“You’re kidding,” Professor McGonagall accuses distantly, sounding as if she knows she’s wrong.
“I kid you not,” Professor Snape answers solemnly. He’d just finished relating that lesson to them.
“But- but that’s impossible! Especially in a single day!”
Snape chuckles. “Not for Lyra and Diamond, apparently. They did admit- after everyone else had left for dinner- to having taken ruthless advantage of both Lyra’s and Diamond’s unique abilities to pull that off. Reportedly, Lyra’s unique ability- the one they call her unique ability, rather than one of the many she’s demonstrated for us- has primarily to do with music, but it works anywhere there’s something she can harmonize. Limited application, she tells me, without music.
“But that’s where Diamond came in. Her unique ability apparently has to do with getting people to do what she wants them to- so she basically drove them at each other, giving them a common goal… which Lyra was able to harmonize them on, after which they slowly redirected that goal. Which ended, somehow, with Malfoy detecting and responding to something he shouldn’t have known to watch for- and also shouldn’t have known how to respond to!” Sigh. “I asked. Even Malfoy doesn’t know what spell he used. Said it felt like gibberish on his lips, but it was the right gibberish.”
“Hmm,” Professor Dumbledore mutters. “How are they doing on the points side of things?”
“Very, very carefully,” Snape states. “Neither of them gave- nor took, for that matter- nearly as many points as I would have. Felt more like they were using the points as a disguised way of saying ‘good job’, rather than as a reward or punishment.” He grins slightly. “Something tells me students are going to be fighting for the chance to be the receivers of their hard-earned points.”
Dumbledore sighs. “Well, at least they’re not easy point-mills like I was worried about. Though I do find that interesting- how many Gryffindor points versus Slytherin did they give out?”
“Through the course of that class period, she gave out twenty points to Slytherin and five to Gryffindor. Nothing happened for her to deduct. Diamond didn’t do anything with points, almost like she was leaving that for Lyra to figure out.” Scowl. “They did seem strangely synchronized in their presentation.”
“... Huh,” Dumbledore mutters. “That’s… strange.” One hand comes up to rub his chin. “Maybe that ability of Lyra’s helped ‘harmonize’ their presentation as well?”
Shrug. “Eh, I suppose. I can’t see that working, though- she’d have to be a mas-!” He freezes for a second, then hangs his head. “Yeah, that’s probably what happened.” He glances back towards the door back out of Dumbledore’s office. “Though, I did happen to overhear Malfoy bragging about narrowly avoiding muggles in helicopters on his broom. Is that something we need to worry about?”
Dumbledore shakes his head. “Shouldn’t be. I doubt Malfoy knows what a helicopter really is- and I doubt Lyra has one, either.” He shudders briefly. “I hope she doesn’t.”
“Come and get it, Potter!”
Madam Hooch had, unlike all the other instructors, been interested to teach every student herself. She’d also requested that all the British students be relegated to the same sections, if at all possible; unfortunately, six thousand students in one class is still well beyond her.
The difference being, of course, that second-years and beyond don’t have flying lessons. As such, Madam Hooch only has one year to teach- and, reportedly, is usually bored all year.
Now, however, Neville had just kicked off early, fallen off, and crashed. Lyra, the only Agent in today’s session, had been distracted- and hadn’t been fast enough on the cushioning spell. He’d broken his wrist, and she hadn’t studied human anatomy well enough for an Equestrian healing spell to work. Once he left behind Madam Hooch, a general painkiller spell attached to the broken bone alongside a positional locking spell holding it still, Malfoy had snatched Neville’s dropped Remembrall off of the ground and jumped into the air.
Harry mounts his broom- but stops moments before taking off.
“What?” Malfoy demands. “Afraid of a little- Eeek!” He dodges backwards and a little higher as something passes right in front of him. “What- What is that thing?” He watches it come to a stop off to the side then twist sharply to face him again, like some kind of giant praying mantis, with something whirling on top of it.
“Nice to know you’ve never even gotten close to being caught by a muggle with a helicopter,” someone calls from below.
