//------------------------------//
// Learning 
// Story: Harry Potter and the Crystal Empire 
// by Damaged 
//------------------------------//

"Well would you look at that? I guess last night was a little nippy, but was it really warmer in the fireplace?"

Madam Pomfrey's voice started to push the cobwebs of sleep aside. I was warm and cozy by dint of being surrounded by a group of likewise warm and cozy bodies. There was more, the stones under me were still warm from the fire I'd made the previous night.

"It was when I was on fire." I yawned and tilted my head side to side. "Still is."

I realized Pomfrey was standing just past the stones that made up the outer part of the fireplace. She crouched down and reached a hand in and pressed it between me and one of the other foals. "Well, I must commend you on that, Harry, but next time you could just come and ask for more blankets."

Complete and utter shock. I was done for. I'd contracted wizard and now my case had become terminal. I'd woken up in the middle of the night and, instead of asking the nurse for a blanket, I'd set myself on fire with magic. "I'm an idiot."

"No. You're a wizard."

Pomfrey's sarcasm was mild, but I was sure by her smile she had meant it. "Basically the same thing where common sense comes—" My belly cut me off by rumbling.

"That answers my next question. There's an important thing you all need to do before breakfast, however." Pomfrey snapped her fingers with one raised eyebrow. I didn't get a hint of magic from her, so she wasn't activating a spell or anything of the sort.

Two house-elves came trotting into view with a huge tub floating above their heads. Floating in the grip of their magic. At my gaze, both of them seemed to shy back.

"S-Sorry. I'm just curious about your magic. Have any of you turned into horses while using it?" I asked.

Both house-elves looked up at Pomfrey, then back at me. "Were you all house-elves then? Is that why you're little horses?" one elf asked. Their voice was both like and unlike Dobby's. While they had the same pitch, Dobby always sounded a second away from hurting himself for and Dobby had the worst pronunciation I'd ever heard. This house-elf sounded more curious than scared of offending me, and their pronunciation was perfect.

"Well, it kinda happened to me. But they were all born like that." While I spoke, I watched the elves put the big tub down.

The second elf got a huge grin on its face. "So wizards do magic and become not-wizards?"

The house-elf I first spoke to elbowed his companion and snapped his fingers. Like magic (yeah, seriously, I just thought that), the tub was full of hot, steaming water. "You talk too much. He was a big wizard, now he's a small wizard." They turned to face me. "You can do magic?"

"Loo-mos!" The pull of magic was immediate. I let go my tight grip and let power flow through me. I laughed as my horn began to glow. I could have cast off the light into the room but this was just a display. "See?"

"Your horn is your wand!" 

"What's all the shouting? Is it morning?" Zircon lifted his head and squinted against the light coming from my horn. "Why are you doing that?"

"Because it's fun," I said and winked at the house-elf who'd asked me to prove I still had magic.

Pomfrey reached in and hooked her hands under Zircon's forelegs. "Come on, now, you've all spent half the night laying in ashes, you need a good bath." Despite her alacrity in lifting Zircon out, I could see it was a strain for her to lift him. 

I pushed a little more magic into my horn and got a much brighter light. "Come on. Wake up everyone. Bath time." When all I got was whines and protests, I started poking at them with my hoof. "Lazy-bones. Get up!"

Tourmaline rolled over. "Not getting up. I don't want to go to school today."

I poked her in the shoulder a bunch. "You're already at school."

"Huh?" Tourmaline lifted her head and looked back at me with some confusion present. "Oh!" As realization seemed to set in, so too did a measure of sadness in her expression. 

It hurt me to see her like that. I reached up to her with both forelegs and pulled her into a hug. "Sorry to wake you up, but we're all really dirty from the fireplace."

I heard the filly snort back her tears before she squeezed back. "Don't be sorry. You were nice and warm, and you helped get my friends back."

"There's a lot more ponies out there. Maybe your mum and dad?" The moment I mentioned her parents, Tourmaline hugged me tight enough I thought I'd snap in half. "Tourmaline, what happened?"

"When the big unicorn came, everyone started acting strange. Mum and Dad kept talking about things. Dad wanted to move out of the city, but Mum wanted to stay. I stayed with Mum." As she spoke, Tourmaline moved with me toward the tub. 

"M-Mum came home one day with the helmets. She put hers on and it was like she completely turned off. I couldn't do anything to stop her putting one on me too." Tourmaline's voice became softer and softer, though she did take my direction into the tub. "I don't remember what happened next. It's all blurry. But I woke up with—with all my friends still wearing helmets."

