of the game. You only have so much money, and memories cost that and more. Thankfully, you've succeeded in something else for the first time." Orchid waved her hand at the dice, showing a pair of fives, "You have, through the rules, gotten...an extension. Some more money for your hand, and a few discarded memories besides." As harry watched, the dice glowed as well, and then the dog, sitting in gaol, hopped along to the next corner on the board. Free parking. All the loose money in the centre of the board stacked itself, and then moved to Harry's side. Close to $15,000 in play money now in his hands, Harry looked back at the cards. "Those, discarded as they are, still cost you to claim. The cheaper memories give hints, nothing more, the more expensive memories outright state problems that need to be solved. Some come with side effects, which cannot truly be avoided, but merely held back for a time."

Just before Harry could lay the money down again to buy the memories, Orchid raised her voice, "think twice before buying the memories. You are dead remember, and it also costs to go back to fix mistakes. The farther back, the more it costs, and over time, your bank has sorely been depleted. The money has to last you, not just for the journey, but also to survive on, for you haven't gotten as much from your parents as you think. Friendships do not cost, nor do choices, but upkeep for friendship can, if you are not careful."

Harry looked down at his hands, "This...feels like a lot of money. But it won't last long, will it? Is this actual money? Or representative? Is it British pounds, or galleons? I don't know the conversion."

Orchid smiled, "all good questions. It is representative money, and the numbers are not absolute. Some is of each kind mentioned. You don't have to pay for schooling, that is already done. Nor do you have to pay for your home, as you live with family of sorts. Anything extra comes out of that, and if you don't keep track of your finances, other people can spend your money for you. Your first life, you actually had much more than that, and all of it was spent before you faced the dragon. There is a reason no-one let you see your vault after your third year."

Harry looked at Orchid, stunned, "But, will this be gone as well?"

Orchid smiled, "All that you keep from this, will be safe until you reach the Alley for the first time. Once you unseal the vault for the first time, anyone with a key can get in. And contrary to what the goblins think, the keys CAN be copied."

Harry started to speak, and then stopped. He looked at his hands a bit longer, and then said, "I'd like to buy three memories please. The ones...you think are most important."

Orchid shook her head, "They are all important, because they are all a part of you. But I can help you a little." The disorganized pile of memory cards straightened themselves on the board, into three piles. "These three piles cost differently, both in money, and in side effects. The first pile, is five hundred per memory, and has a high chance of side effects. The second pile is one hundred per memory, and has only a moderate chance of side effects. The last pile is fifty each memory, and has a low chance of side effects. All side effects are different, and they, when they hit you first, affected your soul, and therefore will affect you once you receive them. Please, choose."

Harry eyed the piles, and then took one from each pile, the top from the five hundred pile, the third card down from the one hundred pile, and the bottom card from the fifty pile. He then looked at the board some more. More names shimmered into view along the boardwalk side. Greengrass. Bones. Malfoy. On the New York side, Abbott and Diggory. Only one new card showed up on his side, again, unfortunately, mortgaged. Luna. Harry stared at his cards, and noted that his money in hand felt a tiny bit lighter. "I want to go back eight years," Harry whispered, "time enough to train, time enough to learn. Time to look into those divergences."

Again the money in Harry's hand dwindled, and Orchid smiled, "Then back you go. To just before your tenth birthday. You will have a year to train yourself before your first friend arrives, spend it wisely." Harry just had time to notice that he had less than $7000 left, before darkness engulfed him, and existence faded.

When Harry woke up, he first thought he was back in the Forbidden Forest, as he had something poking him in the back. But when he sat up, he ran into something right above his head. Some noise in the background sounded a lot like orchestral music, heavy on the brass. Harry felt around his surroundings, and flickers of light helped him remember. He was under the stairs again, locked in his cupboard. At first, he was confused, and then his eyes widened. The day was familiar. All the Dursley's were watching a Television show, a movie marathon more like. He quickly crawled up to the door, and peered through the slats, and watched as troopers in white shot at people in a long hallway

"Bring me the passengers, I want them alive!" Harry watched in awe, as he tried to commit as much of the movie to memory, even as he enjoyed it for the first time ever, for the second time.

Harry focussed on the rock in front of him. He had just been through another "game" of Harry Hunting, and was hiding in a park waiting for the bruises to calm down. He was also practicing what he could of the movies that he saw, trying to feel the rock in front of him, so he could lift it up. He had also just been practicing during the Harry Hunting, trying to dodge as many of the blows as he could. He wasn't doing well, but that was fine with him. Every road needs a first step to be taken. And as the rock on the ground twitched, he knew that he _would_ find his path.

