Disclaimer: We all know how these work, I acknowledge that J.K. Rowlings, Warner Bros. and Scholastic own Harry Potter and all other characters and settings from cannon, and I get to write whatever I please and even add in characters of my own as long as I don't get any money. The no money sucks but there you go, at least I don't get lawyers knocking on my door. Addendum: If you recognize a name of a character from elsewhere it isn't mine.

A/N: Sorry for being so long on this one RL issues and a plot bunny (It thought it was a wolverine, I swear) that attacked and wouldn't let go check the results The Day Albus Dumbledore Never Remembers.

Sirius' Savior

Chapter 45 Montana

The crisp fresh air was the first thing that Sirius, Harry, and Rachel noticed as their portkey deposited them in Montana. They quickly pulled the time turner out and gave it sixty turns. When they arrived on the proper day, Rachel called the rest of the security team. Then they walked through the gates of Reynolds' Ingredient Supply and Reserve and knocked on the front door of what appeared to be the main house.

The door was opened by a middle aged man with brown hair, greenish blue eyes, a strong chin and a slightly crooked prominent nose with a friendly smile. "Good morning, Can I help you?"

Sirius stepped forward"I believe we're expected. I'm Sirius Black."

"Mr. Black...and company, yes please come on in. Coffee or tea?"

"Coffee is fine." The request for coffee was echoed by most the team.

"I was really only expecting you Mr. Black and your ward. We really only have one guest room."

"That's alright we'll let Rachel take the room the rest of us will rough it in the tent."

"I wasn't sure how we were going to do this. I'm a naturalist and businessman not a teacher."

"First of all relax Mr. Reynolds. Instead of calling me Mr. Black call me Sirius and this is Harry. Harry's your pupil and he learns things just by breathing I swear. This is Rachel Luttrell she head of our security as far as the rest, these guys they are her backup. If I remember their names from my briefing they are Jace Montgomery, Kane Taggert, Thomas Hamilton, Gerard Johnson, and Fred Wilson of the Wizarding Investigative Service they are here because I am connected loosely to the magical president. That said unless they're telling you to duck feel free to ignore their presence, they're used to that. As far as how we do this, how about we start with a tour of the place."

The security team grinned their agreement with Sirius' statement.

Mr. Reynolds relaxed a bit. "I can do that, please call me Mal."

They started the tour with the green houses there were forty of them. Half holding magical species half not. Malcom was very careful to tell Harry, "Green houses numbers 19, 20, 21, and 22 are off limits to kids unless escorted by an adult. That rule applies to all the kids here not just you."

"How many kids are here sir?" Harry asked.

"Thirty-five they range from Kaylee who is two to Mikilos who is almost seventeen."

"I noticed all the cottages. How many people live here Mal?" Sirius asked.

"The enclave has thirty-seven families and there are one hundred seventy two of us. We have two teachers, one healer, two potion masters, fifteen beast masters, twenty herbologists, six farm masters, three vets, I have trouble keeping everybody's specialty straight we have a lot of overlap."

Harry and Sirius exchanged looks obviously one place that this business needed help was in organization.

"I know officially I own the place and the business, but we are actually one of the larger magical enclaves in the northwest and this place is home to families. Everyone here is family one way or another. Two thirds the families are related to me the other third are related to my wife, Mai."

The tour continued through the remaining greenhouses until lunch. They had lunch at the mess hall with everyone. After lunch they started going through barns and animal enclosures. Harry enjoyed seeing the variety of plants and animals. When they stopped shortly before four they had seen all the close in animals

"There are more animals farther out but we'll wait and see them another day. I need to get back and work on paperwork." Mal said.

When they went back to the main house Harry and Sirius noted where the tent had been set up. Mal said "Harry can you come with me for a moment. Sirius you said I could assign books right?"

"Yes I said you could get books for Harry and I would reimburse you."

