58 - Holiday
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Holiday
The persistent snowfall over the icy hills of Great Britain gave their journey on the Hogwarts Express an entirely different feel than the first time they used the train. At least the train, unlike the castle, was properly heated and insulated, though the spell patterns achieving that seemed remarkably familiar. And they certainly hadn't been there in September.
That, at least, explained where Professor Flitwick had gone when he had left the castle on Saturday afternoon.
In the late afternoon, the group stepped out onto platform 93/4, their jackets and coats braced against the winter chill. Except Sunset's. She simply wore the same leather jacket she had arrived in this world with, she had spent the past half year layering enchantments on it, a little cold couldn't get to her while she wore it.
Awaiting them on the platform, were the Grangers, Xenofilius Lovegood, the Weasleys, including Bill and Charlie, and Sirius Black, along with a man only Sunset recognized to be Remus Lupin, the last of the Marauders and the man Sirius had set as his contact in this world while he was in Equestria. The presence of those last four also explained where Philomena had gone partway through the train ride.
The students and relatives happily reunited while they watched Dean walk up to a pair of witch and wizard, Seamus walk up to a solitary witch before quickly, and with a wave, walking off towards the wrought iron gate, likely to reunite with his muggle father who couldn't enter the platform. Parvati and her twin sister in Ravenclaw marched up to a sole wizard before, much like Seamus, quickly wandering off towards the gate, while Lavender, much like Dean, walked up to a pair of witch and wizard. Neville gave the group a final wave and a few words to say goodbye for the holidays before walking over to the rather imposing older witch that was his grandmother.
Before long, the group separated. Sunset let Philomena hop onto Harry's shoulder to take him and Sirius back to Equestria, The Weasleys left together with Luna and her father and Mr. Lupin disappeared shortly after Harry and Sirius had found a hidden corner to flame away. That only left Sunset and the Grangers.
Leaving first the platform, then the train station, the group made their way to Emma and Dan's car. They had, it seemed, chosen to drive all the way from Birmingham to London, finding it preferable to letting the Weasleys take them along by means of side-along-apparition. Sunset found she couldn't disagree with the sentiment.
Both her and Hermione giggled when Emma regaled them with the story of how Mr. Weasley had come by with the offer, only to, when they declined, practically beg that they take him along in their car. The two adults' rather descriptive retelling of his reactions to things such as a car stereo or an umbrella lying beside him on the rear seat, entertained them for a good portion of the drive.
Emma and Dan had, of course, planned the skiing trip with Sunset and Philomena in mind. The two suitcases they were carrying were mostly to keep up appearances. Most of their actual luggage was carried by Sunset and Hermione in their bags which were both still well below capacity.
And so, in a now familiar flash of flames, the small family departed Great Britain and reappeared in a small, snow covered side alley in a mountain village in Switzerland, not far from their hotel. At nine in the morning. They would have the entire afternoon to introduce Sunset to the concept of skiing.
It was dearly needed. Sunset was in good physical shape, certainly, but she had two sets of instincts for motion, one bipedal, one quadrupedal, and neither one of them was meant for sliding down a hill on a pair of wooden planks. The Grangers, of course, didn't have any instincts for skiing either, but they did have one significant advantage.
This wasn't their first time skiing.
They already knew how to move on skis, and despite their new, disorienting second set of instincts, they could manage just fine.
As it was, one of the Grangers remained with Sunset at all times while the other two were enjoying themselves somewhere in the general area.
Still, it was just one afternoon and sundown inevitably arrived. The lifts shut down and the family found themselves faced with a problem.
"Really? Again?!"
Hermione couldn't suppress a snicker at her father's antics. "This does seem to happen at least once every year, doesn't it?"
Emma looked at the mountain that they had been skiing on all afternoon. The mountain that now stood between the small Swiss mountain village they were in, and the small Swiss mountain village where their hotel was located. "Mhh. At least once a year."
"To be honest, I don't quite see the problem." All three of them turned to Sunset. "What?"
Dan pointed at the snow-covered giant. "How about the mountain between us and the hotel?"
"What about it?"
Emma frowned, confused at what took Sunset so long to understand. "We're on the wrong side of it ...?"
"Well yeah. I just don't get why you're all acting like that's some kinda big deal."
"Well, now we have to find a bus to the other valley," Hermione explained. "And those go like, once an hour or so."
"Well, yeah. I guess that would be inconvenient, but why would we need a bus?"
"To get to the other valley."
Sunset looked at Dan, her face a mask of utter bafflement. She turned to Emma, then to Hermione. Neither of them showed any sign that they were joking either. "Are you serious?! Why are all of you acting like you forgot that we can do magic?"
The three stared at her for a few seconds, then three gloved hands met three partially covered faces. "I can't believe we forgot about that," Hermione groaned. "It's not like the two of us spent the last four months in a magic school."
