Classes on Halloween were light. It was difficult for the younger students to concentrate as the stories of the scheduled feast circulated.
To see how the entire Great Hall had been transformed was delightful. A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low, black clouds. They made the candles floating in the air, and in the pumpkins on all the tables, stutter and flutter. The pumpkins muttered and howled, at first, scattered down the tables with one every yard. Then they started telling ghost and bat jokes. Harry was impressed with their inventory.
The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet, and they all began to dig in.
Professor Quirrell was not at his place, which was unusual, but the students didn’t care.
They were partway through meal when several Slytherin witches girls suddenly squeaked, followed a few moments later by the wizards. Then followed an exclamation of “I’m a boy!” almost at the same time as another shouted “I’m a girl!”
Harry’s first reaction, and most of the rest of the school’s, was to laugh. Until a Ravenclaw wizard, suddenly grasped at his chest, wide-eyed. Startled, they had all examined the feast laid out before them, and the gasps and exclamations had rapidly spread across the room. Even the Head Table occupants were not spared.
People were frantically casting detection spells that came back negative. Whatever was doing this was not something that triggered the poison-detection spells.
Just as several of the more senior students were starting to get mad, and muttering angrily at the Gryffindor wizard twins, they reversed back to their normal gender. Within five minutes of the first surprised gasp, everyone in the room had spent at least some time as the opposite gender.
The First Year Slytherins and Gryffindors were laughing so hard at their table-mates that several fell off their seats. Once restored to normal, some of the other students began to laugh as well.
The relieved sporadic laughter continued a while until Professor Quirrell suddenly burst into the hall. He looked frightened, and his turban was askew. He rushed to Professor Dumbledore’s chair and slumped against the table. He desperately gasped, “Troll — dungeons —” His eyes rolled up and he collapsed to the floor. He had fainted.
The hall erupted into panic.
Professor Dumbledore set off a cannon blast with his wand. “Prefects,” he boomed into the stunned silence, “take your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!”
Harry remained seated, as did the fillies, while all the other students jumped to their feet and started for the Great Hall doors. The four had had multiple experiences with dangerous animals in the Everfree Forest. Knowing a dangerous creature is wandering nearby, and then charging through the trees when you had no idea where the danger was, was a fool’s choice. Better to hunker down until the danger made itself evident — then flee from death as fast as possible.
Percy cried out “Follow me! Stick together, first years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now.” He quickly noticed that most of the first years were not moving.
“Well, come on,” he said as a knot of students clogged the doors.
“NO!” Harry said firmly. “We don’t know where the troll is. He could be around the corner or on the stairs! It’s better to stay right here!” The fillies nodded agreement. The other Gryffindor First Years slowly sat back down.
The Gryffindor First Years reaction, or rather their obstinate inaction, drew the attention of the professors who were deciding their course of action at the Head Table. Professor McGonagall stalked over quickly. “Move,” she said, “Get back to the dormitories!” She made pushing movements with her hands.
Half their number jumped back to their feet. Harry and the fillies remained seated.
Harry looked at his Head of House. “Do you know where the Troll is? Do you know he isn’t somewhere other than the Dungeons? Where the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs are now headed to their sure deaths if he is in the dungeons? Or our deaths if he isn’t? We’re safer here, together, in this Hall with all the teachers!”
Her eyes shot wide open. She immediately turned and fired off a double cannon-blast from her wand. Then she held her wand to her throat as her voice rang through the silenced Great Hall and into the corridors outside. “ALL STUDENTS RETURN TO THE GREAT HALL IMMEDIATELY! THE TROLL COULD BE IN THE HALLS! I REPEAT, ALL STUDENTS RETURN TO THE GREAT HALL IMMEDIATELY!”
The uproar grew even louder as students outside the hall returned and those inside stood frozen in indecision.
“Minerva!” said the Headmaster as he came to them, “What are you doing? I said all students to their dorms!”
“And the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs dorms are in the dungeons — where the Troll is supposed to be! Unless you want to take the chance the Troll will meet them on their way, they should stay here!” She put her wand to her throat and said, “ALL HUFFLEPUFF AND SLYTHERIN STUDENTS RETURN AND STAY IN THE GREAT HALL! ALL STUDENTS TO THE GREAT HALL! All Prefects, take House attendance immediately!”
By the surprised look on the Headmaster’s face, quickly replaced with an expression of thought, he had not considered that the troll may have wandered from its original detection point.
The bedlam lasted for ten minutes before slowly settling down to a dull roar, the feast on the tables completely forgotten. By now, there were only a few professors left, gathered at the head of the Gryffindor table. The Headmaster and the others had all gone in search of the troll.
