AN: STOP! DO NOT PROCEED UNLESS YOU'VE DONE THE FOLLOWING OR ARE LIKELY TO BE VERY CONFUSED.
Go check out kosboss on Fanfiction, they wrote what I would describe as the first chapter of this story already in "Harry Potter and the Land of Ice and Fire". This one/shot chapter is heavily inspired by their work. Go read that then come and read this. The only difference between their story and mine post Chapter 1, is that Sirius is not coming along, and, well - Harry isn't exactly in the Land of Ice and Fire. Before you ask, yes, in their "Harry Potter and the Galaxy Far Far Away" they write in an author note that they encourage people to write their takes on their work. They're also an amazing author and all their work is a joy to read for those who enjoy world-building economics and such. If I continue this, I will likely fail to emulate that style of writing but we'll see how things go.
In one moment, Harry was stepping into the Veil of Death, and in the next, he was flying out the other end. With a grunt, he crashed hard into a tree. Hard enough that if he hadn't undergone all those rituals, he would have broken something.
Harry took a moment to catch his bearings and peered around. The light from before he'd entered the Veil was gone, instead replaced by darkness. Well, not darkness, a dusky color reminiscent of darkness trying to exist in an area with a lot of light pollution. He was in a small forest surrounded by skyscrapers. Thankfully it seemed like he'd landed in an isolated part of the forest.
Harry didn't fancy explaining to a couple of Muggles that he had just stepped out of a magical portal would be a hard sell. He turned to examine the exit. It seemed to be indented into a large rock, a very, very faint notice from not ward was doing its job and keeping away people from noticing the portal.
Well, it was at least confirmed that there were Magicals in this new world, although there was something different about the ward when compared to the magic Harry was used to.
With a wave of the hand, he set up a privacy ward around the area. Harry pulled out a goblin dagger and pierced his skin where he had stored away his trunk. It wasn't an easy ordeal, courtesy of the durability rituals he had undertaken, but eventually, he was able to expel the shrunken trunk. He quickly enlarged it to its original size and began to open up the compartment containing the runic array that controlled how much magic the trunk absorbed from its environment to power the enchantments on the trunk. He adjusted the array, so it absorbed more magic from the surroundings. While this new world they were in had magic, it wasn't nearly as abundant as it was in his old one.
Once the adjustments were made, he removed the stasis charm from the trunk and called out.
"Dobby!"
There was a crack of displaced air as the house-elf materialized out of the trunk, looking around, the shine of excitement clear on his face.
"Hey, Dobby. It looks like we've made it to the other side. Any problems on your end?" Harry asked the excited elf.
"No Harry Potter sir, the trip was uneventful," Dobby replied, pulling his captivated gaze from the new environment to Harry instead.
"Alright then, Dobby, we seem to have landed on a world similar to our own. Seems like we're by a big city, so I'm going to look around and see if anything is interesting. Get the elves to start using the field trunks and tending to the magical plants. Also, get a group to scout the area, stay hidden but keep a lookout for any new plants and animals," Harry said after a moment of thought. Dobby gave an excited nod and popped away.
After shrinking his trunk and placing it back into his pocket, Harry began to refresh the notice-me not ward around the portal, along with an aversion ward to keep people away from it, and an alarm ward that would let him know should someone come through the portal. Once he was sure no one would disturb the portal, Harry dropped the privacy ward he had set up.
Casting a Homenum Revlio spell let Harry know that this world had humans and that there were even some in the forest he'd landed in. Following the direction of the spell, Harry saw a lone jogger walking along a concrete path. Not a forest then, but possibly a park? Using a Compulsion Charm, the jogger stepped off the path and into the denser undergrowth. Using a quick Stunning Spell, Harry set up another privacy ward.
With the assimilation of Tom's memories, the mind arts were a simple matter for Harry. A quick Legillimens into the unconscious man's mind gave Harry a wealth of information.
While he wasn't in a near world, it looked like instead, the Veil had taken him to one that was very similar to the one Harry had come from. A bit disappointing, but that was fine, there were certainly enough differences that messed with Harry's imagination. For starters, this world had superheroes, or perhaps a superhero would be more appropriate. One who didn't hide behind a cowl. Well, Harry wouldn't fault him for enjoying the limelight.
Iron Man was a well-known public figure by the name of Tony Stark, notorious for his playboy lifestyle and his tech genius. Some of the things that Iron Man had done were surprising Harry, but he pushed it aside to pay more attention to current events. The year was 2010, a bit surprising since it had been 1994 when Harry had left his world. The date was May 31st, and the guy Harry had been using his Ligillemen's spell on had been listening to a live stream of the Stark Expo that was occurring not too far away in Queens. Figuring out the man's phone password was easy enough, and Harry picked it up to watch the events, wondering if there was anything of interest.
He wasn't disappointed as havoc appeared to have just broken out on the live stream when the new Hammer Drones that were being programmed suddenly went rogue. Iron Man was on the scene trying to stop them, but he was heavily outnumbered.
Harry hoped this new dimension wasn't similar enough to his old one to prevent the use of magic in front of Muggles. In fact, despite the gamble he was about to pull, he decided to just bite the bullet and choose his regrets about the whole situation later.
His basilisk robes were thankfully hooded, and tough enough that no bullets would pierce them, so Harry pulled on his hood and cast a Sticking Charm and then an Obscuring Spell to hide his features. He'd dealt with enough fame for one lifetime, he wouldn't be dealing with it again in this new world.
A quick Rennevate, followed by an Oblivate, then Compulsion on the jogger and Harry was free to leave. Removing the privacy ward he had erected he reached into his Moleskin Pouch, pulling out his trusty Firebolt and then turning on a heel to Apparate to the location of the video.
Harry arrived at a scene of chaos. Civilians were rushing around in a confused mess, while those drones fired on the crowd. With a scowl, Harry noticed a few unmoving bodies lying still on the floor. Some looked as if they had been trampled by the rush of people, others were strewn with bullet holes.
While Harry was largely desensitized to the massacre, assimilating all of Tom Riddle's memories would do that to a person. It didn't mean he hadn't lost some of the characteristics that made him Harry, notably his drive to save those who couldn't save themselves. Mounting his broom, he quickly took to the air, raising the Elder Wand to cast a powerful golden Protego around the crowd while he wandlessly cast a Sonerus on himself.
"Iron Man, I'll protect the crowd, Destroy those drones," Harry called, the only acknowledgment he received from the man in the flying armor being a quick thumbs up, before dodging to avoid weapons fire from another suit that looked similar to the one Iron Man was using. Turning his attention away from the firefight, he turned to the people he had been protecting.
