A/N: Greetings to all reader.
After a long hiatus, I'm back. For a while anyway. While the rest of my fanfic that I have on his account gets a quiet face-lift (whenever I actually have the time), this will be my newest fanfic. I currently have approximately 15 chapters of this written (unedited, unfortunately) and will be posting each chapter up as soon as I get the time to edit them (and get my lovely unofficial beta to look through it as well).
I know what you're thinking now. 'Another rubbish Harry Potter fanfic. How cute.' Yes, it is a actually a serious attempt at putting a person from our world into that of Harry Potter's and seeing how he fare.
Honestly. Wouldn't you like to know?
Summary: Have you ever wondered how you would react if you were Harry Potter? John used to. But now he didn't have to.
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Chapter 1:
It was a nice day.
Or at least it would have been, he grouchily thought to himself, if only he wasn't where he was at this moment. He should have been in bed still, peacefully and gladly getting some well-deserved rest after the frenzy from the night before; doing last minute research on DNA and the Human Genome Project had been more than draining. Yet instead of being perfectly cocooned in la la land, here he was, six am on a Saturday morning, standing foolishly at the side of a reservoir. At least, foolish would be the word that he would use to describe someone if he saw someone standing alone and desperately trying to do some last minute stretching exercises to prevent his muscles from cramping up (as they wont' to do) later. He carefully controlled his facial expressions so that he looked composed and calm on the outside. But inside. Oh, inside. He was seething. He was thinking of various homicidal thoughts regarding his friends.
"Hey, John!"
There was an overly-enthusiastic pat on his back, which made him stumbled forward and almost fell over. Daniel, Joel, and Adam had apparently, decided to arrive together. He dropped the calm expression and scowled.
"Hey yourself. They three of you are late, man. The race's starting in 10 minutes," he replied irritably.
Daniel pushed his spectacles up his nose and frowned at him.
"We were way ahead of you. You're the late one. Late and lost, mind you. All of us were looking for you. Where the hell did you go?"
John looked incredulously at them. Really? That was the excuse they were gonna use now? Putting the blame on him?
"We agreed to meet below the banner! This is where the banner is, in case you need to change your spectacles. Again."
They three of them looked up. Adam sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Come on, man. We got five more minutes till it starts. Doesn't matter who's late or whatever. Let's just get going before it begins without us."
The route of the race was simple enough. It was a 9km run from Harbour Front to Kent Ridge park. Termed as the Southern Ridge Trails, it was a well-known route that runners took whenever they felt like running.
Unfortunately, John really wasn't the running sort of person. In fact, he despised it with the passion of a thousand burning Suns. If it wasn't for the cunning manipulation of certain people in his current company…
He narrowed his eyes and glared at the head of brown spiky hair in front of him. Said hair did not catch on fire, much to his disappointment. Joel knew perfectly well his penchant for panting and general bad mood whenever running was a stipulated requirement for a certain examination. But that definitely didn't stop him from tricking him into signing up for the race. Nu-huh. In fact if anything, it encouraged him.
Sometimes, John thought it must have been Joel's motto to torture him with as much running as possible.
"Running is good for you, you know. You should do more of it!" Joel cheerfully exclaimed, as if he could hear his thoughts.
But still… He supposed it could not be too bad. The three of them were there with him at least. Although he had no doubt that they would actually (god-forbid) enjoy the mindless movement of one leg in front of their other in a sufficiently high speed rather than despise it like he would.
"Welcome, all participants, to the annual Cara Lito Junior College Race! The race is about to begin in three minutes' time. All participants please proceed to the starting line quickly!"
Following the crowd, the three of them was able to get a rather good spot (in his opinion anyway) somewhere in the middle of all the other rest of the excited population of runners from Cara Lito Junior College. The horde of them was wearing their school's usual Physical Education attire, according to the different sports houses that they were assigned in their freshman year (red, blue, green, or yellow). Daniel commented that he would rather they be in front. He, apparently, had an actual desire to win the said race. John had a feeling that Adam and Joel both agreed, but did not really have the chance to say anything, as the horn soon sounded and they all set off.
The surge of crowd made it difficult to manoeuvre themselves at first, but the four of them soon found themselves at the front, which unfortunately for John was the unofficial vote from the majority. Leaving the rest of the crowd behind them, they ran at a sedated pace, knowing that they would need their strength later on in the race and that dashing off was a good way to end up losing in the end.
Trees, shrubs, and the occasional cars passed them. No words were exchanged between them, saving their breaths for later on.
John easily matched his friend's pacing. It wasn't the first time the four of them ran together, and it definitely would not be the last time either. Three of them were in the school basketball team, one in the swimming team and unfortunately, both of their coaches were close friends and seemed to enjoy seeing the basketball players and swim team run rounds and rounds around the court. More than they actually played basketball or swim sometimes.
