Harry Potter and the Years of Adventure

Chapter One - The Beginning

Disclaimer: It's called fanfiction for a reason, I don't own the characters, world, story etc.

Enjoy!

Harry lay panting on the ground, his breath forming tiny crystals in the air; it was over. He couldn't believe it was finished, just seconds ago he had been facing a very alive, very deadly, Nagini and Voldemort. One well placed reducto on the snake and one flying fang later, they were both dead. It was funny actually, he couldn't have done any better if he tried, technically speaking he hadn't even really killed Voldemort, sure, he was the cause of his death but it wasn't his fault the fang decided Voldemort's throat was a good resting place, he was just really glad it did. It happened during the Christmas holidays of his fifth year, Voldemort had decided to attack the school while most people were gone, so as to not have much resistance, but he didn't take into account the fact that the entire DA had stayed and that the Order of the Phoenix was gathering to Floo to Grimmauld Place. If he had been 20 minutes earlier or five minutes later, he would have had no difficulties but you know what they say, 'The best laid plans of mice and men', Voldemort was the mouse in this particular situation (he hadn't deemed it necessary to bring more than 20 Death Eaters with him, the rest were planning an attack on Diagon Alley) and his plans failed.

As he rolled over to look at the clear, winter sky, Harry pondered what to do next, what do you do after defeating one of the most evil wizards of all time? Everything pales in comparison, he couldn't imagine being happy chasing after the random Death Eater, it just wouldn't be satisfying.

Hell, why do I have to decide now? He asked himself, I'm only fifteen, I still have to finish school. That's as good a place to start as any.

So, Harry and the rest of Hogwarts finished the school year - in peace this time. He took his OWLS and without an evil Dark Lord hanging around in his head it was much easier to concentrate so he passed with all Os - he did have an A in divination but no one counts that.

He spent the summer before his sixth year alternating between staying with Sirius and the Weasleys, towards the end though, he was spending more time with Sirius and not because he missed him. See, ever since he first met the eldest Weasley kid he hadn't been able to get him out of his head. Whenever he was around William Weasley he couldn't think, he couldn't speak, he couldn't do anything. His lovely teenage hormones were going completely crazy, he would see the back of Bill's head, with his neat ponytail and he would get the urge to pull the hair free and run his fingers through it. He would catch a glimpse of his fang earring and a tingle ran down his hand. But worst of all, Bill had this habit of staying up late and falling asleep sprawled across the couch in the living room.

Bill's head would be nestled among the pillows in one corner, one leg would be draped over the armrest, and the other would be hanging off the side, just barely touching the floor. Sometimes an arm would hang above his head, other times it would rest on his slowly rising and falling chest, invariably the other would be falling onto the floor. This particular habit was the reason Harry avoided the Burrow more and more and eventually caused him to never visit when Bill was there. It started the first time Harry couldn't sleep and went down to the kitchen for tea, as he passed the living room, on his way back upstairs he saw Bill, fast asleep on the couch. Bill had looked so peaceful, so serene, in that moment, that Harry had just stood there and watched him sleep. That time it hadn't felt odd or wrong but as the days went by he found himself getting up for tea more often just to see if Bill was on the couch. Harry noticed that Bill was there more and more often, and with every night he would get a bit bolder, stand just a little closer, and leave feeling just a little bit guiltier. Everything in him besides his heart was shouting at him, telling him it was wrong, but he couldn't help himself, Bill was his addiction. One night, The Night, as Harry referred to it in his head, he had been standing there, only a metre away from where Bill was lying, when a small beam of moonlight fell onto Bill's face, it lit up his features with an ethereal glow. Harry had watched, almost like a bystander, as his hand reached out towards Bill. Harry had cupped Bill's face with his hand and traced the contours of his cheekbone ever so gently with his thumb, it was the touch of a lover and Bill had leaned into the caress. This slight movement on Bill's part was enough to snap Harry out of whatever trance he had been in and he ran quickly and quietly back to Ron's room where he lay panting on his cot. Harry thanked Merlin and whatever other gods there may be, that Bill hadn't woken up. From that day on he stopped going downstairs at night and visited the Burrow less and less. The only person who put the pieces together was Sirius, he knew something was wrong when Harry started spending more time with him and Christina; it's not that he minded, just that he wanted Harry to be happy, which he obviously wasn't. So, they talked and Sirius agreed that Bill was too old for Harry but he also said that if he still liked him in five or ten years it wouldn't matter as much. Unfortunately for anyone else seeking a relationship with Harry, Harry had this small ember of hope which refused to be smothered, thereby making him immune to any and all advances.