"Everyone, remain calm. So long as you are beneath the golden dome you will be safe. Begin to gather the injured, so I can begin treatment please, the most severely hurt first," Harry called out, glad to see that he had the intended effect. People began to calm down, and he let loose a silent sigh of relief, turning the dome he had placed up to protection.
While Protego was a powerful Shield Charm, especially when used in conjunction with the Elder Wand, it was limited in that Harry had to constantly power it. A Protego Maxima would have been preferred but any non-Magicals were prevented from seeing into it or entering one.
Instead of maintaining power on the Protego or using a variation, Harry instead decided to set up an intent-based ward. The Elden Wand seemed to feed the wand movements into Harry's head, eager to please its master in the spellcraft.
The previous golden dome flickered for a moment, causing some of the onlookers to let out frightened screams, before a nearly identical dome sprung to existence, the name of the spell seemingly given to Harry as it left his wand as if the Elder Wand was trying to aid in Harry's spellcasting.
Protego Machina.
A shield charm against machines, hiding them from their sensors and protecting them from their payloads. Moreover, it had the benefit of allowing Muggles to see the dome and would let them enter or exit at their whim. The addition of it being a warding spell meant that Harry didn't need to worry about maintaining the spell, only needing to reapply it when it came close to losing stability.
That done he turned to look at the awed crowd of onlookers.
"Alright, I want a few people by the border of the dome, if you see someone outside, wave at them to get inside where it's safe, everyone else near the center, so more people can get in. If I need to, I can make the dome bigger so don't worry about overcrowding," he called out, flying his broom over to where a few of the injured were being led to or gathered.
He was about to land down, when Iron Man flew by again, shooting a few more drones out of the air.
"Hey Gandalf, I lost you on my sensors, but I'm hearing you loud and clear. Some kind of protection?"
"Yeah, worry about the drones. If you can, point any more civilians this way," Harry replied, thinking fast before adding on," and it's Arcane."
"Loud and clear Merlin," Stark replied, as Harry sighed and ended the Sonerus spell, turning to take care of the injured while pocketing his wand.
While Harry would never profess himself to be a healer, he was more than experienced when it came to treating injuries, both as Harry and surprisingly as Tom Riddle. A younger Voldemort had spent time learning quite a bit about the human body and the spells that affected it, although his purpose had been more tortuous. Crucio was great for quick torture but didn't hold the same appeal of drawn-out sessions for information on those with stubborn minds.
The first person Harry came across was a young man breathing raspily, looking dizzily off to the side.
One of the civilians appeared to be Medical for the event and was performing triage. Already their hands were stained red with blood.
"What do you need?" Harry said, quickly letting them take the lead.
"Multiple bullet wounds, they've gone straight through but one hit his lung. He's choking on his blood. He needs blood and an operating room right now," the young woman triaging replied, not even looking up as Harry approached.
Multiple spells immediately came to Harry's mind, and his wand began to dance over the man.
Pulmonis Reparo to heal the lung, Anapneo to clear his airways, Episkey Maxima for the bullet wounds, Exploratio for further diagnosis, Brachium Emendo for the shattered ribs, Scourgifey to clean the medical staff's gloves.
"Now they just need blood, but are not losing any, so they'll be fine. Who's next," he asked. The young woman blinked a few times, shell-shocked as a dying man went from gasping for breath to stable in moments. She gulped, looking up at him as if seemingly realizing what just happened.
"W-What, but how?"
"People are dying, who is next?" Harry said, voice firmer. She blinked a few times before leading the way to a little girl, whose face was bent at an awkward angle. She was bleeding heavily from a head wound. It looked like she had been trampled in the initial chaos but was holding onto life.
The Diagnosis Charm confirmed that her jaw had likely received a kick and other than that, only had a concussion and that the bleeding was scarier than it looked, As was usually the case for head wounds, Harry quickly healed up the young girl, vanishing the blood away much to the grateful sobs of the mother. He gave a nod and moved on.
Those were the worst of the victims thankfully, Harry needing only to heal broken bones and minor cuts from then on. It seemed Iron Man had managed to lead the drones away from the crowds. By the time Harry was done most of the fighting had been done, but one of the loudspeakers near Harry suddenly blared.
"Arcane, the drones are going to self-destruct, got anything for that?" the voice of Tony Stark called out, trying to be nonchalant but the fact he'd used Arcane instead of another one of his silly nicknames gave the game away to Harry.
Quickly he pulled out his broom, flying up high into the air, through the dome, and out the other side.
"Accio Drones," he called out with the Elder Wand, watching as the drones began flying through the air to himself. Not his brightest idea but then again, it was all just a game of keep away now, wasn't it? Gaining speed, Harry began to fly straight up, the drones following him up high before exploding violently. It was only a hastily cast Protego that saw Harry free of injury.
With the Drone threat done, Harry let himself relax a bit, flying slowly down through the smoke to the applause of the people inside the dome he had created.
Y'know, the hero gig isn't too bad when it's my accomplishments that I'm being praised for, Harry thought as he gave the people a nod before casting a quick Finite to end the effects of Protego. No need to keep the light show going now that the danger had passed.
Instead, he turned to the most immediate problem, helping out those who were still injured. There were plenty that still needed tending to that hadn't made it into the safety of his dome. Harry spent the next half hour flying around the battlefield, providing emergency first aid for those that needed it, more often than not conjuring white sheets to lay over the dead.
Harry wasn't surprised to not feel much disgust as he looked down at broken and bloody bodies. Despite having been 14 when he had left his dimension, the aging ritual combined with the assimilated memories from Tom Riddle meant he was rather apathetic to the carnage the drones had imparted upon the population.
Only Harry's strong need to help led to him assisting with the repairs to the facilities. Funnily enough, Harry couldn't help but notice little of an effect his magic had on the electronics. Wizarding stupidity at its finest. They had a pocket space surrounded by magic right across Charring Cross, even Muggles would have been made aware of anything going wrong with the electronics in that area. This use of Reparo to fix the utilities was evidence that it was only stagnation and Wizarding England's idiocy about separating the Muggle World from the Wizarding World.
Even an older Voldemort had taken an interest, however minuscule it was, in the technomancy the Japanese wizards had been practicing. Combining the benefits of magic and passing it off as advanced technology to the Muggles had strangely amused the Dark Lord.
As Harry repaired a damaged walkway with a gesture of his hand, he also came to another realization. Harry had spent a good chunk of his time already casting magic, it would have set off so many alarms with MACUSA or the ICW. There should have been teams of hit-wizards swarming the place, obligating Muggles, and trying to take him down for breaking the International Statute of Secrecy as blatantly as he was.
And yet, no one had apparated in to apprehend him. Muggles were instead recording them with their phones, much smaller than the one cell phone he had seen his Uncle Vernon use. Less boxy and able to take pictures and record videos of what some of the people he had saved had been doing.
