“Good evening, Fleur.”
Fleur bowed her head. “Good evening, Hailey.” Hailey had, after requesting permission by mail, come to visit her home. It was only a few days before September First- and while Fleur really wanted to get a job back at Hogwarts, she didn’t feel like she was truly ready to teach.
And Hailey was, as always, wearing her Hogwarts robes.
“So, what did you want to talk to me about?” Fleur asked. Hailey hadn’t told her why she wanted to talk- and hadn’t requested a private conversation, so they were talking at the dining room table. Gabrielle was seated next to Fleur, watching interestedly, while her father was at work and her mother teaching the other three some magic in the other room.
“Uh… Your future, actually. As I recall, you wanted to get back into Hogwarts as a member of staff?”
“Uh- Yeah,” she muttered, looking down. “I don’t think I’m ready to try teaching or anything yet, but…” She sighed. “And I doubt Filch is going to need any help.”
“True enough about Filch,” Hailey mused. “He used to be a squib, but we actually cured that for him last month, so he’ll be able to keep up no problem.
“On the other hand, ‘not ready to teach’ is exactly what a fair few of this year’s six hundred and fifty thousand Student Instructors wondered about, and exactly what the Student Instructor Course is designed to correct. That said, it’s a bit late to hire a new Professor for any given subject, and I wouldn’t want to hire you for Defense Against the Dark Arts anyways; the position is cursed, so nobody lasts more than one year.”
“You say that like you can hire me.”
She nodded. “I can, yes. Celestia already authorized the Student Instructor Program to hire anyone they need to back when it was first formed- but as of about three days ago, when I sent that first letter, I have also received broad authority by the School Governors to hire and dismiss Professors, both inside and outside of the Program. Personally, I think that a year in our Special Instruction Unit- which works as a supplementary set of instructors for those students that need extra tutoring- ought to be the perfect gateway to becoming a Professor.” She smiled. “Don’t worry, the SIU has several instructors in it not just so they can help more students at once but also so they can help each other. Very important function, that.”
“And that’s… at Hogwarts.”
She nodded. “Yup. You’d get your own office and private sleeping quarters, teach a class for learning-impaired students each week with another instructor from the Unit, and…” She trailed off. “There’s a few other minor duties or privileges, such as power over points and detentions, but most of the rest really comes down to ‘as needed’. Because yes, the entire Student Instructor Program is flexible in a way that the Professors simply aren’t.” She pulled a small pamphlet from her hair, and slid it across the table to her. “Here’s the pamphlet we made for the position, and it’s yours if you want it.” She paused, glancing at Gabrielle, who was looking curiously at the pamphlet. “And it wouldn’t be too hard to get Gabrielle a Hogwarts invitation when the time comes, if she likes,” Hailey mused. “You or someone else would have to ferry her to Diagon Alley or the Platform and back, but…” She shrugged.
Fleur glanced down at Gabrielle, who was watching her worriedly, and smiled, before looking up. “Well, she’s eight now, so that’s going to be a couple years, won’t it?”
Hailey nodded. “It will. That’s one of the things that’ll make it easier- come just two of the intervening three years…” She paused. “Nah, spoilers.” She sighed. “There’s a part of me that wishes the fortune tellers hadn’t given me those very interesting predictions.” There was a mischievous gleam in her eye as she spoke. “But anyways, if you want that,” she gestured to the pamphlet, “we’ll need an answer within the next couple days- if we don’t get one, we’ll assume it was no.”
“An… answer?” Fleur asked, turning up the first page to look at the second. It wasn’t a very complex position, and it looked like a fairly easy job- especially considering the provision it had that talked about all the different kinds of support she would have. “Who… Who would I be working with?”
“Well, I’m in the SIU as well,” Hailey told her. “Yes, it technically gives me another title to put on my door, but I don’t put it on there; it’s technically superseded by my management position, and I’ve got quite enough already. There’s also Hermione, Silversong, Bonbon, Lyra, Sunset, Starlight, and a fair few other Equestrian experts. Twilight’s not on that team, though there’s been a lot of debate about whether or not she should be- and the rest of the Program will be just as open to helping you as it was after the Second Task, whether you’re asking someone that’s technically junior to you or not.”
She blinked. “Junior?”
