The first thing Harry noticed, as he awoke, was the oppressive feeling to the air around him. No, more than that; the very existence around him had this feeling about it.
With a groan, he managed to push open his eyes, which was a good thing, really; poised to strike, right next to where he was lying on the ground was a green snake, its hide adorned in alternating red and yellow rings. Out of an instinct more than any conscious decision, he simply reacted.
"Stop!" Harry ordered the snake, hearing the hissing sound he had come to associate with parseltongue. Unexpectedly, the snake did indeed stop.
"Right, at least that worked," he muttered, before adding in parseltongue, "Where am I?"
The snake just stared at him for a few moments, probably completely stumped by the fact that it had a human talking to it. "Nest," it finally hissed back, making him think that the snakes he had met and talked with might just have been more of an anomaly, rather than the rule as far as intelligence and self-awareness went.
After clearing his head with another hearty shake of the very same body part, at least as far as that was possible, he started taking stock of his surroundings. Harry could only describe the environment as a lush jungle, the moist air feeling thick enough to be cut with a knife, and not a sharp one at that, while the noise that permeated everything was both alien and beautiful, even in a rather deadly way. With that done, he turned his gaze inwards, so to speak, to take stock of himself; no wand, so that was a bad start. While he had no idea how he had landed here, wherever that was, he had full knowledge of what had happened… in between.
A heavy groan on his lips, Harry rifled through his brain for the bits of wandless magic he had learned, watched and, in a weird sense, experienced. It took him dozens of failed tries, in which he was pushing as hard as he could on his magic, trying to will it outward. After the 37th try, he finally managed to make a small indentation into the ground. It was nothing much, but it was a start.
It took until the sun was already dangerously close to the horizon, for him to finally complete his 'project': a small ditch in the terrain, around which rose walls of compacted dirt. He just about managed to cast some of Hermione's signature blue flames and order the snake to guard him, before he collapsed on the raised slab of stone, he half-heartedly called a bed before he fell into a deep sleep.
OOOOOOOO
There were more images flittering along in front of his eyes now; nothing coherent, or in any way comprehensible, but somehow, they were still feeling comfortable. They gave off a feeling of contentedness and belonging he rarely felt around anyone other than Hermione, maybe the Burrow.
Harry awoke to the cacophony of the thick forest, still smothering the area in its oppressive blanket of sound. Next to the still dancing flames of the fire, the snake had rolled up and was dutifully watching the entrance for any other predators, or whatever else might be a danger. With the creak of protesting joints, the dark, if rather unruly-haired man got up and once again tried to get an honest impression of his situation; it was bleak, to say the least. He had nothing to eat, no idea where he was, or even when, did not even have a wand, though the wandless transfiguration of the previous day had been a good start, and only the clothes on his back. It went without saying that, after the battle at Hogwarts, they were rather filthy and threadbare.
Despite all of this, he felt strangely at peace; he had, after all, seen himself and his friends live out their lives, and they had been happy, for the most part. Harry did not really have it in himself to question what he had seen; the weirdest things always did happen to him, so why not something like this as well.
Whatever this was.
A tired groan on his lips, he had slept on a stone slab after all, Harry stepped in front of his small shelter, the definitely poisonous snake on his heels. That gave him an idea.
"You hungry?" he hissed at the small reptile. It was only fair to include it, after being guarded by the creature all night. The snake nodded eagerly, before quickly slithering off on the direction of some of the smaller trees. Harry, for his part, decided he might as well follow his 'local guide'.
The destination of their short trek turned out to be a grouping of undergrowth, even denser than the surrounding woods and shrubs. From between the leaves, Harry could just make out the sound of small feet on the loose earth. Following an insane urge, fuelled by one of the things he had witnessed during what he now decided to call the Scattering, because, why not, he clearly enunciated, "Avada Kedavra!"
There was none of the malice behind the spell that people usually associated with it, just a deep wish for it to be over quickly for the unfortunate animals that would end up filling the gnawing hole in his stomach.
"Will you eat what I have killed?" he suddenly asked his companion that had now coiled up his leg. Again, the violently coloured snake nodded, and Harry spoke the incantation another two times, before he summoned the carcasses out of the undergrowth. They looked like small rodents, now that he could finally clearly see them. The clearly panicky sounds from the other members of their herd unnerved him to no end. He supposed he would be unnerved as well, had a mysterious predator just killed three of his kin and somehow floated them away.
