After dinner, the First Years all gathered together and started tackling their classes’ assignments. History of Magic, naturally, was ignored.
Charms wouldn’t be all that difficult, Harry decided. The explanations in the books — Magical Theory and The Standard Book of Spells —plus what Professor Flitwick had covered in class made it rather simple, actually. The fact that he had used the Book Manifestation Spell earlier in the month to walk through all his books had given him a sufficient grounding in the basics for almost everything. All he needed now was to refresh his memory a bit and look for things he might have missed. He carefully arranged his books, parchment, and quill so he could take notes while he was book-walking, if necessary.
It was only when Sweetie Belle said, “Harry, you have got to teach me that spell!” to his Magical Theory book that the others looked over. Sweetie Belle was leaning over Harry’s book. The amount of homework — or was it dorm-work? — assigned had been considerably more than what they had ever experienced back in Ponyville. If Harry was correct in book-walking’s advantages over mere reading, it would certainly be worth a try. And, it actually looked like it might be fun.
Hermione, sitting beside her, was the first to notice. She gasped in shock and moved closer, almost knocking Sweetie Belle over as the book consumed the girl's attention. “Harry?” she exclaimed incredulously.
A tiny voice came from the book as the others began to crowd around. “Yes, Hermione?” His voice had almost no bass to it and was very tinny and difficult to hear unless you were close.
“Why?” she yelled at the book, “How?” That attracted the attention of several older students.
There, inside a small box on the page, with the text squeezed around it, was Harry, in full colour, looking up and out at them.
“Well, as Twilight told me, ‘you would be amazed at the things you learn when you’re in a book!’” he said somewhat smugly in his tinny voice. “Things are just . . . clearer. You get a better understanding of what the author intended. The spells are just so much easier to follow. And you remember things better. Not to mention that usually there aren’t any distractions.”
“Out,” she ordered him. “Now.”
Harry sighed. “Yeah. Well, I’m done in here now.”
Suddenly he was sitting in his chair.
“AHHH!” screamed the four Gryffindors closest to him.
“AHHH!” screamed Harry in response, causing a few other smaller shrieks to echo around the room as the more excitable students screamed in reaction to the other screams.
After a few moments of heavy breathing with his hand on his chest, Harry said, “What is wrong with you people. You’d think you’d never seen magic before!”
“Harry,” said Hermione sweetly. Sweetie Belle hurriedly dodged out of her way as the other girl inexorably moved closer to the boy.
Harry looked at Hermione and swallowed nervously. Her eyes were a bit wider, and her hair was bushier, than normal. Harry remembered when they were in Diagon Alley and him thinking she was like Twilight. Well, her current expression and state made him wonder if they were secretly siblings. Although how that would work across dimensions, he wasn’t sure. But siblings. Yeah. Definitely a possibility.
“How did you do that?” she asked calmly with the focused stare and forceful tone of someone who will not be denied. She ran her hands along the lapels of his robes just below his neck. She had the air of someone just moments from going completely berserk if they did not get what they wanted.
And then she pulled him up by his lapels until his face was only centimetres from hers. She had a death grip on his robes. “Could you tell me that? Please?” she said through gritted teeth.
“Um, it’s the Book Manifestation Spell, Hayscartes' Method. Twilight taught me back in Ponyville,” he said, more than a little fearfully. “I told everyone about it last month, remember?”
“Book Manifestation Spell,” she repeated slowly, her grip intensifying. He had never suspected she had such strength in her hands. It must be from all those heavy books she had carried around before she had gotten the feather-weighted rucksack. “You said you found it much easier to learn. You didn’t say you would actually be in the book.”
Harry glanced at the other students now surrounding them. About half, mostly the more senior students, had similar, though not so frightening, intense expressions. The Equestrians were watching, stunned at the actions of the normally quiet and reserved witch. He nodded rapidly. “Ah, right,” he squeaked out quickly. “Takes a bit of power, but it’s actually rather easy to learn. I can teach you, if you want.” He smiled at her, hoping that would get her to loosen her grip. He was sure he was starting to turn purple.
