SUMMARY: Transported into a post-apocalyptic world, Harry must learn to survive while he searches for a way back home. On his journey to find answers, he encounters several iconic characters.

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Unfaltering Bereavement

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ARC ONE - BILL'S TOWN

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Entering Lincoln, says the sign. Harry feels a surge of relief. One thing he learned the hard way about North America is how large the continent is. It is much bigger than he imagined when he saw maps of it as a child, in primary school. Sometimes he would spend weeks without finding a town, city or even a village to stop at and replenish his supplies. He has often been forced to live off the land, trying to survive.

He's been stuck in this post-apocalyptic world for five months, now, and he's starting to get very bored. The novelty of a place with naturally occurring Inferi died a while ago.

He takes off one of the straps of his backpack and brings the latter around, in front of him. He crouches down near the side of the road. His back is to the metal barrier that borders the road, the one made to keep cars from falling down into the forest below. Keeping a wary eye on his surroundings in case of an unexpected attack, he opens his backpack and pulls out a tattered map.

Harry possesses two maps. One is of North America, showing the USA and all of its states, as well as Canada and Mexico. The other one is the map he has just pulled out, which depicts the state of Massachusetts, where Harry is right now.

Lincoln is a decently-sized town, Harry sees. Its size means that there will probably be a lot of Inferi there, though nowhere near as many as one would find in a city. He will be on his guard nevertheless.

Nodding to himself in satisfaction, he stands up and puts the map away.

He has two choices, now.

The first one is that he could continue walking straight and follow the road until he gets to Lincoln. Unfortunately, from what he's seen on the map, the road makes a large loop before getting to the town, which would cost him time.

The second option is that he could jump over the barrier lining the road and land in the forest area that's just a short drop down. He can already see that there is a natural path there, made by the feet of people who have passed there before. He can see a water tower beyond the forest, standing tall and proud over the trees, far in the distance. Some buildings are visible, but they are mostly hidden by the trees. He could cut through that forest to avoid he loop the road makes and get to Lincoln faster. On the other hand, the road is sure to bring him to Lincoln, while the forest might just make him lose his way.

For the thousandth time, he wishes he had his broom. With it, he could have flown in a straight line towards Lincoln without any dead ends or zombies to stop him. Unfortunately, when that portal appeared all those months ago, he was on the run with Hermione and Ron and didn't have a broom with him. He was pulled into the portal and appeared in this strange, magic-less world with nothing but his wand and the clothes on his back.

Well, now he doesn't even have that. His clothes have been replaced in favour of something more durable quite some time ago and his wand was crushed three weeks ago when he was ambushed by some of those blind deformed Inferi with mushrooms growing out of their heads.

He pauses, realizing how absurd that last thought sounds.

Yes, now that he thinks about it, this world is rather strange, despite having no magic.

In the end, after some thought, Harry decides to continue following the road. The last thing he needs is to get lost, which is why he avoids using the forest as a shortcut.

The road is in good condition. Unlike some roads Harry has seen, this one is whole, albeit with a few cracks here and there through which flora is growing.

Harry advances slowly, staying near the rotting carcasses of abandoned automobiles dotting the road, ready to take cover if an enemy appears.

Nature has taken over this place. He can see it in the way moss grows everywhere unimpeded, the way a bird twitters angrily when he unknowingly approaches its nest inside a car lacking its windows and wheel, and in the way he has to climb over a pylon blocking the road because oxidation had made the proud structure bow.

Finally, after a little less than twenty minutes of walking, the first of Lincoln's buildings come into view. Harry sees a gas station and some small shops. Beyond that, the level rises as the buildings become two-story apartments and, further, they grow even taller. The town is too small to have skyscrapers, yet Harry can't help but find the buildings tall.

It's one thing to see buildings when people are there. In that case, the buildings are full of life and activity. They are welcoming. But it's quite another thing when those buildings are deserted. The town feels cold and empty, and the buildings just give the impression of giants looming over him in a threatening manner, full of unknown threats.

Feeling abruptly too exposed in the middle of the road, Harry hurries over to the gas station, whose glass windows and doors are broken and full of holes large enough for him to pass through. He doesn't even need to try picking the lock. Once inside, he relaxes. The walls around him make him feel less vulnerable than outside. Safer.

