//------------------------------//
// 65 — Secrets 
// Story: If Wishes were Ponies . . . . 
// by tkepner 
//------------------------------//

The sudden outbreak of explosions and brilliant flashes of light coming from the direction of Hogwarts alarmed the students and residents in Hogsmeade. It didn’t take long before there was a large crowd gathered just inside the edge of Shining’s shield, and several yards from the lake, opposite Hogwarts. Naturally, Harry and the fillies were there to. A few students had brought their shrunken brooms with them, and, with Scootaloo and Ginny, were able to get high enough under Shining’s shield spell to see that the explosions were not in the school. Or even near it. Which was a great relief to the observers, especially the Professors.

That great plumes of smoke were coming from the Forbidden Forest kept their attention, and rumours sprouted faster than the explosions.

“Wow!” breathed Harry, seeing the entire Castle limned in a bright light, followed five seconds later by an explosion. “I bet Princess Luna is here! Twilight almost never goes all out like that!”

Ron and Neville looked at him, and then at the ongoing distant battle.

“Uh, Harry?“ asked Neville tentatively, “Just how big is this basilisk snake supposed to be?”

“Sixty feet,” he replied distractedly.

“Maybe a bit more,” added Scootaloo, hovering over their heads, watching the flashes intently after telling everyone what she had seen.

“Yeah,” agreed Sweetie Belle, “Twilight said she thought it could be as much as seventy, based on how big its eyes were in Myrtle’s memory of her death.”

“And that was forty-eight years ago, so it could be bigger for all we know,” finished Apple Bloom.

“And that was under our school!?” said Ron, with a swallow.

Harry could hear other students telling their friends about what Harry and the three foreign girls had said. He frowned. The snake would probably be a mile in length by the time the story finished spreading.

It was almost like watching fireworks in Ponyville. Only in the day time. And it seemed to last a long time.

There was a final bright glow from beyond the castle that lasted almost a full minute before fading and leaving a rising, giant cloud of smoke that the winds higher up quickly dispersed.

Several minutes passed with nothing more happening, and the crowd began to thin as students headed back into the village. It was getting close to lunch, and the students still had most of their spending allowance in hand.

The Gryffindor First Years joined them. They had just arrived in front of the post office on their way to finish their shopping at the stores when Harry saw Twilight coming up the street.

Scootaloo immediately flew over to her. Harry and the others followed her, jogging.

“Is everything all right?” he asked. “Are you okay?”

Twilight grinned at him. “Of course, I’m alright. Nobody got hurt.” Her expression darkened a bit. “Well, except for the basilisk. But he’ll recover nicely after a good sleep.”

Harry glanced around her. “Where is he?”

“Oh, Princess Luna took him back home already.”

Harry gave her a long look. Then raised an eyebrow. “Portal?” he said just loud enough for her to hear. Twilight smiled reassuringly.

“She thinks it won’t be a problem. And if it is, she can handle it.”

“Good.”

By that time they had made it up to where Shining Armor was sitting. He looked at Twilight and raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

She nodded back. “It’s all okay, we captured the basilisk. Princess Luna’s already on her way home with him.”

Scootaloo shot up into the sky, only now noticing that there were two circling dots far overhead. One was a difficult to see yellow while the other was a just as difficult to make out blue. One was Fluttershy, of course, while the other had to be Dash.

He gave a relieved sigh, and the pinkish shield vanished from overhead. It took only a few moments before the smell of smoke reached them. His other eyebrow went up as he looked at his sister. She gave him a sheepish grin.

“It did put up more of a fight, but Princess Luna caught and shrunk him down to a manageable size.”

He nodded in understanding. “Well, as long as it’s taken care of.” He looked around at the students that were still watching him curiously.

“You should probably change back,” she suggested.

“What? Oh. Right.” He changed back to his human form, getting more than a few admiring looks from the older witches watching. And few wizards.

Professor McGonagall had stayed with Shining Armor to make sure he wasn’t bothered while maintaining the shield. She appeared quite relieved to hear that everything had been settled without any loss of life.

Twilight turned to her. “The Headmaster wants you to return with us to the castle. He gave me a portkey.” She held up the blank paper in her hand, then glanced around. “I think we can leave the students to their own devices, now.”

