It seemed fitting that the day after Halloween was Friday, and they had Potions’ class to suffer through. As if the troll the day before hadn’t been scary and exciting enough.
No matter how fast Harry moved, he couldn’t cast the bubble-head charm fast enough to escape an explosion from his two friends’ table. And all a shield spell did was stop solid matter, such as flying bits of metal and dirt, not gases. And he definitely wasn’t fast enough to do both, one after the other. As a result, he had taken to casting the bubble-head charm starting near the end of the brewing period. He figured, incorrectly, that he would be safe until then. Others in the class, even among the Slytherins, had come to the same erroneous conclusion.
The only flaw that they saw was in the timing.
Unlike Professor Snape, none of them were magically strong enough for the bubble-head spell to last the entire class. In fact, most of them could barely get it to last three to five minutes, depending on their magical fortitude. So they had to cast it multiple times to make it through to the end of class. And it was exhausting doing that.
As a result, they waited until they thought it was prudent to start casting the spell. That still left them magically and physically tired by the time class ended, but at least they were safe from Sweetie Belle’s catastrophes. And they had the rest of the day to recover.
They just hoped a Sweetie Belle catastrophe didn’t happen in the short periods of time between when the spell expired and they cast a new one. They were confident the odds were low enough that they would be safe. Another erroneous conclusion.
Neville managed to melt his cauldron before the class was a quarter-over, proving a calamity could happen at almost any time. This convinced most of the class that that was the expected Friday disaster. So, they relaxed their guard. Another miscalculation. Naturally, Neville lost his potion in the cauldron accident, received a zero credit. He had to sit quietly at his table for the rest of the class after packing up the remainder of his equipment.
After an appropriate brow-beating by their professor which further tore down his self-confidence.
Sweetie Belle’s kind of chaos — Harry suspected that Discord was involved, somehow — was not predictable. And not dependent upon other events. Halfway through the class, Sweetie’s cauldron started bubbling. It was supposed to do that.
It was only by chance that Harry glanced at her while she was stirring — and saw it was in the wrong direction. The green mist just beginning to shoot sideways from her cauldron was a dead giveaway something was about to go seriously pear-shaped.
Harry’s gasp alerted the others that something they would regret was about to happen.
Almost everyone, at that point in time, had started to stir, was stirring, or had almost finished stirring their potion. That made for a slight delay as they dropped everything and grabbed for their wands. Frantic spell-shouting began and bubbles began to appear around students’ heads.
Professor Snape had had one all class. He was mean-spirited and evil, but he wasn’t stupid. Although why he continued to pair Neville and Sweetie was a mystery. Was he hoping they would vanish or blow themselves up?
The ones with wand holsters — Harry, the fillies, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione — had an advantage in that respect. Their wands appeared in their hands almost immediately. They were also much closer to source of the disaster, which negated that benefit.
But the damage had already spread to the Gryffindors by then. The gas was insidious in its action. It was silent, odourless, and quick, spreading around the room at an alarming rate. Fortunately for the Slytherins, they were far enough from Sweetie Belle that they all successfully escaped the incident, although none of them had moved from their stations. The two previous incidents had taught them that heading for the door was a useless exercise. And just as likely to put them in harm’s way as to save them. It was better to wait and see. After casting the bubble-head charm, of course. And a shield charm, if they could manage it.
Unfortunately, for the Gryffindors, they were not able to get the bubble-head charm up in time. If they had been a table farther away, then maybe. But, as it was, they were too late.
The thing was, nobody noticed, at first, that the potion had already done the damage. They all thought, incorrectly as it turned out, that they had reacted in time and were unaffected.
It was only when the Gryffindors and Slytherins began to relax, thinking they were safe, or that it had been a false alarm, that they began to notice the effects of the potion.
“What?” Sweetie Belle said in the middle of their reactions, still stirring the wrong way.
Harry, thinking he had managed to escape the mysterious potion’s effects, said, “You’re stirring the wrong way and that green smoke isn’t supposed to be there.” He frowned, it had been blue when he first looked, he was sure.
She stopped and watched as Professor Snape slowly sauntered to her table with a massive sneer, drawling so slow and low as to almost be a parody of his normal speech, “What did you do this time, you incompetent nincompoop?” His robes slowly swirled around him in slow motion.
That was a new and strange effect. Harry frowned as he watched.
The Potions’ Master stared into Sweetie’s cauldron for a very long time before he leisurely cast a stasis spell.
Harry was beginning to think something was very wrong. Professor Snape had always hurried to Sweetie Belle’s and Neville’s table when something went wrong, robes billowing menacingly. He had never sauntered. His wand spells were always quick and precise, never slow and drawn out. Even his normal rounds through the classroom were quick, though they appeared unhurried if you watched him. Right now they seemed to be positively glacial in action.
