The Opposite of Fury
To Hermione's delight, classes were still on, but rather than more sitting-around-doing-nothing classes, McGonagall had organized more taste-of-third-year theory for us in a class on Divination. The directions to reach the class were just about as useless as any we'd gotten, but after asking a painting for directions we'd located what we thought was it.
"Mr. Potter." Snape's voice had an edge to it that implied malice beyond reason—as always. I turned just in time to see him walking up to us. "The rest of you can continue to your class, but I have been assigned the delightful duty of privately tutoring you." His eyes rested on me with a malice that wiped away the memory of my saving him and our chat after it.
I turned to watch my friends wander toward the ladder that apparently led to their class, then I helplessly turned back to look at Snape. "P-Profes—"
"Follow me, Potter." Snape turned with what should have been a dramatic turn, but all it did was make his mane flop to one side and his tail swing around. If it hadn't been Snape, it would have been kinda funny.
Down the spiral staircase we'd just climbed. Down further from the North Tower and still down until we reached not just the basement, but the dungeon. Snape didn't say a word the whole trip, and whenever a student saw me, I got a worried look.
Snape led the way into his personal office—the one he'd brought us to the first day of the year, when Ron and me had crashed into the tree—and gestured to a seat. "Sit, Potter."
I made my way to the same seat I'd sat in and eaten sandwiches (that McGonagall had summoned for us), and waited for Snape to continue. When he didn't, I decided to ask what the problem was. "Sir, I—"
Circling the desk to his own seat, Snape tried to climb up into it and instead—when he didn't manage to find a comfortable way to sit—stood with his forehooves on the desk and his back ones on the chair.
"Given our unique situation among all these fools who can't seem to keep from casting a single spell, the headmistress has assigned me to teach you meditation and Occlumency." Snape didn't sit down, but rather glared at me from across his desk. "Which is impossible. You'll never master it, but what the headmistress wants is a student less likely to burn the castle to the ground.
"To this end, we'll start with something simple. Close your eyes and focus." Snape, glaring at me, was the least calm thing I could think of. I still did what he said. "Now, think of your earliest happy thought. What is it?"
Now, I'd heard about meditation and all that, but Snape's office was a far cry from a safe place, and him practically yelling at me was not a good way to think of something soothing. But two years at Hogwarts had taught me nothing if not how to ignore Professor Snape. "My first day at Hogwarts."
"Given what I've heard of the family who raised you, I'm not surprised. Focus on that, Potter, I'm going to use some magic to upset you. Do try to avoid giving in to your anger."
No sooner had he finished speaking than I felt fire rush into my head. Like liquid steel—white-hot—something stabbed at my every thought. "Stop it!"
Snape's eyes had gone pure white and there were red-blue flames licking around the edges of them. Combined with the two opposing chevrons on his horn glowing—or more to the point me being able to see them clearly glowing—made me realize how angry I was getting. "You're burning up, Potter." Snape sounded delighted. "If you burn that chair, I'll see you expelled. Focus on your first day."
"What are you doing?!" Squeezing my eyes closed, I kept my mind locked on my first day of school. Ron and Hermione, joining Gryffindor house.
I felt the fire stab in again, and it was everything I could do not to shout again. I strained to hold my anger at Snape back, but it was too much.
"Ah-gwah-men-tee!" A rush of magic accompanied the words. Just as I snapped my eyes open Snape's water spell hit me square in the face.
My anger only grew. Under me, the chair burned away in purple-red flames, and I snarled at Snape. "Why are you doing this to me?!"
"Because if you can't control yourself, you're useless as a wizard. Where is the calm you showed when you talked down Malfoy's cobra?" Snape jumped fully onto his desk as if to defend it. Glaring at me with those white eyes, he seemed to be daring me to fail. "Find your calm, Mr. Potter."
I tried. My first day of school really was my first good memory. I wrapped the whole day up into a ball of cool happiness and tried to cover myself in it, but my flames of anger roared higher. Opening my eyes again, I glared at Snape—who was still hosing me with water. "Stop that!"
The desk under Snape caught fire—not that it seemed to bother his new body—but his eyes were locked on mine. Perfect clarity, the kind I only had when this angry, let me look at his big eyes and smug smile in all its detail. There was something else here—something I clung to like a life-raft to save me from my anger. Snape looked silly.
