Young Celestial Wizard [Celestial Grimoire, Harry Potter]

---Three Weeks Later, February 1988---

The international portkey deposited them in MACUSA's arrival hall with barely a wobble. Harry landed easily beside Chrysa, who had gotten used to portkey travel months ago. The marble-lined room reminded him a bit of Gringotts, though the floating golden symbols above the reception desk were purely decorative from what he could tell.

"Welcome to the Magical Congress," a bored-looking wizard in navy robes droned from behind the desk. "Please present your wands and travel documentation. No-maj items must be declared..."

"No-maj?" Harry whispered to Perenelle while Nicolas handled the paperwork. "That sounds ridiculous. Even the other places just used their word for 'muggle'."

"Americans like to be different," Perenelle murmured back, her lips twitching slightly.

The registration process was tedious but thorough. Harry noticed the clerk's eyes widening slightly when reviewing their papers, but whatever arrangements the Flamels had made seemed to hold - the man simply stamped everything without comment.

They followed a young witch through wide corridors lined with red-black tiles inlaid with golden patterns. The halls were busy with witches and wizards hurrying about their business. Harry's Inner Eye flickered with warning, showing him the movement a split second before it happened - a self-cleaning broom to his left, aiming straight for his legs. He stepped smoothly aside, letting the broom whisk past where he'd been standing, its bristles barely brushing his robes.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked, watching the broom zoom away in pursuit of some dropped papers.

"Well," Nicolas smiled, "you haven't been exposed to the Muggle world yet, have you?"

Harry shook his head.

"It's about time you got used to it. You can't live your entire life isolated in the Wizarding World."

Harry shrugged, not seeing the point of learning about muggles when magic was clearly more interesting.

They made their way through the busy corridors, passing witches levitating stacks of papers and wizards discussing policy changes, until they reached a set of bronze doors.

Nicolas turned around and pulled out his wand. "We'll need to disguise Chrysa a bit..."

A gentle wave of his wand transformed the Nemean Lion cub into a small orange kitten. Harry quickly scooped her up as she meowed indignantly, batting at the air with tiny paws that had been massive just moments ago.

Nicolas pushed open the bronze doors for Perenelle and Harry. Following them out, Harry's first step onto the streets of New York stopped him dead in his tracks.

Enormous buildings of glass and steel stretched up into the sky, far taller than even Hogwarts' highest tower. Strange metal boxes on wheels rushed past on the black stone roads, making horrible noises. The sheer number of people walking past was overwhelming - more than Harry had ever seen in one place, all dressed in odd clothing without a single robe in sight.

"What..." Harry gaped at a yellow vehicle that screeched to a halt nearby, letting people climb in and out. "What are those things?"

Before either Flamel could answer, a man who'd been walking past them suddenly stumbled and fell to his knees, staring at Harry with wide eyes.

"Are you alright, sir?" Perenelle asked, helping him up. "That was quite a fall."

"You're..." the man's gaze locked onto Harry, then flicked up to his forehead for some reason. "You're Harry Potter?"

"Yes?" Harry replied cautiously, wondering if this was yet another fan of his.

The man made a strange choking sound. "But... but that's impossible. This is... you're..." He kept staring at Harry's forehead, growing increasingly pale.

Nicolas stepped forward smoothly. "Sir, perhaps you should sit down. You seem unwell."

The man just shook his head frantically and backed away, nearly walking into a street sign before turning and hurrying off into the crowd.

"Strange wizard," Harry muttered, still distracted by the overwhelming sights and sounds around them.

"Indeed," Nicolas said thoughtfully, though something in his tone suggested he wasn't entirely convinced about the 'wizard' part.

"But why are they living in giant glass pillars?" Harry asked, neck craned back to stare at the 'pillars' as they walked down Broadway. Chrysa, still in kitten form, had retreated inside his robes, clearly overwhelmed by the noise.

"They're called skyscrapers," Perenelle explained. "Muggles build them because they don't have expansion charms to make spaces bigger on the inside."