"Mai said I went a little overboard. But I chose the best books on magical plants and animals that are out there in terms of both accuracy and variety of information. And Harry don't worry I don't expect you to read all of them while you're here but if something here has caught your interest you can find out about it." Mal looked totally worried, he opened the door to his office and there in the center of his desk was a stack of twenty five thick books.

Sirius fought back a grin as Harry moved forward and started to read the titles. Following him he said, "The best books out there huh? Don't look so worried, Harry goes through books the way most boys-OOf. Harry" Sirius said reproachfully as he rubbed his stomach where Harry elbowed him.

"I don't think you were thinking when you started that sentence Sirius. And where I suspect that was going I was just trying to save you from inserting your foot in your mouth up to your, oh I don't know, hip? Mr. Reynolds, thank you for the books. I'm sure they're great and I look forward to reading them. Sirius give me a hand so we can get these out of Mr. Reynolds way so he can work." Harry carefully took the top eight books from the stack and moved towards the door.

Sirius grinned tapped the remaining piles of books with his wand and put the now minuscule books into the hand he didn't use his cane with. "Harry's right sometimes I engage my mouth and by pass my brain, more often at his expense than others, but if I ever say something you don't like don't feel like you can't say or do something to remind me to think first."

"Mai says the same thing about me and I grew up around beast masters, I don't take offense easily."

"I get these out to the tent so Harry can dive into them then I'll come back in and we can start talking the nuts and bolts of your operation and your needs. By the way Harry is quite likely to join us frequently in our discussions about finances. He's quite sharp and I've trained him the last four years so he developed an eye for things. Sometimes he sees stuff I don't, and I trust his insight. I saw today this is more than a business to you it's your whole family's living. I won't take that lightly, by the same token DuSable Potter Industries is just that, an industry in the business of making money. So if you want my advice and my investment know that some changes will need to be made and I can just about guarantee not all of them will be popular with your entire family. How much do I owe you for the books?"

"One hundred thirty six galleons, ten sickles," came the very apologetic reply.

"Harry almost spends that semiannually on pleasure books, music, and photography stuff anyway, don't worry about it. His education is worth more than that."

The next morning Mai's family got a shock Harry, Rachel, Sirius and two of the WIS wizards joined in the morning Tai chi. After Tai chi all of them except Sirius went for a run. When they got back they were just in time for breakfast.

Malcom and Mai Reynolds explained, "Everyone eats with their family in the morning and at dinner but lunch is always at the mess hall. It keeps the community close and is more convenient." Sirius sat down with Malcom to make sure he understood the basics of the business. Two hours later he made the suggestion, "Malcom the first thing you need is to get a more organized method of doing your bookkeeping and paperwork. Your files are mixed up between orders that have been filled, bills, and files about the animals and what not. If being organized isn't your strong suit I'm sure someone here is be willing to share the load."

Harry meanwhile was with Mai. She was taking him to see some of the animals further out from the main compound. "We'll ride double on Brandy she doesn't get frightened by some of the larger creature unlike most of the horses."

Harry was awed by the gryffins, enthralled by the pegasi, enamored by the unicorns and their cousins the ki-lin, blown away by the seven dragons, and completely amazed by the pair of phoenixes.

They came back for lunch and after lunch he dived into the books.

The next four weeks followed that pattern. Sirius just smiled and did what he could to learn the whole operation and keep an eye on Harry. Harry would spend the first part of everyday with the various green house keepers and the beast keepers asking tons of questions usually he had done his research on whatever plant or animal he was asking about. He also asked how the various people used their magical gifts and what their education had been. He interacted with just about every person on the property. He found out about not just the magical plants and animals but the non-magical ones on the property as well. Sirius got most the information he wanted just by listening while Harry asked questions.

Malcom Reynolds was a very happy man at this point. When Sirius Black had first approached him he had been afraid of the very idea of formally teaching a kid, and he had been struggling against an almost overwhelming fear that in five to seven years the reserve would have to close and his family disperse because the business would fail. But in just the three weeks since he'd started implementing Sirius' business suggestions he'd already noticed a bit of a turnaround.

