Part III – Hogwarts, First Year — Ch. 45 — Train Gang
Mrs. Weasley greeted the Equestrians and Grangers as a pegasus on Sunday morning, September First, when they arrived at the Weasley’s home. Apparently, Ginny had finally convinced her mother into trying to transform the previous evening. The Weasley matriarch’s reason for not doing it before had been that someone her age didn’t need an animagus form. Not surprisingly, Mr. Weasley and her sons had been cajoling and encouraging her as well. For the twins, having a mother who could change to a pegasus was just too brilliant to pass up. That, and she had turned out to be a magnificent Quidditch player as a pony — a practice opportunity the twins were reluctant to give up.
Mr. Weasley had never really mentioned his reasons. Perhaps he thought his wife would be happier. Or maybe he just wanted a small pony to cuddle. Luna knew, Harry liked cuddling with his pony friends.
The twins, wisely, decided not to inquire or to prank their father, or mother, about the subject.
With that kind of support, once she made the decision it hadn’t taken her long to trigger the transformation. That she was already well accustomed to her own magic and could more easily feel the difference between that and her pegasus magic, Harry thought, was probably a huge help.
What wasn’t a help was watching the Weasley children run around the house like madmen trying to get together all the stuff they should have done last night. More than once they started out for the train station, only to have to turn back and pick something up.
Harry was monumentally pleased that Twilight had insisted on going over her checklist last night, with the fillies, to make sure everything was packed. They had thought the Weasley family would be ready to go when they arrived, two hours ahead of the train’s departure. They should have had more than enough time to arrive at the station and get seats. They were wrong.
Finally, Harry said, “If there’s anything else you’ve forgotten, we can send Hedwyg or one of the girls’ owls to home to have your parents send it to you!”
On that note, they finally made it to King's Cross Station and Platform 9-3/4s. And onto the train before it started to pull out. Just barely. Having their trunks in their pockets certainly made the event less stressful for the non-Weasley members of the expedition.
Twilight, of course, was already making plans to examine the train in detail at a later date. She did remember to wave good-bye as the train left, though. Distracted as she was in examining the spells that had gone into the station’s construction, Harry hoped she would remember her meeting with Blueblood planned for the afternoon.
۸- ̬ -۸
The trip to Hogwarts was rather uneventful for the seven students. Ron was still upset that his little sister was going with them, and pointedly ignored her presence in the cabin. That he had to share his books with her all year wasn’t helping his mood — he almost hoped she’d be sorted into another House, he had muttered to Harry more than once in the last two weeks. Not even a game of Exploding Snap had pulled him out of his funk for more than a few minutes.
If Scootaloo had known where Hogwarts was, outside of the vague description “Scotland,” she probably would have tried to fly there. As it was, she was grumpy that she could only hover near the ceiling. She made a game of trying to see how little she needed to move her wings to hover until lunch time arrived. Then she landed and sat with the rest of them to eat. They inspected the candy spread offered by the snack-cart witch in detail, purchasing several of everything, and sharing their bounty with all.
The ride gave Harry time to reflect on the past month.
All-in-all, it was the most fun Harry had ever had. He hadn’t once had to rescue the fillies or run in terror from some monster chasing them through the forest. In fact, he couldn’t remember any summer where the Cutie Mark Crusaders, himself included, didn’t spend at least part of the month before school in trouble and grounded. Of course, he had only one other summer to compare to, but still, it was the thought that counted. And he counted it.
Actually, now that he thought about it, it was the first time since he had arrived in Equestria that he hadn’t been grounded for at least part of a month. Huh. An entire month without being grounded. It had to be a record.
Hermione had insisted that they try to work their way through the Second Year charms book, the first having been not all that difficult. Not that the book was necessarily easy — there had been many long and detailed theories about magic and historical details on each spell. They had ignored those and concentrated on just learning to cast the spells. Tackling the Second Year had been a good idea, they discovered, as the more complicated spells made the earlier ones seem easy, which helped improve their spell-casting.
