Remus John Lupin sat behind the desk and tried not to fidget. He'd expected Dumbledore to still be headmaster of the school—well, he hadn't even expected there to be a school, but he had nowhere else to try—but the witch before him was more formidable by far. He'd never been able to pull one over Minerva McGonagall, not when he'd been a student and apparently not now.
"What's the catch?" Minerva McGonagall asked. It was meant to be a mere formality, but she'd noticed Mr. Lupin had become more and more worried the later it got and she intended to have him either tell her or stay long enough that whatever was about to explode did so with herself present.
"Profess—" Remus bit down on the title before he said it. "Force of habit, sorry. Minerva, the catch is I will gradually turn into a colorful little horse, but that's neither here nor there." What truly worried Remus was that he could feel the moon stalking him here—just like it did near a full moon on Earth—and he had a terrible feeling that tonight would see him changing. "Has Albus spoken to you about—?"
Minerva wanted to sigh and roll her eyes. Talking with Remus Lupin was giving her a headache and she had a great many things to clear up before the day was done—not the least of which a meeting with the rulers of the Crystal Empire Hogwarts was now planted in the middle of. "About what, Mr. Lupin?"
This was it, Lupin realized. There was no more tip-toeing around things. "About my wo—"
Albus Dumbledore feigned stumbling through the door as if he'd tripped and had no other way to stop himself. "Sorry, am I interrupting something?" He hated the game, or so he told anyone who asked, but Albus enjoyed playing the role of glue to keep the school together. Right now he was concerned Remus had blurted out his status as a werewolf to Minerva.
"As a matter of fact, Professor Dumbledore, you did. What is the problem, Albus?" Now Minerva did sigh. Albus was worth a good sigh now and again, mostly because he expected her to sigh, so she could get away with one and he'd think all was right.
"I just wanted to invite my fellow professor here—pending your approval—to enjoy a drink with me after he's finished here." With his most innocuous grandpa Dumbledore expression in place, Albus saw that Minerva was buying not a single thing he was hoping to sell. He dropped the expression. "What do you want to know, headmistress?"
"Albus, you don't run this school anymore, remember? If there's something you would normally keep under your hat, I believe you are obliged to reveal it here and now." So it had come to this. Minerva turned the expression that had unnerved countless students into revealing every last secret they had on Albus. The casual tilt of her head, looking over her glasses like the lenses would obscure her ability to pierce the very soul.
Sagging a little, Albus shook his head and looked at Remus. "I'm sorry, old friend, but I can't keep this secret any longer." Looking back at Minerva, Albus said, "We're having scones."
Minerva knew right then that she was fighting someone in a battle of wits who'd been playing the game longer and knew all her moves. It was disheartening, but at the same time she was reassured to know that Albus was at least on her side. "If I can't trust you to trust me, Albus, then I'm afraid you'll have to be let go." Which is why she had one more card to play. "At least Mr. Lupin here will be able to take over your class."
Albus had spent a good deal of time at Hogwarts learning to read wizards and witches, and that included Minerva. He had even taught the witch before him Defense Against the Dark Arts himself, and had spent a good deal of time with her as an adult—which is how he knew she was deadly serious. "Minerva, this is a sensiti—"
"I will not have secrets kept in my school, do you understand me, Albus?"
Though it was a problem for him, Albus could appreciate Minerva being firm on the matter. It wasn't how he would have handled it, but that way had led to a lot of problems for himself and the school. "I will leave it to Remus. You haven't known Minerva as long as I have, but the only reason I wasn't going to tell her was this isn't my secret to tell."
Two of the greatest influences on his life turned to face Remus Lupin, and he felt the weight of his curse pressing down on him. "I'll gather my things and leave. Sorry to have wasted yo—" He bit back the words he needed to say to complete the sentence. "I'm a werewolf."
That was news to Minerva. She reached up with her hoof and nudged her glasses back up her snout. "And what made you think this wouldn't be important information to share with the headmaster?" When Remus looked aside to Albus, Minerva turned her expression on him. "Well, Albus?"
With the secret revealed by its owner, Albus felt free to explain his side of things. "I'd arranged with Severus to brew that new Wolfsbane potion for him. It will keep the beast from his thoughts and allow him to sit out his time as a man in a wolf's body, rather than a—"
"… a wild, killing machine? Please tell me Severus is already working on this concoction?" At Albus' nod, Minerva let out a sigh of relief. "Very well. We will not need to announce this to the faculty, Mr. Lupin, so long as you follow my rules and treat that side of yourself with the seriousness it deserves. You will have two witnesses observe you consuming said potion, and if you have any further troubles with your condition, Remus, you should come to me. Are we at an understanding?"
It surprised Remus just how smoothly she'd taken it. Her acceptance and laying down of rules reassured him. "I have the job, then?"
"You do, Professor Lupin. Please talk to Severus about a schedule for your potion. He will suffice as one witness, but you'll need either myself or Albus to witness your taking of it as well. I am not familiar with the potion, how often does it need to be taken?" Quickly casting a dictation spell, Minerva let her pen start scrawling down their words.
"At full strength a single dose will last a week. So long as I take it within a few days of the start of a full moon, it will last through the three nights it will affect me." For a moment Remus was about to leave out an important part. "I think it's a full moon tonight."
Minerva was halfway to asking if he was sure before she had to check herself and move on. "Is the potion ready, Albus?"
"No. Severus is preparing it, but it will be at least a day before the first batch is complete. It would have been done already, save Severus has been having trouble coming to terms with his changes." Carefully cultivated as Albus could keep his features, he couldn't stop grinning at the memory of Severus trying to handle magic-sensitive potions with his new hooves.
"We are blessed, then, that we have two castles in one. I will send a message to Princess Cadance to advise her on the problem. They have a dungeon here that will hold you, as well as trained guards who can ensure you don't leave before dawn." Standing up behind her desk, Minerva forced an end to their conversation. "Now, if you please, I have some people to interview, royalty to entertain, and a very scared young student to advise."
The reminder of the day's events sobered Albus. "Minerva, if there's anything I can do to help—?"
"If I can use your help, Albus, I will ask for it. Like right now. You always enjoyed arranging class schedules and faculty, please start to investigate what positions we can fill, what we have filled, and who would be best to fill the holes that are left." As she spoke, Minerva nodded to Remus.
When the room was empty again, Minerva McGonagall slumped back into her chair stared blindly at the ceiling for a moment. She wanted to scream and cry at the same time. Instead, she looked at her notes and the particular student who was to see her next.
The knock at her door, soft and timid, told her everything she needed to know. "Come in, please."
Without needing to see the school vice-headmaster often, Draco Malfoy hadn't spent more than a few moments looking at the door she walked through, but now she had to step inside and speak to the actual headmistress. "Headmistress McGonagall. You wanted to see me?"
"Yes, Draco, please sit down." Minerva could see pain on Draco's features easily enough, even if she wasn't as used to reading equine faces as she would have liked—the kind of pain Draco had seen would not be deterred by a species shift. "We have a lot of people here now, and with the Ministry people present still posturing and trying to look important, no one has noticed those without families."
The reminder of what her parents did hurt Draco. She could see that their sacrifice had been needed at the time, but it was still a sacrifice. Closing her eyes for a moment, Draco focused on her emotions—tried to force them away so she could be in the moment. And she failed. Without meaning to, she started to cry and, once started, she couldn't stop.
Minerva wasn't a heartless old crone, she jumped to her hooves and walked around the desk and reached out to Draco. "There-there, dear. Let it out." She cursed herself for phrasing things as she had, but there was very few ways around it, Draco was a minor without a carer.
Try as she might to stop, Draco couldn't force the tears away. Every time she thought she was getting over it, an image of her parents returned—but not their fight. The times her mother cared for her (basically all the time she was home) and even the few times she'd gotten words of praise or support from her father (less often, but still bright points in her history)—they all crowded forward to ensure she would not stop crying.
A knock at the door made Minerva frown a little. "I'm a little busy right now."
"We can help." Shining Armor used his magic to open the door, but had to get out of the way as Cadance rushed into the room—horn ablaze. "Cady, calm down."
"What happened? Is there anything threatening you?" Cadance could feel the pain in Draco's heart and she struggled to keep from hugging the filly.
The surprise of royalty breaking into Minerva's office was enough of a shock to break Draco's chain of recollection. "I—I'm fine." She reached up to her eyes with a hoof and tried to rub away the tears.
"Draco's parents fought off Sombra's forces on the other side long enough for everyone at the portal to get through. It was not the kind of fighting someone can walk away from even if they had won." Minerva didn't let go of Draco, and she noticed Draco didn't seem eager to shove her away either.
Shining tipped his head down in respect for such a noble sacrifice. As a member of the E.U.P. Guard who'd risen through the ranks and eventually joined the Royal Guard—and risen to its leader—he could appreciate the event.
Cadance's lips squeezed into a tight line. She knew the Guardponies of Equestria made oaths about such things, but she didn't like no-win battles. "Do you have anypony to stay with?"
That was the crux of it for Draco. She slowly shook her head, unable to utter a single word.
Clearing her throat, Minerva tried to reassure Cadance that she had it under control. "It's true he—"
"She." Draco's voice felt small to her in the room full of adults. "I'm a girl now, right?" Draco had been thinking of herself as female since her mother welcomed her.
Shooting a questioning look to Minerva, Cadance quickly turned her gaze back to Draco. "You can be whatever you want to be." She took a deep breath, not sure if asking would be taken as a faux pas. "We could find you somewhere to stay, if you'd like. Until your school opens back up, at least. I understand this is a boarding school, but it doesn't have facilities for students all year?"
"Cady! Who is going to—?"
"I'll worry about that. Two amazing ponies made me a promise and this is the exact situation they made it for." Looking once more at Minerva, Cadance raised one eyebrow in question.
Hating herself for agreeing, Minerva knew she shouldn't hide anything from Shining or Cadance—not with all the help they'd given already. "I'm not saying it will be a relief, but we are going to struggle with resources as it is. Even with the direct help of Equestria, our population just doubled here."
"Then I'll need to write a letter to go with Draco and instructions on where to find the right house once you're in Canterlot." Cadance could feel the terror drain from the room as she spoke, and saw curiosity grow on Draco's face. "I can promise you, Draco, that Mrs. Velvet and Mr. Light will treat you however you wish to be."
