67 - Aftermath
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Aftermath
The events surrounding the attempted theft of the Philosopher’s Stone caused a bit of a stir around Hogwarts. Apparently the school had a bit of a history with less than optimal staff retention for the position of the defense against the dark arts professor. It was, according to the older students, nothing new that a teacher in that position would leave at the end of the year or even before. It had been that way for decades. But never before had it happened that early.
Usually, when such a thing happened, the lessons in the subject would simply be suspended until the end of the year. This time, however, doing so wasn’t feasible. It was simply too early in the year. Add to that the fact that Quirrell’s performance as a teacher had been – according to most students – less than stellar, and stopping the lessons now would mean that students would be massively behind when the new school year came around.
As such, several measures were devised to mitigate the issue. Several upper year students, sixth years mostly, took over teaching the lower years while Professor Dumbledore himself took over teaching the sixth and seventh-years. It was a stopgap measure, sure, but it would work until a replacement could be found.
As a result, the quality of lessons in the subject improved across the board.
The other effects of Quirrell’s attempt to steal the stone were less public. In an after-the-fact discussion with Sunset and Professor Dumbledore, Princess Celestia idly asked how often Nicholas Flamel had come to Hogwarts to make use of the Stone. When Dumbledore revealed that Flamel had his own stock of the Elixir of Life, she, in turn, asked what had been done to secure that stockpile.
The realisation that neither side had come up with the idea that Voldemort could simply use some of the Elixir of Life Flamel had already created was rather startling. That he could not gain any use from the Elixir while he was held in the trap was a relief, should he ever realize his mistake.
This was not the only discussion he had over the week following the incident. Before questions could get out of hand, he invited Amelia and Cornelius over on Saturday.
As the flare of green fire returned to its original size and color, Cornelius drew his wand to vanish the soot off his usual pinstriped suit. “Professor Dumbledore. Good afternoon. I’ve heard the rumors. What happened this time?”
“Admittedly, Albus,” Amelia agreed, “it is a bit early in the year for Hogwarts to be missing its defense teacher.”
“True enough, I suppose. Though this was very much an exceptional case. Please, take a seat. This will take a while. Tea?”
When his two guests nodded and sat down on the offered chairs, Albus drew his wand under the table and sent a quick message to the kitchens. “Now, to begin, I should probably make sure we are all on the same page to start with, so I must ask: What is the current condition of the dark wizard Tom Riddle, also known as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or Lord Voldemort?”
Cornelius flinched upon hearing the name, but quickly asserted himself. “He is dead. Has been for ten years.”
Albus sighed. “No Cornelius. He is not. He never died. He was brought low. As close to death as he could without actually dying, but he is, in fact, still alive. For certain definitions of ‘life’, at least.” Albus could see that Cornelius didn’t want to believe what he was hearing, yet he had always trusted his advice before. Perhaps, had this happened a few years later, this could have become a problem, but, as it was, it seemed, that Cornelius would ultimately accept the truth.
“His claims that he was immortal weren’t merely empty boasts. He was reduced to a mere fragment of a soul. An unstable, incorporeal entity, bound to the material world by powerful dark magic. He had to leech the energy of other living beings, hosts he possessed, to not simply fade away, but he was, in fact, alive.
“Mind you, he only didn’t die because he couldn’t, but still, he didn’t. I tried to inform you of that circumstance before, but you wouldn’t listen. I’m telling you again now, because the situation has changed.”
Amelia leaned forward. “Changed how?”
“I have reason to believe that Tom spent most of the last ten years hiding in Albania. As it happens Quirinus Quirrell spent nearly a year there not too long ago.”
“You’re saying he was possessed there, Dumbledore?”
“No, Cornelius. He was turned there. Tom was always charismatic. He knows how to convince people to work for him. I know not how, but he managed to get Quirinus to work for him.”
“To get him to do what?”
“Primarily, Amelia, to steal something. I don’t have any conclusive evidence, but it would fit at least. I suspect he was the one who attempted to rob a Gringotts vault on July thirty-first of last year.”
“It was emptied earlier that day, if I recall correctly.”
“Indeed, Cornelius. By an agent of mine, I might add. The vault only contained one item. One which we, me and the vault owner, that is, no longer believed to be safe at Gringotts.”