"So your Mum is out there still? We just have to get her helmet off." As I spoke, Pomfrey dumped a jug of hot water over my head.

"Really?" Tourmaline stared at me.

"Well, she has to be. You said she put her helmet on and was in the city when—when whatever happened that you got buried. Now all the ponies are digging free to destroy the wards, so whoever's controlling them—" My brain kicked into high gear. I tried to grab at the train of thought and steer it somewhere useful.

Someone was controlling all the ponies. Someone wanted the wards down. Did they want to get out or get in? Whichever they wanted, they wanted it a lot of they threw all these resources at it. I needed to talk to Dumbled—

Another jug of water dumped on my head. I looked up this time to find Pomfrey reaching toward me with a scrubbing brush. I suffered through the indignity of being washed and scrubbed.

"Okay. He's done," Pomfrey said.

I literally floated out of the tub in the grip of some magic, and a towel attacked me! I looked around with blurry vision to see who was using magic, only to spot one of the house-elves gesturing at me. The wizard-infected part of my brain realized I could dry off really fast if I got angry. I would have to have a good talking to that part of my brain, I realized. The answer to all of life's problems shouldn't involve self-ignition.

Finally dry, the house-elf set me down and gestured to the next foal.

"Thanks, uh, what's your name?" I asked.

The elf froze, staring at me with wide eyes. "You want to know my name?" They sounded incredulous.

Pomfrey must have noticed, she called out, "Keep drying them, please." 

"Rest." Quickly getting back to work, the elf turned its head halfway toward me. "My name's Rest."

It was so unlike what I'd heard of other house-elves, and in particular Dobby. "Well, Rest, my name's Harry Potter. You speak really well for a—" I bit back what was probably the stupidest thing I could have said. "Well, I've only really met one house-elf before, and he didn't speak as well as you two."

"house-elves work, house-elves watch, and house-elves listen, but what house-elves do while doing all those things is learn." Rest finished juggling Tanzanite and set her down beside me. "We learn to speak properly by listening, but we learn other things as well."

It was a minor revelation. Finding out that there were these little magic people who were probably every bit as smart as the wizards who ignored them. "I bet you do, Rest. What's your friend's name?"

"Relaxation isn't my friend."

The words confused me for a good few seconds until I realized Relaxation was the other house-elf's name. "Why not?"

Rest smiled. "Relaxation is my wife."

Minor revelation? Nah. This was a major revelation. The smile on Rest's face showed that he appreciated my idiocy in not recognizing him for what he was. That, or he found enjoyment in completely flummoxing a wizard. Could be both. I know I'd enjoy both. 

A looming shadow sprang at me from one side. It was huge and encompassing—and blurry. The complete lack of any sound should have given the attacker away. Just as I started to turn to face it, Addera coalesced out of her own smudge outline.

"I know magic, Harry Potter." Addera reached out with her forelegs and scooped me off the floor with ease. —I know real magic! I made my wand light up, and I used all sorts of other charms. Except fire. Hermione said you had to teach me that, and she said you had to do it a long way away from her.—

Parseltongue was a slow, deliberate language. Hearing Addera spit it out as fast as she just had left me struggling to catch up. "She wouldn't teach you the fire-making charm inside, Addera."

Addera tilted her head to the side. "Why not?" That sounded exactly how Hermione would have said it.

"Because you'd set things on fire. That spell is really dangerous inside." I couldn't help giggling a little as I realized something. "Well, it's really dangerous for everyone but me and Fawkes.

"Wait a moment. She taught you all of the first year spells in one night?"

—Only the useful ones, Harry Potter. She told me I need to see her again tonight to work on more.— Addera swapped my weight to one of her forelegs while the other found my ear and rubbed it. It would be horribly demeaning if it didn't feel so relaxing. "It's hard to cast spells without seeing."

That shook the cobwebs her ear rubbing caused clear out of my head. "Addera? Please don't use magic when you can't see."

The sound of clopping hooves had my attention, mostly because they were louder than mine or the foals'. I tried to peer around Addera to see what was making them, but it was just a dark blob.

"Something happened last night, Harry," Hermione-the-blob said as she walked closer. "Someone tried to take Ginny's diary from my robes. I don't know how they found it, or what she did to them. She won't say anything today."

"Ginny won't?" I asked.

