Chapter 314: The Lost Raven

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.

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Unknown place, Unknown time

There was a blast of white, and then, nothing… Well, there was nothing for a fraction of a second until he found himself thrown into a bunch of mud and grass… This definitely wasn't Durmstrang anymore… Now, where the fuck was he? That was Harry's last thought before everything turned black…

Harry woke up feeling something wet dripping on him. He tried to stop it by raising his arms, but that didn't seem to do anything, "Stop."

Of course, the moment he actually spoke was when he realized just how much everything hurt. By all that is holy, it even hurt to even think. Every muscle in his body screamed in agony, and his magic circuits were burning from overuse, a searing pain that pulsed with every heartbeat. Confusion and exhaustion weighed heavily on him, but underneath it all, there was a flicker of determination. He was lost and disoriented, but he knew he had to get up, had to move.

And that was when he finally opened his eyes and saw a cloudy sky above him. It was raining very faintly, and it was probably going to start pouring pretty heavily later. Harry blinked several times, trying to clear his vision. As the world around him came into focus, he noticed the rolling hills dotted with patches of wildflowers and the distant, dark outline of towering trees.

He slowly pushed himself up, wincing with every movement, and looked around more carefully. The air was cool and crisp, carrying the faint scent of pine and damp earth. In the distance, he saw a familiar grove of ancient oaks, their gnarled branches twisting towards the sky.

It was then that a deep sense of familiarity washed over him. He recognized the landscape, the hills, and the forest. These were the hills near the Forbidden Forest.

Had he travelled all the way back to Britain?

How long was he even unconscious?

Deciding that staying there would achieve nothing, he started walking – well, more like limping – towards Hogsmeade, barely able to cast an illusion to hide his looks, because of his burning circuits. Honestly, he was just being safe. Harry couldn't exactly risk someone recognizing him and revealing that he could somehow leave Durmstrang without permission. That heist in Gringotts was already making a lot of noise and it would be easy to blame him if people knew that he could get in and out of place without being noticed, even if they didn't have any evidence. Magical Britain rarely needed evidence to send people to prison.

It took almost an hour of limping, but Harry finally found himself in front of the village of Hogsmeade. His stomach growled signifying his hunger when he stared at the familiar sight of the Three Broomsticks. Yes, that was a good idea.

He slowly walked to the inn and sat down. It hadn't taken more than a minute until Madam Rosmerta walked up to him and spoke up, "You're a new face. We don't get a lot of those around here."

"Yeah, I've been travelling for a bit. This is just one of my stops."

"You really could have picked a better time, to be honest. Last year was a lot more exciting with the foreigners and the tourists. We made a nice bit of gold from that. It's a real shame how things ended, really. Anyway, what can I get you?"

Harry slowly processed her words. What had happened the previous year? Wasn't that just the Hogsmeade attack? Still, he decided to just answer her question, "A butterbeer and a shepherd's pie, please."

She smiled at him pleasantly and commented, "Coming right up."

With her gone, Harry was finally allowed to slowly process what happened. He started to notice the oddities slightly. There were small differences in the decorations, not much, but it was enough to be noticeable. A few pictures on the walls were of people he didn't recognize; the chairs were enchanted just a tad differently. When he used his Arcane Hearing, everything just felt slightly different. Like a different shade of grey. Close but not exactly the same.

What the fuck was going on.

Unfortunately, his train of thought was interrupted by Rosmerta finally giving him his meal and drink, which distracted him immensely. He quickly paid her with some of his emergency gold and started to listen around in the inn. As he took a bite of his shepherd's pie, a conversation at a nearby table caught his attention.

A wizard and a witch were speaking in hushed tones, clearly annoyed. "Did you hear about Harry Potter's latest stunt? Claims You-Know-Who is back. Honestly, the boy will say anything for attention," the wizard said, shaking his head.

The witch nodded in agreement, her expression one of disdain. "He's just an attention seeker. Always has been. He knew that he'd outgrow being the boy who lived one day and he's been trying to stay relevant. It's getting pathetic."

Harry felt a cold chill run down his spine. Harry Potter lying about Voldemort's return? That didn't make sense. Neville Longbottom was the boy who lived, not Harry. And since when was Voldemort back?

He prayed he was wrong with his deduction. He had to be wrong. He stood up and walked over to the table with the newspapers. Picking one up, he quickly scanned the front page. The headline caught his eye: "Harry Potter Acquitted: Charges of Breaking Statute of Secrecy and Underage Magic Dropped on Technicality."

Harry's breath caught in his throat. The date at the top of the page read 10th August 1995.

He didn't want to believe it, but the evidence was irrefutable. He eliminated everything else. He tried to find out if he was trapped in an elaborate illusion, tried to think that he was just hallucinating, that everything was in his head. Only to come up with nothing.

What really sealed the deal was the state of this universe's Ambient Magic.

It was different and it showed. In Harry's world, magic held scars, for the lack of a better term. The world itself had seen countless battles between the Light and the Dark and that left a trace, something that he just couldn't find with his Arcane Hearing.

