"Oh my God! You are the real Harry Potter!"

Alice stated, even though deep inside she wouldn't stop to think about how utterly absurd this whole thing was. If it wasn't for the pictures… if it wasn't for the spell she had just witnessed him making… she knew there was absolutely no chance she would ever consider that to be a real possibility. But there she was, saying it, and truly considering that the man standing in front of her was a fictional character. Either that or someone was trying way too hard to pull a prank on her.

"Yes. I guess I am," he said, in a much softer voice now that he had been able to repair his family photograph to its original state.

"Can you do that again?"

"Do what?"

"Duh, the magic, Eistein! Or should I say, Merlin?" Her obvious joke made him chuckle despite his situation.

"Look, I'm not sure. My magic has been a bit wonky today. Though… I suppose I ought to give it a try, now that it has finally worked. So maybe I should start with something simple," he said before he pressed his wand against the same picture of his parents that he had fixed and whispered, "Wingardium Leviosa." In a matter of seconds, the picture was floating in the air.

"Wow! You are good!" she said after she placed her hand around the picture as if she was expecting to find an invisible string or something similar.

He laughed at her exuberance and excitement and said, "Thanks, but for your information, this is a first-year charm."

"I know."

"Of course you do," he said, his smile turning upside down into a frown. He saw then, that she had her phone out and was pointing it to his flying picture. He immediately did a Finite Incantatem and put the picture back in his pocket.

"Hey! Why did you stop!? I was going to put that on my reels."

"I'm sorry, you wanted to do what?" pure confusion was stamped on his semblance.

"Haven't you heard about Instagram? Oh, never mind!"

He frowned. She carried on typing something on her muggle device. He felt annoyed by being ignored by her and decided to Accio her phone. But that charm didn't work. Her phone did not leave her hands at all. Harry's frown deepened.

"I don't know if this book you apparently read so well mentions this, but we have this thing called the Statute of Secrecy…"

"Yeah, yeah, of course. And you are doing magic in front of a muggle. So, what are you going to do? Take me to the Ministry to be obliviated?" she asked with a hint of panic in her voice.

"You know, as a high hierarchy auror, I don't need permission from the Ministry to obliviate you. All I would have to do is get your name and fill a form later. I already have your name, so..."

"You are not going to obliviate me, are you?" she fretted, and placed both of her hands on her own head, trying to remember everything she knew about how memories were stored and processed by the brain.

"Don't need to worry, I think you are safe." Harry seemed amused by what he thought to be an overreaction on her part. "Not seeing much of a point of doing it now, if I am honest with you. Though strictly speaking, that is exactly what I should do."

"Why?"

Harry wasn't sure if she had asked why he didn't see the point or why he should do it. He supposed it didn't cost anything to answer both.

"I should do it because that is the law. Though, considering that I am not even sure if the Ministry exists anymore, I am not sure if that law would apply now."

"What do you mean, the Ministry doesn't exist anymore?"

"Do you have time?" he asked, and she nodded. "Well, then let me tell you about my day."

The sun had already set, and the early twilight was illuminating the square where they still remained.

"Wow, this is quite the tale. I feel like someone should have written a fanfic like this by now. Something like "Harry Potter in the real world'' kinda trope? Do you get what I mean? If there are fanfics like this, somehow they never crossed my path."

"Hold on, what is fanfic?"

Harry looked sideways to have a better look at Alice who was pressing both her hands against each other as she carried on seating on the edge of their bench looking as excited as a young puppy who had got a brand new toy.

"Fanfics are like… the most amazing thing ever? It is like... a story of a story. A way to bring back to life some of our most favourite characters…" there was a dreamy fairy air in her voice as she went on about it.

"Er… right," Harry said, not really getting what she was going on about.

"Oh yeah! There are so many fanfics about you. Harry Potter fandom is like, the biggest fandom on the internet!"

"Why can't you people just leave me alone?" he said with a frown.

"'Cause you are the most sold series in the world?"

"Fantastic," Harry said, voice dripping with sarcasm. Alice giggled.

"You're saying that, wait until you see some of the Snarry or Drarry fics there are around…"

"Do I even wanna know what a Snarry or a Drarry is?" he said before he messed his own head with one of his hands.

"Probably not. But I will fill you in anyway, cause… you know, I'm dying to see the face you'll make." Alice had a mischievous glint in her eyes that reminded Harry of the Weasley's twins. He sighed as she carried on her little lecture about fanfics.

"So Drarry is a fanfic that pairs you with Draco Malfoy, while Snarry are fics that have you having a romance with Professor Snape, obviously."

