There was a bright flash of light in Professor Dumbledore’s Office in Hogwarts. A purple pony with both wings and a horn touched down lightly on the floor as Fawkes glided to his roost. The pony’s eyes immediately sought out the wizard’s desk, and the locket on it. The alicorn propped herself against his desk and carefully examined the item, her horn and it glowing faintly purple.
Princess Twilight sighed, at once both happy and saddened. “Yes, it’s another one. The fourth. It fits the curve perfectly.” She looked up at him.
Sirius was switching back and forth, watching them, eyebrows raised curiously.
The Headmaster nodded. “I thought so. The final one should be a small golden cup with two finely-wrought handles. It should have a badger engraved on the side, with gems for eyes.” He gestured with his wand and a book flew from his library. He flipped it open to the marked page. “Like this.”
The two leaned closer.
“Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup!” exclaimed Sirius, looking from the picture to the wizard. “The Founder’s Cup?”
Albus nodded regretfully. “Just as the locket, here, is Slytherin’s Locket,” he said, flipping to another page.
Sirius glanced between the picture and the locket several times. He fell back, and landed heavily into the chair behind him. He shook his head disbelievingly. “Hufflepuff’s Cup and Slytherin’s Locket,” he murmured.
Albus gently nodded, grimacing. “I haven’t a clue as to where the Cup could be hidden.”
Sirius looked at the locket and pointed. “And what is that . . . magic . . . on it?”
Albus sighed. “A terrible piece work that should never have been cast.” He sighed. “Far too dangerous to allow to exist.” He gave a deeper sigh. “And the only remedy is to destroy the locket.” He gazed sadly at it.
Sirius just stared at him.
He almost didn’t say more, but Twilight had a hard look with narrowed eyes as she stared at him. He sighed again. “Soul magic of the foulest kind. I fear Voldemort has trespassed into realms he should have ignored.”
“Soul magic? Foulest kind?” Sirius’ brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed. He was obviously thinking deeply. His eyes abruptly shot wide-open and he sprang to his feet.
“Horcruxes!” he shouted, wild-eyed. “He actually made a horcrux?”
Albus looked at him, surprised. How had the wizard known of what he spoke?
Twilight turned to look at him. “He’s made five for sure,” she said calmly, “we’ve destroyed three, so far. One was the Gaunt family ring and the other Rowena Ravenclaw’s Tiara.”
Sirius stared at her aghast. Then collapsed bonelessly back into the armchair. “The daft idiot made horcruxes . . . horcruxes!” He shook his head disbelievingly and stared at the floor, thinking.
“You have heard of them?” Albus said cautiously.
“There’s a small book about them in the Black Library. Only a fool would create one. They change you.” Sirius shook his head.
He suddenly looked up, “Rowena Ravenclaw’s Tiara?”
It took another hour to bring him up to date on what they had discovered.
“Does he know when you destroy ones of these?”
Twilight and Albus exchanged glances.
“I don’t’ know. Potentially? Possibly? Probably?” Twilight said as she shrugged. “We don’t know for sure, but if he’s within a certain distance I would expect there to be some kind of sympathetic reaction.”
“We were more concerned with destroying the things as soon as we found them,” the Headmaster said. “That he might know when they are destroyed didn’t occur to us.”
“Perhaps we should do this in Equestria?” suggested Twilight.
“Taking it through the portal might create a wraith in Equestria,” suggested the Headmaster. “It did detect a certain animagi . . . ,” he said ruefully.
“Would the venom work the same in Equestria?” asked Sirius. “Or would it merely free the wraith?”
They lapsed into silence, thinking.
“Perhaps, if we were far enough away?” Albus proposed, glancing up at Fawkes.
Twilight looked up at the bird and shrugged. “Where would you suggest?” She paused, thinking, “New Zealand? The Auckland Islands?”
Albus’ eyes twinkled as he said, “There is a place in the Himalayas that might suit? It has some rather interesting charms protecting it that might also hide the locket’s destruction from detection.”