As the last piece of the walkway fitted into place, the cracks disappearing as the concrete smoothed itself out, he heard the roar of the engines of the Iron Man suit come flying in. It still baffled Harry that Tony Stark was a Muggle, the technology he was using was almost magical. Pocketing his broom, he turned to greet the man, face still hidden behind the Obscurring Spell he'd cast earlier.
"Mr. Stark," Harry said with a slight dip of the head in acknowledgment, "do your Expos have a habit of being so…exciting?"
"Hopefully the next one can be toned down a bit," Tony replied, his Iron Man helmet sliding open to give Harry a shrewd look," how are you doing that? Some type of advanced hologram tech? What about the walkway, you a telekinetic?" As Tony asked these questions, he inspected the concrete walkway Harry had been working on, bouncing up and down a couple of times, surprised by how stable it was. Harry merely watched on in amusement.
"Right. So not a telekinetic then. Drat, can't say you're using the Force then, you aren't right? Just double checking."
"No Mr. Stark, just using some magic," Harry replied, an amused tilt to his voice.
"Right. You a real Wizard of Oz then?" Tony replied with a smirk and raised an eyebrow. Harry couldn't help but grin, there was just something about this Stark that reminded him quite a bit of Sirius. Had Sirius decided to come along no doubt the two of them would have gotten along quite swimmingly.
"Wizard? Yes, but you'll find that my magic is less smoke and mirrors and more tangible," Harry replied, a silent Serpentsortia summoning a King Cobra that coiled up Harry's body to rest on his shoulders. Harry had to suppress a snort as Stark stepped back, despite being in a suit of armor.
"Okay, creepy but cool. Listen, I just wanted to stop by and give you a heads-up that a few of the government types saw your light show and are on their way. You know since you're going for that whole mysterious wizard getup and all, thought I should let you know for doing me a solid and helping out," Tony said trying to be nonchalant about the whole conversation. Harry almost let out a snort at the man's delivery.
Government types were the type that Harry wanted to stay well away from. The last thing he needed was for them to find out about his abilities and try to experiment on him. Unlike Tony, Harry was no one special. No one would notice that he'd gone missing.
Additionally, there was still way too much about this world that he didn't understand. He needed allies and needed to set himself up with an identity in this new dimension. Harry didn't have the expertise to accomplish that goal.
Tony Stark did.
He had wealth and notoriety, and his silence could be bought easily enough with a magical contract.
While he wanted to learn more about this world on his terms, a friendship with Stark wouldn't be disadvantageous. Besides, the man did kind of owe Harry one for the help with the Expo.
"Better idea. I need some help and you're in the position to help me out. You heading home after all this?" Harry asked.
"I live in Malibu, so eventually I will. For now, though I'm staying at the Ritz-Carlton," Tony said, perking up an eyebrow at the sudden need for a favor from the man," granted I'm a bit hurt. Thought you were just being a good samaritan but instead you just wanted to get close to Lil ol' me."
Tony put his arm over his chest in mock outrage, but the grin on his face reflected the joking demeanor he had.
" It was my original intention to just help out, but then you walked up and I was struck with a bit of inspiration. Tell you what, that metal thing in your chest can't be healthy. Help me out with a problem I'm having, and I'll help you out with yours," Harry suggested, stretching out a hand as if to imply that a deal was about to be struck.
Tony looked surprised for a moment, but quickly took it. Tony had spent the last several months worrying about how close he was to dying from palladium poisoning and here was someone offering to handle the issues. His expression changed to one of contemplation, Badassium, name pending patent, was a great energy source but it'd probably be best if he got the reactor out of his chest. He'd discovered a new clean energy source and he was lucky it had been effective at not killing his body, but he also needed to run it through a series of tests just to double-check. JARVIS hadn't given Tony any warnings about harmful radiation but that didn't mean it wasn't messing anything else up within his body. It would seriously suck if he went from dying of Palladium poisoning to dying of Badassium poisoning.
Harry watched on as the famous inventor gave the subject some thought, before giving a resolute nod and taking Harry's hand to shake.
"Alright, if you can get the metal in my chest out then yeah. I'll help you out," Tony agreed.
The handshake was firm, and Harry gave a resolute nod of acceptance.
"I'll be seeing you then," Harry replied, letting go of the hand and taking a step back. With a quick two-finger salute, Harry turned on his heel and apparated away with a soft crack. Leaving a stunned Tony Stark behind.
Harry reappeared not too far from where he'd left the stunned Iron Man, on one of the surrounding builds that overlooked the Expo grounds. There weren't too many new places he could go to in this new world, the elves were still busy exploring it. Thankfully, his necessities were easily met with his manor trunk but he'd have to figure out a way of converting some of the galleons into actual currency. He wasn't sure what his net worth was but it wouldn't surprise Harry if it were somewhere in the billions. However, that wouldn't matter unless he could turn those galleons into currency, and pawn shops would only buy so much off of him. Not to mention he risked depreciating the price of gold by introducing so much of it at one time. He'd have to be careful about how he proceeded there.
Perhaps Stark would be able to help him in that matter as well? As he pondered things over, the soft pop of displaced air alerted him to the arrival of Dobby.
"Master Harry Potter, the elves have taken to exploring the city and have found something strange with the leylines," Dobby explained, causing Harry's eyebrow to perk up in interest. A world with manipulated leylines implied that it had magical, perhaps following this thread would lead to fruitful results?
"Thank you Dobby, please prepare the manor for use. I'll be spending the night in the trunk," Harry explained, before taking a moment to think," could you have an elf shadow, Mr. Stark? He's the man in the Gryffindor-colored armor. I've agreed to meet up with him again at his home in Malibu, California. Ensure they remain unseen and report back to me when Mr. Stark arrives at his home. Also, have a group of elves help with the cleanup at the Expo grounds, just remember to stay hidden. There are Muggles about and it would be inconvenient if you were spotted."
Dobby gave an excited bow at this.
"Master Potter is very kind. We will do so right away!" he replied, popping away once more to attend to the new list of errands.
With the excitable House Elf gone, Harry reached out with his Magic Sense, feeling the immediate area first.
Already there were elves out and about on the expo grounds, stealthily cleaning debris Harry hadn't had the chance to fix. They worked fast considering Harry had just given Dobby the order. One of the elves had dutifully become Tony Stark's shadow, invisibly following while Tony Stark spoke with a group of agents dressed in black combat gear led by a red-haired woman in a tight tactical suit and who seemed to be questioning a nonchalant Stark heatedly. Likely about the new guy on the streets, Arcane.
Ignoring the Expo, he delved further and deeper. His concentration almost flagged when his senses bounced off a ward. Not the one he had placed in Central Park, since surely that was where the portal had spit him out. No, these wards were much older. Perhaps this world did have a magic population.
