“Welcome to the Carousel Boutique, where every- Oh, Hailey! How’s it been?”
Hailey chuckled as she trotted up towards Rarity’s sewing desk. “Better than before,” she answered. “How about you?”
Rarity laughed. “That Ball has made quite the windfall for my Boutique here,” she observed. “Dumbledore announced it at dinner just two days ago, and I’ve already got enough orders to keep me busy for years.”
Hailey laughed as well. “Well, you are kinda world-famous over here, aren’t you?”
“Well yes, Darling,” Rarity sang, trotting over to the door to the backroom. “That’s why I’m hiring aggressively. I’m making a Fashion Empire that should be able to make everypony’s gowns!” She sighed. “I don’t think we’ll manage them all this year, though, so we’re just getting as many as we can. It’s going to be awesome! Do you want to try yours on real quick?”
Hailey shrugged her wings. “Sure, why not?”
“Right this way, then,” Rarity smiled, opening the door to the backroom.
Hailey chuckled as she trotted up. “How are the other gowns coming?” She paused, reaching the door. “They’re pretty,” she said, answering her own question.
“Why thank you,” Rarity preened. “As you can see, I’ve got Hermione’s royal gown ready, along with yours and the rest of your Herd’s ball gowns-!”
“We’re not a herd,” Hailey rebuked suddenly, turning her face away from Rarity. “We’re not nearly old enough for that yet. Just a bunch of, ah, closer-than-average friends.” She turned back to Rarity. “So, and the rest of my friends’ ball gowns…” She trailed off.
Rarity stared at her for a second. “... Oh, alright,” she muttered. “The rest of your friends’ ball gowns. I’ve also got Sunset’s and Angelina’s gowns over there, for both human and pony forms.” She pointed a hoof.
“You really went all-out on those,” Hailey observed. She was pointing at a collection of at least twenty pony and twenty human dresses and gowns.
Rarity let out an awkward chuckle. “Y-Yeah, I did, didn’t I?” she muttered. “That’s what Angelina said when she stopped by yesterday.” She sighed. “I’m not making it too hard on her, am I?”
“Nah,” Hailey chuckled. “Just this morning, she was practically glowing with eagerness when she was telling me about how much she liked the dresses you made for her and Sunset. Though I suppose she was a little concerned about exactly how much you were spending on her, but…” She shrugged.
“I get that all the time,” Rarity muttered fondly. “But really, my profit margin on everything else I do is so ridiculously large that I can afford to do basically whatever I want for my friends.” She shrugged as well, a distinctly different effect without wings. “I’m actually taking a loss on orders from British students right now- I don’t want to be too expensive for them.”
“You got orders from British students?” Hailey asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yup!” She cheered, holding her head proudly in the air. “I got enough Equestrian orders to cover the costs handily- and I am charging them, it’s just not absolutely stupendous.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, the conversion rate would tend to make it stupendous, wouldn’t it?”
“H-Hailey?” Parvati Patil gasped. She’d just run up the stairs to her dormitory to get changed for the Yule Ball, only to find Hailey already there, digging in her own trunk. The weird part was that Hailey was wearing an unfamiliar dress- a dress that was definitely not the Hogwarts robes she’d been wearing a few seconds before, when Parvati had glanced across the common room right before heading up.
Hailey glanced up nervously. “Uh- Hi.” Then she turned back to the trunk.
Parvati stared. Hailey was due to be her partner at the ball quite soon- she had been amazed when Hailey had asked her just a few days before, rather than somebody else- and yet, here she was, acting so… different. “Um, are you okay?” she asked.
“Of course I’m okay.”
Parvati jumped when the voice came from right behind her, and whirled around. Then she froze.
There was Hailey, in her Hogwarts robes, standing in the doorway with a mischievous grin on her face.
Then there was Hailey, leaning casually against the wall next to the door, smiling amusedly while she fiddled with her fingers. A fraction of a second later, Parvati realized that this third Hailey was wearing nail polish, which she’d never seen Hailey do before.
“What in the-?” she began.
The one in the doorway grinned at her. “I’ll explain in a minute?” she asked.
“Y-You know what’s going on?” she asked.
Hailey nodded. “Well yes, Past Self and Future Self are already here.” She indicated the other two in turn, the one at the trunk first.
“Yes, Present Self,” Future Hailey chuckled. “Oh my, that really does feel weird to say.”
Hailey grinned. “I bet,” she agreed. “Anyways.” She turned to her bed, where Past Hailey had stood up straight and turned to face them. “Past Self? Don’t worry about the Ball. I’ve got it handled.”
“And very amusingly at that,” Future Hailey agreed.
Past Hailey raised an eyebrow.
Hailey grinned. “It’s in the notebook,” she chuckled.
Future Hailey drew a small notebook from her hair, and trotted over to Past Hailey. “This notebook, to be specific,” she smiled, before stuffing it straight into Past Hailey’s hair.
Past Hailey eeked timidly, then took a deep breath. “Okay. I guess I have everything I need, then?” Her tone was very subdued, almost sad.
“Oh cheer up,” Future Hailey told her. “The world is not about to end, as you can see.” She held her hands out to her sides. “But yes, that should be everything. Just remember to only read the first section until after you’ve completed the Third Task, alright?” She hugged Past Hailey briefly, eliciting a small squeal of protest, before standing back to wave. “See you in the mirror in the present and future!”
