“The three witches had at first thought that Fluffy,” she shook her head in disbelief, “was their Princess Celestia’s pet, ‘Woofy,’ who had somehow wandered away from his guard-post at the entrance to Tartarus — apparently the Greeks were actually describing a place in Atlantis where they keep dangerous monsters.” She gave him an incredulous look. “A cerberus as a pet? Woofy?” She shook her head. “This Princess Celestia is as bad as Hagrid!”
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows.
“They were returning from Astronomy class and the Central stairs ‘conspired’ — their word — to abandon them on the third floor. Mrs. Norris saw them and alerted Argus,” she nodded at the squib who smiled and stroked the cat in his lap, whispering praises in her ear as she purred loud enough to interfere with hearing others speak.
He looked up at the Headmaster. “They should be given a detention!” he demanded. “They’ve admitted to breaking the rules!”
The Headmaster smiled at him, “As they were returning from Astronomy class, I don’t believe they can be accused of deliberately disobeying instructions,” he said.
“Bah!” declared Mr. Filch, “You let them get away with everything,” he said grumpily. “Always coddling them. They need a good dose of discipline!” He scowled. “Not like the old days . . . ,” his voice faded into quiet murmuring as he hunched over his cat and stared at the table-top, mumbling imprecations.
Minerva sighed. “Anyway, correctly thinking that Argus wouldn’t believe they were returning from Astronomy class,” she glared at the oblivious squib still petting his cat, “they ran and found themselves trapped at the end of the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side. Naturally,” she rolled her eyes, “they opened the locked door to hide from Argus, and hid inside listening for Argus to leave.”
She shook her head. “Fluffy was sleeping, at first, and it was dark, so they didn’t immediately notice him. Miss Belle told Percy that once the girls decided that the cerberus wasn’t their princess’ pet, ‘Woofy,’ and wasn’t interested in tummy rubs or ear scratches, they left, ‘rather quickly,’”
His Deputy looked up at him. “I told you that mentioning anything about that corridor was a terrible idea. A simple notice-me-not with an alarm charm would have sufficed.” Before he could object, she added, “And a simple amulet and key would have allowed Hagrid the access he needs.” She frowned, “As it is, Argus has already sent fifteen students to detentions because they were in that particular corridor.”
Filch looked up and smiled, then muttered more praises to his cat.
“Almost all the detentions were Gryffindors,” Professor Snape snarked nastily, getting a glare in response from the Head of Gryffindor House.
“We’re lucky no one has been maimed or killed,” she concluded.
“Hmm, yes. Perhaps so,” was all Dumbledore could say in response. “I’m rather surprised so many students would disobey my instructions.” A slight frown creased his forehead as he considered this.
The professors at the table rolled their eyes and exchanged glances.
“You didn’t forbid them to go there, Albus,” Filius said. “You told them not to go there unless they wished a horrible death. That’s the difference between an instruction and a warning.”
“Yes, perhaps a notice-me-not should be employed,” the Headmaster mused quietly.
His eyes twinkled as he looked around the table once more. “Anyone else have something to contribute regarding our unique Gryffindors?”
Madam Pince spoke next. “The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs are quite taken with them.”
Filius raised his eyebrows in surprise. Apparently, his Prefects hadn’t told him of this development. Nor had he noticed himself. Sprout didn’t seem as surprised.
“That ‘Book Manifestation Spell’ has led them to joining the Gryffindors in the library in the hopes of picking up any other useful spells the foreigners might be willing to share,” the librarian went on. “And not just the First Years, alone.
“It makes it a bit noisy at times, but it’s almost always related to studies and not horsing around, so it’s bearable up to a point.” She paused and thought a moment. “The problem is that the Library isn’t set up for large groups.” She looked up at the Headmaster. “Do you think the house-elves could open up a door from the library to one of the unused classrooms just outside the library? Perhaps two? On either side of the entrance? I would like to set aside an area for a large group to use where they won’t interfere with the upper-year students who are trying to study for their OWLs or NEWTs. Or provide a quieter space for those students studying for their tests.”
Eyes twinkling, the Headmaster said, “I’d be happy to task them with that. The new rooms will be ready by Monday.”
