In which Harry travels the world.
Any inaccuracies with regard to my usage of Hindi or the culture of India are entirely my own. Please contact me so I may correct these issues. I apologize if any offense has risen to due these errors.
II. 1998 – 2000
Harry Potter is 18 years old and he doesn't know who he is.
It may be a bit dramatic to say something like that, because he realises he is Harry Potter. He just defeated Lord Voldemort with the help of his friends, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. But very few people know that Harry Potter had to die to kill him. Fewer still know that a part of Harry went with him.
Again, Harry feels that it may be a bit dramatic to say that. But to suddenly realise that your entire personality has changed after a horcrux is removed from your soul but not immediately realise that the very same missing horcrux is the cause for the personality change is quite traumatising. Harry sincerely thought that a part of him died. His friends think he is having post-traumatic stress disorder, which is a perfectly valid opinion. Harry sometimes thinks this himself, but then realises that he simply no longer feels invincible. That was something the horcrux made him feel. And because he doesn't feel invincible anymore, Hermione and Ron are confused why he doesn't want to be an auror anymore. Well, not just Hermione and Ron. Everyone seems to be confused about it. But Harry—he doesn't want to fight anymore. He feels less angry, less volatile. He feels more accepting of other people's opinions. He's calmer. But he supposes that this makes him seem depressed to people who don't realise that he's actually doing fine. He just doesn't know who he is anymore. Harry Potter as the Boy-Who-Lived doesn't exist anymore. He's just Harry Potter, a random guy who doesn't even know what he likes to do for fun.
Well, he does know what he doesn't like to do. He doesn't like fighting. He doesn't want to fight people, and he absolutely doesn't like the praise he's getting for defeating Voldemort. He hates the attention, and he's relieved that's one thing he has in common with the pre-post-Voldemort Harry Potter.
So maybe he hasn't changed that much. He doesn't think people should be reacting so strangely to him saying that he doesn't really want to fight anymore with such flabbergasted expressions, but they do.
So when Ron applies for the DMLE and Hermione enrols for the new term in Hogwarts in August, they expect Harry to follow one of them.
They do not expect Harry to tell them that he's going to travel the world.
They're shocked. They immediately demand an explanation.
Harry is honest and tells them that he's intending it as a soul-searching trip, as a way for him to explore what else is out there in the world. Find out who he really is, and discover what he really likes to do. He's not sure what he wants to do with his life. He's not going to use any of the money in his vaults at Gringotts. He'll use the money the Ministry awarded him for the death of Voldemort, and he'll come back in time for the holidays. A year off, he says.
They're not too pleased with Harry's statement that he doesn't know who he really is, so they tell him who he is. He's Harry Potter; have you been obliviated? Do you need to go to St. Mungo's?
Harry is exasperated, and tells them that it's more of a phrase than anything. He gives up with an honest explanation, and lies and tells them that's he's doing it for the PTSD and that Dumbledore was planning on going on one of these trips, so it can't be a bad idea.
He really wants to go so he can figure out who he is without anyone influencing him. He's had enough of untoward influence in his lifetime. The horcrux influenced him for over 17 years. His friends, his teachers, his relatives – everyone influenced him in one way or another and he wants to figure out who Harry Potter is without that influence. That's really why he wants to go away, but he can't tell them that because he's fairly certain that saying that would not endear himself to his friends, who would be offended at the idea that they have been influencing him.
But they accept the idea of a healing trip and remark that Dumbledore did try to go on a world-tour after he graduated, so the idea does have merit. Ron asks if he should go with him, but Harry is quick to tell him to join the aurors. They need people now, he says. I don't want to hold you back.
They are kind to him, and wish him well. Harry starts planning for his trip. He decides to sell 12 Grimmauld Place—too many memories in that house—and then all too quickly, he finds himself in Egypt.