She let go of his robes, dropping him back down into his chair. She patted his robes, straightening his lapels. “Yes, Harry,” she said quietly. “I would like that very much.” Her eyes were still far too wide open, and her hair, somehow was even bushier than before, blotting out everything from his view except her face. She gave him a thin smile that had absolutely no humour in it. And the promise of much violence if he didn’t do what he had promised.
Harry looked at the table, searching for his quill and paper.
She saw where he was looking. Without moving a centimeter, she produced her own paper and quill and let them drop on the table-top in front of Harry. “Here,” she said.
It took him only a few minutes to sketch out the memorized spell and its structure.
Less than five minutes later Hermione was shouting in a tinny voice, “YES, YES, YES!” and jumping in circles inside the page of her textbook. She ran off the page and deeper into the book. It was kinda of unfair how quickly she got the spell down, Harry thought, considering how long it had taken him. But she was a very quick study — and very determined to master every spell she heard of. Her learning to teleport was a good example of that. The girl had an iron will.
Those closest to the book later swore that they heard mad laughter coming out. The cohort exchanged uncertain looks and all decided not to cross the intellectual girl — ever.
Ron looked at him and said. “She’s brilliant. Scary as bloody hell, but brilliant.”
Most of the rest of those at the table nodded or murmured agreement.
Harry spent the rest of the evening teaching the spell to other students, and coaching them in its execution. Who, in turn, after mastering it and trying it out, taught others. By the time the First Years were sent to bed, almost all Gryffindor Third Year and above students had conquered the spell. That left the common room oddly empty and quiet, with open books scattered everywhere. Periodically, a student would be ejected. The pauses in-between became longer as their control over the spell improved. The upper years adapted the quickest, having the larger magical skills, and power.
There were a few students who were keeping an eye on things, just in case someone had a problem. And a dozen or two students, including Ron, still trying to perfect the spell.
Harry was sure that by tomorrow evening, everyone in Gryffindor would be using the spell. And he was more than a little disgruntled to realize that he was the only one of the First Years not to complete today’s class assignments.
۸- ̰ -۸
The trunk tour, after their early nine o’clock curfew, was short — there wasn’t that much to show, after all. To say that Dean, Seamus, and Neville were impressed was an understatement. Ron, still trying the Book Manifestation spell, stayed up in their room with a sour expression after he said, “I’ve seen it, already.”
“This bathroom is huge!” exclaimed Seamus. “That’s not a tub, that’s almost a swimming pool!”
“I know,” said Harry, “And it’s called a hot tub.” He touched a button on the side of the tub and that water started bubbling. “The girls insisted. It’s much better than the old washtub we used to use to scrub the tree-sap off each other.”
The other three turned and stared at him.
“Er, as ponies,” Harry quickly said, feeling his face heat up as he blushed.
They continued to stare.
“Hey,” he said, somewhat desperately, “we were little kids, then!”
They continued to stare. Dean, Neville, and Seamus, exchanged looks with wide eyes at realizing Harry and the fillies had become animagi at very young ages, and not just recently. Dean finally gave him a small nod.
“Moving along,” Harry said, “Here’s the kitchen.” He led them out of the bathroom.
After the tour, shaking his head in exasperation, he sat down and started to compose a letter.
۸-_-۸
Dear Twilight,
Hogwarts is weird! Like Canterlot Castle, there are staircases everywhere, over a hundred and forty-two. There are normal wide, sweeping ones and narrow, rickety ones. Unlike Canterlot, or our castle, though, some have a vanishing step halfway up that you have to remember to jump, and others don’t always lead to the same floor or place as they did the day before. There is a central stairwell, with thirteen staircases, in the middle of the castle. Those stairs are the most difficult to manage, as they randomly switch where they go throughout the day, sometimes even while you are on them! Then there are doors that don’t open unless you ask politely, or tickle them in exactly the right place, and doors that aren’t really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending, and other doors that pretend to be walls. It is very hard to remember where anything is, because it all seems to move around a lot, even the rooms don’t stay put. Plus, the people in the portraits move! They just up and walk out of their frame into another! They’re always visiting each other.
