Chapter 1: The Grand Tour

Harry followed Sirius towards the volcano. When it became evident that this would take a while he relaxed and started taking everything in.

The first thing was the air. The wind whipping through his hair and around him was an old friend. It's embrace always comfortable. It was warmer than normal, which he had expected. He hadn't expected the smell or just how nice that air felt flying past him. The salty air was altogether pleasant. Harry could definitely get used to flying here. He smiled looking down. He would need a qudditch pitch, maybe over the water.

There was a giant field of green. The sight of which widened Harry's smile. He had his own Forbidden Forest only not so forbidden. He would enjoy exploring it.

Around the green was a border of sand. Around the sand was a border of light blue. Around that was an endless field of dark blue. He supposed that was where the ocean suddenly got deeper.

His grin now splitting his face in two, he looked back towards the volcano. It was covered in green most of the way up. The very tip was a bare black mass. Volcanoes could complicate his life, but he was sure he could handle it with a bit of preparation.

He looked a Sirius Black. He was family. Harry had family, and a home. On a private island where no one could track him down. A place where he could be "just Harry" and no one would try to make him shake hands, or sign autographs, or go on any adventures he didn't want to go on. He was safe. And a surge of contentment spread through his entire body. Home.

If Sirius asked, a bug flew into Harry's eyes.

Was that a building on the volcano? Made of the same rock?

They landed in front of it and Sirius grinned, "Welcome to the Labrary!"

"The Labrary?"

"Yep! Come on."

Harry was dragged into the building. It was, indeed, made of the same stuff as the volcano. It wasn't made of bricks though. There was no door in the doorframe. Inside, was pitch dark until Sirius shouted "lumos" and a number of magic lights sprang up everywhere.

It had one room lined with shelves. Three fourths were bookshelves, and had a light purple haze around them, probably to protect the books. The other fourth was filled with strange devices. The floor had several designs filled with runes. Near the back wall was a huge pillar covered in glowing black runes... he didn't know *how* they glowed black, but they did. They glowed blacker than the black rock they were inscribed on. You would think that would look menacing, or give off an aura of foreboding... but it didn't. It looked kinda cool though.

Harry walked to the middle and looked closer at everything. The floor was cleanest in the center, with bulges in cleanliness to completely show the designs on the floor. Said designs were shapes within shapes, some made of lines, and some of strings of runes. They were each about ten feet across and there were three of them. The runes making up the designs were inlaid with different metals, with little rhyme or reason that Harry could see. The strangest thing was that the entire floor appeared to have a clear layer on top of it. It wasn't glass, and it didn't seem like plastic.

The items on the shelves it depended on the item. Some were clearly rusted, or otherwise oxidized. Some had been knocked over or tumbled off the shelves completely. Some looked like projects not quite done yet. And very few were in pristine condition. He had no idea what any of them were supposed to do.

He looked at the book cases, "will the purple field disintegrate my hand or something?"

Sirius smiled, leaning on the doorframe, "Nope. He just put ridiculous preservation wards on the bookcases. I wish he'd done so with his projects, but hopefully their designs are in his notes. It shows he was definitely a ravenclaw though."

Harry chuckled as he pulled out a random book and flipping through, "I don't know kinda sounds like Hermione." He paused, blinking and started scanning the pages. "Is this a full book on lethifolds?" Skip a few pages, scan, skip a few more, skip to near the end. "Bloody hell, it is. I thought lethifolds weren't encountered enough to have a full book. Hermione is gonna flip."

"Is it 'The Strangest of Tropical Snakes'?"

Harry flipped to the front, "yah, how did you-"

"Banned book. Keep it on the Island."

Harry blinked, "wha-"

"All things written by Parselmouths are automatically banned. It makes me wonder what else is on those shelves though."

Harry sighed, dejected, "figures I'm so much of a freak I can't even write a book in my own world."

Sirius furrowed his brow, "now, now. Don't let it get you down. It just means you're special. Life would be boring if we were all the same. Surprise Parseltounge or no. The Ministry are dumb asses anyway."

