On the night before Hayden's birthday he sat up late making his brother a card. He and Harry always did this, it had become a tradition of sorts. They'd make each other cards from the paper in their school books and pencils they where supplied with. Then, in the morning they would give each other a card and sing the "Happy Birthday" song.

It was just like being given presents and having a party.

Hayden gently colored in the card he'd made for Harry and wrote a happy, cheerful message inside. On this card he'd drawn a wizard’s hat, it was fitting he believed, as they were supposed to be taken into the wizarding world tomorrow.

Hayden didn't believe it could be real. Whenever he told this to his twin, Harry would just shake his head and remind him of the day they appeared on the roof. Hayden conceded this point. Bert gently nipped his finger. Another thing he was unable to explain, Bertie Botts was incredibly well house trained.

Petunia wasn't too keen on having an owl in the house. She was actually quite mad about it, but said the twins could keep it if it only stayed in their room. So the owl would doze lazily on the twins desk and fly outside to go hunting or stretch its wings.

The Dursleys as a whole had been quite tolerant of late. Harry said it was because they were scared of them, and that they would stay this way.

But Hayden didn't want to get his hopes up, just in case they were crushed.

Stop being so melodramatic, Hayden scolded himself. You’re just really tired, it’s probably really late. Hayden had no way of checking the time, so he just finished coloring in the card and curled up in his bed.

He was just about to fall asleep when he heard a loud knock on the door.

Thump,

Thump,

THUMP

With each knock the sound grew louder. Hayden curled up into a tighter ball and just wished it would stop. But then something worse happened. Hayden could hear the tell tale pounding footsteps of his uncle walking, walking towards the knocking.

Muffled voices met Hayden's ear, and in the next bed, Harry's too. Hayden watched Harry wake to the sound of his uncle talking to whoever was at the door.

"Dursley, yer couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been a easy journey..." A deep voice said from downstairs.

"Who? Wha- but," Harry and Hayden could hear Uncle Vernon blustering, "How?!"

"I havn't introduced meself, havn't I now? Rubeus Hagrid, I'm here ter see der boys." The voice replied.

The twins quickly exchanged meaningful glances, and crept as silently as possible out of their room and closer to whoever it was at their door. Careful not to step on floorboards that were known to creak or tread to hard, the boys slowly walked down the stairs that they once lived under.

Then they saw him. The giant man their uncle was talking to.

He was a massive man, in fact he was twice as tall as a normal man and four times as wide. And that was no exaggeration either! Hayden had to crane his neck skywards to see him properly. The man saw them quite easy though. Very easily.

"Der yeh are!" The man exclaimed. "Harry come over 'ere, I havn' seen yeh since you were lil'" Harry let his curiosity get the better of him, and with his eyes trained on Vernon, he walked over to the man. Hayden hung back, he hadn't been called, and knew the man obviously didn't know him.

"Eh, I mean yeh too, Hayden. Yeh, come over 'ere. I got stuff for yeh too." The man said when he saw Hayden. Hayden walked over quickly. "Now Dumbledore tells me yeh've been talkin to him, and that you didn' know nuthin bout magic till yeh got yeh letter. He's told me I got to tell yeh all bout it."

"Um, yes, Hagrid, was it?" Vernon asked. "Right well, we didn't tell them about magic because we thought it best if someone with an in depth knowledge of er, magic, would. So how about you take them out for their birthday, show them the sights and teach them, eh?"

"Well... Would der boys like dat?" Hagrid said.

"Yes, sir!" The twins said immediately.

"When do you want them?" Vernon asked perhaps a bit to quickly.

"Well If they get dressed and ready, right away. I'll take em' on der Knight bus, It's a good learnin experience." Hagrid said. Both boys beamed and ran up the stairs, behind them they could hear Vernon telling Hagrid to keep the boys for a week.

They quickly shoved everything they thought they'd need for a day in their school bag, and dressed as fast as humanly possible. The whole thing only took a half a minuet. As the two boys rushed down the stairs to Hagrid, the only thing going threw their minds was the fact that they were allowed to go far away from the Dursleys and even become wizards!

"Alright lads, got yer things?" Hagrid asked in his big booming voice.

"Yes, sir!" The twins replied in unison.

Hagrid laughed, "No need to go callin' me sir! Just call me Hagrid." And with that the giant man they had just met led them outside and down the road. He led them away from the Dursleys.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hayden shivered almost to a violent degree as Hagrid led them to an empty street. He felt Harry grasp his hand, freezing fingers gripped tightly. They both watched as Hagrid took out an umbrella and shook it at the road.