There are big metal suits of armour everywhere, it seems. The twins have told me that the suits of armour walk around at night — and sometimes during the day. So, you can’t depend on either the portraits or the suits of armour as landmarks to find your way.
There are “secret” passages everywhere. But how you can call something secret if everyone in your House knows where the “secret” passages are?
And then there’s Peeves. He’s a poltergeist. And he won’t leave us alone. He’s always pelting us with chalk bits, rotten fruit, smelly smoke bombs, and just about anything else he can think of to make us miserable. And where he got that bucket of tree sap I can’t figure out! Fortunately, he missed us and took out a bunch of Hufflepuffs, instead. Honestly, as Hermione said, I don’t see why the professors let him stay! Do you have any books that might tell us how to keep him away? As it is, we have to use our shield spells almost every time we are between classes. Which, I suppose, is good practice, at least.
There are the ghosts here! That’s right, ghosts. See-through, walk-through, wander-through-walls ghosts! Each House has its own ghosts, plus there’s a bunch of others that wander around. Gryffindor’s ghost is Sir Nicholas de Mimsy, but everyone calls him Nearly Headless Nick on account of how the headsman who was supposed to behead him didn’t do a good job. There’s a girl’s bathroom on the second floor that’s haunted! We even had a ghost for our History of Magic class today!
Do you have any books on ghosts? Could you send us a couple?
Worse than Peeves is Argus Filch, the caretaker. He has a cat named Mrs. Norris. She’s scrawny and dust-coloured, with bulging, lamp-like eyes just like Filch’s. She patrols the corridors for him! If she sees you break the tiniest part of a rule, off she gallops for Filch, who always appears, wheezing, moments’ later. They both know the “secret” passageways better than anyone, and pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. Nobody likes him, and many tudents want to punt Mrs. Norris out a window.” And after meeting the two, I can certainly agree. Again, why do they let someone who so obviously hates children in the school? It makes no sense!
Finally, there is a forest right beside the school! It’s closer than the Everfree is to Apple Bloom’s house. Unfortunately, we were told, it has dark creatures like giant spiders and werewolves (people who turn into wolves once a month during the full moon and attack you) and so we’re forbidden to go into it.
I don’t see why they say it’s dangerous, though. The werewolves are wolves only once a month and giant spiders don’t sound all that terrible — how big could they be? Can’t be much bigger than the star-spiders, or maybe Fluttershy’s pet Fuzzy Legs, I would guess. Certainly not bigger than a pumpkin! Scootaloo wants to see just how big those spiders are. Do you know any anti-spider spells?
The forest doesn’t have any cockatrices, hydras, chimeras, timber-wolves, or even any stellar monsters like Ursa Majors or Minors.
Bunch of worrywarts, if you ask me.
Oh, and while we were outside the castle and looking at the forest (no, we didn’t go into it, Percy was with us), we sorta accidentally let everyone with us (mostly Gryffindors, but there were several students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw with us) know that we could turn into ponies.
Such screeching you never heard! I managed to escape their clutches for a while, but then I was caught. The girls just couldn’t seem to let go of us. They kept saying how cute and adorable we were, and also how fluffy. On the other hand, ear scratches are to die for. I thought Scootaloo was going to pass out when they started scratching between her wings.
Oh, by the way, that teacher I said was a ghost? Well, Scootaloo accidentally sent him on to his “next great adventure,” as the Headmaster said. The silly git didn’t know he was dead. So, now we don’t have a History of Magic teacher until they find a replacement.
Classes are fun and boring. The magic is fun, all the notetaking is not. Sweetie Belle and I each earned points because we were the only ones who could use our magic to take notes. I’ve included a copy of our schedule with a few notes about the teachers on the last page of this letter.
And the Book Manifestation spell, Hayscartes’ Method? No-one here had ever heard of such a thing and boy did they make a fuss when they saw me use it! I spent most of the evening teaching it to the other Gryffindors — and now I’m behind on my assignments. Guess I’ll get up early and do them then.
