Amelia stared at him, then said, “So? Even if he is dead, and he isn’t coming back, his followers will believe that he is returning because their Marks are getting darker.” She pointed at Severus’ exposed mark. “And they will renew their attacks, won’t they, Mr. Malfoy.”
Surprised at being addressed, Lucius gave a quick nod, then frowned. Apparently he had not meant to do that. His thoughts on the revelations about Tom Riddle had probably unsettled him.
“So,” she continued, “because his followers will start acting up, you should increase the Auror budget. Or, when the attacks start and people find out you stone-walled any effective measures beforehand, they will blame you and you will be voted out.”
Now Cornelius looked nervous.
“I’m sure you are exaggerating, Miss Bones.”
She stared back at Lucius. “All it will take is one Death Eater sending up the Mark over a burning building, and people will come baying for your blood when they found out you knew in advance and did nothing.
“Not to mention what this basilisk could have done. I don’t think the wizards in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures could have handled it. Not if even Headmaster Dumbledore needed assistance. I know the Aurors would have been stretched!”
“I am afraid Amelia is correct, Cornelius,” Dumbledore said, “And I wouldn’t put it past your enemies to try to see you in Azkaban for gross negligence of your duties.” Albus gave the poor wizard a wry smile. “I would never condone such an act, but you have alienated a few in the Wizengamot.”
Striking while she thought she had the advantage, Amelia added, “It doesn’t have to be much, Cornelius, restore the budget to what it was during the war. That should be more than sufficient to let me rebuild the department.”
Augusta spoke up, “Minister Fudge, it would be in your best interest to be seen as a supporter of law and order. I have heard more than one member of the Wizengamot complain about the rise in crime over the last few years. It would hurt you greatly if this memory,” she waved one arm gracefully and pointed at Severus, “were to become common knowledge — and you were seen to do nothing.”
Confronted by three of the four in the room while his main financial backer said nothing, Cornelius capitulated. “Yes,” he said, “Perhaps you are correct. I will sign the orders when we get back to the Ministry, increasing the budget of both the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to what they were at the end of the war.”
Malfoy had the hint of disapproval in his expression, but dared not speak.
Dumbledore knew Lucius had been the driving force in keeping the Aurors’ budget low for the last ten years.
Malfoy was faced with arguments for which he had no effective counters, at the moment. If he did object, he would appear to be an obstructionist, for no apparent reason. Or worse, people would think he did have a reason, that he still supported the Dark Lord. Which would remove some of his influence from the Wizengamot and interfere with his plans when the truth of the Dark Lord’s parentage came out.
“It is the right thing to do, Cornelius,” Albus said, “we really must prepare, for I fear things will only get worse as the Dark Mark becomes more vivid.”
They spent a few more minutes discussing things, then exited the memory. Albus conducted his guests to the floo, subtly manoeuvring Amelia to be last. He closed the floo just as she went to throw the floo-powder.
“There is one more thing I think you should see Amelia,” he said as she looked at him questioningly.
Once more they stood in a memory of his office, and once more he ran the memory starting with memory him saying, “Severus, show them, please.”
This time the memory ran until just after Pinkie Pie said, “I think he was sad to lose his snake friend.”
Amelia stared at him in disbelief.
He nodded to her. “Yes, Amelia, he has found a host. And, I think you should inform the Unspeakables that the Dark Mark can be used to find and track Death Eaters, and maybe even Tom Riddle himself. I’m sure they could find a volunteer from Azkaban to help them in exchange for better conditions or a shortened sentence. Or elsewhere.”
She nodded slowly.
Once they were back in his real-world office, he handed her a sheet of paper. “Princess Sparkle is a bit of a genius at spell creation. She was appalled at hearing what the imperius curse could do, and came up with this counter-spell. It turns anyone under the curse a bright-green colour. If the cast spell is stronger than the spell used for the imperius, it cancels it.”
He shook his head sadly. “Imagine how many lives could have been saved if the runes for this spell had been placed on every floo-connection. And if Aurors could have cast this spell instead of more dangerous ones at suspects.”
She took the paper and studied it carefully. She looked back up at him and smiled grimly. “We’ll give this a careful study. It wouldn’t hurt to have the runes for it scattered throughout the Ministry. If it works.” She paused in thought. “And if it does, it wouldn’t hurt to have it placed on every door-front in Diagon Alley, too.”
Immediately after Amelia left, and before he could close it, there was a voice and face in his floo. It was Mr. Bulstrode asking, “May I come through?” And no sooner did he come through then it was Mr. Macmillian asking. He was followed by Mr. Turpin, and then by Mrs. Zabini.
Dumbledore almost clipped her heel closing the floo.
He sighed. It was Monday all over again. On the other hand, he could easily spread the tale of who Tom Riddle was, and that the Ministry had funded yesterday’s activities.
Still, it was going to a long and tedious day.
۸-~-۸
For once, none of the Gryffindor First Years, neither individually nor as a group, were the subject of gossip at breakfast on Wednesday morning. Instead, the main topics were the Chamber of Secrets, the seven foreigners who had been at dinner last night, and the things they had all purchased in Hogsmeade yesterday. On the subject of the foreigners, or Atlanteans as most were now calling them, the witches spent most of their time talking about how “dreamy” Shining Armor was and admiring his muscles. That he had held up a shield over all of Hogsmeade was also considered remarkable, and added to his “attractiveness.”
