Chapter 51: Showdown at the Hog's Head
Nova and Moonie now in human form slowly walked along a lane that’d taken them two blocks off the High street of Hogsmeade, and around a corner where they spotted an old dilapidated Inn. Out front hung an old board on which had been painted a Boar’s head.
“Hog’s Head Inn is what they said.” Moonie offered while looking at a building that was once the pride of Hogsmeade. Here too stood a handful of buildings that spoke of the former charm of the village prior to so many cookie-cutter cottages being built.
“It’s the Hogsmeade Inn.” Nova offered. “Must have changed hands. That or they’ve all forgotten that this is where it all started. An Inn out in the wilds of Scotland no muggle dares venture too.”
“Hog’s head indeed, I know a boar’s head when I see one.” Moonie offered while inspecting the sign as they approached.
“A boar’s head, you say?” Nova teased.
“A boar’s head on yonder sign, bedecked with bays and rosemary,” Moonie sang. Granted they’d been told to look for a bloody hog’s head, but as old as the sign was none could truly say unless they’d seen it when new. “And I pray you, my mistress, be marry, quot estis in convivio.”
Nova smiled and joined in the chorus.
“Caput Apri defero Reddens laudes Domino.
“The boar’s head, as I understand, is the finest dish in all the land; Which thus bedecked with a gay garland.
“Let us servire cantico. Caput Apri defero Reddens laudes Domino.” The two sang as they entered the Inn, their song answered by a tall wizard who looked very much like Professor Dumbledore himself.
“Our steward hath provided this in honor of the king of bliss; Which on this day to be served is Reginensi Atrio.”
And then the three followed up with “Capu Apri defero Reddens laudes Domino.”
“Welcome to my fine establishment, Ladies.” The innkeeper called. “Come, what may I serve thee on this fine summer’s day?”
“Seems a rather warm day to be singing Yule carols?” Albus Dumbledore muttered from the bar.
“Pay my brother no heed.”
“Brother?” Nova asked.
“Aberforth Dumbledore, at your service. Or just Abe if you like.”
“Nova Moon and my companion is Selena Moon. I wouldn't mind a cold fizzy-water. A birch beer perhaps?”
“I’ll have the same.” Moonie offered.
“Two birch beers for the lovely ladies.” Abe offered and a few moments later he’d produced two tall glasses. “The first one’s on my dear sweet brother.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Nova said with a smile as she and Moonie sat down at the bar.
“Pardon?” Abe asked.
“She means as in she’s tempted to dump it on me,” Albus explained.
“Well for what it’s worth, I think we got all the Horcruxes.” Nova offered as Abe set a couple of tall glasses of birch beer in front of them.
“All, but how can you be sure?” Albus asked.
“Horcruxes?” Abe asked.
“The wizard formally known as Tom Riddle and more colloquially referred to as ‘you know who’ split his soul into no less than seven pieces counting the bit he had left in one babe by name of Harry Potter. Each piece successively smaller.” Moonie offered as Nova took a sip.
“Seven?” Abe said stunned.
“But how can you be sure you’ve got them all?” Albus asked.
“We have a way to capture the essence of the soul as the Horcrux is destroyed. Once captured it crystallizes.” Nova offered. “The first one, his own diary. After that, we have Marvolo Gaunt’s ring, Helga Hufflepuff’s cup, Salazar Slytherin’s locket, Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem, the little bit in Harry Potter’s forehead, and finally that which still remained within himself. The book was located during a ministry raid of the Malfoy home, you located the ring, the diadem was in the room of requirement in Hogwarts, we located the locket in the Black residence at number twelve Grimmauld Place, and the cup was located in a vault at Gringotts.”
“And the goblins just let you waltz right on in and help yourself?” Albus asked.
“I never waltz, I foxtrot.” Nova quipped. “And no. In fact, they don’t even know we took it. I don’t even know who’s vault it was.”
“Moonie waltzes.” Moonie offered with a shit-eating grin. Not a one of the security measures in use by the goblins had even so much as a prayer at keeping Moonie out.
“Ah yes, the night mare.” Albus offered with a smile. “All those dark passages would be a playground to her.” He’d no idea that the Selena now at the bar was in fact Moonie.
“We are fairly certain, based on the size progression of the fragments, that we’ve gotten them all from the point he was in Hogwarts starting with the book and ending at the point he attacked Harry Potter,” Nova stated. “Any chance he could have made more in the time between that and his banishment?”
