The Secret Lightning Scar- Chapter 1 [A Harry Potter FanFic]

August 1998

I awoke one August morning in my small room at the Burrow. I rolled over to see that Hermione was still asleep in the bed beside mine, despite the clock reading a quarter past nine. I got up and made my way downstairs to the kitchen. I heard Molly’s voice and wondered who she was talking to. I rounded the corner and came face to face with-

“Harry!” I exclaimed. He had been chatting with Molly while eating some breakfast, but upon my entrance, he turned and his face lit up.

“Carrie!” He said, jumping up from his stool to give me a big hug.

“Sorry if I interrupted,” I said as he released me.

“Not at all, dear,” Molly replied with a smile, “I’ll just let you two catch up.” With that, she walked out of the kitchen. I hopped onto a stool next to Harry.

“So, how’s your summer been?” he asked me.

“Ok. A little boring,” I replied. “I wish you would’ve visited more,” I added. He smiled. Though I’d been a bit upset that he had barely visited, any twinge of annoyance had disappeared upon seeing him. Harry was closer to me than anyone- even Hermione. He was my best friend. And I couldn’t be upset with him for long.

“Sorry,” he said, genuinely looking apologetic. I waited for him to offer an explanation, but he seemed to have nothing else to say.

“It’s fine,” I assured him with a smile. “How has your summer been?”

“About as boring as yours, I suppose. I found the Dursleys and let them out of hiding,” he answered.

“You aren’t living with them though, right?” I asked.

“No,” he laughed, “Grimmauld Place.”

I was about to ask why he couldn’t manage to find the time to visit if he was living on his own when suddenly, there were two loud pops and two tall, identical redheads materialized a few feet away.

“Fred! George!” I said, surprised to see them.

“Sorry if we interrupted your flirtatious conversation,” Fred said with a wink.

“Feel free to continue. We aren’t even here,” George added, plopping himself down in a chair. I rolled my eyes, and Harry appeared to be doing the same. My friendship with Harry had always been a favorite of Fred and George to tease about. They always enjoyed pretending there was something between Harry and I when we’ve never been more than platonic friends.

“You’re not funny,” I said.

“Everyone else begs to differ,” George grinned. Fred lazily flicked his wand at an apple, which whizzed toward him.

“If ‘everyone’ means you and Fred,” Harry retorted.

“So other than being a nuisance, what are you doing home?” I asked, wanting to change the topic before the twins got out of hand.

“Do we really have to have a reason just to come home?” George asked.

“I thought there must be some reason for you to come home with the joke shop open,” I replied.

“That’s why we have people working for us,” Fred said. “We were hoping mum might be making something good for breakfast.”

“If you sit there long enough, I’m sure she’ll make you something,” Harry said. “Took about two seconds for her to ask me what I wanted.”

“Did I hear something about breakfast?” came a groggy voice from behind me. I turned to see a pajama-clad Ron standing at the bottom of the staircase, his ginger hair sticking out all over the place.

“You would wake up at the first mention of food,” I laughed. Ron attempted to scowl at me as he went to sit down at the table, but since he was still half asleep, he ended up just looking silly.

“Any chance you’d want to go fly around?” Harry asked me. “I don’t get a chance to fly in Grimmauld Place.”

“Yeah, definitely. I’ll just run upstairs to change really quickly,” I replied.

I hurried up to my room and found Hermione waking up. “Morning, Carrie,” she said, stretching.

“Morning, Hermione. Harry finally came to visit,” I told her as I grabbed clothes from my dresser.

“Oh, really?” She asked as she got out of bed.

“Yeah, he’s down in the kitchen with Ron and the twins,” I answered. She paused upon hearing that.

“I should probably take a shower before going down there,” she said, practically running toward the bathroom.

I threw on an old pair of jeans and a t-shirt, pulled my hair into a ponytail, grabbed my Firebolt, and hurried downstairs. When I reached the kitchen, Fred and George were seated beside Ron, eating almost as ravenously as he was. I shook my head at them, which George returned to me with a wink. Harry and I went outside to the small field where we could fly around without fear of coming across muggles. Once there, we mounted and set off into the air. The familiar feeling of being atop a broomstick returned to me as I made large arcs, twists, and flips in the air. As a natural at flying, I’d always loved the adrenaline rush of playing a game of quidditch, as a beater. Now, however, it was all about flight.

