“How would you like to join the RESS?”
“The RESS? That’s gotta be an acronym for that thing Lyra mentioned,” Ariel tells Ginny immediately.
“What would…” Ginny begins slowly. “What would that entail?”
Bonbon smiles. “Alright. So, how much do you know about us already?”
“Uh… That it’s the Royal Equestrian Secret Service, and that they apparently wear walkies?”
“Um,” Ginny glances down at the empty table in front of her, mentally agreeing with Ariel, and looks back up. “That much? How much can you tell me?”
“Ooh, good question.”
“Ahh, so that’s what we’re starting with,” Bonbon smiles, leaning back in her chair. “And to answer your question, not much, unfortunately; it’s all top secret. But, I can tell you more than I have so far. So…”
“So… what now?”
Ginny scowls slightly at Ariel’s question, pacing her way steadily towards the Gryffindor common room. Bonbon had explained a little about what the ‘RESS’ was all about… so, interested, she’d agreed.
And Bonbon had gone on to explain a lot more about the Royal Intelligence Agency she’d just joined. Bonbon was right, she couldn’t have told her much before starting- but she was also careful to pick and choose what to tell, even of the stuff she could. As a result, as much as she was surprised by what the RIA really is, she found she likes it too- and isn’t having second thoughts.
Then Lyra got back, Bonbon named a couple codes, and…
She got to meet the strangest girl she’s ever met. Several of the other people in the building- all Agents, it would seem- were grumbling about how they couldn’t just send her through the Gate to meet Princess Celestia; as for the Princess herself, the girl with the strangely flowing hair, she seemed mostly just amused. Ginny would never have realized she was any different if she hadn’t been wearing a crown… and if literally everyone else in the room hadn’t bowed down when she entered. Ginny had taken a second to realize who they were bowing to before she bowed herself- then, rather than the tight-lipped how-dare-you-be-late she’d expected from the royal, she’d heard a soft chuckle.
She’d then gotten both a radio and a codename- though she’s not a fan of the latter.
And now, she’s back at the castle, as if nothing had ever happened.
Well… Not quite. She is wearing the radio, even though she hasn’t been told what any of the radio codes mean just yet. She’d asked Lyra, once she’d been shown how to get into the Room of Requirement, if she could do that pages-to-teach thing with her- but Lyra had shaken her head sadly. “No, unfortunately, the Agency is pretty ironclad with that.”
So she’ll be stopping by the Room of Requirement after classes, three times this coming week, for her initial, basic training. Lyra had promised her that, should she survive and be able to reach Equestria, they would complete her Agent training- alongside that of Agent Index Eye- over the summer in Equestria.
She really hopes she lives that long… but nobody- or nopony, as they kept saying at that Agency building- seemed to have much hope in that regard. Even Lyra- who had told her, when she first called for Bonbon, not to mention Ariel to anyone else just yet.
She’d asked why, of course.
“Because I’d hate to get everyone excited about meeting someone that’s going to disappear,” Lyra had answered her. “If you die, she will die with you. And if you survive, chances are that will be because she merged with you, and disappeared that way. There is just about zero possibility that she will survive, separate from you, long-term- regardless of your survival.”
Ariel had taken that hard.
Ginny doesn’t plan on obeying that instruction, though. Sure, she won’t mention Ariel to any Agents… but she hopes to bring her up to someone. Maybe…
She looks up. She’d been gazing at the floor as she plodded along; now, she’s approaching the last turn towards the Fat Lady.
If… If she’s going to die soon… But wait. Harry, Hermione, and their Slytherin friend all finished the transform- maybe if she stays around them, they can help stabilize her magic field? Perhaps they can help?
And besides, if she’s going to die soon, on her current track, she’ll die alone!
She takes a deep breath.
“Ariel?” she asks. “How’s my magic doing?”
Ariel gives her the distinct impression of a shrug, looking up from her depressed fugue. “Your magic…? Oh. It seems to be back, uh, semi-stable once again.”
“Do you think it would handle you stepping out for a few seconds again?”
“Um… Yeah, probably. Why, you want to hug me?”
She smiles. “In a few, yeah, probably. C’mon.” She trots forwards, a plan formulating in her mind. For some reason, while Ariel has free access to her memory, she can’t even touch what she’s thinking about unless she wants her to… and neither can Ariel find anything she doesn’t want her to find. Which isn’t much, but at least it means she can surprise Ariel despite sharing her head. She rounds the corner, jogs up to the Fat Lady, and gives the password.
It swings open.
She screeches to a halt.
Harry and Hermione freeze in the portrait hole, the former’s arm poised to push the Fat Lady open from inside, for a second as well.
