//------------------------------//
// Ch. 46. Friends With Secrets 
// Story: If Wishes Were Ponies, Book II 
// by tkepner 
//------------------------------//

Hogwarts quickly fell back into its routine. The Fifth and Seventh years were deep into revising for the upcoming OWLs and NEWTs. Thanks to book-walking, most were cautiously confident they would do well. The Seventh years actually had a substantial benefit from book-walking, having actually finished their respective, normal, last two years of study four months before. They had spent their remaining time going over everything that would probably be on the NEWTs. It had given them ample time to revise those sections of magical theory that they were having trouble with, and many, many additional hours of practice for the practical side of the exams.

The Fifth Years would have been four months into the sixth-year materials, if they hadn’t instead decided to concentrate on getting the best scores possible for OWLs. So, they, too spent the last four months going over areas that they were weak in, and perfecting their casting for the practicals. The Fifth Years would be in fantastic shape when their NEWTs came around.

If the Ministry officials had been surprised at the elevated scores from last year’s exams, this year’s would surprise them again. As would every year for the next six. 

However, the First and Second years weren’t nearly so fortunate. Their tests would be administered by their professors. Professors who knew exactly how far along the material they were, and how well they had performed in classes. Plus, their professors had been happy to add deeper theory, and material that hadn’t been there before. As a result, their upcoming tests would be adjusted for the increased knowledge they actually had instead of what they theoretically should know based on previous classes of First and Second years.

The ponies had indeed made a lasting change to Hogwarts, already. Seeing how well they took to the spells was inspiring for the other students. Especially the pure-bloods who didn’t want to look bad by comparison.

The extra work the last two years, though, would pay off in big dividends when the Second Years reached their OWLs and NEWTs. In fact, at the pace they were progressing they would be ready for their OWLS in October of their Fifth Year. 

Harry thought that when his Year took their OWLs, almost everypony would score Os or O+s.

They could take their NEWTs at the end of their Sixth Year if they continued at their current pace! Book-walking could remove an entire year from Hogwarts curriculum, if they devoted that extra time to working on the sixth-year classes instead of revising for the OWLs

Naturally, the professors were already taking advantage of that extra time to increase the amount of material presented. Unfortunately, the professors could really pile on extra work that would restore the normal seven-years-complete schedule that Hogwarts used.

On the other hand, it would take several years before the ministry authorized any new textbooks for their subjects. In the meantime, telling parents they had to buy the First- and Second-year books for the First-year students would raise quite a lot of objections. As would telling parents to buy the third-year book for Second-years, and so on.

The new texts, when they arrived, would either give more material for each year, or they would redesign the curriculum to account for the faster rate of learning. 

In the not-too-distant future, these would be the normal expectations of the professors for all the Years. No matter which route the Ministry decided to follow, it would be a while before becoming the new standard at Hogwarts.

And the Ministry would adjust their expectations, too. That however would take longer. Bureaucracy moves at a snail’s pace at the best of times. And a witchery bureaucracy that had people who had been in their positions for a century? A snail was practically a racehorse compared to how slowly those witches changed their minds about what the testing curriculum should cover.
 
The firsties, of course, didn’t realize this. They assumed that the slightly accelerated pace that would have them finish the old First-year curriculum in only eight months was normal. After, all, it was what the Second-years had gone through before them, right? Plus, the Professors had already adjusted their lesson plans, so there was nothing the firsties could do in classwork that surprised them. 

Unlike last year.

The new pass/fail approach for the Equestrians seemed to be working on the assignments and spot tests for the ponies, too. No-longer were the witches and wizards locked out of the top slots for their classes or Houses.

It also had the effect of evening out the pressure the ponies were under. In their Equestrian schools, they had been struggling against other ponies to edge out the top spots for themselves. With the pass/fail system, that pressure dropped considerably. With that barrier gone, the top students were more than willing to help out the under-performers — they didn’t have to worry that helping somepony else meant they had to take time off studying for themselves.