Scrunching my snout up, I giggled, and everything went hazy again. Laughter bubbled up and turned my flames off so suddenly that I felt cold at their loss.
"Is this what it takes, Mr. Potter? Laughter?" Snape paced a circle on what remained of his desk, the rest having burned to ash. At some point he'd stopped conjuring water, but not before soaking the entire room. Steam clung to the air making it humid. I kept laughing. "It couldn't have been avarice or—"
My ears perked at Snape's words, but more interesting was him cutting short. "What do you mean?"
"It is a great shame, Harry, that I wasn't allowed to teach you Defense Against the Dark Arts from the beginning." Like a light turning on, the pain in my head was back. Anger and pain rushed in all around me. "What do you get, Harry, when you cross a room full of fireworks with a salamander?"
The words caught me off-guard, they pulled at my ears and made me listen despite the agony in my head. "What?!"
"Blown up."
It took nearly three seconds of intense—angry—focus for me to realize Snape had told a joke. I stared at him in shock and pain—but not anger.
"How many Gryffindors does it take to change a candle?" Snape's deadpan, emotionless gaze settled on mine, though thanks to my eyesight and the steam I could barely make him out. "Don't bother, just convince a Hufflepuff to do it."
"I don't get—AHH!" The pain and fire was back. Whatever Snape was doing was getting me furious. I felt fire ignite around me.
"Knock knock."
The few friends I'd had in muggle school had made reacting to that automatic. Despite wanting to burn everything Snape valued to dust, I had to reply. "Who's there?!"
"You know."
I squeezed my eyes closed. "You know who?"
"You already killed him."
My eyes opened with a jolt and I looked at Snape. My fire winked out and he became fuzzy in my vision again. Jokes. Was that all I needed?
"This isn't going to work all the time, but it might help you keep under control a little better, Harry." Snape had lost the amused look and now just looked, well, superior. "And it had only taken half my office. A simple Mending charm will put things right. You can start with my chair."
"S-Sir," I said, "We tried using that to fix my glasses and my robes, sir. It doesn't work on things my fire has burned."
"Doesn't it?" I'd never heard so much disappointment in Snape's voice before. Standing on the remains of the desk, Snape glared down at the charred (and still smoldering) other half of the dark wooden centerpiece to his office. "Reh-pah-roh!" He let loose a jolt of magic from his horn, but where the magic met ruined desk just resulted in a waste of that potential. "Interesting."
Three more Mending charms—three more failures.
"I'm beginning to see why you disdain clothing, Harry. Is it a form of Fiendfyre, perhaps? It doesn't appear to spread." Snape climbed down from the desk and examined the ruined half of his desk. "Has anything survived this fire?"
I thought about the question. "Uh, Ginny's diary. Oh! And the crystal ponies: Tourmaline, Zircon, Garn—"
"Yes, yes. You don't have to name all of them. So living creatures and powerful artifacts seem immune to it. That's actually convenient." Snape sounded impressed. "If only there were a simpler way to create it."
"Well, sir, there is." Alright. What does being a wizard say? Show him—prove to him. What does common sense say? You're in a room with things that aren't completely burned yet. "Is there a better room to show you in?"
"Imagine that, a second year student with common sense. Are you sure the hat didn't put you in Gryffindor by mistake?" Snape had that fraction of a smile again. "Follow me, Harry."
The adjoining room to Snape's office was the potions room he taught in. He led me through there and into another room behind that. The room looked much more—well—serious. There were scorch marks visible in one corner, but there was also a complete absence of wooden work desk there. "I can make fire there?" I pointed to the corner.
"Oddly observant for someone without their glasses. Yes, Harry, that corner has been warded against the most destructive of flames." Despite his confident words, Snape stepped back to the corner the furthest away from where he'd directed me to cast. "Now, show me."
Two years of Potions classes, and I only realized now how much safer it was than basically every other class (except History of Magic). Every lesson had involved theory or practice, and every one of the latter was done with strictly controlled ingredients and supervision at all times.
By comparison, Charms class consisted of giving us wands and telling us to wave them around. They might as well have given us hand grenades.