Harry blinked many times as he tried to process that new piece of information. And here he was, truly believing that the Harry Potter shop at Platform 9 and ¾ was the scariest it would get.

"Do you people have nothing better to do?"

"Well, yeah… but we don't want to do that."

Harry shook his head, feeling like he would need to wash his brain with bleach after learning that. He gave a long deep breath before he felt like he could carry on.

"I don't mean to be rude, but I still need to figure out what is going on with my magic and this little issue of the sudden disappearance of the entire Wizarding community!" he urged with frustration stamped on all his body movements.

"Maybe I could help you?" she it so low that one could think she was trying to whisper it.

"How, Miss Ranger?"

"Well, I might not be a witch, but I have some basic knowledge of science and experimental design? You see, perhaps I can help you design some tests to see if we can figure out what is wrong with your magic?" she said meddling with her own hair locks as she tried to contain her own anxiety.

"Right, I guess. If one can't have a Hermione, then Alice D. Ranger will have to do." he sighed in resignation, but she nonetheless, the smile that Alice gave was so contagious that he saw himself joining her own her celebration with a grin of his own.

"Oy, I heard that! But it is fine. I agree with you, Hermione is kinda awesome! She is my favourite character."

"Why does that not surprise me? Go on, what exactly do you have in mind, Alice?"

Despite lacking any formal magical education, it didn't take long for Alice Ranger to come up with a plan to test two different hypotheses based on the information he had given her. The first hypothesis was that only a certain type of spell was working. The second hypothesis that they came up with was that he was only able to charm objects that were magical already.

Alice was very methodical in the way she did things, and she reminded him of Hermione in a freakish sort of way. Even the way she frowned her eyebrows and chewed the back of her pencil when she was trying to come up with ideas for their little 'experiment', reminded him of his best friend.

"Right, so the first object in our list is your picture," she said as she read out the notes from her notebook. "Can you get it out again, please? Good! Now… the first charm that you should do is Reparo."

"Do we need to repeat this one again? I mean, I just did that," Harry said in a whiny voice, not really wanting to shred his parents' picture again, in case it did not work that time.

"Of course we do. This is science, Harry! You need to follow the design! Otherwise, how can we trust our results later?"

He sighed. Then, with a pang in his heart, he ripped the picture in half again, praying that he would be able to mend it for the second time.

Luckily, it worked. Alice cheered as she wrote down the results on her notepad.

"Great job! The second spell on the list is Duro."

It worked again.

"Now, Finite Incantatem."

"This is so cool! I still can't believe this is happening!" she chirped in a fangirl-y way as she witnessed the picture turn from hard stone to its normal shape again. "Now, Impervious?"

He did the spell as she requested.

"We'll need some water to test this one…" he declared, adjusting his glasses. She frowned as she bit her pencil again.

"I know this is not on our list, but… could you try an Aguamenti, perhaps?"

"Your knowledge of spells is astonishing for a Muggle, you know that?"

"Turns out that all those years of reading fics have finally paid off…"

"Don't you start talking about that thing again." Harry cringed. "You mentioned Aguamenti? But aren't we supposed to be following your method?" he asked with a smirk, though he immediately attempted doing the charm without waiting for her answer. This time, it didn't work. They both frowned.

"Yeah, it wasn't on the methods, but I will write a note about this, anyway. Right, let me get my water bottle."

Her bottle was metallic and orange and had some weird runes that he had never seen. She was amazed when she dropped some of the liquid on top of the picture and saw it bouncing off it, going against laws of physics.

"If this is a joke, whoever is doing it is very talented. The next spell on our list is Engorgio."

He did as she requested, however this time, it didn't work again. They both frowned. Harry was also unable to perform Reducio, Geminio, and Portus. However, Flipendo, Diffindo, and Scourgify all seemed to work perfectly, as they should at any given moment.

"The second object we are testing is…" she glanced at her notes, "a picture of my family."

She carefully removed a picture that was attached to her agenda with a paperclip and handed it to him. Harry looked at a younger version of the woman in front of him. Her hair was different, and she was hugging three other young kids all wearing school uniforms.

"I thought you said a picture of your family?"

"Aren't friends a kind of family? I thought you would know better than anyone."

He looked at her thoughtfully before nodding in agreement. Then he got his wand ready as she tore the picture, reading it for him to cast the "Reparo" charm. Unfortunately for her, he was unable to mend her picture. She tried to hide her own disappointment, but the truth was that as they carried on testing, it became clearer that none of his spells would work in any of her belongings.