“And rightly so, it seems.”
“That I cannot say. The goblins do not secure empty vaults in the same way they do filled ones. There is no guarantee that the attempt to access the vault would have succeeded had it not been empty. Regardless, I stored the item in question in Hogwarts instead.
“Some time between then and the start of term, Tom possessed Quirinus who, judging by the lack of symptoms, hosted him willingly.”
“Since he isn’t here anymore, I take it you discovered his ploy, Albus?”
“Not on my own, I’m afraid, Amelia. I have recently made some new contacts. It was one of them who initially grew suspicious of Quirinus. They also offered a plan to deal with him. They constructed an artifact known as a soul trap. It works exactly as the name indicates.
“We used the item I was asked to keep safe as bait to lure Quirinus into the trap. It worked as intended. Tom’s soul was extracted and is now contained within the trap.”
Amelia raised an eyebrow. “I feel like there is a ‘but’ coming.”
“I’m afraid there is. Quirinus used a portkey to escape with the trap. Still, my contacts assure me that the trap cannot be opened without the correct key and any attempt to do so would either fail or destroy the trap and anything within. Tom himself will likely not be an issue anymore. That being said, his followers well may.”
“You’re suggesting to warn the aurors.”
“To get them ready to deal with an attack should it occur, yes. Furthermore, my contacts may make first contact soon. They are a sovereign, foreign nation and should be treated as such.”
“So get the Department for International Magical Cooperation ready as well?”
“Indeed, Cornelius.”
“Strange. I thought we contacted every magical community on Earth.”
“We did. However, my contacts are not, in fact, from Earth. But I think it best to let them explain in more detail once they do contact the Ministry officially. I simply thought it best to warn you beforehand.”
After some more discussion, Albus’ two guests left with significantly more to think about and he was left to return his attention toward running the day to day matters of running the school.
Sunset, meanwhile, had her own discussions. Now that secrecy was no longer a major priority, she and Hermione got the rest of their friends caught up on the details of the matter. Or, at least, as many details as they thought appropriate. After Hermione’s own reactions to some of the darker facts involved in the situation, such as the requirements to create a soul anchor, they decided to skip certain topics.
It was a lie of omission, certainly. They let their friends believe, for example, that the damage to Voldemort’s soul was due to the spell that had reduced him to his current state. They hadn’t outright said that, but until given reason to doubt it, their friends would likely assume it.
Still, they learned the general details.
They were quite horrified that the most powerful dark wizard of all time had spent months in the castle, some of that time even in the same room as them.
Another detail they left out was just what Quirrell had been trying to steal.
In the end, their friends’ curiosity was satisfied and they agreed that Sunset had been right to keep the secret for as long as she did. The fact that Voldemort and Quirrell were still out there didn’t sit right with them at all.
Her ‘battle’ with Quirrell, if it could be called that, also gave Sunset food for thought. She had been prepared and the man’s magic had been at a fraction of its usual power, so she was able to simply set up a barrier of light magical fire for any dark spells and a powerful general shield for anything else and from there simply concentrate on dodging anything that was easy to dodge and occasionally throw a powered-up cutting charm or a kinetic pulse like the Royal Guard used to subdue their suspects and make arrests.
But she had no illusions that every magical battle would be so one-sided and a general shield wouldn’t always do the trick. Even in this fight, certain dark magical spells, especially the killing curse, had pierced straight through her regular shield without even interacting with it at all and were only stopped by her light fire shield.
In any other situation, a general shield wouldn’t be able to block more than one or two spells. A specialized one, like those she had developed with Professor Flitwick would be far more effective and resist far more punishment at a fraction of the power cost, but only for the very specific thing they were designed to counter.
The tricky thing was that they were also far more complex than a general shield such as the Protego shielding charms wizards apparently liked to throw around in duels. Keeping all of them memorized would be tricky for the average wizard. Even the perfect memory she and her friends shared wouldn’t always work as they were also harder to cast.
She toyed with the idea of creating a magical item to cast them as needed, but the more she thought about it the more she realized that an enchantment that could detect all those varied threats – be they any particular condition such as heat, cold, or electricity, simple magic as it was found in a stunning spell or something similar or any of the other things spells and other such things could cause – and also employ the correct shield to counter them would be ludicrously complex and prohibitively expensive to create. The power draw it would cause wasn’t even worth considering.
