Magic Will Find a Way
By: Ryu Katanna
Beta:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter Two
For as unsure as he was of the man driving; Harry couldn't help the smile that came to his lips as he rode behind Owen on his motorcycle for the few minutes that it took to get to where they were going. The feeling he got from the vibration of the engine under him and the wind through his hair was almost as exhilarating as when he would ride his broom. Owen looked back at the teen as he came to a stop only to smile and give a chuckle himself. Harry's dark hair was standing in all directions from the wind as he was almost pouting now that the ride was over. Parking his bike, Owen motioned for Harry to follow him as he led him inside.
"Let's get you cleaned up so we can treat any wounds first. Shower is in through there. I'll get you a towel and some fresh clothing in a minute. I have to make a call." Harry nodded as he went into the bathroom that had been pointed out to him.
All in all, Owen's place wasn't really all that big. The bathroom was very small, but it was clean with a toilet, sink and shower stall and no real decor to be seen. Harry slowly pulled out the folded leather bag he had slipped into the deep pocket of his pants before the last task to place carefully on the back of the toilet. He hadn't known what he would encounter in the maze, and so had packed the enchanted bottomless leather bag with anything he could think that might help him.
Luckily, the bag held so much more than just those few things. Having received it from Sirius that Christmas, Harry had kept everything except his clothes in the bag. Everything that he owned had all been stored inside. Harry could only be thankful now that he had expanded his book collection and stocked up on potion's ingredients through various trips to Hogsmeade and owl orders through the year. Maybe he could find something in one of those books to help him figure out what had happened.
Feeling the sting on his arm and the grit from the dirt, Harry's attention was drawn back to his arm. He looked at the wound before gingerly pulling the tattered and spell burned clothing he had worn for the final task of the Triwizard Tournament off. When all but his arm had been uncovered he ran warm water in the sink to wet the dried blood enough to make peeling the cloth away a bit easier on the tender skin. A knock on the door startled Harry and he turned to see that Owen was coming in. He entered with a towel and a change of clothes in his hand. Seeing what Harry was doing he could tell that the teen was having a little trouble with only the one hand to work with.
"Here. Let me help you with that." He said as he set down the things he had brought in for Harry before wetting a clean washcloth.
Harry shifted uncomfortably as the bathroom felt a bit cramped with both of them in the room. He watched in surprise as Owen expertly tended to his arm. His grip on Harry's wrist was firm and steady yet his touch was gentle as he cleaned the dried blood off and worked the cloth away from the raw skin. No one had ever taken such care to help him or be as gentle with him as Owen was now. Soon enough, the remains of Harry's shirt were pulled away and tossed into the sink as it was turned off.
"Thank you." Harry said before Owen turned to start the shower for him.
"This one is hot and that one is cold. I take it you're hungry. It won't be much but I'll cook you up some breakfast. Is there anything you don't like or are allergic to?" Owen asked just to be sure he didn't accidentally kill the kid while trying to help him.
"Not really." Harry replied before turning away to strip away his undershirt.
Owen froze at the sight that met him just as he was turning to leave the teen to his shower. Some looked to have been more recent than others, but the lines covering the boy's back were unmistakable. Lash marks from either a belt or some kind of whip crisscrossed and lined his skin from his shoulders down and disappeared under the top of his pant line. A few bruises stood out on the teen's skin, but the largest and darkest of them spanned over his side just under his ribs. Owen's jaw clenched as he bit his tongue to keep from saying anything before turning away and leaving the room.
This went unnoticed by Harry as he managed to get the water to a comfortable temperature. Hearing the door close, Harry carefully stripped away his dirty pants and underwear before pulling the door to the shower shut as he stepped under the hot water. His eyes closed in pleasure as he rinsed away the dirt and sweat.
'What do I do now?' He thought as he watched the dirty water pool on the shower floor to circle the drain.
'I really need to get back and tell Professor Dumbledore and the others what happened, but I don't even know where I am. My magic feels so different here. Is it because of where I am or..." Harry's thoughts trailed off as he thought about the deep purple spell that had hit him.
