The Gate

by computerneek

Chapter 30

“Excuse me, Instructor Granger?”

Hermione turns her head to look. It’s Sweetie Belle, and it’s Saturday morning.

It’s been a few months since school started. She and Bonbon have managed to contain the Crusaders’ mistakes, for the most part; there had, of course, been… interesting events. Like when Scootaloo had managed to turn Dumbledore’s hair purple while practicing a color change spell. On a piece of parchment. Across the castle. Or, just last week, when the floor had been converted into a mass of jello after class. The damage to the castle that time was moderate, but fortunately, nobody was hurt.

Mostly because Lyra was walking past on a lower floor, sure, but still.

Then there had been the troll on Halloween night. Nobody is certain how it got in; however, everyone knows how it was dealt with. Fairly simple: The Crusaders had been late to dinner, having been doing something- nobody seems to know what- in an attempt to acquire their mysteriously elusive ‘cutie marks’.

The troll had been unfortunate enough to cross paths with them. Less than thirty seconds later, reportedly, a teacher in one of the towers- Professor Trelawney- had spotted it falling up through the ceiling and out of sight. Applebloom had admitted to remembering exactly what she had gotten wrong when Hermione’s ‘papa tango’ had been made necessary; she’d also admitted to figuring out how to shape the effect so it didn’t bother her or her friends.

“Yes?” she answers. She’s asked several times that, outside of class, her students call her ‘Miss Granger’ like Professor Flitwick does, or simply ‘Hermione’- but for some reason, whenever they want her attention for something related to the class, they always call her ‘Instructor Granger’. Which is what they’re supposed to call her in class.

“Uh, I was wondering if you could help me a little with the summoning charm,” Sweetie answers. “I can’t seem to get it to work right.”

She shudders. “It’s not… dangerous, is it?”

Sweetie shakes her head. “No, no. Things only turn their backs when I try- perfectly safe. Like this.” She draws her wand, pointing it at a chair halfway across the empty common room. “Accrio!”

The chair spins almost instantly to face away from her, thrusting the table aside in order to do so. The table isn’t quite as uneventful, though, thrown by the chair back almost directly at Hermione.

Hermione ducks before she has time to blink, leaving it to whistle over her head and smash itself to bits against the wall, before dodging just as quickly to the side as a large fragment falls back right where she had been standing. The rest of the fragments scatter throughout the room and smash other pieces of furniture or decorations.

“Eh, decently safe,” Hermione agrees honestly, surveying the damage. “Nine out of ten. Now, there were a few problems with that. For one, if it makes something spin, don’t point at something that’s going to launch something else.”

“... Right, sorry,” Sweetie blushes.

“Second, it’s pronounced Accio, not… whatever that was.”

“Um, Hermione?” someone asks, from the stairs up to the dormitories.

She glances over; it’s Harry. “Yes?”

“Are you sure you want to-!” he begins, but never finishes.

“Accio!”

There is a bang, and Hermione lets out a pained yelp, stumbling backwards with both hands clasped over her forehead. Moments later, multiple muted thumps sound throughout the room. As the pain subsides, she looks up to survey the damage.

The room appears to be largely untouched. Exactly as she would expect; whatever that bang was, it had failed to trigger her new evasive instincts- the ones that somehow respond to dangers she can’t even see.

The people, however, are more or less damaged. Or…

Hermione lets out a gasp, and quickly rests an arm on the top of her own head, making sure there’s no unusual growth or anything.

There isn’t.

But Sweetie’s head, Harry’s head, and those of at least three other people that happened to be in the common room, are all growing steadily, making them look like bobbleheads. They’re also unconscious; it looks painful.

She looks up, towards the girl’s dormitory, just in time for Lyra to appear.

“What in the…?” Lyra begins, but never finishes, crashing to the ground as her head starts growing as well.

Well, there went that; every other time the Crusaders did something weird, Lyra would show up within seconds to correct it. This time…

“Accio Standard Book of Spells, Grade Three!”

That feels like the book she’ll find the spell to stop it in.

Lyra still won’t tell her about that feeling, simply labeling it a ‘unique talent’.

But regardless of that, she knows she’ll find it on page eighty-seven. And, it would seem it’s up to her to break it; she seems immune to the effect.

The book leaps out of one of the debris piles left by a desk fragment, straight into her hands. A quick reading-assistant spell she studied up on a month and a half ago instantly opens it to page eighty-seven. She scans down it, then points her wand at Sweetie’s, and prays she’s getting it right the first time. “Finite incantatem!”

