New Lands
I have no idea how long we all stood there grinning like fools. It was only a sharp pain in one of my ears that ripped me from my stupor. Hedwig reproachful bark told me who had pulled me out of my fascinated state.
All my friends—including Addera—were still just staring dumbly. "Thanks, Hedwig. You definitely deserve more bacon for that." With Hedwig making a soft whistle, I set about waking everyone up.
Looking up at Ron's height, I decided he probably wouldn't be the best to start with. I walked up to Addera and tried jostling her. Deciding I'd rather not try to climb her and do what Hedwig had done to me, I instead traced out her tail to find the very tip of it.
I started with just stepping on her tail, then stomping, but when nothing seemed to work I decided Hedwig had the right of it. "You really are the smartest one here, girl. I guess that's because you're not a wizard or witch at all."
Hedwig only gave an agreeing whistle.
Leaning down, I bit Addera's tail.
Addera shouted a lot of words in parseltongue that I didn't understand. She moved faster than anything I'd ever seen, opened her mouth wide, and started to lunge at me. Then she stopped. I got a wonderful close-up view of her longer-than-should-fit fangs.
I'd seen nature documentaries showing snakes striking, but they never just stopped. Addera looked at me through her glasses and snapped her mouth closed. —I am sorry, Harry Potter.—
"Is there a better way to wake you up, Addera? When nothing else works, that is." I walked up to Addera and leaned against her.
She reached a hoof down to rub one of my ears. "No. You did the right thing. It's hard, Harry Potter. For so long I was made to act like the monster I resembled."
"Old habits die hard?"
"Something like that. Do we need to wake the others up?" Addera asked.
Almost as soon as she asked that, Ron shook his head and looked around. "W-What happened? Was that some kinda spell?"
"If it was, it affected all of us." I watched the others slowly coming to one by one. The last to recover was Hermione. Then a thought hit me. "We have to go check on the castle."
"Why?" Ron asked.
"Because I don't think that just affected us. I want to know what's going on, and am sick of only finding information in bits and pieces." With that said, I broke into a not-quite-run.
Hedwig spread her wings and let go of my back. With a soft whistle she took to the air and winged her way up toward the owlery. Fair enough, I guess, but it felt good to have her around.
Addera and then Ron caught up with me—the latter running hard to keep up. "Harry! Slow down!"
I sighed and slowed to a fast walk. Now George, Hermione, and Luna caught up to me. "Where's Fred and Alicia?"
George rolled his eyes. "'Ow old are you, Harry?"
No more was needed—it was obvious what he was getting at. "Not old enough that I want to know. Let's get inside and find out what's going on." I looked aside at Luna. "With everyone."
When we reached the front door, Snape was waiting for us. He waited for us to walk all the way up to him before unfolding and refolding the front of his robes dramatically. "I thought to myself, another wild magical effect, it must be Harry Potter at the heart of it. And here I find you rushing into the castle after dark like you-know-who himself is chasing you, looking more guilty than an owl standing beside a cage bereft of mice. What have you done now, Mr. Potter?"
"Sir, it wasn't Harry's fault this time. I was with him all—" George said.
"Tweedle Dee, odd that I don't see Tweedle Dum. I am not at all—" To my shock, Snape cut off one of his tirades and stared behind us. "Mr. Bole, you know the curfew better than Mr. Potter."
Lucian Bole, one of the biggest students in the whole school, shook his head. "It wasn't them, Professor Snape. I was keeping an eye on 'em, and while they were affected by—by whatever that was, they wasn't the source of it." I guess my jaw could have dropped open further—if I were standing on a cliff and it fell off completely.
"You were keeping an eye on them, or keeping an eye out for them?" Despite his tone still being suspicious, I could see that Snape had given up on his former line of questioning.
"S-Sir?" I asked, only to have Snape wheel back upon me like a bull that saw red. "Sir, we need to see Headmistress McGonagall right away."
Snape's eyebrows shot up. "Mr. Potter, we actually agree on something. Follow me, and try not to cause an apocalypse on the way to the headmistress' office."
Lucian fell in beside us and we followed Snape toward the main stairs that led to the first floor. I looked up at Lucian and whispered, "Why're you watching us?"
"Wasn't. Coverin' for ya. Snape's got it in for ya, and Gemma don't like that. Was dumb luck I was sneakin' back in too," Lucian whispered back. "'sides, you're on the student council."