Slowly, as the days turned into weeks, and Harry's summer ebbed away, he found a modicum of control available in his new ability. While he could not lift much, a hamburger being beyond his lifting ability, he could lift small stones, and occasionally lessen blows upon him from his cousin. He made sure that no-one could see his practice, but he knew it would help him. Someday.

Again, Harry found himself locked in the cupboard under the stairs as the Dursley's settled themselves in to watch another movie. This one was obviously fake, with one of the scientists having a so-called syko kinectic energy meter. Although some of the quotes in the show were memorable in their own rights, and...Proton pack? Isn't that like positive energy? That sounded a lot like that one spell he learned in third year. Patro something. Getting more and more fascinated, Harry watched deeper into the show, again memorizing as much as he could. "If someone asks if you are a god, you say YES!" Harry snickered.

Over the next weeks, Harry found himself going to the library more and more, first to study for School, as that was starting up again, and more to research information on ghosts. For all that non-magical people didn't know for certain about ghosts, they sure did gather up a lot of information that could help even a fledgling wizard like him. He couldn't always reach the books he needed, but pulling them down with his new "force" ability was strangely satisfying. He still couldn't lift much, but this new research helped him more. It gave him the idea that emotion, while anathema to control, sometimes gave a boost in power. Many ghosts, when calm, rarely could move or lift things, but when they were emotional, they could touch, lift, and even throw. He never did find all the words that Egon used all the time, and Ray's enthusiasm made him even harder to remember, but remembering the quotes he did was still worth giggling over. "It's a fifty foot tall stay-puft marshmallow man."

That night, harry dreamed. The dream itself seemed fuzzy, but for certain he remembered a board game in front of him. Reading railroad glittering gold, and new names could be seen. Obi-wan. Stantz. Spengler. Yoda. Two cards sitting in front of him, but he couldn't see their names. And they _weren't mortgaged yet_. Harry woke up, grinning. He was on the right track, he just KNEW it.

Again Harry found himself running from his cousin after school. Somehow, they figured out that Harry was dodging their attacks, and they only got more vicious in response. Harry ran, afraid for his life, as his cousin and the gang chased him. Stumbling, Harry fell into some bushes, scraping his knees on some rocks. Huddling under the bush, Harry found a round stone, oddly reflective, about an inch in diameter. The colour reminded him of something. A show he glimpsed in the future. He hoped he remembered everything, as he picked up the stone.

(Picture: www moonmarble com slash p-1537-monarch-boulders dot aspx )

Harry whispered to the stone. A marble maybe? He didn't know. But the memory burned, and he couldn't do anything BUT speak. "I am the one who received this mission. Under your contract, release those powers to me. Winds to the sky, Stars to the heavens, and the unwavering soul to this heart. Magic to these hands, Raging Heart, set up!" He lifted his hands during the chant, ending in a yell. He felt a pull, even as a ringing bell echoed in his ears. "Stand by, ready. Set up." He distantly heard his cousin yelling, then feet pounding, fading in the distance, as it looked like a rip tore into the sky above him, the marble glowing in his hands.

-la scene break miniature-

Chrono charged onto the bridge as alarms blared, "What's going on?"

Amy replied, "There's a dimensional rip to the stern of us!" her fingers flew over the keyboard, "triangulating"

"Any damage?" Chrono looked at all of the blaring red screens declaring 'Alert'. He didn't see any damage indicators, although one screen off to the side in communications seemed to be acting strange.

"No damage," Amy reported briskly, "Although there is an unrecognized contact. Contact connected. Guest account?" Amy paused, confused, "We still have a guest account?"

"Trace it!" Chrono commanded, tapping at other panels.

"Traced to the rift behind us," Amy replied, still typing away. "Triangulating...five hundred meters to the stern of the ship. Tear is...one meter across, and closing."

"Where is it coming from?" Chrono tried to get to the sensors, even knowing that he wouldn't get there in time.

"It appears...to be an analogue of Earth." Amy looked up, surprised.

Chrono growled, "Contact Takomachi Nanoha. We might need her and section six to look into this."

-la scene break miniature-

Above Harry, the rip in the sky grew to a meter in diameter, and the glowing light speared right into it. For ten seconds, the light speared, and a growing pain coalesced in Harry's chest, and then suddenly the pain dissipated, and the tear closed itself.

"Set-up incomplete. Download interrupted. Linker core disconnected as per safety protocols. Standing by."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Harry whispered, tears in his eyes, "I'm so sorry, I hurt you I'm sorry," Harry clutched the marble to his chest, even as the clenching in his chest relaxed.