So, when Hermione had proposed that Percy give them a test on how good they were with the spells, it hadn’t been out-right rejected. They were curious how they would do. And Percy could be counted on to be impartial in his judgements, even if he was a bit miffed that they had skipped all the theory stuff. He was taking his Prefect Duties a bit too seriously, Harry felt. And decided not to tell him that the twins had charmed his Prefect’s Badge to include a question-mark whenever he wasn’t looking at it. And Ron had kept falling asleep the few times they had gone into reading the theories.
Harry hadn’t minded, he had used the Book Walking spell to go through the books when he was at Little Whinging in his room. He had mentioned the spell to the fillies at the beginning of last month, but they hadn’t been interested. Or perhaps the movie they were watching had distracted them. In any case, the girls seemed to like helping Ginny keep up. And Ron, when he had offered to teach him a spell so he could learn without falling asleep, had almost run away. Hermione had been too engrossed in a book to hear his question.
Harry had had to agree that going into Hogwarts already having mastered the First Year spells would provide them much more time off to play — although that wasn’t how Hermione had put it. And, as Twilight had taught him, being ahead of the rest of the class was never a bad idea. That way, if you did run into a difficult section, you had more time to work on it.
Plus, learning magic wasn’t exactly what he would call a chore!
The only unpleasant part of the month had been his “interview” with that Detective Inspector bloke. He had spent the rest of the day distracted by thoughts of what he wanted to do to the Dursleys when he had learned enough magic. Thoughts he had managed to avoid for most of the month. The girls had tried their best to cheer him up, and he had appreciated their efforts. But still . . . the Dursleys just made his blood boil.
۸- ̫ -۸
When Hermione went to the loo shortly after their lunch, she met a boy, Neville Longbottom, who had lost his toad. After checking with them that they hadn’t seen it, she went away with him. She didn’t return to their compartment until an hour later, dragging the boy with her.
“Well,” she said as she sat down, pulling Neville to sit beside her, “We couldn’t find Trevor anywhere.” Longbottom was a short — not as short as Harry, though — and slightly rotund boy with a round face where you could still see some of his baby fat. He wasn’t fat, but neither was he slim, he was just overweight for his height. Unlike Harry who was underweight for his height and under-height for his age. And the girls were all almost a head taller than he was.
Neville looked on the verge of tears. “Gran and Uncle Algie will be most disappointed with me,” he mumbled.
Harry looked at Hermione. “Did you try accio?”
She frowned back at him. “It doesn’t work on living things, remember?”
Harry frowned back, thinking, “Ah, yes. I forgot.”
“Anyway,” she said, “Neville, this is Harry Potter . . . ,” and she proceeded to introduce everyone.
After an embarrassed stare at Harry’s forehead, Neville turned and stared at the two Weasleys.”You’re both eleven?” he said hesitantly, “Gran never mentioned two sets of twins in the Weasley family.”
Ron’s expression soured a bit farther. “No.” he stated coldly, “She’s ten. The Headmaster talked my parents into letting her start this year instead of next.” Disgruntled, he turned and looked out the window.
Neville turned a surprised gaze on Ginny, who blushed and glared angrily at her brother.
“Blimey!” he said softly, “You must be really good with magic!”
Her blush deepened. “I think it’s only because I can do this,” she said, turning into a pegasus. Discord had apparently fixed their ability to return to their native forms so that their clothes went into the magic instead of staying behind, unchanged. It was almost as if their ability was a reverse animagus — that is, their animagus form was a witch — but indistinguishable from that of other wizards and witches.
Neville’s eyes shot wide open. “You’re an animagus?”
“Ha!” Ron said derisively, turning back to face them, and eager to show his sister couldn’t outdo him. “I can do that, too!” And he did.
Neville’s eyes got even bigger.
The girls all laughed at his expression. Almost in chorus, the three Equestrians said, “We can, too!” as they transformed into their pony selves. He stared at the five technicolour ponies, blinking hard.
Harry sighed and leaned back on the bench seat. This was not going to end well.
Neville turned to Hermione, “Did you know they could . . . .” He stared in disbelief at the black unicorn with bushy-brown mane and tail seated beside him that looked at him guiltily. He blinked once more. Then slid bonelessly to the floor. He had fainted.
Harry sighed deeply. “Aww, come on, girls, that is soo unfair.”