Harry gave a half-smile. The words hadn't cheered him up, but the fact that there was someone who cared about his feelings had helped a little. "Have you gone through the books, yet?"

"A bit. I'm trying to figure out what possessed him to combine Germanic, Babylonian, Chinese, African, and American runes in the same Circle. Apparently the effect was useful enough to make them permanent. He uses so many; I probably forgot one or two."

Harry blinked, "He's breaking more rules."

Sirius lifted his hand in the so-so motion, "Ehh, More like breaking Guidelines. Combining Runic Systems can be dangerous, mainly because of grammar."

Harry looked back at him curiously.

Sirius raised his eyebrow, "there's a big difference between a flashlight and a light-flash."

Harry nodded his understanding and put away the book, "so, lava next?"

Sirius shrugged, "sure. We can do the cistern afterward."

Upon showing Harry the first lava vent, Sirius gave him a long stick. Apparently poking lava with a stick was tradition. Harry would be lying if he tried to say it hadn't been his initial urge, or that he didn't enjoy setting the stick on fire by poking the lava.

Down the mountain they went. About twenty feet {6 meters} within the tree line was a large it kinda looked like a swimming pool. A very dirty swimming pool. Everything around it was wet, and it looked to be slowly filling up from a spring filling it. Dobby was inside, scrubbing at the edge of a clean area about a fifth of the entire thing.

This place was home, and Petunia had trained Harry well. Combined with his natural helpfulness the words were out of his mouth before he even thought them, "Hey Dobby, need some help?"

Dobby rolled his eyes, "No, but Harry Potter sir will help anyway. Dobby can't stop him. Just as Dobby could not stop him from helping to build his house before school. Scrubbies are there, Dobby cleans until all Scrubbies is dirty. Dobby cleans scrubbies in London."

Harry smiled, and then climbed in and started scrubbing. He then looked back at Sirius, "We can chat while I clean if you want."

Sirius was looking at him in contemplation, and then shrugged, "why don't I join you. The faster we finish, the faster we get to the hot springs."

While scrubbing, Harry learned many things. The first of which was that the slime was difficult to clean. The second was that it was impervious to magic (learned second hand from Sirius and Dobby). Apparently this was true for the mold that had grown on top of it as well. Dobby was growing some of both in alternate stagnant pools. The third was that a cistern was a place to hold your water supply, which was why they were trying to clean it before anything else.

Harry then asked Sirius about runes. After a brief intro it changed into a discussion between Sirius and Dobby about how House Elves could bypass wards, and how exactly they did so (apparently they sensed weak points). It was very educational, and apparently they were going to experiment with it.

One hour later, they were covered in grime, and so were all of the scrubbers. The cistern however, was now a little cleaner.

Sirius then took Harry to follow the stream up until they found the first pool.

"There are about twenty pools between the springs. I like to scrub in this one and go to a higher one to soak. There are five more pools on this spring." Sirius said stripping.

Harry blushed, "Naked?"

Sirius looked back and raised an eyebrow, "what's the point of a private island if you can't run around naked whenever you want?"

Harry coughed, "I don't suppose there's spare swim shorts?"

Sirius rolled his eyes, transformed a rock into swim trunks, and tossed them to him, "you'll come to your senses eventually."

Harry went behind a waist high rock, and put on the swim trunks. "Should we really be bathing in the stream that goes to our water supply?"

"It should be diluted enough by the time it mixes with rain water for it to not matter. If there's still a problem we can move to a different one. Not that it matters right now, since we're still cleaning it."

"Does it rain a lot?"

The man just started laughing.

"Sirius?"

"Harry, it's the tropics. It rains all the fucking time." Just as Sirius said that, Harry felt drops land on his arms and shoulders. "Like, right now. Now it's going to rain."

It turns out, being out in the rain wasn't that bad when it was warm and you were soaking in a hot spring. It was kind of like a shower. When discussing Arithmancy with family it was downright pleasant. They even ended up going two pools higher to soak, making it more pleasant. Sirius taught him a new spell to write magically in the air for their discussion.

