Chapter 1: Never Pick up a Hitchhicker
Arch 1: Harry Potter and the Temporal Crack
A/N: I seemed to get a fair bit a traffic for the last chapter, and a couple of nice reviews to go with it so here we go, the first official chapter 1. If everything goes according to plan in this story it will be comprised of several 'story archs.' Meaning that essentially their will be little stories that take place within the larger scope of the tale. Some of them may only be a few chapters long, some of them will be much longer. As another note, I'm not from England, so my geography is going to be off, but given the time in which this story takes place, not much is going to look the same as it does now. Anyway, on to the good stuff and the reason you're here.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, promise.
It never ceases to amaze me how different the world always is when I wake up. Especially this time. After being 'asleep' for nearly a thousand years I might as well be on an alien planet inhabited with humans. The landscape has changed dramatically, some cities still stand in places but they're crumbling ruins of a far more advanced culture than the ones currently dotting the globe. Where parks once stood for children to play, now there are small forests, and grasslands that grow taller than I am. In some ways its more peaceful because there are so few people in comparison to how it used to be. But in other ways its far more dangerous too, especially since everyone owns a gun now.
I'm humming an old tune called Hey Jude to myself and walking down a gravel path that used to be a highway. Nature has reclaimed what man has taken from it. I'm guessing that all the radiation had an odd effect on the plant life since I don't recognize most of the trees anymore. They grow extremely fast now, I've actually sat and watched as a bush grew its way along a road in a matter of hours. And the leaves of some of these strange trees are massive, as long as my arm or longer in some cases. Towering evergreens now only grow about a meter tall, but there are millions upon millions of them. And the wildlife has evolved right along with it. I'm sure there was a period of adjustment, but life will find a way. Besides, its cool seeing monkeys in England, even if they have two tails and threes eyes a piece.
I'm about to stop for the night and set up a little tent I have stowed away in one of my pockets when I catch a whiff of smoke in the air. It could be a natural fire, but most of the leaves on these trees have a distinctly sweet smell to them when burnt; this is a campfire built with just the wood. I decide to keep walking and soon spot the orange glow of a fire up ahead and just off the road.
I approach quietly at first, some men have become monsters in this day and age and I'd rather leave them to their own mercies instead of having to kill them if I can. My fears are put to rest as I see a family of three sitting around the fire about to put something on to cook. I start making much more noise as I approach, not wanting to give them a shock.
The father hears me first and grabs for an old hunting rifle he's kept near by. "Who's there? I don't want to hurt anyone, so if you mean us harm I suggest you keep walking."
I raise my hands up in the sign of surrender as I step out into their little clearing. "No harm meant, just curious and traveling, that's all." He seems to relax at seeing how young I look and lowers his gun.
"That's a good way to get shot these days lad. We could have been bandits, or god forbid, cannibals for all you knew."
I give him my best smile. "I wasn't too worried, I scoped you guys out before approaching. If you looked the mean sort I'd have went on my merry way."
He nods and sets his gun down, his wife and son are starting to look relaxed again. "I really don't mean to bother you all. I'm more than happy to move on if it would make you lot more comfortable."
The man waves away my comment and approaches me with his hand out to shake. "My name is Alex, and this is my wife Tabby, and our son Marcus."
I shake his hand. "I'm Harry, Its a pleasure to meet all of you. I smelled your campfire and just thought I'd come and take a look." They have what looks like a small tent made out of animal hides set up behind the fire. It can be put up and taken down in a hurry, and is durable enough to keep any weather out. "Are you all traveling? There's a nice little town about ten miles on down the road. They usually let anybody in as long as you promise to behave yourself."
The relief I see in his eyes is evident. "We were part of a little community up until about a week ago. Strange things kept happening at home, and it seemed like it was getting more and more dangerous by the day so we left. I have Tabby and Marcus to think about, I don't want them hurt." He looked around nervously. "Of course, I can't say we're any better off out here really."
I nod in agreement. "This world is a tough one to grow up in that's for sure. The town up ahead is called Good Springs. I'm sure they'd be happy to take you in as long as you can make yourself useful and don't cause any trouble. There's quite a lot of kids around Marcus' age too."