Professor Quirrell was rennervated and seemed displeased that he was the centre of a crowd, and that the Great Hall was as full of students as it had been when he had arrived. Professor Sinistra brought him up on what he had missed. He scowled and stuttered unintelligibly for several minutes before taking his seat at the Head Table.
Harry shook his head in dismay. And that wizard had wanted to go with the Headmaster and the others to confront a basilisk? Incredible. He was just like one of the Flower sisters in Ponyville. Well, maybe not. At least he had gone to warn them instead of collapsing on the spot!
Attendance, to the great relief of all, had shown that all students were present and accounted for, with everyone taking their places at their proper House tables. A portrait had been dispatched to tell the troll-hunting professors.
The portraits had finally located the troll on the second floor, almost halfway up the castle. The Gryffindors or Ravenclaws might have met it on the way to their towers! The Headmaster and the Heads of House swiftly tackled the problem.
Professor Quirrell spent the entire time staring at Harry and the three fillies, scowling. Harry wasn’t sure why, they had just acted in the safest manner possible. Besides, the professor had been unconscious, so he should be glad they had stayed. Otherwise he would have awoken by himself in an empty room. And the wandering troll might even have found him before he woke up.
He should be grateful to them! And not scowling as if they had spoiled a secret plan of his.
It wasn’t that much later when the Headmaster returned and took his place at the Head Table. “Well,” he said jovially, “We seem to have had a rather Halloween-ish scare for the evening’s entertainment, in addition to the wonderful gender-reversal prank provided by person’s unknown.” He had smiled at the twins, who promptly stood and bowed to him, and then to the room in general.
His smile had grown larger. “I don’t think such a harmless prank deserves punishment, although I’m sure Professor Snape will want a full accounting of the potion-making process. Five points to each of you.”
Said professor just scowled at them.
He gestured at the room in general. “Please, don’t let a little excitement ruin your appetite. Dig in!”
It took a few minutes, but soon the room was back to the happy and excited atmosphere it had had before the prank and Troll. Except for their DADA professor who still wore a sour expression.
Naturally, the talk of the room was how a troll could have slipped inside the wards. Why hadn’t the protective charms detected it and prevented it from doing so? Harry wondered how such a possibility had escaped Twilight’s spells?
He shook his head and returned to his treacle pudding. Bonbon, he was sure, would send the Princess a letter later tonight.
۸-~-۸
Albus stared at the muggle Friday Times newspaper, completely befuddled. There, for all the world to see, was a picture of Princess Sparkle and Prince Blueblood. With their names listed. And odd hair colouring. Standing with them were muggle Prime Minister and the Home and Foreign Secretaries. And they were announcing the opening of the Equestrian Embassy, a foreign country on the other side of a portal! And mentioned that there were other nations there that would be introduced soon, as well.
The imposing marble building behind them was listed as being in Little Whinging, Surry.
He felt his stomach drop at the implications. There could be no mistake about that. It was not a coincidence. The “portal” Princess Sparkle had mentioned and the portal in the news-story had to be one and the same.
Were they bloody barmy? This completely ignored the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy! No, it didn’t ignore it, it destroyed it! The repercussions when the rest of the world learned about wizards and witches would ruin them. The Islamic world, a quarter of the world’s population, would go into a frenzy. As would the Christians, a third of the world’s population, albeit to a lesser degree.
True, there were some societies that were more welcoming, such as the Japanese. But they made up less than two-percent of the world’s population. For all intents and purposes, all the muggle societies feared and hated wizards and witches.
This announcement would make the witch-hunts of the Middle Ages look like a friendly neighbourhood party! It would be a repeat of the wizard genocides committed by the communist Chinese and Russians, only much, much larger.
This completely destroyed the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy! This was a disaster of monumental proportions. And being in such a prestigious muggle newspaper, and on muggle radio as the article mentioned, there was no way the Ministry Obliviators could wrap this story back up as a joke or fraud — not with that enormous building in the background that anyone could visit and see. The international editions were already being delivered across the world, he knew, meaning it wasn’t even just the English Isles that received the news. It would be impossible to obliviate the entire world!
There was even the announcement of a ball on Saturday next at the new Embassy, with every foreign ambassador in England invited.
This exposed the Atlanteans to the muggles in the largest way possible. And it had happened on British soil! He needed to talk with Princess Sparkle as soon as possible. No, he needed to talk with Miss Bonbon and Miss Heartstring, first!
But one thing puzzled him. The Equestrians had stated that their appearance on the other side of the portal was different, that their native appearance was not as people but as ponies — with included pictures of the six types of ponies. There was a different man or woman standing by each to give a bit of scale. Three were Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity.
That was what made him sit back and think, and re-read the article. Why would they claim to be ponies, first? And what did that mean to the Statute of Secrecy?
