Harry Potter and the Rocky Mountain school of Magic ch10
Harry stood watching Winky order about the newest Potter elves. Mitch and Daisy had been Longbottom elves before now. After the death of Neville's grandmother, He'd put their manor in stasis and the elves didn't get enough work to keep them happy. Harry too liked to stay busy.
Christmas was coming up quickly and Winky had been organizing the Potter Christmas since Harry had settled on the island. The year before he and Katie married, Kreature, who was still working at Hogwarts, had finally passed on. Winky, knowing that Harry was Kreature's master, had come to inform him. When she saw him she'd a year for the cranky old elf, she had begged to take his place. Harry caved in very quickly when she introduced Harry to her and Dobby's son, Dobry. Then suddenly Harry owned two elves.
Isla de Negra hosted Potter Manor. A ten bedroom, twelve bathroom Victorian mansion with a wrap around porch, orangery, screen porch and a home theater. This had been Harry's dream home after seeing something similar on an old black and white television show, when he had been locked in his cupboard. Besides the manor the island had ten, two bedroom guest houses and two beach houses. The island had two large hills on either side and a lush valley in the center. Potter manor sat atop the rounder and shorter of the two hills on the north side of the island.
Harry figured that it was because this year would be his first without Katie, everyone he'd invited had accepted. That had never happened before. Eighteen children from Rock Mountain had nowhere else to go and were excited to join the fun. James, Inid and two year old Kenneth, Sophie, was bringing her boyfriend Markus to meet the family,All of the Weasley's with partners and children were coming. Teddy and Victoire with their son Remus and daughter Lily. Andromeda, but she hadn't ever missed a year. Filius was coming with his grandson Stephan. Ms. Page, the teacher that weaseled an invitation at the staff meeting, was bringing her parents and two younger brothers. Hagrid was bringing Minerva, though Harry suspected this would be Minerva's last year. The only person that couldn't make it this year was Malcolm Renolds, Harry's former partner and ICW investigator as he was on assignment somewhere in the Balkans.
The place was going to be packed. He'd set up his forward base in the manor's backyard to house the kids from Rocky Mountain. James, Sophie, Teddy and Andromeda would be in the manor with partners and children. Harry was going to let Sophie's boyfriend stay in her room.
He'd set up tents for each of the Weasley brothers and their families. Ron, Luna and her two boys would be in one of the guest houses. After the horcrux hunt Ron had vowed never to sleep in a tent again, if he could help it.
Harry's walk-in closet was stacked floor to ceiling with gifts. Traditionally he'd place them under the tree late on Christmas Eve, to be opened after breakfast Christmas morning. With so many guests this year he had wondered how to pack them all into the lounge. Instead he'd set up trees in each of the accommodations, so each family could have a private Christmas with the elves delivering breakfast. Meanwhile his family and students would celebrate in the manor.
000
When Harry and Katie had arrived on the island they had both been taken aback by the beauty of the place. They'd arrived in front of a rather ramshackle hut. Later when inspecting the hut, Harry had discovered that this is where Sirius had hidden out after his escape from Hogwarts. The empty firewhiskey bottles, prison clothes and his letters to Sirius proved that.
For all its beauty, the island gave off the same feeling of malice that Grimmauld place had. Harry recognized that it was the wards on the island causing it. It would take Harry nearly a year and a lot of studying to strip the wards. In the end, his home gave visitors a sense of peace and encouraged relaxation.
The wards extended three hundred and fifty meters offshore. He had anti-predator wards, so it was safe to swim or surf at any of the island's beaches. A byproduct of this was, there were also amazing fishing opportunities.
He had his standard security set. The wards would detect intent. If a person coming to the island intended to harm anyone on the island, they couldn't enter the wards. Portkeys would return them to their starting point, apparition would fail, boats and brooms would stop functioning. If the person intended lethal harm, portkeys and apparition would be redirected to a secure holding facility in the Caribbean ministry building.
