~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~~ 1st Pony POV – Rose Evans ~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~~
School started the next day after the day that had been set aside for acclimating the new students to the whole situation.
A lot of the native students had spent a good junk of their time just enjoying the lush green of the school’s fields, a few outright grazing while others played by the lake. Hell, they loved the lake’s giant octopus! There we also found out that the tranposition altered the lake’s merman population, which was now made of ponies with tailfins and dorsal fins instead of hindlegs. They were also coherent outside the water, which I was told by Ruby was unusual.
As for classes, strangely unlike last year we had classes mostly around the same time each day. Though there were some variations of this.
8:00 AM – 8:20 AM: Breakfast
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM: Transfiguration
9:40 AM – 11:30 AM: Double Herbology/Ancient Runes (Monday, Tuesday, Friday)
11:40 AM – 12:30 PM: Lunch
12:40 AM – 13:30 PM: History of Magic
13:40 PM – 14:30 PM: Potions
14:40 PM – 15:30 PM: DADA/Arithmancy (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday)
15:30 PM – 18:00 PM: Free Period
18:10 PM – 18:30 PM: Dinner
18:40 PM – 7:30 AM: Curfew
Additionally on Thursday, as announced, classes were entirely dedicated to the new subjects:
8:00 AM – 8:20 AM: Breakfast
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM: Survival Basics
9:40 AM – 11:30 AM: Magic Pattern Study
11:40 AM – 12:30 PM: Lunch
12:40 AM – 13:30 PM: Wasteland History
13:40 PM – 14:30 PM: Artificer Theory
14:40 PM – 15:30 PM: Weapon/Combat Training
15:30 PM – 18:00 PM: Free Period
18:10 PM – 18:30 PM: Dinner
18:40 PM – 7:30 AM: Curfew
It also meant that I would be attending Ancient Runes and Arithmancy for the first time today.
Hermione and Rainy were pestering me on how I was going to get through two lessons that run concurrently to one another, twice today but I assured them I had a way to do it. I also promised to let Hermione know if the electives were worth it for next year, seeing as I was ahead of our year in getting electives done. I did promise Rainy to get her a cool magic item if I learned how to make one, though she wouldn’t listen when I told her that she did have several already with the Pip-Buck, uniform and energy weapons.
She wouldn’t listen but I didn’t mind much. Hermione did tell me not to skip out on DADA since it would be our first lesson with someone as famous as Gilderoy Lockhart and I felt disturbed by the fact that she was talking about this grown man like he was a Rockstar or something.
Also, Order of Merlin Third class is barely even an award, geez.
~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~~
In Transfiguration it turned out that, given the new constraints of allocating one full day to new subject matter, meant that smaller year groups such as us second years, were attending classes together as a whole.
As in, all four houses were now attending Transfiguration here.
The lesson started us on another practice spell, turning beetles into buttons. If you’re wondering, the spells so far had all been for practice, transfiguration relied more on imagination and the understanding of the subject matter rather than individual spells. There were those, sure, but most Transfiguration spells were broad in nature and concentrated on allowing the user to determine the resulting form.
As such we were this early on mostly learning how the spellwork functioned, though naturally for us horned students, that involved less movements.
“YES! I DID IT!” I blinked and looked over to see… Argent prancing around, a perfect button before where she sat.
“Well done miss Ambition.” Spoke up professor McGonnagal, sounding actually amused by the behavior. Given that she had known Argent as Argus Filch for decades now, I could understand her feeling happy for the filly. I was definitely impressed myself, my button still had legs that moved, and Rainy had her beetle’s legs removed so… yeah, not a happy beetle.
“Ten points for Slytherin.” Stated the professor while I was contemplating this and Argent beamed at that before coming back over. With the amount of Houses attending together there was no real reason for segregation with many people mingling with other house students. Well, Argent was the only Slytherin to do so but still.
