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// Chapter 12:  Robes 
// Story: The Boy Who Disappeared 
// by computerneek 
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Silversong wasn’t nearly as nervous when she arrived in Diagon Alley for her Hogwarts supplies as she had been on previous times.  It had been over a week since she had been transformed- a week through which she had been practicing thinking of herself as herself, alongside going shopping each day with one parent or the other for something or another she might need, now that she was a she.
During her free time, she’d found that while she knew how to analyze her transformation to determine permanence and so on…  she couldn’t actually perform that analysis, since she lacked a unicorn horn with which to cast the requisite spells.
So here she was, finally wearing a set of brand-new, gleaming blue girl’s robes on her way to get her Hogwarts stuff.  Custom robes, unfortunately, took time to make- so she’d been wearing generic robes up to that point.  These robes had been finished just the night before.
She followed Lucius and Narcissa down the street, directly to Madam Malkin’s once again- it was the same place they had ordered her custom robes from.
Madam Malkin looked up as she entered; she had darted ahead of her parents.  “Ahh, Silversong,” she smiled- then she paused, to look her over.  “Yes, that does look nice, doesn’t it?  I haven’t finished your formal or winter clothes yet, though.”
Silversong shook her head.  “No problem.  But, um…”  She glanced back at her parents, who were walking in the door, then back at Madam Malkin.  “Hogwarts.”
She blinked, then smiled.  “Getting everything at once, are we?” she chuckled.  “Unfortunately, Hogwarts doesn’t allow custom robes, nor any fancy colors or materials, so we’ll have to get you fitted for them separately.”
She wrinkled her nose; while the generic robes had been a lot less uncomfortable than her boy’s robes had been, she had noticed basically from the moment she put them on that her new girl’s robes were significantly more comfortable than those generic robes had been, much like her boy’s robes had been when she had been a boy herself.
Well, kinda.  She had been outgrowing them.
“Meh,” she muttered.  “How long would it take?”
“For Hogwarts robes?  The fitting takes about fifteen minutes, then it takes less than a minute to prepare the full set.  That’s generic robes for you.”
“Ahh.  Well, um, when would be a good time?”
She shrugged.  “How about now?  Your other robes are waiting on supplies right now, so…”
“Okay.  So, where do you need me?”
Madam Malkin smiled.  She’d smiled at Silver a lot on previous visits; Silver suspected she liked the happy-go-lucky attitude she’d assumed.  “Right over here,” she indicated, gesturing at a small stool as she plucked a plain black robe off of a rack.  “My, this is going to be boring next to your other robes.”
Narcissa chuckled.  “While you’re doing that, I’ll go get all your coursebooks.”
Lucius smiled.  “And me your other supplies.  Meet us at…”  He paused, thinking.
“Fortescue’s?” Silver proposed.
He tilted his head, and shrugged.  “Yeah, Fortescue’s, when you’re done.”
“Alright, will do.”





Not even a single minute had passed since Silver’s parents had disappeared when the door chime rang again- and Madam Malkin passed her work off to an assistant so she could tend to the door.  Silver watched from afar, doing her best to hold still for Madam Malkin’s assistant.  It looked like two girls, about her own age, were entering the shop- both wearing muggle clothing, and no adults in sight.
“Hogwarts, dears?” Madam Malkin asked them.
“Uh, yes,” the black-haired one said, smiling nervously up at Madam Malkin.
“Er, I already got mine last week,” the bushy brown-haired one said, smiling innocently up at her.
Madam Malkin chuckled.  “Got the lot today.  Got another young lady being fitted up right now, in fact.  Right over here, miss…?”
“Hailey.”
“Right then, Hailey.  On this stool, please, and we’ll get you fitted right away.”  She plucked another robe off the rack as she spoke.
“Uh, okay,” Hailey muttered, before stepping up onto the stool for her.
Silver waited a couple of seconds of silence before speaking up.  “Hi,” she greeted.
Hailey looked at her and, apparently confused, answered slowly.  “...  Hi.”