The major saving grace — that he could see after re-reading the article — was that the word “magic” was never used by those five, or any official quoted. Instead, they called the Equestrians’ abilities an advanced “technology.” While some of those involved referred to the re-growing of lost limbs by amputee soldiers as “like magic,” nowhere did anyone claim it was magic.
In fact, the Equestrians, and the British government, insisted it was an advanced form of technology. Just one of many technologies that they were more than willing to share — including a cure for many cancers. A fair exchange for ideas and earth technologies that they had never considered — things like the telephone and television. And they were delighted by the variety of art and culture they saw in this new world. If anything, they were more enthused about that than anything else, according to the article.
Rarity had apparently gone on a long and enthusiastic rant about how the fashions they were seeing would “. . . revolutionize Equestria.”
The Statute of Secrecy held that wizards and witches should not disclose the existence of magic. It did not say you couldn’t live among muggles, or all the muggle-born families would be in violation of it. And neither could wizards live in non-magical communities such as Godric’s Hollow or Ottery St Catchpole.
But based on the pictures in the article, it certainly was magic at work. Just from the descriptions given by the volunteers he could see the use of Skele-Gro, dittany, a blood-replenishing potion, and muscle healing spells at work.
But the medical cures were all described as being technological in basis and action. Not magic.
The volunteers also insisted that they had been participating in a test of the technology at a government facility in England. They, too, never mentioned the word magic, except that it was magic-like how the new devices and medicines had cured them. The article declared a new medical renaissance was about to sweep across the world. No longer would losing a limb be a life-altering event. Instead it would be a mere inconvenience.
A companion article to the main article waxed poetic on the mere existence of the portal. The article said the portal was giving their physicists a new understanding of the universe and how it worked. The scientists anticipated the discovery of a working star-drive engine in the next ten years. And the possibility of instantaneous travel to a star with a portal once the starship arrived at its destination. “The universe is at our fingertips!” the article declared.
There was a philosophy article that dealt with the ramifications of another intelligent race out in space. What it meant that man was not alone. And how that one simple fact might affect different religions on the planet, especially those that claimed man as the favourite of their god. After all, here were aliens who clearly were superior in many ways to men. And inferior in others — no hands in their native world!
There were many quotes from major leaders of the major religions. Complicating the issue was that the aliens professed to know of gods, but did not worship them. That was a major revelation. Some saw it as an opportunity, others as blasphemy.
But by presenting themselves as ponies, they defused the whole problem with the various religions telling their followers to abhor magical humans. Any muggle seeing a pony wielding magic would not think to look for a wizard or witch. And they blamed their appearance on the portal. They claimed it changed them when they went through to look like humans, to better blend in with the majority intelligent species on Earth. And provided pictures from their native world to prove it.
But Albus was focused on the magical aspect. How would the wizards and witches perceive this?
Perhaps he had time to begin damage control. He could only hope so.
The English Ministry of Magic wasn’t the sharpest of tools at the best of times. They wouldn’t notice this announcement, if ever, until someone brought it to their attention. Forcefully. Such as the ICW sending a delegation demanding action about this grievous blow to the Statute of Secrecy! And publicly reprimanding England, with a suitable punishment to follow.
However, as the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, he could stall any such actions for a time. They had never had to contemplate such a massive display of magic — only the Yankees in twenty-six had ever come even close to this degree of disclosure. That had been because of an obscurial. And they had been saved by a fortuitous intervention of a thunderbird and someone who could control it.
He just had to figure out how to defuse the situation without jeopardizing his position. He needed an explanation to protect England.
The Unspeakables in the Ministry probably knew, but what they would do was uncertain at the best of times. Most were too wrapped up in their own research to care about the outside world. To most of them, the Ministry was just a building they had to walk through to get to work. Being exposed to the muggles wasn’t something that was usually their concern — until the Minister brought them into it.
But the longer he thought on the matter, the better the situation became. In fact, as he considered it, it was quite clever of the Atlanteans. They claimed to be from another world — as if there was really another world that supported life! And the gullible muggles had accepted that explanation.
The wizards had known that there was no life beyond this planet for several centuries. The wizards had used powerful amplification spells on their telescopes to examine all the nearby planets. They had been able to detect magic on all of them, but had seen nothing that indicated life. Even scrying for life on the other planets had failed to detect anything larger than a krill. Anything smaller they were not interested in.
And outside of the solar system? Nothing. No signs of anything. It was possible that the great distances involved made such detection impossible, but their best wizards had decided that wasn’t likely. They had, after all, found planets around the binary Alpha Centauri and then Proxima Centauri, as well as that dim star the muggles had named Bernard’s Star. But nothing living. Or, at least, what the wizards called life.