She momentarily glanced at Sirius, and shrugged. “One place is as good as another, as long as it is far enough away.” She hesitated. “Perhaps we should do this late at night, he might be less likely to notice if he’s resting.”
“Yes, that might be of assistance. If he’s possessing an animal or person, at the moment.”
Sirius made a wry expression, “And if he isn’t, we still don’t know that it will make a difference. But we really don’t have much in the way choices, now do we?”
Albus nodded and put the venom box back in his secret drawer. He turned and accio-ed a small box from his trinket shelf. He studied it carefully for a moment, then conjured a cushion inside it. Taking a quill, he quickly wrote a set of runes on each side of the box. Once that was done he floated the locket into the box and also placed it in his drawer.
As neither of them knew about the drawer, it was still safe under the fidelius. That it contained a horcrux and the remains of two others was incidental to the charm.
“Shall we meet in ten hours?” he suggested. “You can just floo-in, Sirius, and Princess Sparkle,” he looked at her, smiling, “perhaps you can ask your friend Philomena to bring you here? If she’s busy, I’ll ask Fawkes to do the honours.”
Twilight nodded. “While I’m here, do you mind if I drop in to see Lyra and Bon Bon? And visit with Harry if he’s not in class? I’d rather not impose upon Philomena or Fawkes more than absolutely necessary.” She glanced up at the bird and smiled.
Albus nodded, “That sounds delightful,” he said. He pulled a parchment from a drawer and wrote for a moment. “Here’s an excuse for Harry and the girls if your talk goes longer than you plan.”
“Oh! Thank you,” she said taking the parchment and placing it in her saddlebags.
He looked up at the wall with the Hogwarts map. “Bon Bon and Lyra,” he said. Two names on the map lit up. “Ah, they are in the library at present.” He gave Twilight a quick glance, then said, “Harry Potter.” Another spot on the map lit up. He nodded as a chart appeared beside the boy’s name. “And he is in Transfigurations right now, which lets out at one-fifty, then he is in Defence Against the Dark Arts until three.”
“Thank you,” Twilight said happily. She turned and trotted to the door, the handle glowing purple a moment as the door opened. They watched as the alicorn started to glide down the stairs.
۸-_-۸
“Mum!” Harry shouted gleefully when he saw her waiting for him outside the D.A.D.A. classroom. They hugged each other as the others gathered around them.
Harry leaned back, and asked, “What brings you here today?” His face clouded slightly. “Is there a problem?”
She laughed lightly. “Nonsense! Do I need a reason?”
He hugged her tightly again.
“But Headmaster Dumbledore did call me to check something for him. We have to do something late tonight, after you all are asleep, so I figured, as long as I was here . . . ,” She looked down at him and arched an eyebrow.
He grinned back up at her. Then grabbed her hand and started down the corridor, going in the opposite direction one would have expected. “Come on,” he said, “I’ll show you Gryffindor Tower! There’s this really neat shortcut.”
At the intersection, they turned and soon they were out of sight of the non-Gryffindors. He stopped in front of a pastoral painting. He smirked and looked at her. “Watch this!”
A moment later, he was in the painting, waving energetically. “That Book-walking spell is really useful!” his tinny voice cried.
His mum stood there, a poleaxed expression on her face. Then she grinned.
“This is amazing,” she said, standing beside him and looking around. They were quickly joined by the rest of the First Year Gryffindor cohort, who were laughing.
“Yeah!” he said enthusiastically, “and with the wizard paintings you can run from one painting to the next, even if they’re on different floors, like this!” He ran to the side where she could see a shadow.
It took less than a minute for them to pop out of a painting down the corridor from the Gryffindor Common Room. “Didn’t want to use the one in the Common Room,” Harry explained, “we would have been seen, and then everyone would know.”
“This is marvellous!” his mum said. “How far can they reach?”
“I don’t know, for sure. One of the paintings told us that one of the previous Headmasters has a painting in London and can easily travel between here and there.” He screwed up his face in thought, “That’s about . . . three hundred thousand celestials?”
