Chapter 6
Saturday, 16 September 1995
Hogwarts Castle, Scotland
There were two different ways to merge the trunks into a unified world. Both utilized a magical broadcasting feature from the control room of both trunks. One process was a temporary joining. With this process, the control room would broadcast a signal to the other control room, which would accept the signal remotely. This would link the two trunks by creating a common border between the two worlds inside the trunks until either the trunks were physically more than six hundred miles apart, or the signal was cancelled by either trunk's control room.
The other procedure for merging the trunks was permanent. This was what Harry used. First, he went to the control room of each of the new trunks and began broadcasting a signal from each. Then he went to the control room of his finished trunk. There, he established which border he wanted expanded, selected another trunk's signal at random from the twenty-four that were broadcasting, and locked onto the signal. Typing in the commands to permanently link the two, Harry then executed the commands, and the land within the new trunk was added to the old trunk. Another door was added to the trunk entrance hall in his manor, and the new trunk became merely an access trunk, forever linked to the trunk he was in. He continued to add trunks until they were all added.
Now that the trunks were all added, Harry had to develop them before he could visit their lands. He'd spent some time with his friends and the books from the control room deciding what he wanted and had even drawn up a plan. The plan included what environments and terrain he wanted, as well as what homes and other buildings he wanted.
Harry spent about an hour after lunch manipulating the settings for the various new sections of land. Despite being permanently joined to the existing trunk, each ten-mile square could be manipulated individually to create a unique biome. To make things easier, he and Katie had drawn up a rough map with a grid.
The grid was divided into twenty-five squares in five rows of five columns. The columns he labelled A through E, from west to east. The rows he numbered one through five, from north to south. The existing trunk's land would be in grid square C2, one square north of the centre of the land. All the grid squares in rows one and two would be a temperate climate, with those in row one being cool temperate, and those in row two being warm temperate. Row four would be subtropical, and row five would be tropical. Row three divided the temperate and tropical climates. Squares A3 to C3 would contain a mountain range on the northern and southern sides of the squares with a valley between them and a temperate climate. Squares D3 and E3 would be a small sea with a Mediterranean climate.
The amount of moisture varied by column. Column A was the wettest column, and column E was the driest. The land was also flatter and more open to the east and hillier and more wooded to the west.
With the amount of planning he and his friends had done, Harry would be guaranteed the ability to grow practically anything he wanted. He anticipated having about a third of the land under cultivation or used as grazing land. He also anticipated a fairly large logging operation and being able to forage in the forests for various herbs, fungi, and berries.
Once all the climate and terrain settings had been completed, Harry spent another hour transmitting his ideas for buildings into the control panel. He would select a square, think about what sort of structures he wanted in the square; how they would look, what they would be constructed of, what sorts of decoration they would have, the layout, the furnishings, and anything else the buildings would require, then he'd move on to the next square.
Harry didn't need houses in every square. The house he had was already quite large. Still, the idea of having a bunch of houses of varying styles and in diverse locations was intriguing to him, so he ended up with no fewer than eighteen residences, though they varied in size from a farmhouse to a mansion. This left him with seven squares that didn't have residences, and hundreds of thousands of square feet of excess in those squares with residences, that he could use for agricultural and industrial buildings. He created innumerable barns, stables, silos, coops, logging camps, repair shops, and even factories. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough spare square footage to do everything he wanted to, but Harry knew that elves liked to work, so he didn't think it'd be hard to get them to do it.
Finished, Harry set the control panel to start developing the new land and climbed out of the trunk.
"Done?" Katie asked when Harry plopped down next to her on the couch in the common room.
"Yeah," Harry said tiredly. "Just gotta wait the hour now." With that, Harry opened a book and started reading the assigned chapter for Charms revision.
An hour later, Harry looked at his watch and closed the book. Standing, he held out his hand to Katie, who closed her book too.
"Ready to go exploring?" he asked. Katie grinned and nodded.
"Just gotta go get my broom," she said. "I'll be right back." She ran up the stairs to her dorm. Harry looked around the room. Hermione was helping Neville with some Transfiguration at one of the tables next to Fay Dunbar, who looked to be working on an assignment for Ancient Runes. Ron was deep in a chess game with Dean, and animatedly talking quidditch with Seamus, who was watching. Parvati and Lavender were gossiping in a corner. Sally-Anne was missing, as was Ginny, who was probably off somewhere with her boyfriend, Michael Corner. The twins and their girlfriends were also missing, as was Leanne, who Katie had told him was in the library. It looked like it would be just the two of them on their first adventure. Katie came bounding down the stairs, broomstick in hand. "I'm ready!"