'What did Voldemort do to me? What was that spell? I know it couldn't have been anything good.' He thought as he washed both his body and hair as quickly as he could while being careful of the bruising before turning off the water and leaning his forehead against the wall.
'Will I even be able to go back?' Uncertainty and anxiety filled him as he thought about his situation.
'The only thing I know is I felt safe when I woke up. I want to go back to the... he called them velociraptors, but that's crazy. For one, they look a lot different than I saw depicted in the books in grade school. What the bloody hell is going on with me? My magic feels so unsettled. Like it's crawling under my skin...' Getting out of the shower, Harry tried to shake off the feelings as he grabbed the towel before drying off and picking up the clothes Owen had brought in for him to change into.
He found a green tee shirt and black sleep pants. Pulling them on he was surprised by the fit. The pant legs pooled a bit at his ankles while the waistband hung low on his hips as the tie barely held it secure even with as tightly as he had tied it. The tee shirt was too big, but not as big on him as Dudley's old cast-offs had always been. Putting the towel onto the metal bar to dry, Harry stepped out of the bathroom to catch the smell of bacon in the air. Following the smell, he found Owen in front of the stove.
"Have a seat. It's just finished cooking. I have coffee, milk, or water. What do you like to drink?" The man asked as he plated the eggs next to the bacon and toast before setting them on the small table.
"Um, milk please?" Harry asked as he sat down in the chair Owen had pointed to where the plate was set in front of him with some butter and jam next to it with a fork and butter knife.
Owen nodded before pulling a glass from the cabinet and filling it with milk. Putting it back in the fridge he placed the glass next to the plate. Once that was done he started cleaning up as Harry ate slowly. When he had finished, Owen sat down in another chair at the table and started pulling antiseptic, gauze, and medical tape out of the first aid kit he had set there as he was making the kid breakfast.
"Let me see your arm." He ordered seeing Harry was eating with his other hand.
"Yes, sir." Harry replied as he held out his arm for Owen to inspect.
"Well, I'm going to have to stitch it. How did this happen?" He asked as he laid the teen's arm on the table before pulling out a needle and thread.
"It wasn't the raptors. They didn't hurt me, I swear!" Harry found himself defending them immediately; not wanting them to be blamed when they hadn't done anything but help in their own way.
"I didn't think it was. They were treating you like a hatchling. Now answer the question, and how did you get into the paddock?" Owen replied as he started threading the wound together as he had learned to from his time in the Navy; noticing how the kid didn't even twitch from the feel of the needle once he'd started.
Harry was quiet for a moment as he shifted uncomfortably at the position he was in and debated on how to answer him. He doubted the man would believe him if he lied. He'd seen the look in his eyes when he had told him his name was Hadrian. Yet he also didn't think he would believe the truth either. He was a muggle. Finally, Harry decided to tell him the truth but leave out anything to do with magic as much as he could. It helped that Harry didn't remember anything that had happened after Voldemort's last spell.
"The one who did this was the man who betrayed my parents. I don't really remember how I got in the paddock. I just remember waking up there." Harry answered as truthfully as he could knowing that his answers would only cause more questions.
"The man who betrayed your parents? Where are they?" Owen asked as he tried to gather some information about this kid as he noticed how vague he was being.
"They were killed when I was a baby. They were involved in a war and were in hiding with me. The man who betrayed them was a friend who they didn't know was on the other side..." Harry bit his lip as Owen tied off the stitches and looked up at Harry.
He could see that he was telling the truth, but he was also holding a lot back. Owen considered whether or not to call him on it. He needed to know as much as possible about the teen. He needed to be able to get him back to where he belonged, and he also wanted to figure out why his girls had taken to him the way they had. It went against everything they knew about velociraptor behavior. At the same time, Owen knew that there was no reason for this kid to trust him.
