All the other Professors he had met — Sprout, Flitwick, Babbling, Vector, Sinistra, Moody, and McGonagall — were excellent teachers, Harry decided at dinner on Friday.
Transfigurations had made him re-evaluate his impressions on the differences in the approach to magic between wizards and unicorns. Wizard-transfigurations, instead of depending on a single spell for each, as he had expected, merely explored and taught the students how to use their intent to control the spell and reach the desired end. In Equestria, the spells for transfiguring things were distinct castings, hence the spell for adding wings or becoming Breezies. Intent was only involved in the creation and design of a spell, and not nearly as much at its casting at later times by others.
For example, the first spell in the book was about transfiguring a match into a needle. In Equestria, that would be simply a spell matrix you learned to cast. Want to make a match a needle, cast the spell, and it was done. Here, you decided that you wanted the match to be a needle and used your magic to form the needle. How the finished product looked depended entirely on how you had visualized it to be at the very beginning.
It was — quite the revelation.
His classes in Canterlot had taught him about focus, and it had been simple to transform the match. Then he had started changing the match by merely visualizing how he wanted it to look. The last one had had the four princesses, rampant, engraved into it.
The hardest part had been using the wand and not his horn.
When he returned to Canterlot, he would throw them all for a loop with this new outlook on magic. Not to mention the hundreds of spells the books listed that he would have learned and could teach.
So, it seemed, wizards did indeed cast generalized spells that they focused to a single objective. They just preferred to use specific spells to conserve their energy. Which was odd, considering that most unicorns never had to worry about such things unless they were in a big battle. One the other hoof — he was saying that a lot, wasn’t he? he thought — most unicorns never considered using transfigurations to make one thing into another. They simply didn’t think like that.
A thing was a thing. Why change it?
That sorta made sense when two-thirds of the population couldn’t do that sort of magic, anyway.
He wondered, was it possible to transfigure a timberwolf into a pumpkin? It would certainly make their trips into the Everfree a lot more peaceful!
However, the humans were a contentious and contrary group, if he had ever seen one. So, perhaps, conserving one’s power made sense in that respect. They never knew if they were going to be attacked and needed as much power as they could scrape together.
Unicorns had been in a similar position way back when the three tribes had first joined forces, his mum had told him. It was their job to look for danger from above while the others were working. They sat at the edges of the field or walked through the towns as they continually scanned the skies for raiding dragons, bug-bears, griffons, manticores, rocs, and similar threats. Once danger was spotted, they held it off long enough for the other ponies to seek shelter or prepare for battle. If they could, they were supposed to drive off the menace. In exchange, the other ponies made sure the unicorns were comfortable and didn’t walk into things like holes, trees, fences, walls, other ponies, and so forth. The others took care of many of the other facets of the unicorns’ lives (such as building, foraging, and other tasks) that would have prevented them from protecting their non-horned brethren, or leave them vulnerable to surprises. It was a worthwhile combining of efforts!
Unfortunately, when most of Equestria had settled into peace — after chasing far away most of the dangers — the unicorns’ attitude of watching the skies had slowly devolved into merely holding their muzzles up in disdain of the other ponies, and expecting the others to provide for them without having to labour. Many of the nobles felt that way, at least. The other ponies owed them, they reasoned.
Both McGonagall, on Wednesday, and Flitwick, on Thursday, had used some of the time in the class to assess his abilities regarding magic. Professor McGonagall had been very interested in the wings spell he had shown the Gryffindors, and how he had taught it to the others. And then he taught it to her.
And while that teaching technique was fine for one-on-one, it was impossible to manage in a classroom setting. Unless the class was only three or four students. More students than that would take much more time than simply studying the matrix and explanation in the book. The classroom also cut down the repetition as each student was given the same verbal instructions and, in turn, asked the same questions. It was more beneficial for the entire group to hear the question and answer all at once.
So, sadly, . . . boring classroom teaching at the pace of the slowest students was the most efficient method of teaching groups.
Professor Flitwick had asked about the wings spell, too, after trying to gauge his skills. That most unicorns’ spells were either matrices or just general intent spells he had found quite interesting. He had been very fascinated by how Harry’s wings spell operated — a transfiguration casting that was actually a simple spell. A spell that took a lot of concentration and magical power, but, still, a spell!
The Arithmancy and Runes professors had been cordial, but did say that most of their classes were simply memorization at this time. “Rather than show up for every class,” Professor Vector had said, “it would be better to just go over last year’s lessons and come to me with questions. Then, if you catch up, you can join the regular classes.” And gave him what he thought was a rather condescending smile. But, then again, she didn’t know Hayscartes’ Method, did she?
Professor Babbling had almost echoed Vector’s words exactly. Both had suggested asking Hermione for her notes from the previous year. Which he had accomplished on Friday. He hadn’t been sure if she would cooperate, considering her demand for a trade for her other notes. In the end, he had offered to show her the protective runes in his armour and robes if she allowed him copies of her notes. She almost couldn’t say, “Yes!” fast enough.
Actually, in view of what he had just been thinking, and how the Weasleys and his dorm-mates had all acted on learning the runes, he should have known she wouldn’t turn down the trade.
Professor Moody’s Thursday class, Defence Against the Dark Arts, had been . . . interesting. That the wizard was very good at what he did was undisputable. That he needed to be that good illustrated just how dangerous the world of these wizards really was. That he had soo many scars, and a missing eye and leg, proved that, even though he was good, he still needed to improve. Or were those merely the reasons behind what had made him so good?
His was a practical class, focused almost entirely on learning the curses and hexes so-called Dark Wizards liked to use. And Harry had been glad of his additions to his robes. The wizard liked to shoot spells at students he thought were not paying attention. Anything from changing their hair colour to stinging hexes was fair game.
He had been quite interested to test Harry’s blocking abilities. More than once Harry had considered teleporting, but decided to keep that one a secret until he had no choice.
That class, like no other, emphasized that humans were predators. And brought to the forefront of his mind that he was now a prey species. He needed to be hyper-alert at all times.
And, now that it was the weekend, it was time to see how long he could manage to cast Hayscartes’ Method before it tossed him out on his ears. Again.