They all laughed at the Neville’s reactions. Even Ron cracked a smile. They all exchanged smirking grins. This year was going to be soo much fun.
Harry held his wand out and frowned. A small short stream of water flowed out and splashed onto Neville’s face.
Gasping in surprise, the boy struggled to sit up on the floor, looking up at Harry. “What happened?” he said. “Did I fall asleep? I dreamed you were all small horses.”
Harry sighed, yet again, “Ponies,” he corrected. He held out his hand to help the other boy onto the seat. “No, you fainted. It wasn’t a dream.” Harry waved his hand and the six brightly-coloured ponies all lifted a hoof and waved at Neville.
Neville swayed at seeing the ponies, but Harry steadied him. “Don’t mind them, they’re all just showing off. We only got our wands last month, the second week of August, actually.”
“That’s right,” added Hermione in a prim tone, “But we have worked our way entirely through the First Year spell-book. It was soo much fun!” She was hopping up and down on her seat. “I can even cast spells through my horn!” She shot a bunch of sparks across the cabin. The others rolled their eyes. Ginny ruffled her wings a bit, but there wasn’t really room to fly because Scootaloo was already hovering near the ceiling, in the middle of the cabin.
“You can talk in that form?” he said faintly. Neville looked close to fainting again. “They’re gonna send me home, for sure, aren’t they?”
The others looked at each other and transformed back, except Scootaloo, this time crossing her legs and sitting vertically in the air, like Rainbow Dash sometimes did.
“No,” Harry said firmly. “The Headmaster told us that once you get your Hogwarts’ letter, you’re in Hogwarts and nobody can take that away from you.”
“Unless you commit some kind of big crime,” Hermione added. “That’s what it says in Hogwarts: A History.”
Neville looked down at the floor, near tears. “But I’m almost a squib, I can barely do any magic. I’ll be the laughingstock of the school. I never did any accidental magic until recently. And then, only once.”
Harry and the Equestrians looked at each other with narrowed eyes. They were intimately familiar with being laughed at. Their ears would have been twitching and tails swishing if they had still been in pony form — Scootaloo’s did, just before she changed back to human form and thumped to the floor. After a moment of shuffling, and an order to “move over,” Neville found himself sandwiched between Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.
“No, you won’t,” Sweetie Belle said firmly, “We’ll make sure of that.”
“Let’s see your wand,” ordered Hermione.
“It’s my father’s,” he said reverently as he fished it out of a pocket. “He . . . can’t use it . . . anymore.”
Hermione put her hands on her hips, “Well, that’s part of the problem, then!”
Neville looked over at her, outraged.
“Mr. Ollivander, the wand-maker, that is, told us,” she continued lecturing, not noticing his anger, “that the wand chooses the wizard. And that wand chose your father, didn’t it? So unless you are exactly like your father, with nothing from your mother, that wand will never work as well for you as it did for him!” She gave him a triumphant look, arching one eyebrow at her display of knowledge.
“My father . . . ,” he started.
“Is. Not. You,” she interrupted firmly. “That wand did not choose you! And, according to Mr. Ollivander, that wand will never work for you as well as it did your father! And Mr. Ollivander should know, shouldn’t he?”
His defiance crumbled at her words. He looked away and muttered, “Gran will never agree to get me a new wand.”
“Well, then,” said Scootaloo resolutely, “We’ll just have to get you a new wand!” She looked at Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, who nodded back.
“Oh!” exclaimed Sweetie Belle as an idea struck her. She took her trunk out of her pocket, enlarged it, and set it on the floor. She opened it and hopped onto the elevator. “Twilight should be home, I’ll ask her for permission and a hair!”
Neville stared as the girl disappeared into her trunk. He leaned forward and looked inside. “An apartment trunk?” he asked incredulously.
It took only a moment to explain that Harry and the three girls had apartment trunks with an internal floo-network. And that Ginny and Ron had regular student trunks, although Ginny’s was a loaner until her parents bought one for her. (“Nonsense, it’s not charity if it’s a loaner, dear.” Rarity had said. “You are going to buy her a proper trunk next year, anyway, aren’t you? This is merely a loaner until then, my dears,” had been her closing argument to the Weasleys.)
