Chapter Two: Driving on the right side.
Harry and Samantha waved as Remus and Dumbledore stepped through the fire, returning to Hogwarts, with a plan to keep Sirius from finding Harry. All four of them agreed that none of them would be able to convince Sirius that Harry was better off, that this was needed. So after they had informed Severus that Remus and Dumbledore would be helping him keep Harry's location secret they had left, leaving Harry more than enough time to leave Diagon alley before Sirius decided to search it again. Severus had also called in a few favors to help Harry find someplace safe to stay. Harry now had an airplane ticket to America. He had never thought that he'd be leaving Britain. The idea of leaving home had been hard enough, but to go to a completely different country? Harry sighed and turned away from the fireplace, his hands crossed across his chest he stared at an empty wall. Ron had said as many bad things about American wizards as he had said about the Malfoy's. Something about how 'bloody Americans' didn't hide from Muggles, how they had complete wizarding towns that Muggles drove through all the time.
"Samantha? Is it true that American wizards don't hide from Muggles." Harry asked as he looked over his shoulder to where Samantha stood, her hands on her hips.
"Yes, American wizards are very open, the Ministry of Magic and the American Wizarding and Witchcraft Congress don't get along. There hasn't been any negotiation between the two since the rise of Voldemort. The Americans wanted to enlist the help of special Muggle agencies. Said that the last thing that Voldemort would expect would be a physical attack. Fudge flipped, he wouldn't hear of it. After that America refused to even respond to owls from the Order of the Phoenix. Fudge offended them something bad. They stopped all legal immigration from Britain, no-"
"If they stopped immigration, how am I getting in?" Harry interrupted. Samantha laughed.
"I said they stopped all legal immigration." Sam explained. "You'll be going in as a Muggle, stow away of course-"
"What if I run into a American Wizard? Won't they recognize me?" Harry asked, interrupting Sam.
"As I said earlier, the American wizarding community has been cut off from Britain, they heard slight news, but I doubt they heard enough to be able to recognize you as Harry Potter, plus you'll be under illusions for a while still. Your scar will be hidden magically and physically until you decide to reenter the British magical world." Harry nodded.
"Hey, if America is so cut off, why were people from the Salem Witches Institute at the Quidditch World Cup?"
"They were probably there illegally or they immigrated to Britain before the ban and were just showing pride for their home country and school. Who knows." Sam shrugged and sat down in one of the cushy red chairs in front of the fireplace. Harry sighed and sat down in the chair on Sam's left. The two stared at the fire; both of them lost in their thoughts when Remus's head appeared.
"SAM! Get Harry out quick. Sirius has gone crazy, he's getting dressed right now, he heard Albus and I mention you and Harry. As soon as he's dressed he's going to be entering this room." Harry muttered some obscene curse that made Remus's eyes widen and quickly drank a swig of his Polyjuice potion. In a flash Adrian Snape appeared. Harry cleared his throat and sat back down, put the cork back in the potion bottle and gently sat it in his bag.
"Let Sirius come, I need to test my acting skills." Remus smiled and his head disappeared. A moment later, there as a crash and Sirius ran through the fire.
"All right. Where is he? I know I heard Albus and Remy mention Harry's name." Harry stood up and tapped Sirius's shoulder.
"May I help you sir?" Sirius spun around and stared at Harry.
"Adrian, no need to be so cold. It's my brother Sirius. Long time brother. I've missed you so. Why didn't you come see me after your name was cleared? That was awful cruel. Severus has kept me updated of your health since he learned of your innocence but a visit would have been nice." Sirius looked past Adrian to Sam.
"Samantha?" Sirius pushed Harry aside and wrapped Sam in a hug. "I was hoping that you had dumped that slimy git, but obviously not. Sorry about not visiting I've been very busy working for the Order." Remus, who had came through the fire shortly after Sirius, laughed and patted Adrian on the shoulder.