And he had never drawled anything in class as slowly, or in as low a tone, as he did right now. Not even when he was being cruel and sarcastic.
Harry looked around frowning. The other Gryffindors had their eyes on their potions, stirring the carefully, lest they attract the dungeon bat’s attention to themselves. Many of them were frowning. The Slytherins, however, seemed to be watching carefully, barely moving. Several of them had gone back to stirring in the hope the brief pause hadn’t ruined their attempt at today’s potion. They were moving slowly, unsure of what to expect. Harry expected their potions to be failures, based on how slow they were now stirring.
Harry looked back into his cauldron. He immediately noticed that while he was stirring with his left hand, the right occupied by his wand, the liquid in the cauldron was in danger of slopping out. He immediately stopped stirring.
And watched the swirl of the liquid slowly, thickly, start dropping. Instead of being a nice red, as it had been a moment ago, it was now turning pink.
“Oh, pooh!” he heard from Hermione.
Looking, Harry saw her potion was also turning pink.
She put her hands on her hips, the stirring rod still in the potion. “I know I wasn’t stirring it too fast!” she exclaimed.
In only a moment, everyone was staring into their pink potions. At least the Gryffindors were.
Most of the Slytherins were still staring at the professor who was straightening from Sweetie Belle’s cauldron and berating her for her incompetence. Slowly.
And that was when they discovered that the strange green mist that had shot across the room had been an accelerant. As-in, it accelerated whoever had breathed it in. The Slytherins and the Professor weren’t moving slower, Harry and the others were moving faster.
After a few minutes confusion, and trying not to laugh at the professor’s comically slow movements, the Gryffindors were out the door and headed to the Hospital wing. The Slytherins were a slow second, and falling farther behind every moment.
Once they reached the hospital wing, Hermione realized it would take what seemed forever to explain what had happened. She pulled out a paper and quill and quickly wrote out what had happened. She met the Matron at the half-way point between the doors and her office, and handed her the paper. The little witch did not want to wait for the older witch to slowly walk over to them.
The Gryffindors grouped around the nurse as they waited for her to finish reading and tell them, slowly, what she wanted them to do next. Which she did as she chivvied them all to one side of the room.
Harry sat on the edge of a bed with the other Gryffindors beside or standing around him, and sighed dejectedly. Not only had they lost points, again, but Madam Pomfrey was taking forever to scan the Gryffindors. It wasn’t her fault, of course. It was their accelerated sense of time. The normally quick and efficient nurse was moving at a snail’s pace, as far as the Gryffindor’s were concerned.
And the Slytherins finally began to arrive.
Hermione, who had already half-memorized the diagnostic charms from their previous visits, watched Madam Pomfrey cast them five times in slow motion.
“Fascinating,” Harry said, watching the magic move in slow motion.
“Can I see?” Hermione said.
He shared his glasses with her.
“Oh! Wow!” she said, and looked at Harry speculatively. She turned back to watch the nurse’s movements. “Let’s see,” she said smiling, lifting up her wand and imitating the Matron’s movements and incantation.
In the time it took Madam Pomfrey to do one student, Hermione managed three.
Madam Pomfrey stopped, surprised, at the next student when he handed her the completed diagnostic papers. After doing the spell one more time and assuring herself the information was accurate, she followed along behind the little witch genius. “Five points to Gryffindor,” the nurse said, slowly, as she gathered up the papers.
After waiting another half-hour for her to flip through the papers quickly, she said, “You’re dismissed. You’re all in fine health, just running a bit faster. Mickle! If these students complain of being hungry in two hours, and the potion hasn’t worn off, give them food and pumpkin juice.”
Watching the house-elf nod eagerly as his big ears flapped in slow motion was hilarious, in Harry’s opinion. What wasn’t funny was arriving in the Great Hall for lunch and finding the tables empty. Normally, it would only have been a short wait, five or ten minutes, maybe fifteen, before other students appeared and the tables began to fill up. This time they had to wait nearly an excruciating twenty minutes that took what felt like an hour.
This was one of those cases where the second hand on his watch seemed to crawl around the dial — literally. He could count almost three one-thousands for every second!
Fortunately, they spent it discussing what they were going to do that afternoon. The potion should last more than an hour, easily — and so far Sweetie Belles potion accidents always lasted at least until dinner, five hours away. They should have almost a full day, maybe more. And there would be plenty of time to complete their assignments.
Scootaloo said, “Time to bring out the list for Crusadin’, Sweetie Belle!” And gave the four of them a big grin. After reminding the others what they were crusading for, the Gryffindors split into two groups, those who were really not interested in being Spider Wranglers — Ron and several girls — and those who wanted to see what mayhem might result from this.
