Disclaimer: Standard stuff (I don't own anything, I won't be making profit, any resemblance to previously published content is purely coincidental, JK Rowling is the coolest, etc.). If I make any legal errors regarding copyrighted material, inform me and I will correct them immediately.

Harry Potter and the Lightning Scar

Harry awoke, groaning, just after 8 AM on the morning of June 22. He had been too tired the previous night to realize just how bruised and beaten the three-way duel had left him, but he was certainly feeling it now. After staggering to the bathroom and taking a long, relaxing (hot, for once!) bath, he made his way downstairs to the dining room, where a welcome sight sat before him.

He immediately felt better upon seeing the state of Sirius and Remus. Both men were slumped in their chairs, barely conscious, and nursing cups of coffee with half-shut eyes. Harry grinned.

"Good morning Moony, Padfoot! Ready for some apparation training?"

"Bluhhhhh," Remus managed, while Sirius's simply head lolled to the side, drool running down his chin.

"Hmm. Lovely. After breakfast, then."

Breakfast was another exercise in resistance from Kreacher; the elf happily supplied the wizards with burnt toast, cold eggs, and soggy bacon, before cackling madly and disappearing off to do...well, whatever it was that he normally did, wherever it was that he normally did it. It certainly wasn't cleaning, Harry mused, flicking a large ball of dust at Sirius.

"Alright, get up you two lazy old louts," Harry commanded, while turning Remus's hair orange and Sirius's shirt pink. "You're both teaching me how to apparate today, starting now."

A few stinging hexes and prank jinxes later, the three had made their way back downstairs to the training room, which still bore the marks of their battle the previous night. Sirius conjured several hula hoops, and tossed them about the room, and began to lecture.

"Okay, so the first thing we're going to do is ignore how the Ministry teaches apparation," he began. "All that Three D's crap is a load of...well...crap. You are going to learn apparation the way the old families teach it."

"What are the Three D's?" Harry asked.

"The Three D's: Destination, Determination and Deliberation," Remus intoned pompously, clearly doing an excellent Percy Weasley impression. "Basically, the Ministry teaches apparation to the lowest common denominator. It's the easy way to learn, but it is less efficient and just generally worse than the "real" way. Since you're a wizard with power and skill well above your age—and as you showed last night, the reflexes to go with it—you're going to learn without the training wheels, and you'll be better off for it."

Harry nodded, understanding the reference; unfortunately, Sirius did not. A lengthy explanation about bicycles and their place in muggle society followed, ending with Remus shaking his head and muttering about being "saddled with a ruddy idiot of a pureblood."

"Moving on," Sirius interrupted, "the bottom line is that apparation is quite simple, but people making a big deal about "being old enough to do it" and the Ministry regulating it has given it a bit of a mystique, which can intimidate people. The Ministry goes on and on about splinching and whatnot, but if you do it right, you'll be fine."

"Basically, you said it all last night, when you were talking about going onto that roof" Remus continued. "The real way to do it is to decide where you want to be, and use your magic to make it so. The way the Ministry teaches it, you'd spin on your heel and twirl your wand while concentrating on where you want to be, but that's just a way to mentally associate something—in this case, a physical movement—to help you focus your magic into doing what you want. Also, if you're not really practiced in it, those movements can actually distract you from your apparation, which will make splinching more likely."

"So, there's a hoop," Sirius said, pointing across the room to one of the hoops he had thrown. "Apparate into it. You've got ten seconds, and then I'm going to start casting jinxes at you."

Harry concentrated on the hoop. He imagined himself being there. After about five seconds, he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of Sirius raising his wand. Harry gritted his teeth and pushed—

The sharp crack echoed around the room. Harry looked back, and saw Sirius and Remus looking at him proudly. He grinned, and with another crack—this one somewhat quieter, as Harry had realized that he had "pushed" far harder than was really necessary—he was back in front of his godfather.

