Harry was about to take the trunk elevator back to the Weasley sitting room when he heard a familiar voice above. It was a Friday, not long after they got their wands, and just after lunch. He had been using the trunk bathroom because the bathroom at the Weasleys’ had been occupied.
“Arthur? Arthur? Are you home?”
It was the Headmaster. He was using the floo to call Mr. Weasley, which surprised Harry. He thought the Headmaster would just come and go whenever he felt like it.
“Headmaster?” he heard Mr. Weasley answer. “Is something wrong?” His voice was coming closer. He must have still been in the kitchen. “I thought we were going to meet at the Ministry. I was just getting ready to go there.”
“No, no, nothing is wrong. May I come through?”
“Oh, yes, of course.”
A moment later, he heard the steps as the older wizard walked into the sitting room.
“Ah, much better,” he said. Harry could imagine him wanding away the soot he had picked up.
“Please, make yourself at home, Headmaster. So, sir, what brings you to The Burrow?” There was the sound of couch and chair springs being compressed. “Would you like some tea?”
“No, no thanks.” There was a brief pause, then the Headmaster said, “It occurred to me that people might begin to talk if they noticed us meeting frequently. Perhaps even think we were plotting something nefarious regarding these newcomers.” He sighed. “I do want to keep up with how our visitors are acclimating to our world, but I want to respect their wishes to keep their presence and origins relatively secret.”
Harry felt his eyebrows arch. Oh really, he couldn’t help but think sarcastically.
The Headmaster chuckled. “It will be so much easier once the children are at Hogwarts. And it is a relief that The Daily Prophet hasn’t launched a full-scale publicity campaign around Harry Potter returning to the wizarding world. I believe one of my protective charms I placed on the boy is responsible for that.”
Harry was surprised the wizard was willing to cooperate. In his experience, adult humans did what they wanted, regardless of what they might promise others. He frowned. And what did the Headmaster mean by “protective charms?” Had he done something to Harry when no one was watching him? He would have to tell Twi about this!
“Already, there are rumours of four new students from four powerful, rich, foreign families attending Hogwarts this year. All in the company of one Harry Potter.” Harry could hear the smile in his voice as he added, “Miss Granger, it seems, has been assumed to be one of them because she has accompanied them everywhere they went in the Alley.” There was a pause. “Their purchases of so many items in large quantities — books, trunks, brooms, acromantula silk, furniture — and all only of the finest quality — has the entire Alley in a tizzy, especially with the mention of foreign Princesses. And the Goblins have been remarkably closed-mouthed about them as well, much more so than normal. Just mentioning their names will get you escorted out of the bank, as I discovered.” There was a moment of silence. Harry imagined that the Headmaster was shaking his head wryly, putting on a good performance for his audience.
“The Goblins will only admit that the ladies have done business in their bank, and opened accounts. Using the terms of the last Goblin Treaty, Dirk Cresswell was able to get them to give him a list of the current top ten depositors. Regretfully, they would not disclose the amounts on deposit. Princess Sparkle and the girls are listed there — separately in two accounts.” He was quiet for a moment. “They are by no means poor.” He chuckled again. “I don’t suppose it’s a surprise that there’s now a rumour that they are from Atlantis — being completely unknown and with that much gold at their disposal.”
“Oh, dear . . . Do you think it’s possible?”
Harry rolled his eyes, thinking, seriously?
The Headmaster sighed. “It is possible, I suppose.”
Harry felt his jaw drop.
“The history that Molly relayed to us of their homeland certainly seems to indicate so — six thousand years, indeed. The most ancient texts we have suggest that Atlantis was the cradle of wizarding civilization centuries before the muggles discovered bronze.” His tone seemed to indicate he might believe it himself. “We know the old Greek and Roman gods, three thousand years ago, were wizards and witches of some power, most would probably rival Merlin. That they seem to have disappeared without a trace a bit over two and a half thousand years ago has puzzled historians for millennia. Perhaps they were outcasts and returned home when the sister Princesses started ruling? They had, after all, no reason to abandon their situation so abruptly. We lack the information to arrive at a definitive answer.”
There was a brief pause.