She nodded. “Yeah. In terms of authority within the Program, the SIU is between the management team and the Student Instructors- even though the SIU only rarely interacts directly with the Student Instructors… aside from being composed of them, right now, but you most likely wouldn’t also be a student instructor.”
She turned the second page, and glimpsed a generous sum of bits on the last page, under ‘weekly salary’ and next to a required equipment list that was very short but did include her own wand and ‘suitable robes’, before flipping it closed. “I…” She looked down at Gabrielle, then back at Hailey. “I’ll take it.”
Hailey smiled, rising to her feet, and held out her hand for her to shake. “Well then, happy to have you, Instructor Delacour.”
“Enter,” Dumbledore called. It was Saturday, August 30th- just two days before the students would arrive at the castle.
Hailey entered… and she had a couple of pages in her hands.
He raised an eyebrow. “Is that a report?” he asked.
She laughed. “Yes, actually.”
Dumbledore chuckled as well. “Probably the smallest one I’ve seen since the Student Instructor Program was created.”
Hailey chuckled. “Probably, yeah. Anyways, now that the Governors are regularly holding their weekly meetings in my office here at the Castle, just after the regular Management Team meetings, there’s going to be a lot of stuff to talk about. First off, it seems the Ministry has finally seen fit to tell the Board who we’re dealing with this year, rather than just sending the book requirement to you- and the Seers were right, it’s Delores Umbridge. They even sent ahead a copy of the Educational Decree they’re using to install her- but of course, and we checked, that Decree takes a second seat to our decisions, should we make them, thanks to this directive by the Governors today.” She flipped a page off the top, and laid it on the desk. “This is a copy, by the way, the original has already been stored securely in the Department of Records with the Ministry seal of authenticity stamped on it, right about here.” She tapped the named seal printed on the page, next to the Governor’s signatures, and grinned. “I asked the Records clerk for a copy of the stamped document.”
Dumbledore chuckled. That stamp was proof that the Ministry had accepted the document as binding… Even though it explicitly stated that the Headmaster of Hogwarts and the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead both had the authority to unilaterally override Educational Decree number Twenty Two. “Educational Decree number Twenty Two?” he asked.
Hailey nodded. “Seems they’ve been keeping it hush-hush, but they’ve sent the Board a copy of it, and about time. I’ve got it here.” She laid it on the desk. “It’s very wordy, but in short, it establishes the Ministry’s authority to appoint a new Professor, should we be unable to fill a vacancy.” She drew a deep breath. “The Board has sent a demand back to the Ministry that these directives not use such confusing and roundabout language and that the Board be notified of them before they take effect within the walls of Hogwarts, else they will use their authority under the original Hogwarts Educational Institution Agreement to declare all Educational Decrees void within the walls of Hogwarts.” She smiled, having spoken the entire long-winded sentence on a single breath. “And of course, our directive simply declares that the Ministry does not have the power to unilaterally appoint into any position within Hogwarts walls; that power, including the power to remove or reject a Ministry appointment, lies with…” She paused, and touched the Directive with a fingertip, pointing at the words in question. “The Headmaster and the Hogwarts Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead.” She let out a soft chuckle. “In short, the Ministry can’t appoint our Professors, they can provide candidates.”
Dumbledore chuckled. “I’m sure that will come in handy,” he mused.
“It will,” Hailey nodded. “For example, it means we’re allowed to suspend or dismiss Umbridge, should she deserve it- and should she try to fill some other position, with herself or anyone else we don’t like, we can just say ‘no’.”
“Um… Hailey?”
“Yes, Ginny?” They were aboard the Hogwarts Express- which once again had so many locomotives they trailed out of sight- and the train had just left the station. Both Ginny and Ariel looked a bit nervous.
“Have we changed any since…?” She trailed off.
Hailey tilted her head curiously.
“Well…” Ginny looked nervously down at her knees. “You know how Ariel has never needed to eat? Well… A week ago, I accidentally didn’t eat for a week.”
“Accidentally?” Hailey asked, one eyebrow raised.
She nodded. “I… I just wasn’t hungry. But why didn’t I get hungry in a whole week?” She paused. “Or ever since, either.”