I had three choices for ways to make a spell less magic efficient: wandless, gestureless, or wordless. My wand was built in, there was no getting around that (and from what I knew, only the best wizards and witches could do that). Wordless, I knew, was terribly dangerous since much of the pattern of a spell is in the words. Besides, waving my horn around just made me look silly.
"In-sen-dee-o!" I aimed my horn for the corner and wasn't disappointed in the blue-red flames that shot forth.
"Keep it up, Harry." Snape was doing something behind me that I couldn't see, and if I turned my head—No. Common sense wizardry (were those words even able to be said like that? I'm sure McGonagall would have a name for words that just don't go together) dictated I don't do things without thinking through common sense BEFORE wizardry. Turning and looking would result on the room being bathed in flame. Nope! Not turning.
"What are you doing, s—" I didn't get any further. A book landed in the corner where my flames were, and in a moment of incendiary delight, the flames ate it to ash.
Snape made a knowing exclamation. "As I suspected. Even a light enchantment is destroyed on contact. Brace yourself, Harry."
A small orb of glass hovered through the air toward the corner. I watched it as it got closer, and imagined the fire taking a bite of it. If anything, the orb burned faster than the book. Even the glass burned away.
I opened my mouth to ask how much more he wanted to test, when I watched the wire cage holding a white rat float into my fire before I had a chance to douse it. There were many things I was, but a killer of innocent rodents (particularly since knowing Ron's pet rat) was not one of them.
The metal of the cage didn't melt, but burned. It must have been iron, but it fizzed and sparked like a sparkler. The fat white rat dropped from the cage into my fire and ran as fast as it could out of the flames—alive.
I was so startled by the rat's survival I forgot to stop my flames. "Why'd you do that?!"
"Mr. Potter, would you rathered another student volunteer?" Snape gestured at the disturbed but unharmed rat with a hoof. "Laboratory rodents are bred precisely because we don't want to test such things on even muggles! Five points from Gryffindor!"
My flames snuffed out as I let the spell end. Lowering my head, I stared at the rat.
"Leave now. I'll clean up your mess, Mr. Potter."
Acting before Snape could, I stepped forward and offered my foreleg to the rat. Like Scabbers, the rat seemed to sense when it had a way out of a bad situation, and scurried up my leg to hide in my mane. I stared at Snape, daring him to chew me out more for saving a creature. When he didn't, I turned and left.
"Ten points to Gryffindor for Harry Potter assisting in a vital experiment."
I froze in shock. Not even the door crashing closed behind me caused me to move again. Nearly a minute later I felt the rat try to bite me on the neck, but after a few tries it seemed to give up.
Leaving the Potions classroom, I ascended to the basement and then the ground floor. I could still go to the preview class with everyone else, but I needed someone to talk to more than anything. When I needed someone to talk to, there was only one friend who always listened.
The climb was slow because I didn't want to run. Running with hooves on stone was noisy, and I doubted my status on the student council would save me from a prefect's wrath. I reached the owlery tower unharrassed by prefects, and slipped through the door.
"Hedwig?" I tried not to shout, shouting would disturb owls who were trying to sleep. "Are you there gir—" The weight of my first and best friend settled on my back. "Everything's crazy."
Hedwig shifted sideways up my back until she was standing on my shoulders. A single little whistle met my words. She could listen well, but what I valued Hedwig for the most was the way she seemed to communicate exactly what she wanted without distracting me from what I was saying.
"Yeah, I know I forgot to bring bacon, and I totally should have. This is a big one. Girls, Hedwig." I walked to the glassless window nearest to me. The view was amazing, the fall deadly. Hooch zoomed past the tower with Flagessio beside her. "Huh. Not that girl—teacher—thankfully. Luna, Gemma… pretty much every girl is impossible to—Hedwig, what are you doing?"
She was snuffling up and sticking her beak around my mane. I didn't put things together until she barked in excitement and yanked the rat free. I might not kill innocent creatures for fun, but Hedwig wasn't doing this for fun.
"Okay, I guess that counts as bacon?" I asked.
Hedwig made a soft whistle of appreciation.
"Fair enough. I promise I'll get proper bacon next time." I put my thoughts of rats and owls aside and turned back to the problem at hand (hoof?). "Gemma's really nice. She doesn't try to be clingy, and she's never tried to kiss me." The sound of bones being crunched just behind my head distracted me. "And she never eats rats while sitting on my back."