"Let's go," Harry said happily, taking her free hand with his and mounting the boys' stairs. His room was far less cluttered now that all the trunks were gone. They were now stored in a room in the basement of what they were calling Potter House. Harry had decided that the Gloucestershire house would be called Severnside, because, as he'd discovered, naming houses was hard. With a soft toss, his Charms book landed on his bed, and Harry opened the trunk, ushering Katie inside.
Harry had already essentially moved into the trunk, having slept there since Tuesday night after he and his friends had inspected the house. He still ate and studied at Hogwarts for the most part, though he'd availed himself of the kitchen once, and had started to become quite fond of the library in his house.
Moving through the trunk entry hall, Harry noticed that there were now twenty-five single doors lining the back and side walls of the room, one connected to each trunk. He went through to the main entry hall to the front door, opened it, and led Katie onto the porch.
"Where should we go first?" Harry asked, looking around. Things didn't look too different. Despite the fact that the house was on a low hilltop, the rolling forests surrounding them meant they couldn't see farther than a few miles.
There was one exception. Looking south, Harry could see the mountains rising into the sky five miles away. They were imposing and looked slightly odd, though the terrain had compensated for their appearance a bit, by increasing the height of the hills slightly between Potter House and the mountains, giving them the appearance of foothills.
"Let's just go up and look around," Katie suggested. "We'll be able to see better up there and can decide once we can see a bit more." Harry nodded his assent, and the pair mounted their brooms and rose into the sky.
As they rose, Harry spotted a river flowing from west to east about four miles north of them, and another about four miles south. Each trunk had to drain off the water, and when multiple trunks connected, instead of forming just lakes, they formed entire water systems.
"That way," Harry called out, pointing southeast, where the mountains ended, and the sparkling blue of the sea began. He took off on his Firebolt, Katie in hot pursuit. He climbed high enough that it started to get rather cool before levelling off. He was flying over broken forest dotted with fields, beautiful country.
"This is amazing," Katie marvelled. "Mr. Hampton didn't do this place justice when he described what it could be."
"I wonder if he and Mrs. Hampton have one for themselves," Harry mused.
"I'm sure they do," Katie replied after a moment lost admiring the view. After a few miles, Harry and Katie descended, practically skimming the treetops. When they passed over the river they'd seen earlier to the south, Harry banked left to follow it. "It's so clear," Katie said, looking down. Harry saw what she meant. He could see all the way to the bottom of the river, which was a grey gravel. He even spotted some large fish. The light reflected the clouds and mountaintops to the south, giving the water a bright sheen.
When the river started to widen into an estuary, Harry saw it. A castle was situated just above the south bank of the river mouth. The castle, as Harry had designed it with his mind, was a near copy of Beaumaris Castle in northwest Wales, except his version had been completed. It was two concentric rings of walls, with no keep. The walls and towers were powerful and thick, a true fortress. When he'd seen a picture of the castle in one of the books, he'd been captivated by the beauty of it, but it had been lacking completion. Harry's castle was complete. He'd already named it, too: Peverell Castle.
As they approached, Harry descended to the top of one of the towers of the inner curtain wall, landing gently. Katie touched down beside him, and together they took in the sights.
"Dobby!" Harry called. "Winky!" The two elves popped in.
"What can Dobby and Winky be doing for Harry?" Dobby asked. Winky looked uncomfortable being up so high. Harry remembered that she didn't like heights.
"Sorry Winky," Harry said gently. "This shouldn't take too long, OK?" Winky nodded. "Dobby, you remember how I asked you to get more elves? We'd talked about how many I'd need. Several thousand, as I recall, right?"
"Yes, Harry," Dobby nodded. "Dobby be's getting them for you. I has about ten thousand now, but more's be coming."
"Ten… Ten thousand?" Harry asked, dumbfounded. "How did you get so many?"
"You's be saying you's needing elves," Dobby said sheepishly. "You's not be sayings how. Dobby put out the word, and many free elves came."
"There were ten thousand free elves in Britain?" Harry was shocked.
