Nick was lying on the ground unconscious. His eyelid fluttered, signalling the impending awakening. His fingers dug into the ground below him, dirt gathering underneath his fingernails.
His cheek was sore after lying on the ground for an extended period of time. Nick was unsure whether he should continue laying on the ground since it was rather comfortable to him, though his cheek protested. He opened his eyes, gazing out at the darkness which greeted him. A gasp escaped Nick as he shot upright as he recalled the events he last remembered. "What in the world happened?" Nick noticed the change in his voice. "What the Hell? Why is my voice so... childish?" He inspected his body quickly, not willing to be caught off-guard by any other changes to his body. "Right. The good news is that my entire body is intact."
Nick grimaced as he noted his findings. "Bad news is that I'm in a child's body. How that is possible, I don't know, but it's happened." He fiddled with his tiny fingers as he tried to understand why he wasn't panicking. "Huh, I'm surprised I'm not reacting to the situation. I'm usually such an emotional person." No sooner had he said that than the tears came pouring. "Oh," he put a hand to his face, pulling it away when he felt the wetness. "haha. There go the tears I was expecting." Nick abandoned himself to his emotions.
"I..." The tears trailed down his face as he wept, his body wracking with sobs. He thought no more of the situation, allowing himself to fall asleep from the fatigue setting in after an hour of crying.
-Line Break-
When Nick next woke up, he found himself scenting smoke. The smoke left a taste in his mouth that quickly had him off the floor. He had bled all of his emotions in the form of tears and sobs. His mental state was a far cry from being considered stable but he could at least think logically about the situation he found himself in. 'Something is burning. And I'm going to die from smoke inhalation. Yippee.' He attempted to relieve himself of the panic he was experiencing by being sarcastic. It didn't work very well.
Nick walked around the room, with his arms outstretched. 'This seems oddly familiar to me. Gee, it must have something to do with the fact that this is similar to my dreams.' Nick realised the stupidity of the situation. 'It seems like having the same dreams for two weeks and my apparent death leads to transmigration.'
The room was not completely dark as his dreams had suggested. There were vague flickers of light that shone through gaps above him. 'You know, now that I'm in control of the body, it seems fairly awkward that I never escaped from this room in my dreams. I mean, how did I not notice such obvious gaps above me?' He wondered about the dream. 'Had the dream been from the perspective of a child? Is that why I never noticed these things? Most children don't pay attention to detail so I can't fault the kid that inhabited the body before me for not finding a way to escape.'
Nick glanced at the gaps in the ceiling and noted that it was most likely a trap door. "I've found an exit but the problem I'm facing now is my inability to reach the said exit." Nick cursed the tiny body. "Of all the times to be a child, I have to be short enough to be unable to reach the exit. What's worse is that there's absolutely nothing here which would aid me in my escape." He continued to swear in every language he was fluent in.
"Is this going to be the real end for me? To die in less than a day after being transmigrated... I must have set a new record." Nick spoke in a depreciative tone. "I can imagine my tomb epitaph already," he said, muttering in a low tone. "Nick Banes: Death by smoke inhalation after transmigrating into a new body. Oh wait, I sincerely doubt I'd get an epitaph. They won't even be able to find me if everything is burnt down." He laughed humourlessly. He shook his head. "I refuse to die so easily. I refuse, I refuse and I refuse. Not changing my mind. I absolutely refuse to die." He clenched his fists, turned around and punched the wall. He regretted punching the wall as it hurt his knuckles very much.
He bellowed in anger, frustration and pain evident in his yell. Nothing was going right for him.
His emotional state more unstable than before caused an event he would have thought impossible. He teleported.
The sudden change in scenery left him confused but he swiftly gained his wits back. "Oh, I see." No, he didn't see. He was confused and he was doing his best trying to make sense of what had happened. "I've teleported." If it wasn't for the fact that the temperature was rising around him he would've continued to stand still. "Right, smoke and ash. Fire. Burning building." Nick reminded himself of the perilous situation.
"Okay, Let's make my way out of the burning building before it collapses on me." He took a deep breath as he ducked underneath a burning pillar of wood.
Nick was glad he had shoes on as broken pieces of glass cracked underneath his feet. Nick scanned the rooms he walked into and noticed that only a few were burning. He could hear the ticking of a clock. It reminded him of the impending doom of the building. He picked up his efforts to move through the building quickly. No time could be wasted for looking around. His cautiousness paid off when he finally made it out of the building, with several people outside pointing. He couldn't be more glad for his tiny size at that moment. He slipped out of their sight, the majority of the shocked onlookers never noticing the small figure sneaking away.
