McGonagall led the two adult ponies away and left me standing in the middle of the room and watching them leave.
"I can't believe I have wings!"
When I turned around, Hooch had a hoof over her mouth that did nothing to hide her huge grin. "You've been on a broom before, how—"
"That's completely different." Hooch lowered her hoof down and walked to the windows and opened one. "Having wings and flying—without magic or devices—has been a dream I've had since I was a little girl. I don't care about the rest of the changes, just having wings makes this worth it!"
"Can you still cast magic?" Hermione asked.
All eyes focused on Hooch who looked—for the first time since I'd seen her as a horse—worried. Worried, for a pony, was a lot easier to see than on a human. Ears tucked back and they kinda hunch their neck a little. All much easier to see than facial expressions.
"W-Where's my wand?" Hooch ran down the beds until she reached the pile of things McGonagall had dropped off with her initially. Rearing up, Hooch tried to rifle through her things.
"You'll need a spell to—" I said.
"Let me help." Hermione walked over to Hooch beside me.
While Hermione started sorting through Hooch's clothing with her hands, I jumped up on the bed with one huge shove of my back legs. Landing on the bed, I walked over just as Hermione found Hooch's wand.
"Harry, I now see what you mean." Hermione held out Hooch's wand handle first to her.
"I've seen you hold things with your hoof, Harry, how is it done?" Hooch asked.
In answer I held up my right hoof. "Split hooves. I can grab things between the toes."
"You can still hold it!" Tourmaline bounced and jumped up onto the bed beside me. "Even with pony hooves. You just—just pick it up like this."
Tourmaline reached out for the wand, but Hermione lifted it away before she could reach it. The little filly sat up and glared at Hermione. "I was trying to show them how to hold it!"
"They're dangerous!" Hermione set her hands on her hips.
Tourmaline frowned up at Hermione. "I'm reprehensible!"
"Responsible," I said. "Loh-koh-mot-tor!"
I didn't have a clear target, but I focused my will on the ballpoint pen that was sequestered between the pages of Ginny's book. My spell-casting had been plenty of interruption to keep both Tourmaline and Hermione from arguing further.
Once the pen reached us (still carrying Ginny's diary), I used one hoof to free the diary from it and set the pen before Tourmaline. "There. Show her with that."
Reaching out with her hoof, Tourmaline plucked the pen from my magical grip. "There!"
Something tingled at my magical senses.
"Harry, can you stop your Locomotion Charm?" Hermione asked. When I did so, she pointed a crystalline finger at Tourmaline's hoof. "You're using magic!"
"I am?" Looking at her hoof, Tourmaline rotated it around to show us how the pen just stuck to it. "I'm just holding it. No magic needed."
"There is magic there. I can feel it too," Hermione said.
Hooch cleared her throat. "May I try?" Her question dripped in sarcasm the likes of which I wished I could use without getting yelled at. When Hermione quickly set Hooch's wand on the bed nearest to Hooch, Hooch smiled. "Thank you, Miss Granger." Reaching up to the wand with her hoof, Hooch completely failed to pick it up.
"You just need to do this." Tourmaline tossed the pen from one hoof to the other while she sat back on her haunches. "Like this."
"This might take some practice. Okay, forget that for now." Hooch leaned down and picked up her wand in her mouth. I thought about making a stupid comment about her not being able to say the spell words, but being as she looked like a pony I'd forgotten she was also an adult witch and a teacher. Power surged down Hooch's wand and a moment later she got just a little taller.
I rushed to the edge of the bed and looked over to see that her hooves were floating off the floor.
"I can manage." At least that's what I thought Hooch said. It sounded more like, "Are car margag."
Tourmaline bounced on the bed a few times in excitement. "I've never seen a pegasus do magic before. Can anypony do magic with one of those sticks?"
"They're called wands, and you'd have to ask Headmistress McGonagall if you can have one to practice with. If you can use magic in your hoof, there's no reason you can't use a wand." Hermione had her air of superior knowledge about her. Something had happened that put her at ease, and I can bet what it was.
Ron felt the same way, they just weren't themselves without magic.
"I'm going to learn magic!" Tourmaline started bouncing on the bed, then launched herself onto the floor to pronk around Hooch and then Hermione, chanting "I'm going to learn magic!" with each bounce.
"I'm glad I don't have to make that call." Hooch said, roughly translated from wand-in-mouth.
"You two," Pomfrey said as she walked into the room. "Off to lunch in the hall. Madam Hooch, please stop your spells and follow me."