"Yes very busy, busy driving me crazy. I swear I never get any sleep when you're staying with me. You could have stayed with Sam and Severus anytime, I very much doubt that you'd be bugging Snape to let you fuck him." Sirius blushed a very dark shade of crimson and grinned at Remus.
"Sorry love," Sirius finally noticed Adrian and coughed politely. "Who's that?" He asked, rudely pointing at Harry. Harry set his mind on Draco and stuck his hand out.
"Snape, Adrian Snape. Pleased to make your acquaintance." Sirius shook his hand, while Sam bit her lip trying hard not to laugh.
"Sirius Black. Snape are you? Related to that slimy git Severus?" Sam slapped the back of Sirius head and frowned.
"That slimly git, as you put it, is my brother, half brother mind you, but still my brother." Harry replied slipping his hands into his robes pockets. Sirius nodded and rubbed the back of his head.
"I meant no offense. All right before I forget why I came here in the first place let me ask you. Have any of you seen Harry Potter? I heard that he was here." Sirius said looked Remus in the eyes, trying to see if Remus was hiding something. Both Sam and Harry shook their heads.
"Haven't seen Harry since he was a wee tot Siri. Sorry to disappoint you, no ones been here but Adrian and I, and our only visitors have been Albus and Remus. I'll keep an eye out though. Has the boy gone missing?" Sirius nodded.
"Yea, he's all pissed off about us not letting him go down to Hogsmeade to get a drink. You know teenage temper tantrum." Sam raised an eyebrow as Remus squeezed Harry's shoulder to keep him from making a comment.
"Geez, Harry's gotta be at least 20 now. No offense Siri but he's old enough to decide when he wants to go outside or anything." Sirius sighed,
"Sam it's dangerous out there. He might be an adult and Voldemort might not have done anything for a while but there are still Deatheaters out there. They'd be overjoyed to kill Harry, he doesn't understand that." Harry sighed and looked down at his watch. He needed to find an excuse to get out of here, he doubted he'd be able to hold his tongue much longer.
"I hate to say this but I must be going. Sorry Samantha but my train leaves shortly. I'd love and visit more but I'm afraid that that isn't possible. I have business to take care of. It was nice meeting you Mr. Black. And Remus it was a pleasure as always, I hope to see all three of you again shortly. Now if you'll excuse me." Harry strode through the doorway, grabbing his bag along the way. "Cheerio then" When he was out of hearing range he laughed. He had done it. He'd eluded Sirius; Padfoot had no idea that Adrian Snape was in fact Harry Potter. No idea at all.
* * * * * *
Harry watched the baggage men throw the luggage off the plane and cringed when they flung his trunk onto the concrete ground. Luckily he didn't have anything fragile in there. Harry wrapped his invisibility cloak tighter around him and slipped by the middle-aged worker and started for the terminal.
When he finally got inside he wove through throngs of people to the luggage carousel. Traveling was supposed to be fun, so far he wasn't having fun. He was cold, tired and hungry. The sooner he got out of the airport the better. Harry waited patiently for his trunk to slide by, the invisibility cloak securely put away in his backpack. After being knocked into about ten times, learning several new curse words, and watching fifteen people from fifteen different planes, that landed after Harry's, come and pick their luggage up Harry spotted his trunk. He quickly dragged it off the carousel and immediately headed for the door. Severus told him that there would be someone waiting to pick him up. Hopefully they hadn't gotten tired of waiting. There are very few things that Harry hated and now airports were one of them, after Voldemort and the Dursleys of course.
Harry let the end of his trunk go and flexed his fingers. It took him a good 40 minutes to get out of the Airport; stupid security. Harry sat on the end of his trunk and looked around him. Snape had told him that when he landed in New York City and he needed to wait outside, by the Hertz rent-a-car center. An old contact of Snape's was to pick Harry up and bring him to a hotel, explain American money and exchange his British pounds for American dollars. Then, well then Harry was on his own. He could do whatever he pleased wherever he pleased. Yes he had to owl Dumbledore, Snape, Sam, and Remus now and then but that wasn't that hard. He would have owled all of them even if he was doing this like any normal wizard. Well then any normal law abiding British Wizard wouldn't be in America but still.
