//------------------------------//
// Letter From Home 
// Story: Harry Potter and the Crystal Empire 
// by Damaged 
//------------------------------//

Ponyville was the oddest place. It was like if you got an outer suburb of London, stretched it out, and then made each house look about two-hundred years out of date. Not like old, but just old-style. Wooden houses with thatched roofs. 

What was amazing was ponies. Ponies everywhere. None of them looked like me, Addera, or even the others from school—except Percy, that is. Well, the other way around I guess. Percy looks like them. They don't have the crystal bodies or anything, but there's tons of unicorns and pegasi. 

Walking through the town called Ponyville, I couldn't help but notice everyone turning and looking at us. Admittedly, Addera was getting most of the looks, but I noticed a few foals staring my way.

"Hey! Twilight!" a young female voice called.

My ears, as always, pointed the way for me and I turned my head to see three fillies a little bigger than me galloping over as fast as their legs could carry them. One, the one who'd called out, was bright yellow with red hair and a pink bow in it. 

"Twilight! Do you have a book on—" She froze, staring at me. "Uh…"

"Apple Bloom, this is Harry Potter and Addera." Twilight's voice was patient, like I thought McGonagall would be under the circumstances. She gestured to me and Addera. "Harry, Addera, this is Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle."

"Hi Harry Potter! Hi A—" Scootaloo (a young orange pegasus) said, but when she seemed to turn her attention to Addera, she stopped. "S-S-Snake!"

"Hold it!" Twilight had activated her magic and used it to make a net that caught the three fillies before they could get away. "I'm not putting up with the same craziness that happened with Zecora again. All three of you, behave. This is Addera, and she's a nice pony."

"Basilisk, actually, Twilight Sparkle. But I am trying to be nice." Addera lowered her stance and reached a hoof out to the foals. "I promise I'll not eat you if you shake my hoof."

One yellow, one orange, and one white hoof jutted out to shake Addera's. 

"S-Sorry. We just kinda—"

"—we might have overreacted." 

"Just a little."

It was kinda cute the way they finished each other's thoughts. It reminded me of Fred and George a little. Though, I could probably keep these three apart even without my glasses on.

Addera let loose a little chuckle that was more like a hiss—I think she laughed in parseltongue. "That's alright. So long as you promise to remember the next time something comes along that doesn't look like a pony." 

Once all three had nodded to Addera, Twilight cleared her throat. "Now, what was it you girls needed?"

"Oh!" Apple Bloom bounced a few times in place excitedly. "Spike said you had a book on cutie marks, but it's on the top shelf in the library, and even his ladder didn't get him high enough to lift it down for us."

"And Spike said I couldn't use my magic," Sweetie Belle said. "I still think I could have."

"You could have lifted me up and I could have grabbed it," Scootaloo said.

"Exactly!" Sweetie Belle flicked her mane to one side—which accomplished nothing given her curls. "So, can you please get down Cutie Marks and You from the top shelf for us, Twilight?"

"Of course I can, girls," Twilight said, earning a cheer from the three. "But why didn't you just ask anypony else for help? I'm sure Lyra or Minuette would have lifted it down in a heartbeat." Thankfully, Twilight herded the three fillies to move.

"Why didn't we think of that?" Scootaloo asked.

"I like these ponies, Harry Potter. They're much less…" Addera screwed her snout up for a moment. —They have less evil in them. They might not have any.—

Her use of parseltongue didn't surprise me, but it did make my ears twitch to catch it. "Yeah. But they seemed to know what to do with it, didn't they?" I nodded vaguely in the direction we'd come. "What with Sombra back there and all. Almost makes me wish they'd been around when Voldemort was doing his thing. They wouldn't have taken any guff from him either."

"There it is," Twilight Sparkle said while gesturing with a hoof at a tree. "The Golden Oak Library. The book we need is in there. Come on!" 

We picked up the pace, but as we reached the tree (that obviously had some kind of building built inside it somehow) I stopped. "I can't go in there. Not until I have this all under control. What if I get angry at something?"

Twilight looked at me with a steady and curious expression. "Do you feel angry at something?" When I shook my head, she smiled brightly. "Then please come inside. You shouldn't have to wait around out here for this."

"Come on, Harry Potter," Apple Bloom said. "It's safe inside. I promise!"

I was defeated by her genuine openness and smile. How was I meant to be a mighty wizard if I couldn't stand up against a few ponies? Slumping my shoulders, I walked into the amazing tree house library.

There was a set of stairs leading up on my right and more leading down on my left, but the entire middle of the huge tree was a big room lined almost all the way around by shelves stuffed with books. There was a small bed high on one wall with its own little set of stairs leading up to it, and standing in the middle of the room was what looked like a wingless drake.

