50 — How’d He Get Here?
Professor Sprout was a squat little witch with a patched and battered hat perched atop her short, grey, flyaway hair. Her work-robes were already covered in dirt and earth, and her fingernails dirty. She also had a brilliant cheery smile.
“Come in, come in,” she said merrily, ushering them into a large greenhouse with a number one painted above the door. “First Years are only allowed in Greenhouse number One,” she continued. “The others contain dangerous plants such as the Venomous Tentacula, Mandrakes, Fire Seed Bush, and so forth.
“Today, we’ll be going over general procedures and getting to know one another.”
She followed Harry in as he was the last to show up. She was only part way through her lecture about always using the correct amount of compost when Apple Bloom shrieked, followed a moment later by Ron. By the time the professor could make her way to them, both were almost buried under Walking Plants jumping off their nearby rack. Ron later insisted that he had not screamed like a little girl on helium, as Dean had said, but had yelled loudly in a very manly manner.
The plants were small, looking like tiny versions of evergreen hedges, and none more than seven centimeters high.
“Oh, dear! Back, back, back!” the professor said as she shooed the plants away, using her wand to levitate the more reluctant plants. “They’ve never done that before! Usually they run away when a wizard or witch is near.” She plucked a small sprout that was trying to hide in Apple Bloom’s hair. “Back you go,” she scolded the small plant as she placed it in a planting tray in a rack with a score of its relatives.
It wasn’t hard to miss how the magical plants in the green house always tilted towards Apple Bloom and Ron whenever they came close to one. The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs had noticed already that those two were the only two “normal” ponies in the group of otherwise pegasi and unicorns animagi. They began to get the idea that maybe those two weren’t just “ponies,” as they had assumed, but had some kind of connection with plants.
The professor gave them a thorough tour of the greenhouse, showing them where all the tools, accessories, and supplies were, as well as the proper places for things such as cuttings and compost.
The rest of the lesson was rather dull, being an overview of plant germination and how dragon dung can hinder, and rarely help, muggle plant growth unless one was very careful.
۸-_-۸
Turning to look at the class from the board behind his desk, Professor Flitwick glanced across the Gryffindor students. Normally, the Gryffindors were the more difficult class to teach, no matter which House they were paired with. They were easily bored, easily distracted, and typically poor note-takers, as he later told the Headmaster. A regular complaint of his.
This cohort, however, seemed inordinately focused. In fact, they were definitely providing competition to the Hufflepuffs. At the rate they were going they would soon surpass the Ravenclaws! The only two students who weren’t intently following along his explanation were two of the foreign girls who appeared to be chewing on their quills and doodling on their papers. They were somewhat balanced by their two friends who used their magic to take copious notes. Professor McGonagall would be happy to hear that at the staff's end-of-the-week professorial meeting.
He returned to his lecture. He would wait for the first test before making any judgements. The Marauders had taught him that just because someone appeared disengaged, that that didn’t mean they didn’t understand.
And who knew what that Book Manifestation spell might do in the way of study habits and lesson retention? It had been a bit disconcerting to discover that the entire Gryffindor House had managed to learn it in one evening. And that all the students he had talked to about it had reported it as a big help in learning and understanding the material. "It will probably take a while to see if there is a discernible difference in the assignments," he planned to tell Albus. But anything that improved their comprehension was a plus.
۸-_-۸
Tuesday afternoon, after Defence Against the Dark Arts, the Gryffindor First Year cohort moved to the library for their assignment research. They would have gone outside, but a rainstorm had moved in after lunch and hadn’t cleared up yet.
Pooling their efforts worked much better than trying to work alone, as Harry and the fillies knew. They could research several books at once, and give summaries of what they found to the others. Plus, without the worry of needing to read every book to find the information they needed, they could spend more time searching lesser-used books for tidbits of information. And, they didn’t have to worry that the book they needed was in the hands of another student, making them waste time waiting.
As a bonus, what one had trouble understanding, another always understood perfectly. And what one had trouble explaining in easy-to-understand terms — Hermione — another could translate for the rest.