۸-_-۸
Flitwick’s class, on the following Friday, was on the Summoning spell. It had taken only a few minutes for Harry to adapt to the new wand-spell — he had, after all, learned how to do it with his horn five years ago, and had used it on a daily basis ever since. It was almost an ingrained reflex when he wanted something. Again, the hardest part was learning to use his wand instead of his horn.
After Harry demonstrated his mastery, he fought a few mock summoning battles with the professor. Then he spent the rest of the time regurgitating the First and Second years’ theories about magic, and how that magic powered the different spells, as a “term paper.”
And that pretty much described his other classes in the previous days, as well. Learn the stuff for the day, then spend the rest of the time proving he understood what the other students had mastered in prior years. Well, at least, that was true for Charms, Transfigurations, and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Except for potions, he skipped the others and studied alone instead.
What slowed him down, considerably, was the sheer volume of material that had been covered in those years. Especially as he needed to learn entirely new vocabularies for each subject! And he kept running into his Hayscartes’ limits. He was spending more time out of the books, it felt like, than he was in them. He was also sleeping more.
History was the easiest, as it was simply memorization — lots and lots of memorization. He figured that three or four read-throughs would do the job admirably. He expected to have all seven years covered by the end of the next month. Like Astronomy, though, it wasn’t exactly a high priority item. If he were actually taking the classes in this world, he would expect to reread the text for the year one more time to refresh before exams. But he wasn’t. He was reading the history texts just to get his situation here sorted. The modern, extra, history books suggested by his friends, and in the library, were certainly a help in understanding the social background he found himself mired in.
Blueblood would be horrified, intrigued, and disgusted by it all. And would have studied it all carefully. With a bottle of stomach soothers at hoof the entire time.
The Astronomy class, on the other hoof, was useless . . . just useless, considering Luna moved the Moon and stars at home at whim. But she would love the information about this world’s sky. Reading about it would suffice.
Care of Magical Creatures was similar. While both subjects were interesting, they really were not important to anything in the Tournament. He really didn’t think pixies and bow-truckles would be a serious hazard in any of the tasks.
And Muggle Studies was a joke. Even with only what he remembered as a nine-year-old in primary, he knew far more about the subject than the Muggle Studies Professor did. And, based on the modern history books, it was guaranteed that nothing Muggle related would be in the Tournament.
Divination, too, he didn’t expect to be of use.
Arithmancy and Runes were also memorization, and he could take his time with those. He had far less reading to do to catch up with his peers, merely a single year instead of three, but was still far behind the Seventh Years chosen for the tournament. Even so, he didn’t expect to find anything in those fields that would help him in the Tournament.
Potions, he wanted to take to learn the skills and techniques so he could share them with Zecora and the few ponies interested in potions in general. In doing so, he would easily quadruple Equestrian knowledge of what you could achieve with potions. Skele-Gro, for example, if it could be duplicated, would revolutionize pony medicine — no longer would ponies have to worry about losing limbs, or horns — he shuddered — in an accident. Not to mention the Blood-Replenishing, Essence of Dittany, Fire Protection, and Invigoration Draught potions and the effects they would have on the medical community. And for that he needed to study the Herbology texts. Which, again, was memorization.
He had an obligation to return to Equestria with as much of this tremendous medical knowledge as he could manage to learn. Later, once he had mastered the knowledge in the school for the tournament, he would see about getting the advanced medical books used to train doctors and nurses.
He owed them that as repayment for what they had done for him when he first arrived in Equestria.
Unfortunately, the first challenge in the Tournament was coming up in just eleven days. He needed to concentrate on things that would be of immediate use: Charms, Transfigurations, and Defence Against the Dark Arts. The others he thought he could safely ignore.
He had carefully examined what he could of the conditions imposed on the “champions” in the tournament. As long as he made an effort at completing each task, he would not run afoul of violating the contract and losing his magic. Merely showing up and going through the motions of starting the task should suffice.
But, if he could, he’d rather make a decent showing.
And it was Hermione who had come through for him, surprisingly, last Saturday.
Hermione, after he had traded the protective runes for her notes, had actually warmed up to him! Apparently she had expected him just to demand she share her notes with him — which had happened before with others, it seemed. The other Gryffindors considered her a walking library, available for their convenience and without any sort of obligations on their parts. Everypony was just coldly cordial to her. It sorta reminded him of what Luna had described, without the stealing and cruel pranks.
While she was still frosty to Seamus and Dean, and ignored the existence of Ron, she always greeted him with a smile. The three of them, Hermione, Ginny, and Luna had taken to sitting across from Harry at meals. Occasionally, if Ron and the others were too slow, the three girls would bracket him, with Ginny always between Hermione and Ron. Or on the other side of Luna.
It had started last weekend. She had been waiting for him when he exited a book to rest. She had been seated, cross-legged, on the end of his bed. She had looked up, frowning, from a book — Hogwarts: A History. He had blinked, unsure of why there was a girl in his dorm-room, on his bed.
She had put down her book, grabbed another from beside her, and held it out to him. “It’s about the Triwizard Tournament,” she had said solemnly. “It’s quite dangerous, you know. There’s almost always a death among the champions. The last one held, in 1792, resulted in all the champions, the judges, and most of the spectators being injured or killed by a raging cockatrice. It’s why it fell out of favour.” She had frowned. “I don’t know why they resurrected this farce of gladiatorial bloody combat. The headmaster said that they had added many safety features, including an age line to prevent anyone under the age of seventeen from participating.” She had shaken her head, “Fat lot of good that did, right?” She stared at him with warm, sparkling brown eyes. “It’s supposed to promote fellowship with the other schools, but, according to the book, it’s really a cut-throat competition, with the various Headmasters and Headmistresses trying to steal promising students from each-others’ schools. Cheating is rampant, and expected. And as the judges are the heads of the schools, any claim to impartiality in scoring is a joke.”
He had taken the book and floated it over on top of the Potions text he had been reading.
