Chapter 5: The Keeper of the Keys
Boom.
Harry sat straight up, staring at the door. Someone was knocking… and hard.
Boom.
Dudley sat up just as suddenly as Harry had. “Where’s the cannon?”
Bang. It was much softer, wood-on-wood, and behind Harry. The door to the other room.
“Who’s there? I warn you, I’m armed!” It was Vernon.
Harry looked up at his uncle- who was holding a rifle- then, deciding it would probably be better for the continued closeability of the door for it not to be knocked on again, he got up, stepped to the side, and made his way to the door. He was going to stay behind it, and out of Vernon’s line of fire.
But no sooner had he turned the knob than they knocked a third time- and harder.
The door didn’t fly off its hinges, as Harry had worried. However, it might have been better if it had. It had been struck somewhat significantly above Harry’s head, judging by how it flexed as it swung open, right into Harry’s face. Had it flown off the hinges, it would have gone over his head. As it was, though, he was pinned to it, face-first, about halfway between the handle to his left and the hinges to his right as it swung just over ninety degrees before the heavy door used him as a doorstop.
The door didn’t bounce back much before someone bumped it back open again, pinning him against the wall. While he waited, he did a quick mental check to make sure nothing was broken.
Nothing felt broken, though his right elbow- which had been pinned against the door- was sporting a searing pain. Probably a sprain; it didn’t feel like a break and, even with the door still pinning him, it moved as it was supposed to- despite massive pain spikes- when he slid it up and down against his belly. His knees had both been bruised, and he was certain that if he hadn’t left his shoes on when he started trying to sleep the night before, his feet would have been broken, instead of just fine.
Then there were the peculiar sensations that he couldn’t attribute to getting hit by a door. There was a soft tingle throughout his body, compounded with a firmer tickle rippling across his scalp and even the back of his neck. His chest felt… funny, and something had definitely changed in the lower half of his body as well.
“Ow,” he complained lightly, as he heard someone with big feet enter the hut. He couldn’t see anything; the door to the other room, and Vernon, were diagonally opposite the room from the entrance. He didn’t hear any gunshots, though.
He didn’t say any more. His voice was… Not wrong, per se, but different- even girly.
Which would explain the various odd feelings.
Then, a giant hand wrapped around the top of the door and swung it shut, behind a giant of a man- who was stooping to keep from hitting his head. Harry could just see Vernon, hands slackened on the rifle so it was pointing at Dudley, staring at the bearded giant. The giant hardly glanced at him before turning to face the Dursleys again. “Couldn’t make us a cup of tea, could yeh? It’s not been an easy journey.”
The Dursleys were entirely hidden from view, so Harry glanced downwards. He was right, he had- somehow- become a girl. He looked up.
With no observable reaction to his request, the giant looked around the room again. “Where’s Harry at?” he asked, while Harry walked to the side, along the wall and out from behind him.
Vernon raised his rifle. “I demand that you leave at once, Sir,” he said, with what Harry thought was an admirable amount of respect considering the circumstances. “You are breaking and entering.”
The giant sighed, strode over, tugged the gun out of his hands, tied it into a knot, and tossed it into a corner. The very corner that Harry was standing in, as a matter of fact- he let out a squeak of alarm and jumped aside to avoid it. He promptly tried to ignore the strange bouncing sensation on his chest from the sudden movement- and, glancing down, adjusted his shirt to make sure it would stay covered. Being an old shirt of Dudley’s, it was much too big for him, including in the neckline- and he was beginning to think he’d shrunk a bit during the transformation. Dudley, meanwhile, squeaked as he overcame his paralyzing fear for long enough to try and hide behind his mother, who was crouching behind Vernon.
The giant looked over at Harry, and paused to stare at him.
Harry looked uneasily back, only too well aware that he was in the corner. He wasn’t too far from the door, though, so depending on how fast the giant was, he might have had a viable escape route.
The silence drew on for only a few seconds, but it was far longer than Harry might have liked.
Finally, the giant spoke. “Who’re you?” He sounded curious, like he hadn’t expected to see him. To Harry, that meant that he had known exactly who to expect in the hut.
