Harry Potter and the Rocky Mountain school of Magic ch9
Disclaimer; J.K. Rowling owns the rights to Harry Potter and I'm not her.
Entering his training room at Potter manor, Harry turned on his stereo before drawing his wand and activating the room's four training dummies. Casting to the beat of the song, he proceeded to lay waste to the first dummy to engage him.
Since his days at Mahoutokoro he trained like this three days a week. He would jog at least five miles every morning, followed by an hour of weight training and forty five minutes of dueling. One day a week, he'd go to a MMA gym in Denver and get his ass kicked by the professional fighters that trained there. He counted it as a win if he could last ten minutes and more often than not, he could. Part of the contract he signed when going from standard hit-wizard to Battle mage is a lifelong commitment. A Battle mage can, in desperate situations have their commission reactivated for active service until age seventy five or supplementary service at one hundred.
On Sundays he studied his family grimoires which now included the Black grimoire as well. He would then try to master each spell and add it to his dueling repertoire.
The Potter's had mostly been craftsmen, potioneers and arithmancers but there were a number of offensive and defensive spells peppered throughout the pages.
The Fleamont family were predominantly herbalists and Harry had used their spells to upgrade his gardens. He kept chickens on the island and only needed to order in meat and cheese.
The Smythe family had been mostly blacksmiths and Tanners. The spells and techniques in the book he used often but were entirely useless in a fight. Though they did create a way to extract raw metals without laborious mining and smelting.
The Peverell family grimoire he'd only recently learned to read as it was written in old Gaelic unlike the English or Latin of the others. The Peverells didn't stick to one field of magic. The Peverell that had begun the Grimoire, Sir Gregory Peverell, had been a member of Arthur's round table. He had written a great deal of history but only a few spells. Gregory's grandson Hector however was the ancient equivalent to a Battle mage. The majority of the spells he documented had been improved upon and were interesting but worthless, though there were a few with no modern equivalent. Such as castle bombardment, trebuchet and devastating cutting curses. Later Peverells wrote about everything from potions to necromancy. The majority of the book would be considered dark magic by modern standards.
Similarly to the Peverell Grimoire, the Black grimoire was written in ancient French, old Gaelic and a bit of Norse. The Black's had been warders for centuries and had only fallen into offensive dark magic in the late 1600's. When it came to warding the family were geniuses. Even with thirty some years of experience, Harry had trouble understanding the ward schemes in the book.
His father-in-law Kenneth, had also made Katie and himself a copy of the Bell grimoire as a wedding gift. The Bell family only went back eight generations but they had been enchanters and very good ones. It had been his father-in-law who had enchanted his forward base, though Harry hadn't known that at the time. Enchanting had many similarities to warding which Harry was quite good at but he never really enjoyed enchanting the way he did warding. It never stopped him from practicing the art though. His son James had inherited his grandfather's gift for it however and had just recently taken over his grandfather's business.
Harry also studied the Black library frequently, having moved it from Grimmauld Place when he had the manor built.
In his eighteen years as headmaster he nearly gained a Grand Sorcerers degree, meaning he'd achieved Grand Master in seven subjects. In his case it was Dueling, Magical combat, Defense against the dark arts, Warding, Ward breaking, Charms and he was working on an ancient studies (international history of magic) degree. Part of the Ancient studies degree was becoming fluent in at least three ancient languages, which he was doing anyway.
000
Harry was looking forward to this weekend. Every year he would escort the firsties to a theme park at the end of October. Most of the seventh years would volunteer to chaperone as well. Harry considered this a rite of passage for his students. This year they will be heading to Universal studios.
He remembered his time at Hogwarts, never really getting to know his professors and as such never feeling that he could confide in them. This was something he wanted to ensure didn't happen when he was made headmaster. He wanted his students to have some adults they could trust other than their parents or guardians. Harry could attest that not all guardians were trustworthy. He loved his students, past and present. From that first moment they realized that they could work magic until they tossed their hats in the air, they were his adopted children. Quite a few still were long after leaving the school.
It was actually a former student who had helped organize this trip. Donovan Sampson had been in the very first group of first years that Harry had taken for 'a day at the park' He'd been fully magically raised and his parents were very poor. Donovan was a scholarship student and had never been able to do anything so fun before. Harry remembered hugging the little boy who was crying after his first rollercoaster ride. That trip had inspired the child to study engineering and the man now designed roller coasters.
"Students! This is Donovan Sampson, he's the chief engineer here at the park. He went to Rocky Mountain too. Mister Sampson was the one who got us our passes, so be sure to thank him." Harry called to his group as they gathered just inside the gates.
"THANK YOU, MISTER SAMPSON!" The group roared, making Donovan smile.