There was nothing else I could say under the circumstances. "Thanks." Was this a trick? A ploy? Would Gemma have gone that far as to send other prefects to cover for us to ingratiate herself with us? Ugh, Hedwig had it easy—eat bacon and whistle or bark as appropriate. Stupid me had to admit I could to talk, didn't I?
"Don' mention it. Besides, if you can 'elp get another few games of quidditch in, it'd be ace." Lucian's face brightened as he talked about quidditch, and I realized we had something pretty awesome in common.
"Quiet back there, or I'll add to your detention." Snape sounded like he was just getting warmed up. "Nothing? Pity."
If I wasn't going to report to McGonagall that even more strange stuff had happened, I might have felt more like smiling. As it was, I took the consolation prize of not being particularly upset—and given my recent tendency that was a good thing.
When we reached McGonagall's office, Snape reached out a hand and rapped on it twice. An invitation quickly came from within, and Snape opened the door.
McGonagall narrowed her eyes a little. "And what do we have here, professor?"
Snape always delighted on shoveling problems onto others, or so I'd noticed, and was gesturing into McGonagall's office with us. I already knew it was going to be a tight fit, but when I walked in and saw Dumbledore sitting just out of sight of the doorway, I knew it was going to be extra tight. "I found them trying to sneak back into the school just after the latest strange magic emanation."
"Thank you, Professor Snape, I'll take it from here." McGonagall's words left no room for Snape to wiggle, and when I peeked back he was closing the door behind us. Once the door was closed, McGonagall cleared her throat. "Seeing as we have a prefect involved, I'll ask for your account first, Mr. Bole."
Lucian looked proud as punch. "It wasn't exactly a secret that Potter had a secret admirer. I 'erd he was going to meet 'em out near the greenhouses after supper. Figured it was best to let 'em have their little meetin', and if things got problematic I'd step in and shoo them back to their dorms.
"Well, 'e took all his friends with 'im, and when all was said and done they're walkin' back to the school when Professor Snape catches 'em."
"Next I'll as you, Mr. Weasley." McGonagall gestured at George.
"It was just like what Lucian said. Harry was going to meet up with someone who'd been leaving him letters, he met him, and then that wave 'it us." George seemed a little on edge, and I could see him glancing back at the door behind him a few times.
"Mr. Potter, you look like you're about to explode if you don't say something. Given your recent—ah—issues, I'd rather that not happen. Please go ahead." McGonagall didn't sound upset, and she didn't sound angry.
"Well, the biggest one is Luna here. He wasn't a he a few weeks ago." I gestured to Luna.
"Miss Lovegood, you—" McGonagall stopped and stared at Luna. "Have you been using magic?"
"Just a few little things to make letters for Harry. No spells." Just about every single way Luna acted was in counterpoint to her being a boy. I could see the way she—he—sat was like a girl would (crossed legs), and even the way he—she—spoke was vaguely familiar as being feminine, but he was a boy.
"I tried to tell him they were spells," I said.
"He did—Harry I mean—and they were—spells." By the end of her words, even Hermione sounded confused. "Why hasn't anyone else changed like this?"
"You well know how complex transfiguration magic is, Miss Granger. This is wild transfiguration magic, we have been lucky its outcomes have been so viable. Having a few outliers from the norm are not just possible, they're likely. What are your thoughts, Albus?" McGonagall looked—as did everyone in the room—at Dumbledore.
The first thing Dumbledore did was smile and reach out a hand to Luna. "I'm sure it's only temporary. Are you feeling okay?"
Luna smiled up at Dumbledore like the sun had just shone through storm clouds. "I didn't
really notice anything changing. Should I stop wearing dresses?"
"Well, that's up to you. If you want to, however, you could ask around some of the boys for a spare pair of pants or two to try out." Dumbledore didn't let go of Luna's hand. "I think some very strange things are afoot here. As I told you, Minerva, the Hogwarts' wards are down, and I have no idea what is actually keeping the magic of them going anymore. There's nothing on Earth that could be set up to maintain the same magical load as the keystone of Hogwarts within the timescale of us being here.
"That wave—" Dumbledore closed his eyes and smiled a little. "That wave was the most curious thing of all. There was certainly no malice in it, and I doubt a dark wizard, witch, or creature would be capable of making it. Whatever is coming to Hogwarts, Minerva, is a force for good."