Petunia’s voice cut like a knife through the awkward silence that followed. “Hailey gets stagefright when giants stare at her,” she barked.
The giant turned to Petunia, who promptly ducked behind Vernon again. “I’m not a giant,” he retorted.
Harry blinked. Petunia must have noticed that he’d become a girl- and she’d even given him a new name for it. That seemed… unusually kind of her. He took a breath, and concentrated on not letting his voice slip him up. “Could’ve fooled me,” he muttered. It was a lot easier than he had expected to sound natural. He looked up at the giant, who was looking distinctly uneasy as he glanced back at Harry. “Who are you, anyways?”
The giant seized on the new question with evident relief. “Rubeus Hagrid,” he introduced himself. “Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts.” He looked around at everyone, evidently trying to find something innocent to turn the conversation to. “What about that tea, then, eh? I’d not say no to somewhat stronger if you’ve got it, mind.”
Nobody answered. Harry raised an eyebrow.
Then the giant’s eyes fell on the fireplace. He snorted and stepped over to do something to it. Harry couldn’t see what he was doing, but when he stepped back a second later, there was a roaring fire in the grate. He returned to the sofa and pulled a large number of objects out of his pockets before he returned to the fireplace to start making tea and cooking sausage.
Harry walked silently to the sofa and sat down, adjusting his shirt again and cradling his arm in his lap to help alleviate the pain. It would go away after a good night’s rest; sprains and dislocations always did, for him.
The sausages were about reaching the point where Harry- who had cooked for the Dursleys many times- would have taken them out of the fire to check when the giant turned to look at him again. “Yer… Hailey, right?”
He nodded. It definitely seemed like that was what he was going to be calling himself for now.
The giant stared at him for a few seconds. “Then…” He looked at the Dursleys, and the wide-open door Vernon and Petunia had come in through. Then he looked back at him. “Wait, you’re Harry, aren’t you?”
“Y-No,” he answered. “I have no idea who you’re talking about.”
The giant scowled. “Then why do you look so much like Lilly?”
“Lily who?”
“Lily Potter,” he answered promptly. “Harry’s mother.”
He nodded slowly, thinking. “Ahh… Well, my surname is Potter as well. And I’m curious about how this morning’s letters plan on making it in a few hours.”
He gave a snort. “Nah, that’s why I’m here.” He drew a letter from his pocket with his free hand. “In-person delivery. Can’t miss it.” He looked at the face. “For Ms. H-!” He froze, staring at it. “Miss…? But…”
Harry allowed himself a giggle. It would never have worked when he was a boy, but his new voice made it sound just right.
Vernon suddenly found his voice. “Stop! Stop right there, Sir! I forbid you to tell the bo- the girl anything!” He made the word into an obscenity.
The giant looked at him, then back at Harry. “What…?” He looked at Vernon again, and stared for a couple seconds.
“The sausage is on fire,” Harry warned him helpfully.
He promptly removed the sausages from the fire, extinguishing them swiftly. “Ahh, they’re a little charred,” he observed, “but it’ll be alright.”
“Aaaand, the letter is on fire.” He’d dropped the letter in his effort to rescue the sausage, and it had landed a bit too close to the fire.
The giant yelped, holding the poker of sausages high in the air with one hand as he used the other to yank the letter out of the fire. He then dropped the letter on the floor and stamped on it to extinguish the flames.
Harry laughed at the display.
Finally, the giant checked the fireplace to make sure nothing else was burning and took a step away from it. He looked at Harry. “You’re Harry,” he stated. It wasn’t a question.
He rolled his eyes. “I’m H-Hailey.” He very nearly messed up the name, but managed to force his voice straight just in time.
The giant rolled his eyes as well, then flung the charred letter at him. “ ‘Ere,” he said. “It said Mister last night, but whatever.”
Harry caught it easily, adjusted his shirt, and looked at it.
Ms. H. Potter
The Floor
Hut on the rock, The Sea
He looked up at the giant. “You’re about to tell me magic is real, aren’t you?”
“Stop! I forbid you!”