He planned to tour the Great Pyramids, as a homage to Bill's work. Bill is still in Britain with Fleur. Harry's pretty sure that his wild Egyptian curse-breaking days are over, but Harry is intrigued by the idea, so going to Egypt could spark a genuine desire to learn more about it.
But Egypt does not meet Harry's preference for long-term work. The Great Pyramids of Giza, Harry feels, are not as magnificent as the photos show. He understands now why they only are taken in one direction, because the Muggles have built far too closely to them on the other side that the view would be disrupted by their homes. He is slightly disappointed that he is unable to climb the pyramid. He did not realise that he needed to get permission from the local Ministry. He does not think he will attempt to get permission; he's trying to stay under the radar.
Harry hasn't told anyone this, in fear of the response he will get from his friends and the Ministry, but since the horcrux's removal, he's noticed that he's become significantly more powerful magically. In addition, Harry can't help but notice that he's growing taller. This is slightly disturbing to him. He asks an Egyptian witch who the locals say is an expert in dark magic (theory only, the locals say with a wink that Harry cannot interpret in any other way but that it is not only theory) to help him figure out what's going on after explaining the issue.
She laughs at him and says quite plainly that the horcrux actually physically stunted his growth as its encapsulation had been steadily draining magic from Harry. She goes on to tell him that if Harry were an average wizard, the presence of the horcrux would have quickly killed him due to the magical demands that were required to prevent possession and then subsequently maintain existence. With its removal, Harry had at last gained full control of his powers. As a result, his magic is probably comparable to whichever great wizard of history he wants to compare himself to, she concludes.
Harry is slightly taken aback, and accuses her of pulling his leg. She waves her hands above her head while laughing and says in her heavily accented English no leg-pulling here.
So Harry now feels even more strange because he is not only ridiculously powerful to survive a horcrux, but he also survived the horcrux removal and that's why he's suddenly much more powerful—as he should have been all along.
Egypt has not left Harry feeling well. He leaves, and goes to Mexico. He has heard of fantastic ruins there—also pyramids—that you can climb. He's never had Mexican food, either. It sounds like an adventure.
The ruins of Chichen Itza are on the Yucatan Peninsula, and it is also very warm when Harry arrives. It is also swarming with Muggles. They are everywhere—climbing all over the pyramid. He must have come at a bad time. There's magic in the air here too, Harry notices. It's strange—perhaps a strange notice-me-not spell to protect some of the more delicate ruins from the trampling Muggles? He's not sure, but Harry understands their enthusiasm. The ruins are pretty spectacular. He climbs to the top and looks around. The Mexican jungle is a stark contrast compared to the Egyptian desert. Despite the smaller size of Chichen Itza, he's pleased. He's been able to climb something wonderful.
Pyramids, he decides, are marvellous. He decides to visit several others in Mexico, before stopping in Guatemala for El Mirador. He heard of it in the wizarding district of Mexico City, from a group of friendly locals. The reserve was opened only eight years earlier, they say. They suggest going with their friend, Alejandro; he's the wizard on the archaeological team. Harry agrees, and then goes to Belize to meet up with Alejandro in Belize City. Alejandro tells Harry that since he's part of a mainly non-magic team, they'll be traveling to El Mirador the normal way. Harry says this is okay; he's Muggle-raised. Alejandro relaxes immediately.
"¡Menos mal! I was worried you were going to be one of those stuffy wizards. Miguel told me he sent someone he met in El Pasaje my way and I was worried you weren't gonna fit in," he explains.
Harry laughs. He thinks of Draco Malfoy. He smiles. "I know exactly of the kind of person you're talking about. No, I'll be fine."
And he is fine; the trip into Guatemala is fine. They take local buses and hitch rides with locals until they reach the small town of Carmelita. From there, they set out on a 41-kilometre hike through the Guatemalan jungle. It is gorgeous. It takes two days. It is the rainy season. It is muddy. The route is hard to travel because of the deep water they sometimes have to cross. Harry is grateful for magic, but makes sure to use it sparingly. He listens to Alejandro, and only uses magic when Alejandro does; he doesn't want to seem like one of those "stuffy" wizards. They arrive at El Mirador and the ruins are spectacular. They are overgrown, and some are crumbling, but Harry climbs to the top of the largest pyramid and he feels alive.