The wizards split their time to discussing the attributes of the various female Atlanteans. Well, at least those that didn’t have girlfriends did. The ones with girlfriends, if they said anything at all, did so only when their girlfriends were out of listening range.
Harry thought it was rather nice not to be gawked at during breakfast. With any luck, it might actually last a while.
Professor Quirrell, Harry saw as he finished breakfast, still looked unhappy. That did not bode well for their DADA class.
After breakfast, the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs picked up their walking bushes from Greenhouse number one for Herbology, and then headed on into Charms. Professor Flitwick was beginning to catch on to how much book-walking was helping them and spent more time on the practical than lecturing.
Lunch was quiet until Sweetie Belle said, “We should build a filly flinger, like we did in Ponyville.”
Harry choked on his pumpkin juice. He started hacking and coughing while Apple Bloom pounded his back a couple of times. He finally cleared his throat enough to rasp, “What?”
Sweetie shrugged. “I noticed some people swimming in the lake over the weekend, and we don’t have a lot of time before winter gets here. And, if we build it now, it’ll be ready in the spring and summer when it gets warm again.”
Scootaloo perked right up, “Yeah, and we pegasi could use it to play dodge-pony any time the weather is nice!”
Hermione, Ginny, and several others nearby were staring at them, baffled.
“Filly-flinger?” Ginny asked wonderingly.
Sweetie turned to her. “Yep. It’s a trebuchet made to throw po . . . people into the lake. It’s loads of fun!”
“Wait,” interrupted Hermione, “You four built a trebuchet? By yourselves?”
Harry nodded. “Actually, we built two of them the summer before.”
Hermione’s eyes glazed over as she tried to imagine the four of them building a trebuchet big enough to throw people. Just handling the tools should have taken them weeks of cutting.
“Yeah, we were trying for a Cutie Mark in Weapons of Mass Destruction, but,” she reflexively glanced down at her thigh, “it didn’t work.”
Everyone around them shivered at the thought. Considering how much damage they did by accident, either physical or not, the four of them getting that as a specialty was terrifying on an entirely new level.
“And it’ll be much easier this time because we can all use magic to help!” Sweetie continued.
“But we’re not supposed to go into the Forbidden Forest,” Bloom said. “Where will we get the tree-trunks we need?”
Sweetie shrugged, “We can ask Hagrid. If he goes with us, it’ll be safe enough. He is a staff member, remember.”
“Do you remember the numbers?” Scootaloo asked.
“Yep,” Sweetie said. “It’ll be easy.”
“Will they let us?” Harry asked.
“Don’t see why not,” Sweetie said.
Hermione snickered and said, “Cum trebuchetta Proscriptae Erunt Tum Soli Proscripti trebuchetta Habebunt.”
Everyone turned and stared at her.
Still snickering a bit, she said, “When trebuchets are outlawed, only outlaws will have trebuchets.”
Harry shook his head. Leave it to Hermione to study up on Latin. Probably because it was used so much in the science books she read — for light reading.
The muggle-born students nearby laughed, as did a few half-bloods.
With the three fillies set on the project, Harry quickly yielded to the inevitable, and went back to finishing his lunch.
Then came Transfigurations and DADA, which were both boring in their own ways. Apple Bloom finished off her initials using embedded needles in the ceiling, half of which were now matches. Sweetie Belle completed her carousel design on the window curtains. And Scootaloo’s needle had a finely detailed image of Rainbow Dash carved into it.
Oddly enough, Professor Quirrell was in a pensive mood and he spent most of the lecture talking about muggles. Things the muggle-born thought were blasé — cars, buses, etc. — turned out to be dangerous to wizards and witches. The muggle world was hazardous to the wizards and witches simply because they didn’t live in it and didn’t recognize the dangers. Even the idea that someone would break in to their homes and steal something was almost unthinkable!
After dropping off their walking bushes at the greenhouse, the cohort headed for Hagrid’s hut. Fortunately for their plans, he was in.
After braving Fang, and getting Hagrid to come out, they explained what they wanted.
“So,” Hagrid said, looking down at them and grinning, “Yeh wanna build a treebucket, eh?” He shook his head bemusedly. “And yeh need about sixty yards ’o wood?”
Sweetie Belle nodded eagerly. “Yep, that should be plenty. And about a thousand pounds of rocks.”
Hagrid stood there thoughtfully, rubbing his chin through his beard. “I think I know ’o where to find a downed one ur two.” He looked at Harry. “I can’t take you all in with meh.”
“Sweetie Belle and I will go.” Harry turned to the other Gyffindor’s. “Apple Bloom, you and Scootaloo go find a good location by the lake where we can anchor it well. And start levelling it.”
The two fillies nodded and turned to head off to the lake, with Scootaloo and Ginny transforming and taking wing to get there faster. And to fly because they could fly. The rest of the First Years trailed after the fillies, curious at what they were going to be doing.