"I thought I said that?" Hermione sounded mildly perplexed. "I taught Addera what I could last night. It was more a cram session, but she should know most of the more useful first-year spells."

"Except incendio?"

—I would like to learn that one, Harry Potter.—

"I bet you would. Maybe later." Something important tickled at my memory, something I had to do. Two rubs of my ear later and the thought was gone completely. "Can you stop rubbing my ear?"

"No, Harry Potter."

"If you don't stop rubbing my ear, I won't teach you the fire-making charm." Wonder of wonders, the rubbing stopped. "There was something I was trying to remember, but it's really hard if you do that to me."

"This?" Addera rubbed my ear once, and a traitorous voice whined that one wasn't enough.

"Yes. That. Stop that." Whatever the thought had been was gone, but there was something else that had my focus. "Addera, what do you know of house-elves?"

Addera put me back down on the ground. —Not worth chasing is what they are, Harry Potter. They taste like dried old boots, and they'll disappear nine times out of ten even if you do catch one.—

I realized how easy it was to forget that Addera was a monster. She'd killed, she'd eaten—Wrenching my thoughts away from that, I realized that neither Rest, Relaxation, nor the tub were still here.

—Addera,— I said. —You're not to eat living creatures, okay?—

—That is impossible, Harry Potter. I eat meat to live.—

—I mean talking creatures. Humans, house-elves, goblins, ponies…—

—Pork sausages are tastier, anyhow, Harry Potter. I never liked killing, but I was a big basilisk.—

—Thank you, Addera.—

—No, Harry Potter. Thank you.—

Hermione was just looking at us with a glare, though it was hard to make out. What wasn't hard to work out was that she was annoyed about something, probably that we'd dropped to parseltongue. 

"Sorry, Hermione." The closest thing to fatherly advice Vernon had ever given me was to always apologize to females when you did something wrong. You didn't need to know what you'd done, and it was fine to keep doing it, but saying sorry was vital.

With a little upward inflection, Hermione's face calmed from annoyed to resting superiority that she normally had. "We should probably have something for breakfast."

—I am still full from yesterday, Harry Potter.—

"You won't be going to the great hall. I'll have the house-elves bring things up for you. What would you like?" Pomfrey asked. "And don't be afraid to ask for extra. Growing children need good meals, wizards and witches more so."

Not for the first time today my stomach decided to vote. I'd nibbled a few bits and pieces the previous morning, but I had no idea if I'd eaten anything for the rest of the day. "I'll have—Uh." 

"You'd best stick to salads, dear. Just like the first time an animagus has to eat while in their alternate form, it's best sticking to things your body would normally eat. Since I didn't notice any fangs when I looked over you yesterday, I assume you'll be on plant matter." Pomfrey turned to look at Addera. "And for you, miss?"

—How does she know I'm a miss, Harry Potter?— Addera sounded more curious than indignant.

"She said she's not hungry. I guess she eats like a snake, and since she ate so much yesterday…" 

Pomfrey smiled. "Good summation, Mr. Potter. Five points to Gryffindor." Her pronouncement surprised me. I hadn't known she would be able to award and deduct points, though it was good to know that even like this I could support my house. "What would our most adorable guests like?"

Three hooves and a wing shoved Tourmaline forward. "C-C-Can we have a bowl of oats each? With some honey on it?" As she spoke, the filly looked more and more confident. "And some fruit!"

"That's a good suggestion, thank you, Tourmaline. I think porridge all round would be a resounding idea. Even for you, Miss Granger. We're not sure how much of your new anatomy has gone within, and there's still the likelihood you could cast another spell." With that, Madam Pomfrey turned and walked out of the ward. 

"It's not like I'll just cast a spell for the fun of it," Hermione said, voice a little grumpy. "Unless I had to protect someone again, or it was for some kind of experiment."

—I bet her arms change next, Harry Potter,— Addera said, but I wished she hadn't.

"What was that?" Hermione asked in a sharp tone.

"Addera thinks your arms will change next. You know, you could help teach her English too. Then you wouldn't need me to keep translating." My ears twitched, and I turned and looked back at the bed I'd abandoned the previous night. Something had played at the edge of my sense of hearing. 

Curiosity wasn't limited to felines and humans. On my four stable legs I walked down the rows of beds until I found mine. The next problem, of course, was getting up onto it. The hospital beds were a little higher off the ground than the dorm room ones.

