Ouroboros || harry potter

Chapter Twenty-Five

(Neville)

Godric landed with a clatter. The worn shoe flew from his hands while he fell onto something, knocking the object over and losing his breath at the same time. He blinked up at an overcast sky. Rumbling noise filtered through the area and revibrated across the ground. It reminded him of platform 9 ¾. There was so much noise his head ached with it.

He pulled himself up and grimaced as he looked around. The portkey had deposited him between two tall brick buildings. A rubbish bin of some type lay tipped over, trash spilling across the ground. He must have fallen onto it. Godric grimaced and did a quick shakedown of his arms, chest, and back in case any of the trash had stuck.

A peek around one of the buildings revealed a city surrounding him. The people wandering by were clearly muggle if their muted and odd clothing were any indication.

Godric liked to think he had been in worse positions but he honestly couldn't think of one outside of battle. Visiting Egypt almost matched but Sally had been with him, magic hadn't been hidden away, and they had mostly known what to expect going in. His only hope was Pater Longbottom had sent him somewhere that spoke English. He was fluent in many other languages just like Sally, likely partly due to Sally. Godric doubted he would be lucky enough to run into a muggle that was fluent in Latin or Old French.

His eyes stung. Godric blinked rapidly. A tightness was constricting his chest as he realized he was all alone—The boy sucked in a deep, steadying breath, and took stock of what he had to work with, ignoring the slight tremble in his hands.

He had the winter outer robes, Franklin-style sweater, and collared tunic that didn't match anything the muggles were wearing as they walked by. The boy dug into the robe's pockets. He found his wand, his father's wand, the candy wrapper from his mother, and five knuts. Everything else he had brought for the holiday, which luckily hadn't been much, was shrunk in Gran's purse.

Godric flicked his wand out and tapped the tip to the top of his head. The feeling of an egg falling onto his head spread down and over his entire form. His magic pulsed lukewarm as it covered him in a thin coating of magic that allowed light through his now transparent form, removing his shadow and hiding him from sight. As long as he moved slowly and the weather held up, he would be as close to invisible as possible without an actual cloak of invisibility.

The Gryffindor founder slowly stepped out of the alleyway and looked around the area properly. There was not a spot of blue in the sky. It was all slat gray and he could taste the water in the air. Either freezing rain or snow would fall sometime tonight. He needed to find shelter before that happened.

He was at the end of a street where a small courtyard took over the area. There was a copper statue of some man in the middle of it, which stood in front of one of the buildings Godric stood between. A park stood across from him. Part of it was a fenced-in area with some type of metal goals he had seen in Dean's posters. The other part was filled with walkways and tall, leafless trees. It was also fenced-in but with a different, more stylish fence.

There was a row of some type of large contraption made of shiny material and glass. It reminded him strongly of the Hogwarts train. Each sat on four odd-looking wheels and appeared to have doors with glass windows as if a train's private compartment had been separated from its caboose. They might be carriages but he couldn't see any horses. There was no room for invisible horses either. Some were so closely packed he had no idea how any could be moved without having to move all of them.

A road, which these probable carriages sat on the edge of, led to a crossroads. More strange wheeled contraptions sat in a line at the far end of that street. He could hear the rumbling and even some honking coming from that direction. There were people inside the contraptions and for a moment they moved.—They had to be modern carriages.