Chapter Nineteen
Arrangements
Ginny was once more dumbstruck. After Sunset's mildly ominous behavior, everything had returned more or less to normal for the next few days. Sure, with the girls showing her not only magic but also Parkour, she hadn't exactly followed her usual routine, but it had felt like the most natural thing in the world regardless. Now, however, Ginny stood in the door leading from the Burrow's kitchen to the garden.
Her brothers and her mother stood gathered there, together with her new friends. Then Ginny noticed another familiar face. "Luna! You're here too?"
"Yes. A girl came by with a phoenix and asked if I wanted to come to your birthday party."
"That would be Sunset. She has a bit of a habit of doing that. How did she manage all this?"
"Well she didn't exactly do it alone." Ginny spun around to see Emma standing behind her, wearing a proud smile. "Hermione and Molly helped a good bit, and the twins were invaluable at making sure you didn't notice."
"Turns out we make a good distraction."
"Who could have guessed?"
More than used to her brothers' antics, Ginny simply rolled her eyes as she surveyed the gathered guests. It didn't take long before she noticed something was off. "Hey, where is Sunset?"
The gathered party guests shrugged.
"We only know that she-"
"-said something about-"
"-getting some surprise guests."
Everyone turned when there was a flash of flames at the edge of the gathering. There was Sunset, Philomena perched on her shoulder and two mildly bemused men stood behind her. It only took Ginny a second to recognize them. "Bill! Charlie!"
She rushed forward to greet her two grown-up brothers, enclosing them both in a tight hug that they gladly returned. The older and taller one of the two, wearing relatively light explorer's clothing, including a pith helmet, and small golden earrings, was the first to speak up. "It's nice to see you too sis. Happy Birthday."
The younger one of the two, a bit stockier, weather beaten and completely covered in freckles, only interrupted by several scars that marred his skin in multiple places, with long read hair, nodded as he still hugged his sister. "It's been way too long. Happy birthday sis."
Molly meanwhile was focused on Sunset, noticing the sandy brown dust in her hair. "How did you manage that?"
Sunset simply maintained her smug smirk. "I think Bill can explain it better than I can."
Seeing that he was suddenly the center of attention, Bill let go of his sister and took a seat at the large table that stood next to the house. "Alright. So I was in a pyramid, at work."
Bill stood in the underground chamber, his wand drawn to illuminate his surroundings. There, at the end of the chamber, no ten meters away, was the treasure. The treasure his employers wanted. The one he would get a cut from after completing his work. But there was a hindrance, an unseen obstacle standing between him and his prize.
A curse.
Of course there was a curse. These old tombs always held curses. They were the reason he was here in the first place. He was a curse breaker. Removing that hindrance was what they would pay him for. This particular curse was tricky. Nothing he couldn't deal with of course, but time consuming to break none the less.
He had been at work on unraveling it for two weeks now, another week, he estimated, and he would have it safely removed. There was a chance, of course, that the treasure itself might be cursed, but that would be someone else's problem. With a smirk, he got back to work removing the curse, weakening it, bit by bit. Engrossed in his work as he was he didn't notice the flash of light from the corridor he had entered through, nor did he hear the distant crackle of flame, or the footsteps slowly approaching afterward.
"William Weasley?"
He jumped. A voice had just spoken behind him. Before he could even turn around, his mind was going a hundred miles an hour. Almost absently he moved the matrix lines of the curse he was working on into a stable position and released his magical hold on them, he had been startled during his work before and it was dangerous to leave such an ancient spell unstable.
His mind quickly processed through what he knew. Both the survey team and he personally had scanned the entire tomb, cataloging every curse found, the one that was his current project was the only one left. Still it was possible that they had missed one. But how would a trap know his name? Legillimency came to mind, but that form of magic had only been invented fifteen centuries ago. This tomb was twice as old.
The voice had pronounced his name perfectly, without any discernible accent. The locals spoke Arabic, pronouncing his full name without accent was a feat beyond most of them. Not that the majority would bother to try anyway. Some of his colleagues could do it, but they would call him Bill.
Perhaps mental subversion was at work. A voice speaking in his own head. He had heard the reverberations off the walls, but those could be replicated with magic. It would explain hearing his own name. The trap might not know it, but he certainly did.