“The first task, according to the book, traditionally, is almost always one that tests the champions’ bravery,” she had continued. “It’s usually facing a dangerous creature of some kind, a four- or five-X rating, and battling it in some manner.” She had paused and worried her lower lip with her upper teeth while lines had furrowed her forehead. “I’d suggest studying only the creatures that are four-X or above. Anything else is too tame by wizarding standards, according to the book. If you can find the task’s grounds in advance, then hiding caches of tools, weapons, and potions on them is not unheard of. Just don’t get caught hiding or retrieving your supplies.”
“Thank you,” he had sincerely said. Any help was appreciated. “I won’t tell anyone you helped me so you needn’t worry about anyone being upset at you, or me jeopardizing your friendships.”
She had stared at him, her head slightly tilted and brow still furrowed, clearly puzzled. Then she had snorted and slowly nodded. “Thank you,” she had said in a slightly surprised tone. She clearly had not expected him to realize the conflict most of the Gryffindors faced being his friend — how friendly could they be before it backfired on them?
“You missed lunch,” she had finally said, after a few minutes of fidgeting. She had turned sideways and started digging in her rucksack. A moment later, she had handed him a plate of sandwiches, wrapped in napkins, and a potion-bottle filled with an orange liquid. “It’s pumpkin juice,” she had added with a shrug at his puzzled look at the bottle.
“Thank you, again!” he had said as he eagerly dug into the plate. He hadn’t intended to miss lunch, but revising a book he had already read allowed him to stay in longer, and the time had gotten away from him. And he had been ravenous, once she had pointed out his lapse.
After several minutes watching him, she had said, “What’s it like? Being a quadruped instead of biped, I mean. And not having hands.” She had glanced down at her own hands, and wiggled and flexed her fingers contemplatively.
He had continued to chew as he had considered her question. “At first,” he had said, “it was hard. But now? With magic? Anything you can do with hands, I can do with magic.” He had obviously glanced up at the tip of his horn, which had a slight glow from holding the sandwich.
“As for being on four legs instead of two?” He had smiled, remembering racing through Ponyville or the orchards at Sweet Apple Acres, climbing trees, building a catapult, collapsing in a pony-pile and cuddling, the unhesitating support of his friends, and the hugs. Most definitely the hugs. “Some things are much easier, some things are much harder.” Going down stairs on all fours still gave him shivers. Once he had learned the wings spell he had taken to gliding down the stairs whenever it was possible. “I can’t think of anything I’d rather be than a pony in Equestria,” he had concluded. He had smiled at the girl. “And I wouldn’t change four for two, even here.” He had reached up to tap his horn. “I have instant access to my magic and I never have to worry about my wand being misplaced.” He kept his wand in his sleeve, now, with a sticking charm on his foreleg. It was always instantly available without having to reach across his chest for the normal pocket.
He had smirked. “But what if someone blocks my magic, you might ask. Well, what if someone manacles your hands? And no one can summon my horn like they can your wand.”
She had stared at him a long time. “But, doesn’t it bother you to not be a human anymore?”
He had smiled. “Not at all. What I remember of being a human is pain, neglect, and loneliness.” Then he had shrugged. “And those were the good points,” he had added wryly. “There really isn’t anything about being a human that I find I miss.”
She had had a serious, thoughtful expression, and had sat quietly as he finished eating.
He had levitated the empty plate and bottle to his dresser.
“What’s it like?” she had asked softly. “Equestria,” she had clarified before he could ask.
He had leaned back. “A lot like the muggle areas here, I guess, but a lot less crowding and pollution. There are only about twelve million ponies in Equestria, which is about the size of Europe, if I remember correctly,” had been his answer. He had given her a quick smile. “The size difference between ponies and humans makes it difficult to estimate equivalent distances.”
She had smiled back. When you can’t reach the counter, the cookie jar is incredibly far away on the refrigerator for a child, yet easy access for an adult.
“The culture is a strange blend of early 1900’s and mid-1980’s. We live simply, most don’t bother with electricity. There are no cars or lorries, yet railroads have been around for several centuries. They have films, but not colour yet. They control the weather . . . .” He had to stop at her expression of disbelief and laugh. “Yeah, that was a strange concept, I’ll tell you. But it’s true. I’ll show you some day when I don’t have as much to catch up on. Anyway, everyone knows when and for how long it will rain, the schedule is posted weekly. Farmers never have to worry about drought or famine. And everyplace gets snow on a schedule — they try to make it as close as possible to the same week. The medicine is almost up-to-date, with x-ray machines and the like. They even have video arcades in most towns. But no radios or tellys. Everything is slower-paced, there isn’t the fierce business competition there that the muggles have here.”
He stopped and stared at her. “Equestria has been at peace for almost a thousand years. The concept of large-scale wars is foreign to their history.” He had stopped and chuckled. “That’s not to say it hasn’t been interesting the last few years. I think we’ve had more excitement since Princess Luna returned than in the entire previous thousand years combined.”
After several more minutes, just thinking about what he had said, she had climbed off the bed. “Well,” she had said, “I think I should let you get back to your studying. You have a lot to catch up on.”
He had grinned back at her. “I’ll see you at dinner, then. Stop by anytime you want to talk.”
She had left the room in a deeply reflective mood.
He had returned to his studies. And practiced the wand movements while he rested between sorties into the book. He could never predict how long they would last, now.
After dinner, Headmaster Dumbledore sent a Prefect to asked Harry to his office. On entering, Harry had seen that, in addition to the Headmaster, all four House Heads and two students were there. As before, they had arranged themselves in chairs over by the big windows looking out onto the forest. A tea set had been in place on the low table in the middle of the ring of chairs.
After Harry had seated himself in the offered chair, by the windows, the Headmaster had started, “After much deliberation, I have decided on the tutors for you. Allow me to introduce Mr. Jonathan Spratt and Miss Liza Cherks.” He had nodded to each as he mentioned them.
Jonathan was a tall boy with glasses, dark hair, brown eyes, and a light complexion. Liza was a brown-haired blue-eyed beauty with a heart-shaped face and full figure. He had met them both, briefly, when he was busy teaching the wings spell the previous Monday.
“They are both Sixth Year Prefects in Gryffindor. I felt that being in the same House would make it easier for you to meet with them, and fit the meetings into all of your schedules.”
They had nodded to him congenially.