Most of the gas station has been raided years ago for food, and what food is left is mouldy and unsafe for eating. All the canned food is gone, though Harry didn't expect any to be left. Still, he searches the small gas station until he finds, hidden behind two dusty newspapers, a few plastic containers filled with honey, with the image of a smiling bee on each. Honey is a food that lasts a very long time, which is why it's one of the first things he looks for. The lids on each container are still sealed, which is good.

Rice is another thing which can keep for a very long time. Unfortunately, the gas station has either never sold rice, or the rice has long since been taken. He does find some matches, though, which is a positive thing. While he can conjure fire wandlessly, it takes a lot of time and concentration.

He wraps the honey containers in newspapers to avoid any unwanted spills in case they break open and places them in his bag. The matches are put in a small front pocket, next to a packet of tomato and bell pepper seeds.

-x-x-x-

Around mid-afternoon, Harry decides it is time to find a place to settle down. He doesn't want to wait until dark, when he would have a hard time seeing properly and might be taken unaware.

He finds a three-story apartment building that looks relatively safe and heads towards it. Crouching down near some rubble behind a trashcan, he picks up a brick and, without standing up, throws it through the entrance. The entrance has a broken door that leads into a shop which takes up all the ground floor.

The brick falls, clattering loudly.

He waits.

After approximately five minutes spent fidgeting impatiently, he concludes that there are no nearby inferi and that he can proceed.

He enters the building and makes his way up, verifying that each room he passes is empty. Before entering a room he waits, listening for any sounds, and after that he opens the door and throws a small object inside. Then he waits and sees if the noise attracted anything. Only after all those precautionary measure does he enter the room and look around, before continuing his sweep of the building.

He does that with every room, without fail.

He can't find a pot, so he acquires an empty aluminium can from the kitchen of one of the abandoned apartments, as well as shattered pieces of wood that might once have been furniture. A chair, perhaps.

Harry brings it all up to the roof, where he starts setting up the wood so that he can light a fire later. He goes back down and out of the building to pick up some stones and bricks from the rubble. They are to be placed around the fire to avoid any risk of it spreading

As a precaution, he sets some traps around the building. Noise traps are the only kind of traps he's good at, so that's the kind of traps he places around the entrance of the building and on its different levels. If anyone or anything comes in, the traps will make noise and alert Harry.

His sense of precaution might seem overly paranoid to most, but since arriving in this strange world he has had far too many close calls and feels that there is no such thing as 'too much caution' anymore. Better safe than sorry, after all.

Harry climbs back up on the roof and blocks the door after him with a metal pipe, for additional security.

The roof is a nice place to be. It's entirely flat, empty, and is surrounded by a small ledge. It also has an excellent view on the street below.

It is a few hours away from sunset, so he lights a fire. He only ever uses fire during the day because it's too visible at night and would point a target on his location.

A makeshift roof has been set over the fire to spread the smoke and make it less visible in the sky. With that and the stones around the fire, Harry is confident that he won't accidentally set himself on fire.

He brings out the aluminium can and smiles reminiscently at the faded Coca Cola label, recalling all those fizzy drinks his cousin used to love, before Harry was on the run from Voldemort, and then stranded in this new world. Harry wonders if the Dursleys even miss him.

Harry uses his pocket knife to cut open the top of the can. He then points a finger at it.

"Aguamenti," he whispers, focusing.

Nothing happens.

He refuses to feel annoyed, and repeats the spell, concentrating on what he wants.

He fails again.

He tries a third time, breathing slowly, and something changes. His state of mind is still mostly the same, but he's feeling a small sense of urgency, which makes a trickle of water appear from his finger and fall down into the can, filling it in a few seconds.

It's one of the spells he's had to learn to perform wandlessly after his wand broke. It takes much longer than he'd like to fill the can wandlessly.

A wand is a tool to sharpen and focus a wizard's power. It helps them transcend their natural capacities. Without his wand, Harry has trouble achieving his usual level of power. That is why it takes so many tries to fill that can with water.

