Harry stood in the terminal at the JFK International Airport, second guessing his plan.
All his attempts at contacting his friends or the wizarding world in general had failed.
He had never learned how to use a patronus for communication. He hadn't found a single post owl. Portkeys were heavily restricted and regulated so he had never learnt how to make one. Cross continental apparition was apparently impossible and so wasn't something he really wanted to attempt. Flying his Firebolt back to London would take roughly 23 hours at top speed and with Sirius's motorbike it would take even longer if he didn't get lost and so was out of the question.
He had never really studied the american magical society, or any other magical society, and so had no idea how to contact them short of creating a massive breach of the statute of secrecy and waitting for wizards to come and arrest him.
More worrying was the fact that no one had tried to contact him. The British Ministry had far more resources at its disposal than he did and Hermione would never have simply given up on him he had hoped for a post owl or some such but nothing had come.
All these facts combined with the lack of success contacting his muggle born friends by phone lead to a rather terrifying theory … one that would require a trip back to England for confirmation.
Without a passport, it would be impossible for Harry to board a plane and the confundus and notice me not charms would not really get him past the several dedicated security checkpoints and various automated security systems. The confundus charm worked well enough to trick people on small misdirections or lies but wasn't mind control like the Imperius.
Even the imperius curse, if Harry felt desperate enough to use it, would not really help much with the levels of security at the airport or with the automated systems.
Climbing unto the plane with his invisibility cloak could work but planes were too cramped to hide in … unless you wanted to ride in the cargo hold.
And so this is where Harry Potter found himself staring at a monitor showing plane departures for London. A quick apparition to the airfield and a quick donning of his cloak allowing him to sneak into the luggage hold and the young wizard was on his way to England.
After a grueling 7 hours in a cold and loud luggage hold, Harry considered simply stowing away on a ship instead, even if it would take 4 or 5 days. The temperature in the hold had dropped to near freezing and the hold was not well insulated against the sound of the rushing wind and the jet turbines.
The moment the plane landed Harry apparated straight from the hold to diagon alley's apparition point only to appear in the middle of a busy street filled with Muggles.
Apparating again after a quick view of the area, Harry appeared in front of 12 Grimmauld Place only to find a record store in its place.
Twisting Harry appeared in front on number four privet drive to find an elderly couple living there. Frantically, Harry apparated to the Burrow to find an empty field.
Harry simply sat down heavily on the wet ground feeling empty. The reality of his situation finally truly sinking in.
"We've always had crazy adventures but we mostly came out on top … I was kind of hoping." he spoke to himself softly. Harry paused momentarily trying to compose himself not really able to finish his sentence.
"Only one place left to check really." Harry softly whispered to himself as he apparate again.
Appearing in the ruins of an ancient castle Harry began slowly walking among the piles of stones. He could recognise bits and pieces of Hogwarts in the remaining ruins but there were far less ruins than Harry would have expected for a castle the size of Hogwarts. He could feel some stale remnants of magics in the air showing that there had been wards here once upon a time but the magics were weak, broken and incomplete. Remnants of wards carved into stone centuries, or more, ago. Old magics barely clinging to the stones.
"Well, there's no kidding myself any longer. I'm in a different universe or reality or … something." Harry whispered to himself as he stood where the great hall stood in his reality and most likely stood in this reality some centuries past.
This castle had most likely never evolved into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Some terrible fate having most likely befallen the wizarding population of the time.
In his reality, Binns had, in between boring essays on Goblin Wars, droned on and on about the role of the British wizards in creating wizarding society.
Hogwarts had been the main wellspring for magic in most of the world in the beginning, the first organised school of magic. Without Hogwarts, magic must have remained an apprenticeship field severely restricting the growth and evolution of the wizarding population. A few bad lucks with a wizard passing away and a vast proportion of the worlds magic would have been wiped out.
A single wizard would apprentice perhaps two or three young wizards in their lifetime while Hogwarts, in Harry's time in school produced over two-hundred and fifty new wizards every year and had inspired other countries in creating their own schools like Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.
Taking out the marauders map from his trunk, Harry tapped it "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good". The map remained blank, unable to connect to the magic of the castle. "Mischief Managed."
Harry spent the remainder of the day walking about the ruins, casting various detection and revealing charms in the hopes of finding some secret store of magic or signs of more recent magic magic use but as the sun began to set, he gave up hope.
As far as he could tell, he was the only Wizard in the world.