"Oh, Twilight, you're back! How was everypony in Canterlot?" Of course the drake spoke. Why shouldn't a creature that vaguely resembled an upright dragon speak and not be a monster that wants to rip my limbs off?

Twilight looked ready to explode with excitement. "You should have seen it, Spike! We went to the Crystal Empire and there's a lot of new ponies there, and some from another world, and then we defeated King Sombra, and—"

"Twilight!" Spike (his name apparently) rushed forward and produced a brown paper bag and gave it to Twilight to puff into. "Calm down and tell me slowly."

"But I can't!" Twilight's horn flared to life and teleported the bag somewhere else. "We need to find—" She paused. "We need to find…"

"Twilight?" I asked.

"You're better off letting her ride this out. She gets just like this when she can't remember where she saw something." Spike walked up to me and stuck out a hand. "Hi. I'm Spike."

I lifted a hoof and stuck it in his hand to shake. "Harry Potter," I said. "Are you sure she's alright?" As I spoke, books began to hurl themselves from shelves and at Twilight. Her magic was flaring bright and she seemed to only glimpse at each book as it flashed by her.

"This? Yeah, this is normal. If she doesn't find what she was looking for in an hour, though, that could be a proble—" Spike seemed to freeze and tilt his head back. "Huh, snake pony. Hi! I'm Spike!" 

Addera leaned down and shook Spike's hand with her hoof. "I am Addera, Spike. I am also a basilisk, though there has been some changes to my scales recently. May I inquire as to yourself?" It was more formal than I'd ever heard her be in my—okay, the week or so that I've known her.

"I'm a dragon, but only a baby one for now." A dragon. Well, it was a good guess, but I didn't think he'd actually be a dragon. "Oh! Can you help get a book down for me? Some friends have been wanting it all day." He was looking up at Addera as if I wasn't a fully capable wizard!

On cue, the three fillies ran up and mobbed around Addera.

While she was distracted, I asked Spike, "Which book?"

He looked nervous, eyes flicking toward Addera then back to me, but pointed to one laying down flat on a high shelf. "Uh, that one. Are you sure you can—?"

Of course, I wasn't going to let him finish asking that question. This was about pride, now. I pointed my horn up at the book and cast a simple Locomotion charm. Not having used one for the last hour or two, it was easy to focus on it and heft the book upward and then pull it toward me.

The only trouble now was I had a big, slow-moving book while Twilight had lots of much faster ones. Floating it to the end of the shelves, I brought it down so that Spike could catch it out of the air. 

"Alright! That's pretty cool. What was with the shouting before it?" Spike flipped to the back of the book to reveal the catalog card.

"Uh, that was the spell. It's called a Locomotion charm. It lets a wizard pick up and move things at a distance. What with losing my hands, I kinda have to use it to do everything now." I had to jump to the side as a book rapidly flew past my ear a little too close for comfort.

"There you go, girls, now just be sure to bring it back within two weeks." Passing the book over, Spike watched as I had to jump aside again. "Yeah, we should go upstairs. Once she starts this it's best to stay out of the way."

When he led the way upstairs, the thrumming sense of magic in the air decreased. I hadn't realized it'd even been affecting me. "Does she do this often?" 

The room above the main library was somewhat like a kitchen with a large table to one side and a big, wood-burning stove—it was as if a kitchen and a dining room were combined.

"Only when she can't remember what book something was from. She doesn't stop until she's read everything or found what she needs." Spike marched over to the stove and climbed up on a conveniently placed stool. "You two hungry?"

"A little, Spike the dragon. What do you cook here?" Addera slithered past me and over to the stove to rear up beside Spike. "And do you need assistance?"

While they talked, I explored the room. This was nothing like the castle that was growing under Hogwarts, but a lot more like the train. Everything was sized for ponies and shaped for them too. Though they were a bit larger than I could easily get onto, it wasn't so far that I couldn't jump to get onto one of the kitchen chairs that sat around a table.

Then I felt her. It was like a ray of sun was hitting me after a cold, London winter. Warmth and excitement built, and I turned my head to look at one of the nearest windows and saw Hedwig sitting on a railing just outside. 

I jumped off the chair and ran over to the window as quick as I could. There was no latch on it, so when I pushed at the window it opened right out—and Hedwig jumped through the gap with an excited bark. "It's good to see you again, girl. Did you deliver Ginny to Ron?"

Hedwig's soft whistle reassured me more than words could. I could feel her telling me she'd delivered it properly, and I got the hint there was more. She held out one talon and dropped a note on the windowsill.

