Fortunately, Hagrid did not let them down. Only moments before the first couple reached the gates, he arrived leading a long train of carriages. He must have drafted a few house-elves to prepare the rest of the thestrals and carriages, because he couldn’t have done it so fast by himself.
The thestrals were well-trained, after decades of practice, to present an orderly row and patiently wait for their carriage to be full. As far as they were concerned, it was just another day to haul students to the castle, only from the Gates instead of the train station. Or the other way around, depending on the time of year.
They probably even recognized some of the parents as former students.
“Well done, ’Arry,” Hagrid said as he “parked” the first carriage, smiling at the boy as he hurried past.
Harry and the other students stood back as the arriving parents began selecting carriages and getting in them. They gave curious looks to the small mob of ponies surrounding Elly, Emmie, Earl, Debbie, Hermione, and Hermione’s parents. As before, some of the were frowning, some were not.
Hermione had enthusiastically greeted her parents by hugging them both. Then she had segued into introducing them to all the ponies they hadn’t met at the train station at the beginning and end of summer hols. She had then taken on the position of tour guide; “The Gate House and Hogwarts walls were built in about 950A.D. after an attack by muggles. Being the first thing muggles see, the spells on it make them see ruins and warning signs that area is too dangerous to explore,” she explained. “They also have a mild aversion charm that gets stronger the closer you get to the walls. The longer you stay, the more you feel and thing that there is nothing of interest here.” She continued to enthusiastically explain everything she knew about the Gates, their history, and the Gate House beside them.
Her audience was paying rapt attention.
Her parents were nodding and smiling at her enthusiasm.
The ponies who hadn’t met her previously were more than a bit wide-eyed at her non-stop recital of facts with almost no noticeable breathing. Harry heard Lofty murmur, “Is she related to Pinkie?” to Holiday.
Harry, still a pony to reassure the new arrivals, gently pressed against her hip and began herding her down the road, after the departed coaches. Once they were past the Gate house, and the line of carriages, she started talking about the forest and grounds, just as the Sergeant had.
Snap Shutter, Mane Allgood, Lofty, Holiday, Hondo Flanks, and Cookie Crumbles were suitably appalled at hearing about the centaurs in the forest. Big Mac had a ferocious frown. They all stopped dead and stared at the forest, then moved to the side of the road furthest from the forest and herding the foals before them.
Harry could see Elly hiding a smirk. Then she spoke up, “You needn’t worry about the centaurs,” she said seriously. “They have no interest in ponies. Plus, Princess Twilight met with several of them, and she reportedly got along quite well with the ones she met.” She shrugged. “If anything, we,” she waved a hand at her cousins and guardian, Miss De Rippe, “have more to fear from them that you do.” She shivered. “Because of the way past wizards have treated them, they are quite hostile to wizards and witches.”
The ponies eyed her uncertainly, but calmed down a bit.
Hermione picked up the story. “Yes, last year while Harry was on a detention in the forest, at night, he met a centaur.”
The ponies winced and stared at Harry.
He shuffled uncomfortably.
“Remembering Tirek, he immediately alerted Princess Twilight and the Guard that a centaur was by the castle. The Guard took the alert seriously, and sent a company of Guards here. They quickly set up a defensive line between the castle and the forest, and went to where Harry had said he met the centaur. They captured the centaur and brought him to Princess Twilight, who had just arrived.
“It took her only a few minutes to determine it was all,” she stretched out the word, and rolled her eyes, “a misunderstanding. The centaurs don’t like or use magic the way wizards and witches do, or even unicorns.” She looked at each of the unicorns in the group.
The unicorns in the group exchanged uneasy glances.
“Instead, they spend their time reading the stars and protecting the unicorns in the forest.”
All the adult ponies startled at that declaration, except Rarity and Applejack, and stared at her. If their foals had mentioned the forest unicorns, they hadn’t realized they weren’t talking about other Equestrians.
Hermione sighed and shook her head. “The unicorns, here, are nothing like ponies in Equestria. First of all, they can’t seem to cast magic like Equestrian unicorns can.” She paused and frowned. “Although some of the First Year unicorns did manage to teach a forest foal how to shoot sparks from her horn earlier this year,” she said in a contemplative tone, staring into the forest as if she could see the foal in question. She turned to look at Harry, “And there have been a few rumours that people have seen sparks at night in the forest from the Castle windows — in several places at the same time, more than could be cast by a single wizard or witch, soo . . . maybe that’s changing?” she finished uncertainly.