Rearing up into the air made me extremely unstable, but I managed to balance long enough to get my forelegs up. Alright, Harry, now you just have to pull yourself up. As it turned out, my forelegs couldn't get enough grip on the covers and my back legs didn't have enough spring to shove me upward fast enough.

What was worse was I was sure I looked stupid doing it.

A sudden shove lifted me up and put me on the bed. The lack of warning (given that there was only one person in the room with less than two hooves) told me exactly who had helped. "Thanks Addera."

"I think someone already has that name, sir." Rest's voice had a measure of humor underlying it. "But if you think that name would suit me better, you could ask Madam Pomfrey to change it for me."

"Sorry, Rest. I mean, thank you, Rest." I turned around only to see him disappear from sight with a smile on his face. "Alright, creepy magic disappearance. If you're still here, that's extra creepy."

There was no reply.

Turning back to the bed, I looked around for what might have made a noise. My heart almost stopped at the sight of a folded slip of paper. Stepping closer to it, I pinned one edge down with a hoof and used the other top open it.

Then I quickly closed it again. I'd only seen the bottom of it and I already didn't want to know. It was signed by The Moon again. 

Carefully, I unfolded that bottom third of the letter again.



Your admirer,
The Moon.



I quickly closed it. Nope! I had enough problems right now. I didn't need another girl making them worse. Between Addera and Hermione I had met my craziness quota and then some. Folding the letter again width-ways, I pushed it under the covers and turned back around. 

Something was going on at the end of the ward. Everyone was clustered together and—I froze. The smell of sweetened, hot oats caught in my nose and pulled very sharply on my sense of urgency.

I jumped from the bed (working on instinct with my brain out of the loop), landed easily on all four legs, and started bouncing on them. There was no other name I could think of for what I was doing. All four hooves would connect with the floor at the same time and I would push back and up. 

It was just about the stupidest, most energy wasteful way of moving, but for some crazy reason it made me grin like a fool to do. The only reason I stopped was I reached the edge of a table. Instinct said to jump onto it and keep going, but my brain wanted off the silly-train and I wound up crashing into a chair.

"Harry!" Hermione, Addera, and Madam Pomfrey said at the same time.

It was Hermione, however, that lifted me up from where my face was squished against the floor and sat me on the seat. "Honestly, what did you think you were doing?"

Close enough to see the big steaming pot of porridge that Pomfrey was ladling out into bowels, I was able to shunt Hermione's complaints to the side with a simple, "I was hungry."

I noticed the (blurry) other foals simply lifting their bowls to eat from the lip. The temptation to do the same was practically overwhelming, but there was something important to do first. "Loh-koh-mot-tor!" I just had to jerk my head upward a little after aiming at the spoon to get it lifted into the air. "And now some sugar."

By the time I got to my fifth teaspoon of sugar, Tourmaline was already finished her bowl. I stared at her for a moment. "Where'd you put that?"

Tourmaline looked back at me, then looked down at her belly, then back up at me with a smile plastered to her face. "I don't know, but there's room for more."

"Then more is what you shall have," Pomfrey said as she ladled more into the bowl.

I tore my eyes away from Tourmaline and brought the spoon to my own bowl. A heaping, steaming load of sweet porridge on my spoon, I brought it to my mouth carefully to avoid smooshing it against my snout.

Heaven.

The rich taste of the honey combined with the creamy oats exploded in my mouth. I gulped that mouthful down quickly and was already ferrying the next load. Spoon after spoon of the overly sweet breakfast barely had time to meet my tongue before I was swallowing it. 

A loud clink of a spoon against the bottom of a bowl shocked me out of the feeding frenzy I'd fallen into. I tilted my head up to look for Pomfrey, but she'd blindsided me.

"Another bowl." Her words were not phrased like a question, not that I was going to argue. She ladled my bowl full again and then moved on to the next diner.

Now I had a problem. I'd used my spoon to eat with, and I needed more sugar. Strategy was called for. "Skur-ji-fy!" I had to rock my shoulders side to side to get the right pattern with my horn, but magic lanced out and formed bubbles all over the spoon before leaving it pristine again. 

"You're probably going to need a lot of spells like that," Hermione said. "It can't be easy not having hands to do things."

Her words had turned introspective, and when I glanced at Hermione, she was looking at her own fingers. Right, she was turning into a little horse too. "There's some upsides to it."

"Like what?" Her tone implied I'd just shoved a rather pointed knife into her ribs.