Neville, Dean, and Seamus had tagged along at Harry’s invite, which made it five wizards to nine witches — a bit better ratio as far as the boys were concerned. Although it really wasn’t that terrible as usually there were several girls book-walking at any given time, especially Hermione. As she usually finished her work first, she spent the rest of her time in a book doing other “reading.” At the rate she was going Harry had no doubts she would make serious inroads in reading the entire library this year.
Naturally, the three fillies sat beside Harry. In spite of that, Harry spent most of his time teaching students from the other Houses how to use the Book Manifestation spell. By dinner time, the table commandeered by the First Year Gryffindors hosted almost half of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Houses Firsties as well. Most were sitting on the floor or had pulled over chairs from other tables.
After dinner, Harry discovered that having spent so much of his time teaching the spell instead of doing his assignments had a side benefit. After much begging by the older witches in Gryffindor, Hermione, Ginny, Ron, and the fillies had transformed into their pony counterparts. As a result, they were being cuddled, petted, and combed by nearly the entire House’s witch population. Each of whom jealously guarded their time with each pony.
Harry was able to beg off, using the excuse, “Assignments!” And that meant he had almost uncontested access to everyone else’s assignment notes. Which, in turn, meant he didn’t have to worry about leaving out or missing something important. He had been worried about that because he no longer had Twilight to double-check his work.
He worked slow, and made it obvious that he was double-checking his own work. This prevented the witches from accosting him and demanding he transform. He managed to drag it out until the nine-o’clock bed-time curfew hit the First Years.
Harry noticed, as they got ready for bed in the dorm-room that Ron seemed pretty calm and mellow, and very relaxed. He had expected the boy to be upset and riled up at “being forced to be a living plush toy.” On the other hand, Harry knew just how good those ear scratches felt, not to mention the tummy rubs.
After all, at home Ron had to compete with his siblings for any attention. Here, he had several girls almost fighting for the privilege of cuddling him, something his mother hadn’t done in years outside of momentary, crushing hugs. And no one could rag on him about him letting them fuss over him like that because he was simply one of many.
And some of the older wizards looked jealous of the time he spent being cuddled by the older witches. He had never had anyone be jealous of him before.
۸- ̫ -۸
Wednesday started off with the parliament of owls, including Hedwyg. Harry was delighted to see the Snowy White fly down and set a package in front of him. It immediately grew to a stack of books, ribbon-wrapped together. The top one was Ghosts, Fact or Fiction?, followed by Spells for Ghosts — If They Were Real, and Ghostly Spells. Then came Pests, Small and Large and the Encyclopedia of Small Pest Control. Harry gave him a banger and some bacon. He took the banger in his beak, and grabbed the bacon with one claw. When he took off, he passed over the bacon platter and helped himself to another claw’s worth before heading for the rafters to finish his dining.
Scootaloo chortled as she grabbed the Pests’ books and started flipping pages. Harry and Sweetie Belle almost had to fight Hermione for the Ghosts’ books, before Harry said, “Here, you take the thickest one!” and thrust Ghosts, Fact or Fiction? Into her hands. She was about to start book-walking when he stopped her. “Eat breakfast, first.” Sighing, she propped the book open and merely read the book as she ate. And continued to read it as they headed for the greenhouses.
Disturbingly, Harry noticed, she walked the entire way without once looking up to see where she was going. And managed to not bump into anything or anyone on the way. Harry even stopped in front of her and watched as she steered around him without a misstep. She didn’t even comment on him deliberately stepping in front of her. How had she picked that trick up from Twilight after only meeting her a few times at the Weasleys’? Yet more evidence she was Twi’s lost twin.
Harry couldn’t help but snicker during class as he watched the Walking Plants. They would slowly creep under the tables and across the aisles as they tried to sneak up on Ron and Apple Bloom. And Professor Sprout, repeatedly, would chase them all back to their rack.
۸- ̫ -۸
It started during lunch, when Morag MacDougal came over from the Ravenclaw table and stood behind Harry as he was getting ready to stand up.