On the journey out of the jungle from El Mirador, Alejandro asks Harry what he thought. Harry smiles and talks about how much work it must have been for the people to build those—did they have magic? How do wizards even build things?
Alejandro listens and then he starts to talk about magical construction—something Harry had never even thought about before. He says that magical construction isn't very popular in some countries, but that in pretty much all pre-colonial civilization on the Americas, all major ruins were built using magical methods. Sure, Alejandro says, they used traditional non-magical techniques as well, but to make sure that those buildings stick around? Magic. It all comes back to magic
And for the really heavy stuff as well, Alejandro add. Harry laughs.
Alejandro sends him to Machu Pichu in Peru. He tells Harry that he's going to want to figure out how on earth they built that, if these puny pyramids fascinate him.
Harry doubts this, but then he sees Machu Pichu in Peru and he takes back every doubting thought he's every had about the venture. Machu Pichu is literally on the top of a mountain. He's spent four days hiking to get here—the Inca Trail's 39km route was almost easy after the bushwhacking he went through. It's the end of the dry season here, and he appreciated walking on dry land. The mountains here are phenomenal, he admits. The sheer size is on a completely different scale and it's terrifying.
Machu Pichu is spectacular in its own right. Harry acknowledges that Alejandro was completely correct—he has no idea why the Incans decided building this city was a good idea. He listens to the tour guide talk about how the stones were not transported with wheels, despite the Incas knowing about them. Apparently, the lack of animals to pull them, along with the steep inclines, prevented their common usage.
Then he learns about how the Incan engineers built their terraces so that there were little landslides during the rains. They layered the terraces with specific patterns of materials so that rainfall would be able to drain quickly without damaging crops or hurting the mountain's stability.
Harry is impressed. He asks the guide many questions, feeling somewhat bad for monopolising his attention, but he somewhat senses that his questions are equally appreciated by the other tourists. Overall, he is thoroughly impressed by the ancient engineers of the Incan empire. Machu Pichu, sitting in the clouds of the Andes mountains, is a world unlike anything he has ever seen.
He spends several days in Cusco, deciding where to go next. He visits several more Incan sites in South America where he was reprimanded by several fellow world-travellers for not exploring properly before departing back to Africa.
He first stops in Mali, at the Bandiagara Escarpment. It is a city built into the side of a mountain, and it certainly feels as magical as it looks. While he is there, he stays with some of the local Dogon people. He learns about the people that originally learned in the Bandiagara Escarpment, the Tellem. He restrains a laugh when he learns that some people insisted that they were able to fly – clearly, these were magical people who did not care to hide their powers. They were the first people to live in these cliffs, many years ago. Harry visits their dwellings and senses again those strange spells he felt in Mexico. He's not certain if they actually are notice-me-not spells anymore, but he's not sure what else would be around here.
The Dogon are mostly Muslim people, and so while he is still in Mali, they tell him to visit the Great Mosque of Djenné. He is unable to enter the mosque; apparently some Yankee magazine desecrated the mosque with scantily-clad women during a photo-shoot only two years earlier, so they prevented all non-worshippers from entering. Harry is disappointed since the information he was given is out-dated. But the exterior certainly is an adobe masterpiece—and it too feels like that same magic at Chichen Itza and the Bandiagara Escarpment.