"Okay, Harry. I'm gonna need you to tell me more than that. I need to know as much as possible to get you back to where you're supposed to be. I also need to find out why the raptors behaved the way they did with you. I also know that you have no reason to trust me, but I do want to help. I swear I won't tell anyone else what you tell me if you don't want me to, but in order to help you, I need you to be completely honest with me. Why don't we start with where you live and with who? You said you're an orphan. Was there family who raised you? Is that who you came here with?" Owen explained before asking in order to start over as he treated Harry's wound with the antiseptic before wrapping a bandage around his forearm and securing it.
"You would never believe me..." Harry replied as he thought about what the man wanted to know.
He honestly didn't know how to explain everything while leaving out magic, the wizarding world, the war, and Voldemort. That was the truth of his life. Even leaving those out it was obvious that the man could tell he wasn't being told everything. Then there was the matter of the Statute of Secrecy, but he didn't know what else to do.
He needed help to get home, and in order to get that help he would have to tell the man about magic. He didn't know where he was, and he had no way of contacting anyone he knew. If that was even possible.
"Try me. As long as I can tell you're telling me the truth then I will believe anything you say to me. What happened at the paddock was not normal behavior from my raptors." Owen explained in a firm but gentle tone even as he tilted the kid's chin to get a look at the cut on his forehead.
It looked kind of like a lightning bolt, and while it looked fresh, he could see the edges of old scar tissue on the inflamed skin. Putting off the oddity for the moment, Owen gently applied the antiseptic before bandaging it. Looking the boy over he could see a few other small scratches but they weren't so bad as to need treatment other than the antiseptic to keep away infection.
Harry studied Owen closely for several minutes as he tended to him before coming to a conclusion. He honestly didn't have any other choice but to trust this man. He didn't know where he was, how to get back if he could get back to where he was supposed to be, or how he had even gotten there. He didn't know anyone here. He'd have to take the chance even if it meant breaking the law. There was no other way he could think of to explain away his being there.
What he did know was that this man had only tried to help him since he had woken in the nest of predators that as far as he knew had been extinct for thousands of years. This man had helped him, treated his wounds and fed him, even when any other adult he knew would have demanded answers from him first. Yet Owen hadn't done that. Harry was used to adults lying to him, or wanting things from him. No adult had ever cared for the fact that he was hurt more than they cared about what they could get from him.
Harry had always noticed these things because of growing up with the Dursleys. Even the Headmaster had not taken the time to explain his reasoning as Owen had, and he had yet to feel that the man was lying to him. As much as he loved Sirius, Harry knew that the man saw his father more than he did Harry when he had looked at him the year before. He had been okay with that because the man had made him feel like there was someone who loved him; even if it was more for who his father had been than for himself.
He had been okay with that because there had never been anyone who cared for him as himself. Everyone saw The-Boy-Who-Lived, or James' son, not just Harry. Ron and Hermione had both proven that even they hadn't really cared as much as he'd thought they had this year. Ron had proven that with his irrational jealousy over Harry being entered into the tournament, and Hermione when she had stopped speaking to him while Ron had been angry. Neither of them would listen to the fact that he hadn't chosen it.
It hadn't been Harry's fault. It had been bloody Voldemort. Again.
Looking up into eyes that were only a shade or two lighter green than his own, Harry braced himself to try to trust this man.
"Okay... My name is Harry James Potter. I was born in a place called Godric's Hollow in Europe. My parent's names were James and Lily Potter, and I'm a wizard." Harry said softly as he watched the man through the longer strands of hair that fell into his eyes while he spoke.
"A wizard? Are you talking about the wand and magic kind? Like Merlin?" Owen asked in surprise as he had detected no lies in Harry's words.
"Yes. You believe me?" Harry asked uncertainly when the man didn't show any disbelief.
The man probably thought he was delusional.
"Well you haven't lied, so it must be true." Owen replied as his mind tried to comprehend the information.
Harry shifted as he sighed with both some relief that he didn't yet think him crazy and trepidation that he might just change his mind.
"Well, where I come from Witches and Wizards have a separate community from muggles. Muggles are people who are born without magic. Sometimes children with magic are born to parents without any. They are called Muggleborns, and that's what my Mum was. My Dad was a Pureblood meaning his family only had children with other Pureblooded Wizarding families for generations. Half-bloods are those who have at least one magical parent. Since my mother was a muggle-born and my father a pureblood that makes me a half-blood." Harry said as he tried to explain the differences though he had never really cared either way.