A group of teenagers walked past wearing bright neon clothing and carrying strange boxes that were blasting music. Harry jumped slightly. "What are those?"

"Boomboxes," Nicolas answered, gently steering Harry around a hot dog cart. "Muggles use electricity instead of magic to make music play."

"Like a wireless?" Harry frowned. "But without magic?"

"Exactly. They're quite clever about finding ways to do things without-" Nicolas was interrupted by Harry's excited gasp.

"Look!" Harry pointed at a store window where multiple television sets displayed moving pictures. "They have magical portraits!"

"Those are televisions," Perenelle explained quickly as several passersby gave them odd looks. "They use electricity to show moving pictures, but they're following a script, like a play. They're not actually 'alive' like magical portraits."

Harry pressed his face against the glass, fascinated. "But how does it work without magic?"

"Very tiny lights changing colors very quickly," Nicolas simplified. "Though perhaps we should move along before-"

A loud siren wailed as a fire truck roared past, lights flashing. Harry instinctively raised his hands, ready to bend fire if needed, but Nicolas quickly caught his wrists.

"Just muggle emergency services," he said quietly. "Remember, no magic in public."

"But what if there's really an emergency?" Harry whispered back, watching the truck disappear around a corner.

"Then the muggles will handle it," Perenelle assured him. "They're quite good at their jobs, even without magic."

Dave Miller stumbled into his office building's bathroom, splashing cold water on his face. "Okay, okay, get it together," he muttered to himself. "You saw a kid in robes who looked like Harry Potter. That's... that's fine. Totally normal. Maybe it was just a cosplayer. In 1988. Before the books came out..."

He stared at his reflection. "Oh god, I'm in a book. I've been in a book this whole time."

Meanwhile, completely unaware of Dave's crisis, Harry was discovering pizza.

"But how do they make the cheese stretch like that?" he asked, watching in fascination as Nicolas demonstrated proper pizza-eating technique. They sat at a small table outside Ray's Pizza, where Chrysa (still disguised as a kitten) was delicately accepting tiny bits of pepperoni.

"Trade secret," Nicolas winked, clearly enjoying Harry's amazement at mundane things. "Though I suspect it's something to do with the type of cheese they-"

"Sir!" A desperate voice interrupted them. Dave had walked out from his building, looking slightly manic. "Sir, I need to tell you about- about-" He seemed to lose his nerve as three pairs of eyes turned to him. "About... rats. In the sewers. Very important. Especially in 1991. Remember that."

He backed away again, nearly walking into a newspaper stand.

"What a peculiar man," Perenelle remarked, discreetly vanishing a spot of sauce from Harry's robes with her wand. "Though he does seem rather fixated on you, dear."

Harry was more interested in the newspaper stand. "The pictures don't move at all!"

"Most muggle pictures don't," Nicolas explained. "Though they've found fascinating ways to preserve sound and movement together. Speaking of which..." He pulled out what looked like a small black rectangle. "This is called a Walkman. Would you like to try it?"

From his office window, Dave watched as the odd tourist-looking family showed the dark-haired boy how to use headphones. "This is insane," he muttered, scribbling frantically in a notebook. "Okay, what do I remember? There was definitely something about rats... and a stone... and wasn't there a dragon at some point?"

His coworker Janet peered over his shoulder. "Writing a children's book?"

Dave slammed the notebook shut. "Yes! Exactly that. About a... magical school. And a boy who... does things."

"Sounds fascinating," Janet said dryly, dropping a stack of files on his desk. "The Johnson account needs these by five."

oo0ooOoo0oo

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was impressive, Harry had to admit, but after visiting magical galleries in Japan and Africa, the still paintings felt... flat. Even the most dramatic scenes just sat there, frozen in time.

"The technique is amazing though," Harry whispered to Perenelle as they studied a Renaissance painting. "Look at how they created depth without any actual magical layers."

"Quite ingenious," Perenelle agreed. "Though I do miss Akiko's fox-fire highlights..."