Oh, and before I forget, at the welcoming feast when we arrived, the Headmaster said, “the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death.” What is up with that? Doesn’t he know that that’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull? I’m surprised there isn’t a queue of students waiting to go to the third floor! I did manage to talk the fillies into not having a go at it until later in the week.
Love, Harry.
P.S. By the way, we tried the floo-network in the trunks. While we can move between the ones here without a problem, we can’t access Apple Bloom’s trunk in Little Whinny. We decided we’ll leave it there. We really don’t need it here because the girls are all sharing one room anyway and the two trunks in the witches dormitory are enough should anypony want some alone time. Or a good soak in the tubs, as the dorms only have showers.
۸- ̰ -۸
Harry and his girl friends were finally here, Dumbledore mused, as he prepared for bed. And they had already shaken the school. First it was “helping” Binns to his next great adventure, then it was revealing their animagus talents. Yes, indeed, it was going to be an interesting year at Hogwarts.
He had to shake his head at the thought of their “awakened” talents.
He had thought that this Discord chap was simply very powerful.
At least, that was what he thought until the children had all transformed into their animagi.
That had altered his perception. What if, instead, the wizard had simply pulled their animagus talents to the surface? There was the Homorphus Charm, which forced an animagus to revert, could there be a charm to do the opposite? He had been researching that possibility since the children had shown it was an animagus talent and not a simple transformation, although he expected the search to bear no fruit. If a simple spell could bring about an animagus transformation, surely someone would have already discovered it? Unfortunately, not enough was known about how that magic worked.
It had to be more than just a spell, though, as he had concluded late last month. The caster had to know in advance that the wizard or witch could transform, and then to divine what that form was.
For Discord to be able to “see” the animagus in a person suggested that he had an intimate knowledge of how the animagus magic worked in the first place in order to separate it from the blur of a wizard’s magic. That was a level of knowledge that was breath-taking in its implications.
It wouldn’t require a tremendous level of power to force the transformation, just knowledge, precision, and control. And he had forced fourteen wizards and witches into their forms, simultaneously, when they had no prior knowledge of their forms! He had circumvented what normally took years of study by a wizard to find and understand their animagus form, and done it in a moment. That implied a very thorough knowledge of a tremendous variety of creatures — something that would take decades of study.
But there hadn’t been a variety of creatures at the Weasley’s home, only ponies.
For that many wizards and witches to be the same animal, beggared the imagination. Yet, here they were, all ponies — it should be impossible. He shook his head tiredly.
His eyes widened in surprise at a new thought. This Discord’s knowledge of the animagus magic must be complete and total. He had not only “seen” their animagus forms well enough to pull them to the surface without harming the wizards and witches, but he had also changed them! He had changed their animagus forms into ponies! That’s why they were all variations on a pony animagus.
He had the power and knowledge to change a fundamental aspect of a wizard’s or witch’s magic.
Dumbledore couldn’t even calculate the power or skill to do such a thing.
He wasn’t sure which was more worrying, an immensely powerful wizard, or just a powerful wizard with a fundamental understanding of magic that no other wizard had ever achieved.
In either case, he was a wizard that could easily match the Headmaster, if he so desired. It would be better to avoid any disagreements with the wizard, and to try to stay on his good side. Dumbledore smiled to himself. He had decades of experience at that.
And then frowned at what this insight might mean about the relative power of the other Atlanteans. The thought of an entire nation with powers nearly equal to his was daunting.
۸- ̰ -۸
At breakfast the next morning there were two main topics. The first was a continuation of yesterday’s furor over Gryffindor House’s technicolour talking pony animagi, underscored by their involvement with banishing Professor Binns and apparently knowing actual princesses. It soon gave over to the second topic, which was the quickly spreading rumour about book-walking — that is, the Book Manifestation Spell — involving Harry Potter and, by extension, the mysterious three foreigners.