"There is that much of a difference?" Owen asked not understanding why it mattered.
"I don't really think so but there is some prejudice over bloodlines, mostly from the pureblood families. The reason I'm explaining it is because when I was born there was a war going on in the magical community. A wizard who called himself Lord Voldemort led the darker side of the war. He tortured and killed a lot of people as he gained allies. They believed that purebloods were superior and that Muggleborns had no place in the Wizarding World. Half-Bloods were tolerated a bit more, but the purebloods that follow him still considered their blood to be tainted." Harry explained as he thought about the segregation between witches and wizards that was still a fact in the wizarding world so long after the height of the war.
"There have been wars fought over for less." Owen said as he thought about what Harry was saying and understanding at least some of it.
"Yes, well I was born toward the end of the war. My parents fought against Voldemort and his supporters who he called his Death Eaters. My parents were in hiding with me because Voldemort was looking for us. I don't really know why, but he wanted to kill me. We were hidden by a spell so that the only way to find us was to get the location from the Secret Keeper. A person could have looked right in the front window and not seen anything." Harry said as he finished his milk and set the cup next to his empty plate.
"My godfather Sirius was supposed to have been the Secret Keeper, but he thought he would have been too obvious a choice and so he encouraged my parents to choose a different friend while he acted as a decoy. They chose wrong. Pettegrew had been my father's friend all through school, but he was one of the Death Eaters. He told Voldemort where we were. On Holloween night when I was just over a year old, my father was killed trying to give my mum time to get away with me. My mum sacrificed her life to try to save mine." Harry said solemnly as he remembers hearing her screams because of the Dementors.
"How did you survive?" Owen asked as he watched the teen grimace as if thinking of a bad memory which was possible.
"My mum's sacrifice enacted old magics that protected me. When Voldemort cast the Killing Curse, a curse that causes instant death, on me it came back to him and left me with this scar. At least that's what my Headmaster says. I don't know if I believe that though." Harry said as he lifted his pointed at the bandage Owen had placed over where the scar from that night had opened before taking a breath and continuing.
"Sirius came but it was already too late for him to do anything. Knowing that Peter had betrayed them he went after him. Pettegrew ended up blowing up a street and killing several nonmagicals before cutting off his finger and fleeing. My godfather was blamed for the crime and sent to the wizarding prison while I was left with my mother's sister and her family in Surrey." Owen could tell from Harry's tone that Harry didn't really like his relatives.
"So your Aunt took you in?" He prompted as he watched Harry closely while remembering when he had seen his back in the bathroom.
"I don't think she was really given a choice. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon hate magic, but they're the only family I have. I only have to spend the summers there now since I started attending wizarding school when I was eleven. It's a boarding school in Scotland." Harry replied with a small shrug as he tried to avoid the topic of the Dursleys as much as he could but Owen noticed it anyway as he was looking for it.
"So how do you end up in the Paddock?" Owen asked; steering away from a topic that he knew could cause the teen to clam up.
"Well... I was part of a tournament between three wizarding schools. I didn't choose to enter, but someone had put my name in. The artifact that chooses the contestants is a magical artifact. Once my name was chosen it created a binding contract that forced me to compete. Even though the Ministry had a rule that said you had to be of age; which is seventeen." Harry tried to explain as best he could in a way the man would understand.
"How old are you?" Owen asked looking at the kid and knowing there was no way he was that old.
He barely looked to be in his teens.
"I'll be fifteen in July." He replied only to see the man's lips curl inward sternly.
"You shouldn't have been held to that contract then. You're too young to have been in the competition and you weren't of age to consent to such a contract." Harry chuckled drily as he shifted back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of him a bit defensively.
