Harry Potter and the Rocky Mountain school of Magic ch13

The start of the semester was always hectic for the staff at Rocky Mountain. Students whose report cards weren't what their parents had hoped for, had to be assigned tutors. Lesson plans had to be prepared. The Ministry and school board needed their mountains of paperwork. Inevitably at least one professor would get sick over the break and a substitute had to be arranged.

The students usually had a hard time getting back into the swing of things for a week or two after their two weeks off. This was the time of year when the seventh years started making plans for ending their time at Rocky Mountain. Letters of recommendation had to be written, many of the professors would call in favours to help the students get a foot in the door.

This year ten of the kids on the law enforcement tract were joining the hit-wizards, something that had become far more popular since Harry had joined. The stories of Hit-wizards and Battle Mages, fighting crime and taking down dark lords, becoming a large portion of wizarding fiction.

Most individual hit-wizards were completely unknown to the masses. It was against international law to print photographs of any member of the Hit-wizard Corps. That had been an unexpected bonus for Harry. He was still very famous. More so now, than when he was a child but he seldom got recognized by strangers anymore.

He and Katie had won a Paracelsus Prize, the Wizard's equivalent to a Nobel prize for medicine. Katie had won a second one because when researching a cure for her condition, she'd discovered a treatment for overexposure to the cruciatus curse. Harry and Katie Potter had been the power couple, thankfully Katie had been the face of it.

000

Harry looked across his desk at Grace Cosgrove, she was one his favorites. Grace was an orphan like him and he could still remember the squeak of delight she'd made when Harry had come to her newest foster family and informed her she was a witch.

Since then Grace had spent a portion of every summer at his home and the rest visiting with her numerous friends. Harry was unable to hide his disappointment at her announcement.

"Who is the father?" Harry asked with resignation.

The girl blushed and looked down, mumbling something.

"You're going to have to repeat that, I didn't quite catch that."

"I said I don't know his name. He was one of the footballers from the game in November." She said quietly.

Harry fought the urge to growl. "And you are certain you wish to keep the child? Even if you have to do it alone?"

Grace smiled and put her hand on her abdomen. "Yes, I'm sure."

Harry sighed. "I want you to work as hard as you can this year. You can, with a bit of study, pass your NEWTs in charms and transfiguration. I want you to do well on your SATs. I'm pulling you for defense and combat magics, there is too much risk of injuring your baby. You'll also need to drop blacksmithing but tailoring should be fine."

Grace looked at bit sad but nodded her head.

"At the end of this year, you'll still be welcome in my home. The elves will be giddy at the news and will happily watch the baby while you finish your schooling. If that is what you want?"

Grace looked a bit shocked and began to cry silently. "I want that."

Harry smiled at the girl and slid a box of Kleenex across the desk to her. "I'm not going to pretend that I'm not disappointed by your choices but I will support your decision. Now, describe the boy who's baby you carry. I'll find out who he is, then you have to tell him."

The girl paled and began to cry harder.

000

Harry looked around Harrisville, it had changed very little since he'd been trained here. He was escorting his seventh years for their hit-wizard evaluations. While here he would also do his annual qualifications. Normally this would be performed with his unit in San Antonio but he'd gotten permission to do it at Harrisville so his students could see what would be expected of them.

"Commander Potter!" The Sargent called indicating it was his turn.

Harry walked quickly to the line.

"When the buzzer sounds, you may begin." The Sargent said with authority.

This was a close quarters simulation. You were to breach a warded house with an unknown number of hostiles and civilians. Harry had to find and capture his target, in this case a red dueling dummy, while avoiding or subduing the hostiles and leaving the civilians unharmed. He was allowed any weapon or spell he deemed necessary.

BZZZZ!

Before crossing the line Harry drew his wand and immediately began casting detection spells. It was a good thing too because there was an alarm ward only a foot past the starting line, that would alert someone inside, that someone was approaching the wards.

"Sneaky bastards." Harry mumbled to himself as he cast a disillusionment charm on himself and began walking the ward perimeter. From the corner of his eye he could see the Sargent and observers, putting on their mage sight glasses, these would allow them to see the magic being cast.

After just two steps he cast a homenum revelio, to see if there were any actual humans on the property. The spell showed four living people. 'This is new.' Harry thought and continued to walk the perimeter. Nearing the back of the property, he found a minor flaw in the alarm ward. The ward was only a surface level spell and a fallen tree had left a two foot gap under the ward.