“Now then, Mr. Potter Sparkle,” Dumbledore had smiled gently, like an elderly grandfather or Princess Celestia when she wanted to reassure a twitchy visitor. “I was hoping you could tell us a bit about this Equestria, where you’ve been for the last few years.” He leaned back in his chair and stroked his beard casually.
He had fooled no one. Everypony knew he planned on listening closely.
Harry had smiled, thought a moment about what Blueblood would say, and then started, “Equestria is ruled as a diarchy by two sisters, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. . . .” He had explained a bit about the government, the three tribes, and some of the places he had seen, such Baltimare, Manehattan, and Appleoosa. He had talked a bit about the dragons and Griffons across the sea.
He hadn’t mentioned that the two sisters controlled the sun and moon, he had seen how surprised they were when he had told them that the sisters were effectively immortal. His illusions of the two, at full scale, left them rather quiet. It hadn’t hurt that he had portrayed them in their full regalia, and with wings spread wide. And that he had chosen to show Luna as Nightmare Moon with batwings. She was more imposing that way, he felt, under the circumstances.
They were surprised at the differences between the two sisters.
“Is this one a thestral?” the Headmaster had asked when he had shown Luna.
Harry had looked at him uncertainly. “No, but she is called the mother of the night-ponies, who all have leathery wings like these.” He hadn’t considered that Nightmare Moon did look somewhat like the thestrals in his Fantastic Beasts textbook. “Like I told you, they are sisters.”
And he had repeated that he expected his mum to show up at some point. That she wasn’t here, yet, merely meant that it was a complicated problem. Perhaps there was a time differential, he had suggested. That what he was experiencing in days were only hours to his mum. Still. She would come. After all, she was an alicorn, it was just a matter of when she would arrive.
He had finished by thanking the Headmaster for allowing him to stay in the castle, and Professor McGonagall for taking time from her schedule and ushering him around Diagon Alley. And all of them for taking the time to help him learn their magic.
۸-_-۸
On Sunday, Johnathan and Liza had quizzed him on the theories and spells he had been reading about the previous week, concentrating on covering the First Year. They had said it was important that he thoroughly understand the underpinning of magic, as taught at Hogwarts. Going forward, comprehension of what was taught would depend on those basics.
Considering Hermione’s advice on the tournament, he had spent a good portion of the following week reading and rereading the Fantastic Beasts textbook in preparation for the first task. And making sure he understood everything the First Year students had to learn. Repetition never hurt.
۸-_-۸
After Charms on Friday, and lunch, was Potions.
Harry watched curiously as they passed Cedric Diggory, the Hogwarts champion. He was surrounded by a large group of simpering witches. Those who noticed Harry gave him a hostile look, sniffed disdainfully, and returned to their idol with renewed enthusiasm. Harry was not surprised to see a few of the girls asking for his autograph, mostly the same ones he had seen doing the same to Victor Krum, the Durmstrang champion.
“Typical commoner and uncouth behaviour,” Blueblood would say. “A month ago they ignored him. They are only interested in him for his fame. And he is a fool if he does not see that.” And would then aloofly walk away, saving his out-right contempt for them all for a more private setting.
When they arrived at Professor Snape’s classroom, the Slytherins were waiting outside.
They seemed to defer to the one called Draco Malfoy — a slender boy with rather sharp, pointed features framed in sleek white-blond hair. He had cold grey eyes and a pale complexion. And he clearly thought himself superior to everyone around him. Harry had seen him only in Professor Snape’s dungeon room and at meal times, across the Great Hall. And that one time in Hagrid’s Creatures class.
He acted, in every way, exactly like all rumours said Blueblood acted, when he was in public and “on stage.” Harry knew the act. It kept the simpering, fawning, favour-seeking hordes at a distance. Sure, he wasn’t liked by the public-at-large, but, then again, what the public thought of him had nothing to do with what he did, nor how he was in private.
Malfoy, on the other hand, simply seemed to be a bad parody of what a gentlepony should be.
“Oh, look,” Malfoy said derisively, “it’s the beast and his handlers, mud-blood, and blood-traitors, all.” He smirked, as if he had said something clever.
His friends chuckled.
Harry just looked at him, puzzled, at first. Then he realized it was time to become Blueblood, again. “Is that supposed to be an insult?” He looked at his hoof and smiled as if at a joke. “After all, I am a pony. And that isn’t a bipedal monkey, such as yourself,” he said in an insulting snobbish tone, as if stating an obvious fact that no pony could dispute. He looked over at the Gryffindors still arriving behind him. “And, no offense, my friends,” he said, nodding apologetically to his dorm-mates, “but I’d much rather be a pony.” He turned back to the Draco, who was starting to turn a bit red. “It’s far superior to your . . . ,” he couldn’t help but smirk slightly, “handicapped form.” The Slytherins were starting to look at Harry angrily.
He smiled at Hermione, who was distinctly looking red herself, whether in anger or embarrassment, he wasn’t sure.
“You’ll have to explain the terms mud-blood and blood-traitor, as where I come from those concepts do not exist.” His tone suggested contempt that such terms even existed. Something tickled angrily at the back of his mind, though.
Draco stepped forward, sneering. “Mud-bloods,” and he gave a scathing up-and-down look at Hermione, “are wizards and witches whose parents are muggles. They are inferior to pure-bloods and shouldn’t even be allowed here in Hogwarts. And blood-traitors are wizards or witches who marry muggles or muggle-borns, or think they should be treated as our equals,” he concluded contemptuously.
Oh, Hermione was definitely angry now.
Harry slowly raised his eyebrows. “You believe that pure-bloods are somehow superior to others?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Draco said haughtily.
What was obvious was that the wizard was an idiot. And was begging to be cursed into screaming agony.
He avoided changing his expression as he wondered just where that thought had come from.
۸-_-۸
Excellent chapter! I really want Twilight to tear reality a new asshole and jump out of it to come to Harry's aid, however. If only for some well earned snark to directed where it needs to be. Hope to see more soon!
Got a little confused if it was Ginny or Hermione sitting on his bed. Kinda curious as to how Hogwarts Years 1/2/3 played out in this timeline.