Harry ducked his head slightly in an abortive effort to shrug. “My mum did say that one centaur she spoke to said the unicorns here could only cast modest healing spells, and only when touching somepony.” He looked into the forest, frowning. “Maybe all they needed was a bit of an example?”
Hermione slowly nodded. Then took a deep breath and restarted her tour-guide impression. “Naturally, students are not allowed in the Forbidden Forest . . ..”
Harry tuned her out and followed the rest as they made their way to the castle with coaches periodically passing them, the people inside staring at them.
Elly and her family kept pace with them.
The newcomers were as impressed as the students had been with the castle as they slowly got closer. Snap Shutter, though, had a slightly different impression. “It must have been quite wild when they first built it, right?” he said. “It’s not exactly a . . . welcoming presence.” He took another picture, as he had been doing ever since they had arrived in Hogsmeade.
He hadn’t been taking nearly as many photos as Colin Creevy did, but the ones he took seemed to be more very carefully considered.
Hermione nodded, sighing. “Yes, Hogwarts was built as a defensive redoubt first. Besides being a school, it was seen as a . . . refuge should the wizards and witches of the time need it.” She looked back at the castle and her face reflected her serious mien. “It was very dangerous then. Magic could make it several times larger inside, too, had that become necessary. It could probably have held almost the entirety of the wizarding population of the time, if it had had to. As it is, now, there are far more empty rooms than occupied.”
The ponies nodded in understanding. Canterlot had been built on the side of a tall mountain for the same reasons. Only Canterlot was very crowded as the ponies of old had wanted to be as close to safety as possible, and their descendants saw no reason to change that. Plus, it was close to their monarch.
Soon enough, they arrived at the front doors to the castle. There were several pony-students either playing or sitting around waiting for their parents. The prefects had clearly given up trying to chase them back to their common rooms, especially given how nice the day was outside, so far.
Several of the remaining pegasi students were perched on the ledges above the entrance.
Harry waved to them as they waved back. Most had never seen Big Mac and their astonished expression were easy to see. He was an imposing pony.
They had barely reached the stairs on the left side, inside by the entrance to the Great Hall, when a voice rang out. “Oh Merlin, more of these animals!”
Several of the ponies shrieked, joined by Mrs Granger. Mr. Granger gasped. Applejack, Rarity, and Big Mac turned to face the possible threat.
Harry rolled his eyes. “Ignore him,” he said loudly to the group, pointing at the portrait not far from the staircase. “He’s a bigot.” Harry glared at it with narrowed eyes. “If he doesn’t shut up, I’m sure the Headmaster will find a nice, dark, storeroom for him.” Harry felt a slow incendio would be more fitting, but the girls would object, he was sure.
The wizard in the portrait lifted his nose and sniffed, then ostentatiously turned to the side.
Hermione looked upset, at first, putting her hands on her hips in outrage, but then she smirked. “I’m sure you heard about the moving pictures and talking portraits,” she confidentially said to the ponies, leaning towards the group and crossing her arms. “They’re a lot more surprising to see in person, aren’t they? Took me several days to get used to the fact that every portrait here could answer any questions I had.” She frowned, pursed her lips, and put her hands back on her hips. “Unfortunately, as you just saw, not all the people in the portraits were nice people when they were alive, and that carries over to the portrait itself.” She sighed. “Most of the pure-blood portraits are the worst if they think you aren’t a pure-blood like them. Some will even purposely misdirect you, or lie.” She scowled at the silent portrait-wizard ignoring them. “Unfortunately, too, they are difficult to teach anything new, so telling them that you all have magical ancestors going back several thousand years won’t make much of a difference. They’ll either deny it is true, or, if they do believe you, will soon forget and revert back to their previous behaviour in a few weeks or days.”
“However,” Harry interrupted her, “If you tell them you are animagi, they act very different.” Suiting action to words, he transformed back to a wizard. The rest of the herd quickly followed. Applejack and Rarity joined them. Most of the rest of the ponies were too unsure of their abilities to change.
The wizard in the portrait was now staring at them in astonishment.