Magic was just different, more natural. There were no artificial sources of Light or Darkness anywhere, no traces of their involvement at all. It was like having a constant thrum always at the back of his mind, suddenly being gone. Its absence was just so distracting, especially when he finally noticed it.

Well fuck. How the hell was he supposed to get back now?

There were barely any mentions of alternate dimensions, let alone parallel universes in his home, and he suspected he would find nothing to help here as well. The only way out of this mess was to figure out how to do it himself. That was easy. All he had to do was discover a new form of magic, one that was probably stronger than anything he had ever come up with, and he had to do that with barely any resources at his disposal.

Harry always liked a challenge but that took the cake.

Well, it wouldn't do to wallow in self-pity for no reason. He needed to quickly figure things out, and he would start by understanding what kind of world he was in. There should be a bookstore nearby, and recent issues of the Daily Prophet should be available there.

When Rosmerta interrupted his thoughts once more, he already had the start of a plan in his head, "So, how was the food."

"I liked it. I think I'm going to stay here a bit. Do you have any available rooms?"

That seemed to be the right thing to say as the woman's smile grew even wider. Minutes later, they had agreed on a price and Harry finally had a room and a bed for the near future, until he could figure out more about what happened, of course.

The next few days were relatively tame, all things considered. It was simply him just waking up in the Three Broomsticks, going to the bookstore and learning more about the world he was in. It hadn't taken too long to figure out that he was in the world from the stories, the ones he had read in his past life.

Things had gone pretty much the same way. Quirrell had 'disappeared under mysterious circumstances' in 1992, and there was a series of petrifications in 1993, which ended with Lockhart accidentally erasing his own memories. Sirius Black had escaped that year as well, and dementors had come to Hogwarts. The former prisoner had escaped capture once more at Hogwarts in 1994, which was followed by the Quidditch World Cup final being attacked by Death Eaters and the Dark Mark being conjured, then the Tri-Wizard tournament, which ended in Cedric Diggory's death and Harry Potter loudly proclaiming that Lord Voldemort was back.

It was exactly like the stories, down to every minute detail. At least, that gave him a pretty big advantage on how to handle himself. There were also a few differences in magic. They were less robust. In Harry's world, spell crafters needed to compensate for the traces of the Light and Dark all over the world, and so, had made spells slightly more controlled and ordered.

The absence of Light and Dark scarring in this universe's magic meant that a few spells and potions crafted in this universe were simply different. It didn't need to be more robust and so, it made up for it with either efficiency or just more varied effects. It was noteworthy, but hardly the end of the world.

He had already come up with the blueprints of a plan to get home. A broken prophecy had brought him to this place, and so, it was only logical that another one would bring him back. Luckily for him, he already knew of a true prophecy that he could manipulate.

But first, he needed resources and a place to prepare. And he could achieve that through Hogwarts. It gave him access to everything he would need for his research as well as critical elements of the prophecy.

It was funny, really. It all came down to this damned castle. As much as he saw this place as a second home, Harry had some of his worst memories in this place. Albus Dumbledore's attention in his place of power would have made anyone uncomfortable. Hopefully, while being under the radar, his experience would be pretty different.

Harry sat down and started drafting a letter to Professor McGonagall. He explained that he had been homeschooled in magic by his mother, who had recently passed away. He needed to get his OWLs to obtain a permit to cast magic without breaking the Statute of Secrecy. It was a plausible story, and he hoped it would be enough to get him into Hogwarts without raising too many questions.

After sending the letter, Harry spent the next few days waiting for a response. He was a bit anxious; he had backup plans, of course, but he needed the knowledge in the castle and to be close to his counterpart in this world to manipulate the prophecy to his ends.

He stayed at the inn, trying to learn as much as he could about this new world while keeping a low profile. It was strange and disconcerting, but he couldn't afford to let his guard down.

To his relief, a letter from McGonagall arrived quickly. She had agreed to meet him at the Three Broomsticks to discuss his situation. He was to wait for her there in a couple of days.

This brought him to this situation, with him sitting at a table in the inn, and the transfiguration mistress looking at him with a neutral look on her face. She spoke up with a severe tone, "Harrold Smith?"

Harry nodded, "That's me. You must be Professor McGonagall."

She gave him a small and brief smile in return, "Good. Let's get right to business, Mr. Smith. Your situation is quite unusual and there is much that we need to do before confirming your enrolment in Hogwarts."

Great; it seemed like he had his foot in the door and McGonagall was seriously considering his admission. Now, he only needed to smooth talk her into doing so, without putting her off with his frankly, pathetic social skills.

Yeah, he had this in the bag.

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AN: I'll be completely honest, this chapter was pretty uneventful and it's for a reason. I wanted it to be an introduction to this little arc and considering what happened in the previous few chapters and how fast-paced they were, I thought I'd slow things down a bit while testing what you think of where things are headed in the next few chapters.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to give Harry trying to deal with Canon for a little while, but I don't know if you guys will like the idea or not. Just to reassure you, this arc will be relatively on the small side. So, we should be back to the original dimension soon.

As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any recommendations for this arc.

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.