Harry Potter and the Lost Memories

Into the Unknown

Umm, yeah, here's the next chapter :) We're slowly diving into the crossover stuff, see if you can spot the three references here to anime ahaha...I totally forgot about the chapter title thing, in fact I didn't get to the scene that the former title was supposed to be about so I had to make some changes...

Happy Reading!

Word count: 1,060

In a vast, ancient library, looking out into a snow covered land of white, stood a man with long black hair the color of ebony. He wore a cloak lined with fur, covered with swirls that seemed to be a reflection of the wind outside. His eyes were dark, slightly clouded, but gentle. As he touched the open book in his hands, words like runes sprung out to him and sank into the glow of his palm. Serenely, he said:

"It seems like you've already memorized the spells in these books. You've ended up learning most of the magic writings in the castle."

"...Yes" a young voice hesitantly replied. The sound was morose, clear, but disappointed.

"What's wrong?" The man's calming voice asked. "If there's anything you're worried about, I'd like you tell me, alright?"

There was a slight pause while the man continued to smile reassuringly at him.

"... It's just that," the same young boy said. "... However much I try, I cannot learn them. Restoration, healing magic...All I can memorize is attack magic... Only things that hurt people..."

"Try smiling," the tall man's smile widened. "Smile."

"Eh?" The boy sounded surprised. There was a short pause again. The image of a bright smiling face flashed past. The boy's face looked familiar...

"You were able to use it, the magic." The man noted. "With your smile, my heart was healed enough. This is also magic."

There was a glimpse of wide blue eyes filled with wonder before the man pulled him closer into a hug and the image dissolved into whiteness.

"Ah!" Harry sat up in a hurry, his dark hair a mess of tangles, forming a bird nest over his skull. His breaths came out in short bursts. Eyes wide, he clutched a hand to his chest, his mind whirring as an aftermath of another strange dream. Those dreams occurred more and more often as he grew older, despite what Dumbledore had told his parents about distancing from magic might help with quelling the nightmares. But this time, it wasn't too bad. The dream turned out positive in the end, and there were no death. The vague memory of a smile soothed something inside him and made him feel happy as well. Maybe he should try to smile more too, if it was such an effective magic. Maybe smiling will make him feel less lonely in this cold, unwelcoming house in the Muggle World.

A year had passed since Harry last saw his parents. Granted, they wrote letters every few weeks or months, but it wasn't the same. The Dursleys were very different from the quirky family life Harry was used to. Everyday was a routine that the family believed was normal, but to Harry, who had spent six years with his magical family, this bland routine with no surprise, no excitement, was a complete bore. It went against all he had believed was normal in a regular family household!

School was slightly more interesting than life with his aunt's family. Everyday, he learned new muggle concepts that he hadn't known before from the wizarding texts and slowly gained a new outlook at life, with more common sense than most wizards, which, frankly speaking, wasn't all that much actually. On the downside, Dudley had taken to tease him, shove him about, and spread rumors about him. Fortunately, Harry had gotten nimbler and quicker at evading the fat boy's attacks and always managed to run away from the gang whenever the group of boys chased after him with rocks and sticks. This, however, caused a few accidents that got him in terrible trouble. Just the week before, the principal had called him down to the office to inquire about why he was on the roof. Harry theorized it was probably accidental magic, but he could not tell the principal that. Therefore, the principal sighed in exhaustion and called over the Dursley's who taught him a "lesson" on not using magic.

Harry was not going to live for another year in this house. He would not let the toxic environment here drain his personality and magic!

Luck came to him one summer, when he was 7 years old. Vernon Dursley had gotten a raise in salary and the whole Dursley family were preparing to go on a trip to Japan during the summer vacations. Why Japan? Well, Dudley had recently became interested in Japanese animated TV shows called "anime" and was adamant in visiting the source of his entertainment. Moreover, the company Grunnings had just made a business deal with the Ootori family in Japan, so Vernon Dursley wanted to show off his family to one of the most renowned family in Japan. The Dursleys were hesitant in bringing Harry with them, but out of fear that "his kind" would visit them during the summer, they brought him over as well, with a bare minimum supply of clothes and necessities. Without a single note left behind, the group of four left for a two-month trip in a foreign country, where Harry's life would be forever changed.

Japan was an overwhelming place. Crowds of people storm the streets in a hurry as soon as the lights turn green. Advertisements of the latest movies show up on brightly lit screens hung on the tall skyscrapers. Harry's head swiveled, unable to keep track of all he wanted to see. The older Dursley's shuffled along, wrinkling their nose at the "plebeian foreigners" while Harry's cousin dragged them along into shops filled with figurines. Dudley's chubby body clumsily waddled about, bumping into strangers, once ramming full weight into a pair of boy and girl who had been enthusiastically talking about some newly released anime. Harry himself tripped over a McDonald's employee who had been bemoaning about the state of his wrecked bike. Tokyo was a busy place, and it would take some time to get used to it, hopefully before the end of his two month-long vacation.

Either way, it was a good escape from the stale environment that he had lived in for the past year. Even though he was still in the Muggle World, there was something at the edge of his senses, something telling him that Japan was not as mundane as the Dursley believed, and that it had its own bits of  magic, its own sparks full of hidden mysteries.