“Is it true you grew up in a castle?” she asked, her eyes curiously bright. She was taller than Harry, naturally — everyone was taller than Harry — with brown eyes and elbow-length hair. Her face was oval shaped, slightly taller than it was wide.
“No,” he replied, taken aback at the suddenness of the question.
Scootaloo hip-bumped him from his right — it was her turn to sit on his right. Sweetie was on his left, with Bloom beside her. “But you do now,” she said with a smirk. She looked up at Morag. “Back home, that is,” she clarified, in case anyone thought she meant Hogwarts.
“I knew it!” the witch said softly, her eyes gleaming as she made a fist and shook it in triumph. “I knew the books were true! That ad in the Daily Prophet was wrong!” She chortled happily.
Harry interrupted, alarmed at her conclusion. “No, the books are lies. I lived with muggle relatives most of my life,” he said. “Definitely not in a castle,” he finished darkly.
She tilted her head disbelievingly. “So, you don’t live in a crystal castle with a princess?”
“Well,” he said reluctantly, “Yes, I do. I live in Twilight’s castle. And it is made of crystal.” He paused a second. “But she only recently became a princess and she’s only had the castle for short while!” he added quickly, seeing her triumphant expression. “We used to live in a Library Tree until Tirek blew it up when he took everyone’s magic.”
There was a silent crowd slowly gathering around them. Ginny was listening with narrowed eyes.
Hermione, to the side of Scootaloo, said, “I still can’t believe you actually lived in a library . . . in a tree.”
Harry looked at her. “Yeah, it was kinda ace, actually. Until Tirek burned it down.” He frowned. “The castle’s sorta okay. Really big. I liked the Library Tree better.”
Hermione just stared at him, her mind obviously lost again in the fantasy of living in a library. He wondered if she was about to start drooling. Several of the Ravenclaws looked ready to join her if she did.
“Uh-huh,” Morag said doubtfully, bringing his attention back to her. “And I suppose you don’t ride a dragon, either?”
He flushed a bit red at that. “Well, no, I don’t have a dragon! Spike is my dragon friend.” He smiled, “Almost more of a brother, truthfully.” He cleared his throat. “But Spike’s a baby dragon! He doesn’t even have his wings yet.”
He felt his face get hotter as he turned a bit redder and tried to deflect the questions. “He’s Princess Twilight’s best assistant! She takes him everywhere, and he takes down all her notes for her.”
“So,” the Ravenclaw said slowly, “You do have a dragon, and he’s smart enough to read and write?”
“Well . . . yeah, but he’s not mine. He’s my friend.”
She eyed him carefully, a wide grin on her face now. “Of course you would say that,” she said.
He shifted uncomfortably. There was a rather large group of students listening in, now, not just the nearest Gryffindors.
“Well, since your dragon friend is too small to ride, do you ride your Griffon when you go on adventures?”
Harry stared at her wide-eyed. “Ride a Griffon? Are you barmy? Any Griffon I tried to ride would have ripped my head off!” He shook his head. “Besides, I’m sure the Griffon Ambassador would throw a right proper wobbly if he heard that anyone in the Royal family had been so disrespectful to his people.”
A few people in the background exchanged puzzled looks.
Not deterred by his denial, Morag persisted, “And you don’t go off and have adventures?”
Harry looked away. First at the ceiling and then the students gathered around them. He could swear he saw at least one of the older students casting a spell of some kind, probably to listen in considering how he wasn’t very close.
“Well,” he said slowly, “Not exactly. The adventures seem to come to us. Like the time a cerberus wandered into town, a cockatrice turned Twilight to stone, or the Diamond Dogs captured Rarity . . . ,”
“Rarity’s my older sister,” Sweetie Belle interjected.
“And the Everfree forest outside Ponyville has manticores, hydras, timber-wolves, and . . . .”
“All of which we’ve had run-ins with,” Scootaloo added drily.
“Timber-wolves?” questioned someone in the crowd.
“Er, yeah,” Harry said, “Imagine a wolf as big as you, only made of wood and sticks. You can’t kill it. But if you chop off a leg or drop something heavy on it . . . ,”
“Like the tree branch beside the one you’re clinging to,” Scootaloo added helpfully.
