//------------------------------// // 71 Summer Wrap-Up // Story: A Phoenix Beyond the Veil - The Philospher's Stone // by gerandakis //------------------------------// Chapter Seventy-One Summer Wrap-Up To an outsider, dinner at Castle Hogwarts on the last day of exams might have looked a bit strange. There were no decorations, no changes to the usual seating arrangements, no unusual food, nothing at all that would indicate that there was any kind of special occasion. And yet, everyone in the hall, students and teachers alike, though the former more so than the latter, seemed to share a feeling somewhere in between relief and exhaustion. To those in the hall, of course, that made perfect sense. Exams were over. Now they all had a week or so to relax before results came in along with the end of the school year. There were only fourteen people in the hall the couldn’t quite relax yet. Not entirely, at least. Among them was Harry. Those people were, of course the Quidditch teams of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, who would play the sixth and final Quidditch game of the year on Saturday. Both would practice once more on Friday. Sunset, however, had more immediate concerns. Namely a meeting she would have this evening with Professor Dumbledore and Princess Celestia. They had some matters to discuss before the year ended. Albus was waiting in his office. He had asked Miss Shimmer to give Princess Celestia his request for a meeting before the end of the school year. Said meeting had been arranged for this evening and the agreed upon time was fast approaching. The Equestrians, it seemed were about ready to reveal themselves to the wizarding public at large. It did suit him quite well that they intended to do so during the holidays. With no matters concerning Hogwarts to occupy him, he would have a much easier time acting as a mediator. The prospect of an entirely separate magical nation was certainly something to watch out for. That said nation was, however, not inhabited by humans, he suspected, was likely to cause trouble. It wouldn’t do to let the princess make first contact without warning her of this first. He also had no doubt that the Princess would want to be kept informed on the situation concerning Tom and Quirinus. It was unfortunate that he had nothing new to report on that end. A knock on the door interrupted his musings. Checking the wards was enough to confirm his suspicions. He had grown quite familiar with the signature of Miss Shimmer’s magic. The other signature he wasn’t nearly as familiar with, but, considering the raw power behind it, it couldn’t possibly be anyone but Princess Celestia. “Come in.” He smiled as the door opened to reveal his two expected guests. “Please take a seat, there is much to discuss.” “Indeed,” the princess agreed, “I have taken the liberty to commission a soul syphon from the archmage. It should prove to be quite useful for when we find the soul anchors of our recent adversary. I don’t suppose you have any news on his location, do you?” “Unfortunately not. I’m having Fawkes periodically check, but so far he seems to have remained within the wards of wherever he may be hiding. I’m having my informants keep an eye out for any suspicious activity, but so far there has been nothing of note. It seems he is laying low for the time being. I take it this ‘soul syphon’ you mentioned is similar to the trap in function?” “Essentially, yes, though it is significantly more powerful.” “Yes, I suppose it would need to be to overwhelm the curses that keep a soul fragment bound to its host object.” “Exactly. Now I take it there were other matters you wanted to discuss?” Albus nodded. “Indeed. Is it true that you still intend to reveal the existence of Equestria to the wizarding public over the summer?” “Yes, I suspect that would be best.” “Good. In that case, allow me to give you a warning. Many of the old pureblood families have some … issues with non-humans.” “Issues?” “Traditionally, wizards have maintained a role of dominance over non-human species within the magical world. That changed with the goblin rebellions in the early sixteenth century. They were the first to become independent. The giant wars started not a decade later. That set of something off a chain reaction so that, nowadays, most magical creatures mostly govern themselves. “The Departments for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures of the various Ministries and their equivalents throughout the world technically maintain a token of political power over most of them, but really they cannot do much more than maintain the Statute of Secrecy. “As a result, many of the old wizarding families have become suspicious, if not outright hostile, to magical beings that aren’t human. That the majority of the magical economy is controlled by goblins has been a thorn in their side for quite some time.” The princess nodded thoughtfully. “And you foresee an issue in that regard?” Albus