“Oh, hi Ginny!” Hermione greets, as they step out and to the side, clearing the path for her to enter. “Having a good day?”
She shakes her head, trying to hide her glowing blush with it. “No, no, I’m having a terrible day,” she declares cheerfully.
Both of them stop, and tilt their heads inquisitively.
Her blush darkens. I can’t stop now, she tells herself, and takes a deep breath, before trotting closer to grab Harry’s hand; it’s already late enough that the last class of the day has already ended. “Can I come- Aaaah!”
Ariel perfectly matches her jump and shriek, albeit a little less noticeably, when she touches Harry’s hand- and feels a sudden jolt of… something travel up her arm. It feels… warm, almost.
“Wha-!?” Harry asks, glancing down at his hand as if checking for something. Funny, he doesn’t seem to have felt it.
“What- What was that?” Ginny asks, wide-eyed. Possibly, a corner of her mind notes, the first time she’s said anything near Harry and not blushed like the setting sun.
“What was what?” Hermione asks, apparently alarmed by her shriek. The portrait hole had already swung closed again when she shrieked, so nobody in the common room seems to have noticed.
“Magic transfer, I think,” Ariel answers her instantly. “No idea why, but… Yeah. Harry somehow just replenished your entire magic reserves- and mine, strange. And… Yeah, he’s still a blinding beacon of power.
“... Makes me wonder where he got all that power from?”
She takes a few deep breaths, and calms herself down. “... Oh. Um…” She looks at Harry, fighting back the blush. “Are- Are you okay?” Her voice vanished into a squeak at the end.
Harry blinks, confused. “Uh, yeah?”
Hermione rubs her chin. “Hmm… Yeah, I have no idea what that was.”
“A magic transfer of some sort,” Ginny mumbles. “Ariel… figured it out.”
“You’re already ratting me out?”
“Ariel?” Hermione asks.
She nods. “My… imaginary friend. She… She said a ton of magic went…” She blushes.
Before she can stop him, Harry reaches out a hand to rest it on her shoulder. She flinches, but no jolt comes. “And if Silver is right about us, you could’ve been a dozen people filling up from nothing to twice what you could handle off me alone and I wouldn’t even notice.” He scowls, looking at Hermione. “I still haven’t figured out the thaumic perception thing just yet.”
Hermione shakes her head. “Me neither. Pretty sure Silver’s the only one.” She looks at Ginny. “I notice you have a radio?”
Ginny nods, blushing.
“Huh. Then I don’t suppose you know what the Equestrians actually are?”
She nods again.
Hermione shrugs, stepping around to sandwich her between herself and Harry- and causing her blush to heat up exponentially. “Wanna come along for our ‘Papa Tango Club’ meeting? It’s just me, Harry, and Silver right now, so…”
She forces herself to nod. If she’s honest with herself, she has no idea what just happened.
“Oh, hi Ginny!”
Ginny blinks. It’s that Slytherin boy, waving cheerfully at her from the middle of the room.
The middle of the otherwise empty room that Harry and Hermione just guided her into.
“Um… Hi?” she mutters, clinging to Harry. She thinks she’s still blushing, but she’s stopped caring by now.
He chuckles, hopping off his desk and pocketing the silver flute he’d been playing before they walked in. He trots closer, offering her his hand. “Nice to meet you! I’m Draco Malfoy- or, when my father won’t find out, Silversong.” He glances up at… her hair? “I don’t suppose you can shift yet, can you?” He glances up at Hermione. “Didn’t Lyra do her Papa Tango a few days back?”
Hermione nods. “She tells me it was botched.”
Draco flinches. “Ouch.” He looks at Ginny. “Though, she doesn’t look all that much different from what you did after your Papa Tango, Hermione.”
“What?” Ginny asks.
“She doesn’t? Huh…” Hermione mutters, putting her hand to her chin. “Wait, Ginny? Can your imaginary friend- Ariel, was it?- take physical form at all?”
“Is… Is she asking what I think she’s asking?” Ariel asks.
Ginny nods. “Give it a shot. You know what to do if I start passing out.”
Ariel lets out a snort of laughter. “Shouldn’t be necessary this time around.” She heaves a sigh. “I’ll keep my eyes open, though, just in case.”
It takes only a couple seconds for Ariel to take form in the air in front of her, and drop into her waiting arms. She’s still weightless to Ginny, but she seems a lot more solid than last time- it actually feels like there’s something in her arms, rather than the lightest of breezes.
Ariel looks at the other three. “Um… Hi?” she asks.
“You’re… Ariel?” Hermione asks.
