Harry looked around the room he was sitting in, trying his best to hide his disbelief.

When Albus told him that he had found an instructor to teach Harry how to properly handle a sword, he had no definitive idea of what he should expect. That said, he was picturing meeting his teacher in some sort of specialized gym. And the teacher would be either muscular and middle aged, or wiry and ancient. He knew that he was getting this picture from some of the movies he had watched with Albus, Sirius, and Remus (Dobby always wanted to watch Marry Poppins), so he had kept an open mind. Still… the reality, after one week of anticipation, was… disappointing.

The room he sat in was a restaurant… well "restaurant" was overly generous. He was sitting in a place called Waffle House in a city call Columbus in the state of Ohio. Waffle House seemed to be a restaurant that was held together primarily by grease and optimism. Harry looked down at the meal that Albus recommended. It was exceptionally moist scrambled eggs topped with a melted piece of what seemed like the most unnatural slice of cheese he had ever seen. He had stopped at one bite and switched to nibbling on a piece of toast. Albus and his new teacher seemed to love the dish called Cheese 'N Eggs (not "Cheese and Eggs", his new teacher emphatically stated). Albus was already planning on getting a second order to take back to the apartment they were renting in the magical district.

If the meeting location was mildly disappointing and the food was moderately disappointing, then his new teacher was an utter disappointment. Leonard Weathersbee was indeed a middle-aged man (for a wizard, so likely in his 60s) with hints of muscles hidden under layers of fat. He also had a sizable gut that indicated that he earned his passion for this "restaurant" through MANY visits. He also apparently was a great fan of his home state, as he wore a sweatshirt with the text "OH-IO" and a cap with a crimson O embroidered on it.

As Len (as he preferred to be called) finished his meal, he sighed contentedly. "Ah, that always hits the spot. So, you're Albus's protégé, eh?"

Len's eyes scanned Harry appraisingly. "Are you sure you want to learn swordplay? You seem to have more of a runner's build. Swinging a sword around for hours on end is tough enough, but it will be torture if you don't already have the arm strength built up. Add onto that, Albus said you're likely only going to be around a month or two, the crash course is going to be murder. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to take your money and make you miserable, but I like Albus enough to give you a chance to back out. What do you think, kid?"

Harry frowned. "Albus already puts me through an intense physical training exercise, so I think I'll be able to keep up. I also have pretty good arm strength from all of my Qui…"

He caught himself when he remembered he was surrounded by muggles. "All of my training I did for my House team. But… can I talk to Albus for a moment?"

Len shrugged. "I'll go settle the bill while you talk."

Harry waited for the man to get up from the booth and walk to the cash register. Once he was there, Harry leaned over and whispered to Albus in a hushed tone.

"Are you sure he can really teach me how to use a sword? I mean, he doesn't appear to be…"

"Harry…"

"No, I mean he seems nice enough, but he seems to be a bit… out of shape."

Albus sighed. "Harry, there are three things you should know. The first is that Leonard was, back in his youth, ranked amongst the most talented swordsmen in our community. I assure you that you would need several years of dedicated training before his… shape would start to become a factor in his ability to handily defeat you in a sword fight. Second, the local Children's Hospital has a… special wing where I might be able to track down hints for curing Marcus's ailment, so this is the most convenient location for us to pursue leads. Finally, Leonard has excellent hearing, and I suspect has heard everything you just said. The cash register is not THAT far away from us."

Harry winced when he looked over and saw Len smirking as he accepted his change from the cashier.

"So" Len said as he slid back into the booth, "I'm not what you were expecting, eh? Were you expecting to train under someone like Mikoto?"

Harry looked at the man with confusion. "Who is Mikoto?"

Len's eyebrows rose in amusement as Albus responded. "Hiro Mikoto is the foremost sword master in the world and has maintained that title for the past seven decades. The few students who have managed to complete his training make up the ranks of the top ten practitioners of the art."

"Well, why can't I learn from him?"

