Harry Potter and the Rocky Mountain school of Magic ch6
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the rights to Harry Potter and I'm not her.
Harry screwed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. The boy was babbling some inane excuse.
"Mister Thompson, I don't believe for a moment that you intended to cause harm to your fellow students." Harry said, shutting the boy up.
"That said, you did indeed cause harm to many of them. What were you thinking of dosing my students and faculty with an unknown, untested potion during the opening feast?" Harry continued sternly.
"I,I, It was meant to be a prank sir. Is Wendy going to be Okay?" The boy asked fearfully.
"Miss Coleman was on a potion for a medical condition. The rose hips in your prank potion caused a reaction that caused her to get a near lethal dose of belladonna. Mister Thompson, Jim you nearly killed your friend." Harry said with some compassion as the boy began to cry.
"As such Miss Coleman will be in the hospital wing for at least a week and in considerable pain."
The boy continued to cry.
"Mister Thompson, had you been a year older I would be expelling you for this. However, as potions pharmacology isn't covered until third year, I've decided to get a bit more creative with your punishment. First, you'll be suspended for two weeks. Second, when you return from your suspension you will be serving five hours of detention a week helping in the potions lab or the hospital wing. Third, You will write a sixty page report plus bibliography on the dangers of potions interactions. You will have until the Yule break to submit your first draft. And finally you are to write a letter to each of the students who were harmed by your thoughtlessness. A package of books you'll need, as well as a list of the assignments you'll miss while suspended will be available for you when you return from gathering your belongings from your dormitory."
Harry stood up and opened his office door. "Be back here in ten minutes."
As the boy ran from the room Harry slumped into his seat. This was not a good start to the year.
000
Harry didn't want to go home. He and Katie had been unable to share a bed for the last year of her life but the house was so empty now. Winky was there, keeping it clean and smelling of freshly baked bread.
He couldn't stop himself thinking about those early days of their relationship. He'd been called away from their very first date and he'd been stuck on deployment for nearly six months.
He still remembered the terror he felt that night when he arrived back in Boston.
"Potter! Australia has gone dark. You've been reassigned, report to Second Battalion HQ by oh six hundred tomorrow morning!" Commander Austfield yelled.
He'd attempted to call Hermione even before cleaning out his locker. The feelings of loss when she didn't answer her mobile, still sat with him today.
The hours that followed were a whirlwind of packing up his apartment and arranging for his cars to be shipped to San Antonio, where the Second Battalion called home.
Arriving in San Antonio he'd already been up for nearly thirty hours. The day in the playground with Teddy felt like weeks ago. Harry reported into the command center. He was directed to the airborne regiment.
000
"At approximately eleven hundred hours last evening a distress call was made by Australian Minister for magic Bruce Almeda. He said that a hostile force had taken over the Ministry of magic and the Auror Corp. Was compromised.
At about the same time the No-mag french ambassador to Australia reported that his wife and daughters were killed in a freak accident aboard his private aircraft. They appear to have slammed into a wall at speeds exceeding 450mph. They literally exploded in their seats without warning. The ambassador's wife and daughters were magical. We believe that interdiction wards have been placed around the country. With the exception of Darwin and select parts of the Northern territory, Australia has gone dark. No communications in or out.
Lieutenant Potter, you will be leading the expeditionary force. Three groups have been assigned to your unit. Your portkey to Darwin will be leaving in ten hours. Please prepare your men."
000
Harry had done his best to get to know his men quickly. He'd recognized a few that he'd worked with over the years and one or two from his time as a trainer at BMspec the Battle Mage School.
He'd ordered his men to pack and then sleep. While he himself went to Costco.
The horcrux hunt and later field work had taught him that an army marches on their stomachs, a well fed troop was a happy troop. The rations sent with hit-wizards in the field, though better than muggle MREs, were still subpar. Eating rations exclusively for more than a week would guarantee that a man couldn't shit. No one wants to be constipated in a warzone.
