Harry Potter: Friendship is Magic

by Anisky

Chapter 2

Harry Potter: Friendship is Magic
Part 1: The Flyer from Death

Author: Anisky
Concept by spikeslashrarity

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Chapter 2

As Hermione dejectedly trudged down the stairs from the Owlery, Dobby read the letter that Professor Dumbledore had sent to her.

"My dear Hermione," he read, "There is more to a young witch's life than studying! With this in mind, I've decided to charge you with overseeing the preparations for the Hogwarts End of Term feast. As well as making sure the feast goes smoothly, I have an even more essential task for you: Make some friends!"

Hermione Granger groaned. She'd already read the letter, of course, and hearing it again just made her want to sink into the ground.

"Miss Hermione, it is not that bad, Dobby does not think!" said the House Elf. "It is only lasting for a day or two."

"But Dobby!" Hermione cried. "He said he wants me to stop reading books and start making friends! What if he decides I shouldn't be his personal student anymore? What if he makes me put on the Sorting Hat and join one of the houses, and take classes with all the other students?"

"Miss," Dobby said comfortingly, "Headmaster Dumbledore has not written he will do that! If miss just makes some friends, Dobby is sure that the Headmaster will not be wanting to stop tutoring his best student!"

"Or," Hermione said, brightening, "if I prove that I'm right! I'll take care of all the preparations as fast as I can, and then I'll go to the library to find more books and find definitive proof that Voldemort is returning!"

"But then when will miss make friends?"

Hermione tossed her head as they got to the bottom of the stairs and stepped into the corridor. "Professor Dumbledore told me to supervise the preparations for the End of Term feast, and of course I'll do what my teacher and mentor tells me.

"But the fate of Magical Britain does not depend on me making friends," Hermione concluded, with a scoff.

Dobby frowned.

"Like I said," Hermione said, "if I just show Professor Dumbledore that I'm right about Voldemort coming back, then he'll see how important my studies really are, and forget all about the stupid friendship thing. When he realizes that making me make friends would have allowed the worst Dark Wizard in history to rise again, there's no way he'll make me join a House or attend classes!"

"But maybe if Miss Hermione is getting to know the other students, she will be liking them!" Dobby suggested. "Many of the Hogwarts students are interesting!"

Hermione didn't look like she put much faith in this suggestion, but Dobby was persistent. A young wizard, with extremely bright red hair and freckles, was walking down the hallway cheerfully. Dobby pushed Hermione closer to her fellow student.

"Please Miss, just try?" he said.

She sighed. "Uh... hello?" she said to the redheaded wizard.

The boy's jaw dropped, and he gasped at Hermione, loudly and dramatically. "UHHHHHHHH!" Then he took off running down the hallway, fast as he could.

"Well, that was interesting, all right," she muttered to Dobby, her low opinion of the other students at Hogwarts clearly just reinforced.

Dobby looked sad. His plan to help his mistress do as the Headmaster said and make some friends wasn't going very well. It seemed hopeless. But Dumbledore was an amazing wizard, maybe he knew something that Dobby didn't.

"So what's first on this overseer's checklist?" Hermione asked impatiently, snatching the letter from Dobby and reading it. "Banquet celebrations. I guess we're going to the kitchens."

As they entered the kitchens, dozens of house elves and one young wizard were all hard at work preparing the feast. When he saw Hermione and Dobby enter, the young wizard came to greet them.

"Hi, I'm Neville!" he said.

"I'm Hermione Granger, and I'm overseeing preparations for the End of Term Feast. You're in charge of the banquet?"

"I sure am! I'm happy to meet you, Hermione. I love to make friends!"

"Er," she said.

"Here in the kitchen, we've been working nonstop to make it the best End of Term Feast in Hogwarts history. Care to sample some?" he asked.

"Well," she said, "as long as it doesn't take too long."

Hermione jumped as Neville rang a loud bell.

"Alright, everyone!" he yelled. "Hermione wants to sample all the food for the feast!"

"Well, I don't think all the food-" she started to say, but her voice was drowned out by the clattering as dozens of house elves grabbed every kind of food imaginable and piled it on the table in front of her.

"This here's the roast beef, roast chicken, fried sausages, stew, casserole, shepherd's pie, steak, Cornish pasties, lamb chops, sausages, steak and kidney pudding, steak and kidney pie, black pudding, crumpets, roast potatoes, jacket potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, sprouts and carrots," said Neville, putting the dishes in front of her as he spoke.

"Then for dessert," he continued, "we have apple pie, apple cake, apple fritters, apple dumplings, caramel apples, apple strudel, apple tart, baked apple, apple brioche, and apple cinnamon crisp."