With that option firmly off the table, she instead tried to think of other options. At some point, she decided to include her friends in her deliberations. Ultimately it was Harry who brought up the option of simply using multiple smaller enchantments. That only left the issue of coordinating them.
Seamus suggested once more using muggle technology.
The problem was that none of them had enough knowledge of electronics – muggle-made or Equestrian – to judge if such a thing was feasible. Sunset, Harry, Hermione and Seamus agreed that it probably was, but none of them were sure. Raised, as they were, in magical families, Ron, Ginny, Neville, Luna and Dean had no idea either way.
More research, it seemed, was in order. But that would have to wait until later. For the moment another matter had priority.
Both the headmaster and the princess had independently asked her to help facilitate an exchange of medical knowledge between worlds after the timberwolf incident at Sweet Apple Acres.
It was intriguing, really. Unlike the advanced spellcraft she had always focused on, Equestrian medical magic and other commonly used forms of magic were usually available both as a spell and as either a potion or an enchanted item. Given that only about a third of the population were capable of direct spell casting, it made sense, but it was still interesting to know.
Healing magic used by wizards, on the other hand, had almost no such overlap at all. Magical items saw next to no use whatsoever and almost every method of healing available as a potion wasn’t known as a spell and vice versa.
Even adjusting for that, there was relatively little overlap in what the healing magic of both worlds could do and when there was, they were rarely evenly matched. Both worlds had a spell that could heal bones, but while the Earthen version took anywhere from a few seconds to a minute, the Equestrian version could, depending on the scale and complexity of the fracture take between a few minutes and a few days. Wings, in particular, were notoriously slow to heal thanks to being both rather large and relatively complex.
On the other hand, Wizards had very little magic useful for healing the mind. Again, this was likely a matter of need. In a world that was so dangerous, broken bones were likely more common, but spellcraft was a complicated matter and often involved knowledge some might consider problematic. A mind trained for spellcraft was less likely to suffer trauma.
It was ironic really that, despite having so many spells to affect it, wizards had such a comparatively basic understanding of how the mind actually worked. Once first contact was made, officially that is, magical scholars from both worlds would likely begin cooperating to combine their knowledge of the mind and how to influence it to heal mental trauma. There were, from what she had heard, still wizards suffering from mental trauma after the horrors of the Great Wizarding War a decade earlier.
Being neither familiar with human mental magic, nor possessing of any training as a psychologist, Sunset would likely be sitting out most of that exchange of knowledge, but she would have to make sure to keep tabs on it regardless.
When it came to healing small wounds – cuts, burns and the like – both worlds had their methods. She suspected that combining them might lead to some small improvements, but both had it well enough figured out.
In the case of small cuts and bruises specifically, both worlds had basic healing spells that were commonly known. Perhaps a little more common on Earth, given how quickly ponies could recover from what they would consider a minor inconvenience and how effective a protection against scratches a coat of fur was.
Still, before she had gotten the protective gear she had enchanted specifically for her Parkour training, the same she now also used for her training sessions with Crabbe, she had made liberal use of just such a spell to heal the numerous minor scratches and bruises she accrued during her training.
On another note, when the whole medical exchange started, she’d had her doubts about Ron’s willingness to work, but he had stayed on the ball. Whenever she had been ferrying medical books back and forth and translating them back and forth, he had always come by and requested a copy for himself. Many of the spells were years ahead of what he could cast so far, but those he was ready to learn had did without complaint.
It had come to the point that, whenever Harry came back from Quidditch training with scratches from a botched landing or a bruise from a bludger the twins had failed to intercept, Ron stood ready to patch him up. Sunset didn’t even have to remind him that light magic was naturally suited to healing. He started using it anyway.
Sunset couldn’t help but giggle when Madam Pomfrey told her that she had noticed that fewer students from Gryffindor were coming by the medical wing and asked if she knew why that might be.
However, when, after a quick explanation, the nurse considered calling upon Ron should the need arise, Sunset promised to pass along the request.