Afterwards, he places the can by the fire and warms the water. Once it is sufficiently hot, he digs through his backpack for the small amount of rice he has left, which he then places into the can to cook.

That evening, his dinner consists of rice and some of his reserves of salted dry meat. To quench his thirst, he drinks from a water bottle, unwilling to drink the conjured water in the Coca Cola can, because the spell doesn't last long enough for the water to stay inside his body.

He remembers Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. It was set in place to stop people from conjuring food and eating it, because conjuration requires a lot of power to be permanent, and it would be a very bad thing if the food disappeared when it has already been digested and is in a wizard's blood. Having parts of your blood disappear is not the best way to go.

He falls asleep on the roof and dreams of home.

-x-x-x-

The next morning, Harry is woken up by the sound of one of his traps being set off. He reaches for his glasses, listening intently. He is still on the roof, and so when he hears the insect-like clicking sound coming from the street beneath, his heart sinks. His fear has come true.

They're here.

As quietly as possible, Harry grabs his pocket knife and leans over the edge of the roof to take a look. It is just as he feared. There are several inferi on the road and unfortunately, they seem pretty intent on entering the building Harry is in.

During the months Harry has been in this world, he's encountered three different kinds of these pseudo-inferi. The first two look relatively human, and it's their erratic behaviour and lack of human intelligence that give their true state away. The third kind is the third stage of the infection. The sickness that creates these creatures is a fungus that perverts the body, and in the third stage, the mushroom takes over to the point that the inferi's head is a mass of misshapen fungal growths. Their eyes are gone and they are blind, but their hearing is unnaturally sharp. They are also stronger and more resilient.

Harry calls them the 'Blind Ones'.

The fungal infection that creates these walking corpses has nothing to do with inferi, but Harry persists in calling these beings inferi because it is the most appropriate term he could think of when he first encountered these creatures.

The inferi beneath him are all Blind Ones—Harry's least favourite kind of enemy. What he can't understand is why they are all forcing their way inside the building Harry chose to settle down in. Blind Ones use sound to orient themselves and Harry hasn't made any sound that could have attracted their attention, so how…?

Oh, Harry thinks. One of those Blind Ones might have been meandering about and probably accidentally bumped into one of Harry's sound traps near the building's entrance. The alarm that woke Harry up is most likely what attracted the large group of Blind Ones.

He made those traps to warn him if an enemy came close, but they have turned against him. The noise has attracted those creatures and now Harry is trapped.

Harry could pick something up and throw it off the roof and onto the street below. The noise would attract the inferi already inside Harry's building and make them go out, which would make Harry's escape easier. But that tactic is too risky—the noise could also attract inferi from elsewhere and leave Harry with more enemies.

Stealth is the best way to get out of this situation.

Harry begins hurriedly packing his backpack with everything he took out of it the day before. Once he is ready to go, he leans over the side of the roof again. He blanches when he realizes that all the Blind Ones have entered his building already. There's no way for him to climb down one of the building's outer walls, which means his only way of escaping is walking down through the building infested with inferi.

For a second, he hesitates to just stay on the roof and wait for them to leave. But even if they do lose interest, there is no guarantee they'd leave. And who knows, if Harry waits, more of them might show up in the meanwhile. That would just make things worse.

Harry breathes in slowly and tries to find the Gryffindor courage he needs. He exhales, his heart calming. He squares his shoulders, and stands up.

He's ready.

He takes off the metal pipe holding shut the door that leads downwards, and opens the door. He breathes. Once. Twice. Thrice. And then he descends into the darkness bellow.

There are no inferi on the top floor. They haven't had the time to climb up there yet. Harry makes his way towards the stairs, but freezes when he hears the distinctive insect-like clicking sound of a Blind One. An inferi is coming up the stairs.

Harry retreats into one of the apartments. He grabs some glass shards from the floor, somehow managing to avoid cutting himself. Once the inferi is close enough, Harry leans out the apartment door and throws the shards into the hall, far away from the stairs and Harry. The Blind One hears that and starts clicking excitedly. It moves at a surprisingly fast pace towards the glass shards Harry has thrown, its arms flailing about in the hopes of hitting the prey it cannot see.

