“Hi Harry!”
Harry jumped at the sound of Hermione’s voice, while he was tending to his Aunt Petunia's rosebushes out front, and looked up. “Oh, Hermione. When’d you get here?”
Hermione grinned, gesturing towards the front door- which her parents were walking up to. “Just now,” she answered. “Dad said something about a good conversation at the practice.” She glanced down at what he was doing. “Mind if I help?”
Harry glanced at the rosebush he was working on. “You know what I’m doing here?”
She shook her head. “No, but I’m sure there’s something I can do. Right?”
Harry shrugged. “Yeah, I suppose. Not much, though.” He snipped off a dead rose bud. “How’s your Papa Tango going?”
“Going?” she asked.
He nodded. “You’re a week early. Either it went faster than Silver’s, or it’s still going.”
She shrugged. “Yeah. It’s into the fifth stage, though, so there’s only magical changes left.” She tilted her head. “The sixth stage should start today.”
“Ahh. So it’s right about on schedule, then. How bad were the, ahh, earlier stages?”
She shrugged. “Lyra was right, the first stage was nearly painless. Two through four were torture, though.” She shuddered. “Oh, and when five started, I shrank a bit, back down to exactly eleven years old.”
Harry blinked. “... Okay.” He uprooted a weed that was peeking out next to the bush. “So, your, ahh… stick isn’t working?”
Hermione blinked as well. “What?”
He shrugged. “The Dursleys haven’t been nearly as bad as usual,” he stated. “The way they described it, it sounds like I have some kind of aura that makes them hate me. They’re fighting it, now that they know it’s there- and I’m helping, by not using the words related to how… different we are from them.”
“Huh. Should I…?”
He shrugged. “I don’t think that aura thing includes you, since my ‘aura’ seems to affect everyone in town, so you should be fine. Still can be amusing, at times- I actually made Vernon chuckle when I referred to, ahh, it as a ‘bang stick that only goes bang when you use it wrong’.”
Hermione giggled. “Yeah, I could see that.”
Close to an hour later, Harry was showing Hermione around the house when she suddenly froze, eyes wide.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I-!” she began, and cut herself off. She took a deep breath. “I need to tell you something. Somewhere… private.”
“... Alright,” he muttered. “How-?”
“Your room?” she asked, somewhat urgently.
He blinked. “As you wish, Your Highness,” he stated, and led the way.
She rolled her eyes at him, but followed. He entered before she did, and held the door for her; she promptly took it from him and closed it.
“Alright then,” he muttered, confused. “What is it?”
“It-!” she began. “It must be ten forty-five or so. Because… the Papa Tango. I think the sixth stage just started. And… And I apparently have…” She looked to the side, then something large and bronze-colored appeared from behind her back. It stretched away from her- and she turned sideways, so it wouldn’t hit the wall.
Harry stared. It was bronze, covered in feathers, and bent slightly in the middle. There were very large feathers hanging down from it in a few layers… and it was long enough it almost touched the wall opposite the door, from where Hermione was standing just a couple feet in front of the door. It was…
“Is that…?” he asked, trailing off into silence.
“I… I think it’s a wing,” Hermione muttered. “I… I just…” She stared at it.
Harry looked up at her. “When did that happen?”
She twitched. “I… I don’t know. I just… felt them, all of the sudden, a minute ago.” She refolded the wing, turned the other way, and extended another one from her other side.
“Well,” Harry muttered. “I guess that’s what Aethrs have. Lyra did say they could fly.”
“But not in this world,” Hermione answered. “She said they could fly in Equestria. As a matter of fact, in… in what she told me after the Papa Tango started, and their secret became mine as well… Equestrian Aethrs do have wings in Equestria. But they do not have wings on Earth!” She took a breath, refolding the massive wing and turning to face him. “And…” She shuddered. “Does this mean I won’t have wings in Equestria? Or-!” Her eyes widened. “What will I tell the doctor?”
Harry blinked, and shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe you just go see Equestrian doctors?” He tilted his head. “... Huh. Where’d they disappear to?”
“What-?” she asked. “Aren’t they still… you know, visible? It’s not like they just disappear.”
Harry raised an eyebrow. “Well, they did just disappear. Not invisible disappear, but behind your back disappear.”