Nick eventually stopped running away from the building when he was certain nobody had followed him. He bent over panting, trying to catch his breath. 'Surprise, surprise. I've managed to wriggle my way out of a burning building that was supposed to be impossible to escape considering I was trapped underground.' He sighed, looking at his hands. 'I don't understand what happened. In fact, I don't understand what's going on with my life!' He began to rant in his mind, though Nick was certain that his facial expressions were enough to have people questioning his sanity.
After a few minutes of relieving his stress, Nick decided to contemplate his circumstances in a calm manner. 'I've transmigrated into another body. That's fine. I can deal with reliving my childhood.' He nodded his head as if he was not concerned about growing up again. 'I have magical powers that allowed me to teleport in my time of need.' He tapped his chin in thought but stopped after he remembered how dirty his hands were. 'It sounds familiar. Where have I heard about this from?' His musing was cut short when a large figure walked up to him.
"What are yeh doin' here alone? This is no place fer a child like yeh. Yeh should get home." The man pointed his umbrella at Nick, walking closer to him. Nick glanced around in fright, he did not expect anybody to talk up to him. "If yeh can't get home yehself, then I can take yeh to the Leaky Cauldron." After looking around like a frightened deer, Nick's eyes widened as he stared at the massive figure.
He knew who this man was. There could be no way. It was impossible for him to be in a world that was fictional. Right? Nick was speechless and the man took his silence as an affirmative. "Righ' let's go, I'll pay for yeh lodgin' for a single nigh' an' then yeh better be off on yeh way back 'ome." The man placed his hand on Nick's shoulder and pushed him along the pathway.
Nick was still too dumbfounded to say a word. He couldn't believe his eyes. "I must be dreaming."
"Wha's that yeh said?" Nick shook his head.
"Nothing." Silence ensued between the pair until they reached a lit portion of the street.
'How is it possible for Hagrid to be alive? Maybe I'm just overthinking things and this is the actor who played Hagrid.' He tried to come up with reasons to dissuade him from the belief that the Harry Potter world was real but he was grasping at straws. The evidence mounted up and Nick could no longer deny reality.
'Everything adds up. My teleportation must have been apparition.' He recited the explanation for his accidental magic off by heart. 'Accidental magic often occurs to magical children in situations of anger, confusion and when they are scared.' He may not have been aware of his apparition, but he had been in similar circumstances as Harry. They both felt scared and they both wanted to be in a safe place.
Nick and Hagrid eventually made it to the Leaky Cauldron. Hagrid was paying Tom the barkeep the necessary amount of money for his stay. After paying Tom, Hagrid patted Nick on the head with his large hands whilst grinning. "I've paid enough fer yeh to stay here for a nigh' an' yeh even get a meal an' a shower ter. I'll be seeing yeh in Hogwarts when yer old enough. I'm running ou' of time." He left the Leaky Cauldron hastily. "An' do make sure yeh get back ter yeh family!" Hagrid turned round to shout at Nick who absently waved goodbye to the broad back of Hagrid.
"Yeah... thanks Hagrid." He spoke quietly, not wanting Hagrid to actually hear him. It would be suspicious if he knew Hagrid's name even though he hadn't introduced himself.
Tom ushered Nick up the stairs of the pub and showed him the room he would be staying in for the night. "Off you go to bed. Hagrid's a good man and it would do you good to remember that. He's one of the most kind-hearted souls I've met." Tom stared at a wall with a vacant expression before turning back to Nick. "There'll be food for you in the morning after you wash up. The toilet is down the hallway." He pointed to the door with a sign saying 'Toilet'. "And by the way, try to keep your hair the same colour. It would be rather distracting for the customers." Tom climbed down the stairs after giving Nick the key to the room.
Nick held a puzzled expression on his face as he entered the room. He locked the door and threw himself onto the bed provided. 'What did he mean to keep my hair the same colour?' A hand went up to his hair, feeling the locks. 'I can't see what my hair looks like, it's too short for me to see. I'll look for a mirror when I'm not so tired.' He yawned, tired from everything that happened today. He placed a hand over his mouth, grimacing at how dirty he was.
Closing his eyes, Nick fell asleep without a care in the world.