Sixth and seventh year came and everyone freaked out about NEWTS and careers, as was normal, and Harry still had no idea what he wanted to do. He spent the holidays with Sirius and when he found out that Bill was back in Egypt, he frequented the Burrow as well.

Harry didn't accept the extremely lucrative offer of and immediate Auror post and he turned down all sorts of other offers from the ministry. He even said no to teaching DADA for a year at Hogwarts (it turned out that the curse used by Tom Riddle didn't dissipate when he died – it just allowed some professors to come back after a few years break. This pattern of turning down good jobs put some people into a state of panic, why hadn't the boy-who-lived-and-conquered decided on a job? Were his grades bad? (Professors and students were sworn to secrecy on this one.) Did the Dark Lord injure him? What was wrong? When Harry heard some of the rumours that were going around he finally decided to tell them something, if only to make them shut up. He didn't feel like giving an interview so he sent a short letter to the Daily Prophet and a copy to the Ministry, it read:

Wizarding World,

There has been much speculation as to my plans for the future. I would like to tell you now that they are exactly that, My Plans, and if I haven't told you then they obviously don't concern you. I'm glad that you are all looking out for my well-being but I assure you, everything is fine, I just haven't decided what I want to do when I graduate. I now request that you cease and desist all attempts to pry into my life.

Thank you,

Harry Potter

This letter was not received well by the public and they started camping out in front of the school and even tried to bribe students to spy on him. However, the reporters couldn't see anything from the gates and the other students often found it amusing to prank them and send bogus information such as 'Harry has now been turned into a giant canary and taken to hanging out in the Owlery.' Another was 'Harry now wears pink dresses and bows in his hair and skips around singing Mary had a Little Lamb' (a muggle-born thought this one up), 'Harry is having an affair with the Giant Squid', 'Harry is blind and still playing Quidditch'. Harry's personal favourite was 'There are now seven Harrys, they each dress in the different colours of the rainbow and walk around speaking in limericks.' Any student who was more inclined to report on his actual activities - which were completely mundane - found themselves as test subjects for the Weasley twins, directly when the twins were still in school, and then by way of Ginny and Ron when the twins opened their shop.

As much as Harry appreciated what his fellow students were doing for him, he couldn't wait to graduate, he couldn't wait to get away from the frequent reminders of everything everyone else had an he didn't. He would see Hermione and Ron together and would feel the need to leave, it wasn't jealousy, envy or even resentment, it was longing. He would be walking down the hall and catch a glimpse of red hair and feel, of all things, guilty. He had fallen for someone so completely out of his reach, someone who it was wrong to like, to even think of him that way wasn't right; it was barely even legal. It took him a while to figure it out but he eventually realized that the feeling of needing to leave did not just come with observing couples and their relationships, it was there all the time. Finally, Harry figured out what he was going to do.

As soon as the Hogwarts' Express pulled into Platform 9 ¾ Harry disappeared into the bathroom, applied a heavy glamour and apparated to Diagon Alley. He had a little chat with the goblins who agreed to do business with him under a false name and grabbed a shit-ton of gold – they even hooked him up with a credit card, Harry wasn't really sure how this worked but hey, if it works, it works. He then headed out to do some shopping. He bought some very durable robes, heavy duty boots, and found something called a 'Travellers Pack'. The pack was just a normal-looking canvas backpack with a greatly expanded inside; it came with a serviceable tent, maps, compass, parachute (he wasn't really sure what this was for but hey, might come in handy), sailing boat (it was ocean-worthy and could be sailed by one man which gave Harry some really interesting ideas), skis and snowshoes (again, interesting ideas), beach chair and umbrella, bookcase and a massive wardrobe. At first, the man who sold it to him had refused to do so.