Fluttershy settled to the ground behind Shining, as the area in front was rather crowded with students now, all trying to find out what had happened. Scootaloo and Dash just hovered over her friends, with Dash giving her a quick summary of the fight, with the promise of a more detailed description later.

“Everything’s fine, Fluttershy,” Twilight said. “You can change back, now.”

Moments later, after a few last minute instructions from the professor to her Prefects, and a final admonishment to the twins to keep things under control, the four adults, one pony, and three house-elves vanished from sight as they portkeyed away.

“Well,” said Scootaloo, “Now what?”

“Let’s go back to Dervish and Banges,” suggested Sweetie, “they had some neat stuff there.”


۸- ̬ -۸


Princess Twilight was not gone for very long and returned with both of her friends, the house-elves, and Professor McGonagall. 

Dumbledore gave Minerva a questioningly look.

“Everything in the village is just fine. The merchants and residents are coping with the students, and so far the students have been very well behaved. No one has, as yet, tried to sneak home via the floo’s in the village.” She frowned. “Professor Quirrell appears quite out of sorts, though.” She shook her head. “He seemed rather distressed to hear that the basilisk had been captured.” She looked at the Headmaster, still frowning. “He seemed to take it personally. But with his stutter, I don’t know what help he would have been.”

Dumbledore nodded. “I’m sure he wanted to help, but his talents are better suited to keeping the students safe. As I told him this morning when I asked him to supervise the Ravenclaws in Filius’ absence.” He turned to Princess Twilight.

“I thank you for your help today. It would have been much harder to confront the basilisk if all of you hadn’t been down there.” He shook his head. “The Ministry’s Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures is well meaning, but I’m sure they would have under-estimated the creature — I know I did — to our detriment. Even the Dragon handlers would have been strained.” He stroked his beard a few times. “None would ever have believed the snake to be as big as it was.

“And we wouldn’t have been able to pry it out of its lair before it fled.”

He sighed. “I believe the next step is to secure that outside entrance so nothing from the forest wanders into the Chambers. That will also give us time to create something a bit more convenient for access, closer to the castle.” He looked over at his professors. “And while Flitwick and I are taking care of that, I’m sure Severus and Minerva want to take a look around the Chamber and see if there are any other surprises we need to be wary of.”

He looked back at the Princess and her companions, eyes twinkling and smiling. “And I’m sure that there are things you had planned for today that you have had to put off, and want to get back to.”

Twilight just stared at him a moment. “Actually, no. We aren’t finished here just yet.” She started pacing. “When Fawkes took you to the Chamber, I started to scan the castle, looking for other things that really shouldn’t be here where children can get at them.” She glanced over at him.

He stared back at her for a moment, then said, “We do have some books in the Restricted Section of the library that are rather Dark. I’m sure those are what you detected.”

She just stared back at him.

“And I know there are some Dark artefacts in the Defence Against the Dark Arts office, which Professor Quirrell will use for teaching purposes for the Sixth and Seventh Year students.”

She continued to stare at him.

He sighed.

“And, no doubt, there are a few cursed items that the Slytherin students have brought from home.”

She frowned.

“Which way is the Slytherin dorm?”

He pulled out his wand, and a quick where-is-it charm gave her that answer.

“And the Defence Against the Dark Arts office?”

A second where-is-it settled that question.

She then asked for the other dorms.

She frowned and pointed in an apparent random direction, up and away from the dorms. “And what is that way?”

“Nothing except empty classrooms and corridors, at the moment. Nothing we should be concerned about. Why?”

She studied him carefully.

“Because my scan revealed a magic that is very familiar to me. Something that is filled with hatred and wants nothing more than to hurt anyone who comes close to it, much more so than anything else in this castle.”


۸-_-۸


Castor knocked lightly on the door before opening it and walking into the Ambassador’s office one more time. The secretary, a tall young woman was seated behind her desk, a pen scribbling across a paper as she watched. 

Castor still found it odd to see magic at work for such a mundane task as writing.

“Good afternoon,” he said, “Ambassador Blueblood indicated he needed my assistance for something?”

The woman stood while the pen continued to write and opened the door. “Mr. Searle is here, sir,” then waved him into the room.