"I can feel magic, Hermione. Like, I can feel people and things using it around me. When I cast a spell, I'm not just carefully pushing magic through my horn." I couldn't help smiling. "I have to consciously stop holding it back. Lack of magic didn't make me pass out, I just tried doing too much at once."

My thoughts raced in circles to find a better way of explaining it. "Yesterday, when you cast that shield, was it easier than normal?"

"Not with four of those helmet-mask things blasting away at the shield, but when I cast it at first it—it was." Hermione's expression changed from pensive, to curious, and then jumped to excited. "We need to test this. Where's my wand?"

Hermione's hand dipped into her robe in slow motion. I watched it come back out again lightning fast. Her lips began moving, and—

"Ex-pel-lee-ar-muss!" The syllables were crammed together, but it was still pronounced correctly. A flicker of light presaged Addera's spell connecting with Hermione's wand.

Jumping to her feet—hooves I guess—with a clatter, Hermione glared at Addera. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Magic make you a horse!" Addera's use of mangled English was almost as surprising as her surge into a more upright pose. "You negate want to be a horse!"

Hermione's eyes widened in complete disbelief, and her anger seemed completely defused. She fell backwards into her chair and crossed her arms. Despite everyone at the table staring at her, Hermione just kept up a frown.

"Ahem. Thank you, Miss Addera." Madam Pomfrey moved around the table with a steady walk, completely ignoring the predator that still looked annoyed. "Miss Granger, you might want to thank Miss Addera as well. While I certainly enjoy having such adorable little charges to take care of, I'd rather not have a sixth right away."

When Pomfrey offered Hermione her wand back, Hermione let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, Addera. Thank you for—for stopping me."

"This engages us square?" Addera asked.

"Makes us square. And I guess it does." Hermione looked over her wand for damage. "Would you like some help working on your English?"

The question seemed to calm Addera down completely, so much so that she smiled and nodded. "Thank you."

"In fact, I'll do it for payment, so we're even on that score again." Hermione looked pleased as punch about something. "I teach you any English word you need to pronounce, if you tell me how you managed to aim at my wand with your eyes closed."

I knew the answer to that. When her hand had gone into her robe, it'd made the slightest of sounds. If I could hear it with my ears, Addera (who proved she can hear movement through the floor) would have had an easy time of it.

—Please translate for me, Harry Potter,— Addera said.

"No. Don't use parseltongue. Let's start right now." Hermione's eyes flashed with the stubbornness she was well-known for.

"I hearing you reach for your wand." Addera's tail lashed audibly in what I realized was a show of agitation.

"Heard. You heard me reach for my wand," Hermione said. "So you could hear me pull the wand out, but you aimed that disarming charm when I had it out and raised."

Addera moved quickly. She slithered around from my right to where Hermione was sitting on my left. As she moved, she drew her wand up and held it beside Hermione's ear. "Listen." She flicked the wand with her hoof making the tip zip past Hermione's ear. "All wizards sharp movement their wand. The end moves fast. I heard that."

"Sharp movement? Oh! Flick." Hermione looked pleased and then curious. "Harry, your hearing is better now, right?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Maybe when—if I become a pony too, I could learn to listen for that sound." Hermione held her wand out, turning it over in her fingers.

"Hermione," I said. "Please don't do whatever it is you're thinking of doing."

"I'm sure they'll work out how to change us back in no time."

"Addera, if she tries to cast again, disarm her." I remembered, all of a sudden, just how impressive her pronunciation was earlier. "You cast that spell very quickly."

"English and parsel makes me talk slower." Addera waved the hoof not holding her wand in the air, a gesture she must have picked up from someone. "I-can-talk-fast." It wasn't that she'd left out pauses for spaces, she actually had paused, it was just that she said the whole thing twice as fast as normal.

"You'd really disarm me again?" Hermione asked.

"Yes," Addera said.

"Maybe I could find someone else to help?"

"Someone from Slytherin house." Addera sounded most happy about the prospect.

I tried to ignore the two and get back to my breakfast, but my ears kept tracking to them. It became a one-sided battle of wills to just focus on the food. Fortunately, with my stomach in agreement that more sugar-laced porridge was a good idea, I gave decorating and eating my breakfast my full attention.

No sooner had I gotten the spoon laden with my last dose of breakfast than the door of the infirmary wing was thrown open. "Harry! You need to come quick!"

Cramming the last mouthful of porridge in my mouth, I jumped from my seat and built my speed into a run. "What's wrong, Ron?" I slowed as I neared him.