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So ron is the white mage now. May Celestia help them should he ever figure out how to cast either Scathe or Holy!
Looks like Ron found his way stand out from his brothers. I doubt that we'll see nearly as much jealousy from him as was shown in cannon, as he's going to be popular in his own right and not just due to being "Potter's Friend."
This will be better and healthier for him in the long run, and he'll most likely be a better friend for it.
Bit of a correction here, Dean did not grow up in a magical family, in fact, he grew up with a muggle mother and step-father and even believed he was Muggle-born. Guy has a surprisingly complex backstory.
"Dr. Ronald Weasley, Wizard M.D."
I just ask, nay, demand, that Sunset's power armor/golem be pony-shaped and FABULOUS! This is a pony fic after all
Bonus points if it's shaped and coloured after Celestia and she has to deal with explaining it while her mentor tries and fails to hide her mirth at the thought
I never pictured Ron as a healer. I'm intrigued and am enjoying your take on Sunset and the Harry Potter franchise.
Ron is a white mage? Cool!
Ron the Clage (cleric/mage or mage healer), a very rare skill set indeed... and quite lucrative.
question, will the mane 6 be getting their Hogwarts letters for chamber of secrets... even with Fluttershy's massive age difference?
9700922
No. No they will not. The system doesn't actually have them registered (except for Twilight) and only RD would be eleven anyway. Pinkie, AJ and Twilight will be thirteen by then and Rarity and Flutters will be fourteen. That being said, it might come to pass that another pony might make their way to Hogwarts.
Plans exist.
Nice work
Are you leaving technology level / time frame a bit flexible? Or are you going to stay really strict with that stuff, based on the dates given by the book? I don't know a great deal about electronics products that would be around during the time of the book, so I don't know what I should expect any of those kids to find, when investigating electronics, other than basic components, some well known home computers, and maybe a few companies that were making things back then. And the term “micro controller”, which I think is perhaps what the kids would want (maybe). But which isn't a very specific thing, as its just a term for a type of circuit board, used to control things using electronic logic.
Don't quote me on this, but I think that Texas Instruments made things other than just calculators back then, as they do now. (I should probably actually look up a timeline of the history of Texas Instruments, if I'm going to start talking about them as if I know something.) And Radio Shack used to be pretty popular for electronics enthusiasts, as you could get all kinds of bits and bobs from the store.
There's my merger offerings of knowledge to get started, if you want to check things out. But beware! Researching electronics is a deep and confusing rabit hole that will ask for all of your time, and still have room for more.
On the medical side of things… I think I know where the story will be heading, with the mention of magical mental medical knowledge. But I shall be quiet.
9701203
Yes. Yes you shall. Though anyone who knows the books should be able to figure it out.
Exposivorous...0.0
Really like that detail. I had thought something similar, especially after I read of some of their actual defenses later in the series.
This chapter feels a bit exposition-y. Not that it ruins the experience for me. I'm still enjoying it pretty thoroughly.
I think the real difference between events that feel like exposition and events that feel like plot comes down to scene structure. Everything feels rather detached, as if there is no motivation for the actions, or rather, the motivations are one step removed.
Like, we know Ron has an interest in medical magic, and we know the exchange of magic is mutually beneficial, but without the characters "present" in the story as we read about the events, it feels a little hollow.
To vastly simplify, it's the difference between saying, "This happened. Then this happened." and "This happened, so this happened."
You don't have to restate anything, just imply it in dialogue and action. And perhaps convert some of the narration to explicit action.
9703684
What, I can't be more practical and not as suicidal? I can't think like a villain every now and then?
Really, this should be an obvious move for foalnappers; demanding ransom for the captured student has never been successful, so why not try something else, like not telling Celestia at all? Hell, she didn't even place trackers on her students at first, meaning this would've likely been even more successful.
9703929
Why though? Ransom is literally the only reason you would kidnap such a high profile personality or someone with connection to whomever has access to a lot of money. If you don't plan to make use of her connection to Celestia, why even foalnap her at all? Anyone would do in that case. Much smarter not to risk someone who's absence would attract so much attention.
As we approach the end of book 1 I have to say this has been a really enjoyable story. There have been a lot of interesting ideas here even though they weren't always handled particularly well and overall it was fun. I'm definitely interested to see what happens in book 2.
