3. POOR TECH SKILLS AND HELP FROM A STRANGER.

Harry spent some time learning how to drive Sirius's old motorcycle and had purchased a simple helmet, a leather riding coat in a style very similar to wizarding robes as well as riding boots and fingerless gloves. The coat reminded him of some of the things Sirius had worn.

After much internal debate, Harry had decided to return to New York instead of remaining in the more familiar London. The reasoning was quite simple. He had arrived to this reality in New York, perhaps there was some type of connection there that could allow him to return to his own reality.

Harry had considered going to other magical centers such as Beauxbatons or Durmstrang to see if like Hogwarts there were at least ruins or other potential clues but as he had never traveled outside England, Ireland or Scotland, he didn't really know even in his world these locations were much less in this world.

Having learned some important lessons on his previous trip in a cargo hold, the trip back from England to the US had been marginally more bearable, dressed in transfigured warm clothing and protective ear covering.

Arriving back in New York at JFK after another long 7 hour flight, Harry apparated straight from the cargo hold back to the alley where he had first slept on the night he had arrived in the new reality, being the only place he was familiar with enough to do a proper apparition.

Walking the few blocks from the alley, Harry made his way back to his arrival point in Central Park. The grass had been obviously replaced a clear circle of fresh grass could still be seen even after over two weeks.

Casting his limited repertoire of revealing and detection spell revealed nothing.

Night was fast approaching and Harry had no wish to spend one more night sleeping in an alley.

Returning back to their airport Harry was directed to a local Hostel for cheap accommodation.

Harry paid for two weeks and was given a bed in a dorm room with five other beds.

The hostel has several dorms: some mixed, some gender specific. They also had individual rooms, a bar / common room, a game room and even a room with public access computers.

Finding a dinner nearby Harry went out for supper and returned some time later with a used book on computers purchased from a used book store.

Returning to his dorm, Harry found a woman with short blond hair packing things into the storage container under their shared bunk bed.

Harry greeted her with a nod as he removed his trench coat and packed it away in his own container.

"I guess we'll be bunk buddies." the woman said, pointing at the bunk beds.

"I guess so. I can switch if you'd prefer the top bunk." he offered.

"No, no. That's fine. God! Last time I shared a bunk bed with someone it was my little cousin and he ended up peeing the bed above me."

Harry snorted in disgust and mirth.

"Well no worries about that. I haven't peed the bed in … what time is it now? 19:00? So in at least 11 hours."

"Ha, ha! Very funny. My name is Kate by the way. And you?" she asked reaching a hand out.

"Harry. Harry Potter." Harry took her hand. She had a strong grip and her hands were rough. The hands of someone who did a lot of manual work.

"Well. I'm going to go to the bar upstairs and have a drink and some unhealthy bar food. Maybe we'll chat later?"

Harry nodded in response and watched her walk away. She was in her late twenties or early thirties, in good shape. Her steps were efficient and purposeful.

Harry stopped staring not wanting her to think he was staring at her arse or something of that nature.

Taking his 'Computers for Idiots!' book. Harry made his way to the hostels bar / common room.

Finding a nice chair by a small table, Harry purchased a drink and began the tedious process of learnings the basics of computers.

Harry groaned in disgust. The book was informative but he couldn't believe how lacking his education at Hogwarts had been.

"What are you reading?"

Harry looked up from his book to find that Kate had taken the seat opposite him and was eating a greasy burger and drinking a large beer.

Noticing Harry looking at her food she commented.

"My trainer is going to murder me when I get back but I'm on vacation and this tastes damned good."

Harry nodded in acknowledgment.

"So what's with the book?"

Harry showed her the battered cover.

"Seriously? Why are you reading that?" her tone was not mocking, more flabbergasted.

"Never used a computer in my life. I just graduated from a private school, thrust into the world only to find that my education was lacking a bit in some important areas."

"How can you have graduated from any school and not have touched a computer?"

"It was a very exclusive school but also very old school."

"But I mean you have a smartphone right?"

"Nope."

"Where are you from?" she asked, taking a sip from her glass.