"Well, to be fair," Emma spoke up, blushing in embarrassment. "We've had this situation before."
"Yeah," Dan added. "And none of us could do magic then."
"Fair enough, I guess." Sunset drew her wand. "Still, it really isn't much of a problem now, is it?"
"Have to admit," Hermione chuckled, "this was kind of funny."
"Yeah, can't deny that," Dan agreed, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
Sunset simply rolled her eyes and focused her magic. Chuckling in amusement, the four wavered and disappeared.
After another morning of skiing, Sunset was slowly getting better at doing the things she should do over the things her conflicting sets of instincts told her to do, the group of four had lunch in their Hotel and flamed back to the Burrow.
The bright flash of golden fire seemed to have attracted attention as it only took a few seconds before the door opened and Mrs. Weasley came to welcome them into the house. Just as they were about to close the door behind them, she looked up and pushed past them, going back out to call in Mr. Lupin who had just apparated in the yard.
He had, it turned out, brought the journal that connected to the one the princess had given to Sirius Black. He and Sunset both exchanged a series of messages with Sirius and Celestia respectively before sending out Philomena to go fetch Twilight, Harry and Sirius.
When she returned with the three, Sunset quickly gave Twilight a hand to help her deal with the unfamiliar feeling of bipedal locomotion. The simple advice of 'just don't think about it' proved to be rather tricky for the girl to follow.
"Twilight, if you keep thinking about it, you'll just confuse yourself trying to walk as if you still had four legs. Just don't think about it, you have the instincts to walk with two legs, just let them take over and think about something else."
"I'm trying, but it isn't easy to not think about something."
Sunset groaned quietly as Ginny and Hermione giggled off to the side. "True, I guess. Then try to distract yourself. Look at the decorations, for example."
Taking a deep breath, Twilight properly looked around the room for the first time. Her brow furrowed when she saw the fireplace. "Okay why is that thing covered in ... are those socks?"
This time it was Mrs. Weasley's turn to groan while Sunset explained. "They are. Though I think the fireplace isn't exactly made for a Christmas celebration with this many guests."
"What would the number of guests have to do with it."
"There is one for each of us."
"Okay, why?"
"Because that's where the presents go."
"Oh, so like Hearth's Warming then?"
"Basically, yeah. It's startlingly similar to be honest."
"Huh, weird."
"I know, right? I can only guess that there's been a portal between worlds somewhere before."
"Maybe we can find some evidence of that at some point."
"See? What'd I tell you?"
"What?"
Sunset simply smirked. "The moment you stopped thinking about it, you walked perfectly fine."
"Huh, you're right." Twilight sighed. "I really was thinking too much, wasn't I?"
"You were. Anyway, how've you been doing?"
"Oh, y'know, the usual. Studying magic, history politics and whatever else the princess thinks of. We did visit Mister Black several times. He seems to be adapting quite well."
A barking laugh from the other side of the room drew their attention. Black, evidently, had been listening to their conversation. "Hey, I spent my last two years at Hogwarts exploring the castle and the grounds for fun, this hasn't been culture shock, it's been a vacation."
"And one long overdue, I'd wager," Sunset replied with a somewhat subdued smile. "That reminds me, Mr. Black, how is your Equestrian form interacting with your animagus?"
"Oh, please, girl, call me Sirius. You've earned that just for getting me out of that place."
"Well, alright, call me Sunset, then."
"Sure. Now I don't know. Gotta say, it's a bit odd. I can go into both forms just fine from my human form, but I can't seem to switch from one to the other."
Sunset furrowed her brow for a second, then lit up her eyes with magic. "Now let's see here. Ah that would be why. You know how you need to form a connection to the new form to access your other forms?" Sirius nodded. "Well, right now your human form is acting as a bit of a hub. Both your Equestrian form and what I can only assume to be your animagus are connected to it, but they aren't directly connected to each other."
"So you're saying that if I form a direct connection between them I'll be able to switch freely?" Sunset nodded. "Huh, might have to invest some time into that."
The stockings hung from the fireplace had been filling up with presents all evening, but there was one more that needed to be placed in one.
It was night now and everyone had gone to bed. With a crack of displaced air, a small creature appeared in the sitting room of the Burrow. It drew a package from a fold in the pillowcase it wore instead of actual clothing.
It spent a moment looking at the various stockings hanging around the chimney, then found the one it had been looking for. "Master Potter, there you is."
It quickly jumped up onto the fireplace and let the small, unmarked package slide into the stocking, then jumped back down. It snapped its long, spindly fingers and, with another crack of displaced air, vanished just as suddenly as it arrived.