"This is a gift, I can make you another one but this particular one is meant for someone else. You can look but you'll have to wait."

Harry, after seeing the pack, had his heart set on it. "Well, I don't want to wait, I need to leave as soon as possible, I will double whatever the other person is paying you."

The man glared at him, "They're not paying, like I said before, it's a gift."

"Who is it for? Maybe I can convince them to wait for you to make another one?"

The man looked nervous but resolute. "This, young man, is for Harry Potter. And he doesn't even know about it so there's no way you can convince him to give up something he doesn't even know about."

Harry stepped back in shock, "You're making a travelling pack for Harry Potter?"

"Well, yeah. He hasn't told anyone what he's doing next so I thought he might like the means to travel around. I mean, what is a guy supposed to do after defeating an evil Dark Lord?"

"That's exactly what I thought!" Harry exclaimed with a grin, "No one seems to understand that. They just all think I should go off and – " He stopped mid-sentence when he saw the guy's face, he had forgotten that he wasn't supposed to be himself. "Oh, um...yeah..." He dropped his glamour and looked at the shop keeper a little guiltily."

The man stared at him for a full ten seconds before bursting out laughing. "Well, isn't this just the greatest thing ever? Here I am saying you can't have the very thing I was planning on sending you!"

"Yeah, it is quite funny when you look at it that way."

The guy grinned, "I guess I was right in thinking you were going to leave us for a bit?"

Harry smiled sheepishly, "That you were, it's just like you said, it's hard to do anything once you've killed, albeit in a roundabout sort of way, Voldemort."

"Well," The man said, "I was just putting the finishing touches on the bag when you walked in so if you wait twenty minutes it will be ready for you."

"Okay, I have some other things I need to get while I'm here so I will go do that and come back in a bit."

"I will see you then." The shop keeper said with a smile as Harry walked out the door. The man couldn't believe that he had thought along the same lines as Harry Potter. He had hoped that Harry would use his gift sometime but had been completely prepared for it to be returned with a 'Thank you but no thank you' note attached. That Harry had come looking for it was a sign of just how right he was.

Harry (with his glamour re-applied) walked to Flourish and Blotts to get some reading material for his adventures, because that's what he planned to do, go adventuring. He picked up books on many different subjects; runes, ancient history, myths, superstitions, curses, tombs, geography, culture, language (human and not), creatures and beasts, Herbology and foreign magics (there weren't many but what they did have, he bought), he even got piles of fiction novels. But Harry mainly focused on books related to travel, in that section he went to the very bottom shelf and pulled out the oldest, most obscure ones he could, ones about places normal people would never even think of going. Some of his favourites were, 'Lands of Ice: The Frozen North', 'Magic Monuments of the Maya', 'Southern Mysteries', 'Magic of the Forbidden City', 'Where Fire Meets the Air: Volcanoes of the World' and last but most certainty not least, 'The Book of the Lost: From Atlantis to Lemuria'. What Harry didn't get were advanced books on transfiguration, charms, defence, potions, politics, or anything else people would call 'useful' for the careers they thought he should explore. He didn't want to do anything expected, sure, he could learn tons of advanced magic and become some sort of super-wizard, he certainly had the smarts for it – apparently, when he put his mind to it he was more than a little intelligent – but he didn't want to. After all, this was teenage rebellion at its best. He did get 'Potions for the Traveller' - it was old, way in the back, and in pristine condition, no one had ever touched it, 'Surviving in the Wild: Practical Defence', 'When There's No One Around for Miles: Keeping Safe on Your Own', 'Hiding in Plain Sight', 'What You Need, When You Need It', and 'Common Courtesy for any Culture'. As an afterthought, he picked up 'The Lost Arts of the Sea: Sailing for the Wizard'. He also got a whole pile journals, a handful of quills, pots of ink, a selection of charcoal and a few sketchbooks.