“Uh…  Do you know what house you’ll be in?”  She had no idea why Hailey seemed so confused.
“House?” Hailey asked, her prior confusion replaced instantly with curiosity.
“Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slyth- Oooh, Harry died.”  It was Hailey’s companion, who had sat on one of the chairs set aside for parents to wait for their children to be fitted- or vice versa- and picked up the newspaper sitting next to it.
“Who died?” Hailey asked.
“He died?” Silver asked.  “Wasn’t he famous for surviving?”
“Harry Potter,” the girl answered.  “And yes, he is famous for surviving the Killing Curse.  Seems like that wasn’t everything, though- according to this, he got eaten by a shark a couple weeks ago.”
“And here I thought the Light was going to rally around him,” Madam Malkin sighed.  “Of all the things that could have done him in, a shark was probably one of the least dangerous ones.”
Silver tilted her head.  “Wait.  When he survived the Killing Curse, his mother was there, right?  Did…  Is it possible that she gave her life for his?”
There was silence for several seconds.
“...  Possible,” Madam Malkin eventually broke the silence.  “Nobody knows what happened that night, though, so we may never know for sure.”
“If so, it makes sense,” Silver mused.  “A mother’s love is one of the most powerful protections out there- but it only protects against intent, making that shark one of the more dangerous things that could have hurt him.  Anything done intentionally by another witch or wizard- or even a muggle- would’ve been magically attenuated or redirected until it was just shy of deadly.  It wouldn’t stop him from getting hit and killed by a poorly-aimed blasting spell, or a falling anvil, or whatever else, but…”  She took a deep breath.  “It would have kept the shark from biting him, though.”
“It says there were no witches or wizards present,” Hailey’s friend muttered.  “And that the muggles that were caring for him said he disappeared beneath the waves some minutes before they saw the shark.  They never saw him again, and had to assume he was dead.”  She took a deep breath.  “Which was verified a week later when his Hogwarts letter was returned as undeliverable, because he was dead.”
“A riptide,” Silver muttered.  “He got pulled under by a riptide and drowned, and only possibly eaten by the shark.”
“What’s…  ‘attenuated’ mean?” Hailey asked.
“Adjective, having been reduced in force, effect, or value,” Silver recited from one of Twilight’s dictionaries.  “So…  weakened.  Like, if somebody swung a twenty-pound sledgehammer at his head, it would not have hit nearly as hard as it would have hit, say, a wooden post.”
“Sledgehammer?” Madam Malkin asked.
“It’s a really big, really heavy hammer,” Hailey’s friend supplied helpfully.  “Hitting anyone on the head with one with any speed at all would be a death sentence.”
Silver closed her eyes and sighed.  Another word from Twilight’s dictionaries she hadn’t realized she was using.  There seemed to be a lot of them.
“So, uh, to answer your question about the houses, I have no idea,” Hailey told her.
“Lucky you,” Silver smiled.  “You get to be surprised when you get there.  Me, I just know I’ll be in Slytherin.  All my family have been.”
Hailey’s friend tilted her head.  “Aren’t we sorted into houses when we get there?”
“Well, yeah.  Technically speaking, nobody really knows which house they’ll be in until they get there, but sometimes, it’s really, really easy to guess.”
“Um,” Madam Malkin’s assistant spoke up, as she moved to Silver’s sleeves.  “What’s an anvil, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“A very large block of metal,” Hailey’s friend answered cheerfully.  “Usually used by blacksmiths, as something to hammer their hot metal against.”
“They wouldn’t normally be falling from high enough to kill anyone, would they?” Hailey asked.
Her friend shrugged.  “True, they’re never really lifted very high- the most he’d have to worry about from a falling anvil would be a broken leg or crushed foot.”
“So, uh,” Hailey looked up at Silver again.  “Why a falling anvil, instead of something like a car crash?  He was living with muggles, after all.”
Silver blinked.  “I, uh…  First thing that came to mind, I guess.”
“Alright, that part’s done,” Madam Malkin suddenly announced.  “If you could remove the robe please, Hailey?”