"Alright everyone find your seventh year buddy! Buddies you are responsible for the firsties, we'll be meeting at the main food court at noon. Firsties, if you get lost, find a security guard and tell them you have lost your buddy. We will then find you. After lunch Mister Sampson has organized a special tour for us, so go have fun and we'll see you at lunchtime!" Harry said and as if by magic the group disappeared.
"Professor, it's great to see you again." Donovan said with a warm smile.
"I think Harry will do, Donovan. How are Melody and Jacob?"
"Melody is just about to return to work. Jacob is good, he's just learning to read. Speaking of which, would you happen to have an extra copy of Dobby and Harry's Adventures. The third in the series. They are out of print and we are just about finished with the first book."
Harry smiled. Katie had written down the bedtime stories he'd tell James when he was little. The story of a brave but silly young lion and the house elf who had to save him. In the first book, Dobby tried to protect the young lion in a number of zany ways, while trying to avoid his evil master and dash his plans. In the end the young lion tricked Dobby's evil master into freeing him and their adventures continued from there. The series had sold very well and children around the world wanted to know what kind of mess Harry would get himself into and how Dobby would bail him out.
"I think we still have a few signed copies laying around. I'll check when I get home and send you the set if we... er I do." Harry said with some sadness.
"I was sorry to hear Missus Potter had passed. She was such a kind woman. She always made Christmas on the island fun. I miss her." Donovan said, putting a hand on Harry's shoulder.
"She'd have loved knowing you were using her books to teach Jacob to read." Harry said, forcing a smile onto his face.
000
Later that evening it was a thoroughly exhausted Headmaster that portkeyed home. Harry might be fit for a man in his fifties but keeping up with a large group of eleven year olds was a monumental task.
As he walked towards his bedroom, he heard the sound of someone crying in the kitchen and went to investigate. What he found was heartbreaking. Winky sat on the floor bawling her eyes out while a teacup lay broken on the floor before her.
Taking out his wand, Harry repaired the cup, scourgified the spilt tea and took a seat beside the crying elf.
"Shh, it'll be okay." He whispered, pulling the elderly elf into a sideways hug.
This just made the elf cry harder. Harry gently rubbed her back.
"That was Katie's cup wasn't it?" Harry asked quietly.
"Please Master Harry, please don't send Winky away. Winky just lost her balance, Winky will fix it." The elf cried harder.
"That's enough of that Winky. No one is going to send you away. We don't throw away family in this house. Now stop crying and tell me what happened." Harry soothed before conjuring a handkerchief for Winky.
Giving Winky a few moments to settle he took a hard look at the old girl. Winky had turned one hundred years old last year and was really looking her age. Katie had been the second Mistress Winky had lost and it was obvious to Harry that the emotional toll was devastating for the old elf.
"I'll tell you what, in the morning I'll call James and have him send Dobry over for a visit. I think a day with your son is just what you need."
"Oh no Master Harry, the baby needs Dobry. Mistress Inid is pregnant, she be needing Dobry to fetch and carry."
"Fine, you can go visit him. You need to take better care of yourself Winky. Mistress Katie would be rather displeased with me if you were to join her so soon."
Winky wiped her large eyes with the handkerchief. "Winky would like to see little master Kenneth again."
"You've always loved taking care of babies. Winky I was thinking about getting a couple younger elves, maybe a mated pair. Are you up to training a couple young elves up to the standards of a Potter elf?"
"Winky doesn't need young elveses to help."
"Winky, you're over a hundred years old. You will eventually have to slow down. I want you to train up the new elves while you're still spry. Besides you've never liked working the gardens on the hill, you as Head Elf can make someone else do it. I know you've never liked heights."
Winky bit her lip. "May Winky come with you to help choose elveses?"
"Who would be better at recognizing an elf with the qualities of a Potter elf?"
000
A/N: I have been asked about the rest of this series. The second book is going to have a time travel plot but it IS NOT a do-over fic. We will only ever see Katie in flashbacks.
This book is to introduce you all to the man The-boy-who-lived grew into and how his life shaped him into that man. Besides that, I'm still trying to find my own writing style. I enjoy fast paced stories. I know I'm kind of short on details when it comes to character descriptions or places. I'm working on that but honestly I suck at it. Has the dialogue improved since my earlier stories? I enjoy criticism, unless it's ideological horse shit or whining about my poor grammar. Go read Wandering, then come back here. Have I improved my grammar?
I graduated university twenty three years ago and haven't had to use those English skills much since. Hell, until I had to quit my job, I did most of my writing in Arabic and before that Italian.
Anywho, thanks for the follows, favs and reviews.