Inside the room was the Ambassador and two other women. He saw that the Monopoly board was still set up, only there were a few more houses and even a hotel on it.

“It’s good to see you again, Ambassador,” he said, as he eyed the two women. One had hair that was dark-blue on one side and pink on the other. The other woman had light blue-green hair with white stripes on either side over her ears. “What can I do for you?”

Blueblood remained sitting, while the two women stood up.

“Agent Sweetie Drops, Agent Lyra Heartstrings, this is Warrant Officer 1st Class Castor Searles. Castor, this is Agent Sweetie Drops.” The woman with the dark-blue and pink hair stepped forward and he shook her hand. “And this is Agent Lyra Heartstrings.” They also shook hands.

Both women were tall, as he was beginning to suspect all the Equestrian women were on this side of the portal, and had eye-attracting figures. Both sides were sizing each other up.

“I would like you to arrange for both them to be certified and trained in the use of both pistols and rifles.” He gave Castor a tight smile. “Clearly, the weapons we are used to using would put us at a disadvantage here, if we found it necessary to defend ourselves. And based on what I have seen on your telly news programs, and perusing your religious texts, it is not out of the question that some of your people might wish to do us harm. We wish to be prepared.”

Castor nodded slowly. “That’s doable, however it will take a day or so to arrange a course. Do you know what you want? I mean, do you want a course that exclusively focuses on pistols? Or a general over-view course that shows you the most common weapons and how to handle them.” He looked back and forth between the three.

Blueblood pointed at the women. “They are the experts. There is a conference room on the other side of the office. I suggest you sit with them and tell them what the choices are and then they can decide what they need.”

The women promptly headed out of the Ambassadors office. Castor trailed them. As a police officer, he knew which companies offered training, and how good those courses typically were.

It was going to be an interesting finish to the morning. And might take up a significant portion of the afternoon if they wanted to start as soon as possible.


۸- ̰ -۸


Dumbledore stood very still and stared at the purple-and-pink-haired witch. “Are you sure?” he said.

She nodded.

He closed his eyes and studied the protective charms in place around the school. There were the normal spikes that indicated the presence of mildly Dark objects — things that might severely sting or scare — but nothing that might be as dangerous as the Princess suggested. “Hogwarts’ charms do not reveal anything as serious as you say,” he said, opening his eyes.

She snorted. “Of course they wouldn’t,” she muttered. She sighed. “According to Hogwarts: A History, there is rumoured to be a curse on the Defence Against the Dark Arts position. I suppose those charms of yours can’t find that, either?”

He shook his head, sadly. “It is a rumour. No one knows if it is true, but we have haven’t been able to keep a Professor in the D.A.D.A. position for more than a year in decades.”

She sighed. “Once is an accident, twice is a co-incidence, three times is malicious intent,” she said softly. “This has been happening for thirty-four years. I think we can safely rule out the first two options.” She looked down for a moment then back up at him. “I think Hogwarts’ charms need to be thoroughly examined and revamped.”

He nodded and stroked his beard, eyes twinkling. “That is probably so, but not something we can undertake at this moment.”

She stared at him. “In the short time I have known you, you are always so confident. Yet you are also so frequently wrong.”

His smile faltered a little bit. Minerva, once more, looked as if she were about to object, but she remained silent.

He spread his arms and said deprecatingly, “I am only a man, I do make mistakes. I am perfectly willing to admit so.” Although, he had to admit to himself, he rarely did so.

Minerva gave him a scandalized look.

Princess Sparkle looked around the room. “Nonetheless, my spells did detect something.” She paused a bit, thinking. “You do what you need to do regarding the Chamber, the girls and I will search for this ‘non-existent’ object.”

She turned and headed for the door with the others turning to follow her.

“No,” he said quietly, “I believe I will go with you. I would like to see what it is that you have found that the Hogwarts’ charms did not.” He turned to the other professors. “Would you like to join us?” They all quickly agreed.

They would soon find out whether he or the Princess was correct.

It wasn’t that far of a hike through the castle, but it took some time as Princess Twilight stopped frequently to scan the walls of the castle and make sure they hadn’t accidentally passed the object of their search.

They walked to the end of a corridor on the seventh floor, which ended crossing another corridor, and she once more recast her spell. She turned right, took a few steps, and then stopped. She cast her spell again, then turned back the way they had just come. A few steps later, she stood in front of a blank wall. Opposite that blank space was a tapestry of wizard teaching trolls ballet.