Harry then went to the Apothecary and stocked up on the simple ingredients recommenced in the one potions book he had. At Eeylops, Harry bought a large packet of owl treats and called Hedwig to him. He scribbled a short note to Hermione and attached it along with the treats to her leg, and another to Ron, Hedwig seemed to know what was going on and nibbled him gently on the ear. She was always smarter than regular owls so not only did she know what was happening, she also understood and accepted it.

"Don't worry Hedwig, I'll be fine, I just can't take you with me this time. I'll be going places and doing things which you won't enjoy. Now, I'm going to put an owl shield up so other owls can't find me but I know you can find me whenever you want so don't be a stranger. I will always keep a letter or two for you to carry back if you come and visit, they are allowed one response. However, if they try to force you to take a letter to me I hereby give you permission to rip it to pieces and/or peck at their fingers, they should get the message soon enough. Please drop the letter for Ron and then go to Hermione, I hope you will stay with her, but the choice is yours."

Once Hedwig had flown off, Harry headed back to get his pack. The man explained that the pack was charmed to be watertight, weight adjustable, ever expanding and even if it fell off it would come back to him. The security features were extensive but boiled down to the fact that only he could get in.

Harry popped over to muggle London to grab two sturdy pairs of pants, a couple of shirts, a light jacket, hat, boxers and socks. Then he apparated to Grimmauld Place, Sirius deserved a proper explanation.

"Sirius." Harry called as he entered the house.

"Kitchen!" A voice yelled back.

Harry walked in the kitchen to find Sirius lounged with his feet on the table and a massive sandwich in his hands.

"Hey kid, what's up? You were supposed to be back a while ago." Sirius said calmly, he wasn't as uptight as some guardians could be, which pleased Harry to no end.

"Well, there were some things I needed to do and something I need to tell you." Harry said nervously, he didn't want Sirius to think he was abandoning him.

"I was wondering when you were going to leave." Sirius said, taking his legs off the table. "It doesn't take a genius to tell that you need to go for a bit."

Harry blinked. "You know too?"

"Yeah, I've been seeing the signs for a while now. I just hope that you find someone or something to take your mind off our troublesome Weasley."

Harry smiled, he was glad he had told Sirius about Bill, everyone, even the saviour of the world, needed someone to talk to sometimes. "I do too. I can't believe it's been this long and I still haven't gotten over him. But don't worry, I'll find a way; and hopefully some other interesting stuff as well."

"I don't doubt you will kid, not for a second. Now, what's that you've got there?" Sirius asked, nodding towards the pack Harry had dropped on the floor.

"Well, I've just been to Diagon Alley, apparently the guy who owns the trunk shop had made me what he dubbed a 'Travellers Pack', he was going to send it tomorrow. When I walked in and asked about it he said it was a gift and I couldn't buy it, then he found out who I am and told me it was mine!"

Sirius smiled, "Well, I'm not surprised. Anyone with their head screwed on straight would have come to a similar conclusion, problem is that not many people have enough head to screw on. So, when are you leaving?"

"Well, I was just coming back here to say goodby and then I'm off. I wrote letters to Ron and Hermione but I figured you deserved a face-to-face farewell."

"Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Do you know how long you'll be gone?"

Harry looked at his shoes, "Probably years, I plan on travelling the world, the semi-Muggle way."

"Care to explain what semi-Muggle means?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow,

"Well, the pack came with a sailboat..." Harry shuffled his feet nervously, "And I was already planning on doing a lot of trekking so..."

"Wow. That, I did not see coming, I expected travelling, maybe even a bit of walking but you make it sound like you'll be trekking the world!"

"Yeah, I guess it just feels right. But like I said before, it's probably going to take years. I don't want to miss anything and anyway, it's not like I have a time limit or anything. And money won't be a problem, between the reward money, the Potter vault and what's left of my school trust fund, none of my descendants will have to work for centuries." Harry said with a smile, it was nice to know that he didn't have to worry about a job, that he could go travelling and not have to bother with earning money along the way.