From behind a nearby sculpture, Dave peeked out, having called in "sick" to work. He'd been following them for the past hour, frantically taking notes. 'Cultured family,' he wrote. 'Kid interested in art??? Was this in the books???'

"Their abstract art is interesting," Harry continued, studying a Kandinsky. "It's almost like they're trying to capture magical effects without magic." He tilted his head. "Though I bet it would look better with some blue flames..."

"Not in the museum, dear," Perenelle said quickly.

Nicolas was examining a modern installation with academic interest. "Remarkable what they achieve with just physical materials. Though perhaps we should move on to-"

"The snakes!" Dave suddenly blurted out from behind his sculpture, causing several tourists to jump. "Can you talk to snakes? That's important! Very important!"

"Is that man following us?" Harry asked quietly as Dave once again retreated, this time hiding behind a tour group.

"So it seems," Nicolas frowned slightly. "Though he appears more confused than dangerous."

Harry's instincts confirmed this - the strange man registered as about as threatening as a particularly anxious flobberworm.

"Can we go see the Egyptian section?" Harry asked, already bored with the motionless modern art. "I want to see if their hieroglyphs are different from the ones we saw in Alexandria."

They moved on, while Dave scribbled frantically in his notebook: 'Didn't answer snake question!!! But looks nothing like Daniel Radcliffe??? Time travel??? Alternate universe??? Need more coffee.'

After the third time Dave knocked over a display trying to get closer to them, Perenelle had enough. She cornered him near the Greek statues while Nicolas cast subtle privacy charms around their group.

"Sir," she said firmly. "Would you kindly explain why you've been following my family?"

Dave clutched his notebook to his chest. "I- I just- He's Harry Potter!"

"And?" Nicolas asked mildly. "That hardly explains your behavior."

"But you don't understand!" Dave looked around wildly. "There are books! Well, there will be books. About him! With a giant three-headed snake that guards the school basement-"

Harry blinked. "What?"

"And then in second year there's this massive dragon that lives in a hidden room and petrifies people with its fire breath-"

"That's not how petrification works," Harry muttered.

"And there's this evil wizard who lives in the back of people's heads and steals their souls through mirrors-"

Nicolas and Perenelle exchanged concerned looks while Dave continued rambling about increasingly bizarre scenarios.

"And in fourth year there's this tournament where you have to fight a hundred dementors while riding a hippogriff underwater-"

Harry rolled his eyes. "This man doesn't feel like a wizard at all. He's just as dangerous as any other muggle on the street..."

Dave froze mid-rant about something involving tap-dancing spiders.

Nicolas frowned. "Are you a muggle? Did someone in your family who's magical perhaps play a prank on you with some fictional books about Harry?"

Dave's eyes went wide. "No, no, you don't understand! I'm from- I mean- In another world these are all books and-" He started gesturing wildly. "Look, I can prove it! Harry lives with his aunt and uncle in Surrey-"

"I live in France right now," Harry corrected.

"But the blood wards-"

"The what?"

"And you have a lightning bolt scar from when-"

"I don't have any scars," Harry said, growing increasingly confused.

Dave stared at Harry's unmarked forehead. "But... but... What about your glasses?"

"I can see perfectly fine?"

Nicolas's frown deepened. With a quick glance around to ensure no muggles were watching, he gripped Dave's arm. "Excuse us for a moment." They disappeared with a quiet pop.

A minute later, Nicolas returned alone. "He's been handed over to the Obliviators. Probably found some fictional books by accident and became obsessed with them for some reason..."

"Can we go somewhere else?" Harry asked, no longer interested in the museum's static artwork. Chrysa poked her head out of his robes, still looking distinctly annoyed about being a kitten.

Perenelle looked thoughtful. "Nicolas, what about a theme park?"

"Ah!" Nicolas brightened. "Excellent idea. Harry should experience some muggle entertainment that's actually meant to be exciting. Though..." He glanced at Chrysa. "Perhaps we should find somewhere that allows pets?"

oo0ooOoo0oo

Another portkey brought them to Florida, where the air felt like walking through warm soup. Harry stared at the enormous castle ahead of them, though compared to Hogwarts it looked a bit artificial.