Ignoring the wards for now he turned his attention toward the ground, surprised at just how intricately the leylines were moving beneath the earth. Too intricate to happen by chance. Leylines like this had been carefully manipulated so that, while they thrummed with magic it was carefully constrained to not emit the magic so strongly into the environment. It was as if all their magic was being used to power the wards that they were being directed towards.
It would explain why this world's ambient magical energy was leashed so much tighter than the dimension Harry had come from. With the constraint magic in the leylines, they were unable to truly affect their environment in a meaningful way. Magicals likely hadn't developed like they had in his dimension. Or perhaps they were even more squirreled away than the wards he had discovered would suggest?
There was only one way to find out.
Having only a vague idea of where the wards were, Harry instead pulled the invisibility cloak around his shoulders and hopped onto his Firebolt. Willing the cloak to turn him invisible was easier, and more convenient than having to wrap himself completely around it, and he took off from the building towards the warded building.
From the air he could appreciate the grandness and scale that went with the Expo, having been too busy to truly take it in earlier. The landscape was littered with attractions from plenty of companies, and at any other point, Harry would have loved to have walked around and seen what Stark was offering.
Instead, he flew in the direction of the wards he had sensed. As he followed his Magic Sense across the East River and into Manhattan Island itself, he half expected to end up by the Woolworth Building. It was where MACUSA was located, but instead, he ended up in one of the more historic districts. A neighborhood with ancient buildings and rich culture. Blecker Street.
As he landed in a side alley, he stowed away his broom and cloak and placed a quick Disillusionment Charm over himself. Inlusio fell around him, giving him the feeling of a cracked egg being spilled over his body. However, it did its work at hiding his form as he approached the ancient building emanating with magic.
The first ward he discovered reminded him quite a bit about the one that hid the Leaky Cauldron. People's eyes simply passed over 177A Blecker Street. As if the building wasn't even there. They never gave the ancient building a second glance. Yet the building wasn't hidden by a Fidelius Charm or something similar. It was obvious to Harry, he could see it perfectly well. As he approached he felt a type of sensory ward go off, letting whoever resided within know that someone was approaching closer than the aversion the repelling ward provided.
The last ward was the one that through Harry off. It was complicated, likely crafted using Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs or Sumerian cuneiform based on their age which was surprising since Harry was sure that neither of these civilizations had made it this far west according to his history. Something to double-check then, he'd have to get the elves to start incorporating literature from this world into his index stone,
While he contemplated the wards, the space beside him filled with a ring of fiery light and a hooded monk stepped through. He hardly paid the monk any mind, instead looking at the ring of fiery light with interest. The other side of the ring showed the morning rays of sunlight and the Himalayas in the background. A new form of magical travel then? Harry practically buzzed with excitement at the possibility and would have loved to have analyzed it more but the portal closed, leaving the hooded stranger left. Almost mockingly, the hood seemed to be obscuring their face, similar to how Harry's hood was, the charm still going since he had never bothered to remove it from himself. The last thing was for a camera to spot in a moment of laxness.
Almost as if mocking him, the figure cocked its head in a questioning glance.
"Tell me Mr. Potter, how goes your analysis of our wards?" she asked, the voice of the figure undoubtedly female. Her question almost made Harry draw his wand. She knew who he was? How? This was supposed to be a new world? She shouldn't know who he was.
Watching the woman with a guarded look, he analyzed the ward more closely.
"They're old protections, Very old protections drawing on as much magic from the leylines as possible. Likely using a mix of Sumerian, Egyptian, and something else I'm not too well-read on. Not Norse, but maybe Chinese? The wards are protective, but they wouldn't stop me from walking into the building, no they're protections against…against something grander. External, all-encompassing. I think…global protection against something," Harry replied, tilting his head curiously as he looked over at the monk," but that wouldn't work either. All the world's magical energy being funneled into one place would only create an impenetrable barrier over maybe a third of the Earth, for maximum effect-"
"There would need to be three," the monk interrupted, her voice sounding impressed with the knowledge Harry had given her," and there are. One Sanctum lies in London, and another in Hong Kong, designed as bastions of the Mystic Arts and to serve as a protection of the ward stones."
"Protection against what?" Harry asked, confused by what would require such powerful protections to be in place around the whole globe. He filed away the word she had used, Mystic Arts not magic. The concept sounded more Eastern.
"Extra-dimensional threats of course," the monk replied, her voice casual as if trying to hide the meaning behind the words. Harry didn't miss a beat, however, drawing his wand from where he had it holstered but not raising it for battle just yet.
A silent threat hung in the air. If the monk was correct, then this global ward probably had a detection element. The slight hum she made at the wand's appearance made Harry tense slightly.
For a few moments, neither moved. Then she raised her hands in a universal sign of peace, a movement that almost had Harry sending off a Stupify if it hadn't been for the lack of a wand in her hand. Ultimately, it leads to Harry relaxing - if only slightly.
"Interesting, most of my interactions with you end up starting violently before we come to a reasonable understanding and I invite you inside to talk over some tea. It seems that won't be the case this time around," the woman replied, her hands reaching up towards her hood, pulling it back to reveal a woman of European descent, likely Greek or Italian if Harry had to guess, with her head shaved bald. A striking feature certainly, but not the one that drew his attention.
It was said the eyes were the window to the soul. It was why many said Legilimency could only be done through eye contact. A silly notion of course. Those trained in the mind arts could pick up on the unprotected thoughts and feelings at the edge of a conscious mind without the need for it. However, as Harry met the eyes of the monk, the world shifted around him and he instinctively knew he'd fallen for a sort of Occulmency trapped.
The eyes were green, a shade that reminded Harry of leaves on the verge of losing their luster into their autumn colors. It wasn't the color of the eyes that caught him off guard, it was instead the age of the eyes. She had seen lifetimes. Seen Empires rise and fall. They were too old. They were ancient.
And she had trapped him.
Trapped him with such ease, that Harry hadn't even had the chance to strengthen his already formidable Occulemency barriers from a passive defense to an active defense.
She had smashed through them with a simplicity that filled Harry with fear, but instead of delving into his thoughts, she had pulled him willingly into her head.
The ground had felt like it was being pushed away, and suddenly he was not in his mind. Instead what he saw both scared him and filled him with awe. Her voice thrummed in his ears as he spoke.
"You are a conundrum, Mr. Potter," she started, her voice coming from both nowhere and everywhere as all around him visions flashed," Long have I kept watch over the future of this world. Carefully, I have looked through multiple time streams of what is to come."
Harry's eyes widen in realization about what she spoke. So casual in admittance. Showing scenes upon scenes of possible futures, before fading into one that had been most possible.
He saw a hole open up in the sky above New York, with creatures flying from it endlessly. The woman with red hair he had seen earlier at the Expo trying desperately trying to press a Scepter through an energy field around a pulsing glowing cube.