Harry expected that when next year arrived, Rarity would offer to sell them the “used” trunk at a steep discount, much cheaper than they would find elsewhere. (“It’s not charity to sell something at a low price when it’s used!” she would say. “Besides, the store would never buy a used trunk at the price they planned to sell it at. I’m getting rid of the middle-pony by selling it to you for more than he would pay me, and less than what you would pay buying from the store! We both benefit from this, so it can’t be charity, darlings.”)
While they waited for her return, Hermione explained about their animagus forms. “Well, you see, we were all at the Weasleys’ home when this really odd wizard, Dis — OW!” She glared at Apple Bloom for kicking her ankle.
“We DO NOT say his name!” Apple Bloom glared back. “You saw what happened last time. This time he might decide we’d all look good as avocados or chickens!” She shuddered after a quick glance at Scootaloo.
Hermione glared angrily at the other girl, then sighed. “Okay,” she said grudgingly, rubbing her ankle. “This powerful wizard came when these three and Sweetie all said his name. He turned us all into ponies as a joke. Harry, Sweetie Belle, and myself were unicorns, as were the Weasley twins, Fred and George. Ginny, her mother, Scootaloo, and the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Oliver Wood, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet — they were visiting that day — he transformed into pegasi. Ron and Percy were earth ponies.” She concluded her explanation by turning into a unicorn once more.
“Then he turned us all into pegasi for the rest of the day.” She sighed. “About a week later, Scootaloo managed to figure out how to turn herself back into a Pegasus, so the rest of us tried to do it, too. Took us a couple of days.” She looked at Neville. “So, you see, the only reason we have these forms is because an extremely powerful wizard forced our first-time animagus transformation. At least, that’s what Mr. Weasley says he thinks happened.”
Neville was staring back at her, clearly unsure if she was telling him the truth. He was sure his grandmother would have said something to him if there was a Wizard powerful enough to turn thirteen people into pegasi — well, someone other than Headmaster Dumbledore. Plus, he had never heard of ponies in such bright colours, and unicorns always had a pure-white coat. And of the three unicorns in here, only Sweetie Belle even came close to that colour.
Harry sighed. “It’s true, Neville. That wizard is really powerful. He can warp reality. Back home he once made it rain chocolate milk and turned the clouds into cotton-candy. He’s the God of Chaos. If it screws things up, or he thinks it would be funny, he’s willing to do it.”
Neville turned a disbelieving gaze on Harry.
Harry shrugged.
“I think he’s cool,” Scootaloo said steadfastly. “A bit unpredictable, but cool! Not as cool as Rainbow Dash, but cool, nonetheless.”
The others shifted uncomfortably.
“How about a game of Exploding Snap?” Ginny suggested.
They used Sweetie Belle’s closed trunk as a table-top. Neville was a bit stiff at first, but after the first round he loosened up and soon they were all laughing, even Ron. Scootaloo joined them for the second round.
In the middle of a game, about two hours later, there was a knocking from inside the trunk. They hastily cleared it off and Sweetie Belle hopped out. She transformed back to a girl. “Here,” she said, handing Neville an envelope and a half-meter-long stick. “Twilight wasn’t at her castle, so I had to go to Rarity,” she explained. “And then Rarity insisted we have tea.” She sighed. “That’s what took so long. She was more than happy to help, though, and gave me two hairs. She said she'd take the responsibility. ”
She looked at the stick she had given Neville. “As I was walking back up the trail to get back,” she gave a significant look to Harry and the other two fillies, “one of the workers came over and handed me that cherry-wood stick. He said one of the trees they were moving to a better location in the park had dropped it on his head. He thought, for some reason, that I looked like somepony who could use it.”
They all exchanged puzzled looks. Then Harry said, “Harmony,” and the Equestrians all nodded wisely.
Harry turned to Neville, who was looking at them as if they were all mad. “When we get to Hogwarts, send an owl to Ollivander with that envelope and stick. Tell him the hairs are from a unicorn. Both hairs and wood were freely given by Rarity and Harmony and that you need a new wand. Any excess hair he can keep as payment for the wand.” Harry smiled wryly. “You can tell him that Harry Potter and his girlfriends suggested this.”