“With one wall a window on each so I may keep an eye on them,” she added hopefully.
The old wizard nodded agreeably.
Outside of praise for how hard working and polite this particular year’s Gryffindors were, there was nothing more specific about them. The conversation then drifted over to the other Houses’ First Years. And then to more mundane matters.
۸-_-۸
Saturday morning started off cheerfully enough. Harry woke as he heard Seamus say, “Oh, thank god! I’m a boy again!” Dean and Ron quickly echoed him, relief evident in their voices.
“And we’re girls, again,” Hermione declared, having just stepped out of Harry’s trunk with Scootaloo. “Except Sweetie and Bloom,” she added as they started to appear on the trunk elevator. “I think they’ll take longer to change back because they were closer to Neville and Sweetie’s cauldron.”
Harry sighed, and said in a tone higher than normal, “Yeah. I get that.” He was still a girl. A resigned soprano sigh from Neville’s bed announced that he, too, was still a girl.
Most of the Gryffindor Firsties were back to their normal gender. Only Harry, Neville, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were still reversed. By the time breakfast was over, first Apple Bloom, and then Harry, had reverted to their normal gender.
It was definitely related to how much smoke they had been exposed to and/or inhaled. The farther away one was, the sooner one returned to normal, it appeared. Now that it was over, the First Years’ began to regard the whole incident as a grand lark — they all agreed that using the toilets was quite a strange experience.
The twins called it a great prank, which seriously worried the members of the other Houses. The twins were especially pleased to hear the details on timing and rushed off after hurriedly finishing breakfast. Except for eating in the Great Hall, they were not seen for the rest of the weekend. That this left most of the student body at Hogwarts troubled — and all the professors — would be an understatement. The Slytherins were seen practicing food-based poison-detection charms for the rest of the weekend. An activity which quickly spread to the other Houses.
Several impromptu classes were set up that morning in the common rooms for the older, more experienced students to teach the younger ones the necessary charms.
And in the Gryffindor Common Room, prominently displayed beside the entrance, appeared a new sign. In big print, visible from across the room, it said:
۸-ꞈ-۸
ATTENTION ALL GRYFFINDORS!
1) Students are not allowed to ask ghosts if they are dead. It is rude.
2) Students are not allowed to exorcize or assist local ghosts to their next great adventure without ADVANCE permission from the Headmaster.
..a) Yes, this includes Peeves, no matter how aggravating he may be.
۸- ̫ -۸
There was much snickering on the way to breakfast.
The twins again hailed Sweetie Belle’s and Neville’s potion as a great prank, reinforcing the worries of the members of the other Houses. At dinner that evening, even the professors were seen surreptitiously casting detection charms on their dinners and drinks.
Unfortunately, as everyone later discovered, such detection charms were designed to find poisons. As in, substances that caused temporary or permanent harm to the ingester. Temporarily changing one’s gender, it seemed, was not considered a poison by those charms as it didn’t impair or alter a person’s ability to reason or function. And, except for the surprise of the change, it didn’t emotionally manipulate them in any way, either.
After learning the food scanning charms, the Gryffindor Firsties spent most of Saturday morning re-reading and correcting their weekend assignments — or at least that’s what the more studious of them did. The others played games while they waited for the potion to wear off the last two victims. To everyone’s relief, at mid-morning first Neville, and then ten minutes later, Sweetie Belle returned to their original gender.
Urged on by the twins — betting may have been involved — the pegasi challenged the Ravenclaw Quidditch team to a game, with the time-limit of lunch. They called themselves the Power Pony Pegasi. This time, one would be a goal keeper, two were beaters and two were chasers. They would forego having a Seeker as Scootaloo had begged off. As thrilling as it was to chase the snitch when it appeared, she wanted to fly and stretch her wings. She had decided it was too boring just flying in circles for an hour or more trying to find a hiding snitch. It was far more fun to be in the thick of the scrum.
She had tricks she had seen Dash do that she wanted to see if she could do them, too.
“But I haven’t finished Ghostly Spells, yet!” Hermione complained as they dragged her by one hand out of the castle as the Quidditch game was being organized.