"Mom and Dad?!" The concept hit Shining only when Cadance said the names of his parents. "You're going to send he—Draco—to live with my mom and dad?"
"After they helped me, we made a deal." Giving Shining an apologetic smile, Cadance continued. "They took me in for a few weeks when I first arrived at Canterlot. I had no family, no friends, and everypony was still freaking out about my horn and wings. We made a promise, later on, that we would take care of homeless foals whenever we could. I know we're not set up to do that here right now, but I happen to know that both their foals have moved out of home."
"This is up to you, Draco," Minerva said. "I won't have you feeling pressured. You can stay here in Hogwarts if you'd like, but there will be a lot of work to do over the holidays."
It wasn't a hard decision once Draco heard she'd need to work. She wasn't lazy, but she knew she could come up with better things to spend her break on than helping at the school. "I'll go. It'll—uh—let me see more of this world." Draco mentally slapped herself, trying to regain her cool and calm demeanor.
"Well, it's good we have the most pressing matter under control." Shining shot Draco a smile that he hoped she would understand. "As for the other big event, I've dispatched a messenger to Canterlot to request aid for our expanded citizenry. Am I to understand there are more of these Ministry types here too?"
Minerva sighed and, seeing Draco was back in control of her faculties, retreated around the desk to her seat. She was still getting used to walking on hooves, but short of running she could manage well enough. "Unfortunately, yes. You can expect them to make things hard. They'll try to leverage power to gain more, they'll attempt to set themselves up as the authority on anything you don't explicitly take control of yourself, and they'll work to undermine anything you do take control of. They were predatory civil servants back on Earth, and I doubt they will change their ways just because they have a few extra legs."
"I've dealt with a few of those back in Canterlot. Aunt Celestia shoved me in the deep end of politics and I discovered there were plenty of sharks in the water." Cadance couldn't help but remember some of the worst of them. At one point, according to rumor, she was even in cahoots with Prince Blue Blood to assassinate Princess Celestia—that they were both Celestia's agents and encouraged the rumor right up until those spreading it were shown to be idiots was beside the point. "I'm sure I can deal with them."
"You're a horse?" Sirius' grin was from ear to ear, and not for the first time he felt like laughing at Severus.
It would have been so easy for Severus to let go of his emotions and let the anger turn him into a living inferno. He could have incinerated Sirius in a heartbeat and left nothing behind. Of course, then he'd have to burn up Remus too—but that would cause nothing but a little smile to play on his lips. Albus, however, was the one person in the room he didn't want to burn.
"I'm a kirin, and if you don't mind your manners I'll be a nirik." When the threat went over their heads, Severus let out a disappointed sigh. "Honestly, it's like conversing with a bunch of monkeys. Your potion won't be ready until tomorrow at the earliest. Do you have any idea how hard some of these items are to prepare?"
Albus drew the attention of everyone in the room with just the slightest movement. He might not retain his stature from before his change, but he could still command respect with little effort. "Severus, I have no doubt that with your skill at potion-making, miracles are being worked as we speak. Are you sure, however, that you can't—?"
"No. I need peace and quiet for the next step—neither of which I am getting with all of you in my laboratory. If you want this potion tomorrow, I would advise you to leave now. Otherwise"—Severus leaned heavily into his patronizing and hyperbolic tone—"stay and watch as I take a whole week."
Of the Marauders, Remus was always the most likely to attempt to appease Sirius—and now he had even more incentive. "Sorry, Severus, and thank you for brewing it at all."
"Let's leave our good friend be and find you some suitable accommodation, Remus?" Albus turned for the door, his hooves making soft clip-clops on the flagstones.
While Remus followed Albus out of the lab, Sirius waited just a moment longer. "If I find out, Sevvy, that you were delaying just to hurt Remus—" He left the rest of his threat unspoken, but was surprised to hear Severus bark with laughter.
"If you could hurt me, I'd be immensely surprised. Your godson—Harry Potter—is just about indestructible." Stepping forward and sneering up at Sirius, Severus felt pure and unadulterated joy. "I am same species as him."
Sirius realized he'd made a mistake in threatening Severus, but now he was too committed to it. "I'll find a way to hurt you, don't worry. Just don't screw this up or we'll have a werewolf on our hands—and we both know what that's like, don't we?"
Breathing slowly, steadily, Severus wondered why he didn't just turn into a nirik right away and incinerate the fool. For a few moments he contemplated it before finally shoving down on his emotions. Well, shoving them down so he could release them carefully later—with no one around and inside a large fireplace. "Get out now, Sirius, before I reconsider how much of a pain it is to brew this potion and flush it down the lavatory."
That was the crux of it, and what annoyed Sirius the most about the situation—Severus held all the cards here. It wasn't like he could even tip over some glassware, since it might hold things that were part of the potion.
The moment he was alone again, Severus betrayed his emotions with a smile. He'd never before realized how much power helping people gave him—particularly over those he disliked.
Tromping down into the dungeon, Sirius accompanied his friend into one of the ancient cells. "I'll be with you."
"You can't, Sirius. You heard what Dumbledore said. There's no telling what will happen when you use your magic to—" Remus looked around. Even after everything that'd happened, he was still wary of giving up his friends' secrets. "To change."
"I don't know about you, Moony, but I feel more freedom here than I've had in my whole life. We don't have him to deal with anymore and the Ministry's rules on lycanthropes and animagi don't mean squat here." Reaching out a hand, Sirius pulled the cell door closed behind them and removed the key. "One day we might not even need the potion or this cell. There's so much magic in the air here that I—I feel like anything is possible."
Watching his friend pull the key out of the old lock and toss it across the room, Remus started disrobing. "Thanks, Padfoot."
"It's just the two of us now, right Moony?" Mentally preparing himself, Sirius began working at bringing the right magic to the fore of his mind. "James and Peter are both gone."
"Peter—" Remus clenched at his gut and hurried up. He slipped his pants off as the pain grew worse, and threw all his clothes after the key. "Despite everything that happened, I like to think he was still the Wormtail who first changed with us—not what Voldemort did to him."
Sirius didn't want to think about the man who'd betrayed them all and set him up for a lot of hard time. He called on his magic instead and felt a rush of excitement as his body started to change. Unlike Remus' change, Sirius felt no pain. A rush of excitement flooded through him, and he focused on his clothes and making them part of him.
Cracking bones and tendons ripping away from muscles, Remus experienced all the pain of a supernaturally strong body ripping itself apart as it tried to reshape into a wolf. But where he expected to feel the usual canine form as a result, things were very different.
"Moony—?" was all Sirius managed to say as his face reshaped. His nose and mouth pulled forward into a canine muzzle as he watched Remus' body be remade in wood and rot. There was something offensive about being in the same cell as the new monster his friend had become, but he would not show fear to the beast lurking behind the green, glowing eyes.
Every time before, Remus would feel himself removed and shut away inside his own mind. He could fight the beast taking control of him, but it was tiring and would leave him even longer under its spell. This time, however, things were different.
Remus' legs and arms stiffened and his bones literally dissolved as flesh turned to wood and spread further. He screamed around a broken jaw and swollen tongue as his torso succumbed to the magic and twisted into gnarled and rotted wood.
Falling to all fours, Remus felt the beast shake his head and snarl in fury—and that was the thing that was the most different for him. Remus could see and hear and feel. But he couldn't control his actions.
As his head turned, Remus was shown the smaller form of Sirius beside him. Sirius was just a dog—though a big dog. Magic boiled inside Remus and he was flush with power and a sense of indestructibility.
Sirius looked up at the timberwolf he was locked in a cell with and felt more than a little concerned. Then, when a large (and glowing green) tongue hung out of the beasts' mouth before licking his cheek, he realized it was the same beast as always—just in a much bigger body.
The beast within Remus stood up and shook, then stepped the short distance (for it) to the cell door. Turning his head sideways, the beast opened its maw and clamped down on the vertical bars and started to pull.
Whining up at the monster, Sirius stepped around it to get in its line of sight, then licked the huge monster on the nose. It was an old thing they did—from back when Sirius had first met the beast inside his friend.
Letting go of the bars, the beast turned toward Sirius and let out a whine—then it lay down on the floor with a thud.
It took two days for Severus to make the potion, and in that time no one had offered to go to the dungeon to capture a likeness of the monster that Sirius had described.
Minerva, after interviewing as many families she could (under the pretense that they had children attending Hogwarts, so they needed to talk about further schooling) and had pieced together the full story of what had happened.
As she looked down at her notes, she couldn't believe the magnitude of it. They had some pure-bloods, but the vast majority of those who'd made it through were half-blood and muggle-born, and if any had ever possessed more than ten Galleons to their names during their lifetimes, she'd have run around the school in her nightgown—or so she'd confessed to Gemma Farley.
Gemma, Minerva had found, could make herself indispensable. If there was something that needed doing, she only had to tell Gemma and the young woman would figure out a plan of attack and execute it. It was the kind of efficiency and skill that she feared the local Ministry might try to poach.
It had all become the biggest tightrope walk of Minerva's life, and so far she operating without a net. She wanted to change that, and before her sat somepony who could be that net. "Your Highness. Firstly, I'd like to thank—"
"Dispense with the formalities. I am not a mare who enjoys politics at the best of time—which is why my sister sent me." Luna sat opposite Minerva McGonagall. She still wasn't used to the half-pony shapes the new-old creatures took up, but she could appreciate that in their distant ancestry was ponies, and that made them ponies to Luna too. "What can I do to help?"
Never had six words inspired so much relief in Minerva. "You're a voice for Equestria. Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance are both new to this. They put up the best front they can, but I worry that the Ministry are going to stomp all over them."
Luna let out a sigh. "If I'd known this would be a political fight, I'd have brought group of nobles to get in their way. Probably not the most subtle thing, given they aren't nobles of the Crystal Empire…" As she trailed off, Luna had a great idea come to her. It was perfect. "I need to speak to Emperor Shining Armor and Empress Cadance."
Opening her mouth to question the titles, Minerva started to see the wisdom in it before having it pointed out. "Bigger titles mean more absolute rule. That can work for a time, but they'll seek to normalize them, I'm sure."
