Inside the Veil was unlike anything Harry had ever experienced. After the first step there was no floor. He found himself floating. Opening his eyes, a kaleidoscope of rapidly changing images, some mundane and others fantastic, assaulted his vision. He saw gleaming cites and dark castles, a dragon ridden by a woman attacking an army and a man in black armor swinging a glowing red sword. The images sped and spun to the point where Harry couldn't discern any of them. He closed his eyes, took centering breath and found his feet on solid ground.
Immediately opening his eyes, Harry saw nothing but darkness. Respelling the light spell on his ring, he found himself in a large windowless room with dusty stacks of desks on one side and an industrial boiler on the other. Remembering hiding from Dudley once in their primary school's basement, Harry guessed that he was in the boiler room of a school.
Finding no immediate threat, he glanced at the lights on his watch. No red lights, which meant breathable air and a lack of radioactivity. The dark magic/threat detecting light was blinking yellow, though it had been doing that since he built the watch. The blinking was much slower than usual, so wherever Harry was, the threat to him was at least less than his last world.
Not needing it anymore, Harry started the routine of taking off his radiation suit. The sticking charms connecting his gloves to the sleeves were the first to go. The gloves might be enchanted transparent but they were thick and unwieldy. The face mask/rebreather came off next. Once the charms were canceled he pushed the hood back and took his first breath in this new world. It was warm and musty, not to be unexpected in a boiler room.
He quickly finished removing his radiation suit. A single charm separated the top from the trousers and split the seams in the back of both allowing him to pull them off like a stripper, leaving Harry wearing a tank top and shorts with the out of place additions of his utility belt and dragon skin boots. While the boots were spelled against radiation, amongst other things, they were so damn comfortable that he rarely took them off. Plus they looked cool and while this wasn't an important factor after his last world died, he didn't want to look like a schlub in this new world.
Along those lines, Harry removed his shrunken trunk from his belt buckle and opened it to the clothing compartment. Harry found a pair of black jeans and a black shirt. With no idea what the world would be like outside this room, he figured he couldn't go wrong with black.
Once dressed he pondered armor. It was best to be prepared but he didn't want to look like a crazy person if this was a happy world full of puppies and daydreams. His duster was a given. He had wanted one ever since he discovers the novels about another wizard named Harry who always wore one. He remembered squealing like a little girl when he found one at a tailor shop in the Los Angeles magical tower's mall. It was made from the wing leather of a Ukrainian Iron Belly, dyed black and stuffed with every comfort and protection charm Harry could imagine and a few he couldn't. He wore it constantly when he didn't need the radiation suit, at least after he deactivated the anti theft charms. The second he took it out of the shop it turned Umbridge pink and emitted a piercing scream.
Harry added a leather vest made from the same wing and equally charmed. Part of him thought it too much, but it was far less than he had been wearing the last few years and he almost felt naked without extra protection but a full suit of goblin made mail would look out of place in a puppy and daydream world.
He then turned to weapons but decided to keep it simple. He had his wand and a variety of trinkets in his belt pouches if this world proved more dangerous than his last. Strapping a sword to his back would bring way too much attention and while Harry was likely the best swordsman on his old world, at least at the end, he only has a few weeks of lessons before his instructor died from the flu. Shouldn't wear a sword if you don't know enough to use it, especially a wicked sharp sword infused with basilisk venom.
Harry did keep a shrunken pistol in the pocket of his duster though. Another invention of the USMAD. It looked like an M1911 covered in etched runes. Enchanted to be silent, recoilless and it even hid the muzzle flash. He had helped himself to a several of the shrinking enchanted clips. They shrink the bullets in the magazine to allow up to 100 rounds per clip, handy until you have to spend 10 minutes reloading.
Finally, Harry pulled the shrunken glasses case out of the inside pocket of his duster and put on his glasses. He had no need for them to fix his vision, he had discovered a vision correcting potion regimen common in Phnom Penh's magical market which thankfully didn't require any mammalian or avian ingredients. He was used to the feel of glasses and his current pair contained several useful enhancements. Harry assumed that Dumbledore's glasses were similarly charmed. It explained how he always seemed to see Harry, even under his invisibility cloak.
Now dressed, Harry took the time to stow his radiation suit in its own compartment. He realized as he refolded the top for the third time that he was stalling. He made the jump to a new world and while the boiler room wasn't much to go on, it showed that this world was at least somewhat similar to his original. But it was a one way trip and unless he could find another portal, he was stuck here. If he claimed the stairs, he would discover if his trip had been for good or ill and he enjoyed this moment of blissful ignorance.
Damn it, thought Harry, I'm a Griffindor, and he marched up the stairs to the door. Finding it locked he cast a silent unlocking charm and opened it slowly, wand at the ready. He might be a Griffindor but he had learned to be both brave and cautious.
The door opened to a dark hallway with lockers on both sides. There were windows above the lockers across from Harry. It was night, but streetlight dimly lighting the hallway. Well, thought Harry, electricity, that's a good sign. He paused a moment to listen but the only sounds he could here were the ticking of a clock on the wall and quiet buzzing of the exit signs on the ceiling.
Harry glanced at the clock, 9:44, and started following the arrows on the exit signs. They led him to the end of the hallway where it intersected another hallway. Harry could see the exit down the left hallway but an open door spilling light into the hallway between him and the exit. He could hear murmured voices coming from the open door. People, Harry thought with a smile. He hadn't met a living person that didn't try to immediately kill him in almost a year.
