It was unnatural to have two legs. Beau had lived most of his life with just one, and now having both again required making some adjustments.
He kept favoring his left leg when he walked, making his gait stilted oddly. He kept forgetting to bend his right leg as well making his walk more of a poor attempt at limping.
He was hobbling around the small room he now found himself in as a way to avoid completely breaking down. Physical activity was a great way to keep the mind busy.
The room was peculiar, in that everything was familiar but also dated by about a decade or so. It was also disgusting. Dust covered almost every surface of the room and he could see a few cockroaches sitting in various corners. He could hear the noise of both cars and people outside, indicating that he was in a busy area of some town or city.
Reaching into his pocket, Beau pulled out an old, frayed wallet held together by velcro of all things. He opened the two flaps of the wallet with a satisfying rip and was at a loss. It was almost empty. No ID, only a few random business cards, and a five-pound note. So, he wasn't in the United States either.
It was then that he heard the click of his front door opening. "It's a hot one today, huh?" A feminine voice said, right before the door closed again.
Beau, not one to freeze in moments like these, quickly shoved the wallet back into his pocket and snuck into the closet as quietly as possible. Footsteps echoed against the old, wood flooring as she entered the room.
"So you finally woke up?" She said, noticing the empty bed.
"Come on, there's not many places you can hide in here. Just come on out. I picked up some food for us."
"Who are you?" Beau said, deciding to step out of the closet. Although he didn't recognize her she didn't seem to be a threat.
"Very funny. Come on, I've got us some Chinese food down the street." Beau didn't move. He only continued to stare at the woman in front of him. She was young, very young although he was also old as well. Everyone looks young once you get over fifty. What stood out the most was her vibrant, purple hair. Not something he saw every day in the small town he used to live in.
"Come on, do you really not remember?"
"No. Should I know you?" He was still defensive and as she was walking towards him, he backed up as she did until his back hit the wall behind him.
She stopped only a foot away and stared directly into his eyes. She stared at him for a few seconds, before hopping away laughing, "Stop messing around! I'm starved. I had a horrible day at work. I keep getting stuck with these shit jobs and.."
"Stop! Seriously, who are you?" Beau said again, this time with more urgency.
"Why are you talking like that?" She said, turning back towards him. Her voice became lower, more cautious.
Beau was getting fed up now. Just a few minutes ago he was dying and now he was perfectly fine with both legs intact, possibly somewhere in England.
"Just…get out. I don't have the patience right now for whatever this is." He said as he limped back over to the closet, rummaging around for anything that might give him more information on what was happening.
"No, fuck that. Something's wrong here. Do you remember where you are? Who you are?" Finally realizing that something was seriously wrong with her friend, she put her foot down.
Beau turned back around to face her, tossing the old coat he was rummaging through onto the ground. "No, I have no idea where I am. My name was Beau Graham. I lived in Tacoma, Washington. I shouldn't have my right leg, but here it is." Beau kicked out with his right leg, the sensation still odd to him. "I had two wonderful daughters. I lived a full life. I was ready to leave it all behind." Beau's voice trailed off towards the end. "I should have died."
The woman just went over to the bed and sat down, resting her head in her hands. "Oh shit, this isn't good." She mumbled. "What should I do? Who should I contact?"
Suddenly, she jumped up grabbing Beau by the wrist.
"I'm going to regret this later. Let's go." Beau felt a horrible pressure surround him. It was like he was getting crushed through a tube. It felt like an eternity, but in only a second they were in the lobby of what was a hospital.
The nausea was overwhelming and he puked the second they landed on solid ground.
"Oh, come on!" The woman yelled next to him. She then pulled out a stick of wood, said a phrase, and the vomit disappeared.
It was then that Beau looked around. Most of the people in the lobby were wearing some sort of robe or an odd assortment of clothes. Letters were flying through the air, expertly dodging other letters and people. A few other people also had sticks out shouting phrases and poking injured patients. It was impossible.
"Where are we?" Beau said, after managing to fight back the nausea.
"St. Mungo's." Was the only response he got as she led him up to the front desk where an elderly woman was filling out a form using a feathered quill.
"Ahh, Tonks. Back again, huh? What happened this time?" She said, glancing over at Beau.
"He's lost his memory. Well, not lost, more like he had them replaced. I'm not sure if there is a spell or potion that does that." The woman Beau now knew was named Tonks, said.
"Well, it's going to be a bit of a wait. We don't have many specialists that deal with these sorts of injuries. I believe Delia is the one on call right now, but she's busy at the moment. I'll let you know once you two can be seen."
