Chapter Eighteen
Wand Wonders
Ginny stood there, completely stunned. She had long since accepted that she would have to wait another year to go to Hogwarts. Sure, she would complain, but in truth, she knew that there was no way to go to Hogwarts before she was eleven, which wouldn't happen for another year. She was still only nine and almost a week away from being ten.
Yet Ollivander said she was ready to wield magic now? To own and use a wand? While her gaze was still affixed to the old wand maker, she saw, at the edge of her vision, how Sunset's eyes lit up as they always did when she wanted to see magic. Seeing Sunset's eyes widen and a smile spread across her face, Ginny absently registered that Sunset had to have found the same thing Ollivander had.
"You're right. Guess I'll have to start training you as well, huh Ginny?" She turned back to Ollivander. "Do you want Philomena to deliver the message?"
"That would be most kind. I do suspect it will be more than an hour still before my own owl returns. And given the paper work involved, I suspect the headmaster will appreciate a speedy delivery. Give me just a few moments to pen the letter."
With that, the old man moved to go back to his workshop, leaving the seven children alone in the shop for the moment. Ron was looking between his sister and his wand. Fred and George were looking back and forth between Ginny and Sunset. Ginny herself was still dumbstruck in the center.
Sunset, Harry and Hermione watched the Weasleys' reactions with mild amusement, leaning against the counter. Sunset still held her wand and was experimentally channeling her magic through it, finding it to be a rather interesting experience. Her wand could channel her magic incredibly easily. Twice again as easy as her horn, but it was far less flexible and she suspected that she would have to practice casting even just two spells at a time with it. It was truly worthy of being called a focus.
She also noted how directionally focused it made her magic. Casting a simple levitation charm she observed that she needed to actively disperse the magic for the spell to affect anything that wasn't within a thirty degree cone around the direction the wand was pointed. Had she been asked to put it in words she would have called it 'efficient, but constrained'.
She opened her bag, using her wand to float out the galleons Emma had given her to pay for it. She still marveled at how easy it was. The wand didn't glow like her horn or hands did whenever she used her kinesis. Only a faint teal glow at the tip indicated that it was channeling magic. The aura around the coins themselves, however, was the same envelope of teal light it always was.
Deciding to practice her focus while Ollivander was busy writing the letter, she took the six coins and separated them into two stacks of three, then let them fly in two linked rings before splitting them up into three rings with only two coins each. In that fashion she went through various patterns, letting the coins assume various formations as they flew before and around her. When she felt Ollivander approaching again, sensing his connection to the wards from the scanning spell she still had active, she let the coins form a line and stretched out a hand, letting the six galleons form a neat stack in her open palm.
Just seeing the end of her exercise and having felt her fine control through the wards, Ollivander smiled as he came through the door again. "Bravo, Miss Shimmer. Impressive control. You have studied magic before, haven't you?"
Sunset smiled and nodded. "I have studied since I was four, yes."
"And you are eleven now? Oh my, you have quite a complete magical education, then?"
"Back where I am from, I am one of the most accomplished spell casters known." She didn't bother to hide her pride. "Of course, here the magic taught is fundamentally different. Your understanding of magical translocation is almost painfully crude from my perspective, but in the week I've had extensive contact with the local magical community I've already learned of a few spells that simply don't have any equivalent in my homeland. Especially combative magic seems to be far better understood here."
"So you seek an exchange of knowledge?" When Sunset nodded, Ollivander smiled. "Good, I do suspect both communities can only profit from such a thing." Shaking his head, he refocused on the small envelope in his hands. "Here, if you would be so kind as to have your phoenix send this to Professor Dumbledore."
Sunset took the letter and wordlessly held it up to the disguised phoenix on her shoulder. With a pleasant trill, Philomena held out a wing to the envelope, a golden flame dancing at the tip of the longest primary. The moment the flame reached the letter, it was consumed in a flash of golden fire, leaving Sunset's hand empty and, much to the Weasleys and Harry's astonishment, entirely unharmed.
Calmly lowering her hand as Philomena folded her wing back up, Sunset smiled. "Now I believe I owe you some money, don't I?"
