Hermione could only sigh, as she arrived for Charms. After the first class last week, she and her Slytherin co-teacher- who turned out to be Bonbon, Lyra’s wife- had been rescheduled to a later time slot. She hadn’t been the only student instructor to have their teaching assignment come immediately after their study slot… but, according to Lyra, she had been the only one that was able to assimilate the information fast enough to teach it effectively in that short of a timeframe.
Which meant that she now taught Charms at about three in the afternoon, rather than ten in the morning.
Bonbon was already there, as punctual as ever. Just like last time, the teaching assignment started half an hour before the students’ class assignment came about, giving her and Bonbon a full half an hour to coordinate their lesson plans and catch up on everything.
For the first class, since she’d arrived with no idea what was going to happen and Bonbon had been working on lesson plans for an hour, they’d just picked one of hers. After that, Bonbon had spent half of that time allotment going over the class roster- and warning her of who to keep her eyes on for her safety and so on. She’d been rather alarmed by that.
“Good afternoon, Bonbon,” she greeted.
Bonbon bowed her head. “Good afternoon to you too, Hermione. I’m sure you’ve heard we’ve shuffled the class rosters a little as well?”
She nodded; her schedule hadn’t changed over the weekend, aside from this class, but plenty of peoples’ had been. For instance, in her second class that day, the only one where she was studying under student instructors, about a third of the class had been shuffled out for different people. “How much has changed?”
Bonbon shrugged. “Not much, actually- only five substitutions. We’ve still got the Crusaders- it is confirmed, we’re the best team for them. Any other instructor team would’ve had a demolished room and, possibly, a severe injury by the end of the class.”
“Wow,” she muttered. The self-proclaimed ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’- a name she didn’t understand in the slightest- had caused so much… excitement last week that she and Bonbon hadn’t been able to cover any of the class material. She scowled. “What is a ‘Cutie Mark’, anyways?”
Bonbon shook her head. “National secret, sorry. Maybe someday.” She shrugged. “The Crusaders are rather… careless in that regard. We helped them come up with a temporary name for this side of the Gate, but they’ve forgotten it entirely. Too excited, I think.”
She blinked. It was the same thing she’d told her when she’d asked why Applebloom had said ‘everypony’; she was beginning to suspect what that national secret was. “Oh. Okay. So, who did we lose?”
Bonbon listed off five names that Hermione remembered being the boring sort- the slow ones. Four of them were British.
She nodded. “Alright. Then, who did we gain?”
Bonbon grinned. “Well, we got Rainbow Dash, for one.”
“Wait, Rainbow? Wasn’t she the one racing against… whoever it was, to serve butterbeer at the Leaky Cauldron?”
“Yes, she was competing with Lightning Dust- who would have won by twenty percent, had Derpy Hooves not accidentally outdone them both. Speaking of which, we’ve got all three of them now.”
She nodded slowly. “Are they…?”
“Going to be trouble? I wouldn’t expect them to be. Well, except Derpy. Rainbow and Lightning can get mighty bored sometimes, but they’re grown ladies. The only worry I would have is that Rainbow is outwardly disdainful to the notion of ‘studying’. You can generally ignore that facade, though; as an Aethr, she’s mighty excited to learn magic, since the Equestrian stuff is pretty exclusive to the Raeths.” She took a deep breath. “And Derpy… I mean, you’ve seen how much destruction the Crusaders cause, right?”
Hermione shuddered.
“Amplify that by about double, and replace destruction with helping out, and you have Derpy. She’s wonderfully kind- but she’s also wall-eyed, clumsy, and the main mail delivery person in our hometown. Normally, that would mean mail would never get where it was headed… but she has this gift. Even Lyra doesn’t know where it comes from, but she has never once failed to deliver a letter to its recipient. Even when said recipient was swimming in lava in the next universe over.” She shrugged. “Don’t ask me how she did that.
“Said gift has side effects on her daily life. That is, she has… accidents. But they’re not normal accidents- they’re helpful accidents.
“Like the Leaky Cauldron. The deciding event in that challenge happened about three days after your visit. Two of the other servers crashed into each other, and spilled butterbeer all over the floor… Then of course, Rainbow and Dust hit that puddle at the same time at speed from different directions, slipped, and crashed into each other, flinging platters and tankards all the way across the pub. Pinkie had to replace three cakes.