“... Really?” she asked. “Then…” She turned her back towards him. “How bad is it?”
Harry blinked. “Nope, only see the back of your shirt.”
“What…?” She pulled her hair over her shoulder- then her wings fairly exploded through her shirt. The shirt didn’t seem to tear or anything, the wings just went right through it. “What do they do with my shirt?”
“They seem to be going through it,” Harry stated. “I…”
She folded her wings. “And still over it?”
Harry shook his head; her wings had seemed to vanish right through the fabric, leaving her back looking like she didn’t have wings at all. “Nope. It’s like…” He ran his hand across her back, just below her shoulders. There were no holes in the shirt, though he could feel the wings underneath. “Huh. The magic must make them go through the shirt, and return under it when you fold them again.”
She turned back towards him. “Really?”
He nodded. “Ought to be mighty convenient, if you want to fly while wearing a coat or something.”
She let out a breath, and leaned against the closed door. “And if I don’t want people to realize I’m not even remotely human anymore.” She blinked, and whipped a phone out of her pocket. “Which makes me curious.” She tapped it a few times, and held it to her ear.
“Uh… Oh, hi Lyra! I was wondering, are Equestrians and, uh, non-Equestrians, um, compatible?” Pause. “Er… as in, having children.” A longer pause. “... Oh, that’s… interesting.” Then she blushed. “Yeah, I probably should have, shouldn’t I?” She chuckled nervously. “Yep, everything’s going okay. Stage six started, and… I’m visiting Harry at the moment, but you’ll probably want to stop by my house sometime later today. There’s… Yeah. Yep, I’ll see you then.” She hung up, then stowed her phone.
“Sooo,” Harry muttered.
“Um… One of the first things they looked into after the Hogwarts letters started crossing was genetic compatibility… and the answer- which surprised them- is yes, equestrians and humans are perfectly compatible. The child would always be an Equestrian, but…” She shrugged.
Harry tilted his head. “What if it was a human that went through the Papa Tango?”
She grinned. “I guess we’ll just have to find out, won’t we?”
Harry raised an eyebrow. “I mean, if you plan on finding an Equestrian boy…”
She blushed, and rolled her eyes. “Of course not. Besides, with Silversong- and even you, after your Papa Tango- to play the male part, I’m sure Diamond won’t mind playing the female part. Once we’re all older, of course.”
It was Harry’s turn to blush, and look away. “Anyways.”
“This seems to be going well,” Snape muttered, pausing next to Lucius Malfoy at the head of the room. Just like they had every year prior, the Malfoy family had thrown a ball for their son’s birthday- and Snape was invited, among other families.
And this year, Snape had noticed something that bothered him: Draco Malfoy had seemed to have taken to his ‘noble prick lessons’, as Lucius affectionately called them, very suddenly- the boy was a perfect noble, mingling with the rest. He hadn’t seen the boy since the beginning part of the school year- after which he supposed Draco had withdrawn into his role as a Noble, and fully indoctrinated himself with it… which, he knew, was one of Lucius’ worst fears.
Lucius nodded calmly, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly- which Snape knew meant he was nervous about something. “So far,” Lucius agreed quietly. “So far, yes.”
Snape scowled marginally more than his traditional scowl. He’d have to stay late- he usually left early, as he had a certain dislike for parties- and have a more private conversation with the man.
It only took about six hours for Snape to get Lucius into another room for a private conversation. “So,” he began.
Lucius nodded. “So.”
“About your son, Draco. I notice he seems to have… taken to the nobility training.”
Lucius sighed. “Don’t I know it. I’ve been spending half the night telling people how proud I am of my ‘little nobleman’.” He shook his head. “And at the same time, worrying myself half to death that he’ll mess something up.”
“I hope he hasn’t… fully internalized it?”
Lucius actually let out a snort of laughter. “No, this is better- way better. He’s fully rejected it, but learned it anyways- he’s putting on a show for our guests. While he was at Hogwarts, he found a rather… unique way of segregating his private life from his membership in the Nobility.” He looked towards the door. “I keep expecting him to mess up, and blur the border, but he hasn’t-!” He went suddenly silent, as a knock sounded on the door.