Hailey chuckled, and looked up. “Morning, do you want to answer that one?” All nine of them had packed themselves into the same compartment together- Hailey, Hermione, Ron, Sadarina, Ginny, Ariel, Morning, and Diamond. It was an oddly comfortable arrangement, even though the space was only designed to seat six.
Morning smiled. “That’s easy. You’re changelings now.” She sighed. “I never thought that’d be a side effect of that floo-teleportation spell, no matter how long it took to set in, but I guess it was.” She shrugged. “Oh well.”
“What’s a changeling?” Ginny asked.
“That’s what I am,” Morning told them- and suddenly vanished into a plume of green flames. When the flames went away, Morning was still sitting where she had been a second before, and nothing seemed to have changed- even Hermione and Silversong, seated on either side of her, were completely unaffected.
“This should be interesting,” Hailey commented amusedly
Hermione let out a snort of laughter.
Morning, meanwhile, was looking at herself. “... Huh. I thought my true form would’ve looked a little less normal.” She shrugged. “But whatever, maybe it’s just a thing on this side- I’ve never taken my true form here before.” She looked up. “Simply put, a changeling is an emotivore… and a shapeshifter. Don’t tell any ponies that you are one- they, ah, probably won’t take it very well.”
“That means you should be able to transform and both sense and eat people’s emotions and everything else like Morning does,” Hailey told them.
“Is that what that…” Ginny paused. “What that weird hum in the air is?”
“Oh, no,” Morning answered, sobering quickly. “That’s… That’s the hum of the Hivemind. I haven’t reconnected to it, but it worries me- means there’s a lot of changelings nearby.”
“Quite a few, I’d say,” Hailey nodded.
Morning looked at her.
“Somewhere in the region of… Seven hundred and twenty three thousand three hundred and sixteen,” Hailey mused.
“That’s… oddly specific,” Hermione observed.
Morning rolled her eyes. “That’s about twice the size of the entire Hive before I got lost from it,” she told her. “Though it has been a while, and the Hive can grow rapidly… for example, before the invasion, the Hive doubled in size in a few short months.” She sighed. “In any case… Chrysalis would never allow a large-scale expedition without at least some sort of scouting ahead of time, so there’s going to be at least some changelings as second years or higher,” she mused. “And with a foray- an invasion- of this size, the Queen has got to be among them… though she might not be one of the first years.” She leaned back in her seat. “To use the Canterlot invasion as an example again, Queen Chrysalis entered the city herself almost six months before the rest of the Hive was summoned.
“Which means…” She sighed. “Considering just how much emotional energy British people just vent into the air around them, she would’ve started a large-scale move of the Hive as quickly as she could. Unless…” She scowled. “Unless the surviving Hive was so small she could easily feed it off of just a few over here, where there might just be a few collectors in Britain, and the rest in Equestria, until she secured a place to…” She trailed off. “No, that doesn’t make sense. Unless… Unless one of those collectors became… then got hurt somehow, I suppose. That would pretty quickly trigger a mass exodus.” She paused. “And on another topic entirely, I’m going to want to find out why my true form seems to have feathered wings instead of normal changeling wings.”
“Changeling wings?” Ginny asked, tilting her head.
“Yeah,” Morning nodded. “Changeling wings are like insect wings.”
“So if they’ve become changelings,” Ron muttered, sitting next to Diamond. “That means we’ve got three changelings, two alicorns,” he gestured towards Silver and Hermione, “a dementor,” he gestured towards Sadarina, who was sandwiched between Hailey and Morning, “whatever Hailey’s become… and us.” He gestured towards himself and Diamond.
“Crystal earth pony and earth pony,” Hailey supplied, smiling.
Diamond sighed. “I feel almost like I’m being left out,” she told them. “I’m the only ordinary one here, aren’t I?”
“At the moment, probably,” Hailey agreed.
“At the moment?” Silver asked.
She grinned. “Yeah. We’ll see how long that lasts- the fortune tellers have already informed me of some particularly interesting events coming up relatively soon that will see their ordinariness corrected.”
Diamond blinked. “Our ordinariness… corrected? You don’t mean that we’re going to become alicorns, do you?”
“Well, that would certainly be one way to immortalize you,” Hailey conceded.
“You’re not going to tell us what it is, are you?”
“Well of course not,” Hailey chuckled.