A/N: No, I have not abandoned the video game idea. Have some faith in me, guys. ;)
This chapter is dedicated to FF-StayGold, for requesting that I update soon.
Harry Potter spent the next several years rather uneventfully. He worked at the repair shop, saving money and exploring London. He eventually took on a second part-time job as a courier, moving papers from one company building to another.
Since he could just apparate where he wanted to go, he naturally excelled at this.
Harry had toyed with the idea of Apparating back to Hogwarts, but he found he didn't really want to. Here he understood the rules that governed reality, more or less. Physics and people behaved in a manner more or less what he was used to, and the only nasty surprise he got was when it turned out Marcia had really been engaged to Patrick's evil twin on the local soap opera.
It wasn't a perfect arrangement, and Harry still missed his old life from time to time, but he was content.
Time passed, and Harry Potter grew into a teenager. Then something happened that changed his life completely.
...again.
Walter pushed the floating television set into the repair shop and maneuvered it onto a table while Harry kept his wand pointed at it.
"Is the telly settled?" Harry asked.
Walter nodded and Harry cancelled the spell. The television set dropped a fraction of an inch and landed on the table with a thump.
"Thanks, Harry," Walter said. "I'd have moved it myself, but my lifting muscles just aren't what they used to be."
"Yeah, yeah. Anything to get out of doing the work yourself, huh?" Harry asked teasingly.
"Hey! I'll have you know, it's hard work keeping track of all the inventory here."
Harry laughed. "Oh yes, I've seen how you track inventory," he said. Harry waved his free hand to encompass the entire shop. "'It's over there' does not count as a proper inventory system."
"Says you," Walter retorted.
"So are we done for the day?" Harry asked. "There's a store opening in Edinburgh I've been meaning to check out."
Walter hesitated. "Well, there is... one... small thing..."
Harry sighed. "All right, out with it."
"Well," Walter began shiftily, "it's just that I promised my sister I'd watch her boy this weekend, and I was hoping, if you weren't busy..."
Harry regarded Walter with a flat stare.
"Let me get this straight," Harry said. "You want me to watch your nephew for you?"
"Please?" Walter pleaded. "I'm no good with kids, and he's closer to your age anyways!"
"You know I only look fifteen. In terms of life experience, I'm a full-grown adult."
"It would be doing me a huge favor. Please?"
Harry sighed. "Fine," he acceded. "But you're paying me double-time!"
Walter took on a shocked appearance. "What? Harry," he wheedled, "I'd love to, but it just isn't in the budget right now."
Harry snorted. "Nice try. I do all the work and my magic eats up most of the costs. Double-time, or you get to watch the kid yourself."
There was a knock at the door. Walter's eyes flickered to the door before he hastily said "Done!"
The door opened and a young boy walked through it. He appeared to be pre-teen, wearing thick coke-bottle glasses and sporting a bowl haircut. He carried a large cardboard box in his hands.
"Ah, well," Walter hurriedly explained, "Wensley, this is Harry Potter. Harry, Wensley. And I'm off to the pub to catch the football game. Take care, now. Bye!"
With that, Walter squeezed past Wensley and was out the door.
Harry ran to the door and shouted after him, "Double-time pay! Or I swear I start looking for a better job!"
Harry turned to greet Wensley, but he wasn't there. In the time it had taken Harry to yell at his employer, Wensley had walked in front of a television, set the box down, and pulled out a plastic object that trailed black cables.
Harry walked over to where Wensley was and said, "Hello Wensley, I'm Harry Potter. It looks like I'll be looking after you for a bit."
Harry waited for a response, but Wensley ignored him completely in favor of disconnecting some wires from the television and attaching his own cables.
"Can you tell me what you're doing?" Harry asked.
Wensley absently replied, "Setting up my Super Nintendo."
Harry wasn't sure what that meant, and wasn't sure if he should be allowing Wensley to fiddle with the television. If Wensley managed to break it, Harry wouldn't be able to fix it.
It turned out that, despite Harry's original boast, his magic interacted poorly with muggle electronics. The first time Harry had tried to fix a television set, it caused a small explosion within the television set. Nobody had been hurt, but the television set had been permanently ruined.
Walter would have fired Harry, but he had already gotten used to the magical repairs Harry could do and had no intention of going back to doing the work himself.
In the end, Walter yelled a bit, grumbled some more, and took the cost of the television set out of Harry's pay.
If Harry had known Wensley better, perhaps he might have stepped in to stop whatever he was doing. As it was, however, Harry stood and awkwardly watched as the child fiddled with cables and power cords. A few minutes later, Wensley pulled a smaller plastic object out of the box, inserted it into a tab in the larger plastic object, and slid a purple switch upward. The television blinked and a swinging pendulum appeared on-screen with a distinctive "tick, tock" noise.
"What's that?" Harry asked.
"Chrono Trigger", Wensley responded.
Harry nodded, as if this phrase meant something to him.
Wensley grabbed another plastic object connected by a cord to the "Super Nintendo", and sat on the ground in front of the television.
Harry froze. On the television screen appeared a very familiar window.
Wensley yelled, "Augh! I hate this!" and threw the plastic object to the ground.
"What's wrong?" Harry cautiously asked.
"The stupid game deleted my saved game! Now I have to start all over from the beginning!"
Wensley threw the object down on the ground and stomped off. Harry stared at the screen in front of him. A stylized font read "Battle Mode". Below that were two lines: one that read "ACTIVE" and one that read "WAIT". A white glove pointed to "ACTIVE".
Underneath that was a very familiar window. It had a shaded grey background and said, in white text, "Enemies will attack even if you're not ready!"
Harry stared at that for a second before he realized what those words meant. Harry yelled and threw himself out of the room. He ran as fast as he could, pulling his wand out at the same time. Harry kicked open the door to the back room, bolted past a startled Wensley (who had been cooking something in the microwave), ran up the staircase and threw himself into the room he rented from Walter, slamming the door shut behind him. Harry threw himself onto his bed, scooted so that his back was against the wall, and pointed his wand out in front of him.
His wand hand shook, and Harry's breathing came heavy. Harry frantically pointed his wand at several spots around him, just daring something to attack him.
Minutes passed, and nothing happened. Harry slowly started to relax.
Then there was a knock at the door. Harry yelled and pointed his wand at the door. It opened, but the only person behind it was Wensley. Harry kept his wand pointed at him, just in case.
Wensley stared at Harry. "What are you doing?" he asked.