“Show off,” Harry complained as I slowed down. I raised an eyebrow.

“You’re one to talk,” I retorted.

“Oh, really?” he said, jokingly nudging my broom as we flew slowly around the perimeter.

“Yeah,” I replied, nudging back. This started a nudge war, with the two of us going back and forth, gradually hitting each other harder and flying faster. Suddenly, he rammed up against me, and I slipped completely off my broom. Thankfully, we weren’t too high, so I didn’t have far to topple, but I felt a sharp pain in my hand as I hit the ground. In a matter of seconds, Harry was right beside me.

“Carrie, I’m so sorry! Are you OK? Are you alive? Breathing? How many fingers am I holding up?” he said quickly, sticking his hand in my face.

“I’m fine,” I laughed, propping myself up. “My hand kinda hurts, though.” I turned it over and saw that it had a shallow cut on it, probably from the branch near me. Suddenly mock serious, Harry grabbed my hand and began to examine it.

“We’re going to have to get you some medical attention as soon as possible,” he said, not even a hint of a smile across his face.

“I’m not going to die, am I?” I asked, playing along with it. He looked at it very closely for a couple of seconds before answering.

“I don’t know, it’s pretty serious,” he replied. I couldn’t help myself anymore and began laughing, and so did Harry. I rested my forehead against his shoulder as we began laughing even harder.

“You don’t think this would be too hard to heal with magic, do you? I asked, taking a serious look at it.

“I’m rubbish at healing spells,” he said, “but it doesn’t look too serious. Worst case scenario, I might be able to find some muggle medicine to put on it.”

“That sounds absolutely terrifying,” I responded. “I’m terrible at healing too, but I bet Hermione can heal it.”

“Muggles know what they’re doing,” Harry said. “They obviously can’t do anything about magical injuries, but when it comes to regular things like broken bones or cuts, their methods might take longer to work than wizard methods, but they’re certainly effective.”

“I’m not sure how much I’d trust a muggle to heal me,” I responded. “I know a little about how muggle healers heal people. They have to cut them open and stuff.” I shuddered just thinking about the idea of lying on a table while someone cut into me.

“Yes, depending on the surgery, they do sometimes have to cut people open, but muggles go to school for a very long time just to know how to do specific types of healing. And the person they’re healing usually isn’t awake while they’re being healed,” Harry explained.

“I guess that sounds a little bit better,” I said. “But it still seems so much worse than just using magic.”

“Of course it is. They’re probably never going to have anything as effective as magic,” Harry said.

I wasn’t sure how to respond, so we sat in silence for a few seconds. I decided I might as well ask why he’d been too busy to visit. “So…” I started, “Where have you been all summer? I was hoping I’d see you more now that you’re not living with the Dursleys anymore.” Immediately after the words left my mouth, Harry frowned.

“I told you, I let the Dursleys out of hiding, and I’ve been at Grimmauld Place,” he replied. He spoke so deliberately that I knew immediately that he wasn’t telling me everything.

“You can’t expect me to believe that, Harry. I know you better than that. You couldn’t spend that long cooped up by yourself. And I haven’t gotten so much as a letter from you,” I said, looking him dead in the eye. “You know you can trust me with anything, right?” He gave me a little half smile.

“Of course I do. And I’m sorry for not writing. I just had to do some things on my own,” Harry said. I wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that.

“And I’m assuming you’re not going to tell me what those “things” are?” I asked. He shook his head.

“I can’t. At least not right now. It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just something I need to deal with on my own,” he replied. It was my turn to frown. I had a feeling that he thought I would worry about him if I knew what it was.

“If you’re trying to keep me from worrying, you’re doing a rubbish job,” I told him.

“Don’t worry about me. I’m completely fine,” he said. “I just pushed you off your broom. That should be proof enough.”

I gave him an extremely skeptical glance, but before I could respond, I heard a voice say, “I thought you two were going flying.” I looked over Harry’s shoulder to see Ron coming toward us.

Harry turned around to see him. “Oh, hey Ron. We were. Carrie fell off her broom.”

“Everything OK?” Ron asked.

“Yeah, we were actually just about to go see if Hermione could heal this little cut she got,” Harry said. As he helped me up, I glared at him, knowing he was purposely trying to avoid getting back to our previous conversation.

“I just came out here to let you know that some owls arrived after you left, and they look like they have letters from Hogwarts,” Ron said.

