Chapter 4
The following morning, the tower of letters is even taller.
Professor McGonagall can only sigh, as she reviews the taller sorted stacks. “Well, the cake was good,” she states. “And at least the Equestrians are taking care of that side of things.”
“How many this time?” Snape asks.
“Three hundred seventy two yes-letters, nine hundred twelve noes.”
“Here,” Snape offers her a folded note- one of the ones denoting a muggleborn that would like to come, but wouldn’t be able to send an owl. “We’ll take care of all this stuff.” He waves a hand at the floating stacks of letters.
The Grangers were a pleasant family, Professor McGonagall thought. Their daughter, Hermione, will be a new student at Hogwarts this year- and from what she’s seen so far, the girl could easily be in either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor.
Then she leads them into the Leaky Cauldron, and can’t resist raising an eyebrow.
Those same two girls, Lyra and Bonbon, are sitting on opposite sides of a booth- but aside from the tankards of butterbeer at each girl’s side, there is no food in evidence. As she watches, Bonbon raises something small and black to her mouth, squeezing on it for a second and speaking into it.
“Echo Charlie to Flourish,” she states, before lowering the object.
Lyra looks up from the massive, glowing, muggle-tech-looking thing lying flat on the table. “Oh, hello Professor!” She waves energetically with one hand, even as the other hand tickers in a few numbers on a smaller, also thin and flat, glowing thing.
“Lyra?” she asks. “Back already?”
Lyra puts her smaller glowing thing to her ear, the glow going away. “Yep!”
“Did you forget something?” she asks, while Hermione trots up to the table, looking at the glowing things interestedly.
“Nah,” Lyra states, then looks away, turning in the direction of the thing on her head. “You’re up.” She waits a second, before swinging it back down, touching the red circle on the suddenly glowing-again part, and puts it down. “You know why we were at the park yesterday, right?”
She blinks, and nods.
Lyra smiles. “That’s why.”
The object in Bonbon’s hand suddenly speaks up. “Echo Alpha done at Eyelops,” it states.
Bonbon raises it back to her mouth. “Echo Alpha to base, Echo November to Dylan’s,” she states, before lowering it again and looking up at the professor. “Sorry about that,” she states. “We’ve got a lot of teams out in Diagon Alley right now.”
“Teams?” Hermione asks- and promptly lets out a surprised yelp, whirling around to find out what caused the thunderous Crack! behind her.
McGonagall also turns sharply, though most of the people in the pub don’t move beyond a little flinch. A group of about thirty first-years, sporting varied and unusual hair colors, is now standing in what had been an empty spot of the pub.
“Yep!” Bonbon answers cheerfully, as if she’d fully expected them to appear. “There’s a lot of us, so we’re getting our Hogwarts stuff in groups. You starting at Hogwarts too?” She raises the object again. “Echo Papa to Gringotts.”
“Roger!” someone in the middle of the new party states, despite not being close enough to have heard Bonbon’s words, and starts moving through it towards Diagon Alley. “This way, everyone!”
McGonagall blinks. “And they already know where that is?” she asks.
“Yep,” Bonbon nods. “We showed all our team leaders around last night.”
“So what are you using this for?” Hermione asks, pointing at the big thing flat on the table.
“We’re keeping track of all our parties,” she states. “We’re also tracking anyone that might pose a threat to us- be it bullies, or we’ve had at least one try an actual, physical attack.”
The black thing speaks up. “Bravo to Echo Lima,” it states.
Someone across the pub slams down their butterbeer and vanishes soundlessly into thin air.
Bonbon sighs. “And it sounds like we just encountered another bully.”
“Why track the bullies?” Hermione asks. “They can’t exactly do anything, can they?”
Lyra lets out a snort of laughter, but Bonbon answers.