"That's the understatement of the year, kid." Sirius said with a grin, "You could fund all of Britain for at least a year! Anyway, take your time, don't get hurt, and keep in touch." He finished with a hug.

"I will. But," Harry returned the hug but also looked down nervously. "I, um...I kinda put an owl blocker spell on myself. I will send stuff with Hedwig when she comes to visit but other than that..."

Sirius just nodded and squeezed Harry tighter. "That's okay, I understand. Now, off you go before Ron and Hermione show up. They will probably be here any minute."

"Okay." With one final hug, Harry shut the door and disapparated away.

Ron was just about to go for a start of summer fly around the field when he saw Hedwig flying to the house, he leaned his broom up against the wall and went to retrieve the letter.

Ron,

Hey mate, I know you're wondering why I'm writing now, I mean, we just got off the train. But I wanted to tell you that I'm off. I'm going travelling. I won't be back for a while so don't put anything off for me. I've made it so owls can't find me cause I want to do this on my own. Anyway, I've left Hedwig with Hermione, Hedwig's too smart for owl blocks but she won't take letters for me (don't try, you won't like it). She will come visit me sometimes and I'll send stuff back with her, you can respond to those letters but that's it. Thanks for everything, mate.

Cheers,

Harry

P.S. Don't wait too long to ask Hermione.

Ron ran into the house and nearly crashed into his mum.

"Mum!" He gasped. "Mum, he's gone!"

"Calm down Ronald, who's gone?"

"It's Harry, he left, I think he's gone on an extended vacation or something." Ron said, waving the letter in her face.

Molly sighed and took the letter, when she finished she looked up at Ron with sad eyes. "I think it'll be longer than an extended vacation, it sounds like he's going to be travelling for quite a while. I just hope he doesn't get hurt."

"Hey, what's going on?" Ginny asked as she walked in with Dean.

"Harry's left." Ron said sadly, "He went 'travelling'."

Dean shrugged, "I'm not surprised, it seemed like he wanted to get away, now he has."

The twins, who had just walked in said, "I think that's-"

"-the perfect thing for-"

"-someone like him-"

"-to be doing."

"I'm sure he'll-"

"-have a splendid time-"

"-wreaking havoc in all-"

"-the four corners of our-"

"-beloved world." They finished together.

Dean, who had been looking from Fred to George and back again as if he was watching a tennis match said, "You guys are really weird."

The twins just grinned as the front door opened with a crash.

"Hello family!" Bill called into the house. "I've just pop –" He stopped talking when he saw everyone's faces. "Woah, who died?"

Molly whacked him on the head, "No one died, you mangy-haired rascal, Ron just got a letter from Harry."

"Harry? But didn't they literally just get off the train?" Bill asked with what he hoped was a level voice. He had secretly been hoping that Harry would be here or would be coming soon, but knew the chances were pretty slim, he didn't seem to be around the Burrow as much as he used to. It probably had to do with the fact that he had a family of his own what with Remus, Sirius, Tonks and Christina all living together. Still, he couldn't help but hope Harry would be here. Bill had tried for the last two years to get that boy, now a man, out of his head; he failed miserably. He had spent the first half of the summer before Harry's fifth year playing a game of cat and mouse with him, side-long glances, eye contact followed by blushing and turning away, 'accidental' collisions in the hall (not too hard to fake in the Burrow) and then there was the whole midnight admirer thing.