She stopped dead in front of the Fat Lady’s portrait. For a moment, she just stared. Finally, she said, “That’s farther than most ponies can teleport, and faster. And more convenient.”
“Yeah, but the paintings have to be linked, it’s a separate step.”
She looked at the group. “But with a wand, anypony could use it.” She worried her lower lip with her teeth. “Much more convenient than the floo-network. Not as simple as a telephone for communications. But for couriers . . . .”
Long used to his mum’s quirks, Harry and the fillies guided her through the Gryffindor painting entrance. The sudden attention of everyone in the Common Room broke her from her contemplations and brought her back to the moment.
To say Harry was proud to show his mum the Tower was an understatement. And the students in the Common Room were just as pleased to meet her. They had seen her several times, but never really very close. The older students took the opportunity to introduce themselves. Being able to name-drop that they had met Princess Sparkle could only help their careers.
Once she had had a good look around, they took over one corner and told her of the remarkable Quidditch game. And, in hushed whispers, told her of their discoveries regarding the Philosopher’s Stone.
“And we think Professor Snape is trying to steal the Stone,” Sweetie Belle concluded.
Her irritated expression was not what they had expected. “You don’t need to worry about the Stone,” she said, sweeping her narrowed eyes across the group.
They gulped, almost synchronized.
“Professor Snape is not after the Stone, and I’ve reviewed the protections. They are quite thorough.”
She stared at Harry and the fillies. “I don’t want you anywhere near that room or corridor. If you hear anything about the Stone or who wants to steal it, call for Philomenia, immediately! She’ll bring you to the castle. The wizard after the Stone is simply too powerful for you to handle, at all.”
They stared at her wide-eyed.
“Promise!” she ordered. “You’ll stay away from the Stone! And, you’ll contact me if you find out who is after it.”
Hermione looked crushed. Forbidden to solve a puzzle.
Harry and the fillies exchanged glances, then said, “We promise.”
She stared at them a moment, then firmly said, “Pinkie Promise.”
Harry leaned back a bit. His mum never asked for a Pinkie Promise! The others exchanged surprised and alarmed looks. They remembered the last time they had heard that promise.
Somewhat unsteadily, the four said, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”
Under his mum’s steady stare, the other Gryffindors also promised.
She grinned happily and hugged Harry again.
Waiting barely a moment, she then reached into her purse and withdrew a small bag. “Almost forgot,” she said. “Here are those things you wanted me to make for your herd-mates.” She smirked at the last word.
The previous seriousness already forgotten — they were only Firsties, after all — Harry eagerly grabbed the bag and opened it. “Wonderful!” he exclaimed. “Was it hard to do?”
“Naw,” she said, waving a hand dismissively. “You showed me the spells you were using and the book was a big help. Didn’t take more than an hour or so. The hardest part was getting the rings made, actually. It took a ridiculous amount of time for them to be delivered.”
“Oh, boy!” he said excitedly. He poured the contents onto the table. He was surprised at the mound of jewellery there. Recovering quickly, he pushed a ring to each of the fillies. “These are for you guys, they’ll detect any dangerous potions or spells in your food or things someone is trying to give you,” he explained. He handed another two to Hermione and Ginny. “That way we’ll never have to worry about potioned candy or spelled owl-mail hurtin’ us. I want to keep you guys safe.”
The rings were gold bands with six diamonds spaced around them.
“Put them on your index finger,” his mum instructed. “That way they’ll appear on your pastern bone when you’re ponies. Don’t worry about fit, they’ll resize when you put them on, and resize themselves as you grow.”
Hermione and Ginny moved slowly and placed them on their left hands, then held their hands at arm’s length to admire the new jewellery. The fillies watched, then followed the two witches’ example, and quickly put them on. All of them admired their new rings, as the rest of the Firstie-cohort oohed and ahhed around them
“Just hold the ring close to whatever it is you want to check. If there’s anything that could harm you, or with harmful intent, the ring will get warm and vibrate. And the diamonds will shine a bit brighter.” She sighed. “Couldn’t avoid that, the detection runes are on the ring and the diamonds drive them.”