May began and Sirius noticed a sudden change in Harry's activities and it wasn't just that he had started the schoolwork for Stuart-Cavanaugh in this jump. Harry seemed to spend hours going over the plant and animal books that Mal had gotten him. Sirius was sure Harry had some brilliant idea for the company but was trying to work out the details. So he gave Mal a heads up. "Harry came up with something I don't know what but he's working on something."

"What do you mean? He's a kid what could he come up with that hasn't been tried already?"

"Mal, my friend you're confusing the evidence of your eyes with the reality that is Harry. He's the offspring of two of the most brilliant minds I've ever met and he takes after his mum, the more brilliant of the two. Mind you I'm not just talking about book smarts. His parents had it where the rubber meets the road so to speak. Yeah he's almost nine but if he focused on academics alone in his education he would probably already have his diploma sorry NEWTs but he enjoys sports, music, and photography too much. I started teaching him early, and we're talking about a kid that was fluently multi-lingual by five. If he comes up with ideas their worth listening to."

After that ringing endorsement Malcom shut up, a week and a half later Harry proposed a community meeting so he could present some ideas. Mal agreed, interested in what Harry had come up with.

When the entire community had gathered together they had dinner first then Harry started. Sirius hit him with a sonorus spell so everyone could hear him. "Okay can everyone hear me. I want to start by thanking all of you I have learned so much in my time here. I want to start with where I got my ideas in the non magical world biologists have come to realize you can't study a species in isolation that you have to have a balanced ecosystem healthy soil, plants primary consumers and secondary consumers and so on until you get to apex predators and the de-composers . You have the carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle and all of these work in concert. Now here you have your community that wants to pull potion ingredients out from what ever source and most the energy for the system comes from you. You use magic to heat the green houses and the animal enclosures, you spend energy keeping pests away from the plants in the green houses and on keeping the animals reasonably stimulated. You are trying to balance the needs of the animals with the costs involved in their care. The community is in a mode of trying to meet its needs without a clear analysis of those needs there is quite a bit of overlap in some places and insuffiecient coverage in others. I have noticed there are some places where talents could be used to develop whole new areas for income that are being over looked.

"Mr. Stavros, as a beast speaker you can talk to the unicorns right? Do they know that without money to pay the taxes pay for food and pay for the people who work here that their home where they are pretty pampered goes away? No right? What about if you told them, don't you think they would want to contribute?

"Xing what does a vial of willingly given unicorn blood bring on the potion ingredient market? You sell hairs that have been shed, why not donated blood?What I propose is this the intelligent magical animals the unicorns, the pegasi, the griffins, the ki-lin they are smart enough to contribute I've learned that while the beast speakers here can mostly mostly understand the dragons it takes a parseltongue to actually speak to them I'm willing to get them cooperating with their keepers before we leave.

"The greenhouses are warmed what would happen if you took the non aggressive non primary consumers in the green houses to eat the primary consumers like bugs that get in the green houses you would have them in a stimulating healthy environment and they would be there to excrete directly where the plants get the most benefit sort of like zoos do. Their enclosures could then be added to the enclosure space of the aggressive species-"

"Allowing them to be happier and more likely to produce what we need for potions." One of the Beast handlers said.

Suddenly everyone in the community was breaking into groups where the species both of plants and animals of similar needs were gathering and tearing into Harry's notes consulting one another on the problems they could foresee. It turned into a brainstorming session free for all. Harry calmly stepped back and let it happen.

Malcom grabbed the pile of notes that everyone was discarding as not applying and started to look through them. They were suggestions on how to make the community more self supporting using muggle means as well as magical and suggesting that Tristan Stavros the community's sole squib be sent to get schooling in muggle electricity and plumbing so that they could convert some of the community's power needs to muggle geothermal, wind and solar power. Right now Tristan was just a common laborer whose gifts of being of mechanical mindset and handyman skills were under utilized. A little schooling and he would be an asset not a drain. He looked for Sirius and Harry only to find they had left the hall.