The fillies beamed at his declaration, while Ginny looked depressed and Neville surprised.
Neville slowly nodded and carefully put both items in his pocket beside his father’s.
“If you need an owl, you can use any of ours. Hedwyg, my owl, I know would enjoy the work-out.”
With that taken care of, they resumed their game until the next interruption.
Their cabin door slid open. It was the boy from Madam Malkin’s robe shop, and two others. This time, though, he was looking at Harry instead of Hermione or the others.
“Is it true?” he said, scowling. “Everyone is saying that Harry Potter’s in this cabin.” His eyes narrowed a bit, “it’s you, isn’t it?”
Harry said nothing and only tilted his head slightly, looking at the two other boys. They were thickset and did a creditable job of looking menacing. Standing as they did on either side of the pale boy, they rather looked like his boyfriends. That would have been the assumption in Equestria, anyway, from how close they were and slightly behind.
Noticing where Harry was looking, the pale boy rolled his eyes and dismissively said, “Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle.” Puffing up slightly, he pompously, added, “And I’m Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.”
Ron sniggered, trying to hide it as a cough.
Draco Malfoy raked his eyes over the seated boy at him. “No need to ask who you are,” he said haughtily. “My father told me all about the Weasleys — red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford.”
Ron’s face turned red, as did Ginny’s, though whether from embarrassment or anger it was difficult to say. Neville was watching with a slight frown.
“You’ll soon find out, Potter,” Draco said as he turned back to Harry, “that some wizarding families are preferable to others.” He gave Harry a stiff smile, as if he wasn’t used to smiling at strangers. “You don’t want to make friends with the wrong sort, do you? I can help you there.” He held out his hand for Harry to shake.
Harry had plenty of experience in dealing with bullies, and Draco fit the bill perfectly, based on their previous encounter at Madam Malkins and his current conduct. Not to mention what the Weasleys had told him and the fillies about the whole pure-blood nonsense. And how the Malfoys, in particular, thought they were better than anyone else.
Harry tilted his head at the boy, not sure what to say, but Apple Bloom beat him to a response.
She snickered. Then she laughed. “Wrong sort,” she said mirthfully to herself, shaking her head. “Harry lives with Princess Twilight Sparkle in a castle. Ar homeland’s rulers, Princesses Celestia and Luna, are sending us to Hogwarts to keep him company. And the God of Chaos likes him,” she said laughingly. “Politically and socially, Ah doubt you could bring anything to the table that even begins to compare.” She snorted. “As fer yer snootiness, Ah bet you can’t track yer pure-blood back more’n a thousand years. Sweetie Bell, Scootaloo, and I can track ours back over six thousand years. Without a single,” She glanced at Ron, “what did you call them? Squabs? And maggles?”
Hermione supplied helpfully, “Squibs and muggles.”
Ron nodded happily, eyes wide with delight at her verbal assault on Draco. Neville’s eyebrows were both arched in surprise.
“Without a single squib or muggle in the family!” She concluded triumphantly.
Draco and his goons stared at her dumbfounded.
“That’s, that’s, impossible!” he finally managed. “Nobody can track their family lineage back that far!”
“We can,” Sweetie Belle said smugly.
“Are you callin’ me a liar?” demanded Apple Bloom, standing and planting her feet firmly.
Draco sneered, looking her up and down. While the large pink bow in her hair was a bit much, she wore custom-fitted robes with gems for buttons. His sneer faded a bit. He glanced at the other girls and Harry, noticing that those three were also wearing custom-fitted, high-quality acromantula-silk robes, much like his own. And theirs had what appeared to be gems for buttons. While the gems were probably fake, the robes showed the wearers were of high-class. At the very least, these four came from extremely wealthy families.
From his expression, it was easy for Harry to imagine the boy asking himself Why had his father never mentioned these girls and their families? Especially if they could trace their pure-blood ancestry that far back!
“No,” he backtracked, “Just that you might be exaggerating a bit.”
Apple Bloom glared at him.