The scene shifted as a man wielding a metal shield battled against another with a metal arm on a flying ship.
A robot made of scrap metal haphazardly stumbling towards a group of partygoers, saying a few words he couldn't hear before more robots began to swarm them.
Iron Man and the man with the metal shield were fighting now, a cold wasteland in the background.
A purple brute, wearing a golden gauntlet, with six glowing stones arranged upon it. A victorious look in his eyes as he snapped the gauntlet.
Tony Stark holding a young teen in his arms, surrounded by a haphazard group of individuals, their bodies turning to dust while he was left broken and alone on a strange world.
"A bleak and desolate outcome. One of many possible futures for this world," the monk said, her voice ringing like the crash of a gong. The image in front of Harry's eyes faded into dust and he was left in darkness. A black so dark it was almost suffocating.
The world spun and he was left in a memory. Harry immediately began to glance around, looking for elements of a modified memory, calming slightly when he spotted none. No haziness near the edges of memory. No stuttering or awkward movements were made by the inhabitants within.
If this memory had been edited, it was so perfectly crafted that not even Voldemort would have been able to make it. Given the man's specialty in the mind arts, Harry doubted the man would have ever been able to craft a false memory in its perfection. Granted, who would ever willingly delve into the mind of Voldemort? Usually, any who tried were already at the end of his wand.
The memory was a lot like a pensieve experience, a lot more different than what a typical Legillimency would provide. Harry even found himself finding purchase on the wooden floor, the monk who had dragged his mind into hers walked casually to stand next to him. A dazed smile on her face, reminiscent of the look he'd seen on a blonde Ravenclaw girl whom he'd seen talking with Ginny Weasley on occasion.
It was distant and knowing in equal parts.
However, her hand beckoned forward to focus on the memory and Harry watched, tearing his eyes reluctantly away.
The scene showed the monk, meditating calmly. Before suddenly gaining an alarmed and curious look.
"My reaction, when I felt a long disused rift between dimensions slide open. Set up by the wizards of this world long ago," she said quietly, as they followed after the memory version of herself.
"Wizards. So they do exist in this dimension?" Harry asked, slightly worried he had bollocks things up with whatever secretive society was in place.
"Only Sorcerers in this dimension, Mr. Potter. The last of the wizards died a thousand years ago," she explained," in this dimension, the latent magic of the leylines was bound early by the founder of our order Agamotto. Since only the earliest of humans were gifted with magic, it became a trait linked to bloodline only. Only those who had it could pass it down. No new magicals were introduced through non-magical heritage. It severely limited the pool of available magic wielders in the world. Thus wizards were already endangered when the Jotuns of Jotunheim invaded Earth in 965 A.D."
Harry had to do a double-take at that.
"Jotunheim? As in Ice Giants from the Norse myths?" he double-checked.
"Indeed. You see, in this dimension, those Norse myths are more reality. Earth is one of eight very distant celestial bodies that orbit around a ninth, Asgard, each of which is interconnected through a cosmic nexus known as Yggradsil," the woman replied. It took Harry a lot of effort to reign in his emotions, after hearing that. Deciding to take the woman's word for it and sort everything out later in his head, Harry replied.
"So what? Jutuns invaded, the wizarding population of the time tried to help, and they were all killed?" Harry asked, double-checking his details from the monk, a hand moving up to put a hand through his hair in exasperation. Only now realizing that the enchantments he'd woven around himself had faded when he had been dragged into the mind of the sorcerer. He scowled at the woman, appropriately visible without the protection of his Obscuring Charm.
"Most were killed yes, the remnants were scattered and few. Some remained and continued their stories of magic. You will find Arthurian Merlin was very much a part of this world's mythos, although by his time he was already the last of an ancient order of wizards. Others instead were invited by the Aesir to propagate the other realms. Many went to Vanaheim but their magic was ultimately incompatible with what the Vanir practiced and eventually, they too passed on," she explained, the memory version of herself having reached a room where a strange ornamental eye was resting on a pedestal.
Placing the eye, which Harry realized was a necklace, around her neck, she began to pry it open with some form of wandless magic.
"This artifact is the Eye of Agamotto. With it, I can perceive possible future timelines. Before it would only let me see up to my death, in the short moment right after you arrived, it let me glimpse the future I showed you as well as a few short glimpses into my immediate future. I confronted you and we either battled and killed each other or had a nice talk over tea. In none of the futures I saw did I drag you into my mind to explain what was happening as I am now. In fact, after attempting and failing to use the Eye of Agamotto, I've concluded it will no longer work for me," she admitted, and as if to preface her words - the green light within the slowly opening eye was cut away, the eye shutting close and hiding away that familiar glow once more.
Harry was distracted by something else, however.
"You've been messing with time?" he questioned, perhaps a bit harshly. While he had his collection of time turners, not that he would tell this sorcerer anything of the sort, it didn't mean he wasn't careful with their use. This sorcerer seemed to have an artifact that let her see countless possibilities and futures and it only seemed like she was using it to pull and influence the strings of fate based off of what she had described.
"Yes, Mr. Potter. As Sorcerer Supreme and Master of the Mystic Arts, it's my duty to stay abreast of possible dangers to our world. The Eye of Agamotto would show me dangers to our order and the defenses in this world, and my order would in turn be properly prepared to face those dangers. Remember those defenses that the Sanctums are holding? The nine realms are kept safe from each other by Asgaard, but even Asgaard is powerless to threats from other dimensions of existence. The Dark Dimension especially is one our order faces regularly," she replied easily, the memory shifting to reflect a being of unimaginable scale engulfing and destroying a planet," Dormammu. The Cosmic Conqueror, the Destroyer of Worlds. A being of infinite power and endless hunger, on a quest to invade every universe and bring all worlds into his Dark Dimension. And he hungers for the Earth of this dimension most of all. For once, long ago, Agamotto held off Dormammu and wove protections over our planet that kept Dormammu from taking it as another broken world for his Dark Dimension. While Agamotto saved our planet, he doomed us to ever have Dormammu's watchful eye upon us. Often he slips his Mindless Ones through the protection around our planet, tasking them to seek and destroy the protections around the Sanctum Sanctorums around the globe."
Harry gulped as he heard this, watching the strange being in trepidation.
"Do you understand now the need for global protection and the need to defend them, Mr. Potter?" she asked him. Harry gave a mute nod in reply. Somehow he was getting drunk after this, he just knew it.
Unabashedly, thoughts of this inter-dimensional being and what it could mean for his world sprung to mind.
"Wait a moment, if Dormammu is going around eating planets across dimensions, doesn't it mean that my home dimension is at risk?" Harry asked, wondering if perhaps it was better to learn how to manipulate the leylines like this Agamotto had and set up defenses in his home dimension before returning. After all, the Mystic Arts had never been acknowledged in any of the books neither Harry nor Voldemort had read, implying that they likely didn't exist in his home dimension.
