Verus

nine

1996, Little Whinging, Surrey, England

It seemed the pull of having his body forced every which way, and his limbs and organs coerced into an array of odd angles, was becoming all too familiar now to Harry.

The wind had, quite literally, just been kicked from his lungs as his feet met the slabbed ground of an all too quiet little street, and it was only thanks to Merlin's dutiful hold on his forearm that Harry did not go toppling head first into a cluster of nearby rose bushes.

"Well, I wonder" Harry said, after having finally caught his breath and righting himself, "Will that ever stop being such an experience?"

The wizard beside him merely chuckled in retort and clapped him merrily on the shoulder before he started off down the pavement without another word.

Harry blinked once in bemusement, then hurried after him- thankful that they'd had the foresight to shrink his luggage down beforehand.

As he strode to catch up to Merlin, Harry eyed the path beneath his feet critically. There seemed to be smooth individual slabs laid out one after the other which were greyish in colour and almost perfect, although he did note that one or two had slight cracks rippled through them. They appeared to have been designed to make walking along the roadside a lot easier, safer even. He hummed his appreciation.

It wasn't long before Merlin came to an abrupt stop, so abrupt in fact that Harry had all but a split second to stop his body from walking straight into the older gent. He huffed with a reluctant smile on his face before he turned to chase his mentors gaze, over towards where a small gathering of houses were neatly placed. There were several of them, all following the skirtings of the walkway which lined the empty road, and each of them identical, from the freshly cut grass and picket fences to the brick covered driveways.

Harry's gaze proceeded to wander after a momentary pause, and he took in the rest of his surroundings.

"This is not what I expected..." He murmured lowly. In fact, this was nothing compared to the memories he had seen and the stories Merlin had fed him back home.

Merlin hummed quietly in return, his hands clasped neatly together down by his lower abdomen. He turned only slightly in his stance. "Of what, my dear?"

"The main town- or city, rather?"

"Ah no, my dear. This," Merlin told him as he rose his arms outwards in gesture, "is the country. Vastly different in comparison to the main cities you have been shown. We couldn't just go appearing right in the centre of muggle London now, could we? No, I feel that would be rather absurd."

"Right... so you just decided to apparate us here then?"

"Correct."

"And where exactly is here, might I ask?"

Merlin gifted him a small, almost barley there smile and Harry tensed as a wave of apprehension washed over him. "This, is where you would have been raised if the fates hadn't led me to you. Actually, I suppose it would have been that house right over there."

Harry followed the man's short nod over towards a house with a painted wooden door and silver knocker. "Number 4." He whispered mostly to himself.

"Yes, number four. Such an odd number for something considered even, don't you think?"

Harry could only blink up at him.

"Never mind. I merely brought you here in hopes to show you what could have been." Merlin waved off as he raised his arm to check his left wrist, Harry's brow furrowed at the oddly fashioned bracelet he wore.