“I briefly considered if they might be Veela, considering we have only seen one wizard, but they lack the aura one would expect to see. And they haven’t tried to use the aura to influence anyone. And their demeanour is unlike the Veela I have met.
“However, that the ones here today are extraordinarily powerful is without question, as this Discord so ably demonstrated. We must tread carefully. Should you ever meet him, extend him every courtesy and be very careful of what you say. He is extremely powerful, and, from what the children told us, somewhat capricious in his actions.”
There was a moment’s quiet, then he hummed softly to himself, and changed the subject. “I find it interesting that of the ten we have met, nine are witches.” He cleared his throat. “Minerva told me she met a wizard by the name of Blue Blood when she went to deliver the foreign girls’ Hogwarts’ letters,” he added.
“Eleven witches,” interrupted Mr. Weasley, “Remember, I met Miss Aloo’s two aunts, Lofty and Holiday when we went to the Quidditch match. They must be quite old, which is odd considering they look so young,” he said. “They were very unsteady on their feet and the girls had to constantly help them when walking — especially up and down the stadium stairs.”
“Ah. Yes. You did mention going to a Quidditch match last week,” said the older wizard. He paused a moment before continuing. “And Harry seems to have no wizard friends, just those three girls. They seem quite protective of him, from what I’ve heard and seen. And none of them have mentioned wizards in their homeland.”
Speaking slowly, Mr. Weasley said, “Do you think they might be looking to see if any of the English wizards would make suitable husbands?”
“If they are, they will have their pick of candidates. None of the old families would be averse to marrying their sons off to a pureblood with a pedigree going back several thousand years — and all capable of wandless magic, too! In fact, I don’t doubt they will be fighting each other for the privilege.”
Harry heard the Headmaster shift in his chair. “But I do wonder how Harry met them.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Well, the Potters always were a private family.” mused Mr. Weasley, “The muggle-borns they married in the past were always powerful witches and nothing is really known of them prior to their marrying into the Potters. Perhaps they weren’t really muggle-born but were one of these Atlanteans? And the Potters do have a history of ‘losing’ sons in strange circumstances to adventuring. Perhaps they went to Atlantis and those were just cover stories?”
“Possibly. Possibly,” murmured the older wizard. “Yes, that would explain them seeking the boy out. They were quite distressed with his mother’s sister, as a matter of fact, suggesting the husband, wife, and son should be in a dungeon. I know they were exaggerating Harry’s circumstances, though.”
Harry bristled at the dismissal of his . . . torture . . . at the hands of the Dursleys. He did smile at the thought of them residing in one of the Queen’s prisons, though. Just the thought of them stuck in there made him feel better. Too bad he didn’t know enough magic, yet, to pay them a visit. He was sure there had to be a few spells he could cast that would make their stay more . . . memorable.
“But such familiarity implies they have been in England for some time. And that they knew so little of the wizarding world is troubling. Unless they were verifying what they thought they knew by pretending ignorance.” He sighed. “I can understand that strategy. I would probably do the same, in their shoes.”
There was a long silence as Harry fidgeted. He couldn’t get out now without revealing he had been eavesdropping on them. He wished they would hurry up and go. Thinking about the Dursley’s brought up feelings that always disturbed him. Lately, his reactions to those feeling had been a bit more . . . emphatic. In fact, before coming here he hadn’t thought of them in many months.
“What have you told people when they’ve asked about these newcomers?”
“Only that I can confirm that Harry Potter is going to Hogwarts this year, and that we do have several foreign students attending as well.” Dumbledore paused, then continued, “That is another reason to keep our meetings out of the public view. I don’t want your family to come under scrutiny. Molly wouldn’t like the reporters sneaking around your home and making her guests uncomfortable.”
“Oh! Yes. She certainly wouldn’t,” Mr. Weasley said thoughtfully.
“If you do go out with them in public from now on, I suggest you use a weak notice-me-not spell to distract attention. And I have already strengthened your protection charms on the property, as you know.”
“Yes, yes. Excellent. Thank you, again, Headmaster.”
“Now, then,” Dumbledore paused.
Harry could hear the chair springs creak as he shifted in his chair.
“How have the children adapted to their new wands?”
“Like ducks to water,” Mr. Weasley said jovially. “They’ve worked their way most of the way through the First Year spell-book.”