"Lived with my aunt, uncle and cousin in Surrey until I was eleven then I went to an exclusive boarding school in Scotland for 7 or 8 years. Just graduated this year actually." Harry explained thinking there was no harm in sharing this information.

"Oh what school?."

"I don't think you would have heard of it. It's an exclusive invitation only school. I was put on the rolls the day I was born because both of my parents had gone." he explained hoping she wouldn't press the subject.

"Sounds … mysterious." she explained an impish smile on her lips. "Well, how was it?"

Harry took another sip of beer trying to find a non-compromising way to describe Hogwarts.

"It was built inside an old castle. There were four houses. Red, Green, Yellow and Blue. The houses were divided based on the results of a personality test. The courageous went to red. The loyal and hardworking went to yellow. The academic types went to blue and the cunning and ambitious went to green." Harry explained fondly, trying to avoid any fantastic sounding names.

"That kind of segregation would cause some serious issues in the long run wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, my house, the red house, and the green house didn't get along at all. The green house thought anyone in the yellow house were useless duffers. The blue house sort of got along with everyone else but more so with the green house and, if I'm going to be honest less with my house." Harry admitted.

It hadn't made much sense to him in the end how the houses were sorted. Neville was loyal and brave. Hermione could have been in Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Percy could have been in Slytherin. Goyle and Crabbe were so bland that Harry didn't think they really fit anywhere. The whole system just seemed designed to reinforce stereotypes.

"I shared a dorm with some mates in a tower. The dorms for the green house was in the dungeons. It was so … magical for lack of a better word. There was a huge lake on the grounds and it was surrounded by a forest. The education was pretty good but didn't focus much on technology so I'm balls with computers." Harry admitted. "Hence the book."

It suddenly occurred to Harry that his education at Hogwarts had been severely lacking and really only prepared him to live within the wizarding society. He lacked many of the basic skills taught in muggle schools and this was going to be a problem going forward in this new world. He knew next to nothing about basic science or math.

He'd also never really looked into how much technology would be affected by his magic. Would just using a computer everyday make it short out in the short or long run?

"You still there Harry?" Kate asked after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, sorry. It just feels … it just feels like my whole world has changed." Harry replied ironically. "I spent the last seven or eight years in a boarding school, locked away from the rest of the world and suddenly I'm out here on my own … alone."

"What about your parents?"

Harry stared into his half finished glass, lost in memory.

"They were murdered when I was one."

"I'm sorry for bringing that up." she replied regret in her expression "I should have known, you mentioned you were living with your aunt and uncle."

"It's fine. I have had my whole life to deal with that and before you asked, my aunt and uncle hated me. They were jealous of my parents and made sure I knew I was unwanted. Thankfully I don't have to deal with them anymore." he added bitterly.

They sat in somewhat awkward silence for a time.

"So you just graduated and decided to pay yourself a trip to the United States?"

Harry simply shrugged.

"I'm on vacation so figured it wouldn't hurt and my parents and godfather left me a fair bit of money. If I'm careful I should be ok until I figure out what to do next."

The next few days fell into a routine. Harry would head back to Central Park and spend some time trying to learn how to use a computer. The computer hadn't exploded with his limited interactions.

Harry had considered purchasing a smartphone, the attraction of having essentially a large portion of the world knowledge at his fingertips was an attractive prospect, but still wasn't certain of how it would react to his magic and he didn't feel like spending 500$ to 1300$ of his finite funds on something that might explode the first time he put on his invisibility cloak or in his trunk when he shrunk it down.

Kate had convinced him to go sightseeing twice. They had visited the Statue of Liberty and, at Kate's insistence, visited a monument to a man called Steve Rogers : Captain America.

Harry read the inscription on the monument and boggle at it. This man had been a super soldier in world war two fighting against the nazis and a military group called Hydra.

"My great aunt knew him. She never stops talking about him." Kate explained.

"Hydra had launched a plane with an atom bomb on board heading for the US and he drove it into the arctic ocean."

Harry had to admit that normal history was another facet of his education that Hogwarts had been lacking in but Harry didn't remember anything about this Hydra or Captain America and assumed it was another point of divergence between the two realities.