“Apple Bloom,” Harry said quietly, “Recorded history here only goes back about five thousand years.”
“Well, he said he saw mah ancestors planting trees with magic six thousand years ago, so’s I believe him. And so do Princesses Twilight and Celestia. He ain’t got no reason to lie.” She snorted again. “ ’Sides, don’t really matter how long. We know that thar ain’t never been neither those muggles nor squibs in any o’ ar families. Ever.”
She turned back to Draco and narrowed her eyes at him. “Be careful who ya talk down to. Wouldn’t be the first time some nose-in-the-air, self-important, snootie noble got herself bucked into oblivion by talkin’ trash ’bout stuff thay didn’t know.”
Unsure of what was going on, and somewhat put off by the girl’s insistence that the three girls were pure-bloods, Draco took a step back. He narrowed his eyes and said, “I’ll see you at the sorting — that will sort the wheat from the chaff.” He turned and followed his goons as they left the compartment, slamming the door closed behind himself.
There was a moment’s silence.
“Blimey,” Ron said, “That was brill! Took him down a peg, you did!” He bounced happily in his seat as Ginny looked at Apple Bloom with admiration in her eyes.
Harry looked over at the two Weasleys. “I’d rather have a large family and no money, than no family and a lot of money.”
“Although,” Apple Bloom snickered, “a large family with a lot of bits wouldn’t be terrible, either.” She smiled and glanced at the other two fillies. “And we got both, right?” They nodded, agreeing.
Remembering the Apple family reunion, Harry had to agree, as well. He couldn’t imagine having that many relatives. And Apple Bloom had insisted on introducing him and the other two fillies to each and every one of them, saying the four of them were herd-friends.
But he was unsure of why she was including Sweetie and Scoots in that. Neither filly’s family was nearly as large, as far as Harry knew. On the other hand, they now were certainly rich based on what the Goblins said.
He looked out the window at the passing countryside. It was starting to get dark. Almost at the same time, a voice came over the speaker system announcing that they would be arriving soon, and that they should leave their trunks on the train. Harry, Ron, and Neville left to allow Ginny and Hermione privacy to change into their robes. Neville went back to his original compartment to get his robes. Ron took the lazy way out as they stood in the hallway and just slipped his school outer-robes over his regular clothes.
Harry and the fillies had decided to just wear their school robes at the beginning of the day, not that they had much in the way of regular clothes, anyway.
At the station, Harry realized that the giant wizard calling the First Years to follow him, Hagrid was his name Harry later discovered, was the same huge wizard he had seen at the bank. His jovial attitude helped calm the excited students.
Their first sight of the Castle as the boats drifted across the lake was dramatic and beautiful, they agreed. Harry and the fillies took one boat while Ron, Ginny, Hermione, and Neville took another. Hagrid finding Trevor, Neville’s toad, was a major relief for the boy when the little fleet docked under the castle. And his cherry-wood stick was tucked away in his robe-pocket with his father’s wand.
Harry couldn’t help but wonder if the Headmaster had shared the knowledge of their animagus forms with Professor McGonagall yet. She did give the seven of them a significant look as she explained how the House system worked. The ghosts were a complete surprise, as such things did not exist in Equestria, or were so rare as to be only legends.
۸- ̬ -۸
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9141263
Fixed. Thanks.
9141543
Don't forget that alcohol, which most people regard as a pleasurable drink, can kill you from alcohol poisoning in less than six hours if you over-consume it. (see the numerous articles on Frat House hazing where inductees died from that in one evening).
Woohoo! Hogwarts time, boys and girls! Nice work.
That's kinda redundant. And difficult to say five times really fast.
“They all laughed at the Neville’s reactions. ”
You can drop the the
snerk poor Hogwarts has no idea what they just let into their halls do they.
9141842
A short stream of water from a garden hose is not the same as a short stream of water from a drinking straw, both of which you can generate from a wand. Hence the qualifier of "small."
9141856
I suppose that's fair. Withdrawn .
9141856
The "short" isn't as justifiable. "A small stream of water", plus the surrounding context, is sufficient to communicate effectively to the readers and "small short stream" is needlessly awkward.
