Chapter 1-4X: Surprise Dawns at Hogwarts
(Sometime about noon on July 25th)
Professor McGonagall sighs and muses as she opens up yet another response to a Hogwarts Acceptance Letter, “I know Dumbledore insists you aren’t dead, Harry, but I can’t see how you lived through his attack.” She begins writing a letter detailing a time and date when she will pick the student and family up for shopping. “It would have been your first year, and I’m sad I never got to see your star shine.”
Shifting a bit as she continues writing, she hears her alarm charm go off, followed by her stomach rumbling. Sighing as she stands up, “I should get something to eat. Maybe then I’ll be less mopey.”
However, before leaving her office, an owl flies in and blocks her path, hooting and waving the full envelope clutched in its claws at her. “Put the letter on my desk, and I’ll look at it after lunch.”
She then tries to move past the owl, but it continues blocking her path, trying yet again to make her take the envelope. Fed up and hungry, Professor McGonagall finally takes the envelope and looks at it, going, “Alright, you silly owl, why are yo…. I...I can see why now. You’ll find treats on my desk. I have to tell the rest of the staff this.”
Rushing down and up the stairs far faster than usual, Professor McGonagall rushes into the headmaster’s office out of breath, where the heads of house and Dumbledore were already seated for their working lunch. Professor Dumbledore notices this and says, “Slow down, McGonagall, we haven’t started eating yet. Have you received word that today’s lunch is supposed to be extra special or something?”
Noticing the envelope clutched in Mcgonagall’s hand, Professor Snape asks with a sneer as she sits down, “Or have you received Draco Malfoy’s letter? What has Lucius demanded this time?”
Taking a deep pull of her glass of pumpkin juice, Professor McGonagall puts the envelope down. Coming up for breath, Professor McGonagall finally says, “Look at the envelope and see for yourself.” This statement, of course, causes the other professors to crowd around the envelope where they all see:
Aletia C. Selicorn
11 Magnolia Road
Little Whinging, Surrey, England
To: Professor McGonagall
Hogwarts Acceptance Letters
Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, Scotland
Mutely, Professor Sprout hands Professor Flitwick a Galleon as he himself bursts into tears of joy, happily saying, “I knew miss Selicorn was too skilled in charms to be killed that easily.”
Professor Snape just cautiously says, “I’m more curious about where she’s kept Potter. If they’d been living there, either Ms. Figg or Petunia would have contacted us.”
Professor Sprout finally finds her voice and asks, “Letters? As in Multiple?”
Professor Dumbledore just claps his hands excitedly. “Would you mind doing us the honors of opening that envelope, my dear Minerva?”
Nodding and doing as he asks, Professor McGonagall pulls out four sheets of paper and reads the front one out loud:
Dear Professor McGonagall,
I know it has been ages since we last had a chance to speak. You probably wonder why I haven’t talked to you since Lily’s murder or let you know Harry was safe with me, although he goes by a different name now. You may also wonder why the envelope says “letters.”
Let me be honest with you, and please keep this close to your chest, but I wasn’t entirely honest with you. The summer before her final year, Lily was, as an extra-curricular project, trying to create a bigger version of a vanishing cabinet, a vanishing room, if you will. At the same time, I was trying to do something similar on a parallel earth. My world in ancient times had a wizard who was a prodigy in creating gates between parallel Earths and self-transfiguration charms, so the traveler fit in. One of these lost gates went to your Earth, and we failed in our original plans but succeeded in retreading the link.
Lily’s life spell to protect Harry sent him through the gate into my apartment, by my best guess. On this end, Death Eaters destroyed our gate’s anchor the night after her murder, and it wasn’t until the summer solstice this year that we found his ancient gate in a secret room of an old, abandoned castle in the woods.
As you have probably inferred by now, and as I sadly couldn’t tell you at the time, due to the political climate, I was not born human. Lily and James both knew this fact at the time, and Lily brought Harry once over through our portal, where he turned into an adorable baby pegasus colt the color of the sunrise with a yellow forked stripe running through his black hair.
Upon seeing his coloration, and at my prodding, she gave him the name he now goes by, Lightning Sunrise. It’s the only name he has ever known, so please use that when speaking to him. I think he’d answer to Harry if needed, but even his Hogwarts Letter’s Envelope gave his name as Lightning Sunrise. I also don’t want him to suffer the attention Harry Potter would bring.
Due to reasons I’d rather not say, Lily knew I could not raise him myself but instead fostered him with a family of similar colored unicorns, our active magic users, that she had picked out in case anything happened to her. He’s had a happy childhood where he’s made many friends that I’m sure he’d love to tell you about Minerva. Three of them also got their Hogwarts letters, and I imagine a fourth will get his when he turns eleven next year.
Lily’s Friend,
Aletia C Selicorn
P.S. You can tell Snape and Professors Flitwick, Sprout, and Dumbledore this news. Then again, knowing you, you read this aloud to some of them already.
I hereby do give permission for Lightning Sunrise, formerly Harry James Potter, to attend Hogwarts.
Signed,
Aletia C Selicorn (godmother)
Stellar Flare (Adoptive Mother)
Sunspot (Adoptive Father)
Taking a big swig of her pumpkin juice after reading out the massive thing, Professor McGonagall breaks the silence by saying, “That answers many questions and raises many more.”