“Impressive,” the Headmaster said.
“It’s astonishing, really,” he continued, “Sweetie and Harry pick things up almost instinctively, from what I’ve been told, then Hermione is almost always next. The rest follow them.
“Percy and the twins take turns teaching them in-between Quidditch games.” He grinned, “Molly tells me that if it weren’t for Hermione insisting, they’d spend all their time playing Quidditch.” He laughed. “That Scoot just can’t get enough of that game.
“Oh! Speaking of flying,” he suddenly sharpened his tone, “You remember I told you about that Discord bloke? And how he made them all pegasi?”
“Hmm, yes,” the Headmaster said thoughtfully. “A very powerful wizard, indeed. Transfiguration on that scale and for that length of time is quite taxing.”
“Well, earlier today, not long after they floo’d in, Miss Aloo changed herself back into a pegasi! And then, Miss Belle and Harry turned themselves into unicorns! Not pegasi, but unicorns!”
“They did!?” came the Headmaster’s surprised response.
“Oh, yes! You have to see them,” Mr. Weasley said, quite excited, “They are the cutest little things you’ve ever seen!”
There came creaking sounds from the couch and chair as the two stood up.
“Unicorns, you say,” the Headmaster said thoughtfully, his voice fading as he followed the Weasley patriarch into the kitchen.
He heard Mrs. Weasley as she said, “Why, hello Headmaster! I didn’t realize you had come through.”
He didn’t wait for the elevator, he teleported into the back-garden, by the broom-shed where the adults wouldn’t see him. He galloped over to back-garden table where Scootaloo was coaching Ginny, arriving only seconds before the adults exited the kitchen door. He didn’t want them to think, even for a moment, that he had heard them. Twilight would be amazed when he told her what he had heard, he knew. Atlantis! Sheesh.
“Close your eyes, and remember what it felt like to have wings,” Scootaloo half-whispered into the girl’s ear as she hovered beside her. “The pull on your shoulders as the wind rushes through your feathers, your hooves stretched out in front, your tail flying in the breeze as you banked into that turn on the Quidditch field . . . the earthy feel as your hooves hit the ground when you landed and your wings folded up . . . your ears swivelling as your brothers yelled.”
Ginny was nodding her head, a half-smile on her lips.
“Feel that Pegasus magic and pull on it!”
Mrs. Weasley gasped as her daughter suddenly shrank and dropped to all fours. A moment later a filly with a gold splotched dark-green coat and Weasley-red mane and tail floated up beside Scootaloo. “I DID it! I DID it!” she began to sing as she flew circles around the table. “I DID it! I DID it!”
Scootaloo sported a giant, and proud, grin.
The twins were crouched down beside Sweetie Belle, who shook her head. “I don’t think you’re supposed to be pegasi, guys. I seem to remember you had horns before Dis . . .”
“Sweetie!” hissed Apple Bloom, standing by Ron.
“. . . before he turned us all into pegasi,” Sweetie concluded. “You’ll need to use Harry as an example.” She turned to Ron, “And you’re an earth pony, I think.” Ron did not look pleased at that declaration.
“Mum! Dad! LOOK! LOOK! I DID IT!” Ginny shouted excitedly as she flew over to her parents, hovered, then changed back to little girl. And fell, as she was at their head-height when she changed. She barely noticed as she stood and dusted her butt with her hands. “I can change into a Pegasus!” Which she did again, and breathlessly flew back to Scootaloo, who still was grinning just as excitedly. The two flew loops around each other before Scootaloo tapped Ginny with her hoof and hollered, “TAG, YOU’RE IT!” and took off for the orchard. Ron watched enviously as the two pegasi disappeared into the trees.
“Oh, my,” the Headmaster said quietly. “An animagus before she even arrives at Hogwarts! And mere days after getting her wand.” He turned a contemplative eye towards the Weasleys, who were still staring after their little girl.
“Perhaps,” he said softly, “you should consider letting her go to Hogwarts this year. I’m sure an accommodation can be made considering her . . . talent.” He looked off into the orchard where the two fillies could be heard shouting at each other. “And she gets along so well with our guests,” he added softly.