Ariel nods meekly. “I… I know I look weird, but…”
“Oh, no, that is perfectly normal. I’m more…” Draco looks up at Ginny. “... Huh, musta been you I was seeing.” He glances at Hermione. “You’re right, Ginny isn’t completely Papa Tangoed… but it’s definitely started.” He looks at Harry. “And there’s some bond between the two I can’t quite see.”
Harry shakes his head. “I haven’t figured out the sensing thing yet, beyond Lilly.”
Draco nods solemnly.
“Um… Lyra said something about a bond…?” Ginny mutters. “Something about it being invisible while we’re in the same place?”
Draco nods. “Yeah. It’s visible right now, I just don’t have the experience or know-how to see it properly.” He glances at Hermione. “Think Lyra’s available?”
Hermione shrugs, hand rising to her radio. “Only one way to find out,” she smiles, before depressing the button.
Ginny then hears double of her, almost perfectly simultaneous- once from her, and once from the little earpiece connected to her radio. “Candy Stripes to Papa Tango Charlie Mike, please.”
Hermione lowers her hand.
Lyra appears out of thin air, glancing around almost casually. “Hi Hermione!” she greets. “Harry, Draco, Gi- Wait. Is that Ariel, by any chance?”
Ginny wraps her arms protectively around Ariel. “Yes, she is,” she states cautiously, while Ariel tries to shrink further into Ginny’s embrace.
Lyra stares, rubbing her chin. “Yeah, the link is visible now… Hmm… Um, I suppose there’s good news and bad news.”
Ginny nods slowly. “What’s the good news?”
“The link itself is not lethal.”
Harry, Hermione, and Draco all stiffen visibly. Ginny blinks, and speaks in barely a whisper. “And the bad?”
Lyra sighs. “It’s… a master-servant bond, where you’re the master. Normally, I’d break a master-servant bond like that in a heartbeat… except this one is a little different. If I were to do that, I would almost certainly kill Ariel… and probably you too. Looks like she’s fully Papa Tangoed, and that bond is what’s stabilizing your magic enough to keep you alive.” She takes a deep breath. “Fortunately, while it all is in a state of flux, it looks mostly stable- so you won’t drop dead within the next… oh, month or so. Beyond that, I can’t promise.”
Draco, Harry, and Hermione share a look.
Ginny gets an idea. “What might… ahh, extend that time?”
Lyra shrugs. “I don’t know.”
“What… What happens if…” Ariel begins.
“If everything goes right?” Ginny finishes.
Ariel nods.
“If… If everything goes right?” Lyra asks, raising an eyebrow. “Then… Um… Yeah. If everything goes right, you’ll finish Papa Tangoing in roughly three years, and everything will stabilize. Ariel would stay alive and basically exactly as she is now- including being irrevocably tethered to you.” She looks at Hermione. “Is that what you wanted me for?”
Hermione nods.
“Anything else?” Lyra asks the rest of the group.
Everyone shakes their heads, though Ariel’s shake is so small it’s only barely visible.
Lyra nods. “Alright then, I’ll see you around.” She disappears back into thin air.
Hermione lets out a sigh, before gesturing to the cushions set out around the low table in the middle of the room. “Shall we, then?”
“So, Ariel?” Harry asks, sitting next to Ginny. “I’m curious, how is life as a… er, imaginary friend?”
“Soul servant, technically,” Hermione injects from Ginny’s other side.
Ariel flinches. Everyone else raises their eyebrows at Hermione.
“Well, it’s true,” she states. “It’s in-!”
“Not now,” Draco interrupts.
“Imaginary friend works, right?” Harry asks, looking between everyone.
Everyone nods, Ariel only the second most emphatically, after Ginny.
Harry lets out a sigh. “So how is life as an imaginary friend?”
Ariel shrugs, and looks back at her wings. “I don’t know. I only remember the last few days… and besides, this is only the second time I’ve, ah, come out. The first time…” She shudders visibly. “I had to go back in quickly to keep Ginny alive.” She leans comfortingly against Ginny’s upper body, still sitting in her lap. Ginny hugs her.
Hermione scowls. “How about… the form. Is this what you expected, or…?”
Ariel doesn’t respond until after Ginny releases her hug. “No, actually, I expected something a little more… human.” She looks back at herself. “But oh well. I’m made of energy right now anyways- I’m sure my form is flexible somehow.”
Hermione nods. “And it might be more- or less- flexible than you think, too. Have you tried turning into a human?”
“Turning into a human,” Ariel repeats back at her.
Hermione nods. “Yeah.”
“Like, how?”
Hermione shrugs. “I don’t know… Um, think of yourself as a human, maybe? Um, concentrate on being human?” She looks at Draco. “I’m not sure how else to describe it, you?”