The little boy looks up at his father with a hopeful smile. "Can we see it daddy? Can we go to the town Mister Harry is talking about?"
He shares a look with his wife and nods to his son. "We'll head that way first thing in the morning son." He turns back to me with a smile. "Would you like to stay for dinner Harry?"
"As long as its no trouble I don't see why not. Any chance you'd be up to telling me whats going on where you're from. Strange things have always interested me."
"I don't think that will be any problem at all." We set about getting dinner ready. Alex retrieves a skinned animal from around behind the tent. Its about the size of a large dog, but its built more like a bear, thick and knotted with muscle. I'm sure its some new species that's popped into existence over the last thousand years but I choose not to comment on it. I pull out a knife from around my belt and proceed to quickly cut it up into different pieces, seasoning it with some herbs I've collected before placing it on a spit over the fire. With a little bit of subtle magic on my part I coax my heat out of the flames and the animal is soon roasting.
"So why don't you tell me some about what's been happening at your old home while we wait for this fella to cook?" I take a seat in front of the fire with the family and wait on Alex.
He takes a drink of water from an old battered cup before speaking. "About a month ago a strange storm came over us. There were no clouds but lightning struck no less then nine times in the exact same spot. There's a black crater in the ground from it. Within a day or two the lightning had reappeared and just seemed to float in the air over the spot. It would shimmer like a mirage, coming in and out of focus at different times during the day. Then we started to hear strange noises coming from the lightning."
"what do you mean by strange noises?"
"Growling and scratching sounds, like a wild dog trying to get into your house at night, but much, much larger." Alex looked shook up at the thought of it and ran his hand through his long red hair. "Then, one morning we saw claw marks at the base of the crater, like something was trying to escape a cage, before being pulled back in."
I sit quietly for a few minutes, digesting what he had told me. I really wanted to follow up on this Tom fellow, to see if it was really him, but it sounded like something very serious was going on there. "Could you point me in the direction of where you used to live. Might sound a bit barmy, but I'm curious to see it for myself."
Alex looked at me like I'd lost my mind. "I wouldn't suggest it. About half of us left last week. Some were to stubborn to move on, but I don't know if you'll find anyone there now."
I give him my best winning smile. "That's fine, like I said, I just want a quick peek before heading on. I have pressing business up north anyway; I couldn't stay long."
He tells me where to go as I pull our meat off of the fire and pass hearty chunks around to everybody. "Its just West of here. Probably ten or twelve miles. The trail forks a few hundred yards farther down. Just take the left path and you'll be on your way."
After what he told me we all sit around and eat. After the serious conversation I decide to lighten the mood and tell them all some stories of me growing up in this wasteland of a world. I always seem to be an orphan too, no matter how many times I ride this rodeo.
After we eat I bid them fair well, reminding them again which direction Good Springs is in. I take another hour or two of walking; balls of white light hover in front of me to show me the way. Later on I set up camp off the road by about half of a mile and bunk down for the night, sending out a short prayer to who ever might be listening for no nightmares tonight.
THIS IS A SCENE BREAK
The next morning I jerk awake in a cold sweat, more nightmares starring Hermione. I really gotta stop using the name Harry Potter for a while, its giving me to much of a headache. I stand and get dressed before heading outside and collapsing my tent, storing it in one of my huge pockets. I'm not very hungry after the nightmares I've been having so I decide to hit the road again.
The trip is uneventful. 10 miles is not much traveling distance anymore, people have gotten used to going it on foot these days. Its a miracle to find a horse that is pure stock anymore. The muties are way to aggressive and can be unpredictable.
As noon draws near I can see smoke rising up in the distance, several different plumes of it. I decide to enter town in my animagus form first to get a feel for things. One second I'm a young handsome wizard powerful enough to take on the world. The next I'm a massive gray wolf with a patch of white across my face. I slink up the road in a run and make my way between two dwellings to lie down in the brush; and see what I can see. There are six people standing out between the little houses, two of them are arguing about something.