It took only one demonstration by Percy to Penelope Clearwater, the Ravenclaw Prefect, to bring the Great Hall into chaos. Percy had walked over to the other Prefect, sitting with her friends, to show off the new spell. Listening to his tinny explanation from the book only long enough to hear Harry Potter’s name, Penelope had almost galloped straight over to Harry. The three Ravenclaw Fifth Year students who had been only casually listening, at first, had excitedly and quickly followed her.
Curious, several other Ravenclaws, and the Hufflepuffs seated on the table beside them, had looked at the abandoned book and had seen Percy pacing in it while exclaiming in a tinny voice about the virtues of book-walking. Amid loud exclamations of, “In a book!” “You learn faster?” “Harry Potter!?” they had grabbed their friends and followed the original four.
Percy, realizing his audience had fled, stopped the spell. Seeing a puzzled Percy reappear beside his book while his previous audience was making a beeline for the Gryffindor First Years, other students began to put two and two together. In short order, it was a stampede of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students over to Harry, all demanding they be taught this incrediblyvaluable spell.
It was just as a third Ravenclaw witch was trying to outbid the previous two by offering to have three of his children — no matter how many times they had to try — if he would only teach her that spell immediately, that Professor Flitwick walked up with Professor McGonagall.
“Quiet! Quiet!” ordered McGonagall. “What is going on here?”
“Book-walking . . . .”
“. . . in a book . . . .”
“. . . learn faster . . . .”
“I must know that spell!” came the chorus of answers as everyone tried to speak at the same time.
“Stop!” came the authoritative command.
The Professor looked at the group of Ravenclaws centred on her First Years. She sighed softly at seeing just who the focus of their attention was. “Mr. Potter. Do please explain.”
While McGonagall had seemed a bit cheerier without the Headmaster at the Head Table this morning — although she had glared at his empty chair — her expression now seemed to combine both exasperation and regret. Which was more than a bit confusing to Harry.
“Er,” Harry said, staring wide-eyed at the Ravenclaws pressed close behind him. They had even managed to crowd the fillies away, which was not pleasing the three Equestrians. Scootaloo was looking ready to do violence and Sweetie Belle had her wand out.
“Give him room, please,” Professor McGonagall said to the Ravenclaws, making shooing motions with her hands. They reluctantly took a step back. The fillies immediately reclaimed their positions and glared at the other girls. Their glares declared to all that Harry was their friend, Harry was happy to see, even though most of his attention was on his Head of House.
The other girls present took the message slightly differently, but the end result message was the same. Messing with him would lead to unpleasant consequences for the interlopers. Harry Potter was theirs.
“I guess it’s about the Book Manifestation Spell,” Harry said timidly.
Professor Flitwick perked up, “Book Manifestation Spell?”
Harry nodded. “Yes, sir. It’s a spell, it uses Hayscartes' Method, that lets you go into a book. Twilight taught it to me.”
“Into a book?” repeated the diminutive professor. Professor McGonagall’s eyebrows had managed to meet her hairline.
“Umm. Yes, sir,” Harry said nervously. “Everything is much clearer when you’re in the book rather than simply reading it. As Twilight says, ‘You’d be surprised at what you learn when you’re in a book.’”
Professor McGonagall noticed that many of the upper year Gryffindors were nodding in agreement.
Professor Sprout had joined her compatriots.
“And you know this spell?”
“Yes, sir. I asked Twilight to teach it to me when I learned I was going to be coming here and she wouldn’t be teaching me magic, anymore. I figured, if I couldn’t have her, the Princess of Magic, to answer my questions, then the next best thing would be to get inside the book itself.”
“Would you show us this spell?” Professor Flitwick said. He looked as interested as the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students, even Professors McGonagall and Sprout seemed intrigued. The nearby Gryffindors, all of whom had learned the spell last night, snickered. Again, Professor McGonagall noticed their reactions. From her brief frown, Harry suspected she knew they had already learned the spell.
Harry shrugged. He picked up his rucksack and pulled out his Herbology textbook. He moved his plate aside and laid the book down, open to the first chapter. He stared at it a moment, then abruptly he wasn’t there anymore. The Ravenclaws all gasped.
