"Qui es-tu? Un voleur? Un enfant sans abri?"¹"Who are you? A thief? A homeless child?" The voice of a stranger drew them out of their world and alerted them. The stranger stood at the door between the showcase room and the kitchen. The stranger wore what a chef would wear, all in white, along with a coal-black apron. His sleeves were folded, showing the wristwatch in his left hand.

The Obscurus took over. To escape the bakery, he turned all the pastries into a shapeless black mass along with their body. The mass swirled in and around itself before engulfing the baker. The double glass door blasted across the street. He saw several people outside preparing their shops for the day. He flew into the morning sky and turned invisible.

The baker stepped outside and said in disbelief, "Merde."²"Shit."

The obscurus needed to know where in the world he flew to. Usually, towns and cities had those "welcome to [insert name here]" signs. Where the sign was located he had no idea. He could just ask the locals. Hopefully, they know English.

But first, he grabbed a newspaper in midair, thrown by a paperboy. He couldn't understand the newspaper. Let's see, "Les congés forcés,"³"Forced leave," he read the headline. Something about Congo's forces? 'Date, date, where's the date? Ah, there it is. 15 Octobre⁴October 1987.' Got the date and now to find the location. He turned the page to, what he guessed, the job list. Rouen, Troyes, Blois, Versailles; not a location he knew. Wait… there, Paris. 'Ah, Paris, who doesn't know which country it's in?' He threw away the newspaper.

Great. Where in France exactly? He gathered into Harry's body and walked to the nearest local. How should he act? This was his first interaction, besides Harry's chatter. Boyish? Cutesy? Fearful? Like a lost puppy? Let's try a lost puppy act. The woman stood near a vegetable stall, negotiating a price for several tomatoes, cabbages, and onions. He tugged on the woman's jacket and said, "Um, excuse me."

The woman turned to him and bowed down, so she could look at him eye to eye, the annoyance of a child's body. "Bonjour, tu es perdu?"⁵"Hello, are you lost?" said the woman. She glanced around to see if anyone looked like a parent who had lost their child but couldn't find any. "Où sont tes parents?"⁶"Where are your parents?"

"Uh, um, what?" said the Obscurus. He tilted his head in a universal sign of cluelessness. He truly doesn't understand French. Bilingual, yes, but not French.

"Pardon⁷Sorry, heu… w'ere are your… um… parent'? Parent'. W'ere are your parent'?" said the lady.

The Obscurus swiveled on his feet, pretending to search for his parents. In their thoughts, Harry said with sorrow, 'My parents… they've passed away. Aunt Petunia said they died in a drunken car crash.'

Does Harry know he searched for a random pedestrian as their fake parent? 'A fake parent, Harry. Besides, your parents didn't die fro-'

'THEY DIDN'T?' Harry cheered in their minds.

'No, no. They died -' The obscurus hastily corrected.

'Oh.' The obscurus felt Harry slumped.

'- but not from a car crash.'

'Then, then, what did they die from?'

'From a snake-faced maniac who half-heard a prophecy before you were even born.'

'Prophecy?' He remembered an instance where Dudley watched a magic show on the telly, the prophet laid cards and told the future based on what cards someone chose. Until Uncle Vernon caught wind of it and turned it into a more "friendly" channel, a boxing match.

The obscurus saw Harry's memory. The set of cards was familiar. 'Those are Tarot cards.'

'Can I learn them?'

The obscurus recalls how pants Harry was at divination. 'I don't think you have the talent for it. Besides, you wouldn't want to hear how you die, would yo-'

A woman's voice interrupted their inner chat. "Es-tu là?⁸Are you there? Um… are you t'ere?" She snapped her fingers in front of his face. Rude. Right, he was searching for his nonexistent parents.

He pointed to a man who sat in the café's front, drinking a cup of coffee. "Papa."

"Do you need a 'and… um… traversée⁹crossing 'treet?"

He nodded and asked with his hands folded behind his back, "What's the town's name?"

"Le nom de la ville?¹⁰The name of the town? Dieppe. The town name iz Dieppe."

"Thank you."

"Je t'en prie.¹¹you're welcome. I 'elp you traverser¹²cross 'treet after I payé¹³pay." The woman stood and turned her attention to the stall lady. "Combien?"¹⁴"How much?"

"14 francs 20 centimes, madame," said the stand lady with a smile.

The woman turned to face the boy again. "Bon, on va te ramener à ton… papa…"¹⁵"Okay, we'll take you back to your…dad…" Except, there was no boy. The boy was missing. The woman spun, looking for the boy she had talked to. No boy wore circular glasses, oversized clothes, and had nest hair in her vicinity. She crossed the street and asked the boy's father if he had lost a son. He had, but that was when his son served this country and died for it. The man's wife grieved, grew depressed, and sought her son. That was the story the woman heard while enjoying a Gini. They met again the next day and so on until they married and lived happily ever after… or not.

~ oOo ~

The Obscurus stole a map from a stall near a tourist attraction castle to know the town's location in France. He sat on a bench in Harry's body. He saw a handful of gray-colored souls, but no colored souls meandering down the walkway. Either magicals hid better in France or none reside in Dieppe. Most likely the former. The only entrance he knew to France's magical side was a woman statue somewhere in Paris. He noted where Paris was on the map, southeast of Dieppe. He took flight in his obscurus form—He ignored a yelp from a kid who sat on the same bench as him—then turned invisible and set course for Paris.

~ oOo ~

The first spot he went to when he arrived in Paris was its renowned icon, the Eiffel Tower. A half-scared Harry perched on the Eiffel Tower's antenna. The obscurus landed there because he wanted the most impressive view in Paris. Right, half-scared Harry. Harry was afraid of merging with the ground if he fell. Harry knew they could fly, but that was when the creature was in control. Now that Harry was on the antenna's ledge, he felt nauseated. The view was wonderful, Harry admitted. Nauseating but wonderful.

The obscurus splayed pastries he stole and let Harry eat lunch. God knows the boy hasn't eaten enough. He had also stolen orange juice from some town called Gaillon on the way to Paris.

Harry continued their chat from their flight to Paris. They had chatted about wands and staves, starting with 'Do wizards use wands?' to 'What if the wand breaks?' Now, their chat had turned to magical beasts from Harry's simple question of 'Wands have cores?' And now he was weighing whether to answer, 'How do baby Griffins born?' Yeah, no. Oh, right. Harry would need "the talk" in the future. Bloody hell.

"Hé, gamin, comment es-tu arrivé là!? C'est dangereux, descends ici!"¹⁶"Hey, kid, how did you get here!? It's dangerous, get down here!" shouted a man down the top floor.

Oh! Good! A distraction! The obscurus took control. After grabbing a couple of the uneaten pastries, he turned into an obscurus. He passed the entire Eiffel Tower through its iron gaps. The obscurus encompass the man and tourists on the way down. He doesn't need to think about if he collides with them as his strands and wisps flow around them. Once he hit the floor, he turned invisible. Now, to search for that statue lady.

RevonZev

A'ight, majority votes go for longer chapters but only a chapter a week.

Beta read by Nasu954! The same one who translated this fic into Spanish on Wattpad.

Edited on July 22, 2023. Added the English translation in the footnotes.