"Mr. Potter, at the end of the day Dormammu is only one being. While I suspect he could pose a threat to the world you come from, the fact that you have not heard about the Mystic Arts implies that your dimension does not have an order similar to my own?" the Sorcerer Supreme asked.
"No. Nothing in my memories would suggest that" Harry admitted.
"Then for the moment, your world is safe from Dormammu's hunger. For he battles with dimensions with practitioners of the Mystic Arts in preference to those without. He seeks to erase our order from the multiverse, and while he is vast, he is still of a singular mind. His focus cannot be infinitely split across all dimensions for his hunger to be sated. By lacking our order, your world benefits through its anonymity. Even should the Mystics Arts be snuffed out, each dimension has millions upon millions of planets that fit Dormammu's palette, and it could take him eons upon eons before he could ever reach your home world. Starting an order of the Mystic Arts there would only seek his attention," she explained, easing Harry's worried thoughts on the matter, at least for the moment.
The Sorcerer Supreme moved then, striking his body out of her mind, and like the snap of an elastic band, Harry found himself back within his thoughts and head. He blinked for a few moments to collect himself, feeling a bruise already beginning to form from where he'd fallen and hit himself after his consciousness had been ripped away. At least the enchantments still held in the real world, not that they matter much now anyway seeing as the Sorcerer Supreme had already seen his face.
Indeed she had now walked up to him, bending down to extend a hand to him. One he took easily enough. With strength that defied her figure, she pulled him to his feet.
Safely within the repelling wards of the Sanctum, but not yet through the front door, the little altercation they had was largely ignored by passersby on the streets. Harry cast a quick Episkey where he'd bumped his hip on the ground, hopefully preventing the need for a bruise, before stowing the Elder Wand away, seeing as there wasn't a real need for a confrontation.
"So, Mr. Potter. Seeing as the future is for the first time, quite unknown to me, what are your plans for our new reality?" she asked, giving him a curious look.
"Well, this world has superheroes, so I might try doing that part-time?" he replied, " although learning new types of magic does have me quite interested. Granted it seems like you Masters of the Mystics Arts are trying to stay hidden away. I'm guessing I'll follow through with the secrecy of the Mystic Arts if I go down that path…huh, I don't think I've asked for your name. I'm assuming it's not Sorcerer Supreme then?"
"You would be correct in that assumption Mr. Potter," she replied with a laugh, before looking off into the distance as if deep in thought, " some say I am so old I have forgotten my name, others believe that it's been lost to time. Granted, I am not as old as they claim but I am indeed old. Several centuries at the least, although I've long forgotten the actual date of my birth. That much is true. People call me the Ancient One. I hope you will extend me the same courtesy, Mr. Potter. I will grant you that a version of myself in your reality might have been called Morgan Le Fay."
"From Arthurian Legends?" Harry asked, gobsmacked," Merlin's greatest enemy and half-sister to King Arthur?"
"Mr. Potter, Merlin, and I had disagreements about whether Mystic Arts or Wizardry were the greater magics but we certainly weren't enemies. As for Arthur, he was my cousin, his father was my uncle here," she explained with a neutral smile.
"Okay that's just cool, but you still need to answer my question about learning the Mystic Arts," Harry replied, still trying to understand the bombshell that had been dropped at his feet and using his Occulemency to get his emotions under tighter control.
"While you will be allowed to learn the Mystic Arts if that is what you wish, I should warn you that we Sorcerers prefer our privacy. I understand hero work is quite public, so long as you don't go sharing our secrets about our magic that is fine. Share all you want about your magic if you so desire. That said, the Mystic Arts will be quite the undertaking and it could take you years to become a Master," she warned, a warning that Harry shrugged off.
"Occlumency helps speed up my learning, and I was due to take another few years of schooling anyway. I may look like I'm in my twenties, but the use of a ritual helped age me up so I could pass as an adult in whatever new world I ended up stumbling upon. Granted, it helps to have assimilated the information of a full-grown wizard as well," Harry admitted," and besides, I like my privacy as well. Tony Stark might enjoy the limelight, but I certainly didn't in my reality. So long as I can use my abilities for good, instead of hiding away, like the wizards in my dimension, then I don't see a reason as to why anyone else should know about the Mystic Arts if they come asking."
"That is good to hear, so many Sorcerers often forget that there are threats within our dimension, embroiled as they are in their hunt for extra-dimensional threats," the Ancient One replied," you'll be willing to come to our aid on occasion hopefully?"
"It's the least I could do if you're going to be training me," Harry said with a shrug, before a question sprung to mind," Wait, you mentioned you used to go by Morgana Le Fay in this reality? Does that mean there's a Harry Potter in this reality as well?"
"Oh most likely. Does he have magic like you, probably not. My best estimation is that he is just a normal person, working a regular job with a small family," she replied, giving it some consideration, " that is just my estimation, you'd likely have to check to be certain."
Harry frowned at the notion.
"That complicates things. If there's a Harry Potter in this world, then I'll likely need to change my name. I have a couple of days before needing to meet up with Tony. Might as well get started on that then, once I've settled matters with Tony should I just return here?" Harry asked, tilting his head towards the New York Sanctum.
"Yes, I will instruct Master Drumm that you may be stopping by sometime in the next week. He is the Master of the New York Sanctum and will give you passage to our Academy in Kamar Taj when you arrive," the Ancient One replied, waving her hand as a swirling red portal appeared.
"I'll be seeing you soon Mr. Potter," the Ancient One said with a smile, before stepping through the portal to what looked to be a sunlit morning. Based on the time of day, Harry guessed she was somewhere in Asia. Kamar-Taj most likely then. The portal closed behind her and Harry was left wondering why he hadn't bothered to ask for a lift to London, now he'd have to take a Portkey just to get there.
Arriving in London required the simple creation of an international portkey. A ride that Harry grimaced through, quite the accomplishment since the heaving mess he'd been taking that portkey to the Quidditch World Cup. Even with Voldemort's memories about portkey travel, it hadn't occurred to Harry just how nauseating they could be until he had the luxury of experiencing them for himself.
It was early morning in London, only a couple of hours past midnight. Even though he was in a new world, Harry had to confirm a few things to himself.
The first thing he did was apparate up to the Scottish Highlands, a long trip for a weaker Wizard but Harry was a source of abundant magical energy and it wasn't too hard to arrive where Hogwarts should have been in this reality only to arrive in a sprawling forest.
Taking the Firebolt out from his moleskin pouch, Harry took to the air, discovering a sprawling forest of pine and a bare mountain where the Castle had once been. It was huge, encompassing much of the environment around the Black Lake, past where Hagrid's Hut would have been, and right up to where the castle had once stood.