"Let's play a game," Remus proposed. "We played it at James's parents' house during the summer after sixth year. Sirius and I will shoot spells at you. You get to apparate to any hoop, at will, but you can't shield or dodge—if a spell is coming your way, apparate to a different hoop. Once you get the hang of it, you'll have it for good, and you'll quickly learn what a great help apparation can be in a fight—a lot of wizards who rely on the Ministry's method can't apparate in a fight quickly enough to dodge spells, and because they "need" to spin to do it, they can't apparate while running, either."

Harry grinned, and apparated across the room; the game was on. After about ten minutes, he was getting hit much less, and clearly had apparation down. Sirius called a halt, vanished the hoops, and upped the ante—they would re-enact the previous night's three-way duel, except with apparation thrown in.

They could only duel for about thirty minutes; the addition of apparation made it much more exhausting. Three tired, bruised, but extremely satisfied wizards dragged themselves back up the stairs for water, and collapsed onto the chairs at the dining room table.

"You know, Harry," Remus began. "You'll need to hit Diagon Alley to pick up some cash for your trip, and you need to get some muggle clothing that will pass muster."

"Muggle clothing?" said Harry, a bit surprised. "I thought I'd be with wizards the whole time."

"Well, you'll be learning magic from wizards, but that doesn't mean you need to spend all your time with them," Remus replied. "The world is a big place, and there's plenty to do. Plus, like I said last night, wizards associate much more closely with muggles in America than we do in Britain, so they wear muggle clothing most of the time. If you showed up in robes, people would just think you're weird."

Harry nodded; actually he was pleased he would have a reason to get some nice muggle clothes. Most of his muggle clothing was handed down from Dudley, and what few things he owned that had been purchased to fit him were now too small. Harry was short and thin for his age, but he did still grow. Luckily, he had had the foresight to get his Gringotts key from Hagrid before the end of term. He had gone down to Hagrid's cabin the night before the leaving feast to visit with the huge man and let him know how Buckbeak had been set free (without giving too much detail regarding the whereabouts or plans of Sirius Black).

Sensing that he should strike while the iron was hot, he had asked the very grateful Hagrid for his vault key; after all, he had reasoned, he might need money for things when Hagrid wasn't around, and he should start dealing with his own finances. Hagrid, in his gratitude—and admittedly lubricated somewhat by several large mugs of ale—had immediately acquiesced. Harry was glad to be back in control of his vault; it had always rubbed him the wrong way that Dumbledore, while supposedly a great and powerful wizard, effectively had personal control over Harry's finances. He wasn't sure why Dumbledore had felt entitled to take such liberties with his affairs—especially considering the fact that the man was merely his school headmaster (as his roles in the Wizengamot and the ICW certainly had no such authority over his property)—and had resolved to confront the man about it upon returning to school in September. Such interference would never have been possible in the muggle world, after all, and Harry was quickly becoming determined to be more independent.

"Alright," Harry said. "How about we shower, eat lunch, and then head out to get it done with?"

After a brief shower and a light lunch—which Harry made, not in the mood for another Kreacher Special—Remus and Harry (with Sirius staying behind, on account of being a fugitive from the Ministry) apparated to the sidewalk in front of Gringotts. The trip was quick and efficient; rather than going down to the vault, Harry simply withdrew money from the teller, in the form of 500 galleons, 500 pounds sterling, and 500 US dollars. Harry learned that he could get US dollars from one of the Gringotts branch banks in America, so he didn't bother picking up any more than he might need to have on hand for the first few weeks in the states. Happily, he was in and out in less than ten minutes.

The shopping was similarly efficient, taking less than an hour. Neither Harry nor Remus was inclined towards fashion, and both shared at least a moderate distaste with clothes shopping. Harry tried on a few pairs of jeans until he learned his size, then got several essentially identical pairs (though in slightly different shades of blue). He picked up a few packs of assorted-color t-shirts, a light jacket, new underwear, a dozen pairs of socks, and a new pair of trainers. After some brief consideration, he also purchased a sturdy, comfortable pair of boots, assuming (correctly, as it would turn out) that much of the magic he'd be learning with the Menominee would be done outside.