The herding instinct for everypony to succeed kicked in.

As a result, the professors saw a slight lowering of individual highs, but a marked increase in the lower-ranked ponies getting better scores.


^·_·^


 

The following Friday, Hedwyg flew in at breakfast carrying a letter and landed in front of Harry. Harry had told Hermione, Ginny, and Ron that they could use his owl anytime they wanted, which meant any incoming mail was frequently for his friends. His mum would just have Spike send a scroll.

Surprised, he, quickly retrieved the letter, and handed the owl a banger. The girls all gave him questioning looks as he unrolled the large scroll. 

“It’s from Hagrid,” he said, surprised. “He wants me to come visit him this afternoon after classes.” He frowned and blinked his eyes. “He wants to see you fillies, too.” He looked at the girls with raised eyebrows.

Varying degrees of surprise showed in their expressions, but Scootaloo summed it for them with a shrug and a simple, “Sure, why not?”

Then they turned their attention back to their breakfasts.

Elly approached Harry as the group was headed out of the Great Hall after breakfast and towards their first class of the day, DADA. As they walked, she said in a low tone, just barely loud enough for him to hear, “If you don’t mind, would you be willing to help my cousins after last class today?”

“Sorry,” was his immediate response as he glanced at her. “But we were planning on visiting Hagrid. He sent us a note.” 

She nodded, “There’s no hurry. How about tomorrow morning, after breakfast?”

It was his turn to nod, “Sure.” There was a brief pause as they walked, then he said, “Oh, and thanks for that Curse Detecting and Breaking book. We’re still going through it, but it has some really interesting techniques.”

She nodded. “Yes, I thought so, too.” She glanced at her cousin. “Earl seems to have picked it up rather easily.” She gave him a small wave, “Well, I’ll see you later,” and headed off towards the Hufflepuffs first class of the day with the Slytherins.

He waved back and headed for DADA. Moody was in for such a surprise at them having started the Third-year material, already. Harry found himself delighted at being able to show-up the misconceptions of the lackadaisical wizards and witches.


^·_·^


 

After their last class, Charms, they headed for Hagrid’s hut. 

It was a nice day, at the moment, to be outside. The morning rain had passed and it was now a bit warmer, overall, than the day before. Soon, very soon, they would head home for the summer. 

Harry was quite looking forward to it — no witches or wizards always getting in the way with their absurd attitudes!

Both Ginny and Scootaloo changed to ponies the moment they were outside, and took off. Harry and the others were quick to follow, and they raced each other towards Hagrid’s hut. It felt really good to stretch his legs — running was quite a treat after sitting for so long in the classrooms.

Hagrid was outside, working in his large garden. Fang was sleeping beside the hut, basking in the sun.

Their thundering hooves woke the dog from his nap, and he quickly jumped to his paws. He was happy for the company, as always, and tried to tackle as many of the oncoming ponies as possible. They had had plenty of practice, though, and easily dodged around him.

Harry was still uncomfortable with dogs. His experiences with Marge’s dogs, especially Ripper, still made him shy sharply away from any rapidly moving dog. Unfortunately, the fillies were a lot more accepting of the friendly dog, and he had to support them. Which cut down his opportunities to evade quite a lot.

“Down Fang!” ordered Hagrid as he made his way from the middle of his gardening area, although the line separating a garden from a farm was uncertain to Harry. Depending on whether he was a pony or a human, the definitions for both appeared markedly different.

Not that Fang listened much until Hagrid hauled him off Harry. This time Harry had managed to stay on his feet.

He wiped the dog-drool off his face, then said, “Hi, Hagrid!” The fillies had already greeted the half-giant.

“Come on inside and have a spot o’ tea,” the half-giant said, already heading for his hut’s door.

They arranged themselves around the room. One interesting difference was the stack of six nested chairs he rapidly set out for them with a wave of his wand. They were a bit difficult to climb into for the children, but that was because they were set to the right height to fit at his table.