“Uh, sure,” Hailey answered, and slipped the pinned-up robe off, handing it to Madam Malkin.  “Is that it for me, or…?”
Madam Malkin shook her head.  “Unfortunately, no, it’s only the beginning.  The Hogwarts dress code is very specific- no matter how simple the materials list makes it sound- and unless you’ve got stuff that fits perfectly, you’ll need to get some.”
“...  Ahh.  How much does it cost?”
“Free.  I only charge for the robes.”
“Oh, nice.  So, what do you need?”
“Next up is a few measurements, before I fit you for your skirts.”
“Skirts?”
“Yup.  You’ll be wearing a shirt and a skirt underneath your robes while you’re at Hogwarts- anything else is against dress code.  Except for boys, they get special pants…  that, the way I hear it, are not all that comfortable.  Ready?”  She held up a measuring tape.
“Go for it,” Hailey told her.
Right at that moment, Madam Malkin’s assistant informed Silver that it was her turn to shed the pinned-up robes.
Hailey’s friend was quick to notice her normal robes when she did so.  “Oooh, nice robes.”
“Thanks,” she muttered, hiding her nervousness.  For as much as she was enjoying her new female persona, she wasn’t yet completely comfortable with it- so, among other things, she felt naked when she wore a skirt.  Which of course, skirts were part of any girl’s wardrobe- a girl simply didn’t wear robes without a skirt.
At least the skirts that went with all the robes she’d gotten were long.  And, according to Narcissa, so would the ones for her Hogwarts robes.
Then, Hailey’s voice got her attention again.  “Wait a minute, I thought I didn’t need to wear, uh, that…?”
She looked.  Hailey was looking at the bras that Madam Malkin was adding to her pile.
Madam Malkin looked up at Hailey.  “It’s the dress code, believe it or not- it’s required, whether you technically need it or not.”
“...  They know what underwear I wear…?”
She shook her head.  “No.  I think they require it because these shirts- which, you’ll notice, are embroidered with the Hogwarts coat of arms- are sheer.  If they get wet, or sweaty, they become transparent.”
“...  Oh.”
“Wouldn’t the black offset that?” Hailey’s friend asked.
“It does, some,” Madam Malkin answered.  “But only some.  The way I hear it, a couple dozen years back, they had a few too many students get…  assaulted after walking in the rain- and believe it or not, requiring all the girls to wear bras reduced that occurrence.”  She looked at Hailey.  “The dress code does not have specific requirements for the bras, except that they must have full coverage and be both solid and black- so if you have something that fits, you don’t have to take them.  Wouldn’t affect the price any, though- and these are spelled to always be the right size.”
Hailey shivered slightly.  “I’ll take ‘em,” she said.  “I just…”
“Odd requirements?” Silver asked.  She was actually wearing a bra herself, even though she technically didn’t need one; according to Narcissa, she did not want to have her first experience with a bra at Hogwarts.
“How big of a range does that enchantment have?” Hailey’s friend asked.
“Uh, wouldn’t that be ‘anything’?” Hailey asked.
“No, it wouldn’t,” Silver stated.  “Sizing enchantments can only stretch or compress a garment- or other object- so far.”
“That would be correct,” Madam Malkin nodded.  “I picked one based on your current size, and it’ll tolerate about an eight inch increase in underbust or overbust measurements before you’ll need to come get a larger bra.  The limit for decrease is about two inches, but in all my years selling them, I have yet to have someone come in for a smaller bra.”
“If there’s any girls like Dudley, they might,” Hailey grinned.  Silver could tell she hadn’t fully understood what Madam Malkin was talking about- as a matter of fact, she herself only barely understood the part about underbust and overbust.
Hailey’s friend let out a snort of laughter.  “I wonder what she’d be named?  Dudleah?”
At that, Hailey laughed as well, and Silver smiled.  It had felt good to not feel required to attack these two for looking like muggleborns- and by now, she was reasonably sure that they actually were muggleborns…  and that she liked them.  Hailey felt almost like a kindred spirit, like she could truly understand what Silver had gone through, even though she couldn’t know- and between the two of them, mostly Hailey’s friend, they had actually understood the various Twilight-words she’d used without thinking!  Maybe that was a muggle thing?  Did Equestrians not draw a line between their muggle and magical populations?