The resulting fires in the forest, alone, would have garnered them a long harangue by Professor McGonagall — which she did. That the fires were accompanied by a trail of devastation through the forest, the partial destruction of a storage room in the castle, and a “small” yard-tall acromantula frantically trying to burrow down through a dungeon floor — and acromantulas were not a burrowing species — and a second just-as-small acromantula trying to hide in the greenhouse — behind Professor Sprout — had involved Hagrid, and all four Heads of House. Each had lectured them at different times — for different reasons.
The “Spider Wrangler Crusade” resulted in the Gryffindor cohort being confined to their dorm for the entire weekend, with a week of detentions, as well. Their meals were to be brought in by house-elves. Which, considering some of their punishments at home and the damage done this time, the fillies assured everyone that they had gotten off lightly. There was only one weekend of confinement, and detentions with Mr. Filch. And while Mr. Filch was unpleasant, the jobs he assigned were all typical clean-the-house type of chores that Harry and the Equestrians considered normal. They taught the others the tricks they used in making a game of the chores. The chores weren’t fun by any measure, but they did pass faster.
The biggest disappointment, according to the fillies, was that there were no cutie marks gained from that afternoon’s crusading.
On the other hand, the Headmaster had specifically allowed the Gryffindor Quidditch team members to practice with the rest of their team on Saturday. If the potion wore off by then.
The Acromantulas, meanwhile, had learned to run away, very fast, when they saw oddly-coloured and tiny horses accompanied by wizards and witches. Or even alone, they decided later, on reflection. That such small creatures could unintentionally cause so much devastation was beyond belief, even the wizards and witches were awed, the spiders saw.
The decision to move their nest a bit farther — several miles, really — into the forest to avoid any more incidents of that type was unanimous. And accomplished before nightfall. There was even some talk of disguising the nest with coloured silk instead of the normal white so it couldn’t be spotted from above — no one had every told them horses could fly! Or were so quick that even the spiders had problems tracking the little monsters. Yes, being farther away was a prudent move, they had decided.
The centaurs, drawn by the explosions, screams, and overall noise, had overheard the discussions and relayed what they had learned to the Headmaster. These new talking ponies were interesting, but the centaurs didn’t like the wizards and wanted to be left alone. They knew that if they didn’t inform the Headmaster of what was happening he would send wizards into the forest to determine what had changed. They were “proactively” acting to prevent that situation.
Much, much later, the muggle-born in the castle would remember this day and reflect that the ponies, despite being a prey species, were the dominant species on their home world for good reason.
The acceleration potion started to wear off in the middle of Professor McGonagall’s chastising lecture late that afternoon. It was shortly before dinner — their third meal for the day, and that included a nap in between — to the cohort’s immense relief. Getting chewed out in slow motion while you pretended to be sorry and listening was agonising. Especially because her expressions and gestures in slow motion were just so funny.
And they all knew it would only make things worse if they started laughing.
And the lecture had gone on and on and on. Harry imagined only the actual cruciatus curse could be more painful than maintaining, for what felt like hours, that look of sorrowful regret and apology. Stifling the urge to fidget was a major battle. Before the potion had worn off he had been worried his face might never recover. Once it did wear off, the lecture just flew by, to his immense relief. Which he hoped he managed to conceal.
Well, mostly wore off. The cohort still had people telling them not to hurry so much when they weren’t hurrying at all.
Mr. Filch was surprised at their industriousness after the first detention that night. He had certainly not expected them to make a competition in how clean their assignments were, nor in how many they could accomplish in a given amount of time. It gave him an uneasy feeling as it reminded him of a group of pranksters from just over a decade ago called the Marauders.
Which got Harry’s attention when Filch mumbled it aloud. Harry had heard the twins mention that name, too.
And yet another letter was sent to Twilight, and the other students’ parents, by Professor McGonagall.
Hermione was happy to use the time they were restricted to their dorm to “catch up” on her reading. Exploring and crusading had eaten into her reading time the last few weeks. Well, that is, her new schedule for reading time. Book-walking just made it so much faster . . . .
The others used the portraits to sneak around the castle. Several of the portraits were delighted to help conceal them, and even joined them.
It also resulted in three new rules posted in the Gryffindor Common Room that evening after dinner.
7.
..c) Animagi student are not allowed to use that form’s cuteness to convince staff members to do things for them or excuse them from activities, assignments, or punishments.
.....i) Animagi are not allowed to enlist other animagi in this subversion of authority.
8. Students are not allowed to play with dangerous beasts inside the school corridors,
..a) Or on the staircases,
..b) Or in the classrooms, unless supervised by a qualified staff member.
.....i) For the purposes of this rule, Hagrid is NOT a qualified staff member.
..c) Or in the dorms,
..d) Or the broom-closets, even if they are expanded,
..e) Or student trunks, even if they are expanded,
..f) Or the Hogwarts’ front, side, or rear grounds,
..g) Or the lake (except Gerald, the Squid).