“You don’t know?” Albus asked, the smile on his face dropping a little. “I’ve been forced out of the ICW and I’m no longer the Chief Warlock of the Wizengmot.”
“Well to be perfectly honest we’ve never encountered anyone who was so cavalier with their own soul,” Nova replied. “Grandmother Aiko is over ten thousand years old and she’s never encountered the like.”
“Ten thousand years?” Abe asked astonished.
“She’s Tenko kitsune. An immortal fox kami. A minor deity if you like.” Nova offered as a way of explanation.
“You mean as in people worship her?” Abe asked.
“We discourage that sort of thing,” Nova replied.
“Nova is worshiped too.” Moonie offered.
“Can we not?” Nova scolded. She looked at the two men. “There are things I can do. It’s in another land far far away. Lets just not get into that shall we?” In another dimension to be true. “Anyway, we were hoping you might have some insight?”
“Any chance you can get Hagrid out of Azkaban?” Albus asked.
“Already out, and has been for a while.” Nova offered. “He’s helping to raise baby dragons at a sanctuary in Romania. - Hasn’t he written?”
“Probably having way too much fun.” Moonie offered. “Keeps him out of trouble and undoubtedly having so much fun he’s forgotten all about everyone in England.”
“I’m to understand that the dragons have quite taken to him,” Nova added.
“You don’t say?” Albus asked astonished.
“All he ever needed was a safe outlet for his passion.” Nova offered. “Now, about the possibility that Riddle could have made more Horcruxes?”
“Afraid all I can offer you is theory.” Albus offered.
“It’s something to go on.” Abe offered.
“There was a book in the Hogwarts library in the restricted section titled ‘Secretes of the Dark Arts’ which I removed from the library after I became headmaster and banned the subject. And yes, I know, it was too little too late.” Albus offered. “I’ve been sitting here looking back on my life at all the things I did wrong. My relationship with my parents, my relationship with Gellert Grindelwald, my sister Ariana. And then there was Aberforth who just sort of showed up one day at the age of six. He’d been wondering the streets of London and people thought he was myself.”
“So he was adopted?” Nova asked hoping she’d eventually get the information she wanted. “You look so much alike.”
“We are nothing alike.” Albus rebuked. “I was always the studious brother, whereas he always did his bare minimum to get by.”
“And I always faced my problems head-on.” Abe offered.
“Yes, well… perhaps you were the wiser. I should have pulled that book that detailed how to make a Horcrux the moment Tom asked about them.”
“If I’d have known what he was up to I’d have taken him out into the forest and have been done with it.” Abe scolded.
“Well, I’m not you.”
“Don’t be so sure about that.”
“The one time I tried your way I ended up making a fool of myself.”
“Did it never occur to you to tell her why you wanted the phoenix?”
“Hang on, slow down, what?!” Nova interjected between the two men.
“The tears of a phoenix might have been able to restore Ariana’s health.” Abe offered as an explanation.
“Then you should have said so.” Nova scolded turning on Dumbledore. “Do you know what your greatest weakness is? It’s not communicating. I would have gladly helped you if I had known. And you could have ended Tom Riddle’s reign of terror long before it ever started, but I’m guessing that you never communicated to anyone the danger he posed.”
“And why should he?” Abe asked. “It’d be kind of hard to set himself up as the hero if others had known.” Dumbledore looked up at his brother, his double, with anger in his eyes. Anger quickly turned to shame as he dropped his gaze to look at his drink.
“The theory so far as I’m aware is that a person might split their soul seven times without losing what little they have of their humanity.” Abe offered. “That’s split into seven pieces, not seven Horcruxes. Yes, I studied that book.” Albus’s eyes went up to him. “I read every book in that library. - I kept a low profile in that regard.” Albus just sat there giving his brother a dumbfounded look.
Nova, on the other hand, was looking at Aberforth with newfound curiosity. “I suppose living here you’d need to know as much as you could without tipping off to anyone that you are more then what you seem.”
“Let's just say I’d learned my lesson and just wanted a nice quiet life.” Abe offered. “So what condition was Riddle in?”
“He’d become a leach wraith drawing the very life force out of Professor Quirrel.” Nova offered.
“Tell me about the bit in Harry’s forehead?” Abe asked.
“Thereby accident,” Albus offered. “When Voldemort attempted to use the killing curse and the curse backfired, it created an accidental Horcrux.”
