Disclaimer: I do not own any of the properties mentioned within. All are © their respective owners. This is a story created by a fan, for the fans. This story is to be distributed only on this site, and not for any profit. Thank you, and enjoy the story!

AN: Welcome, citizens of ! I am your host for the hour, Zenallen. This is my first fanfic that I have published. Don't expect regular updates, 'cause my muse isn't that fast. I apologize for my writing style, as I am very new to writing fanfics. I do try to do my research, though. If you spot anything missing or wrong with what I am writing, please do not hesitate to point it out to me, but be nice about it. Constructive criticism, not flaming is preferred. Also, do not expect to see any transformation sequences in this story. I don't think I would be able to do them justice. One more thing, do not expect the romance aspect to develop quickly. I want it to be as natural as possible. With that said, let's get on with the show!

There is an ancient phrase out there, one that explains everything. It could even be said to be an example for life itself. The phrase in question is a simple one that goes like this: "A butterfly in Great Britian can set off a typhoon in Japan by the mere movement of flapping its wings." Now this statement has been said many times and many ways over the years, but the fact remains the same. An event, no matter how small, has long reaching consequences. In fact, your future has just changed by reading these words!

But let's save that discussion for another time. On the surface, this story looks very normal and it may seem like a story you've heard before, but remember that all minor events have great effects, and what you thought you knew, you maybe don't.

"BOY! Get down here NOW!" Vernon yelled up the stairs. You see, this is a very normal house, with a family of perfectly normal people, who have nothing to hide. Except, of course, for what the residents would call their dirty little secret, their nephew. You see, their nephew is not like the perfectly normal family who live at #4 Privet Drive.

For this boy, this Harry Potter, is a wizard. And at this moment, Harry Potter is having a bad week. See, he has just gotten back for the summer to his aunt and uncle's house after his fourth year at Hogwarts after seeing a friend and fellow champion die before his eyes. Not only that, but the fourteen year old wizard in training saw on the same night the murderer of his parents resurrected in front of him. If that wasn't bad enough, he then had to duel the psychopath in order to survive to get away. Once he did get back, he tried to tell the truth, but nobody, except for his headmaster and his friends, believed him. Now, he had to come back to his neglectful, magic-hating relatives for a whole summer and possible nightmares each night. Thankfully, his best friend, Hermione Granger, who, after finding out about his nightmares, told him her home phone number, "in case you need someone to talk to at some point if the dreams get too hard to bear."

"Coming," Harry yelled down, wondering what his uncle wanted this time. He reshrunk his resizable trunk, which he bought a couple of years ago when he was stuck in Diagon Alley, and put it back in his pocket. When he got downstairs, he noticed all the Dursleys were in the lounge, waiting for him.

"Boy, I'm only going to say this once, so pay attention. While you were away at your… school, I received an invitation to go to Japan on a business trip, and I could bring along my family. Now, we don't really trust you to not blow up the house while we are away for a week, so we have to bring you with us. We leave tomorrow. That means, you take this suitcase and you fill it up with clothes to wear over there." At this point, Harry was given a small suitcase and had a look of disbelief on his face. "Got it? Now go. And, don't think about bringing any of your freaky things. I promise you, you won't have to pack much."

Harry, still in shock over the revelations of the evening, took the suitcase and headed up to his room. Once there, his mind promptly restarted and went over the last few minutes. Once he was finished, a smile broke out over his face. 'Maybe now I can practice that spell I learned before the second task!' Harry thought to himself. 'It may not have helped with the golden egg, but it should help now!'

The spell in question Harry is thinking of is a language charm that allows the user to understand, speak and read any language of their choice, until the user doesn't need it anymore, at which point the user will have learned the language perfectly. It is, coincidentally, the only spell that circumvents the Trace in a user's own country, as it is a passive effect spell with an active side effect.

Strangely enough, the book that the spell was in also went in depth about the Trace, saying that each Wizarding community had its own version of the Trace, while there are some communities that don't even employ it! Case in point, Japan. There are enough strange things there that they don't even bother with the Trace. It would only get in the way of the process.

Back with Harry, he looked at the suitcase and thought that it looked kind of small for a week long "vacation" to Japan. He decided to take his shrunken trunk, just in case. He decided taking Hedwig would be pushing it too much, and so sent her off to Hermione with a note saying where he was going, and he'd call if he needed anything reported to Dumbledore in the meantime. He also put down to hold onto Hedwig until they saw each other again.

After sending Hedwig off, Harry got down to packing. First off, he pulled out his trunk, enlarged it, and picked out some clothes. After packing in the best looking clothes he could, he decided to add in some random books that Dudley never read to give the suitcase some weight. Everything else he put in his trunk for safe keeping. He then shrunk his trunk and placed it back in his pocket. Afterwards, Harry sat down at his desk and started thinking about how the year changed his relationships with his friends. He thought about his best friend, Hermione Granger. Sure, he was still friends with Ron Weasley, but he was no longer his best friend. Hermione was always there for him this year, even when the rest of the school was pressuring her to turn against him, she held strong. He now saw her as the kind, but somewhat stern sister he never had and always wished for growing up.

He frowned as he thought about his first friend, Ron Weasley. While before this year he might have considered them as close as brothers, his betrayal this past year caused all of that to be a moot point. He thought that, maybe, Ron had grown out of his jealousy, but instead, it looked like it was just festering. When Ron came back to apologize for his behavior, Harry accepted him back as a friend, but "we will never be back at the same level of friendship we were at before, Ron. I'm sorry, but I trusted you and you broke that trust." The look on Ron's face as he heard that showed that he understood, but wasn't happy that it turned out that way.