“They break apart and slowly reform. Takes ’em a couple of minutes. Gives you just enough time to run away, if you can.”
“Fire doesn’t even kill them,” Sweetie put in. “They just reform outside the fire.” She shuddered.
“And don’t forget Steven Magnet, the sea serpent,” Scootaloo said to Harry.
“Yeah,” Sweetie said, “Steven was nice.” She glanced at her friends. “He knows some good jokes . . . and he’s almost as vain as my sister.” They giggled as Harry rolled his eyes. Yeah, sure, she could say that, but Celestia forbid if anyone else said that about her sister!
“Then there was the tantabus,” Bloom said. “It’s a nightmare creature that threatened all of Ponyville,” she explained, “and we all had to fight it.” The fillies and Harry all shivered at the memory.
The students around them were staring at them, unsure whether they should believe them or not. On the one hand, Harry said all the books describing those fantastical adventures were lies. And then he confirmed most of them in the next breath!
“What are you going on about now, Potter?” came the insulting voice of Draco. Malfoy had, for the most part, ignored Harry and the fillies since the train trip. Apparently he had been on the edge of the group around the table.
Harry turned and looked at the Slytherin as his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, pushed their way closer and made a path for him. “Malfoy,” he said neutrally. The other wizard was flanked by his two followers, who looked as if they hadn’t become any smarter since arriving at Hogwarts.
“I’m sure those stories are all a bag of rubbish to make yourself look posh!” Draco sneered. “You’re just a peanuts ponce.”
Harry half-smiled. “Malfoy, if I had told you back on the train that I was an animagus, and that my form was a unicorn, you would have called me barmy and a liar, just as you are now. And you would have been wrong, wouldn’t you? Just as you are now, aren’t you?”
Surprised at Harry’s effective rebuttal, Draco finally said, “Well, then, prove those stories are true!”
Harry just stared at him, then shrugged. “And how would I do that? You want me to summon a hydra, perhaps? Or bring over a timber-wolf to let loose in the Forbidden Forest? Perhaps I should get a changeling or chimera to appear?” He shook his head. “No, I really don’t care if you believe me. All I’m saying is that the stories in those books at the bookstores are all lies.”
“See,” Draco said, smirking his eyes, “I knew it was all rubbish.”
The other students around rolled their eyes. They could see Harry had been trying to downplay his background.
“But you do live in a crystal castle, with a real princess, have a dragon as a friend, and go on adventures, right?” Morag said. “You actually talked with a sea serpent? And you are a unicorn animagus!”
Harry hung his head. “Yes. But most of our adventures end up with us in trouble with Twilight and their relatives,” he pointed at the fillies, “and covered in sap.”
“Sap?” came the astonished reply.
Bloom and the other two scowled. “Yeah. We’ve been lucky so far. We’ve gone an entire month without once getting covered in sap,” Sweetie said. Playing Quidditch with the Weasleys had kept them out of the both the Everfree beside Ponyville and the Weasley orchard.
Scootaloo punched her softly in the arm, “Hay! Don’t go and jinx us!”
Bloom scowled some more, “Well, at least it should be easier to remove here than it is at home.”
Giggling, the Ravenclaw girl left to find her friends.
Harry sighed. He just knew she was going to be telling everyone the books were true despite him saying they weren’t.
Muttering and mumbling, the crowd started to disperse, then, as it was getting time for the next class.
۸- ̫ -۸
Castor had just put down his fork and leaned back in his chair. Dinner tonight had been wonderful. His beautiful wife, Milada Searle — it was not quite twenty years ago that he had first met Milada Sarood, as she had been known then — smiled at him. He still wondered how he had managed to attract her attention, and then her love.
Their beautiful 15-year-old daughter, Thalia Asgre, picked up her plate and glass and took them to the sink. “I’ll be at Jill’s house, studying, okay mum?” she said turning to look.
Her mother smiled genially, “Of course, dear. Just remember it’s a school night and your curfew is nine-o’clock.”
Smiling just as broadly, the girl skipped over and kissed both her father and mother on the cheek, and happily left the dining-room.