“But don’t you want to see how many spells you can cast as a unicorn?” Harry interrupted her rant.
She stopped dead, jerking her hand from his, and stood still, staring at the forest. “Oh!” she said softly. And then transformed into a unicorn. “Let’s see,” she mumbled, chewing her lower lip and staring up at the tip of her horn. “I’ve already done lumos, nox,” her horn lit up and went out as she named the charms, “verimillious, periculum,” green and red sparks showered forth. “Alohomora, colloportus,” Harry heard the doors behind them click and clack, “and reparo.” Somewhere to the side of them, something went click! “Those were easy.” She sighed.
Harry nodded, as the non-ponies stared.
“I’m gonna check out that Whomping Willow,” Apple Bloom said. “I ain’t never heard of a tree like that.” She stared off at it at the edge of the lawn. “It might be fun to play with. Sorta like dodgeball without worrying about bustin’ or losing the balls.” Ron looked conflicted for a moment as he watched her trot off in that direction.
The other three ponies slowly walked across the lawn. The remaining Gryffindors either headed over to watch the Quidditch game or followed the ponies. Ron had made his decision and was headed over to the Quidditch pitch.
Hermione would say a spell’s name and the three unicorns would try to cast it. They became as proficient at the finite incantatem counter-charm in pony form as they were as wizard and witches. Harry contributed a few charms and jinxes he had learned from his book Curses and Counter-curses. Seeing a bald pony was shocking and they quickly decided to never cast that one on a pony ever again. However, the other students around them thought it was hilarious. Especially when the hair-growing charm gave Harry two-foot-long fur before they could stop it.
It took several sets of baldness and hair growing before they finally timed it so that he merely looked a bit scruffy instead of a giant oblong ball of hair that you couldn’t tell the front from the back.
Harry thought Seamus was about to have an accident, he was laughing so hard.
It was when Apple Bloom started playing with the Whomping Willow — playing dodge the swinging branch — that things took a down-turn. The others had stopped just out of the way of the flailing branches.
Besides trying to hit anything that came close to it, Apple Bloom discovered a little known fact about the Whomping Willow that had escaped previous years’ Hogwarts’ students. The tree also lobbed blobs of sap if you annoyed it long enough. Apparently, it used the sap to slow down anything close and make it easier to hit. Or at least chase away the nuisance. And it was rather good at targeting, they discovered, to their dismay!
Apple Bloom got hit by several good-sized sticky splashes, each at least the size of Harry’s fist as a person, before she could dart out of range. Unfortunately, the tree had seemingly decided that the bystanders were somehow involved and manged to score a few hits on Harry, Hermione, and Sweetie Belle — and a few other unfortunate Gryffindor wizards and witches. Pretty good for a tree that didn’t have eyes! Harry suspected its roots picked up the vibrations created whenever any of them moved.
“Ah, ponyfeathers!” swore Apple Bloom, accompanied by similar sounds of distress from the other ponies. “This is your fault, Sweetie, ya just had to jinx us didn’t you?” She stared at the sap-drenched fur on her back, one side, and one leg. “If’n I’d knowed it could do that I woulda paid more attention!” She changed back to a person. And yelled, “HORSEFEATHERS!” She changed back, but it was too late. Her robes had already soaked up a good portion of the sap.
“Maybe the scourgify charm?” suggested Hermione, willing to let Apple Bloom be the experimental guinea pig.
Apple Bloom sighed. “Why not?” She held out her sap-soaked left-rear leg. “Try a small bit, first.”
Hermione carefully aimed her horn and whispered, “scourgify.”
“Celestia!” shouted Apple Bloom, leaping away.
“It didn’t hurt, did it?” asked Hermione, terrified she had hurt her friend.
“No,” Bloom said slowly, sitting and examining her leg carefully. “But it felt really, really weird.”
With Harry’s and Hermione’s help, it took only a few minutes to clean her up.
“Well,” the yellow pony said, “Stings a bit, but that beats scrubbing in a washtub for an hour.” She nodded her head. “Yep, definitely the better method.”
She transformed back into a person and examined her robes. A couple of scourgifies later, they were clean as well.