It was an unusual experience to be seated around his table instead of using his bed as a backless couch and sitting at the table with their chins nearly on the table top. It was a nice improvement. Harry wondered who had suggested it to him.

In a few short minutes, he was filling their cups with steaming tea.

“Think yer ready for exams?” he asked.

Harry grinned. “I think we’re doing pretty well,” he said glancing at the others, who mostly murmured their agreement or nodded. They spent the next few minutes discussing the classes, “DADA is the worst, because Professor Moody is really putting the pressure on to make sure everyone passes,” “History will be the easiest, we did most of that before Christmas,” and “I think Sweetie Bell will have the worst time with Potions, although she has improved,” were just a few comments.

Finally, after refilling their cups, Hagrid sat back and sighed. He looked at the fillies, pursed his lips, and then said. “I took yer advice, an’ talked with Rosie.” He reached over and pulled a book out from a bag hanging on a hook, Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches. “She told me some things, an’ suggested I visit the bookstore and ask a clerk for a book on dating. He gave me this un.”

He and the fillies all exchanged looks. Harry took a slow breath, and let it out just as slowly. “The best advice I can give you, Hagrid, is just be yourself.” He glanced at the fillies, who were all nodding and agreeing.

“But don’t spend the entire time talking about your pets or the animals in the forest,” Hermione said earnestly, leaning forward. “Give her time to talk about herself, what she likes, too.”

“Besides,” Harry said, “You want to know what she’s like to see if you like each other.”

Scootaloo furrowed her brow and looked puzzled. “Have you met any witches to even take on a date?”

A hint of red became visible on Hagrid’s face. “Rosie said she knew a friend who might like to meet me.” He looked down at the tabletop. “We’ll be havin’ dinner there this evenin’.”

“Good for you!” declared Ginny, firmly, nodding her head.

Sweetie Belle was giving him a critical eye, peering at him intently. “You want to make a good impression,” she said. “So, make sure you’re presentable! Make sure to take a bath and comb your mane . . . hair,” she said, swiftly correctly herself. 

The others nodded their approval of her advice.

“And make sure your clothes are clean, too. Maybe ask Professor Flitwick to check your wardrobe?”

Hagrid was pursing his lips and looking around the hut.

“Have you asked the Headmaster about improving your hut, here? Making it bigger, adding a kitchen with a coldbox?” said Ginny, looking at some of the smoked meats hanging in the rafters.

Hagrid smothered a grin — it was close to smirk.

“He were mighty surprised when I asked about fixin’ it up a bit. But he were really startled when he said th’ budget, while better than before, didn’t have much for such things, an’ I said I ’ad plenty ter pay fer it. Then I told ’em about gathering the silk in the forest, and makin’ a bargain with Aragog fer more. He were right astonished, he were! Especially when I said most o’ the galleons right oughta belong to the school, anyway.”

Hagrid grinned happily, “Great man, Dumbledore, great man.” He paused a moment before continuing, clearly reflecting on how great Dumbledore was. “He suggested I use the money to build a better paddock fer the Thestrals, maybe build ‘em a three-sided shelter from the rain and wind. Maybe a proper barn fer some o’ the other animals. He said it were my galleons, I could spend ’em how I wanted.” Hagrid leaned back in his chair, smiling.

Scootaloo looked at the others and nodded towards the door. “Well,” she said, briskly, “I suppose we should head back to the castle so you can get ready, right Hagrid?”

“Huh?” said Hagrid startled out of his thoughts. “Er,” he glanced around the hut, then slowly nodded. “I surppose so,” he said.

A few minutes later, they were headed back.

“Why did you want to leave so quickly,” Harry asked.

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “If he’s anything like the stallions at home that my aunts told me about, he’ll be primping for hours before he’s ready for his date. I figured the sooner we were gone, the sooner he would start.”

Harry and Hermione stared at her. 

“Uhh,” Hermione said. “Here it’s the girls who take a long time to get ready.”

“Really?” said Sweetie Belle. 

The three exchanged glances. 