Albus Dumbledore was just on his way back from sharing lunch with the rest of the faculty, when a flash of golden fire in the air before him startled him. With a practiced hand, he caught the letter, recognizing the seal. Wondering what his old friend might want and how he had gotten Fawkes to send the letter, Albus broke the seal, extracted the letter and began to read.
Dear Albus,
How have you been recently?
I'm writing you now to let you know of a
Situation you might want to take action on.
Earlier today I finished a wand for a
customer. I suspect you have heard of
Miss Shimmer. Seeing how she has a
Phoenix at her disposal, I suspected she
would come by rather promptly.
I was not disappointed. She arrived
minutes after receiving my letter,
bringing Mister Potter, Miss Granger
and the four youngest Weasleys with
her. The situation I wish to inform you of
concerns the youngest of the Weasleys.
The daughter of the house shows great
promise and is, in my humble opinion,
ready to wield a wand and learn the art
of magic. Miss Shimmer seems to be in
agreement with me on that matter.
If you need any help on my end to get her
the permission to begin Hogwarts this year,
please let me know.
I suspect that by the time you finish reading this,
they will already have returned to the Weasley
Homestead, in case you wish to take a look for
yourself.
Your friend,
Garrick.
As he read, Dumbledore's eyebrows had climbed ever further up his forehead. The youngest child and only daughter of Molly and Arthur was ready to begin schooling this year instead of next? He had to check the book of admission.
A few minutes' brisk walk later, he arrived in one of the castle's smaller towers. The small, round room, held a single lectern, beautifully carved in the shape of an owl out of ancient, dark wood. Thanks to the extensive enchantments on not only the lectern, but also the leather-bound tome bearing the school's coat of arms atop it and the phoenix feather quill and the simple silver rod lying next to it, it looked pristine as though it had only been carved a day before, yet it was nearly a thousand years old.
With a careful hand, Dumbledore cracked open the ancient book, turning the pages in the ancient registry until he found the letter W. Once he had found the name Weasley, a few pages in it's own right, it only took him a moment to find the letter G and from there, find the line he was looking for. There, written in the blocky, mechanical script of the ancient quill, was the line of text he was looking for.
Weasley, Ginnevra Molly; August 11, 1981; ready for education
It was those last three words that confirmed Garrick's suspicion. Ginny was indeed ready to attend Hogwarts. He closed the book and began a mental list of all the paperwork needed for a special permission to attend Hogwarts a year early. It was an unusual event, but not unheard of.
Since ancient times, starting with the founding of the school, children had entered education at Hogwarts when they were ready. Only a few centuries ago, the, at the time, newly founded Ministry of Magic had mandated that all wizarding children were to attend the school starting at age eleven, regardless of when they were ready.
If such early talent was spotted, of course, exceptions could be made, as the headmaster, that was his prerogative. But no doubt the Ministry would make a fuss about it. He sighed as he considered the inevitable. He would have to, once again, remind them of their place.
He went on his way back to his office. There was work to do.
With a flash of flame, the seven children reappeared back in the orchard at the Burrow. Without much ceremony, Fred and George dragged Ron and Harry off to the Quidditch field, saying something about the two needing some sports practice after the studying of the previous two days.
Finally waking from her shell shocked condition, Ginny giggled. "You know, I never would have thought Ron and studying were words that went together."
As they watched the twins drag Harry and Ron off to their small Quidditch field, Sunset smirked. "Y'know, we really ought to introduce them to Parkour at some point."
Hermione nodded, but Ginny seemed lost. "Parkour? Is that an Equestrian thing?"
"No. It's a French thing. It's a kind of sport as well. We've been doing it for close to half a year now. Want us to show you?"
"Sure ...? I guess?"
"Okay then." With a wave of Sunset's hand, the air around the three warped and they vanished.
Looking around, Ginny got her first glance at a muggle living room. It took the other two girls several minutes before they could ask Philomena to deliver a message to Mrs. Weasley so she wouldn't worry and then get to their rooms to change into their exercise clothes.