The biggest issue that needs to be fixed going into book 2 is Sunset herself. The problem with Sunset is her entire character arc is finished in the first act of the story and by the time they reach Hogwarts the story stops being about her. There are no challenges for her to overcome, no lessons to learn and no room for her to grow as a character. She goes from MC to plot device whose purpose is just to make things happen. A lot of interesting things happen around Sunset but as the main character nothing interesting actually happens to Sunset herself, she doesn't really have a place within the actual story.
To be more specific it feels like Sunset does things because the author feels the result would be cool but there never seems to be a reason for Sunset to do these things, she just does. Like you have her be suspicious of Scabbers but there is no reason for her to give him such focus. I mean yeah he's lived longer than normal rats but that's not really a good enough reason to be suspicious of him. There is a reason no one pays Scabbers much mind in the books its because they have other things to worry about but apparently Sunset just doesn't have anything better to do.
You have her fight Quirrell but again why is she doing this, what personal motivation does she have for confronting Quirrell and why did no one else go? Did they really think the 11-year-old was the best candidate to confront him? I mean this was planned ahead of time so why did Dumbledore actually leave the castle?
So in Book 2, I'd like to see less of perfect Sunset making things happen and more of interesting things happening to Sunset for reasons that actually make sense. Make her a real character with an actual agency within the story who has an actual motivation for doing things instead of just being a tool you use to make things happen.
I'm sure I'm explaining myself poorly but I hope I got the general idea across.
9704033
Both of those things actually did have reasons. Sunset was suspicious of Scabbers not because he was older than a rat should be, she only learned that after the fact, but because he had far more magic than a rat should have.
And she went to stall Quirrell because she was linked to the charms keeping track of his progress and the trap itself. They used Equestrian charms for that so Quirrell wouldn't recognize them.
9704052
But again she has no reason to be so suspicious of him. It's not like she caught him doing something odd she just starts investigating because I can only assume she had nothing better to do.
But that's not a good reason for her to go herself. Why didn't she just hang around one of the teachers? Or better yet why not hang with Dumbledore so she could quickly bring him to the chamber when the time was right? There was absolutely no good reason for Sunset to confront him, especially because this was planned ahead of time it's not like they were caught by surprise and Sunset was the only one who could go. They had plenty of time to come up with a better plan than "send the 11-year-old with no real combat experience to confront the dark wizard".
9704063
Okay:
1: No she didn't have anything better to do at the time. That is, in fact, a perfectly valid reason for people to do stuff. Both in stories and in reality. Especially young people. Her motivation, curiosity, is perfectly in line with her established character.
2: She did not go to fight Quirrell, but to stall him for maybe a minute or so. It was clear from the start that he wouldn't be an actual threat to her. If it hadn't been, they would have gone with a different plan. They didn't do so because they had no reason to.
9704094
But again there is no reason for her to do this. This was planned out in advance and Sunset knew immediately when Quirrell started going through the chambers. Why was it necessary for her to stall him when she could have just as easily retrieved Dumbledore, the teachers or hell even Celestia before Quirrell triggered the trap so that they could immediately go in and capture him?
The chambers were meant to stall him the rest of the plan should have been go in and capture him immediately before he can recover from the trap not waste time so that Sunset can show off how OP she is once again.
9704108
The chambers were meant to stall him so he could be stopped before he could reach the stone before the trap was placed. After the trap was in place, they no longer had any actual purpose, they were only there because their absence would have been suspicious.
They did go in to capture him before he could recover. His magic didn't recover and there was nothing else for him to recover beside his conciousness which was only gone for a few seconds anyway. They only had two phoenixes at hand, so they couldn't have brought in all the professors at once. Someone had to stall. Sunset was the one that went ahead and did so because there really wasn't any reason for her not to.
And there is nothing OP about stalling a severly weakened wizard for a minute or so.
9703929
not telling tia would not help. twilight was cot because she has OCD(I know the signs
) tia would know in less the a day and because being foulnapped is part of the job description of cource she would put a passive tracking spell on her DAY 1.
I just realised the Unicorns having their blood taken - the entire foray into the Dark Forest - never happened.