Dumbledore looked up from his copy of the Evening Prophet; Hailey and Professor Lupin had arrived, as he had requested.
According to the article, the events depicted- which included a rare, non-moving wizarding photo of the Hogwarts Express from above, brilliant silver light shining from every window on the entire train and the shadows of dementors fleeing as fast as they could- had happened a mere two hours before. How Rita Skeeter had gotten her hands on the story, taken it to the Daily Prophet, and managed to get it published in a rare evening edition of the newspaper fast enough for it to make it to his desk before the Hogwarts Express pulled into Hogsmeade Station, he had no idea.
“Hailey… what happened?” he asked, pushing the newsprint towards Hailey. He’d called Lupin mostly so he could alert him if she lied or something… Not that he expected her to.
She looked down at it, raised an eyebrow, and chuckled amusedly. Lupin also glanced at it and raised an eyebrow as well. Judging by the note he’d sent ahead, her Patronus had been the brightest he’d ever seen- but he hadn’t a clue just how bright it had been.
“I cast a Patronus,” Hailey told him calmly.
“... Alright,” he muttered. “How?”
“I concentrated on…” She paused. “Well, it’s technically not a memory, but it was close enough, and spoke the incantation: Expecto Patronum.”
“You’re only a third-year,” he told her.
She let out a snort of laughter. “I trust you were informed of when I cast a corporeal patronus- a stag, by the way- back in the Dueling Club last year? Or when I was hired as an HSI precisely because I have a bit of a habit of using spells that I have no right to have even heard about yet?” She grinned. “I mean, I think I was at Hogwarts for a total of about three weeks before using the Impediment Jinx- which is apparently fourth-year material?” She chuckled. “Oh yes, and that I killed Voldemort again last Spring. That’s always fun.”
Dumbledore sighed; Lupin seemed to be trying to figure out if he wanted to laugh or stare in amazement, and seemed to be compromising with a silent but amused chuckle, one hand over his mouth. “You’ve forgotten the Goddess of Reports,” he observed wryly.
She snorted. “Well yeah, but that’s something I learned after I came here. Albeit not from the Professors… Hermione invented it.”
Lupin let out a very audible snort of laughter at that.
Dumbledore sighed again. “Alright,” he muttered. “So, what were you concentrating on?”
“Mm?” Hailey paused, thinking. “I was concentrating… on my assets.” She followed his instinctive glance downwards. “Er, not that kind of asset. Though,” she tapped her chin with a fingertip, “I suppose they were actually relevant.”
“What assets?” Dumbledore asked slowly. “Er, that you were concentrating on,” he added quickly.
“Well,” she grinned, and started counting them off on her fingers, starting with her pinkie. “My friends were counting on me, there was a promising Professor behind me, I know more magic than anyone else my age, I knew what it was, I’m completely indestructible.” She switched hands, and started with her thumb. “I have more power than even Lord Voldemort available to me, I could probably have punched it straight through the wall even if my spell failed… And, of course, I was female.” She ticked that off on all three remaining fingers at once.
“... You were female,” he repeated.
She nodded. “Yes. You haven’t noticed how much I like being female?”
“And your parents?”
She smiled. “Oh, no, they only ever come out when things actually start getting dire. Or when something tries to kill me. But Morning could probably have taken it by storm as well, say nothing of Professor Lupin who was, I remind you, standing right behind me with his wand drawn as well.”
Lupin visibly raised his eyebrow, but didn’t say anything.
“And…” Dumbledore glanced down at the article again, with the headline ‘World’s Strongest Patronus on the Hogwarts Express’. “The Dementor?”
“In the Hospital Wing,” Hailey answered promptly. “Lupin’s chocolate seemed to help quite a bit, but she was still delirious.”
“And a dementor was capable of being delirious…” He paused, wishing he’d had time to actually read the article before they arrived. “How?”
Hailey wasn’t the only one that had been summoned away from the throng of students going into the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall had called Ginny and Ariel, while Professor Snape had called Draco. Fortunately for him, Silver had gone back to her ‘original’ form as Draco in order to get off the train; it would’ve been too suspicious if Draco hadn’t dismounted. He was too well-known amongst the Slytherins.
Snape looked at Silver, and nodded. “Follow me,” he instructed, and led the way back down to his office.
Finally, he stepped behind his desk. “Now… Draco.”
“Yes?” She made it a point to not imitate Silversong’s voice, as she’d caught herself doing a couple times over the summer or on the train, when in form as Draco.
“You didn’t select any electives,” Snape told her.
She blinked. “I coulda sworn I-!” She broke off, then tilted her head. “Isn’t there magic to catch that?” she asked.
He nodded. “There is. However, you may have noticed that when we handed these forms out last year, they all already had names across the top. Any idea why that might be?”