BANG

A large purple bus just -appeared- out of nowhere, the twins stumbled backwards. Hayden was too frightened to speak, but that didn't mean Harry was.

"Wow!" he said in complete awe of the large purple bus. Hagrid just let out a rumbling laugh.

"That'd be der Knight Bus." The giant man told him. "Now come along, lads, you'll enjoy this!"

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shumpike, and I will be your conductor for this evening." Said the conductor, he was a boy who could of only been 15. Behind him stood a taller man, who had a notebook and pencil, which he scribbled in, every time the boy talked.

"Ello Stan! I didin know you worked for der Knight bus," Hagrid said.

"Ello Hagrid, yup, I started working dis holidays, part time job and al-" Stan said, but was cut off by the behind him making a polite cough. "I mean, please sir, where-abouts wassit you wanted to go to?" Stan said, looking out of the corner of his eye at the man Hayden supposed was his supervisor.

"Er, right we want to go to der Leaky Cauldron, London. How much do I owe yer?" said Hagrid.

"Eleven Sickles for you, and 6 each for the lads if they're under the age of 13." Stan replied, "But for firteen you get 'ot chocolate, and for fifteen you get an 'ot-water bottle an' a toofbrush in the colour of your choice." Hagrid nodded at this and dumped a mixture of bronze and silver coins into Stan's outstretched sweaty palm.

Hayden was amazed to notice that on the bus there weren't seats, but half-a-dozen beds. "'Ere you go, lads," Hagrid said to the boys and motioned to the closest couple of beds. "Yer best get some rest as we drive der." The two scrambled up on to their own, and sat cross legged in the middle. Exactly identical in every way.

Stan plunked the two boys small back-packs under their beds and motioned towards a hunched over man sitting in an armchair in front of a steering wheel."This is our driver Ernie Prang. Ern, this is a friend of mine from Hogwarts."

Ernie only grunted in reply and slammed the accelerator down, the Knight bus lurched forward with back-breaking speed.

__________________________________________________________________________________

"This is it," said Hagrid, as they got off the Knight bus, "The Leaky Cauldron. It’s a famous place."

Hayden's green eyes widened in wonder as Hagrid ushered his brother and him into the Leaky Cauldron. The tiny, grubby-looking pub was very dark and shabby for a famous place. However the people seemed nice enough, and all of them seemed to know Hagrid. A few of the old women sitting in the corner drinking what looked like sherry waved to him, and the barman smiled at him.

"The usual, Hagrid?" he asked kindly.

"Can't now, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business." Hagrid said and placed one of his giant hands on Harry's back. "But I'll be needing two rooms for bout a week."

"Right, room 43 and 44 are yours - Good Lord," said the barman stopped, peering intently at Harry, and then glancing over Hayden. "Are they? Can they be... Hagrid, is it them?"

The light buzzing sound of people chattering abruptly ended.

"Bless my soul," whispered the old barman, "it's Harry Potter and his Shadow! What an absolute honor Mr Potter!"

Chairs scraped as people rushed forward and shook Hayden's Twin's hand. They all seemed in awe of Harry.

"Welcome back, Harry, welcome!" One wizard said.

"I've always just wanted to shake your hand-" Said a witch, but was cut off as the next began to speak.

"I'm so proud, Mr Potter, so very proud."

Hayden watched as Harry grew more and more uneasy and confused. Stepping closer her grip his brother's hand, and was pleased to find Harry gripped back. He couldn't help but wonder what all these people were going on about, and why Hagrid wasn't stopping them. He just stood back and beamed.

Hayden gently nudged the giant, and when that got no response he elbowed him hardly. "Hagrid, Harry's scared, make them go away." Hayden said loudly over the noise of people clamoring to meet Harry.

"Er, right!" Hagrid said, only just noticing the boy's unease. " That’s enough, you lot. We've got things to do, you know."

Hagrid pulled the boys through the crowd and headed upwards towards the rooms. Most of the crowd backed off, put a few had to be gently pushed out of the way by Hagrid.

The sound of the crowd rang in Hayden's ears, only to be replaced by the slamming of room number 43's door.

"Er, righto lads. I reckon it's time I told you who you are, and why that just happened." Hagrid said. And took a seat on one of the beds. If Hayden wasn't so curious about Hagrid's tale he would of laughed at how the giant man caused the bed to take on a banana shape.

But he was very very curious.