After a few minutes, Harry stopped apologizing to the marble. The pain had finally disappeared completely, but he was still feeling off. Harry held the marble in his hand as he crawled out of the bush, and then jogged to the library. Harry hunting apparently finished for the day, maybe he could recover the homework he had lost when his cousin assaulted him after school. It was going to be a long night.

Days passed, and over time, Harry noticed a light ringing tone whenever he used his new ability with levitation. A barely heard "Analyzing" in the back of his head whenever he focussed on avoiding his cousin's gang. He kept his new marble with him, everywhere he went. Whenever he tried to talk to the marble, however, the response in turn was either 'calculating' or 'analyzing'. Eventually, he started ignoring the whispered tones, though he never forgot about them.

"A new apprentice I see. Far away, you are. Interesting, very interesting." Harry was sure he was dreaming. He specifically remembered crawling into his cupboard, but for some reason he was now in the middle of a jungle. Everything looked different here, and some animals he never saw in the library. Then there was a creature that looked suspiciously like Yoda from the movies he watched almost a year ago.

"Suspicious I am? Suspicious YOU are! Know you the rules. If the apprentice to you cannot you bring, to the apprentice must you go."

Harry raised his hand to the creature, "Yoda? What ARE you? I can't find anything about you..."

Yoda looked at harry, and smirked. "Wise you are, to admit that which you do not know. Know you, perhaps, what a mule is? A race born of two other races, but unable to procreate. A frog, we have been called. Born of a race of incredible wisdom, and a race of incredible martial ability. Born of love we are, but none can we give in return. No name has our race, for we cannot procreate on our own. Your questions, does that answer?"

Harry smiled, "It tells me enough. While I could always wish for more, better to learn what I need."

"Well said youngling. Receiving education, you are, from your school? Hmm? So left to me it is, for your training in the Force. Show me, please, what you know."

Harry lifted his arm, and a small stone beside him, as he said, "I know very little. I can lift things right now, and I can sometimes dodge people hitting me. I don't know if I can learn to hit back right now, as I've only got the one place to live, and no-one else can take me in." Unbidden, tears dripped from his eyes, "They're my family, and it's the only place I am safe, really. But sometimes..."

"Stop," Yoda commanded, "Emotional you are. Sad you are. Your emotions you must release. Come. Practice we shall, and tell me of your family you will."

As Harry slowly started to talk about his family, Yoda gently poked at him with his stick. Most of the time, Yoda's stick would come in un-dodged, but Harry did slip around the occasional one. Yoda nodded, making all the right noises as Harry told him...well, everything.

"Died to protect you, your parents did, hmm? Told to you, this was?"

Harry nodded, "Well, it was told to me, but in the future."

"Ah! A time traveller, you are. Met me before, have you?" A gleam in Yoda's eyes as he poked slightly harder than before, only barely dodged.

Harry shook his head, "No, this is the first time I have met you. I didn't know I _could_ meet you until tonight."

Yoda nodded, "Enough, I have heard. Your practice, it is doing well. Your friend, you will bring next time."

Harry stumbled, "What do you mean? I don't have any friends?"

Yoda shook his head, "Your new friend you shall bring. Your heart of glass, you shall bring. Not tomorrow, nor the night after. A week from now, to bed you will bring it."

"Why a week from now? Why not tomorrow?" Harry asked, confused.

"Much energy, this takes. While afford it, I can. Afford it, you cannot. This reason, why your friend stopped its awakening. To protect you, was this reason."

Confused, Harry asked, "But I thought I was strong? In three years I scare away a hundred dementors!"

Yoda shook his head, and started disappearing, "While strong you will be, right now you are not. In time, understand you shall. Rest, youngling, for sleep you shall need."

Over the next few weeks, Harry realized that the magical strength he was used to when he was older, just plain did not exist when he was younger. Any magic he did use, left him exhausted, and Raging Heart finally indicated that the energy he did have was incompatible. The Dursleys started feeding Harry more, not so much out of concern, but to keep the neighbours from realizing the fact that they really did not care for Harry if they could avoid it. With Harry looking gaunt, they really could not avoid it anymore.

Next movie night, they had rented the show "Back to the Future." And rather than banishing Harry to his cupboard, they instead sat him behind the table, with a bowl of soup in front of him. "Eat silently," He was admonished. He felt that they were keeping him in sight to make sure he was eating, possibly thinking that he was purposely starving himself. He did eat quietly, and cheered with the rest of the family when Marty convinced his parents to kiss at the dance.

The bit at the end, however, changed Harry's thinking around. Changes in the past, even small changes, can have a huge impact on the future.