"No. We'll have a ceremony. Shining and Cadance need a court, and for that they need nobles. Nobles who can be obtuse and get in the way of the Ministry. Nobles that can be given power that would hobble the Ministry." Luna smiled as she warmed to the idea. "It also inspires more loyalty. Care is needed, however, to not put any of these Ministry people in positions of power."
Minerva realized she was too stuck in the ways of British-Wizardry politics. She'd completely missed such a power play because the British royalty would never have gone for it. "Can I leave that in your capable—uh—hooves?"
"Until I need to see you again, of course. You'll excuse me." Luna stood up from the comfortable seat and turned for the door. "You wouldn't have anypony who could advise me on their usual tactics, would you?"
Minerva wanted to suggest Gemma, but the truth of the matter was that Gemma had initiative and drive, but she wasn't as grounded in political intrigue as she thought. That's when the ideal person came to mind. Someone who'd spent their entire life edging around the laws of the Ministry. "I have just the one. I'll have him summoned and sent over to the royal floors as soon as I can."
"Severus, I know we've had our arguments in the past, but for this I can honestly say thank you." Remus had to look down to see Severus' face, but he felt like they were far more equal now than they'd ever been in their lives.
Soaking up the praise for all he was worth, Severus had welcomed the challenge of making the complex potion if only because it forced him to learn his new body—and what he'd discovered had delighted him. As a human, he'd been limited to just two hands at a time—with telekinesis his manipulations were limited only by his concentration.
Of course, Severus had messed up several times (which is why he was days late with the potion, not that he'd tell anybody that), but now he felt comfortable in the nigh-indestructible body he'd found himself. "Yes, well, that should last you throughout this full moon. I'll have more time to plan for the next one."
The subtlety of Severus confirming that he would work on another potion when the time came was a great relief to Remus. He looked down at his still-human hands and clenched them into fists. "If you need my help with anything—anything at all—just ask."
To that all Severus could do was smile. Levitating the potion from the desk beside him, Severus held it out to Remus. "Take it and don't bother me until next month."
Not wanting to risk Severus' apparent good humor, Remus took the potion bottle and turned to leave the potions lab.
Outside, Sirius was waiting for his friend and stepping in beside him as he walked past. "How'd it go with ol' broom-up-his-arse?"
Groaning, Remus looked down at his now-equine blood-brother. A gray crystal coat was combined with dark black hair to make Sirius closely resemble his old self—particularly his canine self. The morning had seen Remus turned back into his human self but when Sirius shed his dog form he was left completely a pony. "He's not that bad, honestly. I think he's actually chilled out a bit since the last time I saw him."
"I was talking to Harry earlier. He said that kirin tend to get angry at the drop of a hat. I watched the boy set himself on fire. He said it was to get his anger out, but I'd be pretty angry too if you set me on fire." Getting used to walking on all-fours wasn't exactly a stretch for Sirius. "He wants to take a break from all this mess. He asked one of the ponies if he could spend the holidays at her library."
Remus couldn't stop a smile from spreading across his lips at the notion. "Her library? She just has a library?"
"Apparently she lives and works in—get this—the Ponyville library. There's a town named Ponyville. Oh, and their capital is Canterlot." Ignoring the fact he himself was a pony, Sirius found the whole situation hilarious, until he remembered the present. "But I need to be here—at least until the moon has passed."
"It's easier here, despite that—that monster I turned into. It could have shredded the bars, you know? I could feel the power and a sense of absolute determination that it would never be stopped."
"Hold up. You normally remember your wolf time, but you were actually awake for it?"
"Yeah. No dream-wolf-time here, it seems. It felt calmer than usual, but if you hadn't been there it would have gotten free." A shudder ran down Remus' spine. "And I hate to think what would happen if it got loose here."
"That's why I can't go with Harry, Remus. I'm the only one left who can stand by you when you change—I'm not going to leave you alone."
There were a lot of emotions that Remus wanted to show, and words he wished he had the strength to say. "Thanks, Sirius. It means a lot to know that. Sundown is in two hours. I'm going to head down and get ready." Lifting the bottle to his lips, Remus knocked the stopper out with his thumb (and caught it in his other hand), and tipped the potion down his throat.
Like always, Remus began coughing and hiccuping at the horrid taste and effect of the potion. But that just meant it was working.
Following his friend to the dungeon again, Sirius felt that trapped sensation of being in Azkaban again. It had settled upon him the previous night, right up until he'd become a dog. Now, though, it felt like every wall was hiding a dementor.
Remus could feel his friend's nerves and had to do something to douse the fear. "I had Albus strengthen the bars with magic. I don't know if it will help—if the beast takes over again—but I feel safer knowing he had a hand in it."
Sirius set his wand down across the room from the cage and changed his form before approaching the gate. Walking into the cell wasn't impossible anymore.
Not feeling up to maintaining a one-sided conversation, Remus used the key to lock them both in and then tossed it to the far side of the room—right beside Sirius' wand. He then slowly disrobed and waited.
It ended up taking over an hour of them waiting. During that time Remus' hand had strayed to Sirius' head and he started petting his friend. They never spoke aloud of these moments—when the sun was nearing the horizon and the full moon was waiting to ambush the night. They both worked on instincts.
Then it started. Agony, as always, played over every nerve in Remus' body. He screamed and howled for reprieve, but after a minute of struggling it was finally over. And the beast was the one in the back seat this time.
And the beast wasn't happy about it. It howled into his mind and raked at the barrier the potion had formed around it, but Remus was free of the curse's mental grip. Lifting his head, he shook some leaves and twigs free before realizing that was part of him.
A whine from his side drew Remus' attention to Sirius. His friend looked up at him with what Remus felt was a sad, questioning look. All Remus could do to remark on his form was to nod.
Fire Glow had hoped to put his human life behind him. He could pass well enough for a crystal pony if he kept to walking on all fours, but nudity was a grating issue. "Your Highnesses, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." He bowed as deep as he could, excited that a niche had finally been found so he could make amends for his previous life—that of Gilderoy Lockhart.
"What is your name?" Luna asked.
This brought Fire Glow up short. He'd expected a lot of things, but brutal and forthright command wasn't one of them. "Now I go by Fire Glow."
"Then let's change that again." Luna turned and looked to Cadance. "Your Imperial Majesties, I might suggest duke."
"Duke?!" Fire Glow asked. "Wait, Imperial Majesties?"
Shining addressed Fire Glow's questions. "We have a group of Ministry of Magic people who made it over before the rifts closed. So far they've just been passive, but we're sure they will start causing actual trouble by trying to take power piecemeal. Headmistress Minerva McGonagall sent you to advise us on ways to subvert them—Duke Fire Glow."
"Oh." It all made sense now, and Fire Glow could see they wanted him not despite his history, but because of it. Twisting his old ways to do good seemed appropriate to him. "The first and most important thing is distraction. No matter what actions you take, either they are absolutely power plays that they cannot bend or twist, or you ensure they are untraceable."
Blinking a few times in surprise, Shining Armor felt a grin grow into place. "Yeah, we got the right guy. Okay, you'll be working with us to organize this preventative assault. We'll be arranging a ceremony to make your title official in three days—that gives everypony enough time to prepare a celebration to unify the crystal ponies and human-ponies."
Intrigue, lies, public opinion, and marketing—it was all the things Fire Glow's old life had been but for good rather than selfish reasons. "I am at your disposal."
It was all wrong. A full moon lasted three nights and that should have been his last night. Remus was human again, but he could still feel the intent of the moon. It was full and ready to make his next night a living hell. "S-Sirius?"
Lifting his head from the floor where he'd been sleeping, Sirius was confused at first. Slowly regaining both his conscious mind and his human faculties, he slipped his form toward "normal", and was soon a sooty-gray crystal pony. "Is something wrong, Remus?"
"I can feel the moon again. It's coming and it won't stop. Sirius, I can't go on like this. What do I do?" Remus' hands were shaking and he couldn't stop the terror that was eating at the edges of his mind. "Do they have a full moon every night here?!"
"I don't know, but I think we know who to ask. This is too much for us now."
Remus' hand found Sirius' head again and started petting out of habit and nerves. "W-Who?"
It took them almost an hour to get cleaned up and presentable, and then a few more minutes to make their way down to the main entrance of the crystal castle section of the combined castle. They approached together, each using the other for emotional support. When they approached a pair of armed and armored pony guards, they were surprised by the doors the two were guarding opening.
Luna stepped out of the hall after her meeting with Cadance and Shining. She felt sure that their ploy would work, but was still worried about things going wrong that she couldn't foresee. Almost completely ignoring the two new arrivals, she paused when one gave her a strange sensation—a portent of danger. "Who goes there?"
It wasn't uncommon for even those who'd never met Luna before to be cowed into silence in her presence, but all Remus could do was stare at the pattern on Luna's flank.
"Excuse my friend here. My name is Sirius Black and this is Remus Lupin. We are here to see—"
Remus cut in, his mind on a completely different tack. "Moon. One of the students said that a pony's special talent is the image on their hip. What do you have to do with the moon?"
The desperation combined with something she couldn't place was curious to Luna, and she decided to humor the human with a conversation. "I am Princess Luna and my domain is the night. As my sister—Princess Celestia—raises the sun during the day, I raise the moon at night. Do we have any business?"
His legs wobbled and gave out. Remus dropped to the hard floor and collapsed at Luna's hooves. "Please don't raise the moon tonight."
If Luna were curious before, now she was intrigued. "Why? What is going on here?"
"Can we speak about it in private—uh, Your Highness?" Sirius looked at the guards and tried to reach out to his friend to lift him up but, before he could manage, a blue glow surrounded Remus and seemed to focus under one of his arms.
"Follow me," Luna said.
Remus didn't have much choice. Hauled to his feet by the blue light, he felt something inside him calm at the magical touch. It was like the urgency and rising panic of his impending change was just drained away. "W-What have you done?"
"You're a were-timberwolf. I can feel that now I've touched you with my magic. How long have you had this condition?" Luna had felt many such cursed in the days before her banishment, but it seemed to be far less common in modern-day Equestria.
"Where are we going?" Questions just kept tumbling from Remus' lips and they all went unanswered, though he felt compelled to answer Luna. "Over thirty years."
Luna almost stumbled in her step. "Thirty years is a long time to be cursed such. A curse becomes part of you after that much time and is impossible to separate from your sense of self."