With at least a bit of supplies now available to him, the displaced wizard returned to his campsite, where he began the unfortunate duty of preparing the animals for a meal. He supposed they might have been poisonous, although he did not really think so; still, being poisoned was infinitely more preferable to slowly starving to death, he decided. It was bloody, disgusting work, although not something Harry had never done before during their year-long exile and hunt for the horcruxes. He made liberal use of cutting and cleaning charms, each of them taking dozens of times to make work without his wand, and they were not even that strong. Thankfully, having witnessed hundreds of different wands being made and wand-lore being crafted, he had the knowledge to make one, even if he was certain it would take him a few tries to get the actual physical aspect right.
A snort escaped his lips; he did not even know whether there were any suitable trees and cores around. Still, even the most barebones focus would be a step up.
His musings were interrupted by a high whining; above the jungle, he could just about make out three weirdly formed flying objects coming down from the higher levels of the atmosphere. Even with his limited knowledge, they should not be able to fly, but instead be dropping like bricks. One of them even looked like a concrete brick with three wings attached in the form of a three-pronged star. The other two were just balls, attached to two vertical surfaces that were definitely oriented the wrong way to be providing any amount of lift. It was a sign of civilisation, as much was sure. Still, with their definitely unearthly appearance, and also just in general, these things gave Harry a bad feeling.
"Huh, unearthly," he mused somewhat dispassionately. "That would be weird, even for me."
It was a worthy thought, although he also would not put it past the yankees to cook up something weird like this in one of their secret black projects. The Communists might not be around, anymore, but there was just too much money involved to just drop the whole military-industrial-complex out of the window. At least that was what some of the knowledge he had picked up told him.
With the three animals he had caught finally prepared, he cut one up and fed it to the snake, piece by piece, while the other ones were slowly cooking over the blue flames, held up by a levitation charm that had, once again, taken an obscene amount of time and effort to cast.
OOOOOOOO
Another good, long look at his surroundings had told Harry how incredibly exposed he was. Well, maybe exposed was the wrong word. After all, he was surrounded by a dense, green forest. Nonetheless, it would be dangerous, staying where he could not see anyone or anything approaching. His new reptilian companion was the only proof he needed for that.
Therefore, he had spent the rest of the day fighting his way through the jungle toward a rather sparse hill he had made out in the distance. What he had first though would take only an hour, two at the worst, turned out to be five. It was not the distance itself that made the endeavour extremely annoying, but the thickness of the shrubbery on the ground. It meant he rarely had a straight path toward his target. Still, he managed to reach the peak of the surprisingly large outcropping when the sun over his head was already starting to redden the world around him. Tired, both mentally and physically, he conjured more of the blue flames, and erected a slightly more elaborate shelter than he had before. His wandless magic was getting better, and while he hoped he would have the opportunity to craft himself a wand, or better yet buy one from somewhere, it would tide him over.
Blue flames dancing at his feet, he sat in front of the earthen shelter and took stock of his surroundings, once again. That was the moment he did a double take.
"So, definitely not earth," he thought, although it did not do much to surprise him, really. On the horizon, opposite the setting sun, two moons were visible, a giant, and a small one, silently rising above the surface. Strangely untroubled, Harry managed to get himself onto the new slab of stone parodying a bed, and promptly fell asleep, troubled again by chaotic visions.
OOOOOOOO
The warm rays of the rising sun were what woke him up the next day. With a wave of his hand, Harry extinguished the blue flames still flickering in the small indentation on the ground, while the serpent again coiled its way up his leg. However, this time it went even higher, draping itself around his shoulders and left arm.
In the clear light of the morning, Harry could make out that he was indeed at the very edge of an enormous mass of trees, stretching beyond his visual range to the south, or what he assumed would be south on Earth, given the way the sun moved along the sky. To the east, he could see a few rivers ending in one large delta, finally spewing murky water into the sea just about visible on the horizon. And there, on the edge of one of these rivers, smoke was rising from what looked like a village. That find did not elicit the feeling of elation he had expected, though. He had no mind to meet anyone at the moment, be they alien or human. And if he died on this planet, so what.
He had seen himself live his life and was certain these Harrys were just as real as he was. That was after already having accepted death once before.
No, compared to the inhospitable jungle to the south, and the uninviting prospect of meeting people to the west, the grassland stretching out to north-eastward was infinitely more inviting. Having gotten a more reasonable idea of how long a trip through the dense forest would take, Harry estimated at least four hours until he reached the edge, and the grumbling in his stomach reminded him that taking on that hike unprepared and unnourished would be a bad idea.
