Harry Potter and the Rocky Mountain school of Magic ch12

Christmas pt.2

Harry awoke Christmas morning after only a few hours of sleep. He had waited for everyone to go to bed before he and the elves began moving presents from his closet down to the lounge. When he'd finished that, he'd felt a bit like Santa Claus having had the elves deliver gifts to everyone staying on the island.

The house was going to be packed this morning with his family and students. All of the adults including the three of age, seventh years, would receive a collection of Winky's homemade wine, mead and beer. The newest elves had contributed tins of cookies and fudge respectively. The extended Weasley family as well as the Potter's, Teddy's family and the students would be receiving a jumper or cardigan. Harry generally got his students sports equipment, books or tools depending on their interests. Though firsties always got a toy as well. Harry felt that boarding school forced kids to grow up just a little too fast and he loved to see that innocent joy when a child got an unexpected toy.

Remembering Albus Dumbledore, all of the older teachers would be given at least one pair of warm wool socks. Harry had found some truth in his old headmaster's complaint, that everyone always gave him books.

Hagrid would always get dog toys and treats from Harry, last year he'd gotten a puppy to go with them. Otherwise Harry always gave the man elf made clothes figuring it must be difficult to find Hagrid sized anything.

Filius and himself has a tradition of getting eachother gag gifts. This year Harry had made him some stilts.

Since Sophie has finished her schooling and would be settling into her career, Harry was buying her a house. He had planned to do it for Teddy but Bill and Fleur had given them Shell Cottage as a wedding gift. James had wanted a small farm which he and Katie had presented to him when he finished apprenticing under his Grandfather.

James had always been difficult to get gifts for so Harry had bought twin baby furniture, pram and a selection of gift cards for James and Inid.

Teddy was getting a plate carrier, like Harry's and a Holland and Holland over-under shotgun because Teddy for some unfathomable reason enjoyed skeet shooting.

He'd gotten Arthur an old Vespa scooter, a book series about how things work and a subscription to popular mechanics.

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After Christmas breakfast and gift opening, Harry visited with all of his guests for a few moments each. He thanked everyone for the books. Only Hagrid and his kids refrained from giving him books.

Hagrid had given him a kneazle kitten who's name was Spot and was already off exploring the island. His kids had pitched in and bought him a set of leather working tools.

Harry visited with the Weasley's and tried to answer Arthur's questions about the Vespa while the Weasley boys and Ginny laughed at his plight.

Ginny Weasley now Ginny Jones had grown up to look quite a bit like her mother, though admittedly not as frumpy. Ginny had stopped at three children. Her husband Hawkridge or Hawk for short had been the seeker for the Montrose Magpies back when Ginny still played for the Harpys. He'd fallen for Ginny's feint and had plowed into the ground, he'd suffered a bad head injury and as they were carrying him from the field, he'd called out asking Ginny on a date. To everyone's surprise, she'd accepted and now their origin story was family legend and an ongoing joke.

Ginny and Hawk lived in Bentley, Alberta Canada. One of Canada's larger Wizarding Villages. Hawk was head coach for the Bentley Oil Barons, while Ginny was a quidditch correspondant for the Magical Daily. Besides George, it was Ginny, Harry saw most frequently because she often reported on the interschool Quidditch matches. Canada's three schools, Maple leaf school in Toronto, Ecole Francophone de Magie in Quebec and the Stoney Creek school of Magic in British Columbia all participated in the North American interschool tournament.

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Later that day Harry and his students did the now traditional day at the beach. Bill Weasley had taken a few of the older students out on Harry's boat for some deep sea fishing, their catches would be added to the enormous buffet the Elves were preparing in the manor.

Sophie and Ms. Page helped the girls get suited up with sunscreen charms applied while Harry and Ron did the same for the boys. Hagrid was always a favorite during the day on the beach because he'd participate in what Harry called kid flinging and Hagrid course toss a child the furthest into the lagoon.

Later Harry sat in his lounge chair half watching the kids playing while reading Minerva's personal grimoire. Who could have guessed that the old woman once had a thing for turning her more annoying classmates into small woodland creatures. She'd even invented a half dozen short cut transfiguration hexes. Harry was dieing to try the one to turn a person into a giant Flemish rabbit. Where was George when you need him?

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It was a very full headmaster that flopped onto his bed that night. Everytime Harry had turned around that evening someone told him he had to try something. He'd given the elves cookbooks like he did every year and like every year he regretted it when they tried to make every recipe in the book at the same time. When it was just Winky, it had been hard to sample everything but with three elves it was possibly life threatening.

It had been a very busy Christmas. Harry had little time to think about all the ways he missed his wife, today more than most. These Christmas celebrations were Katie's idea originally. Katie had a small family, only her parents, her older brother and herself. She'd always wanted a huge family Christmas but when she began dating an orphan, that dream had changed. Instead they'd invited anyone who was stuck alone that first Christmas, after they married. The war had left many families in ruin, so the list of potential guests was never a short one.

That first year it was Katie's Father and brother, her mother had been killed by the muggleborn registration commission. Teddy and Andy, some of Katie's colleagues from Saint Mungo's, a half dozen Hit-wizards and Hagrid.

It could have been a total disaster, everyone was missing someone that day but Katie had turned it around and as if by magic, it had been the best Christmas Harry would have until Sophie joined the family. Once his family was whole, every Christmas had been better than the last, at least until Katie had gotten to sick to get out of bed.

If Draco Malfoy hadn't died in Azkaban, Harry would have broken him out and made his death take months. His plot to kill Dumbledore had caused Katie unending misery for forty years. The healers at Saint Mungo's had never been able to remove the curse, they could only slow it down.

The curse fed off Katie's magic slowly eating her nerve endings. When she was seventeen the healers had told her, she'd unlikely see thirty. She had been twenty eight when she married Harry. They had both researched it and even found a cure, unfortunately for Katie the curse had taken hold and there was no cure for her.

The last three years with his beautiful wife had been miserable for Harry. The bad days had vastly outnumber the good days and Harry could find no forgiveness in his heart for the man responsible for his wife's suffering. Only Winky and himself knew that Katie had died, screaming in agony. His wife pleading with him to just kill her haunted his dreams far more than the killing curse that he'd cast, snuffing out the life of his best friend and life partner.

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A/N: kinda short but here you go.