9. Students are not allowed to try to catch, or actually catch, the spiders in the Forbidden Forest in hopes of getting a Cutie Mark in Spider Wrangling. Or producing their own Acromantula silk. Or any other reason.
One unforeseen consequence of their extra-extra-long Friday was that all their required homework had been completed early. Thus, out of boredom during Friday evening, the cohort got together and started working ahead on all their classes.
۸-~-۸
Castor walked into his house and called, “I’m home!”
Silence greeted him, except for a thumping from the kitchen.
Puzzled he walked to the kitchen. He usually found his wife fixing dinner at this time of the day. She was there, he was relieved to see, just not saying anything. She looked up, glared at him, and returned her attention to the counter.
He sighed softly, walked up behind her, and put his arms around her waist.
“What’s the matter?”
Silence, again. The thumping became a bit more aggressive. The mashed potatoes were certainly getting mashed.
He kissed the back of her neck, and she stopped for a moment, but then resumed mashing the potatoes and scrapping them into a bowl.
He sighed and stepped back.
She continued to ignore him, except for occasional glares to tell him this was all his fault.
He looked around, searching for a possible explanation. It was when he glanced at the dinner table that he had a clue. The morning newspaper was on his placemat. He didn’t need any further information.
“Sorry, honey, but I did try to tell you I was dealing with aliens. It’s not my fault you didn’t believe me.”
The silence got deeper and more profound. Oops. That was the wrong thing to say.
He frowned, then smiled. A quick trip back to his coat and he returned with a set of gold embossed, pound-sized papers.
He walked up behind her and said, waving the papers beside her, “I have V.I.P. tickets to the ball next week . . . .”
She froze again, her attention entirely on the tickets that clearly stated they were for a ball at the new Equestrian Embassy. There were three of them.
She gasped as she stared at the tickets.
They occasionally went to department balls and dances, or even just a night out.
But this!
It would be the most important social event of the year. Something she had only dreamed about attending. And she would be there!
۸-~-۸
Castor, freshly showered, was almost late for the meeting that evening at Number Ten with Sir Walker and Sir McColl. He arrived barely before the Prime Minister, and the Home and Foreign Secretaries did, for their weekly summary of Equestrian activity and their responses.
Despite Twilight’s warning, there hadn’t been any sightings of the changeling, anywhere. Close checking of the surveillance videos on The Leaky Cauldron had not shown anything unusual. Unless the creature had mimicked one of the wizards or witches off camera.
In any case, the creature had gone to ground and all they could do was wait.
The princess had, as promised, followed through with the runes and gems. Number Ten and the most sensitive government locations were now secured from infiltration. The process was proceeding at a steady pace at the secondary locations, his boss had assured him. With any luck, before the month was out, all the important government locations would be covered.
They hoped. It had been decided that until the creature was spotted, they would stockpile the remainder of the small metal plates with the runes. That way they could target the plates to where they were needed the most at the first signs of trouble. It wouldn’t do to put them at all the armouries and then discover the creature at a naval yard and not have anything available to protect the area. Or vice versa.
Finally, the missing meeting members showed up. After the preliminaries were completed, Castor stood. “Things are moving along reasonably with the Equestrians. Twilight is still apologetic about the changeling and tells me that as far as she can tell the creature hasn’t done anything in . . . either world. I am milking that for all its worth for us.
“She did warn the Chief of the Wizengamot the same day she did us, but he hasn’t mentioned seeing or hearing anything. And he did promise to tell her the moment they detected the creature in any of their dominions.”
He sighed. “She did give him the same runes and technology to detect the creature, and does know they installed it in the castle. How much further they went is unknown.”
Sir Walker interrupted. “We’ve managed to get the revealing plates installed on the buildings beside The Leaky Cauldron. We’re hoping that they will force a reaction if the creature gets too close,” he explained to the Prime Minister. “We’re planning to get one of our agents to install them around the door late at night. We might be able to catch the creature if it enters or exits the building.” He shook his head.
Then he smiled, “We’re making good progress with finding those with talents in using this new energy,” which they all knew meant magic. “We’ve managed to uncover fifty in the military and had them reassigned as ‘Special Technology’ experts. We’re assigning them officer ranks. And we’ve only covered half the active services.”
His smile turned wry. “Their commanders all objected to losing what they felt were excellent men and women. We’re beginning to build a typical profile for those talented ones — the biggest lead is a lack of proof of secondary education. Most are quite eager to help us.
“Interviews with them have disclosed that they are all graduates of Hogwarts. They could not find magical employment because they were not half-bloods or pure-bloods. As a result, they returned to our more mundane world rather than starve.
