Storm Chasers
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, the world of Harry Potter, or any and all official characters from the Harry Potter series itself. J.K Rowling, the woman behind the series, owns this genre, along with other companies and whatnot that help make this series enjoyable in the world. I do not own anything else that is mentioned in this in cameos or crossovers. I only own my Original Characters.
Author's Note: Page 9 in The Storybook of Hogwarts details a short little story where basically a smarter than canon Harry Potter is a legal adult in the United States in the late 1990s, and is rich. The money he has and makes is for his passion and dedication to the study of weather primarily tornadoes. The story has a minor backdrop where the Order of the Phoenix finds Harry and is trying to drag him back.
The story would then go on a slight adventure during the primary months of tornado season, chasing down twisters and the Order of the Phoenix would be unofficial tagalongs getting drawn into the adventure. This is going to be slightly different because... well... a U.S. raised Harry and Hermione is partly a used plot but not in this manner. Takes some ideas from the movie Twister, but is mostly all original.
Prologue
Since everybody knows how the story of Harry Potter begins, I will not even dignify to repeat what happens mostly in the books. However, what I shall do is cut forward to the car belonging to one Vernon Dursley ditching infant Harry Potter (known as the Boy-Who-Lived by the majority of the Wizarding World of Europe) two days later at midnight on the doorstep of an orphanage in London, ringing the front bell, and then speeding off nearly causing an accident with a passing motorist down the corner of the street. A nun had peered outside, and notices little Harry in the same wicker basket, blanket, and a hastily-scribbled note on the paper:
TAKE THIS FREAK OR DUMP IT IN THE GARBAGE. HIS NAME IS HARRY POTTER.
The note was unsigned. The woman was angry at how rude and uncaring the note read, but nonetheless she took the child into the orphanage. He is shortly adopted a week later by a family that moves to the U.S. after deciding to leave Britain for better opportunities in life. Another family that also left to move to the United States was a husband and wife with their newborn daughter. Dumbledore never knew Harry Potter was abandoned by the Dursleys into years later...
Now, further into the story, the year is 1985. The Grangers and the Springfields have gotten along well, both families living in the countryside of Kansas, but close to the city of Topeka. Their children Hermione and Harry have become great friends. But, it's on this one summer night that an incident that happens in Hermione's life changes her. The day went off blissfully with the warm summery winds and the bright clouds and sun. But as the day wore on and night soon fell, the weather was perfect for producing super cell thunderstorms. This particular one produced a tornado...
David and Jane dragged their daughter from bed and ran fast to their built storm shelter past the garage, as the thunder and lightning scared the girl. The rain was heavy and the winds were howling as the F5 twister soon blows through the residence. David Granger in the attempt to keep the shelter door firmly locked, kept it from being ripped from the foundation due to the powerful suction of the tornado roaring over the property; he is swallowed into the powerful winds along with the door. Jane kept her hysterical daughter from chasing after daddy, hugging the farthest corner of the stone bunker...
David Granger is one of five persons who died this night...
But, Hermione soon managed to get past her grief of losing her father, Jane losing her husband. As magical-born kids, Hermione and Harry shuffled their mundane school life with their magical school life. It was apparent that both kids were prodigies. As the years went by, Jane, Greg, and Amanda watch their children advance through school, eventually taking an interest regarding weather. Their magical education would have been stunted if they had still lived in Europe; 1991 the yearly letters are shipped out by owl, and Hermione Granger and Harry Potter's letters were undelivered.
Of course the only undelivered letter for a muggleborn was quickly ignored as Dumbledore learned that Harry Potter was gone, and had never lived with Petunia's family since dropping James and Lily's son at their doorstep the past eleven years. And everything that could have been never happened, because Harry Potter was never raised as Dumbledore had hoped Petunia would. The Philosopher's Stone was almost stolen but the wraith of Voldemort was forced into retreat with the death of Professor Quirrel. A girl by the name Ginny Weasley nearly died but a boy named Neville Longbottom (with friend Ron Weasley) managed to rescue Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets. No, Neville cannot speak Parseltongue.