"Not in just Britain, no," Dobby allowed. "But many from Britain. Some comes from France or other places. Dobby went all over tellings of Harry's greatness and goodness, and hows theres work for any elf that wants it here."
"I still don't believe there were ten thousand free elves in the world," Harry tried again.
"Dobby nots being explaining it well," Winky piped up. "Theys not all being free elves exactly."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"When elves is born, theys too young to bond," Winky explained. "Theys getting magic from their parents' master, through their bond with theys master. Whens theys be getting older, theys be getting less and less magic, until theys be old enough to need the bond themselves."
"How old is that?" Harry asked.
"Five or six," Winky said. "Befores that, theys useful, but nots needing the bond. Most masters don't bond theys elves before that."
"Why would they want to leave their parents' masters for Harry?" Katie asked.
"Lots of masters not being very nice," Dobby replied. "Lots of masters being like bad old master." Katie nodded, having learned that Dobby had once been Lucius Malfoy's elf.
"That makes sense," Katie observed. "Purebloods would have most of the elves, and they'd also be least likely to treat them right." Harry sighed.
"So, you put out the word that I needed elves, and a huge number of four and five-year-old elves came?" Harry asked Dobby.
"Theys being most of your new elves," Dobby acknowledged. "Dobby did buy some elves from traders too, for training and bossing. Then theres those being freed from service and wantings or needings a new master."
"How many did you buy?" Harry wanted to know.
"Two hundred sixty-three," Dobby answered. "And seventy-one comes from freedom."
"How soon do I have to bond them all?" Harry asked.
"A week, maybe," Dobby told him. "Yous can be doing it whenever yous wants."
"See the shore over there?" Harry asked Dobby, pointing to a rocky beach across the estuary. It was relatively flat, and clear of trees. Dobby nodded. "Assemble all the elves who want to bond with me over there as soon as you can, OK?" Dobby nodded again and popped away. Winky followed. "Jesus, I had no idea."
"It's pretty overwhelming," Katie agreed. There was a sound like popping bubble wrap, and Harry looked across the water and saw a massive throng of elves in all manner of dress and condition.
"Best get over there," Harry said with wonder, and mounted his broom. A quick flight later, he and Katie had landed on the shore. "Hello!" Harry cried out. All the elves looked at him. "You are all here because you want to work for me. If that's not the case, please leave now." He waited a moment, but none left. "In that case… I take you as elves of House Potter. I bind you as elves of House Potter." A bright light, almost as bright as the afternoon sun overhead, flashed across the land and water as the binding took hold. When it faded, all the elves started chattering amongst themselves.
"Dobby!" Harry called out. Dobby came over, having been watching from the side. "Dobby, there are far too many elves here to fit in the servants' quarters of the homes I've built. I want to keep you as my personal elf. Winky can be Katie's personal elf for as long as she's with me." Katie kissed him on the cheek at that declaration. "You need to find me an elf who can be head of all the elves."
"Yous be wanting Orym," Dobby told him. "He's being the smartest and bestest elf of all."
"Orym!" Harry called out. An older, but not elderly, elf walked out of the crowd. "You are Orym?"
"I is," the elf said, standing tall in a flour sack.
"You'll be my head elf," Harry informed him. "Your first job is to build a town here. Right now, I have about ten thousand elves. I… wait, do elves get married?"
"We's be choosing life mates," Dobby said. "It's being nears enough to married."
"But you live together and raise families, right?" Harry confirmed.
"Unless masters be's selling us," Dobby answered sadly. "Then life mates can'ts be seeing each other anymore."
"That's… horrible," Harry gasped. "That won't happen here." He turned back to Orym. "Single elves are to be entitled to a flat with one bedroom and the standard amenities."
"What be those?" Orym asked. "No other master be's allowing us homes."
"Lavatory, kitchen, and sitting room, at the least," Harry replied. Then he moved on. "Life mated elves are to have a home. I don't care if it's a town home, a semi-detached home, or a detached home. The home will have enough bedrooms for their family, as well as a lavatory for the life mates, and at least one and a half more lavatories. The homes will have a kitchen, sitting room, and dining room at minimum. These flats and homes should be elf sized. I will never go there. It's their space. I may look in the windows a bit to make sure the buildings are up to standard, though."
"Orym will build homes for all the elves," Orym stated.