Draco shakes his head. “No, that’s about it.” He looks at Ariel. “To be honest, I’m kinda wondering why she hasn’t been forced into human form by her own magic.”
“Unless,” Harry begins. “Is it possible her status as an energy being is messing with her animagus magic?”
Draco blinks, and nods. “Huh, that’s possible.” He looks at Ginny. “Have you, perchance, tried to transform yourself into something like Ariel?”
Ginny blinks slowly. “And… what? Get trapped in someone’s head?”
“Oh, no, no,” Hermione shakes her head. “He means like-” she shrinks suddenly “-this.”
Ginny stares. Hermione has… become a little… horse-like thing. Not unlike Ariel, though Hermione has different colors and a horn sticking out of her head. Oh, and Hermione is also clearly still flesh and bone.
Ginny slowly reaches out a hand to touch Hermione’s… mane. “What…?”
Hermione giggles, tickling Ginny’s outstretched arm with a wing. “So, have you tried?”
“Um…” Ginny withdraws her hand, closes her eyes, and pictures Ariel… with her hair. She imagines herself turning into that… image, and concentrates on it for a second.
A spike of pain suddenly erupts in her forehead.
“Ow!” she yelps, clapping both hands over it and bending down over Ariel. “Owowowow…”
“Huh… I was wondering about that,” Draco mutters. “Well, Ginny, I’d advise you don’t try transforming very frequently. Maybe give it a shot every once in a while, find out if and when it’ll work, but otherwise…”
She looks up, peering underneath her arms. “What?” she asks. Her forehead still hurts, but the pain is fading away.
Draco nods. “Yeah- I was watching, you got it right. Only… it looked like it was going to hurt you, then your own magic suddenly decided to interrupt the cast to protect you. That’s probably what the pain is from.”
She blinks. “Then…”
“Hmm,” Hermione mutters, putting one hoof to her chin. “If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be ideal to put off trying to transform until she completely finishes her Papa Tango? I mean, none of us had Equestrian forms until after it had completed…” She glances sideways at Draco, then at Harry. “Speaking of which, why are you two still human?”
Draco shrugs. “Our transformations are a little more thorough, as you know. I thought we might wait a little, try and tone down the shock levels. I’d rather not make Ginny pass out on us.”
Ginny flinches. “Hey, I stayed awake when Hermione turned into a… A…”
“Pony,” Hermione supplies. “Filly, more specifically.”
“Pony?” Ginny asks. “Isn’t that, like, a small horse?”
Hermione shakes her head. “Not exactly. And we’re not talking about those ponies, either- we’re talking about Equestrian ponies.”
“Uhh… Does that have something to do with how all the Agents were saying ‘everypony’ at…?”
Draco nods. “Probably. Over in Equestria, ponies are the dominant race. The Gate transforms them into humans as they cross.”
“Okay,” she mutters, looking at him. “Are you, um, not a pony or something? Like, a dragon?”
All three of them laugh.
“Nah,” Draco chuckles. “If you want a dragon, you’ll have to go find Norberta.”
“Or Spike,” Hermione inserts.
“Yeah, but he can’t transform on this side,” Draco continues. “No. I’m a filly too.”
Ginny scowls. “Okay? … Wait a minute. Does that mean you’re-!?”
Draco shrinks, nods, and speaks in a girl’s voice. “Yep.”
“... Oh.” She turns to Harry. “Please don’t tell me you’re like that too.”
He shrinks. “I am.”
She hugs Ariel. “Does… Does that mean I’ll be… a boy, when I…?”
Hermione shakes her head. “Hey, I didn’t shift.”
“Lyra said something about the Equestrian form being created based on the personality, not the human form,” the silver filly- Silver- states. “And given the gender disparity in Equestria, I’d say you’re probably also going to be a filly.”
“But…” She looks at all the fillies surrounding her- Harry, Hermione, Silver… and Ariel, still sitting in her lap. “But…” She tries to restrain the tears fighting to escape.
Silver smiles. “Did you know that Lyra and Bonbon are a married couple?”
She blinks. “What?”
She nods. “And they’re both mares, too. Turns out both polygamy and same-sex marriage are perfectly legal- and normal- in Equestria.”
Harry and Hermione both look away from the table and blush. Ginny stares at Silver. “Then…”
Silver rubs her chin with a hoof. “Oh, and Lyra did mention a spell that would let any of us genderswap for a few hours to play the part of a father.”
Ginny blushes and looks away as well.
“Are you trying to say,” Ariel begins shyly. “That your kids are going to have five moms, and no dad?”
Silver shrugs her wings, not even blushing. “I don’t know. It is certainly possible, though.”