I wish Harry had shown Princess Luna as she is now. Yes he could have explained what happens when she gets mad but this will create confusion if she where ever to meet Dumbledore. As we know what the challenges will be Harry may end up regretting skipping Hagrid’s classes.
I hope when Harry finds out about how Victor defeated the dragons he is horrified and throws up. With how Dumbledore reacted in this chapter I am surprised that he didn't react to the fact dragons are fully cognitive and should be treated as such.
great update!
was 'it' possible
This would have been after the unification. Prior to that the Unicorn's seem to have used their magic to take advantage of the earth ponies.
I might have read too much into it back when the first Hearth's Warming was expounded on. But it seemed to me like the earth ponies were caught between the Pegasus and the Unicorn. With the Unicorn's being elitists, and the Pegasus militarized.
I like this new limitation on Hayscartes. Otherwise, you'd have to explain why every student at Celestia's school didn't spend twenty hours a day inside a book.^_^
as 'where' I come from
OK, loving this iteration of "Harry Potter Does Equestria," but now i have to ask something. In this iteration, did the horcux in Harry get absorbed by Tirek as it did in "If Wishes Were Ponies…?" Because if not, it might explain some of the more antagonistic reactions Harry is having in regards to Malfoy and the rest fo the Wizarding World. (Not that I blame him; those wizards and witches are all a bunch of incompetent and impotent boobs.)
9852772
Thanks for the corrections. I had always thought it had its limitations. Otherwise, Twi wouldn’t have said she could only do it for a short time when first describing it. Someone suggested only alicorns could do it, which meant it was rather cruel of her to offer to teach it to her friend, knowing said friend couldn’t do it.
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Yes.
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Thank you!
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The Unicorns moved the sun and moon, the other two still had the same jobs they have now. The Unicorns paid a heavy price though, many of the ones who moved the Sun/moon drained themselves or magic completely doing so.
Once the Princess took over that job... Well you get Canterlot.
this is really shaping up to be a interesting year.
Malfoy is still the same prat but i do know of a different story were he ends up a mare with no hope of changing back.
I mean, call me mister nit-picky, but I'd really hope that the pegasi would be on watch duty rather than the unicorns, what with being able to literally watch from the skies and thus get a better view of both the horizon and the ground, mobilize faster than the average unicorn and just straight up be safe from most ground-bound threats. They'd already be up there, after all. Likewise, I wouldn't want the mages spread out on the outskirts of the settlements, where they'd both be more isolated and further away from eachother in case of emergency. And if they're not far away enough from the settlement for that to be a problem, then they aren't really far away enough that an airbound threat couldn't just ignore them and wreck shit nearby. (Unicorn throwing a fireball? No prob, just dive down behind that house over there. Unicorn putting up a shield on a group of ponies? Gosh, it sure would suck if there were another group of ponies nearby that they'd have split their focus to protect.)
All that, and apparently they weren't very good at doing the job if they needed to be taken care of by the other tribes to such a degree that they couldn't watch where they were going either due to tiredness or distraction.
As guards, I've no doubt they'd be awesome. But they'd prolly want someone else on watch duty that could range further away with greater speed to relay a warning back to them so that they would have time to organize a proper defence.
I can't help but feel Twilight taught Harry a modified version of Haycartes method that limits has maximum time in the books to ensure he doesn't end up like she did in Canterlot ignoring her friends in favour of them.
Hermione and the others will be disappointed and possibly shocked to discover Harry already has 3 fillies he's in a relationship with. Unless your planning to make this a 6 girl's and 1+x boys fic.
I wonder if Celestia will be attending/compelled to attend the contests as otherwise the judging is flawed with only heads of 3 of the 4 schools at Hogwarts.
It seems Hermione is already thinking of relocating to a new home, should have mentioned the hugs Harry. That'd be a big draw to a lonely person.
Looking forward to Draco's comeuppance, wonder how long till you'll have Twilight get there.
noice
I expect Luna to found Harry first, because trying to locate him in the Realm of Dream might be easier than in the real world where the gap between dimensions is solid.
9852720
I think you misunderstood what we were talking about.
As a written language Runes CAN be used to communicate info relating to magic. Things such as the names of spells, directions on how to cast them, information on what the spell's effects are, etc...
Runes CAN NOT be used for magic. For example, inscribing a rune onto an object that causes that object to become lighter as long as the rune remains intact. Those kinds of Runes do not exist in either Harry Potter Canon or MLP Canon. They exist only as a written language.
One thing that always make think is how everypony has Draco as a vilain when the books are clear that the way he acts is just how he was raised and told to act while not being really evil...
9852751
This is the only area that I fault TK for. We basically see the same inter-personal dynamics from the start of year 1, now in year 4, except for Hermione.
There is no sign of 3 years of development for anyone, except for 3 years of meanness towards a fellow Gryffindor.
9853074
Draco much like the Dursleys, unfortunately, gets the short end of the stick in fan-fiction due to how they act in the books. Only the best fics treat them as actual characters instead of two dimensional bad guys that exist only to get curb stomped by the heroes.
Open the ports, the S.S. Ponione is ready to sail.
9853051
Then why do the characters in canon refer to them as magical? If they are ONLY an alphabet, like English, French, German, people would NEVER refer to them as magical. Any publisher who tried to come out with a “Magical English Words” book would be laughed out of business. And any official who asked a teacher to sign a form with her magical English name would be out of a job by the end of the day.
As I said, the evidence does both ways. I choose to use them, you choose not to. End of story.
And, if they aren’t magical, then there is no reason in canon for it to be a course taught at Hogwarts. Outside of a few off-hand mentions of dictionaries and such, there aren’t any books written in that language actually mentioned! And when I was taking German, we had actual German books to read. As far as dead languages go, Runes are definitely inferior to Latin.
It would have been cool if JKR had somehow tied runes to Atlantis, but she didn’t.
9853098
Have to agree with your assessment of Draco, but unless you’re going to make him a major part of your story, he’s always going to be relegated to being a bully. He certainly never seemed to do much growing up in canon until we get to the sixth book.
9853174
Except the only evidence you have of magical runes is the fact that they are called magical at one point, and even then it's not like I can even find where it might have been mentioned in the books (honestly it might be from the movies).