Right on time, the portrait hole opens, and Professor McGonagall rushes in. “What is going-!?” she begins, and pauses, looking around. Her head doesn’t start growing.

“Crusaders,” Hermione answers, lowering her wand.

Professor McGonagall sighs, shaking her head. “How bad is it?”

“I… I don’t know. I just managed to break her miscast summoning charm; it was making people’s heads grow.” She gestures down at Sweetie. “I’d ask Lyra, but she, well…” She glances towards the dormitory.

“We’ll have to take them to the hospital wing, then,” Professor McGonagall states. “Does that work?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know,” she states. Then she raises her hand to the walkie Lyra had given her just three nights ago, when she officially joined the Royal Equestrian Secret Service. “Sickle Star to Charlie Gama.”

“Already?” someone asks back through her headset- before the Ravenclaw appears out of nowhere, continuing in the exact same voice, hand dropping from her radio. “What happened?”

“Sweetie,” Hermione states helpfully, gesturing towards Sweetie Belle. “It was a botched summoning charm… and she got Lyra too.”

Agent Sickle Star, more commonly known as Moondancer, steps closer to Sweetie Belle and bends over her chair-sized head.

Professor McGonagall waits in silence for two seconds. “Well?”

“I want to say there’s something deeper I can’t see,” Moondancer states. “But Lyra’s the only one that can see any of that, and she’s similarly affected. Everything that I can see, however, is fading and should wear off on its own. I don’t see a way to accelerate that without endangering her life.” She vanishes into thin air, reappearing next to Lyra, to look over her not-quite-so-large head. “Yeah, same on Lyra, but not as far developed.” She looks up at Professor McGonagall. “I’d say we stick ‘em in the Hospital Wing and hope Lyra wakes up soon.”

“... How soon is soon?” a fifth-year Gryffindor asks, standing in the doorway to the boy’s dormitory stairs.

Moondancer glances up. “My best guess is that it’ll wear off of Lyra in time for classes on Monday, and the rest probably Thursday or so. Though, Harry’s magic matrix is different…” She blinks over to the boy, looking down at him. “Eh, no difference in spell behavior, that I can see. Once Lyra wakes, she might be able to accelerate recovery by some means or another that I can’t see- but until she does, there’s nothing I can do.”

The fifth year groans and drives his forehead against the archway. Twice.

“What?” Moondancer asks.

“I’m the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team,” he answers her. “We’ve got a game in less than an hour, and Harry’s our seeker. No backup.”

“Hmm, yeah,” Moondancer scowls. “I’d hate for Slytherin to win by default, rather than by skill. Especially since they don’t have any surprise handicaps like this to deal with. Um…” She glances at Professor McGonagall, and back to the fifth year. “How long would it take to add a backup seeker to the team?”

“A while,” Wood answers immediately. Then he glances at Professor McGonagall. “The approval stage goes through Professor McGonagall, so that could be theoretically instant- but then we’d have to get him quidditch robes, and make sure they have a broom. And train them.”

She taps one finger on her lips. “What if the backup in question were to borrow Harry’s equipment, and happen to be a skilled flier already?”

Wood winces. “Theoretically possible,” he states. “We’d at least be able to play, even if that seeker wouldn’t likely be a very good seeker. You have someone in mind?”

Moondancer nods, smiling. “Yep.” She looks sideways at Hermione. “Granger here.”

Professor McGonagall raises an eyebrow, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

Hermione blinks. “What-!? What did you just say?”

Moondancer grins, blinking over to Hermione’s side and patting her shoulder. “Come on, Hermione. You’re going to have to get over your acrophobia sometime. Especially considering what happened between you and the papa tango.”

Wood raises an eyebrow. “Is she any good?” he asks.

Hermione shakes her head vehemently, but Professor McGonagall speaks. “As I recall, she caught Longbottom effortlessly, accurately, and gently with a school broom when he fell off his own in only her second flying lesson.”

He nods, looking at her. “So, she’s a good flier,” he mutters. “And I doubt we’re going to have any more perfect seekers floating around, so that’s going to be about the best we’re gonna get. Please, miss… Granger, was it?”

“Please, Hermione?” Moondancer asks, putting an arm around her shoulders. “You’ll be doing Harry a huge favor.”