He looked at the other rings still on the table — a good handful — then looked up at his mum.
She grinned and ruffled his hair. “I thought your other friends might like some protection, too.” She added with a smirk, “And not just your herd-mates.”
Harry blushed. “Muuumm!”
Neville looked down at the rings with an amazed expression. Then he looked back up at Twilight. “I can’t accept a gift like this without speaking with my Gran.”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “You’re a friend of Harry’s and the fillies. And if what Percy said is true, then you need protection, too.” She stopped and considered, her smile getting a bit bigger. “I know. You can pay a bit, a galleon, and buy them, if you want. Just give it to Harry later. How’s that?” She tilted her head questioningly. “That way, no one can say you are beholden to him, if that’s a concern.”
She smirked. “And if you want to keep it a secret,” she took out her wand and tapped the pile of rings. “Now, when you put it on, no one will notice it.” She looked at the five girls, who all shook their heads, no.
Ah. Harry hadn’t thought of that. Some of the Canterlot nobles were rather tricky that way, his mum had told him. There were some who viewed gifts as an obligation. He looked critically at the rings. Yes. Those probably would be expensive if someone had purchased them in a market. That his mum had made them simply made them precious to him.
Neville slowly nodded and picked up one ring looking at it.
Ginny reached over and grabbed a ring, handing it to Ron. “You’re my brother,” she said. “You’re getting one,” she added, firmly, in a no-nonsense tone.
Reluctantly, he took it.
Ginny grabbed the remaining rings off the table and began handing them out, stating clearly, “You’re our friends and we want you safe, so there aren’t any obligations. Right? And if you’re worried, just pay Harry a galleon.”
At dinner, in the evening, Harry noticed the sudden surge of interest around their end of the table at the new rings the girls were wearing. And the looks he garnered as the one who supplied them. He tried to ignore the attention and focused on his mum and eating. The girls were not reluctant to show off their new rings and how they were supposed to work. The twins were nice enough to provide a quick test with a piece of candy they left near their brother.
His mum thought it highly amusing.
The rest of the evening passed quickly as their friends shared stories with his mum. Homework could wait to another day, as, how often did you get to tell a princess about your family? Or hear her tell you about her adventures?
Far too soon, it seemed, they headed off to their beds.
۸-_-۸
Things quickly settled into the rut they had been in before the hols. Fortunately, out of sight meant out of mind, and the three fillies were more focused on magic than they were in finding their cutie marks. That the professors had upped the assignment load was also a factor.
Thank Celestia for small favours!
On an odd note, Hermione and Ginny seemed a lot more touchy-feely than they had been. It looked like the Valentine’s Day effect hadn’t worn off as he had thought it might. And the other girls in the school seemed to ignore him in equal measure, although a few looked at him mournfully. It was all a mystery to him.
The rings, though, were a big hit, he was relieved to see. All five girls took great delight in showing them off. Well, because it made them safer, he was all for it. The more people knew that he had given them rings against manipulation, the less he had to worry about. That his other friends had protection, albeit hidden from sight, was just a bonus.
In the meantime, Sweetie Belle and Neville continued to liven up potions class, to everyone’s dismay. Neville went through a period where one week he exploded his cauldron, the next week he melted it, and the third week it shattered like glass. While he lost points, the Gryffindors appreciated his efforts in that they had derailed Sweetie Belle’s potioneering efforts.
She still managed to get them to burp bubbles in their house colours. And while they didn’t fart rainbows, the brightly-coloured gases sure did signal who was at fault.
The Bubble Head charms should have prevented those incidents. But all they could guess was that the fumes from her portions permeated the classroom. As a result, when people left the class and dismissed the charms, they breathed in the residual fumes on their clothes.