“Huh. I certainly didn’t expect that.”

“Ah, well,” said Scootaloo. “I just hope things go well for him.”

The others nodded.

“Once word gets out about what he has in Gringotts, I doubt he will remain single for long,” Sweetie Belle said, and snickered.

Harry frowned. He remembered some of the soap operas he had heard while in his cupboard. “Should we warn him? I mean, there are witches who would try to take advantage of him.”

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo exchanged looks. “Let him get a few dates first, to build his confidence before we mention that,” Sweetie Belle said. The other girls nodded. Harry could see the wisdom of that.

Looking at the setting sun, and knowing how much longer it would be before dinner, Harry was sorry he had told Elly to wait until tomorrow to help her cousins. He shrugged — it didn’t really matter. “Race ya!” he suddenly shouted as he changed to a pony and started off. He always lost these races. Hopefully, the fillies never noticed that he was acting as rear-guard by doing so.

“HEY!” came the combined shout as the others set off after him. 

They quickly caught up, with Ginny and Scootaloo smugly soaring overhead, jokingly taunting the ground-bound, slow-poke, ponies. 


^·_·^


 

Unlike Friday morning, Saturday started with only a light cloud cover that Harry could see would rapidly vanish as the day went on. The small group of six Gryffindors and four Hufflepuffs headed for their destination, after breakfast, taking their time. There was no need to hurry. Harry thought it wouldn’t take all that much time to teach the three firsties, not if they had been studying hard on memorizing the spell. 

He knew the Elly wouldn’t let them slack off on that spell!

Just from having observed them over the last few months he had seen that Elly ruled the group with an iron hand.

Oh, they weren’t hanging around her all the time, that would have been impossible given their different class schedules. No, they spent a great deal of time apart, probably only hanging out together in their common room when they weren’t in the library — or outside on nice days — studying with their friends. Each seemed to have their own group of friends in the other Houses.

But when Elly said anything, or even gave them a look, they quickly toed the line in following her orders, even if the verbal interactions sounded like off-the-cuff remarks, comments, or suggestions. Not to mention that more than once he had seen one of three suddenly start, stop, or change what they were doing or saying when she merely gave them a glance.

Except for that one incident earlier in the year, the firsties never seemed to resent being governed by the Second Year.

He would have suspected she had told them something via telepathy, but the only thing close to telepathy that the witches had was occlumency and legilimency, both of which required a spell, a wand, and direct eye-to-eye sight.

Very few Equestrian unicorns had ever mastered telepathy, not even his mum had! Although she might be able to if she decided she wanted to do it. 

Ah, who was he kidding? It might take a few days, but she would do it. Her cutie mark practically guaranteed it!

In any case, Elly and her cousins were not Equestrian, so that couldn’t be it.

The sun was warming up the grounds and lake as the rapidly dissipating fog attested. The lake monster waved a tentacle idly at a few low-flying birds. It almost looked like the monster and the birds were playing tag.

“So,” he said as they arrived at the clearing by the lake, “Who wants to go first?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Earl stepped up to him and leaned forward slightly.

Harry pressed his forehead against the other. He was impressed, the image of the spell-work was just as clean as it had been with Elly. He stepped back. “Excellent,” he said approvingly, smiling. “Now, as I told Elly, picture yourself over there,” he pointed to a tree at the other end of the clearing’s shoreline. “You aren’t here, you’re there. You have to want to be there.”

It took a bit longer than it had with Elly, but eventually, he succeeded. The bells were a bit louder than Harry was used to hearing, but that was all.

Then he moved on to Essie, and then Emmie. Both were a bit faster at picking it up than Earl, but not by much.

“Oh,” he said, suddenly remembering. “Don’t try this in the air.”

They looked at him questioningly.

“My mum explained it to me,” he said. “The witches say that trying to apparate while in the air is always fatal, in that the witch is never heard from again.”

They slowly nodded. They had all heard that from the upper-years talking about learning how to apparate when they turned seventeen and could take the Hogwarts class.