Following her example, it took only a short while for the others to de-sap each other.
Parvati suddenly gasped and said in awe, “I think we have company.”
Naturally, everyone turned to look at her, then looked where she was looking. There, at the Forbidden Forest’s edge, were several unicorns. They appeared to be staring at Harry, Hermione, and Sweetie Belle.
Hermione didn’t even wait a second. “Come on!” she said urgently, and started towards them at a trot.
Harry sighed and looked at Sweetie Belle.
“It would be polite to at least say hello to this world’s unicorns,” she said.
Most of the rest of the Gryffindors were already headed in that direction.
Harry and the fillies quickly caught up with Hermione. They slowed to a stop ten feet from the much larger forest unicorns. Five unicorns had moved to just outside the forest and onto the lawn, and were eyeing the students and ponies cautiously. A couple pawed at the ground and looked around warily at the lawn and castle. There was an air of uncertainty about them. They clearly didn’t like being this close to the castle.
“Wow! They’re big!” Apple Bloom said in an astonished tone.
“Uh,” said Harry hesitantly, “Do you think they’ll understand us? I haven’t read anything that said they can speak.”
Sweetie Belle said, “Don’t know ’til we try, right?” She took several steps closer, stood straight, and then bowed by extending her right foreleg while bending her other leg until her chin was just below her bent knee. Miss Cheerilee had taught them all how to bow when Twilight got her wings.
“Good morning,” she said formally. Then she stood up again. The other three quickly copied her.
To everyone’s amazement, the five unicorns turned to face them directly and copied the bow, whinnying softly. Unfortunately, they didn’t say anything that the others could recognize.
“Wow!” said one of their audience.
Harry looked back and saw that there must be over forty students of all ages watching, and at least two were Prefects.
Harry was unsure of what to do next as he stared up at the unicorns that were easily triple or more his height. He was sure that they could have looked Princess Celestia straight in the eyes.
While they were like Princess Celestia in that they were a gleaming white, they didn’t have that invisible glow of warmth that Celestia had. Their manes, tails, and horns were also white. Dirt, it seemed, did not stick to them. Unlike the princess, though, Harry didn’t find them nearly as terrifying. He wanted to go closer, but was unsure if he should wait for them to come to him.
Before he could say anything, one of the five unicorns walked over to them and nuzzled each of them against the neck in turn. She then walked back to the others whinnying softly. They responded in kind.
“I don’t think they can talk like we do,” Harry said disappointedly. “While they bowed back at us when we bowed to them, they haven’t said anything I can understand.” He looked at the other ponies with raised eyebrows, and got shakes of their heads as a response.
Suddenly, all five unicorns shifted and stared at something behind the students. Their attitude changed from one of curiosity and caution to hostility and a bit of fear, with the stallions blowing through their noses and the mares taking a step back and half-turning to flee.
Harry spun around and looked. Behind him, of course, was the castle lawn, and beyond that, the castle. The lawn was bare of anything except for random students, all looking their way. He frowned, scanning the castle walls to see what had attracted the unicorns’ interest. It took only a moment, but a faint movement in a window drew his attention. It was the purple turban that helped Harry recognize Professor Quirrell staring at them through one of the larger second floor windows.
Someone sighed in disappointment and Harry turned back to the unicorns. They were gone. Harry frowned. Had there been something at the castle that had triggered their flight? Or had seeing the professor spooked them for some reason?
“Aw,” Sweetie Belle said, “They just ran away.” She turned and looked at the large gathering of students. “Did any of you say or do something rude?”
The four ponies quickly determined that no one had said or done anything that they thought might spook the bigger unicorns, they had just wheeled about and run into the forest.
The group walked along the forest edge for a while, hoping to see the unicorns again, to no avail. Then they moved to the Quidditch pitch and watched the Ravenclaws getting trounced by the pegasi. Well, at least the others did. Hermione pulled Ghostly Spells out of her rucksack. She was almost through with it and ready to try a few of the charms she had read in the books. She should easily be finished by lunch-time. She carefully laid the book on the bench beside her, and went book-walking until lunch time.