Harry continued practicing his new skills, although at a slower pace, once Yoda admonished him about pushing himself too hard. Raging Heart would also now say a bit more, usually warning Harry when someone was about to hit him. Summer arrived, and continued unabated, and the Zoo visit that Harry remembered faintly...never happened. Instead, everyone was brought to a park, where they had a picnic

When Harry asked about why they brought him to the picnic with Dudley, it was only mentioned that it was healthier, and they could make sure Harry ate. Through careful listening, Harry found out that people were starting to talk about how a family so well off to have two men so vastly obese (Petunia called it healthy) and yet two people very thin, and one obviously being starved. This confused Harry, as he remembered being fed LESS before this.

Very little changed for Harry after that point, while he was still being fed more, and still practiced his levitation, he was also still made to do all the chores in the house and out.

A week before Harry's birthday, the letter he was expecting showed up from Hogwarts. Curious as to what his aunt and uncle would say, he brought the mail to his uncle, as ordered.

At first, Vernon started to turn purple with rage, and then he paused. Took a deep breath, and then opened the letter, grumbling, "There better be a way to contact them back." After reading through the entire letter, he slammed it down on the table with a grunt. "Couldn't be bothered to send us a ruddy owl to reply with, now could they?"

The next day, and the next, still more letters arrived, and Vernon got more and more angry, finally screaming when the letters arrived on Sunday, when there shouldn't be any mail in the first place, and then all the owls outside FLEW AWAY when he tried to get one.

Yelling, Vernon finally got everyone packed up and out of the house, declaring, "If they won't give us a way to reply, maybe they'll SEND someone if we move!" Monday night, at a hotel, Tuesday on an island in a shack...and at the stroke of midnight, Wednesday, July 31st, the pounding on the door.

Grumbling, Vernon put a stack of the opened letters on the table, "Get over here, Boy. If it's not someone to come take our reply to your school, it's bound to be someone unpleasant." Another BOOM at the door.

BOOM! At the door. And a third time, BOOM!

The door crashed to the floor, and a giant of a man stepped through. "Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh?"

Vernon growled, "I'm warning you, if you're here for mischief, you've come to the wrong place. I demand you leave at once, sir! You are breaking and entering!"

"Ah shut up Dursley, yeh great prune." The giant moved to take the broom out of Vernon's hands.

'That's strange,' Harry thought, 'wasn't that supposed to be a gun?'

Vernon snatched the broom out of the path of the giant's hands, "I will not! You are here without invite, therefore you are here illegally. You will state your business and then leave, sir!"

The giant leaned back and laughed, "Is this yer house then? Mite drafty, living out on a rock in the middle of the ocean here."

Vernon growled, "We rented this place to get away from the letters that we could not reply to! This house is ours for the rest of the week, or until we leave. And you'd better have brought your own food, we've only enough for ourselves here."

The giant blinked, "Yeh couldn'a reply to the letters? Yeh don't have an owl then, I take it?"

Petunia piped up, "We don't have owls, never did. We are respectable people, and we don't keep wild animals in our house, especially without a license. And when we tried to get one of the owls you sent the letters with, they all flew away!"

"Ah see. So you'd have replied if you had the chance. And what would your reply have said?" The giant smirked, as if he knew the answer already.

Vernon growled, "We'd have replied that someone should come to talk to us! Preferably someone with medical training. The boy's been getting thinner and thinner and no matter how much food we give him he keeps getting thinner! He's dangerously thin now, and we can't afford to hospitalize him to find out what is wrong."

"Yeh'd have what? He's what? C'mere, 'arry, let me see yeh," The giant turned towards Harry.

"You will NOT! You still have yet to introduce yourself, here!" Vernon shouted at the giant.

"Ah. Eh. Excuse me. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." He held out his hand, and Harry was the first to reach up to him, whereupon Hagrid shook his whole arm.

"Good," Said Petunia, "You are someone we can trust then. Do you have a way of getting a message back to the school for a doctor? We really need to find out how to help him." Vernon relaxed and put the broom back beside the fireplace as Petunia talked, obviously calmed down by her reaction.

"Can't really send a message back, I'm supposed to take Harry here to Diagon Alley tomorrow to pick up his school supplies. I think we could stop by Saint Mungo's to get him checked out though. Don't want him being sick." Petunia frowned, and Hagrid hurriedly continued, "I was sent here to pick up Harry, is all. I don't have any way of going around that's not like you folk."

Vernon grunted, then nodded, "pull up a chair, or a couch. We can leave in the morning once the storm's over." He pulled a stack of paper out of his back pocket, "Here are the first three letters, signed, sealed, and now delivered. Harry would be happy to join you, but we need to make sure he's going to be safe there. He needs to eat five times per day…"

"Five times?" Hagrid exclaimed, "We normally only eat three times per day!"