Removing himself from his thoughts, Harry looked at the time. He noticed that it was time for dinner. With that in mind, Harry left his room and made his way to the kitchen for dinner.

Next morning, Harry was looking forward to the trip. He found out the previous night that they would be traveling to a small city near the coast called Nanariogaoka, which roughly translates to "the rainbow colored hill." He hoped to get some peace and quiet in the area to properly absorb everything that happened the past year. He still had nightmares about the evening where Cedric Diggory was killed, and he hoped to confront that on the trip in an unfamiliar environment.

As he walked down the stairs, he couldn't help but feel like this trip would change his destiny forever. He also pondered the feeling of foreboding he had for this trip. Together, the two made a great case to stay away, but he couldn't help but feel that this would be a good thing. And goodness knows, he hasn't had many of those in his life.

Harry put that out of his mind for the moment. Why bother worrying about things that you are unable to change right now when he can do that on the flight?

Harry stepped into the dining area and saw his cousin, Dudley, and his uncle sitting down at the table eating breakfast. His aunt, Petunia, was busy in the kitchen making more breakfast. Harry sat down at the table and served himself some toast, eggs, and bacon. He and his relatives had worked it out a couple of years back that unless they needed something from the other, they would essentially ignore each other. Thus, they never really had any problems with each other. Except for the Marge balloon incident (which is what Harry called it in his head.); nobody had any big issues with each other.

#After breakfast, Harry piled into the taxi they called before Dudley in the back seat and within a few minutes they were off to Heathrow Airport to fly to New Tokyo International Airport, a trip lasting 12 hours. Once they arrived at Heathrow, Harry checked in his bag with the Dursleys (Harry having stowed away his trunk in his pocket) and headed towards the terminal gate. Harry, who had obviously never been inside an airplane, much less an airport, was awestruck. Never before had he seen so many different things in one place! Restaurants, electronics shops, gift shops, any kind of place you could think of, it was probably there somewhere. Also, for the first time in his life, Harry was given £100 to do whatever he wanted with! He was so happy, he didn't even have a chance to be depressed about the events at the end of his last year!

Suddenly, Harry noticed out of the corner of his eye a hallway that was essentially deserted and everyone that passed it ignored it. Curious, he walked towards the hallway, feeling a powerful surge pass over him. Realizing what it was, he hurried down the hallway, arriving in a strip of shops that looked nothing like the shops on the outside. As he walked down this clearly magical shopping strip, he noticed some interesting things: One shop looked like a typical visitor's center, clearly filled with guidebooks for various places. One looked like a bunch of miniature fireplaces on stilts, big enough for a head only. And lastly, the curious sight of what looked like a muggle (or as he called them, mundane) ATM hewn from stone with what looked like a screen cut into the front and a small, rectangular hole near the "screen."

Harry decided to look at the stone ATM first. When he arrived, he saw that his assessment was correct, as it was in fact a Gringotts ATM. He then realized its purpose here in the strip mall, that these wizarding shops didn't accept the British Pound. Lucky for him, he had retrieved his key from Mrs. Weasley before leaving for Hogwarts last year. How she had gotten it from him after 3rd year, he was still pondering. Somehow managing the controls, he was able to withdraw a good sum of galleons to use.

Walking to the visitor's center, he took a look around. Harry saw that most of the shops were typical tourist type shops, only for witches and wizards. Arriving at the center, he took a look around and saw guide books of every country in the world all around him. Coming upon one for Japan, he opened it while thinking about whether or not it contained information on Nanariogaoka, and saw on the page he turned to a page dedicated just to that city! Wondering if it was a fluke, he closed the book and reopened it, while this time thinking of the old capital of Kyoto, and there it was! Realizing the usefulness of the book, he quickly walked over to the counter to pay for it.

"Excuse me, sir," Harry asked. "I'd like to purchase this book." He held up the book to show the man behind the counter.

"Ah, yes. One of our unique guide books," Said the man. "Those are the types that are constantly being updated with relevant information completely without extra charge. That will be 10 Galleons."

Harry pulled out the money and paid for his book. "Do you happen to have a muggle dust cover for it? I'm taking one of the airplanes today and would rather not upset the Statute of Secrecy overseas."

"Actually, sir, if you tap the outside with your wand, it will change on its own into a muggle version of itself." The man replied.

"OK, thanks!" Harry left with a smile on his face, never seeing the man behind the counter smile benevolently.

"You're welcome, Mr. Potter. I get the feeling you will need that book very soon."

Harry walked towards the exit, passing the miniature fireplaces as he went. He noticed that each had a slot for coins next to each one, and realized that these must be the wizarding equivalent to pay phones.

Putting them out of his mind for the moment, Harry wondered at this hidden strip of stores and realized that this must have been made by muggleborns, as he doubted any pure-blood would be caught dead in a mundane airport.

Harry headed out of the shopping strip, intent on heading to the terminal. He passed by several stores, only going in one to get a bottle of water on a lanyard for the flight. Once he reached the terminal, he saw the rest of the Dursleys sitting around waiting to board. As he reached their location, the intercom system announced that his flight was now boarding. He quickly caught up with the Dursleys, got his ticket from Vernon, and headed onto the plane. As he walked onboard, he figured his life must be looking up.