Adrift
He felt strange tingling all over his body as well as kaleidoscope of colors behind his eyelids. Occasionally he would see flashes of the faces of the people he knew. Happy. Sad. Angry. Laughing. Crying. He heard people whispering, mumbling, and shouting but he couldn’t make out any words.There was a strange buzzing in his ears muffling everything as if he was underwater.
His body felt incredibly heavy and weightless at the same time. He felt a strange sense of detachment from everything around him and his senses and emotions were extremely dulled as if they were far away from him linked only by a small thread. He watched the memories of his life play in his mind like a film reel. He watched everything with complete indifference as if he was some kind of observer in his own body. A stranger watching some character’s tragic life story on the silver screen rather than his own. He was sure he floating in something or at least that what he felt like he couldn’t move any part of his body but he felt a strange sense of peace and tranquillity.
Then the everything goes black as if the film reel has come to an end. The one thing he fully feels during this is the pure force of energy as his body is blasted through hues of purples, and greens. Harry wakes up with a gasp in a strange forest. He shivers. He is cold and he can see his own breath in front of his face. He looks at the cloudy sky above him with no trace of sunlight anywhere.
He blinks a few times to get his bearings and he turns his head to the side and looks all around him . He can see morning dew still clinging to the grass and leaves of the trees around him. He notices the numerous large and imposing trees around him and realizes he is in the middle of some kind of forest.
His first thought is that he is in the forbidden forest but quickly dismisses the thought as this forest looks nothing like the forbidden forest, in addition the tree around him are clearly a different species than the ones in the forbidden forest. At least they look extremely different to him. And, there isn’t an aura of magic in the air, the forbidden forest is often suffocating to its visitors with whirls of different magics floating in its atmosphere. There is usually a sense of mystery and uncertainty as soon as he steps a foot in it.
There are also areas in the forbidden forest that gave a feeling of danger and dread. Simply, this forest didn’t have the same electric feel that the forbidden forest has. This forest is very different, there is absolutely no magic or magical residue floating through the air.
Harry sits up startled he must be in the muggle world but even still he is never been or seen a forest that didn’t have some magic or magical residue floating through its air, clinging to soil and trees. Something is not right here, even if there were wards he should still feel and sense magic in the air. The forest is unusually quiet, although the leaves of the trees occasionally rustle in the wind.
The trees stand tall and slope fantastically and they evoke a feeling of awe and fright as they surround him from all sides. They cover everything in blankets of shadows, never letting any sunlight trickle through even if there is no light coming from the cloudy grey sky above him.
He looks all around him and realizes he is in a small clearing. A few trees have their roots extending out on the ground nearby as if reaching out to touch him. But considering he can’t feel any magic at all here, he figures it’s only his wishful thinking.
There is a few moss covered rocks around as well as old leaves and broken branches on the grass around him. He digs through his pockets trying to find his wand, only to come up empty. He panic for a second, this is bad if he lost his wand somewhere in this forest, he doesn’t know if he will be able to find it.
He takes a deep breath, well at least he hasn’t lost his glasses, he realizes they are still on his face, and decides to worry about that later, first he has to get out of this forest, and make his way home as he has no idea how he ended up here but he has a bad feeling about this.
Did a rogue death eater attack him or something? Frankly, this forest isn’t helping him either, it’s giving him the creeps and making him anxious with how quiet and unnatural it is.
There is just no way that a forest or nature could exist without there being natural ambient magic in the air. It’s just not possible.
He shakes his head, something to ponder over later, he has to get out of here first, “Locus” he casts wandlessly.
Cherry Grove, Pennsylvania, USA
How the hell did he get here? Last thing he remembered….huh he is not sure. He vaguely recalls getting out of bed but then everything after that just goes black with the occasional array of strange colors.
Unable to recall anything about how he got here or what he was up to before he got here, he decides to let it go for now and find a way out of here and back to Britain first before anything else. He sighs he can technically apparate wandlessly out of this forest, but it’s somewhat taxing for him to do so and he doesn’t want risk it yet in case he needs to use a big portion of his magic to fight as he has no idea who or what has brought him here.
He is afraid that some death eater stragglers are hanging about and this is all a trap. He is not even sure if he cab apparate across the ocean with a wand much less without one, his best bet is probably to go to MACUSA and ask for help, New York isn’t too far from here after all.
Just to make sure there though, “Appare Vestigium” he casts and his voice echoes strangely in the forest.
Nothing.
No magical signature, or residue or even tracks.
He frowns but then sighs and decides to get up off the ground. He will walk for a bit maybe. He will walk for a bit to get a sense of his surroundings He can get out of the forest on foot then apparate to New York to get in touch with MACUSA to find out what’s going on.
He rather not apparate while he is still in this forest just in case something tries to ambush him. If he can’t get out of this forest on foot then he will just apparate from where he is. He spins around in a circle to get a look at everything around him.
Nothing but trees.
Great.
“Point me exit” he says, casting the spell wandlessly.
There is a few spells that he can cast wandlessly and ‘Point me’ and ‘Locus’ were the two spells that Aurors in training were required to know how to cast wandlessly. Just in case they were ever lost or without their wands during a mission.
He begins to follow the green thread like line floating in the air leading out of the forest. He barely walks for five minutes when he feels a sharp pain in his neck and a pain worse than ten Cruciatus all over his body. He screams and his magic lashes out and then he blacks out.