"Wow," Hermione said. "So, you uh... really like apples, huh?"

"Sure do!" Neville grinned at her.

To be polite, Hermione took a bite of the casserole. "It's very good," she said. "So, I can see the food situation is handled, so I'll just be on my way..."

"Aren't you going to try the rest of the food?" asked one of the house elves, looking up at her sadly.

"Er, well, you see, I have a lot to do..." Hermione hedged.

"Miss Hermione," Dobby tugged on her robes urgently. "Miss must stay and try all of the food. It's a terrible insult to the House Elves if miss does not. They all will feel shamed by your refusal."

"Really?" she asked, worried.

All of the house elves nodded solemnly.

"Please stay and eat, it will make us so happy!" said one of them.

"Well... fine. If everyone else eats too," Hermione gave in.

Neville and the house elves cheered.

She found she actually was feeling quite hungry, so she wasn't too worried, even though there was so much food that just a bit of everything still ended up overflowing off her plate. The food was quite delicious, though she was feeling awfully antsy since she really ought to be getting on with the preparations so she could go to the library...

But Neville kept trying to engage her in conversation, and Hermione imagined the Headmaster would be unhappy with her if she didn't at least talk to him. Since she didn't want to talk about herself, she headed off his questions by asking her own.

"So Neville, you're a student, right?" she asked.

"Yes, I am!" he said, between bites.

"But I thought house elves were in charge of the food at Hogwarts?"

"Mostly they are," Neville explained, "but Professor Dumbledore asked me to tweak some of the recipes for special occasions. House elves don't really know much about Herbology, and it's by far my best subject, so I'm helping create dishes using herbs and fungi grown right here at Hogwarts!" He puffed out his chest in pride.

"Oh... but just the non-magical herbs and fungi, right?" Hermione asked.

"No, I use both. Some of the magical herbs taste excellent, there's one in particular that's delicious in pumpkin bread-"

"What?" she cried, spitting her food into a napkin and pushing the plate away from her. "That's so dangerous!"

"Professor Dumbledore has to approve all my choices before we actually cook or bake the dishes, of course," Neville said soothingly. "He wouldn't let us put in anything dangerous. He always protects his students."

"Unless he doesn't believe the dangerous thing is dangerous," Hermione muttered. "And wants you to make friends instead."

"Pardon?" said Neville. "I didn't catch that."

"Nothing," Hermione said.

"You can't be finished already!" he said, as he saw that she stopped eating. "There's still tons left for you to try."

"I... I think I'm full," she said.

"You can't be yet. Besides," he lowered his voice, "if you don't try everything, the elves will be awfully upset. Don't worry about the magical ingredients, I promise they're safe. And we've been using them in Hogwarts food for a while."

Reluctantly, she began eating again. She tried to only take the tiniest bit of foods that seemed like they might have herbs in them.

"So, are there any herbs in the apple pie?" she asked, as it neared time for desert.

"No, just spices," he said. "Those aren't magical."

"I think I'll have the pie," she said, taking a huge bite. "Oh, wow, this is so good."

"I'm glad you like it!" he said.

She really was pretty full now, but it was just so good, she couldn't stop.

"Wow, I've never had apple pie that good before!" she said.

"That would be the special magical apples," Neville said.

"What?"

---

"Miss Hermione has seen to the food; now, the weather!" Dobby exclaimed cheerfully as they left the kitchens. "We must go to the roof!"

"The weather? But the feast is indoors," Hermione protested. She moaned and held her stomach. "I ate way too much. Oh, I really hope that magical food wasn't dangerous. Do you think he was joking about the apples? And I don't want to walk up all those stairs! Why do we care what the weather's like?"

"Headmaster Dumbledore wants all the stars to be out at the feast," Dobby said. "The ceiling of the Great Hall-"

"-is enchanted to look like whatever the weather is outside. Yes, I know." Hermione sighed, and started up the stairs reluctantly. "There must be some way to change the enchantment, have it show the clear night sky even if it's cloudy or storming. I wish Professor Dumbledore had asked me to research how to do that, instead."

"But it says Mr Harry Potter is the student to be clearing the clouds! Oh, Harry Potter is a great wizard Miss Hermione, you'll see! You will like him!"

The witch and her elf assistant emerged on the roof above the Great Hall.

"Hmm. Clearing the clouds?" Hermione asked, looking up at the sky, which looked anything but clear. In fact, it looked like they might be a few moments away from a storm. "Well, he's not doing a very good job, is he?"

No sooner had Hermione spoke than a broomstick slammed into her side. A wizard had been riding on the handle of aforementioned broomstick, so their combined forced was quite enough to knock a witch off her feet. Hermione waved her arms to try and stay upright, but she fell to the ground, right in a puddle of mud. Yuck! Why couldn't they have someone cleaning the roof of Hogwarts better?