The clothes were another bit of culture shock for Ginny, having been raised among wizards beyond the outskirts of a rural village in Devon, had not prepared her for what was a common sight among muggles in a suburb of Birmingham. She giggled when she realized that Sunset had her hair tied back in a ponytail. Hermione had hers in a single braid behind her, her ribbon woven into the braid as usual.
The tight fitting, knee long trousers and light, flexible shoes were ideal for maintaining freedom of movement, their equally tight shirts would be sure to stay where they should regardless of their position and make sure that during rolls of various kinds, they would not touch the pavement. With their expertise in magic, scratches were easily healed, but they were still unpleasant and inconvenient. The gloves they wore served the same purpose. Unaware of where they were going and what they were doing there, Ginny was rather confused by them.
"Why are you wearing gloves in August?"
Sunset and Hermione both smirked, the latter providing, "oh, you'll see," as the only answer. Moving to the front door, Hermione tapped the lock with a finger, unlocking it, and opened the door. The three stepped out and Sunset closed the door behind them, re-locking it with a snap of her fingers.
Ginny was still marveling at the casual use of magic when the two older girls broke into a leisurely jog. It was quickly revealed that the two were in far better form than Ginny was. She may have made a habit of breaking into the shed and practicing on her brothers' brooms, but flying hadn't trained her legs all too well. By the time they reached the small skate park, another concept she was completely unfamiliar with, Ginny was exhausted. She was still breathing easily, but her legs hurt.
Sunset, however, was in top shape and Hermione, too, was only slightly winded. For the next five minutes or so, they went through various stretches to limber up, then they began their usual practice routine.
To say that Ginny was impressed by their ability to simply jump over and slide under obstacles as though they weren't a hindrance at all, not to mention fall several times their own height and land unscathed, or combine a few techniques and traverse a wall twice their height while barely loosing momentum, would be a complete understatement. Suddenly, their skillful landings after their first floo travel made so much more sense.
Finally, they stopped and came over to sit down beside her, breathing heavily. Ginny simply stared at them. "How did you learn to do all that?"
The two took a few more moments to let their breathing calm down, then Sunset made to explain. "Well, our teacher showed us the sport in PE during my first week of school here. He said he picked it up on vacation in France. I decided that I enjoyed it and did some more research, then I started practicing."
"I joined in whenever I felt like it. I started doing it more regularly after the hols started."
Ginny took a moment to mentally parse the explanation, but kept running into a word she didn't understand. "Uh, what's PE?"
"Y'know, sports."
"Why do they call it that?"
"Short for Physical Education," Hermione helpfully supplied.
"Why not just call it sports?"
The girls both shrugged. "Beats me," Sunset admitted. "Anyways I mostly started doing this to keep in shape. So my magic gets stronger."
"What's that got to do with staying fit?"
"Uhh, physical fitness benefits magical strength. It's kinda common knowledge."
"It is?"
"It is where I'm from. It isn't here?"
"First I've heard of it."
"Well," Sunset started again after a few more moments, "let's head back. We can get back to the Burrow and get started on training your magic. You do have a bit to catch up on."
Still rather shell shocked by the day's revelations, Ginny dumbly nodded, getting up as well. "I still can't believe I might get to go to Hogwarts this year. I mean, I'm only nine!"
The two older girls shot her questioning looks. "I thought you were going to go to Hogwarts next year? Wouldn't you have to be eleven by then?"
"Eleven by September first. My birthday is on Monday, I'll be ten by the time Hogwarts starts."
"I see." Sunset suddenly wore a smile that could be generously described as 'mildly concerning'. "Ginny?"
"Yes...?"
"Your mother strikes me as the kind to throw her children birthday parties. Is that true?"
Worried by Sunset's sudden shift in behavior, Ginny quietly nodded, not daring to take her eyes off the girl.
"Good." Sunset rubbed her hands together. "I will have to coordinate with her."
"Uhh, Sunset. You're slightly worrying me."
From the girl's other side, Hermione put an arm around Ginny's shoulder. "Don't worry about that. It's a cultural thing. Apparently where she's from they have a habit of celebrating at every opportunity they get. So for big things like birthdays, the parties need to be more special. You should've seen what she did for mum's birthday."