"Disney World," Nicolas announced proudly. "The muggles call it the most magical place on Earth."

"Really?" Harry looked skeptical.

"Well, their version of magical," Perenelle smiled, casting a charm on Chrysa. The spell would make muggles' eyes slide right past the 'kitten' unless they really focused. "Though some of their rides are quite clever."

The entrance was crowded with families wearing colorful clothing and mouse-ear hats. Harry watched in fascination as a large boat filled with people disappeared into a tunnel labeled 'Pirates of the Caribbean'.

"How do they make things move without magic?" he whispered to Nicolas.

"Motors, gears, hydraulics..." Nicolas grinned at Harry's blank look. "Think of it as very complicated clockwork. You'll see inside."

A worker in a striped vest directed them toward their first ride. "Space Mountain?" Harry read the sign dubiously. "What's a roller coaster?"

Five minutes later, he had his answer. The cart clicked slowly up the track in complete darkness, and Harry could hear Chrysa purring excitedly beside him.

"This isn't so-" Harry started to say.

The cart dropped.

They plunged into darkness, bursts of starlight flashing past as they twisted and turned. Harry's reflexes let him anticipate each curve, his body moving smoothly with the coaster instead of being thrown around.

"This is brilliant!" he shouted over the rush of wind. Chrysa's purring had turned into an excited rumble that probably would have terrified the other passengers if they could hear it over their screaming.

The track swooped up, giving them a split-second view of the entire room filled with streaking lights before they plunged down again. Harry found himself laughing - it was almost like flying, but with no need to do the work himself.

When they corkscrewed through a field of shooting stars, Harry raised his hands in delight, completely stable even without holding on.

The ride ended too soon. They went back into daylight, Harry's hair even messier than usual and his green eyes bright with excitement.

"Can we go again?" he asked immediately.

"There are other rides too," Perenelle laughed, smoothing down her own windblown hair. "Though I noticed you didn't seem very thrown around by the movement..."

"It's not too bad," Harry shrugged. "Just need to move with it instead of fighting it."

"Can we go to the next ride?" Harry continued hopefully. He'd spotted something called 'Big Thunder Mountain' in the distance.

His eyes darkened.

[Claws - Jujutsu Kaisen V2.5] – Costs 100CP, 250CP available to spend.

You can turn your fingertips into claws. That's it. Nothing insane but useful for someone who goes for close quarters combat.

Harry barely glanced at the new offer. Claws? That sounded ridiculous - he could already transform into an eagle if he needed talons, and Chrysa had plenty of claws to spare. He dismissed the offer immediately and focused on more important things, like convincing Nicolas to let them ride Thunder Mountain three times in a row.

The day passed in a blur of motion and laughter. They rode through haunted mansions where Harry critiqued the "ghost effects" as "pretty good for muggles, but nothing like the Hogwarts ghosts." The Jungle Cruise made Chrysa perk up every time they passed mechanical big cats, though she seemed unimpressed by their stiff movements.

In Frontierland, Harry discovered corn dogs ("But why put it on a stick?") and cotton candy ("It's like edible clouds!"). They watched fireworks explode over the castle as the sun set, and Harry had to admit that even without magic, muggles had figured out how to create some pretty amazing things.

"Better than the museum?" Perenelle asked as they headed toward the exit. Harry was wearing Mickey Mouse ears that Nicolas had insisted on buying, and Chrysa had somehow acquired a small princess crown that balanced precariously between her ears.

"Much better," Harry grinned. "Though I still think magical art is more interesting."

"Of course it is," Nicolas agreed. "But sometimes it's good to see how others create wonder without magic. Ready to head back?"

Harry nodded, exhausted but happy. They left, but he glanced back at the illuminated castle one last time. "You know... for muggles, they did a pretty good job making things magical."

"That they did," Perenelle smiled. "That they did."