Author's Note: Merged prologue and first chapter.

Chapter 1: Whiterun

If he could string two thoughts together Harry would likely regret going through the Veil after Sirius.

However in this empty void he could not even feel anything, let alone string together two thoughts.

After what felt like an eternity he sensed something else in the Void with him.

An alien presence, a greater presence, a presence that was so immense it managed to make him feel a coherent chill of terror.

The presence's attention turned upon him and he felt great fear than he had ever felt before, even in the face of Voldemort or the dragon or the basilisk.

And then he felt the being's amusement and interest and fascination. And then he felt it focus in on the part of himself that did not feel like himself.

The part that felt like Voldemort.

Flashes of thought and impression flew through his conscience, Darkness. Corruption. New. Splintered.

And then Harry felt pain as the part of him that was-and-was-not-Voldemort was probed by the presence.

Strange. New. Delicious. Mine.

If he could have screamed Harry would have at the pain throughout his entire being as the part-of-Harry-that-was-Voldemort was ripped away by the being.

Gratitude. Favor. Rebirth. Mundus. Enjoy.

And then there was a burst of light and Harry knew no more.

Awaken child.

Harry bolted into an upright sitting position from where he had been laying in a slightly rocky patch of grass and gripped his head in pain. The new voice did not sound at all like the first. The new voice was like the pounding of drums and authority personified.

Harald of another world, my cousin has brought you here without a second thought to your survival past arrival and for that I apologize. Thus I will give you my blessing and protection until you find your place in Nirn. Good luck child.

Unfortunately Harry could not take the time to feel comforted by these words, so overwhelming was the presence that the reverberation of the voice in his head caused him to pass out once more.

Harry finally awoke to a strange feeling of magic working over his body. Before he could blink his eyes open he heard a voice over his body.

"Oblivion take me, Restoration is not my school. Wake up child." The voice harrumphed before continuing its muttering, "I need to know what you know about that burst of Magicka I sensed out here. I can tell you were at the center of it."

The magic over his body felt different than the magic he was used to at Hogwarts. It felt wild, pure, and...as Harry was blinking awake and analyzing the magic he noticed the magic from the spell being used on him wasn't the only magic he could feel. Magic from all around him was flooding into his body and Harry had no idea how to control it.

More magic than he had ever had in his body was flowing through him and it needed a way out. And then he felt the dam burst. He screamed.

The mage trying to revive him jumped backwards and tossed up some sort of shield as lightning arced off of Harry's body.

"By the Nine!"

Harry did not register the strange curse as his body was wracked in pain, after a few moments he did however register the instructions the person began giving him.

"Boy! You are absorbing too much Magicka! Cut yourself off! Clear your mind and focus on shutting out the rest of the world! You have to cut yourself off from external sources!"

The second time a version of those instructions were repeated they pierced Harry's pained haze and he attempted to follow them.

It took several more agonizing moments, but Harry eventually succeeded.

And then it took several minutes for Harry to find the ability to respond to the mage that had helped him in anymore than minor grunts.

Eventually the mage gave up on asking questions and offered Harry a water skin, "Here child, this should help you at least be able to tell me what happened."

Farengar was supremely puzzled by the boy he had brought back to recover in his suite in Dragonsreach. His amulet of Akatosh had suddenly begun violently shaking and burning with bright light the night before, almost as if the Divine were actually interacting with it. While not unheard of Farengar had never been the most devout and was certainly not a priest of Akatosh. It just made no sense to the middle-aged wizard.

It was after the amulet had awoken him that he felt one of the strongest pulses of Magicka he had ever felt in his life and had gone to investigate.

And there had been a child, well alright a mid-adolescent, passed out in the middle of a large circle of scorched earth. It was one of the strangest things he had ever seen.

And then he had experience the strangest thing he had ever heard, his amulet once again glowed and shook and a rumbling voice struck his mind, "Heyv. Spaan. Kiir. Saviik." Somehow, despite the knowledge of the ancient Dragon Voice being jealously protected by the Greybeards, Farengar knew he was being tasked with protecting the child.

It had been no easy task to get the boy inside the keep, Irileth had questioned Farengar extensively on why he was bringing a passed out child inside. That is when inspiration struck, he claimed the boy as his own. He claimed that when he had first finished his initial schooling in magic he had married a fellow mage, a Breton girl, but his research obsession was too much for even another mage and she had kicked him out and declared that he would never see her or his son again.

Well he gets a letter saying she has died of illness and the boy was sick too but got over it, except he was severely weakened, Farengar explained that he had just gone and retrieved the boy from the carriage he had been sent to Whiterun in but the trip had further inflamed his exhaustion from the illness.

Unfortunately he had said this a bit too loudly and a bit too near the Jarl.

"You, Farengar? A father? Well get that boy into a bed and come back to tell us everything! Why I do believe this has shown me a whole new side of you!" Jarl Balgruuf let out a rumbling laugh and Farengar was thankfully allowed to go settle the boy in.

~Dovahkren~

Harry woke up and honestly for a few moments thought he was back in Hogwarts. He was certainly in a castle from the grey stone walls, the torch and candle lighting, and the high but oddly slanted ceiling.

