Harry noted there was a brief announcement that Iris Potter and Hermione Granger had won awards for "Services to the School" at the end of the year. Along with that, on the back page of the paper, in a notification so small he had to squint to see the words, was a notification that "persons of interest had been released from Azkaban when no proof of wrongdoing could be found." Harry was absolutely certain they were talking about Hagrid.
And of course in the Wizarding world it seemed to be guilty until proven innocent… unless you had money for campaign donations. Then it was innocent until… and after… you were proven guilty.
Once again his anger rose. He remembered being in Hagrid's shack under the invisibility cloak when Cornelius had arrived to arrest Hagrid on his world. His statement that "The Ministry must be seen doing something!" still rankled Harry to this day.
Harry had continued to go through the papers and noted that there was an escapee from Azkaban that summer. Only this escapee wasn't Sirius, it was Bellatrix Lestrange. After seeing the wanted posted he was less than surprised. He saw that no dementors were stationed around Hogwarts or Hogsmeade by order of the Ministry.
He wondered why that was. Perhaps the Cornelius Fudge of this world wasn't as stupid as his counterpart? Unfortunately, events didn't seem to bear that out. Maybe someone had managed to convince him of the stupidity and insanity of that course of action.
He had read that several times Bellatrix Lestrange had attempted to gain access to Hogwarts. But she'd been foiled each time.
Harry saw that the last time she had attempted entry, the paper claimed she had attacked Professor Severus Snape and they had injured each other in a duel, but that Snape had ultimately driven her off. Harry wasn't certain what to make of that, he wondered whether it was similar misinformation to his world. Where Snape had claimed to have beaten Sirius and Fudge had ignored Hermione, Ron and himself when they claimed Sirius' innocence. The Minister had claimed they were probably confounded by a spell. He wondered if this was more ministry propaganda or if the duel had really happened.
Harry sat there, for once completely at a loss. He was uncertain about what to do going forward. He idly entertained the thought of just showing up and trying to talk to his family. But he quickly discarded that thought. He had no idea where to begin that sort of conversation. Hell he couldn't get past the introduction. He wasn't even truly certain what his parents' voices sounded like. How was he going to manage a conversation with them?
Harry frowned then as he was suddenly struck by a major concern. He had followed Voldemort through the Mirror and ended up here. If Harry had ended up here… was Voldemort from his world here too? That thought had him sitting bolt upright. The idea that there might be TWO Voldemorts here, with one of them at full power and no one but him the wiser.
At the same time it was possible that Voldemort hadn't ended up here either. He didn't know enough about what happened. But Harry resolved to start trying to figure out those things right away.
An idle thought began to percolate in Harry's mind. If events in this world were happening so similarly to the ones in his world, what was to stop him from interfering in what might happen?
If this was all some bizarre hallucination or spell he was under then he couldn't hurt anything. If this wasn't… and this was real… then he should start trying to take steps immediately.
A slow and slightly malicious grin began to sweep across his face. The first true smile that he'd had in so long he couldn't remember. Today was the day of the Quidditch World Cup. He remembered how the events of this night played out in what he was coming to think of as "his world."
It would be a test of sorts. If events played out similar to what he remembered, Harry would be there to see and maybe to interfere. If not, well then he'd be just a cloaked face in a crowd.
Taking that thought to its conclusion, Harry wondered if there were other things he could do, other knowledge he possessed that might be of use. Harry narrowed his eyes. Several things occurred to him in that moment, ways to prevent other events from happening in this world. This would also help him figure out just how similar things were in this world.
Harry stood up decisively, gathering up the notes he'd made of events that happened and pushing the parchment into his robes. He was moving with purpose again, though he made sure to fold the paper up and put it back in its appropriate place before walking out of the paper archives without a word to the lady who watched him leave.
As soon as he was out of the building, he put up his hood, and with a crack, disapparated towards his destination. He had an appointment to make tonight, but Harry wanted to make one side trip first, before he ventured to the site of the Quidditch World Cup.
It had been well past sundown when Harry had apparated to the site of the Quidditch World Cup. Unfortunately he had forgotten one major fact. He couldn't arrive directly there. He had tried and had been repelled by the massive anti-apparition wards that had been set up. The anti-apparition ward had bounced him into a field over two miles from the stadium.
When he got up and dusted himself off he realized that it was intelligent to have wards for that, otherwise anyone could apparate in, and that was not only dangerous but had the potential to cause mass chaos.
Harry knew he could get in around the wards one of two ways. The first way that he was less certain would work, would be to massively overpower his apparition and smash through the wards. But Harry was sure that would not only set off every alarm the event organizers had, but that it would probably also destroy the wards themselves.
Not to mention it would also announce to the world where he arrived. The problem with that approach was that it pitted the power of the caster against the power of the wards. And if the wards came out on top the caster could find himself bounced halfway around the world if he was lucky, or blasted halfway around the world AND splinched if one was unlucky.