Len laughed loudly. "Ah kid, you crack me up. Mikoto only takes on students who are already advanced with the sword. Well, and rich idiots who are willing to waste their money. The more inexperienced the idiot, the higher the charge. It's like getting a Harvard English Professor to teach your kid their ABCs. They can do it, but it is a massive amount of overkill and you're going to pay for wasting their time. Trust me kid, at your skill level, you could not afford Mikoto. Well, unless Albus here can get you some sort of 'friend discount'?"

Albus cleared his throat with annoyance. "I'm afraid Hiro and I had a disagreement at a party around eight decades ago. He insisted that he deserved the last glass of rice wine, while it was clearly meant to be mine. The disagreement became… heated. I managed to clean up the damages and heal the bystanders, but he has yet to forgive me for what was his own fault. I fear invoking my name would increase the price to… unreasonable levels."

Len chuckled. "That does sound like Mikoto. So, are you in kid?"

Harry nodded slowly. "I guess. When do we start?"

"We can head on over to my house and train in my basement right now if that sounds good. We'll setup a training schedule for 6 days a week. I'll find out what time the Buckeyes are playing and get you a timetable in the next day or two."

"What are the Buckeyes?"

Len smiled broadly, with a genuine look of joy. "Oh, you're in for a treat, kid! The Buckeyes are only the best Football team in the world!"

Albus leaned in towards Harry. "In case you are unaware, what we call Football is called Soccer here. American Football is a different sport."

Harry nodded, as he vaguely recalled reading or hearing something about that. Maybe Dudley had played a computer game… It didn't really matter.

"So, are they are the local professional team?"

"Nah, we leave that to Cleveland and Cincinnati. The Buckeyes is the team for Ohio State University."

Harry frowned in confusion.

"Do you work there?"

"I wish, but nah."

"Do you have relatives who are attending?"

"Nope."

"Then, why care about some random school team?"

In the years to come, Harry would intellectually know that only one person at a nearby table stopped talking and glared at him, but his memory would always be marked with the feeling that the entire Waffle House had become deadly silent and every eye turned towards him. What he would accurately remember was Albus wincing and the way Len's smile turned from joyful to malicious. He also remembered that first train trip and Ron's aghast face when Harry mentioned he had never heard of Quidditch, and instinctively knew he had just made a mistake.

"Let's go start you off with some… light training."

Albus sighed. "You go with Leonard, Harry. I'll go get surplus ingredients for what you will likely be making tonight."

Harry gulped.

Harry tenderly sat down at his desk that night. His bruise paste having been brewed and only needing to cool down before it could be applied. It turned out that Len was indeed much more than a match for Harry when it came to using the sword. They had used dulled wooden swords that weighed the same as the Sword of Gryffindor. They wouldn't cut, but they still hurt wherever he got hit.

Harry had tried used all the dodging skills he had used when dueling Albus. He discovered that the addition of the sword made most of his moves more harmful then helpful. The first roll he did ended up slamming the sword into his sternum, which Len gleefully assured him would have likely been fatal with a real sword. As the training progressed, Harry had made many more maneuvers that he was informed would have resulted in self-inflicted death and/or dismemberment.

At least he could look forward to tomorrow, where he was told they would take it a bit easier and make sure he would learn to hold his sword correctly. Though he was slightly disappointed when Albus told him that the sword training was not going to interfere with his already intense morning training sessions for magic.

Knowing that he was likely going to collapse in bed as soon as he finished applying the paste to his bruises (which meant covering nearly everything except his head), he pulled out parchment to write his letter to Marcus. His initial vow to writing twice a week had transformed into a daily letter after receiving his first reply thanking him profusely for caring about some "random sick kid".

Dear Marcus,

Before I tell you about today, I wanted to let you know that I am really impressed that you have already finished reading your Potions book for first year. I don't know the answers to some of your questions, and Remus has written a response which I will including with my letter. He didn't tell me the answers though, and now your questions have become my homework. So, he wanted to thank you for helping him do his job.