However excited the prospect of meeting new people made him, he understood that caution was still the right move. Every indication pointed to this being a muggle school so he cast a muggle repelling charm on himself just in case they were not too friendly and continued towards the open door.
As Harry got closer, he could hear that it was more than one voice, several having a discussion. He missed most of what was said. Simply hearing voices that were not shouting "Die Potter!" or "Avada Kedavra!" overwhelmed him. When he reached the door and looked in at the group he was crying joyful tears while doing everything he could think of to stop them.
The group looked to be handful of students with a professor all sitting at the same table in a small library while a man too old to be a student but too young to be a professor stood in the shadows near one of the stacks. Harry's smile broadened at such a normal scene. Living people just living. He couldn't recall ever seeing something so wonderful.
"You ok buddy?" asked a short ginger kid while looking directly at Harry.
Harry, alarmed that his spell had seemed to fail, quickly glanced at the people in the library. In addition to the boy who had asked him the question the professor, older boy in the corner, the redheaded girl and the blonde were looking right at Harry while the other two students were looking in Harry's direction but with confused looks not their faces.
Some of these people aren't muggles, thought Harry as he tried to respond to the question. "I'm a… a…" he stammered out trying to find his ill used voice while reaching for his glasses to activate the aura sight function.
He needed to determine if they were more than muggles or if his spell failed. The professor and redheaded girl were practitioners of some sort. Their auras shined with a greenish shimmer though the professor's aura had some faded black blotches as well. He had dabbled with something dark in his distant past. The punk Weasley had the pale silver aura of a werewolf.
The blond's aura held Harry's full attention. It looked like the corona of the sun during an eclipse; a black band outlining her body surrounded by a blazingly bright yellow glow that moved as if it were on fire.
Movement to the side of Harry's vision drew his eyes from the Blond's aura to the man in the corner who had taken a more aggressive stance. His aura was blacker than black, more the absent of light than a black glow, though a dim white light glowed from his chest. Harry didn't understand the chest light but the rest spoke of darkness, inhuman darkness, dead darkness. This man was dangerous.
Harry cancelled the aura sight, moving his wand hand forward to be ready to cast the moment he triggered the holster. Looking up, he noticed the blond blushing. He must have stared at her aura for too long, maybe the dead thing in the corner was overprotective?
Harry stopped stammering finally finding his voice, nothing like a deadly possible opponent to get your head back in the game. "I'm terribly sorry for interrupting," Harry said trying to appear as non threatening as possible, "just a bit lost. Could I ask where I am?"
Harry winced internally as soon as the question left his mouth, the group stared at him quizzically for a moment before the muggle boy answered, "your in the library." Harry looked at he boy expectantly until he added, "of Sunnydale High School."
In for a penny in for a pound, thought Harry asking, "Sunnydale?"
The redhead sitting next to the werewolf answered this time, "California?"
"Ah, the states," Harry replied with a slight grin, "well, it looks like I've got quite a trip ahead of me." He took a step back, continuing before they started to ask questions that he didn't want to answer, "again, so sorry for interrupting, I should be…"
Harry paused looking at the werewolf. He had a year's supply of wolfsbane in his potion pouch just in case Greyback bit him. Not that he really needed it if he got bit, with only death eaters and Voldemort still alive, he wouldn't care who he bit had he been turned. Harry pondered the good of helping the wolf versus the added questions they would ask.
The good won out in his head. Harry held a placating hand up, taking a slow step towards the werewolf. "before I go," he said, reaching into the potion pouch on his belt, "I have something to help with your… monthly visitor." He unshrunk the wolfsbane case and set it on the table in front of the wolf. "Drink one vial on the morning before your big night. I'm told it tastes like shit, but it really helps."
"Well…" Harry said giving his confused audience another look before turning and quickly walking to the door, "thanks for all the help, but I really must be going" he finished, not turning around.
Harry quickly walked down the hallway towards the exit, sparing quick glances back to make sure he wasn't followed. He made a mess of that. What if this world has a statute of secrecy? Did he just reveal the magical world to muggles? He decided he needed to clear his head, still overwhelmed by the whole new world experience. He needed to fly.
Lost in these thoughts Harry almost ran into a man coming in through the door. He was dressed in a suit, with short hair and glasses. Harry assumed he was another professor.
"I beg your pardon," Harry said, stopping himself short of running into the man. Shaking his head, he added quietly, "I really have to get used to people again"
"Think nothing of it," replied the man in a posh accent before offering Harry his hand, "always a pleasure to meet a fellow Brit, Wesley Wyndham-Price."
Harry shook the man's hand, "Harry Potter, now if you will excuse me, I have to fly."
Harry continued out the door and paused to decide where to go. He needed to find out if this world had a secret magical society, and if so, he needed to know their rules before he accidentally broke any more of them. California was on the west coast of America so checking for the ministry in London would be quite a trip. One he expected to take soon, but too long for the moment. The American Magical Republic had an LA office that would be a much shorter trip.
Not knowing where in California, Sunnydale was, Harry flicked his wand out to perform Hermione's Point and spell. Such a versatile spell. In its simple form it points north, but add a location or a person and it will point toward it or them. With people it usually only worked if the caster was more than a casual acquaintance with the target though.
Harry held his wand loosely and said "point me, Los Angeles." The wand slowly moved towards Harry's left. Satisfied he had a destination, he holstered his wand, shifted into his raven animagus form and took off, failing to notice that the blond girl had exited the building in time to see him transform.