Harry had been sitting for about 15 minutes when someone tapped him on the shoulder.
"Are you Mr. Potter?" A man asked. Harry nodded and stood up. "I'm Louis Dolan I was asked to met you here by Severus Snape." Harry nodded again.
"I'm Harry" Harry stuck his hand out. The two of them shook hand and Louis smiled.
"The way Sev talked I thought I was meeting a Goblin or something." Harry laughed and picked his trunk up.
"Well Severus and I never did get along to well. I think that the reason he's helping me is because my godfather is related to his wife. And well if you've meet Sam then you know convincing she can be." Louis nodded.
"Oh yes, Samantha can be quite persuading. Plus, Samantha has Severus wrapped around her finger. That man would do anything to make her happy." Harry smiled and nodded.
"Well then, shall we get going?" Louis nodded and lifted the other end of Harry's trunk.
"Follow me." Harry followed Louis into the parking lot, watching the people run back and forth. This was going to be quite the adventure.
* * * * * *
"All right then Harry. Let me explain this the easy way. American witches and wizards use the same money as Muggles. Makes it a lot easier. We don't have hidden wizardry shops. You'll find a potions supply store right by a Muggle music store. Even our music is entwined in the Muggle world. Wizardry music is listed folk, though not all folk music is by witches or wizards. Anyway back to the money. One British pound is worth () dollars and () cents. The paper money is pretty obvious. The amount is right on the paper. But the coins can get a bit confusing if you're not used to them. The small copper ones are pennies, one hundred pennies to the dollar. The large silver ones are quarters they're worth the same amount as 25 pennies, four quarters make a dollar. Sometimes you'll find half dollar coins though they're rare. They're bigger than quarters and are worth 50 cents." Harry nodded and looked at the coins that Louis had handed him. "Okay, the medium silver ones are dimes, they're worth five cents and the really small silver coin is worth ten cents and that's a dime. Make sense?"
"Yea. 100 pennies, 4 quarters, 2 half-dollars, 20 nickels and 10 dimes all add up to one dollar."
"Exactly. Now, back to the paper money. It comes in ones, five's, tens, twenties, fifties, and one hundreds. I've heard that there were 500 and higher dollar bills but I doubt that you'll ever have any." Harry put the coins back in the bag and looked up at Louis.
"Now that you've explained the money what else is there to explain." Louis grinned.
"American customs. The glorious things that they are." Harry looked at Louis strangely.
"What exactly are you talking about?" He asked, still eyeing Louis.
"Rules. Follow these and you won't be noticed. All right. Rule one: Eat as much junk food as possible. We Americans live of McDonalds, Sonic, and Burger King. That's why so many of us are fat. If you don't eat fast food, then tell everyone you're vegetarian and eat a lot of salad." Louis stood up and walked over to the window. "Don't say hello to people on the street, they'll think you're crazy, unless you want people to think you're crazy. Then say hello to everyone and everything. Try to avoid small towns. People there must know everything about everyone. Trust me, you being Harry Potter won't stay a secret for long if you visit a small town for more than a weekend. Keep your eyes open, you'll find friends and foes in the most unexpected of people. Never cross out an ally just because they're not what you expect. Many people in America seem like they'd be the first to bow to He-who-must-not-be-named when in fact they, they are America's greatest weapon against He-who-must-be-named." Louis sighed and drew the curtain closed. "Now, one more question. Do you know how to drive?" Harry nodded.
"Yea, I was bored one summer and went down with Dudley. Never actually got my license, but I do know how. Why?"
"Well it'd be a lot easier for you to get around. All right then, I'll get you a fake license, just promise me one thing." Louis said, sitting back down on the bed.
"Sure. What?"
"You'll drive on the right side." Harry blinked a few times. What was he talking about? Then it hit him, Americans drive on the right side of the road, not the left. It was a good thing Louis reminded him, had he not, well had he not Harry probably would have met a very un-honorable end.