"Err, the timberwolf part is new, but I've been a werewolf as far back as I can remember. I was infected with it when I was five."
"We're going outside. What I plan will not work in the safe confines of a castle." Turning her head and looking back, Luna noticed Sirius following them. "Who are you?"
Forced to look up at Luna, Sirius was all too aware that his canine form was actually bigger than his adult pony size. "Marauders look after each other." The words had tumbled out. Sirius had no idea why he'd spoken the private name for their group.
"Please. Sirius has helped me since we were at school together. He can keep me calm." Remus too looked back at his friend and watched Sirius trotting after them.
"Follow me." Still supporting Remus, Luna led them out the front gates of the castle—ignoring further questions. It wasn't that she didn't want to answer them, she just believed that answering them would make what came next harder.
Remus would have pulled away from Luna if her magic didn't ease the sense of panic that being within the days of a full moon caused. When he realized she was leading the way to the woods surrounding the Crystal Empire, however, a new worry hit him. "W-Where are we going?"
"This is not the natural habitat of timberwolves, but the forests here are close enough. I want you to draw on the beast and let it overtake you." As she stepped into the tree line, Luna let go of Remus.
Falling to the ground as real panic hit him, Remus found Sirius planting all four of his paws (Remus had been to distracted to see his friend change) between Remus and Luna. "But—"
"No buts. I promise you I will not let you harm a single pony while you're out here." Letting magic flood into her, Luna let it pool out and impose a small section of night time upon the woods around them.
Slowly Remus' breathing evened out and his panic subsided. "Everyone's safe?"
"My word and my power will keep it so. In the old times I was known as a huntress—a warrior who stalked the night so much that it became my domain. You straddle the divide between day and night, and while you do that nopony can help you. You must accept what you are and make peace with it." As she spoke, Luna let her magic now flow into both the beings she'd brought with her.
Sirius, Luna could feel, was a good pony—if a bit of a rogue. She could sense such devotion and courage in him that it would make a Royal Guard jealous, but there was also darkness. She liked that.
Remus was another case. Where Sirius was at peace with his emotions, Remus was a mercurial ball of feelings that shifted from a normal, balanced individual to screaming panic depending on the time of month and day.
Trying to take in as much of Luna's calm as he could, Remus was about to embrace the change on his own terms for the first time in his life when he remembered he was dressed. Reaching to his throat, he started to unbutton the shirt he'd put on. Piece by piece he undressed, and though he was standing on snow barefoot and naked, he didn't feel cold.
With the artificial night around him, Remus could feel the beast wanting to get out. Normally he'd be fighting it tooth and nail to keep it from getting free. "Come." Remus' voice was soft, the word meant for the beast inside.
For a moment Remus thought the beast would fight him anyway, but it put away its claws and simply walked up to the fore and stepped through his flesh.
Pain radiated from every single joint in Remus' body—and even from some he didn't have as a human. Normally a fast process, the beast seemed content to go slowly, pushing its way into his body and forcing him to change around it.
Luna felt sick at the screams of pain and sounds of bones breaking and reknitting. She hadn't expected the process to hurt Remus so much, but gradually she could sense the pain was being taken up by the beast inside him rather than left entirely to Remus.
It felt like a cool rush of water poured through Remus. The pain was still there, but he was only feeling half as much. It was the first time the beast had shown him any compassion, but for him, this was a monumental step.
But, Remus was no longer in control of his body.
Lifting its head, the beast was more accustomed to its new form now. It could smell snow and forest and its brother and a new scent. Looking ahead, it spotted Luna and its glowing eyes flared brighter still.
Far from showing fear, Luna stepped forward—eyes locked on the timberwolf's own. Extending her magic, she brought it around the beast and healed it. She sent tendrils of growing magic into the old rotting wood and she helped it rejuvenate and sprout new leaves.
Friendliness wasn't in the beast's lexicon, however. It felt healthier and stronger, but it still didn't trust Luna. Opening its jaws, the beast roared at her and pounced.
Sirius, in the instant Remus flew over his head, contemplated what it would mean to be guilty of killing—or just aiding in killing—a princess. Remus was graceful and seemed like an unstoppable object—until he stopped.
Luna held the timberwolf in the air with her magic. Its snout was mere inches from her own. "You're over a thousand years too young to overpower me like this. Try again."
Tossed away from Luna, Remus was in awe of the control she held. There were multiple spell effects around them, and she'd just grabbed the beast out of the air with her mind and tossed it away.
Thumping its back into a tree and loosing some of the new growth it'd gained, the beast jumped back to its paws and turned toward Luna again. Howling in anger, it raced at her again—this time forsaking a pouncing leap to maintain the ability to dodge with its paws on the ground.
Remus couldn't even tell the moment when the beast's paws lost contact with the ground and it was flying through the air again.
When he watched Luna toss Remus through the air a third time, Sirius approached Luna's side and let his form shift and change—pulling him back into the guise of a pony. "How long can you keep this up?"
"This? Forever." Luna grabbed up Remus again and tossed him aside. This time, when the timberwolf lifted its head, it looked at her but didn't attack. "How often does your world have full moons?"
"One every month or so, this would last for three days."
"And he never let the"—Luna tossed the beast's half-hearted charge off by blasting snow into its face—"beast out to play?"
"Like this? Never. There's not much on Earth that could stop a werewolf on its own, let alone one of these things. Is it lolling its tongue?"
Luna did the math in her head. "It's barely an adult. Two to three years old and it has never known anything that can stand against it. What you have here is a child that has never been told no."
The beast wasn't losing endurance—the timberwolf body it had now could keep attacking until Luna did enough damage to disable it—but it was starting to realize it had no chance of swatting Luna down. Instead of anger or fury, like a human might have, it instead turned to curiosity.
Remus was shocked at the feelings the beast gave him as it walked slowly closer to Luna. It was interested to find out what Luna was and why she seemed able to toss it around so easily.
"It's not afraid?" Sirius asked.
"I have been careful not to inflict any actual damage to it. Those branches and pieces it shed are easily replaced by a healthy timberwolf." Luna didn't toss the timberwolf away when it got close this time, instead giving it a chance to smell her from closer range. Reaching out with a hoof, she let it get her scent.
"I've never seen it act like this. If, like you say, it has the mentality of a pup, are you going to be the stern teacher it needs?" Wincing, Sirius watched as Remus was within bare inches of Luna's hoof.
"Me? Of course not. The teacher it needs is in its head. Remus is no young colt, and it's about time he lent some of his own years to his alter ego." With the timberwolf lying in the snow before her, Luna reached to its neck with her magic and started rubbing the wood there.
Remus and his beast both lost all sense of urgency or sense. The rubbing at their neck somehow knew exactly the right place to stroke to make them both relax.
"You need to work this out between you. I can feel the dual natures within you, Remus, and you have to accept this other side of yourself." Reaching up to the timberwolf's ears, Luna stroked them just as she remembered. The result of her efforts was a wagging tail.
The rest of the day and half the night Remus spent in the most relaxed time ever with his beast. It played with Luna—happy to be tossed around while it tried to get to her. Remus even helped it, telling it to use guile when brute force was not working. But, even at their best, they couldn't get close enough to Luna to even touch her.
Before the night was over, Remus felt the beast let go of its control. It was a shock for him to feel it happen and for him to be in control of the monstrous form. He sat up and shook his head, then let out a whine.
Luna barely had to reach out and touch Remus to discover what had changed. "Well, now you can show your friend how it's done. Come at me."
Excitement boiled inside Remus. For so many hours he'd watched the beast try to reach Luna and never once did it get a touch on her. Turning, he walked off into the forest and started to put a plan together. A frontal charge wouldn't work, and he was pretty sure she could have stopped a freight train in its tracks with her magic. That left being tricky.
But he knew she'd be ready for him. It wasn't any sense he could pin down, but he could sense in her that she was a fighter of much experience. And he was a teacher and wizard with a few tricks up his sleeve and nothing remotely like experience with the huge brawling-fighter body he was in.
That's when it dawned on Remus, he didn't have to be in this body. He was in control. This is going to hurt, he thought.
The change back to human always came with some pain, but not as much as the beast caused. Remus gritted his teeth and put up with it as he turned into a naked wizard in the snow. "Great thinking, Remus. No wand." But Albus Dumbledore hadn't hired him on as a teacher because Remus Lupin lacked the magical chops to be a teacher.
He had to focus on all the possible patterns he could, given he lacked his wand, and even so he only barely managed to hold the spell together long enough to cast the Amplifying charm on his own throat. Remus dared not utter a sound as he called on the beast to help him turn back into a timberwolf.
The beast was curious what Remus intended. It showed him how to summon the better form (according to the beast) and pull his flesh over it.
Remus and the beast clenched their jaws against the pain and railed at the sensation of their body being half ripped apart—and they did it together.
Shaking a few branches free from his shoulder, Remus felt the forest all around him—the trees in particular welcoming one of their guardians. It was so unlike being a regular werewolf that he almost stopped in his tracks and just walked off into the forest.
But Remus had something to do. He felt a driving need to prove himself to Luna. He had to do the best he could—and the beast agreed with him. Pacing slowly around in an arc, he began coming up on Luna's left side and, just before the moment he'd expect to be spotted by her, he shouted/growled as loud as he could and pounced.
Luna turned as she heard something move to her side, her ears training on the spot it came from. This meant she got a full blast from Remus' magically enhanced voice. Slightly stunned, she wasn't fast enough to grab him in the air and instead had to throw herself to the side.
When Luna opened her eyes, she was looking up into those of a timberwolf. Then a long tongue stroked her cheek before Remus shifted his form again—back to human.
"That was amazing!" Remus' blood was still pumping fast after his successful hunt. Naked, he seemed unable to feel the chill of the snow even as some drifted down onto his shoulders and into his hair.
Reaching her forehooves up to her head, Luna covered her ears. "Now I know how everypony else feels. Please, moderate your voice."
Quickly dispelling his charm, Remus cleared his throat softly to test it and, sure enough, he was quiet again. "I know this isn't completely a cure, but I have to thank you for this. It's a start, and I think the beast likes you enough that it wouldn't have hurt you if it had caught you."
"A good session, nonetheless." Luna rolled to her belly and stood up. She remembered the lick on her cheek and did her best not to blush while telling herself it was just the animal instincts of Remus' coming out. "Shall we head back?"