Harry had also been dragged out to go to something called a Rave. A party with lots of drugs and what to Harry could not really be called music. Harry hadn't been a fan.

After a week, Harry had made no progress with his arrival point at Central Park. and so decided that he would need a more permanent living situation.

On a whim, Harry began searching for buildings for sale on the computers at the hostel.

Harry sat staring at the screen in contempt. He really had no idea where to even begin.

He realized then how smug he had been in the face of pureblood wizards who didn't understand basic things, such as how electricity works, and how that sense of superiority had been wholly misplaced.

Harry looked around himself to see others clacking away at the keys, their hands a blur as text practically exploded into the little boxes on the screen while he laboriously typed his words one letter at a time hunting for the letters arranged in what appeared to be a completely arbitrary order on the keyboard.

Harry let out a sigh of frustration as the box he was typing in suddenly disappeared under three other boxes attempting to sell him pills to make his manhood bigger, or replace his thinning hair or offering him a subscription to a music service he didn't even understand.

"Having some issues?"

Harry leaned his head back to see Kate standing there behind him, an amused look on her face.

"I don't well bloody get these machines. It takes me somewhere around 5 minutes to type one bloody word and then all these boxes appear covering my other boxes." Harry replied with an exasperated sigh.

"Here, budge over and let me help you out. What are you looking for?"

Harry ceded his chair.

"I need to find a place to trade in a little gold and not get robbed on the exchange and I'm looking for a cheap commercial building. Looks like I'll be here for a while and decided I'd open a business." Harry explained.

"Where do you want to open this business and do you have a work visa? Business permit?" she asked.

"Well, I'm just in the preliminary stages right now. Trying to see what this would cost and all that." Harry hedged.

"Ok so what type of business do you want to start? That should help decide what type of property to look for."

"Well, I was thinking maybe … you're gonna think me mad."

"No, go ahead." she encouraged him with a small touch.

Harry tried not to flinch at her contact. Even after all these years he still wasn't one hundred percent comfortable with physical contact other than from Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Mrs Weasley and Luna.

"Fine … something kind of like a detective agency."

"What? Really? But I mean … I don't want to insult you but you can't even do a simple web search. Detectives these days need a lot of tech know how. You also need to be licensed by the state."

Harry simply shrugged. "It's something to look into. Honestly, I'm looking to work not because I have to but because I'd go crazy otherwise. Harry Potter Detective Agency. Solving cases with arguable efficiency."

Kate laughed out loud as Harry mimed putting up a sign with those words up on a wall.

In reality Harry had been considering something along those lines but instead of a detective agency he had considered: Harry Potter, wizard for hire. Have wand will travel.

Harry could practically hear Hermione's exasperated sigh at yet another one of his cockamamy plans but it wasn't just a fly by the seat of your pants scenario like most of his ideas.

It was an insane idea that could get him in a lot of trouble but had some interesting potential. If there was some type of magical community somewhere, hanging a sign up on a wall offering wizardly services was sure to get their attention, be it good or bad, and there were enough crackpot mystic's and clairvoyants on the telly and in small shops that if there were no real magicals in the world he'd just fit in with the other weirdos. He just had to be careful in how he presented his services. Keep it simple enough so that people would believe without really believing … if that made sense.

The universe seemed hell bent on throwing him into these situations no matter how much he would like to live a simple life so why not make a career out of it.

Now the main problem was getting all the paperwork he needed to create himself a new life.

"You're … you are seriously considering this aren't you?" Kate asked in complete disbelief. "I can practically see you planing it right now."

"Yeah, I am. There's some hurdles to overcome but I think I can see myself doing this kind of work. Helping people with their problems and if it doesn't work, as long as I plan carefully I'll have enough money left over to try something different."

Kate looked at Harry hesitantly.

"I'm sorry. I don't want to offend you but how much money do you actually have? I don't mean to pry but I don't think you understand how much the world really costs."

Harry rubbed his neck with a little embarassement and did a bit of mathematics on a piece of paper to figure out the conversion from half ounce gold to american dollar. Figuring he would lose about 40% in the gold conversion he wrote down 1.8 Million US Dollars.

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