“That means we’ll be going to Diagon Alley! I could use an outing,” I said as I grabbed my broom from where it had landed a few feet away.

“I think Hermione wants to go as soon as she finishes eating,” Ron said as the three of us started toward the Burrow.

We reached the Burrow and found the twins trying to convince Molly to make them more food. Ginny and Hermione sat at the big table eating breakfast. They turned around as we entered.

“Harry!” Ginny said with a smile, jumping up to embrace him. Hermione also got up to hug him.

“Owls came from Hogwarts.” she said. “One for each of us.”

“That’s what Ron said,” I replied.

“But did he tell you that there are seven?” Ginny asked with a smirk.

“Seven?” Harry asked. “But there are only five of us.” I glanced over at him and he shrugged, clearly as confused as I was. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the twins. I looked over at them and they appeared to be extremely uncomfortable, staring at their feet.

“And why is Hogwarts writing to YOU two?” I asked them. It seemed to click in Harry’s head and he gave the twins a curious look.

“They wanted to remind us of our banned products, of course,” Fred said. It seemed to make sense, but Ginny quickly interjected.

“They did NOT! She insisted, glaring at our brothers. She then looked over at Harry, Ron, and myself. “They each got a letter telling them they HAVE to finish their schooling. An entire year.”

“Seriously?” I asked. They were staring intently at their feet.

“We’ll be in the same year,” Ron smirked.

“Shut it!” The twins yelled, both looking up and glaring at Ron.

“Well…” I trailed off. “Hermione, any chance you could take a look at my hand and see how easy this is to heal?” As I showed her the back of my hand, Molly jumped into action.

“Oh no, did you hurt yourself?” she asked, immediately right beside Hermione.

“Nothing major, she just fell off her broom and got a minor cut,” Harry said.

“She fell off her broom?” Fred’s skepticism was written all over his face. He turned to George. 

“You know, Georgie, I don’t think I’ve ever seen our sister just fall off her broom.”

“I can’t say I have either, Fred,” George replied. “In fact, I’d say she’s too good at flying to just fall off her broom all willy-nilly.” They both turned to look at Harry, expecting a different answer.

“No, I didn’t just fall off. Harry pushed me off,” I said.

“Harry!” Hermione exclaimed, turning to look at him.

“It was an accident!” He said. Hermione turned back to look at my hand.

“It’s not hard at all,” she said. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the wound and it began to heal. After a couple seconds, it was if it had never been there.

“Thanks, Hermione,” I said.

“You’re lucky that’s all you hurt,” she said, giving Harry another disapproving look before sitting back down to finish breakfast. “So is everyone ready to go to Diagon Alley after breakfast?” she asked. Everyone gave some sort of positive response.

I went upstairs to my room and grabbed some money. By the time I got back downstairs, Hermione and Ginny were just finishing their food.

“I think I’m going to stay behind this time,” Molly said. She picked up two coin bags and handed them to Ron and Ginny. “Don’t get anything you don’t need for school,” she said, looking straight at Ron.

“Where’s our money?” George asked.

“You have your own,” Molly said. She turned to me, holding a third coin bag. “Here you go, Carrie,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it, Molly. I can cover it.” I said, refusing to take the bag from her.

“Are you sure, dear?” Molly said. I nodded.

“Come on, let’s go to Diagon Alley,” Ron said. We all crowded around the fireplace.

One after another, Fred and George stepped into the fireplace, threw down a handful of floo powder, and exclaimed “DIAGON ALLEY!” Then, it was my turn. I climbed in the fireplace, my hand full of floo powder.

“DIAGON ALLEY!” I said, throwing the powder down. I felt a jerk and a spinning sensation and suddenly, everything went black.

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I hope y'all enjoyed chapter 1 of The Secret Lightning Scar! Chapter 2 is coming on Saturday, February 1st. Here's a brief little teaser for chapter 2...

I felt someone’s arms holding me and heard frantic voices. I couldn’t see much. Most of my vision, except a small circle in the middle, was dark. What I could see was extremely fuzzy.

“Carrie, are you OK?” came one of the twin’s voices, but it was muffled, sounding like my ear was pressed to his chest. But I couldn’t will my mouth to answer him. My head throbbed and I had no idea what was happening. 

Hope y'all are excited for the next section, because I'm excited for y'all to read it! See you back here soon!


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