The three professors noticed that he hadn’t bothered to pull out his wand.
“Hi, Professor McGonagall!” Harry called out in his tinny voice, waving his hand from a box on the page.
Those who hadn’t seen Percy in his book, were amazed to see Harry’s demonstration.
“My word!” Professor McGonagall said, putting a hand on her chest. Professor Flitwick jumped up onto the bench into the space Harry had vacated and stared at Harry’s colourful image.
“Hi, Professor Flitwick!” He waved again. “Being inside the book just makes things easier to understand.” His tinny voice was difficult to hear. “You can pick up nuances of words that don’t come across when you simply read the text or look at the diagrams. It’s like the difference between reading about being levitated and actually being levitated. And there aren’t any irritating distractions, you can devote your full attention to learning.”
The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were muttering in the background. Half were trying to shush the other half to hear what was being said, and making more noise than the ones they were trying to hush. The closest ones were silent and stared in disbelief. The ones farther back were pushing forward and trying to look over the shoulders of the ones in front.
The professor nodded his head. “What an unusual spell! Would you show me the spell?”
“Can I finish breakfast first?” Harry asked plaintively.
Professor Flitwick looked around and chuckled. “I believe we can manage that.” He started making shooing motions with his hands. “All right, that’s all for now. Get back to your breakfasts. Don’t forget you have classes, soon.” He grinned at his Ravenclaws. “I promise I’ll take a good look at the spell, and if it’s as useful as it sounds, I’ll make sure everyone gets a chance to learn it.”
Somewhat mollified, the crowd began to disperse and discuss the ramifications of using the spell. The Slytherins tried to pretend to be above it all, but Harry could see their interest perk up as the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs who had seen the demonstration explained what the fuss was about. Two of the Slytherin girls and one of the boys looked as if they were tempted to come over to the Gryffindor table immediately rather than wait for professorial approval.
Penelope was making a beeline for Percy, followed by several of her friends. She, clearly, wasn’t going to be waiting for any professor’s all-clear before learning that charm.
After Professor Flitwick hopped off the bench seat, Harry returned from the book.
“As soon as you finish your breakfast, come see me at the head table,” the professor said to Harry. “I’ll give you an excused-slip for Professor Sprout if we need to.”
Harry nodded, “Thank you, sir.” And turned back to his breakfast.
Not too much later, showing the Charms professor how to cast the spell and then walking him through his first book didn’t take much time. It also helped that he and the fillies had quickly finished their breakfasts. An excuse-slip for being late to Herbology wasn’t needed, although the quartet did have to run to catch up with the other Gryffindors.
As he had told everyone the night before, the spell was rather simple and all you needed was enough power to do it. Almost anyone with a wand could do it, they had discovered last night. Having a wand made spell-casting much easier, Harry had found, than just trying to cast spells without. He thought that having a horn was easier than using a wand, however. After all, the horn was directly connected to the body’s nervous system, mana-channels, and skeletal structure. That beat a hand-held wand by every measure you cared to make.
The other professors listened intently, although Professor Snape seemed to think it was some kind of attention-seeking stunt, from what Harry overheard. Professor Quirrell seemed more interested in Harry than the spell itself, however.
He also explained the “safeties” Twilight had added into the spell, as he had to the Gryffindors last night. Things such as you couldn’t get trapped inside and if there was anything in the book that could pose a danger to the spell-caster, the spell would not work. Instead, a temporary red tint would appear over the book as a warning. Plus, a basic part of the spell was that anything invoked inside the book could not manifest outside it.
In addition, you would be automatically ejected from the book if you fell asleep or unconscious for any reason, if the book was moved, or if some catastrophe were to befall the book — such as fire, or something falling on it. Exiting the spell usually placed you right where you had been sitting or standing. If that place was blocked by something, you would exit to a nearby location where there was actually room for you to fit.
“Five points to Gryffindor,” Professor Flitwick had said, “for bringing such an interesting spell to my attention.”
Professor Snape had rolled his eyes in disgust.
۸-_-۸