He spends time in Africa, enjoying a safari tour, visiting with the cheerful people and wandering the local magical sectors of the cities he stops in. He is in Ethiopia when he mentions his interest in odd architectural buildings, and he is told to visit Bete Giyorgis, the Church of Saint George, in Lalibela. He is looking around him, trying to identify where this mysterious church is, when he almost slips and falls and then there it is—the church is in the ground. The church has been dug into the ground. It is a monolithic church—carved out of one stone block into the ground. It is a 30-meter-deep trench with a church in the middle shaped in a cross. Harry has no idea how to access it, until some helpful stranger sees him standing there, baffled, and guides him to a spiralling canyon that leads him into a tunnel that deposits him into the cavernous courtyard of the church. The stranger, who speaks no English, smiles and nods happily before turning away. Harry walks around the church in complete bafflement. The pyramids, the cities, the ruins—he all understood why those were built, and he generally understood how.
Harry has no idea why this was built, why is was built into the ground instead of up out of the ground. He does not know how long this church must have taken to be dug out of nothing. He attends a service at the church, but he doesn't pay any attention; he mainly stares around the building in confused wonder.
Harry files out of the church with the other patrons and winds his way up the spiralling canyon and out of the bewildering ravine. He finds himself a tree to sit under—and then he thinks.
He has been traveling for four months now. It is December, Harry realises. Late December, and he suddenly remembers that he told Ron and Hermione that he would have visited over the holidays. And, he reckons, he should have probably written. But he was busy, in a weird sort of way. He was learning—and he has learned so much. He has learned about the ancient populations of Central and South America, many different African tribes and populations—not to mention the countless buildings and construction marvels he has seen. He tries to list them, and then realises that this list is surprisingly long.
But he understands that he really wants to see more buildings, more man-made marvels. So he decides, instead of aimlessly wandering, he's going to plan for the next year. He has several maps in his bag, so he pulls them out and lays them in front of him. He starts to write down—circling places that he wants to see. He notes that the Quidditch World Cup was cancelled this year due to the small problem of Voldemort being an evil man, and so it will be held next year in Ukraine. He marks that down—if he's travelling, he's just going to have to make a stop there.
The first top, on his list, is India. The Taj Mahal, the Chand Baori, the India Gate, and the Kandariya Mahadeva Temple all are places he wants to see.
It is still December when he stops in Delhi, and Mumbai, and finds that the locals treat him as a local himself. They are much more helpful than any other locals. He discovers the reason, when he realises, for the first time, that this is because he actually looks local. He frequently forgets that James Potter was Indian. He feels somewhat ashamed to not even know where James Potter is from—what language he would speak. He is lucky most everyone speaks English, but he never felt so foreign in a place where he feels most welcome. He decides that he will learn Hindi, because even if the Potters never spoke it, it is spoken by the most people in India.
He discreetly picks up an English-to-Hindi dictionary and grammar manual and lies to the cashier, my friend, he is jealous. The cashier smiles knowingly, and then Harry leaves quickly.
Harry pours over the dictionary and gramma books and decides that the best thing he can do for himself is to look like a complete fool in public and be embarrassed. He prefaces every conversation with, I am learning Hindi, please let me practice? And Harry is always surprised with how enthusiastic the other person becomes and so he learns slowly, but is becoming more capable as time passes.
Harry spends far too much time in India. He visited the sites he wanted to fairly quickly and he only notices the odd magic at the Taj Mahal—but he's growing more and more proficient in Hindi. He's holding conversations now with the grocers that he visits regularly and they always praise him and tell him he is improving. Harry tries hard to not use English for anything; being in more rural parts of the Hindi-speaking areas of India helps—less people know English and there's less signs with English translations.
It is when Harry has his first dream in Hindi that he realises he hasn't had to look up a word in his dictionary for several weeks. He asks his friend, Priya, if she thinks he is good at Hindi—if his accent is as horrible as he thinks. She laughs, "You have been good for a while. You have not asked us to slow down or repeat ourselves in a long time. You sound like one of us." And Harry considers this and recognises that she is correct.
"We just have to give you a proper name, and then you can go," Priya says. So they gather together all of their friends, Vijaya, Amala, Navdeep, Ahmed, and Rafiq.