The local planets, he knew, had all been the recipient of muggle machines that were looking for life. If there had been a civilization of any kind the muggles would already have discovered it. And their scientists were convinced that other planets — not just inhabitable planets, but planets at all — were vanishingly rare. So the muggles, too, knew there wasn’t any other life-form out there.
But the Equestrians claimed their portal was to another world, distance to this one unknown. If they limited access to Atlantis, as they appeared to be doing, then no one would see the moon and discover their deception. Even allowing others through the portal would work as long as they limited it to times when the moon was not visible. And with a little magic on the muggles, it would be quite easy to prevent them from even noticing the moon when it was visible.
Now that he considered it, they could even charm the visitor to think the moon they saw was different than the one in the sky on Earth, as were the constellations. It wouldn’t even be that difficult to develop such a spell. Just an illusion that only the spell recipient could see. A spell that would warp the muggle’s perception of the night sky. An official at the port could routinely cast the spell on every visitor under the guise examining their passports.
And if they ensured that every visitor to Equestria only saw them in their pony animagus form, they could keep up the charade that it was their normal form. And, as Atlanteans appeared to revere Poseidon, that wouldn’t be that difficult. After all, even if they didn’t overtly worship him, they did acknowledge his influence. Why else would they use those pony and horse terms for everything?
Yes, as long as they claimed to be from another world they could evade the rules of the Statute — he had to snort at the gullibility of the muggles. The Equestrians would be safe if they didn’t do anything blatantly magical. No hexing or cursing someone, or transfiguring or conjuring something. All they had do was pretend what they did was “technology.”
After all, they had never signed the Statute. They hadn’t even known of its existence until Minerva had told them about it. That was a technicality, but it was still true.
And, based on what he read in the newspaper, the Equestrians were being scrupulous about labelling everything they did as technology, not magic. The article had even quoted a famous muggle writer, Arthur C. Clarke, who had said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” The Prime Minister had readily agreed with that quote. And insisted that what the Equestrians were showing were technological marvels.
In short, the Atlanteans were hiding magic in plain sight.
And calling it technology.
And the muggles believed them.
Which, technically, meant the Equestrians were not breaking the Statute
He sighed deeply and stroked his beard.
The International Confederation of Wizards might complain that the English Wizards had done nothing to prevent the Equestrians from making their announcement. But Albus could, quite reasonably, point out that it would be impossible for a country the size of the British Isles to prevent a continent-sized country, as Atlantis was, from doing anything they wanted.
In appearance, the situation was similar to Sparta and the Persians at Thermopylae. There was only the one portal, and it was in Little Whinging. Access was extremely limited. The wizards, in theory, could box in the Equestrians.
The Equestrian’s, however, could simply move their portal to a new location, such as France, Germany, or the Russian wilderness, he could point out. Theoretically, it should be possible. Then they could move thousands of fighters through it before the wizards knew where they were. And it would be impossible to stop the invasion.
If they were interested in invading, which he knew they weren’t.
At least this way the wizards knew where the portal was.
The article did not say that the other countries mentioned were inhabited by intelligent creatures that mirrored those from Greek mythology.
The link to Greece and ancient history would ruin their strategy. After all, if they were from another world, how did they explain so many coincidences with Greek legends and history? The fact was, they could not. The muggles would see through their ruse immediately.
The language compatibility, on the other hand, they could explain as an artefact induced by the portal, or a special translation technology.
He wondered if they had demonstrated either apparition or levitation to the Prime Minister, and called them teleportation and telekinesis. That particular muggle, the Prime Minister, knew the truth about magic. Had the Equestrians talked about magic at all? Or had they kept him in the dark and promoted the “technology” as just that, technology?
And if that important muggle agreed that what they did was not magic, could Albus use that argument to persuade the ICW to do nothing?
It would be quite amusing if the Atlanteans were building up an entire façade of having technological wonders and hiding magic completely. By providing those medical cures to the muggles, and making the silly claim that it was all technology, they were distracting the muggles from magic while doing magic.
It was just like a muggle stage magician, doing things in plain sight while distracting their audience so the audience never noticed what else the magician was doing. He knew several had been investigated by the Obliviators to make sure they were not wizards breaking the Statute of Secrecy. Every trick had to have a proper explanation for the muggles — or close enough to not matter. That way a clever muggle wouldn’t be able to deduce the existence of real magic.
In fact, reading the article a third time, from the view point of someone who didn’t know about the Atlanteans or magic, he noticed the Equestrians had done and said nothing to indicate that they were not simply advanced muggles!
The Atlanteans were actually supporting the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy by pretending to be merely very technologically advanced muggles, he realized. Even the wizards and witches who saw the article would not suspect the Equestrians were not who they said they were — aliens. The only ones to know the truth were the wizards and witches who had seen either Princess Sparkle or Prince Blueblood. Most of whom were now at Hogwarts!
۸-_-۸