Remus, his mind wandering, looked up and froze. The full moon was in the night sky still. All his life that he could remember had revolved around the moon and being fearful of it. "It's beautiful."
Luna lost control of her blush and it colored her cheeks under her fur. "My sister could only ever move it around. It takes a special affinity to be able to keep the moon full every night for our ponies."
"Why full?" Sirius had been shocked when Remus had managed to catch Luna off-guard, and shocked further at him not going for her throat. Using a quick locomotion charm, he lifted Remus' clothes and passed them to him.
"The full moon presses back the worst of the darkness. It folds shadows away and gives the night a magical feel. A few ponies complained about not having a regular cycle, but even they admitted that it felt safer at night." Drawing her magic back around her, Luna let the woods around them settle into a normal nighttime. "We should head back."
Pulling his pants up, Remus noticed something. "I have a tail now?"
"The process is normally slow, or so I'm told. As you use magic, you will change more and more." Luna was waiting for Remus to get dressed. "It's a nice tail." The moment she said it, Luna realized how it might be interpreted and wished she could just rewind a few seconds.
Looking over his shoulder at the cascade of blue/black hair coming from his rump, Remus gave it a little wag to test the muscles out. There was both more and less to his tail than he thought there would be. He didn't have much experience with horses, and didn't realize there would be a long dock running almost halfway down his thigh. "I've had worse."
It had started a day before the ceremony. Fire Glow sat in attendance as a simple note-taker when Herbert Trencent was announced and made his way into the throne room. Sitting to the side with stacks of paper and a quill in his mouth, Fire was allowed to pay full attention to what would be discussed without any need to actually record anything.
"Your Highnesses, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Herbert removed his hat, deeming it the perfect occasion for such a monuments event. "I have come to render what assistance I can for the upcoming celebration."
It was an eventuality that Fire had already come up with and they'd discussed. He tried not to sigh—and managed it only by dint of his lifelong acting career.
"I wouldn't dream of it," Cadance said. "This is a welcoming gesture by ponies for their long-lost kin—be they human or crystal pony. Please, just relax and enjoy the festivities." It was a prepared statement, but being canned meant Cadance could focus on her delivery: perky, happy, and completely care-free.
The reply left little room for Herbert to maneuver. He had a lot of pretty words he could have used if left the slightest gap, but Cadance had been very final—and yet completely friendly at the same time. It was a niggling feeling that ate at the back of his mind. He couldn't decide if she were truly just being friendly or if she was playing hardball. "It sounds wonderful."
Cadance's smile became more legitimate. She recognized the slightest trace of annoyance in Herbert's tone, and she knew for sure that if he was annoyed, it was good for the Crystal Empire. "I hope I'll see you there?" When she saw a twitch in Herbert's eye, Cadance knew she'd won this little battle.
It both reassured Herbert and vexed him that Cadance was playing politics so well. On one hand, he pondered, knowing that she was competent in running a nation was a huge relief, but on the other it made manipulating her far harder. "But of course. I wouldn't dream of missing it."
The moment Herbert had bid Cadance farewell and was out the door, Fire Glow started giggling.
Tilting her head and raising an eyebrow, Cadance could see that her advisor was enjoying himself. "He walked right into it. Hadn't he considered for even a second that I wouldn't put up with his horse-apples?"
Horse-apples wasn't a term Fire Glow was familiar with, but he could certainly extrapolate its meaning based on context. "The moment you started on the script he knew he'd lost. You were perfect, Your Hi—"
"Don't. Please, Fire, just call me Cadance."
"I shall not, Your Highness, because I am an advisor and courtier, and it would be bad form if I were to forget that at the wrong moment. If you can put up with Herbert Trencent, you can put up with me using your titles and honorrifics." Fire Glow watched Cadance register curiosity and resignation in equal measure. "Don't worry, though, I will not be using that title after tomorrow night."
For a moment Cadance saw hope, then she realized what he meant and groaned.
"After tomorrow you will be Your Imperial Majesty." Fire Glow had to dodge the wadded up paper that was launched his way—and he managed for the first few pieces—but there was no way he could dodge hundreds of screwed up balls of paper coming at him at once. "What about a truce?"
With a dozen piece of paper in the air floating around her, Cadance paused in her assault. "I'm listening."
"It seems that with a change in status you could modify the rules of address a little. Perhaps a full address is only required initially, then sire or madam after that?" It was, Fire Glow hoped, a compromise that would save him a lot of lengthy addresses too.
"That will literally be my first decree, Duke Fire Glow."
Gemma Farley was delighted at the power-play this event had been. She knew her own talents in the field of politics and diplomacy were good, but this was brilliance in her mind. She mingled and chatted about small things, but every single Ministry wizard or witch present had a pony wandering around with them.
Insinuating herself into a conversation between a junior Ministry witch and a pony, Gemma nodded to each. "They're not letting much happen they don't have a tight rein on."
"Ha. Who can blame them?" Jenny Sparks made no attempt to censor or moderate herself. The orders had been for every single member of the Ministry to attend the party—and she hated it. "This is their home turf. I'd be careful handling strange wizards too. Isn't that right, uh…?"
"Candle Light." Candle wasn't exactly a spy. Before being frozen in magic for a thousand years she'd been a spy—now she was just an undercover diplomat. "And I'm with you. This whole thing is a load of codswallop." It wasn't, not in Candle's mind, but she was meant to be friends with the witch she was escorting.
Her ears perking, Gemma tried to look closer at Candle without giving the game away. "I've been thinking of joining the Ministry myself, though that might be impossible now."
Looking around, Jenny waited until she was sure there was no one listening from outside their little triad. "Trencent is trying to recruit, but he's not getting very far. All the people who were trying to get through were being blocked by the Ministry right up until old man Weasley bullied him to open it. Everyone saw that. Everyone knows where their loyalties lie."
"Weasley…" Gemma turned the name over in her head. She knew about the Weasleys, of course, but the head of the family was more of a mystery to her. "What's he doing with that loyalty?"
"Ducked his 'ead down and started getting everyone sorted with somewhere to stay and food, on top of looking after his own fa—" Cutting short when she saw another Ministry wizard wander past, Jenny noted that there was a pony walking around with them, too.
Jenny Sparks was a trained detective. She wasn't exactly the best, but she started to see a connection. Turning to Candle, she raised an eyebrow. "And you're going to tell the prince and princess everything, aren't you?"
"No. I wouldn't tell them everything." Candle could tell when the gig was up. "I'll only tell them the important bits."
Barking a laugh, Jenny couldn't help but grin. "Yeah. I didn't join the Ministry to be a political tool. I'm meant to help witches an' wizards, ya know? This?" She lifted her cup—tried to ignore the red crystalline flesh her hand was made of now—and gulped down the contents.
"What blood-purity are you?" It was the most crass and direct way of asking, but Gemma judged the witch wouldn't put up with games.
"Both me parents were muggles. Guess I get to keep these, right?" Holding up her other hand, Jenny examined her delicate fingers.
"Yeah." Gemma felt more than a little jealous—Jenny's crystal color was, in her eyes, amazing. "Lucky."
Jenny laughed again at seeing Gemma raise a hoof. "Ugh, sorry, but it is kinda a lucky thing. Guess you can mingle a lot easier with the other ponies."
The thought hadn't actually occurred to Gemma before, but it made sense. In a way, her becoming a full pony meant she could fit in better with ponies and work with them easier. "Yeah."
Turning to look at Candle, Jenny sighed. "And this is where you offer to have me become an informant, isn't it?"
"Do they tell you anything you think would be useful?" Candle asked.
Jenny's snort was answer enough.
"Besides," Candle said, "I like you. You have a great sense of humor."
The frankness surprised Jenny. "Aren't you supposed to be all smooth and cunning t' get me to tell you everything I know?"
Candle picked up her own drink and took a long pull from it. "I'm stuck here too. I could be off making friends in Yakyakistan or establishing a listening post in Griffonstone, but the prince and—"
"Mares and gentlecolts, ladies and gentlemen, and all otherwise assembled," Luna said, deploying the Royal Canterlot Voice with ruthless abandon, "it is my honor and privilege to represent Equestria's interests here tonight by introducing Prince Shining Armor and Princess"—Luna spotted Cadance's hard stare and wondered briefly if she should use her contemporary's full name—"Cadance, both of the Crystal Empire."
It was calculated carefully to show that Cadance and Shining had Equestria's full support. Nopony would question Luna's words for being anything but fact. Cadance stepped up on the stage beside Luna and made room for Shining to flank her. "Thank you, Princess Luna of Equestria. Today, in the interests of properly taking the throne here in the Crystal Empire, I've invited you all to witness a small ceremony of sorts."
It was Shining's turn to speak. They'd weighed up the words and measured them out equally, despite him being more than happy with Cadance doing the whole thing. "Firstly, in order to properly assume the throne as is the will of the inhabitants—Princess Luna, if you would do the honors?"
"Thank you." Luna looked out at the sea of faces—a mix of equine and human, sometimes on the same person—and deemed a stern look her best choice. Levitating up the first crown and peytral, she turned to Cadance. "As one sovereign to another, I—Princess Luna of Equestria—do crown you Empress Cadance of the Crystal Empire."
The room went dead silent. Everyone heard as the peytral was fastened around Cadance's neck and even the crown made a soft sound that was clearly audible as it rested upon her head.
Turning to Shining now, Luna fetched the second crown and peytral. "Shining Armor, you shall henceforth be known as Emperor Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire." A few gasps came from the audience, but they were barely heard when a huge cheer went up. The crystal ponies in the room began stomping their hooves like crazy, joined in with clapping from those still possessing hands. "I believe that ends my exercising of authority here." The Royal Canterlot Voice could cut through the wildest of cheering. "So I'll turn this over to the newest royal couple in the world."
Stepping forward, his pace measured to coincide with Cadance's own motion, Shining looked out across the smiling faces of every pony in the room—and a few sour ones on the odd Ministry wizard here and there. "Thank you, everyone, for coming here to witness this, but we have a little more to do."
"There are some ponies and some humans who have shown themselves to not only support the Crystal Empire, but they put their lives and reputations on the line to ensure we could be standing here tonight. Some are present, but some will need to be notified by other means." Cadance looked at Luna and got a nod.