If you really must keep it, at least add a comma between "small" and "short" to ease parsing it as a list of adjectives, applied in parallel to the same simple noun.
Uh, yes it does, actually, and definitely to toads. I don’t have the books with me but I’m certain there’s a scene in GOF or OOTP where they’re practicing Silencing Charms and Harry uses accio on the toad he’s practicing on because it’s escaping.
Thought I’d let you know. Great chapter in any case!
9141882
It's stated that it doesn't work on living things, the toad thing did happen but I'm not sure what the context behind that was (was the toad wearing anything for example) and it's the only case of it working on a living thing.
9141892
In that case, it’s probably the fault of JK Rowling for being inconsistent, even if it is accidental. I did check the Potter wiki and it backs up what you said, but it also mentioned accio works on flobberworms.
9141905
Ah true, there do seem to be exceptions to the no living rule so it might work on toads. That said Neville probably can't use Accio and since no one else has seen his toad before they wouldn't be able to summon it for him.
Aghhh I have to wait till the next chapter for the sorting hat! Sigh...
Now back to the regularly scheduled Harry Potter Crossover!
Another great update.
Please keep up the good work.
The Monk
9141872
"a small stream of water" fails to indicate that he wasn't standing there drenching Neville's face in water (although it might be amusing to have him standing there directing "the small stream of water" at Neville for several minutes as the boy wakes up and tries to get to his feet). The short is a needed qualifier. Adding a comma, though, actually breaks the flow of the sentence and isn't needed grammatically.
9141882
According to the Harry Potter wiki, accio does not work on live animals.
Yes, there are several conflicts between what the books say and what the movies show.
I can see Harry going from "the boy who lived" to "the crusader's minder" as soon as the shenanigans - and his efforts to curtail them - become commonplace. Voldemort might've been dangerous, but history holds no candle to a happy Cerberus barreling down the corridor after your stick
Sweet Celestia, I just had a terrifying thought: Peeves and Discord collaborating on pranks.
Only error I noticed was Hedwyg rather then Hedwig. Great to see them on the train!
9141928
I did a bit of research. A pure Snowy White Owl is the male of the species. The female has brown spots on the chest and underside of the wings, thus Harry's owl is male. Hedwyg, with a "y" spelling seems to be the male spelling for Hedwig.
I already feel sorry for Professor McGonagall. Having to deal with the Cuteness of Doom in its most powerful form is a guarantee headache for any sane adults.
9141934
Hedwig was female (though the owl used in the movie was male) unless you decided to change her gender.
9141918
Aside from the"Speed of light" nonsense (I don't recall it causing a nuclear explosion, but it HAS been a while since I read the books/Watched the movies.) At most, given it doesn't have a sound, it doesn't even exceed the speed of sound (In air) I would point out that regardless of whether this is canon, it can be used as a restriction you added to this book because summoning the opposing wizard is kinda powerful. I would say it should also not work on Wands if it is in use as well.
Otherwise, why use "Thrust Arms"?
----
Short meaning duration?
9141918
I disagree that such an interpretation is likely, but "short" is most readily interpreted as a measure of length/distance, not of time. (That's its primary meaning. The temporal meaning is attained by using our ability to think in metaphor to think of time as distance.)
It didn't even occur to me that you might have meant "short" as in "a short amount of time".
Might I suggest something more like "A small stream of water flowed out to splash briefly on Neville’s face."?
That would resolve both the ambiguity of what reading of "short" is correct and the awkwardness of having two "s" adjectives preceding a compound noun that begins with "s".
I agree that it's optional but disagree that it breaks the flow. I find that it reduces the cognitive load to parse that portion of the sentence by disambiguating the correct parsing at an earlier point.
They're going to start calling Discord "You Know Who", and everyone is going to get confused about which You Know Who they're talking about.
Seriously, what is your update schedule? These chapters just keep flying!
9141923
Oh god that’s going to hurt like hell.
9141918
Accio definitely works on living things in the books. Order of the Phoenix, on the very first page of chapter 18 (Dumbledore's Army).
'Harry pointed his wand at the bullfrog that had been hopping hopefully towards the other side of the table - 'accio!' - and it zoomed gloomily back into his hand.'