Harry, Sweetie Belle, and Neville followed Hagrid after he retrieved a huge crossbow from beside his hut’s door. Harry had to stare at the crossbow, it was almost as long as he was tall!
After about three minutes walking, Hagrid said, “Here’s the ferst un.” And pointed to big tree that had apparently fallen over in a storm. It came up to about Harry’s neck in thickness, much thicker than what they needed. On the other hand, if they quartered it, the individual pieces would be about the right size to make a really solid siege engine.
Sweetie Belle studied the tree trunk carefully. She transformed into her unicorn self, and slashed a cut into the trunk. Then she paced down the length, stopped and made a second cut. She repeated this several times. She turned and trotted back.
“If we quarter the trunk,” she said, “We should have all the wood we need!” She grinned at Harry. “You start here, and I’ll start at the next one. Whoever finishes first, starts the next. Okay?”
Harry shrugged and transformed. He planted his hooves solidly, pointed his horn carefully, and cast the cutting spell taught to first years, only with as much power as he could put into. There was a thud as the trunk settled to the ground, separated from its roots. A moment later there was a second thud and his piece settled a bit lower.
He trotted past Sweetie and Neville, who were cutting off the lower branches on their piece of the trunk — his piece had been too low to have branches — and found her third mark. After that cut, it was his turn to help Neville cut off branches as Sweetie passed him.
Hagrid watched with an amused expression. Occasionally he glanced into the woods around them.
Once they had finished sectioning the trunk, Harry pushed the remainder out of the way. Then he pushed the piece he had just topped sideways. Screwing up his face in concentration, he cast the water-repelling spell they had learned to use in Equestria when working with wood. He slowly walked along the length of the cut piece, forcing the sap out the end and reducing the weight of the trunk by almost half. And making a big puddle of sap at the end. Sweetie was doing the same to her piece. They repeated this until they reached the roots. Removing the sap now reduced the amount of sap they ended up removing from their ears and coats later.
They managed to finish with only getting their hooves thoroughly soaked in sap. Harry counted it a win as they had managed to keep it out of their coats.
Sweating with the effort, Harry and Sweetie lifted the bottom piece in their magic and started back to Hogwarts. Hagrid picked up a couple of the thicker lower branches, after Neville had trimmed them to a shorter length, and brought them along, just in case. It took them five trips to get all the pieces to the lawn.
When they finished, and sat panting beside the pieces, Hagrid sat down beside them. “That were impressive,” he said. “I know some wizards what would have had problems doing that.” He looked at the pieces. “What’ll ya do now?”
“We’ll split the bottom piece into quarters, those will form the sides and two supports,” Sweetie said. “Then do the same for the second piece, but also cut two of those sections in half to form the ends of the frame with the other two sections forming the trough. The third piece will be additional supports and the pivot. The fourth will be the throwin’ arm, and the rest we’ll cut up and use to make the rock box.”
She looked up at him hopefully, “Would you have any rope you can spare? About a hundred yards?”
He laughed. “If not, I’m sure the house-elves would be thrilled to make some for yeh.”
With the help of the cohort, and a liberal application of magic to do the splitting, piercing, trimming, heavy lifting, and holding, they managed to finish the pegged wooden construction before dinner. They had discovered that slightly shrinking each peg before putting it in its hole and then restoring it made for exceptionally tight holds. Those pegs would not be shaken loose!
All that was left was attaching the sling ropes and cup, and filling the rock box. Other students had noticed what they were doing, but had been puzzled at their explanation that they were building a wizard-whipper.
At dinner Harry noticed that the Headmaster, once again, looked tired. Which he thought was strange, given that he hadn’t looked anywhere near as tired after battling a fierce basilisk.
After dinner, they retired to their dorm to work on their day’s assignments. Harry saw, as they were settling in to their study table, that there was a new notice on the bulletin board. When he checked it during a break in studying, he saw that they would be having their first broomstick flying lessons on Thursday. Which, on the schedule Dumbledore had changed, meant it was actually going to be the day after tomorrow, Friday. Harry couldn’t help but wonder if he would actually learn anything in that class, given that he and the fillies had been flying almost every day since they had first visited the Weasleys.
However, based on what he heard some of the other students say, not everyone in Gryffindor had had that sort of opportunity, such as the muggles and most of the half-bloods whose parents had toed the line about not being seen by muggles. Such as Neville, whose grandmother had never let him near a broomstick. Given the extraordinary number of accidents he had, even with both feet on the ground, Harry thought she’d had good reason.
The Gryffindor First Years managed to complete their assignments before curfew, in between petting and combing sessions with the older Gryffindor and Ravenclaw girls, and headed upstairs to collapse into bed. The fifth years seemed especially appreciative of their time with the cuddly ponies.
۸-_-۸
Thursday, or rather Wednesday on their schedule this week, was rather quiet, Harry was relieved to see. He had hopes that the day would be like the previous — no disasters centred on the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Instead, he reserved his dread for tomorrow, when they would be taking broomsticks in hand — with the Slytherins. If anything foreshadowed disaster, Harry suspected that it involved putting those two Houses together. It had certainly borne out that truth in Potions class!