Everyone was quiet for a few moments. I tried to put together what must have happened before we got here, and came up with Dumbledore feeling the wards stop, and the magic hit, and then he must have rushed here to tell McGonagall.
"I don't think there needs to be any punishment for this." McGonagall was winding up to dismiss us, I could feel it. "You clearly had nothing to do with the latest goings on, but do try to plan your little trysts inside the castle next time, Miss—Mr. Lovegood.
"Mr. Bole, please see all the other students to their houses and ensure they enter them."
Lucian dipped his head. "Yes, headmistress."
"What I find curious," Dumbledore said, "Is where young Fred Weasley is?"
When everyone looked at George (except Luna, who looked at Addera), George held up his hands as if to ward them off. "What're you all lookin' at me for? It's Alicia you should be askin'."
A knock came at the door, and McGonagall had barely opened her mouth before it opened to reveal Snape holding Alicia and Fred's ears, one to each hand. "It appears to be quite the night for being outdoors. I'll have words with the prefects on duty." He heaved Fred and Alicia forward and then slammed the door on his way back out.
"Now I want you to be honest. Is there anyone else outside tonight?" McGonagall asked, and I could see the slightest hint of a smile on her lips.
"Not that I know of, ma'am." Lucian spoke with authority that I knew he was willing to stretch.
"Thank you, Lucian. Now, all of you back to your rooms. We'll be having special theory-only examinations on Monday." McGonagall waited for everyone's groans to stop. "I know you've all studied hard for them, what with them meant to be this week. An extra few days' study should ensure you all do splendidly."
We kept quiet on the walk back to Gryffindor tower. Luna and Lucian might seem fine, but they were still outsiders. George whispered the password to the fat lady so our two eavesdroppers couldn't hear it, and we all slipped into the Gryffindor common room.
No sooner was the entrance closed behind us than everyone started talking at once.
"Did you see that? A Slytherin prefect covering for us?"
"What was that strange magic that hit us all?"
"Is anyone else changed into a boy?"
"Is anyone else changed into a girl?"
Fred and Alicia, however, just slipped out of the common room. Thinking that they had the right idea, I made my way to a quiet corner—with Addera following me—and cast a Locomotion charm on my pen and Ginny's diary.
Addera opened the backpack for me to lift the two objects out and she curled up beside me with her own book. "I wonder if I'll have exams too?"
I looked up at Addera and shook my head. "Probably not. You've only been studying a few days, what're they going to test you on?" Opening the diary, I started to sketch Luna as best I could.
I'd barely gotten a rough outline and added the first sketch of his eyes when Ginny began writing to me.
Who're you drawing?
An odd person I met today. Luna Lovego—
I know Luna! She's in the same classes as I am. Err, was. How'd you meet her?
You're probably not going to believe it, but you know how I explained that people are turning into ponies when they cast magic? Luna didn't realize her "little tricks" would do that, only she turned into a boy!
I filled in some more details of the sketch, trying to think in geometric shapes like Ginny had told me to. I got Luna's eyes better sketched, and started on his nose.
Noses are hard. They don't conform to simple shapes.
Nodding, I did the best I could to do Luna's nose as I could remember it.
Was anything else different?
Stopping my sketch, I began writing a reply.
Everything. Well, mostly not everything of Luna, but I mean a pile happened after last class. There's a student council now, which I somehow got volunteered onto. A Slytherin student, Gemma Farley, is organizing it. Fred seems to be dating Alicia Spinnet.
Fred?! I thought George was after her?
That's not the strangest bit. When Snape caught us sneaking back into the castle, a Slytherin prefect covered for us, then covered for us again with McGonagall.
Then there was the strange magic. It made everything feel… nice.
What strange magic? You didn't mention anything about that!
Kinda hard to explain, but Dumbledore said that no dark power could ever have made it. It felt… It felt nice. Like a warm hug from someone you care for.
As I wrote my description, I felt a nagging thought that it had almost been like when Addera picked me up and hugged me. Thinking a bit on that, I definitely agreed with Dumbledore.
I need to tell you something, Harry, but you can't tell anyone else.
The words faded very quickly. Could I promise that I wouldn't even tell Dumbledore or McGonagall? Absolutely. I was raised having to keep all my fun a secret.
I won't tell another soul.
I'm learning dark arts as well as normal, but I only want to know it so I can fight it, Harry.