The inferi is isolated from its peers, now. Harry could kill it, but he isn't sure he can do that silently enough to remain undetected by the other inferi downstairs. Blind Ones use their hearing to navigate and hunt, and their hearing is incredibly sharp.

Harry could also walk past the lone inferi, go downstairs and stealthily leave the building. But if he is detected, he would rather not have too many enemies to deal with, which is why it would be best to kill the lone Blind One in front of him.

The inferi in question has stopped in front of the glass shards, moving its arms in large sweeping motions. It is excited, thinking prey is nearby.

It was once a human being, Harry knows, but the fungus has destroyed its brain. Fungal growths are erupting out of its head like tumours, obscuring the eyes and making the head look like an amalgam of repugnant mushrooms.

Without his wand, Harry knows better than to try to use magic for combat. The few spells he can cast wandlessly take too much time and concentration to be effective in a fight, and he needs to say the spell out loud, which the inferi will hear.

He decides to take out his bow and grab an arrow.

Harry used to have a shotgun, but after he ran out of ammunition it became a dead weight and he was forced to leave it behind.

He found the bow and a few arrows in a sports store. After his wand broke, the bow became an important weapon. Unlike the rifle, when he runs out of arrows he can make more using branches that he sharpens and shapes with a knife. They aren't as damaging at the steel-tipped arrows he found in the store, but they do their job.

Harry hasn't got a great aim because of the home-made arrows, especially since he's more used to aiming with a wand. Still, the Blind One is close enough for it to matter very little.

He aims at the body—the largest target, and thus the easiest to hit. He shoots.

The arrow flies and perforates the inferi's body. The creature staggers, but doesn't die. Harry takes out a second arrow just as the Blind One's noise level increases. Harry shoots again. This time, the inferi dies.

Harry rips out the two arrows he used, wincing at the squelching sound he hears. Then, with a sigh, he heads down to kill more inferi.

The second floor only has three Blind Ones. He uses the same technique as before to kill them: He uses noise to isolate a inferi from its friends and then he kills it. He cleans out the second floor stealthily and easily, but it's after that that the problems start.

He goes down to the first floor. Turns 'round a corner and comes face to face with a inferi. Startled, he steps back. Unfortunately, he treads on the broken remains of a porcelain vase. It makes an impossibly loud breaking sound.

The inferi's head snaps up and it gives a loud cry of victory as it moves towards Harry. Panicked, Harry shoots at it, but it's too late. The inferi's loud clicking sound has attracted its friends, who also start clicking noisily, gleeful at having found prey.

Harry picks up the remains of the porcelain vase and throws them far away. Hopefully the distraction will give him a few seconds. Then, giving up on stealth, he runs for the stairs.

He can hear the excited screeching and clicking of the Blind Ones behind him. He can feel himself panicking.

He goes down the stairs in large leaps, nearly twisting an ankle in the process. A Blind One is there to greet him at the end of the staircase. He grabs ahold of the railings and, using his momentum, both his feet lift off the floor to give the inferi a powerful double kick.

It falls over, stunned but alive. Harry jumps over it. He runs into the shop taking up all the ground floor. It is absolutely infested with inferi. All of them are Blind Ones.

They start clicking madly, heading straight for Harry.

Heart beating wildly, Harry dashes out of the shop. At least twelve Blind Ones are tearing after him. He can see that the noise is attracting more inferi from other buildings.

He runs past a gutted lorry, its back doors wide open. An inferi comes running out of the lorry and Harry shouts in surprise. He veers sharply right, nearly getting clipped by a second inferi that has been flanking him. Harry continues running down the street.

His throat is like sandpaper and he can barely breathe. He's always been more of a sprinter than a long-distance runner and it shows.

He puts in another burst of speed, but his body protests. He gasps, wincing in pain. He can hear the excited clicking of the inferi behind him growing louder.

At that moment, there's the sound of a gunshot. One of the inferi behind Harry falls down, presumably dead.

Near the other end of the street, in front of Harry, is a figure with a gas mask, taking cover behind a rusty car.

"This way!" shouts the figure, its voice undeniably male. The person waves Harry over.