“Well then, I’d say it would be safe to say that the soul becomes unstable at five Horcruxes. Though I doubt he was ever truly stable.” Abe offered. “And unlikely he could have created more in the condition he was in. He’d have to restore his body and even then he’d be less than human.”
“So who are you, really?” Albus asked accusingly.
“Why don’t you just go to Equestria and find out. Dear brother of mine.” Abe offered with a malicious grin.
“It’s fine,” Moonie whispered to Nova who was looking at her birch beer suspiciously by this point.
“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Aberforth offered with a laugh. “Though maybe you suspect who I was?” he inquired with a sly smile. “But as I said, I learned my lesson and wanted nothing more than to just have a nice quiet life. Unfortunately, I didn’t count on my counterpart who somehow manages to bring disaster upon anyone he turns his interest to. Strange how the portals work though. I’m fairly sure I should have passed through the portal long before you ever did.”
“Well, can’t say I know who you were.” Nova offered. “As for the portal, it’s dependent on the wibbly-wobbly nature of time and dimension. Linear time flow is just an illusion.”
“Albus, tell them what the Slytherins called you when you were a student.” Abe prompted.
“Perhaps you could tell them of your activities with goats instead?” Albus shot back.
“Something tells me they’re not going to care.” Abe offered. “Miss Nova’s father is a fox I hear. As in a Bushy tailed fox.”
“Three actually.” Nova offered. “He’s got three tails. The Celestial fox grows another tail about every hundred years or so.”
“Can’t say I know anything about it.” Albus offered. “I contacted Mohoutokuro school of magic, but all they only offered me books that looked more like they’d been written for muggles.”
“You need to be able to read the writing forms that are used, and understand the languages if you want more in-depth information.” Nova offered. “Did you try any of the other schools?”
“Other schools? There are other schools?” Albus asked.
“Why yes, father sent me some pamphlets in case I wanted to try being a road scholar. There is Mysteria Academy, Koryo, Mahora, Constant, Hoshinomori, Endor College, Hagun, Magnoshutatt, and Luna Nova Academy. I think if I go I’ll probably pick Mahora though. It’s part of an enormous complex on a little island known as academy island.”
“I had no idea,” Albus replied. “So many?”
“According to the stats I’ve seen the population of Japan is over one hundred million souls.” Nova offered. “Of that population, there is anywhere between one to two million people with some level of magical ability. That is according to many of the pamphlets I looked at. As for Mohoutokuro, they aren’t much bigger then Hogwarts. Even if they had full capacity attendance there’s no way they could fill the need. And it bothers me that the numbers at Hogwarts aren’t larger. The dining hall can seat five hundred and fifty at capacity assuming you aren’t prepared to expand the space. And I remember the dining hall had been filled to capacity in 1903 plus older students living off-campus. Yet this year's student body was…?”
“Three hundred seventy-five.” Albus offered. “A fair amount, considering.”
“Considering the disaster of two wizard wars, and the need for a minimum level of proficiency in magic.” Abe offered.
“And families that tend to align with the Gryffindor ideals took the biggest hit.” Albus offered.
The bar fell silent for a time.
“They want me to do OTS next year,” Nova said breaking the silence. The two men looked puzzled at her. “That’s an officer training school. Imagine a school dedicated to teaching Aurors.”
“A whole school?” Abe asked.
“Two actually, one for enlisted, and one for the command structure.” Nova offered. “For each service. Land forces, sea, and air.”
“Armed forces, just like what the muggles have, made up entirely of magic users.” Moonie offered. Earth pony and pegasi magic might not be the sort wizards would recognize as magic, but it was still magic.
“Dumbledore!” Shouted a man slamming the door open. He’d slicked back dirty blond hair, a face that was halfway between a wolf and a man, his clothing tattered. A moment later the scattered wizards who’d been in the bar scrambled out the back door, a few diving through windows, and one even remembering he could apparate.
“I guess that’s one more loose end I don’t have to go looking for.” Nova offered as she got up from her bar stool now wearing a faded green poncho with southwestern designs on it. On her head a wide-brimmed stetson that hadn’t been there a moment before either.
“Fenrir Greyback,” Nova called softly.
“I’m here for Albus Dumbledore, but I can go through you if that’s what you want.” Fenrir returned in an almost growling reply. Dumbledore hadn’t moved, choosing to just simply sit there. He’d looked when the door had slammed open, but then turned back to his drink and let out a sigh.