The broomstick-riding wizard fell on top of her, pushing her further into the mud without himself having to touch it.

To Hermione's extreme annoyance, the wizard laughed as he stood up and grabbed the broomstick. "Um, excuse me?" he said, but he sounded amused much more than apologetic.

She stood up, trying futilely to wipe the dirt off her robes and get it out of her hair. To make matters worse, the wizard (who had caused the whole problem in the first place) kept laughing at her.

"Here, let me help you," he chuckled, pulling out his wand and flicking it at her before she could object. "AGUAMENTI!"

A deluge of water shot out of the end of his wand and slammed right into Hermione, nearly knocking her over again. Though it was over a few seconds later, she was completely drenched, sputtering and coughing from the water she'd accidentally inhaled.

He laughed at this too! Hermione was starting to seriously hate this boy. She panted a few times, but before she managed to speak, he was talking again.

"Whoops, sorry!" he said, once again not sounding sorry at all. "Guess that was a bit too much! Er, how about this. Deprimo!"

Now a torrent of powerful wind came at her, so forceful that it lifted her off her feet. For one terrified second, she thought she'd be blown clear off the roof and fall to her death.

Of course, the Hogwarts roof extended for at least a kilometer, so that wasn't an issue, but she did bang into a turret with a painful THUMP. She was pinned there another second before the spell was over.

She was dry now, kind of, but her hair was a complete rat's nest (not that it was usually much better) from the drenching and then the ridiculous Category 5 Hurricane wind. She was shivering as well as she slid down to the ground luckily managing to land on her feet.

The wizard looked at her, biting his lip, and burst into his loudest and most mirthful guffaws yet.

If I kill him, it's Dumbledore's fault really, Hermione thought. He's the one who wanted me to meet these people.

To her horror, as Dobby looked from the rude broomstick riding wizard to Hermione, he couldn't hold back some chuckles either.

A jury would agree, right? I wanted to just study and not deal with any of these stupid wizards, so I can't be held accountable!

She panted several times, and finally had enough breath to speak.

"WHY-" She yelled at the boy, advancing on him and pointing a finger. He straightened up, looking kind of scared of her now. "WOULD YOU NOT!" she continued, poking him hard in the chest. "USE SCORGIFY?"

"Oh!" said the boy, with a look of dawning comprehension. "Wow, that would have been a good idea! You're really smart!"

Hermione resisted the urge to bang her head against the wall. "You're Harry Potter?" she asked incredulously. "The Boy Who Lived? The only wizard to survive the Killing Curse?"

"That's me. I guess you've heard of me," he said, looking a bit pained.

"I heard that you're supposed to keep the sky clear!" Hermione said crossly. Then she took a deep breath to calm herself. She had promised Dumbledore she'd do this, after all. "I'm Hermione Granger. Headmaster Dumbledore sent me to check on the weather for the End of Term Feast."

"Oh, that," Harry said dismissively, as he mounted his broom. "That'll be easy. I'll do it in a jiffy, just as soon as I finish practicing."

"Practicing?" Hermione repeated. "For what?"

Harry looked surprised. "For Quidditch, of course!" he cried, pushing up from the floor and flying in loops around the sky. He flew back down to talk to her. "I'm a Seeker! The Tutshill Tornadoes are going to be at the End of Term feast, this is my chance to impress them!"

"The Tutshill Tornadoes?" she repeated incredulously.

"Yep!" said Harry.

"The top ranked league in all of Magical Britain?" Hermione didn't like Quidditch, but of course she'd read all the books in the library on the subject.

"That's them!"

Hermione frowned for a moment, then got an idea.

"Ha!" she exclaimed. "Please. Do you really think the Tutshill Tornadoes would put a Seeker on their team who can't even keep a sky clear for one day?"

"Hey!" Harry zoomed up to her and glared. "I could clear this sky if I wanted to. I'd have it clear in ten seconds flat!"

Hermione hid her grin. Come into my parlor, said the spider... She just raised an eyebrow, and looked disbelieving.

"Prove it," she said.

But what came next took her totally by surprise, as Harry zipped, dove, twirled and looped his way through the air. He flew so quickly that he just looked like a blur as he pushed aside the clouds just as quickly as he had claimed he would, and all that was left was clear blue sky.

Hermione gaped at him. Apparently he hadn't been exaggerating his flying skills.

Harry swooped down so he was hovering just a few feet above the floor. "You should see the look on your face!" he told the witch, chortling once more. "You're a laugh, Hermione Granger. I can't wait to hang out some more!"

With that, he zoomed off in the direction of the Quidditch Pitch, presumably for more practice.