And yet he was not in the Hospital Wing, which is where he would expect to wake up after an ambush like that, and that worried him. So experimentally he tried to move and sit up and found that he was not restrained in the way he would expect if he had been abducted by the Death Eaters either.

Further investigation of the room he was in yielded that yes indeed, he was in fact in a magical location, at the very least. Strange glowing crystals and odd artifacts littered the bookshelves and tables nearby.

It was when Harry was just about to walk over to the window and try to get a view of where he was that the door opened and a man in robes that differed greatly from those of Hogwarts walked in.

"Ah, you have finally awakened! I am Farengar Secret-Fire, court wizard of Jarl Balgruuf of Whiterun, who may you be?" The wizard was trying mightily to be polite and calming for some reason, but Harry could tell the man was straining himself to do so and it likely was not his normal demeanor.

"Umm...Harry...Harry...Potter." Harry paused and waited for the inevitable reaction and then when nothing happened he continued, "Umm...could you tell me where on Earth I am?"

Farengar blinked at the strange phrase but answered nonetheless, "You're in Whiterun Hold." When Harry did not seem to recognize the name and indeed seemed quite confused at it he continued, "In the Kingdom of Skyrim?"

That was when Harry knew something was wrong, "Kingdom?! I've never heard of Whiterun, I didn't know there were any kingdoms left, and oh Merlin please please know where Britain is? Scotland? Europe?"

The boy was grasping for straws and very obviously did not know where he was and Farengar himself knew of none of those places.

"Ah...calm down?" As the boy kept ramping himself up to a nervous breakdown Farengar decided to stop using his non-existent people skills and play to his strengths. He cast a very strong Calming spell on the boy who, possibly recognizing the feeling of a calming spell, did not fight it.

"Oh. Ok. Ok. Thanks. So umm...I am from a place called Britain and from what I gather you have never heard of it? And that's why you've got a funny not-quite-Norwegian accent?"

"No, I have not, that is probably the case, and I suppose so however I have no idea what a Norwegian is. It sounds similar to Nord though if that helps. The Nords are the humans of Skyrim, that is the name of the race. You appear to have the build and magical capabilities of a Breton or perhaps the Breton/Nordic hybrids of Markarth and the Reach. As well as this 'Britain' sounding like Breton. Do those names sound familiar at all?" Yes, Farengar found the boy much more manageable to hold a conversation with to get to the bottom of the situation while he was Calmed.

"Oh that's...strange. Breton does sound like Britain." The Calming was letting Harry's mind work without interference and he came to a startling conclusion, "The entire planet has been mapped. I've never heard of Skyrim in my magical or my muggle studies. I don't think this is the same world as mine."

The older mage froze and ran the possibilities through his head, "With the realms of the Princes of Oblivion we know that other planes of existence are real of course, but I had never considered entire realms outside of Aurbis entirely that might have human life like Nirn."

Harry, numb but slowly coming back to himself nodded, "Yes. It was likely that the Veil of Death was actually a one way portal."

It was unfortunately just after he stated this that the Calming spell began to wear off and Harry started feeling the panic return, "Wait, one way? I mean it was called the Veil of Death because no one came back sure. But it can't be right? There has to be something! How can I get home? I can't stay here!"

Farengar sighed, "Considering I received a message that I believe to be from the dragon god Akatosh to protect you I don't think that will be possible. I believe the message means that no only are you meant to be here, but that you are blessed by that Divine in particular. He likely facilitated your survival of this strange portal you mentioned."

Harry put his head into his hands and groaned, "I don't know what to do. I don't know how to react to this. I want to scream, I want to cry, I want to blow things up even!"

A slight breeze moved through the room centering around Harry and Farengar immediately reached out to place a hand on the boy's shoulder, "First take a deep breath and stop pulling in Magicka. I think your world had a lot less of it than ours does and you are not used to it coming so quickly and easily.

Truthfully the ease with which the boy pulled in Magicka scared and confused Farengar. He had only seen that kind of natural talent in Altmer and the most talented of Bretons. And while the boy definitely seemed built more like a Breton it was a scary prospect the talent he may have. He would have to teach the boy to control Tamrilic magic and then send him off to the College for further training quickly. He knew he was a useless teacher, he had no patience for any of the former pupils he had attempted to teach.

It took a few minutes but Harry calmed down.

"Okay, okay. I'm breathing," he turned his head up to look at Farengar, "So what am I going to do?"

Letting out a breath he hadn't known he was holding Farengar explained, "I'm going to pass you off as my son with an estranged wife who recently died. That will be the easiest way to keep you close and take you as a temporary apprentice until you've learned what you need to get around Skyrim or even Tamriel as a whole."

Harry nodded, though he was a little concerned, "So what will I need to learn?"

"Well from the sound of it I imagine about everything. I'll focus a lot on the history and cultures of the area to start with though. Even with them thinking you to be half-Nord half-Breton and taking after your mother that wouldn't explain how ignorant you are about everything involving this world. Almost as big a priority will be you controlling your magic. Nords are a relatively superstitious lot, mages who cannot control their abilities are not very well thought of."

Harry groaned at the thought of so much learning.

"Also I will be referring to you as Harald. Harry can be a familiar name for you to use with friends if you wish, but I am the court wizard of a Jarl, you will not be using a diminutive version of a name around court!"

Oh joy, Harry thought, politics.