"What about us?" Zircon asked.
"We need some time to make up all the beds. Run along with Harry and Hermione to have lunch, then return back after." Pomfrey sounded like she was already at the end of a long day. "Between everyone breaking out in either a case of pony, stupidity, both, or picking stupid fights over a girl, I am at my wit's end!"
Despite my curiosity about who was fighting over a girl, I was not stupid enough to challenge Pomfrey's temper. "Okay, thanks Madam Pomfrey." I turned to look at the foals, but they were already forming up to follow. "Come on!"
Never in my life had I had a gang following me (Ron and Hermione don't count), not chasing, following. I know I was lifting my hooves a little more than normal when I walked past Pomfrey with five foals behind me, and I didn't dare look up at her face for fear of what might be on it.
Hermione's hooves clattered behind me and a moment later she was walking beside me in the huge hallway. "I look ridiculous."
I looked up at Hermione. She had just pulled her robes back on and was straightening them, but she looked no more or less ridiculous than any other student at Hogwarts. She lacked her hat, which meant her horn and ears were prominent—as was the fact that her whole body was made out of crystal. "A little, but that's mostly the uniform."
It was impossible for me to tell if her snout had formed into pout or a smile, but I hoped for the latter. "I guess the advantage is I can still wear clothes. Don't you get—I don't know—breezy?"
"You've got fur now. Doesn't it feel strange to wear stuff over it?" I asked.
While I spoke, Tourmaline had trotted up beside me and made a show of prancing. I was about to ask her why she was doing it when I saw Ginny's diary on her back complete with the pen folded inside it.
"Well, a little. But it would be worse to not wear them. That'd be unthinkable!"
After being with Hermione for two school years, I was used to her oblivious words, but it did make me think. Was I being abhorrent by not wearing clothes? Hooch hadn't seemed to care either. Was there something about being a pony that made clothes seem unneeded? "I guess I don't think about it, so it is unthinkable."
Hermione snorted. "That's not what I—"
The rest of her words were drowned out by the sound of a great hall full of students all talking (and very little food being consumed). The sound stopped, however, as people saw Hermione, the foals, and me.
"Over here, Harry Potter." Addera's voice and the unmistakable sight of her mirror glasses helped me work out which direction they were. As we neared her, I realized Ron was sitting beside her, and Neville was opposite them.
Trotting up, I made for the seat beside Addera only for Hermione to beat me to it. Swapping over, I dove under the table and came up beside Neville. "Hi Neville. Hope you don't mind, we brought—"
"She's so pretty." Neville's words cut me off. I looked up at him, then traced his eyes to see him staring at Hermione (who I didn't need to see well to know was blushing).
Despite my desire to see Hermione squirm a little more (after the comment about clothing), I figured it'd be better for everyone if I changed the topic. "Hey Neville, have you seen our new friends?"
"They're little horses?" Neville asked.
"Ponies!" Zircon said.
"Yeah! We're little ponies!" Tourmaline said to reinforce the message.
Lunch was sandwiches. I focused my attention on one of the plates. "Loh-koh-mot-tor!" I directed a charge of magic through my horn and into the plate. Rather than the usual easy lifting, the plate seemed massively heavy and I forced a lot more magic into the spell to compensate.
"Wait!" Ron reached an arm across the table to grab the plate. "Those're the ones with meat. You want the leaf pattern plates." He held out another plate.
I leaned a little further forward and saw the bone pattern on the first one I'd grabbed. "Thanks, Ron. Loh-koh-mot-tor!" Another rush, another shove of extra magic and I pulled the plate over to me and the foals. Another Locomotion Charm and I lifted a sandwich off the platter and to me. I didn't even realize that people were staring at me until I was halfway through the mouthful.
The sound of the room slowly went back up. I finished my mouthful and leaned across to Neville. "What's going on?"
"You cast a spell. Look at the Slytherins—Everyone's trying to hide that they've cast one or two, but it's like Slytherin are working together," Neville said. "Do you suppose my gran would be able to send a message here?"
I scoffed. The change in topic was welcome, as was the information. "And get through Dumbledore's wards? No chance. Though, if anyone could, your gran would probably be the one. I remember that howler…" I took another bite of the sandwich in my grip.
Neville visibly shivered. "That was horrible. I never want another of those, but—but I think there's probably a bunch of nasty letters piling up."
"A good reason to brush up on your fire spells, Neville." The sandwich was a good find—salad and egg. "That way"—I gulped down another mouthful—"you can burn them all before they reach you."