"Besides homes, this town is to have shops where elves can obtain necessities like food, clothes, supplies, and entertainment; a school for teaching elf young; a hospital for elves and people in cases of sickness or accident; government buildings like a town hall, public library, maintenance buildings, a fire service, a constabulary, and anything else you decide it needs; industry that supports our agriculture and logging operations, as well as other industries like clothes makers, tool makers, and the like; and transportation infrastructure like roads, a port, and anything else you think is necessary," Harry listed off. "Except for the homes, the other buildings should be large enough for people to enter. I want to be able to come visit, but elves will be the primary users. We'll be farming, ranching, logging, gathering, and fishing the land. When you build, I'd like you to use what's here in construction, to make food, clothing, furniture, and other products. Do you understand?"
"Orym is to build a town here for the elves to live," Orym repeated. "Orym will gather brick, stone, and wood to build, lay out streets, and plan where buildings go."
"Good," Harry said happily. "You're in charge of city planning. You can copy other British towns you may have seen for the appearance of buildings and general layout. Also use common sense; the town should work for us. When that's done, I want you to organize the elves into more permanent jobs. I see you as the head of the elf government. You can delegate tasks to other elves to oversee various tasks and duties. The town should have a mayor to oversee the smooth operation of the town, and the agricultural and logging business should have a chief operating elf to manage production. Please ensure the elves are properly clothed. I'm sure you didn't choose to wear a flower sack and would much rather have shirts and trousers. It will be up to your chief operating elf to obtain farm animals, seed, and other things necessary to have running farms. You should also have a transportation manager, to make and maintain the roads that connect the various buildings outside of town. I'd like something faster though… something capable of transporting large loads..."
"Like a train?" Katie asked.
"Yes!" Harry cried. "Spread around this world, there are twenty-five houses or groups of buildings. Once you're done building the town here, I'd like rail lines connecting all twenty-five if possible, well, I suppose then it'll be twenty-six settlements. Oh, wait! I'm pretty sure some are on islands, and you won't be able to get trains to them, so don't worry about those, and I don't know if you'll be able to get trains to the ones in the mountains either, so just roads to those are fine. We'll have to figure out how to build trains… but that's for later. Right now, concentrate on building a place for you all to live. OK?" Harry was attempting to not get overly excited, but it was hard.
"Yes master," Orym said.
"Oi!" Harry called out to everyone. "My name is Harry Potter. I want you to call me Harry, or if formality is necessary, Lord Potter. Don't call me master. I think of you all as my family, and families don't have masters. We help each other. Also, once this town is completed, I want you all to take one day a week to do with as you will. On that day you will not work for me, Orym, or any other boss you may have. You can go have fun, swim, fish, wander in the forest, do sport, go shopping, or whatever, but that day is yours, not mine and not Orym's. Understand?" The shocked elves nodded. "Good. In addition, I will be giving you an allowance of one galleon per month to spend as you will, and House Potter will be providing you with clothes to wear." The elves were suddenly nervous. "Orym will be obtaining for you all clothes to wear," Harry restated. "I will not be giving any of you clothes." The elves calmed down. Harry turned to Orym. "You're also responsible to stagger elves days off so there's always someone working in the shops. Ready to get started?"
"Yes, Harry," Orym replied.
"Well, don't let me stop you," Harry replied. Orym moved off and started tracking other elves down. Apparently, he knew exactly who to put in charge of what. Elves started popping away once they'd gotten their tasks. Before Harry even turned around to talk to Dobby, some elves had already reappeared with saws and axes, while others had started marking off where streets and houses would go. "They're quite quick," Harry observed. Dobby nodded. "As my personal elf, you answer to me. Winky answers to Katie or I. Neither of you answer to Orym. I'll let him know that the next time I see him. You're responsible for all my houses and the gardens. Orym's responsible for the town and the forests and fields, agriculture and industry. Ask Orym to assign you a house staff. Obviously, I can't be in all the houses at once, so each house won't need a full staff. Figure one gardener for most houses, with more for the ones with proper gardens. One full time maid for most of the houses, with a few more for the bigger ones. Grooms for the homes with stables appropriate to the number of horses in each. The cooks, servers, launderers, mechanic, and other staff can move to whichever house I'm at. I'll trust your and Orym's judgement as to how many that needs to be. If something changes and more than one house is occupied at a time, more staff can be assigned. Any questions?"