Petunia nodded, "Yes, and since last year Harry's needed to eat five times per day, fairly large meals too, to stay even remotely healthy. It's unnatural how much he needs to eat now."

Hagrid eyed Vernon and Dudley, "Really now. What about those two?"

"Um," Harry spoke up, "I'm...actually eating more than them right now. Less in a single sitting, maybe, but more through the day."

"Yeah, we'll definitely get yeh checked out tomorrow then." Hagrid nodded, then reached into his coat, "Maybe this will give you some more today, here, I made this for yer birthday," and pulled out a box, slightly squashed. Carefully, Harry opened the box, and found a (as he remembered) large sticky chocolate cake, with 'Happy Birthday Harry' written on it in green icing. "Might have sat on it a bit, but it'll taste all right."

Harry turned back to his family, and seeing the hopeful look on Dudley's face, asked, "Do we have plates? I'd like to share."

Smiling, Petunia replied, "Of course we have plates. We are civilized people here. They might be paper, but that should do just fine."

Carefully, Harry cut the cake into sixths, and made sure everyone had a slice. He looked up at Hagrid with a huge grin, "Thank you mister Hagrid."

"Jes' call me Hagrid, everyone does." Hagrid smiled and took a bite of his cake, followed shortly by everyone else biting in. "yeh look jus' like your father, though your eyes, yeh got those from yer mum."

Petunia nodded, "Lily had mom's eyes. And Nana's eyes too. The eyes go back for generations, but only to the first born. Harry here is the first boy to get the eyes, and to be honest I was a bit jealous of them too. It always meant something in the family, and no-one ever told us what."

Hagrid grinned, "Might be somethin' to do with the way magic works," he bounced in his chair, "Me dad told me about how he thinks wizards got their power. I'm kinda trying to prove him right, with my trainin' magical animals. Da said, that every wizard line comes from two people who didn't have magic before. And both people had survived a magical attack of some kind. One mighta' been bitten by a dragon, another mighta' been poked or healed by a unicorn. While they didn't have magic of their own before, they sorta grew magic into their kid. Some 'o the centaurs are upset wit' me 'cause of my researchin', but they don't get too upset wit' me 'cause I'm trying to prove they're beings like humans, rather than creatures like dragons."

Petunia blinked, and slowly asked, "What does that mean about us normal people?" She looked at Dudley, worried.

Hagrid shook his head, "Da was of two minds on that. Muggles are wizard's past, but if we aren't careful; they'll also be our future. And his other idea, was that muggles will all become wizards some day. Either through interactin' with magic things over time, or through their kids."

Dudley asked quietly, "why are you studying stuff like that? Will you force regular people to become wizards?"

Hagrid shook his head, "No! I couldn'a do that even if I wanted to. No, what I'm doing is try'na find out why wizards are dying out. Kinda like yer' doctors looking up family history and findin' trends for illnesses and suchlike."

Petunia took a breath, paused, and then continued, "Hagrid, could...could you come back some times? Maybe your research could help us keep Harry healthy. We try to be normal, respectable people. Maybe what we need is someone who knows more about what is going on. You seem like a decent fellow, and I think..."

Hagrid started to reply, "Well I'm no mediwizard Ma'am,"

Petunia held up her hand, "I think your research, your studying into your father's ideas, I think that will help us in the long run. And maybe we could help you as well. We have access to research that has been done over a long time, by a lot of people."

Hagrid grinned, "I accept. Again, I'm no mediwizard, but I'll always be willing to give what knowledge I know, and I would love your help with what you know."

Vernon spoke up, "won't that put you in trouble with Hogwarts then? You being the keeper of the keys and grounds and all."

Hagrid shook his head, "My job keeps me out of the castle for the most part. I only usually come in for food, or if there's something I need help with. Got no classes of my own to teach, so got lots of time on my own."

Petunia spoke up, "Still, your job seems important. I think one night a week should be doable though, you coming over to our house for dinner and discussion." She finished firmly.

Hagrid nodded, "O' course. And I will bring food as well. Would ye prefer vegetables or?"

Petunia smiled, "Vegetables please. While we wouldn't mind some meat, we aren't set up as a butcher shop, so any meat would have to be cut and portioned before you bring it."

Hagrid gave another bounce in his chair, causing it to creak some in complaint, I could trade some wit' the centaurs. They wouldn't mind some new food in their diet as well I think."

Vernon held out his hand, "Deal then. We shall expect you next Saturday?"

Hagrid nodded, shaking Vernon's hand firmly, "Of course."