"What's it say?" As I spoke, I prepared the magic for a quick Locomotion charm and cast it on the heel of my question.



Harry Potter. You will return to Hogwarts this instant! It's unbelievably dangerous just running away like this, and in the middle of all this mess and everything! I was lucky to get Hedwig some food from the kitchen before I sent her back with my letter—there's Ministry wizards and witches arguing all over the place. Some are demanding that everyone leave Hogwarts so they can destroy it (something about letting valuable information falling into enemy hands, not that the ponies have hands), others are trying to say we should Obliviate every pony and then convince them that they're our pets, and other things that are even worse. 

Then you have the princess that arrived—who everyone says is more powerful than any wizard ever—who says that all of us have to leave and never come back. 

If it wasn't for Gemma Farley (I know, it's insane to think about) and some of the other prefects getting Princess Cadance and Headmistress McGonagall to work together, things would have exploded!

Well, exploded more than normal. I'm going through the portal tomorrow, do try to get back before things get too bad.

—Hermione Granger

PS: Ron here. Sorry, Hermione got hold of the letter before I could get it away from her. Everything's just as crazy as she said, though. Do what you have to, Harry.



Okay, so things were going about as normal as ever. Or not. What would happen if they closed the portal and left? Would they leave me behind or send people to find me? Well, now I was just another pony in a whole nation of them, but of course they could use spells to find me.

I didn't know the right spells to hide me from that kinda magic, and I couldn't exactly turn nirik and eat their charms at this range. Alright. So they'll be able to find me using magic, but that'll mean it's someone from the school who'll come looking for me. 

This was all stuff I couldn't do anything about. If someone came to find me, they would come regardless of what I do. I blew a little snort out and tried to focus more on the now.

Turning sideways to the window, I offered Hedwig my back. "I'm glad you're back, Hedwig. I was actually starting to worry about you."

Hedwig hopped the short distance to my back and ruffled her feathers with a soft whistle. She was hungry and tired, and her left wing needed a good rubbing. How I knew that was probably part of the whole familiar thing. 





Ginevra Molly Weasley had spent a full day hunting the snake. Every time she thought she'd been close, it had been yet another oddly twisted charm that mimicked its magical appearance. She was getting annoyed now that it was taking so long. 

'Patience. We have time, he does not.'

"But I want to do this. He's done so many bad things—killed so many. He deserves to die sooner than later." Looking about, Ginevra added the latest charm to her list of sources to ignore.

"M-Master." Despite having led Ginevra all the way to the right forest, Peter Pettigrew wanted nothing more than to help her and keep helping her. "Y-You have the magic of a dementor. If he has any happy memories at all, you'll be able to sense him."

"You think he'll have any happy thoughts?" Despite her question, Ginevra focused on all the magic Sombra had given her. There was a lot to the dark magic she'd taken on, and it all hungered for life. 

Peter nodded quickly. "Everyone has happy thoughts. When you don't have them anymore, they say, that's how a dementor kills you. They suck out everything happy and leave you an empty husk." No sooner had he spoken than he felt like something had walked over his grave. Magic—dark and powerful—was seeking living things.

Discarding Peter's tiny seed of happiness, Ginevra quested outward. Tiny prickles here and there were the happiness of the small things living in the forest. A hare, a fox, a lynx… Stranger things—magical beasts—but there were too many. 

She shook her head and stopped looking. She needed more than this. Just feeling the size of each things' desire was not enough, she needed quality.

Ginevra focused back on Peter. His happiness—the only moment of brightness he had—was for her. It shouldn't have been a surprise since she'd personally forced this upon him, but to see the sole focus of his world be her was still amazing. 

What looking at Peter gave her, however, was a sense for how a complex mind finds things joyful. Stretching her senses back out, Ginevra looked for that more intricate and focused pattern. 

Too many. Ginevra discovered a family of forest gnomes with many happy moments—and filtered them out. One by one she discarded the gnomes, then a troll, and finally she found something odd—something that shouldn't be. 

The mind was slippery, but focused, and it tried to escape her magic, but she was easily able to find it again. "Did Voldemort have an affinity for snakes?"

"Y-Yes! He's a parseltongue!" Once again Peter Pettigrew found pure delight in helping his master. "And his dark mark was a serpent."

"Then I have him." Reaching out one spectral hand, Ginevra brushed Peter's mane. The touch burned a streak of white through the hair, but he was too ecstatic to notice. "I have his scent, King Sombra. It won't be long now."

'Your resourcefulness surprises me more and more. Find him, Ginevra. Find him, so we can make him pay for what he's done to your world.'