“Cup of tea?” she asked standing and collecting their plates.
“Sure.”
They heard the front door slam as she put their cups on the table.
“Honey?” she said as she sat down across from him. She took a sip, and then said the four words guaranteed to bring terror into the heart any man, “We need to talk.”
Castor’s blood ran cold and the marvellous warm dinner in his stomach seemed to turn to cold lead. “Oh, dear?” he said calmly.
“Ever since you took your new job at Scotland Yard, you’ve been quite preoccupied.” She studied him, smiling. “I don’t mind the hours, I understand you’re settling in and need extra effort to acclimate and get up to speed on your cases.”
Only his many hours under fire kept him from breaking out in a sweat, and held his hand steady as a rock as he took a sip of his own tea.
“However, even when you’re home, you’re not really home. You’re staring off into the distance and obviously troubled. And, you’ve been tossing and turning in bed, and you’ve started talking in your sleep again.” She looked at him levelly, no longer smiling. “You haven’t done that since Sport and Social.” She was staring him right in the eyes. “And you’ve never done it with your other cases in the department no matter how much they upset you. What’s going on?”
He took another sip and considered his options. He was never any good at telling Milly lies. Somehow, she always knew when he played fast and loose with the truth. She even knew when he wasn’t telling her the complete truth. He sighed. He knew he should keep it quiet, but she was also quite good at keeping secrets. He nodded, more to himself than her.
“I’ve been recruited by MI5. Aliens, as in not-from-earth-aliens, have contacted the government and I’ve been appointed as their contact-man. I’ve been helping them get used to Earth. They normally look like a waist-tall unicorn, pegasi, or pony, but they can change to look like a person with very long hair.”
She gave him a sour look and sighed. “If you can’t tell me because you’re on a sensitive case, at least you could say so,” she said reproachfully. “There’s no reason to make up a tosh story.”
His mouth dropped open. “But . . . .”
“Aliens? Unicorns?” She shook her head. “If you’re gonna tell me a lie, at least you could make it somewhat believable.” She reached across and grabbed his hand. “I’m not going to throw a wobbly just because you’re on a sensitive case, dear. You know that.”
He looked down for a moment. “Alright. You’re right. It’s a really sensitive case and I can’t talk about it, but it’s really involved.” He looked up at her. “You’ll read about it in the papers in about a year, maybe less.”
She leaned back in her chair. “There, now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” She got up and came around the table and hugged him. “You know I love you. And you can tell me anything you want that isn’t secret, and I’ll still keep it a secret.”
Then she grinned. “And Thally is gone for the next three hours.” She pulled on his hand and led him from the kitchen up the stairs.
۸- ̬ -۸
The Gryffindors’ table in the library had become quite crowded as now not only did all the Gryffindor First Years study together, but all of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Firsties were there as well. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how Harry looked at it, he didn’t have to spend as much time helping students with the Book Manifestation spell and could work on his own assignments.
That meant that he couldn’t escape transforming in the Gryffindor common room with the others. After hearing that the Firsties had already completed their assignments, the Gryffindor upper-year witches, naturally, demanded that the First Year animagi become ponies. The witches just could not get enough of the ponies that stood knee-high or lower. Cuddling, petting, and combing the adorable and fluffy ponies was apparently quite addictive for them.
And while the wizards denied the attraction, Harry couldn’t help but notice that a fair number of them spent at least a few minutes petting the ponies. Some of the wizards did admit that the ponies were the cutest things they had ever seen. And watching Scootaloo and Ginny preen their feathers had made one wizard loudly proclaim that the ponies were going to give him diabetes.
Which he followed up with by challenging one of the other boys to an arm-wrestling competition. That became a surprisingly popular pastime for the boys in the days that followed. Chess became another favourite. One game that took the wizards by storm with its cut-throat competition was London Monopoly. Which, over the winter, became Wizarding Monopoly by the alteration of many Chance and Community Chest cards and changing the properties to wizarding locations.