His legs began to ache, and his breath began feeling like he'd left them one or two kilometers back on the trail. His friends slowly began to pull away, Joel smirking at him with mischief in his eyes.
"Come on, John! My old grandma runs faster than you are, right now. How are you going to catch Tracy at this rate?"
John did not really hear what Joel said, given the pounding in his ears from his frantic heartbeat. He did hear the name 'Tracy' though, and he flushed red. Redder. If that was even possible, given that his face already had an over-abundance of blood.
"Yeah, Joel. Funny you should mention her. As if you can even catch a ball thrown by Tracy, much less catch up with her."
Tracy, being the leading track and field runner in CLJC, could run faster and further than anyone else. They were also, coincidentally, in the same class. During a rather impromptu game of volleyball started by the class president, Tracy and Joel found themselves on opposite team. During a particularly hard throw by Tracy, Joel somehow missed the flying ball and it hit his face, sending his spectacles flying. Which wasn't even half the story. The spectacle ended up bouncing off one of the teacher's face before smashing on the floor.
Very humiliating. Especially when after that, he could not see anything after that, missing half the day's lesson. Tracy offered to pay for his spectacles of course, but he politely declined.
"Shut up, John."
He was still sore about that, apparently. A basketball player who couldn't catch a ball.
The sky seemed to get darker. Or was that just his transition lenses acting up again? He wasn't sure, but if he squinted he could just make out a few clouds that seemed as if –
From seemingly nowhere, a rock jutted out from the ground. And unfortunately, John wasn't really looking at where he placed his feet. His left foot caught the rock and with a rather sickening cracking sound, the said foot bended in a way that feet weren't supposed to.
One moment, he was staring at puffy grey clouds, partially blocked by the trees and the next moment, he was staring at the hard concrete pavement, left leg useless and drowning in immense pain. He sucked in a deep breath, trying not to make any sudden movements that would result in more pain, if that was even possible.
"Woah! You okay?"
It was Adam, staring at his foot.
"Oh no I'm just peachy. Just decided to lay down on the freaking ant-infested floor for no reason at all," he growled with gritted teeth.
"Looks like quite a bad sprain," Adam prodded at the rapidly swelling ankle.
John hissed, "Stop it."
The pain slowly subsided, endorphins and histamines kicking in to arrest the pain. John grimaced. He was half-glad and half-upset about it. He wouldn't have to complete the race, not with a sprain like that. But on the other hand, Joel was going to be a huge ass about it. Probably implying in not-so-many words that he sprained his ankle on purpose to avoid the race.
Daniel and Joel were already somewhere beyond their range of sight. Both of them had apparently gaining a sudden burst of energy and decided to sprint the rest of the way. Even if they were to return, they wouldn't be able be of much help. The closest first aid station was where the finishing line was.
"Just go on, Adam. I'll go rest over there."
"Are you sure?" He looked uncertain.
"Stop being such a wimp. Just go."
"Fine, fine. I'll get them to come back for you later."
And he was off.
Sitting under a conveniently placed pavilion, John contemplated absentmindedly about his sprained ankle and tried not to move his foot too much. He wouldn't be able to attend practice for at least a week like this. Maybe more. Most probably, even attending school was going to be a problem for the next two to three days.
A low rumble echoed through the sky. Fairly dark-looking clouds were turning darker by the second, each of them fusing together to form bigger ones.
The first few droplets of water hit the pavement. Rain started to pour in earnest.
It poured. And continued pouring. The sound was a constant roar in his ears. Each droplet fell fat and heavy on the ground.
John looked at his red and swollen ankle. The pain was muffled now, but he was quite sure that it would come back soon. He wasn't usually the type to sprain his ankle. In his entire eighteen years of life, he was quite certain that he'd only sprained it once or twice. Both were quite serious cases however, and required a trip to the hospital in case he fractured something. Thankfully, he never did.
Two other runners were in the pavilion with him. One was a guy with a red cap on, an impatient look on his face. He seemed like the type to continue running even the rain didn't allow them to see their hands outstretched in front of them.
A flash of light lit up the pavilion, which was quickly followed by a crack of thunder.
He turned his attention to the other runner, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor, her face pale. She seemed exhausted. Probably didn't do much exercising in her spare time. If she indeed, did any sort of exercise at all. She was skinny, but not in that athletic way. Just plain skinny, all skin and bones on her with hardly any meat. Her angles seemed all wrong too.
She reminded him of Tracy… Somewhat. These days, every girl seemed to remind him of Tracy, the girl that he admitted to himself that he had been observing for a while now. It wasn't anything too stalker-ish. He just liked looking at her; especially when she tied her hair up in a ponytail. It seemed to change her entire facial features, making them sharper and softer at the same time. It sent blood coursing through his veins, to places that he did not like to think about much and made him shift uncomfortably in class.