"Yeah, well, things are different when it comes to that world. The contract was magically binding. If I didn't compete then it would have stripped me of my magic. From what I read when I looked up magical contracts, it is possibly one of the worst things that can happen to a wizard or witch, and highly painful. Magic is such a part of us that to lose it like that can kill us. It can be even worse than death for those who do survive. There was nothing anyone could have done." Harry told him grimly before continuing.
"My being entered wasn't even the first time something like that has happened to me. I've been in dangerous situations every year since I started school. I knew that someone had set it up, but it was during the final task that I found out that it was really a trap. Pettegrew, the one who betrayed my parents was there. He... killed Cedric who is-was a schoolmate of mine." Harry told him as he clenched his fists as he remembered that Cedric's body had been left in the graveyard.
He hadn't been about to do anything for the older boy.
"Pettegrew used a dark ritual to revive Voldemort using my blood and some other things. I had to fight with him and something happened when our spells connected. The last thing I remember was being hit with some kind of curse. I thought I was dead, but then I woke up to find I was surrounded by dinosaurs that I thought were extinct." Harry finished with a vacant look that told Owen he was starting to get lost in his own thoughts.
"What happened then?" Owen prodded carefully.
"They had me surrounded. I thought they were going to kill me. I had already thought I was dead because of that curse. I... just stopped caring at that moment, and I was ready for them to eat me. They didn't though. One of them, I think it was Blue, sniffed at my arm for a minute. I don't know why, but she stepped back. They were communicating, and then she just started nudging at me. They took me over to the nest and laid down around me. You know what happened when I woke up." Harry replied and they lapsed into silence for several minutes before Harry looked back up at Owen.
"I told you; you wouldn't believe me. I probably sound pretty bloody mental to you right now."
"It is... an unbelievable story, but you haven't lied to me. I would have been able to tell if you had. That, and I know there's something different about you. The fact that you didn't get eaten tells me that much." Owen replied with a small shake of his head and a sigh.
"I would try to prove it to you, but my wand was destroyed. I can feel my own magic, and the natural magic around us, but they feel different here. Stronger, and more wild. Where is this place?" Harry asked tentatively.
"It's an island. Just off the coast of Costa Rica called Isla Nublar. This whole island is a park known as Jurassic World where people come to see dinosaurs. You've heard of it?" Owen asked only to see Harry shake his head.
"No... I've lived with muggles, nonmagicals, most of my life. I've never even heard of it. I've never heard that dinosaurs were no longer extinct." Harry muttered as he seemed to draw in on himself a bit.
Owen's brows furrowed at this information. Jurassic World was known all over the world. It had been many years since the research for gene splicing had been developed and the first dinosaur had been created. If Harry had grown up around normal people then he should have heard something from even other kids at school.
"When where you born, Harry?" He asked and the teen looked back up at him in confusion at the question.
"July 31st, 1980... Why?" He asked only to see Owen's brow furrow even more when he heard no lie at that answer.
"And you said you were fourteen?" Owen asked only to receive a nod before Harry frowned in confusion as the man stood.
"What? What's wrong?" Harry asked and shifted uncomfortably.
"The year. If you were born in 1980 then you should be thirty-five. It's currently 2015." Owen told him, and Harry felt his stomach drop sharply.
"No... It was 1995. Twenty years... Did the spell... or was it that... Oh Merlin!" Harry muttered before a tear fell from the corner of his eye as the teen shot to his feet and burst out the door and down the stairs.
Owen wasted no time following him as Harry bolted into the woods. Surprised at his speed, Owen lengthened his strides to keep up with him. It only took him a moment to see where he was headed. He was going in the direction of the raptor paddock, but Owen didn't think he was headed there on purpose. The look of blind panic before he'd taken off had told him that much.
"Harry, wait! Stop!" Owen called as he caught up and was able to grab the boy by his uninjured arm.
The teen's body racked with sobs as he fought the man's hold. The wind rapidly picked up around them as Owen pulled the boy into his arms to try to steady him as well as keep him from running off again. The teen's struggles grew weaker as he seemingly fell apart as he broke down.