"No," Dobby replied.
"OK. Katie and I are gonna keep exploring," Harry told the elf. "If you need anything, I'll be around." When he finished speaking, Dobby popped away. Harry turned to Katie. "I saw some islands out in the sea. I think that's one of the houses. D'you wanna check 'em out?"
"Sure," Katie replied, mounting her broom. Once they were airborne, heading southeast, Katie spoke again. "You're quite the exceptional wizard, you know that?"
"I am not," Harry protested.
"I beg to differ," Katie responded, but didn't elaborate.
It was a short flight out to the islands, actually a small chain of islands. The weather over the sea was warmer than it'd been over land, and a pleasant breeze blew. The islands appeared to have been part of the northern mountain chain that had sunk into the sea with time. Harry knew that wasn't actually the case, but that was the appearance the islands gave.
On the largest of the islands, Harry and Katie found a resort. It consisted of a main building, twenty smaller bungalows, and a smattering of outbuildings and other structures. The buildings were all clean white squares, with blue tin rooves and covered wraparound porches. The gazebos and awnings were all wood post construction with palm frond rooves. There was a pool, tennis courts, a pier, and a wide white beach. Palm trees dotted the island around the resort, and behind the buildings there was a veritable forest of them. It looked to Harry like paradise. It didn't take him long to land, strip off his robes and shoes, and run onto the beach in just his shirt and trousers. Katie followed smiling and at a more sedate pace, but only slightly. He finally ran back to her, a wide smile on his face.
"Why're you so happy?" she asked as she kissed him on the cheek.
"I've never been to the beach before," Harry said excitedly. "And now I can go whenever I want!"
"You've..." Katie asked, trailing off astonished. "Well, now you have." She kissed him again, on the lips this time. "We'll come back soon and make a day of it. We can swim in the surf..."
"I don't have a bathing suit," Harry said sadly.
"Ever heard of skinny dipping?" Katie asked slyly.
"But..."
"Harry, we're the only ones here," Katie explained.
"Except for the elves," Harry pointed out.
"Who don't care, and who'll keep your secrets forever," Katie replied, reaching the point of exasperation. "Literally no human being will see us. We could shag on the beach and no one would know unless we told them."
"OK," Harry said, smiling again. "We'll come back and have a nude beach day."
"That's the spirit," Katie said, hugging him. "Are you done, here, or do you want to spend more time on the beach?"
"Well, this is nice, but I want to see some of the other stuff," Harry said after a moment's consideration. He and Katie walked over to one of the patios and put their shoes and socks back on, but simply draped their robes over their brooms. It was too hot to wear them.
With a quick kick, the pair took to the skies, heading southeast again. After a while, they spotted another house, perched on a fifty-foot cliff above the coast. This one was an Italian villa, with a bell tower and a wide patio overlooking the water. Behind it a vast subtropical forest stretched south.
Without landing, Harry banked right, turning west, hugging the coast, and Katie followed. They slowly gained altitude again. Harry was heading towards the southern mountain range that was rising just north of west of them. Turning his gaze to the south, Harry spotted an exceptionally large lake about ten miles southwest, that was completely surrounded by subtropical and tropical forest.
Farther south and west, Harry could see clouds that were at about his altitude. A heavy rain was falling there, on the far side of the lake. Harry didn't really understand how the trunks created weather patterns over the different biomes, but he knew that they did. The sun was also a mystery he didn't have an answer to. It would be interesting to learn how those worked, but that was a job for later.
Harry and Katie again put on altitude, climbing higher, and angled toward a house Harry spotted on the peak of the nearest mountain. As Harry pulled level to the house, he noticed how cold it was. The house was above the treeline and the surrounding ground was covered in snow. The mountainous terrain was cool temperate forest biomes, which should be mimicking the actual seasons, so Harry wasn't too surprised to see snow here. He imagined that the entire mountain valley would be blanketed in the stuff by the end of November.
Harry landed at the peak top house on the patio, quickly donning his robes to ward off the cold. Katie did likewise, and they looked around. Harry had read about art deco design in one of the architecture books and used it when creating this house. It was a fairly low flat-roofed structure, only one storey, built of white painted concrete in two wings at right angles to each other, with a two-story round entry hall where they joined, like a letter 'L.' Brass trim and tall, narrow windows highlighted the relatively simple lines. On the north, east, and northeast sides, a patio formed a right triangle between the two wings, giving a breath-taking view of the mouth of the valley and the sea.