Our own group consisted of the six of us along with Neville, who was doing better than Rainy which just made the colt even happier because his magic actually worked as it should. By the end of the lesson, about half the class had at least two full on buttons, with Argent boasting 40 and only stopping, because Professor McGonnagal decided she would be running out of beetles if this continued.
Only a few never got to full Beetle transfiguration, and Ruby had cried when she had finally gotten over what was basically stage fright of her messing this up. She had apparently been bad at the subject during her previous school time. Her crying, by the way, was out of happiness because she got the second highest number of complete transfigurations, at 12 buttons and was praised.
Quick Reminder: Ruby had been banned from using magic for almost 50 years for something she never did. And seeing something difficult like Transfiguration working so well for her, that was catharsis comparable to Argent’s gaining of magical powers.
Anyway, after this we headed for Herbology and I knew that I was likely also heading for Ancient Runes later in my personal timeline. Thinking in Time Travel also causes headaches, 1.2/10, won’t recommend. Anyway, we made it to the greenhouses and were brought to the more dangerous Greenhouse where we were made to put on earmufflers, they had been enchanted to fit our heads regardless of our head shapes.
Why? Well we were repotting Mandrakes, baby Mandrakes at that but they could knock you out. Again the class was attended by all the students of our year so the whole task was over quickly and we were then, after that was done, given a practical lecture on magical plants care with several new ones present. These were, notably, all from the Wasteland and one in particular, Killing Joke, was only held at bay against affecting us because of magic on it.
You’d think Mandrakes were the most dangerous magical plant here, but Killing Joke causes near impossible to revert transfiguration with more often than not fatal consequences. The thing liked to base those on ironic interpretations of things the victim said or did in the past, how they could tell, nobody knows. However it was how Fluttershy had survived for 200 years.
Anyway, the class ended after two hours of this sort of lesson and I left to get to someplace I was alone before using the Time Turner to 2 hours and 10 minutes, thus I would hopefully have the time to get to Ancient Runes, though it was a trippy experience when time began to flow backward around me as if someone was reminding it at 10 times normal speed.
However, in the end I was left alone and headed for my class, arriving two minutes early.
~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~ 3rd Pony POV – Bathesda Babbling ~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~
Bathesda Babbling took a moment to watch her new students settle in.
Ancient Runes was never the most prestigious of the electives, few had the patience or awareness to know what power they held. However ,this year appeared different, as for the first time in 10 years, her third year students numbered more than 10 from all houses. They number 29.
And to make it even stranger a year, one of them was second-year students Harry Potter, or Rose Evans-Heartstrings now. She had been informed of the filly’s reasons to be here. She could appreciate it and she knew it was similar to the reasons of most of the third-year students here too. After all, for once Ancient Runes was in the spotlight, being the basis for the Bardings which were now one of the best suits of light armor in the area. And everyone knew she had been key in the creation of the runic array involved.
“Alright class, please settle down.” She ordered, noticing the curious glances at the second grader. “I am Professor Bathesda Babbling, and I will be your teacher in this subject until you accomplish one of three things, namely dropping out, failing the minimum requirements of your OWLs tests in this subject, or graduating from Hogwarts. I hope you all leave me through the third option.” She stated and got some chuckles from the students, smiling brightly at this.
“Now, as many of you may have noticed, we have an early entry into our class, miss Evans-Heartstrings is a second grader but has been given permission to attend due to her studying Pony Artifact Crafting before, making her more predisposed to this subject.” Explained Professor Babbling and murmurs started at that, not that they were negative ones, just curiosity about what she had learned.
“However, you are all equal in one aspect, none of you have any experience dealing with Runes themselves and for that reason, we will start on the basics of the basics.” She stated before tapping the top of her work desk which activated a rune. As a result, the full Elder Futhark alphabet with name, meaning and all the most mundane information, appeared on the blackboard behind her.