What was puzzling was how unlike Slytherin ideals Malfoy was. Slytherins were supposed to be sneaky and underhanded, to be concerned only with themselves — that they did not have “friendships” so much as alliances. Crossing a Slytherin was supposed to be dangerous, as you never knew when they would get their revenge. And when it did happen, the person doing the act was never the one offended. They would trick, bribe, or manipulate a “friend’ in another House to do the dirty deed. And while they were leaders, they led from the back, never risking themselves or placing themselves where they could come to harm. Or be blamed for the debacle that might result.
Malfoy was brash, unafraid to attack a problem in person and up front — just like a Gryffindor. If something bothered him, he told you, he didn’t smile and back away, determined to hold a grudge and get you back later, when you least expected it. He made sure everyone knew he was the leader. That he was in charge, and Merlin help the idiot who tried to say he wasn’t. He felt everyone else should toe the line he drew. Discretion was not only a word he didn’t know the definition of, it was apparently a word he had never heard.
His continual “My father thinks . . .” or “Father said . . .” were already beginning to become infamous. He had no concept of stealth, nor of hiding your talents until you could derive the most advantage at their unveiling. The broom-stick class tomorrow was certainly becoming clear evidence of that.
Malfoy had firmly established himself as a braggart as he loudly complained about the House Quidditch teams excluding extraordinary first years, such as himself, and told long, boastful stories which always ended with him narrowly escaping Muggle helicopters. Harry had to wonder how he knew about helicopters when no other purebloods seemed to know the word or how to pronounce it.
Harry considered, momentarily, reporting Malfoy’s boastful stories to the Aurors, but then decided it wasn’t his place to do such a thing. While annoying, Malfoy hadn’t really been that much of a bother to him or the fillies. Neville and Ron, on the other hand, were favourite targets for the snobbish Slytherin. Ron, for his family’s lack of funds and large family, and Neville for his ineptitude in almost everything.
۸-~-۸
Castor was once more in the meeting room at Number Ten Downing.
He and the two Equestrian agents, Drop and Heartstrings, had spent most of the day at Bassingbourn learning the basics of handling guns. It had been clear that they were still learning how to use their fingers, as they tended to fumble things when loading the pistols and handling the ammunition.
They would be there for the next week. By the time they finished, they would, like most recruits, have a very thorough understanding of guns, and be able to field-strip an unfamiliar jammed rifle or pistol and reassemble it in moments. Unlike most recruits, with such a short course, they would also be qualified sharp-shooters in both pistols and a range of semi-automatic and automatic weapons — fifteen-hour days concentrated just on shooting tended to have that result.
And while the staff had been unhappy at having a class of just two, it did allow them to compress the normal thirteen-week course. They could ignore the Personal Training, hiking, and aspects unrelated to actually shooting — these two recruits didn’t need to learn how to construct an invisible sniper’s blind in the forest. That and the fact they had easily evaded capture while catching their instructors in camouflage in record time had shown the lack of need for that part of the course.
Castor expected their magic played a large part in their apparent skills at camouflage and detection.
The instructors had also been told that asking questions regarding those two specific recruits were verboten. Their job was to bring them up to Her Majesty’s Military competence level. Period.
He had just settled into his chair when the Prime Minister came in behind Sir McColl and Sir Walker. They quickly seated themselves with the Major at the head of the table.
For a moment, they all just looked at each other. Castor opened his briefcase and started pulling books out. He slid the first one to the PM, then the next to the director generals.
“Ambassador Blueblood was kind enough to give me these. He said we may keep them. The first is,” he gestured to the book in the Prime Minister’s hands, “a general history of the wizards. The second,” he pointed to the one Sir Walker held, “is about their Auror — police — force and what they do to keep the magical world hidden. The third,” he indicated Sir McColl’s book, “is a travel book of the most popular wizarding locations in the world. They all probably have a variation of that “don’t notice it” tech the Equestrians showed us. Knowing about where they are, maybe we can find them with surveillance photography. See how far their magic can reach and still be effective.”
They were silent for several minutes as they flipped through their books.
Sir Walker set his book down with a sigh. “All this time we’ve been working on First Contact protocols with Gallifrey when we should have prepared for contact with Narnia . . . ,” he said dejectedly.
Sir McColl said, “We did. They’re in File 17, subsection F, cabinet 231, in the basement of 140 Gower Street. First contact with the Fae courts. It basically boiled down to ‘stockpile cold iron and pray’ — we probably should update it.”
“And now we’ve got a situation more akin to that yank sci-fi film ‘They Live’ mixed in,” Major said. He looked over to Castor. “Might the Equestrians be interested in helping us come up with a workable strategy in dealing with these wizards?” He looked at the two directors, “And if not, what can we do on our own?”
Sir Walker said, “Well, we’ve already got surveillance cameras on The Leaky Cauldron address. We can’t see it, in person, but the cameras pick it up perfectly. We’re building a dossier on the ones we see going in and out.”
۸-_-۸
Because they had Astronomy that night, the Gryffindor cohort spent their afternoon working on their assignments instead of finishing the trebuchet. Then, after dinner, they all tried to take a short nap in the hope they wouldn’t be exhausted when they woke for the class. It sort of worked. Waking after only a few hours’ sleep was awful, but then they weren’t nearly as tired during class as they had been last week.