She certainly didn’t know about any- just about every Equestrian she knew about was magical, yet they still used anvils.  And sledgehammers.  Even the unicorns did!
Even so, she knew that muggleborns were inferior…  Yet, she also knew- she suspected from Twilight- that everypony was equal, no matter if they be unicorn, pegasus, earth pony, thestral, kirin, griffin, dragon, and so on.  By her best guess, the Changelings seemed to be Equestria’s version of ‘muggles’- except that they were magic too, just feared and hunted.  And the last couple tidbits of Twilight’s knowledge seemed to invalidate any kind of superiority complex related to them, as well.
She elected not to mention it in the growing silence.  She already valued them as friends more than she valued voicing her conflicting knowledge.
“So, uhh…” Hailey’s friend muttered.
“Are you familiar with Quidditch?” Silver blurted out- then promptly bit her lip.  By that question, she’d assumed that they were muggleborns…  which she had intended not to do.
“Never heard of it,” Hailey promptly answered.
“I’ve…  heard of it,” her friend muttered.  “Just about everything I’ve seen seems to refer to it in one way or another, but no, I’d have to say I’m not familiar with it.”  She tilted her head, looking up at Silver.  “Can you tell us more?”
“Oh.  Um,” Silver muttered uncomfortably.  She hadn’t expected to find herself in the position of explaining the game- and wasn’t sure that she knew it well enough herself to explain it accurately, at that.
Madam Malkin- and her assistant- had perfect timing, though.  “Alright, that’s you done,” Madam Malkin informed Hailey, as she packaged Hailey’s new robes into a paper bag.
Her assistant merely nodded.  “Done,” she said, as she packed Silver’s new robes and handed the bag to her.
“Oh, time for the gold then,” Hailey chuckled, walking around to meet Madam Malkin at the register.
“And silver,” her friend reminded.  “Definitely silver.”
Silver let out a snort of laughter.
“What?” Hailey’s friend asked her.
“Nothing,” she answered.  “It’s just…  that’s my name.  Silversong.”
“...  Oh.  Well, nice to meet you!  I’m Hermione.”  Silver couldn’t help but notice her hands curling nervously at her sides.
Hailey merely smiled at her before looking up at Madam Malkin, opening her purse- her muggle purse, slung across her body- to start counting wizard coins out of it.  “How much was it again?”
“Nice to meet you too,” Silversong answered Hermione, bowing slightly as she did so.  Then she drew her purse- her wizard purse, which was basically just a bag with a fancy name, rather than the utilitarian thing Hailey had- out of her pocket to count out the coins she’d need.
They were silent until after they had completed their purchases, before Hermione spoke again.
“So, uh, Silversong,” Hermione said.  “Are you, um, getting your Hogwarts stuff on your own, or is someone waiting…?”
She shrugged.  “Kinda, kinda not.  I mean, my…  Oh, I don’t know what word applies.  Step parents?  Foster parents?”
“Family,” Hailey suggested.  “I live with my aunt and uncle, but they’re still my ‘family’.”
“...  That works,” she agreed, stuffing her purchase into her hair; unlike Twilight, she had actually understood what Pinkie had said about how she stored things in her mane- which she only knew because Twilight had written it verbatim in her Friendship Journal.  She’d done some testing the night before, and gotten it to work reliably.  It was fun to watch in the mirror as her smooth, wavy hair swallowed large objects she put into it, like her pillow.  It was a little less entertaining to watch them come back out- but only a little.  “My family will be waiting for me at Fortescue’s, but if I tell them where I’m-!”
“Aw, dang.”
When Silver looked, it seemed Hailey had dropped her bag of robes on the ground behind her; she was bending down to pick them up again.
“What are you doing?” Hermione asked, confused.
Hailey ignored her, instead looking at Silver.  “How’d you do that hair thing?”