“They can’t, sure,” Bonbon chuckles. “Problem is, some of the people we’re guiding are not only very powerful, but nervous. So, if the bully says just the wrong things to just the wrong people, they could inadvertently cause a scene that could destroy half of Diagon Alley.” She looks up at McGonagall. “That tendency should be vastly muted in Hogwarts Castle; everyone will be more able to keep a calm head on their shoulders. Not to mention, the Castle should be able to absorb most- if not all- of the damaging energies without sustaining damage.”
“Wow,” Hermione states.
“Yeah,” Bonbon nods. “We haven’t had them go anywhere near the nervous ones yet, and they haven’t said anything even remotely close to anything that might set them off yet. But we don’t want them to get the chance, if we can help it.”
“How do you know?”
“Easy. We know which parties have the nervous ones in them, and which parties have reported encounters with bullies. Then of course, if the bully says something that might possibly set someone off, the call is ‘bravo two’ instead of simply ‘bravo’.”
“What if they encounter two bullies?”
“‘Two bravo’.”
“What if the bully has already been encountered by someone?”
“Handled on the spot.” She glances down at the big glowing thing, and raises her black thing. “Echo Oscar to Olivander’s.”
“So what happens if someone, uh, gets set off?”
Shrug. “We’ve got a code for that too. And a response team to limit the damage.”
The black thing speaks up again. “Echo Alpha at base.” Almost immediately, the door from Diagon Alley opens, and a group of some twenty five colorful-haired first-years comes trotting out of it, toting large trunks and more than a few owls. Lyra rises to meet them, and starts talking with them.
Hermione watches Lyra go, and turns back to Bonbon. “You’ve got it all planned out,” she states.
Bonbon nods. “Yep. That happens when you’ve got a few thousand people to work with. You wanna join the next group- you might like Twilight, she’s part of it- or go independent with Professor McGonagall?”
Hermione looks up at her parents, and the professor. “Uh…”
“That sounds like a great idea,” McGonagall nods. “Do you mind if I tag along?”
“Mm? Oh, no problem. Actually, yes please- Quebec is one of the groups with nervous people in it, so the added security is welcome.”
“Ahh,” she states.
“How long until they get here?”
“When we call for ‘em,” Bonbon answers. She glances down at the bigger glowing thing. “About ten minutes, once Papa finishes up at Gringotts.” She smiles at Hermione. “That’ll give us time to finish processing Alpha over there, and for the other groups to finish- and shuffle around.” She looks back down, lifts her black thing, and issues a few more instructions.
“Something tells me,” McGonagall begins, “we’ve got as much to learn from you as you have from us.”
Bonbon nods. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“Those things, for starters.”
“These? Oh, you mean the walkies, and the computers? Oh, no, that’s actually all from this world- bought it a couple days ago. Dead useful.”
“And you’ve already got all this set up?” Hermione asks, gesturing at the table.
“Yep!” Bonbon declares. “We’re good like that.”
Very suddenly, most of the group disappears with a crack of thunder, alongside the luggage of the two remaining girls. Lyra trots back to the table, returns to her seat, and takes a drink from her butterbeer- running it dry. Then she lifts one of her own walkie things, and pauses, looking up at the Grangers and the Professor. “Butterbeer?” she asks.
Hermione tilts her head. “What is that?”
“Is that a kind of beer?” Mr. Granger asks, somewhat sternly.
Lyra shakes her head. “Nah. I mean, it’s normally a slightly alcoholic drink- half a standard drink per tankard- but the stuff we’ve been ordering is all alcohol free.” She smiles. “Still tastes good. And it’s cheap, but I’m offering to pay for it anyways.”
Mr. Granger blinks. “Ahh, sure, then.”
Hermione nods with her mother. “Yeah, why not.”
“I’ll go for a normal one,” McGonagall states.
Lyra smiles, and raises her walkie up to her mouth. “Hey Tom, can I get four virgin and one normal Butterbeers to table three?” Then she lowers it.
“Coming right up,” it answers, in the bartender’s voice.
Professor McGonagall blinks. “You’ve even got the bartender in on it?”