The two adult Weasleys turned their astonished attention to him.
Meanwhile, one twin said to the white unicorn standing beside them, “And you . . .”
“. . . can’t help us?” finished the other.
Sweetie Belle smirked at them, “Not unless you can turn into girls.” She trotted over to Hermione.
The twins turned determined expressions on Harry and headed his way.
Harry looked behind himself before realizing that running would just postpone their attention for only a short time. He sighed. He would get back at Sweetie for abandoning him to them.
The twins had spent hours as pegasi and only minutes as unicorns. He couldn’t do as Scoots had done with Ginny because they hadn’t actually used their horns before Discord changed them.
They did, however, have wands with which they were very proficient. He frowned. Did it matter if they held the wands in their hands or not? After all, the only difference between his human and unicorn forms was that in one he had a magic wielding horn on his head and in the other he held a magic wielding wand in his hand.
He was finding it more than a little difficult to concentrate. The twins had picked him up and put him on the table and were staring at him quite intensely. He almost galloped away when one of them started to lift his tail. “HEY!” he shouted, lunging forward.
Unfortunately, the other twin grabbed him in mid-leap.
“Sorry,” said the first twin, clearly not meaning it. They both started petting him. Which felt oddly soothing. And irritated him greatly. He sat down and glared back at them.
“Come on Harry . . .”
“. . . help us out here.”
He sighed again. “This won’t be easy, like with Ginny. Sweetie is right, you’re unicorns, but you weren’t unicorns very long before he changed you to pegasi.”
“Yeah . . . .” they both grinned happily, remembering. Then they frowned and returned to studying his form.
Harry shook his head. He hadn’t believed Ginny would be able to transform herself into a Pegasus, and yet he had seen her do it just now. The two of them, Scootaloo and Ginny, had been trying for hours after Scootaloo had done it this morning, herself.
Harry had suspected that Scoots might be able to do it when she had suggested trying it when they woke up this morning in Little Whinging. After all, wizards and witches could turn into those animagi, so maybe Scoots could change form too, simply because her native form was a pegasus. It made sense, after all. She didn’t have to spend months and months meditating to discover her “inner” animal. Nor spend additional months studying its physical body so she could perform the transformation without forgetting some vital organ, as the book on the subject had warned.
However, Ginny doing so as well was an entirely different situation. Her native form was a human. Discord had been responsible for changing her into a pegasus, not some innate power inside herself. Unless he had substituted the pegasus form for whatever animal she normally would have been able to transform into as an animagus? That sounded like something sneaky he would do. Simply change the form accessed by her innate ability into that of an Equestrian pegasus, borrowing the template from Scootaloo. Much easier, he suspected, than simply forcing them to transform.
If he had done that, then all she needed was to find the trigger, and Bob’s your uncle! And by forcing the transformation that day, Discord had already shown her magic how to trigger the animagus change. All she had needed to do was remember that trigger.
But how could he use that to help the twins and Ron? He would have suggested remembering the feel of their magic through the horn, but they had never done that. All they had were wands. And if he told them to remember being ponies, all they would remember would be the wings and how it felt to fly!
But then, wands were just the wizards’ way of making horns for themselves, weren’t they? But they held it in their hands, not on their heads. He shook his head again. Was he overthinking things, again?
“Give me your wand, George,” he said. It didn’t matter which of them responded, as long as he handed over his wand.
Puzzled, George held it out to Harry. “Here you go, my good pony!”
Harry grabbed it in his magic and used a sticking charm to put it on George’s head right where a horn should be if he had one. He took a breath. “Okay. Now cast a spell.”
‘George’ was looking cross-eyed up at the wand on his forehead. “Uh, periculum.”
A red spark sputtered from his wand.
Harry said, “There! Can you feel your magic going up into your forehead?”
‘George’ shook his head.
“Keep practicing until you can. Then remember what it felt like as a pony, not flying though. When you were just standing with all four hooves on the ground. Use me as a model, if you have to. Once you’ve got that, just pull on the unicorn magic just like Ginny pulled on her pegasus magic.”
The twins stared at him, then Fred held out his wand. “My turn.”