Past Hailey cracked a small grin. “Eh heh heh,” she muttered. “See you in… What?”
“That’s ‘see me in the future’,” Hailey informed her.
“See me in the future?” Past Hailey asked, blinking. “Uh… I… I guess that works, doesn’t it?” She took a deep breath. “Anyways, I’ll be going.” She turned on the spot, and disappeared.
“Okay then,” Future Hailey said. “Present Self, how’s Aurelia doing?”
Hailey looked at her. “We’re still reading up on the various pests.” She sighed. “There sure is a lot to learn in those books.”
“Ahh,” Future Hailey nodded. “Once you finish One Thousand Household Pests and Problems, you’ll know everything you’re going to need to clean that place out. At least, unless you want to play Goddess for a few minutes, you know how effective that is.” She chuckled. “Anyways, don’t take Sadarina there until after you’ve found all seven boggarts, okay?”
“Why would I want to play goddess?” Hailey asked.
Future Hailey shrugged. “Just because you’re stupidly powerful doesn’t mean you have to let the world rule you,” she told her. “Tell them to take care of themselves, turn down the rulership…” She shrugged. “If the Ministry ever comes to me asking for orders, I’m going to tell them to keep working as usual, because managing the country is what I keep them around for.”
“Even though you’re only five months older than me,” Hailey observed.
“Five and a half,” Future Hailey corrected, “but yeah, that’s long-term plans- and to be fair, that’s probably going to happen at least once in the next few years. We’re just too powerful. Anyways, did you have anything you wanted to ask me?”
Hailey blinked, and grinned. “Why yes, actually- you’d almost think that you were me just five and a half months ago!”
Both of them broke out in giggles.
“Anyways,” Hailey said, when she calmed down. “I’ve been thinking about trying some nail polish at some point- and it looks like you’ve used some. Any recommendations?”
“I’ve found that a nice dark blue works well,” Future Hailey told her, holding out a hand to show her. “See?”
“You’re right,” Hailey agreed. “That does look nice.”
“So anyways, I’ve got you a couple bottles here,” Future Hailey said, rapidly pulling a few small glass bottles from her hair and handing them to Hailey. “Don’t worry, they’re brand new. And no, I’m not telling you where I got them.” She grinned, then looked up at Parvati, who was still standing, staring at them, in front of the door. “Hey Parvati, do you think you can teach her how to use them?” she asked.
“Uh-!” Parvati muttered, backstepping as the question snapped her out of her trance. “Um-!” She looked between the two nearly-identical girls, took a deep breath, and nodded. “I- I think so,” she muttered, looking down.
“Awesome, thanks!” Future Hailey cheered, before turning to Hailey. “Well, it’s about time I returned to my own time, then.”
Hailey grinned. “See me in the future!”
Future Hailey laughed. “See you in the mirror in the future!” She waved, snapped her fingers, and vanished into thin air.
“Somebody’s having a lot of fun,” Hailey mused, then smiled. “And I think I know what happened, too.” She looked over at Parvati. “You okay?”
“Wh-What even was that?” Parvati asked.
“My past and future selves,” Hailey told her, stepping over. “It’s because…” She paused, glancing around briefly.
Parvati shivered as she felt a wash of magical energy surround them; she had long since decided that the way she could so naturally sense magic was unusual, and chosen not to reveal it. The particular spell was unfamiliar- but it was coming from Hailey.
“It’s because I kinda am Harry,” Hailey told her.
“Called it!” she cried, punching a hand in the air.
Back before Hailey had ever transferred into their dormitory, she and Lavender Brown had come to the conclusion that Harry Potter was in fact actually a girl named Hailey, who happened to turn into a boy every so often. However, solid proof of that was impossible to find- just because they were never in a room together didn’t really mean they were the same person.
Then the First Task had happened. Lavender had called it into question, but Parvati had figured that they still were the same person. Hailey was just doing something funny to be in two places at once. Magic, perhaps- but they were only fourth-years, so what did they know about magic?
Hailey chuckled. “Yes, you did.”
“So… How did you do the First-? Wait, I think I know.”
Hailey nodded. “Yes. My past self is going through a particularly torturous phase of her life, about four months ago now, and time-traveling around to complete the Tournament as Harry. My future self was visiting from after the Third Task to deliver that notebook- this notebook, actually- that told her how.” She drew a notebook from her hair, smiled innocently, and stuffed it back in.
“So…” She scowled. “Who did Silver used to be?”
Hailey’s demeanor changed in the blink of an eye.
Parvati flinched away from the sudden intensity of her calm, calculating look. “Er,” she muttered.
“Can you keep the secret, Instructor Patil?” Hailey asked.
“Uhh…” She paused to think, then took a deep breath and made her decision. “Yes, I can.”
“Draco Malfoy,” Hailey told her, in a low mutter.
She blinked. “Didn’t he die?”
Hailey grinned, her bubbly cheerfulness returning in an instant. “Of course,” she told her. “And just like it, Harry is going to come back dead from the Third Task. We have our ways. More importantly, we’ve got a Ball to prepare for, don’t we?” She glanced at the nail polish bottles in her hand. “And nails to polish. Future Self gave me two colors and a clear one, not just one color, so…” She held them up.
Parvati blinked, then giggled as well. “This is going to be fun,” she decided.