"First," Shining Armor said, "please welcome Fire Glow."
Not realizing he'd be first to be called, Fire stepped up on the stage in absolute terror that his old ways would take over. Then he looked up at Shining and felt his old need for the spotlight melt. Here was a person—a pony—that deserved the spotlight. "Your Imperial Majesty," Fire said, dipping his head and bowing.
It was such a turn-around for him, but Fire Glow had put the life of Gilderoy Lockhart firmly into his past and use it as a reason to be better. Not that he wouldn't use everything he'd learned to do the right thing now.
"We find ourselves in turbulent times and need allies, confidants, and advisors—which is why we invite you to be all three as the first Duke of the Northern Reaches of the Crystal Empire." Shining lifted the spear he'd brought with him from Canterlot—that could have sliced through the enchanted walls of the castle—and brought it down gently to each shoulder of Fire Glow. "Please stand, Duke Fire Glow."
"Thank you, Your Imperial Majesty." Fire Glow knew his time on the dais was over. He stood and walked off to the side to where he'd been standing before—in the shadows no longer, of course, now that he'd been recognized officially.
"Our next guest already holds great esteem within Equestria, but that doesn't stop a proud sister from extending her own realm's honor in recognition of her work to protect it." Cadance stepped forward, taking possession of Shining's spear and the foremost position on the dais both. "Twilight Sparkle, please come up here so I can thank you for your part in saving the Crystal Empire."
Stepping out of the crowd with not a little bit of shock on her face, Twilight walked up to the dais only to be embraced by Cadance. "I didn't really—"
"Shh, Twilight. You did more than enough. Now let me show you how much it means to us that you did." Raising her voice again, Cadance brandished the spear when Twilight knelt. "I hereby invite you to join our peerage as Duchess of the Eastern Reaches of the Crystal Empire." Performing the same ritual with the deadly weapon, Cadance felt a thrill in the ability to acknowledge friends for their work. "Please stand, Duchess Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight was at a bit of a loss. She'd helped, of course, but this was a bit much for her to be able to comprehend. She liked her library and liked being in Ponyville with her friends. "Uh, thank you?"
Cadance didn't hesitate to pull Twilight into another hug. "It's the best I can do to publicly thank you."
"Well, I mean, a card would have done." Twilight's best dorky-sarcasm, she was happy to see, brought a bigger smile to Cadance's face. "Now can I go hide in obscurity again?"
Walking up beside his wife, Shining got close enough to her that their shoulders and flanks touched. "No, Twily, you need to stand over there and keep Fire Glow company."
Waiting for Twilight to take her place with Fire, Shining cleared his throat. "The third I wanted to thank is, likewise, a hero of the Crystal Empire. When seemingly alien intruders appeared out of nowhere, this woman had the bravery to hold out a hand in friendship. Minerva McGonagall, please approach."
It came as much of a shock to Minerva as it had to Twilight. She looked around for support—Gemma Farley was on one side of her while her conversation partner, Pomona Sprout, was on the other—but found no one inclined to "save" her. Lifting her chin, Minerva walked up and to the dais.
"I hereby invite you to join our peerage as Duchess of the Southern Reaches of the Crystal Empire." Shining wondered if she'd kneel, but eventually Minerva did. Bringing the spear down carefully, he framed her more humanoid form with the magically sharp blade. "Please stand, Duchess Minerva McGonagall."
"I-I don't know what to say. This is an honor, and I hope to never disappoint you or those who look to me for my guidance." Minerva felt oddly moved by the action. In her home, titles were awarded very publicly, something witches and wizards could never be there. But here the leaders of the country were magic users themselves.
Walking with as much poise as she could on two hooves, Minerva took her place standing—towering—above Duchess Twilight Sparkle and Duke Fire Glow. And there was another can of worms for her. She knew he was Gilderoy Lockhart, and now she knew what the rake had done she held him in low regard—but he genuinely seemed to have changed.
Cadance gave a nod to Minerva and turned to the assembled. "It probably comes as no small surprise that we intend to complete the cardinal directions. Though she doesn't realize we intended to, I will have to invite Princess Luna of Equestria to approach me."
This caused Luna's heart to jump. For several long seconds she wondered if she should turn it down. Biting her lower lip, she wondered what her sister would do. Eat cake, Luna thought. But she knew a few things for sure. Walking forward, Luna approached the dais from the front, raising an eyebrow to Cadance.
"Firstly, I will never ask you to kneel in my presence, nor expect it of a fellow ruler. I wish only to thank you for your advice and your help by making you Duchess of the Western Reaches of the Crystal Empire." Rather than raising the spear, Cadance just reached out to hug Luna.
It was not what Luna expected, but she realized she should have. Hugging Cadance, she realized the scene had been carefully designed to not belittle her. She also realized it meant Cadance expected future help. "This is acceptable."
"Please turn, Duchess Luna, Princess of Equestria." Cadance was careful to keep all of Luna's titles, though she put the newest one first. As Luna made her way to round out the group of four, Cadance moved to the side for Shining.
"Four dukes and duchesses doesn't make a court, but it's a start. We plan to expand the number of peers of the Crystal Empire, but for tonight this will do." Shining Armor bowed his head to those assembled. "Please, enjoy the entertainment and the food."
Jenny waited until the general noise level of the room rose before she said, "See, now that's how to tell a good leader—they tell you what you want to hear and make sure it's something you care about."
"You're talking about the food, right?" Candle asked.
Already leading the way to the buffet table, Jenny nodded. "Best stodge I've ever seen. Here, what's in these?"
Watching Jenny scoop up several treats, Candle took one with her hoof and tried it. "Tastes vaguely of fish. That's more of a thing for the ponies down south, but it's not the most terrible food. I guess it agrees with you?"
"I mean, nothing like a pork pie, but tastes good. What's this one?" Jenny wasn't all that loyal to any one of the canapés, preferring to browse around to find the one she enjoyed most.
Joining Jenny in the small feasting, Candle tried the one suggested and shuddered. "Tastes like some kind of curried egg thing. Not my favorite."
"That's it exactly! Oh, man, if I could find out who made this I'd marry 'em." Not bothering to hide her enthusiasm, Jenny shoveled more of the snacks into her mouth. She'd noticed that Gemma had drifted away. "What if I didn't want to be part of the Ministry anymore?"
"Then you tell them you're done and come work for us. You don't have to tattle on them, we just value good magic users who want to help everyone." Recognizing she needed to be somewhat delicate, Candle didn't press too hard.
"Yeah, not going to work that way, Candle. You see, when they think you know something important to them—even if you don't know it—they just pop, memory charm." That, honestly, was enough to terrify Jenny.
It was a term Candle had been warned to gather all the information she could on. "What's a memory charm?"
The taste of the food had soured now. Jenny felt her teeth grind together and she had the almost uncontrollable desire to set a lot of things on fire. "A spell that will suppress your memories. It can be just one, a whole event, or—or everything."
That was enough of a description to test Candle's ability to not react. Memory erasure was a heck of a nasty piece of business assuming one thing. "How long's it last?"
"Forever."
Candle was starting to learn to dislike this Ministry. "And they use that on officers leaving their service? I take it you know—"
"I'm not much more than a policewoman. I was about to take over the beat at Hogsmeade when all this happened and I was pulled in to help."
"And why do you think they'd use this memory charm if you asked to leave?" Candle had some information to give to her rulers, but she also found herself wanting to help Jenny.
"The current leader of the Ministry here is Herbert Trencent. His job at the Ministry was to investigate accidents and catastrophes, and when they were cleaned up he would personally blow away all memory of them. He'd muttered about using memory charms on all the ponies here and establishing order—probably would have gone through with it if so many hadn't left with knowledge of humans." Jenny could see in Candle's eyes that she was giving the mare a lot of information that probably did make her a target for obliviation. "Well, shit."
Sensing Jenny's defeat, Candle reached a hoof out to her leg to pat it. "So, what's say we leave here and find somewhere cozy for you with a couple of big stallions with powerful magic to keep the nasty wizards away?"
Jenny knew she was already sinking. She had to start swimming and had just been offered a lifeline. "Why don't we do that? You know some nice stallions?" Stallions, mares—Jenny wouldn't be overly bothered which at that moment. She could stand toe-to-toe with any wizard in an evocation duel, but obliviators as good at their job as Herbert Trencent would barely flinch while scrubbing her mind clear as a whistle.
"Grab some more snacks. Try to look like you're disinterested. Munch them while we walk to the right. See those three ponies over there? That's our target." The important thing was to make it look like Jenny was leading the way, Candle knew. If they thought she was leading Jenny anywhere, they might act. "That's it. How're those egg-things now?"
"They taste like ash. The worst bit is I don't know if they know that I—"
"Jenny Sparks?" Nymphadora Tonks spotted her old friend and approached her. "It is you! Hey, Jen, I didn't know you were stuck here too."
Caught like a deer in headlights, Jenny stared at Nymphadora as she approached. Their time together in Hogwarts along with their time training in basic classes to join the Ministry had been years ago now. She knew that her friend was studying to be an auror, which was now enough to make Jenny's blood run cold.
"Y-Yeah. I was just chatting with, uh, Candle here. She was stuck in this place for a thousand years—right, Candle?" Jenny's eyes flicked toward the three stallions again and—this close—she noticed the fur markings on their backs and heads where armor would have sat. Soldiers. Combat magic was a whole other kettle of fish even from her own pyromancy.
"Oh?" Nymphadora's attention turned to Candle. "What's it like being free?"
"You don't know how free it is. That monster that came through the portal at the last second? He used to rule this land with mind-control and tyranny. I was hanging around the city trying to get some friends to leave with me when he went and ripped it away to your world." They were the same words that had been officially released, so Candle felt no compunction about repeating them.
"C-Can you just excuse me for a sec, Tonks?" Jenny remembered at the last second not to use Nymphadora's first name. She pointed to the buffet table just beside the stallions. "Have you seen these deviled egg things?"
The sudden shift in topic seemed odd to Nymphadora. She focused on Jenny and followed her to the snack table. With most of the crowd behind them, she leaned a little closer. "What's up?"
Only a few paces from safety, Jenny let out a sigh and turned to look back at the crowd. "Tonks, you're not working for Trencent, are you? I mean, everyone technically is, but you're not, like, one of his cronies?"