“We’ve also discovered about a hundred that only have a small talent, such as Castor, here. They are also in the ‘Special Technology’ corp., but we’re using enlisted ranks. They haven’t enough talent to really do anything with the energy, but they can detect the advanced technological items and places without difficulty. They are the ones manning the cameras and helping us keep watch on the wizards.”
The group digressed and spent nearly half-an-hour discussing how to integrate the “Special Technology” individuals into their plans.
Castor continued, “I’ve seen the new dome enclosing the Equestrian side of the portal. It appears quite air-tight, with a large revolving airlock between the outside area and the portal.” He shook his head wryly.
“The new building’s walls are crystal clear, using bricks almost thirty centimetres thick.” He took some pictures out of his folder and handed them around. “As you can see, it leaves everything around the tree in full view at all times.” He sighed, “I don’t see how anything could sneak through that kind of coverage. Moreover, they have several guards watching at all times.
“You’ve already seen pictures of the dome they built over the tree on our side of the portal, and its walls are equally thick. I’m not positive, but Twilight said even a Dragon couldn’t break through those walls. I get the impression that a jet could crash into them and leave the walls unscratched.”
The others raised their eyebrows, then nodded.
“Between the two sets of walls, I don’t think we need to worry about any more creatures sneaking through.” He paused, then continued. “I relayed our concerns about cross-contamination and Twilight said, a few days after I mentioned it, that she had installed technology that sterilizes the materials brought through the portal.” He looked up and smiled. “No Andromeda Strain problems to worry about. On either side.”
Castor pointedly looked at the folder in front of the Prime Minister. “There is a sheet of runes in your folders. Twilight thinks we might like to install them in our hospitals and ambulances to fight infections and such. She’s included some for placement on tools and equipment, as well as some that can be sewn into hospital uniforms.”
He grinned at them. “I thought we could make them the circle on the official seal of the government lab responsible for certifying clothing that passed fire-retardant and germ-resistant tests. And make that required to be a patch sewed on all hospital clothing or their labels.”
۸-_-۸
yeah its alive (again!!!)
Sweetie Belle has invented a haste potion!
And cue the complaints about more potion shenanigans. *Sigh.*
I still love this story!!!!
*sigh* Okay, the weekly Potions accidents were amusing at first, but now it borders on parody. Seriously, even Snape ought to know by now that pairing Neville and Sweetie Belle together is a recipe for (potential) disaster. Yes, they end in amazing discoveries, but it's still getting stale. The fact that Snape hasn't done anything to mitigate this (such as remedial lessons for Sweetie, or pairing them with different students) is more indicative of his incompetence as a teacher than anything else thus far.
At this point in the story, unless it holds some plot-centric threads, I think you should gloss over the weekly accidents. All it's doing at this point is dragging the story down. We're 86 chapters in by this point, and we haven't even reached the halfway point of the first book. I realize that some of that has to do with the prologue-ish chapters, and there's also the side-plots involving the Equestrian Embassy to Earth, to say nothing of absolutely destroying the second book's plot, but my point stands. This story, by word count, is nearly 5 times as long as the first book, and has only gotten this far.
I realize that I'm complaining about a lot, but the thing is, as good as this story was at first, its current glacial pace is working against it. If I were you, I'd consider what's truly necessary to the plot, and consider merely mentioning - or outright scrapping - extraneous threads, like the weekly accidents.
Well I think the wizarding world is about to pay for the mistreatment of Muggle Borns, in spades. Ouch this dog is going to bite back hard and I think it will only undermine the authority the blood purests have been abusing. The overseeing wizarding body is going to have a field day over all of this.
That is the best part
I wonder if McGonagall misses having to deal with the marauders instead of these Shenagians
9390644
That is a trope.
9390644
Looking forward to when it happens
9390622
My only regret with this chapter, is that soda-pop is not a primary ingredient in Sweetie Belle's Haste Potion!
Anyone else eagerly anticipating conflict between the Centaurs of Earth and the Equestrians?
9390635
Yes, I dare say that Snape does know these two together are trouble. I'm sure he's quite happy to deduct points from Gryffindore each time.
Poor spiders.. I'm sure a number of the first years are starting to ponder about other ways to evacuate the positions lab
It looks like it's hundreds of disillusioned juggle borns who broke the statute of secrecy given how easy it was to convince them to admit that they attended Hogwarts, the wizarding world is going to regret their prejudice pushing them away.
9390649
I wonder what Lupin thinks of all this? Hope we see him again soon.
potion accident idea
turns them into anime versions of themselves complete with sweatdrops nosebleeds and the girl students ending up hot and in sexy anime outfits that they cant take off. they can still pull them down enough to go to the bathroom though p.s poor scootaloo ends up in a ah my goddess urd outfit and has her personality and cravings for sake.....poor harry lol
I can't remember.
Have we done the classic 'stink bomb' yet? Seems a natural for potions class.