And this time — praise Celestia! — there were no detours after class!
۸-_-۸
The Daily Prophet’s Friday edition gave Dumbledore heartburn the moment he saw it: Completely crossing the front-page in all caps and bold was a two-line headline, BASILISK KILLED HOGWARTS STUDENT! Below that a smaller headline blared: Dumbledore kills Salazar’s Thousand-Year-Old Basilisk! A picture to one side of the article, and below the headlines, showed the basilisk in the witches’ toilets glaring out at the readers. Two smaller pictures showed Myrtle from when she had first been a student and Tom Riddle in the witches’ toilets, the captions underneath identified them as victim and murderer. All three were clearly taken from the memories he had shared yesterday.
And he hadn’t even had time to contact Miss Skeeter, yet.
۸-_-۸
WOW that was fast. Literally just logged on thinking "It's Monday evening, time for some If Wishes Were Ponies" then I see no update :(
Then I get an alert like 3 seconds later, yay update :)
Aren't they suppose to be siege weapons meant to knock down walls. I don't think that qualifies as a WMD.
All of this has happened before the very first lesson with Madam Hooch?! wow...
Uhh, the "normal" humans are getting closer to the HP wizards. Thanks to the sneaky Equestrians. Damn politics.
A Doctor Who and Narnia reference in one? I approve!
So I wonder how Celestia and Twilight will react to Blueblood being the instergator of the revelation of the magical world? I really hope to be having popcorn when the wizarding world gets revealed and Blueblood get found out for causing it. Just a sweet chapter now I wonder how the staff at Hogwarts will react to the CMC’s little project?
I'm honestly not sure what the chapter title means relation wise here.
Considering the shield they put over Hogwarts I can see the shield shining armour put up being considered impressive.
When did Harry and the others explain about cutie marks? Consider the frank comment about wanting one in mass destruction and looking at her thigh if this wasn't explained before that should have gotten some questions, from Hermione if no one else.
Only the 5 years need stress relief and this early? What about the 7th years?
I wonder how the staff will react to the wizard whipper when its deployed, or for that matter how the military trainers view their latest recruists.
For that matter how did the daily prophet get pictures of a memory shared to someone else its not like they could take a photograph of it. I see they're also misrepresenting facts, I wonder if anyone will pointo out the victim in question was killed forty years ago and then brought back earlier this week.
9303019
Its also one we had in an earlier chapter nearly word for word.
9303027
He probably did it with permission
Looks like the two story arc are finally starting to converge.
Return of the trebuchet... And the CMC are getting very, very good at building them.
Fast forward seven years and Voldemort will show up for the final battle only to have his army annihilated under trebuchet fire...
Meanwhile... "And we STILL didn't get a Cutie Mark in Mass Destruction!"
Poor Dumbledore, he refrains from personally taking credit, AND THE BLOODY BLOOMIN' STREET RAGS RAIL HIM UP THE POLE WITH A SHEET OF SERRATED TABLOID REJECTS!!!
I suppose it is Amelia Bones, but she wasn't acting person of the last sentence of the previous chapter, use of pronoun instead of name is cumbersome in this case.
This turned out surprisingly good. Pink Toad doesn't know that her life was prolonged.
Awkward tautological sentence, try:
And the last thing for today:
Even if Skeeter managed, somehow, to slip into Hogwarts in her bug animagus form with one of visitors, she still couldn't take pictures in that form, if taking picture in pensieve even possible.
9303027
My concern is that they already know and are, in fact, supporting him. If that's the case, that means they've completely chosen to align themselves with the non-magical humans and screw the wizards. That will definitely have some consequences.
9303095
If she has a spell to copy or project her own memories she wouldn't need a camera. And even if she doesn't know it herself, the chance to personally out Lord Voldemort would be more than worth the price of paying some other witch or wizard to cast it.
I swear, I saw this joke somewhere in comments under one of the chapters where Castor was establishing First Contact.
9303110
Well, I guess it might be the case.
Dear Author
While your story is great and deserve all the praise it can get, I going to sound bit nitpicky but the title of the First Harry Potter Book is Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, not Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
A Philosopher’s Stone is an established mythical item that appears multiple times in ancient folklore and legend. And has rich, complex history and some fascinating links to real world inspirations.
A Sorcerer’s Stone is something that marking company made up because, I’m not kidding, they were worried that the Americans were so stupid, they would confused about what a Philosopher is. They were so convinced of the stupidity, that they went as far as to film parts of the first harry potter movie TWICE so that they could change the name.
9303117
They changed the name of the book for the American readers.
9303115
You did, but i couldn't find it to give credit.
I wonder if Disney Lands and Universal Studios are listed among them. After all, they are where Muggles’ magic come true.
