Harry Potter and the Olympic Peninsula

By: Blarglesnorf

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. If I did you would be reading this in a published book and not on a Fan Fiction website.

Chapter 2 – A Long Way Home

Roughly 10 miles from the eastern coast of America.
18:52 (GMT) – 14:52 (Local time)

After one final rest break on another conjured bouncy castle, Harry was within sight of the eastern coast of America. He tapped his glasses with a finger several times until the correct enchantment cycled round and the seemingly empty air in front of him sparkled to life before his eyes. A thick curtain stretched as high as he could see and as far north and south as his eyes could focus.

"So this is the 'Great American Inbound and Outbound Magical Detection and Identification Net' is it?" the young wizard muttered to himself as he stood on the water 10 miles from the coast. "Boy what a mouthful. Only a politician could come up with a name that stupid."

Harry continued looking at the Detection Net, not wanting to simply cross it or probe it actively with his magic knowing, as the overly pompous name implied, he would be detected as soon as he did so. Looking down at the water he had to resist the urge to smash his palm into his face.

"And only a wizard could be that stupid." he said as he deactivated his glasses, a gift from Bill Weasley for his 18th birthday. After taking a large gulp of Firewhiskey from his flask Harry set about breaching the 'Unbreachable' detection wards that supposedly protected America from incursions made by foreign magicals. Casting a warming charm to bolster the Firewhiskeys effects, a bubblehead charm so he didn't have to hold his breath and cancelling the featherweight charm that allowed him to stand above the waves, our young hero dropped into the water. He then transfigured his belt from leather to lead and he sunk below the surface. After sinking roughly 20 feet he aimed his wand behind him and cast a strong Aguamenti, the jet of that water blasted out of his wand had enough force to topple a giant so had no trouble shooting him forward and under the Detection Grid.

As Harry reversed the transfiguration on his belt and reapplied the featherweight charm he wondered just what made magical humans overlook common sense so often. Breaching the surface and standing on top of the waves once more, he decided it didn't matter too much as their denseness was to his gain. After drying himself off he took out a small map and decided he would make landfall about 50 miles from the coast in a small town called Laconia. After apparating across the Ocean and despite the rest breaks he had on his conjured castles, he was rather tired and in need of hot food and a decent nights sleep. He would stop here then continue on towards Forks in the morning.

Making sure he was wrapped in a Notice-me-not charm, he gave a small twitch and vanished from atop the waves.

~The next day~

Several locations across America.
Multiple times.

Seeing as the young Lord Potter had more than 3,000 miles to cross that day he decided on an early start. After loading up on a large breakfast of pancakes, bacon and Firewhiskey infused coffee, he set off. Instead of making two or three jumps and tiring himself out, he decided it best to make 10 or so smaller ones, stopping breaking for an hour or so between jumps. After settling the bill at the small hotel he wandered out of the door and into a nearby alleyway where he absent-mindedly applied a Notice-me-not charm before vanishing with a silent twitch.

He reappeared 300 miles in slightly the wrong direction, but thought the minor detour was worth the extra time. Looking out from his perch atop the highest spike on the Statue of Liberty's head, Harry smiled at the sight of New York stretching out in front of him. Not having any wish to walk through the crowded streets, he spent a few minutes admiring the view before pulling out his almost new Nimbus GX1, a proof of concept boom given to him by the owner of the Nimbus company as thanks for ridding the world of Voldemort, and quickly shot off towards the city.

Lazily flying several laps around the Empire state building and cruising over Times Square he wondered if maybe he should make this him home instead. He could easily get lost in the thousands of people bustling along below him and even if he was seen... He stopped this line of thought as he remembered that New York had one of the largest magical populations in America and was home to their Government. It would be tempting fate to settle down here. After spending a silent minute floating over Ground Zero with his head bowed, he flew to a nearby rooftop, shrank and pocketed his broom before vanishing again with another silent twitch.

Another 300 odd miles saw the raven haired wizard in the middle of Allegheny Nation Forest, completely surrounded by tall Maple trees and, if his ears weren't playing tricks on him, a small river nearby. Deciding to rest up with his feet in the water he wandered off in search of it. Ten minutes later he had found it, removed his shoes, socks and rolled up his jeans with his feet in the water and eyes closed in meditation, once more trying to connect with his inner animal. Whatever it was, it was elusive and seemed to enjoy hiding in the depths of his mind. Two and a half years had gone by since he first drank the potion that proved he had the ability to perform the animagus transformation but in all that time he had been unable to make contact with his inner animal. Though admittedly he had been rather distracted with training and fighting Death Eaters at the time.

Several hours and four more jumps found Harry nearly waist deep in mud somewhere in the middle of South Dakota along the shore of a large river. Just as he was about to apparate from the empty alley he had been standing in, several witches had tandem apparated into it, startling him enough to throw off his own apparition and sending him several miles from where he intended. Luckily he kept all his body parts attached, unluckily he arrived 20 feet above the afore mentioned riverbank. Upside down. Barely managing to right himself he hadn't had time to stop his decent and landed in the rather gloopy mud, getting stuck up to his waist. Fuming at his close call and hoping the witches hadn't seen though his Notice-me-not, Harry gave a larger than normal twitch and apparated directly to his next stop off point without bothering to rest, taking a rather large amount of mud with him.

