It'd taken another month and a half after he'd had his realisation, but finally, finally, Harry was out of New York and beginning to explore North America.
Deciding who to leave in charge of the Den, though, hadn't been easy. His senior employee, the one he'd had the longest, was still a school girl. But the fact that it was the school holidays was a bonus and after a long talk with Gwen's parents, it was decided that she could handle the responsibility, so, here he was.
And once Harry'd known that he was going, the really tough decisions then had to be made – deciding where to go. Mexico was a possibility, from what he'd heard, it did have some sweet Aztec relics and magical hotspots. Canada, too, drew his eye. But in the end, he decided to stick with the United States, threw a dart at a map and ended up in Los Angeles. It didn't hurt that they had one of the larger magical districts in the country.
At first, Harry had stayed strictly muggle and done the tourist thing. He'd jumped on a sight-seeing bus and spent the day hopping off and on at anything that caught his eye. Two days had been spent exploring and enjoy the rides at Universal Studios and he'd even apparated up to see the famous 'Hollywood' sign.
Now, though, he wanted to explore the magical district, thus why he was wandering around the Old Plaza.
From the magical guide book about Los Angeles that he'd owl ordered, he knew that the entrance to city's largest magical shopping district was around here somewhere. All he had to do was find the right 'tree'. Just like back home, and indeed the world over, witches and wizards were adept at keeping the entrances to their magical places, districts and sights hidden from muggles. And after five years of wandering the world finding them, Harry felt that he was becoming quite good at it.
This one, though, was proving to be tricky. The guide-book said that it was glamoured to look like a tree unless you were within a radius of about twelve feet. The Old Plaza, though had hundreds of trees, all artfully placed to blend in with the dozens of statues and plaques.
A slight flicker of something to his left, only caught out of the corner of his eye, had Harry veering sharply off in that direction before a smile blossomed on his face. The trunk of the giant tree twisted upon itself, split in two and spread apart to form an arch, capable of allowing entry to someone even Hagrid's size.
Knowing that a muggle-repelling field also extended around this spot meant that Harry didn't even have to worry about anyone seeing him disappear – as soon as he was close enough to the tree, anyone watching him would instantly lose interest.
As the guidebook had instructed, once in the very middle of the arch formed by the tree's trunk, Harry gave a tap to each side with his wand and waited.
He lurched slightly as the ground under him began sinking before he righted himself, remembering a similar time, many years ago, when there were six of them descending into the bowls of the Ministry of Magic in London in a similar fashion.
The sight that opened before his eyes as the ground disappeared above him had Harry's eyes widening and his jaw dropping in awe.
Where Diagon Alley felt closed in and old and grimy, this was the complete opposite, despite being underground. A vaulted arch rose dozens of metres high with a ceiling enchanted the same as was in the Great Hall of Hogwarts – today, it was showing a clear blue sky with just the hint of wisps of clouds floating about.
The walkway was wide enough to allow small stalls to be set up in the very middle and still allow shoppers to walk a dozen or more abreast. And the fact that the floor was made of immaculate white marble with hints of pink and grey running through it told Harry that the witches and wizards of Los Angeles took great pride and care of their district.
As had become habit after that disastrous experience in Cairo, Harry took a careful look around him to get his bearings – not knowing the way back out was never a good feeling – before he then set off in a random direction.
The shops here seemed to be the same as the ones the world over, there just seemed to be more of them and the quality of their merchandise appeared to be much higher. There were dozens of clothing stores, catering to both magical and muggle attire; pet stores; apothecaries; places to buy magical aids like wands and staffs and other magic foci; dozens of shops filled with trinkets of all manner; and bookstores.
It was these that caused Harry's smile to broaden on his face. While he knew that he'd wander through almost every shop here, he always made it a point to visit the bookstores first. Back at Hogwarts, he'd never been particularly studious, but that didn't mean that he didn't enjoy learning. And as his travels had progressed, he'd discovered that he enjoyed learning new magic from different peoples and cultures. Getting one of the locals to teach him some of their spells and enchantments hadn't been particularly easy, but if he could teach himself, well, then it didn't matter if he didn't get it straight away, he wasn't wasting anyone else's time but his own. Books gave him the opportunity to learn at his own pace and he was quite proud of the collection that he'd put together.
Stepping into the first bookstore, Harry looked around. A set of stairs to one side indicated that there were multiple levels here, just below him instead of above him, as one would expect in a muggle store.
As Harry browsed the store, putting the occasional book into the basket that he'd found just inside the door, a conversation in the next aisle caught his attention. The fact that his earing buzzed as the two women talked told him that they were speaking a different language – Spanish, if he had to guess.
He loved his translator. It meant that he could understand any language and while that didn't help him speak it or read it, it made getting about in other cultures at least a little easier.
