Chapter 2: Momentarily Stood Up

Harry wound up taking Leela's advice and going to the restaurant. It was a good thing too as he hadn't been there long when his long-frozen stomach decided to demand food. He got himself a burger and fries (chips were apparently fries in the States). All told, it took about an hour and a half which seemed excessive but he wasn't in a rush and the portions were big enough to silence the loudest stomach growls. Then he went outside and walked around for a bit. When it started getting dark and Leela hadn't appeared, he began to get concerned. He really didn't want to be out at night in a new city without his wand and no shelter.

He waited for a while. Although he wasn't sure what time it was, he could tell that it was no longer early evening. He slipped back into the Cryogenic Facility and looked around. The two guys who had been there when he was unfrozen were drinking beer in one of the offices. The rest of the building seemed deserted. So the question was what to do now?

It was apparently New Years. He doubted most places would even be open. While Leela had given him some cash it was only enough for a meal or two. He could try Apparating somewhere but the fact that he was in New New York stopped him. He didn't know the area and might wind up Apparating into a collapsed building wherever Old New York was. He could try looking for where MACUSA had been before he had gotten frozen. But did Central Park even exist?

He had a handful of wandless spells that he could do. It would give him a starting point. He ducked into an alley and cast a Disillusionment spell on himself. His Magic hummed happy to be actively used again after so long being frozen. He looked through a nearby dumpster to see if there was something in there that he could use as a substitute for a wand. He didn't need it to cast many spells but as a replacement for a compass arrow. Eventually he found a piece of wood that could work…after he cast a Scourgify on it.

He was about to cast a Point Me charm using it when he heard a soft pop.

"Great Master Harry Potter?"

Harry canceled his Disillusionment spell and looked at the house elf in front of him in surprise. On spotting him, the elf let out a happy cheer, rushed over and hugged him.

"Dobby has been waiting so long for Great Master Harry Potter to come back. Dobby was worried that he would die of old age before he found Great Master Harry Potter."

"Don't feel bad, Dobby. They took us both by surprise by moving earlier than we expected. Granger probably set up a system of Wards around my prison to keep anyone from finding me."

"Dobby looked and looked," the elf replied sadly, "Dobby even tried to trick the Traitorous She Who Knits into revealing where the Great Master Harry Potter was, but Dobby could not do so without disobeying Great Master Harry Potter's orders to not get caught as Traitorous She Who Knits was well guarded."

"Well unless she made a horcrux or the Flamels were actually stupid enough to give Dumbledore their real stone, she's dead now. So good riddance."

Dobby grimaced at that.

"She is dead, right?"

"Dobby not sure."

There was another soft pop, "Traitorous Mudblood Whore is dead," rasped a new voice, "Kreacher killed the Mudblood when she tried to enter Last Master Black's house for the books."

Somehow, Harry wasn't surprised to see that Kreacher had survived. He wouldn't put it past the old elf to continue out of sheer stubbornness and spite. It was also very appropriate that Hermione had died trying to get books that she had been forbidden from reading. That a house elf had killed her was just priceless considering SPEW.

"Kreacher has final service to perform for the Last Master Black," he snapped his fingers, and a ring box appeared, "First Last Master Black must take the Lord's ring."

Harry accepted the ring box from Kreacher and opened it. Inside was a silver ring with a black onyx as its gemstone, inscribed were the words Toujours Pur. He took the ring out of the box and slipped it onto a finger on his left hand. He felt the magic judge him for a moment and then accept him. As it did, he felt his powers increase.

"Last Master Black is truly Lord Black," the old elf cracked a rather toothy grin before snapping his fingers to make a trunk appear, "Kreacher packed everything in Grimmauld into trunk after Ungrateful Wizards tried to burn it to the ground. Trunk holds everything that belongs to Lord Black that is not in Castle Black. Kreacher would have stored it in Castle Black, but Kreacher did not want to lead Unworthy Wizards to Lord Black's final home."

"As Lord Black, I thank you for both your diligence in rescuing the assets belonging to House Black and your vigilance in keeping the true family home a secret."

Kreacher smiled and then faded away in a scene eerily reminiscent of Yoda in Return of the Jedi. Harry was silent for a while to pay the elf one last measure of respect. Then he spoke.

"Dobby, do you happen to still have my emergency supplies?"

"Yes, Great Master Harry Potter," there was a pop as Dobby made Harry's mokeskin bag appear, "Dobby kept it safe. Dobby also retrieved many things that should have been Great Master Harry Potter's before Hogwarts vanished."

Harry decided that Hogwarts vanishing would be a problem for another day. Instead, he opened up the mokeskin bag and took out both the custom wand and the wand holster he had placed in there. Once it was strapped to his arm, he felt more confident, safer. With a few flicks of the wand, he shrunk down the trunk that Kreacher had brought. He attached it to the necklace that had the mokeskin pouch on it and slipped it on.

"Anything I need to know tonight, Dobby?"

"Dobby exchanged Great Master Harry Potter's non-magicky currency for new Earthican currency. All places now accept that."

"And the Wizarding World?"

"Many Wizards get themselves killed when flying metal ships come. More get killed when flying metal ships come again. Dobby honestly not sure if any left."

"No worries, Dobby. It'll give me something to investigate once I get my bearings again. Anything else?"

