Professor McGonagall tried to be inconspicuous as she took a deep breath. If she was honest with herself, she did that every time she led a new muggleborn student into the Leaky Cauldron, bracing herself for the worst. It was quite rare, in this day and age, for muggle parents to abandon their children to the wizarding world- but the most common point for them to do that was upon entering the Leaky Cauldron.
When Hagrid had returned a couple nights before, he’d reported on exactly what the Equestrians were going to do; they’d explained it to him in more detail. Thus, the staff had known to treat the letters from Equestrians like letters from wizarding families. It had taken that entire day to separate out the muggleborn notes remaining… and it had been found that there simply wasn’t enough days left before the deadline for him to attend to all of the muggleborns himself. Combined with how they’d also realized just how many teachers were necessary to process all the owls that came in through the entire day, that meant that Hagrid had been reassigned to get Harry Potter… and Professor McGonagall herself had been sent out on muggleborn duty, as usual.
By her understanding, Professor Flitwick was going to get two muggleborn as well over the next few days, reducing her duty count to just one per day, up to the deadline. And that, assuming they all said yes- which they usually all did, whether they meant to or not.
The Grangers, who she was escorting at the time, seemed like a pleasant family. Most of the disowners seemed like that, though, so she wasn’t so certain. Their daughter, a young witch that had eagerly accepted the offer after her carefully-designed demonstration, was particularly eager- which did tend to suggest her parents were not the disowning type. Most of the disowned children had been nervous on the way in… but she’d had a few cheerful ones get disowned over the ages as well.
In either case, she fully expected the girl to end up in either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, whatever happened. And, with how heavily strained the castle finances would be for this number of students, she couldn’t expect to be able to provide any gold for the girl’s education, should she be disowned.
She braced herself for the worst as she led the trio to the door. She’d already explained to the parents that they wouldn’t be able to see it without touching a witch or wizard- which included their daughter, who was rather obligingly holding their hands.
Then, she opened the door, entered, and held the door for them.
Then she did a double-take. The pub did not look like she was used to it looking.
“... Colorful,” Hermione observed bluntly.
The pub was a lot fuller than Professor McGonagall had expected, and a lot more cheerful. And, Hermione was right, more colorful as well. Not only were the witches and wizards in attendance wearing their usual kaleidoscope of colors, but there were dozens- possibly hundreds- of first-year-age children, each with their own vivid hair colors, milling about. A couple dozen of them, in one corner, appeared to be wearing golden armor. Tom, and all six of his servers (four of whom were also funny-haired first-years), were running to and fro, serving varied drinks- mostly butterbeer, it seemed- to all the students.
In between them all, placed proudly on five different tables throughout the room, stood five towering cakes. She could just see the remnants of a sixth, with only a few pieces left on the massive platter, and the several other tables littered with other sweets and treats throughout the room. Floating above the crowd were hundreds of balloons as varied in color as a bag of Bertie Bott's in flavor. Cheerful music wafted through the air, and a colorful dance floor could be found off to the side, flashing different colors to the tune of the music… with plenty of those first-years stumbling in failed attempts at dancing, and a few older witches or wizards either helping them learn or just dancing.
Then of course, there was the huge banner hanging across the entire width of the pub, directly above the bar, with ‘Welcome to a New World’ written on it in huge lettering.
“Ahh… I hope we’re not crashing someone’s party,” Mr. Granger muttered quietly.
Very suddenly, a first-year girl with a startlingly pink mane of fluffy pink hair dashed out of the crowd so fast someone slower than Professor McGonagall would have to be excused for thinking she’d apparated. “Of course not,” the girl cheered. “Everyone’s invited to this Welcome-to-the-Wizarding-World party!” She suddenly had a plate of cake in her hands, though where she’d gotten it from, even McGonagall couldn’t tell. “Cake?”
Professor McGonagall took a deep breath, committing an image of the pub to memory… then concentrated on the Hogwarts wards. It was harder to communicate through them when she was away from the castle, but she could still do it. It took her close to two seconds to properly formulate and deliver the image, during which all three Grangers stood still, stunned silent.
Professor Dumbledore’s response came back almost immediately. “What.” She got the distinct feeling of shocked silence from all three other heads of house, and allowed herself a small smile.
“Is there something missing…?” the pink-haired girl asked, looking somewhat saddened.