He then tested some spells on him and her, and the same thing happened. The Disillusionment Charm worked on him, but not on her. And yet again with the Cheering Charm. He was also able to successfully cast the Finite Incantatem on himself, though when he tried to use Tergeo to clean some mud he put on his face, that didn't work on either of them.

Soon, a clear pattern was formed, and even though it was Alice who was keeping tabs of their official results, Harry got a good grasp of what was happening. Some of his spells were working on him and his belongings, but the same spells were not working on her things, or the park objects alike.

On the other hand, Engorgio, Evanesco, Geminio and Portus were not working on any of the objects, his or hers, and Harry was positively sure he was doing them correctly. Alice seemed to also be getting the idea that there was some sort of pattern going on, though Harry would bet that at least this time, he was understanding more than she was.

"In order for me to perform these spells that aren't working, we need to borrow some energy and matter from other nearby sources. Spells that don't require that, I seem to be able to do."

"But only on the things you brought with you."

"My thoughts exactly!" Harry answered her with a smile. He wasn't sure if it was still the remascinets of the cheering charm, but he was feeling positive for the first time in a while.

"Hold on, this gives me an idea!" he said before pulling his wand out of his pocket again.

He then decided to use a primitive variation of the famous Accio charm, and a few objects came flying towards him as if he was a human magnet. He was thrilled by his own cleverness.

Even though Tavistock Square was never a busy place, it remained a public space. Harry was astonished how nobody else seemed to pay them any mind, even though he was clearly doing magic in plain sight. Maybe it was because it was already dark, or maybe it was because the muggles who were in their vast majority wearing Halloween costumes, were too concentrated on their own affairs that they didn't notice anything anyway.

"Oh my God! This was amazing! Can you do it again!?" Alice asked, almost jumping in excitement at the things he had summoned. Harry would likely have chuckled if his attention hadn't been caught by a small bag he hoped would still contain something he feared to have lost forever. He almost cried when he glanced inside the bag's contents and saw that his invisibility cloak and his old yellow blanket were still safe. He mentally thanked Hermione who had made that small carrier bag to keep his most precious belongings protected.

"What is in there?"

Instead of answering her with words, Harry removed both the cloak and blanket from the bag and showed them to her.

"Wow! Is this…?" she asked full of excitement as she got hold of the cloak. "Holy shit, it is!"

"So you know even that! Are you familiar with its origins too?"

"Deathly Hallows? Yeah, yeah, of course I am." Alice waved off, before she tried it on and fully disappeared in the middle of Tavistock Square.

The few people who were hanging out at the small park didn't seem to care or realise that she had disappeared in plain sight. While she was still covered by his cloak, she got a bunch of autumn leaves that had been put together in a pile and threw them in the air in a childish manner. Harry chuckled at her behaviour. She then returned the cloak to him and looked at the yellow blanket he was also carrying.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"What do you think it is?"

"The lame blanket that appeared in the cursed chil… oh never mind!"

"This is not lame! It is the only thing I have from my mother."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Alice rolled her eyes.

"You know that my mother has made this blanket? You know what, this is getting old. Is there anything about me that you don't know?" he said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

She ignored his annoyance and shrugged her shoulders.

"There are a few things that I always wanted to know, actually. Do you have a Wizengamot seat? Were you and your friends punished for breaking into Gringotts? Do you really have no friends at Privet Drive? Does Hogwarts have half-terms? Did you really see Dumbledore when you died? Can you make your Patronus talk? What are the five Exemptions of Gump's Law?"

"Why do you wanna know all these things?"

"I dunno… I guess these were never addressed in canon."

"Can we get back to the matter at hand?" he said, pointing at some of the other small objects he had managed to summon with his Accio variation.

She moved her hand to grab one of the nephrite jade hairpin that had a storm petrel sculpted on its tip that fell on the ground just next to him, but Harry held her hand, preventing her from doing so.

"Don't touch it. As far as I know, it could be cursed. Let me handle this. Specialis Revelio!"

A concealed letter appeared. Harry looked very pleased with himself. Alice gave him a curious look. He waved his wand a couple of times until he decided it was safe enough to hold the letter and the hairpin in question with his own hands.

"This belongs to the thief. Look, do you recognise this?" he said pointing at the storm petrel that was in the hairpin.

"No… should I?"

"Finally, something that you don't know!" he grumbled giving a sarcastic cheer "This is Mahoutokoro's symbol. I only know that because of a case we had to work in collaboration with the Japanese Ministry of Magic last year."

"Oh… no, I don't think I would know that. There is no canon material about your first years as an Auror. So do you believe that your thief is here too?"

"Yes, I believe she is. And if there is nothing about my first years as an auror, how do you know about my mother's blanket?"