He glances briefly back down, eyes returning to the mantis-thing. “Of course I have, many times!”
The mantis thing charges at him. He ducks, and it whirls off to the side at the last second anyways, dodging quickly away from him and stopping, facing him, with incredible speed.
“Nah,” someone says down below- Lyra. “You wouldn’t realize it if you did.” The mantis-thing turns upside-down in one fluid motion. The constant buzzing thrum of the whirling thing on its top doesn’t stop, but it seems to go out of sync with the rest of the world, becoming heavier somehow.
“Of course I would!” he declares.
It seems to dance in front of him, before flipping back over and twisting sharply to the sides, as if it were something’s head, shaking for a no.
“That’s a helicopter,” Lyra continues. “If you can’t recognize it, you wouldn’t recognize a real one. Oh, here they are.”
Then, while the mantis thing shoots suddenly backwards and to the side, something passes over his head. It’s a good six feet up, probably- but as it does so, that thrumming becomes very loud, to the point that he can feel it in his bones.
He looks up.
There’s a much larger one, completing its sideways pass over his head and sliding far enough to the side that its much larger whirling thing is nowhere near him before it lowers down a little closer to his level, still facing him side-on.
Then a door on its side opens, and Bonbon is visible inside, leaning against a wall. “I hear you’ve dodged a few of these?” she asks, patting the outside affectionately.
He falls off his broom.
As he falls, he dimly registers that he’s not falling as fast as he should be. It seems somehow… slower. Pain also racks through his body at the same time; has he hit the ground already, and just not seen it yet? Something black flashes past underneath him, in his peripheral vision. Probably unconsciousness coming up to capture him. Bonbon’s… thing seems to be drifting in his direction almost lazily, Bonbon reaching out a hand towards his drifting broom.
The pain seems to double and change shape, almost as if he’s changing shape himself. Even through the pain, an uncomfortable tickling sensation ripples across his skin- then something seems to whip distantly about him, and he sees something silver.
Finally, the pain goes away, and his vision begins to clear again. Bonbon’s about to catch his broom, but he’s still falling; he can feel the wind on his back, in a very strange way. There’s something black off to the side, he thinks. He braces himself to hit the ground, lifting his head up-
He doesn’t hit the ground. He hits something far less solid, more like arms. Huge arms, feeling fuzzy against his back as they immediately dig into his back, his catcher grunting with the effort. Something hard, in one of the hands, presses against his side. He focuses on the face as he comes to a stop, realizing this person just caught him while on a broom…
It’s Harry.
Who had been on the ground when he fell.
What kind of sorcery is this?
He feels a light jolt as Harry steps off his broom, allowing it to clatter to the grass underneath him, and looks down at him confusedly. “Uh…” Harry begins. “Malfoy?”
He draws in a breath. It catches in his throat; it doesn’t feel right. He manages to get past it, and starts to answer. “Wha-!”
That’s as far as he got. His voice is so completely wrong as to be ridiculous; his oration chops off with a squeak as he looks down at himself. Particularly, his arm; that caught his attention first.
It’s silver. It’s covered in fur. His hand is gone.
He lets out a scream that’s way too girly and twists out of Harry’s grasp. He falls a short distance to the ground, landing on all fours, with both his legs fully extended. It doesn’t feel weird, as it really ought to.
He runs for it. On all fours, because that feels right. Even though he knows it’s wrong.
He hears the squealing of girls.
It seems to be pointed at him.
He pours all of his strength, all of his speed, into his flight.
He dodges between legs. He dodges between people.
He spots a girl anticipating his path, and diving for it.
It’s too late for him to redirect to the side.
But he knows just what to do. He jumps.
How he jumped, he has no idea. But the girl gets an armload of dirt while he clears her head and lands on her other side, resuming his flight.
How he just jumped twice his own height, he has no idea.
He keeps running.
A group of girls now, anticipating his path and diving.
It’s too late to dodge.
It’s too late to jump.
He doesn’t know what to do-
Then suddenly, there’s a magic matrix on his mind.