Few people could apparate to the island unless they were already on Nevis. All apparition and portkeys were directed to a landing zone about two hundred yards from the house at the bottom of the hill. Besides that the only other ward was an alert ward that let Harry know he had visitors and their location on the island.
000
Harry and Katie's second date had been pretty amazing, Harry thought. The island was beautiful but a squalid sewer compared to the sight of Katie in a swimsuit. Despite the feeling of malice the wards gave off they had, had a relaxing day on the beach.
They swam in the lagoon. As inevitably happens someone splashed the other with water and the other retaliated. Harry couldn't remember who started their water war, but Katie won by cheating and drawing her wand.
They made out on the sand, then had to get back in the water to try to flush the sand from their cracks and crevices. The results of which were laughter and complaints. Apparently getting sand in your vagina was as uncomfortable as sand under your foreskin. They hadn't taken their bottoms off, how had this happened?
After a while, Harry had enlarged his forward base. After giving Katie a tour he'd dragged his barbeque from the garage and asked Katie to set the table whilst he grilled up some Steaks. They ended the evening with a few Mexican beers and a gorgeous sunset.
"Katie, would you like to be my girlfriend?" Harry asked as the sun dipped below the horizon.
"Yeah, I think I would." She said before leaning over to kiss him.
000
The last few days before the Christmas holidays were never very productive for anyone at Rocky Mountain. Most of the classes focused on making ornaments por teaching decorating spells. Much time was spent explaining the wizarding holiday of Yule to the children.
On the last day the parents were invited for a fair and talent show. This event was where the young entrepreneurs and the other clubs did much of their fundraising. This year they had sold a record number, of tins of treats. The culinary arts club made their coveted Almond bark every year. Every year Harry sent it as gifts to hit-wizards on deployment. And every year he got letters thanking him for the gift and enquiries on where to buy more.
The recipe had come from Mrs. Hart, the founder's mother. Even Harry didn't know the recipe. It wasn't unusual for the club to sell ten thousand tins of it at Christmas time. Harry was pretty sure that was close to what the students and staff alone purchased.
With the money raised the culinary arts club would take a trip over Easter break and the excess went to help other school clubs or outside charities. When Filius joined the staff and the young entrepreneurs club began, sales began to rise and for three months the culinary arts club would be worked off their feet, in an attempt to fill the demand.
During the fair the school held an auction. This was the only place one could purchase a Potter knife. Harry made combat knives for hit-wizards and Aurors but those were always gifts. Occasionally Harry would make kitchen knives. Most often he'd make a set when the children of his extended family first moved out. On a few occasions he'd sent sets to chef's, who's restaurants really impressed him. This is how his knives became coveted amongst Chefs. Harry would make two sets a year, specifically to raise money for the school. This year five celebrity chefs were in the audience.
Most of the festivities were held at the muggle facilities at the bottom of the mountain. This is where the sports complex, auditorium and non-magical classrooms were. Because Rocky Mountain competed with non-magical schools in sports, they maintained a cover of an exclusive, invitation only, boarding school for gifted children.
Rocky Mountain was hoping to raise five hundred thousand dollars to help rebuild a school in West Virginia that had been destroyed by fire. The school had been in the poorest county in the state and the kids currently had to bus an hour to and from school. The PTA and Alumni had promised to match the funds up to one million dollars and the students of Rocky Mountain were keen to see them pay.
As a bonus Harry had made three sets of five knives and one, twenty one piece set. He kind of hoped the foul-mouthed Scottish chef and the friendly English chef got into a bidding war with the angry French chef.
000
A/N: Next chapter, Christmas on the island. The music Harry was destroying dummies to last chapter was Grindhouse Clique by 5-A-M off his album Embrace Insanity. It's on YouTube if you like old school hiphop. So, in an effort to write longer chapters I am only going to update two or three times a week, Rather than the daily updates I try (and fail) to maintain.
Ever find yourself striving for perfection with a virtually worthless attempt at it?