“Harry” a woman with long flowing red hair and emerald green eyes screams.
“No, please not harry, not my baby”
Then she falls, her hair falling over hair in a curtain of red.
And a green light encompasses his entire vision.
He wakes up to the smell of smoke. Of trees burning. The pleasant aroma of wood burning with unidentifiable strange scent lurking underneath. He opens his eyes afraid that he is trapped in the middle of fire. He exhales in relief when he realizes most of the fire has been snuffed out.
He blinks for a couple of times. He is unsure where he is ..or who he is as a matter of fact. He just gets the feeling that he was doing something important. He gets up and brushes himself off. His Jeans are coated in mud and they feel a little damp and there is one or two leaves sticking to them. He quickly brushes them off and takes a look at his surroundings.
His eyes roam the trees around him and they lighten up with awe and wonder. He can see the small branching fibers from each tree leaf from here as well as tiny drops of water sliding across them and they glisten so beautifully against the foliage. He can hear the wiggling of earth worms beneath the soil below his feet and the flaps of a bird’s wings twenty miles out. He sniffs the air, the strange smell is still there and it’s coming from a few burned batch of trees, some of them have been completely turned to ash while others have just blackened with a few branches having been burnt off and few other trees had nothing left of them except their damaged trunks.
It was a big portion of the trees in the clearing as well. It looked like a very strong concentrated forest fire just in this area alone. He wonders what could have done this? There is still black smoke rising in the air from that area and he can still feel the heat coming off in waves from there.
He steps back feeling unease, and he he hears glass crunching under his feet. He looks down and moves his foot and realizes he stepped on some sort of glasses. He picks them up and stares at them and then decides to pocket them. He moves away from the charred trees trying to put as much distance between that area and him as possible.
And, he begins to search the clearing, he is still shocked at how he can see everything so clearly, he’s never been able to see things this clear before, even with glasses. Huh, where did that thought come from? He guesses those glasses that he stepped on were his.
As he turns to the left he notices for the first time the bright green line floating in the air. He squints at it and blinks a few times to see if it's still there. Then he moves to touch it, only to feel a strange tingling in his fingers and for his fingers to pass right through it. He decides to follow the green line because it’s leading somewhere and he has this gut feeling that it will lead out of the forest.
He walks for a bit and after a while his throat feels incredibly dry. He ignores and keeps on following the green line. Eventually, after what felt like ages and his thirst getting worse and worse, he reaches the end if the green line. He ran into a river a few miles back and he drank as much water as he could but it didn’t help his thirst at all.
He walks over a hill and steps through trees as he sees that he is out of the forest and the end of the line is floating right next to him. For a moment it glows then it flicks and then it completely dissipates. He sees that about fifteen feet in front of him is a road that leads to who knows where. He doesn’t know where to go from here.
Suddenly, something pulls at his chest, tugging him in a certain direction. He is not sure what’s happening, he puts a hand over his chest and then comes to the frightening realization that he can’t feel or hear it beating. Maybe he is wrong and he desperately tries to look for a heartbeat.
He can’t be walking without a heartbeat, that’s not possible. He should be dead. That thing again tugs at his chest. It seems to want to move away from the road and head in a different direction. He hesitates for a moment before he lets it lead him where it wants. His instincts had led him out of the forest by telling to follow that floating green line, he is not sure what this feeling in his chest is about but his instincts is telling him to follow it and they haven’t been wrong yet. He lets his instincts take over and begins walking in the direction of the PULL.
It’s like his feet have a mind of their own. He has no idea where he is but he keeps walking. He walks for what must have been days, it feels much much longer than the walk out of the forest. He surrounding occasionally change but he is always surrounded by trees and foliage. Out of the woods and into another.
And at times he comes across a trail path or rocky road that leads to a house in the distance. He walks past all that, but with each step he takes, his thirst gets worse and worse. It becomes a painful thing, extremely hard to ignore and the tugging grows stronger. He finds it strange that his feet never ache despite the fact that his shoes wore out a while back and he has been walking barefoot for a while.
It starts to rain and harry sticks his tongue out hoping a swallow a few droplets to help the scorching burning in his throat. He knows it’s no use though, he threw up the water he drank from that river a few miles after. He’s not sure if his body is rejecting the water because it was contaminated or if it’s because whatever he is. He thinks it’s the latter after all he didn’t need to rest during his journey in fact the thing that’s tugging at him wouldn’t let him stop which can’t be normal at all. He is not sure what will satisfy his unbearable thirst or if there is anything that can. It is getting to the point where he can’t think of anything but the agonizing pain his throat and the tug at his chest.
It was an endless cycle of walking, thirsty so thirsty, yearning for something and gnawing hunger. Eventually he comes to a stop. He is completely soaked from the rain and his clothing are dripping wet, and he is sure he looks like a grumpy wet cat with his black hair sticking to his forehead. He is not cold however, he hasn’t felt cold since he woke up. He looks around wondering why he stopped, he hears the soft drip-dropping of water falling off his soaked clothes and hair. It has stopped raining for a moment and the tugging has stopped, he is not sure what he is doing here. There is nothing around him but more trees…
And then he sees him. It’s as if his world freezes in that moment and he swears he hears his heart actually start beating even though he hasn’t heard it do so since he woke up.
He still wasn’t sure what he was but he knew he wasn’t human.
He gazed into beautiful red eyes (they shouldn’t be so beautiful they should be terrifying).
In that one moment he felt complete.