Im pretty certain the ponies/atlanteans won't care but them not getting any mention or credit will probably piss off harry again I'm betting. Hopefully Dumbledore is smart enough to have them retract the column or atleast mention receiving assistance from others. Since the atlanteans are the worst kept secret since most students know it'd be a good way to break the atlanteans to the public in a very good opinion kinda way. Harrys opinion of Dumbledore is shot as it is him getting full credit for the basilisk capture .. even if he had nothing to do with the article... looks bad. But the ministry returning the money then claiming it was their idea i could see that upsetting the ponies... yes they did it outta generosity not political favor ... but politically speaking it would put them in good standing with quite a few families when word eventually gets out about the atlanteans i could see blueblood taking offense since he's ambassador and knows more about politics. Hoping twilight gets the spell credit atleast ... she doesn't care as long as it helps people but if someone pulls a gildroy on her harrys gonna get medieval on a guy.
9303115
It was just a thought. I'm sure there are lots of ways they could do it with magic involved, that was just the first one that comes to mind. I mean, we know from canon that she could have definitely gotten into the room, and we know from Twilight and company that the pensieve won't dispel transformations, so it's just a matter of figuring out how she could take a picture of Dumbledore's memory or reproduce a picture of her own.
9303005 We are talking the CMC lets not forget beyond the Everfree they are a definite factor in Ponyville's insurance rates, and fixing Ponyville after their adventures has rules as well
9303034 IF I were to bet I'd point at Lucius or Fudge for leaking the story.
9303027
I can't imagine Blueblood doing this on his own - for all of his general haughtiness, he has been deferring to Twilight the entire time this side of the portal and hasn't been looking to step on any Princess' hooves or do anything really that he hasn't been ordered to do. If he is showing the humans these books, then it's almost certain that Twilight wants them to be shared. It's just happening through him instead of Twilight herself because that's literally his job - being the go-between liaison between Equestria's throne and the human government so that the Princesses don't have to do and attend every little thing themselves, as they (and Twilight especially) have plenty to do anyway. For something as simple as passing along books, there is no reason for Twilight herself to run over given everything else she's overseeing.
And yeah, the Equestrians seem to be favoring the muggle government - which makes perfect sense really. I already sorta commented on this a few chapters ago, so I'll just link my previous post here:
9291378
TL:DR: When establishing what you are hoping to be open relations with a new world, it's only natural that your first concern is the legitimate government of the country you landed in, not a secret community that have sequestered themselves away, have been doing shady stuff behind the scenes to remain hidden, will be opposed to your plans on making magic public knowledge, and - if we want to be very generous to Wizarding Britain's population numbers - number maybe 15k individuals total.
Ecuos - two things.
Your rewording of the sentence changes the meaning. Your version makes it sound like Ron has a problem with being short in height. (Heh)
The other? Newspaper photos are notorious for being low res. Who's to say that Rita didn't take a photo of her own memories? It would be a copy of a copy of a copy, but that would still work.
9303201
I get what you're saying but it makes no sense for them to expose the wizards like this, doing so could only lead to a conflict between the two sides that will inevitably lead to violence. I am betting on Blueblood doing this on his own since Twilight and co. have been very understanding as to why the Wizards wish to hide.
Maybe it makes sense for Equestria to side with muggles but it's been what, a few weeks since they made contact? It's a little soon for them to decide they need to help the muggles subjugate the wizards.
9303201
I agree with you on everything, but in TKepner's imagination wizarding population is around of 100000. Also, on the other hand siding with Muggles doesn't mean to expose wizards, Equestrians are be traitorous with last action.
9303202
Re-read the sentence, the funds are attributed to family, so what Tkepner worded is saying that Malfoy mocked Ron's family's large family.
9303212
I would agree that world is not prepared to treat wizards adequately.
I smell a new rule to be added to the Wall of Rules.
Ecuos - I did reread it. In the US, the way the sentence is phrased - even if you specifically mentioned that it's about finances - most Americans would either take it as a reference to physical height, or they'd tell you (as I have) that you'd have to mention family specifically TWICE.
I don't know about the usage elsewhere, but that's how it's interpreted in most of the US.
We're just weird that way. :)
(There's even a silly petition, small now, but growing in size, to have our language officially renamed to American in all official documents. I know, we're insane. ;P )
9303243
Well, English is not my first language, so I guess I projected a native tongue a bit - we avoid repetition and tautology at any cost.
9303215
100.000 ? 0_o
Even the 15k is likely a severe overestimation just to be on the safe side, in all likelihood it probably doesn't even cross 10k.
9303212
The ponies have acknowledged the wizard reasons for going in to hiding all those years ago, aye - but at the same time the wizards, or at least Dumbledore and what she has seen of their leadership practices, have hardly left a good impression on Twilight. As is, she is unlikely to want to keep any secrets on their part at the expense of the British people and government.
After all, the wizards are spying on the British government, are engaging in mindwiping individuals, have actually infiltrated the British government (Kingsley for example) and engage in all sorts of other shady practices to keep themselves hidden. So while they might be understanding of their want for secrecy, I imagine Twilight is hardly impressed by the specific manner they are going about it.
More than that, during the last time Voldemort was acting up, there's plenty of muggles that got caught unawares in the crossfire and died as well, without knowing any better and having to attribute it all to "natural disasters", "accidents" and "gas explosions". And the wziards wiped the memory of any witnesses afterwards. I imagine Twilight is hardly impressed by that, either. And Voldemort's evidently acting up again, meaning British citizens might be in danger again ...