"Louis has been after me for months to take him there," one woman stated.
"Well, is it any wonder? Everyone knows that he wants to be a magical creature's handler when he grows up," her friend said.
"I know, I know," the first woman sighed. "And I suppose that it's not that far away. I could apparate there and back one afternoon later this week. You could come, too, and bring Angela."
"If I did that, we'd be spending the day there," the other countered. "You know how she is with horses and the fact that they've just got in a herd of Abraxan to go with all of their other herds of winged horse means that we'll be spending most of the day there."
"Well, at least we won't have to worry about seeing any of the thestrals," the other woman said and Harry could imagine her shuddering.
Abraxans and thestrals; he hadn't seen any of them since his days at Hogwarts. Both brought back memories that he hadn't thought about in years.
"Come on, if I have to take Louis and traipse after him as he runs around looking at all of the other magical creatures, you can bring Angela and suffer with me," the first woman cajoled.
"Well, I suppose we could; at least it'd get them out of the house for the day."
"Wonderful. Now what day works for you?" the woman's voice petered out as the two drifted further into the stacks.
A magical wildlife preserve, Harry mused. He'd seen it in the guidebook but hadn't really given it much thought. But after hearing that they had Abraxans and thestrals, he found himself interested. It was probably the nostalgia or something. But if you couldn't follow your whims when you were on vacation, what was the point of going on vacation in the first place?
ooo00ooo
Jackalopes, Harry decided, had to be one of the odder animals that he'd ever laid eyes on. They were the same size as rabbits and looked identical to a jackrabbit, but with the minor added detail of a pair of small antlers between their large rabbit ears.
Thinking about it, though, he decided that they weren't really the oddest animals, it was just that it was so unexpected to see tiny, antlered rabbits hopping about the specially warded field so that they couldn't escape.
The jackalopes were one of the many different magical creatures that one could get up close and personal with – provided the animals let you, of course – at the Scarmander Beast Reserve. The entire two hundred acres was warded in a similar way to Hogwarts, layered with muggle-repelling wards, forget-me-not charms, confusion spells and a whole host of others that were all designed to cause muggles to either forget about the area, get distracted by something else whenever they got close or simply made their technology behave erratically.
So far, Harry had spent the vast majority of the day wandering from one magical area to the next, interacting with animals when possible, simply observing them, if they were reluctant to come to him. He'd stuck with the X – XXX class beasts so far, saving the more 'exotic' ones for last, although he was sure that Hagrid would be mightily disappointed in him ignoring the beasts for so long.
The nifflers had been fun and cute, just as he remembered from his lesson on them. The fact that he'd nearly lost his watch to one, though, had been a little alarming.
Crups, small dogs with a forked tail, with a very eager to please personality were great fun. Harry spent ages throwing sticks for them to bring back to him before moving on.
Harry had no idea about the porlocks. There were supposed to be a few dozen in their habitat, but the sign erected near the entrance noted that they were very mistrustful of humans and tended to hide whenever one was around.
And the mokes, magical lizard critters, were interesting, watching them scurry up and down tree trunks.
Harry'd taken copious amounts of phots to add to his collection. There were some that he was even considering having enlarged and framed. He wondered if it would be breaking the statute of secrecy too much to hang them in the Den as a part of a collection of strange creatures of myth and legend.
Having had the thought, he quickly ran his eye across the map of the Reserve that he'd been given when he paid his entry fee to check which XXXX and XXXXX creatures they had here. Thankfully, there were no acromantulas (an animal that Harry never wanted to ever meet again, even after all these years), or fire crabs (they'd just remind him of Hagrid's blast-ended screwts) or dragons (and he just wouldn't feel right being near them considering he was wearing the black Norwegian Ridgetail dragonhide boots and blue-grey Swedish Short-snout dragon cloak).
But before he went to see the graphons and the others of their class, Harry wanted to spend time with the winged horses.
For old times' sake, he chose to begin at the threstral enclosure.
The black skeletal horses with bat-like wings were milled around near the entrance when he arrived at their enclosure. There were eight, each one with their reptilian head pointed towards the gate, as though they were expecting something.
"Come to see the thestrals, have you, lad?"
Harry spun around at the sound to find a large, rotund wizard ambling towards him, a dead cow levitating in the air behind him.
"Yeah, it's been a while," Harry replied.
"Well, that answers my next question then," the man stated. "You can obviously see them."
"I went to Hogwarts, in Scotland," Harry supplied. "They've got a herd there that they use to pull the school carriages."
"Then I dare say that you know a fair bit about them already," he man smiled. "I'd offer to let you help me feed them, but there really isn't a lot to it."
With that, the wizard lowered the enchantments on the gate and levitated the dead cow inside. Instantly, the eight thestrals began tearing into it. As Harry watched, a mixture of disgust and fondness trying to coexist on his face, he noticed that the wizard leaning on the gate beside him was frowning.