Come to think of it - Sweetie Bell could well brew up a stink that's beyond 'classic'.
9390672
Not necessarily. Unless they said what kind of school Hogwarts was and what they studied there, then just saying that they attended a school called Hogwarts (and didn't use the full name/title) isn't going to reveal anything to anyone that doesn't already know about magic.
9390673
That sounds like it'd require Discord levels of magic to pull off. XD
9390666
In that case, he's not only incompetent, but actively malicious. Neither of which are desirable qualities in a teacher. Lyra and Bonbon made their cases for this same point in a previous chapter, and I heartily agree with them. Being a savant in a particular field does not guarantee that you'll be able to teach that field. Especially if it comes so naturally to you, that it seems alien that anyone else could possibly struggle with it.
It's not just Potions, either. Snape is incompetent in general. In Book 5, while assigned to teach Harry Occlumancy, all Snape did was tell him to 'clear his mind' and batter him with Legilimancy. He gave no instructions on how to clear one's mind (a difficult enough task on its own), he had no introductory lessons on the subject, he just threw Harry to the wolves, so to speak.
Honestly, the only reason Dumbles even keeps Snape around is because he likes the idea of having a spy close at hand in the event of Voldemort's return. While a valid reason, it doesn't excuse Snape's conduct - or lack thereof - as a teacher.
9390682
That's not how the Ministry of Magic would take this situation, they would take it as a breach of the Statute of Secrecy, it doesn't matter that the people interviewing the muggle borns probably already knew about magic, it's just how the situation looks.
9390672
Well what do we expect would happen they have little to no job opportunities if they do not have an established in or the ability to back it up. I am surprised at just how many they where able to find and get to flip. This is all the more damning for the Ministry of Magic and I doubt the international wizarding bodies will be happy if they find out how easy it was for the disillusioned to be flipped.
9390673
actually buck it turn the entire classroom including snape into a sexy anime girl even if they are already a female thing with scoots still applies only that sweetie and applebloom are belldandy and skuld respectfully
As for word count and book length, this is basically two books. Book one was the original year in Equestria; book 2 is the first year in Hogwarts.
I have no problem with Snape keeping two misbehaving Gryffandors together, both to deduct points, assign punative work, and to make sure that his Slytherins are able to handle (through the sink or swim method) troublesome magic around them.
But yes, at some point, we don't want to see another 40 failed potion disasters spelled out in detail. Or do we? It's kinda Road Runner/Coyote -ish at this point.
9390697
I can see two plausible scenarios in which the Ministry of Magic would be acting as a proper governing body upon finding out that the disillusioned who turned their backs on the Wizarding World to go find jobs in the muggle world just put down "Hogwarts" as where they went to secondary school while filling out paperwork:
1. Muggles not in the know would look at this and go "Ok, they went to some school with a weird name and didn't bother to put down the full name." These muggles wouldn't think anything of it and move on and nobody's the wiser about the Wizarding World. The MoM would see this (if the issue even came to their attention) and see that the Statute of Secrecy hasn't been broken by these people.
2. The muggle(s) looking over the paperwork do know about magic and Hogwarts. Maybe they had a kid that went there or something. They already know about magic and know not to talk about magic. They know what Hogwarts is, but they keep their mouths shut because they don't want to get obliviated, sent to wizard prison, or turned into a newt (or maybe even all three). In this case, the Statute of Secrecy remains intact and the Ministry of Magic doesn't need to get involved.
If you've got some crazy people that went and actually blabbed (I don't know why they'd do that on a resume/CV or job application, since it'd make them look crazy and lower their chances of getting the job), then the Ministry would have cause to get involved.
If the Ministry of Magic is just taking everyone who says "Hogwarts" to a muggle as being a breach of the Statute of Secrecy, then they're inept, corrupt, and malicious. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that blood purists push for exceedingly strict regulations regarding mixed-bloods and muggleborns and try to focus the attention of the authorities on them.
Also, if the Ministry of Magic and the Wizarding World were savvy, they'd create false documents (maybe even an actual location) detailing "Hogwarts" as a normal, boring boarding school so that people looking for information on it would actually be able to find something on it and thus stop looking too closely at it.
9390482
Warnings: Angst, violence, torture, Umbridge PoV
dang, that dont quite look like a redemption fic ... Ill give it a try but dang ...
Yeah, KittyrinnAiko, thanks for yet another potion accident, we didn't had enough of those. [sarcasm]
Now this entirely want off the rails. Yes there is some prejudice from some of purebloods towards half-bloods and muggle-born. But both this fanfic and MSD exaggerate this to a ridiculous level. Now lets take a look on the facts:
1733: Perseus Parkinson loses his position of Minister of Magic because of attempt to establish law that bans wizard-muggle marrige.
1770-1781: Maximilian Crowdy fights pure-blood extremist in his position of the Minister of Magic and dies mysteriously in office.