Harry's parents, Neville's too, lots of muggles, and almost as many wizards stood at Ginevra's back, or so she felt. With the magic of a dementor at her disposal, she glided across the forest floor while Peter galloped at her side. She barely noticed him—she was hunting.

She didn't apparate, nor did she try the special movement Sombra had taught her—the former she didn't know and the latter was too imprecise. The forest was alive for Ginevra. She could taste every happy thing the creatures around her felt, and it all gave her strength—the strength to hunt.

"I see something! A big snake, master!" Pony instinctive fear of snakes warred with Peter's desire to obey and support his master. Of course, those instincts were no match for dark magic and a deep-seated need to hide in the shadow of someone powerful.

Ginevra's attention narrowed on the reptile. It was horridly out of place in a European forest. "At last."

Nagini had known something was hunting her with the presence that all animals knew when a predator was on the chase. Seeing the creature chasing her Nagini felt the touch of the spirit she protected. Dementor. 

Along with the name of it came what it could do. Nagini felt real terror flood her body with fight or flight, and from what she'd learned the former wouldn't work at all. Her venom wouldn't work, nor could she squeeze the nightmarish creature to death. 

While snakes had some quite fast movement, her stamina wouldn't last forever. Nagini felt her terror change to acceptance. She wouldn't outrun the dementor chasing her, so instead she turned.

Peter panicked as Nagini turned on them, hiding behind his master. His master herself didn't slow at all, and approached the snake as if it were no more than a fallen child.

"You're not Voldemort, but he's here." Ginevra was confused at the snake's presence. It was what she'd felt, but it was acting very unsnake-like. "Where is he?!"

'Stop. All of you stop.' Sombra felt a new terror nearby. The faint hint of Voldemort had grown with that fear. 'You remember me, don't you? Ginevra, lend him a little of your strength so he can speak. I wish an answer before we continue.'

The request surprised Ginevra. She had no idea exactly how to do what Sombra'd asked, but trusted him enough to try it. Magic, now, was visible in strands and threads all around her. Ginevra could spin off small threads of it and use it to feed spells or abilities, but now she wrapped some up into a little ball and tossed it into the air before her. 

Tom Riddle, A.K.A. Lord Voldemort, had barely been capable of conscious thought. He'd jumped from creature to creature until he found Nagini, and discovered in her a kindred spirit. Nurtured within her, he was nonetheless neither gaining nor losing power—and that was frustrating.

There were plans that Voldemort wanted to unfurl and explore, but the one being he'd never expected to encounter again was King Sombra, nor had he expected to be given shreds of dark magic by a dementor that looked decidedly female. 

Nonetheless, Voldemort devoured the magic and felt clarity and strength flood him. Nagini, my dear, please allow me to— His thought got no further before she was already offering him control. "King Sombra." Despite his calm and steady voice, Voldemort felt real fear.

'I have such questions for you, but there is only one I need answered.' Sombra's mental voice was deeper and more resonant than ever. He was functionally immortal of spirit so long as the horcrux anchored him. 'How do I make a horcrux?'





"Draco Lucius Malfoy?" Looking around the common room of Slitherin house, Jenny Sparks narrowed her eyes as she looked over the ponies. "Come on. I know one of you's Lord Malfoy's son. You're going to be first out of here. The sooner you step forward, the sooner you get back and get this whole mess undone."

Draco wasn't stupid. She'd heard what Minerva McGonagall had said regarding the magic that'd changed them. This wasn't a spell to be undone or bypassed. What had made Malfoy a filly was already inside her before she was even born. 

"Draco's already gone through." 

Jenny Sparks rounded on the pony who'd spoke. "Who're you?"

"I," Lucian Bole said as he stood up, "Am prefect Lucian Bole, ma'am. And I'm tellin' you, Draco's not here." It hadn't taken a huge leap of insight for Lucian to see the terror on Draco's face when the Ministry witch had asked for her. 

"Don't be daft, Bole. Ma'am, that's Draco over there." Gregory Goyle had had enough of playing pony games and wanted to go home. He'd been prepared to wait for his chance to slip through the portal, but when opportunity presented itself, he stepped forward.

It felt like betrayal, but the insights into his former best friends' characters Draco had gained were clear enough for her to realize that Gregory Goyle just wasn't empathic enough to pick up on Draco's fear as well as Lucian had. Despite her knowing it was a character flaw, Draco would work out some way to punish Gregory regardless. 

Draco had no more time to ponder things. The witch stomped over to where Draco sat on a couch chair and grabbed her by the ear. "Hey! Let go!"

Jenny was so surprised at the feminine voice that she did as its owner said. She'd heard the headmistress talk at length about all the strangeness, and honestly didn't care anymore. "You, the snitch. Pick someone else and drag young Draco out of here for me."