“Ahh…” She scowled. That sounded like a question Hermione would ace, but she was drawing a blank. “I… No, Sir, I do not.”
“Perhaps,” Snape began. “It’s because they’re magically tethered to the student records. Imagine my surprise when I found there were two of them tied to your record, Mr. Malfoy.”
She barely managed to suppress the wince. She was Silversong, darn it! “Two?”
“Yes. One with your name, and one for miss… Silversong.”
It took her a second to imagine how she might’ve reacted if Snape had told her a name that wasn’t one of her own- such as, say, Hailey. Finally, she tilted her head. “Silversong…? Oh, right. She said hers was destroyed somehow- she didn’t say how- so I duplicated mine for her, and that’s the name she applied to it.”
“There is no student record by the name of Silversong,” Snape told him flatly.
She sighed. “I thought it might be. I don’t know what her real name is.”
“Can you go get her?” he asked.
“Ah-!” She’d been afraid of that. How could she fetch herself?
A way immediately popped into her mind. She could tell Hailey- who would undoubtedly find a way, as she’d done so many times before. Except, Hailey didn’t know that Draco and Silversong were one and the same- and besides, it’d take so long to arrange that it’d be fairly obvious to Professor Snape.
“I- er-!” She paused, gazing at her knees. Was there even any way to keep the secret?
“Well?” Snape asked. “Is there a problem?”
She didn’t move. Perhaps… Yes. Perhaps this was the time to start letting the staff know. Professor McGonagall knew about Hailey, after all.
So, without looking up, she shifted silently into form as Silversong.
The silence drew on for what seemed like a small eternity.
“I see,” Snape eventually muttered, sitting down behind his desk.
The silence seemed to draw on, and on, and on. Silver didn’t interrupt it, afraid to mess something up.
Finally, Snape looked at her. She couldn’t see him; she was still studying the way her skirts were draped over her knees. She could, however, feel his gaze. “Why do you seem so much happier than Draco?” he asked.
Her head snapped up. “I- I do?”
He smiled, and nodded, slowly. “Yes, you do.”
“I-!” She paused again, trying to decide what to say- to remember her own feelings. “I don’t know,” she eventually admitted. “Maybe… Maybe it’s because I like Silver so much?” She shrugged.
“So maybe,” another voice said from behind her, making her jump- Professor McGonagall. “Maybe, it’s because you’re like Hailey?”
“L-Like Hailey?” she asked, twisting to look. “How?”
Bonbon followed her in, and closed the door behind them, but McGonagall spoke. “You know. Transfeminine.”
“Transwhat?”
“A witch, born in a wizard’s body,” Bonbon supplied.
“Well duh,” she half-declared- then she winced. “Er- sorry.”
Professor McGonagall stood next to her. “And would I be correct to assume you want to be Silversong as much as possible?”
She paused. “I…” She hesitated. “I’m… not certain, actually. It’s… still unfamiliar.”
“Yet feels so right,” Bonbon muttered, in a rather passable imitation of Hailey’s voice.
She nodded. “Exactly.”
McGonagall nodded too. “Alright then. How about I hunt you up some Gryffindor badges, then move you into Gryffindor Tower?”
She winced. “But Draco can’t just disappear, can he?”
“True,” Bonbon scowled. “Well, Hailey told us this might happen. How about…” She glanced up at Snape, and smiled. “Core classes as Draco, electives as Silversong? We’ve still got plenty of time for last-minute schedule changes. Especially considering how ready we are for ‘em. You’d have… Oh, about an hour between classes to get lost and transform.”
Silver looked up at McGonagall. “But… why Gryffindor?”
“You got the Sword of Godric Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat,” Bonbon supplied. “Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that from the Hat.” She shrugged. “Though it doesn’t preclude Slytherin House, but as I recall, the Hat sounded reluctant when it sorted you. Never a good sign, that.”
She looked at her. “You can remember it that clearly?”
She smiled, and nodded. “Yes. I believe Hailey’s mentioned my ‘concise writing for detailed reports’ class a couple times. Speaking of, remember that offer we made in the middle of last year?”
“Uh- yeah?”
She pulled a packet of papers out of her bag, and held them out to her. “It’s still open.” She smiled. “To Silversong. Perhaps with your help, we can bring Crabbe and Goyle back up to speed- now that, thanks to Hailey and Hermione’s ‘skill transfer’ spell, they can actually understand the world around them.”
She blinked. “That would explain… a lot, actually.” She chuckled lightly. “Alright, I’ll take it. Maybe Draco can disappear completely in some future year.”
Bonbon nodded. “Anyways, while we’re on the topic of Hailey, what do you know about that dementor she resurrected?”