The only thing remaining was old but familiar castle ruins, the exact image Harry imagined Muggles would see when approaching Hogwarts in his reality. Only this wasn't an illusion to hide from Muggles. This was this reality's, well reality. Only the basic foundation and a few pillars where the courtyard was remained of what had once been a magnificent castle.
The Forbidden Forest long since had claimed the rest of the grounds, growing over any visible rubble.
With a bit of transfiguration, Harry tunneled down to check on the Chamber of Secrest, curious if it had escaped collapse, but without magic to aid in supporting the foundation, all Harry found were the fossilized remains of much smaller Basilisk to the one Harry had encountered. Burning the corpse in an amusing attempt to maintain secrecy, Harry restored to ruins to how they were when he'd stumbled upon them and apparted to where the nearby Hogsmeade should be, finding instead of a rural Muggle village going by the name Coille Dhubh.
Scottish Gaelic was a language that hadn't been studied by Harry or Voldemort, so the meaning flew over his head as to what it might mean. However, it was a sure sign that this world's wizarding world had long ago come to an end.
A quick jump of apparition had Harry in Little Whinging, Surrey. More specifically, the little park in the neighborhood just down the road from Magnolia Crescent. Taking off at a quick walk, Harry found himself within a sea of cookie-cutter suburbs before arriving at the familiar torture of his old life that had been Number 4 Privet Drive.
It was still standing in this life, and Harry decided it was the best place to look first to confirm a few theories of his. Immediately, Harry that there weren't any cars in the driveway, surprising since his Uncle liked to park the cars outside whenever possible as a show of class to the neighbors.
An Alohamora had the door open, and with the aid of the Invisibility Cloak, Harry began to move around the home. The walls hung with pictures of a little family Harry had seen in his past life, Vernon and Petunia Dursley with their son Dudley Dursley acting as the perfect little family.
The cupboard under the stairs lacked any of the locks Vernon had placed on it to keep Harry inside in his old reality, opening it confirmed that the familiar scratched wood lacked "Harry's Room", with the cupboard only containing a vacuum and a few other cleaning supplies, along with a few boxes of knick-knacks that the Dursley's hadn't bothered to throw away.
Harry closed the cupboard, and climbed the stairs, seeing a few more photos of the Dursley family. It seemed Petunia had another child a few years after Dudley, a little girl this time. She'd inherited the red hair of the Evans family, a color that Petunia had taken a great amount of hair products to hide to disassociate with the Evans.
Strangely, after her birth, the Petunia Dursley in the photos began to slowly let her hair return to its natural dark red. Vernon disappeared from the photos at this point, and only Petunia, the mystery little girl, and Dudley remained. Harry did a double take at a photo with a slimmer Dudley Dursley, now a teenager with an arm around…himself, or, more appropriately, a teenaged Harry Potter. Another photo showed Petunia and his mother, Lily Potter, are what looked to be a barbecue, while a hale, healthy, and very much alive James Potter and Sirius Black worked the grill, laughing about some joke or the other.
To his horror, Remus Lupin of all people showed up with an arm around Petunia, a smile on her face. A few kids were running around in the background playing footie, the oldest being Dudley and Harry among the thrawn of kids.
Then, wedding photos of a married Remus and Petunia and then new family photos of the Lupins, Petunia holding another sprog. A boy with all of Remus's good qualities this time around.
The guest room was still that, a guest room with similar furnishings to the one in Harry's dimension. Harry's old room was now colored a mix of light pink and greens, with a few posters on the room showcasing popular female artists. However, it was empty. Its current occupant likely off to university maybe? Dudley had certainly gone to university based on what he'd seen of the graduation photos along the stairwell.
It seemed Dudley's old room served as the youngest child's room, Harry only took a glance inside. It seemed like a typical pre-teen's room, with a lot of science fiction posters on the wall. There was even one of Tony Stark, out of the Iron Man- Wait is that a new Doctor on the Doctor Who poster? Sweet, Harry was going to sit down and catch up, it being one of the few shows that the Dursleys had let Dudley watch…albeit very reluctantly and only when Dudley's friends were visiting. The television set had been conveniently placed so Harry could listen in from his cupboard or the front garden, something the Dursleys failed to ever catch on about. A young boy, about Hogwart's age, if Harry were to guess, with a long neck and sandy brown hair was sleeping peacefully in his bed.
It seemed this Lupin was more academically inclined as well, numerous advanced science and tech textbooks were situated on some bookshelves. Reading material of someone older.
As Harry approached the master bedroom, he wondered if he should leave. It didn't seem right to embroil himself within this different Harry's family. However, he had to know more.
He silenced the door hinges and opened the door to find the Lupins sleeping comfortably together. Closing the door, he silently locked it and then set up a silencing ward just in case. Then, he quickly stunned the pair so they wouldn't accidentally wake up.
Petunia Lupin's memories were an experience to delve through. She was the older of the Evans sisters but had been jealous of her younger sister Lily, when it became apparent Lily was a child prodigy.
She had hated how much her parents had doted on Lily instead of herself, skipping over her accomplishments in favor of perfect little Lily. It was only made worse when Lily had one full-ride scholarship to a Prep Program at a notable boarding school in Sussex-Brambletye. Petunia had begged and begged to be allowed to attend but it wasn't to be. The Evans were a Middle-Class family and could only afford expenses for classroom materials, the scholarship only covering tuition.
That event had shattered what little connection there was between herself and Lily. Everything became a competition, her grades were good but Lily's were always better. She had a fine husband, but Lily's was of the peerage! Outrageous.
When their parents had died in a horrible car accident, she had blamed Lily as they had been driving home after a visit from her.
It wasn't until years after the death of her parents, when her husband died of a heart attack at 37, that the then 30-year-old Petunia let go of her anger and bitterness and Lily welcomed her back into her life without a second thought. She'd consoled Petunia over the death of her husband, helped get Dudley to be a more active boy so that he would suffer the same fate as his father, and introduced Petunia to Remus Lupin, a friend from school who was having trouble dating - having ignored it order to focus on Academics in his twenties instead of partying or settling down as most would have and having never dated in his youth due to a childhood full of illness.
She had been intimidated by Lupin at first, but the man had never rushed her into anything and was always kind - both to her and her children. It pained her that her daughter, Rose, saw the man as more of a father than Vernon had been. He helped tutor the children whenever they had trouble in school and even had a respectable job as a Doctor, the career Rose was now pursuing, Dudley having gone into Finance, it turned out he was quite smart when he put his head in a book and studied instead of running around with that hooligan Peers. Soon, Lupin's gentleness and kindness had won her over truthfully, and they'd gotten married. Having a boy shortly after named Lyle, who had inherited the genius of his father. Remus had been worried the boy would be sickly, he'd had a troublesome time with his asthma as a young boy but it seemed Lyle would grow up to be quite healthy.