"We can't stay here! You've seen what's happening. Any day now somethin' awful with big teeth is gonna spring up out of the ground and eat us all!"
"I've lived here for thirty years and I ain't movin' now. Ain't no damn thing gonna come out the ground. Just the lightning makin' noise you pussy!"
Two men were the cause of all the noise. One of them looked relatively young, probably around thirty. The other one was old, what hair he had was white. He had to be pushing sixty at least, and that's damn impressive in this world.
The younger of the two gives the old fella a shove. "Fine! Piss on ya then! I tried to convince your old arse to leave with us but you can just stay and rot!" He stomped off into one of the houses, another person, I'm assuming his wife, went in with him. After the old man made it back to his feet, grumbling about today's youth, a few more people walked out and looked around. The little village had about ten people still living there. One would have been enough for me to stop and help.
I Slip back into the woods a ways before shifting back into my human form and reentering the village, this time by the main entrance. Everyone stops and stares at me as I approach them all. They're skittish, and I can tell no one has been sleeping well lately. One of the younger men pulls out a side arm. Nothing quite as Impressive or powerful as the revolver I carry at my side, but bullets tend to kill regardless of what size they are.
"Whoa now, I don't mean you guys any harm. I was just down the road and heard an argument and thought I'd come see what was happening."
"Well you can just keep walkin' and mind your own damn business." The young man, I realize now that he's probably no older than sixteen points his gun at me. And older woman walks up behind him and smacks him on the back of the head.
"Put the damn gun down junior, before you shoot your foot off." He looks abashed and quickly holsters the gun.
"Sorry mum, we're all a little jumpy." She sighs and rolls her eyes at her son.
"Excuse my boy sir, he gets a little big for his pants sometimes. Takes after his father, just doesn't have the muscle to back it up yet." She ruffles his hair and approaches me, ready to shake hands.
"My name is Jean, my boy there is Arthur."
I gladly shake her hand. "My name's Harry. If you don't mind me asking, what was the fighting over?" She glances back over her shoulder and I realize I can see blue light faintly dancing through a thin patch of trees.
"Maybe it would be easier to show you Harry, I doubt you'd believe me otherwise."
I smile at her, she reminds me of an old friend's mother, damned if I can remember his name though. "You might be surprised. I saw a lizard the size of a bus a few days ago. Not much is surprising anymore."
She laughs. "A bus? Well, we don't have any big lizards around here, just follow me and take a look." She guides me through the center of the little village and into the clearing through the little patch of trees. My heart leaps into my throat at the sight of it.
A patch of electricity about two meters across and three meters tall is floating in mid air over a patch of burnt and indented earth. Its swirling and spinning. The slight smell of ozone accompanies it and so does a slight buzzing sound.
"Has anyone touched it yet?" Jean looks at me like I'm crazy.
"No, no way in hell. We've all been staying away from it. Been able to ignore it for the most part, but now, with the noise-" as if the floating ball of electricity doesn't like being talked about, a deep angry growl issues forth from the electricity. I can see the claw marks that Alex mentioned the night before.
Cautiously I approach the floating mass of electricity. With a thought I use my magic to allow me to see the energy issuing from the mass. In ages past it was called mage sight, but I doubt there's another soul alive that knows that term, well, maybe one other.
As I feared it looks to be a tear in the space time continuum. A hole tore open from who knows what. Right now it was very unstable. It didn't open up to any time in particular, but I could tell that it was adjusted for the past, nothing from the future would step through. I looked closer at the massive swirls of energy coursing around and realized something. You see, most tears like this are tiny, microscopic in size actually, and they're fairly common. This one somehow ballooned to a million times the normal size, and it seemed to be stabilizing on its own. That could still be dangerous. The last thing I want would be for someone like Hitler to come waltzing through with a couple dozen tanks. Compared to today's level of technology, he'd be almost a god to these people.
While the tear stabilized, it would open up to several different periods in history, probably for just a few seconds each. Unfortunately, I don't think I could close it if I tried. Time is a fickle thing. The only other thing I could really tell is that this is the end point of the tear, I wouldn't be able to travel backwards, only something in the past could come forwards.