“You should know better,” Harry reprimanded him, shaking a finger at him. “Animagi were around when you were a student, here. They might have been rare, but they were real.” The others all nodded.
The wizard looked them all over, including the ones still as ponies. “You are correct,” he said reluctantly. “I apologize for my rudeness.” He bowed. “Welcome to Hogwarts.”
Hermione nodded back. “Just try to remember, every pony you see today and tomorrow can change back to a human any time they want. They just might not want to at the moment.” She frowned in thought. “Maybe you should try to write that down in somewhere in your frame so you can’t forget. I’m sure I saw a frame, somewhere, where there were quills and parchment you could use.”
He nodded silently and just watched them as they turned and started up the staircase to head for the Gryffindor dorm.
Harry noticed that Elly, her cousins, and her guardian went downstairs to the Hufflepuff dorm.
“Don’t be startled if the armoured suits you see suddenly move.” Hermione started to tour-guide, again. “They, too, are animated. Their real purpose is to defend the castle in the event of an attack . . ..”
Harry let her voice wash over him as he followed the pack back to their Common Room. Watching his herdmates being cuddled by their parents gave him a good feeling inside, and he couldn’t help but grin as he remembered how it felt when his mum did that. Plus, everypony’s reaction to the various secret passages was entertaining. He could hardly wait to introduce them to the slide from the seventh floor to the basement, nor the return slide, as well. He could just imagine the shrieks.
It was from the corner of one eye as he walked by the landscape in one frame on the third floor he saw a unicorn in the distance who was actually grinning. But, when he took a closer look, he saw nothing. Then, on the seventh floor, just down the corridor, in a moonlit meadow painting, he thought he saw the silhouette of an Abraxian horse landing behind some trees. But, again, when he looked closer, there were no signs of the horse.
He decided he would investigate that later, after all the parental adult ponies had gone home. He had more important concerns right now . . . supporting his herdmates.
After exploring the dorms, they went to their charms class to introduce Professor Flitwick. The rush had not yet started, so there were only a few other groups of parents and students. The human parents finished quickly, they merely wanted to verify how their children were doing. They stood back and watched though, as the Professor greeted the ponies. Amusingly enough, Professor Flitwick asked as many questions as he answered.
“You mean none of you went to a school for magic?” he said, looking at Hondo Flanks, Cookie Crumbles, and Rarity eyebrows raised in astonishment.
“No, dear,” Rarity said. “The . . . magic school is only for those that excel at magic. My innate talents, and Sweetie Belle’s and my parents’,” she glanced at them, “are quite all we need for our day-to-day requirements. Daddy, for example, works for the railroad ticket office. Mummy works for the Ponyville Portal Palace of Provender, a restaurant, cooking human, pony, and griffon foods.”
Each nodded as they were mentioned.
“And I am the premier fashion designer of Equestria,” she concluded. She looked around the room at the students. “Seeing what you all do with wands and magic is interesting, but, for the most part, not anything I would find useful.” She frowned. “For example, I knew and used fire and shield spells before I started school.” She nodded over to Sweetie Belle, “As did my sister.”
Sweetie grinned up at her.
“Did you now?” Flitwick exclaimed excitedly. For a moment it looked like he would clap his hands in glee.
She nodded gracefully. “The other two tribes, however,” she glanced at the other adult ponies, “will find the use of wands a wonderful expansion of their own innate abilities.”
The others nodded their agreement.
“The cleanin’ charms, alone, save me hours of work!” said Applejack.
“Eyup,” added Big Mac, sagely, and nodded. Lofty and Holiday were also nodding.
“What spells do you find yourself using the most?” Flitwick asked.
The two quickly descended into talking shop. Rarity was soon showing off how many items she could simultaneously, and individually, control, to the Professor’s delight and the other wizards’ and witches’ amazement. All without using a wand.
Then Hondo and Cookie showed off some of the spells they frequently used in their jobs in Ponyville.
It was only when Flitwick sighed and announced that they needed to stop because lunch would soon be served that they managed to get out of the Charms classroom.
The great Hall had clearly been expanded, either by the professors or the castle, itself, as the huge mob that was nearly three times larger than normal filled the hall. Harry was relieved to see that the house-elves were on the spot with a large vegetarian selection of thick broths, salads, and chili. Pizzas also appeared, for the first time. Down towards the First Year’s end of the tables, there were several platters of sandwiches, all clearly labelled as for the ponies.