She looked up and down the corridor. “How odd, that in all of the castle I’ve seen so far, this is the only wall that is completely without doors, windows, decorations, paintings, statues, or tapestries of any kind.” She glanced at the tapestry behind her. She knew that that wall was the side wall to classrooms.

“It’s here,” she stated, hands on her hips and staring at the blank wall. “My spell says it’s here.” She transformed, once again, into her animagus, and started casting spells. And almost immediately stopped. She sighed. “According to my spell, it’s behind this wall. But also according to my spell, there is nothing behind this wall.” She walked down the corridor to the hall she had started to explore, and stared for a moment. The hall ran a short distance to the end of the castle. “It’s an awfully big space,” she said as she came back, “at least two of your classrooms deep, to have nothing in it.”

She looked up at the Headmaster. “Do you have an explanation?”

He stroked his beard thoughtfully. “No, I don’t believe I do.” He stood a moment longer, thinking, then said, “Skiffy!”

“Skiffy comes, Master Dumbles.” He stared up at Dumbledore questioningly.

“If anyone can tell us about the castle, it is the ones who take care of it,” Dumbledore said. “What is behind this wall?” he asked the house-elf, gesturing with a hand.

The house-elf looked at the wall. “It be the Room of Requirement,” he said. “We’s call it the Come-and-Go-Room.”

The Headmaster looked down at him inquisitively.

“It be where we’s hides things we’s doesn’t need.”

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.

“Youse walks back and forth threes times thinking of what’s youse wants, like soes.” He put on a comical expression of someone thinking very hard and walked back and forth three times. As he completed his third pass, a door shimmered into existence in the middle of the blank wall.

They all stared at the house-elf and at the door.

Twilight snorted. “I wonder what else the house-elves know about Hogwarts that no one has ever asked them?” she asked rhetorically, giving the Headmaster a scornful look. “Perhaps you should take the time to ask your . . . servants . . . to show you all of the castle’s secrets?” She raised her left eyebrow inquisitively.

She took a step forward and used her magic to open the door. She went inside, followed quickly by the rest. They stared around them in wonder.

They were in a room bigger than the Great Hall, with high windows that allowed in shafts of light. The room was filled with teetering walls and buildings of broken and damaged furniture and odd things, many towered easily ten or fifteen yards high. The barely navigable paths and alleyways that cut through the piles made the room look like a miniature city. The amount of material was astonishing — the piled books would probably double the size of the Hogwarts library! There were mountains of forbidden items from Filch’s list, as well as other abandoned items. They could see hats, clothes, cloaks, jewels, congealed potions in bottles, laboratory scales, fragments that had to belong to a dragon’s eggshell, and rusting swords were just a few of the closest items they could see.

And all that was just what they could see from the entrance! The room was clearly bigger — wider, deeper, and taller — than the space it appeared to occupy, looking from the door.

“Aw right,” declared Rainbow Dash, launching herself up to the ceiling to begin circling the room.

Twilight turned and looked at the Headmaster. “I think you’ll find enough material in here that is saleable to fund the costs of checking out the Hogwarts protective charms. Perhaps even bring them up to a proper standard. I am sure there are many graduates who would love a memento of their days here.”

He nodded, eyes twinkling, as he looked around. If nothing else, Princess Sparkle had discovered a marvellous resource for the school. He would sit down and have an in-depth talk with Skiffy about this room later. He looked down at the house-elf, whose was twisting the bottom of his ear fitfully as he gazed around at the room.

“Skiffy, tomorrow, have a couple of house-elves start going through this marvellous room. Repair what can be easily repaired, and vanish what can’t. Bring any potions to Professor Snape . . . ,”

The Potions professor looked at several bottles whose contents were still sealed and sniffed disdainfully. “I doubt anything useful will be found. Except for the containers themselves,” he said disparagingly.

“. . . and any magical items to Professors Flitwick and McGonagall for their perusal.”

The two professors nodded absentmindedly, one as he examined an amulet carelessly tossed over a broken chair and the other as she studied a small table covered in feathers that had three paws and a scaled toe.