Early in his career he realized that military grade meant durable but shitty. Every hit wizard was issued a tent. It was one room with only the most bare essentials and they were notorious for the heating or cooling enchantments failing. So Harry had after his first deployment commissioned what he called his forward base. A sea can he'd turned into a house. Twelve bedrooms, ten with bunk beds, one set up as an infirmary and his room with a queen size bed. In addition to the bedrooms it contained a cold storage with a stasis cupboard which could keep vegetables fresh for up to a year and a dry goods storage room. A decent sized kitchen and dining room capable of feeding sixteen people at a time. a small gym, An armory with a decent selection of weapons, both blades he'd forged and standard issue firearms. A workshop, with a small forge and gunsmithing tools for repairs in the field and finally a garage where he kept a Toyota Hilux, a zodiac and a half dozen dirt bikes. It had cost him as much as a moderately sized house in London but the men appreciated it. The fact that it shrank to the size of a lunch box didn't hurt either.
Harry stocked the stasis cupboard and pantry. Then called Andromeda Tonks to tell her he was being deployed and asked if she could fetch Ted's car. He sent a letter to Katie and arranged for flowers to be delivered to her at work the following day, before crawling into bed.
000
The following morning Harry met with the leaders of each team.
Primrose "Rosey" Alvarez, a six year veteran hit-witch, was in charge of the All female squad.
The hit-wizards accepted witches but it had been determined early on that men and women working on the same teams was a recipe for disaster. Often the men would try and protect the witches to the detriment of the missions. Another problem that was unique to magicals was that people would inevitably fuck. The sex wasn't necessarily the problem, the problem came from the different magical communities. If a person came from a place where it was ingrained into them from birth that sexual activity was strictly an act of married couples there was a possibility that subconsciously their magic would reach out and form an unwanted marriage bond that would eventually punish both lovers when the bond was formed without love. In extreme cases some had even been stripped of their magic. Half a commander's job was to keep a soldier's dick in his pants. This was never easy.
Rosey was a picturesque Latin beauty with shiny black hair, milky coffee coloured skin and a curvy but well toned body. In most cases she was the baddest bitch in the room. A defense specialist on the teams prior to being given command. Defense specialists were tasked with shielding the backs of their teams and more often than not were of Archmage or higher in power. Rosey herself was a master of conjuration and battle transfiguration. Aside from her looks she strongly reminded Harry of Professor McGonnagal.
Jimmy Olsen was a legendary Battle mage with nearly fifty years of experience, by far the oldest member of the team at seventy four years old. Originally from South Africa, Jimmy had coal black skin and was a mountain of a man, standing six feet and eight inches. In his prime he was three hundred and ninety pounds of solid muscle. After nearly ten years of training new troops he'd gone to seed a bit and was a little doughy around the middle. However Jimmy had literally written the book on wardbreaking and would be an invaluable asset on this mission.
Finally there was Henry Jablonski, this was his first time in command, having only recently become Battle Mage qualified. Henry was the officious sort. He screamed REMF. He'd likely be excellent at doing the endless mountains of paperwork that Armies run on. The youngest son of the American representative to the ICW, he'd been put in charge for political reasons. If he put his team in unnecessary danger, Harry would happily look the other way if there was a friendly fire accident. Thankfully Jimmy's second in command was a twelve year veteran with combat experience, who unfortunately lacked the people skills to move higher up in the ranks.
All in all Harry felt he had a pretty solid team. Before the portkey was set to activate, Harry expanded his forward base and keyed each member into the ward before collapsing it and returning it to his pack.
000
Finally Harry had to get himself prepared. Portkeying into an unknown and likely hostile environment never got any less nerve racking.
First he showered, one never knew how long they might have to go without a proper wash when in the field. Casting a drying charm he pulled on his acromantula silk turtleneck. Acromantula silk had a natural resistance to cutting and piercing hexes in addition to holding comfort charms much longer than cotton or wool. Next was acromantula silk long underwear and his dragon hide cargo pants.
He gave his combat vest a cursory inspection. This was another upgrade from the standard issue dragonhide vest. Muggle firearms performed very well against standard dragonhide. A 10mm like the Glock Harry carried, firing solid brass could easily puncture all but the thickest hide. As such Harry preferred a plate carrier. The dragonhide plate carrier with its cushioning, weight and comfort enchantments, held two AR500 steel plates. It could easily stop a shot from a .50BMG from point blank range. It would liquify his internal organs from the impact but it wouldn't penetrate.
He pulled on his chainmail shirt and tightened it down. The chainmail was also enchanted and could theoretically repel a bite from a werewolf or nundu, though Harry hoped to never test it. Over the chainmail he wore his plate carrier.
Opening the weapons compartment in his trunk, he selected his Glock 20 and loaded it with solid brass extreme penetrator rounds. He loaded his magazine pouch with four more magazines of brass and two of Sterling Silver hollow points.