“Different frequency, but yeah,” Lyra states. “We’ve got a pile o’ gold floating around here somewhere, and as you may have noticed, we’ve basically acquired the Leaky Cauldron to serve as our command post, for the time being. So while we’re here, I figured, why not enjoy it?” She shrugs. “Meals when we want, as many drinks as we want, and so on.” She smiles at the Grangers. “Don’t worry, we’ve been sure not to order anything with alcohol in it. Don’t need intoxicants messing with our brains when we might be needed for something major at any moment, do we?” Then she glances at Bonbon. “And on this side of the gate, our bodies don’t handle alcohol nearly as well as on the other side.”
“Gate?” Hermione asks.
“Nothing you need to be worried about,” Lyra answers. Then she glances towards Diagon Alley. “And no, that’s not it.”
“Trixie, you do not want to go that way,” Bonbon states suddenly into a third walkie, while the barkeeper approaches on the other side with a tray of butterbeers.
“What? Why not?” the walkie returns.
“Remember the Amulet?” Bonbon asks.
“Understood,” it answers sharply. “Turning around.”
“Your Butterbeers?” Tom asks.
Lyra looks up. “Ahh, thank you! The standard one’s for Professor McGonagall; one virgin for me, and one for each of these.” She gestures to the Grangers.
The barkeeper chuckles, and starts handing off the tankards. When he finishes, Lyra hands him her empty tankard. “Thank you!”
“So, which way was that?” Professor McGonagall asks Bonbon.
“Nocturn. A few of our people scouted it last night. Not somewhere where anyone that doesn’t know exactly what they’re doing should go. Especially at night.”
“Agreed,” McGonagall states. Then she looks up, at one of the two girls from that group that had stayed. The other one had headed back out to Diagon Alley.
“Hast thou any clue how nice it is to be treated like an equal?” the girl asks, her hair billowing behind her like the midnight sky.
“Uh,” Professor McGonagall mutters, unsure of how to answer.
“Are you part of a minority group or something?” Hermione unabashedly asks.
All three Equestrians burst into laughter. Mrs. Granger facepalms.
Bonbon stifles her laughter first, to lift that third walkie again. “Did you know, Luna just got asked if she belongs to a minority group?”
The walkie is silent for three seconds. Then-
“WHAAAAT?” comes flying back out of it.
“T’is funny you should ask,” Luna states. Then she glances at Lyra. “Though, I suppose it is true, in a technical sense.”
Lyra gives another snort of laughter. “Yeah, technically- but not in the way she’s thinking.” She looks at Hermione. “Hermione, I would like you to meet Princess Luna, the Princess of the Night and Diarch of Equestria.”
Hermione’s jaw drops. Then she puts a hand over it, stumbling backwards into her mother, who catches her. Her butterbeer floats over to the table, setting itself down. “S-s-sorry!” she eventually stammers.
“Oh puh-lease,” Luna snorts, waving an arm dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. It’s actually quite refreshing for people to treat me as who I am, rather than what I am. Leave the formal nonsense for my sister.”
“S-Sister?” Hermione asks, eyes darting around.
Bonbon answers; Lyra’s lifting her thingy again. “Princess Celestia, Princess of the Sun, the other Diarch- and de-facto ruler- of Equestria. Don’t worry, she’s not here. And she won’t be attending Hogwarts, either; she’s got a country to rule.”
“Then…” Professor McGonagall begins, but trails off to nothing.
Bonbon smiles. “Yeah. Princess Luna is the active sister of the two, and she’s had to keep all her energy pent up behind the royal facade.” Chuckle. “She’s also going to be the most powerful Equestrian student you’ll have this year, flat-out.”
“Really?” Hermione asks.
“WHAAAAT?” Lyra’s device squeaks suddenly, from where she’s holding it two feet away from her ear.
Lyra returns it to her ear afterwards, grinning like a maniac. “Yep! She thought it was funny.” She holds it out again.