sighed wearily. “I have no doubt that some of them will try to be troublesome. They may become outright hostile, but I suspect they will more likely try to establish dominance in the way they feel things should be.” “In other words,” Miss Shimmer fell in with a sly smirk, “they’ll be acting like the Canterlot nobility.” When Albus raised an eyebrow, it was the princess’ turn to sigh. “In a word, tedious. They never seem to realize that I have dealt with their ilk and their transparent attempts to put into place laws that would only serve them for well over a thousand years. I suspect that your pureblood families will have to learn that I have played the game of politics for far longer than all of them together have been alive.” “It’s not like there’s much they could do anyways,” Miss Shimmer noted with a snort. “Right now the only way to get to and from each world is via phoenix.” The princess nodded. “All the same, they would be making a mistake if they think they can sneak anything past me.” Albus smiled gently. “That should be amusing then if nothing else. Still, I thought it prudent to warn you. Especially given that, from what Miss Shimmer has told me, your subjects are not as prone to using violence as a means to an end as humans are.” “You have my gratitude, but you needn’t worry. My little ponies and I are not above using violence as a last resort measure. But, personally, I find it terribly unimaginative. When dealing with day-to-day annoyances, we tend to get far more … creative. For now though, a different matter.” The princess’ royal mask twitched for just a moment, long enough for Albus to recognize something which he suspected to be amusement. “There is another student at my school who has just recently turned eleven. I suspect that she might be quite eager to attend Hogwarts once she is informed of this world’s existence.” “Is she as well trained as Miss Shimmer here?” “No. She has only been attending my school for about two years and she isn’t my personal student either. But she is a bright young filly with an agile mind, if a little obsessed at times, and quite eager to learn.” “Obsessed?” “Not to worry, it might lead to a few ‘geek-outs’, as the young seem to call it these days, upon entering this world, but she should be quite fine by the time Hogwarts starts.” “Well, assuming it works like it did for Miss Shimmer, the Book of Admittance should take note of her once she arrives in this world. If she is still eleven by September first, she should receive a letter like any other student would. I’m sure we should have no trouble accommodating her.” “Good that’s what I was hoping.” “Uhh, who are we talking about?” For the first time he’d seen her, the princess’ royal mask vanished completely, giving way to an expression of mischievous mirth. “Just wait and see, My Little Sun. Just wait and see.” The common room was in the usual state of wild celebration that tended to follow a won Quidditch game. It was maybe slightly greater than usual, but that was likely due to the shining award that was likely sitting on a shelf in Professor McGonagall’s office by now. The Gryffindor first-years, minus Harry, were gathered in a group of armchairs not too far from the heart of the party, but just far enough so they could comfortably talk without the noise getting in the way. How much of that was due to the distance and how much was the effect of various noise dampening spells students had set up was difficult to tell. Harry and the rest of the Quidditch team were the heroes of the evening. Thanks to the fact that house points carried over from year to year, Slytherin had still held a narrow lead over Gryffindor, though all houses, according to some of the older students, seemed to have gained more points than in years past. The fifty points awarded to Gryffindor for winning the game, along with the one-hundred for winning the cup, quite comfortably pushed them into the lead. Harry had, intentionally, they suspected, taken his sweet time catching the snitch and thus given the rest of the team ample opportunity to demonstrate their own skill. The final score of two-hundred-and-thirty to thirty reflected that quite nicely. Even amidst the celebration though, chatter of the plans for the Summer hols was starting to spring up amongst every year, and this was especially true for the first-years. Sunset had been thinking about this for the last month, and concluded there was no reason not to make the offer to those who had not yet gotten a chance to visit her home. Luna had politely declined, stating that her father had some kind of expedition planned for the two of them. Apparently looking for some mythical creature or another. Sunset found it sounded rather far-fetched, but she was hardly an expert on the magical creatures of this world. Luna also promised to warn her father of the Equestrians’ plans to make official first contact over the summer. “That should make the first days of second year