It took a few seconds for Neville to start chuckling, but the grin on his face was worth telling a stupid joke to see. It felt good to see all my friends happy, despite some of them being a lot more equine than this time last week.
"These're really tasty!" Tourmaline said.
More appreciative sounds followed Tourmaline's exclamation. I had to admit, the food in Hogwarts was always really good. And just like that a new worry assaulted me. "How much food do they keep here at Hogwarts?"
"Food charms. Multiplying it, stopping it from going bad. Hogwarts doesn't really need food so long as we have magic. I-I mean normally. I don't really know who would be casting the spells at the moment." Neville gestured to a plate appearing out of nowhere. "See, they'll have made just one or two sandwiches then copied them out to fill each plate, then copied the plates."
"Rest?" I asked. I repeated the name twice more before the house-elf appeared sitting on the bench beside me. "Rest, who's casting the spells to make all the food?"
Rest just shrugged and then disappeared again.
"Was that a house-elf, Potter?" Draco's voice was unmistakable more by its pronunciation than tone. "I should have known you'd make friends with lesser creatures once you became one."
I turned around on the bench, ready to hurl an insult back at Draco, when I saw he was literally flanked by older students, both of which I could make out as wearing prefect pins. My insults died in my throat—they could penalize all of Gryffindor for something I might say.
"Now now, Draco, what did I say about insulting?" the girl asked.
The girl's tone felt like treacle. She had a slight smile that almost seemed nice.
"Sorry, Prefect. I shouldn't lower myself to the standards of half-bloods." Draco sounded as pleased with himself as Draco could get.
Then something hit me like a hammer—Draco said sorry. That he would apologize to anyone without threats of being expelled was a shock.
"There. See how much easier it is to raise yourself above them? How much better it feels?" Gemma was just a blur, but she sounded worse than Draco ever had. She was using her words to be as hurtful as she could. "Sorry, Harry Potter. I'll try to keep everyone of substance from bothering you ever again so you can continue your happy little life."
I felt my anger start to rise and it felt good. Taking a step toward this Gemma, I felt fire start to lick around my body and Gemma's face came into complete focus.
"Harry!"
Neville's shout and his hand on my shoulders stopped my fury dead. If I burned, I'd hurt him.
"Neville Longbottom," Gemma said, "You really should learn to care for your pets. Perhaps a leash would be a good idea?"
Unlike earlier in the day, my anger was easier to keep hold of. I reined it in as much as I could, but it was the presence of Neville that helped the most—I would not hurt my friends!
Screwing my eyes closed, I tried to keep myself from setting fire to everything in the room. The hand on my shoulder was replaced by something more substantial and tight. I snapped my eyes open to find Addera coiled around me. My anger drained away further.
"There is something that a thousand years under the command of Salazar Slytherin taught me," Addera said. "Breeding counts for nothing. It's how you treat others that's important."
I'd never heard her string so many words together so well.
"You're absolutely right. Among pure-blood wizards, breeding matters not." Gemma's tone implied that there was more coming, that she had more barbs. "And, you'll find my treatment of those that are worthy is exemplary. Oh, but why am I explaining this to you?" With that, Gemma stood up and started walking from the hall.
Draco and the other prefect stood up and followed, and a moment later Crabbe and Goyle did the same. What startled me was another girl from Slytherin house stood up and walked off as well moments before the entirety of Slytherin stood and walked from the hall.
I'd been snubbed by folks here and there before—mostly when they thought I was commanding a monster to kill them—but this felt like I wasn't even worth the time it would take them to snub me.
When Draco made it into the Slytherin common room, she wanted to bounce over to Gemma and kiss her. She'd never seen Harry Potter look so lost before. A shiver of excitement boiled inside at the realization that all of Slytherin was behind her—filing into the common room.
"That, Draco, is how you insult someone." Gemma flashed a smile at the younger girl. She didn't need to look at Draco's face to know she was flush with happiness. "I'm glad you enjoyed it, because from now on we ignore Harry Potter. Completely ignore him. I don't want you even acknowledging he exists unless a teacher forces you to."
The plan was two-fold for Gemma. It gave Draco exactly what she wanted, and it would disconnect Draco from this vendetta she seemed to hold with Harry.
"Okay," Draco said. "So what do you want me to do now?" It was an obvious give-and-take. Such things Draco was particularly sensitive to looking for now.
"It so happens I might have something in mind—"
"That"—Severus Snape said as he entered the Slytherin common room—"was possibly the stupidest and most ill-advised thing I've ever seen." He rounded on Gemma. "Do you have any idea what you almost did?"
