Who: Harry Potter and Laura(X-23) Where: Out and about in the city What: Harry explores the city and meets someone... When: Two days after his arrival Rating/Warnings: PG-13 , mentions of being an orphan, violence Status Complete
Harry was a bit overwhelmed. Having woken in the apartment with breakfast ready and his clothing miraculously clean made for a nervous start. Not to mention all the people responding to his post. It freaked him out, really. He had never been the subject of so much attention, except when being sorted at Hogwarts. He had never really been great around people, since most looked down at him for being an orphan or for being poor. And discovering his secret fame, well, that didn't help any. Now he felt awkward around people for the opposite reason. Now he felt like people were too interested, too nice. It was all confusing.
He shivered as he walked, tugging his coat close. Having spent the previous day inside, resting and reading, and that night sleeping, today he had decided to go out and about, looking for things to do. He had discovered several new books in his new place, and even one that talked about something called the will and the word, and sounded interesting! He stuffed it into the backpack he found sitting on his shelf this morning. In with it went a sandwich he had made, and his robes in case it had gotten cold, and a candle and some matches he had found while exploring the place. He had fed Hedwig, and let her loose, then started out.
The place seemed very strange, and he wanted to get a better look at it. Maybe that would distract him from people. Maybe. Anyway, he had wandered for a bit when he discovered himself at the large stone tower the one woman had warned him about. It seemed foreboding, but not evil or terrible. He had no desire to be cursed, however, and he didn't know how to stop such things, so he just stared for a little while, then wandered onward.
He'd seen people a ways off, but today, well, he was feeling a little skittish, and so he kept his distance, trying to keep out of sight. He kept walking, slowly getting tired, and realizing he had no idea where he was, again. He had been lost in thinking about his parents again, as he rounded a street corner and saw the spire from far off. Farther than where his apartment was, anyway. He sighed. Sometimes, he was a little too silly for his own good. Looking around, he saw several buildings, including one that appeared to be a small grocery store, though it appeared to be dusty and long abandoned, with books everywhere. Still, he ventured inside. Despite the abandoned look, this place had power, unlike most of the buildings he had found.
Most of the shelves were empty of anything but books, and despite himself, he ended up adding two more books to the things in his pack. Eventually he found a freezer door that was behind some shelves. Expecting them to be too heavy to move, he flopped against one, and then shrieked as it rolled away easily. Behind it, the freezer door stood, the lock on its door unlocked. He squinted at it, looked around, then back at it, his mind suspecting a trap. Maybe someone was lurking? But no one appeared, and he slowly relaxed, and his hungry stomach growled.
With trembling hands, he removed the lock and then pulled the door open, and gaped at what he saw. There was frozen food there, completely preserved, Steaks and hams, and chickens and... he shook his head and forced himself to think, then selected a small pre-sliced ham quarter, and some vegetables, as well as a frozen pie. Taking them out and now shivering, he hunted for some place to prepare them finally finding what looked like some sort of staff only room, one which had a large microwave. Soon he was sitting, and his mouth was watering as he watched the ham and veggies cook.
As he did so, he turned his head, and blinked as he spotted his name on several books to one side, all of them worn as if read a lot. Blinking, he heaved himself up and made his way over. His mouth gaped as he stared at the seven books, and read their titles. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, were their names. With trembling hands, he took the books back to his table, and almost jumped when the microwave dinged. With a stumble, he went to the microwave, got out his food, and went back to the table. With careful hands, still trembling, he opened the first book, even as one hand gripped a slice of ham and brought it to his mouth as he started to read.
It was only when he found his hands closing a book firmly, having finished it, that he felt cold. Harry looked up from the book he was reading, his mind reeling in shock, and his face pale. Glancing out a window, he realized it was now dark, and he had to have been there for hours. He looked down at the stack of books, and at his empty plate and realized he had finished the first two entirely, and that the other five were sitting there and mocking him, almost, or seeming to do so. Harry swallowed on a dry throat, and shivered a little, for it had grown a little colder in the quiet grocery store. He glanced down at the books he had finished, remembering the scene in the Chamber, and the malice that had seemed to drip out of the pages. He stared at the other five books and shuddered yet again. If they were like these two, then he was doomed to spend the seven years of his time at Hogwarts being chased, beaten, attacked, and cursed by evil wizards, monsters, and well-meaning friends. What. The. Ever. Living. Hell?
Harry's mind could not really grasp what he had read, not yet, and realizing he needed to go home, for he was very tired, and not thinking of the warnings he had been given about going out at night, he slipped the seven books into the backpack he had found, along with the smaller pack he had been carrying, and put it carefully over his shoulders. It was heavy and he staggered for a moment. What was his life, anyway? With trudging steps he made his way out of the store and headed toward the spire, the only landmark he could see from here that would point him toward his apartment.
Could these books be right? Could this be his future? The parts in the first book that were of his life up to his arrival at Hogwarts had been utterly accurate. So . . . was he to assume that he had to fight wizards, and trolls, and giant three headed dogs, and living chess sets of all things? What sort of life was that? That he was somehow empowered and made to be the target of a mad wizard was bad enough, but that Hogwarts, which before he had arrived here had seemed to be the best of all places ever, turned into a place where his life was attacked over and over, seemed to him to be the height of cruelty! What was he supposed to do? Be a hero? He had dreamed, sometimes, when he dared, of being a hero, but he had also often shied away, for the casual cruelty of the Dursleys had shown him that heroes rarely win, or proper. Bad people prospered.
And yet somehow he was supposed to defeat bad guys! And monsters! What?? he felt anger and fear and pain boil up in him as shock burned away before them. It filled him and shook him.
He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't hear the approach, or feel the night air grow colder. When he finally heard something, or felt it, he glanced up, and by then it was far too late to not see them right before him. Three tall black shapes, flowing in the wind, and undulating with unseen magic. Ghosts! As he staggered backward, he felt something tug at him, and sorrow, fear, and worry seemed to surge in him. An image of the Dursleys and of the sorrow on Hagrid's face as he talked about Harry's parents flooded his mind and he stumbled, seeing that in his mind's eye. His parents death, newly rediscovered, was a sore point, and it struck him again. Everything, every little thing, seemed to be throwing that in his face these days, and he just was... he was so tired of it!
On top of everything else, this was too much, and anger boiled up higher. The rage broke something inside him and flooded out, even as he looked up at the things before him with wide eyes. "No! No more, no more, no more, No!!!" And something, he was not sure what, erupted from him and slammed into the things, something that felt like an emptying of his whole self. "Leave me alone!" The force seemed to hit the things, and shake them. The robed things shuddered, flailed, and then fled.
With a groan, Harry felt the last of his anger, and his pain, and his sorrow, flood out of him, and then, with that sudden loss, that feeling of emptiness, he fell, unconscious before his head hit the ground.