First Blood

Looking at the abandoned building, Harry was stumped and had no idea what he was supposed to do.

He was far from home with nothing but a magical wand.

No, that's not right. It was not a simple magical wand. If his memory was right, now he was not a muggle or ordinary people, but magical wizard!

Harry Barnes was ordinary people when he was born and had an ordinary family, got an ordinary job and he also could foresee that he will have an ordinary end just like others millions of people in the world. But right now he was pretty sure that his life would be far from simple and ordinary!

But he need to survive first. Harry mused as he patted himself while observed the ominous place around him.

"I had a bad feeling about this place, but I can't stay here either... sooner or later I need to find shelter and food." He sighed and decided to patrol the nearby buildings.

The building in front of him is covered in dirt and some parts were wrecked.

Harry only walked a few steps before suddenly halted his step.

He felt a chill when he saw a person wobbling out from the dilapidated building.

No, It can't be called person anymore at this point.

The thing only had one ear and some of his face are rotten. It's munching some kind of meat with its jagged teeth.

"What the hell is that?!" He exclaimed silently. It's his first time seeing something so scary and disgusting.

He then searched Harry Potter's memory of the disgusting creature in front of him but drew blank. There are some undead creatures in his memory but none of them were similar to this one.

"A new species? somehow the possibility that I am still on earth is getting lower and lower." He mumbled, "Maybe this place is Hell."

But he immediately shook his head. It's unlikely for him to be in the afterlife, the buildings are from modern civilization, no different than his previous world but more dirty, empty and somewhat apocalyptic.

Furthermore why the need to put him inside a stranger's body and not his own? He never heard of any religion that did something like that in the afterlife. it doesn't make sense.

He was in some kind of abandoned town or city?

There's also no sign of people whatsoever.

No people means no food and water. And there's a monstrous creature in front of him.

He's done for!

"Wait, I am no longer just mere human, an ordinary salaryman. Now, I am the famous Harry Potter. I am sure everything will be alright..."

"...I hope."

After encouraging himself, he focused his attention on the creature as it wobbled toward him.

It doesn't seem like the creature saw him, but it's a fact that the zombie is getting closer to him.

"Could it be a coincidence?"

Harry reached into his robe and traced the wand with his fingers. His heart calmed down a bit as he felt the slim instrument against his palm.

It's normal for anxious people to reach out for protection if they feel unsafe and threatened. Weapon also one form of protection, but holding the wand made him feel safer than holding a gun.

He walked behind the wall and observed the creature. As it get closer, he started to search his memory of the other Harry for some magic trick that might be useful in this situation.

It took him five seconds before he decided to cast a simple and crucial thing a wizard must do in the open and dangerous world.

Without hesitation, Harry cast Disillusionment Charm on himself to prevent others from noticing him. He twirl the wand in his right hand around himself as though he was wrapping a rope around his body.

Under his amazed eyes, his body started to turn invisible to the naked eyes!

'Wait, that's not right. According to Harry Potter's memory, this is not an invisibility spell.' Harry looked at his body thoughtfully for a moment.

He then nodded, "Ah, it's not invisible alright. My body had simply taken on the exact color and texture of the place around me. This is unexpectedly amazing!"

"With this, I would be able to get closer to the creature without being noticed." He smiled.

But suddenly his smile froze as the creature started to sprint in his direction with speed unbecoming for a mere zombie.

"What! how could zombie move that fast?!" Harry was shocked. He swiped his wand from the holster and flicked the wand to the side.

Following the movement of his wand, the creature also thrown out violently toward the building beside it at surprising speed just like a puppet pulled by the strings.

Bam~!

"Roar!" The creature growl in pain as it crashed against the wall.

But it immediately stood up from the ground and wobbled slowly toward him, losing its absurd speed.

"As expected of zombie..." He frowned, "But, how did the zombie managed to find me in the first place?"

"...I had Disillusionment Charm in place, so... there's a high possibility that it was the smell that attract it to me."

"I better take care of this thing first before the others come running to this place." Harry pointed his wand at the approaching zombie. But before Harry had the chance to do anything, it started sprinting like a sport star in zig-zag pattern toward his direction.

It's trying to evade his spell?!

"Heh! cunning bastard," He raised the corner of his mouth in amusement and whispered, "Alarte Ascendare!"

A transparent line of white light shot out from the tip of the wand and hit its chest.

Before the zombie could react, it immediately shoot out high into the air with a blank face. It had no idea what hit him.

As the zombie reached 20 meters high, it loses the momentum and started to fall under his expectant gaze.

Splat~~

The zombie stopped moving as its limbs were mangled and bent in different directions.

But a moment later it started to twitch and crawled using its mangled hands and legs.

"The hell... it's more resilience than a cockroach." Harry mumbled in disgust.

As he watched the crawling zombie headed toward him, Harry started to wonder about the origin of the zombie.

Where did the Zombie come from?

Is it Virus, plague or supernatural?

How did it spread?

Where are the other people?

Is there even any survivor?

There are many things he needs to know, but the most important thing is he need to find out how the zombie was created. Otherwise, he only had himself to blame if he gets infected with a zombie's virus without him knowing.

With that in mind, he steeled his mind and approached the crawling zombie with his wand drawn.

But when he got closer to the zombie he hesitated and stopped midway, the mangled zombie looks creepy and disgusting and the smell made him want to puke.

He planned to read the zombie's memory but started to wonder whether it's a good idea or not.

What if the zombie bite him when he tried to read it's memory?

He need to stop the zombie from moving, so he started to search the right spell to do the job. It takes some time because there're plenty of spells that could stop the target movement and action.

"Hmm, let's just use the Freezing Charm."

"Immobulus!"

Shua~

Blue light flashed and the zombie stopped it's movement as though it was dead. But on closer look, he could see ferocity in its eyes.

Harry approached the zombie and nudge the head with the sole of his boot. He saw the insanity brewing inside as though it was angry by his action.

He raised his eyebrow in surprise, "Oh? is it angry? Interesting."

After making sure the zombie can't move its body, he pointed his wand in front of its head.

"Legilimens!"

The world went black.