1827-1835: The Minister of Magic is Ottaline Gambol, she fascinated with muggle technology and established Hogwarts express.
1962: Nobby Leach becomes the first Muggle-born minister, leaves because of misterious illness, that might be the result of sabotage on the Abraxas Malfoy part.
As it can be seen Muggle-hating and Muggle-born-hating attitudes where strong during the Secrecy first years but were loosing their strength with passing every decade, so in the end, joining Voldemort was an act of desperation on the purebloods' part in order to restore the old previliges that where literally sipping through their fingers. Ministry has some shitty people that interfer with muggleborn career, but situation is not that dare as popular headcanon suggest.
9390689
You do realize that being malicious is a character trait of Snape's, yes? Canonically? This whole thing is just showing exactly what is wrong with Snape as a character, and he's doing exactly what I would expect from such a bad teacher: nothing. On the flip side, Sweetie keeps inventing new things, which are being collected and reproduced by the genius of the twins. If nothing else, I fully expect all of this to come back in the future as tools and tricks used by the group to fight Voldemort.
I don't know how to feel about the spiders, I kill them on sight but this?
9390746
All that is in reference to Harry at the Dursleys and other things that happen off screen.
9390736
The problem though is that the Ministry of Magic is mostly run by a bunch of prejudiced high-status idiots out of touch with their heads buried deep up their asses.
Where wizards have magic, muggles innovation.
And that is why magic doesn’t rule the world. It can help but not control. Any fantasy writer can tell you that.
In the words of Margat of Lance “There are thousands of good reasons why magic doesn’t rule the world. They’re called witches and wizards.” (Discworld)
And of course Commander Vimes “-magic their weapons out of their hands, possibly leaving them with all their fingers? Magic them into the cells? Turn them all into ferrets? And what then, Mr Pessimal?" Vimes lit a cigar, cupping the match in his hand so that the flame made his face glow briefly. "Shall we follow where magic leads us? Wave a wand, eh, to find out who"s guilty, and what of? Magic men good? The innocent would have nothing to fear, d"you think? I wouldn"t bet tuppence, Mr Pessimal. Magic"s a little bit alive, a little bit tricky. Just when you think you"ve got it by the throat it bites you in the arse. No magic in my Watch, Mr Pessimal. We use good old-fashioned policing”
9390800
Purebloods are a minority, they may have some influence but that was substantially weakened after the first war. The whole reason they joined Voldemort is because they had nowhere near the kind of power this fic presents them as having.
If they are truly able to keep all these muggle borns out of work then why would they need Voldemort in the first place?
9390781
Perhaps in the form of glass balls filled with Sweetie Belle's various potions, to use like magical grenades, combining magic with muggle tactics should be quite effective in battle against the Death Eaters who only know and expect wizarding tactics, plus seeing all that insanity being used against the Death Eaters would be highly amusing.
The acceleration potion from this chapter would be a big help as it would of course give the good guys much more reaction time during any such battles and the invisibility potion would also be something the good guys could use given that it allows those who are invisible to see each other.
9390709
It is a running gag at this point, and I am loving every moment of it like I loved Will. E. Coyote's antics when I was a child.
Mister author, the moment I see you stopping the running gag is when you run out of jokes to extract. Maybe another running gag with the plants class?
9390828
There are countries out there in which a small minority have all the power and if they didn't have that kind of power Voldemort would have had a much harder time coming to power and you are forgetting the muggle borns are also a minority, the vast majority of the wizarding world is made up of half-bloods, so it would not be too difficult for the wizarding world to put many restrictions on muggle-borns with the pure-bloods and half-bloods and a small number of talented muggle-borns taking all the best jobs with the rest mostly restricted to very low paying jobs, this is especially true considering that most jobs in the Wizarding World appear to be with the Ministry where the pure-bloods who run the show make the rules.
They needed Voldemort because they wanted to eliminate the Muggle-borns and make all wizarding blood "pure", not just oppress them as they are already doing.
9390866
Yes that may have been the case before the first war but they lost and as such nobody really trusts them anymore. Things improved for the ones oppressed by purebloods after the war ended it's why Harry is so famous and why so many are grateful to him.
What you're suggesting is that the loss of the war changed nothing for the purebloods and they have as much power as they always did.
9390689
I'm leaving the comment in spoilers just in case someone hasn't read the Harry Potter series due to its spoilery nature.
From what I remember of the HP books, Snape hated Harry for being his rival/tormentor's son, and that was fueled by guilt over Harry being the son of his lost love that married said tormentor. In short, he's a very screwed up individual who shouldn't be teaching at all.
Dumbledore exploiting that to have tabs on Voldy didn't help matters. Snape is apathetic 'cause he's wishing for death to come and claim him due to his part in the death of the woman that he loved and wanted - the reason why Voldy knew of the prophecy, and why he didn't kill Lilly like he did James on first sight.