Harry looked at Vernon. He already knew magic was real- but if he hadn’t, Vernon’s timing would have told him it was, even without the giant’s response.
“Ah, shut up Dursley, yeh great prune,” the giant said, waving the poker of sausages at him. Then he sighed, and turned back to Harry.
While he was doing that, Dudley fidgeted a little, watching the sausages flying through the air above his head.
“D-Don’t touch anything he gives you, Dudley,” Vernon told Dudley, moments before the giant answered Harry’s question.
The giant grinned and chuckled darkly. “Yer great puddin’ of a son don’t need fattening any more, Dursley, don’t worry.” Then he slid the sausages off the poker and onto a plate before he looked back up at Harry. “Er, Yes, I am,” he told him.
“Well that was easy enough to guess,” Harry mused. He opened the envelope, and pulled out the sheaf of parchment, but didn’t unfold it just yet. “So let me guess. Since you’re the… what was it? Keeper of Keys and something?”
“Keeper of Keys and Grounds,” the giant confirmed. “Call me Hagrid. Everyone does.”
Harry nodded. “Yes. Since you’re associated with Hogwarts, this letter probably is too?”
“Er- yeah.”
He unfolded the letter and, at last, read it. He turned the page, and started reading it too. The giant cast an awkward look around and finally turned back to the fireplace to put some fresh sausages on his poker.
Harry took his time with the letter, and debated whether or not he would mention Diagon Alley before the giant- before Hagrid- did. He decided not to, quite yet at least, and looked up. “So… they just send prospective students shopping lists? Seems a bit strange, if you ask me.” He shrugged- then quickly pulled up his shirt, which had sagged a little too far, glad that nobody was looking. He’d have to tie it off around his waist or something if he was going to be going anywhere as a girl. Not to mention make sure he wore the one shirt he had that still had usable buttons all the way up- the top two on this one were ripped out. Dudley never passed on the shirts that didn’t come with buttons.
“It’s…” Hagrid sighed. “That’s why I’m here. Most of ‘em don’t need any more, but the ones that grew up with muggles…”
“What does that mean about the owl expected by today?”
“Galloping Gorgons, that reminds me!”
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Ooh! Hey Haily!
I wonder...if it's a repeatable change, would Harry stick to a specific gender as he gets older? Like, maybe he decides to be Haily for a year?
Harry/Hailie : Uncle, I have known magic is real for quite a while now. Also, I have known for many years that you, my aunt, and my cousin are idiots who don't want me around. I figure you must have been charmed to keep me in your household, otherwise I'd have likely grown up in an orphanage, and likely have been EXTREMELY better off there than growing up as your servant and whipping boy.
The ability to turn into a girl seems random and unnecessary, just saying this Checkov's Gun better be important.
I'm guessing it was accidentally magic,
Which turned Harry into Haily
I hope this doesn't mean we won't be seeing gender fluid Draco. That was my favorite part of the last story.
10882320
Depends. Will Discord or Pinkie be teaching a class?
Hm maybe he should try warm water…
10882635
Heh, true
10882444
... Not quite. But it is true, the mechanism by which it works won't be revealed for some time yet...
10882445
Oh, we will be. Silversong was not only a fan favorite but my favorite character as well. She will not be going... though I do expect her to take rather significantly longer to actually appear.
Hailey is appearing mostly because I couldn't decide if my new Harry is a girl or a boy inside, so I decided to give him the ability to go between them, albeit a bit convoluted.
Bounce at 11? Having bounceable boobs at that age almost never happens. Even if puberty starts at 9 it takes time. Boobs don't just blow up like balloons short of Harry has magically built-in airbag boobs (boob-bags?) that inflate on impact.
10887375
Actually, I did my research. A lot of the girls that get early puberties like that are usually wearing a B-cup right around 11 years of age. Specifically, around 28-32B.
I wear 34A, and there's a noticeable bounce effect when I move violently without a bra. It's not one anyone else will notice, but it's one I notice and feel- and so, I fully expect it's one that Hailey would notice, even if the bounce was too small for anyone else to see it, even if they were looking.
