Onward!

Thunder rumbled overhead, rolling through the stormy sky like the growl of some great unseen beast. A brilliant flash of lightning split the darkness, briefly illuminating the vast, empty landscape around Harry. The rain only seemed to fall harder, drenching him once more.

Hedwig—or whatever she was now—shook herself off, sending droplets flying from her soft, round feathers. She gave a soft hoot and nuzzled against his cheek, as if to say, Well? What now?

Harry sighed, pulling his soaked jacket tighter around himself. "Yeah, I know," he muttered. "We need to get out of this rain."

He turned in a slow circle, searching for any kind of shelter, but there was nothing. Just an endless dirt path, grassy fields, and the occasional distant shadow of trees swaying violently in the wind.

No buildings. No roads. No signs.

A deep, sinking feeling settled in his stomach. Where in Merlin's name was he?

For a wild moment, he considered Apparating—but to where? He had no idea where he was, and blind Apparition was a quick way to get himself splinched.

His hand clenched around his wand, but no spell came to mind that could help with this. He didn't even have a way to summon the Knight Bus again, not that he wanted to risk getting flattened by it a second time.

Hedwig let out a questioning hoot, shifting on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I know I should do something," he muttered as he put his wand away. "But unless you've got a map hidden under all those feathers, I'm—"

He stopped mid-sentence, his hand brushing against something strange in his pocket.

Frowning, Harry reached in and pulled out the orange brick-like device he'd found earlier.

"What is this thing?" he wondered.

It was sleek but oddly bulky, and it flipped open like a book. The closest thing he'd ever seen to it was Dudley's old Game Boy that he'd got punched for touching.

Harry flipped it open. Inside, a large screen took up most of the left side, with buttons below it. On the right side was a smaller screen with more buttons, far too many for something meant to be simple. The screen immediately lit up, glowing faintly even in the storm. A soft chime sounded, followed by the image of a small, pixelated face—an old man with white hair wearing a lab coat.

"Hello there!" the voice crackled from the device. "Welcome to the world of Pokémon!"

Harry stared, rain dripping from his fringe. "...What?"

"My name is Oak! People call me the Pokémon Professor!"

The strange digital man continued speaking, as though reading from a script. The words appeared at the bottom of the screen in blocky text, matching his voice.

"This world is inhabited by creatures called Pokémon! For some people, Pokémon are pets. Others use them for battle. As for me… I study Pokémon as a profession!"

The professor paused, smiling kindly, as if waiting for some kind of response. Harry, still soaking in the rain, was too dumbfounded to react.

"But first, tell me about yourself! Are you a boy or a girl?"

Harry nearly dropped the device. Was this thing serious?

"Uh… boy?" he muttered.

The moment he said it, the screen blinked and new text appeared.

"Great! And what is your name?"

Harry blinked at the question, still shivering in the downpour. Was this thing asking him to introduce himself? It was just a screen—how was it talking? And how did it know he was here?

"This is mad," Harry said, shaking his head. "How do I even—"

He hesitated, then pressed one of the round buttons at random. Nothing happened. He tried another. The screen flashed, and suddenly, a tiny blinking cursor appeared next to the word: NAME

A keypad appeared beneath it, filled with letters.

Harry scowled. "Brilliant. A talking Muggle contraption that wants me to spell out my name."

Still, he had no other options. He wasn't at Grimmauld Place anymore. He wasn't even in London. Right now, the only thing offering him any kind of explanation was this strange device. If it had a map, maybe he could at least figure out where he was.

Slowly, Harry pressed the buttons, one by one.

H… A… R… R… Y P… O… T… T… E… R

When he finished, the screen flashed again showing large YES and NO icons.

"Ah! So your name is Harry Potter?"

He rolled his eyes as he tapped the YES icon. "Yeah, that's what I just typed, isn't it?"

"Harry! Your very own Pokémon adventure is about to unfold!"

"Wait, my what?"