Professor McGonagall raises an eyebrow, but Hermione blushes and averts her gaze. “S-Sure,” she eventually states. “I’ll… I’ll try.”

Wood sighs. “We’ll probably lose anyways, but we’ve got good chasers, so we’ll be better off than if we lost by default. Thank God the Quidditch robes are unisex.” He glances up at Professor McGonagall. “I’ll fetch Harry’s broom and robes and meet you by the field?”

Professor McGonagall and Moondancer both nod. “I’ll take care of the bobbleheads,” Moondancer volunteers, looking up at the Professor. “You can, um, take care of whatever you need to take care of before unleashing her on the field.”

Professor McGonagall nods again. “Good,” she states.

Wood turns and disappears back up the steps; Moondancer blinks briefly around the room before vanishing with all the bobbleheads.

“Follow me,” Professor McGonagall instructs Hermione, and leads her out of the common room.

Hermione follows, all the way to Professor McGonagall’s office.

“So,” the Professor finally begins, closing the door behind them. “You have a radio?”

Hermione blushes again. “Um, yeah.”

She raises an eyebrow. “When did that happen?”

“Uh… Wednesday. When I officially joined the Royal Equestrian Secret Service.”

“You joined them?”

She nods. “Yeah… They like my Equestrian-magic-ability to know exactly where to look for details on anything I think of, so they offered. I… Well, they study stuff nobody else has access to, they go on adventures, they solve puzzles of all shapes and sizes- whyever would I not want to join?”

She sighs. “In any case, you’re sure you want to come on the team as backup seeker?”

She nods. “Absolutely.”

“Alright,” McGonagall nods, and brandishes her wand for a moment. “For today, you can use Potter’s broom and robes. I expect the robes will be only slightly off in size; on Tuesday, we’ll have a set just for you. As for the broom, I’ll talk to Professor Dumbledore to see if we can’t bend the first year rule again- and if not, you’ll just have to share Potter’s broom indefinitely. In the meantime, it’s time you got headed down to the field. It’s important you go in there acting like this was all planned from the beginning- I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what despiriting the rest of the team can do.”

Hermione shudders. “Got it!”

Comments

[computerneek]

9679615
I'm glad you think so. Me, since the game's already written (expect to read about it tomorrow), I'm not sure exactly how much I can say without spoiling it... but I believe I can say, eh, it depends. As mentioned in this chapter, she's still got acrophobia, or fear of heights...

[JOEBLACK]

Moondancer nods, smiling. “Yep.” She looks sideways at Hermione. “Granger here.”

i can't be the only one who thought Rainbow Dash and i can't remember what house she ended up in. on the one hand brash bravery and thirst for adventure would surely mean Gryffindor on the other her being Element of Loyalty would logically mean Hufflepuff.

[computerneek]

9679700
Rainbow's in Gryffindor.

I haven't used the Elements of Harmony as any kind of even suggestion for what house; the Mane 6 are all being placed by personality. Sure, Rainbow's got Loyalty- but it's her

brash bravery and thirst for adventure

that truly defines her. And that's a Gryffindor quality.

And yeah, I did consider Rainbow, briefly. But that'd be too easy- and besides, Rainbow might get into the thick of things and get hit off her broom by a bludger... not to mention another factor very important to the events of the game, that I'm not going to mention because spoilers.

[Kichi]

I wonder why Moondancer or Lyra? I mean, sure, they know many things but when they could not resolve it, why not ask Twilight or Luna? They should also know magic enough to give a second opinion

[computerneek]

9679968
Probably just didn't cross their minds.

[prism heart]

Not bad, just binge read this story for the 1st time and am tracking it.

[computerneek]

9680498
Just binge-read a novel-length story (at 65k words it's only a little shorter than the Philosopher's Stone itself), in like an hour or two... (judging by the bookshelf add).

You must be an avid reader.

[prism heart]

9680553
Meh, I started after 8pm and caught up about 10-11pm. I added it to my shelf just today around 5pm. I read a book over 1000 pages long IRL in a day before, if that matters.

[computerneek]

9680581
No problem. My sister reads half-million-word novels for breakfast (small exaggeration, but I wouldn't be surprised if it took her a single day to read the entire HP series). I'm nowhere near that fast myself, nor as bookwormish, but

[borgvicugna]

Love your Poppa Tango Hermione. OBTW, is that Pony Transform?

[computerneek]

9681291
Yes, yes it is.