Oh, as you keep reading through the books, let me know if you come up with any ideas for how to improve the effectiveness of Bruise Paste. I'm going to be using a LOT of it in the coming weeks.

Now, on to my day. The first thing I want to tell you is, no matter what you may personally think. If you find yourself across the pond and in the States, NEVER NEVER NEVER question why people here care about non-professional school sports. Especially if the person you are talking to can make your life miserable. Here's what happened…

It was Saturday, just shy of two weeks after that first meeting with Len. Harry had the day off from training and was enjoying a day at the zoo. He was proud of his progress. He could now hold and swing a sword without hurting himself. Of course, his arms still ached in misery after every training session and had yet to successfully land a hit on Len. On the bright side, his arms were starting to become stronger. The strengthening arms also coincided with his wandless magic becoming both stronger and more precise. He still needed to touch something to impart his magic upon it, but he would be happy with any improvements. Albus had been working with Harry to help come up with inventive ways to get around the touch restrictions, and there were some interesting developments there.

With all his special training, and Remus's tutoring, Harry had not been able to explore America as he had hoped. Now that the summer break was over, he didn't have the same amount of free time that he had enjoyed in France. As such, he got to enjoy being a tourist on Saturdays (and the rare nights where he had the energy). These visits were made even better by three developments.

The first development was that Albus had finally figured out how to perform Hyper Jumps. Sirius and Remus were immensely envious, but nowhere close to replicating the feat. Say what you will about Albus Dumbledore, but the man was a genius when it came to the theory and practice of magic.

Once Albus had fully broken down the process and replicated the results that Harry achieved instinctively, he had been able to work with Harry to achieve the next two developments.

Their first joint development was expanding the distance for the Hyper Jumps. Harry had discovered that the limit for his jumps was around 1100 km (Albus had similar range), with some variation in the tested distances. He was able to still able to make a journey quickly by simply do a series of jumps, but he had not managed to significantly increase the distance of a single jump. When he finally got to see the magic from the outside, as Albus demonstrated the Hyper Jump, the pair had a breakthrough.

Harry had asked if Albus could start preparing the jump but to hold off on completing the jump. It took the pair roughly an hour to figure out how to hold off completing the jump. Once they did, Albus demonstrated and Harry was saw that the bending starfield effect stayed steady while Albus was holding himself in the prepared state. What shocked Harry and Albus was that after 33 seconds, the magic warped and rapidly bent and surrounded the elder wizard as if he were in a bubble. He was so surprised that he completed the jump. When he returned, he expressed that the trip felt even smoother than before. On a hunch, he repeated the process and jumped. When he returned, he told Harry that the beaches in Southern California were quite lovely at the moment. With that, Harry and Albus could now make the trip from the North East coast to the South West coast (over 4000 km) in one Hyper Jump (Harry had finally given into the name Albus came up with).

With the discovery of their Hyper Bubbles (Albus had named it first), they then made their final discovery. They could wrap the bubble around a second person and perform a Side Along Hyper Jump. Which opened up their journeys to include Sirius and Remus.

Which brought Harry to where he was now. He, Remus, Sirius, and Albus were exploring the San Diego Zoo. The last time he had been to a zoo had been with the Dursleys. The Dursley factor might be coloring his impressions, but San Diego's zoo was worlds better than the one in London. They had been there for hours seeing all the animals, and Harry gorging himself on several ice cream sundaes. Harry and Sirius had snickered when they visited the wolf enclosure and every wolf walked over to the edge of the enclosure and sat down and stared quietly at Remus. The surrounding tourists ignored Remus as they were just happy to let their kids get a closer look at the majestic creatures.

Conversely, every prey animal scattered whenever Remus approached their enclosures. It was a mixed blessing.

As Harry neared being ready to leave for the day, Albus took them to an out-of-order restroom. He opened the maintenance door and ushered them inside. As soon as he closed the door behind him, the maintenance closet disappeared, replaced by the entrance hall of an unknown building, and they found themselves staring into the eyes of an inpatient phoenix named Fawkes.

"Hello Fawkes" spoke a bemused Albus. "I apologize for the delay. I lost track of the time."