The fact is every time they are mentioned it's only in reference to reading or translating them. There is no example of runes ever being used for magic. Now you are free to use them in your story that way but the fact remains that such runes are not canon (in either universe).
9853180
True but I always felt the best stories are the ones that actually expand on the books instead of just nitpicking every detail or following things too literally. Yeah, Draco is just a jerk in the books because that was his role for most of them but that does not mean people should just not try to do anything interesting with his character instead of just making him a punching bag for the characters. If he has to stay a foil at least make him an effective one that can actually come across as a threat even if only a minor one.
I'm guessing the horcrux is what is making Harry have more violent thoughts?
9853020
I kind of like the idea of Luna finding Harry via dreaming first as well, maybe expand that for a while it's the only way Harry can talk to Equestria. Reminds me of Stargate Universe with using the Ancient long range communication stones to talk to Earth
9853174
Ive always thought Hogworts must have some off page classes to teach students at least basic reading, writing and arithmatic skills. Unless a big enough part of your grade in essays is grammar and spelling to encourage students to improve beyond home schooled skills.
9853259
My only problem with that is Harry's already been there awhile and I want to see Celestia judging the contests "I'm afraid i must award the Durmstrang colt 0 points due to his destruction of the poor dragons eggs."
9853294
I read an interesting one where it was claimed that Astronomy was actually math class as it taught them how to do long and complex arithmetic problems (calculating the long circle distance between two stars in both degrees AND hours-minutes-second is NOT a trivial problem!). Arithmancy was calculus, Long and frequent essays served the same function as assignments in an English class (grammar, reading, writing), as well as how to organize your thoughts based on the information you have researched.
They do miss out on Geography, though. For many of them, I’m sure England is the only country and France is “somewhere over there” and Germany must “somewhere around France because didn’t they invade France once?”
9853294
Oh, and their drawings in Astronomy and Herbology were their Art class.
I don't know if this has been considered before, but would a better from Spike be able to reach Harry?
9853414
I had never thought of that before. Wizards don't learn geography in Hogwarts and are home schooled before that. All they need is a parent that doesn't care in order to have absolutely no idea how the world is
9853416
Interesting concept. I can see art in sketching plants and the like the old fashined way.
9853441
I wouldnt be surprised if a lot are functionally illiterate it'd explain a lot about their world.
At this point I'm mostly wondering how Ginny survived year 2.
Or maybe there was no point? If we assume that Year 1 triggered the Dark Mark in any way, then maybe Lucius never saw the point in letting loose his old boss...
I think I just answered my own question, but how close am I?
9852772
Much agreement. Still, t'would be interesting to see if he could use it on the portraits, similar to some other fics that I can't recall at the moment.
9853093
What would you expect to be different? Everyone seems in character for how they would be in the absence of Harry.
9853093
Wouldn't that be what one would expect? We see in the books that those that don't interact with Harry don't change much from how they were in the first year so the expected result of Harry not being in Hogwarts is that they keep their personality from the first year but with different social relationships, for example Ron being closer to the other boys since he doesn't have Harry to hang with and Hermione being ostracized since she doesn't have Harry to "soft" her interactions with the other students.
Overall the characters act the way I would expect they would have developed if not for all the special events in caused for Harry being in the school, like philosophy stone being in the school and the chambers of secrets opening with both incidents happening because Harry was in the school (the stone was likely put in the school by Dumbledore because he knew that if something happened Harry would stop it like a training exercise and the diary was only left with Gina because of Malfoy senior wanting to do away with harry). Sirius would not have escaped from azkaban because he has no reason to escape yet without recovering his power more, since Harry is not in Hogwarts and that would cause the picture with the rat not to be in the journal from what I remember.
So on so forth. Removing Harry since the first year meant he could just act like none of the 3 first years happened and things just continued as they usually would in Hogwarts without the craziness we see in the books.
9854355
Except the Stone and Quirrell were arranged before Harry arrived at Hogwarts, and probably were arranged long before then. After all Quirrell stealing the Stone from Grigotts would have occurred if Hagrid hadn’t moved the stone first, so we can assume it WAS moved to Hogwarts and the trap arranged.
Harry’s arrival at the last step could actually be looked at as interference in the trap, as Albus arrived very soon after the altercation with Voldie started. Albus would have arrived long before Voldie could have exited, found a patsy, and removed the stone.
As for the diary, that was in reprisal to Arthur Weasley’s bill to protect muggles, and had nothing to do with Harry. The plot was that Ginny would be found with the possessed item and endangering or even killing muggle-borns, and that would ruin Arthur’s support in the Wizengamot, thus killing the bill. That Harry became involved was merely a happy accident, at first, as far as Malfoy was concerned.
9853994
Except it was pointed out later that they didn't know the value of the diary until Voldermort inquired about it. If the Malfoy’s and understood its importance it would not have been delt with in such a way. The thing I think most likely happened was that it was never slipped to Ginny becuase her father never went looking for Harry because the twins never tricked him into saying the wrong location. The main reason he was escorting the kids was because Harry was going with. It was a crime of opportunity and a way to get rid of incriminating evidence and discredit a rival politician. Most likely in my eyes was that the diary was disposed of in a different manner.
9854497
That actually makes sense.
It does put to light that things went down the way they did almost out of sheer luck at times though.
Quirrel had no chance of ever getting the stone without Harry's interference, good as his intentions were.
Lucius happened to have a diary with links to Voldemort that he was not aware of. Maybe he brought it with him, or maybe he spotted Harry and bought the closest dark artifact he could find in the hopes of dumping it on the kid or someone close. It could be assumed that Voldemort left it with him, but this doesn't make any sense when one considers that Voldy wouldn't have trusted him that much. Basically, if Harry doesn't pop out in Nocturne, Chamber of Secrets doesn't happen.
Prisoner of Azkaban is essentially a non-issue, unless the Weasleys still won that trip to Egypt for Sirius to spot Peter on the Prophet. If that's the case, then Sirius might be around and Peter might be dead.
To top it all off the Stone might still be at Hogwarts, the Basilisk is still in the Chamber, the Diary is still rolling around somewhere, and who knows what happened to Quirrel.