Dobby looked at his mistress. "Dobby told Miss Hermione, Harry Potter is a great wizard!" he cried.

"Well," Hermione allowed, looking down at the elf, "his flying is superb, I'll give you that. Come on."

She could tell that the house elf liked Harry Potter a lot, so she didn't say what she was thinking: Hang out some more? She was pretty sure if she 'hung out' with that wizard any more, she'd end up in Azkaban. If he laughed at her misfortune- that he'd caused!- much more, she didn't think she could restrain herself.

Even if he was the best hope of the Wizarding World.

---

Please review!

Comments

[Railyn]

This is the best crossover concept I've seen in a while, even if you have to shoehorn the characters into their roles.

So it's just the first two episodes with all the names switched?

That's not really a crossover, because it means that there are no Harry Potter elements, and since everything is exactly the same, it can't even count as a parody.

[Anisky]

12525 Did you read Chapter 2? (Tone of voice as I ask this is honest curiosity, with neither hostility nor defensiveness. :))

I ask because I feel like the first chapter really is just the first scene with names switched, but starting in the 2nd chapter it begins to stray from "The Mare in the Moon"'s script enough not to be "just the names switched". I'm mostly asking to ascertain whether you found that irritating enough to stop reading after the 1st chapter, or if after reading the second chapter you still felt that there were no Harry Potter elements.

Actually, as the fic goes on it strays more and more, putting in more and more Harry Potter-type elements and divergences from the original script, I guess because as I went I started giving myself more creative license. Thus, I'd also be really, really grateful if, when I post the next two chapters, you could read/skim them enough to let me know if you have the same opinion of them as well (no/not enough Harry Potter elements, and everything being exactly the same). But that would be a huge favor to me and you don't owe me any favors. It would be extremely helpful for me to know, though, if you have a few minutes to spare, and I would totally owe you one. :) (Yes, I will still owe you one if your answer is "Yes, my original comment stands." I'm actually trying to get the truth so I can use it to get better.)

Thank you very much for your comment. I really appreciate the way you make straightforward, non-trivial criticisms about a story without being rude nor attacking the author.

[Anisky]

12516 Thanks!

My philosophy is that the shoehorning is what makes it comedy, so it's okay to unceremoniously stuff a character into their place, so long as I do so in a way that's funny. Wait 'till you meet the new Rarity... :-D

Though as always, feel free to disagree! :)

12547
*reads chapter two*

It's still just a palette swap.

Thing is, since you just shoehorn characters into other characters places, I don't identify any of them as themselves, just some people who have the same name. It would be one thing if you exaggerated character traits, but this is just outright replacing them.

[Anisky]

12559 Okay. Thanks for reading through Ch. 2 and getting back to me. :)

It's not meant to be a serious story; it's not a parody, but it's definitely light-hearted fluff meant to make people picture the HP characters in the MLP situations and giggle.

I guess I'll just have to see if the lack of any kind of structured approach to the "crossover" thing is something that bothers everyone, or just some people. I'm sure there will be some people who read this and think/say, "I don't see the point to this," and some people who read it, giggle, and go about their day a little happier than before. The question is all about the ratio-- if the former greatly outnumber the latter, then I'm on the wrong track; if the latter group is fairly substantial, then there's a demographic for fics like this.

Again, thank you for your comments. They definitely got me thinking. (My room mate/best friend/guy who came up with the plot was like, "Why are you taking this so seriously? Just say, 'Well, obviously you didn't get the point, stupid' and ignore it." But a reader as thoughtful as you is rarely missing the point, it's just that you think the intended point is, well, pointless.)

Sorry my fic didn't do it for you, but thank you for reading it, giving it a chance, and taking the time to write a review!

That picture... why you not Ravenclaw, Twilight?

[Anisky]

12573 Mostly because this idea grew from the artist's and my belief that Hermione and Twilight have exactly the same personality, and Hermione was in Gryffindor, soo... ;)

[Fareseed]

I don't know if i wana screem or not. This is ridiculus an i don't mean the spell. Twilight and Hermiony i can see but not Applejack and Nevil or Pinkie and Ron. Rainbow and Harry i can't se anything then the flying skill. This only fells disturbing.

[redbit1234]

2 o clock the morning was not a good time to read horcrux of harmony, or to read banishing old voldi to Albania. ......... I like the idea, dislike the way it's done. I would rather it be closer to harry potter Canon, in a way that stays true to the personalities of the characters while introducing the elements of harmony. Can you imagine draco Malfoy as the element of loyalty, harry potter as honesty, dobby as kindness, both of the twins as laughter, and others? ...............I'll call it harry potter and the elements of harmony.