I've got to agree with 10882335. I understand that swapping genders is a thing that this author likes to do, and has done to great effect in other stories, but it feels pretty arbitrary and forced here. I really hope that this aspect becomes critical to a major plot point in the future.
So I read the gate and on the implications of parallel worlds and the boy who disappeared so think I’m gonna read this as well
10888625
Personally I've always had issues with changes to the cast of source material like gender, sexuality, personality etc. Always smacks of someone liking on aspect of the character and not the overall character and being unable to like them unless they "fix" them.
Of course also use to song though some of the lowest dregs of Fanfiction.net so I've seen people use existing characters as little more that short cuts to avoid describing what an OC looks like. Its easier to say "Mary-sue looks exactly like character X" that to think of and write a description. Not saying this is what's going on, this is just the most extreme example.
I personally don't mind you use gender-bent Harry. But I do think the gender switching part in this chapter did feel too abrupted and forced. I mean it did not seem to go with the story's flow.
10889961
Agreed.
I loves me some good gender-bending, and I'll be the first person to say that my headcanon for Ranma ½ is Ranma winding up just as much male and female and the curse ceasing to attract water once that happens... but this really came out of the blue even before the sudden decision to have Petunia make up an alias out of nowhere.
It feels much easier to justify the transformation on a narrative level if the initial transformation does something like one of these examples:
(Even then, it's still a tricky thing to get right, since it's the kind of thing that works best as the driving focus of the story, and the story already has "Ponies at Hogwarts" in that role. Balancing two "can carry the story on its own" things like that in a single story is hard.)
This is really supposed to be established in the prose and at least foreshadowed so the transformation doesn't feel odd and out of left field. (eg. Establishing from as close to the beginning as possible that Harry has always felt something wasn't right, but couldn't put his finger on it, leading the reader to assume what's wrong is the lack of Magic in Harry's life, and then making "Harry isn't happy just being a full-time boy" as the plot twist.)
This is actually the more important part. If you've already used up your one free split from canon (in this case, "ponies open portal") and the gender-bending doesn't follow obviously and naturally from it (eg. Harry meets fillies. Fillies convince Harry that something "only girls do" is very desirable. Harry transforms so he can join in and that adds self-image and identity complications.), then you need to have some build-up first to prime the reader for it.
EDIT: Having now looked at the following chapter and knowing the approach intended for certain aspects of it (i.e. delaying revealing what the trigger actually is), I think there's room for less up-front explanation, but it's still problematic to have something that's so "can carry the story on its own" come so far out of the blue a whole five chapters in.
Ranma one halfing this shit, huh?
10890719
I agree. AUs work the best when you change ONE thing, and that causes a chain reaction where every change ultimately come from that one thing. "One thing" can be timeline split (What if Hermione went to Pomfrey too late during cat hair Polyjuice Potion incident?), or it can be universe property (what if events were set in Steampunk universe?)
It might not be that noticeable to anyone else, though. But to him, as a boy, he would notice the weight difference immediately.
10907778
Yes, exactly. They have a habit of feeling a lot larger than they are.
10900930
10890719
We have no idea what the "one change" from canon is, or if there is only one.
We know that Harry and Petunia are both behaving significantly different than normal.
As a quick example, HP:MoR initially looks like the one change was "Harry raised by a scientist family when Petunia changed her mind about who to marry", but much, much later we find that the one change happened decades before that.
If ponies split from earth in really old times -- old enough to become the legends of Atlantis and Poseidon -- then the one change and it's effects can be really, really old.
10925435
Yes, but then you run into the "can't be a butterfly effect connection" problem. The reader has to have sufficient feel that there's a single inciting cause for all the divergences, even if they can't tell how yet.
I don't get that sense here. It feels like a bunch of changes that, if they are related, are too distantly related for it to qualify.
(Remember, it's about the state you're maintaining and evolving in the reader's head, not the state in the setting. I still need to get back to HP:MoR and it's been a while but, from what I remember of what I have read, I seem to remember it never leaving the reader in that sort of in-between state but, instead, juggling them from "I see what's going on" to "Wait, do I? I'm captivated by the mystery" to "Ahh, so I was only seeing part of the bigger picture" without stepping through "These feel like the author tossed together unrelated changes".)
