Pain, Harry was used to pain after his many adventures but it never got easier to take really, especially after an entire year of nothing worse than a broken arm from a tumble in a Quidditch match.
Groaning, Harry slowly opened his eyes and was greeted with the night sky poking through a leafy canopy.
"Eight fingers and two thumbs, ten toes, hair, two ears, a nose …" after a quick pants inspection "... still have all my other appendages down there … seems I managed not to splinch myself at least."
Sitting up, Harry noticed that he was in a park in some type of large city. Skyscrapers could be seen in the distance.
A wave of nausea hit him as he attempted to stand up. "Bloody hell, I feel like I've been run over by the Knight Bus."
Closing his eyes to give his battered system a little time to recover from the ordeal it had gone through Harry began taking notice of the sounds. Car's were driving by a in the sky a plane could heard.
Standing up slowly Harry took in his surroundings. He was in a park that appeared to be surrounded on all sides by a massive sprawling city. The ground where he had landed was smoking slightly and in the grass appeared to be etched an intricate pattern. The pattern seemed familiar but Harry was finding it difficult to focus.
"What in the heck did I get myself into this time?" Harry asked as he bent down closer to examine the scorched grass.
The sound of sirens, screeching tires and the quickly approaching sound of what Harry believed were helicopters interrupted his investigation.
Far too exhausted to attempt to apparate, and not knowing where to apparate to in the first place, Harry scrambled to unshrink his school trunk and began digging through it's contents frantically searching for his invisibility cloak.
Harry managed to pull the cloak out of the trunk and quickly drape it over himself and his trunk as half a dozen heavily armed and armored men burst through the bushes.
"Perimeter secure!" the soldiers exclaimed one after another.
Harry silently shrunk his trunk and carefully placed it back in his pocket trying to move out of the way of the soldiers.
Other men arrived carrying equipment of unknown purpose, others carrying cameras. They began documenting the scar Harry's arrival had left in the grass.
Another man, bald, with small wire rimmed glasses and dressed in a business suit, arrived on the scene and the soldiers came to attention.
"Agent Stillwell. We secured the site 15 minutes after being notified of the energy spike. No sign of anyone sir." one of the soldiers, a field commander of some type if Harry had to guess.
"Get someone from linguistics to check out the burn mark. Nothing comes in or out of the perimeter, document everything and I'll go and handle the NYPD."
'Wherever I've landed they speak english at least. Can't imagine what I'd have done if I'd landed in Japan or something.' Harry thought to himself quietly as he followed the agent out of the 'Perimitter'.
Harry felt remarkably … calm, considering his circumstances. He idly considered that this was most likely due to the fact that this was probably the least dangerous situation he had ever found himself in in his short and eventful life while also acknowledging to himself that he might be suffering from a mild concussion and magical exhaustion.
As Harry and his unwitting escort made their way out of the park, Harry began recognising the city he was in: It looked like New York. It might have been due to having seen the city on the television at the Dursleys or maybe the fact that New York was clearly stenciled unto the police cars that had arrived and were currently creating a secondary perimitter to the park.
Agent Stillwell suddenly stopped and took out what appeared to be the smallest, slickest cellphone Harry had ever seen.
"Stillwell here. Yes director based on my personal observation, it's very similar to what Coulsen has reported in New Mexico. No, not exactly the same but it has similarities ..."
Harry made his way slowly away from the park and 'agent Stillwell'. A large crowd had assembled at the edge of the police perimitter, a host of reporters were vying for the best view of the military activity.
Gently making his way around the crowd and into the dark city streets.
Entering a dark alley, Harry quickly removed the invisibility cloak.
The recent ordeal was slowly beginning to take its toll on the young wizard. Sitting down next to a trash bin Harry mustered the strength for a very minor notice me not charm and promptly fell asleep.
Harry awoke some time later to the sound of sirens blaring past. Slowly standing up Harry tried to work the kinks out of his back. Sleeping on the hard ground in a dirty alleway made him sorely miss the beds in Gryffindor tower.
Stomach grumbling, Harry decided to go find a cafe to have some breakfast, clear his still pounding head and come up with a plan.
Looking around, Harry found a small cafe that serves breakfast and made his way in.
Harry sat down at a table and ordered a breakfast and a cup of tea.
"You sure you can afford it honey?" the waitress asked, casing a incredulous look at his attire.
Harry looked down at his clothing. He had been wearing jeans and a t-shirt when he had gotten off the Express. Unlike the clothing he had worn during his time with the Dursleys, these clothes had been relatively new and fit properly but now they appeared ruined. Rips and burns mared the new fabric in several places and everything was covered in grime from his fall on the ground and his night sleeping in a dirty alleyway.
"Yeah, I have some … oh. I just realised I only have British pounds and no american dollars."
A grey haired stranger, wearing large glasses sitting at the counter had apparently been observing the situation. "Don't worry about it. I'll trade you some of your money for some dollars."
The waitress turned to the old man, apparently a regular client. "Stan, one of these days you're going to get swindled."
The man made to sit at Harry's table and Harry gestured for him to sit down. After a quick exchange of money, their breakfasts were brought out.
"Thank-you for the help sir."
"No worries, you look like you've had a rough couple of days. If you're in need of a place to stay you can probably stay a couple of nights at a homeless shelter. I'm not gonna ask why you're on your own on the street."
"Actually I was in an accident last night. Woke up in an alley this morning feeling like my head was going to crack open." Harry answered. "As soon as I'm done here I'll make a few calls and everything will be sorted. Would have done that earlier but I was still having some trouble thinking. I think I might have hit my head."
"Well good luck then True Believer. Excelsior!" With that, the strange man got up and walked out of the restaurant humming a jaunty tune.
After a hearty but heavy breakfast, a quick cleanup in the washrooms and a change of clothes, Harry made his way to a pay phone.
At the end of the school year, Harry had obtained phone numbers for some of his muggle born and half blood friends. So digging through his trunk Harry took a few of them out and, using the money exchanged at the restaurant proceeded to call Hermione's parents.
"The number you have reached is not in service.".
Harry was pretty certain he had dialed the correct number and after 3 more attempts figured something might be wrong with the Grangers phone.
Looking at his list Harry decided to try Justin.
"Square Pizza, can I take your order?"
Harry confirmed the phone number with the pizzeria … he had not misdialed.
Going through his list of contacts yielded the same result. All the numbers were wrong or deactivated.
Something was very, very wrong.