Unlike the Gryffindor Quidditch team, whose seeker and one of their chasers had graduated last spring, the other three teams were at full strength. Hearing about the drubbing the Hufflepuffs had received, the Slytherin team was closely watching the game. The Hufflepuffs were torn between rooting for the viciously competitive, but cute and adorable, ponies, or hoping that the Ravenclaw team might redeem their pride as wizards. Not surprisingly, most of the witches were rooting for the pegasi.
The fact that none of the Gryffindor team made an appearance at the stadium to watch the game was exceedingly suspicious to the other House members. As the morning progressed, the rumour began to circulate that three of the missing Gryffindors were the pegasi. First among the Slytherins, then the remainder of the watchers.
But the problem was, which of the Gryffindor team members was it? The twins were suspected of being holed up and working on a gender-changing potion, leaving only Wood and the two girl chasers, with Ginny and Scootaloo as the obvious outsiders. On the other hand, it would be just like the twins to want everyone to think they were working on something else while playing Quidditch. But in that case, shouldn’t there have seven players and not five? And in that case, why weren’t any of the non-pegasi Gryffindor team watching the game?
The Gryffindors in the stands were immensely amused at the confusion in the other Houses.
۸- ̬ -۸
Castor stood as the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, the Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, and the heads of both MI5 and MI6 walked into the conference room. Once they were seated, he handed out the report folders.
“First, the volunteers living in Equestria show no signs of any deviations from normal. And they are acclimating nicely. The Equestrians have no complaints about them, and in fact are thrilled at how excited some of the volunteers are at being there. We may have difficulty getting some of them to come back.” He flashed a quick smile.
“Second, the trials with the amputees are progressing well. All ten volunteers have had their lost fingers, hands, or feet regrown. The doctors, both in the study and not, say that they can’t tell what was original and what was regrown. One doctor not told of the study accused us of switching the records with healthy patients as a prank.” He smiled ruefully. “We will no longer be referring patients to him as a check.
“Some of the doctors have expressed reservations on how long the regrown sections will last, that at some time in the future the body might reject the new growths. We will be keeping close track on all patients for the next year. The doctors agree that if the patients last that long without any complications or signs of rejection, then the new growths will probably be permanent.
“It took between twelve and thirty-four hours for the patients to regenerate the lost tissue. Naturally, those with the most to replace took the longest. We don’t have a large enough sample, yet, to predict regrowth time periods.
“There is not an insignificant amount of pain in the regrowth, usually referred to as a dull, constant ache, or a pins-and-needles sensation — about what a teenager goes through during a major growth spurt, only condensed into hours instead of weeks. Sleeping is difficult and the patients get quite testy. We haven’t used pain-killers, yet. We’re not sure if they will interfere in the process. Those are on the schedule for next month with level one amputees.
“The patients also complained of being constantly hungry, which the Equestrians have assured us is normal. The body is, after all adding a significant amount of bone and soft tissue.
“Several of the mildly overweight patients noted a loss of weight while not eating as much as the thinner patients. If there is sufficient fat available, the alien technology uses the body’s resources first, apparently.” He paused. “Interestingly, more weight was lost than could be accounted for with the body-portion regrown.”
“The next stage, level two, will be with larger amputations, lower arms and legs. Level three will be whole limb replacement. Level four will be multiple limb replacements.”
Castor turned to the next page of his notes.
“The scientists studying the portal are . . . stumped. As one put it, ‘I feel like I’m in Freshman Physics. I hear the words, but they don’t make any sense. I see the readings, and they don’t make sense. Everything I know is wrong, and I don’t know where to start to fix that. It’s magic! I don’t know how it works! You tell me!’” Castor sighed. “And that pretty much sums it up for them.”
He looked up at the ministers. “Handicapping us, of course, is that we can only make passive measurements to study the portal. Anything active might damage or change something.
“The theoretical physicists are going through the ceiling. One of them said that just knowing this portal exists is jumping us hundreds of years ahead as we now know which areas of research to ignore.” He shook his head. “Another claims that with these new insights, we should have a working star-drive sometime in the next twenty years.”