It’s incredibly complex, but he knows it’s exactly what he needs, and that he has it perfectly accurate.
He doesn’t know where his wand is. It certainly isn’t in his hand.
… Not that he seems to have hands anymore.
But that doesn’t matter. He knows what to do.
He pushes that matrix into an unfamiliar part of his mind, and dumps his magic into it.
Something tingles on his forehead.
Time seems to stop as the spell catches, and activates.
Everything momentarily turns blue.
He dodges under his bed to curl up.
The dormitory is empty. No one knows he’s here.
He lets out his breath.
Then he looks around.
How did he get here, again?
He turns to examine himself.
What happened to him, too?
His… coat of fur, is silver.
His tail is silver too, though there are twin royal blue stripes reaching all the way to the tip. He can also see the base of his… mane? It carries the same colors.
He rolls onto his side, glancing down to verify what he could hear in his voice. Then, he looks closer; he didn’t see anything right off.
He still doesn’t see anything. It’s all hidden by his fur.
So he lets out a sigh, lying down- and freezes.
Next to his bed, Bonbon slams bodily into her back on the floor without even trying to break her fall, holding her head expertly off the ground, her pink-and-purple hair rippling underneath her. She turns her head to look at him. “Good afternoon,” she greets him.
He squeaks, curling up. His tail brushes against his nose, and he quickly bats it down with one forelimb. If she can follow him here from her flying contraption that quickly, there’s nowhere he can hide from her. Not even with that strange, very complex magic matrix he still remembers.
“I thought you ought to know,” she goes on. “Lyra got a good look at you before you disappeared. She said the transformation should wear off in about a half an hour.” She turns her head to look at him, her tone becoming very serious. “You don’t want to be under the bed when that happens.”
He shudders; before… whatever that was, he wouldn’t fit under the bed very well.
He squeaks again, and closes his eyes, forcing himself to use his voice- and hating every moment of it. “What about… the girls?” He sounds very much like one of them.
Bonbon shakes her head. “The Weasley twins have something prepared to keep everyone busy for the next few hours,” she states. “As a matter of fact, it’s a good thing you didn’t come in through the entrance hall- you might have set off their trap early if you had.”
He lets out a brief snort of laughter. “You?”
She shakes her head. “Don’t worry- neither me nor any other Equestrians are going to squeal crazy. I mean, sure, you make a cute unicorn filly- but Lyra’s cuter, even if she’s not a filly.”
“... What?”
Bonbon smiles at him, and gestures towards him with one hand. “That’s what us Equestrians look like in our homeland,” she states. “There’s going to be some curiosity- we can’t bring our normal forms here, our own magic makes sure of that- but nopony is going to go crazy over it.”
“Then- Then why…” He looks at his… hoof. “Pony?”
She shrugs. “Honestly, when Lyra started the process to expand your magic to match an Equestrian’s capability, we did not expect that to include transformation. We knew it was a possibility; that’s why she had the twins prepare their… distraction.”
“Then how- how do you know it’s temporary?” He still hates his voice, but the more he hears it, the more natural it feels.
“Because it’s the very magic that turns us human,” she answers. “Lyra informed me that it appears the final stage- triggered by your fright when you fell off your broom, she thinks- includes a physical transformation to match your magical signature… until your magic finishes integrating itself with you, at which point you’ll revert to your prior form. We think.”
“You… think.”
She rubs her head with one hand. “Yeah… Our hair colors didn’t change when we crossed the portal, but everything else did. As much as you should rubber-band back to your prior human form, we’re not sure how complete that return will be. According to Lyra, there’s around a seventy percent chance your mane color will stay, for example- though she tells me there’s a ninety percent chance you’ll turn back to a boy.” Sigh. “If you don’t, she knows a spell to fix that, even though it would wear off every twelve hours or so. The good news with that is that you’ll be able to cast it yourself, even without your wand, as a unicorn- and she’ll be able to give you the matrix the same way she gave you the teleportation matrix.” She glances at him. “That was a good reaction, by the way. Lyra expected to have to come in here after you to peel a few girls off.”
