HP and the Fourth Traveler (working title)
Disclaimer: I do not own the HP universe; I do not want to, I just like playing around.
Summary! A stranger has come to the forest looking for the trio, he has been hired to figure out exactly what they are doing and see if he can help.
You will find NO Gary Stu here…while I will unashamedly tell you that this fic was born with the "What would happen if someone fairly like me were to be thrown into the mix during DH?"Idea. And this character does resemble me, even has my first name, he will not be favored any more than a main character should be. If I am so unwilling to give him my own flaws then I will give him new flaws. I'll tell you right now this isn't a Godlike!OC story if that's what your worried about, just treat this character with the same trust you would give to any new character that Rowling would introduce mid-book.
If you're looking for slash in the story, this will not be your cup of tea because by Harry&OC I mean that the OC develops a strong friendship with Harry, nothing more. It will be on the OC's POV for the most part but will probably have chapters or sections of chapter devoted towards other characters.
Canon Pairings can go to hell during this story, so don't expect any H/G or R/Hr rubbish.
Chapter 1: Following Sonar
"How can these Brits handle this kind of cold?" he thought while trudging through the snow, it was an agonizingly slow process and the small device in his palm only brightened its light every few minutes to show the general direction he needed to go. His sigh was clearly shown by the cloud of fog coming out of his mouth and he winced trying not to have his teeth chatter. A quick warming charm did little to alleviate the bitter cold and the ominous feeling that his toes might get frostbite soon. His feet sunk into the snow a good foot to the ground and made a horrible crunching noise that reminded him to cast a silencio on his feet before going on.
He wouldn't have very much sunlight left for the day and tonight promised to be grueling if he didn't pace himself more.
He needed to make camp, he hadn't tried to do it outside of a village in a few days and he wasn't particularly looking forward to the nighttime temperature. Looking around for signs of non-magicals or wildlife before casting a few privacy spells. Bringing out his tent he charmed it to set up and anchor itself into the ground, he dropped his rucksack and put the palm device back into his pocket, it wouldn't be much use until he started the search again.
With a quick tempus he learned the date was November 4th, he grimaced at the thought of what December would feel like. Starting a fire was no easy feat with incendio continuing to be nearly useless anywhere near the snow. Only once he was inside could he attempt a powerful burst to combust the wood he found, and even then he nearly set the tent of fire. He tried to remember the blue-bell flame spell that was taught during freshman year, however it was to no avail, and the incantation was unconnected to its Latin description.
Nostalgia proved to be a decent way to ignore the cold, thinking back to his school years. Fortunately they hadn't been tampered with too much so the memories were fairly fresh, apparently unlike his school the one in that most of the people in this country went to was a boarding school, Hogwarts was fairly famous in North America as well but the exclusive nature of the school made it more of a myth than reality to some.
There was no war being fought inside American borders so in peacetime the education was at its best; there was always the threat of terrorists or some fanatical pure-blood group but nothing on the scale that this Voldemort fellow seemed to be.
The first time he was told to pack up and get ready to go "across the pond" he was floored. Certainly the situation in Europe was not that bad? But apparently everyone here was incompetent, or in the least too complacent to fight a war. The Department of Magic was constantly being paranoid about attacks and defense so groups like this were likely never to leave the ground, much less gain any sort of popularity with large demographics.
Nevertheless, he had been sent to this frozen hellhole on assignment, a solo mission as well. He had planned on asking about that but by the time they shooed him out of the building and given him an international portkey he was already alone in the middle of Bristol attempting to figure out how the tools in his goody bag worked.
So far he knew what three out of five were for; he had a tracking device similar to non-magical sonar except with the frequency of general magical energy being tracked. The tent of course that shrunk and turned life-size with a single thought. Three rooms in all, a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom, he thanked his supervisor for the bathroom every few hours. The third was a nifty little gadget, reminded him of a flashlight, it was a pocket lumos made to float above the user's head or another designated area near his body and shine a three hundred and sixty degree light.
So far it had come in pretty handy at nights, at least allowed him to read in peace without having to nearly burn his tent down with candles and stray flame spells. The two he hadn't figured out were interesting; one was a glove that vaguely reminded him of a condor trainer's glove while the last was a pair of modern glasses that so far had done nothing out of the ordinary.
The only other items he knew were on hand were the things in his tent and what he supposed was a family dagger. He would search his trunk to see if he thought ahead to bring anything useful on this trip.
Dinner was a quiet affair, with soup being the main meal with a can of non-magical soda to top it off. It had been a pain to get any sort of money exchange when he was dropped off, he had been given a care package as a send off and then had to wire the rest from bank to bank with his written down passwords and account numbers, most of which were very new. It wasn't a lot, but it would keep him fed and warm for many months to come and his salary was still being paid, since officially he was still on duty.