"A world of dreams and adventures with Pokémon awaits! Let's go!"

Before Harry could protest, the screen glowed brightly, and the device let out a series of beeps. Then, to his relief, the professor's face disappeared—replaced by a simple map.

It showed a small digital layout of his surroundings, much like the enchanted Marauder's Map, only simpler. A blinking dot marked his location.

At the top of the screen, in blocky letters, were the words:

ROUTE 1 – HEADING TO VIRIDIAN CITY

Harry frowned. Viridian City? That wasn't anywhere in Britain or anywhere he had ever heard of.

He sighed. "Brilliant. I really am in the middle of bloody nowhere."

Hedwig—or whatever she was now—tilted her head and hooted softly on his shoulder. She didn't seem particularly worried, and that reassured him slightly.

He glanced back toward the direction where the boy with the yellow creature had disappeared. Viridian City—whatever that was—sounded like a place where people actually lived. If that kid was heading there, maybe he should follow.

Harry snapped the orange brick shut, its screen going dark with a faint click. Whatever this thing was, it had no answers he actually needed. He didn't know what a Pokémon was, but he did know he wasn't going to get anywhere standing in the middle of nowhere, talking to a machine.

The only real lead he had was the boy on the bike. He was heading somewhere—Viridian City, according to the map—so that was as good a direction as any.

Harry set off down the muddy road, his shoes squelching with every step. Hedwig remained perched on his shoulder, her feathers fluffed against the cold rain, but she seemed content, as if she belonged here more than he did.

As he walked, the storm slowly began to break. The harsh winds died down, the relentless rain softened, and before long, the dark clouds overhead started to thin and scatter. A streak of golden light broke through, warm and soft against his damp skin.

Harry glanced up, blinking as the last drops of rain fell, catching the sunlight in a shimmer. A rainbow stretched across the sky, its colors vivid against the retreating storm clouds.

Then, out of the fading mist, something moved.

A brilliant, golden shape emerged from the clouds, its massive wings shimmering like liquid fire. The creature was unlike anything Harry had ever seen—majestic and otherworldly, with golden, red, and yellow feathers that seemed to change and dance in the sunlight, creating an otherworldly glow. Its long tail feathers trailed behind it as it soared, leaving behind two rainbows trailing its wings like stardust across the sky.

Harry was completely mesmerized. It was too big to be a Hippogriff, too graceful to be a dragon, and too radiant to be anything ordinary. For a fleeting second, he thought of Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix.

Harry reached for the orange device again. If it could talk and display maps, maybe it could take pictures. There was something like the bulb on Colin Creevey's camera on the back.

He flipped it open, raising it like a camera, positioning the strange creature in the center of the screen. The moment the golden bird was in the lens, the device gave a sharp beep. The voice from before crackled to life:

"No available data. This Pokémon is unknown."

Harry's brow furrowed. "No data?" he repeated. "So this thing identifies creatures?"

That… actually seemed useful.

He kept pressing buttons until he found the right one.

Click!

Click!

Click!

Harry managed to snap a few photos before Ho-Oh vanished into the horizon, taking its rainbow trails with it.

Once the beautiful creature was out of sight, he turned the orange brick toward Hedwig, who had been watching the sky just as intently as he had.

The screen flashed, and then the voice spoke again, this time with certainty.

"Hoothoot, the Owl Pokémon. Hoothoot always stands on one foot. It has an internal organ that senses the earth's rotation, allowing it to keep time precisely."

Harry frowned. "Hoothoot?"

He looked at Hedwig. She simply tilted her head in that familiar, knowing way she always had, as if waiting for him to catch up.

Harry flipped the device shut again. So, Hedwig was something called a Hoothoot?

The name was kind of silly. Was it because it looked like an owl? Or did Hoothoot make the same hooting noise an owl made?

Did this world even have normal owls?

Harry sighed. He had so many questions.

But first, he had to get to Viridian City.