Nothing of important happened in 1993 although Bellatrix Lestrange's escape from Azkaban had Hogwarts under Dementor protection. There was one near-death when a bunch of bullies trapped Luna Lovegood outside. The timed intervention by Dumbledore saved her, and the bullies that did this to Luna were expelled and arrested for attempted murder. Bellatrix never infiltrated Hogwarts and still remains on the run. The Tri-Wizard Tournament in 1994 was chaos because since no one knew where Harry Potter was, a spy for the Dark Lord replaced the Boy-Who-Lived with the other "child" that matched half of the prophecy that had Voldemort murder the Potters in 1981: Neville Longbottom.
Beyond 1995, Voldemort's resurrection using the sacrifice of Cedric Diggory and the blood of Neville Longbottom has the Wizarding World of Britain under tyranny. The Ministry were in the belief Dumbledore was trying to usurp them and Minister Fudge led a smear campaign against Dumbledore. There were conflicts because Neville was targetted by Delorus Umbridge during the school year since he had said he saw Voldemort's rebirth. Not until late 1996 that the Ministry was attacked and Fudge was killed, and Scrimgeour took control as Minister after Dumbledore forced the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters to retreat, thus beginning the second British Wizarding War.
Oh, and Umbridge was killed in the crossfire...
All of this would have been different had Harry remained in the home of the Dursleys, but he's in a stroke of fate got a better life. The war between light and dark was reaching an interlude. Because of the prophecy, only Harry Potter had any "secret power" to defeating the resurrected Dark Lord once and for all.
Well... they finally found the missing Boy-Who-Lived...
Just not in the place they thought to look...
"What do you mean he's in the United States?" Sirius exclaims, giving Dumbledore a look after the old wizard had completed a long spell that looks beyond the shores of Europe.
=0=0=0=
Driving a large pick-up Ford was Harry Springfield. Dark hair ruffled because of the half-open window, stereo on and blasting some rock music, the young man was driving down a road. He looks off to the side seeing a crop duster sweep down over a corn field. He was on his way to an abandoned farm where his old crew of a year and a half was currently on sight waiting for severe weather to pick up. He was not alone. His girlfriend was also with him, a young twenty year old named Emma Peppers. Yes, our green-eyed wizard is dating a slightly older woman (for being nineteen years old).
"She's really out here in the field?" asks Emma.
"If I know Hermione well, she has the entire crew out."
Emma learned about Harry. She was a bit worried about the dynamic between her boyfriend and the girl that used to be his ex-girlfriend. The two were child prodigies and have met a couple of other children their age whom also exhibited smarter than average grades. There were some adults in this team of weather trackers primarily started up by Harry and Hermione, but along the way Harry left the team leaving the girl, Hermione, with everything.
The woman, Emma, was a non-magical, so she doesn't know that the whole crew was all magical in a way.
"Well, here we are..."
Harry turns off the main road and onto a slightly dusty back road leading to a red barn in the short distance with parked vehicles. In the fields, the parked vehicles were open and there were various devices and satellites out on old tables, the group working away.
"Shit!" Hermione cursed as she got some sparks in the face. She wasn't hurt but hey, you'd be surprised too if this happened to you. The satellite bolted on the top of the van begins to move. "Okay, it's working now! Get a reading for me on the scanners," she shouts to a man inside the van. Inside the van was a guy wearing dark gray sweatpants and a black tee, and white sneakers.
"Alright, hold your horses, boss," the twenty-one year old man with dark hair mutters, exiting the side door and over to a laptop built into a small carryable briefcase. It has several cords running to the van's electronics secured on one side in the back.
On the monitor displayed on the Windows 98 task bar, the date reads June 28, 1999.
"What direction, Hermione?" he requests, typing away on the keyboard.
"Scan a sector west north-west, Ronald, and look for anything in the cloud walls that will generate severe weather," Hermione tells the dark-haired man. In said direction there was a wall of clouds that had a thunderstorm look. The day was nice and ripe for severe weather, and she was hoping to see a tornado or two today.
"Alright boss. Hopefully we get something. The past few weeks we've had isolated thunderstorms here and there but nothing severe. Other than that, we got typical summer weather typical for June."
Hermione smirks. "Well I hope today will be different."
She hops down onto the grass and leaves Ron to his task, checking on the others. Near his bus was Dustin Rhodes (not to be confused with the professional wrestler who goes by the ring name Goldust), lounging on a reclining lawn chair, sipping some soda from his reusable big gulp. The twenty year old dark blond from Iowa wore a unzipped hoodie with white graphic tee of a popular rock band and gray cargos lowers his sunglasses when a dark green Ford pickup pulls off the road and parks next to the station wagon. A smile lifts on his face when he spies a familiar face exiting the driver's side.