The next day the community was filled with faces that showed that they had had little sleep but there was a new hope and energy to everyone. Harry had gone with Mai to go speak with the Dragons, before Mal finally found Sirius.

"You were right Sirius."

"Glad we could help."

"Can you help me? I need help to set up the plans and I figure out the best way to implement everything in stages so it's done right."

"Of course."

In the days that followed Harry spent most of the time with the oldest and youngest members of the enclave listening to the myths surrounding the various creatures of the preserve. His favorite bit of lore was told to him by Mai's Chinese grandfather. And it happened when they were with the phoenixes collecting some tears that the phoenixes willingly shed.

"The Phoenix is one of the most revered magical creatures Harry. They are born of magic herself and light. They sometimes choose to bond themselves to wizarding kind. Most of the time this is to our benefit but in China there is a legend of a phoenix that lost it's link to the light. When it first bonded to it's wizard, the wizard had high ideals and lofty intentions. But there is a saying here in America the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And so it was for this phoenix and it's master every time the phoenix burned he got darker feathers, and the wizard slowly but steadily went dark albeit with the best of intentions when the wizard was finally was killed on the battlefield his phoenix's eyes were opened to the great evil the wizard had wrought and he immolated one last time in shame. Legend states that that spot has never let anything grow since.

On their last day in Montana Harry visited the greater creatures one last time. When he was at the pegasi pasture the Stallion nudged Harry towards his back, Gemeni Stavros one of the teen apprentice beast handlers who had the gift of beast speak said. "He wants you to ride him Harry."

Rachel who was with Harry said, "I not sure that is a good idea."

Harry however didn't listen and with a small boost climbed on. The stallion sprang into the air as soon as Harry had tucked his legs under the massive wings and taken a good grip of the mane. He instantly fell in love with flying. He closed his eyes and just felt. After a while he felt the Stallion once more touch ground he opened his eyes they were in the high ki-lin pasture. Near the ki-lin. Harry was startled the ki-lin he had seen before were the mares about to foal in the low ki-lin pasture. The ki-lin stallion was in this pasture and the keepers had been specific that the ki-lin were a wilder potentially more aggressive and more deadly species of unicorn. So he wondered why the pegasus stallion had brought him here the stallion gave a little buck so Harry clambered off nervously.

The ki-lin stallion approached. Harry remembered that you should bow maintaining eye contact and did so. The ki-lin stallion carefully sniffed him and gave a snort in Harry's face. Harry was glad it didn't contain any flames. He tentatively stroked the stallions neck and was surprised when the stallion half turned and whisked him in the face with his tail. Harry stood there for a moment. The stallion flicked him again. Harry suddenly guessed what the stallion wanted. He stepped to the tail and looked for with his magic sense for the perfect tail hair. Upon finding it he plucked it. Harry then thanked the ki-lin stallion who merely nodded his head to him.

The Pegasus stallion once more came forward and with the help of a fallen log Harry once more climbed on five minutes later he was back in the pegasi pasture once there Harry thanked the stallion for the flight and was about to go back to Rachel when the stallion gave him one last gift. A covert feather. On the ride back to the enclave Harry carefully wrapped the gift of the ki-lin stallion around the vane of the feather from the pegasus stallion and then he carefully re-hooked the barbs of the rachis. Thinking again of the joy the flight had given him.

That night the community had one last feast to say goodbye. The food was a mix of Chinese, Greek and American and it was a very fun if slightly wild party. Sirius got a little drunk drinking ouzo with Malcom's maternal grandfather because he was missing Beth and it was all Rachel and Harry could do to steer Sirius into the tent. The next morning they once again had to do the cold water spell to get him up and moving in time to leave.

Mai took pity on him though and gave him a hangover remedy before the jump. Mal complained she was a cruel woman because she wouldn't take the same pity on him. She told Mal, "You grew up around Lukas Stavros so you ought to have known better. He did not." Which made those that gathered for the farewell laugh.

Rachel Harry and Sirius made the jump to Massachusetts after saying goodbye to the five men that had served as security in Montana.