"Blame the Cursed Child for that. A bit of a crazy plot, terrible read, but, hey, it is an awesome play!" she grinned from ear to ear.

"What?"

"I probably said too much already, look!" she said pointing at a pile of wood that was piled up together.

"These are reminiscences of the witch's broomstick. They are here, but not the entire broom."

"Cool!" Alice said as she bent down to get some of the wooden sticks.

"I think she probably returned to consciousness before me, retrieved her wand and ripped off my extended pockets. Luckily she wasn't able to get my cloak and blanket due to Hermione's protective charms. She wouldn't be able to touch my wand while it was in my belt, though… why didn't she kill me when she had the chance?"

"I don't know… maybe she is a thief, but not a murder?" Alice said in a more cheerful note than one would expect to hear somebody talking about murders and thieves.

"I don't know. She was wearing white robes, and considering that she is probably from Mahoutokoro, that would mean that she has performed dark magic before." he scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"Not all Dark Magic involves murder, right? What was that thing she stole anyway?"

"I haven't got the foggiest!" he said with frustration, as he began to pack up all his things back to his robes. "That is the annoying thing about the Department of Mysteries, the Unspeakables are very elusive about the nature of projects they work on. Maybe Hermione would have some idea of what that was all about but…" he sighed, as he felt a small pang on his heart, that reminded him that this time there was no Ron and Hermione to help him out. He was on his own.

"But..?" Alice asked even though she could see the enormous stress he seemed to be under.

"Hermione is the only Ministry employee I know that seems to be able to keep tabs on everything that is happening there… sometimes I think she knows more about it than the Minister! The only thing I know is that she stole it last night when I was on duty. There were other aurors trying to follow her too, but they were outsmarted by her flying skills."

"Whatever it was, it brought you here, so it must be something powerful."

"Exactly. I think she also stole my broom," he said with a frown as he played with the remains of her broomstick.

"How about the letter? What does it say?" she pointed at the parchment that he was yet to put away.

Harry then unfolded the almost forgotten parchment that remained folded on his hands. He sighed as he realised he would not be able to understand a single word of it.

"Damn, do you know this language?"

Harry shared the letter with Alice, who had a quick glance before she gasped.

"No, but look at the signature! It is JK's initials!"

"JKR?" Harry sounded puzzled.

"Yes, the author of the Harry Potter books."

"Is she really?" he frowned as he learned that new piece of information.

"Yes, but she is an English woman though, I have no idea why she would write something in another language."

"So you don't know which language this might be?"

"I don't. It definitely doesn't look like Japanese. Definitely a latin based language. Hold on," she said as she got her mobile phone out of her pocket and went through her app list. Harry gave her a funny look.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm installing a translation app. Just hold on a minute, okay?"

Harry looked at Alice thoughtfully. The muggle technology seemed to have evolved quite a big chunk since when his cousin Dudley used to explode aliens on his old computer. Soon she was taking a picture with her magical muggle device, and activating the app to do its job.

"It says here the language detected was Portuguese!"

Both Alice and Harry held their breaths in anticipation of what sort of information that would be revealed by the letter. Harry was looking at it behind her shoulders and was able to witness the first row seat when the words in the letter began to take shape in English.

My dearest friend,

I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye. I hope you will find in your heart to forgive me for leaving you here, but my life and destiny lies in another universe. Don't be afraid of the power you possess. Hopefully we will meet again one day.

JKR

"Ha! Another universe! Harry, that's it! Maybe you are not from around here," Alice said with a maniacal look on her face. Harry gave her a funny look.

"Do you believe this is possible?"

"Not really, but here I am, talking to a fiction book character, so…"

"I'm not a book character, okay?" he said with a frown.

"Last time I checked, you had a film and book. You saw it yourself earlier, you are a book character." Alice crossed her arms, giving him that snarky look.

"All right. Let's say that I could be a book character in this universe, like you said. How did this JKR woman know about my existence?"

"No idea, dude. But considering what you said and what I've seen, she clearly seems to know you well."

Harry stopped and carefully considered her words. Then he got hold of her mobile phone and re-read the letter multiple times, almost memorising its content by heart. Could that letter have been written by the author who wrote him? Who was that woman? Why did she know so many things about him?

"Alice… where does this JKR woman live?

"Somewhere in Edinburgh, I believe?"

"Edinburgh in Scotland?"

"Yes, How many Edinburgh's you know, duh?"

There was a minute of silence where he looked from the letter to Alice, until he seemed to have reached a decision.

"Alice?"

"Yes…?"

"How do you feel about going to Edinburgh with me tonight?"