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 was having by far the best summer of his life. He ate whatever and whenever he wanted to (there were no Dursleys starving him), he went to a baseball game, and he even chatted up a girl who was apparently visiting her older sister at one of the universities. For the first time, he felt like he was actually in control of his own life, and he loved every minute of it.
Even if he had a minder, he probably still would have genuinely enjoyed his time in the city; Philadelphia had a great deal to offer for the discerning traveler. He went to every major section of the city, in several cases going wherever his stomach led him (for example, to places like Reading Terminal Market). By June 30th, he had gone to several of the major museums in the city (though even he—an admitted philistine, compared to, say, Hermione—knew that it would take weeks to truly plumb the depths of just those he had seen, not to mention all of Philadelphia's numerous museums), and his favorite by far had been the Franklin Institute. In addition to its excellent non-magical exhibits, it had a substantial magical section, including departments which were actively engaged in research in a number of fascinating fields, doing justice to its namesake (a fairly famous American wizard).
In fact, these museums in general, and discussion he had had with a researcher (a middle-aged healer named Edward Hopkins, who had extolled the virtues of several different fields of magic, some not even available for study at Hogwarts) in particular had kindled in Harry a new enthusiasm for scholarship that bordered on obsession. It had helped Hopkins' credibility in Harry's mind that he had also recommended several different nutrient potions for Harry, having noticed instantly that Harry was underweight by nearly two stone. If nothing else, he could get back—within a few weeks—the growth he had missed out on from years of malnourishment and confinement at Number 4 Privet Drive. If he was particularly lucky, his eyesight—which had been damaged by a decade of straining his eyes to see in his dark cupboard—would also be repaired. Harry purchased the potions that day (not trusting his own skill at brewing for such an important application), and took them as directed. He was hopeful that he would return to Hogwarts taller, stronger, and without glasses, and he vowed to remember that, in all the times he had been under Madam Pomfrey's care at Hogwarts, she had never said anything about repairing the physical damage that the Dursleys had inflicted on him. Since all potions prescribed by a healer in America had to be FDA-approved (though obviously in relative secrecy), he was quite sure that he trusted Hopkins's word over Pomfrey's; he was a world-renowned healer with dozens of published journal articles, and she was a school nurse.
Aside from medicinal potions, Harry's new academic fixation also led to a book-buying spree the likes of which Harry had not seen since the last time Hermione had visited Flourish and Blott's. Since American wizards apparently printed texts the same way as their muggle counterparts (rather than slow, labor-intensive 19th-century vintage presses), books were extremely inexpensive, and unlike the tripe available in Britain (often forced upon students by professors looking to line their own pockets—unfortunately, Lockhart wasn't the only offender, just the worst), textbooks were all peer-reviewed. Histories were full of verified fact, and when authors speculated or theorized, they were careful to hedge, knowing that their reputations were on the line. Spellbooks included not only descriptions, helpful tips, and suggested uses, but also arithmantic formulae, all manner of graphs and data, and moving pictures of wand motions. Harry bought so many books that he ended up going to the local Gringotts branch to withdraw more funds just to buy more books, and needed to charm his trunk several times with as powerful of a space-expanding charm as he could manage.
He was being well-served by all these books; far from being solely for enjoyment, Harry was using them in addition to—and in some cases, in lieu of—his assigned textbooks as references for his summer assignments. As a result, he was plowing through his homework with little difficulty, and at a pace that Hermione would have envied. He had quickly concluded that he would be dropping divination, and replacing it with arithmancy. Professor Vector was known for being an excellent teacher, and he could simply test out of the third-year introductory material to be placed with the other fourth-year students. Ancient runes was also a consideration, but it was primarily memorization through the OWL material, so he would simply self-study it, and sit the OWL at his own leisure. If that went well, he would take the runes course at the NEWT level.
As these resolutions came to him, he began to wonder why he had let Ron talk him into taking divination. What a waste of time that had been! Had he really been so starved for companionship that he was willing to let Ron dictate the course of his life? The answer after his second year had apparently been "yes," but now that was no longer the case. Harry would take the courses he wanted, and if he felt like doing extra work or reading instead of playing chess or talk about quidditch (which he probably would, now that he had purchased a great deal of reading material that would actually be well worth his time), then he would do just that.
During the mirror call before dinner (the time difference was currently six hours, as Sirius and Remus were currently in Germany, following up on a lead on Wormtail), Harry ran these thoughts by the two older wizards.
"I'm glad you're starting to place more value on what you want, Harry," Sirius said, nodding with satisfaction. "Friendship is important, but you need to live your own life the way you want."