“Dumbledore; don’t have the guts to do your own fighting is it?!” Greyback called.
“Fenrir, we don’t have to do this. We have a cure.” Nova offered even as Aberforth got out his wand. Nova motioned for him to put it away. “Fenrir, as much as I’d love to just let you have him, I haven't finished with him.”
“And spend the rest of my days in Azkaban?” Fenrir asked.
“We are shutting it down.” Nova offered.
“Others have tried.”
“True, but this time we have allies that know how to deal with dementors. Nor will I see you at the mercy of them. You’d be far too formidable a dementor for me to allow that to happen.” Fenrir gave her a puzzled look. “Everyone who dies there becomes a dementor,” Nova offered while his face shifted to a menacing smile. “Better I just kill you now then allow that to happen.”
“You think you’ve got it in you, little girl?” Fenrir asked as he took a step into the Inn.
“Mightier then you have fallen before me,” Nova replied as a shadow fell across her eyes. She flipped the poncho over to reveal a colt forty-five semi-auto pistol. Moonie pulled out a pocket watch, opened it, and chimes started playing.
“You can’t possibly think you’re better than me?” Fenrir growled out as the music coming out of the watch built.
“If we are going to do this let's do this. Enough talk.” Nova replied as she flexed her right hand.
Fenrir leaned forward and was racing at Nova less than an instant later. Nova’s hand moved at lightning speed grabbing a silver can on the counter marked Coors Light, sending it forward, its speed amplified with her magic to crush against Fenrir’s forehead in an instant, the beer inside exploding outward. Fenrir’s head snapping back taking his body with him.
For the wizards outside looking in through the window, it had all happened in a split second. One moment Fenrir was rushing the girl, the next he was flying back to land on the floor still as death.
Moonie closed the watch. Outside a tumbleweed ambled down the road.
Albus Dumbledore slowly got off his barstool and went to have a look at Greyback.
“He’s dead,” Albus said softly. “What was that?”
“Coors Light.” Moonie offered.
“Coors?” Aberforth said in a horrified whisper. “Why would you bring that into my Inn?”
“Because I was expecting a run-in with Fenrir Greyback,” Nova offered, but the blank faces gave her to know no one understood what she was talking about. “I thought everyone knew that the only way to kill a werewolf was with a silver bullet?” Never mind the snapped neck and blunt force head trauma.
“So, um, what was that nickname?” Moonie asked of her stunned audience.
“Grogar. They used to call him Grogar.” Aberforth offered, his mind reeling from the deadly pun.
Nova smiled. “Professor, I think I can offer you a friendly reception should you ever decide to visit Eques.” She turned to Moonie. “Come on Selena, we’re done here.” Moonie got up, the two walked out, transformed, and flew off into the sunset. Which was a strange thing in that it’d been noon a moment before.
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wow a awesome chapter the hole bare scene is grate , i am super sad to know that the story is coming to a close.
and the gun fight amazing i am going to have to go threw all of my spaghetti westerns now.
i passed up a chance years ago on getting a replica of the watch boy was i so stupid i just did not have the cash at the time.
10138156
I'm thinking that what I'll do is short stories and vignettes based on this AU. I'm going to keep writing, I just don't want to get into something that's going to end up taking over two tears to finish. Now I just need a nice clean ending for this.
Ending it is going to be a good thing. One of the ideas I've been toying with is having Nova and the other's discover an alternate world where Twilight vanished when she got tricked into using that time travel spell. Use that as a springboard to do some things differently. Maybe do a few nut-ball stories like Kitsumi Nova gets to go one on one with Chrysalis. She's complaining to me that she didn't get to go medieval on anyone other than the Silver bullet pun.
10138285
yep i got the Silver bullet pun but the watch pun was amazing, as most people would never get it less they are in my age bracket.
as to doing longer story's you are so good at them but i understand needing to relax a bit.
10138412
I was tempted to have him die from drinking it.
Just read another story that ended in a pun.
I don't think Albus should go to Equestria. If his nickname where ever revealed it could cause problems. Grogar was a name that those who knew of him had respect for.
10139416
Considering that Discord had been faking Grogar in canon I doubt many ponies would care about stupid nickname.
10139661
Take into consideration that there'd be any number of "learned" ponies who might recognize both the name and the appearance of Grogar. And then there's always the possibility they might just think he's Discord messing around.
This week's update is unfortunately nowhere near finished. I'll try to get it up just as soon as I can.