“WHAAAAT?”
“Who is that?” McGonagall asks.
“Sounds like Twilight,” Bonbon observes.
Lyra puts it to her ear again. “Yeah. She’s really enjoying it over here- and can you tell your party leader she’s up?” Pause. “Thanks.” Then she removes it, touches the red circle, and sets it back down again. “Yep, that was Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, believe it or not. But don’t treat her like a princess, that’s a great way to tick her off.” She smiles up at McGonagall. “She’ll be the second most powerful Equestrian student this year.” Then she glances at Hermione. “And something tells me she’ll get along with you like a house on fire.”
Hermione blinks. “... What?”
“Anyways, you have your Butterbeer?” Lyra offers it to her again, gripping it by the side opposite the handle. “We’ll be sending Quebec to Gringotts in a minute, and that’s the group you wanted to be a part of, if I remember right. And I’m afraid you can’t take the tankard out of the pub.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. If you want to have your butterbeer on the road, I can order you a cold one- served in bottles, that you can take wherever. Alternately, I can order you another when you get back.”
“How long will it take?”
“Well, we’ve been pumping people through as fast as possible… Loud noise.”
Crack! Another group of thirty or so first-years appears out of nowhere.
“As fast as possible, and noone’s announced a bottleneck, so…” She indicates a fourth walkie sitting on the table. “Alpha took about two hours, so that’s the running estimate.”
A purple-haired girl walks up to the edge of the table. “What’s that?” she asks- only for Lyra to knock her down, away from it.
“Later, Twilight. And be mindful of who you cut in front of.”
“Lyra!” the girl complains, getting up- then looks to either side and lets out a shriek worthy of a banshee. “Gaaah! Sorry, Princess Luna!”
The named Princess rolls her eyes, but doesn’t say anything.
Lyra chuckles. “Twilight Sparkle, meet Hermione Granger. Hermione, meet Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight offers Hermione her hand. “Nice to meet you,” she states. Then she glances at Lyra. “Any particular reason?”
Hermione takes the hand, shaking it. “Nice to meet you?” she asks.
Lyra snorts. “Yeah. Twilight, she’s in your department.”
Twilight blinks, and a sparkle enters her eyes. “What, really? The library?”
“Library?” Hermione asks interestedly.
“Aaand, they’re off,” Bonbon chuckles, as the two launch into a fast-paced discussion of the various books they’ve read- none of which match.
“House on fire,” Luna nods. “Definitely.”
“Hold on a second,” Mr. Granger asks. “How’d you know her name?”
Shrug. “Magic. The name by which we call ourselves is exposed on one of the outer layers of an individual’s magic aura, and easy to glean from it without any dangerous scans. I almost do it by instinct, any more- and you’d be surprised how many people, even among those that know about it, haven’t a clue how to block it. Or don’t bother trying.” Chuckle. “Again, not hard to block or obfuscate, rendering it impossible to read, even with those powerful scans.”
“... What?”
“You can think of it like a radio broadcast, and all I’m doing is tuning in. Don’t worry- I’ve occasionally seen a phone number in the aura as well, or an e-mail address, but that’s about it for regular information in the aura.”
“What else do you get?”
“Magical potential, magic affinities, and personality, mostly. I’ve seen one or two where the aura spoke of a tumultuous past.”
“Tumultuous?”
“Yeah. Victims of child abuse, that kind of thing.”
The three adults shudder, and Twilight’s conversation with Hermione breaks off, her eyes hardening. “Did you say child abuse?” Twilight asks sternly.
“Referring to it,” Lyra answers calmly. “It was all dealt with long ago.”
“Oh.” The literary discussion resumes, as if it had never been interrupted.
“Echo Quebec to Gringotts,” Bonbon mutters into her walkie.
“Roger!” one of the party calls. “Alright people, this way!”
Lyra prods Hermione on the shoulder, Twilight being too far away. “That’s you too,” she states.
