Back to Surrey

Harry collapsed on his back. He felt the ground beneath him, smelled the soil and grass, heard the distant sound of traffic, and saw the starry sky between the branches and leafs of a tree. He blinked, and sat up in a rush.

Looking around, he recognised the park where he had been before his trip. When he tried to move further, his foot hit something. Inspecting it under the dim light that reached him, he saw that it was the bag of games he had found.

"... I'm back... I've come back!!" he nearly shouted with excitment before calming himself. "I have to make sure Hedwig and the rest of my belonging are safe. What am I going to say to the Dursley? And going there in the middle of the night is only going to anger them more. I have to wait until morning."

Harry sighted, really ot looking forward to it. He stood up and was about to leave when he stopped. He noticed that the power to teleport had been depleted once again.

"... I guess I won't be able to travel anytime soon..." he trailed of and blinked as he patted himself. "I have the clothes from the game?"

It took him a few seconds to realised the implications of that discovery.

"Wait, if I have to clothes from the game, doesn't that mean I can take things from the game and bring them with me?" He got excited at the prospect, before turning serious, and even anxious. "Does that mean I can bring people from the game as well?"

The idea both pleased and scared him. Bringing game characters to the real world would feel like giving life to fictional characters, or dolls and puppets. It would allow him to keep characters he liked with him, but he didn't know if it was morally or ethically acceptable to do. While there was a lot of things from the muggle world that he didn't know because of his upbringing, he knew about Frankeinstein monster and cloning. To him, bringing game people to life was similar.

After nearly 15 minutes thinking about the issue, he decide to leave it aside for later. He focused on the bag of games at his feet. If he could travel to game worlds, he definitly wanted to explore a few of them. He had noticed that he still felt as strong as he had become in the game world. He felt that it was like gaining levels in the games. If he could get stronger like that, and possibly learn things that didn't exist in reality, then he wouldn't pass on the opportunity.

He decided to keep the bag with him. He left the park and observed his surroundings. While it was night, it didn't seem as late as he thought. But the time was a problem. He arrived in the game world at around the same time he left the real world, in the middle of the afternoon.

Yet he left the game world in the morning and arrived late at night. If the time wasn't the same, then maybe the number of days spent wasn't the same as well. That scared him, because he might have been away longer than he thought.

Half an hour of looking around for hints about the date, such as discarded newspapers, or trying to hear what was said on some loud radios, he found out how much time had passed.

"7 hours?" he said to himself, stunned, as he sat down on a bench. "I've been gone for only 7 hours?"

"Hoot!"

"What?" he said while looking up.

A light grey blur was flying toward him, and slowed down at the last moment, revealing a beautiful snowy owl under the light of the nearby lamp post.

"Hedwig!" he exclaimed in joyful surprise.

She landed on his lap, and he proceeded to pet her, declaring how much he had missed her. She too, was happy to see her human again, even if a little confused. He then told her the gist of what happened to him, even though she couldn't understand all of it. At least she understoofd that he had a new power that made him transport himself to some faraway place, and that it took some time to be able to transport back.

Now, what was left was going back to the Dursley, and he really didn't look forward to it. The only excuse he could think about was that he had some pressing magical business to take care of. They wouldn't like it, but they also wouldn't try to know more about it. If they tried to complain, he would bluff about either doing his magical business away or have one of his kind come to their house. He was certain that it would shut them.

"No point in trying to return there this late. I guess I'm going to sleep outside."

He went back to the place where he had hidden from his bullies. He wouldn't be seen there. He was about to make himself comfortable, and froze. He remembered he wouldn't be able to sleep, since he had woken up barely an hour ago. He realised he would be forced to spend the whole night awake. The only thing he had to help him pass time was the bag with the games, and the notebook that came with them.

Having been to a game world, he couldn't help but be curious about the other. So he once again left to find another isolated place with enough light to do some reading. By the time dawn came, his head was full of ideas, as well as new dreams.

He waited for mid-morning to move, when Vernon would be gone for work. It was a good thing, because his aunt wasn't pleased with his unexpected absence. She had to do some of his chores, which Harry though was her duties anyway.

Well, Harry wasn't the same as when she had last saw him. While he wasn't in a position to cause a lot of trouble in the place, he wasn't going to let them walk all over him again. So when his aunt tried to visiously berate him, he sternly warned her using the excuse he had prepared beforehand. It also had the effect of preventing Dudley from being nosy about the bag he brough back.