"Why? What did she do?"
Hermione giggled quietly. "I'm tempted to tell you. But I really don't want to ruin the surprise."
Considering she's 11 this mostly tells me there aren't many accomplished spellcasters in Equestria which is very believable considering we've seen very few unicorns perform any kind of advanced magic. I know she's been practicing since she was 4 but give me a break.
And another story falls to the sad cliche of letting Ginny into Hogwarts early "for reasons".
9538782 In the comics by the time she leaves, she's been hailed as a genius spellcaster for years at school, surpassing many of her teachers. So I can see that, Maybe she could add "of my generation".
Onto the story itself... you see, teaching Ginny parkour, admitting her early, etc, sort of takes some of the enjoyment out of it for me. I realize it's your story and I'm not going to stop reading, but you're really going for a lot of things that just about everyone else here is doing. Even Harry is amused rather than surprised. You have a chance to tread new ground here with a different cast... getting all the characters you like to be OPs that can turn into ponies, parkour, early wandless training, etc really takes away from what you can do with it, even if it's supposed to be light-hearted.
If you ever want to talk about where the story is going you can always shoot me a message, you've helped me iron out chapters with revisions and such, the least I can do is talk about this. I'm just saying this because it is a concern that a promising story looks like it's going the same way as the others instead of growing into its own.
9538826
Again, don't worry, we'll be going off the rails soon enough ...
9538813
Oh yeah, I could see that. The problem I'm having is how the story keeps portraying her as this 11-year old master of magic which just isn't believable given her age. For comparison if you're familiar with the series Negima the main character Negi is a 10-year-old genius who had recently finished his magical education but makes it clear that he's only a Novice of magic so while more advanced than most 10-year-olds he doesn't know every spell and he isn't a master of all the spells he does know.
Basically at 11 I imagine the idea is that Sunset is already done with her magical education but that would only make her a novice not a master the idea that she's able to do all these different spells flawlessly and with no real effort just isn't believable and frankly wouldn't be believable even if she was the same age she was in canon.
This is mostly just a nitpick, it doesn't ruin the story for me but it does bug me.
9538782
But at the same time, she’s gotten the same number of years of magic education as an adult wizard. In this continuity, Twilight is the same age she is, and has only just become Celestia’s student. So that means by the time NMM comes around (which most people figure happens when Twi is 17/18) Sunset will have a full magical education from two worlds.
And at the same time, yes, we’ve only seen a handful of powerful unicorns, but we only focus on one group. And that group really only has Twilight, Starlight, Sunset and Shining, whom are all magical powerhouses. At the same time, Sunburst has more knowledge than Twilight but lacks the power, Moondancer seems to be going more broad than deep in her knowledge, and Twilight’s Canterlot friends all went to the same school. It could just be that the power Sunset has is what is rare, especially at her age.
The book of Admittance is bound in black dragon-hide, and the quill is actually that of an Augurey, it’s almost as if you haven’t read the Pottermore article!
9538896
I have, I simply decided to change a few things ... for a hat that rips open once a year, looking worn makes sense, for a book and quill that are magically preserved, it does not. Not to mention that dragonhide is still technically leather.
9538896
Reptile hides are still referred to as a type of leather so referring to the dragon hide as leather is more of a lack of clarification/detail than anything else.
9538911
Alright, your reasoning makes sense, especially with the fact that you have had to almost combine the magic systems in a way to allow everyone to learn every form so improving the charms and changing the augurey feather to Phoenix makes sense if you make Phoenix feathers take enchantments incredibly easily so it can hold the enchantments which preserve it and keep it writing (and I do like the implication that the self-writing charm is slightly primitive based on the fact that the text is basically the font ‘lucidia console’ which is the one used in notepad)
Nuuu I'm out of chapters... I want mooore ;) really enjoying this, its easily on par with Magic School Days and If Wishes Were Ponies, and yet unique!
9538839
Don't forget the portal deaged her by ten or so years.
I'm not exactly sure.
But I think Sunset was originally in her late teens or early twenties when she ran away back in canon.