**Flashback**

Bill thought back to the first summer he had spent at the burrow with Harry, the summer before his sixth year. Bill had met Harry two summers before, when they all gathered for the World Cup, and he had been immediately fascinated by him. There was something about him that captured his attention, something that started with his eyes and then went so much deeper. As soon as he had noticed his attraction to the fourteen year old boy, he had quashed it, those sorts of feelings were not only illegal, they were downright creepy. Bill pushed them to the back of his mind and tried to ignore them, however every now and then he was sure Harry was looking at him, (he was never able to catch him at it – which was probably a good thing) and any progress he made with diverting his attention flew out the window. Then the World Cup fiasco happened, Harry's name was put in the Goblet of Fire, and Bill found that he couldn't keep Harry off his mind. When his mother had asked if he wanted to go see Harry compete in the final task Bill had jumped at the opportunity; that was a mistake because his attraction had grown even more as he watched Harry shoulder a man's burden and manage to stay standing. In Bill's mind, it was impossible to know Harry and not love him, cause that's what it was, Bill loved Harry. Even though it was wrong, perverted almost, and despite the fact that they hadn't really talked much, Bill had fallen for Harry. And he couldn't tell anyone, least of all Harry. So he just ignored it and suffered in silence. The summer before Harry's fifth year, Bill was in Egypt, trying desperately to move on, and failing, again. Then something happened the summer after Harry defeated Voldemort that made it nigh impossible to forget about it.

One night, Bill had been up late with his father and decided that the couch was good enough for the night. Then, around three or four in the morning he woke up suddenly with the feeling that someone had been watching him, he shook the feeling off and didn't think of it again. Until, that is, it happened again. It was about two weeks later and he had once again, fallen asleep on the couch, again, he woke up to the feeling of being watched. The third time this happened he was sure he wasn't imagining things, someone had definitely been there, he could hear them going back up the stairs. Oddly enough, there was something exhilarating about the whole situation so he started sleeping on the couch more often, almost once a week. He also really wanted to know who it was that was making these midnight excursions, he was pretty sure it wasn't a family member so that ruled out more than half the house but there were still all their visitors. He also got the feeling that whoever it was liked him but wasn't supposed to, after all, they were watching him sleep in the middle of the night So, he made a mental list of all the non-family members who could like him but weren't supposed to; Hermione. Ron will kill me. Fleur. Could be worse but gotta run for my life if Charlie ever finds out. Dean. Hahahahahahaha! Penelope. Oh dear Merlin, no! Sirius. That's just weird, but again, could be worse...okay that's enough of that... Tonks. She doesn't usually stay the night. And that left Harry Do I dare hope it could be Harry? I know I really shouldn't, he's too young. But...he's just so...Harry. It was then that Bill decided he didn't really want to know, no matter who it was only bad could come from finding out. So, he would just lay on the couch as often as he could and let whoever it was watch as much as they wanted. One night, however, his watcher went one step further. They had been standing there for probably the longest time yet when he could sense them coming closer. When he felt a soft hand brush his cheek and a delicate finger caress his face Bill couldn't help but lean into their touch and wish with all his heart that he had the courage to look at the face of his midnight admirer.

The more he thought about it, the more sure he became that it was Harry watching him, and Harry who touched him so gently. Especially since after that night, Harry seemed to disappear and his watcher did too. But even though he was pretty sure Harry liked him, or had, at one point, neither of them did anything. They still felt it was wrong, or at least Bill did; but that didn't stop him from wanting to see Harry though, even if he couldn't have him he could still watch from afar.

**End Flashback**

However, now was not the time to wallow in self-pity and miss something that never was, so he turned his attention back to the conversation.

"Yeah, the train only got in two hours ago." Dean said. "He must have worked pretty fast."

"Or been planning this-"

"-trip of his, for quite-"

"-some time." The twins added.

"Trip?" Asked Bill, completely confused.

"Oh, brother of ours-" The twins started again.

"-must we -" Their mother cut them off before they could really get going with their twin speak.

"Harry has decided to go 'travelling' as he put it." Molly said with a small smile.

Ron looked at the letter still clenched in his mum's fist, "I think he's known he was going to go for a while now, he just didn't know when. You have to admit though, he does work fast, unless he prepared at Christmas or via owl order, he has upped and left in record time."

"Yeah, you can say that again." Ginny said. "Two hours and he's packed and left, goodbye letters and all. What's more, by the way he says 'a while', it sounds like he's talking about years. I mean, it might not say that but I just have a feeling."