And when you are really, really committed to establishing good and friendly relations with the British government, not informing them of a secret society that you know about that's infested the government and about a brewing incident that already cost some British citizen lives before ... well, the Wizard wish for secrecy isn't nearly as high on the list of priorities.
And Ponies plan on blowing the whole magic shtick open anyway - Equestria wants to reveal itself to the whole world after all, once their embassies are complete in a year or so. And they want to trade magic and technology and arts and culture and everything else nations trade. British government is already starting to acquire some magical assistance from the ponies.
Which means that, one way or another, the wizard secrecy wouldn't last once they receive enough magical assistance from Equestria and start noticing that something's up. Might as well facilitate the exposure and meeting now, while they can moderate the interaction and mediate if need be, instead of waiting for humans to discover the wizards on their own and that going down probably even worse. And them losing some trust and goodwill afterwards with the British government because they didn't warn them about the wizards despite obviously knowing about them.
So ... trying to keep the wizard secrets is actively counterproductive for Equestrian long term goals. And perhaps even short term goals, given that they might not want to deal with a government that's compromised by foreign agents without being aware of it.
9303255
See I can see them facilitating talks between the two side but not purposely exposing the wizards. They haven't even met with the wizarding government yet. Exposing the wizards like this serves to only cause conflict between the two sides. There is no peaceful outcome for exposing them like this and I can't see the Equestrians intentionally starting a war.
Even if they did want to help muggles wipe out the wizards I'd expect it to take at least a year for them to reach that point, not a few weeks. You know to meet with the other governments see what kind of crap wizards would have to deal with if exposed. Not all governments are as nice as Britain after all.
9303201
The problem isn't that they're choosing to validate the muggle government over the magical one, the problem is that they're literally betraying the entire wizarding community to do it. If you look at how they've dealt with both groups, while they've been nice to the wizards (mostly, if you ignore the fix-fic tendencies of the author), they've lied to them and deceived them at every turn--either outright or by intentional omission---whereas they've been completely open, honest, and cooperative with the non-magical government. And now they've chosen to betray the secrets the wizarding community trusted them with, while still lying to them about their purposes and goals. There has been no point, in this entire story, where the ponies have dealt with the wizards honestly, and as people they even want to get along with long-term.
Once all that comes out (and it will), they're going to lose a LOT of support with the magical community, and quite likely kick off the conflict they were trying to avoid in the first place. Honesty and loyalty are Elements of Harmony for a reason, and the Equestrians really seem to forget that as soon as they find out they're talking to a human that knows magic.
9303255
I have the same estimates as you, but TKepner just assumed that Hogwarts student population is 1/100 total population, because wizards leave really long. I have no idea where he got this number.
9303293
I agree with this. Even if British government will establish civil relations with wizards after the Grand Revelation, they will expose all other wizards of the world by extension, turning Third World and USA into battlefield.
9303160
Huh seems I was mistaken could have sworn it was in the story but it isn't. Credit at least for the gallifrey/narnia bit apparently belongs to JFalk on page 3 of my comments on chapter 39. Which apparently prompted me to make the comment on fey and cold iron. . . Congratulations TKepner you've got me attributing my own comments to you.
Hmm..... so who the heck fed this to the Daily Prophet? I can't imagine anyone in that meeting with Dumbledore doing it. Would Twilight have done this?
Nice chapter!
9303005
Corpses and feces flung over the walls.
Basic, unreliable biological WMD in a pre-vaccinnated world.
Walls are more valuable intact, destroying them is not always the plan.
Well if things keep up the wizarding world wont be that hidden or at least the British one wont be. Hope things go well since I think most people are past the 'burn magic users at the stake' thing or at least will require more evidence than a simple admission of being a witch(forced or otherwise) or a bunch of people just claiming the person a witch.
I'm waiting for the Wizarding community to start picking up on the fact their not going as unnoticed as they like to think they are. And to start wondering how their being caught...
9303374
And from a time when they were the largest, most destructive weapons of all, they were seen almost as devastating as Nukes are, today. One that was used in the siege of Minerve in 1210 was called "The Bad Neighbor" - it wasn't used against the walls, themselves, but rather slammed one ton boulders at the cliff below. This caused the well shaft to collapse, forcing the city to surrender mere days later.
Well this story has caught up to “Magic School Days” in number of views, or is very close as both have 6.5k views now.
9303005
How about Weapons of Mess Construction? °Uº
9303435
Hmmm cutie marks in Nuclear Bomb construction?
Geez, the muggles behave like this and they wonder why wizards are hiding from them. I hope the ponies set them straight and explain wizards are hiding all this from them because of the witch hunts where wizards were murdered or enslaved or just had people try to beat the magic out of them, usually by their own muggle parents and their neighbors. And the fact that is still happening today (as shown through Harry). Wizards are SCARED of muggles. That is why they lash out or hide.
The best story ever here!:
9303463
So does we get a Bonus Chapter then after all?? caught up to and Pulled ahead at this current moment to “Magic School Days” in number of views. This mean a Bonus chapter then right??