“Huh?” Hermione asks, looking up- before blinking, downing the rest of her butterbeer, and leaving the tankard on the table. “Right!” Both the Grangers and Professor McGonagall quickly duplicate the drink-and-dump move, moving to follow the team.
Bonbon chuckles. “Don’t worry, we’ll still be here when you get back.”
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I'm looking forward to seeing how Hogwarts handles the discovery that Luna is going to be only the second most powerful new student... at least for however long it takes for Discord to get bored and find something else to entertain him.
I am seeing potential for a comedy tag.
Interesting take on Lyra in this story. Usually, other fics have her as a dropout or washout from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. In this one she acts like a graduate.
9583061
Something like Discord turning the Wizengamot upside down by using a patsy to convict most of the pureblood faction like in MSD maybe?
9583061
Uh...
Luna's the most powerful.
Twilight's the second most.
Discord... Let's just say my headcannon puts Alicorn magic well beyond even him, even though they don't use it. Possibly because they're afraid of the damage even a tiny mistake can make with that much power... and Discord's not.
9583073
Yeah, I'm seeing potential for that too, but I'm not sold on that.
Yeah- that's my take on Lyra. I normally like portraying her as second-in-class behind only Twilight. As either a secret agent or an independent whatsits (see Secret Search for that), she's an Agent here.
... And my plans for Discord are a little smaller than that. The goal isn't to completely destroy Magical Britain, after all... But you can bet he'll do his level best to drive them crazy.
9583126
I can see Moondancer being a bit upset to find that she is only third or lower in the class behind Twilight and Lyra.
9583156
Yeah, me too, on second thought. That is a good point- maybe cause for friction... ("Hey, people-pony that doesn't seem to spend much time studying! How did you possibly get better grades than me, when I spent almost all my time studying? No, no, don't compare me to Twilight, I didn't lock myself up as much as she.")
9583126
Glad to hear you'll be keeping Discord under control, too many stories use him as a quick fix.
9583273
I agree.
One of the other things I've seen stories dissed on (pretty regularly, and I don't really like it either) is the everyone-becomes-everypony thing. So while you may have noticed I've already laid the groundwork for that to be eventually possible... I've also already hinted that it'll be hard, dangerous, time-consuming, or a combination of the above. Therefore giving me an excuse to let that happen on a limited scale- it seems an excellent complication to the world, to me, so long as it's not overused- without making it ubiquitous.
The other stories I've seen do the transform with rings made by a friendly Discord (Just ask Dissy for more rings, like Magic School Days) or by making a quick stop in Equestria by portal/pheonix (If Wishes Were Ponies and the lesser known A Phoenix Beyond the Veil - The Philosophers Stone respectively)... and in any of those, there's really no excuse to limit the pony-transforms. Or other superpowerings (See A Phoenix for details). But I've designed my methods to give me a perfectly good reason to limit them- I mean, none of those methods have these little things called "negative side effects"...
Sorry. Pet peeves of mine (Drat, he's throwing chairs at me again, despite being almost completely ignored in all the other HP fics). This story's likely to be faster paced, and possibly more comedic (though that's not my plan, even if I saw it coming far enough ahead to ask in the story description what could possibly go wrong), than the others- but it's also going to be more... scientific. Less utopian.
9583309
So I'm guessing that means the ponies will have their own issues and not just be blatantly better than the wizards in every way? I mean I like If Wishes Were Ponies but I can't stand the one-sided nature of that fic.
9583336
There will undoubtedly be some curbstomping either way (as in, some by ponies, some by wizards) but yes, the ponies will have their own issues... and any that I turn into ponies will have even bigger issues.
Between Twilight and Lyra (assuming she is an anthropologist, I think that's the word, this loop) there was no chance they wouldnt.