Vijaya says that Harry should be named Akshay, because "it means immortal"—but Harry is quick to shut that option down. Nothing about immortality!
Amala suggests Mohan for Harry's good looks, but that just brings laughter from everyone which increases when they all realise Amala was serious.
The twins Navdeep and Ahmed just look at each other and say that Harry should be named Ahmed Navdeep, or Navdeep Ahmed which makes Harry scoff.
Rafiq thinks for a while and shrugs his shoulders. Ajay: "Invincible."
This one gets some approval from everyone, including Navdeep and Ahmed who really are only here for the food, but then Priya whispers with Vijaya who whispers to Amala and then they say that Ajay will not be happening even though they think it's great because they think Advait will be Harry's name and that's final.
Everyone agrees almost immediately. Harry asks what it means, and then to everyone's surprise, Navdeep explains: "It means unique. Or free from duality, whichever one you like more."
While the unique part Harry couldn't care less for—it's the free from duality that hits him hard. Because that's exactly what he's trying to do with his life. He's freeing himself from that duality of soul he had back in England. He smiles.
"Advait, then." He says. They all cheer, and they celebrate their last few days together and then Harry promises them he will visit, but he needs to get going. It is August, 1999.
"Alvida Advait!" They say. Ahmed says "Ise haraye!" which makes Harry laugh and then they hug and then Harry leaves and he is going to stop in Spain before he goes to Ukraine for the world cup.
He decides he will see first the infamous Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. He understands that this will be the first building he is visiting that will still be under construction and that there is a magical construction firm working on the building. He has been eagerly waiting to see the magic of construction—maybe this will help explain all of those questions he has been having for the past year. The only things he has seen have either been remarkably preserved, like the Taj Mahal or in complete ruins, like Machu Pichu.
When he arrives, he carefully notes the spells the workers are using and writes them down surreptitiously. But then he quickly becomes alarmed when he realises that the same spells that they are using have weakened dramatically in certain completed areas of the structure. Unsure if they should be notified of this issue, he doesn't say anything, but leaves feeling particularly uneasy. These spells, he notes, don't feel anything like the odd magic he has felt throughout the world.
He stops by monasteries on top of mountains and takes cable cars to get to them, and he visits Madrid and enjoys the late nights and the happy atmosphere. But August is nearing September, and he must go to Ukraine.
He immediately realises that he has not contacted anyone in England about his attendance at the game. Unfortunately, he booked his ticket in his real name months ago. Since security has heightened since the last world cup, he is required to show his ticket before being allowed to enter the grounds. As soon as they say Harry Potter, somehow, British ministry officials escort Harry Potter to a top box and he panders to the Department heads and the Minister, whose name he does not know, and he is quickly getting overwhelmed when they ask him where he has been and what he is planning on doing, so he pretends to see a friend, and he begs them off and says he will return, but he simply must say hello to someone.
The officials are polite and let him go reluctantly, seeming to realise that Harry Potter will not be returning to their box.
Harry, from the top box, had spotted the Indian flag. While they are not playing at the game (Ghana vs. Japan—Ghana was a major upset against Bulgaria and everyone that had been betting on the Bulgarians has been quietly panicking), most countries display a flag so that citizens can meet up and spend time together afterwards if they didn't get seats together. It's a sort of meeting-place.
Harry goes to the Indian section, introduces himself as Advait, and then proceeds to thoroughly enjoy his conversations with a pleasant couple, Shiva and Asha. They speak Hindi, and so they chat and ask him where he is from back home. Harry, as Advait, says he's from a village not far from Delhi—Haryana state. They laugh and scorn his Northern Indian ways. They are from the South, they say. The better part, they say.
"But you speak Hindi?" Harry, as Advait, asks. "Not Telugu, or Tamil?"
"Tamil. But I work for the magical government," Shiva says. "Hindi and English are required. So I made my wife learn them with me!"
