The obscurus searched for the highest concentration of magicals above Paris streets. If he focused on his soul vision, he could see faint-colored souls—more like transparent. Those faint souls floated without a body. He floated through the faint souls. He guessed the magicals were in the same location but in a separate dimension. He tried to eat them, but he just passed through them. He would need to research more on the subject.

On his side, where the souls had their bodies, the varied intensity of grayish-colored souls and some magical souls were seen aside from muggle ones. Muggles were the most numerous, squibs were second, and magicals were the least. He could barely see any magical on the muggle side of things. More than half of those magicals were children or teenagers, possibly muggle-born. He lands behind a teenage wizard and assumes Harry's body. "'Scuse me," the Obscurus said.

"Hua!" shouted the teen in surprise. "Ah, gamin. Tu m'as fait peur là."¹"Oh, kid. You scared me there."

"Do you know where the entrance to magical Paris is? I know it's a statue of a lady, but I'm lost."

"Attendre maman pendant une heure et maintenant un gosse perdu arrive,"²"Waiting for mom for an hour and now a lost kid is coming," grumbled the teen. "Alright, so see that end of the road there?" The teen pointed at it. The obscurus nodded. "That's pas³not the way there."

The obscurus had taken a step there before he heard a mumbled, "gamin stupide"⁴"stupid kid" from the teen. The obscurus may not understand French, but he knows that the word "stupide" in French means "stupid" in English. It didn't take much brainpower to decipher the word. "What was that?" said the obscurus with an annoyed face.

"Rien!"⁵"Nothing!" said the teen, surprised that the brat had heard him.

"Maxi!" shouted a woman from the entrance of a fashion store. "Te voilà. Qui pourrait être ce garçon?"⁶"There you are. Who could this boy be?"

The teen said, "Il ne connaît pas la langue française."⁷"He does not know the French language."

"Pardon.⁸Sorry. Who might you be?"

"Um… do you know where the entrance to magical Paris is?" the obscurus asked. "He said it's over there." He pointed to the end of the road the teen had pointed to. "But… but then he called me 'Gamin stupide'⁹'stupid kid', so… so…" He cried, a tear rolling down his cheek.

The woman bought the act and tried to comfort the Obscurus by hugging him. "Là là.¹⁰There there. I'm sure Maxi doesn't mean it. Pas vrai Maxi?¹¹Right Maxi?"

In an act of childishness, the obscurus stuck out his tongue at the teen. The teen could only answer, "Oui,"¹²"Yes," to her mother's question. A burning gaze pierced the obscurus, of course.

The woman let go of her hug, but her hands still sat on his shoulders. "If you don't mind me asking, why are your eyes black?"

Good question. Out of all the alterations he could manifest when in charge of the body, only the eyes could differentiate them. "Uh, um. My parents told me the creature blood in me is strong." Does this universe have creature inheritance? "Or was it creature inheritance? I don't 'member." He rubbed the back of his head.

The teen stands straight, and his eyes widen, then relax back. "Oh? What créature then? Phénix?¹³Phoenix?"

"Maxie, ne sois pas impoli,"¹⁴"Maxie, don't be rude," reprimanded the woman, who then looked back at Harry. "You're heading to Paris' magical side, right? Come with us. We're heading there too."

Great. A stranger asked to travel with them. This would be dubious if only he wasn't some kind of creature with a possible XXXXX classification that had destroyed houses and a school. Definitely not. The teen guessed his form was a phoenix. That would be a reasonable guess. Dark phoenixes were the most likely to match an obscurus' darkness. Do dark phoenixes exist? He only knew one normal phoenix in Harry Potter. If he were to expose his obscurus form, he would need to check the acceptance of an obscurus. Probably none, as the last known one had wrecked New York and exposed the statute of secrecy. Anyway, he nodded at the woman.

"Très bien,"¹⁵"Alright," said the woman. She turned to the road and yelled, "Taxi!" She waved at the nearest one.

The taxi stopped. The teen took the seat beside the driver, the woman was seated in the seat behind the driver, while he took the seat behind the teen.