“What-!?” he asks, startled.
She nods. “Yeah. That matrix she gave you is the simplest one- the only one she could reasonably expect you to be able to use safely without knowing any of the underlying concepts. The problem with it is that it is incredibly easy to accidentally take other people or objects with you.”
“... Oh.”
“Anyways, come on out. As I said before, you do not want to be under there when you turn back. And no, I’m not going to pounce on you or anything.”
A forced, rapid, non-instantaneous transformation? That would have been a hideously agonizing experience, for all that it left his new body in perfect working order. I am very impressed with his mental fortitude, given that he was able to head off on a dead run almost immediately. Not to mention focus on that teleportation schematic.
Though someone should mention to the ponies that humans consider casual use of Legilimency on random strangers to be quite rude. And even in an emergency they'd much prefer a solution that doesn't involve rummaging around in someone's head without so much as a by-your-leave.
Xenopsychology, yes? Assuming that aliens have the same moral/social assumptions as you is a wonderful way to start a nasty grudge.
9636598
Ah... that wasn't legilimency. Lyra thrust the matrix into his mind- exactly how, I don't know, might have involved his own horn- but didn't get even the slightest inkling (beyond what she already had) of his mental state. So, some kind of reverse legilimency, maybe. And that "good look" at him... She looked at his magic, not at his mind. So no, there was nothing that a wizard could even construe as legilimency.
But yeah, that's some impressive fortitude. Probably why Bonbon selected him for the papa tango...
9636616
Eh, po-tay-to, po-tah-to. One way or another someone was after putting ideas in his head. Unless Draco is secretly an animagus he had no business being able to run like that. It might not be legilimency, but that's the box they'll put it in.
It's a nifty trick, don't get me wrong, but manners.
So, did Bonbon actually get a helicopter into Hogwarts airspace? Who was piloting it?
I know that you were trying to convey the confusion that Draco was feeling, but accurately conveying that resulted in a chapter were I couldn't really work out what was going on. I hope that the next chapter relays the same events from another perspective, so that I can see what happened.
9636627
Yes, come to think of it, the ponies oughtn't have any more of an idea what a modern helicopter is than Draco does.
9636640
Except for one small difference: The ponies are not afraid to go to the muggle library, or to look things up in that world. Or, Celestia forbid, see a large, metal object flying past high above (like a plane), ask some muggle or another about it, and start researching the more generic term used to describe it, "aircraft"... (Probably what happened).
9636627
It will, yes. Next chapter, that is.
It won't really cover the same events, but it will explain them. And we'll find out who was flying the helicopter, possibly when/where they got it, and so on.
9636660
Again, this falls under the list of things which they really ought to have gotten permission for. What if Draco had been a different kind of startled and accidently "gunned" his broom? While very quick, death-by-helicopter-rotor is not at all a pleasant way to die. To me this reeks of grandstanding, the kind of grandstanding that leads to wholly unnecessary problems.
And if it was simply a form of illusory construct, I contest the notion of disrupting a introductory flying lesson with it. Neville managed to break his hand in the midst of a calm afternoon, now everyone's nerves have been most thoroughly rattled. Speaking as someone who has had to teach moderately complicated concepts to neophytes, the last thing I've ever needed was someone making a huge distraction of themselves.
I guarantee, everyone's managed to forget everything madam Hooch just spent the day teaching them.
I approve of the pony transformation of a naturally born human student. It just makes thing crazier with all the ponies turned human (that no one realizes are originally ponies) around to give a distorted (yet helpful) reaction to it.
9636669
I agree wholeheartedly, they should have asked permission and it's bound to be disruptive of the class.
Unfortunately, the Agency isn't really in the habit of asking permission... And Lyra is, ah, a prime offender in that respect. Probably the only reason the Agency puts up with her is because she's so good with what she does! And, perhaps, because that lets them control (to an extent) exactly what she penetrates with that skill of hers...
