The Boundless Journey

"Privet Drive," read Max in a familiar tone.

"Do you know this place by any chance?" asked Echo.

"I don't know. The name does sound familiar, but I just can't place it."

"Well, it might be a famous road in your previous world, like how you knew about Big Ben."

"I think you might be right. All we can do is find more clues to figure out what kind of place this is and how I can get stronger."

"Yeah, that might be our only choice right now. Let's search the street, but we need to be discreet. It's already nighttime, and if people see us, it could be really bad."

"True. Let's go," said Max enthusiastically.

Max and Echo picked a random direction and started searching for clues related to the familiar street.

As they walked past a few houses, screams suddenly erupted from a house down the road. Max immediately hid behind a hedge and peeked out to assess the situation.

From the house emerged a large balloon floating through the door—strangely, it was screaming loudly. Following it came a boy, about 13 or 14 years old, carrying a suitcase. As the screaming balloon floated off into the distance, the boy disappeared into the night.

Curious about the strange scene, Max slowly stepped out from behind the hedge and headed in the direction the boy had gone. After running a short distance, he spotted the boy sitting by the side of the road with his suitcase. It looked like he had just run away from home. Without thinking, Max moved toward him, but Echo grabbed his shirt with his teeth and pulled him back.

"Hey, Max! What are you doing? We can't just go up to him and start talking," whispered Echo, trying to stay discreet.

"Don't worry. He looks about the same age as me, and it seems like he just ran away from home. I doubt there'll be any problems. Besides, we need clues about this world, and this might be our only chance. Didn't you see that screaming balloon? That wasn't normal."

"Alright, fine. This might be our only lead anyway."

Max approached the boy cautiously, trying to look polite and friendly. As he got closer, the boy jumped to his feet, pulling out a stick and pointing it at Max like a weapon.

"Whoa, calm down, dude! I'm not a bad person. I just saw a screaming balloon come out of that house, and you came out right after. I got curious," Max said, raising his hands to appear harmless.

The boy's face paled. He muttered nervously, "Oh no, this is bad. A Muggle isn't supposed to see something like this. I might get expelled because of this. What should I do?"

One word struck Max: "Muggle." It was a famous term from a novel he had read as a child. He had always felt connected to the main character of the story—they were both parentless, weak, and helpless, yet kind.

"Are you Harry Potter?" asked Max.

The boy flinched and pointed his wand at Max again. "How do you know my name? Are you from the Ministry?"

"Whoa, calm down! I know this might sound crazy, but I'm not a Muggle. I know about the Wizarding World. My parents were wizards, but they died when I was little."

Hearing Max's explanation, Harry lowered his wand, his expression softening with empathy. Losing parents at an early age was a pain he understood all too well.

"My apologies," said Harry. "I've been on edge. I didn't mean to act like that."

"It's fine. So, was that floating balloon a person you used magic on?"

"Yes. She was my aunt. She's a Muggle and doesn't know much about my parents' past, but she said horrible things about them. I couldn't stand it, so I used magic and ran away."

"I see. So, you live with your relatives?"

"Yep."

"Do you have any plans for the future?"

"Not exactly, but I'll be leaving for my school soon—Hogwarts."

"Oh wow, you study at Hogwarts? I've always wanted to go there."

The two sat by the side of the road, talking for a while, until the sound of an engine in the distance broke the silence. A few seconds later, a triple-decker purple bus screeched to a halt in front of them, moving so fast it seemed like a racing car.

The bus came to an abrupt stop, and a man stepped out. It was the conductor.

'Oh, I know what's going to happen,' thought Max. 'They're going to take us to the Leaky Cauldron. That's where I can make my next move. It's best to follow the main story and gain strength from there.'

"Good evening, gentlemen. I'm Stanley Shunpike, conductor of the Knight Bus," the man announced, reading from a paper, sounding utterly disinterested in the two boys.

"What are you two doing on the ground? Get up and get in quickly! No time to lose!"

Harry and Max got up, climbing aboard the bus, with Echo following closely behind. Stanley loaded Harry's luggage onto the bus, then pulled a string attached to a bell.

"Take it away, Ernie!" he yelled.

The bus roared to life and sped off at breakneck speed. The entire vehicle shook as it hurtled forward, but neither the other passengers nor the conductor seemed affected. Max, however, clung tightly to the seat, bracing himself for the wild ride ahead.

Echo used his claws to stay with Max and not get flinged around the bus. The bus speed up and crossed a lot of different streets and even traffic.

"The Muggles, can't they see us at this speed?" , asked Harry trying his all to not get shot away.

"The Muggles don't see anything. Anyways do I know you from somewhere, you look familiar.", asked the conductor.

Stanley got curious for a few minutes but let it go after a few seconds of thought. To pass the time he started to flip throught the newspaper. The front page had a the headline "Sirius Black escaped Askaban".

"Who is that ?", asked Harry

As Stanley turned over the newspaper to the front page and saw who the kid was pointing to about." You are asking me who is that, that's Sirius Black the most wanted criminal of all times and he just escaped Askaban."

Completing his sentence Stanley wanted to ask something but suddenly the bus came to an halt.