And pastries. There were a lot of cakes, cookies, and other things the humans considered dessert items.
The expressions of the humans as they watched the adult ponies tear into the pastries as if they were a main course had Harry and his friends laughing. Even though the most conservative humans were trying to hide their reactions, their wide-eyed stares and exchanged glances gave away how astonished they were at seeing the ponies eat double or triple what they would expect a human to eat.
Most of the students were staring, gobsmacked, at the display. Before now, all the Equestrian students and adults had taken their meals as humans. The difference in volume needed to feed an herbivore versus an omnivore was revealed for the first time.
The house-elves were probably thrilled, Harry thought, at how well-received their food offerings were to the ponies. New platters appeared almost as fast the present ones were emptied.
For once, Harry and his herd were not the centre of everypony’s attention. That honour went to Luna Lovegood. For most of the human parents, almost two-thirds, this was the first time they had the opportunity to see the crystal pony. Most had written-off the stories in The Quibbler as yet another fantasy creature. To see her walking, talking, and eating was quite amazing to them. Some of the ponies who hadn’t seen her at the portal station or in Ponyville were equally intrigued — and not shy about walking up to her to ask questions.
He was pleasantly surprised, however, when his mum walked into the Great Hall with the last pony parents. Rainbow Dash hovering just over their heads was . . . not really a surprise. That Dash came was certainly unexpected, given that Scootaloo’s parents and aunts had come, but she did consider herself to be an older sister to the filly, so, there was that.
Scootaloo was beyond happy.
As soon as his mum saw that the Headmaster was present, she flew directly to him, attracting everyone’s attention. She settled behind him and he turned to converse with her. Harry could see the faint shimmer as a silencing spell took effect, and their figures blurred slightly. After a few minutes, the blur disappeared. The Headmaster was shaking his head and looked sad. He turned to the other professors, and cast another silencing spell as he told them whatever he had been told.
They, too, did not look happy.
His mum, in the meantime, had taken wing again. After greeting him with a mighty hug, she sat beside him and started in on the selections before her. “Don’t ask,” she said sternly, frowning, before he could say a word. “The Headmaster will make an announcement at dinner.”
Harry nodded slowly. That meant it could only be bad news, and they were waiting for dinner so as not to spoil the day for everypony. They were both quiet as she filled her plate and started eating.
“By the way, mum,” he said a few minutes later. He loved saying that word, and grinned widely before continuing, “I thanked Elly for her warning. It really did make a difference,” he said earnestly. “I told her I greatly appreciated it, and that without the warning I or Hermione might have been badly hurt. We definitely wouldn’t have had shield spells ready to cast!”
His mum nodded, still chewing.
“Anyway, While I was thanking her, I told her we, me and the girls, owed her a debt, and that if they every needed help, we would do what we could.”
His mum nodded, and frowned slightly, listening closely.
“And there was this weird magical . . . pop . . . we all felt.”
His mum widened her eyes and sat straighter. She gave a hard look at the girls. Scootaloo was practically glowing, with her parents and aunts seated on both sides of her. Sweetie Belle was enjoying having her whole family here, as well, pointing out things all around the Hall. Ginny had been roped into sitting with the whole family and appeared a bit put out by it. Sharing her parents’ attention with the four boys was a bit vexing, for her. Apple Bloom was sandwiched between her sister and brother, and enjoying describing all the food on the table to her siblings.
It was the same for practically all the ponies in the Great Hall.
Only Hermione was looking at them, past her father on the other side of Harry, and apparently listening. She nodded vigorously.
The purple princess slowly nodded. “We’ll have to talk about that later,” she said.
Harry shrugged. “Well, it’s not like we didn’t make her a friend of the family last year. I can’t think of anything she would have realistically expected us to do if she asked, anyway.”
His mum pursed her lips, then nodded. “I would still like to meet with her and convey my thanks for her timely warning,” she said quietly.
They turned their attention back to their lunches.
Only minutes later, it seemed, people were starting leave the Great Hall. Without a doubt, a large number of the humans’ parents would be leaving, now. They had done their familial duties, they were well familiar with the school itself, and they had other business to attend to. By dinner time, Harry expected that the only visiting families would be the muggle-borns' parents, a scattered few with a muggle mother or father in the family, and the ponies.