“Perhaps you can have your upper-year students assist them as class projects,” Twilight suggested to the two, receiving two more distracted nods.

“Items with a name or family crest we should see if we can return the proper owners,” he continued, addressing Skiffy again.

Above them, peeking out of a drawer in a broken cupboard, Pinkie Pie enthusiastically said, “There’s some wonderful stuff in here,” She held up a toy Griffon that had lost most of its stuffing.

Rarity was staring with distaste at a mound of clothes. “I can see why they discarded these . . . there’s no fashion sense whatsoever! And no refinement in either the work or the material.” She shuddered. “These are only suitable for rags!”

Fluttershy was cuddling a mouse. “And this poor dear has been trapped in here for who knows how long?” she said, her voice was barely above a whisper. “He’s just skin and bones!” She nuzzled him lightly, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you get plenty of food when we get you home.”

Princess Sparkle began to walk slowly down the large aisle that snaked off into the chamber, glancing down every cross-aisle and studying the giant stacks of junk that surrounded them. The others slowly followed. She regarded an enormous stuffed troll with distaste, and turned down a side-path.

She looked around as they walked down the narrow aisle. She studied everything she could see, searching for the thing that had brought them to this room.

It wasn’t a straight path, but she finally stopped.  On top of a nearby crate, between a large, acid blistered cupboard and a chipped bust of an ugly old warlock, was a dusty old wig and a tarnished and discoloured crown.

She stared at the tiara, her brow furrowed. “This is it,” she said quietly.

Flitwick looked over from examining a splintered cane with a brass handle that had attracted his attention, and gasped loudly.

Dumbledore was already studying the ancient artefact. Lying negligently on the waist-tall crate was a delicate-looking circlet made of several twinning silver wires holding moonstones and diamonds above a wider silver ribbon. If you looked closely, you could make out the words emblazoned on the ribbon, “Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure.”

“Oh, my,” was all he said. He gently picked it up and turned it around, admiring it. “The lost tiara of Rowena Ravenclaw, I would wager,” he added almost breathlessly. Filius had moved up beside him, as had Minerva. Severus stood nearby, arms crossed and watching quietly with narrowed suspicious eyes.

Dumbledore lifted it up and started to put it on his head when it was rudely yanked from his grasp.

Princess Sparkle hovered above him, her wings flapping lazily, the circlet dangling from one foreleg. “I think,” she said evenly, one eyebrow raised, “that perhaps you should check this ‘lost’ tiara for harmful spells, first. It is, after all, cursed with hateful magic.”

At his surprised look, she added, “Or we wouldn’t be here, now would we?”

The wizards and witch gasped again. This time because of the charm Professor Flitwick had just cast on the tiara. The tiara glowed almost black, and an almost palpable feeling of evil seemed to come from it, now, as well.

He cast another spell, then said, “It has a powerful compulsion charm on it to trick whomever holds it into wearing it!”

Twilight sighed. “And I suppose it is impossible to destroy?” Her horn began to glow.

“You can’t trusst her,” a voice said softly in Dumbledore’s ear. “Sshe wants the tiara for hersself. You sshould take it from her for ssafe-keeping. You need to sstudy it, there iss much you could learn from it. Do it for the good of all.”

Dumbledore glanced around to see who had spoken. Everyone was staring fixedly at the tiara. “Sseize it, before sshe . . . ,” the sibilant voice continued.

Before he could say anything, however, Twilight tossed the tiara up into the air and a purple sphere of magic appeared around it. The voice cut off.

He shook his head, noticing that several others were doing the same. Princess Sparkle was staring intently at the trapped tiara. “Yes, this is just like I remember, only much, much more powerful, with just as powerful spells to protect it.” She slowly dropped down to the floor, hovering the purple sphere at the same place above her. She looked up at the Headmaster. “It is part of a soul.” She shuddered as the wizards and witch gasped. “A truly vile thing. It seeks to take over whomever holds it. The spells attached to it make it extremely difficult to resist.”

She sighed. “I realize this is a treasure, but it is far too dangerous to leave intact. Not with the spells that have been cast upon it. It would only be a matter of time before someone succumbed to its call and ended up a slave to the hateful soul-fragment inside. It must be destroyed. Or it will cause much destruction.”


۸-ꞈ-۸