Suddenly hopeful again, Harry finds the energy to run faster. Unfortunately, he notices that a Blind One has managed to sneak up behind the shooter. Harry still has his bow in hand, so he throws it at the inferi. It doesn't do any damage whatsoever, but is enough of a distraction for the other man to turn around and shoot the inferi.

"Follow me!" shouts the man, running towards a side-alley.

Harry doesn't question him. He picks his bow up and follows the man. He can hear the sound of the inferi behind them getting louder as the Blind Ones close the gap separating them from their prey.

"Don't touch that line, it's a trap!" shouts the man as they run. He's pointing at two metal boxes fixed to the alley's two opposing walls, both connected by a wire.

The man leans down and passes under the wire. Harry does the same.

They continue their run, but Harry darts a glance back just in time to see a inferi run into the wire, triggering an explosion that kills it instantly.

While the explosion did kill one inferi, there is still an ever increasing horde to deal with. The sounds of the chase attract nearby inferi who arrive and join the crowd eagerly chasing Harry. In other words, the amount of enemies is growing exponentially.

Harry continues running after the man with the gas mask. They reach the end of the alley and emerge in a shopping district. The road is so clogged with rusted cars that it is almost impossible to pass. The man jumps onto the roof of a car and turns to help Harry up.

The next second, the Blind Ones run into the first automobile carcass, the one Harry is standing on. They scratch at the metal, making angry clicking noises. They don't seem to understand they are meant to climb over the obstacle.

The masked man drags Harry by the middle of his shirt and pulls him along like a disobedient child. They make an awful racket as they jump from car to car. The inferi hear it and enter a state of frenzy. They are excited and know their prey is close. One of them manages to climb over the first car, and its brethren follow.

"Goddamn!" swears the masked man.

He turns around and points his gun at an inferi that's too close. He shoots, and the head explodes in a rain of fungal gore. Harry and the masked man reach the end of the cars and jump back down on the pavement.

New inferi were attracted by the noise and have shown up in front of them, blocking their way. The two are trapped.

"Help me clear a way through!" orders the man. He shoots at a few of the inferi, but there are too many of them. He's going to be overwhelmed soon.

They will not make it, especially with the Blind Ones climbing the cars behind them, slowly catching up. Soon Harry and the masked man will be entirely surrounded and helpless. They do not have infinite ammunition, and there are too many enemies for them to defeat. They cannot face all these enemies head on. At the same time, there is no way to avoid a confrontation and escape.

It's time to do something brave and foolish. Something Gryffindor.

Harry places himself in front of the masked man and opens his hand, pointing it at the inferi. It looks like he's gesturing at them to stop. And then, he shouts:

"Bombarda Maxima!"

Performing the spell wandlessly on the first try should have been impossible, but the desperation he feels creates a miracle. The pavement and the inferi are destroyed in an explosion so strong that it sends Harry and his ally flying. Harry falls on his side and gasps for breath, stunned. He looks up and sees the side of a nearby building collapse.

The inferi that were coming from behind have managed to climb over the cars and arrive on the other side. The explosion has confused them—they can't find their prey anymore and are wandering around the site of the explosion, several feet from Harry and the man with the gas mask.

The other man in question seems dazed by the fall, though the mask makes it hard to tell. He stands up, looking at the inferi crowding the explosion site. Staying to avoid the mob's attention, the man points in a different direction than the one he wanted to take before. Since the way he wanted the go has been victim of an explosion and is full of inferi, going elsewhere is best. They leave the scene quietly, escaping the horde of inferi searching for them.

-x-x-x-

The masked man brings Harry to some sort of small warehouse. Once they are inside, the man locks he metal door and takes off his gas mask. He seems to be in his late thirties or early forties, though stress has aged his face in a way that makes it hard to tell. His brown hair is long for a man, barely brushing his shoulders. His cheeks sag a little bit and though he isn't fat, he looks like he could stand to lose some weight. He's also half a head taller than Harry, with broad shoulders and an impressive build. Harry, who is still just a teenager, feels a bit intimidated despite himself.

"Who are you?" asks the man brusquely.