Be careful, Ginny.
I am. I mean, I'm learning from the greatest dark wizard that ever lived… and died. Several times. At the hands of a really great wizard.
Ginny!
I bet you're blushing.
I still want you to be careful. Everyone I've talked to about dark arts says it's really easy to keep using it once you start. How has it gone working out how to use the diary's other tricks?
Well, I think I could make a ghost of myself appear, but it would take a lot of energy. The diary feeds off emotional energy, like a vampire for emotions.
That was a surprising revelation. I added a few more lines to my sketch.
So how do I go about giving you emotional energy?
XOXOXO
I jumped a little at the message.
Ginny!
Harry, you have no idea how much your help means to me. But the answer to your question is what you're doing now. Just keeping the diary near you while you experience things will help feed me. IT! I mean it!
Addera's tail squirmed and worked its way around me, and I was soon wrapped in a warm coil that helped me relax a little more.
Harry?
Sorry, Addera was moving around to get comfortable.
She's the basilisk, right?
I realized I hadn't spoken of Addera much with Ginny. It was a bit of a touchy subject for her, at least so I thought.
Yeah.
She didn't have a name when he… when Tom ordered her to attack students. What's she like?
She's a bit strange. There's these moments when she is caught off guard and I see that she really is a monster, but she's trying to be good. I don't know why, but I feel a connection. It's like being with her makes things easier. I've got no idea how to better explain it.
You like her?
She's nice. When she picks me up, it reminds me how small I am, but in a reassuring way. I can't remember my mum, my real mum, but it kinda feels like I imagine it would feel when she held me.
When no immediate reply came, I went back to drawing. I tried to do a self-portrait, but froze when I realized I had no idea how I looked. I settled for Tourmaline instead.
Who's that?
That's Tourmaline. Well, it's a bad picture of Tourmaline. I guess I still suck at drawing.
You're getting better. Do you think you could spend a whole day sketching?
If my classes don't get in the way too much.
Okay. I want you to draw a picture of everyone you talk to tomorrow.
That wasn't going to be a small undertaking, but it wasn't like there was anything else to do in class, not with practically being the only one who can do magic. I caught myself yawning.
I think I might go to bed now, Ginny. Is there any way I can get you more energy?
The longer you hold the diary, the more it can feed. If you sleep while touching it, I'll be able to… IT will be able to feed off you all night.
Goodnight, Harry.
Goodnight Ginny.
I folded the diary closer around the pen, and floated them over and into Addera's backpack. Another yawn urged me to stand up and stretch, then I started to step out of the cozy little nest Addera's coil had made.
"Tired, Harry Potter?" Addera asked.
I yawned again before I could reply. "Yeah. It's been a bit of a crazy day. It seems like every single day something new happens." I started walking toward the stairs that led to the dorm room I shared, when Addera picked me up.
It would have been easy to try to be tough and tell her to put me down, but the fact was the way she held me against her fuzzy chest felt nice. As she glided up the stairs—propelled by her long tail—I found it getting harder and harder to keep my eyes open. The last time I managed to keep them open was as we entered our dorm room. "Addera?"
"Yes, Harry Potter?"
"I need Ginny's diary. Can you pass it to me?" I stifled another yawn, and my eyes threatened me with immediate sleep.
The soft leather pressed to my belly as Addera slithered up onto my bed. I was barely aware of Addera coiling around me as sleep finally overwhelmed me.
Finding that odd room again had been hard. Draco had walked up to it, but the doors didn't appear. Again and again she tried, but it wasn't until the third try that they appeared. She wasn't stupid, she realized there would be significance to the number and why she didn't find it—or more to the point, why no one else seemed to have found it.
Apart from the entry, there was something else Draco wanted to try. She walked into the room with the idea of her own suite of rooms firmly in her head, and sure enough it was that. "Interesting." She walked around the huge sitting room, looked in on the bedroom, then the bathroom, then she went back to the bedroom.
With a self-satisfied sigh, Draco walked through the room to the closet. Throwing both doors open, she hoped to see more trousers and school uniforms, but instead there were pretty dresses, skirts, and other girl-things. "Apparently, I need to be more specific."
Closing the door again, sharpening her thoughts toward trousers, Draco opened it to reveal perfectly sized and pressed school uniforms. Male school uniforms. She smiled this time. "Well that saves me needing to wash my things by hand."