"Who is that I see? Is that Mister Extreme?"
Harry chuckles hearing that old nickname.
"Dude!" Dustin runs up and gives him a big hug. Harry laughs. "So good to see you, bro!"
"Yeah, nice to see you too." Emma smiles a bit as she walks around the truck. "Dustin, this is Emma. Emma, this is Dustin Rhodes. Dusty has been chasing tornadoes with us ever since we started this gig."
"Hi. Very nice to meet you, Dustin," she says, shaking hands with the man.
"Emma, why don't you stay with Dusty for a bit while I go look for Hermione, okay?"
"She's over at the van with Ronald, checking on the satellite," Dustin tells the young man.
"Okay. Keep Emma in some company, will ya?"
Dustin laughs softly, holding Emma's hand as he leads her off to his bus while Harry walks off in search for his ex-girlfriend. He has been wondering what she wanted according to the e-mail he got from her a week ago. Aside his life and his job as an intern on the local news station in Topeka, the drive was long.
"Hey Tori," he greets a woman with dual black/red hair, patting her shoulder as he walks by. The goth-like woman was surprised seeing Harry again. "Hi Harry," she calls to him.
There was the old van with that detailed painting of a destructive tornado on its side door with flame decals along the top of the van and custom grill on front. He's surprised it was still working after only a year or so. There was Ronald, Tori's brother working away on his computer. On the roof tinkering away with the satellite dish was his ex-girlfriend, Hermione Granger, wearing a blue tank top, olive khakis and gray boots with a hoodie she has tied around her waist. God... she's still beautiful...
"Hello Hermione."
Ron looks up, surprised to see Harry standing there. And Hermione peers from behind the small portable dish. A smile forms on her lips. Yup... she's still a beautiful young woman...
"Hey there, Harry. I'm glad you could make it out here. It's been awhile since we last been together, huh?"
Harry sighed a bit, a small smile on his own face. "Yes it has, Hermione..."
He remembered that he left after the last tornado season had ended. He was looking into other things regarding weather, and when he got a job at the news station in Topeka, he had left the group leaving Hermione with everything.
"So Hermione..."
"Hey Hermione, I need your help here," called Anthony.
Hermione sighed, sliding down the side and landing on her feet.
"What's up?"
"Camera's not working no matter what I do."
"Here." She takes it from Anthony. "Hm... Tony, there's loose grass in the auto-focus. You need to check it once and awhile. You know how windy it gets when we chase twisters. Always clean unless you feel like using pencils and a large paper pad."
"Hey Harry, glad you're back," calls James, a former priest of a church-turned-weather chaser. He has reddish orange hair but with a few light grey hairs along the sides with a short coarse beard. He wore his usual black slacks and buttoned flannel shirt. Even though he was no longer a priest he still wore the priest's collar on his shirt. He also wore short-framed glasses.
Harry just waves to the former priest, before following after Hermione. As he chased after Hermione, he saw the others. Alicia Evans, a long dark-haired girl with whiskey-brown eyes with a single large streak of blue in her hair, and wears jeans and matching jacket with white undershirt. Then there was her best friend Gary Madison, a jock-like guy with short brown hair who aside chasing tornadoes enjoyed basketball and football, wearing a fishnet shirt, a zipped black vest, and black shorts.
Jamie Evelyn was the brunette like Hermione, but her hair were a bit shorter than Hermione's and about three shades lighter, with blue eyes. She wore a jeans/skirt combo, and a tye-dye long-sleeved shirt. The truck with the attached back trailer with all the various maps on hay squares are brothers Robert and Brad Palmer. Brad was the older brother at age twenty-three, and Robert age twenty. Same blond hair, same brown eyes, and comfortable summer clothes...
He caught up with Hermione, who was very interested in his new truck.
"Huh... you have new things about you, Harry... a new truck, a new job, and a whole new you."
Hermione became quiet as Harry stares at her. She looks back to him, a smile on her face.
"Yeah... well..."
"Must enjoy being a weather man, huh? Youngest at that."
Harry blinks. "What was with that tone, Hermione?"
"What tone? I have no problem with you being a weatherman. Not if you do."
"I don't have a problem being one, Hermione."
She replies, "Neither do I." Hermione looks past Harry and notices a girl in the company of Dusty. "Who's the girl?" She asks, pointing to Emma.