10925480
And also the “cannot faithfully write prexisting characters” problem. That, and future events I’m already planning for, is the main reason so many characters (ex. Harry, Hermione) are so different. As for Petunia coming up with the name, that was part of her effort to convince Hagrid that the target of his search wasn’t present. It would have been mighty suspicious if she didn’t have a name, or had to make one up on the fly, after all.
The point is, HP:MoR started with "What if Petunia married a scientist". Dumbledore, when we find him, seems different as well. We find out, much later, that Dumbledore was responsible for her changing her tune.
Here, we start with "Ponies open a gate to Earth-Wands". And now we see that Petunia has a very different view on magic, and Harry has some sort of Ranma-ian curse. Heck, Harry and Dudly have a different relationship.
So we, the readers, are wondering what happened that Petunia is so different, and is her difference enough to explain Harry's behavioral change from subtle changes in upbringing?
I mean, can you imagine a "what-if" where one day, years and years ago, while Petunia was out with baby Harry, a muti-colored rainbow suddenly flew out across the sky, and Petunia, on seeing this, realized that she could not completely avoid the magic world no matter how much she was trying to shield her child from the thing that was responsible for killing her sister? Especially if, say, that was the first time Harry changed, and this time with Hagrid is the second? It would explain why Petunia was mostly unfazed by this, and had a name ready.
Make no mistake: Petunia regarded the magic world as killing her sister, as playing favorites, as being something to avoid because it was not fair or safe. She was trying, in her way, to protect Harry. She was horrible at it, but she was NOT an evil or malicious person. Just misguided, and misinformed.
So what if the "one change" was "Way back when, when Rainbow did her Sonic Rainboom, some of that magic leaked out, and now this portal is just following that existing crack in the world"?
I’m getting whiplash from this very random thing with the gender bending you randomly threw in here. Frankly it just well turns me off. I am fine with the story being about ponies finding a way into the potter verse but it seems like you are just adding weirder and weirder things that just don’t feel like they should belong in the story.
Why in the world do you need a genderbending subplot? What is the point of this?
10994519
To make you ask.
Not really. It's partly because it gives me the best of two entirely different but similarly amazing community (MLP and LGBT) as a majority of my readership... and it's partly because my own life has one too, albeit without the physical transformation. I'm still working on that one.
So in the end... Why? Because that's what they felt like. Harry didn't feel like a boy, the way I was writing him. Just like, way back in the days of The Gate, there was another character that didn't feel like a boy, so got swapped... (His identity is revealed later in this story, and yes, he still gets swapped. Became a fan favorite "OC", actually...)
i have no problem with genderbender but the execution of this is horrible. there's no clear indication of outside influences and no introspection of harry's mind.
I feel like this is a snub at Joanne's TERF views. And I'm all for it! F*ck that bigot.
11416007
It wasn't directly... but I recognize the flags in your pfp, and they apply to me too, so it may have been subconsciously. Even though I don't follow them.
It could also have simply been that the Harry Potter books as they are read like a transmasculine narrative, but there are still several times that "male" Harry exhibits signs of disphoria, such as the only thing he likes about his appearance being an injury (explicit in 1st book canon).
Then of course, as you read on, you'll find that a very specific character later that ends up getting transfemmed as well... And of course in canon, "he" shows a lot of signs of dissatisfaction (though disguised) and even his wand wood is even one that very specifically favors wizards who are "in turmoil"... or otherwise perfectly fit the description of "uncracked egg".
I'm curious, since this is very early in a very long story. I actually only found this specific story because of it being in the Transgender Bronies group. I do know people other than the author can put stories in groups. And I know it would be spoilers for later, but does Harry turn out preferring to be a girl? It would be a big difference between preferring to be a girl and merely being unwanted sex changes that randomly happens.
11484711
Well... the sex change isn't exactly random... That is to say, there's a very specific trigger for it that he learns fairly quickly.
And yes, Hailey is one of my favorite characters, and it doesn't take long for her to realize that she likes it.
(Fun fact: Yes, I was the one that put it in the group. I think; it's been a very long time)