Then another girl, this one with light blue and white striped hair, trotted up next to her. “Patience, Pinkie- remember, these people aren’t used to you.” She glanced up at the Grangers. “And something tells me these people aren’t used to magic in the first place.” She then stepped forward, and held her hand out to Hermione. “I’m Lyra Heartstrings- and it’s nice to meet you,” she greeted.
The pink girl- Pinkie?- scowled, but all three Grangers started moving with a start, and shook themselves out. “Ahh… Nice to meet you too,” Hermione answered, gingerly accepting the hand.
Mrs. Granger breathed a sigh, looking up at Professor McGonagall. “Do… How long do we have, for…?” She gestured around at the party.
At that very moment, Professor Dumbledore spoke again, over the Hogwarts wards; of the other three, only Snape had recovered from his shock, now quietly curious. “You’re… guiding someone, aren’t you?”
“Ahh,” Professor McGonagall muttered aloud. “Yes… though the Grangers seem to want some time here too.”
“Hmm,” Dumbledore mused. “I don’t see any reason to stop them. Probably be a good chance to learn about some of the Equestrians, I’d say.”
Lyra spoke up suddenly, looking up at the adults; while McGonagall communed with Dumbledore, she’d asked Hermione if she was going to Hogwarts, and gotten a yes. “If you want to party first and shop later, that’s no problem- as a matter of fact, we’ve got teams going shopping at regular intervals, about twenty-five every ten minutes or so. We’ve got, let’s see…” She glanced at her wristwatch, whose face lit up as she looked at it, in a manner that practically screamed ‘muggle tech’ to Professor McGonagall. “About six hours before the last one heads out, today. And they’ve got almost a half-hour of leeway before the first shop closes, so…” She shrugged. “If you want to shop first and party later, I might suggest joining the next party- about three minutes, expect the shopping trip to take about an hour and a half- and we’ll still be here for several hours yet. And tomorrow too, if you like.”
Pinkie bounced up and down so fast she couldn’t possibly have been only falling back to the ground each time. “Yes! And the day after, and the day after, and every day until we’re all done! It’ll be superduper fuuuuntastic!” She leaped several feet into the air, one hand pumping even higher, floated in place for a half-second or so, and dropped back to the ground in a blur.
Professor McGonagall’s jaw articulated up and down a couple times, staring at her.
“Don’t ask,” Lyra warned her. “Some of the concepts involved in how she does that defy logic in ways that even the greatest mages of our world can’t understand. Still remember the time Twilight tried to explain Pinkie Pie… I think she actually caught fire, right?”
Pinkie nodded energetically. “Yep! Then it all went out, though she was still smoking a little, and she was like ‘okay, I’ll accept it’.” She tapped her chin with one finger. “Come to think of it, I think she’s still the record holder for the slowest to accept that Pinkie Pie defies explanation…”
“What, not me?” She put on a mock offended expression.
“Well of course, Lyra! You’re the one that made it possible, so of course you don’t count! Cake?” She offered the plate she was still holding.
Lyra chuckled. “No thanks, I still gotta finish my last piece. Hot sauce?” She held up a red bottle she hadn’t been holding a moment before, with an image of a flame on its label.
All three Grangers and Professor McGonagall stared as Pinkie nodded. “Sure!” The girl popped the bottle open, poured it all over the slice of cake, and swallowed it all- plate, bottle, and all- in one fell swoop. “Mmm, good stuff.” Then she burped, producing the plate with a few crumbs on it, and an empty bottle with that fire label. She promptly vanished for a second before reappearing with four plates, each with a fresh slice of cake, which she offered to them. “Cake?”
“Uhh…” Mr. Granger uttered.
Lyra put a hand over her mouth and started snickering, while Pinkie giggled openly.
“That never gets old,” Lyra snickered.
Hermione then became the first to accept the plate offered to her. “... Thank you?” She sounded very confused.
I like this bit you do with the ward-network, it's quite unique.
Someone figure out my Easter egg
10180765
Me too, actually. The idea first came to me early on in The Gate, so it first appeared there... I liked it, so I kept it.
I wonder how many muggleborn parents would shove their child at Pinkie and run away screaming at that?
10180955
Considering it's Pinkie, they better not. Retribution would be neither swift nor kind.
Nice
umm..ok then Pinkie.
"Patreon, Discord."
Discord is one of your patrons? Must be chaotic. :P
10181162
I wish...
10180955
This is a very good question.
... They most certainly wouldn't get away with it, though.
