1990, London
London in December was always like this, the sky so densely cloudy that it overwhelmed any hint of sunlight, creating a continuous twilight that seemed as though it would never yield to brighter days.
The air drooped heavy with moisture, the kind that seeped into one's bones rather than falling properly as rain like a fine mist that somehow managed to soak everything despite its lightness.
At this particular moment, Harry Potter's mood was just as terrible as the weather.
He stood reluctantly under the shelter of the porch at Number 4 Privet Drive, his thin shoulders were hunched against the chill, gazing out at the gloomy landscape of identical suburban homes being slowly enveloped by the encroaching winter evening.
The streetlights had just begun to flicker on, creating hazy halos in the thickening mist. Harry exhaled slowly and his breath formed a small cloud that dissipated into the damp air.
"Get going, boy!" Uncle Vernon's impatient voice rumbled from the living room, the harsh tone coming through the quiet patter of rain.
"Dudley says he wants chocolate, so you have to go buy it. Don't dawdle!" There was a pause, and Harry could almost picture his uncle's piggy eyes narrowing as he glanced toward the window. "An umbrella... never mind, the rain's so light, I don't think you need one,"
With resigned understanding, Harry tightened the oversized jacket around his thin body which was yet another hand-me-down from his fat cousin Dudley.
He stepped off the porch and into the drizzle, the chill immediately seeped through the thin cloth of his trainers—also Dudley's castoffs, with the soles starting to separate at the toes and providing little protection.
For Harry, such treatment was nothing new or surprising; his position in the Dursley household had always been that of an unwelcome burden, tolerated but never embraced, provided for with the barest minimum of consideration.
The mist quickly transformed into droplets that clung to his glasses, obscuring his vision. Harry removed them briefly, wiping the lenses on the least damp portion of his jacket before replacing them.
Head bowed against the weather, He walked quickly along the sidewalk, walking by memory more than sight as the street lamps appeared and disappeared like ghosts in the mixture of rain and evening fog.
Fortunately, the convenience store wasn't far—even for a small, undernourished ten-year-old like Harry, it wouldn't require much time to reach his destination.
The Dursleys wouldn't have sent him otherwise; their neglect had boundaries, carefully calculated to avoid drawing unwanted attention from neighbors or authorities.
As the illuminated outline of the convenience store gradually appeared through the gloom, something unexpected caught Harry's attention. He slowed down his pace, squinting through rain-speckled glasses and his eyebrow furrowed in confusion.
"When did a shop open here?" he murmured to himself, coming to a complete stop.
Beside the familiar convenience store which had been the only business on this area of road for as long as Harry could remember, somehow a new building had appeared.
"Sunshine, Daisies, and Butter Mellow?" Harry read aloud from the wooden sign hanging above the door. He tilted his head slightly, thinking what sort of shop it might be. The whimsical name suggested perhaps a flower shop, or maybe a bakery of some kind?
Curious despite his errand, Harry approached cautiously, peering through the rain-splashed window at the display.
The interior was dimly lit with a warm glow that contrasted pleasantly with the gray world outside. The window display contained what appeared to be ordinary potted plants.
'Probably just a regular plant and flower shop, nothing special about it,'
Harry concluded silently, preparing to continue on his assigned errand before Uncle Vernon's impatience could evolve into genuine anger at his lateness.
Just as he was about to turn away, something caught his eye—
'Wait!'
A cactus in the middle caught Harry's attention.
Under Harry's gaze, the cactus began to twist and move, almost as if it were dancing.
'Is this... a new species?' Harry wondered silently, his breath fogging the window glass as he leaned closer. 'Or maybe some kind of mechanical display toy?'
Driven by curiosity that momentarily overpowered both his errand and his usual caution, Harry stepped toward the shop door and slowly pushed it open.
The interior looked like an ordinary plant shop.
Shelves were filled with various plants and flowers, and the air was filled with the scent of soil.
Several empty landscape paintings hung on the walls. Harry thought absently that they might look better with some people or animals in them, as the vacant meadows, forests, and lakesides seemed eerily abandoned.
What surprised him even more was what stood in the center of the shop—a door.
Not connected to any wall, not leading anywhere, just a door, standing freely in the middle of the room like some bizarre art installation.
It seemed somewhat eerie.
The door looked rather old, with cracks already appearing in the wooden panels. The doorknob was made of copper and had turned slightly green with age.
Harry approached the door out of curiosity, and unconsciously touched the handle.
'Who would put such a door here?' he wondered.
At that moment, something unexpected happened.
A vine suddenly extended from the gap in the door and quickly wrapped around Harry's wrist.
Before he could react, more vines surged out from inside the door, coiling around his body like snakes.
"Ah!"
Harry cried out, trying to break free, but the vines were surprisingly strong.
He was violently pulled toward the door.
"No! Let go of me!"
Harry struggled, but the vines mercilessly dragged him inside the door.
Inside Westeros's Plantation
This was Adrian Westeros's first and largest greenhouse, where he mainly cultivated common magical potion ingredients.
Adrian Westeros looked at the boy in front of him and twitched his lips.
He had just gone to Diagon Alley to buy some dittany seeds, and upon returning, found a child caught by his security system—Devil's Snare.