Hedwig swapped her meal from beak to claw and nipped my ear. I kinda deserved it.
We sat together, her eating and me looking out the window and over the school and surrounding countryside while Hooch circled the school again and again.
I tried to ignore the sounds of a happy snow owl eating a rat despite how close she was doing it to my ears. "Then there's Luna. He's nice, and he understands some stuff that not even Hermione can get her head around, but he's got a case of wizard that's so big I don't know if I can keep up with the crazy stuff he does.
"And Hermione. I don't understand her at all, in any way. She's got the opposite of wizard—well, I guess it would be witch for her. Maybe that's different?" I turned my head to look back at Hedwig and wished I hadn't.
"Ron's pretty cool. He chickened out on coming with us once, but the next time he came and was amazing. He beat up a helmeted pony without any magic at all. I think—" My ears picked up something that wasn't owl-eating-rat. I turned my head to see Ron with a terrified expression on his face.
"SCABBERS!" Ron ran over to me, his face turning as red as his hair, but Hedwig was clearly not interested in sharing. By the time he reached me, Hedwig was out the window and gone with her last of her meal. "What were you doing?! She was eating Scabbers!"
"Ron!" I barely got his name out before my friend took a swing at me. "Ron!"
Tears were pouring down Ron's face, ruining his aim on the next swing. "You let her kill Scabbers!"
"No I didn't!" Jumping back away from Ron, I tried to work out how far I had until the window. "That was a lab rat from—" I ducked and jumped to the side, "—from Snape's lab!"
Ron stopped with a confused look on his face. "It wasn't Scabbers? Then where is he?"
"I don't know! Where did you leave him?" I looked back again to work out how close I'd been from diving out a tower and saw my hoof was only an inch or two from the edge. "Also, as if I'd feed Scabbers to Hedwig." I didn't say that I wouldn't because the fat old rat always looked sick with something. Snape's rats, at least, were healthy.
"I left him in our dorm room. It had to be another Gryffindor who did it, Harry." Backing away from me and shoving his still-clenched fists down at his sides, Ron started to turn. "I just need to know where he is!"
"Well, you just chased away who I'd bet money on being able to find him quickest. Hedwig wouldn't eat Scabbers, Ron, but she could have tracked him down. Have you tried asking Addera?"
"I—err—might have accused her of eating him." Ron looked down at his shoes as if they would hold all the answers.
A sudden pang of sympathy for Gemma of all people hit me. Here she was trying to pull all the students together, and all they seemed to want to do was split off into their own houses and then accuse each other the first time something bad happens. "She only has the best senses in the castle. Okay, you get to apologize to her now. Come on."
"Do I have to? She told me she doesn't ever want to see me again." Ron looked up at me as if I would hold all the answers to fixing this. I just looked back at him as if he were a—well—wizard. "What?!"
"What exactly did you say to her?" I led the way down the stairs of the tower.
"Well, when I saw her in our dorm first, I didn't think nothin' of it. Then when I realized Scabbers was missing, I might have said something." I couldn't see Ron's expression—and I didn't want to. When I didn't say anything, he continued. "I might have called her a Slytherin wannabe."
"Ron, you know as well as I do she can't stand them. That was pretty mean."
"I was angry, Harry." All the anger seemed gone for now, but I was pretty sure if I mentioned Scabbers again, he'd get all crazy again.
"Been a lot of that going around lately, Ron. How are you going to apologize?" I started us along the hall toward the Fat Lady, knowing that it being the afternoon meant it was relatively straight so far as stairs went.
"Figured I'd start with sorry, and move on to groveling in the hope she'll help us look for Scabbers. I can't believe he'd just wander off."
Lowering her forehoof from the door, Twilight looked left (at Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash) then right (at Rarity and Applejack) and gave a firm nod to her friends. "We've got this, together."
"Of course, darling."
"Absolutely, Twilight."
"Mmhmm!"
"Yup!"
"Do you think I should have one big party, or one for each of them?"
The question broke all hint of Twilight's focus. She turned to look at Pinkie. "We're here to save them from Sombra by finding the Crystal Heart, Pinkie. We can throw them a party after that." Turning back to the doors, Twilight waited in the chill weather for any hint of an answer.