Afterwards, Sirius tried to clean his clothes with a spell, but it didn't work because of the magic immune slime. So they carried them back to base camp, and Harry dug out some new clothes from his trunk.

When he chose his outfit and stood up, Sirius was holding a potion for him, you're looking a bit pink. He sighed, I can't believe I forgot to give you the Safe Sun Potion. I'm sorry. This'll halve your recovery time and protect you for the next week.

Harry touched his cheek and felt the familiar sensation of sunburn. He smiled, "no problem, it's not that bad. Thanks." He then downed the potion. It was familiar from qudditch practice. Kinda tasted like soap.

He left the trunks of notes with Sirius, and teleported to London.

..
It didn't know where the scent went. The bigger one had been getting all the good things, and the small one was jealous. But it smelled something amazing, and it wanted it.
..

His house had a small grassy lawn in front. A two foot {60 cm} strip with an extra foot {30 cm} closer to the house filled with flowers.

It had three stories, plus an attic, and was as tall as the neighboring houses with a similar facade. There was a two foot {60 cm} buffer between the houses.

Harry went up the front steps and opened the door. To his left was a stair case going down. Straight ahead was the kitchen and the right had the sitting room.

The sitting room had a comfortable couch and chairs in front of a television and fireplace. There were game systems and a VCR, with (as far as he could tell) a random assortment of games and movies in a nearby bookcase. That wasn't the only bookcase either. There were several. One appeared to have all the Hogwarts school books for all seven years. Another couple had a bunch of books he'd looked through at the library, or he'd heard Hermione talk about. There were a lot of Defense Books. There was one filled with classic literature, both muggle and wizard. And one seemed to be filled with Muggle education books. Using those he could get into a muggle university. That's definitely a thought.

Next he checked the kitchen. Dobby was there making lunch or dinner. He looked at the clock on the wall. Three pm. Probably dinner.

It looked like a modern kitchen. It had an oven, a toaster, and a microwave. There was even a percolator. There was granite counter space, and an island that gave a natural separation between the kitchen and the dining area. There was an extra-large table there with plenty of chairs. He could fit the entire Weasley family plus extra at that table.

"Harry Potter sir is home. How does he like his house?"

"Pretty good. I noticed you bought a lot of books," he left the question unasked.

But Dobby heard it, like he always did. Dobby got all of the school books used for fourty years. And asked other elves what the most read reference books, and reading books were. Leapy is from a traditional half-blood family that has married a muggle born every generation for five-hundred years. He told Dobby of muggle school books. Dobby knows you were raised muggle, so he got them."

Harry nodded looking at some floating pans near the stove, "I thought technology didn't work with magic; that we would need to get powerful wards on the sitting room for the TV."

"Magic interferes with electricity, ward the items and it is fine. You probably shouldn't do big magic in house while electricity is running. Now, Harry Potter sir should pick his bedroom while Dobby finishes meal."

Harry smiled, "I'm gonna explore a bit more first."

He noticed the bathroom to the right. And the sliding glass doors to the back yard.

The yard was smaller than the Dursley's, but he didn't mind. Apparently there was a way to grow trees quickly though, because there was a large fruit tree covered in flowers. It looked good for climbing. There were a couple of deck tables and chairs.

When he went back inside he went downstairs first. It looked like a giant workroom plus boiler. A quarter of it was sectioned off. Harry grinned, that must be the elf room, it wouldn't hurt if he peeked inside.

He opened the tiny door and heard a startled eep. Among the dormitory style beds was a young elf. It had an oversized shirt, belted at the waist, and was covered in paint. Harry blinked, and remembered a conversation about this with Dobby. "I'm sorry, I forgot that we were housing elves between households. I would have knocked if I'd remembered. What's your name?"

The elf blushed and looked down. "I is Honey, Harry Potter sir. My last master died, and his daughter had no use of a painter, so Honey looking for a Master who does. Honey has been painting murals in the bedrooms in return for staying." She sounded like a young girl.

He smiled, I look forward to seeing them. Have you done all five?