Next he pulled out his fighting knives, a pair of sixteen inch Stilettos with a sterling silver powder coat. He checked the edge of each before sliding them carefully into their sheaths on either side of his spine. He strapped his holster to each wrist. His Holly and Phoenix feather on his right arm and Malfoy's blackthorn on his right. On his beltline he carried the Elder wand in a hidden holster. He seldom used the Elder wand but it was perfect if he had to brute force a ward and his staff was out of reach.
He put his mokeskin pouch around his neck. It contained his emergency survival kit, spare weapons, ammunition and wands. On the middle finger on each hand he placed Fijian focus rings. They acted as rudimentary wands and gave the impression he was highly skilled at wandless magic.
Pulling on his dragonhide coat he loaded his pockets. Battle staff in his right outer pocket. Wardbreaking toolkit in his left inside pocket. Shrunken broom and Ar-15 in the left outer pocket.
Almost all of Harry's gear was an upgrade from standard issue. As long as it looked similar and carried your rank and unit patches the brass never complained. You could always tell how experienced a Battle Mage was by the quality of his gear.
000
When the teams arrived in Darwin they had been approached by Owen Clarke, a reporter for The Northern Lancer, the Northern Australia daily newspaper. He informed the hit-wizards that what was happening in the south was a civil war.
The traditionalist faction, formed from old European pureblood families. The Descendents of the guards and wardens from when Australia was a prison colony, had been pushing through laws that outlawed the aboriginals from teaching their own children, their magics. New bloods were banned from marrying purebloods. Anyone with any form of creature blood had lost all their rights and had their property seized and there were rumors of both hidden work and death camps.
000
If Hermione and her family hadn't been on the other side of that ward Harry might have ordered his men home. As it was though, he ordered his people to spread out to find a weak spot in the wards while he began a ward analysis.
000
It had taken his team almost two weeks to infiltrate the country. The only weak point in the wards had been in a short stretch of river that was a known mating area of some extremely aggressive saltwater crocodiles.
Harry could understand why those warding this section had only dropped the ward stones into the water. Typically ward stones were buried a minimum of five feet below ground, usually they were set on the bedrock to keep intruders from tunneling under the ward perimeter.
Ward stones, usually made of quartz, anchored and powered a ward by drawing power from the earth. Any Warder worth his salt made the stones unsummonable, impervious and more often than not virtually invisible.
Harry lost two people to crocodiles while lifting the ward stone, so the teams could move under the ward. A ward of this size and strength would need a network of intermediate stones leading to a centralized main Stone, that was likely the size of a house. This Warding scheme must have taken decades to plan and implement.
000
It took another month to drop the wards around the country. Harry had found no resistance to speak of, which was rather disconcerting. Except when scouting the Ministry HQ in Sydney they had been unable to detect any witches or wizards anywhere in the country. Worse for Harry, was that Hermione's house had been abandoned. It looked like she had just gone to work one morning and never came home. Finding the remains of Crookshanks in the house added credence to that.
Harry was stumped, hoping that Hermione was alive with her husband Oscar and son Noah.
000
When the wards had been dropped a full force from the I.C.W. had been sent and the extent of the horrors became public knowledge. Two thirds of Australian magicals were dead. From a population of 2.6 million, one of the world's largest magical nations, only nine hundred thousand remained.
Hermione had survived but the woman Harry had known had died with her husband and son. She would spend the next three years in an institution, unable to cope with her loss. She had lost all of her drive and worse, her compassion. She'd fought for the rights of the people that murdered her family. Upon her release from the institution, she swore off magic, moved to New York and became a commodities trader. The only magical she would talk to was Harry but they seldom saw one another.
000
"I need to stop thinking about all this sad shit." Harry said to himself.
Leaving his office he went for a walk around his school. At two in the morning it was unlikely he'd run into anyone.
000
A/N; Okay I know I kind of went off on a tangent. I wrote the first part and got stuck. So I thought I'd add a bit about Harry's hit-wizard days. All of a sudden the chapter was over 2k words and I was stuck again. So if you are unhappy with this chapter, that makes two of us. I actually sent this chapter to a beta who then ignored me for a few days before saying she didn't have the time, so fuck a beta. I'll continue as I have been. Thanks for the likes, follows and most of all reviews.