Sleep came without much fuss, nightmares were docile and tame compared to some of the more distressing ones he had recently. He was blessed enough to wake up in the morning not remembering what he dreamt of, if a bit worse for wear. A cup of coffee and a chapter of "British Centaurs and why they are Dangerous" and he was ready to pack up.
With speed that only came from instinctual experience he magically packed everything within a few minutes, he heard the wildlife teeming in the morning, even if the cold was still a little bit frigid. Birds were singing and some deer tracks could be found and it was altogether a relaxing way to start the day.
He wondered briefly if he should be more on alert for Death Eaters, but surmised that if they could accidently find their way through his privacy wards without him realizing he would gladly let them curse him for his own stupidity.
He had always been the quiet but cautious type, relaxed on the outside but always careful in the back of his mind. It had garnered him a reputation as a fairly skilled duelist back in America, he was no master but he was not afraid of guerilla warfare here in the middle of the forest.
Heaving his rucksack over his shoulder he pulled out the palm device. A soft blue glow pulsed out from it and a shining yellow dot was shown due east, something magical was in the area. Anxiety welled up in his chest, after nearly two months of searching he may have found them, it may have been a pipedream but there was little reason for anything magical to be this far into the forest. Creatures were not searched for by the device except when specified, and he doubted that any magical beasts would be found here anyway if he tried.
Walking briskly with renewed silencing charms on his feet and camouflage spells he honed in on the direction of the light of his device. He put it in his pocket when the light grew bright enough to be recognized, even if some sort of weird fog was in the area. He wondered if Dementors could possibly be this far off, if they were even close to a village they would have swarmed the place and used it as a breeding ground, the main worry is if dealing with one would be any different than his past dealings with a Lethifold.
He felt a tug on his senses and the device was telling him they were within thirty feet, but he saw nothing around. Out of morbid curiosity he took out the glasses and put them on, nearly laughing himself silly when he saw what was in front of him.
Clumsily flittering around a large tent were three individuals, maybe a year or so younger than himself and quickly casting charms that would make nobody aware they had ever been there in the first place. It was an impressive setup, though it looked like the girl…Hermione was the one doing most of the spellcasting while Potter and Weasley did the grunt work.
They all looked just like the British Ministry described, though Hermione looked a good deal more attractive than a "brown haired mudblood with white skin and dirty eyes." The bigotry was annoying and he wondered how these people could claim to be a world power being so backwards. Though to his amusement Harry did look an awful lot like a "scrawny black haired fugitive with eyes the color of the Killing Curse."
Harry looked frail, in fact all of them looked underfed and he wondered just how much they had been eating during this camping trip from hell. He had been searching for them and following their magical signatures and could never quite catch up until now, they were getting slower and weaker, not a good sign.
Wondering if he should really introduce himself and scare them to death and probably get cursed in the process, he thought "Oh what the hell, fortune favors the brave! Or something like that." and walked right inside their wardline. Unfortunately the glasses had not alerted him to the amazingly simple alarm ward that made some sort of siren as soon as he crossed over the wards.
He dove to the ground as multiple curses raced over his head and he disillusioned himself holding his hands over his head. "I mean peace!" was the official surrender phrase of all employees of the Department of Magic, hopefully it would mean something more than "blow my bloody head off!" to them.
"Identify yourself!" Hermione said, keeping her wand pointed directly at his chest, she was brave for someone shaking so much. Potter and Weasley had their wands up as well but looked a good deal less threatening considering they were nearly dead on their feet.
"Ally." It was a lame response and he knew it, but dramatics were too entertaining to pass up, besides, she wouldn't be fast enough to curse him if she tried…he hoped.
"Not good enough, are you a Death Eater?" Potter snarled, quite the temper on him.
"Would I have aimlessly walked over that wardline if I was a Death Eater?"
Whatever he thought the answer was going to be it wasn't what Hermione said.
"Maybe, they have a tendency to be pretty thick."
He couldn't help it, he laughed while the three younger magicals warily held their wands up in the most threatening manner possible. He continued to laugh and threw his wand at Weasley, hoping he wouldn't snap the poor thing in half.
He walked up the Hermione with his hands up above his head until he got close enough to nearly be touching her wand and held out his hand for shaking.
"Zane Maze at your service."
And the first chapter is finished! Please tell me what you think; though to be honest I'll likely continue it for fun anyway, I'm sure someone out there will get some fun out of this with me. Review would be nice, but don't feel pressured, since I know I sometimes don't either.
This chapter is terribly short, it honestly annoys me to no end that I have "He, His and Him" scattered all over the chapter but I was adamant and not letting you know his name until the very end of the chapter. The next one is already finished (though unedited) and I am starting the third as you read this, and both chapters will be at LEAST twice this length (excluding A/N's if you believe it, this chapter is the only chapter that will have this large a A/N.)
Chapter 3 will be out fairly soon, Siphoner is being slowly developed into something worth reading so hold tight for that.