“Derpy had been walking by, and stopped to help them clean up. Then, in the act of mopping up the spilled butterbeer with only three napkins- even Pinkie couldn’t figure out how she did that- she served so many drinks not only in the Leaky Cauldron but all across Equestria that the two speedsters couldn’t possibly keep up. As for how many she served… Well, Tom told us at the end. Had every single day of the year looked like it did the day you passed through, it would have taken six years to make as much as he made that day. He said he hadn’t a clue where she got it all, but he’d seen it all go out, with the orders- and galleons- coming in to pay for it.”
She blinked. “... Wow.”
“Yeah. And that’s actually not why she’s coming to our class, even though she’ll no doubt be amazingly helpful with the Crusaders. Instead, she’s coming because she has difficulty following the instructions the other instructors give her… and we’re smart enough to work with her disability instead of against it.”
She tilted her head. “Wait, wasn’t that in the crash course thingy?”
Bonbon nodded. “Yep. And some people just aren’t that good at it. She’s a pretty extreme case- one that can… overwhelm less prepared instructors.”
“So, we’re getting all the hard cases.”
“In essence, I suppose. Though they’re not really hard cases- they all want to learn magic- they just have their own, ah, unique difficulties, and we’re best equipped to handle them.”
She nodded. “Ahh. So…” She scowled. “Rainbow and Lighting are both Aethrs, but which one’s Derpy?”
“She’s also an Aethr.”
She nodded. “And if I remember right, you’re an Etrah?”
“Yep. From what we’ve seen so far, the Raeths are actually at a disadvantage with British magic- they’re having a lot more trouble getting magic out of their wands. Twilight was the first to get hers working- said something about making the magic ‘sit’ in her wand. We expect Derpy to have a little trouble to start out, since she doesn’t have the greatest control over her Aethr magic as it is, but it should be nothing next to the Crusaders… none of which have a clue how to control their Equestrian magics.”
“Which gives Sweetie Belle about a zero percent chance of successfully casting wand magic, doesn’t it?”
Bonbon nodded. “Or thereabouts, theoretically. Judging by what happened last week, I’d say she’s just as likely to learn wand magic first, and use that as an anchor to familiarize herself with her Raeth magic and learn to properly utilize all of her power.
“Anyways. After those three, Ronald Weasley will be joining us today. Not a great match, but this was the best place for him- he needs someone of your skill to get some of these things through his thick skull, but he’s not nearly as far gone as Crabbe or Goyle- the class they’ve been transferred to is just short of remedial. Perhaps the most worrying thing with Ron is that he seems to have been looking for Harry… but less because of interest and more because he is supposed to, almost. It’s… suspicious, to say the least, so we- basically all of the Equestrians- have taken on a policy of non-information: We won’t help him, or any of the other Weasleys- they haven’t shown any suspicious tendencies, but you know siblings- to find Harry. We’re not blocking him from Harry, though, since we don’t know why he’s looking, but…” She shrugged. “You go ahead and decide for yourself what you will do, as a schoolmate, when he inevitably asks after Harry.”
“We’ve also got Draco Malfoy. Lyra made noises about testing her spellwork on him earlier- I told her to ask permission first, here’s hoping she remembers- so he may not show up today, depending on what happens with that. He’s very familiar with Crabbe and Goyle- but has proven to be a few orders of magnitude smarter than the two of them together, so he no longer shares any classes with them. Be warned, as a Malfoy, he’s from one of the high noble families of the wizarding world.”
Hermione found it very flattering the way Bonbon kept suggesting that it was her skill, not Bonbon’s, that would be needed; unlike herself, the girl’s every move practically preached of high skill and long practice. She was pretty sure she would be surprised if Bonbon could be tripped by an invisible, six-inch wall sliding rapidly- and silently- across the floor. Specifically, a wall that could stand up to her massive Etrah strength.
Then they ran over the lesson plans. She’d come up with one or two this time- so they ended up merging one of hers with one of Bonbon’s.
Finally, with ten minutes to the start of class, they were done. The week prior, the first student had shown up about five minutes early.