Would not surprise me at all to learn that this was a real, true statement.
Nor to learn that there was a similar file somewhere in the Pentagon.
Spooks can be silly in their scariness. Scary in their silliness? One of those two. Probably.
Maybe.
9303558
I like to imagine in the real world in some basement somewhere there's someone like Fox Mulder or Dana Scully assigned the UFO, Ghost and other creepy creatures of the night cases when they show up and spends the rest of his time watching tv and reading books on the governement dime but no one wants to remove them as redundant just in case one time there really is something there and they have "Years of experience" in this field. Meanwhile 50% of his files are just case studies and possible responses to various threats e.g. be careful of liars as they can turn into vampires (mythologically speaking that is one of the ways you could become a vampire) or keep track of vigin girls in case of unicorns or vampires (again mythologically speaking if you had a virgin ride a horse round a graveyard it'd refuse to cross a grave holding a vampire). Of course mythologically speaking they were much harder to kill than in movies, wheras weirdly werewolves were depending on the myth in question either easier (you didn't need silver) or harder (had to kill their whole family in a religious rite).
the wizard is out of the bag the muggles are watching.
I'm confused why people are acting like the wizards are exposed to the entire world right now. Small parts of information are being passed to the highest levels of the non-magical government—the same ones dealing with the extraterrestrial magical ponies. Thus, the secret is on the same level as keeping alien ponies secret. And the Prime Minister knew a tiny bit about the wizards anyway. I see this passing knowledge as just smoothing relations between the ponies and non-magicals as they have already noticed stuff from the jaunt to Hogwarts to deal with the Basilisk, and are trying to smooth things over by supplying an accurate account of:
1) Their history and reasoning for being secret
2) What they do to maintain their secrecy (instead of conspiracy theories running rampant)
and
3) Where their magical popular tourist attractions are and therefore where interactions between the two would be high, so they could observe how the magicals handle it for themselves instead of taking them at their word. As well as able to clear up exposures the magicals do inadvertently without it escalating into ministry action.
Yet people are treating the sharing of this information as tantamount to the betrayal of all of wizardingkind. I don't see it as that, and it's something that would happen regardless with ponies in the picture the more the non-magicals learn how to deal with pony "advanced technology", and to avoid inadvertent leaks to the magicals in the wizarding world's constant vigilance with keeping their secrecy noticing comments about the ponies and their "advanced technology". As well as to avoid the non-magicals overreacting to noticing magical humans. And most importantly, not confusing the actions of magical humans for disguised ponies (which is a real threat, if only the ponies are known as a source of magical shenanigans).
It's really impossible to have ponies be well known but wizards not be, because the wizards will be mistaken for ponies and ponies will be held liable for wizard actions that are immoral or outright illegal. At least at the level of relations between governments.
9303594
In a previous chapter, the prime minister revealed the existence of wizards to the rest of the government top brass so no it isn't just a small group in the know anymore. The reason people view this as a betrayal is that the ponies are now freely sharing the wizards' secrets, including information on how the Aurors operate and the various secret locations of wizard communities, with the muggle government who are in turn using this information to spy on the wizards while they figure out a way to deal with them, which you can be certain will end badly for all involved.
This sure doesn't sound like they are looking for peaceful solutions.
TKepner, with all due respect, I hope you understand what wizards' exposure would mean in real world. In the many regions of sub-Saharan Africa, India, South-East Asia and Far East where believes in magic where always strong among general population it will not change a lot in the public consciousnesses. Europe, except Catholic strongholds such as Italy, Spain and Ireland, is secularized enough to approach this issue in humanistic way, reintegrating wizardkin through diplomacy. But Islamic world and both Americas (except Canada) will turn into mayhem. I hope you understand applications of the event in the Latin America and Islamic world, but you doesn't seem to realize the size of the Christian Fundamentalist Bomb in USA.
Did you ever talk with anyone from the Bible Belt? People that teach creationism in schools as fact? Aggressive pastors that have massive
herdscongregations of redneck followers that have more guns than fingers? People that install Ten Commandments in front of Courts of Justice? People that pay for "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" billboards? People that beat crap out of their own children in "sexuality correction" sessions? People who attack abortion centers? If these lunatics will learn that witchcraft exists, they not only will get ideological platform to increase their numbers, to promote clericalism, but also they will start witch-hunts. And since they won't be able to successfully catch any number of wizards beside some unlucky losers, they will attack "most likely wizards": harmless local charlatans, Black People, Indigenous People, Asians, Muslims, Buddhist, Polytheists, Jews, New Age hippies, illusionists, outspoken atheists and any one who will advocate humane solution to crisis.USA may be world's number one superpower and stronghold of many democratic freedoms and economic ideals, but it far from ideal when it comes to secularism. Discovery of the magic kin can turn this country into state of slowly boiling chaos, that will set political and economical state of the world into decline.
9303571
So, if anyone needs to hire a successor for that job, I think I would be a good fit and should definitely get it.
Why? Because unlike almost everyone else on the planet, I know what a nalfeshnee is and why you definitely shouldn't try to defeat it with poison. Basilisk or otherwise.