"Fine," Tonks said with a sign and turned around to sit down.
"Don't forget the paperwork." The desk clerk said with a smile, holding out a clipboard with multiple pages and a quill attached.
Beau was the one that grabbed it as he followed Tonks over to two available seats in the waiting room. Upon sitting down, Tonks grabbed the clipboard from his hands and started writing. The silence allowed Beau some time to think.
Beau had once again accepted the bizarre situation he now found himself in. He had no idea how to get back to the apartment and perhaps seeing a doctor wasn't the worst idea. Maybe his memories had been implanted in somebody else? He wouldn't want to take the life of someone else in all but body. He had lived his life, he didn't need a second one.
Before all of that, he had to ask, "What is that stick everyone has?"
Tonks held hers up, "A wand. Sorry, I forgot you don't remember any of this. It must be pretty strange. Everyone here is a witch or wizard. We use the wands to perform magic."
She then waved her wand saying "Lumos". A warm, white light shone from the tip of her wand brightening the immediate area.
"Magic? That's…" He was about to say ridiculous, before looking around. The evidence was right in front of him. Half the people around were waving wands around to various effects. This was also starting to sound oddly familiar to the stories he read to his daughters.
"So, this might make this whole situation a lot more complex, but is the name Harry Potter familiar at all?"
Tonks stopped writing and looked up hopefully, "So, you haven't forgotten everything?"
Her happiness made the next part all the more difficult and her response made him think this was even more likely some drug-induced dream. Might as well go all in. "No, from what I remember, Harry Potter was a children's book series. It mostly focused on Harry Potter and his time at Hogwarts. If he exists, there's probably some stuff I should pass along to the school principal." He paused for a second, "Although who's to say if anything listed in the books will happen here."
As he spoke, Tonks looked more and more worried. "That's insane. You do realize that, right? So what? To you, this is all some story? We're all some characters from a book?"
"No, no you're very obviously a real person as is everyone here. It's just, that's not how I know any of this. From what I know and what I have lived, this is all from a story. I think seeing the doctor is for the best. If this person I am now was your friend, I would like you to get him back. I don't belong here." He said and was surprised to see how conflicted she now looked.
"This is…complicated." She said with a sigh.
"Yeah." Agreed Beau, and they fell back into silence.
"Wait, what should we know about Harry Potter?" Tonks said as if she just fully registered what he said.
"Well, how old is he right now?" Beau asked. If he remembered correctly, the first book started when he turned eleven.
"He should have just turned eleven, so it will be his first year at Hogwarts. The Hogwarts year starts in a few weeks." She replied, and Beau struggled to remember what he could from the books he had read. Luckily, they had been his daughters' favorites so he had read them each a few times. He just wasn't the biggest fan of the stories personally so he didn't memorize many of the characters.
"I think in his first year, Voldemort comes back as a specter and is controlling one of the teachers. That was to get the Philosophers Stone that is being kept on the third floor. In his second year, the Chamber of Secrets is opened and Harry has to fight the Basilisk. The entrance was in one of the girl's bathrooms. I can't really remember which one. In his third year, Sirius Black escapes from prison and….oh it was something like Sirius was innocent the entire time and a rat was the culprit. I don't remember much from that book. The fourth book had just come out and I remember most of that one the best. The school hosts the Triwizard Tournament and Voldemort's followers appear again. It starts with them attacking the World Cup. Harry ends up stuck participating in the tournament and wins, but the cup transports him to where Voldemort's followers use him to resurrect Voldemort. It turns out someone had been pretending to be Mad-Eye Moody as a professor and was the one causing everything to happen."
Tonks was dumbfounded and she scrambled to flip over one of the papers on the clipboard to write down what he said. "If true, this is….I'm not sure whether I should take any of this seriously. These are the ramblings of a madman."
Beau shrugged and said, "I'm not sure if you should either. I don't know if any of that will happen. It couldn't hurt to at least pass it along to Dumbledore and have him do what he wants with it. If I remember right, almost everything revolves around the Dark Arts professor every year. That would be who to keep an eye on."
"Yeah, yeah I can at least give this information to the right people. Some of this stuff can be verified by Dumbledore himself, although he might want to postpone having your memories messed with if all of this is useful."
"I'll help with what I can." Beau said, "The most I have to offer is information. Hopefully, after that, you can get your friend back and I can finally be at peace."
"Yeah…that would be for the best." She said, writing a few more things down and grabbing his wrist once more.
"This is such a bad idea, but we're going to see Dumbledore. You're lucky I can get a hold of him."
"Wait, wait give me time to prepare!" He said, but with a crack, they disappeared once more.