Through unspoken agreement, the pair immediately headed back to Number 12 upon completion of their errands; both were keenly aware of how negatively Sirius was affected by being alone in that dreary place. Neither wanted him to be alone there any more than was absolutely necessary. It was unsurprising, then, that their return to the Black family home was met with a series of pranks and traps, ranging from mildly irritating to what in any other company would certainly be at least somewhat humiliating. Remus and Harry looked at each other, silently agreeing to take it in good humor, and immediately began to return fire. Their gambit was successful, as Sirius was obviously cheered. The rest of the time before dinner (which turned out well, as they had decided to order pizza rather than deal with Kreacher) was spent drilling Harry on some of the spells he had learned in their three-way duels; they held off on a rematch because Remus was feeling rather ill (since the full moon was to rise the next night).

There being a least a few hours remaining before bedtime, the trio sat down and fleshed out the itinerary for Harry's upcoming expedition. He would depart the next afternoon right before lunch (it was always best to take international portkeys on a relatively empty stomach), and arrive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which had a thriving magical community. Once through customs, he would proceed to the nearest apparation test center (conveniently located in Philadelphia's City Hall), and obtain his apparation license, which would be recorded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Magic (or, colloquially, PennDoM).

He planned to stay in Philadelphia through the 4th of July (which was celebrated in America as "Independence Day," and the fireworks display in Philadelphia was reputed to be among the best in the country). He would proceed northwest to Wisconsin—via portkey, as it was probably too far for a relative novice at apparation—the next day, where he would rendezvous with Morris Oshkosh (a descendant of a 19th century chief of the tribe), who would assist him with the animagus transformation and put him up at his inn. This assistance would not be free, of course; Harry would work part-time doing odd jobs around the reservation. Remus suggested that Harry take the opportunity to play the tourist by taking a few day-trips to points of interest in the United States, when he wasn't otherwise occupied with learning magic or doing work. It was a good suggestion, and Harry already had a few points in mind. The trip promised to be quite an adventure—best of all, without the mortal danger to which Harry was accustomed.

For the first time in days, Harry was coherent enough to disrobe and prepare for bed, before peacefully dozing off, already dreaming about the adventure to come.

Author's Note:

I've thrown in the Captain's Log entry from 5/18/2014 below, and removed it from my profile page. This is to more accurately comply with, if not the letter, than the spirit of the rules and guidelines for posting stories.

Well, I'm up to five chapters now! I've gotta say, writing is definitely a good way to pass the time, and it definitely does get the creative juices flowing. I might be slowing down soon-now that the plot is beginning to move, there will be longer chapters (as you can tell just by looking at chapter 5, which is twice as long as any of those previous), and I've also got some stuff to do after work tomorrow (not the least of which is watching tonight's episode of Game of Thrones).

So far, I've gotten several reviews, and they're encouraging. This being the internet, I'll admit that I kind of expected about half of them to be blatant flaming or trolling, but I'm pleased to note that they are all quite kind. Feel free to post whatever you like, particularly if it is some sort of constructive criticism (you can also PM me, if you are more comfortable with that).

On the subject of familiars: I don't really see Hedwig as Harry's familiar, at least not in the sense that they have some extraordinary bond. She's a post owl. A pretty post owl, but generally just a post owl. She and Harry don't have some special understanding. Even when she is killed in canon, Harry gets over it quite quickly. I would imagine that if Fawkes were killed (perma-death, not just phoenix-death), Dumbledore would be shattered, as there is clearly some greater bond between them. I also don't think that Nagini is Tom's familiar-I don't believe that he is capable of emotionally bonding to another being in any role aside from domination, and the familiar bond as I imagine it would be more of a partnership. I'm considering letting in one fanfiction cliche regarding this subject; I'll decide for sure soon enough. Now, it's off to bed for me. END LOG.