Chapter 71
Silver walks steadily back up to the infirmary with Harry, Hermione, and Ginny, some two hours after Hidden Light had apparently woken up. All three of the others are carrying their radios now; Lyra had confirmed that, while she had set something up to get phones to work through the Gate, the radios won’t- so when every Equestrian Agent headed back to Equestria for the winter holidays, they hadn’t seen a reason to keep wearing them.
For Silver, she didn’t see a reason to shift into form as Draco to take the thing off- so she’d still heard it, in that really weird way she can hear the radio when in a form other than the one wearing it, when Hidden Light went live.
As per the senior Agent’s instructions, she’d gone with the other three- after reuniting with Ginny as well- to the library, to look for basilisks. Thanks to Hermione’s talent, she’d known exactly where to look- and what they’d found had been… Well, worrying, at best.
They pause, as a group, in front of the infirmary door, and knock lightly.
“Who is it?” Madam Pomfrey asks, cracking the door open- before opening it the rest of the way. “Ahh, you’re here. She’s over here.” She gestures disapprovingly at the only bed with something moving in it, before bustling back over. “I still think you should be taking it easy,” she informs the girl.
Hidden Light shrugs. “I wish I could,” she states. “But when the safety of the entire student population is at stake… I mean, that’s what we’re here for, isn’t it?” She looks expectantly at Hermione, before glancing across the other three. Silver is in form as Draco right now; they haven’t decided to reveal her human Silversong form to the Agency just yet. “... I see I’m a little behind the times.”
Hermione grins sheepishly. “Uh… Yeah. You probably know about…” She looks at Ginny. “You know, we really should ask about that sometime.”
Hidden Light, whose nametag reads Glowing Blue, raises an eyebrow. “Codename not fit or something?”
Ginny nods. “Yeah. They made it ‘Math Head’ before they knew what my talent actually is. Er… before we knew what it actually is, because we haven’t told them yet.”
Glowing shrugs. “Eh. Anyways, I didn’t know you two were Agents.” She glances at Harry and Draco, before focusing on the former. “I mean… since Lyra mentioned you have one of those love thingies Lyra does, I kinda saw that coming. But Draco…?”
“Ahh… That would have been before…” Hermione holds up a couple newspapers. “You’ll probably want to read these, to catch up to the times.”
Glowing accepts them, glancing at the first page. “Celebrity nearly kills foreign envoy after unprecedented Quidditch match, huh?” She looks up at the two boys. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, what are your talents?”
Draco glances at Madam Pomfrey, and shrugs. “Oh, I’m only automatically good at anything I try.”
Glowing rubs her chin. “Oooh, I can see how that would be really useful. And hard to realize, too.” She looks at Harry. “How about you?”
Harry grins. “Me? Oh, I’m indestructible.”
Hermione chuckles. “He also bounced Incendio with a hardened air barrier. We know he’s indestructible, but I think it’s more generalized to an impervious defense.”
Glowing lets out a low whistle. “Impressive.”
Madam Pomfrey sighs suddenly. “Will you rest now?” she asks Glowing.
“Ahh…” Hermione rubs the side of her head. “That… Um, might be a little… challenging.”
Glowing answers before Madam Pomfrey can speak. “How so? I mean, unless you need my light for something, Bonbon ought to be able to find someone better suited to just about any task I can think of.”
“Your light?” Pomfrey asks.
“That’s the thing,” Ginny mutters. “Everyone else went home for the winter holidays. Which leaves you the seniormost Agent on this side of the Gate.”
Glowing facepalms, flopping backwards onto her pillows. “Oh Celestia.”
Pomfrey blinks. “What?”
“Which means,” Draco informs her, “she’s inherited mission leader duty- and responsibility- until someone senior to her- or the designated leader, Bonbon- returns to this side of the Gate.”
Madam Pomfrey raises an eyebrow. “Before she woke?”
“Well, before she woke, that was Hermione. But Glowing is senior to her, so…”
Glowing sits back up again. “I’ve never lead a mission before, though.”
Hermione shrugs. “Me neither. Bonbon told me not to worry about it, said it’d be like ‘free time’.”
“You mean, she suspended the mission?”
She shakes her head. “No. She was confident nothing would happen while she was gone, so she told me to treat it like free time.”
Glowing lets out a sigh, and flops back down again. “In other words, she left orders to be passive. Which means, unless something happens, ‘seniormost Agent’ means nothing, and I can get that rest.” She tilts her head to look at Madam Pomfrey. “On the other hand, we can’t be putting me under with any sleep potions, because if something does happen, I need to be on-scene as quickly as possible.” She glares at the ceiling. “Gotta love rules.”
Madam Pomfrey nods soberly.
“So, ah… You asked me to research basilisks?”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess,” Glowing mutters, staying horizontal. “I thought Bonbon would take it from there, but… Whatever. What did you find?”