Harry thought it rather interesting that neither the twins, nor Oliver, Angelina, and Alicia from the Quidditch team, appeared in the common room that evening while all this was going on. The twins, he was sure, did it because having a secret unicorn pony form would undoubtedly aid them in their pranking. The Quidditch team? Well, he couldn’t figure that out.
Astronomy class that night had been difficult. With a normal bedtime of nine-o’clock for the First Years, staying up an extra three hours for the midnight class was challenging. What was worse, though, was then trying to stay awake during the hour-long class itself. At the top of the Astronomy tower. In the dark. With only their wands providing light when they took notes.
Next time, Harry decided, he would try to sleep from seven until eleven-thirty. Maybe that would help.
Afterwards, Harry and the fillies had waited for each other until all of them had packed their telescopes away before leaving. The other Gryffindors had straggled down the stairs as quickly as they could manage, listening only to their beds’ siren call.
Thus it was that the fillies, Harry, and, for some reason, Neville and Hermione, were the last to leave the Astronomy tower — the entrance of which was on the second floor! Not the seventh, which would have been convenient for the half-asleep students.
They had barely started up the Central Staircase that the other Gryffindors had used to get back to the seventh floor when it suddenly began to move. When it stopped, it led to the fourth floor, not the seventh. On the opposite side of the Central Stairwell, on the fourth floor, was a staircase that led to the seventh floor.
Sighing, the six continued up to the fourth floor. After they left that staircase and rounded the corner of the Central Stairwell towards the one they wanted, Harry saw that staircase suddenly abandon them. They stopped and dully watched as their way to the seventh floor dropped from their floor to the floor below them, the third floor.
“Ponyfeathers,” said Scootaloo. Then she yawned widely, triggering yawns in them all.
“Look,” Harry said and pointed. “That staircase goes to the third floor.” It was around the next corner of the Central Stairwell.
And, miraculously, it stayed put long enough for them to reach it and make it to the third floor. And then they watched both staircases, the one they had just descended and the one that led up to the seventh floor abruptly swing away. Which left them stranded on the third floor.
Hermione sighed tiredly. “I think there’s a staircase down that hall,” she pointed. “That will take us up to the seventh floor.”
“Isn’t that staircase at the end of the castle?” Sweetie Belle said dejectedly.
“Yeah,” Hermione agreed, “But it’s better than chasing these bloody staircases here all night.”
The others were too tired to even remark on her cussing. They just started to trudge, half-asleep, in that direction.
It was the sudden hiss that caught them by surprise when they were only halfway down that hall. It was Mrs. Norris, they saw, a moment later. The cat stared at them malevolently for a second, then spun and dashed off in a blur of fur.
“Aw, crap,” Harry said. “Filch’ll never believe we’re on our way back to the dorm.” He turned and started hurrying back to way they had come. “Maybe there’s a staircase there now that will get us off this floor before Filch catches us.”
They reached the stairwell to see that there still were no staircases leading away. Behind them they heard Filch’s wheezing voice, “They can’t have gone far, my love, hurry, sniff them out!”
۸-ꞈ-۸
A.N. * italics followed by an asterisk are quotes from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling.
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Oh, if they only knew.
Understating a little, are we? the Tantibus threatened REALITY as it was known!
9170844
Thanks for that. For some reason I thought they got that spell sooner. Fixed.
*sigh*... I've been looking forward to the first classes with Snape. I was really hoping that we would see it this chapter.
Oh well... Maybe Monday. 
Part of me wants to have Twilight notice the strain on Castor's life and decide to meddle by befriending his wife...
Or just teach him how to transform...
Whichever is funnier.
I should feel sorry for the professors, but with just how OP pony magic can be I just am enjoying the laughs at their expense. Also apparently when they build Hogwarts they where consulting Discord because the shifting staircases are something only he would have come up with.
Harry is divulging information too easily - it doesn't match up with his personality in this fic. He should and could simply refuse to discuss his time in Ponyville and deny everything about books, fillies as clueless as they are would comply with it.
9169357
It's magic. Aint got to explain shit, but I was thinking of the mlp episode where they got sucked into one of Spike's comic books and got to play as superheroes for awhile.