"This thing is a nasty piece of work. Keep everyone back please."
"Why, do you know what it is?" Jean looked very confused and slightly afraid.
"Just trust me for a few minutes, I'm going to approach it." I stretched out my magic until it was focused into an invisible glove over my left hand, hopefully it would protect me. I walked forward, and after a moment's hesitation, I stuck a finger into the tear. As I suspected, it wouldn't take me anywhere, what it did was much worse.
A thousand images flashed in my mind all at once, It felt like eternity and only a moment at the same time. I grit my teeth and pull my hand away, which is smoking slightly and looks several years older than the rest of me. I look at it fascinated as I take in the additional wrinkles and wear on my hand before it reverses itself and returns to normal. If I had been anyone else what I had just seen would have driven me insane. Lucky for me I've already lived through most of history, I guess lucky anyway.
"You guys need to stay back away from this thing. It could very well kill you if you stumbled and fell into it." I shake my hand to get the rest of the tingling to stop and turned to face Jean.
"Do you have an idea as to what it is? No offense Harry, but it seems awfully strange for you to come along like this right when we were all about to pack up and leave."
"I ain't going anywhere!" The old man spoke up again.
"Shut up Horace, no one cares!" Jean's reply sends a nervous laugh through the small group.
"To be honest with you I met Alex up the road a ways and he explained what was happening here. I decided to take a look for myself."
I turn back to the tear and study it again, wondering how it got here.
"Do you know what it is? We're kinda desperate. Most of us have lived in this little community most of our lives. We're small so no one bothers us, and they're hasn't been any danger around in years. Well, other than the wildlife."
"Yeah I know what it is Jean." I take a deep breath and sigh, here comes the hard part. But at least the statue of secrecy hasn't been around in centuries to muddle things up. "Its a tear in time. Essentially this is one end of a tunnel, the other end is constantly fluctuating through time, so just about anything could walk through it from any when."
Despite the fact that Jean is probably not very well educated, she seems very intelligent and grasps the concept.
"But how is that possible? And how do you know?"
"Your first question is harder to answer. Usually these things are so small you can't even see them, they're not big enough for even a bug to fly through. I honestly have no idea how this one got so big. Your second question is much easier to answer. I'm a wizard."
The people around me stop their murmuring and stare at me like I've grown an extra head, or maybe two for that matter. "That's horse shit! A wizard? Do you take us all for a group of idiots?" Its Jean's son again. His mouth seems to be to big for his face.
In response I flick my wrist at him and he shifts and changes rapidly into a pig. After squealing loudly and taking off in a run away from me I wave my hand and he shifts back, stumbling and falling since he is no longer built to run on four legs.
"We have always existed, since long before the great cataclysm that changed this world so very much. But we are far and few between, especially these days." I wait for their reaction. Sometimes I'm chased off when I tell people I'm a wizard, sometimes they try to worship me like a god. The latter is when I leave voluntarily.
Jean looks at her son to make sure nothing was hurt but his pride before turning back to me. She walks closer, almost close enough to touch me.
"Will you help us?"
Well there you have it folks. I know these chapters aren't super long, but I'm just now getting back into the swing of writing from a long hiatus, so I expect them to grow in size as I get the hang of things again. Any questions that don't interfere with the plot will be addressed at the beginning of the next chapter. As I side note the reason Harry told everyone he's a wizard is because to help them, he's going to have to use magic. Better to get the explanation out of the way first instead of worrying Thank you to all the people out there that read this, even if you didn't leave any reviews, I'm fine with that. But I would like to know what you all think, so if you feel up to it, leave me a comment with that button down there at the bottom of the page.
Til next time.
Preview of a future chapter:
I look at the beasts before me, eyes sharp and slanted. A clicking sound issues from their throats as they look me over, a deadly intelligence glinting in their eyes. The creatures, each standing at least eight feet tall, tense before they pounce.
"I fucking hate dinosaurs."