“Soooo,” Hermione muttered. Bonbon didn’t feel the need to fill every second with chatter- a trait which she rather liked- but she herself had a lot of questions.
Bonbon turned her head slightly to indicate she was listening. For some reason, that simple act, the calm, almost perfect attention, always made her smile.
“If… Um… That magic Lyra is doing. Is that just to safely travel the Gate, or to make wizards capable of Equestrian magic as well?”
“Both, actually,” Bonbon answered instantly. “Back in the Leaky Cauldron, she scanned a number of British passersby- which includes you, I’m afraid- and was able to determine she wouldn’t be able to do one without the other. Of course, there’d be a third effect, codenamed the Papa Tango, that would also come with them… and is a little less desirable.”
“Ahh. So… I assume much of this ‘Papa Tango’ is secret, but how much can you tell me?”
Bonbon smiled. “You assume correctly. At a high level, the ‘Papa Tango’ is basically a magical transformation into an Equestrian.”
She tilted her head. “Wouldn’t that risk destroying the identity of the, er, subject?”
Bonbon nodded. “Yes. There are ways around that, but even if their appearance, personality, and so on survives intact, they would definitely be changed at the core level- and would likely be forced to relearn themselves.”
“Relearn…?”
Bonbon nodded. “They would have to relearn things like magic… and their own strength. Completely aside from the extra side effects Equestrian magic has, that we are used to, but that they would be very likely blindsided by, even when warned.”
Draco had been to the Hospital Wing before, even though it was hardly the second week of school.
It was the first time he was there for an illness… though it was a very confusing illness. He’d had to stop at the bathroom to throw up on the way up; Professor Snape had waited for him.
Those other times, every Tuesday and Friday, he came up for a haircut, to shave himself bald in an effort to avoid a particularly nasty house curse.
But now…
Draco had been in the Hospital Wing for about an hour and a half, with a progressively more confused Madam Pomfrey running test after test, when someone knocked on the door to the Hospital Wing. He felt absolutely terrible, worse than he’d ever felt in his life.
When he heard the knock, he closed his eyes and muttered. “Please don’t tell me that’s Crabbe and Goyle.”
Madam Pomfrey, who had developed her own very negative opinion of the two boys during his first two visits, finished her latest test, nodded sagely, and went to get the door.
When she returned, it wasn’t the blundering idiots.
It was Lyra Heartstrings.
He opened his mouth to tell her to go away, but she beat him to it. “Hi Draco, Bonbon told me you missed Charms, and it made me worry- it’s possible it could have had side effects, even if it didn’t work. Can… Can I check for those?”
Madam Pomfrey’s eyebrows shot upwards.
He groaned, but didn’t see any other way. “Fine.”
She closed her eyes… and didn’t move, for several seconds. Madam Pomfrey was looking between her and Draco.
Finally, she moved again, and it was to sigh. “I… I’m sorry, Draco. As near as I can tell, it’s an allergic reaction to the penetration.” She looked up at Madam Pomfrey. “It shouldn’t be dangerous, but it’ll probably hurt a lot, and last a long time. And since it’s coming from his magical core, nothing we can do will do anything to even tone down the symptoms.” She looked at him again. “I’d go in to clean up, speed the recovery, but doing that would have a very high risk of killing you.”
Madam Pomfrey scowled. Draco facepalmed.
Lyra took a deep breath. “Anyways, those matrices are still intact… and have a recording function, so I should have a record of exactly what happened. I’ll have to dig through it, see exactly what happened… and if there’s any way to speed the recovery without killing you.” She shuddered. “And that could take months.”
Madam Pomfrey folded her arms. “So what would his normal recovery time be?”
She shrugged. “With an Equestrian, once all the symptoms disappear, they’re gone for good, though full recovery, including things like magic reserve depth and so on, can take half again as long as it takes to get that far.” She took a deep breath. “With an Equestrian, it would have an overall duration of about two and a half months. I don’t know enough about British magical cores to even guess at how long it’ll take, aside from… long.” She looked up. “That’s what I hope to learn by examining the records, among other things.”
She sighed. “In any case, the reaction itself shouldn’t be dangerous, but the symptoms could very easily put him in a dangerous situation. It’s probably best that he stays here- with you- until all the symptoms disappear.”