He was lucky in that the De Rippes did not seem to be in a hurry to leave. Despite their “pure-blood” status, the four students were doing a poor job of disguising how happy they were that their guardian was here. He could tell by the occasional goofy smile they would develop before suddenly shaking their heads and looking stern for a few minutes. Their guardian, Elinora, kept glancing at them, her own lips popping into a smile before shaking her head slightly.
It gave him all the opportunity he needed to guide his mum over to them as they were nearing the Great Hall doors. “Mum, I would like to introduce Elinora De Rippe. She is the official guardian for Elly and her cousins,” he pointed at each in turn, “Essie Pauncefoot, Emmie Pauncefoot, and Earl Pauncefoot.”
His mum nodded at each.
Then he introduced her to them, “This is my mum, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
His mum rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I hate that title,” she said without any heat. “If you have a moment, could I have a word with you?” she said looking at Elly, and then Elinora.
It was Harry’s turn to roll his eyes. Like anypony in their right mind would say “no” to a princess of Equestria.
They moved to a nearby conference room — actually a repurposed classroom — although it took a bit of wrangling to get all the participants involved. With the girls and their families, it made for a lot of ponies and humans, twenty-three, counting Harry and his mum. Including Elly’s relations, it made for a full classroom.
His mum placed several spells on the door, windows, walls, ceiling, and floor. Then she turned and cleared her throat. Everypony turned to face her.
“There are some facts you all need to know, either because your sister, daughter, or niece, are involved with my son, Harry,” she glanced at all the ponies. “Or your niece or cousin helped Harry.” She looked at the De Rippes and Pauncefoots. She had their full attention.
She shuffled on her hooves awkwardly for a moment, then took a big breath. “Last year, one of the teachers here was carrying a mental parasite. This parasite goes by several names, Tom Riddle is one, Lord Voldemort is another.” None of the adult relatives of Harry’s herdmates looked surprised, although they did take on stern expressions, frowning and straightening slightly. They had all been briefed when they had visited Equestria in the summer.
This was news to Elinora, based on her sudden gasp, clutching at her chest, and rapidly paling face. Elly and her cousins look worried, but not too disturbed.
“Tom attempted to kill Harry on the day his class took their Defence Against the Dark Arts exam. Thanks to Elly’s timely alarm, we were able to stop Tom and capture him.”
The adults nodded. Elly and her relatives were listening with rapt attention.
“This summer, the Ministry threw him through the Veil in the Ministry building, which supposedly sent him directly to the afterlife.”
Elly and her cousins exchanged looks while their guardian looked vastly relieved.
“Unfortunately,” she continued, shaking her head ruefully, “Tom took the extraordinary step of creating several devices that could hold part of his soul.”
Elly and her relatives were again stunned, and all took a step back.
Twilight paused and sighed. “We thought we had destroyed them all, but we must have missed one.”
There were more than a few narrow-eyed glances between them all. Elly and her relatives all shivered and looked scared, biting their lips or taking shaky breaths and looking at each other for reassurance.
“This year, Tom again managed to infiltrate the school. This time he used one of those evil artifacts, the one we missed. We believe, based on what we have been able to learn, that he intended to slowly takeover the soul of another student, and return to living.” She sighed sadly. “Gregory Goyle was not possessed by a vampire, but by Tom Riddle. Based on how little Gregory’s actions behaviour changed, we believe he was a willing host, much like Quirrel was.”
Harry blinked as he saw a hand-sized bundle come out of the saddlebags he hadn’t noticed his mum wearing. The bundle floated over to Elinora, who took it in one hand. His mum spoke straight to her, glancing at Elly occasionally. “You know of the portal to our world,” she said. “Well, we have other portals. One of them leads to a parallel-world that is very much like this one, except there are no magicals. The natives are bereft of magic, with only a rare few exceptions. However, in a coincidence that beggars the imagination, they have a series of books about a magical world that is hidden in theirs. A magical world where there is a magical school called Hogwarts, where the non-magicals are called muggles, and the headmaster is a wizard by the name of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.”
Elly and company looked speechless.