"We've got class in five minutes. We'll be late if you don't hurry up," Ron said. 

Now that Ron was somewhat in focus, I could see him pointing out the door. I had a moment of indecision. I looked back at the foals, Hermione, and Addera (all of which were reasonably out of focus of course).

"Run along, Mr. Potter," Madam Pomfrey said. "With a good breakfast and a healthy appetite, you should be completely recovered from your exertions yesterday."

"What have we got first thing?" I asked.

Ron's smile was visible despite my lack of glasses. He grinned wide as he could. "Defense Against the Dark Arts!"





It was the same classroom that Lockheart had used to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, but all the portraits were gone for a start. The amount of light in the room was impressive. Not only were the windows letting in bright (brighter than Scotland saw) light, but the chandeliers were lit.

We were all settled, though there were two empty seats at the front of the class. Murmuring ran around everyone except for Malfoy, who sat in the far back corner of the class and glared down at his desk. 

I was looking down at my desk too, but probably for a different reason than whatever sulk Malfoy was in. A perfectly reflective piece of glass mirror—silvered on its rear side—sat on my desk. The mirror wasn't perfect, it was a shard of glass that looked like the edges had only seen a file to remove the sharp pieces from where it'd been broken from a much larger mirror.

But it worked still.

The particular scrying mirror the glass had been part of had been quite large and quite powerful, or so Ron had said, but now it was only good for scrying on particular things nearby the observer. The key to it was that I could see the things in the mirror as if it were perfectly in focus.

"This is neat, Ron. Thanks for getting it for me."

"Well, you know my brothers were trying to make something to let Addera see, right? They had three pieces of this. They're filing down the other two to make glasses lenses for her." Ron looked proud as punch, and he had every right to be—his brothers were the most devious rule breakers ever, and now they'd taken up breaking the rules in new and helpful ways.

"Don't you worry now. No one will be making fun of you for helping to save someone." Dumbledore's voice was warm as honey, and sounded so supportive and reassuring. With my ears swiveled back, however, I could hear another sound—rhythmic clop-clop-clopping.

It took every scrap of willpower I had not to turn around and look. Instead, I looked into the shard of glass and focused the scrying to the back of the classroom.

Hermione was walking at one side of Dumbledore, and Addera the other. In one of Addera's arms (or were they legs?) was her wand, while the other held books. Hermione, of course, had her bag for her things.

From the corner of the shard of mirror I saw Malfoy look up at Hermione. His face—crystal clear and in perfect detail—bore an unreadable expression for a moment before he looked back down. 

As Dumbledore walked down one of the aisles beside Hermione, Addera slithered up the next to the seat right in front of me, pushed the seat aside and simply gathered herself together to a height about the same as Hermione's.

"I believe an introduction is in order. Not to me, of course, but the subject. It has become apparent that Hogwarts has not had a sufficiently practiced Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for some time. Given that this was my failing, I am correcting the matter." Dumbledore lifted one hand slowly to reveal his wand to the class. "As you are no doubt aware, magic has consequences at the moment. This will be both a boon and a hindrance when it comes to the dark arts.

"Magic items, however, are still very functional, and so we can't count out even magical attacks from hostile wizards and witches. I took the liberty of reading the syllabus that former-professor Lockheart taught, and I believe in the time we have until the end of semester, we'll start over with the basics. Put simply, before even magic itself the most powerful weapon a practitioner of dark arts will use is fear."

Dumbledore turned around and started writing on the board. He wrote the words Hope, Friendship, and Love in a triangle and then linked them together. In front of us, Hermione leaned across to Addera and whispered to her. 

The sound must have caught Dumbledore's ear. He turned around and—when he saw it was Hermione and Addera murmuring—ignored the disturbance. 

"Hope, Friendship, and Love. Three simple concepts, three tenets of defense against fear. If you hold all of these in your heart, a dark arts practitioner will never cow you through fear. 

"Hope, or optimism if you will, is the simple understanding that if you do good things the world gets better. Hope is simple, it is powerful"—Dumbledore smiled—"and it's contagious."

"What about power?" a feminine voice asked.

"Power is useless if you drop your wand in fear. There is nothing in life that can be accomplished if you allow fear to take hold. Tyrants believe fear is a tool and wield it with abandon, but living with fear constantly will eat people up and destroy them. There is no power in the presence of fear," Dumbledore said. 