Grabbing four uniforms, Draco turned for the door and left the bedroom. The strange room was oddly picky, Draco thought, but with a little clarification it served its purpose nicely. Leaving the room and closing the doors behind her, Draco made her way back down from the seventh floor to the ground, basement, and then to the dungeon.
"Draco Malfoy. You're out late." Lucian Bole had been walking back to the Slytherin dungeon from the Ravenclaw tower when he spotted Draco. "Come on, and if anyone sees us, I found you doing… something."
"Thank you, Lucian." It was only right to thank the older boy. "Perhaps I could do you a favor."
Lucian liked favors. He fell in beside Draco. "Keep talkin'."
Draco gestured to the clothes she was carrying. "The idea of washing is not a popular one right now. We could use magic, but I certainly don't intend anymore changes."
"More?" Grinning at having found some interesting (to him) information, Lucian looked at Draco and attempted to guess. "Hooves? Tail? I saw one guy got wings. You got wings, Draco?"
Idiot, idiot, idiot, Draco thought. "No, none of that. But the favor would be that I can get you a week's worth of clothes without any magic at all."
Teasing was one thing, getting out of chores was important. "What'd you want in return?"
"I was thinking a prefect who could guide me to and from a particular room I found." While Draco didn't want to share her knowledge of the strange room, she also didn't want to get caught by a prefect while there. Gemma was trustworthy, but she wasn't always free to escort Draco. "So?"
Lucian thrust his meaty hand at Draco. "You've got yerself a deal."
Draco could see skin missing from Lucian's knuckles and also noticed his nails were trimmed extra short. She thrust one hand into the huge grip of the boy. "I figure with the quidditch competition coming up, we'll all want some spare uniforms."
"What changed, Draco?" Lucian asked again, his hand squeezing on Draco's smaller one.
"Tail!" The pain from Lucian's grip was bad, but not as bad as the pain of revealing the truth. The only issue was now if Lucian asked to—
"Well, let me see it."
"What?!"
Lucian tightened his grip a little more. "If you don't keep it down, we'll have a dozen prefects rushing here. I just wanna see the color of your tail." Still holding Draco's hand, Lucian turned slightly and lifted the back of his robes. "Mine's pink." Lucian's face colored with the slightest blush, and he was smiling (something that would strike fear into anyone on the quidditch pitch).
Draco wanted to laugh at the idea of the meathead having a pink tail, but with the situation she was in that would be stupid of her. Grasping her wand in her other hand, Draco sent up a silent hope that she would get a tail—and just get a tail.
Silently, and using her body to block the gesture, she cast light upon her wand.
An inhuman sensation of movement behind her answered Draco's prayers. The feel of a tail growing was unique, but not unpleasant. Slowly, she let go of her wand and reached to the back of her robe and pulled it up.
"Black? Nice." Lucian let go of Draco's hand. "Life's easier when you don't argue with people bigger than you, Draco."
Lucian was the second of the older Slytherin students to give Draco advice in the last few days, and she found herself willing to concede that she should pay more attention to it. But while Draco intended to take the message to heart, she also liked Gemma's ideas better—never getting into a position where an argument is likely.
It was slips like she just made that would be her undoing, Draco realized. As she carried her new clothes through the common room and down the hall to her private rooms, Draco made a list of things she needed to change about herself to not just fit in, but to take some control.
"Dad, what would you do?" Draco asked once she'd entered her private bedroom. "Simple, you'd know how to twist things to your advantage and lean on family bonds. Neither of which I have. I have Crabbe and Goyle, but neither of them could stand up to Bole on his worst day."
The other option Draco pondered was getting something on Lucian. There was the clothing, but it wasn't a stretch for her to imagine Lucian finding someone to do his laundry for him. Another thought she worked on was the quidditch games coming up. Making Lucian look good on the quidditch pitch would go a long way to making him agreeable to Draco.
It was about then that something hit Draco. "What if this is him liking me? He's not exactly small. If he wanted to make my life a nightmare, it wouldn't take much effort on his part to make my life a nightmare," Draco thought.
How to make Lucian like her more was the key, then. As Draco sat down on her bed, she bit down hard and winced at a sharp pain in her rump. Jumping back to her feet, she reached back to feel for what had been injured. "Right. I've got a tail now."