"Hello Fawkes" spoke a confused Harry who reached out to pet the annoyed phoenix (who was not so annoyed as he was willing to turn down having his chin scratched). "Albus, what is Fawkes doing here? Where is here?"

"This" spoke a pretty woman of Indian descent, "is the San Diego Magical Creature Reserve. Hello, Albus, I wasn't expecting to see you today. I really wish you would let us know when to expect you in the future. Though the girls did tell me that you weren't at Hogwarts anymore, so I shouldn't be overly surprised. Who are our other uninvited guests?"

Sirius stepped forward, an easy smile on his face and eyes quickly roaming up and down the woman's body. He reached his hand in preparation of giving hers a kiss. "I'm Sirius Black, though you can call me… anytime you like. And you are?"

As Remus groaned and shook his head, the woman kept her hand by her side as she rolled her eyes. "Happily married, and curious if that line ever works."

Remus extended his hand for a handshake, which was accepted. "I'm Remus Lupin, and Sirius was falsely imprisoned in the early 80s, so his lines have yet to be updated."

"A pleasure, Mister Lupin. I am Lakshmi Patil, the chief of Magical Creature Care and Health here. Did the line work in the early 80s?"

"… No"

Lakshmi chucked as she looked at Harry with a questioning look. Harry stepped forward to shake her hand. "I'm Harry Potter, Miss Patil. Albus and Remus are my tutors, and Sirius is my Godfather."

Lakshmi's eyes widened slightly in surprise as they briefly glanced at Harry's forehead and back to his eyes.

"A pleasure, Mister Potter. My nieces had mentioned you had also left Hogwarts."

"Nieces?"

"Padma and Parvati."

Harry's eyes widened. "You're Parvati's aunt? She was in my house. I'm sorry to say I didn't get to know Padma that well. How are they?"

Lakshmi gave a genuine smile. "They are doing quite well. Padma mentioned that she felt badly about thinking poorly of you last year. Parvati, well she also mentioned her regrets in contributed to your poor treatment, but I suspect she is mainly upset that you have greatly reduced the amount of 'juicy gossip' your presence generated."

Harry laughed lightly. "That does sound like Parvati. I am happy they no longer think poorly of me. So… is this like a magical zoo?"

Lakshmi frowned slightly as they walked forward. "No. While we are physically connected to the No-Maj zoo, we are not a zoo. We are here to provide sanctuary to those magical creatures that are happy here, while keeping the more dangerous creatures contained, and supplying healing to any injured creatures found in the wild. We don't typically allow visitors here."

Harry looked from Albus back to Lakshmi. "But you let Albus visit?"

Lakshmi sighed. "Yes, Albus does get to visit on occasion. Sometimes he is even welcome, as he is one of the few wizards in the world who capable of capturing the deadliest of creatures with a minimum of harm done to said creature. In skill, he is right behind the Scamander family and Xenophilius Lovegood. Though, I suppose I don't have to tell you that Mister Potter, as your account always gets paid three quarters of his rewards."

Harry's eyes widened as his head whipped around to look at Albus, vaguely noting that Remus and Sirius had also turned to the elder wizard.

Albus coughed uncomfortably. "I had not gotten around to informing Harry of that fact, Lakshmi."

He then met Harry's eyes. "We can talk about this in detail later, assuming you wish to do so. The short explanation is that your parents and grandparents spent a great deal of their fortune supporting the war effort and your parents strained those funds even further when they were on the run. I have been merely doing my part to recoup those losses so that you may have the financial freedom to pursue your passions when you are ready to enter the world as a fully matured wizard."

Harry's eyes misted slightly. He blinked hard. With a whispered "thank you" and returned nod from Albus, he turned back to Lakshmi.

"So, is the reason Albus is allowed to visit whenever he wants? Or is it just that he knows someone?"

"It's that he knows someone." She then nodded her headed towards Albus's phoenix.

"Fawkes?"

"Yes, Fawkes. Fawkes, which ones are your guests?"