His thought process concluded just as he finished turning, his still glowing wand now pointing at a young girl. Her hair was a fiery red and blonde, her large, teal eyes were faintly glowing in the gloom of the chamber. She wore a modern leather jacket and a pale blue skirt, with leather boots and a messenger bag to round off the ensemble. There was also a phoenix perched on her shoulder.
Her clothing made no sense for this environment. Nor was there any reason she should be here. She had to be an illusion. His mind made up, he gripped his wand tighter. "Revelio!" A bolt of pale blue light erupted from the glowing tip of his wand, striking her square in the chest. Nothing happened. The girl raised an eyebrow, the phoenix tilted it's head.
No illusion then. A golem, perhaps? Tomb guardians were not unheard of. "Reducto!" A second bolt, a darker blue this time, shot forth from his wand, once more aiming for her chest. This time, she moved, twisting her upper body to the side. The long chamber gave the spell quite a way to fly, granting her more than enough time to dodge the spell.
She returned to her previous position, her eyes now narrowed, her hands glowed a faint teal and a glowing barrier sprung up between them. "That's about enough. You are William Weasley? Eldest son of Arthur Weasley and Molly Weasley nee Prewett? Brother of Charles, Percival, Frederic, Georgius, Ronald and Ginnevra Weasley?"
Hesitantly he nodded.
"Good. My name is Sunset Shimmer. You are the one I came here for." Once more he grabbed his wand tightly. A silently cast charm revealed the shield that not only separated them, but also sealed him in the chamber, to be of significant strength, he could break it, but it would take him a moment. "Tell me, Bill, what day is it?"
"Monday, why?"
Both girl and bird rolled their eyes. "I mean the date."
"August eleventh. Again, why?"
"Tell me, Bill, what happened at your home, ten years ago to the day?"
Bill was confused for a moment. Ten years ago? At his home? His home here in Egypt hadn't been built ten years ago. She had to be talking about the Burrow. Suddenly he remembered. "August eleventh! Ginny's birthday!"
Sunset broke into a warm smile. "Exactly. I've come to get you and your brother for her birthday party."
"Isn't this a bit late?"
"Normally yes, but when you can travel the distance in seconds, there really isn't such a thing as too late, is there?"
"Right, phoenix. Still. I'd love to come, but I have work to do."
"You're a curse breaker, correct?"
"Yes."
"Then I presume you need that curse-" She pointed at the area behind him, where the curse was anchored. "-broken?"
"Yes."
"One moment." With that she drew her own wand. "Luminis Salvatis." A pulse of golden light erupted from the tip of her wand, passing trough the entire chamber. The moment it passed through him, he felt a pleasant tingle, it felt similar to touching a patronus. The golden light coated the walls in a faint glow.
He looked back at the area that held the curse. All across the walls, in a deep purple, ancient runes were written on the old stone.
The girl seemed pleased. "There we go. I see. Interesting. Ah well, I can study it in more detail later. For now, tell me. Does this help?"
Bill took several moments to look at the intricacies of the curse he was dealing with. He could see several things that had been giving him trouble before. Laid bare as they were now, he could see how he could easily circumvent them. Even layers of the curse he hadn't even touched yet suddenly seemed trivially easy to break. Normally he would need to do more prep-work, but as it was, what he had already done was more than enough. "It does, one moment."
He once more pointed his wand, focusing on one rune in particular. "Acribeus." A bolt of silvery, blue light shot out from his wand, striking the arcane symbol and lighting it up the same color. "Torquis." A second bolt of light shot out at another rune, lighting it up as well and forming a fine, silvery chain between them.
The process repeated several times, leaving silvery chains criss-crossing a good portion of the chamber. "Now, for my favorite part." He snapped his fingers and all the chains went taught. A moment later, the glowing symbols ripped from the walls and shattered, disappearing along with the chains.
With crucial parts of it missing, the other runes of the curse quickly began to loose their purple shimmer, turning a dull black. After barely a minute, they dissolved into a black mist. He watched as the girl lit her wand again, a golden glow appearing at the tip. With a twirl of the wand, she summoned a shimmering light, picking up the air of the chamber in a golden glow and dispersing the mist.
Bill drew his wand to check and found that, indeed, the remnants of the curse were gone. "Convenient. Normally I have to wait hours for this stuff to clear. Could you teach me that spell?"
"Which one?"
"Both, actually."
"Sure. But first we need to go get your brother. Philomena, if you would."
With an amused trill, the phoenix spread its wings and the three of them disappeared in a flash of flame.
"Uhh, how?"