'Probably a child of some nearby wizard who had wandered off to play,' Adrian thought. Some wizard families were immorally lax about supervising their children, in his opinion, especially given the current era's relative peace.
"Kids these days..." Adrian sighed, shaking his head slightly, "are too mischievous for their own good."
Noticing Harry's nervous expression, Adrian softened slightly. He walked forward and reached out to gently pat one of the larger vines that had wrapped around Harry's chest.
"Release him, please,"
Upon receiving Adrian's command, the Devil's Snare released Harry and even nuzzled Adrian's face with its vines.
"Alright, alright, go back now," Adrian pushed away the Devil's Snare, smiling at it. "Good job on security, though. Very diligent."
After receiving this praise, the Devil's Snare rippled in what Harry could only interpret as pleasure. It waved its vines in a manner unusually similar to a person waving goodbye, then slowly retreated back.
Only after the plant had fully withdrawn did Adrian turn his attention to the still-anxious Harry. He narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at the boy.
"Whose child are you?" Adrian asked in a calm tone.
Harry swallowed, his fingers unconsciously twisting together.
He seemed to have come to an extraordinary place, and the man in front of him was clearly not an ordinary person—he could control those terrifying vines and make them obey his commands.
But Harry wasn't afraid.
Because he sensed a kind of gentleness and kindness from the man in front of him.
"I'm sorry, sir," Harry replied cautiously, trying to keep his voice steady. "I saw the shop door open, came in to look around, and then those vines grabbed me. I didn't mean to trespass." He added the last part quickly.
Adrian nodded thoughtfully, not particularly surprised by Harry's explanation. Muggles shouldn't have been able to see his shop at all due to the enchantments he'd placed, but wizard children were notoriously curious and often managed to find their way into places they shouldn't.
Harry's wet hair was now stuck to his forehead, his glasses were a little crooked, looking rather disheveled and nervous.
"That's alright, child," Adrian assured him with a small smile. "That was my Devil's Snare—it catches wizards who wander in here by mistake."
As he spoke, Adrian pulled a wand from his robe pocket and waved it at Harry.
The rain water disappeared from Harry's clothes, and his hair was no longer wet.
"Wizards?" Harry was attracted by the word 'wizard' from Adrian's mouth. "What are those?"
'Hmm?'
Now it was Adrian's turn to be confused. His eyebrows drew together as he looked at Harry with confusion.
'Could it be that this child was a Muggle?' He wondered silently. 'But Muggles couldn't possibly see my shop, let alone enter it. The Muggle-repelling charms shouldn't have failed.'
While Adrian was doubting his own spellwork, Harry decided to give more information, hoping it might help clarify the strange situation.
"My name is Harry Potter, I live nearby in Privet Drive, with my aunt and uncle and cousin."
Hearing Harry's words, Adrian froze, his train of thought were derailed completely.
"Harry... Potter..."
He murmured, as old memories began to surface.
So much time had passed, so many years of building his life in this world—that he had almost forgotten the most extraordinary aspect of his existence: that he had transmigrated into the Wizarding World, or more specifically, into the World of Harry Potter.
Adrian's mind raced backward through time. He had transmigrated in 1965, appearing in this world as a newborn infant in an ordinary Muggle family. Initially, he had thought it was just an ordinary transmigration into another reality, albeit one very similar to his original world—until he received his Hogwarts acceptance letter at the age of eleven.
Only then did he realize, he had come to the Harry Potter world, though calculating the timing, he seemed to have arrived a bit earlier than the main story events, as the protagonist hadn't even been born yet.
Adrian had happily accepted his transmigration with enthusiasm after the initial shock. After all, who wouldn't long for magic and the wonders of the wizarding world? What reader hadn't dreamed of receiving their own Hogwarts letter?
At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Adrian was an excellent student. However, he had made a mindful decision to avoid drawing too much attention to himself. His arrival at the school had overlapped with Voldemort's first rise to power, when the wizarding world was becoming increasingly dangerous for those of Muggle background.
After all, during that turbulent time, students like Adrian from Muggle families were prime targets for the growing blood-purist movement.
However, his student years passed without incident, and Voldemort fell just as he was about to graduate.
After completing his education, freed from the restraints of wartime caution and having a complete magical education, Adrian went on a journey around the wizarding world.
For six full years, he had traveled abroad, studying regional magical plants in the Amazon rainforest, investigating magical herb lore in North Africa, and collecting rare specimens from magical communities around the globe.
Only two years ago had he finally returned to London.
Throughout all these experiences and adventures, Adrian had largely forgotten the specific plot details of the Harry Potter story he had read in his previous life.
That's why he hadn't immediately recognized the protagonist standing before him.
After completing this mental journey through his own history, Adrian looked again at the child and realized that he did indeed match the vague image Adrian still retained of Harry Potter from his original world—messy black hair, deep green eyes, and most importantly, a lightning-shaped scar partially visible beneath the hair on his forehead.
'Could this truly be a simple coincidence?' Adrian couldn't help but wonder.
When he returned to England, he had just chosen a random Muggle neighborhood to settle in, never expecting he would select the neighborhood where Harry Potter lived.