Asha laughs. "At least he can speak Hindi! His English is atrocious!"
Harry smiles, and in English says, "If you want to practice, I know English."
Shiva pales. "No, thank you! I've only really gotten fluent in Hindi recently. I will never sound as good as you native speakers, though."
Harry smiles, feeling very proud of himself, and says, "You are doing very well, though. I guess you speak Tamil, natively?"
Asha nods. "I've known Hindi my whole life, though. Shiva is the one who has been struggling more. Poor thing."
Shiva scoffs and then jerks to attention— "The game is starting!"
The game is extraordinarily long. Asha and Shiva provide entertaining conversation, and Harry is glad to be with them instead of the British politicians.
"Oh Advait—the snitch!" Asha is the one to see it first. It is the third day of the game. Harry took the second day off—he went Saint Sophia's Cathedral which was nearby. It swam with that strange, peculiar magic. Luckily, when he went back to the game, the guards at the security check-in point were asleep, so he was able to slip right back in without having to show his ticket and reveal his identity.
Asha and Shiva had made periodic trips to get food for the three of them. Harry would save their spots as more rowdy members of the Indian contingent would try and snatch them as soon as they stood up.
Asha had, in her tent, an extraordinarily large collection of spices and meats. When questioned, she shrugged and said that you never could know when you would be feeding an army. The curry they ate was delicious, and Harry deeply appreciated their generosity.
Asha and Shiva smiled. "Today you, tomorrow me."
But Asha was the first one to see the snitch and so they are thrilled. They stand up and ignore the three little kids who steal their chairs and they scream when the snitch is caught and they hug each other and they don't even know who won—they don't even really care at this point—someone says the scores are 3410 to 5590—and they join the happy, exhausted, elated crowd out of the stadium and Shiva invites Harry to join them in their tent for the evening.
"We have plenty of room to spare, Advait! Then you will come with us for the celebration—Krishna Janmashtami! Govinda! It's tomorrow – perfect timing!"
Harry realises this is true— "I have nothing to wear though! I've only regular dhoti and kurta and trousers—nothing fancy enough for Govinda!"
Shiva shrugs this off with a wave of his hand, "You'll be fine. We've nothing too. We weren't expecting to still be here. But we can't spend tomorrow traveling when we could be spending it with friends."
So they spend the next day in the campgrounds in the Indian section. Harry is introduced as Advait, Asha and Shiva's friend from Haryana.
It is a wonderful time; happy, joyous. He is sad when the day draws to a close and he says goodbye to Asha and Shiva. He promises that he will visit them soon. He will have to take a trip to India, anyways, to visit his friends in Haryana.
For now, he still has many places to see. He feels surer of who he is. Harry knows he is Indian, he is Advait, he is a fan of architecture and history and ancient civilizations. He likes hiking, nature, food, Hindi—Harry feels he is starting to know who he is.
But he's not there yet—he's not yet satisfied enough to go home. He ran out of money from the Ministry a while ago, but he has enough in his Gringotts vault to keep him going for quite some time. So he stays, even though he promised he would only be gone a year. But Harry feels that he is so close to solving something that he can't go home now and lose all of this progress.
So he plans out a European-and-Asian tour: he goes to the Royal Palace of Amsterdam (that thick, dense magic is there), the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Leaning Tower of Pisa (which to his surprise, is only standing due to a magical cradle that is invisible to non-magical eyes), the Colosseum in Greece, the Hagia Sophia in Turkey (filled with magic), Angkor Wat in Cambodia (only parts of it are spelled with that thick magic, which confuses Harry, but he ignores this as he visually can't tell the difference between the different sections), and then he's off to China.
It's at the Great Wall of China where Harry finally understands what that strange magic does.
He realises that in every section of the wall that is still standing, it is soaking in that fascinating magic. But in every crumbled portion? The magic is missing. And that's when it hits him: the type of spell determines the longevity of the structure.