Sunset shrugged. "Light magic, I can explain later. But tomorrow, okay? Today's about Ginny, not me. I think it's about time you knew my story anyways."
"That's alright dear," Mrs. Weasley assured her. "Would you mind if I invited some of your teachers at Hogwarts over? They'll probably want to know anyway."
"Sure thing. Anyway, Bill? Would you like to continue?"
"Fair enough. Well, we quickly popped over to Romania ..."
Bill took a moment to adjust. He had never traveled by Phoenix before. Sure, apparition was unpleasant, and portkeys and floo-travel were adventures all of their own, but in some way or another, they all provided a feeling that something was happening. Something he could interpret as motion.
Phoenix travel on the other hand, was jarringly seamless. One moment he was many meters underground in Egypt, the next he stood at the edge of a forest clearing somewhere in rural Romania. And nothing but a faint heat washing over him and a flash of light indicated to him that anything had happened at all.
By the time he got his bearings, Sunset had already surveyed their surroundings. It didn't take him long to follow her gaze and spot the scene a hundred meters ahead. Twelve wizards trying to subdue a massive dragon.
By the time he had spotted the wizards, Sunset was already pointing at one of them. "Is that Charlie?"
Looking at the wizard she had pointed out, it only took him a moment to verify her suspicion. "Yup. He looks kinda occupied right now."
"True enough. Let me think." She fell silent for a few moments, studying both the wizards and the dragon in more detail. "Tell me, the scales of dragons are resistant to magic, correct?"
"Yes." Bill was intrigued what this mysterious little witch was up to now.
"But their eyes are not?"
"No."
"Are their bones?"
"Not as far as I know, why?"
"And Charlie knows that?"
"After how long he's been working with dragons, I certainly hope so."
"Good."
"What are you doing?"
"You'll see.
Bill watched as she pulled out her wand once more and began following the handlers with its tip. It didn't take him long to realize she was aiming for Charlie.
"Accelro!"
Bill watched as a fine beam of teal sprang from her wand and hit right between Charlie's shoulder blades, just as he had stopped a good distance from the dragon to take a breath.
Charlie couldn't understand why, but suddenly, it was as though the world was hardly moving at all. He could see faint traces of motion in the flames the dragon was breathing against one of his friends, as well as in the hastily conjured shield that deflected them. But everything else was so slow it might as well not have been moving at all.
He didn't understand what was happening, but the dragon needed to be subdued. This was a chance he couldn't afford to miss. Normally a dragon's hide resisted magic so well that it would take dozens of stunning spells to drop one of this size, more than their small group could fire at once. But whatever was going on afforded him more options.
He knew that a wizard hit in the head with a stunning spell was usually out for several hours, while hitting a foot might not even completely stun them in the first place, going by that logic it was clear what he had to do. Seeing how there really was no hurry, he calmly strolled over until he was looking straight into one of the dragon's eyes. With great care, he pointed his wand, so the spell would hit the eye and, if he was lucky, perhaps even pass through into the brain. That was sure to keep even a dragon down and out for a good while.
"Stupefy."
A bolt of red shot from his wand and hit the dragon's eye. Seeing no change, he shot another one through the other eye, just to be sure. Then he calmly walked around the clearing, waiting to see if the mysterious effect would end.
After a moment, he spotted the two people standing a good hundred yards away. He saw, to his great astonishment, his own brother, Bill, standing next to a girl with fiery red and blonde hair with a phoenix on her shoulder.
As he walked closer, he could see the teal light at the tip of her wand. A wand that was pointed exactly where he had been standing when the mysterious effect had started.
Understanding dawned on him and a quick aura sight charm confirmed his suspicions, clearly showing the magic flowing from the wand to him. With a smirk, he drew his wand again, pointing it at hers. "Finite."
Bill was quite startled, to say the least, to see his brother suddenly standing next to him. "Gah! When did you get here."
Sunset simply giggled. "That was a speed spell. So I'd say, for him, some time in ... eh, the last ten minutes or so. For us, half a second ago."
Charlie turned to his brother, who was currently watching the dragon collapse behind him. "Who's that."
Bill recovered his wits and turned back to Charlie. "That's Sunset Shimmer, she's apparently a friend of Ginny's. She's here to pick us up for her birthday party. "
"She is?" The younger brother turned to Sunset. "You are?"
She simply smirked. "I am."