The prospect of having a tail was worrying, but Draco had experienced enough transfiguration to know that such things can be fixed, despite what McGonagall said—or so she reasoned. In the meantime, the tail (and why she'd gotten it) gave her a few ideas.
Rubeus Hagrid was starting to get worried. He stood at the door to his cell and looked out at the tiny house-elf. "You want me to what?"
"Sit happily in your cage for the rest of your life, then ask a dementor for a smooch." Toil did a little cartwheel. "Then we can all stay here forever. It'll be lovely."
"I'm sensin' a bit o' sarcasm."
Stopping and looking up at the mountain of a man, Toil put one hand to his heart—or where a heart would be for a human. "What? Me? Sarcasm? Never!" He walked back up to the cell door and banged one little fist on the bars. "I want you to rip this door off and follow me with it."
"Now, I thought you said that. What're we doin'?" Rubeus closed both hands around the steel bars of the door and first pulled, then pushed. The first motion ripped the hinges apart, the second pushed the door out through the hole that had formerly been its home.
Toil waved one digit at Rubeus. "No no! No questions. Quietly follow me, and do exactly what I say." With that, that house-elf turned and started walking off down the hallway as if he owned it.
Turning the cell door, Rubeus tucked the heavy steel bars under one arm and followed the house-elf. They got to the end of the hall, and Rubeus watched Toil peek around the corner. "What're—"
"In here."
"Wher—" Rubeus didn't get any further. Toil grabbed one finger of his huge hand and pulled him through the solid door beside them. Stumbling, Rubeus looked down at Toil, then up at the owner of the cell.
"Well, look what little pretty you brought to me today, Toil. My, ain't 'e a biggun." Bellatrix Lestrange looked Rubeus Hagrid up and down—though mostly up.
"Hit her with the door," Toil said.
"What? Wit' the door? But I might 'urt her."
Toil tapped his chin and looked at the woman who was still chained to the back wall of her cell. "You're right, she'd probably like that. Kinda not all there in the head, if you ask me. Okay, I'll just have to kill her."
Rubeus froze. "You can't do that."
"Do you know who she is?"
"Ahem?" Bellatrix was willing to put up with a lot if It meant she could break out of Azkaban, but this didn't seem to be going somewhere she'd like to be. "I believe I can introduce myself. Bellatrix Lestrange, daughter of Cygnus and Druella Black, scion of house Black, Death Eater, Chosen of Lord Voldemort, resident of Azkaban—At your service." She tried to curtsy, but the chains holding her to the wall barely gave her enough movement to bob a little.
"Blimey!" Rubeus lifted the door just a little and brought it down on Bellatrix's head. "You coulda just said she was bad news. Now what do we do?"
"We step outside and duck around the corner. Come on." Grabbing Rubeus' finger again, Toil pulled him back through the door. A glance around the corner showed him the guards were now looking the other way. "Follow."
Rubeus thought a few times over what exactly Toil was doing, but he gave up trying to find an ulterior motive (though he knew there would be one). They slipped down the next hall without saying anything, but at the next corner a guard practically came around it right into their faces.
"Door, please." Toil looked up at the guard, then watched him slump down to the floor after a soft clang. "You're really good at that."
"I'm not sure I like being good at it. What're we doin'?"
"Well, I'm making this look like he tripped and hit his head on the bars here." Toil heaved the guard around and laid him beside the empty cell nearest to them. "But if you're asking what we're doing together, we're getting you some protection." At the next intersection, Toil took a hard right.
When they reached a solid wooden door, Rubeus waited for Toil to pull him through it. "Well?"
"We have to get the guard inside to open the door. It's the only way in." Toil reached up and knocked on the door.
"Who's that?" a voice called from within.
"It me, sir, Toil!" Toil put on his weak-and-sniveling voice he used with the guards. "I think someone fell down out here."
The door opened a crack, and Rubeus knew what he was meant to do. Putting on hand against the inches-thick door, he pushed it open and started to bring the cage door down on the hapless guard's head.
"Wait. Punch him!" Toil said.
"Right." Rubeus turned to the guard. "Sorry about all 'dis." He reached out and bopped the guard on the head."Now what?"
"Well, they don't keep people's wands here—they're not stupid—but all other personal possessions are kept inside." Turning only to stick his tongue out at the magically warded door, Toil jumped across the room, rolled across the ground and came up beside the bespelled door that no one could bypass and none had the key for. "Wizards, Mr. Small, have a blind spot."