After cleaning up and eating lunch in a small diner somewhere in Montana, Harry decided to make a slightly larger jump directly to Seattle. Despite resting he was starting to feel an ache in his joints that told him he had apparated too far, too quickly and without taking enough breaks between jumps. He had no desire to feel the agony of 'Apparators Rot' again, three times really was enough and the feeling of your joints starting to dissolve really wasn't pleasant. Not to mention the potion to fix it tasted like the rotten vomit of a three day dead pig.

Twitching one last time, Harry felt his body compress and shoot forward though a tube before the world reappeared and he found himself exactly where he wanted to be, standing atop Seattle's Space Needle. After taking a minute to admire the view, Harry jumped on his GX1 and rocketed to the ground in a perfect example of a Wronski Feint before pulling out of it and flipping off his broom and continuing his forward momentum into a brisk walk to the closest car lot. He had some transportation to buy!

Forks, WA, America.
16:33 (PDT)

A silver 2006 Camaro rumbled to a stop outside of Forks Avenue Real Estate, many eyes focused on who the driver might be. Eyebrows rose when a young man who couldn't have been out of his teens stepped out of the car and lovingly ran his pale hand along the black stripe that stretched up the hood of the car before he walked over to the door of the Realtor's and disappeared inside.

Harry himself was still smiling at his recent purchase as he entered the building, remembering blasting down the highway at over 150 miles per hour. He was immediately approached by a friendly looking woman who seemed slightly puzzled as to why he was there. He saw her take in his still slightly muddy shoes and jeans, his black Weird Sisters tshirt, a gift from Tonks, under a beaten up leather jacket that once belonged to his father and finally his ever messy hair.

"Can I help you?" she asked, unsure why someone so young, and so scruffy looking, would need her services.

Harry gave her his most charming smile. "I certainly hope so. I wish to buy a home here."

To say Marisa Brown was shocked would be an understatement.

Forks, eastern edge of town, Harry's new home.
17:57 (PDT)

Subtle use of compulsion charms saw Harry quickly purchasing a house on the eastern outskirts of Forks and not having to wait a ridiculous amount of time for the paperwork to go though.

The house it's self was a rather run down looking three story building with a beaten up porch wrapping most of the way round and a fair amount of land surrounding the entire property. With the run down state of the house no one had wished to buy it and it had sat empty and all but abandoned for several years. However as soon as Harry saw the pictures and location of it he thought it was perfect. Magic could easily take care of the broken windows and half rotten porch, the cracked roof tiles, peeling paint, burnt down garage (complete with burnt out shell of an unknown car), overgrown garden, loose guttering...Well lets just say magic would be very busy.

However what really sold it to Harry was it's location. Just over 2 miles from the centre of town and half a mile from his closest neighbour was absolutely perfect. Several wards would discourage anyone from being too interested in nosing around to 'welcome him to town' or anything of the sort. Once he started cleaning the place up, various wards to hide the true state of the house would take care of anyone passing by, not that much of the house could be seen from the road seeing as there were a great many overgrown trees and bushes between it and the house. To really get a clear view someone would need to be more than half way up the winding 200meter drive.

Pushing open the door and ignoring the harshly squeaking hinges, Harry walked into his new home. Coughing slightly at the thick layer of dust his entrance stirred up he flicked his hand to encase his head in a bubble and looked around some more. Flicking the light switch did nothing as the bulb was long dead so Harry created a large ball of light to float behind him at he toured the house.

"Well, this place sucks." he muttered to himself. "None of the furniture here is suitable and it looks like local kids have been using the place to drink in." he shook his head and flicked his wrist to drop his wand from it's holster as he walked back to the front door. Opening it he stood just outside and to the left before pushing his magic though his wand and into the house, filling the old building completely. After a minute of letting his magic out he concentrated on what he wanted and pulled his magic back past himself and out into the garden. Along with his magic came years worth of dust, dirt and grime, blowing out the front door like a miniature sandstorm.

Once it had stopped Harry re-entered the house and looked around once more.

"Well it still needs a clean but that is much better." he said with a smile. The smile dropped from his face when he realised just how much work he had to do before he could live here in comfort.

"Replace kitchen, bathrooms, furniture, carpets, paint, wallpaper, windows, rebuild the garage, fix the roof and gutters, find suitable ward stones..." his shoulders slumped. "Man, this is going to suck."

~End Chapter~

A/N: And here is the second chapter! I hope it was enjoyable. I know not a great deal happened but I can't really jump right into the action. You've no doubt noticed an absence of our sparkly friends. Fear not gentle readers, they will be showing themselves next chapter. Maybe. Me planning things doesn't seem to work out too well. I wanted and planned something totally different for this chapter but instead it went in a totally different direction.

I know I made sure to mail everyone who reviewed to thank them but I want to do so again. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first chapter! It really helped to give me a reason to write and post this chapter.