Meanwhile, Professor Quirrell seemed to be getting paler and thinner. And Professor Snape seemed to pay him an inordinate amount of attention. It really did look as if Snape was pressuring the D.A.D.A. professor to do something. But it didn’t look as though the stuttering professor had given in, yet.
While they knew Hermione was obsessed with studying, it was only when she started drawing up study schedules and color-coding all her notes that Harry realized that she really was just like his mum. And, like his mum, she insisted that they all follow her lead in preparing for finals. “Exams,” she said, “are only ten weeks away!”
Ron’s objections were quickly shot down when she said, “That’s right! Only ten weeks! I should have started studying weeks ago! If we want to come back for second year, we have to pass these exams.” She continued ranting for several minutes, calling the mere idea of not studying, crazy.
Harry didn’t think it made that much of a difference however much they studied. With Book-walking, memorizing and understanding the theory behind magic wasn’t all that difficult. Even in potions, where knowing every step was critical, Book-walking reduced study time.
Now the professors seemed to concentrate their essays more on how to use what they had learned, rather than on just on what they knew. And that meant they had to study in more detail.
Thus it was they were in the library instead of their common room. They were digging deeper for books that had more information than their textbooks, rather than simply the same but in different words. Simply revising what they already had at hand would no longer suffice for a good grade.
Seeing Hagrid walk by was more than a small clue that something was up. The half-giant never showed his face in the library. That he was obviously trying to hide something behind his back was another clue that something was up.
He should have just shoved it in one of his moleskin overcoat’s pockets, Harry thought.
The three fillies were quick to notice.
“Hagrid!” they cried delightedly. “What brings you here?”
He looked decidedly uncomfortable. “Jes’ doin’ some research,” he said uncomfortably, his eyes shifting around evasively.
“Oooh! Is that a book on dragons,” exclaimed Scootaloo, dodging behind him as other two ran in front of him.
“Are you thinking of raising a dragon?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Eggs are really hard to find,” added Apple Bloom.
“Mum might be able to help you,” said Harry, looking at the book Hagrid was hurriedly stuffing inside his coat.
“Shhhh!” Hagrid looked around quickly. He gave a sick smile to Madam Pince, who was staring at him disapprovingly. “Don’ go shoutin’ in the library, what’s the matter with yeh?”
“Isn’t that against the law?” half-whispered Hermione, frowning.
“Uh-huh,” whispered Ron, “Dragon breeding is illegal. Muggles notice when there’s a thirty-foot tall dragon in the back garden, you know! Beside, you can’t tame dragons. You should see Charlie’s burns from the ones in Romania.”
“What?” said Harry. “What do you mean taming dragons?” he hissed softly. “They’re ponies . . . people! Beside, Spike would never hurt anyone unless you attacked him. Only somepony really stupid would do that, anyway.” He looked over at Ron. “And your brother wouldn’t have been hurt if he had explained what he wanted to do.”
Ron looked at him like he was barmy. He got up and went off into the shelving, and returned a moment later with some books. He dropped them on the table. “Here,” he said, “read these.” Harry and the fillies stared at the books: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland and From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper’s Guide.
Hagrid huffed and looked around, again. The half-giant was as subtle as a bludger to the head. “Come an’ see me later,” he muttered in not-quite a shout.
He was the opposite of Fluttershy in that what he thought was a normal tone came out double the volume of a normal person.
“I ain’t saying I’ll tell yeh anythin’, mind, but don’ go rabbitin’ about it in here.” He glanced around again. “I’m keepin’ it a secret, yeh know.”
“Later, then,” Harry said.
Hermione had already disappeared inside the book on English dragons, and Sweetie Belle was inside the other.
Hagrid, doing a poor job of looking like he wasn’t doing something he shouldn’t, shuffled off.
An hour later, with a few more dragon books on the table and a lot of Book-walking, Harry looked at Ron and the witches with wide eyes. “They’re . . . they’re . . . mindless beasts?” The three fillies had the same shocked expressions. Ron and Neville nodded.
“Dumbledore did say that Spike was inordinately well-spoken for a dragon, but he didn’t say they weren’t intelligent!” added Sweetie Belle in a shaken voice.