"May I?" Bill asked as he reached for the letter. He read through it and smiled at the post script. "I have to agree with Ginny on this one, I don't think we will be seeing Harry for a few years at least. If I was him, I'd want to travel the world, and that takes a while, especially if he wants to go to all the interesting places."

The others nodded in agreement and dispersed throughout the house. Bill collapsed onto the couch and looked at where he knew his watcher stood, he could just see him now; t-shirt and boxers, bare feet, messy hair, slightly skewed glasses, bright green eyes and a small smile. At least, that's how Bill liked to picture his watcher, as a sleepy Harry. He hoped that wherever Harry was now, he was happy. Bill resolved then and there that he would try even harder to move on, Harry was gone and it didn't sound like he would be back for a long time, it was time to put him in the past. Bill decided to finish up in London as soon as possible and then return to Egypt. Maybe he would take one of those five year posts in Alexandria the goblins had been nagging him about; a change of scenery might do him good.

Hermione saw Hedwig fly in the window and wondered what Harry could possibly have to say, they had seen each other on the train less than two hours ago, but she just shrugged and pulled the small package and letter off. Hedwig stayed so she figured Harry wanted a response, however, when she read the letter she realized just how wrong that assumption was.

Hermione,

I hope you got home alright and are excited about starting your new job, I'm sure you'll love the Department of Mysteries and whatever you will be getting up to down there. I know you have been pestering me (no, don't deny it, you know you have) about what I am going to be doing and I wanted to tell you that I am going away. Even though it's been two full years since I got rid of Voldemort, people still won't leave me alone, if I stick around here any longer I will surely go mad. I'm going to travel. I don't know where I'm going and I don't have a plan. Just know that I'm fine, I haven't been kidnapped or something terrible like that, I've just left. I'm sorry for not saying goodbye but I just really need to get out of here. Hedwig, as much as she would like to, can't really come with me. She knows and understands this so don't worry about her moping. Since I know you don't have an owl I figured she could stay with you for a bit. She will probably be coming to visit me every now and then so if she disappears for a few days, or even a week at times, don't worry. If you don't want to keep her she will be able to sense it and find somewhere else to go but I would greatly appreciate it if you could do this for me. Anyway, the owl treats are for you guys, you might need them if you two have an argument. One or two given with an open hand and a heart felt apology should do the trick, groveling is not usually required but can help a lot at times.

Please don't worry about me, I will be gone for at least a year, probably a lot longer. Live your life, you deserve to be happy. I hope Ron doesn't wait till you guys are fifty to finally pop the question but if he does just know he loves you all the same.

Anyway, I would rather not be contacted, I am looking for peace and quiet and need time to sort things out. Hedwig won't take letters for me and has strict instructions on what to do if you try. But don't worry, I will keep in contact; whenever Hedwig pays me a visit I will send a letter back and you can respond, but that's it.

Best wishes,

Harry

P.S. Go ahead and tell the world whatever, I sent a note to Ron as well so maybe you guys can come up with something together. Sorry to saddle this with you but I really don't have the patience to deal with them right now.

Hermione sighed, she had seen this coming but hadn't wanted to believe it; Harry needed to get away, they all knew that. She was starting her job with the Department of Mysteries and Ron was going into Auror training, everyone else had plans and were moving on with their lives. Harry didn't have those plans or even a special person – though Hermione did have her suspicions about an unrequited love situation – he needed to do something, and travel was really the only thing which could make him happy right now. So, she let him go, knowing that eventually he would make his way back home.

None of them knew it at the time (except perhaps Sirius), but that day was the last time anyone of them would see Harry for more than a decade and when someone did, they wouldn't know it was him. Harry wouldn't set foot in England for fifteen years.

Author's Note: I'm going to make this particular story just a few chapters long, but they will serve as bookends. I want to write about his travels but putting them all in one story would mean I never finish it. So, I'm going to make it sort of a mini-series. Reviews and suggestions are always nice, especially if there is a special place you'd like to see him go, I have a route worked out but I can try and fit more stuff in if you have a good idea.