Watching as Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe dragged Draco Malfoy from the room, Lucian Bole felt furious. "Helena, let's go. Come with me." He got up and stalked for the door that would lead through a secret passage and come out by the lake.

Helena Fowley stiffened in surprise. She'd dated Lucian (or she liked to call her fawning on him dating), but they hadn't exactly interacted much since. She knew, however, that Lucian wasn't the idiot most thought him, so got up and trotted after him.

"What are we doing?" Helena asked when they were half a hall away from the others.

"Those daft meat'eads. You saw Draco, she didn't wanna go. She's scared o' somethin'." As he reached the special door, Lucian reached up with his teeth and grabbed the handle that was molded to the wood. It wasn't magical at all, this secret door, which was why it was so well hidden from wizards. 

Staring at the hidden passage, Helena nonetheless followed Lucian inside and pulled it closed behind her with her wing. "So? What's your stake in Draco Malfoy? Is this a favor for Gemma?"

"'Er? No. Draco's just a kid, despite what Gemma and Draco think." Lucian, in the lead, reached the end of the dark hallway first. "You can go back if you want. If you walk out there wif me, the door'll close behind us and can't be opened from that side."

It was tempting to do just that. Helena stood still for a second after Lucian opened the door and stepped out into the afternoon sun. She took a deep breath and followed him. "You're a big softy, aren't you?"

"Shut up!"

"I can remember all the times you beat up the other boys without so much as a thought, but the only time you ever got rough with girls was in quidditch. You don't have a thing for Draco at all." Helena dodged the most halfhearted kick of Lucian's back leg she'd ever seen on any equine—which was saying something given her family raised horses. "Big. Softy."

"If you go spreading that, I might make an exception. I 'ad two little sisters growin' up. They were always getting in dirty, spells they shouldn'ta been knowin'. I told me mum it was me. It was always Lucian. Too daft to know better. Too daft for Durmstrang, too much trouble for 'em either." Lucian lowered his mass a little closer to the ground as he spied Jenny leading Draco, Gregory, and Vincent out of the shiny new castle and around the side. "Follow me and keep down."

Circling around newly thrust-up buildings to ensure they weren't seen, Lucian and Helena found the spot they were looking for. There was four Ministry wizards waiting at the portal, and now there was Jenny Sparks and her little entourage. 

Jenny wasn't in the mood to be nice or take her time. Having been lumped with a milk-run in the middle of the biggest event since You-Know-Who died, she felt she was being severely underused. She eyed the two ponies that were helping her. "Alright. Names?"

"Vincent Crabbe." Vincent didn't bother smiling, and besides, he knew it didn't suit him.

"Gregory Goyle."

John Dawlish raised an eyebrow at the names. "Caught yourself a whole gaggle of pure-bloods, Jen."

"Yeah, yeah. Now I have to get them all back to their parents without being turned into a newt. Whole castle got turned like this. Well, not exactly like this. Most of 'em can stand up at least. They said what we'd already guessed—using magic definitely causes it." Walking right up to the rift, Jenny turned to look at her three charges. "Get your butts through. This place is creepy enough as it is, and I don't want to spend another second here."

Lucian watched from a nearby street corner as Vincent and Gregory tossed Draco—literally kicking and screaming—through the portal. "I'm gonna beat the snot out of those two, then drag 'em to Pomfrey, then beat the snot out of 'em again." He waited until the two colts and the auror jumped through too before he reached around and grabbed a mouthful of Helena's mane. "S'rry."

Helena wasn't a small pony—she was fifteen after all—but Lucian practically picked her up by the hunk of her mane and started dragging her. "Let go of me!"

"What's going on over there?" John watched a much bigger pony than the last three dragging another along. "More? Really? What exactly's going on up at the castle?"

Spitting out Helena's mane as he reached the portal, Lucian shrugged his shoulders. "They just told me to bring this one up too and take her after the last lot. Something about her family bein' important."

"What's your name?" John was hardly bored, but he hadn't become an auror to look after horses in strange worlds brimming with magic he didn't dare use.

"Well?" Lucian grinned. "Tell 'im yer name."

Helena knew what Lucian was going for. It wasn't uncommon for people to mistake her name until they'd seen it written. "Helena Fowley."

Smiling, John liked it when everything fell into orderly lines. Easily mistaking the name Fowley for Fawley, he waved at the portal. "That explains it. Get on through with you."

Grumbling under her breath, Helena stepped through the portal after Lucian gave her a shove. A sinking feeling in her stomach resulted in her almost falling down on the other side. It was night time, but there was a huge set of tents set up around her with lights bobbing out front.