“My mum talked with the muggle scientists and figured it out.” He stopped looked at them. They were all listening intently. “The earth is rotating at about a thousand miles per hour at the equator, about 733 miles per hour here in Scotland, and orbiting through space at about 66,000 miles per hour. The sun and our galaxy are moving at about 448 thousand miles per hour. So, in total, the earth is moving about eighty-eight miles per second.” 

They all nodded slowly, and Scootaloo looked ready to fall asleep.

“Well, the magic in apparition and disapparition are tied to the earth, and you move relative to those two fixed points. The problem is, if you are in the air, one of those two points is not fixed. And the magic doesn’t take into account the Earth’s motion through space. And while apparition is nearly instantaneous, it really isn’t, you have time to recognize that you are moving. That’s why you feel the squeezing sensation that every witch or wizard mentions when you apparate. If it were instantaneous, you wouldn’t have time to feel those things — it would be over. So, it takes time. Time during which the earth moves eight-eight miles.” He stopped and took a deep breath, “Which, depending on what time of the day it is, means you could end up eighty-eight miles straight up in space, eighty-eight miles down in the ground . . . or at any angle from where you were, but eighty-eight miles from where you started.”

They all looked a bit sick at the thought. Scootaloo was giving him a wide-eyed look. Apparently, she had been considering teleportation while flying.

“My mum said that her modified teleportation spell should be okay, but she doesn’t want anyone else to try until she’s had time to make sure the safeties will work in all circumstances. At the moment, she thinks only she and the Princesses can manage it in the air.”

They nodded solemnly. “Right,” Scootaloo said dryly. “No teleporting while flying!” She shuddered and they were all silent a moment in contemplation.

Scootaloo gave herself a shake, slapped Harry on the shoulder, and exclaimed, “Tag, you’re it!” Then she teleported to the opposite edge of the little clearing, giggling.

For the next five minutes they combined teleporting and running — but no flying! — playing tag until they were too tired to continue.

Then they collapsed in a pony pile to catch their breath — at least the Equestrians did. The four humans arranged themselves around the ponies and began petting them and scratching their ears.

The talked a bit about school and their friends.

After a time of just relaxing in the sun, they slowly got back on their hooves and feet. They were getting hungry and it was getting close to lunch time, only an hour or so away.

Idly talking with Elly about school had him revising his estimate of her intelligence. She was a lot smarter than she let on. So were her cousins.

He wondered why none of the teachers or others had noticed. He wasn’t the sharpest blade in the kitchen drawer, he knew. Many others were clearly smarter than him. Some of the firstie Equestrians were scarily smart. So, if he had noticed, how could they not have?


^·_·^


 

The end-of-year tests arrived in mid-June.

All the Years of one subject were on the same day, except for the OWL and NEWT students. Monday was Charms, Tuesday was Transfigurations, Wednesday was Defence against the Dark Arts, Thursday was Herbology, and Potions was Friday. The mornings were spent on theory, the afternoons on practicals. In the mornings, the Fifth- and Seventh-Year Prefects monitored the written tests in the Great Hall while the Professors graded the previous day’s tests. 

Then, Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout, as well as the Head Boy and Head Girl, split the practicals each day so that all five years — First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Sixth could be covered between noon and evening meals. The lower years took less time due to the simpler spells they had learned. The upper years were put through the wringer, though, and those took far longer. Which meant the lower years had most of their mornings and afternoons free. Free, that is, to study for their next exam.

Just to keep the scoring fair, none of the testers dealt with a member of his or her House. Further, the grades were normalized so that if one tester graded one House lower, all his students had their grades raised. If a tester treated another House with better grades, then their scores were lowered to match the other testers. Similarly, the differences between the testers, in total, were normalized.

Potions was tricker, which was why it was limited to just the two Professors and Zecora. Fortunately, the potion practicals could be done in batches, which greatly simplified things and meant they could spend more time in dealing with the written tests.