Therefore, he repeated his actions of the previous day, while also gathering a few berries he magically deemed edible. He let himself be guided by some of the knowledge now imprinted in his mind from the things he had witnessed. Although now that he had time to process it, it was not really knowledge at all. It was more a perfectly recounted memory of acquiring that knowledge, somewhat like what he had heard about eidetic memory, the difference being that it included more than just visual information. Still, it was incredibly useful, nonetheless, and it told him to not simply throw away possibly valuable resources by just tossing out the hide and bones of the small animals he hunted. Conjuration and transfiguration could only get you so far.
And so, before he knew it, more than half the day had passed with hunting, skinning and eating. Unwilling as he was to do the trek to the edge of the forest too close to dark, Harry instead immersed himself in the recounting of the life and work of a wizard who had been running a tannery in medieval times. It seemed like a completely random person to witness, although the young wizard felt as if he had at least some kind of connection to the man. He watched and copied carefully, as the leatherworker used his magic to carefully dry the hides he had to work with, just like he himself was now doing. Before long, he had three patches of dried skin laid out before him, ready to be processed. As chance would have it, or probably simple convenience, the man's wife had been an avid user of her husband's product, often using what he made to fashion various accessories and useful things for the other villagers.
It was a crude thing, in the end, but Harry had managed to make a small bag from the hide of the rodent-like creatures, and he was rather pleased with himself, despite the copious amounts of wasted materials lying around him in tatters. To top it all off, he immersed himself in the mind of a rune-master that he somehow knew lived in a possible future of Earth, diligently following the man in his work to apply an extension and featherlight enchantment on the small box he was working with. The memories told him that the dried skin would not be the best material to hold and channel large amounts of magic, but he did not have much choice in the matter, really. Having finished up the etchings for the featherlight enchantment, he put down the crude stone he had used to carve the cuneiform script before another idea came to him, and he began rifling through the rune-master's memories for one other enchantment he wanted to put on this thing.
Another two hours later, his stomach was already growling again, and strongly so. He made short work of the remaining meat and berries, before he fell asleep again.
OOOOOOOO
The next morning, Harry woke up rather early, even before the sun had started shining into his shelter and prepared for the day by trying out some more wandless transfiguration, this time of his clothes. Soon, he was decked out in more appropriate attire, a pair of long tan pants and long-armed shirt, with a wide-brimmed hat to top it off. He did not waste a lot of time with food, that morning, quickly killing a few of the same animals and gathering some more of the berries. While sitting in front of the fire, he nibbled on a few of the red, sweet fruits, enjoying the fresh taste against the backdrop of an already hot day. With one of the animals in his stomach and the others safely contained in a stasis enchantment, the last one he had crafted the day before, he set off northward.
The snake slung around his shoulders was dutifully watching their surroundings for any possible danger, somewhat offsetting the definite feeling of danger permeating around the two of them, up until reaching the grasslands. That was when the feeling of danger became a certainty of danger.
Not far away enough by any stretch of imagination, there was a herd of huge beings, mostly brown in colour, with long, sharp claws and rather imposing teeth. Sized somewhere between a troll and a giant, they looked a bit like a disturbing cross between a grizzly bear and a potato.
Worst of all, they definitely knew he was there.
And why should they not be storming in his direction, after all; they were definitely armed and more than five times his size. Also, there were five of them. Still, going down without a fight was not something Harry Potter did, at least not if there was nothing to be gained from it.
He threw out all the offensively applicable magic he knew, up to and including the killing curse, but only one of the giant beasts fell, dead before it hit the ground. Harry dearly hoped that it had died from the acid green curse he had thrown last; at least that one killed painlessly. The other four however, were still barrelling down on him. All of them had cuts and scrapes from the cutters he had sent their way, but they had not been slowed down even a bit.
It was at that moment, that Harry let his short life, as well as the other ones he had observed, pass before his eyes with perfect clarity. There was too much to remember in an instant, but it turned out, he did not have to.
Without his immediate notice, the snake that had been slung around his shoulders had let itself fall down and, with surprising speed, slithered through the tall grass toward the tallest and meanest looking of the whole bunch. Without much consideration for its own safety, the serpent proceeded to bite deeply into the raw flesh uncovered by one of Harry's spells. The large predator wailed in agony, and immediately threw off the bothersome reptile, but the damage was already done as the obviously painful venom began to work its way through the large body. Highly motivated by their leader's pained wails, the remaining three beasts tucked tail and barrelled into the opposite direction of Harry and his companion.