Her wings itching while she waited with her friends, Rainbow Dash couldn't help but look to the sky. The air in the north of Equestria was chill, filled with the oxygen she knew meant she could push herself harder. She wanted to fly. But, Rainbow was stuck on the ground looking for a rock that would save everypony—or so everypony told her. "How long's this going to take?"
"I-I'm sure they'll answer. Princess Cadance said they were really nice people." Talking to her friends was enough to take Fluttershy's mind off the doors, but when they opened she jumped—then froze. The creatures stood upright, and though there was a lot of them, she could see bits and pieces of pony here and there. The fuzzy mane atop their heads was a counterpoint to so much naked skin.
"So many outfits, but so austere. I mean, uniforms are one thing, but such dark colors? This is an affront to fashion."
"Rarity, ya can complain about their duds later. We got work t' do."
"Headmistress McGonagall." Cadance had been standing behind her sister-in-law (a title that still tickled her pink to use). In Equestria, Twilight needed no authority but her own, but since the humans didn't consider themselves within Equestria, Cadance had decided to lend her own royal oomph to the visit. "I'd like to present the six greatest heroes in Equestria—dispatched by our ruler, Princess Celestia to aid in defeating Sombra."
Minerva watched the biggest pink pony no little girl had ever owned bow and gesture to the six smaller ponies before her. Her eyes scanned the six, seeing a mix of what she'd heard called earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi.
Focusing on each, Minerva tried to guess at what each was good at. The blue pegasus had jumped into the air a moment after Minerva had opened the doors, and continued to hover in place in a manner that suggested a little flightiness, but the ability to keep doing it all day. Probably a scout.
Beside the slim, flighty pegasus was a taller and more stately yellow pegasus with an expanse of pink hair for tail and mane. She looked around at all the students Minerva knew were behind her—the teachers too—and Minerva could swear she saw a calculating smile crease the yellow lips. Probably the brains of their group.
Next came a pony that Minerva had to assume was Princess Cadance's daughter. Without wings or horn, the pinkest thing Minerva had ever seen looked to have an energy within her to rival Albus Dumbledore himself. She made a mental note to be very careful around what she considered a powerful mage.
Moving to the other half of the group, a purple unicorn looked up at Minerva with bright eyes that looked like they searched Minerva's person—like a ne'er-do-well would look at a man with gems and riches on display. Clearly the underhanded member of the group.
Another unicorn was next. Pure white like Prince-Captain Shining Armor, Minerva had to assume another offspring of the pair. She made note of the calculating looks, and easily placed the mare firmly into the category of master spellcaster. No one—no pony—could look that intently at a whole crowd without extrapolating all their weaknesses.
Finally, the most confusing to Minerva, was the orange pony that looked right out of an American Western. She sported a cowboy hat, stood with the same kind of sureness that Minerva had to assume was akin to a gunfighter from the Old West. No matter what, Minerva hoped she never had to face the orange earth pony in a duel, let alone make an enemy of her and turn her back.
Minerva McGonagall could readily see why these six were the heroes of Equestria, they looked—despite the appearance of being even Minerva's childhood dream—dangerous. "How may I be of service?" Not wanting to offend, she let her eyes scan the six one by one, giving them time for the yellow pegasus to take charge.
"Oh!" Cadance stood up straighter. "Forgive me. Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash—" she gestured to each pony with a wingtip as she named them, "—this is Headmistress Minerva McGonagall."
"Please, you can just call me Minerva." It was calculated, but then Minerva was dealing with royalty—asking them to drop her title put her on familiar terms with them.
"Thank you. Minerva," Twilight said while feeling out the unfamiliar name, "We're looking for what is called the Crystal Heart. It's supposed to be mounted within the Crystal Empire's castle, but the only castle here is yours."
That Twilight Sparkle was the pony addressing her surprised Minerva. She turned more attention to the mare, but still scanned along the line just in case. "Could you describe it, please?"
Closing her eyes, Twilight remembered the heart that Celestia had showed her. She focused her magic and produced an exact copy of that image. "Like this. It's supposed to be either a shield or a weapon. I'd hoped that you'd have it somewhere so we could just get all this squared away."
Finding herself liking Twilight's straight-forward attitude, Minerva shook her head, then turned to Albus.