Fawkes trilled, flapped his wings once and circled Harry and Albus.

"Just Albus and Mister Potter?"

Fawkes trilled agreeably.

"Mister Potter, who here is your guardian?"

Harry pointed to Sirius.

"Which means I have to let him join you. That would leave Mister Lupin by himself… fine, all four of you can come in. But this is a one-time exception. In the future, I will only accept Fawkes's personal guests, even if that means some of you are left waiting inside."

Albus nodded agreeably. "Of course."

Lakshmi sighed and then started walking toward the doors at the end of the entrance hall.

"Sorry" Harry spoke up. "Why does Fawkes get to decide the guests?"

"Because, before the zoo was here, before the reserve was here, before anyone was here, this is one of the two known phoenix gathering spots in the world."

She then opened the door, exposing the outside. They walked into a clearing filled with palm trees, bushes, clearly magical plants, and the air filled with over a dozen phoenixes flying through the air. They were clearly playing with each other. As they played, they all were singing their own song, each song building on the other in a perfect harmony that made Harry feel like his heart was bursting with a peaceful joy.

Some of the phoenixes were primarily red like Fawkes. Some were green, some were blue, one was a purple that was so deep it was almost black, but when in direct sunlight the purple nearly sparkled.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a burst of white and then a phoenix Patronus joined the flock, which all trilled in delight and started racing after Albus's Patronus. With a wide grin, Harry brought up his wand and got to experience what felt like the phoenixes' childish giggling when his own phoenix Patronus joined in on the fun. With the air full of phoenix song, maintaining the positive emotions for his Patronus came without any effort.

Lakshmi's breathed in deeply and all the tension seemed to drain out of her.

"Ahhh… this is my favorite part of the job. You see, no one knows how long the phoenixes have met her nor how long there have been wards to protect this location from the No-Maj population. The wards have been here as long as records go back and have been refreshed and reinforced consistently over the centuries. We suspect that this site was chosen for the No-Maj zoo because they could sense the phoenix presence at some level. No matter what wards you use, you can't make this area look unattractive as the amount of phoenix song nullifies the effects that would generate negative emotions. Some years after the zoo opened, Newt Scamander visited and proposed using space expansion charms to transform this place into a reserve."

"It's amazing!" spoke a stunned Harry.

Lakshmi smiled. "Yes, it is. Even without the semi-annual phoenix gatherings, the rest of the reserve is a wonder. With the addition of some wards I had placed about ten years ago, non-magical animals are now unable to enter the reserve without us allowing them. It has helped to keep the younger beasts safe from the various predators, well and in rare cases safe from the venomous snakes, spiders, and other such animals."

Albus moved his eyes from his Patronus being chased by the joyous phoenixes, several of which had started dive bombing through the spectral body and looked to Lakshmi.

"Why would the snakes and spiders make such a difference? The innate magic of the creatures should protect them from all but the most potent of venoms. Even then, if the bite is not immediately fatal, then the venom will be counteracted by the beast's magic. I didn't realize that the local snake population met that level of lethality."

Lakshmi nodded. "We primarily only have to deal with rattlesnakes, which are not typically a problem. The only concern is that there is a short time period in the youth of most magical beasts where their magic is just erratic enough that the venom won't be immediately neutralized. It's rare enough that I have only seen it once in all my years handling magical beasts. Newt believes that it happens if a young animal is bit during a spike in erratic magic. The venom bypasses their magic's defenses for a moment but is then held in stasis at the bite point. When their magic calms down, the venom is considered to be a natural part of their body at that precise location. The venom is then allowed to spread, but their magic responds to the spreading venom appropriately and neutralizes it and then tries to attack the bite point. However, their magic fights itself and reinforces the venom which becomes slightly magical, their magic calms down, the venom is allowed to spread, and the cycle repeats. With each iteration the venom becomes increasingly magical until it eventually becomes deadly and kills the poor beast on the last iteration. Now it is standard procedure here to scan any sick beasts for non-magical venoms."