If I may make a suggestion, one of the oldest pieces of advice for writers is show, don't tell. Much of this chapter kind of read like the summary of a story rather than an actual story, the bit with the detective and his wife being particularly notable as an exception.
It’s kind of BS that students would get in trouble because the building wouldn’t let them get back to their dorms. It is also highly irresponsible to send a bunch of half awake kids off on their own in the middle of the night.
9170950
but is the exact thing filch will do.
9170950
I doubt they would get in trouble once they explained themselves, they just didn't want to deal with the guy and felt it would be better to avoid him.
So Ron begins to get the benefits of his pony form. As well as the drawbacks I can just see the teachers concern over how the more dangerous plants will react to him and Apple Bloom.
Poor Harry all his efforts to claim the books are lies thwarted by the fact his normal life is just as bad.
Why is it I'm seeing a long term greater benefit of the interhouse relations as even the 1st year Slytherins give up and join in on pony cuddle time.
Wonder if the quidditch team is grooming each other or plotting how to get Scootaloo on their team.
9170887
Probably insist on her coming to Equestria so she can see for herself her husband is telling the truth. As she wouldn't like tension put on their liaison for keeping a secret others are being made privy to.
I too am looking forward to potions.
9170958
Especially since the ones who'd normally realise that are too sleepy to do so. They're probably not even the first group of first years to wind up in this situation.
9170958
Still the second half of my statement. Granted pretty much anything short of death is fixable but it is still no excuse for sending them off alone in the middle of the night. I guess it comes down to how ridiculously understaffed Hogwarts is, I feel bad for the professors.
New headcanon: Mrs. Norris is actually a transformed human, who is unable to turn back and instead only acts like a cat to hide that she is a human. Dumbledore knows but doesn't do anything, in an attempt to keep Filch in line, as a cat is much easier to deal with than another human.
9170925
The difficulty with show-vs-tell is that it drastically increases word count. Yeah, I probably could have altered parts of it to be more action-oriented, but than I'd have an 8-10K chapter, and people are already complaining about how "slow" the story is.
I suppose I could have simply said something like, "Astronomy class that night was a drag, but after class the stairs abandoned them on the third floor. That was when they heard a hiss . . . " and just dropped a thousand or so words from the chapter.
9170987
If I remember correctly squibs have been shown to have an affinity towards cats for whatever reason. Mrs. Figg had a cat she used to spy as well.
9170987
One HP story I read had Mrs. Norris being his daughter. Her and her husband had been attacked by DEs and she had transformed into her animagus. but it was the very first time she had done that. By the time she was finally found, she didn't know how to change back and had lost a bit of her human side.
9170983
Its probably why they have teachers and prefects patrol the halls, to find students who are sneaking around or are simply lost. If it had been anyone other than filch they wouldn't have run and instead have been lead back to their rooms.
9171002
Increased word count isn't a problem when they're good words. Consider this a vote for increased word count.
9170909
Harry's personality shifts after spending extended time with the ponies. His previous abused personality would do as you said somewhat, but remember he gave the truth to the doctors after some prodding as well as Celestia, and letting information out has been a regular thing since the secret was partially exposed by the adults after meeting the Weasleys and Grangers. The adult ponies revealed stuff first, remember, so Harry is just following their lead and Discord's advice which continues to be surprisingly effective with wizards and witches.
That stuff revealed in nonmagical areas would cause serious concern, here it is just speculation fodder or considered lies or exaggerations.
Hedwyg is female now?
I like the continued parallelism between the worlds with Castor and his wife. A meeting between them and Shining and Cadence would be interesting once they figure things out.
Woohoo bonus chapter! Nice work.
9171063
She was female in the books.
9171119
yea but since only male snowy owls are all white, tkepner decided to change hedwigs gender and name to reflect a male of the species.
9171119
I'm aware, but I believe tkepner has mentioned in the past that Hedwig was made male and renamed Hedwyg in this story. I can't recall exactly, but I think it had something to do with the appearance of the males and females of that kind of owl.
9170889
I have no idea but if I have to guess it pulls water from the air. A magic dehumidifier!