Of course this is your fic, so really its up to you how it works for this one, it's not exactly a huge issue.
9141918
I would point out later in that same article, under Known Uses, it clearly says Harry summoned a toad he was using to practice the Silencing Charm. I checked, and this is in the book. Ergo, the wiki contradicts itself. You can't use wikis as the be-all and end-all of information, due to snafus like this.
It's interesting that Malfoy didn't comment on the CMC's "American " accents. I don't think he of all people would take foreignes at Hogwarts well.
Now that I think about it, I wonder if Harry lost his British accent after living in Equestria for a while. I grew up in New Jersey and, after a few years on the West Coast,I have completely lost my "Joisy" accent.
9141820
Allow me to state bluntly that I am very much aware of how much alcohol is required to cause such a situation, and it is NOT anywhere near a normal consumption level. Not to mention that I know and have performed the first aid measures that should be taken to keep the fools alive until they can get their stomach pumped. I am not some child pretending to understand things here, I have seen horseapples and I've been around a very long time.
I am not accepting and will not ever be able to accept the salt equals alcohol BS.
I will also reiterate for the last time, it is a personal pet peeve that in no way affects my enjoyment of your writing.
9141927
Oh I'm not objecting to the way it's written. You are right.
Just pointing out that shoes are really not as necessary as many people seem to think, and sharing my perspective.
Put yourself in my shoes (Hah!) and see how odd that sounds at first. Pain while walking barefoot? huh?
edit
I guess it depends on what one consider the natural state to be.
To me, thick soles are natural, and thin ones are unnatural. What a strange world we live in, huh?
Hermione is going to have a major breakdown when she realizes she missed the opportunity to learn Hayscartes' Method one of the greatest spells in Equestrian history.
9141907
Harry also used Accio on Hagrid in the battle over Little Whinging, which caused the motorcycle he was riding to be pulled, at an alarming speed, to Hagrid's location, causing a crash.
9141988 I will not pity Umbridge. Not that she deserves any to begin with.
9141846
Yes. He doesn't become the Neville until much later.
i.imgur.com/qYdPQxd.jpg
i.imgur.com/bno6CcH.jpg
9142029
I’ll pity her if anything just because she’s no clue she’s bitch to a kid that lives with and is friends with literally gods.
Twilight and Hermione seem to be conspiring to bring Harry over to the
nerdscholar side. I approve and support this noble endeavor.As always, can't wait for the next chapter.
In the time I read this, 19 comments were posted
9141980
Its like monday and thursday, with extras brought in if a milestone is reached
9142041 Don't forget she has a knack for making people mad, so if Umbridge were to physically harm Harry or his friends...I'll leave that up to the authors imagination.
Hedwig, not Hedwyg.
9141923
Glad I wasn’t the only one.
9141923 NO. We’re doomed!
9141820
Glad to be helpful :)
I get free awesome story, you get free proofreader.
Not a request just thinking aloud:
I was wondering how Castor Searle (he's married right?) would act at home after a long day of working with the ponies.
How do you deal with a possibly extremely frustrating/confusing/momentous day and not be able to share it with your wife without committing treason.
My headcannon: lots of undecipherable mumbling reciprocated with lots of wifely confusion.
Yes, Luna Lovegood would know. Shame they didn’t meet her before school started.
Why am I not surprised Scootaloo was the one to figure out how to change back but did she work out the clothes storage bit or did one of the adult ponies help with that?
And given Discord fixed her wings it’s no wonder she has a higher opinion of him than the rest.
I do wonder how far his interest in Harry and his world goes?
On the up side many of his jokes will now be understandable to ponies once they interact with humans more.
Hermione is going to be gutted when she finds out she missed learning what would be her favourite spell (though maybe it is for the best or they would never be able to befriend her as she would literally have her nose [and the rest of her] in a book the whole time).
9142073
It when they start a one man up contest, that’s when to run for the next multi verse.
Was turning into Pegasi a one time thing or can they still do it (and thus become the first Hogwarts team to be able to play Quidditch without brooms {unless their is a rule against it?})
And so it begins. I am looking forward how this changes the stations of the canon.