“Ancient Runes is the most long-lasting way of enchanting items, it can create mechanisms akin to Muggle machines, can create magical items that boggle the mind, and much more. Among the Founders of Hogwarts, Helga Hufflepuff was the one who introduced Ancient Runes, or Runecrafting in her time, to the curriculum. The creation of Artifacts is still called Runecrafting, and anyone dealing with ancient curses in tombs will tell you, this is just one language of many that were used.” She stated, smiling as she saw the attention of those before her.
She got so rarely to show-off with her specialty. “Yes Miss Evans? You have a question?” She asked, seeing the filly raise her right front-hoof.
“Yes ma’am, my friend Rainy’s older brother, William “Bill” Weasley works as a Gringott’s Bank Curse Breaker. Does that mean to get a job like that you need to attend this class?” Asked Rose and this made her smile, excited whispers echoing around the room at the notion that such a job would be available after they completed this course.
“Quite right miss Evans, 10 points for Gryffindor. As Miss Evans has surmised, Runecrafting is one of, if not the, most important skill needed by a Curse Breaker, as negating a runic spell requires the ability to decypher the spell itself and craft a counter to it. Due to the more widespread use of it, the Elder Futhark in particular is very good at this job, as the conceptualization of it’s power is more ingrained than Hieroglyphs. Naturally, modern Kanji can also be used as they are far more known than even that.” Explained the professor as she watched the curious looks she got.
“Remember, Elder Futhark would’ve been a lost language to most of the world, but between the Muggles rediscovering it and sharing the information, Elder Futhark regained much of it’s ancient power. However, Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana are actively used, widely spread writing languages. The Asians use them extensively in their own Runecraft disciplines for this reason.” She explained, with a few of the students taking notes. She was pleased that Rose was among the first who had done so. Without prompting.
“I suggest everyone who hasn’t started, to write this down. This is an important introductory lecture after all.” She stated and those who hadn’t before, scrambled to get out their notebooks and quills to do so. She did note that Rose Evans was the only one using a mechanical pencil rather than using a quill. While this was non-traditional, she didn’t hold those traditions in high esteem herself.
“Professor! Evans is using some Muggle artifact!” Exclaimed at that point one of her Slytherin students, having noticed the item used by the filly instead of the traditional quill. Also predictable.
“I am aware of that mister Jones, and I approve of it.” That stopped the colt in his tracks, a Pegasus unlike her own Earth Pony status, he had obviously not expected that. She used her wand at that point to levitate her own fountain pen off her desk which surprised those around her. “As you can see, I use a pen myself, it makes inscription far easier. I did take the freedom to acquisition pens from our trade partners for each of you after I got the list of new students.” She stated, levitating the items to each of them, which surprised Evans the most as she too got one.
“Notably, these Fountain Pens don’t need to be refilled by hand, they’re a common item among traders and larger townships and have a Talisman in them, the small crystal on top, which functions in a manner similar to a Water Talisman but for ink. It is much easier for them to produce too, so they sell it.” Explained Bathesda as she watched most of the students, they were Muggle-born or Half-Blood mostly, only a few Purebloods from Slytherin were there, picking up the pens to use them.
Evans also switched to the new pen since her own was a normal and ordinary one that would need to have it’s ink capsule switched out eventually.
The lesson continued from there, with the focus of this first lesson being mostly on the meaning of the Runes and, this Bathesda Blabbins knew, would go on for quite a while into the future too. But, if she was honest? She couldn’t be happier with this new class.
After all, interest in Artifact-Crafting had been declining in recent years.
~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~~ 1st Pony POV – Rose Evans ~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~~
After the class was over I made my way to the hallway around a corner from where the others wouldn’t see me, my past self had just passed by and I got there moments before the others come into sight.
“Hey guys, what’s taking you so long?” I asked jokingly, and I was quite hungry too since I was two full hours late for lunch as it was. Though I wasn’t regretting my choice of taking the electives early so far, Ancient Runes was fascinating and the teacher was the first in the entire school who had apparently common sense.
I just hoped my Arithmancy Teacher was the same.