“King of Snakes,” Hermione begins. “Venomous, deadly gaze, apparently petrifies when seen in a reflection. Hatched from a chicken’s egg under a toad. Mortal enemy of spiders; flees from crowing of a rooster, which is fatal to it.”
“Any new messages on that wall?”
She shakes her head. Then opens her mouth to speak; Glowing won’t have seen that.
Glowing beats her to it. “Then it clearly won’t come unless it’s called, and we can safely say it won’t be called until after Bonbon gets back, and we don’t need to worry about it right now. Sound about right?”
“Unless it’s called…?” Draco asks. “How…?”
“Because if it was going to come on its own, it would have come on its own sometime during the last thousand years. It obviously has to be called out, probably by someone that speaks parseltongue.” She scowls. “Hmm… As I recall, Myrtle Warren was killed last time it was opened- and her bathroom is very close to where those words are. Try asking her what happened, might be a clue. If you do find the Chamber, do not enter.”
“Roger,” Hermione nods.
Glowing waves a hand vaguely at them, without looking. “But do that on your own schedule, no rush. Um, dismissed? I think that’s how I do it.” She seems to shrug. “Whatever, too tired to care. Um, thanks for the papers, too. I’ll have to read them later.” She turns to smile at Madam Pomfrey. “After a good long rest.”
Harry, Hermione, Silver, and Ginny retreat quietly, departing from the Hospital Wing without a fuss. As a matter of fact, they go so peacefully that Madam Pomfrey sees no need to herd them along.
“So then,” Madam Pomfrey begins.
“By the way,” Glowing informs her. “I’m thinking on using a hairpin-trigger sleeping spell on myself. Much disturbance at all and it’ll wake me up, but without disturbance I can sleep for up to sixteen hours at a time. That going to be okay?”
She blinks. “Ahh… Sure. Just let me check a few things first.” She starts brandishing her wand at the girl.
Morning Sun washes her hands. She’d just finished dumping more love- more than she normally does, as a matter of fact- but her reserves are already filling with a somewhat alarming speed, even though she’s not feeling near that much ambient in the area. “Am… Am I making it myself?” she asks the mirror. “And…” She scowls at her hand. “Only making as much as I need? Or spilling the excess, like everyone else does?”
She scowls, then transforms into Ginny Weasley with a flash of green flames. “What did you do to me, then? Is it permanent? Will it hurt? Did it build on anything someone else did, or was all that cancelled out? Did it shrink my reserves? What did it do to my senses?” She sighs, leaning against the counter. “What in the world is a ‘Whiskey Tango’?” She gazes at herself in the mirror… Then puts a hand to her forehead. “Oh, and apparently I’m seeing double, too. Must be the alcohol or something.” She looks almost plaintively at her second reflection. “What would an alcohol dance have to do with waking-!” She freezes suddenly, eyes going wide.
She’s not seeing double.
She whirls around, putting her hands on the edge of the countertop, her breath catching.
“Who are you?” Ginny asks.
She doesn’t move. Or speak, at all. When did the girl get here? Had she forgotten to lock the door? How long does she have to escape, or has that option already eluded her? What is a Changeling supposed to do when they’re caught by the very person that they’re disguised as?
She only knows one thing for certain.
She’s been caught.
Ginny tilts her head slightly. “Uh, hello?”
She still doesn’t move. She’s still trying to figure out what in Hogwarts she’s supposed to do.
Ginny then scowls, before walking closer. “Oh Hello, Ginny two point oh, anybody home?”
She flinches back from the girl’s approach, but still can’t decide what to do. She’s pretty sure she shouldn’t try shifting in front of her- that’d only tell the girl exactly who she is.
Ginny stops right in front of her, and waves a hand in front of her face. “Hellooo?”
She blinks a couple times. Freezing probably isn’t what she’s supposed to do- but she was never trained as an infiltrator, only as a soldier! She was in one of the later waves of new nymphs her Queen and broodmothers spawned explicitly to outnumber the ponies in the invasion! She even spent the entire battle disguised as a male Changeling!
Ginny raises an eyebrow. “Uhh… And you do know the Whiskey Tango has nothing to do with alcohol, right? Or dancing?”
“Uh-!” she begins, but doesn’t finish, averting her gaze briefly. How much did the girl hear? Everything about the alcohol, certainly- but what about before that?
Ginny lets out a sigh and sidesteps to lean against the counter next to her. “You know you’re not in trouble, right?”
She turns to stare at her. “But-! But-!”
Ginny shakes her head, even going so far as to wrap an arm around her back. “I mean, why would you be?”
Her jaw articulates wordlessly up and down. “But-! But I- I look like you!”
Ginny shrugs. “So? You look like me in a locked bathroom, with nobody else in it.” She looks at her. “And I bet you planned on looking like yourself again before you left, right?”