Casting a warming charm on himself and Katie, Harry walked to the low wall that kept guests from walking off the patio and off the mountaintop. He leaned over and really got a good look. Except for the sea, much of the view was blocked by the northern mountain range that peaked perhaps seven miles away. Between the ranges sat the mountain valley, filled with lush pine trees, meadows filled with grass and wildflowers, and a winding river cut with rapids and waterfalls.
"You wouldn't happen to ski, would you?" Harry asked.
"I went skiing once," Katie informed him. "Not much opportunity to do it in Britain."
"I think we can here," Harry replied.
"Come winter, we will," Katie agreed. "We'll have to get skis, though."
"And I'll have to learn how," Harry added. He sighed and checked his watch. It was nearly four thirty. "We'd better get back, or we'll miss dinner. It's gonna take us some time to fly back to the manor."
"Where is it?" Katie asked.
"Almost due north," Harry pointed. "About twelve miles away." Katie agreed, and the pair again took to the skies. By the time they arrived at Potter Manor, their backsides were sore from all the broom riding they'd done. "I can't wait until the elves finish that railway," Harry commented as they went inside. "I think my bum's about done in for the day."
"Agreed," Katie said simply, also massaging her rear.
"Dobby!" Harry called when he closed the door. The little elf popped in. "What are you doing right now?"
"Since Harry nots be needing me now, I be's helping Orym build the elf village," Dobby replied.
"When you get a chance, I'd like you to make a map of this world," Harry instructed. "It should have terrain elevation, water features, buildings and other structures, dominant flora, roads and paths, and anything else you think should be on there. It should have a scale and key, so we can see how far away things are, and what they are. Got it?"
"Dobby will start immediately!" the little elf said excitedly and popped away. Harry smiled and started for the trunk entry hall. Once inside, Katie stopped him.
"Harry, can I have one of the access trunks for my dorm room?" she asked.
"Why?"
"So I can sleep here," Katie explained. "The beds here are so much more comfortable than the dorm beds."
"Sure, but you don't need your own trunk to do that," Harry said.
"I don't think your dorm mates would appreciate me coming in and out while they're changing or trying to sleep," Katie pointed out.
"Oh, yeah," Harry realized. "Best get you your own trunk. Winky!" She popped in immediately.
"How can Winky be helping Harry?" Winky asked.
"Grab one of the trunks from storage and put it in Katie's dorm next to her bed, please," Harry said. With a pop, Winky was gone. When Harry looked up at the doors, he noticed they'd changed. The one in the middle of the back wall had a sign with the name 'Harry Potter' on it. The one just to the right of it had a sign that said 'Katie Bell' on it. The rest of the doors were blank. "That's good to know," Harry commented. He went over to her door and opened it. The corridor beyond looked just like his, but without the door to the control room. He closed the door and opened his own. "See you in the common room in a few minutes?" Harry asked.
"Sure," Katie agreed, kissing him on the cheek, and opening her door.
Harry, following a hunch, went to the control room. He checked the owner's manual, flipped a switch, and typed in 'Katie Bell'. The monitors that showed him the exterior of his trunk flickered and changed to show the exterior of Katie's trunk. He quickly looked away, embarrassed, and reverted the monitors to his trunk and quickly left. Throwing his broom on his bed, he made his way to the common room to wait for Katie.
"Where've you been?" Ron asked from his spot on one of the couches. He had a book opened, and it looked as if he'd been making some attempt at his revision, which surprised Harry a bit.
"Checking out my trunk," Harry said. "I've linked in all the new trunks, and now the world in there is huge!"
"Can I check it out?" Ron asked, excited.
"How about tomorrow I get everyone in there to check it out?" Harry proposed. "The only problem is Hermione won't be able to do much."
"Why not?" Hermione asked, looking up from her reading.
"No way to get around yet except brooms unless you wanna walk," Harry told her. "I asked the elves to build a railway to get around, but I don't think they've started it yet."
"I'd still like to go," Hermione said. She'd been to Potter Manor a few times already, mostly to his library, but had yet to explore outside. "Maybe I could take a walk in the gardens?"
"Sure," Harry agreed. Just then Katie came down the stairs with Leanne. Harry immediately reddened.