In the morning, the Burrow awoke to the sound of Mrs. Weasley humming along to the sound of Celestina Warbeck singing out off the wizarding radio in the kitchen. Reactions to that were ... varied. Both Mr. Weasley and Mr. Lovegood simply smiled ruefully. The rest of the Weasley family ranged somewhere between annoyed and exasperated. Sunset, Hermione, Harry, Emma and Dan found their own amusement in listening to the incredibly cheesy lyrics. Sirius and Mr. Lupin, or Remus as he insisted they call him, smiled rather nostalgically and Luna, as usual, seemed to be the only one entirely unaffected.
It didn't take long until they all got to unwrapping presents. Mrs. Weasley, it seemed, took the time to knit a sweater for each member of her family every year. Only this year she had gone a bit overboard and also knitted one for each of her guests. How she had even known Twilight's size was anyone's guess.
For that matter, no one outside her own family could recall ever giving her their measurements.
One set of gifts came, collectively, from Sunset, Twilight and Princess Celestia. Sunset had had the idea, Celestia had pulled a few strings to make it happen and Twilight had ultimately delivered the final product. That way, everyone was now sampling some classic, Equestrian Hearth's Warming cuisine and, seemingly, quite enjoying the exotic taste.
Hermione, with the aid of her parents, had provided a set of gifts that surprised exactly no one: Books. Still, everyone was grateful, Sunset and Twilight especially so.
The others had gotten some interesting gifts as well. Bill and Charlie, independently from both each other and Sunset, had gotten traditional holiday snacks from their respective countries of work.
The rest weren't quite so remarkable, but well appreciated regardless.
In the end only one present remained unopened.
Harry held the strange, unmarked package in hands, weighing it to try and figure out what it might be. It wasn't particularly heavy.
"Well go on, Harry," Sirius prompted him, "open it up."
Shrugging, Harry used a quick cutting charm to open up the wrapping paper and pull it off, revealing a small, similarly unremarkable box beneath. The moment he opened it, something silvery came flowing out of it.
Both Sirius and Remus gasped. Most of the rest weren't far behind.
Sunset glanced at the mysterious silvery thing that had now folded up, suggesting it was actually some kind of fabric, then she noticed the small piece of parchment that had come out along with it. Grabbing it in her magic, she immediately recognized the handwriting. "Would you look at that. It's from Dumbledore."
Sirius and Remus both turned to her, confusion clear on their faces. "How'd Albus get his hands on it?"
Sunset shrugged and made to read out the small card. "Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A very Merry Christmas to you." She shrugged. "That's all it says, but I recognize his handwriting."
"Right," Sirius slowly said, "James mentioned that Albus was borrowing it." She showed him the note and he nodded. ''Yeah. That's his handwriting alright. Wonder what he wanted with it.''
"Not to interrupt," Harry spoke up in mild annoyance, "but would someone mind telling me what 'it' actually is?"
Sirius actually looked a little sheepish. "Oh right, sorry. That's your father's invisibility cloak. He said it was an heirloom, had been in the family for centuries."
"Invisibility cloak?"
Harry put on the cloak and immediately only his head was visible, the rest of his body was entirely gone. Then he pulled it over his head and promptly vanished completely.
Sunset lit her eyes with magic and cycled through a series of scanning spells and visualization charms. "Huh, that's pretty good. I can't find you."
"Really?" Harry suddenly pulled the cloak off his head right beside her.
"Gah! Would you mind not doing that?"
As everyone chuckled, Harry pulled the cloak off completely and folded it back up.
"Wow, that's weird."
"Huh?"
"Oh sorry, that cloak is really impressive. I mean, now that you've taken it off, I can see it, but none of my scanning spells even recognize it's there. I wouldn't even know how to start looking for it."
"Oh, the things James got up to with that thing," Sirius chuckled ruefully. "I still remember back before he and Lily got together, it was, what? Our fourth year, I think? We all had a bit of a vendetta with Snivellus."
"Who?"
"Oh that's what we called Snape."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "How mature."
"Hey, we were kids."
"And yet," Sunset pointed out in a slightly mocking tone, "you still call him that."
"Well yeah, maybe we went a bit too far. Most of our pranks were harmless, but some of them were ... not entirely in good humour."
Percy sighed. "I'm not sure I like where this is going."
"We do."
He turned to the twins, completely deadpan. "That isn't reassuring in the slightest."
"Anyway," Sirius caught their attention again, "James and I were always good with spellwork. We managed to tailor a spell matrix to trigger only when Sniv- when Snape passed by. We had a trap all planned out, but we couldn't be sure he would walk by just anywhere in the castle. I mean, you know the place, it's huge."
"Yeah, and the sheer number of secret passages is insane."
"Oh absolutely," Remus agreed. "How many have you found?"
"The running count was, what fifty-seven?" Harry looked at his friends questioningly.
"Fifty-nine," Hermione corrected."