Harry turned and then nodded a bit. "Oh! Well, that's my... current girlfriend. Emma Peppers..."
Hermione says nothing at first, as she digests the fact that Harry had a girlfriend now. While Harry wasn't looking she removes the promise ring that she wore and put it in her pocket.
"I'd like to meet her."
And she walks by Harry.
"No you don't."
"Yes I do," she calls back, making Harry groan at the awkwardness this would be.
Hermione puts on a kind smile as she cheerily skips to Emma, who was talking with Dusty. Why she was left in Dusty's company made her chuckle in thought. What the hell did Harry think leaving her with Dusty?
"Hi, I'm Hermione Granger. It's very good to meet you."
Emma was surprised, but quickly regained her thoughts. "Hello Hermione. I heard so much about you. I'm Emma Peppers."
"Hopefully they're good," she says, looking to Harry.
"Dude, she's your girlfriend? Sweet man," Dusty comments on the side, sipping his Pepsi.
"Yeah, she's my girlfriend, alright."
This scene is interrupted by a Ford Angelina driving up and pulling to a stop. A rather colorful cast exits the vehicle, which have the two young adults raise eyebrows. An old man with white beard and hair and half-moon specs, a man with black greasy-looking hair, a pink-haired woman, a scruffy looking man with dark hair, one who had the proud eyes of a feral beast or a wolf, and a man who appeared to have fought in a war and survived (or fought too many thugs armed with knives).
"Who are they, Harry?"
"No clue, but I recognize that car. It's been following me for sometime but I thought it was just coincidence..."
"Did you piss anybody off, lately?"
Harry looks to Hermione. "Hell no! Who would I piss off?"
"Jonas Seth?"
Harry just scoffs at her. Jonas was a man in his mid thirties who has been storm chasing for several years, and somewhat disliked him (and by extension Hermione, but mainly he disliked Harry) because he was considered a no-hack rookie with luck when it comes to storm chasing and the study of weather.
The appearance of the strangers attracted some of Hermione's crew, Emma briskly walking up to Harry.
"Honey, what's going on?" she asks.
"Don't know, Em."
"Wasn't that the car driving behind us?"
Harry nods, walking up to the group. "So... who are you people, and why have you been following me and my girlfriend the past two miles?"
"Hello. My name is Albus Dumbledore. These are my colleges Severus Snape, Nymphadora Tonks, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Alastor Moody."
"Nice to meet you, now what do you want?"
A phone rings and Emma curses, digging her cell phone out and answers. "This is Emma Peppers." She looks to Harry before leaving to get a quieter space as she continues talking on her phone.
Harry sighed, looking to his girlfriend before looking to the old man.
"Okay, now that my girlfriend is distracted by her job... what is Britain's most renowned wizard doing here in the U.S.?"
"You know-"
"My girlfriend is by your term is a muggle," He cuts off the old wizard, "So she doesn't know I'm a wizard, like everyone else here." He gestures to the group that crowded a bit but was focused on their work. Hermione off to the side was looking between Harry to the known Headmaster of the school Hogwarts in Britain, a bit surprised that Albus Dumbledore would be in America. Well, James was actually a Squib by British standards but he has several nieces and nephews in the family who were magical.
Harry sighs. "My name is Harry Springfield, and I was currently in the middle of something with my good friend, Hermione Granger."
Dumbledore says nothing, but the old man took note of the name as the only letter from '91 that was undelivered.
"Harry," Hermione speaks up, deciding that she had enough interrupts and distractions. Harry looks over to the brunette. "Lily is here." Quick and short, and an attention grabber...
Harry stares. The name rang an obvious bell because all his focus was now on the young woman.
"Show me."
Hermione walks away and Harry followed. The British group just stood there, before eventually following as well. Dumbledore was hoping to speak with Harry, now confirmed in his mind that the young man before them WAS James and Lily's son, apparently adopted all this time. It would explain him being gone. Over by Hermione's own (smaller) truck, was a heavy tarp covering something. She removes it, revealing... something. It looked bizarre to the British group but Harry just stares.
"Like it? I still had the plans you made... and... Well I built it. Three of them..."
"Does it work, Hermione?"
She smiles, unlatching the back allowing Harry to climb up. Everyone else stopped what they were doing and crowded around, Emma included because she was finished talking on her phone. Oh... she's an at-home therapist for a hotline helping troubled teens. Anyway, the British stayed away a bit but they were watching the located Boy-Who-Lived look at a muggle contraption with a swinging clear lid that nearly hit him in the face.