Albus nodded. "Fascinating. Is that something I should worry about for Fawkes? On his burning days, I would imagine he would be susceptible."

"It couldn't hurt, remind me and I can send you the details of the scanning spells. Though, I wouldn't be worried. All of our research shows that a phoenix's magic does not tend to be erratic, even during a burning day."

Albus smiled in relief and looked back up to watch as Fawkes performed loop de loops around Harry's Patronus.

"I'm not sure why Fawkes prefers your Patronus over mine, Harry. I wonder if he is trying to make me jealous on purpose."

Harry chuckled. "I'm sure he wouldn't… well, he might."

Just then, Harry heard an odd warble coming from one of the phoenixes flying overhead.

"Move out of the way!" Lakshmi loudly exclaimed.

"What?" Harry asked as he looked up.

SPLAT!

Harry felt a big wet thing land in his hair, followed by the loud laughter of Sirius and the somewhat suppressed laughter of Remus.

Albus sighed. "Let's get you to a shower Harry to clean that out of your hair."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "No need, I can take care of it."

Harry quickly lifted his wand and spoke the words to the spell to clean his hair.

Sadly, it was only after the spell was cast that he registered the dual shouts of "NO!" from both Albus and Lakshmi.

Dear Marcus,

As usual, I have enclosed Remus's answers to your questions. Congratulations on completing the book for second year. Also, thanks for your suggestion about not including the caterpillar heads in the Bruise Paste. Not only do I feel healed the morning after sword training, but I also feel much more energized. Albus has included a letter to ask you some questions about how you came up with the idea, and he told me he will be contacting his friends in the Potions community to see if it is an original idea. If it is, he will contact you about making sure you get proper credit.

Before I tell you about my visit to the San Diego Zoo today, let me just give you two important warnings. If you are around magical beasts and someone says to move, move first and look around second. Additionally, I have discovered that the excrement of a phoenix is magically inert but can have it magic activated if you cast a spell on it in the first 24 hours. So, if you want to clean it quickly, make sure to use purely non-magical means.

Anyway, my favorite part of the zoo…

Harry put down his quill as he felt the now familiar tingle on his head.

A moment later, the splattered phoenix poop ignited. As usual, his hair quickly followed suit and burned away leaving Harry bald and smelling of burnt hair and dung. Luckily, the phoenix flame didn't harm Harry's scalp.

With that complete, Harry resumed his (now daily) letter to Marcus.

Five minutes later, his hair rapidly starting regrowing to its original state. Sadly, the large splatter of phoenix poop also reconstituted. Albus told him the rapid burning cycle of phoenix scat only lasted between 12 to 24 hours. But the cycle could not be stopped once started. Even after washing his hair, the poop simply teleported back where it had originally landed when it was ready for another burning. Hopefully, he would get a full half hour this time before the next burning. At least his hair (which was now part of the burning cycle's magic) was always returned to its natural state quickly.

Once again, he glared into the corner of his room. There Fawkes and Hedwig stared at him, and he was certain their expressions were full of smug amusement.

It was going to be a long night.

Three weeks later found Harry sitting in a semi-meditative state. It was just before lunch and he found himself overwhelmed by the beauty and tranquility of his surroundings.

Before him were the sweeping majestic sights of the Grand Canyon. He almost had expected to see the area soaked in magic, but other than the occasional witch and wizard, the place was devoid of magic. It was humbling to Harry, thinking that something so amazing could just be caused by the natural forces of nature.

As a cool breeze blew through his hair, he breathed in deeply and reflected on his time in America.

The training with Len was going well. He was now able to get through a day of training with his arms merely in agony, as opposed to feeling dead. He was also able to correctly hold, swing a sword, block, and dodge without harming himself. Len gave Harry instructions for how to update his exercises over time to ensure he could continue his training once he moved onto a different country.

He still didn't understand the appeal of college football. But he now knew to keep that opinion to himself.

