He shakes his head. "No one. I took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter the Dursleys... If I'd known..."

...He isn't sure how to respond to that.

"An' You-Know-Who... disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see... he was gettin' more an' more powerful—why'd he go?"

"That's very strange."

"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.

"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Victor. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on—I dunno what it was, no one does—but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."

Hagrid looks at Victor with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes.

...that is a whole new kind of frightening.

But -

If he somehow defeated this evil wizard when he was just a baby, he had better act like the sort of person who can defeat evil wizards, hadn't he?

"So, er, ev'ryone knows about yeh, and when they see the scar they'll know who yeh are. That's why they want ter meet yeh, shake yer hand. Yer a hero."

He nods thoughtfully.

"I see. Thank you for explaining."

"O' course." He gets up again and stretches, and the sounds his joints make at the crack are even more ominous than the ones made by the chair. He seems unperturbed by this, and says, "Well, we should get goin', then, but we got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves."

"Thank you," says Victor.

The afternoon is winding down as they make their way through London (after bidding an empty Leaky Cauldron and its bartender Tom farewell), and they stop so buy a hamburger and sit on plastic seats to eat them. 

This is good.

They finish eating and finally return to the station. Hagrid helps Victor onto the train that will take him back to the Dursleys, then hands him an envelope.

"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts," he says. "First o' September—King's Cross—it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer... raven... he'll know where ter find me... See yeh soon, Victor "

This is... less good.

But there's not much he can do about it.

"Thank you," he says. "See you in September."

Victor's last month with the Dursleys is... different. Dudley's now so scared of Victor he won't stay in the same room, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon don't shut Victor in his cupboard, force him to do anything, or shout at him—in fact, they barely speak to him at all (although a few times he catches what look suspiciously like guilty looks from Aunt Petunia). They act as though any chair with Victor in it is empty.

This is somewhat unsettling but much better than it could've gone. He does all his chores without being asked, and takes very good care of his raven.

The raven is particularly terrifying. They stay well away from it.

And eventually it's August thirty-first.

"I need to be at King's Cross Station in London tomorrow at eleven o'clock to catch my train," he says, in case his aunt and uncle need reminding.

Uncle Vernon grunts.

That will have to do, he supposes.

Uncle Vernon actually speaks before he leaves, though.

"Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"

It seems safest not to respond to that one.

"Where is this school, anyway?"

"I think it's in Scotland."

"How do you get there? Which train?"