I'm kinda digging this so far. Love to see a plan unravel.
9854583
Voldemort just told him that it was something important and that was it. He never would’ve revealed its true purpose as it would then have been a liability and would have shown a weakness. As for Sirius and his rat faced former friend we do not know how that would have played out as it was the trip that set everything off.
9854583
If chamber of secrets never happened then Lockhart should probably still be defense against the dark arts teacher unless his incompetence got him fired for causing his classes to fail their Newt/Owl exam. No chamber means no Obliviate accident with Ron's wand.
These specific terms may not exist in Equestria, but racism(or more accurately specieism) and classism certainly do.
9854944
Though to be fair the speciism tends to be less "You are inferior to me" and more "if i hide in my house maybe they wont eat me".
9855162
We had a very black-and-white racism episode in season 1. Close up your shops, don't do business with that Zebra.
9854291
What would be different?
1. Draco made "Hurt Potter" a big thing because of how Harry reacted to Draco in year one.
Draco attempted to be the "I'm important, let me tell you who has good standing". When that failed, it drove Harry away from Slytherin into Griffindor; lacking that incident, Harry would be Slytherin.
Lacking that incident, Draco would have three years to mature (big difference between 11 and 14) before meeting Harry. Finding out that a Pony Prince is now in the tournament, and it's the missing major child from the war? That's not "Taunt an 11 year old because he miffed you on the train or stole a house cup from you" -- neither of which happened this time.
Draco is not so foolish as to not say "This is important", on finding that Harry, the boy-who-lived, is both no longer human, living in another world, and now royal. Being Royal? Draco knows the importance of rank.
2. Hermione was a bookie. She would be a good match for Twilight before S1E1. In Canon, on the trip to Hogwarts, she sees how a (memory here, sorry if I get it wrong) Ravenclaw prefect basically treats Neville's lost pet as not worth worrying about, and so she is pushed away from Ravenclaw; her interactions with the Weasleys and Harry wasn't negative, so she got a nudge towards Gryffindor.
*BUT*: All that was due to interacting with Harry. Take Harry out? She'll be in a book the whole trip to Hogwarts, probably. Even if not, she will have only a half-hearted conversation -- her socializing was all (again, memory) from interacting with Harry.
She would be in Ravenclaw, having had none of the push towards Gryffindor, not seeing the bad behavior of the prefects, etc.
3. Snape, in 4th year potions, might have been very reasonably concerned about "We are now dealing with dangerous stuff; he has none of the preliminary studies". This might have lead to some sort of placement test, and possibly remedial potions to catch up.
Snape doing this, even to the extent of either saying "I can't have him in my class because of potential danger", or else putting him in 2nd or 3rd year instead, might seem like "I am being cruel, like Snape should be", but would actually be a proper safety behavior for someone that is pledged to protect the boy.
3b: Even at that, this is someone he is sword to protect, that has been missing for what, 6 years now? Would you really behave that badly to someone that has gone poof like that?
4. Ron. Ok, in fairness, I don't know canon Ron well enough to comment on him.
5. Neville. Lets talk Neville.
Year 1, Neville has that broomstick problem, drops his rememberall. Draco plucks it just because he can. What's the fallout from that? Chances are, no one challenges Draco, so there's no broomstick chase. Neville finds out that Draco "stole" it ("I just found it on the ground", or something), and ... will he give it back? What will he do with Neville?
6. The prophecy and Neville. Harry is gone. For years. Neville also fits the prophecy. Did the Dark Lord mark Neville with the power to defeat him? Consider that Neville is basically an orphan now, he was certainly harmed by him. We know that Neville wants a way to get back at him (heck, in book 7 he is willing to stand up to Voldemort.) So Dumbledore knows that Tom Riddle is still around, even if he doesn't know the details. Lets assume that Quierrel made an attempt on the stone, it failed, and Dumbledore found out. Riddle might still be using Q as a mount, or Q might have been caught or killed -- either way Dumbledore has suspicions. No Harry anymore to use in fulfilling the prophecy? No problem -- use Neville instead.
7. Quierrel. If not dead (didn't die in a fight to Harry), then what?
Lets see. Who else did Harry interact with? Tonks was year 5, right? The real Moody was also year 5, right? Year 3 dementor train attack did not happen, yes? no? Would they have gone after someone else on the train? Were they deliberately targeting Harry? (I do not remember).
So year 3's DADA teacher was Padfoot. With no big fight with Wormtale (aka Peter), Serius might still be around somewhere, without that full moon problem.
8. Ohh. Hagrid. Year 3. What the heck happened here?
In canon, BuckBeak was saved by Harry+Hermione+Time Turner. That whole adventure even worked because Harry was able to do a Patronus when the time came.
No Harry? Did Hermione do this all on her own? Did she have another person helping her? Is there some group of adventurers formed around her? No?
Did Hagrid's animal get chopped?
What's Hagrid done/been like? I mean, it's not like he got cleared.
Seriously.
Again, from memory: As a result of the chamber of secrets, Hagrid was cleared of the charge from years prior, got a new wand, and became teacher for the animal course.
But: If the chamber of secrets never happened, if Harry wasn't around for all that, Hagrid would never have gotten cleared of the accusation, and would not be a teacher now.
Alright, that's off the top of my head, trying to keep J.K. Rowling separate from MoR or Milo (or others ...).
9855162
Maybe, but aside from the Zecora bit, canonically there's a xenophobe in charge of Equestria's educational system, and Cozy was rather easily able to turn the pony-majority student body of the School of FRIENDSHIP against the non-ponies of the student 6 just by playing up racial stereotypes.
9855261
You've got some good points her but let me rebutt a few.
1. Draco's a prat who's been raised in an environment that's the wizarding equivalent of a home of KKK members. Also he's bought into his own superiorty propaganda that he never figures out that his continued attempts at bullying the trio in canon tended to backfire on him, and he also blunders into a few other bad situations due to his own ego, up to and including becoming a Death Eater and getting the mission of killing Dumbledore. Therefore, it's perfectly reasonable that he'd still be hostile to Harry, since he's, in Draco's eyes, a former human race traitor who hangs out with the Gryffindors, who are also race traitors and mudbloods themselves.