"The second tenet is more complicated, Friendship. This is more complicated to explain than hope. It can mean the knowledge others will help you and that they will need you, or it could relate to allies and your trust that they have your back without conditions.

"Due to the nature of human beings—wizards, witches, and muggles alike—this is less predictable the more people it involves. But I'm sure I don't have to give any of you a lesson on making friends."

I looked at Ron with my own eyes (forsaking the mirror), and realized that he was definitely my friend despite the incident with the foals. If anything, it meant I had to be a better friend to him to help him avoid fear.

Almost two years of study in Defense Against the Dark Arts had taught me next to nothing, and yet Dumbledore has taught me more practical information in ten minutes.

"And that brings us to the most complicated of all—Love." Dumbledore paused for the usual round of silliness. "Don't titter. I'm not just referring to romantic love. The bindings between someone and their family, of a crafter for their creation, even of a student for the lore they learn can all be classed as love. Like friendship, love can bind us to the people and things of this world and leaves little room for fear to take root. 

"Care must be taken, of course, not to let misguided love or friendship become your downfall. With great benefits come great flaws. One sided love, poisonous love, even addictive love are pitfalls of this. The simplest way to protect yourself from these and more is communication. The dark arts are practiced by wizards and witches who hoard knowledge. Why, one of the reasons I became a teacher was to ensure that knowledge is spread to those who need it most."





Class ended after more examples of fighting off fear than I could have ever believed possible. Laughter had been one of the better ones. What I really wanted, however, was a way to fight off anger. 

While all the other students rushed for the door, I was using the locomotion charm I'd cast just after arriving to put away my inkwell and pen. Though ballpoint pens were easier (and more common in the wider world) I still enjoyed using a dip pen. 

"Harry, Ron, Hermione, Addera—could you four please wait until after class?" Dumbledore asked in a soft voice.

I knew the voice. It was the one he used when he didn't like what he was going to talk about. I dipped my head and finished lifting things into my bag.

Beside me, Ron was actually slower at packing up his own things. Okay, so maybe not everything about being a not-unicorn was bad. "I wonder what he wants?" 

Shrugging, I used my hoof to press the bag closed. There were straps on the bag to fasten, but I didn't want to have to cast locomotion charm on literally everything. "No clue. Can you do this strap up for me?"

"No probs, Harry," Ron said. "I thought more about what I did—running away—and I know I can be better than that. I guess I could always get one of the bats the beaters use. Better that than a wand right now."

"Just be careful with it. Considering these ponies are not really doing the attacking, we don't want to hurt them. Not to mention S-Sombra is in Ginny's body," I said.

Ron's face fell. "Dammit, I—"

"But it can't hurt, right?" I lifted up a hoof and poked his arm. "Better to break a leg or arm or whatever, since Madam Pomfrey can fix all that up easy enough."

"Yeah!" The reversal in his mood almost gave me whiplash. "Here, maybe I could ask Fred and George for tips on breaking arms?"

Footsteps behind us gave away a new arrival. My ears were literally the best part of a not-unicorn body, I'd found. I reached out to the glass with my hoof and focused behind us. McGonagall was closing the door behind her.

"We had hoped not to involve students at all," McGonagall said as she walked around the desks along the windows side. With my mirror, I could not only see her in crisp detail, but I could see the slight bulge at her rear. She definitely had a tail, then. "But between Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, it seems that all five of you cannot help but be dragged into this. So I'm going to tell you everything."

I caught sight of Dumbledore's face in the mirror. With everyone's attention on McGonagall he seemed upset with something. A moment later his expression changed back to the relaxed and caring one he almost always wore. 

"We are trapped here. Those ponies with the helmets on are now hostile. Any time we send anything out there, they immediately turn and attack it. Without our own magic there's no way to deal with them short of a catapult. And while I'm sure the students would quite enjoy building those, I won't justify harming what are undoubtedly innocents.

"Which brings me to where we are, or aren't. This isn't Scotland, as is painfully obvious." McGonagall gestured with one hand at the bright windows, but now that I'd seen Dumbledore's face slip, I was more focused on him. "We appear to be in a cold climate still, though there hasn't been any snowfall yet. I had the thought of investing some time with a compass, and can conclude that where west should be is now north. That is, the sun sets in the north."

"We're not on Earth…" Hermione said.

"Five points to Gryffindor," Dumbledore said with a slight smile returning to his face. "This world is not the one with which we're familiar."