At Lunch I showed Hermione my lesson notes from Ancient Runes and when I asked one of the third years to confirm I was there, well, I laughed as Hermione scrambled to explain how that was possible since I was in Herbology with the others.
I told her that, if she figured it out on her own, I would let her study with me using my notes and what I learned in the class that didn’t go into those. Had a pretty good memory thankfully so… yeah. And she was all in with that idea.
After Lunch it was to History of Magic.
I had hoped I could actually sit through this one but… Yeah. If there was one person who could transform back to his normal state, then it was Professor Binns. He hadn’t done it yet, but he could bore himself to death. I didn’t last 10 seconds and I just sat through double Herbology and Double Ancient Runes! At least I got some sleep out of this, as did everyone else except for Hermione who was… Hermione.
“Thanks for the notes again.” I thanked her, yawning as we left the class for the third period of the day: Potions. I hoped that Professor Snape was in a good mood at least.
“It’s fine. I still can’t believe he could drone on like that with all the interesting things we were talking about. It took me actual effort this time to stay awake.” Stated Hermione and I nodded, knowing exactly what she was talking about there.
“Please let me get through this without an accident.” Mumbled Neville, shuddering at the thought of something happening because of him.
“Hey don’t worry Nevill, I’m sure things will work out. Besides, we all had months to acclimate to this new form and you can use Telekinsis if something were to go wrong.” I responded, patting him on the back as he nodded, his confidence had increased but clearly, he had still fear over our Potion’s Professor. Though to be fair, he had been doing some serious mistakes in the past and the only one professor Snape was harsher on than Neville, had been myself.
We arrived in the classroom, which appeared to have been expanded to accommodate all of the houses attending together. Naturally, when the professor entered he was the one to sort everyone into two-pony teams and it almost looked like he was deliberately pairing up non-Slytherins who wouldn’t have a good chance of working together. Yeah, he was acting like a bit of a dick.
Anyway, the lesson was going quite smoothly, Rainy was able to stop Neville from messing up too much and the professor wasn’t bothering me the way he normally did last year. Which I kind of felt may be related to the name change, he had wanted me to adopt my mother’s maiden name and, well, him calling me Heartstrings may have indicated that he was trying to separate me from my dad? I had asked Ruby and she told me that they hadn’t gotten along and he had a falling out with my mom.
And yeah, it’s kind of odd to imagine the head of Slytherin House to have been friends with a Muggle-born, but I had met quite a few Slytherins I could at least get along with, even though Draco was a nightmare most of the time I had interacted with him.
Though, speaking of Draco, he was doing pretty well with those wings by now, which was kind of odd to see. He also had the Minutemares emblem on his back. That symbol was a lightningbolt crossed over a Rifle with three stars at the center-top, and both sides in the free spaces created by the crossed lightningbolt and rifle.
It was kind of odd to imagine Draco Malfoy joining a militia whose entire purpose was to be heroes. Not to get into any stereotypes but he had been pretty isolationist most of our time before we reestablished contact with Earth but I also hadn’t seen him in quite a while until yesterday. Anyway, next up was DADA and I had hoped that it wouldn’t devolve into a catastrophic mess and we would actually learn something this year.
Turns out, being a celebrity meant nothing for your skills.
~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~~
“Welcome my dear students! Welcome to your first class with my magical me!” I cringed inwardly at the man’s entry.
Gilderoy Lockhart had turned up as a unicorn stallion with Neon Blue Fur and Neon Pink mane/tail and, weirder still, a translucent, gemstone like quality to his appearance. I would love asking someone about what sort of Pony he was, but not him. The man was the last person who would know about that.
Anyway, he began a longwinded spiel about his greatness or whatever and I was starting to feel tempted to just walk out, right then and there, because holy fucking shit, he was ranting. Worst part of it all was that he claimed it was all true what he had written in his books, which had a small problem.