"Où aller vous, mademoiselle?"¹⁶"Where are you going, miss?" asked the taxi driver, checking the rear mirror.

"La jonction de la rue Richer et de la rue Girardon.¹⁷"The junction of rue Richer and rue Girardon."" said the woman.

"Ah, la statue de la Pythie?"¹⁸"Ah, the statue of the Pythia?" said the taxi driver. He turned the steering wheel and drove along the road. "L'endroit est vide à cette période de l'année. Les gens y vont surtout avec leurs enfants en septembre et en mars, surtout le lendemain de la fin des vacances scolaires. Je n'ai aucune idée de l'attrait d'une statue en bronze—une perte de temps à mon avis."¹⁹"The place is empty at this time of year. People mostly go there with their kids in September and March, especially the day after the school holidays end. I have no idea how attractive a bronze statue is—a waste of time in my opinion."

"Oui, oui."²⁰"Yes, yes." said the woman.

The obscurus blanked out from the one-sided conversation and let Harry take over. Harry had annoyed him ever since the car was moving. Harry wanted to sight see Paris and its unique building style from the car's window. Even though they were on top of Paris not so long ago. The taxi driver kept chatting throughout the ride, even if the woman's answer was "Oui"²¹"Yes" or "Non"²²"No".

"We're here." The woman touched Harry's shoulder. The sudden touch was too much for Harry. A scream would've filled the taxi if not for the Obscurus' quick takeover. Harry instead panicked inside their mind. While the teen and the woman pay and get out of the taxi, the Obscurus reassures Harry.

The taxi drove off, and with that, a bronze statue of a lady sitting on a pedestal was seen. "That's the Pythia, the entrance to Place Cachée." The obscurus saw people stepping in and out of the statue's pedestal. He wondered how the heck were muggles oblivious to the disappearance of people into a pedestal. Magic, of course, he knows. The how eluded him. Harry and he needed a dive into a pool of books.

The woman looked around to see if anyone was watching them when they were beside the statue. She didn't find any and walked into the pedestal, then the teen, then the obscurus. Unlike the woman, both the teen, and he didn't care about muggles viewing their disappearance act. Whoever made the entrance better accounts for that.

"Welcome to Place Cachée. So, where to? I hope your parents are already here," said the woman. She grumbled the next bit, "Laisser son enfant comme ça, c'est irresponsable.²³Leaving your child like that is irresponsible."

Well, how boring. Both worlds had the same buildings, unlike Diagon Alley. He guessed that was because Diagon Alley was smack-dabbed between muggle buildings, thus they had eccentric building styles. In contrast, Place Cachée was integrated with the muggle side, thus they couldn't build any… gravity-defying buildings. Why they don't just create their own magical city in the middle of nowhere, he has no idea. Magicians likely let muggles build the building on the muggle side, and it will show up on both sides. Lazy arse magicals.

The snapping of fingers snaps him back to reality. The woman really needed a better way to get him out of his thoughts. "Wha'?" said the obscurus uncomitedly.

"Where to?" The woman repeated her question.

"Hm? Oh, Gringotts. We need some money," answered the obscurus.

"Follow me. Gringotts is just at the end of the street." The woman walked there without waiting for the obscurus' response. The obscurus and the teen accompanied the woman to Gringott Bank entrance.

Gringotts Bank's entrance was a plain building, like the rest of the buildings beside it. However, it was manned by two goblin guards wearing scarlet and gold uniforms. A warning message was engraved on the silver door. A warning that you should never steal from them.

The woman got in, followed by the teen. The obscurus and Harry stood a bit closer to the goblin guards to get a clearer view before entering. They were the first magical creatures they met. When close enough, the goblin glared sharply at them. They entered Gringotts after that.

RevonZev

I don't know whether to put a translation of the French, like: "mot" (word); or not. Like, I'm emulating the annoyance of the MC and Harry not understanding French (to you, the reader ;v).

Edited on July 22, 2023. French fixes by chay and added the English translation in the footnotes by bookw0rm tip.