"I'm an auror, well, almost. He doesn't have any jurisdiction over me." Her tone sharp, Nymphadora grit her teeth against the urge to blow off steam with some magic. She was still human, and she felt like it counted for something. "What's he doing?"
"W-Well, you know he was one of the chief obliviators back 'ome, right? I heard that anyone who wants to leave the Ministry here gets obliviated—you know, so they don't spill any important information." Doing her best to forget that she'd already done that, Jenny tried to edge the pair of them closer to the stallions.
Not bothering to pause and think about what she was going to say, Nymphadora nodded toward the door behind the three big ponies beside them. "Let's head outside and talk about this."
"Yeah." Candle looked up at Jenny and nodded. "Let's head out and talk about this." Her next nod was toward the three stallions. As Jenny, Candle, and Nymphadora stepped out through the door, two of the stallions turned and followed.
Outside of the ballroom, Jenny let out the tightness in her chest. She looked at Nymphadora and felt a little of it returning. "Tonks, what are you—?"
"You have every right to leave the Ministry, Jen, but will you help me investigate this claim of obliviation? An auror's job is normally to chase down dark magic users, but my teacher taught me that hunting down any misuse of magic was part of a good auror's job description." Waiting for Jenny's nod, Nymphadora focused her attention on the other human, eyes catching every detail of hair, bone, and flesh. Reaching out, she took Jenny's hand and examined the crystal. "Damn but this is harder to do than normal human."
Jenny had seen Nymphadora use her ability before, but this didn't make it less shocking when the woman before her slowly became her.
"What in the crystal…? What is she?" Candle asked, while the guards both suddenly took a defensive stance.
Putting herself between the two guards and Nymphadora, Jenny held out her arms to shield her friend. "Hold up. She's just a metamorphmagus. She can, well, change her appearance. That's really freaky, Tonks."
"Well, try to imagine how it is from this side. I don't think I can get these hands right. Can I just wear gloves?" Holding up her hands, Nymphadora revealed the dull not-actually-crystal pattern that was her best effort. A pair of worn leather gloves grew up and over her fingers.
Jenny shook her head to try to shake the experience of talking to herself out of it. It didn't work. "Why are you doing this, Tonks?"
"Because I believe in what the Ministry should be. This—this is the best chance for a different Ministry than the political hodgepodge that we left on Earth. Here we can make a positive difference in the life of witches, wizards—and ponies." Nymphadora's features seethed for a moment, her hair turning to bright purple a moment before she softened it back to Jenny's orange. "And because, if Trencent is trying to go counter to that, he has a big problem to contend with. Me."
The little speech stirred Jenny. She felt a little of the fire of her determination when she joined the Ministry return, and it lingered for several seconds before she remembered Trencent and all his political plays. "Tonks, if it were up to me, you'd be running the Ministry. If you do wind up doing that one day, let me know and I might come back."
Candle cleared her throat. "Miss Tonks—I assume that's your name—if you have trouble with your plan, and you need somewhere safe to reside, the Crystal Empire will offer that place. No obligations to share any of your information or abilities."
Pausing, Nymphadora sighed. "If the Ministry is so far gone they'd turn out an up-and-coming auror for challenging evil within it"—her eyes flashed with burning embers for a second—"then I'll burn it down around them."
Watching Nymphadora walk back into the ballroom, Candle let out a breath. "Quite the firebrand, but I trust her. Come on, Jenny, let's get you somewhere safe."
It wasn't the first time Nymphadora had to rely on quick wit and cunning. The wizard who was training her was ruthless in his methods, and it led her to the plasticity of mind to make snap decisions—but right decision. She got through the party, got through a night spent sleeping in the random crystal building Jenny had been residing in, and even turned up for Jenny's shift in the morning.
Not wanting to perform magic was a problem since Jenny had enough changes that she would have been using minor spells without worry. She contented herself with the fact she wouldn't be around too long. Making her way to the building where the defacto leadership of the Ministry had set up, she asked around if she could get a moment to chat with Herbert Trencent.
Herbert raised his eyes from the impromptu desk he was working on to look at the woman who'd entered his office. "Officer Sparks. Please, sit down." He deployed his best grandfatherly smile for the young woman.
"Sir, if you don't mind, I'll stay standing." Hoping she was talking right for Jenny, Nymphadora let out a heavy sigh. "I'd like to take some time off, sir."
"It's really not a good time for this, Jen. What's got you so worked up? Was it the minder the ponies saddled you with last night?" In a world dominated, seemingly, by ponies, Herbert Trencent actually thought making equine puns was a good idea.
For a second Nymphadora pondered incinerating Herbert on the spot. "Yes and no. It didn't really bother me except it reminded me that I'm not really needed. I'm a policewoman, sir, not much more than that. That, last night, was all politics."
"I can't change your mind?" Herbert pondered his own words. Changing her mind would be a simple spell, but he wasn't sure he wanted to get caught using one of the Three Unforgivable Curses.
The phrasing wasn't lost on Nymphadora. Under the robes she'd copied from Jenny, she tensed slightly—hand not far from where she could reach her wand. "I don't want to be a political pawn."
"Where will you go?"
"South, I think. I'm a bit sick of the cold weather. You know I was saving up for a holiday in Australia when this went down." Stepping back from the desk, she tipped her head toward Herbert. "I guess I'll see you if I see you."
"Obl—"
"Stupify!" Nymphadora's wand was out, pointed, and her incantation off her lips before Herbert had even gotten halfway through his carefully planned memory charm. The anger she felt at what he'd tried to do had completely blown her disguise away and left her looking like herself. "Jenny was never that good with dueling magic, I fair kicked her ass many times."
Trying to recover from the well-cast stunner, Herbert fought against the combination of mental stunning and physical jolting. Combat magic wasn't his specialty. He liked a good, long time to plan out and cast a spell from as far away as possible.
"The question is, why are you trying to use a memory charm on her just for leaving the Ministry?" Walking back to the desk, Nymphadora started looking through the papers. "Reports on movement of families, teachers, kids, and Ministry personnel? Stupify." Having noticed Herbert moving again, she sent another stunner at him. "I guess now I know who watches the watchers. You've lost it."
Herbert Trencent could do nothing as Nymphadora Tonks picked up the movement reports from the ball, folded them neatly into her robes, and left the building a moment after her features shifted back to Jenny Sparks.
A second stunner on the heels of the first made the effect more pronounced. It was nearly five minutes before Herbert could start to move his mouth again. "H—" Straining, he focused on the act of working lips, tongue, and lungs together. "Help!"
At the raised voices behind her, Nymphadora ducked around a corner and picked a different form to disguise as. It was a shape as familiar to her as her own—almost. She'd spent the better part of a year with her mentor. Learning the ways of an auror was quite the close moment.
Hobbling out of the alley, the perfect likeness of Alastor "Mad" Moody made his way up the street toward the school-castle. Ensuring even the fake eye swiveled around wildly, Nymphadora didn't worry in the slightest at the slow pace.
It was a chance to relax after the earlier excitement. When reaching the front doors of the castle, Nymphadora nodded to the two guards on duty there as she walked inside. The moment she was past the door, she let her Alastor disguise fade and breathed a sigh of relief. "Uh, hello? I haven't exactly been around here much, but I really need to speak to—uh—Candle something? Crystal pony about yay high."
"Candle Light? I know of her." Stepping out of a hallway that led deeper into the castle, Shining Armor advanced on Nymphadora. "She mentioned we might have a visitor." He gestured to a doorway with a hoof and waited for Nymphadora to head in that direction.
"Look, I'm not here to ask for sanctuary or anything, I just want to let her know that Jenny was right." Turning on her heel, and judging the emperor of the Crystal Empire was a good enough person to give her information to, she started walking back to the main gates.
Halfway down the steps, she only realized she'd forgotten something when a voice yelled, "There she is!" with a thick, Londoner accent.
The first thing Nymphadora did was throw up a shield, and it cost her a twinge in her lower back. "If you bastards made me grow a tail, I'll be pissed." She pointed her wand toward one of the Ministry wizards, only to hear the thumping of hooves pass her a fraction of a second after two bright beams of pure magical force shot at her target—one after the other.
"Halt! In the name of the law!" Searing Spear prepared another blast with his horn, only to see a pink circle form around his target. He swapped to the second of the combatants. "Yield!" he shouted as his fellow Guard galloped right up to the witch and shoved a spear in their face—piercing the weak shield they'd tried to use to stop it. "You're under arrest in the name of Emperor Shining Armor!"
Looking back at the sound of a third pony leaving the main doors, Nymphadora saw the emperor himself march toward the two wizards with his horn ablaze. She'd felt the power some wizards chose to cloak themselves in to show off, and none of them came anywhere close to the raw energy he was using to power just a shield. "Th-Thanks."
"You're welcome. I will keep order in my city." Shining paused a moment and looked at Nymphadora. "Don't leave the city, please." He wasn't sure why, but he took her nod at face value and let her go. "Now, why were two wizards chasing one young woman, only to ambush her with magic without so much as an identifying shout?"
Turning away from the apprehension of the two wizards from the ministry, Nymphadora walked right into someone. Lifting her head and actually looking at the man she'd bumped into, Nymphadora looked right into Remus' eyes. "S-Sorry."
"Here, are you alright? Hold up, Sirius." Remus turned his attention from Nymphadora to his friend and then back again. "What just happened?"
Sirius, who had been paying more attention after the shout, didn't realize what he was doing until he had moved around and put himself between Nymphadora and the two wizards (who were now trying to explain themselves out of being arrested). The main reason for his actions, he knew, was he could practically smell the Ministry on the two men.
"I-I was helping a friend trying to get out of the Ministry. Uh, I don't suppose you'd know where Auror Moody is?" It was the only name that Nymphadora felt willing to trust at this point. She knew her mentor had come over to Equestria, but she hadn't been able to locate him yet.
"Funny you should ask after him, we're off to see ol' Mad-Eye ourselves." Sirius watched on as the ponies took the wizards' wands away from them and marched them off in the direction of the Ministry compound within the city. "What did the Ministry want with you, anyway?"
Sighing, Nymphadora shook her head. "I'll leave it until we're with Alastor. I don't want to have to spill all this twice, and I certainly don't want the wrong people to hear about it. I'm Tonks, by the way."