Just as shaken, Apple Bloom added, “George said they were dumb as bricks. I thought he was exaggerating ’cause he says the same thing about Crabbe and Goyle.”
“If they were smart, we could just tell ’em to stay hidden. Instead the Ministry has to keep putting spells on muggles who’ve spotted them, to make them forget,” responded Ron.
۸-~-۸
That afternoon, they discovered that Hagrid had gotten his hands on a dragon-egg. Harry just stared at the black egg. It wasn’t as big as Spike’s egg had been, if mum was right about its size from all those years ago. But, then again, he was a human right now, and she had been a filly then, so being so much taller made things look smaller, maybe? Perhaps it was the same size?
“ ’Cor,” said Ron. He leaned over the fire for a closer look. “It must’ve cost a fortune!”
Hagrid nervously fiddled with his beard, “Well — er . . . well I won it, didn’t I? Had a game o’ cards down in Hogsmeade las’ night. There were a stranger in it, and he put up the egg as bet. He looked a bit relieved when he lost. He weren’t unhappy to lose, I think, ter be honest.”
“But what about when it’s hatched? What are you going to do with it?” said Hermione, reasonably.
Hagrid grinned. He pulled the book from the library out from under his pillow “I’ve bin readin’,” he said proudly. “Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit,” he brandished the book. “Bit outta date.” He smirked. “But it’s all in here.” Then he explained how he intended to keep it warm, and what he wanted to feed it. He even claimed it was a rare Norwegian Ridgeback.
Hagrid looked delighted with himself, but Hermione and the fillies didn’t.
She and the fillies exchanged glances. “Hagrid,” she said, “you live in a wooden house.” The fillies nodded. They knew all about freely burning flames inside flammable structures. It was why the Town Hall, and several other structures, now had an indoor sprinkler system. Applejack even had a set in the homestead, cow, and hay barns.
They had learned a lot about plumbing while they were installing them as the hay-barn was being rebuilt, though. As punishments, that one had been kinda fun. And wet. But no cutie marks, unfortunately.
Ron and Harry just shrugged. It wasn’t their problem.
Hagrid ignored their comments about how dangerous a baby dragon was. Not even Harry’s stories that his mum had told him about the fires caused by Spike in Canterlot Castle — which was mostly stone — could convince him there would be problems. Harry wasn’t quite so sure about the hut’s chances of surviving such an incident intact.
Besides, the fireplace fire, if what mum had told him was correct, probably wouldn’t work very well. It didn’t have any magic in it like a dragon-mother’s flames would. Spike’s egg had hatched only because of the tremendous heat and magic her flare had produced.
Then Harry noticed that Hagrid’s wand was on the table, the tip suspiciously pointed at the fire.
Oh.
Well, at least if the dragon was with Hagrid, Harry didn’t have to worry about being set on fire in the corridors when the baby dragon was being walked and decided a good belch would make it feel better after eating.
There was still one maid in the castle in Canterlot who ran whenever she heard Spike’s claws hitting the floor, or she saw him. Harry had even seen her dive out an open second floor window, once. And she wasn’t even a pegasus.
She was quite good at clinging to the side of the castle, he had been told later. She even carried a rope, grappling hook, and pitons under her uniform.
Hermione — she couldn’t leave a puzzle alone — was quite pleased to find out that the Stone — and Hagrid had admitted it was the Philosopher’s Stone — was being guarded by more than just Fluffy.
That two of the professors tasked with the chore were Snape and Quirrell was not so pleasing.
“It doesn’t matter,” Harry interrupted. “We Pinkie Promised, remember? We’ll just tell a professor if anything happens.” And send a letter to his mum to make sure she knew of this.
He just shrugged as they looked at him. He had friends. He had family. He was rather happy with the status quo, and didn’t want any changes.
Stupid wizards. Always interfering in what he wanted to do.
Still. He had friends, unlike before. He smiled happily.
۸-~-۸