She shook her head, "Just two so far. One is sky, another Islad. Would Sir like something special?"

Harry rubbed his chin in thought, "what can you do in purple?" He'd always been partial to a classy purple, ever since he saw pictures of royalty wearing it.

She looked lost in thought, "mountains, sunset, night sky, plants, crystals."

Those all sounded really cool actually. "Any of those work. I'll trust you to make it awesome."

Her eyes widened to comical proportions, "Harry Potter sir would trust Honey? It is a great honor!"

"Of course," He replied, trying to make it as matter of fact as possible. "You're an expert. And an expert is supposed to be trusted in their field. It's only good manners."

Her cheeks darkened in what seemed to be a blush as she looked down at the floor. "Would yous at least look at Honey's other work? So you know for sure."

Harry nodded, "I was going upstairs to pick a room anyway. I'll look at all five before deciding. Are you going to be joining us for dinner?"

"But, masters don't join elveses at meals. Elves eat after."

Harry shrugged, "I don't want to be anyone's master. And I like having conversation at meals. I would like you to join us. I'll tell you what I think of the rooms then, alright?"

She nodded shyly. Harry decided he liked her.

He went upstairs. The second floor had two bedrooms, and a very nice bathroom. Hagrid could probably use that bathtub. There was a lot of blue.

One bedroom was plain, with nothing more than a king sized bed, desk, bookcase (empty), bed side table, and walk in closet.

When he walked into the other, it was like he was back on the island the painting was so realistic. The painting even had moving birds, and the occasional breeze. The furniture was painted to match the only stage thing was the bed. He went up to it and sat down, and it sank. He then proceeded to poke it and watch it jiggle. A water bed. He fell back on it to see if he liked it he didn't. It was mostly weird.

Regardless, he wanted to see the other painted room. He went upstairs and looked in all the rooms. They all had fairly standard furniture. One had two sets of bunk beds; the other two had double beds.

One of the ones with the double beds had a night sky or an artist's rendition of it. There were large planets, and comets, and just awesome. He thought the planets might be moving slowly, orbiting the room.

Harry walked back downstairs grinning widely. Honey was in the kitchen now. It looked like she was setting the table, and maybe preparing some side dishes.

"You guys need any help?"

"No Harry Potter sir. We is almost done."

Harry sat down, and within a minute the table was set and spread with food. Fish, salad, and cheesy potatoes. As good as at Hogwarts.

"Did Harry Potter sir pick a bedroom?"

Harry nodded, and swallowed his food. "The paintings were gorgeous. I didn't like the water bed, but I think I want the other big room." He looked at Honey, "if you could do the space thing with some landscape around the bottom that would be cool."

They continued chatting until the end of the meal. When they were finished Harry insisted on helping cleanup they put him on drying while Dobby washed and Honey put away. When he went to take his trunk to his room, he found someone (Dobby) had already taken it to his room.

He decided to start his homework the next day, and went back down stairs to have his first movie night. Fortunately, Dobby had gotten a hold of all three Star Wars episodes. So the tree of them sat on the comfy furniture and watched Luke Skywalker save the Galaxy. When asked what he wanted for dinner, around 11, he asked for hamburgers and chips, with an extra he could take to his Uncle.

That meal was also delicious. Dobby took him home at midnight, and he entered the door to Uncle Vernon waiting to devour some food. Apparently, midnight was perfect timing.

..

AN: And the Grand Tour comes to a close. That was intense. I thought about splitting it into two chapters, but I wanted to finish the slew of world building. There may be some more later, but at least I can get back to the action... or for what passes for action in this story. It should start speeding back up.

Honey will recede into the background and have the occasional scene. I made her on a whim, and she was so adorable I just had to keep her.

Next Chapter: Sirius takes Harry Shopping in Mexico, among other things.

And on to the poll thing: How many people should the island end up having? It'll probably have at least 10ish so they will have help with various things (farming for one). But It can easily hold a village or town. A city is doable but it would take up most of the island. So, 10s, 100s, or 1000s of people? Should it be more of a hide out, a training camp, or a base? I'll listen to any suggestions.