Dudley had eventually moved out shortly after graduating from university, getting a flat in London for the meantime while he saved up for a house with his fiance. Petunia had insisted that he didn't need to move, but Dudley had stated it was a matter of pride. He'd given Lyle his old room, who by that point was starting to wear down the guest bedroom. The guest bedroom wasn't as large as the other and was more for those visiting and needing to spend the night, not an ideal room for a child. Dudley had even helped his little brother paint the new room.
The last thing Harry viewed was the address of the Potter family estate. A moderate manor in the Westcountry.
Harry stepped out of her head and implanted a small memory of having partaken in some alcohol with Remus. It would help explain the headache.
He repeated the process with Remus, finding similar memories. Remus had been prone to asthma attacks as a child from growing up in an area with quite a bit of smog. It meant he had spent more time indoors than out, something that worried his parents initially but those worries lessened when they found Remus devouring a medical textbook of his mother's at the age of six - a dictionary open nearby to help explain the terms he didn't understand.
His Academic prowess had been noted by his professors as well, and Remus was one of 10 who earned a prestigious spot at Brambletye through scholarship. The cleanliness of the air in the school meant that Remus was able to be more active than he had, and quickly made friends with several students. Becoming the "responsible" group member of a quadrat of pranksters called the Marauders, by some chance the rest of which were members of the peerage.
His high grades had earned him a full-ride scholarship to Cambridge, where he'd gotten his Masters in Microbiology before transferring to the University of Oxford to pursue a degree in Medicine, specifically focusing on becoming a virologist.
His friends, Sirius Black and James Potter had gone on to study Law, focusing on estate management, but Black had found that it didn't agree with him and had instead followed his dreams and become an actor. Peter Pettigrew, not of the peerage, but another scholarship winner, had gone on to study Chemistry. It seemed he'd met with a terrible fate in this reality, dying in '87, one of 32 fatalities in the Kings Cross fire.
It was Peter's death that caused Remus to reflect on his life choices. Peter had died young, with no family to pass on his name. Just another name forgotten as a result of a terrible accident. He'd tried getting back into dating but found himself unable to connect with anyone. He was too awkward, making the rookie mistakes a teenager would have made.
By a stroke of luck, he had met Petunia at a gathering at Potter Manor, she had only been widowed only a month but Remus had offered her his sympathies at her loss. The next time he had seen her, had been at another Potter Family Gathering, almost a year and a half later. She was a changed woman, wanting to experience life again. They had bantered back and forth, but very awkward and just trying to get to know each other.
As Petunia, Dudley, and Rose attended more gatherings with the Potters, Remus saw them more often - unintentionally becoming the sorely missed male role model in the children's lives. And eventually earning Petunia's affection.
They had married, and Petunia had given Remus a son - Lyle Lupin. He was a smart boy, smarter than even Remus had been at that age. Healthy too. Lyle didn't always have the weight of an inhaler in his pocket to drag him down when he wanted to run and play with the other children.
Petunia was a good wife. Perhaps a bit too old-fashioned, Remus would have preferred a wife who wanted to be more than just a housewife, but she was sweet and kind. The home was well maintained, and after the long shifts in the labs or dealing with virulent strains at work - he would always come home to a warm meal and a loving wife.
It was simple, but there was happiness in its simplicity.
After getting the location of Potter Manor and the Black estate, Harry left another memory inside Remus's mind similar to the one he'd given Petunia.
Then he undid his wards and moved on to the next destination.
Harry had found out quite a bit about the others. Sirius Black was an actor in this reality, a well-known one.
Unfortunately, he came from a vile family in this reality as well. When they'd discovered his profession, he'd been disinherited in favor of his younger brother.
Thankfully he'd been taken in by the Potters who had sponsored his acting career.
He had yet to marry, well known for his skirt-chasing ways in this reality as well it seemed.
The Potter family had been an experience. James and Lily had married out of high school, both going to Cambridge with Remus. Lily had pursued a Doctorate education in teaching, having been inspired by the education she had received at Brambletye.
She was now working there as one of their professors, in charge of the History program for the school.
James's memories were similar to Remus's, but he'd learned a bit more about his grandparents. Charlus Potter had been a World War II veteran, one of many of the brave souls who had stormed the beaches of Normandy, one of the few who had returned alive to speak of it.
Dorea Black served as a nurse during the war, inspired to help by seeing Princess Elizabeth enlist with the armed services. She'd met Charlus by accident at the time when he'd been recovering, not knowing that either of the two had been of peerage until well after the war. They'd gone to lengths to hide their backgrounds from each other until it was time to meet the family and news was revealed hilariously.
Despite having married shortly after the war, the two had spent a good part of their youth finishing their schooling and then traveling the world. Thus they had been in their late 30s when they'd had James and had been unable to conceive another child after.
James had been spoiled, and based on his memories, was a right prat in his youth. However, the early death of his father Charlus to lung cancer had helped mature him, and it was this change in him that had earned him Lily's love and acceptance.
Together with Lily, they'd had two children, Harry and Azalea Potter, Azalea only younger by two years. Harry was glad to see, that this reality of himself had a good life. Both Harry and Azalea had long since graduated, Harry marrying his Brambletye sweetheart…Hermione?! While they had yet to have any children, they were happily married and enjoying the fruits of their education. Harry in a law firm, having followed his father's example, focused on contract law, and Hermione as an Archeologist.
Harry paced in his manor trunk, having apparated to Scotland - specifically the old Hogwarts.
At the moment, his pacing was because it was evident he couldn't call himself Harry Potter. He looked a little younger than this reality's Harry Potter owing to this reality's Harry was 30. However, too many questions would be asked if the connection was made, his name and looks would give it away.
No. His looks could be construed as unfortunately lucky coincidence. His name couldn't.
The pacing came to a stop. The Peverells were a long extinct line, even if they had been peerage in his old world, that didn't necessarily mean those titles existed here. Harry would have to do a bit of research but perhaps Hadrian Peverell? Harry to his friends?
Another moment of thought, and then he came to a decision.
He'd be Hadrian Peverell in this new life. Harry to his friends.
But first, he had to get to studying.
There was a lot about this world he didn't know. New technologies have emerged, and old history might be different.
Only one way to find out. The Library Index Stone happily provided the first of his reading materials upon request, and Harry didn't leave the library until summoned by a particular Elf about one Tony Stark.
AN: Well? What did you all think? Don't worry about "With Eyes to See", next chapter is WIP, just had to step away to do some research for it before continuing with it. It's been a while since I've sat down and watched the anime so I need a refresher now that we've caught up with it.