He thinks back to every place he has been to that has this "longevity" magic—Chichen Itza in Mexico, although it was weak, the Taj Mahal in India, the Royal Palace in the Netherlands, Saint Sophia's Cathedral in Ukraine, the Bandiagara Escarpment and Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali.
Practically every continent he has visited has experienced at least some form of this magic. He didn't notice it at the Sagrada Familia—it wasn't there, and he's never felt it in any more recent construction he's been staying in. None of the magical sectors in the cities he has stayed in have this magical power. It's only ancient things, only ancient buildings.
But why was it lost? Why would people purposefully build with an inferior method?
Harry does not understand this incongruency. He travels back to Haryana, where Priya, and Amala greet him happily. When Harry explains he wants to work with a magical construction company, Amala says that she can't help him, and then directs him to Navdeep.
Navdeep sends him to his twin, Ahmed, who then says, "Alright, Advait, you'll come with me. We're on a site for the next couple months. You'll help out there, and then we'll see if you're cut out for this sort of business."
Ahmed is a hard task-master, but he is an undeniable source of construction-related magic. When Harry mentions that he can feel if the spells didn't set properly one evening, Ahmed looks at him carefully. "Advait, you gotta tell me if that happens so we can redo it," he says. Ahmed drags Harry up from where he is sitting and apparates him back to the construction site and instructs Harry to recast the spell until it is done correctly.
Ahmed doesn't say anything else that evening. Harry is worried that he has disappointed his friend.
Harry walks carefully around Ahmed, casting the spells Ahmed directs him to with careful precision whenever he is told, which is surprisingly frequent. Ahmed seems to be studying Harry with a careful expression whenever Harry catches him when he thinks Harry's not looking.
Harry worries about this for several days, until one evening at dinner, Navdeep and Amala both complain to Harry that he has to stop being so fantastic at construction because Ahmed has been talking non-stop about the quality of Harry's work. Harry is taken aback. "But he never tells me this!"
Navdeep laughs deeply. "That's Ahmed. He's ridiculously proud of you, Advait. He thinks you really have a talent for this. You better not start your own company. You'll run him straight out of business."
But Harry, while he really enjoys the work and the magic, is somewhat dissatisfied because it's not the intense magic that he had been seeking for. Harry follows Ahmed to work for several months until one day Ahmed throws up his hands and says, "You have been literally making new things up every day for the past week and I have no idea what you have been doing. Please, explain to your lesser!"
Harry bashfully explains that he felt that some of the spells were superfluous and that he just tweaked them a bit so that the magic would flow better—and then when he teaches Ahmed the altered spells, Ahmed's eyes widen and he is so impressed he has to sit down.
"Advait, you know I've nothing left to teach you. You're going to waste your talents if you stay here in Haryana," Ahmed says carefully after Harry sits down next to him.
"But I like it here," Harry says.
"We like you," Ahmed concedes. "But, Advait, you are going to make a big difference in the world. I'm talking about something bigger than whatever bad guy you beat. It's going to be with this. You're going to build something amazing, so fantastic people will never forget your name. Advait, I'm telling you—you gotta get out of here. Haryana is a great place, but you need to go somewhere where you can fly."
This is a truth that Harry has known for several weeks now. It is September, 2000. He needs to go home. He hasn't talked to anyone from the United Kingdom since those strange politicians at the world cup over a year ago, and that was only ten minutes of literal nonsense.
It's time to go home. Harry knows what he will do. He will build—he will find out that magic. He will figure out that magic that sets those architectural masterpieces apart from all of the others.
He says goodbye to his friends in Haryana. He stops by Asha and Shiva in Tamil Nadu, wishing them well and telling them that he is going to the United Kingdom. Asha and Shiva smile, and wish him well on his travels.
"Alvida, Advait!" they say. Harry waves good-bye, and then leaves India.