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How did Hagrid meet up with Harry Potter to hand deliver his letter?
In Chapter 5 of the Sorcerer's Stone:
"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat.
"Flew" said Hagrid.
"Flew?"
"Yeah -- but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh.
We know that Hagrid prefers Sirius's motorcycle for flying, but that isn't on the little island. His broken wand and his limited education wouldn't enable him to apparate.
So how did he get there?
One thing is certain: It wasn't by broom or thestral. From "Deathly Hallows," Ch. 4, p.50 (First edition [the real, British one]):
Spoiler for context:
[Discussing which of the Seven Potters is with which protector; Hagrid talking:]
An' you're with me, Harry. That all righ'? ... We'll be on the bike, [continued in non-spoiler.]
brooms an' Thestrals can't take me weight, see?
And we know he couldn't just fly like Voldemort and Snape. So that leaves:
Sirius's Bike. We know he's used it before. But I don't think so:
Why couldn't he have used it once he got Harry? We know it doesn't count as magic because
it doesn't register on Harry's trace.
Harry didn't hear it. We know the bike is quite loud.
I don't think he was be good enough at magic to just send it somewhere else once he was done with it, so where would it have gone?
Animagism or self-transfiguration. He's not well enough trained to perform that level of transfiguration, and how would he get out of it? And we can be reasonably certain he's not an animagus, since it's not so much as hinted at anywhere.
Walking on water. If it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for Hagrid, right? I'm sure they have a spell for this. Maybe, but he said he flew. Also, if that's something he knows, it'd probably be simple enough that Dumbledore and even Harry would likely know it and use it when they get wet in the sixth book.
Mary Poppins style. As hilarious as this image is, I'm not so sure of it. Maybe.
Apparition. Like Jack says in the question, Hagrid probably can't apparate. But maybe he got Dumbledore or someone else to bring him, it does make quite a bit of sense. It may not be "flying" per se (in the books at least), but as far as a one-word explantion ("flew") to someone who doesn't know magic, it seems a reasonable choice.
Fawkes. I just thought of this, but I'm starting to think it is the most reasonable possibility. We know Fawkes can lift a great deal of weight, at least Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Prof. Lockhart. They probably don't quite add up to Hagrid, but I think Fawkes could handle him nonetheless. I'm sure Dumbledore would have instructed Fawkes to do that sort of thing, and that Hagrid was quite loyal enough to Dumbledore to do it. And he could have apparated back to Hogwarts as soon as Hagrid was on the island (As a matter of fact, Fawkes could have apparated him there directly from Hogwarts, but I doubt that because he'd probably have had to be in London for the rest of that chapter.). As for why not to use him to get back, I'm not sure. Maybe they didn't want Harry to encounter something so magical yet. Let him ease into the idea of being a wizard.
For now, I'm going to go with Fawkes.
From Quidditch Through the Ages:
No spell yet devised enables wizards to fly unaided in human form. Those few Animagi who transform into winged creatures may enjoy flight, but they are a rarity. The witch or wizard who finds him- or herself transfigured into a bat may take to the air, but, having a bat’s brain, they are sure to forget where they want to go the moment they take flight. Levitation is commonplace, but our ancestors were not content with hovering five feet from the ground. They wanted more. They wanted to fly like birds, but without the inconvenience of growing feathers.
We are so accustomed these days to the fact that every wizarding household in Britain owns at least one flying broomstick that we rarely stop to ask ourselves why.
Quidditch Through the Ages - Page 1 - Scholastic Edition
I'm going to throw out a guess that Hagrid flew to the island on a broom, based on the above information, stashed the broom in his magical moleskin coat, and took Harry back to London via the small rowboat the Dursleys and Harry had used to get to the island.
Yes, Voldemort can fly; aside from Dumbledore, Voldemort is the most powerful wizard alive and, as Hagrid points out, doesn't have much human left in him. Perhaps this is what enables him to fly. Snape flies in Deathly Hallows, but was also a very powerful wizard.
As for using the pink umbrella ala Mary Poppins, I think it's a cute idea, but is it realistic? Hagrid's wand was snapped in half during his third year, when he was expelled. We all know from Ron in Chamber of Secrets how well (not) a Spell-o-taped wand works, and the wandlore in Deathly Hallows indicates that broken wands cannot be fixed (so says Ollivander). Harry is only able to fix his holly/Phoenix wand using the Elder Wand, which he is master of. We all know that the remnants of Hagrid's wand are in his pink umbrella; his wand seems to work for him for simple spells, but I don't conclude that it's a very powerful wand in general, and I don't think it would be strong or stable enough to enable Hagrid to fly. Especially since there are no known spells enabling witches or wizards to fly unaided.
I err on the side of a broom. It's a flying object that can be transported back from the island in Hagrid's magical coat of awesomeness! Hagrid would never abandon an animal -- a Thestral -- alone on a rocky island in a storm; creatures mean too much to him. And I don't think he would have left Sirius's motorbike on the island unattended and open to the elements. So, for me, it's a broom.
ETA: 05.02.12 I found something interesting at Pottermore in the section about Vernon and Petunia Dursley. JKR talks about witches and wizards being able to "go across water," almost as if she's implying they can somehow walk across water.