His mum looked directly at Elly. “Because you spotted something before anyone else was even aware of a problem, here are a complete set of the books for you to read. I imagine that if we hadn’t come on the scene, things in real life here would have played out almost exactly as they did in these books.” Elly stared at the small bundle in her guardian’s hand.
“Most of the problems in the books have been solved, I included a paper listing each one we removed,” his mum continued, “But maybe you can spot something we haven’t noticed, yet. Or, if you are forewarned to possible dangers, you might detect them first.”
She was silent a moment, then sighed. “Next, Harry told me that when he said he owed you a debt, there was a pop of magic. Did you feel it?”
Elly paused a moment, then slowly nodded. One by one her cousins nodded, even her guardian, which surprised him.
His mum glanced at her herdmates, who also all nodded. Scootaloo said, “So, that’s what that was?” as Ginny said, “Oh, I wondered what that was.” Both gave curious glances to Harry and Elly.
The older Weasleys looked surprised, and worried, Arthur especially.
His mum looked thoughtful, her brow furrowed and ears laid back. “As I recall,” she said slowly, “It isn’t anything that will make you do something you don’t want to do, it’s just a nudge that tells you to do what is asked because your debt needs to be redeemed.” She looked back at Harry. “It’s just one way for magic to help you do the right thing, and maintain harmony.” She turned back to Elly and her family.
Magic, after all, had acknowledged that they were all her family. Just as it had acknowledged Hermione and Ginny as part of Harry’s herd.
She smiled. “As he did, I say thank you for your help. If we can do anything to help you, when you need help, please don’t hesitate to call on us. If you don’t know where we are, drop into any of our Embassies and they will put you in touch with us, no matter where we are in either world.”
They glanced at each other, then Ellinora curtseyed and said, “Thank you, your highness. If we ever find ourselves in need of assistance, we will come to either Mr. Potter or yourself. Not that I expect us to need your help.”
His mum grimaced. “Please, none of those silly honorifics. In view of the debt, I think just Twilight is more than sufficient.” She paused a moment. “Also, as I offered Elly last year, should any of you wish to visit Equestria, just ask and I will expedite the paperwork — plus, I expect you to stay at my palace in Ponyville, or my home in Canterlot, should you visit either location.”
She smiled at them. “In the meantime, go ahead and read the books and let Harry know what you think of them.”
Elinora nodded, murmuring, “Of course . . . Twilight.” She looked distinctly uncomfortable at the familiarity. Elly merely nodded beside her, keeping silent.
“Well,” his mum said, “That’s pretty much all I wanted to talk about. Any questions?”
Ron slowly raised his hand.
His mum nodded at him, “Yes?” she said.
“Er, do you know what happened to Goyle?”
She sighed and glanced around the room at them all. “I’ll have to ask you all to keep this quiet until dinner tonight. The Headmaster will make an official statement then.” She stopped and shook her head. “Gregory’s body was found this morning in a bed and breakfast inn just outside London. He apparently died sometime yesterday, around two-o’clock. Tom apparently left sometime early this morning, but to where, we haven’t a clue.” She sighed again. “Unfortunately, the Ministry won’t believe us if the Headmaster and I try to say this is Tom Riddle’s work. They firmly believe it is a vampire at work.” She shook her head ruefully. “Lockhart’s insistence that he was searching for a vampire inspired Tom to arrange things to reinforce that impression.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We just have to be on the lookout for him.”
The others all nodded in agreement, still a bit shocked that what they had read in the books, and seen in the movies, especially the second one, seemed to be true.
It was a quiet group that filed into the corridor.
Elly and her family went off towards their common room again. Arthur headed off, back to work, while Molly hovered around Ron and Ginny, most especially Ginny.
Twilight gave Harry another tight hug, then said, “Sorry I can’t stay any longer. There’s much to do.”
Harry nodded. “That’s okay. I appreciate you took the time to stay here this long.” He gave her a shy smile, “Besides, I’ll see you in a few weeks, anyway.”
They hugged again, then she took wing and flew down the hall. She would be at the Gates to teleport faster than if she tried to use the Headmaster’s floo. Even assuming he was in his office to let her in.
That she did so instead of teleporting directly told Harry that his being able to teleport in the Great Hall was either a fluke, or she was trying to conceal that ponies could teleport in the castle. He would ask Sweetie Belle to try, later, when they were alone. If she couldn’t, then he knew he was to only one who could.
^·_·^