I don't personally think it's grandstanding; at least, that's not how Lyra views it. She probably ordered it done because she wanted to catch Malfoy on his folly... and no one (that knew about it) either thought to or was able to go over her head to get it prevented. Lyra probably had some barrier spells set around the rotors to keep him from running into them if he went that way, but yes, that is a distinct danger. (Especially since putting something as solid as a human through that rotor is probably also going to break a blade... and crash the helicopter.)
The problem I have with this chapter is it feels like the ponies are being unnecessarily cruel to Draco for no reason. This feels like it should be the culmination of a series of smaller events where the ponies tried other methods to deal with him only for it to fail, leading to them taking more drastic measures, instead, it seems like the ponies are just picking on Draco for no reason. Not to mention you've done nothing to establish why they would go to such lengths for Draco. Yes, I know what he's like in the books but you should still convey the way he's acting in your own story for this kind of chapter to work you shouldn't just cheat by working off reader's prior knowledge of the character from the books or movies.
9636756
Hmm... Yeah, this is true.
I think I can pass it off as an impulsive action after getting tired of Malfoy bragging about narrowly avoiding helicopters (compounded with a negative first impression)... but (especially) if I do that, there will be repercussions. Both from Hogwarts, and from RESS High Command.
9636640
you seem to forget something. ponies have helicopters. they are extremely primitive but they have them. Pinkie used one to follow Gilda and Dash back in season 1.
9636770
The important thing is definitely the ponies not getting off scot-free for this. Even in Equestria this would feel like a pretty excessive response to mere boasting. Especially when that boasting was coming from an 11 year old.
I think that's another important factor, that these are adults attacking a child for something relatively minor which is why I think it bothers me as much as it does.
9636793
Yes, definitely.
That the adults are in the form of children as well can help explain it... but it is not a reason nor excuse. Thus, no reduction in repercussions.
It's obvious what Hogwarts staff will do- take points & detention, maybe threaten to expel if they do it too frequently. The RESS... I'll have to think on how they respond to it.
9636780
That's Pinkie. She could have a jet pack or even a tricorder from Star Trek and Equestrian civilization could get away with denying any knowledge of what she has.
9637054
Except it wasn't hers (that can't have gone over well). She borrowed it from local earth pony aviation enthusiast cherry, I forget her name, something or other.
9637058
Cherry Berry.
I like how this addresses how dumb the world of Harry Potter is magitech would be rampant and spell more refined.
9637083
Yeah, I think that was it. I could be mixong up background ponies again.
9637139
I don't know that I'd call it dumb, per se...
But yes. Magical Britain is so stupidly hermetic they consider anything the muggles do (save witch hunts and cars) to be utterly useless. I hear wizards are fascinated by cars... but anything else the muggles do, they'd prefer to use magic. So much so I doubt they understand electricity- I mean, Arthur Weasley called it "ekel-tricity" or something... (hence my approach for that issue at Hogwarts). Had Magical Britain been willing to keep up with muggle developments and see how they could use each one, or even not entirely segregate themselves... I mean, they're almost like the Japanese before Commodore Perry got there. And unlike the Japanese, nobody knows they're there!
9637368
Personally, I object to the idea that wizards are just wrong about how technology is affected by magic. Even if most wizards ignore that stuff you'll still gonna have the wizards that make it their job to research it. So the idea that they were just wrong about how magic interferes with electricity is just stupid.
I much prefer how Magic School Days handled it with the ponies figuring out how to get around the problem rather than just dismissing the problem as wizards being morons.
I also don't think wizards are dumb for ignoring technology. When magic can already do the things that tech does and has been able to do it for centuries then the muggle solution will, of course, look like a novelty. They do pay attention to the stuff magic can't do like radios, cameras, cars and even television. Hell, the only reason there is no wizard TV is because the Ministry was afraid of it revealing wizards when muggles inevitably stumble upon the broadcast. Again even if most wizards ignore the stuff there will be wizards that pay attention because it's their job or they are simply curious.
9637503
I agree, actually; there are signs of that kind of work in the books (wizard radio). However, Arthur Weasley, despite being fascinated by everything muggle, clearly doesn't know what electricity is. As such, each and every one of these exploring wizards is either finding it all out on their own (like Arthur... clearly not a very efficient method) or expanding prior knowledge as a muggle-born.