"Right, fifty-nine."
Remus and Sirius shared a stunned look. "Fifty-nine?" In three months? What did we do wrong?"
"Well," Harry moved to explain, "between Sunset and Hermione being able to spot magic so easily, Luna's dark vision and my eyesight, it does make them a lot easier to find. Anyway, what did you do?"
"Oh right. Well, there was one place we could be sure he would come by. The Slytherin common room."
"I see where this is going." Sunset smirked. "Let me guess: Harry's father used that cloak to trail a Slytherin to their common room and set up the trap without anyone noticing."
"How'd you guess?"
"Well, it wouldn't be as perfect as that," She pointed a finger at the cloak, "but I don't necessarily need a cloak to go invisible."
"Evidently," Remus remarked amusedly as he looked at her, now transparent and refracting the light as though she were made of glass. "Though not really too hard to spot."
"Well, that's because I'm allowing you to see me. Still, if you know how to look, that spell isn't too hard to track." She dropped her spell and looked at the two older wizards. "Anyway, what did you actually do?"
"Oh you know, dropped a cake on his head. Classic."
"That was one of your less serious pranks, I take it?"
"Well, yeah. We were in fifth year. A scourgify or two and he was clean again. Not the most pleasant of experiences, but easy enough."
"Alright, that's enough of your stories, you two. The twins get up to plenty of mischief on their own time without you two giving them ideas. And I have breakfast ready."
As Mrs. Weasley turned around and returned to the kitchen, leaving the living room in silence. Finally Sirius was the one to speak up. "Did you notice her leave?"
Heads shook around the room.
"And that," Mr. Weasley spoke up with barely concealed amusement, "is why she doesn't need an invisibility cloak."
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Some discrepancies there.
Loving it so far! Keep up the great work!
9665864
Yeah ... that's what happens when you realize that some of the things you wrote don't match the book, correct them, and forget to check if anything else relies on them. Fixed now.
Umm... maybe it is because I'm not feeling that well and my mind is a little slow... but who disappeared from the living room?
9665922
Well, I conjectured that any spell a wizard can use to go invisible, could also be placed on an object like the cloak to hide the wearer. And since Harry's cloak was established, in canon, to be vastly superior to any other invisbility cloak in existence and the only one to be entirely undetectable by magical means, any other spell, necessarily, has to be worse than that.
9665927
Mrs. Weasley did.
nice work.
Well for being "uncooperative" it made for a very good chapter... Which is appreciated.
I have made this typo so many times. I will likely still be making it years from now.
I tried skiing once… The tutorial took too much time, and used up most of the day. Bleh.
9666658
I never said it wouldn't. Only that it took a while to write ...
If Sunset finds a way to spot the invisibility cloak you’ll have quite a few people upset, considering it hides people from even death itself.
Also aren’t they not allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts? I mean, I know they were before they went to Hogwarts, but still. Plus that teleport was in plain sight, wasn’t it? No mention of them going to an alley or anything. Harry went to court for letting Dudley see the Patronus even if it was in self Defense, so....
It was stated at the beginning how overpowered Sunset would be. It's because of that I've lost interest. This whole story can be summarized with 'Sunset fixes it with magic.' There are few issues that last for a meaningful amount of time before she magics in the answer. It leaves no sense of worry or suspense - instead just a tired resolution of 'Sunset fixes it with magic.'
9667592
The problem isn't that she is overpowered. You can make a good story with OP characters. The problem is that we are 58 chapters into the story without anything going wrong. There is no romantic subplots, no comical shenanigans, no drama. Sunset fixes everything too fast and too easily, so there is no real adventure. The main villain is already identified an the plan to catch him is on the way.
I'm skimming the chapters now, just to see where it goes. The story is very well written, no typos, but it's just.... Bland...
I got a stick to hit your muse with you want it?
9668036
I tend to view these things as a slice of life story, unless a different sort of villain blinsides us, or old Voldy actually innovates.
And it's not nearly as bad as a few others. Not necessarily an OP main character, more that "ponies are superior in almost every way." That gets boring even faster.
Though if you are looking more for adventure, there's one where Hogwarts gets brought to Equestria with the Crystal Empire. Harry Potter gets turned into a kirin in that one, and makes friends with the basilisk. Definitely more skewed towards the Equestrian side of things, and I wouldn't say the writing is better than this fic, but if a classical plot is what you are looking for, that's the only HP fic I've seen that does it. The name escapes me for the moment, but if you are interested (and don't already know about it), then just tell me.
Merry early/late Christmas!
I just realized; every time we see Dobby do magic, he snaps his fingers. Just like Discord.
9985627
I wonder if that implies House elves use chaos magic
https://youtu.be/O2_s_P2bXaM
https://youtu.be/MMvfOUer3Vo