Chapter 18: First Forays in Exploration

It'd taken another month and a half after he'd had his realisation, but finally, finally, Harry was out of New York and beginning to explore North America.

Deciding who to leave in charge of the Den, though, hadn't been easy. His senior employee, the one he'd had the longest, was still a school girl. But the fact that it was the school holidays was a bonus and after a long talk with Gwen's parents, it was decided that she could handle the responsibility, so, here he was.

And once Harry'd known that he was going, the really tough decisions then had to be made – deciding where to go. Mexico was a possibility, from what he'd heard, it did have some sweet Aztec relics and magical hotspots. Canada, too, drew his eye. But in the end, he decided to stick with the United States, threw a dart at a map and ended up in Los Angeles. It didn't hurt that they had one of the larger magical districts in the country.

At first, Harry had stayed strictly muggle and done the tourist thing. He'd jumped on a sight-seeing bus and spent the day hopping off and on at anything that caught his eye. Two days had been spent exploring and enjoy the rides at Universal Studios and he'd even apparated up to see the famous 'Hollywood' sign.

Now, though, he wanted to explore the magical district, thus why he was wandering around the Old Plaza.

From the magical guide book about Los Angeles that he'd owl ordered, he knew that the entrance to city's largest magical shopping district was around here somewhere. All he had to do was find the right 'tree'. Just like back home, and indeed the world over, witches and wizards were adept at keeping the entrances to their magical places, districts and sights hidden from muggles. And after five years of wandering the world finding them, Harry felt that he was becoming quite good at it.

This one, though, was proving to be tricky. The guide-book said that it was glamoured to look like a tree unless you were within a radius of about twelve feet. The Old Plaza, though had hundreds of trees, all artfully placed to blend in with the dozens of statues and plaques.

A slight flicker of something to his left, only caught out of the corner of his eye, had Harry veering sharply off in that direction before a smile blossomed on his face. The trunk of the giant tree twisted upon itself, split in two and spread apart to form an arch, capable of allowing entry to someone even Hagrid's size.

Knowing that a muggle-repelling field also extended around this spot meant that Harry didn't even have to worry about anyone seeing him disappear – as soon as he was close enough to the tree, anyone watching him would instantly lose interest.

As the guidebook had instructed, once in the very middle of the arch formed by the tree's trunk, Harry gave a tap to each side with his wand and waited.

He lurched slightly as the ground under him began sinking before he righted himself, remembering a similar time, many years ago, when there were six of them descending into the bowls of the Ministry of Magic in London in a similar fashion.

The sight that opened before his eyes as the ground disappeared above him had Harry's eyes widening and his jaw dropping in awe.

Where Diagon Alley felt closed in and old and grimy, this was the complete opposite, despite being underground. A vaulted arch rose dozens of metres high with a ceiling enchanted the same as was in the Great Hall of Hogwarts – today, it was showing a clear blue sky with just the hint of wisps of clouds floating about.

The walkway was wide enough to allow small stalls to be set up in the very middle and still allow shoppers to walk a dozen or more abreast. And the fact that the floor was made of immaculate white marble with hints of pink and grey running through it told Harry that the witches and wizards of Los Angeles took great pride and care of their district.

As had become habit after that disastrous experience in Cairo, Harry took a careful look around him to get his bearings – not knowing the way back out was never a good feeling – before he then set off in a random direction.

The shops here seemed to be the same as the ones the world over, there just seemed to be more of them and the quality of their merchandise appeared to be much higher. There were dozens of clothing stores, catering to both magical and muggle attire; pet stores; apothecaries; places to buy magical aids like wands and staffs and other magic foci; dozens of shops filled with trinkets of all manner; and bookstores.

It was these that caused Harry's smile to broaden on his face. While he knew that he'd wander through almost every shop here, he always made it a point to visit the bookstores first. Back at Hogwarts, he'd never been particularly studious, but that didn't mean that he didn't enjoy learning. And as his travels had progressed, he'd discovered that he enjoyed learning new magic from different peoples and cultures. Getting one of the locals to teach him some of their spells and enchantments hadn't been particularly easy, but if he could teach himself, well, then it didn't matter if he didn't get it straight away, he wasn't wasting anyone else's time but his own. Books gave him the opportunity to learn at his own pace and he was quite proud of the collection that he'd put together.

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