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Rita Skeeter’s article appeared the next day. While it purported to be about the Triwizard Tournament, it turned out to be a highly-coloured fabrication about Harry’s life, starting with the headline, “What Happened to Harry Potter?” The almost-full-page moving image of Harry’s face made him cringe. The article, continued on pages two, six, and seven, and was accompanied by more pictures of Harry, some closely focused on his hooves, ears, and horn. And constantly repeated that he was now a unicorn horse.
The only saving grace, as far as he was concerned, was that he always appeared calm and collected, sometimes smiling and turning his head slightly. Occasionally, ears flicking and turning, he frowned slightly and looked at someone off-picture. And that whatever magical potions or spells the paper used in their photography duplication seemed to recognize and make allowances for his don’t-notice-me spell on his helmet. Oddly enough, unlike the real-life spell, the one in the paper refused even to let him see his helmet unless he concentrated real hard on not being distracted to other things in the newspaper.
The names of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions, misspelled of course, had been squashed into the last line of the article, and Cedric hadn’t been mentioned at all.
Whatever publicity the Ministry had been hoping the Tournament coverage to generate for them was completely lost in the speculation of how and when Harry had been changed into a unicorn. And what had been happening to him since Halloween, 1981.
That a Gringotts heredity parchment had named him, despite his appearance, as the real Harry Potter could not be questioned. That it also declared him the adopted son, Prince Harry James Potter Sparkle, of an unknown Princess Twilight Sparkle was scandalous in the extreme! Loud were the in-article questions and denunciations as to how the Ministry could have allowed this travesty to happen to their hero and saviour — turned from a wizard into an animal!
Well, at least they weren’t calling him a monster and demanding he be incarcerated somewhere.
In addition, Rita seemed outraged that Harry was not representing Hogwarts in the tournament, that he was, instead, the Champion for the, again, unknown, Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.
After breakfast, Harry spent an hour composing a rebuttal, not that he really thought the paper would print it. But, it was worth a try. After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Harry studied the finished letter carefully. It had taken several drafts, but he was pleased with the final edition. It was clean, the lettering was precise and legible, and there were no blemishes.
After using a duplication spell, he placed the original in his new trunk. He had managed to trade the other one in and purchased this one for only a few galleons more. That his original had been so recently purchased had also helped keep the new one reasonable in price. It featured an entire compartment for books and other storage, in addition to the two compartments his previous trunk had had.
He started off towards the owlery.
He hadn’t gone any farther than the Common Room when Luna jumped up from a chair and waved him over.
“Hello, Harry,” she said cordially. “I don’t know if you have heard, but my father publishes The Quibbler. I would like to interview you for a story in it about the Quadwizard Tournament. Would you be interested?”
He studied her for a moment, then duplicated his letter one more time. He hoofed the letter to her and said, “This should get you started. And Colin took a large number of pictures at the Wand Weighing yesterday. You might want to ask him for publishing copies in exchange for a by-line and paying him for the film he used. I’m sure that Headmaster Dumbledore, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime would be happy to give you details about the Tournament, as well.”
Her eyes lit up as she reverently took the parchment.
“As long as you don’t reveal anything I ask you to keep secret, I don’t see why we couldn’t have other interviews, later, too,” he said. He smiled at her. “Better get started on this one, first, though,” he said over his shoulder as he started to leave for the owlery, again.
She nodded, but was already engrossed in reading his statement.
۸-_-۸
Below his carefully drawn stylized-graphic of Equestria’s Ying/Yang Two-Sisters flag, it said:
To Editors of the Daily Prophet,
The scope of the errors in your article on Saturday about myself, Prince Harry James Potter Sparkle, are breath-taking to behold. So, let me provide you with a few facts.
First: I am a unicorn PONY, now, not a horse. There is a difference.
Second: according to a Gringotts heredity parchment, I am the legitimate son of Head of House James Potter and his wife Lily Potter (née Evans). It also confirmed that I am the legally adopted son of Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Third: I have lived the last five years in a place called Equestria. Equestria is in a different world/universe. How I got there when I was nine, no one knows. My adoptive mum went to great lengths, and expended considerable resources, in researching that and has never uncovered either how or why it happened. It just did.
Fourth: An unknown person, or persons, entered my name into the Goblet of Fire as an entrant into the Triwizard Tournament. They confunded the Goblet into choosing candidates from four schools instead of three. Their apparent reasoning was that by making me the only entrant from a fake school, I would have to be chosen as the champion for that fake school.
They obviously thought that when I did not show up for the First Task, that the Goblet’s magical contract would penalize me by removing my magic, and, thus, kill me. (I know from experience that it wouldn’t have, but that’s another story.) Or, they thought that the publicity generated by my being selected would force me to come out of hiding, and become vulnerable to their schemes.
Why would someone do this? Headmaster Dumbledore has concluded, and the other judges concur, that this unknown person, or persons, are probably followers of the dark wizard called Voldemort. He suggested that they did this in an attempt to get revenge for the “death” of their leader because they had no other way in which to reach me.
Instead of merely selecting me, the Goblet brought me here to Hogwarts to compete. Not exactly coming out of hiding, but still making me visible and vulnerable to them.