"Is something wrong?" Harry asked.
The man's head turned to study the paddock before he replied.
"There should be nine of them here," he replied. "And I can only count eight. I was trying to work out where the last one was. It's not like any of them to fail to be here when it's feeding time."
"Would you like a hand looking for it?" Harry asked.
"Thanks, I'd appreciate it. Can't exactly ask all of the other keepers, for obvious reasons – if you can't see the animal, it's pointless looking for a lost one. Name's Scott."
"Harry," he replied as the two slipped through the gate.
After skirting the still eating herd, the two of them separated slightly, heading towards the wooded section at the back of the paddock. The light dimmed quickly in there and the temperature dropped as well, conditions that Harry was sure that thestrals would enjoy. He hadn't picked his way too far into the woods when he heard an angry shout and a lot of swearing.
Unconsciously, his wand dropped into his hand as he moved to find out what had happened to Scott.
He found the wizard, his hands on his hips, glaring at a section of fritzing magic between two large trees. The fact that a third had recently fallen and now lay in the midst of the erratic magical field told the story of what had happened here.
"A breach in the wards?" Harry surmised.
"Got it in one, lad," Scott replied sourly. "I'm guessing the threstral slipped out through here. The problem is that this enclosure backs straight on to the muggle woods. And with those wings of theirs, there's no telling where it might be. I've got no idea when the last disillusionment spell was cast on them, don't usually have to worry about it, not with them confined to the Reserve."
"I'm guessing that you're going to need to make sure this breach is sealed before you do anything else," Harry commented.
Scott nodded, drawing his wand. "Yep, don't want the others wandering off while we're looking for the other one."
"If you like, I can see if I can track it down while you fix this?" Harry offered, knowing that if Hermione was there, she'd be smirking at him and muttering about his 'saving people thing'.
"Thanks. I'd appreciate it," Scott smiled. "I doubt you'll have any trouble getting 'em back, they're all fairly docile. Just conjure a rope, slip it around their neck and lead 'em back."
"Will do," Harry replied. "Back before you know it."
With that, he slipped through the breach in the wards and disappeared into the muggle woods.
ooo00ooo
A hoofprint here, a broken branch there. It wasn't much, but it was something and Harry was surprising himself that he was picking up on the signs of the thestral passing.
His biggest worry was the fact that thestrals had wings, and if this one decided to go for a fly, there was nothing that Harry could do to find it or bring it back. It might have been different if he had a broomstick, but he'd never gotten around to buying a new one to replace his beloved firebolt, something that he thought that he should probably rectify.
Thankfully, the overhead canopy of this particular part of the woods was rather thick, meaning that the thestral would need to find somewhere much clearer before it could even think about stretching its wings.
A noise, foreign to the regular birds and small animals in the woods or the wind in the trees caught his attention and Harry paused. His head moved this way and that as he attempted to capture the allusive sounds. Yes, yes, it was definitely there, somewhere up ahead, but human or animal was impossible to tell.
Just in case, Harry flipped the hood of his cloak up and drew the folds close together, blending him into the background of the woods.
The tracks from the thestral, he found, veered off to the right, while the unidentifiable sounds continued on ahead. A snap decision had Harry continuing on. He slowed, instinctively sliding into the shadows as the noise that he was following grew louder.
Something had him pause just before he passed the next tree and his eyes darted about. And then he saw it. He blinked hard, shook his head and blinked again.
A young girl, probably in her early teens was seated on the ground, surrounded by tiny animals. Her bent head and deep reddish-brown hair hid her face. It looked like she was wearing an old leather bomber jacket over some brown and grey clothes. Her crossed feet were encased in a pair of fur-topped brown leather boots.
As Harry watched, he realised that she was pulling something out of a pouch on her belt. Whatever it was, the small animals definitely saw it as food. There were dozens of the little mammals, all darting about, taking their turns at getting their share and then sitting back and holding the food in their front paws and nibbling it.
Squirrels, Harry realised with a start. But squirrels acting in a way that he'd never seen before. Obviously, this girl had been making friends with them for a very long time if they were as tame as they were.
Ever so slowly, Harry backed away from the muggle girl, disappearing back into the woods. He was just glad that he'd neither spooked her or her little squirrel friends.
It didn't take too long to find the thestral's tracks once again and begin his quest once more.
It took another twenty minutes of tracking, with the occasional guess and hope for the best thrown in, before Harry lucked upon the missing winged horse.
Thankfully, Scott had been right – the animal was incredibly friendly and it was easy to get a rope around its neck.
"Come on, girl," Harry said to the thestral, giving a gentle tug on the rope, let's get you back. Scott
's got some lovely cow there for you."
As though it understood, it began trotting back the way it came.