... add to that that he has an appearance to keep towards Slytherin's students and fellow Death Eaters in order to remain in confidence and you got the picture completed.
9390886
If things changed the obviously racist Malfoy and Umbridge (who despite not being one is much worse then any individual Death Eater) wouldn't have so much power or influence, the Death Eaters may have lost but those who escaped punishment have infiltrated the Ministry and climbed up the ranks which allowed Voldemort to gain full control of the Ministry within a period of about a year after he makes his first public appearance at the end of Year 5. Plus this is a society based very heavily on tradition, things don't change that easily it's more the illusion of change then anything else. Also who says that a number of the muggle-borns who are in the military didn't abandon the Wizarding World during the war? Considering they were being hunted at the time joining the muggle military would not be a bad idea to try to stay relatively safe and they just decided to stay enlisted for one reason or another.
Hymn .... sounded more beneficial to me ..... if they could figure out how to regulate dosage size to time gain they could finish an entire days worth of classes before lunch. If the equestrians had teachers for their classes their the second half of the day could be them learning equestrian magic.
Looks like no matter what the world is, the Ball Tickets sure are valuable things.
Looks like we are going to see more of Castor's family, I think we only met his daughter once and now this relatively normal family has VIP tickets to a party that the Queen is likely to be at possibly alongside President Bush.
At this point I'm waiting for all these shoes to drop. We've got a Changeling in the wizard world, old no nose is still around and unknown, the Equestrians forming alliances with Muggle Britian (cant wait to see the US' reaction to this), and a pre reformed, still out for vengeance Starlight Glimmer learning human magic and working at the portal hub. Something bad is going to happen, and it's going to be big.
awesome chapter grate work team.
Andromeda Strain a grate movie i was rather young the first time i watched it back around 1975
9390931
I know how you feel and in my opinion once they do it's gonna be glorious. Discord is just gonna be sad that he had no hand in the powder keg of chaos that goes off. Even just being the thing that sets it off. Also you forgot the boot of 'The *Atlanteans* weren't lying in the muggle paper. They really are ponies and they are from another world'. That's gonna cause problems especially with the pure bloods and those that don't see magical creatures as equals or give a s*** that they are sentient treating them with disdain just for not being human. Oh and the other boot of 'Our rulers are basically goddesses, one of which, who takes care of one Harry James Potter, is the Goddess of Magic'.
9390987
The fact that the Alicorn princesses deny being goddesses despite the fact that the title actually is rather apt is going to throw a lot of people for a loop, in addition to Twilight basically being the goddess of magic and friendship (people on Earth are going to have a hard time figuring out the connection between those two concepts) the fact that Cadance is effectively the goddess of love and family is going to be a revelation to people in the wizarding world, due to how much emphasis they put on blood and as well as Dumbledore's opinion on the power of love.
9390907
wide usage of the time potion would cause time "inflation".
It makes sense to use it to be faster than others, but it encourages others to take it too, so quite soon everyone takes it, and the advantages disappear. Chronic usage of such speed-up potion would speed up aging too, so from the outside perspective they would age much faster, (unless everyone takes it, so there are no outside perspective)
If a few people take time speed-up potion, it is a very unfair advantage, if everyone / most people takes it, most of the advantages disappear.
So I think some chaos magic was involved because the existence of such thing without significant and obvious short term disadvantages could throw off the balance of the story. (chaos magic would prevent any attempt to reliably reproduce the effects)
9391015
The first step is potions then they develope individual base spell then aoe spell plus the counter since we all know evil wizards would abuse the crap out of this one.... since it effects individuals they'd have to figure out a aoe version for hogwarts castle grounds first the aging thing theres no getting around that ... but imagine if they could refine it .... you goto hogwarts for 1 year and bamn you've attended 7 years worth of classes.
By the end of the year, the rule list is going to be longer the Hogwarts a History
9391015
You could be right about discord being involved.... or its a running joke by the author .... but every new potion she makes does add to her fame its too bad everyone else in the class are the guine pigs... lol.
Well this was interesting turn of even't in the muggle world I wonder if those magic sensitive soldier were basically outcasts of the wizarding world and are looking forward to get even with them in some way with working for the government and the Equstrians. I wonder why most of them didn't try to finish their high school in night schools to at least help them find better job avenues? For the Ruins on clothing I think it is a wonderful idea, but I wonder if their will be a flip side to using magic to ward off bacteria and virus? I hope we will get to see Harry interacting wit the unicorns and the theastrals in some way.
9391231
They are muggle borns who became disillusioned with the wizarding world due to the lack of prospects they have their and returned to the muggle world but their lack of provable secondary education meant they could only get jobs with the military.