"Well, that one-" He pointed at the sleeping beast behind him. "-is gonna stay out for a while, so I think I should have time. Lemme just tell the blokes right quick"
When the two nodded, Charlie hurried over to his confused friends. He only took a minute or two to to talk to them. Then he returned. "So. We're going by phoenix then?"
"We are. Come let's walk for a bit. Professor McGonnagall told me not to let too many people know about her." As soon as they were out of sight from the other handlers, Sunset turned to the bird on her shoulder. "Philomena, if you would."
With a trill, the bird spread its wings. In a flash of fire, the group was gone.
Sunset's ability to be better than everyone at everything is beginning to stretch the limits of my suspension of disbelief.
9540707
I wouldn't say better, merely different in approach with more effective tools.
Hmm, I'm willing to believe that a student with an expertise in arcane fundamentals could unravel a badly damaged curse, especially considering the fact that she can cast a mage-sight spell.
However I cannot give credence to the idea that a young filly can muster enough power to knock out a fully-grown dragon. Even if the creature is not resistant, it is still huge, immensely vital, and in the midst of a furious battle. I could have believed her creating some form of boost for the wizards, or doing something relating to her specific expertise with fire to immobilize it for them, but just knocking it out? Magic doesn't work like that.
She's not Saitama, writing her like him ruins any kind of tension if she can just zip about the planet like Korosensei doing magic stuff. As it is, I can't take her seriously, and if she's suddenly knocked down several pegs after this it will just feel like random seesawing from the author.
9540707
A seven year prodigious pupil of Celestia herself being good at dispelling a curse isn't surprising, to be honest. Ponies are all about friendship and defeating darkness, and she's made quite some friends already.
The dragon was somewhat forced, until you notice that the really impressive thing was a perfect aim spell. She didn't actually do it better, she just had one spell that made it easier.
Still, I agree she's a bit too op right now. But then again, she'd be a graduate by Hogwarts standards, already, so dunno.
9540738
The big problem with the badly damaged curse justification is that the story immediately turns around and says "oh but only like 3 people in the entire universe can do the thing to remove the curse and one of them is a god".
So we're establishing that she's better than Bill at cursebreaking, and better than Charlie at dragon herding. A kid with, at most, an equivalent level of training to a Hogwarts graduate is better than people who graduated Hogwarts and have years of field experience at those people's specialties.
9540707
Her first teacher was a princess who was quite possibly grooming her to be her “heir” as it were.
When running a country you can’t afford to not be prepared for just about anything.
9540761
Well it should be noted that she's referencing her Equestrian peers, and honestly, Equestrian magical practice is appallingly lackadaisical. Most unicorns only study magic relating to their own mark, and little else. And that's if they ever study at all instead of just intuiting a talent-spell or two and calling it good. Over-specialization is a systemic fault in Equestria, they are terrible at generalization.
Sunset is likely referring to herself, Celestia, a professor at the school with a mark in enchantments, and that's it.
So as far as she knows, what she did was quite impressive, even if it might not have been. Bill said himself that he'd have been able to unravel the thing in ten minutes instead of several weeks if he had that visualization spell handy.
But yeah, there's really no excusing an eleven year old having enough innate power to shut down a dragon.
You know, this was a great opportunity for the wizarding world to impress Sunset. If that curse had been far more complicated, and vicious, than any unicorn-made spell, if she was used to unimpressive Equestrian drakes rather than that storm of fire, fury and teeth, this trip could have redefined her expectations for her.
She could have made a real and useful contribution still, by providing Bill with that spell and letting him demonstrate his expertise, by doing something to hinder the dragon or help the hunters. I would have loved to see Equestrian and Terran magic intermeshing, rather than Sunset roflstomping her way through this chapter.
OK, this is getting beyond ridiculous no education would cover such a broad range of subjects. Curse Breaking is slightly believable but there is no point in downplaying the accomplishment by then saying only 3 other people could have done the same thing. It would have been better if she had just assisted him in breaking the curse with her expertly following his directions allowing them to break the curse quicker than normal.
The dragon is just unbelievable, dragons are sapient in Equestria and I seriously doubt Celestia took a child out with her to fight them.
That is enough. I can't take any more of such distilled Mary Sue character.
9540917
hermione has a book on "fantastic beasts and where to find them". So it's not as far fetched. Sleep spells would probably be the first thing you learn in a self defense class, which is probably something Celestia would've given her. Curses *could've* been covered in her charm book, but I doubt it. Honestly the most unbelievable thing is that she broke the curse so quickly.