Even though Petunia was raised alongside a witch, she is remarkably ignorant about magic. She and Vernon share a confused idea that they will somehow be able to squash the magic out of Harry, and in an attempt to throw off the letters that arrive from Hogwarts on Harry's eleventh birthday, she and Vernon fall back on the old superstition that witches cannot cross water. As she had frequently seen Lily jump streams and run across stepping stones in their childhood, she ought not to have been surprised when Hagrid had no difficulty making his way over the stormy sea to the hut on the rock.
[J.K. ROWLING - POTTERMORE - VERNON AND PETUNIA DURSLEY]
This is still unclear as to how Hagrid actually crossed the water, but I think it definitely rules out a broom. So I was totally wrong on that. However, it does confirm that Hagrid had enough magical ability to cross the stormy sea, either by leaping the full distance (I don't think we know how far out to sea the Dursleys and Harry are when Hagrid arrives) or going from rock to rock across the sea. Anyhow, it seems as if Hagrid was able to cross the water using only magic; I know it's still ambiguous, but it doesn't seem, in the context of JKR's words, that Hagrid used any devices (broom; Mary Poppins umbrella; boat) or transportation magic (portkey; Apparition; Floo), and as he was at that point trained in magic only to the third year level, I can't help but wonder if the magic he needed and used to cross the sea was just basic inherent magical skills. It's still not totally clear, but I think we're able to rule things out with this information.
I can't find any conclusive info; about the only real hint I've found is this quote:
“Be grateful if yeh didn’t mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts,” he said. “I’m — er — not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin’. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an’ get yer letters to yeh an’ stuff — one o’ the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job —”
That suggests he was using magic to follow Harry, which opens the door up to any number of possibilities that Harry, even in his years in Hogwarts, wouldn't know about -- anything from a transformation into a flying creature to something to allow him to travel in an immaterial form to his destination.
This is supported by the rest of your quote:
“How did you get here?” Harry asked, looking around for another boat.
“Flew,” said Hagrid.
“Flew?”
“Yeah — but we’ll go back in this. Not s’pposed ter use magic now I’ve got yeh.”
I still think a Thestral is the simplest answer (depending on it's size/weight limit), but we see hints all through the stories that magic is not limited to just what Harry has experience with, so Hagrid indicating a temporary license to perform it, has opened up a huge area for speculation. The next question, of course, being what actual skill/experience did Hagrid have, or was he somehow being bolstered by Dumbledore. But that's another question :)
I think Dumbledore set him up with a port key. He could go there and all that would be left behind is an old shoe, or maybe just a rock since a port key can be anything.
This answer is quite late, but i think the major issue with the other answers, is the reverence they hold toward JKR.
The quote is simple and straight forward.
How did you get here?
Flew.
He used magic and flew to the Island. How do we know he used magic?
“Flew?”
“Yeah — but we’ll go back in this. Not s’pposed ter use magic now I’ve got yeh.”
This is book one we the reader know nothing about magic, JKR has not set into stone all of the limitations of magic yet.
The fact that later in the series only Voldemort (Snape) can fly, has no bearing on the fact that in book 1, JRK states that Hagrid used magic to fly. Any other explanation is a Retcon of the work, trying to argue about Threstles, Fawkes, Brooms, the fact that you cant fly, doesn't mater when the book as written has none of these restrictions.
Its simply a plot inconsistency.
I had this as a comment at first, but I actually think I have a different answer, inspired by Izkata.
In the Wizarding Universe, there are a lot of magical objects (Mrs. Weasley's clock, Dumbledore's Light Put-Outer) that function kind of like electronic devices in the Muggle world but we don't see them much in the course of the stories (which makes sense since we're following the life of a Muggle-raised kid in a rarefied, weird school environment) so we wouldn't know about them. I think Hagrid probably used an otherwise unmentioned magical object to aid flight (perhaps with the help of his umbrella wand). It would have to be something smaller than Sirius' motorcycle, of course. Not going to get into the whole 'wait I thought it was not allowed to bewitch Muggle objects thing, Rowling', though.
I don't think it was a Thestral because riding one isn't inherently magic, which Hagrid mentions as something he's not supposed to do now that he has Harry.
This question amuses me. So here's my WAG: We know owls can find the rock. (One found it to deliver Hagrid's newspaper.) We know with an Undetectable Extension Charm you can put a lot more stuff into a bag than will really fit even if it is too large to even get in the bag's opening, and the weight is hidden too (see Hermione's bag for evidence of both of those things).
So, Hagrid got a small bag extended with an Extension Charm, attached a label to it addressing it to Harry, tied it to an owl's leg, and climbed in.
Mischief managed.
(More wizards would probably travel this way if it didn't cause most of them to suffer horrible airsickness. Surprisingly, Hagrid's ok with it, notwithstanding his experiences in Gringott's cart. That episode had more to do with his ingrained knowledge of the ricketiness of the carts and track, and his un-altered size and weight.)
Everyone seems to be forgetting a key plot point, perhaps one of the most important plot points in Harry Potter.
Dumbledore can fix snapped wands. Even Harry was able to do it using the Elder Wand, imagine what DUMBLEDORE must have been able to do with it. Surely he could have mended even a fully snapped wand in an instant. He probably repaired it and put it into Hagrid's umbrella shortly after it was snapped.
It's clear that the umbrella is at least as powerful as a working wand and Dumbledore could have easily enchanted it like a broomstick so he could fly with it Mary Poppins style. Normal broomsticks can't take Hagrid's weight but when the flying charm is applied by Dumbledore using the Elder Wand... well... very few things are off-limits when the most powerful wizard in the world uses the most powerful wand in the world.