"I agree," Remus said, poking his head into view. "I didn't want to get into it with you during school, since Ron and Hermione are fairly close friends of yours and I didn't want to offend you, but I think you might have less in common with them than you did at the beginning of your first year. That's okay; part of growing up is growing into your own person, and sometimes that means growing apart from people you were close to."
Harry sighed. "I guess. It's just kind of surprising—maybe it's because I've been keeping myself so busy between exploring the city and doing my summer assignments, but I haven't really missed Ron and Hermione since you guys picked me up from Number 4, and I only really think of them when I do schoolwork, go to a museum, or see someone eat like a pig."
Sirius didn't quite get Harry's half-joke, but Remus laughed. "Ah, Ron Weasley. It was pretty unappetizing watching from up at the staff table; I shudder to think how bad it is up close and personal."
"Anyway, Harry, it's great that you're looking into history and different fields of magic," Sirius continued, still—shockingly—on the subject of learning. "You never know what is going to be useful, and the more you learn, the broader your horizons will be."
Harry was surprised by Sirius's sudden ability to be sedate and responsible for the entire conversation so far; that is, until the very next moment, when his thin veneer of respectability came crashing down.
"So, have you snogged any colonial girls?"
Rolled eyes met his barking laughter, and the rest of the conversation was spent bantering and chatting about lighter subjects.
After a hearty dinner (consisting, predictably, of a cheesesteak smothered in ketchup), Harry put the finishing touches on his final summer assignment, thinking—quite rightly, as it would turn out—that Professor Flitwick would definitely be impressed with his work. Harry spent the remainder of the night reading On Combating the Darker Forces of this Earth and Beyond, an incredibly interesting Defense Against the Dark Arts book, originally written almost two centuries ago by "I. Crane" and periodically edited by his descendants (whose family business was the hunting and destruction of dark creatures). As he turned out the lights and settled in for bed, he turned to Hedwig and grinned.
"It doesn't get much better than this."
Author's Note
So, this is my first actual Author's Note—at some point, I'll probably go back and dump the Captain's Log entries from my profile into A/N's at the end of their appropriate chapters. I wish there was some better way to do this, so that it doesn't throw off the word count, but alas, it is not to be.
The "fairly famous American wizard" mentioned early in this chapter will come up again. He's one of my favorite historical characters, so I figured I may as well make him a wizard. That would explain at least some of his shenanigans.
Strangely enough, the most difficult part of the writing process (so far, at least) has been keeping track of dates and lunar cycles, which are important for both plot and character reasons. For the first several chapters, it was always clear precisely when events were taking place; soon, however, expect to see some Rowling-style timeskips ("as days went on," "things continued in this fashion for the next week," etc.), which both the books and—even more obviously—the movies used to great effect.
Anyway, I've made my decision regarding the "familiar" cliché for this story. The fact is, there is no support for the idea of a "familiar" as some sort of magically-bonded animal companion in canon; rather, the introduction of familiars to Potter-'verse fanon and fanfiction seems to me to be an example of diffusion from other universes and mythologies.
The closest examples to this idea of a "familiar bond" from canon are Albus/Fawkes, Salazar/basilisk, and Tom/Nagini. The Albus/Fawkes relationship is mostly unexplained, but nothing the phoenix entry in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them indicates that phoenixes (and, by extension, Fawkes) are anything more than particularly rare and difficult to domesticate magical animals. Basically, phoenixes are basically just post owls that have healing tears, an uplifting song, great physical strength, and a flashier version of apparation. The Salazar/basilisk relationship is simple; the nature of a basilisk is that it A: is a snake, and B: is not naturally-occurring. Therefore, Salazar (or someone) intentionally hatched a chicken egg beneath a toad (per HPatCoS), and the ability to use Parseltongue afforded him magical command over the beast. Finally, the Tom/Nagini relationship is actually the closest thing in canon to the traditional "familiar" bond—they are literally connected via a chunk of Tom's soul.
Since there won't be horcruxes in this story, I'll be moving forward under the assumption that pets are pretty much just pets, albeit if semi-sentient ones. I mean, Hagrid purchased Hedwig at a literal pet shop. If any wizard has extra control over his pet, it's because his pet is well-trained and/or there is literally a way for them to communicate (such as Parseltongue) and/or some form of mind-control or compulsion charm is involved. Thus, Fawkes is Albus's very well-trained bird, Hedwig is Harry's rather well-trained (if somewhat vain) bird, and Nagini is Tom's (probably mind-controlled) snake.
So, as for how this will all play out in HPatLS...I guess you'll have to wait and see.
Finally...review! Constructive criticism and ego-stroking are both welcome!