2. I think you may have mixed in some of 'Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality' here, since Hermione's introduction had nothing to do with prefects in canon. In fact she met Harry and Ron while trying to help Neville find his toad. Without Harry there for Ron to demonstrate his "spell" to, which attracted her interest, she probably would have just moved on to the next compartment to keep looking. There's nothing to indicate that Harry being missing would have affected her sorting. In HPatMoR, Harry suggests asking a prefect...and the first one they find is Percy, who blows them off, affecting both her and Neville's sorting away from Gryffindor.
It's only after that things would be different, since without Harry and the bathroom troll catalyst she and Ron wouldn't be friends. As I pointed out in another comment, she never appeared to be friendly with any of the othe Gryffindor girls from her age group either, so she would have had a very lonely first year (at least, since any friendship with this timeline's Ginny seems to be a recent thing). Heck, maybe the bathroom troll still happened...but no one came to save her. Though she obviously still survived (probably saved by the teachers at the last minute) this would have been rather traumatizing to say the least, and if it was still Ron's mouthing off that caused her to be there, she might blame him for it, further contributing to her isolation.
3. Snape's a bully who never missed a chance to take out his hatred for James on Harry, so I don't see why that would change here. In fact he probably wouldn't mind all that much if Harry got himself hurt via faulty potion and he'd probably twist it to make as if it was Harry's fault for being unable to follow directions.
6. You're forgetting things. Voldemort marking Harry still happened. Harry crossed to Equestria when he was 9, so the whole 'Marking him as his equal' part still counts towards Harry, so the prophecy is still about Harry.
7. Quirrel is probably still dead. In fact, without Harry, the philosopher's stone was probably perfectly safe until Dumbledore came back. Voldy obviously still escaped since the basic plan of book 4 is still in play.
Hard to say what happened in this timeline's PoA events. It all depends if the Weasleys still took their Egypt trip or not, since the lottery money they won to take it (and the resulting picture in the Daily Prophet) was the catalyst for Sirius's escape. Either way probably resulted in tragedy, since he's either still in Azkaban...or worse, since without the Marauders' Map(which Fred and George never gave to Harry, so Harry never loaned it to Lupin) Sirius wouldn't have anyone to know he's innocent. Especially since Hermione probably never got Crookshanks to help flush Peter out.
8. Yes, book 2 should have probably really altered things without Harry. While the Diary may not have ended up with Ginny specifically, one of the Weasleys should have ended up with it, since Lucious was trying to plant it on one of them in a plan to discredit Arthur.
Unfortunately, whether Hagrid was cleared or not, it's doubtful he got a new wand even in canon(he's still using his umbrella with the pieces of his old one in book 6), since the MoM is full of racist assholes. Hagrid got his teaching job due to Dumbledore's influence, which he still had plenty of at the time.
9854453
About the attempted theft from Gringotts. In recent years I've realized how this was casually thrown out there, and then never really mentioned again.
Gringotts is 'the bank' of the wizarding world. The goblin's reputation and income rest on its security. Even if no one else knows, the goblins know that the theft would have been successful if the desired object had still been in the vault. It could be argued that because the consequences did not happen in such a way as to bring them to Harry's attention, they'd never be mentioned in the book, but the Goblins had to know who took out the desired object, and that the person who did it had prior knowledge of the attempted theft, and did not warn them.
I'm getting too convoluted here. What I'm getting at is that the Goblins have a seriously vested interest in tracking down and punishing the guilty party, and that should have brought some of them at least into the main storyline because the trail goes through Hogwarts.
9855585
If you treat the books literally it always seemed to me that he was crippling the future generation with lousy schooling in affective defense.
Harry and the rest in co-study taught themselves better than the teachers.
I sometimes think he was like the Anti-gun crowd where he believed that if kept them from learning effective self-defense the world would be a better place.
9855413
The goblins had no reason to go after the thief because ultimately nothing was stolen. All that had happened was someone broke in and failed to steal anything. It doesn't really damage their reputation and reinforces the idea that Gringotts is completely secure.
9855613
That's always been the problem with alot of fanfiction. They ignore the fact that the books only followed Harry's PoV so as readers we really only got to see things as Harry saw them. It's why we never get to know more about characters like Draco or the Dursley's beyond what Harry ever learns of them.
So if you ignore that fact and take things literally then yeah a lot of problems crop up because the story never focused on Harry's education it was always focused on his adventures. For me the best stories are the ones that actually try to expand on things because when you try to take things literally like authors like tkepner tend to do you end with a story that isn't terrible but could honestly be a lot better if the story focused more on telling an interesting story and less time nitpicking the books.
And if you do want to write a story that nitpicks the books at least have the decency to not mix it in with what could otherwise be a legitimately interesting story.
9855764
Maybe I've been influenced by too much Fan-fiction, but I don't see the goblins being let and let live. Only the fact that the object had been removed kept it from being a genuine theft. There is honor at state, and making sure that the wizards know you don't mess with them.
9855261
9855313
I'm not saying there wasn't racism present in Equestria just that the focus is different to humans. For us there has always been a "You're wrong" or a "You're inferior" element to it whereas with the ponies they've always had more of a "What will they do to us" element instead. With Zecora they hid from her because they were afraid of what she might do to them. With Neighsay it was if you teach them our knowledge they might use it against us. The only time we see ponies enslaving creatures its other ponies by Sombra. They don't go around enslaving griffons, zebras or dragons (or trying to) instead they're afraid of what those races might do to them. The closest we get is Neighsay's "Go back to your own country" and even that came after an incident put ponies lives in danger. He never say's lets go enslave the X just lets not teach the X the knowledge that's kept them from eating us. As one reviewer complains about the episode "You're making the racist right.". Its probably a result of them being a prey species surrounded by predators they tend to think in terms of what will happen to them wheras humans think in terms of what can i do to them.
9854813
I'd actually bet on him getting fired or never getting hired in the first place. No Philosopher's stone means Quirrel might still be alive, so he might have made it into the second year to open the Chamber himself, unless the curse on the DADA class is real, in which case Voldemort might've found a new host.