“Professor, I have a question.” I spoke up, after the obvious lifting my hoof to get called out on. “How can you claim that all your books are true when in your Autobiography you claim to have taught me when I was younger? Last I remember none of my Elementary School teachers looked anything like you, and I certainly didn’t get any magic contact before someone tore down a door to deliver my invitation to Hogwarts. In other words, I never met you before I you tried to grab me in a bookstore to use me in promoting your books.” I stated and he was clearly taken aback.
“Now now, no need to be so modest-” He began but, quite frankly? I was fed up already.
“Don’t give me that “Don’t be so modest” crap, I’m not going to play along and I’m sick of people pretending as if they know who I am. I never read any of those books who are supposed to be about my life, but I read your biography and the nonsense you wrote about teaching me.” I stated, scowling at the man who looked rather uncomfortable at my rebutting him.
“Whoever you based that off of, it’s not me. I wasn’t raised in a druidic sect in Scotland, I wasn’t trained in magic since the day my parents died, and I didn’t even know you existed until I read that list you used to make everyone at Hogwarts buy your books. And I’ve since read through them, by the way.” I continued, making quite a few murmur uneasily about my apparent dismissal of him.
“And I have another question there, why do you pretend as if your using that spell on the Wagga Wagga Werewolf solved the issue? Does this second year student have to tell you that Lycanthropy can’t be cured by that spell? Doing so wouldn’t solve the problem, it would have left that man a human for one full moon at best and afterward he would still transform. You didn’t get him help, you didn’t cure him or anything, you reversed his transformation once, and ran aaway.” I stated and the mutterings were now getting quite agitated.
“Now miss Potter, I assure you it is just as I had described. Why would you even question it? I am famous for it!” He asked, and I could tell he was nervous.
“Then why are you here? Why are you wasting your time writing books anddoing needless little events instead of going around, finding Werewolfs and curing them? Hell, why is nobody doing it if it is so supposedly effective? I question it, in other words, because you have too many contradictions, have proven yourself to be willing to lie if it benefits you as in the case of pretending I learned under you, and there is no evidence that your claims about the spell are correct.” I stated and ignored Hermione trying to signal me to stop, but I wasn’t going to.
“Also, “Professor”, why do you call it a charm? Charms are spells which enchant objects or people, such as producing light, giving them camouflage or reflecting attention. By the way it is supposed to work the Homorphous spell sounds more like a type of transfiguration or, if it affects Lycanthropy specifically instead of forcing a transfiguration into a human, a Counter-Curse. That is because Lycanthropy is best described as a blood or fluid-borne curse, a curse that acts like a type of conditional rabies.” I stated and Lockhart looked very much uncomfortable with being confronted like this.
“Oh, and one last bit, by every account, because I was adopted and changed my name, it’s Rose Evans-Heartstrings, not Harry Potter now. And considering how many fantasy novels have used that name against my will? I prefer people not using it.” I stated, sitting back down as people just stared at me. I didn’t really care, I was just so fed up with people misappropriating my name for their own gain.
Surprisingly, Lockhart refused to play into my provocations, proclaiming me “Confused” or something because I had an “Identity Crisis”, the man was mental if he thought that would work. I could see it in most of the class, and it only got worse when his lesson began with him literally releasing a swarm of pixies, getting overwhelmed in moments, and then leaving US to solve the mess.
Hermione did just that and naturally made stupid excuses. I could barely wait to get out of there and excused me to a bathroom to travel back in time and get to Arithmancy.
I swear to god, this was the first time that I had a math class I genuinely enjoyed. After the literal snore fest that was History and the complete and utter clusterbuck of a DADA class, leaning about Numerology and some tidbits on how that could be used to decypher a spell’s components or even extrapolate the requirements for a certain effect, was Awesome, capital letters deserved.
After that class I rejoined the others in the courtyard outside the school for the free period. Hermione was also ripping her hair out from learning I had been to Arithmancy too and that I had relaxed there quite a bit since attending the Lesson-Falsely-So-Called of DADA under Lockhart.