"It took six months but these sensors here can measure wind velocities, flow-in symmetries, and the like. Profiling tornadoes more accurately, something that most modern technology has yet to do beyond overlooking damage paths or getting in close with video cameras..."
"Wait... what is this, Harry?" Emma asked, not totally understanding what Hermione was saying.
"This is Lily... she's a specialized device that can be used when tracking tornadoes." He grabs one of the small clear spheres and hands it to Emma. "This one sensor out of many have small wireless radio antennas, connected to the computers to record data at real-time. And if we can accomplish this, we can create an advanced tornado warning system."
"But, there are tornado warnings already, Harry."
"Yeah... but Emma, you see-"
Hermione cuts Harry off. "They're not good enough. They are nowhere NEAR good enough. Right now it's three minutes. If we create history with Lily, tornado warnings can be extended to fifteen minutes. Better chances to get many people to safety."
"That's what these guys are doing, of course," Harry stated with a smirk, and the yanks all whoop and cheer, proud of what they do regardless of what some veterans in the field of weather science believe of them.
"What are they talking about?" Tonks whispers.
"No clue," Sirius answered, just watching the spectacle.
Jamie with Ron's portable computer was looking over something, and she was on the radio listening to a report that just came on the air. She swore when she heard about a tornado touchdown.
"Hermione! Hermione! I just got a report from the National Weather Station! There appears to be a tornado touchdown to the west along the line of thunderstorms!"
Everyone turned to Hermione, who was looking at Harry. Harry just stares back.
"Time for deployment guys, let's do this!"
The British wizards and one witch watch as the adults scramble, gathering all of their things and packing up. Harry and Emma stuck together just watching everything. As the group of young adults had driven off, soon with Harry in his truck with his muggle girlfriend (they overhear Harry talking to his girlfriend about wanting to follow them from behind), none of them even saw that Dumbledore had placed a special tracer spell on the muggle vehicle.
"Albus, now what do we do?" asks Sirius, "I never got to say anything to Harry!"
"We keep following until we can get some alone time with Mister Potter. Obviously he's had a different childhood than I had once believed... I'm wondering who the Springfields are, though."
The sooner they can convince Harry to come with them back to England, the better the light can get a boost in fighting the dark forces of Voldemort. They got into the car that they were borrowing from Arthur Weasley, and drive after the truck that Harry Potter was driving (Remus was at the wheel, being more tuned to the muggle world). With the tracer spell, it also had a modified listening spell so that they could hear whatever conversation inside the vehicle. Harry had told the woman Emma that he was going to get her a taxi in the next town so she can head back home.
They heard Emma in reply saying that she was genuinely interested in all of what Harry had interest with and wanted to tag along. The drive was quiet afterward, with hearing background radio chatter on Harry's CB that he had tuned to Hermione's. Along the drive a large group of muggle cars and trucks was speeding on by them. Among the group was Jonas Seth Ruud, the guy that did not like Harry or Hermione for being "rookies" while he was a veteran.
The Order learned a bit about the man Jonas as being a man who rather enjoys making lots of money and cared little about (muggle) science, enlisted and paid by corporate sponsors and companies. The last lingering pick-up driver of Jonas's crew had a larger than be trailer wagon. He kept honking and got too close, forcing Harry off the road as the truck smacked against discarded steel pipes lying in the grass ditch.
"Damn! Hold on Emma!"
Well, the idiot driver that forced Harry off the road continued driving, not caring of the accident he caused as Harry struck something hard that blew out the front passenger tire.
"Damn it," he cursed, hitting the steering wheel.
He stares at the retreating black pick-up, before seeing in his rear view window the same British group that tried to speak with him, until of course Hermione brought up Lily. They were still following?
Something to post up just to get this out of my head, because plot bunnies like to nibble you, until you give them the attention they demand...
As said on the top of this prologue it's based off this little oneshot I wrote of Harry being a smart child prodigy who is a legal adult for being a teenager still, but is chasing twisters and such for the study of weather and science. This is based off that, but altered a lot.
Now, I wonder how many would nibble this story. An old reviewer of Page 9 of The Storybook of Hogwarts said it can be classified an ultra-rare plot device. Well... here you go Jim Ryō-Ohki: it's being fleshed out... for now...