Within minutes, the giant animal was on the ground, paralysed but obviously still in such agony, it did not bear watching. Again, feeling that overwhelming sense of sadness and mercy, Harry raised his hand in front of one of the wounds and cleanly intoned, "Avada Kedavra."
Without any more pain, the predator was dead, while the somewhat dazed-looking snake, if a that was even possible, had soon found its way back onto Harry's shoulders. Intensely doubtful that he would manage to store the huge carcasses in his bag, he simply fired off the strongest cooling charm he could manage without a wand, before erecting another simple shelter and falling asleep.
OOOOOOOO
He woke up to a number of weird noises: tearing, a kind of splatting. Worried about getting into another situation like the one the day before, he let his serpentine companion glide up his left arm, head close to the hand, so it would be able to strike quickly. He himself had a cutter on his tongue as he stepped out of the small hut, only to be faced with a large, bipedal reptile munching its way into the cadaver of the beast the snake had incapacitated.
The dinosaur-like creature had blue scales, a box-shaped head and small arms, barely usable given their size. In all, it was another thing that looked like a cross between two different things, only this time it was a mix between velociraptor and T. rex, only a lot smaller than the latter. Obviously having heard the human's approach, the reptile's head sped around, its bloodred eyes focussing on Harry; the last time he had seen eyes even remotely like this had been Tom Riddle, but in contrast to the dark sorcerer's bloodshot orbs, these looked somewhat natural. They definitely belonged in this being.
A deep rumbling erupted from the visitor as it turned to Harry, cautiously stepping closer. Despite the very prominent, dark teeth he raised his arm in an inviting gesture, and the large reptile pushed the top of its cobalt-blue head into the wizard's waiting hand, as if wanting to be petted. Unwilling to anger a being such as this, Harry complied and lightly petted the iridescent scales,
"Wicked," he commented his new friendship.
Over the following days, the saurian, as Harry had called the being, stuck around, piece by piece devouring the carcass of the potear (potato + bear=potear), but leaving the tough skin as intact as possible. The young wizard, meanwhile, spent his time with making as much use of the resources he had as he could. That meant skinning the two giant beasts and storing as much of the second one that the saurian was not eating in his bag. With the hide, he managed to make himself an actual backpack, complete with shoulder straps, and the needed room to actually store a good deal of stuff. Still, as cushy as it might have been, relatively speaking of course, Harry was aware it could not last.
His last fight with the potears had only ended the way it did due to extreme luck, something he was not willing to chance again. He had been relying on his luck for too long already. Therefore, five days after arriving at the edge of the forest, there was only one more thing for Harry to do: he wanted to make himself a wand. Following the fight with the herd of potears, he had speculated how exactly they had managed to not fall by the killing curse, intimately familiar as he was with the power this magic brought to bear. The only answer he could come up with was that these beings had magic themselves, or possibly something akin to it.
Arrayed before him were a slab of wood he had harvested from one of the smaller trees at the edge of the jungle and a muscle fibre from the heart of the larger of the two beasts. Unfortunately, he only had memories of a wand-crafter during the infancy of the art, who had not actually dealt in wands, but rather in larger staffs. Still, every little thing helped.
Harry carefully watched and learned as the master craftsman carefully formed hundreds of staffs for various clients, both young and old, with astounding clarity of vision and imagination. And as he followed what he had learned, the wood rose from the ground and seemed to liquefy, encasing the dried muscle in its midst. With all his power, just like he had learned, Harry pushed the image he had of his staff into every fibre of both his and the new staff's being, until he slumped down exhaustedly, but incredibly happy.
The dark, wooden staff went to around his shoulder, completely free of any kind of ornament but the phoenix sitting at the top. It was, in a way, a memorial to the broken wand with Fawkes' feather that he had left behind.
With an instinctive flourish, he brandished the staff; it was a good deal better than his wandless magic, as much was clear, but it could not hope to compete with his old wand, or even the one he had taken from Draco, or Hermione's. Even so, it allowed him to comfortably raise a bit of an addition to his small shelter.
Now, a door might be considered small comfort, and a roof for his new, reptile, blue friend was all he needed at that point.