9171133
I assumed it stole freshwater from somewhere
seems the answer to Mrs. Norris is a certain demonic bunny who is completely bribe able.
9171018
I bet Filch was there waiting knowing that some poor first years would be caught.
Shouldn't it be "or"?
And so Harry realizes his last year of life would make for better books than the published ones
9171151
I don’t know how to take that. 
A good reason to have Angel Bunny around?
Filch should know better, truly he should. Astronomy has been a class there for a long time by now.
9171191
filch does that stuff on purpose to punish the children, he's done it for years, remember he hates wizards.
9171018
Common sense wouldve dictated that the house prefects wouldve been readily available once the class let out to escort the students back, but we don't see that
9171191
Yeah but remember this is the third-floor corridor which students were told to stay away from so it's understandable he'd be hanging around there hoping to catch anyone that went there.
9171202
They got unlucky, they were following the other students but were lagging behind so they got cut off when the staircase changed. Besides it's not like the school is dangerous, there is only one place they could come to harm and they were warned not to go there.
9171133
It's described as doing the following: shooting water from the tip of the wand or refilling liquids in bottles or cups. So it's liquid conjuration. And conjuration itself is post-OWL level. Though the fact Harry and his troupe are interested in the Patronus charm (a post-NEWTS level charm)...
While "titbit" is an accepted dialectical variation of "tidbit", it always breaks my immersion with the story by falsely getting recognized as a typo, so you might want to change it.
"tidbit" is the original form it appeared in and still beats out "titbit" by a large enough margin that etymonline is missing an entry for "titbit":
The funny thing is, this reminds me of myself in high school... right down to the oddity of others finding it unusual.
9171008
Do you have a URL or title+author for that? It sounds interesting.
9170889
One story I recently read which was clearly written by someone who has never seen Thunderf00t's debunking videos (and the science on how much water is actually in a given volume of air) is that it rapidly condenses water from the air.
9171063
She always was. Hedwyg is a female name.
9171224
No at one point the author stated he changed Hedwig to a male because of the description in the books is that of a male owl and that Hedwyg was what he felt would be a male equivalent of the same name.
Maybe he realized how silly it was to change her gender and changed it back.
aw to see Draco get put in his place really good it is cumming.
Mrs. Norris i am thinking a trip to the everyfree forest will fix he up good.
9171063
Hedwyg has always been female
9171209
Which doesn't do much good when the stairs guide them there then leave them stranded.
9171215
Same even today I usually read while walking around. According to my mum as a younger student (pre year 4) I used to read Encyclopaedias for fun.
9171253
In canon yes but TKepners made her male because females aren't a pure white. There's a scene of him nipping at Harry for being called a girl when they meet and since that's still there I suspect this is just an error. Otherwise Tkepner needs to change that scene in an earlier chapter.
Looking quite fun here now and I’m curious who will make the next biggest upset!
9170787
The "malignant SoL" involves entire chapters where the SoL eclipses the actually interesting parts of the story. Like how much of the story just kind of glosses over the implications of the Book-walking spell to insead focus on how smart and cool and popular Harry and co. are now.
It's the kind of thing you'd see in, as I mentioned, bad Isekai.
In fact, thinking on it, this story seems to be borrowing a lot of cliche Isekai tropes. Harem? Check. Magic School? Check. MC instantly becomes the most popular person in school on the first day? Check. MC constantly lecturing masters of their craft on how to improve their business? Check. MC has innovative and never-before-seen magic that everyone wants to learn? Check. The only difference is this and bad Isekai is this is actually readable.
9171334
They weren't stranded it was an incovenence at most. They could have just waited and either the stairs would move back or somebody would find them and take them back.
9171063
Nope. Typo. Thanks. Fixed.
9171166
Yep, "or" it should be. Fixed.
9171215
tidbit it is, then. Regarding Mrs. Norris, unfortunately I read it about five years ago and I have no idea what the name is.
9170838
They were and are still children so I really doubt that they would understand the true amount of danger the Tantabus really represented. Even if they did the adults in their lives would have probably lessened the threat as to not give them nightmares.