Since I've noticed wizards seem to be traditionalists, it's not surprising that, once early electronics (like radios, the kind you listen to) didn't work on Hogwarts grounds (not surprising, interference would have wrecked the signal), they would have later never thought to (or been able to, in some cases) test any newer equipment there. With all that traditional "everyone knows" history, whenever computerized or high-powered devices (that might cut through the interference) came out, no one thought to try at Hogwarts- they "knew" they wouldn't work. And the muggleborns with access to this technology (and knowledge of it) will have assumed (and rightly so) that if the computerized technology failed to work properly because the electricity misbehaved, the computer would be fried. Thus, were unwilling to take their expensive electronics into Hogwarts grounds.
Wizarding radio is an interesting phenomenon and, in my opinion, a perfect example of an exception to the rule. Mr. Weasley has no clue what electricity is, yet Mrs. Weasley has a radio in the kitchen. They clearly don't run on electricity, in the standard sense at least; wizards don't have running electricity if Arthur doesn't know what it is. There's also the transmission type, and how they keep muggles from tuning into wizard radio. Personally, I think the wizard radio was invented by some rich, smart muggleborn or two with family or friends in the radio business... who realized that wizards had nothing of the sort, and set out to make it. A battery-powered device with a built-in battery spelled to always be fully charged; an extremely low-powered transmission from the base station antenna, with a similar relay spell as the one Lyra's using on her walkies to get it to the receivers. Once he built one of those, he had a magic-powered magical device, even though at its heart, it's still an electronic device. Of course, in order to keep the pureblood factions from throwing it out, he had to mask the electronic part- old-fashioned mechanical tuning, for example.
Which of course, meant that it used all fairly cheap parts for his day and age- and would cost almost nothing to fix if Hogwarts fried it. So, they had their child take it to school in their trunk, listen to it at Hogwarts, and owl him the results. Success.
Now, I have no doubt this same inventor would have done further research into the field beyond mass-producing (or, as close as wizards get to mass producing) those radios; however, he may not have gotten very far before the purebloods stamped it out as "pointless" and, with all his children having graduated from Hogwarts, he no longer having an avenue to get electronics into Hogwarts for testing. He probably knew he'd be laughed at if he tried to publish his findings in a wizarding publication, and thence hoped his children would further his research; however, perhaps they married into wizarding families, and by the time they had school-age children of their own, had either forgotten all about it or been convinced as well of its futility. Sad, really.
Which makes the RESS' walkies- and that helicopter, possibly- exactly what the wizarding world needs to realize that yes, technology has gotten better, and it's just as likely to go belly-up at Hogwarts as it is anywhere else.
The reason I use an electromagnetic interference model with wizardly ignorance being key, is because if electricity "went haywire" at Hogwarts as Hermione stated... Well, the human body runs on electricity. Not to mention, if you go down to an atomic level, THE UNIVERSE runs on electricity. Electricity can't possibly "go haywire" at Hogwarts without killing every witch or wizard that enters, and possibly ripping its own atoms apart... converting the place into a nuclear weapon fit to shatter the planet. And, honestly, it makes sense for that to be a misperception on the part of the wizards of a past era that modern wizards simply haven't challenged. They like their floating candles, inexplicably not dribbling wax all over their food while they eat in the Great Hall.
9637931
The problem with using Arthur as the standard for wizard knowledge of muggles is that his pursuit of such knowledge is hindered by his wife's dislike of all things muggle:
I actually really love Methods of Rationality for actually joking about how while Arthur knows little about muggle tech more intelligent wizards like Dumbledore would obviously keep themselves better educated of muggle advancement. You don't keep an entire society hidden for centuries by ignoring the ones you are trying to hide from.
I hate when people use this argument, it's possible that magic messes with the amount of electricity needed to run an electronic device without it affecting the human body.
