2 A New Chapter of Life

Harry apparated in a deserted alley in London. It has been few months since he left behind the wizarding world and it has not been easy.

The first few weeks were a misery. He left the wizarding world but had no idea what to do with his newfound freedom. For few weeks he struggled with grief and hunger. Despite having near-infinite gold at his disposal in form of Philosopher's stone, he had no idea how to use it.

He spent days stealing and hunting food and spent the rest of his time on Arithmancy creating spells while sitting on some park's bench or wilds of Scottish grasslands.

He was free for the first time. He could have breakfast in the Scottish grassland, lunch on the London eye, dinner in Ireland, and sleep on Chalk Cliffs and no one will say otherwise. At least no one other than Hedwig.

The more time he spent traveling the entire British Isles, the less time he spent interacting with other people and for some reason, Hedwig did not like it. She said she did not want him to become a reclusive sage. First few weeks she allowed it to let him deal with his grief and enjoy his freedom but after few weeks, she had enough of his reclusive habits and nipped at his ears till he agreed to her demands.

But his life was still directionless. He was disconnected from other humans, he could not go to school, can't get a passport, or do anything thing that required an identity, because the moment he used it, wizards will be at his doorstep to drag him back to their world.

But Hedwig did not want him to lose touch with society. She had lived a very life before she met him. She watched the world from a perspective of an observer for such a long time that he could not even fathom how long she lived. And all her time gave her wisdom and a comprehensive perspective on life.

To her, his situation is similar to a calf who separated from the herd without learning to walk, a chick wh fell off the nest without learning to fly. She by no means implied that he was weak but there is more to strength than power and there is more to life than strength. And Hedwig did not want him to spend his life constantly looking over his shoulder.

He did not take well to that at first, but Hedwig had always been wiser among us, and he ultimately deferred to her reasoning. Hedwig too did not want in him losing all his freedom, just defining boundaries for freedom without limits is its own form of subservience.

After a lot of brainstorming and months of searching, he was finally able to get a job at a book store. I was just part-time but the owner agreed to let him work overtime and without asking too many questions as long he brought his owl. He was hoping for a free mascot for the store and by that time Harry was too desperate to say no.

So here he was, standing in the back alley of the store, ready to begin the first day of his first Job.

"Ok Hedwig, wish me luck." He muttered, and Hedwig responded with a soft hoot which sounded like 'You will do great.'

He was wearing a black hooded jacket and jeans which he had conjured 'permanently', by finding ways to circumvent most laws of Transfiguration. His hairs were dark red, in remembrance of his mother, and his forehead free of any scar. His cursed scar healed since he tapped into his magic on that night, one of the many boons he received on that terrible night.

He wanted to change his face so that he could not be recognized, but he was totally new to being a metamorphmagi. He could not maintain his transformation for long if the changes were larger from his original face. In the end, he settled with just keeping his hair very dark red and removing the very faint lightning bolt scar from his head.

Entering the bookstore, he was relieved to see that the owner was not present, instead, just another part-time student sat behind the counter. Seeing him, the brown-skinned boy in his early twenties rose up from behind the counter.

"You must be Evans. Sir told you will begin the night shift.", The boy said, taking a look at Hedwig, "I am Kyle, and I will be with you for the rest of the night shift."

"You should sit beside the entrance and pack books customers bought in the book bag. Now in the evening it is somewhat of a rush-hour but don't worry, we don't get many customers at night."

Harry just mutely nodded and sat on the chair, and gently put Hedwig on the table in front. The entire bookstore was quite long, with bookshelves lining almost the entire floor, almost touching the low ceiling.

Kyle gave a reassuring smile and passed him a book to be wrapped. Harry looked at for a second and with a gentle nudge from Hedwig, began his work.

Days came and went by as Harry eased into the new schedule. His days were spent exploring the country or working on magic and night working at the bookstore. It did not take long for Harry to notice that he barely needed to sleep, freeing him the entire day to explore.

His social anxiety also started to decrease as he kept interacting with customers and Kyle on daily basis, much to the pleasure of Hedwig.

Months passed and Harry felt his life was looking up. By all accounts, he was an illegal resident in the country at best at the account of not being able to access his birth documents and a fugitive from the law at worst. Both magical and non-magical worlds were still looking for him, he sometimes saw missing posters or his description as a missing person on local news. The bookstore's owner still gave him half the minimum wages and sometimes delayed payment by weeks.

But despite all that, for the first time life was good.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

In Wizarding World, it has been few months since Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived vanished from the wizarding world. Initially, when Madam Pomfrey discovered that Harry Potter was missing, it was pandemonium in Hogwarts. Students and teachers believed Sirius Black had finally got his hands on Potter. In pressure, Fudge released that Sirius Black had been captured and kissed.

The pandamonium only increased when no body of Sirius Balck was found by Aurors. Dumbledore assured that Sirius black had been kissed, but he had no idea where Sirius's body was. The mystery only deepened when Harry's crippled owl was also missing despite his no other possession being touched.

Dumbledore himself had no idea what was going on. Paintings had informed that Harry somehow woke up from Draught of living death and ran to Sirius's cell but no one saw him leaving. All his monitoring charms and blood anchors had stopped working that night and he feared that Harry Potter might already be dead.

The magical world searched for their savior for months, going as far as to enlist the help of lowly Muggles. First, the local Police came into the fold, then the Scotland yard and British intelligence services which lead to the creation of a special task force solely for search and retrieval of Harry Potter although their motivations were different from the Magical world.

These actions brought the attention of international Spy agencies. S.H.E.I.L.D. and by proxy Hydra had Harry Potter's name and face on their servers, facial scans for his face continuously running in the background, searching him on every CCTV camera in the world.

Unknown to most, the internet was a battleground, where every intelligence agency in the world waged war; where Hackers, technopaths, and A.I. constantly fought. S.H.E.I.L.D.'s sudden interest in a teenage British boy did not go unnoticed. But because of S.H.E.I.L.D. servers being one of the most secure in the world, the British intelligence agencies became a target in this virtual battle and they stood no chance.

By the end of the month, servers of Sinister, Stark, Oscorp underground servers, X-men, C.I.A., K.G.B., Hellfire Club, Brotherhood of Mutants, Hellions, Hammer industries, Trask Industries, A.I.M., Genosha, Wakanda, Latveria, and many more now had a profile on Harry Potter, marking him as a person of interest and a possible enhanced individual.

Harry Potter was now on the database of every big player in the world, one wrong move and he will be in front of the eyes of the Giants.

avataravatar
Next chapter