Harry puts down his bow, and then turns towards the man. "My name's Harry." Harry pauses, feeling awkward. Five months with no one to talk to has not done wonders for his social skills. He's also waiting for the muggle to start asking about the spell he'd used, but the expected question hasn't been asked. "Thanks for the help."

"Help?" repeats the man. "I did more than help you. I saved your ass, boy."

Boy? thinks Harry, annoyed. I'm seventeen!

"I'm Bill," the man continues, "and this is my fucking town. Not only did I never allow you to pass through it, you never got permission to set foot here in the first place!" By the time he's finished, his voice has risen significantly.

Harry does not back down. "I didn't know." He doesn't cross his arms or do anything to make him look on the defensive.

Bill scoffs. "Everybody knows this is my town." He looks at Harry, his gaze calculating, and raises his firearm threateningly. "Were ya bitten?" he asks, pointing his weapon at Harry warily.

"What? No!" Harry denies. But the denial comes out too quickly and Bill just looks even more suspicious.

"I don't believe you," says the man. "Strip, or I'll shoot you."

"No," says Harry firmly. He refuses to be that vulnerable in front of someone he doesn't trust.

Bill just looks annoyed. "You'll do as I fucking say," he orders, his voice low and dangerous, "or it'll be your corpse on the floor in ten seconds."

"If I have to prove I wasn't bitten, then you should too."

Bill laughs. "I'm the one with the shotgun, kid. You're not in a position to make any demands."

"I blew those inferi up. I can do the same to you." The threat of magic has always been the best way to make the Dursleys cower, so he feels it's the best thing to do.

Taking a step forward, Bill says with a sarcastic grin, "A pet name for the Infected? How cute." He abruptly goes back to being serious. "I can shoot faster than you can set up explosives, so strip. Now."

Harry blinks, surprised. Has the man not realized Harry used magic to blow up those inferi?

"Now!" yells the man.

Thinking furiously, Harry starts slowly talking off his backpack. He needs a plan.

"Immobulus," he whispers.

It doesn't work.

Bill is getting visibly impatient, so Harry speeds up and starts taking off his jacket.

"Immobulus," he whispers again, focusing intently on the man in front of him. He feels something inside of him, but it dies down before it can do anything.

He sets his jacket down, and says the incantation of the Freezing Charm once more:

"Immobulus!"

It was too loud, and Bill aims his shotgun, but the spell hits him before he can fire. He falls down, all of his body unmoving save his eyes.

"I'm sorry," says Harry as he crouches down near the immobilized Bill. He takes away the shotgun and searches through the man's pockets for any hidden weapons.

As it was done wandlessly, the spell freezing Bill in place won't last very long. Harry could tie him up to keep him in place, but he feels that that would be going too far. After all, Bill did not do anything wrong. He was justified in asking Harry to strip, as Harry could have been hiding an infected bite. Still, Harry feels that his use of magic is justified, too. He isn't a prude, but there are some things he is not willing to do, even to prove he has not been bitten.

"I'm sorry," he repeats after thoroughly disarming Bill. "I didn't know what to do. I froze you because I didn't know what else I could do without being shot."

Bill will undoubtedly be very angry when the effects of the spell wear off, so Harry thinks it best to explain his actions while he still can and hope the man will be understanding. "I'm fine with quarantine to prove I'm not bitten, but I refuse to strip. I would rather not be naked in front of a strange man I barely know. I hope you understand."

Bill's eyes are moving around wildly. He is obviously either panicked or angry at the loss of control over his own body.

"It will wear off soon," Harry reassures. He sits down near a stack of magazines. "I'll just wait here until you can move again, and then we'll talk."

He could leave and continue on his way, but he doesn't. Bill has saved his life and does not seem to have bad intentions. Additionally, if Harry leaves, then Bill will be left defenseless until the spell wears off. Something could happen and Harry does not want that guilt on his conscience.

He waits.

And he waits some more.

Ten minutes pass and Harry begins to feel impatient.

Bill stays immobilized exactly twenty-one minutes before regaining his mobility. The man rises, holding his head. He did not fall painlessly. His head hit the floor and though there's no blood, Harry can guess the man has a large bump on his head.