She was also quite cross with me about calling it that. But honestly? He wasn’t anything special. I was more amazed by some of the “Simple Tricks” I had learned from Luna about using Telekinesis than I was over Gilderoy Lockhart, who was blowing hot air out of both ends as far as I was concerned.
I just hoped there was a good reason why he had been hired in the first place. And that the reason wasn’t just “He’s Famous” because otherwise, I’d be more qualified than him.
And from what I had seen? I probably was actually more qualified.
~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~ 3rd Pony POV – Albus Dumbledore ~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~
She sighed as Lockhart left the Headmaster’s Office after coming in to explain the blunders he had made over the course of the day.
Oh, and to complain about Harry Potter, still refusing to acknowledge the filly’s embracing of her new self. The girl was irritated, understandably, due to what was so utterly fictitious nonsense, it was a miracle in the professor’s mind that nobody had made the connection that it made no sense.
Not only were all the novels the book had basically set itself in-between, been completely nonsensical on every conceivable level, but everyone knew where all the surviving druidic and Celtic remnants lived so… After reviewing the book she had come to the conclusion that she had to investigate this whole thing and miss Evans gave the final push.
“Alastor, I would like to request for you to contact our old friend Remus, I need him to seek out someone for me.” She stated, recording in a Patronus before sending it out to reach for Earth. If the Wagga Wagga Werewolf was still out there, Remus should be able to contact him and find out the truth of the whole story from the primary victim.
She looked up as she was alerted to Minerva approaching the office and smiled at her old friend as she stepped in. “Albus, what was that about just now? Lockhart almost ran me over while rushing from this direction, grumbling about unhelpful horses.” Asked Minerva after she entered, frowning at the strange occurrence.
“Well Minerva, it appears that miss Evans has been quite vocal about him. In a quite negative way. I’m sure you have heard how horrible his lessons have gone so far.” Stated Albus, leaning back in her chair, it was quite comfortable to sit in, being a small pony like this and quite young too meant she had no back problems anymore even if her tail was was a bit of a problem.
“What did he do this time?” She asked, sighing. She had heard a lot of talk from various students who had him before her own lesson for them. None of it good.
“Aside from releasing a flock of live pixies into the second year class? Miss Evans has been chewing him out for using her as a character in his Autobiography despite never meeting her, much less when she was young. Moreover, on review I have found that his book has been using elements of the Harry Potter novels as if they were true.” Stated Albus, pushing up her glasses with a hoof, she hadn’t gotten a pair properly fitted for her new body, and she didn’t want the indignity of putting a string around them to hang them onto her horn.
“Dear lord, no wonder she would be upset about that. I have heard that she has been disparaging the idea of those novels about her after the start of the year feast.” Stated Minerva, sighing as she sat down in one of the armchairs of the office, doing so upright as was a privilege of Half-Bloods like them.
“I take it she was only informed at that point?” Asked Albus, shaking her head and making a note to talk to Fudge about that next time he visited, which she knew would be on the next Saturday. He had insisted on leaving them as is until Harry spoke up against them, reasoning that the silence meant he approved of them. This naturally ignored the fact that Harry hadn’t been in the wizarding yet at the time, not even once since his parents died, and only at Hogwarts later on.
“Albus, be honest with me, why are we endorsing that man? That nonsense with the Homorphus Counter-Curse alone should be enough not to hire him.” Asked Minerva, sounding utterly done with this shit. Albus took a couple seconds to marvel at the fact that she would think in such a way, youth had… odd effects on her mind. Not just the extreme sex drive either.
“He was the only one to volunteer, to be honest. After our last professor was vaporized by a Philosopher’s Stone Fision reaction and all that.” She stated and smiled Minerva’s head snapped in her direction with an almost pained expression at the joke.
“Albus, we need to make you older, you can’t keep talking like one of our students.” She finally stated and Dumbledore giggled at that, quite a conundrum, wasn’t it?