Three quick, respectful knocks, then the door opened, and Draco bowed himself in. “Father, Sir,” he began. “The Goyles are looking for you. Mr. Goyle said he wouldn’t be satisfied by anything less than the Head of Malfoy House Himself serving his wine.”
Lucius rolled his eyes. “Of course. And Draco?”
“Yes, Father?”
He gestured towards Snape. “Do you think…?”
It seemed a strange question to Snape- and judging by Draco’s response, the boy thought it equally strange, despite actually understanding it. Draco raised one eyebrow inquisitively, then looked at Snape in a manner that he could only describe as contemplative. He promptly tried a quick, surface-thought-level Legilimency scan, of the type that wouldn’t even show up on a skilled Occlumens’ radar (but would be blocked by their passive defenses), to try and figure out what he was contemplating. Unfortunately, he came up against the same strange barrier that had been set over all the first-years at the beginning of the school year- and did not try to push past it. Dumbledore had, reportedly, tried- and failed- to do just that.
He noticed the corner of Draco’s mouth quirk in an amused smile, before the boy turned back to Lucius. “He can keep a secret, right?” Snape was taken aback by the bluntness of the question. Draco’s perfect noble-ness had seemed to disappear. Did the boy use a mental switch to separate his noble life and his private life?
Lucius raised an eyebrow. “I daresay he can,” he answered. “Even from the Dark Lord himself.”
Draco shrugged. “Then I don’t see why not. Just not right now, I do not want Yaxley to have even the slightest inkling of it.” He scowled, then looked up at Snape. “Or Dumbledore, if possible?”
“Why not?”
“Telling him would introduce unnecessary complications. And if the trend from the term has continued, I doubt he could handle the news without going crazy right now anyways.”
Snape let out a snort of laughter. “He’s… stopped getting worse, at least. We’re working on it.”
“Anyways,” Draco stated, straightening himself and schooling his expression. “My message has been delivered, so I should return to the ballroom.” He bowed, opened the door behind him, and withdrew. “Excuse me.”
The door landed closed.
Snape looked at Lucius. “That was… quite unnerving.”
Lucius nodded. “You should see him when there aren’t nobles all up and down the house.”
“I… am beginning to suspect what you’re so worried about.”
Lucius chuckled. “Oh, you haven’t seen anything.”
“Shall I stay until after the party, then?”
“Sure.”
It took another several hours, until well into the night, before the party finally drew to a close, and Snape watched Draco see the last family- the Crabbes- out the door.
Draco then looked around the room, spotted Lucius and Snape both watching him, and stepped away from the door, off to the side. “Dobby,” he commanded.
The house-elf appeared by his side almost instantly, and Draco ignored its presence. “Yes, Master?”
“Who all is left?”
“Just Mr. Snape, Sir,” Dobby announced.
Draco let out a sigh, and headed straight for the window, which he peered out of. “And about time, too.”
The room was silent for about thirty seconds.
“Father?” Draco asked. “Ready.”
Lucius let out a sigh of relief, and drew his wand. A few incantations later, and Snape felt the wards ‘close’ around them- and flag him as allowed, even when closed. “Clear,” Lucius announced.
It was Draco’s turn to let out a sigh of relief. His noble stature vanished instantly, and he fairly trotted straight to the couch- where he pivoted on one foot, and flopped himself down on it in a most un-noble manner, such that she was sprawled across it. “Well, that was exhausting,” she grumbled.
Snape stopped himself. There was something wrong with that picture.
He blinked, resisted the urge to rub his eyes, and ran over the memory once again.
Draco had walked up to the couch, and pivoted on the ball of one foot… then Silversong had finished that pivot, and flopped down on the couch.
Right at that moment, Silversong turned her head to look at him. “You can probably guess what the secret is,” she stated.
He nodded slowly, the puzzle pieces starting to come together. Now that he thought about it, ever since Silver had been sorted, he hadn’t seen Draco at the Castle even once, but he’d seen Silver fairly regularly. “So… How did…?”
“Well,” Silver muttered, looking up at the ceiling. “You… might have heard of Lyra’s Papa Tango, that put me in the Hospital Wing for two weeks, then on ‘no-magic’ restriction for another week?”