Gemma's hackles were up, but she knew better than to antagonize Snape. "Putting a Gryffindor in his pla—"
"No. You almost burned down the great hall. Whatever other talents he has, when Mr. Potter takes that form he gains mastery over a fire almost as destructive as Fiendfyre, and using it only seems to encourage his anger. I hope I don't have to explain what this means for the target of his anger?" As he spoke, Severus' voice became colder and more precise.
"It was all my doing." Helena Fowley said. "I heard him say something about the fight and I—I couldn't help myself—"
"Don't try that. It might work on Professor Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey, but I know better." Severus looked around and saw a sea of faces, and he could practically feel the intent of each one ready to jump to Gemma Farley's defense. "What are you doing here, Miss Farley?"
"What a Slytherin does best." When Gemma saw Severus' lip twitch just a little, she knew she had some measure of control back. "Is he really that dangerous?"
"I forbid you—any of you—from doing any more to get under Mr. Potter's skin. Let his own house deal with the fallout." Severus turned, sweeping his robe around him as he left his own common room.
"Thank you, Helena. That was most appreciated." Gemma leaned back in her seat and pondered her next course of action.
Rubeus Hagrid had found he quite liked this muggle's stories. Dragonflight had been a tough read, but in prison there wasn't a lot else to do. He read it in just two days. Then a little shape had cartwheeled through the door with another book in his hands. Rubeus was now halfway through Dragonquest.
Just the idea that there were dragons that weren't horrid big monsters tickled at Rubeus' imagination. Huge beasts these dragons were, and fire-breathing besides, but they were bonded with their riders in a way that he could only dream about.
"Hello, Hagrid."
The voice shocked Rubeus not just because it was coming from within his cell, but because it belonged to someone he'd thought long in his past. Not wanting to hurt his book—the precious little book—Rubeus slipped a piece of paper between the pages and set it aside. He stood up—hunched over nonetheless—and reached his hands out for Sirius Black's throat.
"Hagrid!"
"Shh! Don't make noise or guards come. Too much noise and dementors come. Not enough noise and no one comes." Toil poked his head out through the door to make sure the coast was clear. "Quiet or I put you back in your kennel."
"You killed 'em." Rubeus was as close to rage as he'd ever gotten. Even when they'd snapped his wand in half he hadn't been this angry. When one of his chains pulled tight, he simply yanked it from the wall. "You killed the bes' people what ever lived!"
"I did not, Hagrid. Can't you see that I was framed?" Sirius dodged and weaved as best he could, but while he could dodge Rubeus' huge arms it was a chain that wrapped around his throat at the worst possible moment that was his undoing.
"You were the only one who knew where they were. You were their Secret-Keeper!" Rubeus was almost blind with tears rolling down his cheeks. He reached for the end of the chain and started to tug on it.
Toil giggled. "He wasn't. Wasn't a Secret-Keeper—that's the secret! Now another knows, it's not a secret."
Rubeus froze. He turned to look at Toil. "What're you mean?"
"I'll tell you if you let him breathe."
The offer surprised Rubeus—he hadn't realized he was still choking the life out of Sirius. "Err, right-o." He let go.
"Four were the Marauders. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Moony was too wild to be trusted—too wild! Prongs was one being hidden—no good. Padfoot and Wormtail were the options." Toil watched as Sirius dropped to the floor choking and gasping for air. "If not Padfoot, then Wormtail is the worm. Wormy-worm. Eating the rot until it fills him up. Will he become a butterfly?"
"That's caterpilla'," Rubeus said as he sat down on his bench.
His hand reaching out for the book, Rubeus didn't intend to read it—it was just comforting. "Wormtail?"
"The irony"—Sirius coughed a little and rubbed his throat with one hand—"that the rat was a rat is not lost, but it's true. I don't know what happened to him, but Pet—the traitor—gave up the information. I know he did. I just need to get out and get my hands on—"
"Out?" Rubeus gestured to the walls. "Out o' Azkaban? You've los' your marbles."
"That's what those were?" Toil turned to Sirius. "Sorry, Toil ate them."
Grinning for the first time since he'd entered the cell, Sirius reached a hand out to Toil to help him stand. The iron grip of the house-elf practically shoved him to his feet. "Yes. Out. Out of Azkaban. But, we need help."
"Your help," Toil said.
"My 'elp?" Rubeus rubbed the soft pages of the book in his hand. A book its author would never dream would be read by a half-giant. "Well, I guess I don't 'ave nothin' better to do."