“I honestly said don’t mind being a bit more youthful Minerva, after all we can more easily understand our students this way. Besides, you want to go back to creaking bones, old-age aches and having a body that is shriveling up faster than a grape under the Dessicaria curse?” She asked and Minerva flinched back at that. Yeah, nobody liked being old, not even much younger adults were that fond of being adults.
“Besides, you sure you want to fast-forward the pregnancy on either of us? I’d prefer not squeezing out a fully grown filly by the time I accelerate to 20.” Added Albus and, yeah, Minerva paling at the idea was more than enough proof of how bad an idea that would be.
“Great, you just had to remind me of what is growing in me. I just hope it won’t grow too big.” She admitted, rubbing her belly though also still lacked the bulge of pregnancy, same as Albus herself.
“Don’t worry, I spoke to Fluttershy and she told me that pregnancies don’t tend to have the mare incapacitated at any point. Though she said twins had a habit of making walking somewhat troublesomeeee… It’s twins, isn’t it?” Asked Albus, seeing the horror dawning on the Transfiguration professor.
“Yes, dear god why did Severus have to give me twins of all things?” She asked, slamming her head into the table.
“There there, it wasn’t his fault, those hormones had us all go crazy.” Stated Albus after walking over and patting her on the shoulder for that. Being that she got impregnated herself due to that episode… yeah. Pony hormones were brutal. “Also, I have asked Alastor to seek out Remus, to see if he can find the Wagga Wagga Werewolf to verify what really happened back then.” Added Albus while walking back, noting the surprise on Minerva’s face.
“That… That’s surprisingly proactive from you Albus. You tend to be more passive in my experience unless you think that the situation can’t be handled by those involved.” Stated Minerva, quite surprised by the fact that the headmaster had gone ahead and basically started an investigation just like that.
“Maybe, but as it stands we can’t really afford to have a liability with us. And if the pattern so far holds true… well I don’t think I have to explain to you why that is quite bad.” Stated Albus, sitting down as Minerva nodded, it made sense to her.
Albus just hoped that things wouldn’t get out of hoof any time soon.
~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~ 3rd Pony POV – Draco Malfoy ~~~~~~~~~~~O~~~~~~~~~~
Draco Malfoy sighed as he looked at the diary.
His father had insisted that he keep it, even though they had both determined it was dangerous. He had been tempted to open it and write in it, but something inside of him just felt it was wrong. The fact that his Pip-Buck was indicating what it identified as Radiation, wasn’t reassuring either.
Based on those facts, combined with the fact that it couldn’t be contaminated by outside radiation, made him quite sure it was detecting Necromantic magic of some sort, since Balefire Bombs worked on that type of magic. Knowing this, Draco didn’t trust the Diary of Tom Riddle one bit and it didn’t help either that he had overheard Hagrid, or he supposed Ruby now, talking about this person framing her.
So, why was he now staring at it instead of walking into the office of Professor Snape? Well, procrastination was a thing, you know?
“Mister Malfoy, what is the matter here?” Draco almost jumped to the ceiling after hearing those words, though he ended up hovering. Looking down he found Professor Snape looking up at him, an eyebrow raised.
“Sorry professor, I was… nervous.” He admitted, landing before picking up the diary again and holding it out. “Sir, I believe this item to hold something necromantic, father gave it to me to deal with as he was made to hold onto it by the Dark Lord.” He explained, not pushing around the issue but also not outright saying that it had been entrusted to Lucius Malfoy. That would be damning to the highest degree and the most Gryffindor thing he could’ve done.
“I see, a wise decision then.” He stated, taking a hold of it with his own magic. Unlike what that implied, Severus Snape was a Pegasus. Thing was also that he didn’t care as he had mastered wandless magic and wordless one too, so casting Telekinesis was as easy for him as breathing. “20 points to Slytherin for bringing this to my attention mister Malfoy, a wise decision I must say.” He stated before turning around and trotting away with the book held in his telekinesis.
Draco Malfoy on his part gave a sigh of relief before turning around to go topside again and head for the town’s Minutemare office.
It was his turn as coordinator.