Rubeus watched the house-elf pull out a little right-angled piece of metal and what looked like a tiny knife. "Oh?"
"A locked door that is so bespelled that no wizard could bypass it. The key is not kept within Azkaban. It is only opened when someone is brought here." Toil worked the little hook and wrench in the lock. "But wizards, being wizards, don't think as to someone clever with nimble fingers…"
The lock clicked, and Toil turned the wrench in the keyway.
"… Knowing muggle tricks." Toil kicked the door open, turned, and took a bow. "You see, a puppy dog told me a secret. A special, super-duper secret that shouldn't be breathed aloud for fear that someone would hear it."
"But yer gonna." Rubeus pulled the door to the corridor closed and locked it. "Aincha?"
"An umbrella is such a simple thing. Made of wood and cloth and metal. But what if it were made of special wood?" Toil led the way into the storage room. "What if that special wood was magically made from the remnants of some very special wood." Stretching one hand out, Toil tickled his fingers along the storage boxes. "What if that special wood had something special inside—" His hand started to grasp at something, only to find a mountain looming over him.
"Ah think ah know this secret. It's a goodun." Rubeus' fingers closed around the shaft of his umbrella. Magic thrummed through Rubeus Hagrid's fingers, hand, and arm. "We're leavin' now?"
"Oh no! No, no, no! We need magic to call the puppy's ride! Yes we do! Now we have the magic, but the ride takes time." Toil's fingers explored the various nearby boxes and drew things from them. A firework here. A vial of something interesting there. When Toil's fingers closed around a little knife, he paused and smiled wide. "Oh, this is a wonderful day."
Rubeus didn't like the look on Toil's face, but he was so happy to have his umbrella that he didn't care. "So what're we gotta do? You said t' call a ride?"
"Yes, yes! A ride. But not the bus, bus can't drive on water… for long. No! We need a ride that flies." Toil slipped the dagger into his clothing and walked up to take Rubeus' finger once more. "You need to call the ride that growls. The ride that breathes. The ride that—" Shaking his head, Toil sighed. "Sirius' motorbike. Call it. When it arrives, we break out."
"Well now, you can speak proper!" Holding up his umbrella, Rubeus channeled magic through it and focused on the motorbike he'd borrowed years previous. There was a tenuous answer to his summons—the bike was a long way away in Scotland, and it had several days travel ahead of it. "There we go. Now I just pop this back?"
"No! Keep it. Hide it. We'll need it!" Toil reached up and unlocked the door, then peeked out. "No guards. Come on."
"But how'll I keep—Right, quiet." On the way back to his cell, Rubeus carried the door under one arm and his umbrella in his hand. The feel of having magic again made him want to shout and cheer, though he managed to suppress those desires. His mind raced to figure out a way to hide the umbrella.
Toil guided Rubeus back to his cell and gestured for him to go in.
"What'm I meant t' do with the door?" As he spoke, Rubeus tried to press it back into place with limited success. The door seemed to sit in the hole it had formerly been attached to, but he knew one good thump and it'd fall out and then they'd move him… again. It'd only been nine days and this was his third cell.
"Just lie. The guards won't care and neither should you." Walking away, Toil looked back over his shoulder to see Rubeus tuck the umbrella up the back of his coat. Just then he heard movement to his right and turned to see a guard walking toward him. "Finally! Wet floor! Guard fall down! Sleepy-sleep on the job!"
Stats
Page generated in 0.03 seconds
Total duration
1,068 users online
1,896,587 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
*Detours to hit lestrange over the head with a door*
While I can't say that I mind this little excursion, was there a point beyond the obvious? I love the bit with the lock-picks, a complicated problem often has a simple solution when approached from the side.
To Gemma, in the event that this state of affairs proves to be a long-term problem, do you have any preference on what sort of mythological creature you might become? There seems to be quite the variety on offer.
Bit of a typo there, what?
People probably laugh at this. Don't. Young or not he is still a Kirin with Harry Potter's magic reserves in a world that enhances its potency. I hate agreeing with snivelous but he actually brought up a legitimate concern. Harry could actually cause an apocalypse.
*blinks at harry* wait hes a kirin, okay my interest in this just shot up (fave mlp race hehe) several points maybe ill check this out sooner then i originaly planed *moves it up the read later list to somewhere closer to the top*
9543525 Gah. I rewrote that half a dozen times and somehow managed to mess it up the worst on the last, apparently.
Be careful, Dumbledore. Love is the most straightforward double-edge sword every world ever known.