"Are you OK?" Katie asked after she kissed him.
"Erm… yeah," Harry prevaricated.
"What happened?" Katie pressed. Harry leaned forward and pulled her close.
"You know how the control room monitors let me observe the area around my trunk for safety before I leave?" he asked.
"Yeah," Katie nodded.
"Well, apparently, they can be set to the other trunks too," Harry explained. "I'd read about it, and wanted to check on that feature, so I flipped the monitors to your trunk right after you'd left." Katie though back to what her dorm had been like when she'd stepped out of the trunk and laughed.
"Oh, my God!" Katie snorted quietly. "You saw Leanne topless, didn't you?"
"Yeah," Harry allowed sheepishly. "Sorry."
"It's OK," Katie told him, pulling back. "I don't care about that stuff. Now, if you touched another girl, that would be a problem."
"I wouldn't!" Harry protested.
"I know," Katie said calmly. "But I thought you should know where the limits were. We're both still new to this. I wouldn't touch another bloke, either."
"Are you lot ready for dinner?" Leanne asked, coming over. She was blissfully unaware of what Harry and Katie had been discussing. "I'm starving."
"Sure," Katie replied for Harry. "Are you guys coming?" she asked Ron and Hermione.
"Yes," Hermione replied, popping up and hurrying upstairs to put away her book. Ron closed his books with the parchment still inside, and simply laid his work aside. Neville came down from the boys' dorm right as Ron was getting up. When Hermione came back down, she was ready to go.
"Where's Dora?" Harry asked as they went out the portrait hole.
"Went to the Ministry to report on Umbridge," Hermione reported. "She left this morning after breakfast. She should be back soon."
-oooo-
It was around nine that night that Harry retired to his trunk to get ready for bed. He'd spent some time working on revision, and more time listening to Tonks talk about her report to Madam Bones. It sounded to Harry like Bones was on the warpath. He definitely wouldn't want to be in Umbridge's shoes.
Once he got to his master suite, he pulled the mirror Sirius had given him off the mantle, where he'd put it. Harry only kept class things in his school trunk now. Clothes and personal items had been moved by Dobby days earlier. He didn't need to bring his class things down into the trunk because he already had copies of all his textbooks in his library he could use while in his trunk. He also had parchment and quills in case he felt the desire to revise at Potter Manor.
Harry flopped down onto one of the couches and held up the mirror, calling Sirius. He only had to wait a moment.
"Harry!" Sirius called from the mirror.
"Sirius," Harry grinned. "I was wondering if you'd appreciate a change in accommodations."
"Pup, I can't leave Grimmauld, you know that," Sirius said sadly.
"Well, you wouldn't be, exactly," Harry countered. "I'm currently at Hogwarts, but at the same time, I'm not." He turned the mirror so that Sirius could see the room he was in. "I was thinking you could come live with me, or rather, in one of my other homes here."
"What..." Sirius attempted, confused. Harry proceeded to tell Sirius the whole story: what the trunks were, how Winky had gotten them for him, how he'd linked them and created a huge but mostly empty world, and how there were now non-master trunks that provided access to people he chose to invite.
"So, we wouldn't even have to see each other if we didn't want to," Harry finished. "You could live on a beach, in the mountains, deep in the jungle, or atop a cliff looking over the sea. Just bring a broom to get around."
"I'd love to Harry, but I'm stuck here, so I can't get to you," Sirius replied.
"Don't worry," Harry told him. "I can get the trunk to you."
"How?" Sirius asked.
"Dobby!" Harry called out. The elf appeared moments later. "Get one of the spare trunks from the basement and take it to Sirius Black, please." Dobby didn't hesitate, and a moment later Harry heard Dobby pop in and out of Sirius' room. "I've already added you to the list of people with permission. Oh, I'll have to add Remus, but you can help me with that in a bit. All you have to do is open the trunk and climb in. Walk to the end of the corridor and open the door. I'll be waiting for you."
Harry put the mirror back on the mantle and raced from the room. He arrived in the trunk entry hall just as the door to the right of the one labelled 'Harry Potter' opened. Harry saw that it now read 'Sirius Black'. Then the man himself stepped through clutching a broom. He smiled at Harry before he suddenly stopped cold and took a look around.