To use an explanation from someone else for the question of electricity not working at Hogwarts:
9637970
Sorry about that- I'm a programmer... and I don't like the thought of magic conflicting with physics. Messing with it on command, sure- but conflicting with it in general... no.
So, finally got around into reading this. It's a bold idea, sending around as many wizards there are in England to Hogwarts as eleven year olds and that's bound to have hilarious and serious complications.
Kudos for having significant pony players out of griffindor. Considering how many of the agency are in slitheryn and Hufflepuff, compounded with the genius in Ravenclaw and Luna herself with the snakes this actually twists the power balance heavily outside of the reds. This is going to make future years complicated, not to mention how absurdly isolated the human wizards are going to get through sheer pressure.
The future consequences of the story are bound to be as curious as itself.
9637975
Magic existing would obviously conflict with the laws of physics since the laws assume magic isn't real.
9636723
This leads to another point, the respect a host is due from his guests. The Equestrians are guests, guests on earth, guests in England, guests in the wizarding world, and most importantly, guests in Hogwarts. The faculty has been enormously accommodating, putting in a huge effort when they could (and quite possibly should) have simply followed up each Equestrian-bound invitation with a polite form letter informing the recipients of a mailing error, and apologizing for the confusion.
They could have done that, but instead they've somehow managed to accommodate over twelve thousand boarders in a place that never expected to house more than a few hundred. The magic thrown around simply to secure adequate living space is stupendous to contemplate. And this isn't just a weekend gathering either, oh no. This is a seven-year commitment at least, assuming that more ponies don't show up next year.
So with all this in mind, the cavalier attitude I see from some of these ponies, and Lyra in particular, feels downright presumptuous. When you are invited into someone's house, you are expected to comport yourself with a certain degree of decorum. You speak to him with due respect, if food is offered you take it with thanks, you don't prowl around his home poking into things, and you certainly don't tamper with his belongings simply because "you could do it better".
If they want to help out around the place, repay some of that generosity, wonderful! 'tis good manners and an excellent way to build strong roots of amīcitia. But they should offer and ask permission, rather than just doing stuff. By giving Dumbledore an opportunity to accept or decline their suggestions they'd be showing him deference as the local authority figure. By ignoring and/or patronizing him they show that they don't really respect his authority at all.
Tough nuts for her. The inescapable fact, a fact that I think has sailed right over her minty head, is that she is the de-facto Equestrian ambassador to the wizarding world. Luna is pointedly out of the picture, she's on a working vacation from "princessing". This leaves Lyra as Dumbledore's main point of interaction with the ponies. Everything she does reflects directly on herself, her team, her organization, the princesses, and Equestria as a whole.
They are aware that Dumbledore wears more hats than just "headmaster", right?
Take this helicopter stunt for instance. Where did they get it from? you can't just buy a helicopter off of a lot, it and it's pilot need a slew of licenses and assorted paperwork. That creates a paper trail that immediately dead-ends with a adolescent-appearing personage possessing far too much ready cash to be legal.
If they rented the thing then either they found a squib with a providential helicopter-rental business and a willingness not to ask questions, or the muggle pilot's mind is so wound up in suggestion spells that his name may as well be Pinocchio. the idea that they had a muggle pilot fly a helicopter in here with his eyes open cannot even be thought of.
If they just flew the thing in like a brick through a window, then somewhere in the Ministry glyph-wards are going off like a Christmas tree; and the school will soon be swarming with either obliviators or dragon-wranglers, depending on what a helicopter looks like to the spells. If they warped the wards to keep it hidden, then they're blowing raspberries at the wizards from a different angle by subverting whatever boundaries they find inconvenient.
As far as any future negotiators can tell, Lyra is treating this like a game, and her attitude does not say good things about those who saw fit to put her in charge.
Please note that I draw a distinction between authors and characters. I have nothing bad to say about your writing, tis excellent! I'm just loudly criticizing Lyra, and whoever decided to let a known maverick head a diplomatically sensitive expedition.
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Dangit, I was going to rant about this and you calmly stated all my points. What am I going to do with all this pent-up nerd rage now?! XD
Great story so far, author!