“Hair thing?” she repeated, confused- then she understood.  “Oh.  Um…  I…  I don’t know if you’ll be able to do it at all, but…  It’s…  There’s a space, in my hair, that isn’t there, and that’s where I’m putting it.”
“And you just…  let that be true?”
“Uh…  Yeah, I guess that’s one way to look at it.”
Silver knew that it was Twilight’s magic that made it possible- a regular British witch simply wasn’t capable of stable dimensional pocket magic like that, even though every pony was.  Judging by Twilight’s knowledge, a witch or wizard traveling to Equestria would gain that magic the moment they arrived in the Equestrian magic fields.  As such, Hailey wouldn’t be able to do it.
She tried anyways.  Silver couldn’t fault her for it- and then, on her third try, she managed it.
Silver blinked.  “What-?”
Hailey grinned, then snatched Silver up with a surprise hug.  “Thank you,” she murmured.
Silver smiled, returning the hug- carefully, after she’d accidentally crushed her glass the other day, and subsequently been unable to find the limit of her strength, when Dobby had helped her test it.  “You’re welcome.”
“Uh- Hailey?  Aren’t- Aren’t you going to hurt her?” Hermione asked.
Hailey drew back, and looked at Hermione.  “No, of course not.  She’s like us- isn’t it obvious?”
“Like-!?” Hermione asked, then looked at Silver for a second, then tilted her head.  Silence held for another three seconds before she nodded.  “Ohh, I see.  And no, it’s not obvious, genius.”
“Hey, I thought you were the genius.”
“What do you mean, ‘like you’?” Silver asked.
“Ahh…”  Hailey looked instantly unsure, as she glanced around; they had just left the shop.  “This…  isn’t the place for that.  Maybe…  on the train?  Or if we can arrange a visit of some sort?”
Silver shook her head.  “My ‘family’ is of the belief that muggleborns are inferior,” she stated.
Hailey wrinkled her nose.  “Good thing I’m not one, then.  Though, I am living with muggles…”  She scowled.  “Hangon.  You don’t have that belief?  Isn’t stuff like that kinda learned in?”
Silver nodded.  “I don’t have that belief,” she said, telling herself as much as she was Hailey; if nothing else, Hermione- who, by her best guess, actually was a muggleborn- was a great example of why muggleborns were not inferior.  “And yes, it does tend to be indoctrinated.  I…  moved in recently, though.  My parents died a week or so ago, sent me to some distant relatives- the only relatives I have, apparently- via portkey.  I don’t even know what they qualify as, in terms of relationship, but they do have the same last name.”
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that,” Hailey said- though Silver noticed that she didn’t sound all that sorry…  and she’d raised an eyebrow during the explanation.
“Hailey!  That’s insensitive!” Hermione barked.  Then she turned to Silver.  “I’m really sorry about-!”
“No worries,” she informed her.  “I hated them anyways.  They didn’t care about me, except for that portkey- which was, I’m pretty sure, intended to ensure their family line remained unbroken.  New family might be the stuck-up ‘noble’ sort, but they actually care.”
“Interesting,” Hailey muttered.  “My parents died when I was a baby- but they left behind a Vault in Gringotts, soo…”
“They did?  How’d you get it?”
She shrugged.  “Went in and asked the goblins about a Vault.  They’ve got their magic window thingies to look through, and find out if there’s something for you to inherit.”
“Magic window thingies…?  Whatever.”  She looked in the direction of Gringotts.  “Huh.  Who knows, might not be a bad idea.”
“Only took a few minutes,” Hermione muttered.  “I ended up inheriting something from someone I’m not even related to, because apparently I’m their ‘closest magical relative’.  So…”
“Wow.  Um.  Okay.  Then, I’ll go see if there’s anything waiting for me, go tell my family what I’m up to, and meet you again…  somewhere?”
Hailey shrugged.  “We were going to stop at the apothecary next, then start browsing at Flourish and Blotts, so we’ll meet you at the latter?”
“Works for me,” Silver grinned.  “I’ll see you in a few, then.”  She trotted off in the direction of Gringotts.