Ask Princess Cadance: What is you plan with the seemingly not-crystal em...castle?
9543558
While I agree I don't think the seriousness is stated enough. Harry isn't just a kirin that can cause an apocalypse, he's a kirin that can cause an apocalypse with a terminal case of wizard. Just the case of wizard is bad enough, cause that means he might eventually think destroying the world was the only way to make a house.
9543707
Welp, I am glad I am prepared for just such an occasion
Ask X --- Addera, talking about hibernating, and while it could be a oversimplification call a basilisk just a big snake, surely you noticed that it's very cold around, not sure if the chamber of secrets had a better temperature but if you are like snakes, could you have problems with the cold?
a super chapter and i love the author note supper funny.
Hagrid's the best.
most excellent.
9544015 He's very fun to write. Toil is quite a character too, of course, but while a half-mad house-elf is entertaining, he needs a "straight man" to bounce his humor off.
9544056 Is Bellatrix dead now? I think she's dead now. That'll leave a mark.
9544088 Nah. I'm sure she's fine. It's not like he hit her hard.
Ask the Doctor with a sense of wisdom: Which do you think is worse, a case of "Wizard", or a case of "Agatha Heterodyne"? (Explaining Sparks in the process.)
Celestia and Luna: shouldnt you have both noticed the kind of magic that would displace a school and bring a bunch of new dreamers into the land?
What in the world is Toil doing with Hagrid, it's really confusing.
Hopefully Hagrid ends up back at Hogwarts. It's not as fun without him.
I don't really participate in ask character things, but I thought this'd be amusing so I'm gonna try it.
Addera: What do you think of being called a Danger Noodle?
This story is really intriguing. I can't wait to see what happens next
9543711
*stares* The best I can do is flee to the next dimension over.
To Addera:
Given that Salazaar Slytherin and his heir were both male, he had no reason to suspect a female heir, and he had no respect for you as a creature, why do you suppose the entrance to the Chamber was in a girl's bathroom?
9544773
Well, that is one of my many options, yes. You see, my alternate persona is Death so he has most things covered. Say hi Death.
Mr. Black: *dragging Lucius Malfoy and Sombra by the hair* "Hmm, what's that? Meh."
Don't mind him, he doesn't particularly like people so he isn't very sociable most of the time.
Well. There's my nightmare fuel for the night.
I do worry about Harry and Ginny. She's basically a book-shaped changeling. Hopefully Addera will make sure Harry doesn't hurt himself in his effort to help.
I find myself wondering if Bellatrix really is dead. Someone like that isn't put down easily.
Also, Toil continues to be the most terrifying character in the whole story, and that includes Sombra.
Looking forward to more.
The complaint I bear for nearly every genderswap applies yet again. Call them what they prefer, not by their sex. It's just polite.
Then again this takes place in the 90s. So whatever.
I'm hoping to see a meeting between the wizards and the ponies soon. Toil is an interesting character and the fact that Hagrid just hit Bellatrix Lestrange on the head with a prison door was funny.
I love me some Harry and Addera fuzzyness
"I don't think"?
11396087 Ack! I definite a word there. Thanks for the good eyes!
Needs to either be "my" or deleted.
People at Hogwarts seem to be too afraid. It's magic, if it's possible to transform one way, it's possible to transform the other way. Especially if you are in another world. And if transformation gives you a better both cormoreal and ethereal components of being, then why turn it back? We aren't born to be humans, we are born to be. And it doesn't consume your potentially existing soul or hurt your biological efficiency, so win win I'd say.
Then again, it's 90's. People at that time moment and of this age are inevitably a little less wise. Not like now we are much better, but still.
Why were people thinking that Bellatrix is dead? He literally just knocked her a little.
I mean, I was also thinking that she could be dead, but that's a completely different story. (=
Toil is fun. Seems reliable, but with a slight case of Discord.
9548171
Argue.
11396198 Fixed, thanks!
Wizards, including Hagrif for some reason, don't need wands to do magic. They can focus better and use more complex magic easily with it but they are not essential for them to use magic...
Azkaban works because the dementors suck the magic from thr inmates.
I get this is a badly made AU but this Azkaban is too nice, it is a heaven compared to OG Azkaban.