Naturally, with the OWLs and the NEWTs, the Ministry provided the examiners for the written test and the practicals. 

History, and Muggle Studies, both being without a practical, were Saturday morning and afternoon. Astronomy was that evening and night. Arithmancy and Runes, also without any practicals, took the following Monday. Care of Magical Creatures took Tuesday, with Divination on Wednesday.

Then the Ministry would begin their testing for the OWLs and NEWTs.

It was . . . mentally exhausting. By the time they had their evening meals, they felt as if their brains were sponges that had been wrung dry. The Firsties, both Equestrian and Human, were all panicking because they had never experienced this sort of pressure before.

Madam Pomfrey was going through her supply of calming drafts at a rapid rate.

For once, though, the hospital-wing saw fewer OWL and NEWT students requiring calming draughts than she had expected. It was her first exposure to the benefits of the students’ book-walking. It wouldn’t last, of course, but it was a respite until the professors altered their courses.

However, between Slughorn, Snape, and Zecora, she still managed to always have enough ready to hand out despite the addition of nearly forty “extra” students.

While the upper years were involved with the OWLs and NEWTs, after the other years had finished, the lower years were pretty much on their own. The Professors, of course, were now concentrating on grading those tests that they hadn’t managed to finish off during the morning. There was always a pickup game of Quidditch going in the afternoons, with the non-team-members getting to have some of the fun. It also gave the non-Fifth- and Seventh-year team-members a chance to see how they could handle the other positions. Which was not always that great of an improvement over the non-team-members they were playing against.


^-_-^


 

Then it was all over and they were on the train back to London. This time the cabin was quite crowded with all five fillies, Harry, Ron, and Neville. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, seated on either side of Harry, didn’t seem that uncomfortable pressed up against him to make more room for Hermione and Ginny on the seat. Ron and Neville looked a bit puzzled at the arrangement, but then just shrugged their shoulders and appreciated the extra room on their bench. Scootaloo alternated between flying in the middle of the cabin and sitting with the boys.

Of course, they didn’t really have to be crowded at all. They had three trunks with luxurious apartments in their pockets! However, his mum had made it quite clear that she expected them to ride the train. They had been forbidden to use the trunks to immediately go home for the day and then return to the train just before it reached London so that others didn’t know they had trunks with floo connections.

Harry thought it all a bunch of . . . well . . . horsefeathers. But his mum had spoken, so he listened and obeyed as well as he could.

After the witch with the food-cart had been by, Elly and her cousins knocked on the door to the cabin. She stood there a moment, chewing her lower-lip in apparent indecision as she stared at the somewhat packed seating arrangements, her cousins in the corridor behind her. Elly clearly had something on her mind.

After a moment, she took a deep breath. “Harry,” she said with a slight quaver in her voice, “Can we speak to you . . . privately?” She glanced uncertainly at the others.

He shrugged. “Sure,” he said, and frowned thinking for a moment as he looked around the cabin. He nodded to himself, reached into his pocket, and pulled out his trunk. Setting it down as close to the window as possible, he returned it to normal size, selected the apartment section, and opened the trunk.

“Come on in,” he said, and cast a darkening spell on the corridor windows so no one could look in on them.

Elly and the other three looked around uncertainly, but crowded inside. There was barely room to close the door. Earl and Essie squeezed themselves onto the bench beside Neville, giving him and Ron apologetic, nervous smiles.

Once the door was closed, Harry cast a locking charm on it, then stepped into his trunk. The four newcomers stared as he sank out of sight. “Come on down when the elevator gets back up,” he said.

Elly was staring around in astonishment as the elevator brought her and Earl down. Essie and Emmie had just as surprised expressions when they descended.

Harry led them into the kitchen area.

“Okay, what is it you wanted to talk about?” he said as he closed the door behind them. “No one can hear us in here.”

Elly looked at him frowning uncertainly, her lips pressed together. She looked at the closed door and sighed. “Maybe,” she said hesitantly, “we should have your girlfriends here, too?”