"As all of you have seen, I have chosen to give Addera a wand—something that is not universally seen as a good idea." Her eyes flicked ever so slightly in Dumbledore's direction. Dumbledore had his warm and friendly face on still. "The fact of the matter is that giving you a wand, Miss. Addera, doubled the amount of wizardry we can comfortably use."

"What about the house elves?" Hermione asked.

Like a gong going off in my head, the memory of what I'd needed to see Dumbledore about became clear. "That's right. They were using their magic in the infirmary."

McGonagall smiled in a way that bespoke real emotion shining through. "And it's with that kind of thinking that I feel justified for telling you all. Ten points to Gryffindor."

Hermione's smile literally made me smile too. She looked beyond pleased at her revelation. I felt a nugget of anger spark from envy. It should have been me getting that praise but—but it wasn't. It was Hermione, the smartest girl I knew.

"And that's all we know so far. Professor Dumbledore's wards are holding against the onslaught without any sign of them breaking. They were built to take punishment, right Albus?" McGonagall looked at Dumbledore, and I saw the mask slide off Dumbledore's face as he replied with a genuine smile.

"Even twice as many masked ponies—ten times as many—would not break through. They just don't have the raw power needed. And while they're in place, nothing can leave and nothing can enter."

"That means he's outside." Ron's voice beside me startled me into dragging my scrying focus to him, but in the process it landed on me. "If he were inside, he'd be acting. From what Harry said, he doesn't seem the sort to wait around if he doesn't have to."

I barely heard Ron's reasoning. I stared at myself—my big eyes, curved and forked horn, fluffy and disheveled mane, and the armored scales that traced my spine in a wide line—and only stared in wonder. That was me. I wasn't human anymore.

"How'd you work that out, Ronald?" Hermione asked.

"Well, it stands to reason, don't it? He's playing a passive game, protecting his king at the back while fighting for space with his pawns. Something doesn't make sense, though." Ron looked between McGonagall and Dumbledore. "Where's his knight?"

Hermione looked absolutely perplexed. "His what?" 

McGonagall cleared her throat, which had the effect of causing all of us to shut up. "Miss. Granger, Mr. Weasley is speaking of the knight piece. They tend to strike rather fast and rather deep, and can be hard to recognize as a threat. I have much to ponder, Mr. Weasley, thank you for that analysis."

"You're forgetting something, Minerva?" Dumbledore asked. At McGonagall's confused glance, he continued. "Ten points to Gryffindor."

It was a dismissal if I'd ever heard one.





Albus Dumbledore was vexed. Every single decision his friend made was wrong. She'd stepped into temporary control of Hogwarts, and had upended the place. Despite the steaming annoyance in his own head, Albus managed to keep his outward calm.

Once the door was closed and the students gone, Minerva McGonagall turned to Albus Dumbledore. "Do you still doubt my wisdom?"

"She's as close to being above reproach as any non-human could be, but that still doesn't mean you should have given her a wand. The history books call them uprisings, Minerva, but what they were was wars. Man against goblin. You know the laws are the law for a reason."

"She's the closest thing Hogwarts has to an actual protector right now. You've seen her move, and we've both heard how bewitching her gaze is. If she'd wanted to destroy Hogwarts, she didn't need a wand to do it. She was meant to be the school's guardian for a thousand years, instead she was made to be its nemesis." As Minerva spoke, her anger outed a little in her tone. "You gave your mantle to me, Albus, don't be surprised that my shoulders are different to yours."

Albus recognized when he'd lost an argument by force. She was right in too many ways—in too many things—for him to be able to attempt to regain his stole of leadership from her. Which is why the little joy at a weight removed was so hollow. "You're right, Minerva. I've run the school a long time, through much conflict. Sometimes I forget how much the world can change."

"The world didn't change, Albus. We just found our way to a new one."

The words were so simple and so correct that Albus Dumbledore couldn't help but smile at them. "I'm still going to get upset whenever you do something different."

"Of course. You've earned that right." Minerva smiled and gestured to the world outside the window. "Besides, you can always pick up the pieces and tell me I told you so if I make a balls-up of it."

"Minerva! Where'd an upstanding young witch like you learn a phrase like that?"

Glad to have her friend back, Minerva couldn't help flicking her tail despite it feeling wrong. It's not a cat tail, get used to it. "I spent enough years in London to have learned quite a few such phrases. Thank you for understanding this little girl and her confusing ideals."

Both wizard and witch managed a laugh before leaving the room and going in separate directions.