"Minerva, I've talked one of the ponies into giving me flying lessons—"
The voice broke Minerva's attention for barely a moment, but she recognized who it was already, and was quick to respond, "You don't need to ask my permission, Rolanda, especially not something so useful. Though, I appreciate knowing about it. Good luck, dear." The look on Rolanda's face made Minerva smile all the way from her glasses to the bottom of her hooves. Rolanda Hooch was to flying what Severus Snape was to frowning.
"Sorry about that. It's sometimes a little busy running a school, and lately things have been getting more so." It was easy to project that she'd held the job for a long time, but Minerva had known about running the school for a long period—what with being the second-in-command for a good period. "Albus, have you seen its likeness?"
"No I haven't, Minerva. A heart-shaped blue gem of that size would be quite unique indeed. What exactly does it do?" Albus Dumbledore focused over the rim of his reading glasses on the magical image Twilight Sparkle was producing. He wanted to ask so many things—mostly to do with how she made the image—but it was neither the time nor the place.
"It—well—concentrates the joy and happiness (I think) of all the crystal ponies." Twilight, as if realizing something, looked around all the wizards, witches, and younger versions thereof. Every single one she saw that had significant pony changes also had crystalline flesh. "A-Are you crystal ponies?"
"That has seemed to be a common trend within those who've—" Minerva drew her sleeves up her arms to show off her hands and forearms better, "—shown more than the usual changes. We're coping, but without a method to undo this, it seems like a full change is inevitable."
Twilight stepped forward and offered Minerva her hoof. She wanted to hug the woman, but the size difference was preventing that. When Minerva took Twilight's hoof in one hand, Twilight smiled up at her. "We'll try everything we can to get rid of Sombra and find a way to restore you all. Nopony—no creature—deserves this."
Minerva's annoyance pulled her mental faculties up short for a moment as she tried to process being called a creature. She was ready to form an opinion when she realized they might not tie such significance with the words being and creature. Steadying herself, she thought over the words a second and third time. "Such thought is appreciated. We have freed several of the crystal ponies from the grip of those dreadful helmets—"
"Helmets?" Twilight's mind rang with the memory of Celestia's vision. "Dark things, green eye slits, spikes all over?" At Minerva's nod, she winced. "Princess Celestia showed me those. Would it be too much to allow somepony to check in on them and make sure they're okay?"
"What Twilight means is," Rarity said, cutting in, "She wants somepony they might recognize and feel a bond for to see them. I'm sure she didn't mean that you weren't taking the best care of them."
Minerva wouldn't have held it against Twilight if she had implied that. She certainly wouldn't willingly leave a wizard or witch in the care of others not their kind. Her thoughts strayed back to Harry Potter, and leaving him with muggles. "Of course you can see them. I'll arrange for an escort to take whoever you wish through right away." Old arguments boiled her blood enough that she wanted to help the ponies, particularly if that meant stopping Sombra.
"Fluttershy, Applejack, could you both go with them and talk to the crystal ponies?" Twilight was in full delegation mode. She would have sent Rainbow with Fluttershy, but she wanted her fastest and keenest eyed friend to help her search.
Looking after ponies and seeing more of the strange and interesting new creatures filled Fluttershy with confidence. That she had her friend coming too helped boost her spirits. "We can do it, Twilight!" Her shout, of course, barely got above the sound of several hundred students muttering.
Turning, Twilight looked up at Cadance with confidence. "Okay, girls, let's do this!"
For Peter Pettigrew, there wasn't a lot of days in his life that'd been worse than his current one. Since the rush of magic, he'd been afraid to change back to human in case the magic use would cause him to become something else, and combined with him now being held inside the robe of his former "owner", things could have been better.
What made it truly the worst day of his life, though, was the dark spell that kept him from moving and, worse, ate away at the corners of his mind. Throughout his life, Peter had always had a way out of a bad situation, but even years of rat-honed survival instincts couldn't help him.
Unable to tell where they were, Peter nonetheless could tell when he was outside the castle. The chill of winter bit through even Percy's robes. Not even the boy's fur seemed to help Peter stay warm.
This is far enough, Percy. Put him down.
Percy wasn't sure when the voice of his master had been replaced with his sister, but he appreciated the difference and could feel his master's will behind each command. He stopped and pulled the old rat out of his robes before setting him down.