"Dobby was wondering if Great Master Harry Potter had work for Dobby?"

"While keeping yourself hidden, could you go see if you can find where MACUSA and the U.S. shopping district is? If there are people there, we need to know sooner than later. If there aren't, we might check it out and see if it will make a good base to operate out of."

Dobby looked excited, "Dobby will look into it. Does Great Master Harry Potter have somewhere to sleep?"

"Not yet. I was rather hoping to meet up with someone first. Though to be honest I'm not sure I could sleep tonight. Too much energy after that cold nap."

"Then Dobby advises Great Master Harry Potter to be careful while searching. Dobby will report in later."

He vanished leaving Harry alone with his thoughts for a moment. Then he decided to start walking. He wanted to explore the city, anyway, might as well do it now since he'd been stood up.

[Perspective Shift]

It was official: Philip J. Fry was a fucking moron. He had run away from her in the office to avoid becoming a delivery boy. He had tripped her into one of those damned tubes and froze her because he didn't want to be a delivery boy. He had led both her and the police on a merry chase across New New York with his robot drinking buddy. Somehow Richard Nixon's head had gotten involved and urged the Police officers to engage their brutality circuits and instincts on Fry. That had prompted her to intervene as well ... Fry was a 20th Century idiot who didn't know better.

Then they had run into the sewers of Old New York before making their way to Hubert Farnsworth's place. The police and Nixon's head had tracked them down. They had been forced to escape on Farnsworth's spaceship which was used for deliveries of all things. Then at the end of it, she, the robot Bender, and Fry had all been offered jobs by Fry's doddering old relative. She had been forced to accept the job so that should the police decide to follow up instead of writing off the whole mess, she could both claim to be following orders during their temporary flight from Earth (which she had by the merest of technicalities) and not be pestered or fined for driving a spaceship without a relevant career chip outside of training. The kicker was despite spritzing up the job description, the job that Fry had enthusiastically accepted was that of Delivery Boy.

Now she was going to have to resign from her old job tomorrow. Truthfully it wasn't that she'd particularly miss the job or her co-workers. Actually, she would miss poker night. Maybe they would still need a fourth? The work was boring (except for today) and most of the defrostees were fucking annoying. However, she would miss the reliable paycheck as she had a feeling that even if the pilot job wasn't commissioned based, she would only be getting paid a small retainer fee if the company did not have delivery jobs on deck.

She had walked back to her apartment, taken a bath and changed into her nightwear. She was just tired of today. She had greeted the new year with a bang, but it wasn't the bang she wanted. Oh fuck…in all excitement she had forgotten to meet up with Hydrus for their New Year's Eve fuck…because yeah, she had been planning to fuck him. She had rarely seen men with love tentacles that big…while hard let alone soft. That and he had never once asked about or mentioned her eye. Instead, he had given it a very brief look before just treating it like her purple hair, as an interesting feature but not repulsive and not worth staring at after the few seconds it took to observe that detail.

She really hoped he hadn't been mugged or something standing there waiting for her after the restaurant got him to leave. She went to the fridge, cracked open one of her few Quad Wing Bulls and downed it. Then she threw back on her day clothes, just pulling them over her nightwear. She also grabbed her tech bracelet which also doubled as a blaster with a handful of shots. She paused long enough to self-consciously brush her teeth really quick then she rushed out of her apartment barely remembering to lock it.

She rushed out of the building and started walking her way back to her former job. She would have run but she didn't want to quickly burn through her energy boost. Plus, she didn't want to literally run into a bumbling drunk or an errant firework. Still, she made good time getting back to the cryo lab. A smile came unbidden to her face when she saw that Hydrus was still there though it was quickly replaced with a frown at the thought of him being there for hours.

"Hydrus, I am so sorry. The guy after you was a complete and utter fucking moron. He objected to his career chip and managed to lead me on a chase throughout New New York before he finally accepted a career chip."

"Did he at least wind up getting an interesting job," asked Hydrus, who didn't seem to be annoyed with her.

"That's the worst damn part. He wound up accepting the exact same job he ran away from. The only damn change was the description. Evidently being a delivery boy is acceptable once you describe the deliveries as involving interstellar travel. Argh! I'm sorry you had to wait through that idiocy"

"I managed to find a couple things to do to pass the time," he replied, using his hand to wave away the problem.

"Still feel bad about that. It's not often that a guy just ignores my eye, and I was worried that I'd fucked up my chance with you."

"I've had crazy things happen to me, so I get it," he replied soothingly, "So um…where do we go from here?"

Oh good, she wasn't the only one nervous about this.

"It's probably a bit too late for our original plan, but we could cuddle some tonight and revisit our original plan tomorrow night after I get off work."

"A bed does sound nice," Hydrus admitted, "And a bath or shower if I'm being honest."

"Great. I'll show you how everything works."

"Please tell me that toilets haven't been replaced by the three-shell thing?"

"Three-shell thing?"

"It's a thing from a movie I happened to see the year before I got frozen…"

As Hydrus described this movie from the Stupid Ages, Leela couldn't help but feel relieved that Taco Bell had not won the Franchise Wars in real life. She shuddered as she imagined every restaurant being named Fishy Joe's regardless of what they sold.