"Well," says Bill, looking at Harry warily, "that's somethin' I never saw before. What was it? Some sort of freakish hypnosis trick?"

Harry tries to stay unmoved when he hears the word 'freakish'. Life with the Dursleys has conditioned him to feel anger whenever he hears that word, but anger will not do him much good in his present situation.

"Magic," is what Harry answers.

Bill snorts and his expression, which was until now tense and unhappy, lightens up with amusement. "Sure it is, kiddo."

Bill's previous use of the word 'freakish', as well as the condescending tone he has just used, makes Harry forget about his decision to curb his anger for the sake of civility towards the one who has saved him. Bill's dismissal chafes and he wants to do something to change the man's opinion.

Harry can think of one spell he can get right wandlessly on the first try. He's had to use it so much that is has become second nature. He points his hand at his bow on the ground and says:

"Wingardium Leviosa."

The bow rises up in the air.

Bill's flabbergasted expression is priceless.

Harry knows it isn't smart to show off his magic. While the ministry of magic doesn't exist here and won't punish him for his actions, the law forbidding wizards from using magic in front of muggles is there for a very good reason. Muggles are human beings, and humans are greedy. If muggles are made aware of the existence of magic, they'd want demonstrations and magical solutions to all their problems. They'd also want to study magic, poke and prod at it in order to restrict it under rules of science and logic.

Harry is alone. He doesn't have Ron or Hermione with him. When he sleeps, he's vulnerable. If muggles are made aware of his magic, then they can easily get to Harry while he sleeps.

Five months ago when he arrived to this world, Harry decided that despite the lack of a ministry to punish him for performing magical feats in front of a muggle, he would follow that law as well as he could and only break it in case of mortal danger. And today, he broke that promise made to himself by performing magic just so Bill would stop being condescending. Harry feels dumb.

The first two spells Harry used were believed to be pre-set explosives and hypnosis, respectively. He could have gotten away with it without revealing himself to be a wizard. Bill's demeaning attitude blinded Harry with anger and made him forget all sense of caution.

Bill is poking the bow, trying to find a hidden string that might be holding the object up.

"Well I'll be damned. How…?" asks the man, fascinated. His gruff ways have softened in favor of wonder and awe.

Harry decides that honestly is the best thing to use.

"I'm a wizard. It's a family thing. All my family hid from normal people and when the inferi showed up, most of them died. I've been travelling alone for a few months now."

"Infected," says Bill.

"I'm sorry?"

"They're called 'Infected', not 'inferi'. Some people who lost family and friends might get offended that you're giving those creatures fuckin' nicknames."

So far Harry hasn't met any other humans in this world so nobody was there to tell him that. He has been calling those creatures names he felt are most appropriate.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I didn't know."

Snorting, Bill claps Harry on the shoulder, the strength of it making the boy stagger. "No shit. You didn't know this is my town, didn't know how to avoid Clickers… There are a lot of things you don't know."

Bill ruffles Harry's hair. Harry refrains from scowling at the gesture, since it means that Bill is easing up and trusts him more. Instead, Harry asks:

"What're Clickers? Are they the Blind Ones that were following us?"

Bill shakes his head in disbelief. "What kind of rock you been hidin' under, magic-boy? Clickers are the ones that look somewhat normal from the neck down, but have the fuckin' Cordyceps mushroom growing out of their head. They're nasty and I'm just happy they're blind, or fighting them would be a nightmare." Bill looks straight at Harry. "So what were you doin' in my town in the first place?"

Unfazed by he subject change, Harry says:

"Surviving, just like everyone else. I wanted to pass through the town and continue on my way."

"You going anywhere in particular?"

Harry shakes his head. "No."

Bill pauses, looking intently at Harry. He then nods to himself, having seemingly found whatever he was looking for. "Then stay. I could teach you what you need to know so you won't get a horde of thirty Clickers after you again. I also have food and supplies. In exchange, you could use some of your magic to help me around town. Explosions and levitation and shit could be real useful. Whatcha say? Mutually beneficial relationship."

Harry's five months of loneliness and hardship make the decision obvious. "Sure."

And if the man turns out to be untrustworthy, then Harry will make him regret it.