Harry gave her a quizzical look, then shrugged. “Sure,” he said. He reopened the door, walked over to the elevator, tapped the button to call the elevator, and shouted up, “Hey, fillies? Elly wants to talk to you, too.”

The five quickly came down, and he ushered them into the kitchen, too.

“Want some butterbeers?” he said, going over to the coldbox. A chorus of yeses answered him.

After passing out the bottles, leaning against the counter, he looked at Elly and raised an eyebrow.

After taking a long pull from the bottle, she set it on the table and sighed, looking down. Then she looked back up. “I have a confession to make,” she said quietly.

Essie, Emmie, and Earl all looked nervous as the others looked at Elly.

“It’s something we’ve kept quiet about because most wizards and witches . . . would be suspicious of us if it got out.” She looked at them. “According to the books in the library that I’ve found, it’s a really rare ability.” She took another nervous breath. “And from what we’ve heard, it’s not an ability that is well-liked in Equestria.”

The fillies all exchanged looks with Harry.

“And?” he said leadingly, gesturing with his hand to hurry things up.

She took a deep breath. “We’re metamorphmagi.” She gave them an expectant, slightly afraid, look.

She got completely blank looks in return, except for Ginny whose face lit up in delight.

“Meta . . .  whatzis?” hazarded Scootaloo, her face scrunched up in confusion. Elly looked back at them, now just as confused as they were.

“Metamorphmagi,” Ginny breathed out. “Really?” She grinned and excitedly hopped in place.

The others turned to her, their questions clear in their expressions of raised eyebrows and tilted heads.

“It’s someone who can change the way they look, shapechangers!” she exclaimed. Turning back to Elly, she said, “Can you do your whole body or just your face?”

The fillies took a step back in surprise and alarm, and Harry moved slightly closer to Elly and her cousins. After meeting Kevin in Equestria, they weren’t exactly scared of somepony who could change their appearance, but it was still a shock.

But then, he realized, Elly had gone out of her way to help him and the fillies. Plus, she didn’t have to tell them about this. She could have kept it secret. He relaxed and turned to the fillies. “She helped us, remember?”

Their expressions slowly changed from wariness to chagrin. “Sorry,” Apple Bloom said in an apologetic tone. “We’ve just had a bad experience with shapeshifters in Equestria. Y’all haven’t done anything fer us to be suspicious of you.”

Elly nodded, and appeared somewhat relieved, based on her expression and the way she seemed to relax a bit. But she didn’t relax completely. “Yeah, we read about those changelings. That’s why I was worried about telling you. I was afraid you’d think we were like them.”

She sighed and looked at Ginny. “It’s the whole body, not just our faces.”

Harry watched, fascinated, as her straight, black hair changed to red and lengthened slightly. Her eyebrows shifted closer together, as well as changing colour and her eyes changed to brown. In a matter of seconds, he was staring at a duplicate of Ginny. She had even shrunken slightly. If he hadn’t seen her do it, he would have thought he was looking at Ginny.

“Yes!” exclaimed Ginny, just as excited as before. “My brother used to date a girl who was a metamorphmagus! She was soo cool! Make your hair pink,” she demanded.

Bemused, Elly complied.

“Now do a pig snout!”

Elly blinked, but also complied with that demand.

There were no green flames at any time. Or any other colour flames, for that matter.

Harry glanced at Elly’s cousins and was amazed to see Hermione, Sweetie Belle, and himself staring back. For himself, it wasn’t like looking in a mirror, he realized, but how somepony on the street actually saw him. Everything was flipped from what he was used to seeing.

His fillies looked as stunned as he thought he did.

Elly, speaking in Ginny’s voice, said, “If I knew what you looked like without clothes, not even your mother would be able to tell us apart.”

Ginny nodded, still bouncing excitedly. “I know, that’s what Tonks told me.” She glanced at the herd, “She’s the girl who is the metamorphmagus. She left Hogwarts the summer before we started,” she explained.