EDIT: Though to be fair, she's kinda in "Pinky" mode right now.
Eh, this is getting a bit boring now.
9540942
Yes but it takes a team of wizards to subdue a dragon yet Sunset did it singlehandedly. The spell doesn't matter it's simply beyond belief that an 11-year-old could take one down alone. For god's sake, it describes her moving at super-human speed at one point. No amount of reading would prepare her to do something like this.
I don't want to climb on the bandwagon of criticism. Celestia knows I've been on the receiving end of more "You're Dumbledore bashing therefore your story sucks." comments than I care to count. But I'd be remiss if I didn't voice my opinion that this chapter jumped the shark. I would strongly recommend unposting it and doing a revision.
When Twilight left Celestia's direct supervision, she was still working on mustache spells and a dragon was a major undertaking for all of the main six.
I don't say this to belittle you. Your writing and story telling abilities are superb.
Well, it's certainly better than the old version. I still feel like Sunset's ability is a bit too far beyond the point of believability for an 11-year-old, as Dogger pointed out Twilight was still practicing spells to grow mustaches when she left Canterlot, but at least this version only has her offering assistance rather than solving everything herself.
9541148
As far as Twilight's ability in the early seasons goes, note that for the purposes of this continuity that's after five years of study, not seven, like Sunset had. Primarily, though, I find that the early seasons severely downplay Twilight's magical ability at least in the regard of skill (can't really complain about the display of her power) so as to prevent it from jeopardizing the whole 'solve your problems with friendship' angle.
I remind you that the show also had a steam engine being pulled by ponies. Not everything in the show is entirely realistic. (and I'm not even talking about their strength, but about the fact that, if the engine was broken down, they should have just left it and pulled the train on its own)
9541171
The point of Twilight's ability being where it was was to show that despite her skill she still had more to learn. If she solved every problem with her magic then not only would it be hard to believe that she had any need to improve it also would have lead to some boring stories.
The point is a main character who is good at everything is not interesting to follow, we want to see them grow and improve but if they're already perfect at everything it becomes really hard to get interested in them. Sunset is a great character because she's either learning to be a better person or trying to overcome the mistakes of her past.
A Sunset who always succeeds at everything she attempts with no real conflict just isn't a very interesting character. I mentioned before but it would have been more interesting if Sunset simply assisted in a way that showed off the other character's expertise while showing that Sunset still had a lot to learn. Instead, the fact that Sunset automatically knows the perfect spell to use makes it seems that she could have done everything herself but chose not to since the others were more than capable of handling things.
To put it another way it would be better if instead of Sunset having the perfect spell ready to go automatically you'd have the other characters say something like "This could go faster if It wasn't so difficult to examine this curse" and Sunset is just like "I have a spell that might help though admittedly I don't think it was designed for this", just something to get across the idea that's she's clever but she doesn't automatically have all the answers.
7 years of school does not make you an expert. It's like saying I'm the world's greatest accountant because I have a bachelor's degree, it wouldn't it just means I'm at better starting point to be an accountant than the guy who never got his degree. I'm still nowhere near as good as the guy with a degree and 30 years of actual experience.
9541201
That may be so, but the same episode that displayed her raw power (Boast Busters) placed the number of spells (or tricks, as the episode called them) she knew at twenty five, which is utterly ridiculous.
Ah, yes. There is nothing quite so imperious as an 11-year-old girl.
9541217
Not really, she's young and 25 is a lot. It's made clear that unicorns generally only learn magic related to their talent. Honestly 25 is a lot by Harry Potter standards as well although obviously their is a difference between casting a spell by memory and casting one using some kind of reference. Hermione in canon can cast many spells but not without looking many of them up first.
9541241
However, the scene makes it quite clear that she is counting a spell she just managed to cast for the first time which she very likely wouldn't be able to cast without reference after a few days.
9541258
I mean it was growing a mustache not creating cold fusion. I'm pretty sure the idea is how many spells she's been able to cast period which makes sense. School is mostly about theory nobody comes out of it being a master mathematician. She also probably doesn't count any spell she may have casted under Celestia's guidance.
9541271
Assuming she only counted spells that she learned since moving to ponyville though, that would make that number irrelevant both to this discussion and to the episode.
Seeing how there really was no hurry, he calmly strolled over until her was looking straight into one of the dragon's eyes.
should be
"Seeing how there really was no hurry, he calmly strolled over until he was looking straight into one of the dragon's eyes."