9629996
Well... Lyra's not human-obsessed (I don't like that version of her), and Twilight had no share in it... This was the Royal Equestrian Secret Service- the entire thing. And it's a fairly simplistic setup, to boot- one I described to a skeptic in a comment on the next chapter. So yeah, there was basically no way they wouldn't. Human government may take absolutely forever, Equestrian government may as well- but RESS? Nah, they get it done.
Technically, she is. You don't get much more minority than anywhere between 4 and 6 depending on how into canon this is compared to three other races numbering at minimum in the hundreds each.
9630071
Yep- that's the very thing Luna notes.
Yeah, that would set them off. Being parents and medical professionals Emma and Dan (or whatever you are calling them) the mere mention of child abuse sets off their seek and destroy instincts. For Twilight who grew up in a loving home the mere thought of it is nausea inducing. The Dursleys better hope guardian of foals Princess Luna never finds out what they did to Harry.
9583126
So, just a normal Thursday for Ponyville?
9630238
Definitely. McGonagall's too (seek & destroy instincts, that is), as an educator. I know here in the States educators are legally required to report suspicion of that kind of thing... Donno about magical Britain, but no doubt she feels strongly about it. Dumbledore's too smart to let anyone that wouldn't stay on as an instructor for very long.
In my headcannon, in semi-utopian (by comparison) Equestria, foal abuse generally doesn't exist... but it's one of the worst offenses one can commit. The Dursleys better hope no Equestrian ever finds out about what they did to Harry, not just Luna. Because no doubt they'll go up the ladder, and Celestia will find out... with Luna by her side. Add in the number of Agents poking their noses into everyone else's business at Hogwarts and someone is going to find out before long.
9630256
Uh... Yeah, something like that. Bit more of a dead faint for Hogwarts, though.
Oh, I see ONE thing that's going to be quite different, quite fast!
Twilight strikes me as more of an "Eep!" than a "GAAAH" in my opinion. That part felt forced somehow.
Nice to see that meeting Hermione was kicked off early, but I guess we haven't had much a chance for too many interesting things to happen yet.
Trots up? She is human not a pony
9689232
Yeah, and humans can trot...
It's a verb: (of a person) run at a moderate pace, typically with short steps.
Is this story discarding the idea that muggles tech is allergic to magic? Not that it's a huge deal, but one would think someone would question that.
So...did Lyra seriously just deck Twilight for walking in front of Luna? And no one says anything?
9701390
I am largely discarding the idea that tech is allergic to magic, yes, as a misperception by the wizards. Early tech was fairly basic and almost never self-contained- and even in the books, some electric (like Justin's camera's flash) or electronic (like the Weasley's car, or their radio) equipment works at Hogwarts or around magic. So here, wards create electromagnetic interference fit to destroy any data signal... and an unwarded zone like Diagon Alley leaves probably some interference from magical release, but it's not so much that modern connection technologies can't cut right through it.
And yes, Lyra did deck Twilight. Probably more to get her attention off the technology (the "can I study that?" stuff) and onto the rest of her surroundings than for walking in front of Luna, though.
Bonbon: And you don't hear it from me, but she is most likely the oldest po-person in your school. Unless you have a dragon on your staffs.
Hermione: Really?
Professor McGonagall: I find it highly unlikely.
Luna: Thank you for your compliment.
Bonbon: Eeep!
It's just as much a 'beer' as ginger beer and root beer are; that is to say, not at all.
...Harry. Riddle. Maybe Sirius too.
I see a lot of potential here that was simply unused. Expansion charms are virtually non-existent in Equestria, but in HP world it's used everywhere. Instead here it's dismissed as passing curiosity. There are a lot of things to research and experiment... but here she just knows stuff after only a look. Teleporting vs Apparition could've been explored more, like apparition potentially ignoring anti-teleport enchantments, or that apparition is riskier, but easier to learn and have wider range (very skilled wizards can do inter-continental apparition, while regular wizards easily appariting 400km), instead of "apparition is a lame version of teleportation, nothing to discuss here".
And her attitude towards show's protagonists is a bit too much patronizing.