He had visited many places by now (the improvements to the Bruise Paste now let him have much more energy at the end of most days). He had seen The World's Largest Ball of Twine. He had seen The World's Largest Hammer. He had seen… well, if there was a well known "World's Largest" thing in the US (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), Harry had seen it. Being able to instantly travel anywhere in the country let him humor Albus's yen to see as many roadside attractions as he could in one Saturday.

He had a wonderful time at Disney World. He had hoped that there would be some sort of magical section of the amusement park, but it was purely muggle (excluding the nearby magical hotel and the magical law enforcement who monitored the park for signs of magic use). Still, being able to ride all those roller coasters had satisfied the part of him the missed playing as Seeker. He hadn't grown up with Disney films, so the characters met little to him.

He had also learned a great deal about the art of healing, at least the theory of it. He usually spent a couple of nights a week with Albus at the magical wing of the Columbus Children's Hospital. The healers were equally stumped about Marcus's health problems, but still regularly contacted Saint Mungo's with their ideas. Harry spent many nights reading books about magical healing.

Harry blinked, and cleared his mind. Every time he focused on Marcus's health problems, he started to feel a knot of anxiety form in his stomach. He instead focused on the news that it had been more than two weeks since Marcus's last burst of accidental magic, so his health was not deteriorating.

Casting his mind onto more pleasant subjects, he thought about his progress with his personal brand of magic. He had yet to overcome the need to touch objects to impart his magic on them (unless he used a wand). However, Albus helped him achieve a form of the summoning and banishing charms. When summoning an object, he instead focused his magic to pull his hand (or any chosen part of his body) towards the object. If he were sufficiently heavier than the object, the object would be pulled towards Harry instead. The same principle applied to banishing. He could even dictate the speed of the pull or push based on how much power he put behind his magic. Of course, if the object were too heavy, then Harry would be the one moved (as he discovered when he experimented with banishing his bed and ended up flinging himself into the opposite wall). It was limited, but at least meant he could always summon his wand to his hand. When Sirius was annoying him, he would use it to slide the man's plate away from his fork. Albus noted that while it was a petty use of his new ability, it was excellent for training his control.

He breathed deeply, admiring the sunlight shimmering off the water running at the bottom of the canyon.

He found himself remembering all his friends at Hogwarts. He was happy that he could now think of the twins as being friends, and even Hermione was starting to get close to earning the title back. Ron… well, he was trying. Still, Hermione… her last letter still made him chuckle. Apparently, she had become adept at cleaning up all the evidence of the twins' pranks, which had drastically decreased the number of lost points and detentions for the duo. People would get pranked, but the effects would be gone by the time a professor could investigate. However, she had yet to fully follow through on pulling a prank of her own, until she had an accident with the last attempt. She had set up a powerful dung bomb to go off and chickened out at the last moment. As such, she threw the dung bomb into a nearby cabinet. When it went off, the explosion severely damaged the cabinet. When Professor McGonagall investigated, she opened the cabinet and was hit by a blast of super concentrated dung stench. As such, the cabinet was removed, and Hermione received her first detention. The twins were so proud.

The wind switched directions, ruffling his hair. The whistling of the wind echoed off the canyon walls.

Harry's own academic pursuits were moving along. His Occlumency training helped, but the theory never came easily to him. He was much more comfortable in the practical aspects of magic. He envied Hermione and Marcus for their affinity to the theory.

Which brought his thoughts back to that poor kid stuck in a hospital room. He was well on his way to completing the book for fourth year Potions and had already surpassed Harry's expertise. Every other day, Albus or Remus had Harry include their letters with his own personal ones. He just wished that he could do something to help…

Wait!

Harry breathed deeply and fully entered his mindscape. There was something there. He looked through his memories of the healer books, his memories of every conversation, of every letter, of everything that he had done, said, or thought since Halloween. Something…

There! Maybe?

Surreptitiously, he pulled out his wand and cast a spell so he would not be noticed by the muggles. He focused on his destination and disappeared from his chair without a sound.

Arriving at his destination, he found the person he was seeking. Once he got their attention, he spoke with urgency.

"I need your help!"