9539007
Whatever her age at the time may have been in canon, has no bearing on this story. She left Equestria about two months after turning eleven.
Ron needs a unicorn tail hair for his wand? Maybe Sunset or Hermione could do the honors? OUO
Seeing Sunset's eyes widen and a smile spread across her face.
should be
"Seeing Sunset's eyes widen and a smile spread across her face, "
---
That would be most kind,
should be
"That would be most kind. "
---
Finding it to be a rather interesting experience.
should be
" finding it to be a rather interesting experience."
---
flexible and she suspected
should be
"flexible. And she suspected"
---
horn or hands did
should be
"horn, or hands, did"
---
Your understanding if magical translocation is almost painfully crude from my perspective, but
should be
"Your understanding of magical translocation is almost painfully crude from my perspective. But"
---
To say that Ginny was impressed be their ability
should be
"To say that Ginny was impressed by their ability"
---
eyes of the girl
should be
"eyes off the girl"
Part of me is impatient to get to Hogwarts, while the other part is beating that part with a stick screaming "IT'S PACING NIMROD BE PATIENT!"
9540178
Well, you are more than half way to Hogwarts ...
9540213
It’s quite a conundrum, because the majority of my feedback on stories talks about how they’re going way too fast, and to slow down their pacing. There are a few stories that are the opposite where I’ve said they’re going too slow, but it’s rare.
So it’s a conundrum for me when, your pacing is absolutely fine, but I’m super impatient for the story to get to Hogwarts, but I can’t say you need to speed up because your pacing is fine, but I want it to go faster, etc etc.
Reckon it stems from the fact that I know Hogwarts is in the future and I’m not too much a fan of “slice of life”, but it’s certainly frustrating.
...certainly doesn’t help that every chapter only last like 5 seconds... (not complaining, just I’m impatient and thus binge)
9540956
I'm pretty sure it describes the spell as doing that, but whatever. I personally don't mind it since it has been fairly grounded so far, as grounded as a fic like this can be at least. For all we know this could be an april fools joke.
If the book registers who should and should not attend, who has the massive chore of sorting through it every day to catch changes? Unless there is a separate book that tracks readiness, in which case she would have received a letter anyway, automatically. Unless that is someone’s job and they failed to do it properly in JKRs books. And then I have to ask, how many others got overlooked, if it isn’t automatic?
The perfect gift would be to turn her into a magical being. Like a flesh-eating slug.
9546996
A handwaving explanation might start with how the book knows a student is qualified for Hogwarts in the first place. The easy explanation there is it's tapped into the same spells that allow the Ministry to detect accidental magic, and underage wizards and witches using magic outside of school.
Ginny comes from a family of magic users, with six older brothers. I'm guessing her parents have learned a lot about bleeding off magic to cut down on accidental surges. But Sunlight's sudden introduction to the equation and her interaction with Ginny caused Ginny's magic to pulse strong enough to catch the attention of the book. It only just happened so a notice was not sent before Dumbledore checked. Odds are that in a few hours, or days, he or his assistant would have been notified and the decision to let her in or out would have been left to them.
Another explanation is that while the book noted that she was ready, it is hardwired not to send notifications until the student turns eleven. After all, I believe there was a remark in the first book that Harry had been on the list to attend Hogwarts from the time he was born pretty much. So there might be all sorts of students who could attend at ten according to the book, or even younger, but the policy is to wait till they are eleven unless special circumstances bring them to the attention of the headmaster.
What I’m wondering is “How do her parents afford this?” It’s doubtless a major expense, & her parents are pretty strapped.
Physical education or PE is more than just sports, Nutrition and even a bit of basic biology are part of the course. PE could also be called PH or Physical Health.
9875579
In PE, all we did was run laps around the school and talk to our friends. It wasn’t until high school, at a different school, that I learned about important health topics.
9927753
We did have PE in a class room in my primary school learning about that, I live in Australia so it may be different.
I have read this a few times and I just have one question, what did sunset do on Emma Granger birthday?
Could you maybe make a short story (like one chapter) about it... if not it's cool, I'll just keep wondering.