The dark magic had burned something inside Percy, but he didn't mind. This was important work he was doing. "Okay, Ginny, got it."
Now put the diadem around his neck. It won't kill him.
Not wanting to touch the object—he could still feel the dark magic around it was hungry for life—Percy used the rag he'd wrapped it in to carefully set it over the rat. It was a silly thing, it was obviously way too big for Scabbers, but he noticed the rat wasn't affected by whatever curses were in the item.
Scabbers was never Scabbers. Let's find out who he is.
Percy felt conflicted and confused. "Uh, Ginny, what are you talking about?" He pointed at Scabbers. "That's my rat, I'd recognize him—" Dark magic flowed through Percy. Unlike his own magic, Ginny's (and he could tell it was his sister using it) didn't change him, but he couldn't help but feel an oiliness to it.
Before Percy's eyes—and thus Ginny and Sombra's perception, Scabbers screamed a ratty scream and started to writhe.
Peter Pettigrew had been having a comfortable life. Being a pet rat came with a multitude of perks, not the least of which was a bunch of witches and wizards who would protect him. As dark magic ripped away his rodentine features one by one.
Growing, stretching, and even swelling, Peter slowly became the man he once was with an important change—the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw was around his throat, and it was far too small for him to get free of it.
Staring up at Percy—or the form of Percy caught betwixt human and pony—Peter smiled. "Percy! You saved me! Such a smart boy, always getting good marks and helping his pet Scabbers out of trouble. Tell me, boy, tell your pet Scabbers what's going on?"
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You know, I was ready to laugh at McGonagall's assessment of the Mane 6, but...thinking about it, she's not all that far off.
Also, interesting that Snape is calling him Harry now, though the emphasis makes me think he's practically chewing the word in half.
You mean the throne doesn't kick back like a la-z-boy? How disappointing.
Now then ... Peter is lucky the diadem wasn't just a little bit smaller ...
hadn't been
were
you
I certainly hope that I don't need to point out the problem with this phrasing ...
I've been noticing it the whole time, but it hasn't really come to mind much until this chapter. Your use of third person omniscient could be a bit more clear. Sometimes you are from one point of view, then you change to others in rapid succession. I would love to give examples for you to look at or use, but I will wait until you ask, if you think it's a problem you need to fix.
Otherwise I love the fic, and wish you continued luck and success. Looking forward to the reactions to the castle having two Kirin.
9591943 All fixed! And yeah, he's a lucky rat.
9591952 Oh no, go ahead. But remember, third person omniscient's hallmark is that it doesn't have to adhere to a single PoV (like limited).
Oh Minerva, you couldn't be wronger
interesting turn of events.
And consider how many people insist that Snape doesn't actually teach.
Snape is more skilled than the textbook authors; his directions work better.
Snape teaches control and has a focus on accuracy over everything else. My CS 20 undergrad class had a correctness^2 factor in the grading (in fact, everything you did was multiplied by correctness. Straight 90 quality work gave you an 81 C.)
Snape has a sense of humor; you bring it out so much clearer than most of the books do.
Nicely done.
You know, sooner or later, Hedwig's going to start talking. In other news, Twilight apparently got the original briefing from Celestia with no mention made of wizards or schools. I hope she doesn't manage to make too many erroneous assumptions, or get lost examining the foreign spell-craft.
Snape telling a knock knock joke. My life is complete.
I thought it was cool that you explicitly went with the Mane Six having differing builds. It's a small thing, but it's nice.
Doesn't that diadem contain a shard of Voldomort's soul? I wonder if that'll cause any complications...
Also, that knock knock joke was amazing.
Oof, Twilight really needs to stop making assumptions. Twilight, they’re not Crystal Ponies becoming humans, they’re humans becoming Crystal Ponies!
Interesting assessment fo the Main 6 by McGonagall.. Not sure how Shining Armour and Candance will take their assumed siblings of course we might say the same about Pinkie Pie and Rarity
this is hilarious. she tried to apply wizard logic to them and failed utterly. to be fair, Pinkie is extremely powerful and thinking she is related to the only other pink pony you have seen isn't exactly outside the realm of reason.
Ask X --- Professor Snape... Did the Dark Lord ever mentioned that 'King Sombra'?
Snape trying to tell jokes. Everything about this is amazing.