Unfortunately, they were both in their final year of JC, and he had yet to muster up the courage to ask her out. And given that his interests and hers were vastly different, they were most likely going to end up in different courses, if not totally different universities altogether.
There were only two universities worth going where he lived. John would, he supposed, try to at least go to the same university that Tracy was going. But chances were, she was going to an overseas liberal arts college. He thought it was a rather huge waste of time, personally. A liberal arts degree was hardly going to help her find a job, but it was her choice.
There was another flash of lightning, and a subsequent boom of thunder.
Vibrations resonated from his pocket. He took out his mobile phone.
It wasn't anything too fancy, being a free phone that came with his mobile calling plan, but it was workable. And most importantly, it had internet.
Joel had messaged him on Facebook, asking him if he had chickened out on the race.
John gave a long-suffering sigh.
/Sprained ankle, you dumbass. Try running with a swollen ping pong ball on your foot./
His eyes landed on the side of his timeline. He felt a little guilt about ignoring one of the requests to attend a Halloween party, but he had already a prior arrangement with some other group of friends. It wouldn't do ignore them either. After much debating with himself (he had a tendency to do that quite often, actually), he decided in the end to go for the one that didn't require him to travel long distances. After all, one never knew when the train would break down once again and cause him to be stuck from going home once the party was over. He definitely didn't intend to stay overnight at some random park.
A few flashes of lightning struck a tree barely a few metres away to his left. The sound of thunder was deafening and he flinched away from it, almost causing him to scream. Flinching when you have a sprained ankle wasn't a good idea, as he found out.
John stared. He hasn't seen lightning that closed before. He would be safe as long as he stayed under the pavilion, of course, given that it had a lightning protector. But still. It seemed as if the lighting was searching for something, striking at random patches of ground and increasing in intensity when it was nearer.
He shook his head. Since when had be gotten so paranoid? It was a ridiculous notion. Lightning had no consciousness and Thor was probably too busy with Loki and the other deities to care about some puny mortal in a puny country.
John took a glance at his watch. Water droplets were on its surface, together with some sand and dirt. It was thankfully, waterproof.
The numbers 6.38am gleamed green. It was usually the time when his sister would wake for her horse riding lessons. He had been thinking about it for a while, whether he ought to join her. But the idea of waking up early even on Saturdays made his bones ache.
He made to push up his spectacles. And at that moment, John suddenly realized that something wasn't quite right.
Because while his mind had been wandering around different topics, the two runners that were with him had disappeared.
He pondered on the ramifications of that. Had they decided to swim their ways back to the finishing line rather than wait the rain out? It wasn't entirely an impossible assumption. He just thought that it was a stupid decision. At the rate that the water was falling from the sky, they were more likely to get lost and end up spraining their ankles as well than actually finishing the race. It wasn't even possible to use GPS to navigate around when you could not even see one metre in front of you. Suspiciously, he looked around the pavilion. Didn't there used to be some trees at the back? Where were they now?
/Now wake up little girly don't forget what they said
The early birdy gets the wormy time to get outta bed/
His phone started ringing. He almost let it ring for a while longer just to listen to the pure awesomeness of the tune. But he supposed he'd better pick it up before the person on the other line ended their call.
"Hello?"
The sound of crackling was all he could hear, somewhat like that time when his sister and him used the computer for way too long and it ended up smoking.
"Hellooo? Who's that?" John tried again, in case the rainstorm had somehow messed up the signals.
He stood up and half hobbled, half hopped to one of the pillars, trying to get the person on the other line to answer.
"You know, the line is kinda wonky so if you can hear me, just sms me or something 'kay?"
Just as he was able to end the call, it happened.
A flash of light zipped down from the heavens. As if cracking opening a path in him, it made its way through his body. The sound of thunder, all so distinct, felt as if it came out from his throat. The rain was all but a distant white noise in the background.
Immediately, pain erupted from his head, most likely the point when the lightning entered. But it didn't take long for the pain to spread, down to his neck, paralysing his arms. His legs soon gave way, and he collapsed on the ground, his head feeling as if someone had deigned to split his head open with an axe or something of a sufficient weight. White-hot fire coursed through his veins and his bones felt as if a million fire ants were using it as chew toy.
Dimly, John remembered a much ignored old wives' tale; you should never use your handphone when there is lightning unless you wanted to be struck.
And struck he was.
Although it may have seemed like a long time, it was barely a second when another moment of pain hit (which made him remember something about the Cruciatus curse in the Harry Potter world for some reason). He would probably have knocked his head on the concrete floor in an attempt to black himself out.
But thankfully, his brain did that for him without prompting and he slumped over, unconscious.
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A/N: The fun really starts in chapter 2. Stay tuned! Leave a review too. It's all we poor fanfiction authors have, you know.