quite interesting,” Luna commented. Only a year’s experience let her friends see her smirk through her usual dispassionate expression. “It’s probably the only thing anyone will be able to talk about.” “Oh absolutely,” Hermione agreed. “Especially if they all have to wait a month before they can talk about it to their friends. Not to mention the muggle-born students that won’t even hear about it until school starts back up.” Sunset nodded. “Some of the Slytherins might try to give us some grief over it, but I don’t think they’ll be willing to try anything I can’t deal with. Especially if I can get those shield amulets working.” Ron grimaced at that, thinking about a few in particular. “Think Malfoy will be one of ‘em?” Ginny was the first to reply to that. “I don’t think so… He’s been acting a lot more subdued lately. I haven’t heard him say anything about muggle-born students for the last few weeks.” “Mmh,” Sunset agreed with a mischievous smile, “Vincent can be remarkably subtle when he wants to be. Nothing takes down an ideolog as well as making their own thoughts work against them.” “You know, sis, that sounds remarkably sinister when you say it like that.” Hermione noted, earning a few nods from the others. Ron, in fact, felt a need to chime in. “Bloody hell it does, saying it like that makes you sound like a Slytherin.” Sunset chuckled lightly. “Well, the Sorting hat did say that I would have made a good Slytherin if it wasn’t for some initiation rite of theirs. Still not sure what that was about. Might have to ask Vincent if he knows.” “Initiation rite?” Neville fell in, “what’s that supposed to mean?” “Not sure,” Hermione admitted. “What exactly did the Hat say?” Sunset furrowed her brow as she thought back to that evening. “That they have some kind of test that seems to determine standing in the house. From what he said, it sounded like he was implying that I wouldn’t do well in it.” “Maybe it’s a test of how well you can use dark magic.” When everyone looked at Lavender she shrugged. “What? It makes sense doesn’t it?” “It does actually,” Hermione agreed thoughtfully. “The house has a history of producing dark magicians, even before the time of, well, you know who. Back when muggles had their second world war, there was another dark wizard named Grindelwald. He came from somewhere in north east europe, but most of his British followers were Slytherins. And the Lumineum makes it impossible to use dark magic, right?” “Well, not entirely impossible,” Sunset corrected. “I’m pretty sure Princess Celestia can do it if she really wants to. But it takes a lot of effort and training and it really isn’t much. Takes too much focus to keep the light magic from interfering to pour much power into the dark magic. But I wouldn’t even know how to start doing that, so yeah, that makes a lot of sense actually.” Ron snorted. “I bet Malfoy’s father practiced with him.” That earned a unanimous round of nods from everyone. Then Ginny looked to Sunset and asked, “Hey, don’t you need to talk to Crabbe about those lessons you’ve been doing with him?” “I already have, actually. We’ll keep in touch over the holidays. He had something he wanted to try. I guess we’ll see what he’s up to.” Roaring applause rang through the Great Hall as Professor Snape handed the beautifully crafted golden House Cup to Professor McGonagall, wearing a mildly-more-displeased-than-usual expression all the while. The cheers at the Gryffindor table were the loudest, of course, but Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were certainly giving them a run for their money. The Slytherin table was silent, of course, but the Gryffindor first years noticed that three particular Slytherins weren’t looking nearly as displeased as they should have, judging by the expressions of their housemates. “Yes, good work House Gryffindor,” Dumbledore called out with a slight chuckle. “Though I feel that I should point out that all houses have gained more points this year than in almost any year before. My teachers tell me that most of those points came from academic work as well. It’s almost as though there was something inspiring you to work harder, especially amongst the first years of all four houses.” He smiled again, noting that many eyes across the hall turned towards the Gryffindor first years. His smile only widened further as some of the older students gave a smattering of applause to the youngest of their houses. “Regardless, there is one more big feast to be had this year before you’re all boarding the Hogwarts Express tomorrow. Enjoy it!” With that, he sat down and began piling the food onto his plate that had once more appeared on the tables, while chatting amicably with Professors McGonagall and Flitwick to his right and left respectively. The rest of the present teachers and students quickly followed his example and soon the Great Hall of Castle Hogwarts was filled with the clinking of cutlery and the quiet drone of conversation.