Aside from the "Cadence's daughter" thing, I can't find anything wrong with this assessment.
But yeah, McGonagall is a woman of many talents, but reading ponies is not one of them.
In any case, Hogwarts taking the place of the Empire does put the Heart in a strange state of uncertainty. It might not have ever returned. Hopefully, that's not the case, but... well, I suppose we'll find out in time.
So, Fluttershy, your first thoughts on the humans?
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She was actually pretty spot on with Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, barring one key thing about each of them.
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Rainbow Dash is fast but she prefers being in the thick of things so I wouldn't call her a scout.
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Which would be the one thing she got wrong with her. Of course she still does scout ahead, but usually then rushes right in after doing so.
This was a good chapter and I liked how it connects to the previous one. McGonagoll was so wrong when it comes to the Elements of Harmony that it makes you wonder how much time she'll need to adjust. Although she wasn't wrong about Pinkie Pie except for her being related to Cadance, nor was she wrong about Applejack.
To be fair, it only did that because he asked it to.
I think it's called an oxymoron.
Oh my, McGonagall's assessment of the Mane 6...
It was amusing.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You had Harry save a rat from Animal testing and then feed it to his owl... that honestly kinda pissed me off... seriously. It was like you were showing how sensitive Harry was in one scene and then wrote him as a complete bastard in the next!!!
And don't tell me owls eat rats. Domesticated owls eat domesticated bird feed!!!
10116179 Okay. Firstly, reread the piece. He didn't feed it to Hedwig, he forgot about it and Hedwig found it. Secondly, he's 12 years old, don't expect him to have perfect cognitive capacity. Thirdly, you assume omniscience—Harry's parts are told 1st person. Fourthly, I can't see the school feeding their owls on regular pet food. In the books, Harry was feeding Hedwig part of his own meals. And, finally, owls are birds of prey and act very much like cats—live food is something they enjoy hunting and eating.
Taken from a website regarding the care of pet owls:
10116179 Oh, and for the record, an adult snowy owl will eat 3-6 rabbits a day, every day.
Well, at least this version of Celestia knows how to PROPERLY give a briefing, unlike in canon.
10455127 I try to avoid handing smart characters the idiot ball.
It's hilarious that the only first impression that was correct was Applejack.
10500931 Her hat gives her away. She should swap to a fez to confuse her enemies.
10500931
Well, Rainbow does take up scouting duty quite a bit... but that's more than offset by how wrong she was about the other four.
Normally they would but with snape he prefers to just skip or give the bare minimum of theory and safety protocol and then spend his time bullying Harry taking points from the other houses for the most minor infractions possible or just making an excuse up and giving points to the slytherins for no reason. Not maater how you put it, Snape is a horrible teacher in almost every way and is one of the main reasins besides lucius and fudge as to why the auror and healer departments are so lacking in numbers. While it is possibpe for the other classes to go very wrong and in a worse way, potions has the most mishaps. I'm not sure if Minerva would be willing to let snape teach harry unsupervised as she isn't blind to his hatred of an abused child like dumbledore. In fact I don't think she would be willing to let him teach at all the moment she gains the option to fire him. Snape should have never been allowed near children, he should have just been a potions researcher and brewer for hogwarts.
I'm pretty sure that in in this situation it should be "rather".
On the other hoof, you might've wanted to write "rather wanted", but realised that "wanted" shouldn't be used here and ended up with this.
...
You know, on the hoof of thinking about why it happened, because it's definitely not a hoof of another option that is contrary to the "rather".
Very unnecessary thing to be offended about. Aren't we all creatures? It isn't even used as an insult. Unless I don't know something, but I for sure don't know how to use the word "creature" as an insult.
What I would argue with though is that "coping" and "what a nightmare we are becoming equines". But, I guess, I already argue with it. Though it still is a little bit understandable - hands are the most useful thing humans have that gives us an insane advantage when coupled with our inherited wisdom of previous generations. But with magic, especially when you are a wizard that can Locomotor anything even in a yak form, that legitimate point is negated.
So, from my omniscient reader's viewpoint I declare: characters are worrying too much. What? They don't know what I know? Phffft, they really should, what a silly characters!
Upd: just remembered about magical creatures and it being a wizard's pov. I think I got it now, just good ol' wizards' bigotry. ^^