The adults were looking at the twins as if they were barking mad with their wands stuck to their foreheads and squirting red and green sparks into the air. Ron’s guffaws at their expressions as they tried to “feel” their magic didn’t help. A quick stinging hex from one of the twins put a stop to that, however.
Sweetie Belle was face-hoofing.
At least the twins could cast directional spells, albeit weak ones right now.
Apple Bloom dragged Ron over towards the orchard and set about seeing what she could do to help him “get in touch” with his “inner pony.”
Given that Ginny had tried for hours before succeeding, Harry didn’t expect any results from Hermione, Ron, or the twins until much later in the day, if at all. And he was right. By dinner time, when they left, the twins still had their wands stuck to their foreheads and Ron was scowling darkly enough that Harry was surprised he didn’t create a spontaneous thunderstorm in the kitchen. Maybe it was a good thing he wasn’t a pegasus.
۸- ̰ -۸
The next morning they found the rest of the Quidditch team waiting for them in the Weasley back-garden. Oliver and the girls were watching Ginny fly around with expressions of envy and awe. Apple Bloom, again, had dragged Ron over to the nearest tree in the orchard and was talking to him. Ron still had a sour expression, though.
Sweetie Belle and Harry suffered through the attentions of the three girls hugging and petting them for several minutes before escaping as Scootaloo distracted the girls by explaining what she had told Ginny. Having the red-head on the spot to tell them exactly what it felt like the first time she transformed would probably be a huge help.
Surprisingly, though, it was Ron who actually made the first transformation of the morning — into an earth pony with an orange coat and Weasley-red mane and tail. Apple Bloom had made him take his shoes off and then stand beside the apple tree with his hands on the trunk and feet in the dirt while she coached him through it. He had surprised his mother by galloping inside and jumping into her arms.
It was late-morning when Alicia finally made the transformation. Spurred by her success, first Oliver, and then Angelina, mastered the transformation. The quidditch players, as well as Ginny and Scootaloo, took off for the family practice field almost immediately afterwards.
Harry tried to help the twins. They had, apparently, slept with their wands stuck to their foreheads. Not that that had helped, Harry was sure. Unfortunately, the twins spent nearly as much time trying to hex each other with their wands on their foreheads as they did trying to transform.
Meanwhile, Apple Bloom was showing Ron proper bucking technique. Of course, to do that she had to quicken a few trees into having an early harvest. “Thay won’t be as tasty as when we let them grow naturally, but Ah think it’s worth it,” she had explained. “But afore you can buck a tree, ya gotta find the tree’s sweet spot,” she said, walking around the first tree and examining it carefully. “Thar,” she said pointing. “Do ya see that spot?”
Ron squinted and shook his head. Apple Bloom made him walk around the tree several times until he finally gave a hesitant nod.
Harry thought Mrs. Weasley’s expression was hilarious when she saw Apple Bloom buck nearly three bushels of apples into three baskets under the tree with nary a single miss. Watching her jaw drop even farther when her son, after several attempts, did the same thing a few minutes later to a different tree had him rolling on the ground, laughing.
Harry and Sweetie Belle gathered the six baskets and brought them back to the table for everyone to sample at lunch, although Ron managed to down quite a few apples when his mother wasn’t looking.
He seemed quite happy with himself. After all, as he said later, flying was nice, and being able to cast spells as a pony might be fun, but his animagus could actually do something useful!
Shortly before lunch, Hermione successfully made the transition into a unicorn with a black coat and bushy-brown mane and flowing brown tail. Then the three unicorns tried to help the twins. Harry expected Hermione’s explaining what it felt like would have them into unicorn form rather quickly. He was wrong.
It was late afternoon when the twins finally mastered the transformation spell. No sooner did one transform, than the other followed so closely it almost looked simultaneous. Watching the two twins, with magenta coats that clashed horribly with the Weasley-red mane and tail, kicking up their heels and racing around the garden while shooting spells at each other was quite entertaining. The twins spent the rest of the afternoon practicing casting spells as unicorns. And using each other as targets.
That took them a little getting used to as they kept trying to move their horns as if they were wands, making both unicorns a bit dizzy after a while. Hermione had already learned that lesson, and tried to warn them. Naturally, they didn’t listen to the bossy unicorn.
۸- ̫ -۸