He turned to the next page. “The Equestrians have chosen Bradshaw Gass & Hope as their lead architects on their chancery compound and delivered a completed set of drawings for them to vet and critique. The people at Bradshaw are puzzled at the Equestrians’ insistence that the roof be treated like a ground floor, with clearly marked aerial accesses. And that the roof be designed as a patio surrounded by both closed and open-air meeting rooms. The placement of the HVAC equipment and machinery in a short attic space below the flat roof is equally confusing to them. They also questioned the extraordinarily high ceilings on each floor — we know those are for the Equestrians’ pegasi members, but they don’t. And what they said about the restroom facilities . . . .” He shook his head. “One wanted to know if this was a government building or a zoo.” He looked up at Director General Walker. “We may have a few security problems there.” The man nodded and made a note.
“The Equestrians have decided to build the compound themselves, and estimate that it will take them a month to build it once the architects okay the plans and they receive proper approvals. Their architects are equally puzzled over our insistence on electrical designs and sprinkler systems. And the absence of control gems.” He shook his head again. “They have agreed to let us place observers onsite during the construction. We will need to vet the building inspectors very carefully.” The Director of MI5 nodded and made additional notes.
He flipped to the next page.
“The Equestrians have completed a two-and-a-half-meter wall around their entire compound, with gates at the three entrances and farm.” He looked up at the others and gave a wan smile. “They built a three-kilometer three-meter wall overnight, including the foundations.” He shook his head.
“She also told me that they put a weak don’t-notice-it tech-field on the wall. She told me that meant that people would ignore the wall unless they were looking right at it. Anyone moving towards the wall would find something nearby to distract them from it. As soon as they looked away, they would ‘forget’ about it. They know it’s there, they just think that information is not important enough to remember. Basically, it kills their curiosity to investigate.” He looked at both intelligence officers. “They have offered to teach a runes-class on that specific spell, if we’re interested.” They straightened and shared a half-smile. “I told them we were very interested in such a class, and scheduled it for next week.” The two men made notes. “No more than a dozen at a time, Princess Twilight requested.”
He sighed.
“Harry Potter, a ten-year-old orphan is at the root of all this.” He shook his head, then grinned wryly. “This is all his fault! Princess Sparkle admitted he’s the one who ‘fell’ through the portal last year. Reading his case, I understand why he was reluctant to admit to them he knew where the portal is. The princess has requested that we keep his identity secret, especially because he is an underage child. And because of the reason for his fleeing his relatives, who have been arrested and charged.
“The child-abuse case against the Dursleys, the boy’s caretakers, has suddenly started moving forward. I don’t know why it was stalled for the last month. I expect the case to go to court in the next sixty days. I am confident we will secure a conviction of at least five years.
“Once the case is settled, I will forward a request from Princess Twilight Sparkle that the boy be remanded to her care, if he so desires, and she has asked if full adoption is possible under our laws. He has been granted citizenship in Equestria by both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the rulers. I believe granting her request is the best course of action.”
“More details on all of this is in the folders.
“Any questions?”
۸- ̬ -۸
Professor McGonagall was just coming around the last curve of the Great Lake on her way back to the castle after her Saturday mid-afternoon constitutional when she saw a grey-coated pony with Weasley-red mane and tail galloping towards her. As it came closer, she realized it was galloping quite hard. She started walking faster to meet it.
The pony skidded to halt in front of her, face bright-red from exertion, gasping, “Professor McGonagall!” Gasp. “Firsties!” Gasp. “Myrtle!” Gasp.
It took her a moment to realize from the voice that it was Percy Weasley, her Gryffindor Prefect, in his animagus form, just as Dumbledore had told them. That he had finally publically revealed his animagus ability meant this must be serious. Concerned, she frowned. “Mr. Weasley! Take a moment to compose yourself! You are not making any sense!”
He nodded and stood, legs spread and head down, trying to bring his breathing under control. Finally, he took a deep breath and looked up at her. “The Firsties have resurrected Moaning Myrtle. They’re all in the Hospital Wing.”
“WHAT!?” Her eyes shot wide open, “Oh Merlin!” She transformed into her feline form and took off running far faster than she could have managed on just two legs.
Percy groaned, took another deep breath, and started galloping after her.
۸- ̰ -۸