It was then Owen noticed the deep and dark storm clouds gathering unnaturally fast over the island as the wind picked up even more. It had been a bright and clear day just moments ago. The storm gathering had formed from seemingly nothing. It didn't take long for Owen to connect this strange weather to the emotional torment in the teen. Thunder started to rumble, and lightning flickered through the sky as Harry let out a gut-wrenching scream that was drowned out by the crash of thunder that shook the ground violently.
Owen fell to his knees, pulling the boy into his arms as he watched the sky over-head. Was it really caused by the boy? Was it really this teen, who was way too small and skinny for his age, who had caused this storm? He had this kind of power? If magic could cause this storm when the kid was upset; then what else was it capable of?
"Hey, hey, hey. Calm down. It's gonna be alright. Calm down, kid." He muttered into the teen's ear as he tried to calm him and focus on what was important.
"I-It's n-not!" Harry cried before letting out another gut-wrenching cry as thunder roiled and rain started pouring down between the trees to soak their clothes in seconds.
"It will. It will be alright. Just calm down now. Shh. I got you." Owen said soothingly as he rocked Harry a bit as tears were soon drowned away by the rain.
It took almost an hour of Owen kneeling there in the mud and muttering into Harry's ear until the sounds of the thunder crashing and the bright flashes of lightning started to slow. Before Harry's sobbing breaths slowed to hiccups of upset as he wore himself out. Owen shuffled the teen in his grip until he was able to lift him and turn back toward his home.
"Nothing..." Harry murmured as the winds slowed when he became drowsy from the release of so much emotion.
"What was that?" Owen asked as he found the road again.
"Everything is gone. Everyone. He took it all. There's nothing left..." Harry trembled at the thought as thunder rumbled in time with him.
"I'm sure that's not true. We'll get you home." Owen said as reassuringly as he could as he came up to his bungalow and carried Harry up the stairs and back into the kitchen before putting him down in a chair.
"You don't get it." Harry muttered, looking down at the table and watching as the rainwater in his hair dripped to the surface.
"Then why don't you explain it to me then. One minute we're talking, and the next thing I know, you're bolting out the door." Owen said while pulling out a couple towels.
He placed one over the teen's head on his way to his own chair so he could dry himself before starting to dry his own hair with the other. He watched as Harry made no move to use the towel. Instead, he hid his face under both his hair and the towel as he bowed closer to the table.
"If it's really only been twenty years then you can still go home. I'm sure in a world where magic is the norm that they won't find it too weird." Owen tried to comfort the teen-only to pause at the broken laugh that answered him.
"I can't go back. It's not just the time difference... I should have realized. The natural magic is different here. It's wild and feels completely different than I've ever felt before. The magic of nature back home is far more settled because of all the magicals who use it." Harry said hollowly as he refused to look up.
"I never should have been able to do that. It's violent and untamed. Accidental magic can do a lot of things, but I've never heard of it being so strong."
"So then that storm is..." Owen said as he realized that he was right when the storm clouds had gathered so rapidly.
"When an untrained witch or wizard becomes upset their emotions send their magic outward in a burst of accidental magic. It's why we have schools. So that we can learn to control it. That storm was the natural magics feeding off my own magical outburst and emotions. It never should have been that strong." Harry explained as he shoulders shuddered with grief.
"What does that mean?" Owen asked as he glanced outside to see that the storm had calmed, but had not abated.
"The natural magics are wild and untamed because there are no magicals to interact with it. If there are no others then that means..." A sob choked the words in his throat before he could say it, but Owen didn't need to hear the rest to know what he was trying to say.
There were no other magical people other than Harry. No Witches and Wizards to have tamed and utilized the natural magic. That meant that Harry had not just been displaced from his own time. Everything he knew did not exist here.
He was alone and had lost everything and everyone he knew.
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Well here's the second chapter. I hope you enjoyed the angst. I've already got the next chapter typed up, but it needs some editing and fleshing out before it'll be ready. I'll get it out to you when I have some time. Don't know when that will be thanks to the holidays. I'm also trying to get some work done on my other fics so it might not be the quickest I could do.
Let me know what you thought!
~Ryu