Crawling on his belly, Harry cautiously approached the fallen tree, checking for traps and finding none, he crawled under the ward line. The house's main wards were about fifteen feet behind the alarm ward and his initial scans told him they would be a pain in his ass.

Three concentric rings of wards escalating in lethality as you drew closer to the house. The first ring was the standard muggle-repelling, intention and unplottable wards. They were surprisingly strong and muddled his detection spells making it difficult to analyze the inner ward sets.

Again Harry walked the perimeter, looking for a flaw. It quickly dawned on him that the standard ward set hadn't included any anti-transportation wards. Taking advantage of this he apparated just inside the first ring. The second ring was only three feet in front of him. He sighed with relief when he verified his apparition hadn't triggered anything.

The second set of wards were nasty. They required some form of key, similar to how the Deatheaters had wards that detected the dark mark before allowing entry. These wards would disable trespassers with lightning.

Carefully Harry walked the ward line. At the very back of the yard was a small pond. The area between the ward sets was too small to risk walking through the pond. Casting a more comprehensive ward analysis, Harry found his hole. There wasn't an animagus detection ward. Info this meant he'd have to reveal his rather embarrassing animagus form to his students. Putting his wand away, he concentrated for a moment and a moment later a big black goose stood where the man had been.

Waddling into the pond the goose crossed the ward line before waddling back onto shore. As Harry transformed back he could hear snickers and cooing from the observers.

'Yeah yeah, big bad battle mage is a fucking goose.' Harry thought becoming slightly distracted remembering Katie telling how vicious a goose could be when protecting its young.

The last ward set was lethal but still didn't have animagus detection. A few moments later a goose landed a bit haphazardly on the shingled roof of the house.

Harry once again transformed back and immediately cast a featherweight charm on himself and a silencing charm on the roof. After a few detection charms, he checked again for humans. Three in the basement and one on the first floor near the front of the house.

Pulling a roll of parchment from his coat, Harry muttered a spell tapping the roof of the house and the parchment intermittently. In just under five minutes he was studying the house's floor plan. Five feet to his right was the master bedroom. He made his way over and began cutting a small hole in the roof, taking care to summon the dust and eventually the plug he'd carved from the roof.

Laying on his belly again, Harry used his communications mirror to observe the room. 'It can't possibly be this easy.' he thought to himself as he saw his target sitting at a desk on the south side of the room with it's back to him. The rest of the room was clear. Taking careful aim he hit the dummy in the back of the head with a strong stunning spell before transfiguring it into something similar to a troll Doll and summoning it out the hole.

Harry quickly repaired the roof, transformed back into the goose, picked up the doll with his beak and made his way back out of the wards. He soon landed in front of the Sargent, dropped the doll, transformed back to human and cancelled the spells on himself.

A quick transfiguration and a series of spells, his target was presented to the Sargent disarmed, bound and stunned.

"Time!" The Sargent yelled.

Harry looked at the time clock, just short of twenty seven minutes. A bit slow but still acceptable.

000

ICW Headquarters. Geneva, Switzerland.

Five figures in grey robes sat around a table covered in file folders.

"He's the only person qualified for the mission." The man at the end of the table said with a sigh.

"He may be qualified but he's too old. He'll never survive the return trip." A feminine voice protested.

"He knows the risks of his job." Another figure growled.

"He's too high profile. If he dies on what is basically a suicide mission, there will be trouble." The woman countered.

"There are ways around the age issue…" The one at the head of the table began.

"Those ways could shorten his life by decades." The woman interrupted.

Everyone in the room quieted for a moment.

"I suggest we give him a full briefing. Bring him into the secret, full disclosure. Tell him his options and ask if he'll volunteer. This is not something we want to force upon someone like him. He's a good soldier but we can see from his record that he will disregard orders if he feels it's right."

"I agree. I will reactivate his commission and have him notified."

000

A/N: So after struggling mightily to complete this chapter, I've decided that instead of flashbacks illustrating Harry's relationship with Katie (I just can't write believable romance) I'm going to wrap up this story over the next three or four chapters and get to work on the main story arc which is book two and three. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, the next one will be up in a few days. Thank you for the favs, follows and reviews.