"Sweet Merlin, pup," Sirius gasped. "This place is a bloody palace." Just then, Katie's door opened, and she stepped out. She started for a moment, but quickly regained her poise. "Hello, Katie," Sirius said happily.
"Lord Black," Katie greeted him politely.
"Sirius, please," Sirius corrected, shaking her hand. "I'm not too formal usually. I only make people I dislike call me Lord Black." He dropped her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person."
"You too," Katie agreed. Then she turned to Harry. "I see you gave him a trunk."
"Yeah," Harry nodded. "I invited him to stay at one of the other houses."
"More like he forced me to," Sirius said.
"You're gonna fly him all the way to some other house now?" Katie asked, bemused.
"Well, no," Harry answered. "I was gonna put him up in a guest suite for tonight and show him around tomorrow with everyone else."
"OK," Katie said. "I'll see you in a bit then." Without further explanation, Katie walked out into the main entry hall and disappeared.
"You'll have to tell me all about her," Sirius said, ribbing Harry.
"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Harry countered. "I'm still finding out about her, after all." He walked to the door. "C'mon. Let's get you settled for tonight." As they walked to one of the stairs Harry pointed out the dining room door. "That's the dining room. You…" Damn. "Dobby!" Dobby again popped into view. "Did Orym get you a household staff yet?"
"Oh, yes!" Dobby replied excitedly. "We has a cook, three cleaners, three servers, and a launderer for you's personal staff. This house be's having another cook, cleaner, server, launderer, mechanic, and three gardeners assigned to it. They's already moved in and started works."
"Will they be able to serve breakfast tomorrow?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Dobby nodded.
"OK," Harry replied. "Sirius will be staying tonight and require breakfast tomorrow. Then he's gonna go to one of the other houses and live there. Remus Lupin might be with him sometimes."
"It's not being a problem," Dobby reported.
"Thanks, Dobby," Harry said, dismissing the elf. Then he turned back to Sirius. "So that's the dining room. You can get breakfast in there tomorrow. I'll be eating at Hogwarts, but then I'll be back. I'll bring the others and we can fly around a bit to familiarize everyone with what's out there." He started up the stairs and picked the first suite he came to. "You can kip here," Harry said, opening the door.
"You're sure these are guest rooms?" Sirius asked jokingly. "They're quite posh."
"Until I have kids, yeah," Harry answered.
"Looking for those anytime soon?" Sirius asked, making his eyebrows dance suggestively. "I saw that bird you've snagged."
"No!" Harry countered quickly, hushing Sirius and looking around the corridor. "Not anytime soon. I'm not even done Hogwarts yet."
"OK, OK," Sirius protested. "I was just asking."
"If you're bored, you can go back to Grimmauld, or the library's down the hall," Harry pointed. "There's a game room on the ground floor, and a pool in the basement. Feel free to poke around a bit. What's Remus' full name?"
"Remus John Lupin," Sirius replied.
"I'll add him tomorrow morning when I go to breakfast, and I'll have Dobby take him a trunk after that so he can join us," Harry said. "You might want to fill him in tonight via mirror if you've got it on you."
"I'll do that," Sirius said, then changed tack. "Pool, you said?"
"Yeah," Harry said. "Stairs to the basement are next to the loos on the ground floor behind the parlour. When you get to the basement hall look left, you can't miss it."
"Alright," Sirius said, pulling his mirror out of his robes. "Have a good night."
Harry nodded, and proceeded up the stairs. When he got to his suite the sitting room was empty. He closed the door and padded across the room, only to hear a knock on his door. He went back and answered it. Katie was standing there in her pyjamas.
"I took this room," Katie told him, gesturing to the suite next to his. "I hope that's OK."
"Sure," Harry said. "Wherever you want, take it."
"Wherever, huh?" Katie asked seductively, leaning in. "Well, next time I might just pick this room." She gestured to Harry's room. "The bed looked big enough for both of us." A blush bloomed on Harry's face. Katie leaned forward and kissed Harry soundly. "Good night," she said, then turned and retreated into her room.
Harry closed his own door and went to his bedroom. After using the loo, and changing into his own pyjamas, he climbed into bed and pulled the covers up.
He lay there for a long time thinking. Was he ready for Katie to become more physical with him? Which house would Sirius take? Had he given Orym clear enough instructions for the construction and operations he wanted undertaken? Whatever the answers to those questions were, Harry would have to wait until tomorrow to find out.