She looks between Ginny and the door. “Locked-? But-!”
Ginny shrugs. “I mean, the spell was a little flimsy, but…”
She stares at Ginny. “What…?”
“Hey, I had to wonder what was up when the door resisted a bit more than normal. Then Ariel realized it was an underpowered locking charm I’d ripped in two.” She smiles at her. “I guess you were a bit distracted?”
“Ahh…”
Ginny shrugs again. “In any case, it’s a rather impressive disguise ability. I don’t think even Two Face can do it nearly as thoroughly as you.” She taps her chin, looking contemplatively at the ceiling.
“But… How is…?” She stares at Ginny, torn between fear and confusion.
“How is looking like me not a problem?” Ginny asks.
She nods faintly.
Ginny shrugs. “Because who cares what you look like? It’s pretending to be me that might be an issue. And I don’t see you doing that in a locked bathroom.” She glances at the door. “Though, ah, you might want to be a little more careful with the locking charm. Maybe pair it with an alert spell or something, so you know when someone’s going to be barging in on you.”
“But… But I’m a…” She trails off, choking on her own words. Infiltrator rule number one, she knows, is to never tell anyone what you are.
“Equestrian, right?” Ginny supplies for her.
“Ahh… I- I guess.” She scowls at the door.
Ginny shrugs. “So you’re an Equestrian, so what? They’ve got some twenty-six thousand Equestrians at Hogwarts this year.” She grins suddenly. “Oh, and what do you say to a little pranking with that ability of yours?”
She looks alarmedly at the girl. “What-?”
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Well now, that's certainly an interesting way to build up some confidence in our little bug here. Very interested in finding out where you're going with how the WT interacted with her Changeling nature.
Poor Glowing, stuck in charge because of unexpected events and the regs, gotta love it.
Im wondering what might happen if condensed Changeling love magic was actually poured into spells or even Hogwarts Wards? Would that give a magical feedback loop with much lower losses and so stronger static fields?
Theres still a conflict in thought between pushing information Through a wormhole, and using the wormhole itself as the information passing medium, as in give it a small permanent excess charge, then vibrate the event horizon at one end and measure it at the other? But thats for advanced nerd stories?
so, Glowing said something about a "love thingy" that Lyra can do. Was she referring to seeing a person's magical matrix or the love bond you mentioned during the summer holiday chapter?
Poor poor changling is going to be hurking up more love when these pranks are over lol
Ginny: I always want to try pranking Ron.
9983793
Actually, she's not referring to either of the above, but the "love envelope" that makes it easy for Lyra- and Harry, since he has one too- to read the magic aura. It was mentioned directly in one of the early chapters, back when she first met Harry- and has since been referred to mostly as Lyra's "unique advantage".
That's actually a great example of one of the continuity nods my stories tend to be riddled with... reaching all the way back to the beginning of the story, so most people get confuzzled by it. Like how nobody seemed to notice when I implied that Celestia has one too a few chapters back... after I had to explain it explicitly to my editors, I think I understand why nobody noticed. It's just so long ago it slips their minds... Not mine, because of course the entire world sits in my head in its free time.
9983872
the world of my fanfictions does the same, so I see your point. Sometimes I right something, look at it from a readers perspective, and have to re-write it so the reader will understand. Unless you live inside my head like Ariel, you won't know what the heck I'm talking about. Sorry it took so long for me to reply.
9983981
No problem. It's the slowest time of day anyways. (Well, in terms of readers/writers being online)
9983872
As long as your little continuity nods that only become meaningful later don't harm the first read-through, they're a good thing, because they allow readers to gain value in re-reads. Ideally, you focus on doing it for the stuff that'll be a significant twist so that readers who take a while to re-read can still benefit despite their memory having faded.
Either Morning Sun has become a junior queen, I would love to see a Hogwarts hive living happly alongside the house elves, or she has evolved into the King Thorax type of changing...
personally I happen to like the black shelled love-bugs, they are just begging to be cuddled (hee hee).
9984143
I like your speculation
... Unfortunately, though, it's neither of the above.
9984192
"I Don't Care!" Grabs one of the spare Changelings from the author's creative holding pin and runs off... "I've got my own Love-Bug, I've got my own Love-Bug. Bwah-ha-ha-ha!"
9984622
... By that I meant no, she hasn't become a royal... and no, she hasn't done whatever it was that Thorax called "reformation".
Yeah, I like the 'Lings too. The black ones, and the challenges they face. So that's what she is... I mean, she's being changed in a few funny ways, but she's still a Changeling, and doesn't realize that she's any different. Yet...
Most excellent.
Also, sorry about your job.
Discord: "Ooh, my fun senses are tingling."
Mr. Black: "Oi, sit back down. We are still in the middle of round 23 of 2007."