Snape wrinkled his nose. “Yes, I remember that. Rather... difficult, to forget.”
“What that ‘Papa Tango’ did, was to magically transform me into an Equestrian.”
He nodded slowly. “So how did…?”
“Simple: Equestrians are not native to Earth. So, the transformation had side effects. Most notably, my magic is actually Equestrian magic, instead of British magic. I still have the British-only abilities, like Animagus magic, but…” She shrugged. “Part of the magical transformation process included a physical transformation, then a forced reverse transformation. But then, my Animagus magic came back on, and with it, I gained control over my form. Madam Pomfrey says that I’m still technically not an Animagus, the Animagus magic is simply allowing me to shift between various forms that I have from other sources.
“Then, this- Silversong- is my natural form. I can turn into Draco, and all that- but when it comes down to it, I realized sometime in the middle of the year, Silversong isn’t just what I am- she’s who I am. Draco is just a facade I put up for the world to see, both in form and personality.” She heaved a sigh. “Wish it wasn’t necessary, but it is. Anyways, that’d normally be a fairly unworkable setup- but one of the things I got with the Equestrian magic was a unique, Equestrian-only magic facet, that they call the ‘Unique Talent’ on this side of their Gate.
“As you might guess, no two Equestrians will ever have the same talent conferred by that facet- so of course, I got my own unique talent from that facet.” She grinned at him. “Because of that magic, I’m automatically good at anything I try, so long as I actually know how to do it to begin with. Makes school a breeze- and staying ‘noble’ for the nobles, similarly so. And so…” She shrugged. “As for why not to tell Dumbledore… I’ve been told he’s had this… plan, that involved Draco being a minor antagonist to Harry. Then this happened, and at this point, I’m fairly sure I might even end up marrying Harry when the time comes. As Silversong, of course- Draco would never marry a boy.” He scowled. “Which… I’m sure that’ll make any political marriage Draco might need to make very, very complicated.”
Lucius let out a snort of laughter. “Good thing the Malfoys never accept such proposals, only ever make them, hmm?”
She nodded. “Good thing. We… haven’t made any, have we?”
He shook his head. “Nope. And even if we did, right now, I think the best candidate would be that Diamond Tiara, as a show of unity between our peoples…?” He trailed off.
Silver was giggling.
“What?” Snape asked.
“Oh, it’s just… Well,” she began, grinning like a loon. “If Draco were to publicly marry Diamond…” She broke into a fresh fit of giggles. “That’d be even more complicated, probably. But I’d be all for it- I mean,” she grinned up at them, “I do like Diamond, and she might be into Harry as much as I am… but polygamy is normal in Equestria, and I’m sure she would be all for it as well.”
“... Oh,” Lucius muttered.
“Anyways, I’d rather keep Silversong out of any of Dumbledore’s plans- and that means any and all of her ties to Draco as well- until long after said plans become irrelevant.”
“What about the girl that was with Potter- Miss Granger, I believe?” Snape asked.
Silver nodded. “Yeah, she and Harry get teased a lot for looking like a couple, but that’s just because they went to school as close friends. Contrary to Dumbledore’s plan, I understand.” She shrugged. “But remember what I said about polygamy and Equestria. I’m pretty sure Diamond expects to be marrying me, Hermione, and Harry, when the time comes.” She tilted her head. “No, strike that. Very sure. She’s said so.” She shrugged again. “I figure we’ll just have a few, monogamous marriages- like Draco and Diamond, then Harry and Hermione- under British law, but then we’ll just marry us all together under Equestrian law- and since only Equestrians can cross the portal and live, the British lawmakers need never find out about it. We’ll have to get Harry a Papa Tango as well, though...” She scowled, trailing off.
“Only Harry?” Lucius asked. “What about Hermione?”
She shrugged. “Hermione’s Papa Tango should have started its sixth stage- out of seven total, three days each- earlier today. Nother week and she’ll be an ‘Equestrian’ like me, too.” She made air quotes with her fingers, then sat up. “Hey, Dobby?”
“Yes Mistress?” the house-elf asked, appearing out of nowhere once again.
“Could you get me something to drink? I’m more than a little parched after that party.”
“Right away, Mistress!” the house-elf squeaked, sounding excited, before he disappeared.