Good thing it was Minerva guiding the Grangers, not Snapes. Otherwise he would deduct points from Lyra and Pinkie (for being nonsensical) before the semester even start.
Ahem. "Trotted"?
Am I to assume that McGonagal was not informed that Lyra and BonBon would be using Tom's place as a massive local base of operations for thousands of the incoming students?
Has no one explained how they will be using time magic to extend the new-year shopping for the next 8 months?
Just charging ahead with a good idea, and not telling anyone else ahead of time? Who's in charge here, Twlight Sparkle?
... Oh, right.
10181327
... He wouldn't, because they're not sorted yet. He couldn't.
But yeah, he would if he could, wouldn't he?
10181573
You're not the first to miss that, don't worry. Source.
... Yes, she was not informed. At this point, none of the staff were informed of anything we haven't seen one present at; the Equestrians have been telling everyone that needs to know... and that's about it. Which means, Ollivander likely knows all about the time thing, but the school staff doesn't know anything about it, aside from what got mentioned while Hagrid was there...
This will change rapidly, as there are more staffmembers out delivering students to Diagon Alley, and as the focus shifts away from the staff to other, "random" passersby.
10181611
If they turned out to be Slytherin, then he'd probably award them points for creating new forms of magic.
10181693
... Very possible.
Though, he might not, since it's the strange "Equestrian magic" he doesn't know about... If he knew a lot about Equestrian magic, then yes, he would almost certainly do that, for innovation.
Well, since they will be in all of the houses (will the sorting hat make a new, 5th house? What will it do with Pinkie? Will it outright refuse to let her head get underneath?), some of them will be in Snape's, and he will award points unfairly to them.
And yes, I know that "trotted" can be used for people. Just seeing it here, for the pony-turned-people people, ...
Oh no.
Horrible thought:
What do you call Twilight when she's wearing an eyepatch over one eye?
10182002
... I don't know, what would you call her?
10182002
Early? Or late?
Well I saw an Alicorn flying out of the sky
She had one big horn, and one clear eye
I commenced to greeting and I said "Whoopie!"
It looks like purple people meeter to me
She's a one-eyed one-horned flying purple people meeter ...
Well she came down to earth and lit up you see
I said Missus Twilight Sparkle how do you be
I heard her say in a voice so sweet
"Lets be friends and share some treats"
I mean, thinking about the original,
it's not like she's looking for a job in a rock and roll band
10183465
... Good one.
Thank you.
I'll be here
all weekuntil your next chapter posts.So if you don't want more horrible humor, happily humble hungry human ... what's an h-word for reader?
10185139
That... that's a good question. All I'm seeing is the standard B and L words, like 'bookworm' and 'librophile'... and the one everyone around here seems to use to describe Twilight but that doesn't seem to appear in any dictionary, 'librophage'.
Wouldn't "librophage" be "destroyer of libraries"?
Normally, when I see -phage in biology, it's something that destroys something else. Right?
10186672
Yep. I've noticed that too.
... Yet Twi still seems to be described as a librophage. Not usually by herself, of course... Perhaps it started as a way to say she "devours" the books and/or words in the books? I know that's been going around for a while...
Devouring books. Librophage. That works.
"Bookworm" gets a more literal meaning :-)
10181573
Her or Dumbledore. Oh, wait, noone got obliviated. Must be Twilight.
Ah, Pinkie, never change.
I have to say that the comments on this one were more bizarre than usual. Especially the song. I'm never going to get that out of my head...
I'm quite enjoying the story so far. However, summer of Harry & Hermione's first year is 1991. While the first computer watch was released in 1984, this sentence appears to describe modern smart watches such as Apple Watch, Fitbit, Samsung Wear, etc., a style of watch which did not enter the market until 2011.
10266008
Yeah... This story takes place thirty years after canon, for the express reason that it means I don't have to research what technologies did or didn't exist before I was born. Makes it a lot easier to keep the tech level consistent. Harry's first year at Hogwarts, then, is the 2021-2022 school year.
Good chapter, but...
Pinkie is a full-grown mare, and expert of her job. She doesn't need a parent (Lyra) holding her hand and constantly looking over her shoulder.
Now, I understand that this is AU where Lyra have same role in this universe as Sunset in EqG. But Sunset is... down to earth. Despite being a leader, she stand on the same level as Humane6.
10267415
Pinkie's charm comes from her childish behavior, though...