They spent the next quarter-hour exploring how they looked to others, and having the four relatives show off their talents. Seeing a miniature Snap was scary, seeing a miniature McGonagall was funny. Earl doing Dumbledore reduced them all to giggles.

They were getting ready to go back up into the train when Elly stopped them.

“There’s one more thing,” she said, again a bit hesitant in her mannerisms.

They stopped and looked at her expectantly.

“It’s another trait we all share,” she said, glancing at her cousins. “We can tell what your feeling are.” 

Harry’s eyebrows went up in surprise, as did the others’.

“Our feelings?” said Ginny.

Elly nodded. “Yes. We know when you’re happy, when your sad or depressed, or afraid or suspicious.”

Harry gasped. “That’s how you knew Goyle was being possessed!” His eyes widened. And how you knew that Prefect last year was imperiused!”

Elly slowly nodded. “Yes. His feelings didn’t match his actions, at all. He looked calm, but inside he was panicking. It isn’t always that simple, though. When there are several people close together, the feelings all blur together.” She looked at the fillies and Harry. “For example, if one of you is depressed about an exam result, but the rest of you are happy, we can tell there’s sadness in the happiness, but we can’t detect exactly from whom unless we’re right in the middle. And, of course, that doesn’t rule out that someone could be happy about a quidditch game, but upset about . . . I don’t know . . . breaking up with their girlfriend?”

Harry and the others slowly nodded.

Apple Bloom looked at her, and her cousins, with narrowed eyes. “So, you could tell someone was lying by the way they felt guilty or afraid?”

Elly wagged her head side-to-side. “Sorta? You can be absolutely telling the truth but afraid or nervous that you won’t be believed. Which would be impossible to differentiate from someone desperate for you to believe their lie. Plus, some people can make themselves believe the lie they’re telling.”

Apple Bloom frowned, but from her grimace he saw that she conceded that it wasn’t a fool-proof method. Nothing like her sister, who could spot a lie a thousand celestials away — and yes, he knew that was an exaggeration, but it still made it impossible to get away with anything but the truth when dealing with her. As they had learned to their dismay during their escapades in Ponyville before the fillies got their cutie marks.

The only way to not get caught in a lie with her was to simply not have her question you about something you did that you didn’t want anypony to know about!

“You don’t eat our emotions, do you?” Sweetie Belle hesitantly asked.

Elly rolled her eyes. “You have seen us eating at the tables in Hogwarts, haven’t you?” she said, hands on her hips. 

Embarrassed, Sweetie Belle could only nod. “Sorry,” she whispered.

Elly grinned at her. “Compared to how I was afraid you would all take this, that is easily forgiven! Seriously, with the Princess as your in-law,” she glanced at Harry, “or mum,” she continued, “I would have to be very stupid to do anything that might harm any of you. So, you have our promise, we will never do anything to deliberately hurt you!”

There was a very small pulse of magic that shot across them, startling them all.

Well, Harry thought, that should put to rest any worries he or his mum might have had in the future about Elly and her relatives. Elly was certainly as sincere in her promise as he had been.

After staring at each other for few moments, Harry shrugged, and waved at the waiting elevator.

Once in the cabin, the Equestrians transformed into ponies to make more room. Ginny and Scootaloo perched on the overhead luggage racks, and Harry levitated Hermione up to join them. The rest of the trip to London was spent with the four cousins demonstrating how well they had observed their classmates and professors. Not to mention doing pig-snouts, elephant noses and ears, bird beaks, and other silly things.

As they pulled into London Station, Ginny said, “When you show what you can do to George and Fred, they won’t stop pestering you to help them with pranks!”

It was on the bus to the Embassy and Portal that Harry first began to wonder what would happen if Elly or her cousins crossed the portal. Would they look like unicorns? 

Was that why she had turned them down last summer and the other holidays? Was she afraid that they might come through the portal and resemble the Changelings, but only more pony-like? And how would the Guards react to that!?

He would need to have a long conversation with his mum.


^·_·^


End of Book II