"Tonks? Huh. Well, I'm Remus and this is Sirius."
"Just so you know, it's not because you know Mad-Eye that we're trusting you." Sirius turned around and, despite his size, kept up easily with Remus and Nymphadora. "It's mostly because I find myself liking anyone who pisses off the Ministry."
"Be nice, Sirius. There was a lot of really nasty types in Azkaban too." Remus had no clue why he was defending the Ministry, but here he was playing Devil's Advocate. "So, Tonks, what do you do with yourself?"
Nymphadora's hair flickered from her soft brown to a startling shade of pink before she got her emotions under control again. "You, uh… Can we wait until we're with Alastor?"
Remus didn't miss the hair color change. In fact, it jogged his memory. There weren't any creatures that did that kind of quick change without meaning to, but in researching his lycanthropy he'd found a book that talked of a trait in very few wizards and witches that could. "Fair enough."
Sirius looked up at his friend. "But Remus, she—"
"Give it a rest, Sirius. I trust Moody about almost as much as I trust you, we get her there and let the old man figure out what to do." Remus gave Sirius a firm look and continued in silence on the short walk to the building Alastor Moody had been given.
With a quick knock on the front door, Remus opened it and gestured Nymphadora to go inside. The building should have been bright and fanciful—there should have been light streaming through the crystalline walls and diffusing, ensuring no corner was unlit—instead it was dim within. The walls looked like stone and there were shutters where, from the outside, clear windows should have been. A grand illusion had been worked to remind everyone within the building of home without alerting those outside.
In the middle of the living room sat Alastor Moody and Albus Dumbledore, each with a cup of fine china filled with tea. A small tea set sat to the side while a chess board was set up between them. When Alastor saw who accompanied Remus and Sirius, the left side of his face twitched slightly into a smile—for nearly a tenth of a second. "So, the rumors are true. Ya made it, girl?"
Letting out her breath, Nymphadora practically slumped where she stood. "Okay, first, do you trust these two?" Blunt as a hammer, though with the morning she'd had, she didn't actually care.
"These two louts?" Alastor chuckled and looked across the table at Dumbledore. "Before about six weeks ago, I would have as happily tossed that one particularly"—he nodded at Sirius—"in the deepest hole I could find and throw away the key, but now? I'd trust the lad at my back—and he vouches for Mr. Lupin."
Reaching inside her robes, Nymphadora pulled out all the surveillance papers she'd stolen. "They've been keeping watch on everyone, but not just everyone outside the Ministry, even all the people working at the Ministry have been on watch. This is insane.
"And then, when helping to reassure a friend that nothing weird was going on, I quit on her behalf. Can you guess what Trencent tried to do?"
"At a guess," Albus said, "he would have tried to obliviate you, well your friend, so you don't remember anything. Now he'll want to do it even more—and us too, no doubt." The thought of it brought a chuckle to Albus. "How'd he take being told no?"
"No clue. I stunned 'im." Stretching to each side, Nymphadora noticed Remus looking at her. She smirked a little. "Well, a few times. Turns out the old bugger didn't know when to play possum. Shite at combat magic, too."
Sirius shook his head and climbed up on the nearby sofa as if he owned it. "I can tell you how they took it after that. It was like she kicked a hornets' nest. There were Ministry wizards and witches everywhere, and then two of 'em found her up at the castle."
"And that's when the guards did their thing." Nymphadora slumped down on a lounge chair, then jumped as she sat down on the growing new appendage her spellcasting had caused. "And how I got a tail out of it."
"Ha! You get used to 'em." Sirius gave his a flick to show off. "You should have seen them. Ministry lads had wands out and were blasting, and then those unicorns just blasted back about a hundred times stronger and then the big lad, prince I think, or is he emperor for real now? Anyway, he just wrapped one up in a shield spell—but turned inwards! I'm not exactly a fan of the fuzz, not after years in Azkaban, but watching them work reminded me how different magic can be here."
Nymphadora jerked around to look at Sirius—having been spending too much time checking out Remus. "You were in Azkaban? What did you do?"
Smirking with a pony snout had taken work to practice, but Sirius had been spending a bit of time studying facial gestures of ponies. "For getting too good and defeating dark wizards."
Looking at Alastor, Nymphadora only got a nod from him. "Huh," was all she could think to say.
"They've been observing everyone. They must have some scrying equipment. I can't believe this." Albus was idly flicking through the papers. "Excuse me a moment, this could use some work here."
Reaching to his waist, Albus drew his wand. The old piece of wood looked positively ancient, but aiming it at the core of the illusion spell that wrapped the inside of the house, he focused his will on a quick but effective ward against spying.
The Elder Wand practically jumped to unleash the magic of the wizard using it. So fine tuned was it that the spell didn't require any other patterns to construct than its own flick and the pattern Albus built in his head.
Halfway across the city, a young wizard operating a scrying mirror watched in horror as the priceless artifact (given they had no means to make more) cracked and shattered.
Smirking as he felt the snap of the active scrying spell, Albus slipped the Elder Wand back into his robe with his hoof—displaying a newfound adeptness with the strangely versatile limb. "They know where we are and what we have. I felt their scrying fail just now. Perhaps, Alastor, we should ask for another house?"
"There's a safer house to stash all three of them in." Looking between the three, Alastor swiveled his magic eye around to Albus. "You're not the headmaster there any longer, but do you think you could talk to Minerva, or should I go?"
Missing the conversation, not that he'd have to worry about it anyway given he was already a teacher at the school, Remus couldn't stop looking at Nymphadora. Her hair kept changing its color moment to moment, sometimes even growing longer and shrinking back.
There was something wild about Remus, or so Nymphadora could feel. She returned his looks, and, when she bit her lower lip, suddenly realized the room had gone silent. Looking up at Albus and Alastor, she let go of her lip. "Uh, what?"
Minerva McGonagall reflected upon the fact that a duchess had to do all the same things everyone else did, but also had to put up with them calling her duchess. She eyed Sirius Black and Nymphadora Tonks. "I'm not running a charity house here. I heard about Miss Tonks' little bout of craziness." She turned her gaze to Sirius. "And don't think I've forgotten you, Mr. Black. My goodness, the only reason I took in Mr. Lupin was his impeccable qualifications—and Albus personally vouching for him."
"Please, Minerva. The one place they not only can't scry but never have is here—Hogwarts." Albus knew his normal, grandfatherly projection wouldn't work. He was an old man and a friend of Minerva's, and that was the only angle he dared use.
"I'll agree for three reasons." Keeping her sigh to a mental one, Minerva drew her quill, charged it with ink, and started writing on the page before her. "Firstly, Albus, because you asked—without using that damned title. The second is that I have already spoken with the witch that Miss Tonks aided in fleeing the Ministry, and she came with a letter from an empress asking me to aid her, too."
"Isn't the school going to be somewhat full with faculty then?" Albus asked.
"Yes, it will be. The castle, however, seems to find room for everyone. The third reason I will go along with this insanity is that I do not believe in what the Ministry is accomplishing is right. They have done nothing but impede all our efforts to integrate into society here. The Ministry of Magic was meant to aid witches and wizards—but this is nothing but a power grab." When she recharged her pen with ink, Minerva finally looked up at the two adults sitting in seats like they were students who'd been caught doing something they shouldn't.
Minerva could remember both from their days at Hogwarts. She had broken rules for each of them in the past, seeing an amazingly gifted witch in Nymphadora—a witch she was partly jealous of, maybe, but one she wanted to see spread her wings.
In Sirius Minerva could only remember the young man she'd accidentally let borrow all her notes on how to become an animagus. She knew he'd succeeded, knew it in her bones just by looking at him, and to her that almost made him kin.
"First, however, I want each of you to answer me a question." Both jumped a little in their seat at her words, which reassured Minerva that they would at least take her seriously. "Sirius, why did you become an animagus?"
Sirius Black's heart almost stopped. He wanted to ask how she knew, why she'd reveal it now, and what she would take to not reveal the answer—but that would be useless. She was a hard woman, he knew, and once she set her eyes on a target, she always took her shot. "A friend. A friend with lycanthropy. I wanted to make him feel part of something rather than a lone wolf. It worked."
Minerva had suspected, but hearing Sirius say it cemented the fact that even at such a young age, he'd been loyal to a friend. Loyalty, in her mind, counted for a lot. "And Miss Tonks, what do you see in Remus Lupin?"
The question was so far out of left field that Nymphadora actually jerked in her seat again. "He—I mean we only just met. What do you mean?" She gripped down on her emotions with every ounce of her self-control.
"That's enough. I have my answer." Minerva wasn't sure what was better, knowing that the two had somehow found a connection or seeing Nymphadora's panic at the thought she was being so obvious. "Let me find you two rooms and I'll expect you to think about what you could teach and what you will be able to teach. I know each of your specialties, and I think they could be worked into the classes we normally teach quite effectively."
Taking a deep breath, Sirius shook his head. "I could aid in teaching any course, but I think I'd like to teach students about being and becoming an animagus."
It was a topic after Minerva's own heart. She might have studied and become an animagus to further explore transfiguration magic, but she had come to enjoy relaxing in a sunbeam, chasing imagined shadows, and even just sleeping far more than she'd ever expected. "Write up a proposal and have it on my desk tomorrow. Albus, will you be teaching with us in the new school year?"
That, Albus Dumbledore knew, was the crux of the matter. The school had a fine leader, experienced and knowledgeable teachers, and the prospect of new school year excited him, but he'd practically engineered himself out of a position in it. "Empress Cadance explained to me in private why she didn't grant me a title. She needs help in keeping the Ministry under control, but she needs that help from someone that is off their radar—"
"Albus, you will never be off their radar," Minerva said.
Albus couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Indeed, and I told her so, but I believe that when I go to Herbert Trencent and offer my assistance to him in keeping order, he'll jump at the opportunity."
"Aren't you a little old for these games?"
Sirius turned to look at Nymphadora and raised a brow to indicate curiosity. When she shrugged her shoulders a little, he had his answer—she had no clue about all this either.
"Maybe. Or maybe I've realized that I don't have the luxury of spending most of my days doing things I enjoy. Do take care of Hogwarts for me, Minerva."
"I will, but remember that there is always a place for you here, Albus."