Professor Flitwick says with some surprise, “I know I saw her using her wand, and she never had any trouble walking or speaking. Do you think the pegasi living on our roof and in the attics are capable of more than they are letting on?”
Professor Sprout shrugs to that. “They’ve never been that willing to let us examine them, especially after Arogog escaped into the forest, leading to his children forcing them out of it.”
Morosely, Dumbledore admits, “Or that I tried capturing one of them as a young man. If they are indeed sapient, that was a big mistake on my part, and I owe them multiple apologies.”
Snape sharply points out, “I wonder if Aletia is even her real name. It doesn’t follow the naming pattern of the rest, but maybe the other letters will give us some more clues?”
Shrugging, Professor McGonagall puts the first one aside in order to read the second one written in terrible hoofwriting with a blue feather taped to it:
I, Rainbow Miriam Dash, hereby give permission for my adoptive sister/daughter Scooter Louise “Scootaloo” Songwing-Dash to attend Hogwarts.
P.S. Have a feather from the fastest Pegasus in Equestria.
Professor Flitwick turns to Professor Snape and rebuffs him, “There’s your proof that it might actually be her real name.”
Professor McGonagall just rubs her temples. “I just hope this Scootaloo isn’t as arrogant as her adopted parent. I’m going to have to deal with a repeat of James and his gang all over again, aren’t I?”
Professor Snape looks more and more concerned about where Professor McGonagall is going. “Please don’t joke about that. I can’t protect them from their own stupidity. I still don’t know how you managed it. It’s bad enough with the Weasley twins and the adopted daughter of the Weasley’s all being in the third year.”
Shudders abound around the table, remembering those three before Dumbledore says, “I’ll have Professor Kettleburn analyze this feather, but it looks like a pegasus feather, only blue. He might also have some more clues on them.”
Professor McGonagall flips to the next page to distract from the headache, this one written in elegant, neat handwriting at the start:
My darling younger sister Sweet Generosity “Sweetie” Belle would like to attend Hogwarts. I look after her most of the time anyway, and she basically lives with me in my clothing boutique home,
Rare Generosity “Rarity” Belle
Before being replaced by a much less refined script:
Yeah, whatever our eldest daughter said,
Hondo Flanks and Generous Cookie Crumbles.
“There has got to be a fascinating story behind their friendship,” Professor Sprout muses after hearing the massive difference in attitudes expressed in just those short sentences.
Professor Snape just mutters, “At least they have someone they can depend on-” before sneering and speaking up-, “and at least we clearly won’t have to teach them how to clothe themselves.”
“Well, let’s see what the last of the four has to say for themselves.” Flipping to the last page, written in a deliberate, careful script, Professor McGonagall reads aloud:
Howdy there, Professor McGonagall. Mah...My sister, Apple Bloom, is eagerly looking to attend your school, and it will get her and her trouble-making friends away from my family’s apple orchard. You can have the fun of cleaning tree sap off of them or teaching them a spell to do so themselves,
Abigail Jacqueline Apple “AppleJack”
P.S. It’s weird how only males get suffixes in your culture.
P.P.S. Our grandma is very old, so you’ll be dealing with Macintosh Apple or myself. Our parents died when she was a baby, so my elder brother and I raised her.
Snape rubs his temples at the forming headache. “It’s going to be James and his gang all over again indeed.”
McGonagall smiles as lunch finally appears, meaning they aren’t all crowding around her as they rush to get their own food and eat. “Cheer up, Severus. It means you get to pretend to be very mad at Lily and James’ son.”
While Professor Snape grumbles unintelligibly, Dumbledore thinks out loud, “How many votes can I get to amend wand law?”
Professor Flitwick then pauses his eating at what Professor Dumbledore is getting at. “There’s no way a bunch of firsties will keep the fact they weren’t born human or don’t really consider themselves such any longer. I’ll work with what contacts I have to try and help.”
The other three heads nod in agreement as Professor Snape gruffly suggests, “Much as I’d like to get one over on James, I don’t want to prevent his and Lily’s son from learning. Might I suggest wording the amendment such that any wizard or witch going through or having graduated from Hogwarts or similar is allowed a wand?”
Professor Sprout nods in approval. “That should be sufficiently Slytherin for all the blood purists. On a similar note, how goes relocating the package? And is the prophecy still intact?”
“Hagrid will pick it up tomorrow with Neville,” Dumbledore confidently states before adding reluctantly, “and the prophecy still holds together somehow despite its many cracks. I’m sure I can get both of them to trust me.”
Finishing up her meal, Professor McGonagall gets to go up and use Dumbledore’s Floo. “With your permission Albus, I’d like to check in on Lightning and his friends and family.”
“Permission granted Minerva. While we’re on the subject of tasks, Severus, I want you to take this feather to Silvanus under the guise of wondering what parts of pegasi you can use in potions. Get him talking about them. Meanwhile, I’m going to have to go visit the Ministry and mess with the records to separate Lightning Sunrise from Harry James Potter.”
With their missions set, Professor McGonagall leaves the Headmaster’s office via Floo and comes out into the Leaky Cauldron.