---
Then he calmly walked around the clearing, waiting if the mysterious effect would end.
should be
"Then he calmly walked around the clearing, waiting for the mysterious effect to end."
What's even the point of Sunset attending Hogwarts at this point? You've written her so OP that she outstrips pretty much all adult wizards. Hell, the way you write her, she could probably somehow figure out a way to off Voldemort without going through his horcruxes.
A story stops being a story once you take away all suspense or tension from every situation. Instead of leaving us wondering "How will she overcome the next obstacle?" you leave us thinking "Well she's going to bulldoze straight through it". At this point it's just a mary sue fic where you "fix the story" and solve all the problems of the original story with some filler sprinkled in.
Excellent work with the rewrite! I like how Sunset is in more of a supportive role in this version, giving the other characters a chance to shine.
So many comments about things that didn't happen and here I am like, "Dang, I missed it,"
Hoom, hoom, 'tis better than it was, certainly, this doesn't denigrate the two brothers and lets them show off a bit. Though I still wonder what the point of enrolling her in Hogwarts is, she could probably pass her OWLs right now with a few weeks intensive study of history and such forth.
I think I see the issue here. You're writing Sunset true to her canon personality, and doing an excellent job of it too, but I think that's the problem. Sunset is a brilliant academic, a gifted spellcaster, powerful, driven, passionate. She knows what she wants to achieve in life and she has the skills and dedication to get there.
derpicdn.net/img/2016/7/6/1194990/large.png
But in canon she left Celestia's tutelage late in the equivalent of her collage or post-graduate studies. She was somewhere in her very late teens, or early twenties. She was certainly older than eleven. Thus everything that she's done here, while quite within canon Sunset's capabilities, feels bizarre coming from a much younger filly.
I think that's what's causing my hangups, she's supposed to be eleven but she acts/thinks/feels nothing like an eleven year old.
9542509
The canon Sunset in Canterlot High has the same problem, though. Maybe to a lesser degree.
9540738
She didn't take down the dragon Charlie did, what she did was cast haste on Charlie.
9543039
You're late to the party my friend, if you take a glance at the chapter title you'll see "revised" tagged to it. The first time around she railgunned the thing from the clifftop. People were, unconvinced.
9543068
Lol, I am imagining Sunset making a magic rail gun, and shooting her wand through the dragon. Fun times.
Please for the love of gods.
If you say Luna. be spific
Luna god of death, night and dreams.
Luna lovegood, god of young teen (mostly) males with lotion, internet access and that pic of her in the bed and lengere.
Oh, this will not end well.
9547705
Pretty sure it's not necessary at this point as A: Princess Luna is still trapped in the moon and B: having never met her, Ginny would not recognize Princess Luna
gotta say i am really enjoying this a lot!
9540707
Many of the abilities are understandable for her if she's both a prodigy and equestrian years are longer… Accelro is just broken.
9642726
Yeah, that's the one spell I actually dislike out of all of this.
Though I suppose it could have a crippling flaw like not being able to cast on yourself.
Still fun to read, though.
wow, speed spell is absurdly broken. even x2 speed buff would be absurdly powerful (x1.25 or 25% would still be strong) but you're talking about a 12,000% increase in speed here. Beyond godlike. Don't even need other spells, just need this + club and everything dies.
woops, actually 1200 not 12,000, but my point stands.
Actually, that speed spell is a complete disaster as written.
Want to kill someone? Put speed on an assassin, suddenly they are in the "Star Trek" speed dimension from the original series, they just walk over to whomever, and fire an avada kedavra at them. Bam, instant death, no saving throw.
How do you counter that? You have to have constant watchers in the speed dimension that will live out their life in a few days -- so that only makes sense if you have a small territory with a rediculously large amount of people and a crazy high birth rate such that you can have lots of people just die off in a tiny period of time.
I mean, ... imagine a small country the size of Britain with a massive number of secondary citizens, having 4-6 children per family, needing to kill off a large number of people in a relatively short period of time in a big war ... err, that is the Harry Potter world, isn't it? :-)
Golems are immune to magic
10103592
In some settings, sure. Not here though.
If a golem is made of stone, then spells that are effective against stone will be effective against said golem.
10104416
Then what good is a Golem another more powerful wizard could just seize control of it rending it's purpose moot. In a world of wizards you would your Golems to be magic proof.