As a result, the Headmaster, and the other judges in the tournament concur, has concluded that there is a significant risk that I am still in danger of direct, or indirect, actions on the part of Voldemort’s followers to finish what they started.
Fifth: Some have suggested that I should be considered a Hogwarts Champion. Considering that the Goblet of Fire chose me to represent a fourth school, for any official, either in the Ministry or Hogwarts, to ignore that decision and place me under the Hogwarts banner is to be at risk of retaliation by the Goblet for ignoring its decision. Considering that the Goblet of Fire had the magical power to reach across to another universe to bring me to Hogwarts, the extent to which the Goblet of Fire might retaliate against someone who dared ignore it is not something most wizards would wish to contemplate, much less actually experience.
Sixth: Regardless of the name of the unknown fake school used in the Goblet to select me, I am a proud student of Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, and will compete as such. However, I have no intention of trying to win. I am at a severe disadvantage in magical knowledge and training compared to the other Champions, being three years behind them in age and schooling. I also know almost nothing about the magic practiced here as compared to Equestria. In view of that, I will participate only enough to satisfy the minimum requirements of the Goblet’s magical contract.
Seventh: Speculation as to my life after my parents’ died on October 31st, 1981, Halloween, and last Halloween when I was brought here by the Goblet, is just that, speculation. Only I and my relatives know what happened during the intervening years. Anyone who claims specific knowledge about any events in that period, except, perhaps, Headmaster Dumbledore, is probably lying.
And finally: There are many who regard me as a hero and saviour for “killing” Voldemort. The possibility of this being true is vanishingly small. It is far more likely that my parents, a full-grown wizard and witch, in desperation and with time to prepare, created a magic trap that caught the dark wizard. Only a simpleton would believe that a toddler of fifteen months, with no understanding of either magic or the events around him, could somehow beat a dark wizard with over fifty years’ experience in wielding powerful magic. Especially if his parents had already failed to overcome that same wizard.
In closing, I sincerely thank you for this opportunity to set the record straight.
Prince Harry James Potter Sparkle
۸- ̬ -۸
The weekend seemed to fly by. Jonathan and Liza, his Gryffindor tutors, didn’t seem to mind in the least devoting many hours on both days, each, to helping him practice. He had thought them generous during the week, helping him in the evenings, but this was over the top. As Jonathan grinningly said, “That Hayscartes’ spell you showed us has made revising really easy, and that has freed up more than enough time for us to help you.” He had looked at Harry slyly. “Besides, who knows what other spells you might be able to show us . . . .” And while both tutors knew the spells taught in Hogwarts quite well, their differences in approach made it interesting.
Surprisingly, Ginny, Luna, and Hermione had all volunteered to help, as well. That had helped him advance during the day, somewhat sporadically, as they could correct and help him when they had free periods. And in the evenings, Jonathan and Liza took turns as breaks in their own studies.
“Aren’t you worried that you’ll be ostracized for working against Cedric Diggory?” Harry asked the three lower year Gryffindors. “Jonathan and Liza can say they are helping because the Headmaster asked them. You three can’t.”
“It’s only fair,” Hermione explained with a huff. “How anyone could claim we’re against Cedric just because we’re helping you learn the basics of our magic is ludicrous! It would be like taking away Cedric’s wand and sending him into the tournament without it. He’d be completely helpless with the magic he knew being almost useless! And, unlike Cedric, you didn’t ask to do this.” Her eyes had narrowed and she stared off at one of the walls in their practice room. “It’s not as if they’ve been all that friendly to me anyway,” she muttered darkly.
It was only because of his exceptional pony hearing that he had heard her murmur “She’s a nightmare. Bossy know-it-all. Indeed.” She had a flinty look in her eyes.
Ah, yeah, a little bitter anger there, he could tell.
Ginny looked at her friend worriedly. Luna walked over to where Hermione had been blindly staring and had studied the wall carefully. Harry had wondered, abstractly, if she could see anything different, there.
Then she had turned back to him. “And it’s a wonderful opportunity to revise and make sure we remember all the material!” She had grinned. “And I’m sure Jonathan and Liza will have insights based on what they’ve learned since they were in those classes.” Plus, being able to switch off working with Harry meant they had plenty of time to do their own assignments and practicing.
In view of the upcoming tournament task, they had agreed that that they should concentrate only on how to cast the spells, and vary their potency. Theory and understanding could come later.
He wouldn’t be able to keep them all sorted, but he would at least have the basics under control and not unintentionally over- or under-power a spell.
Thus, with their constant tutoring, and taking breaks only for meals, he had managed to make it through the second year texts for charms, transfigurations, and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Naturally, sometimes a Charms spell would lead to a DADA spell or transfigurations. Sometimes the opposite occurred. There was a reason, after all, that the classes taught things in the order that they did.
He was so tired at the end of each day he could hardly put one hoof in front of the other as he went upstairs after practicing in the evenings. He was usually out cold by the time the others made their way out of the Common Room.
Before he knew it, it was after breakfast on Monday and everyone else was leaving for classes, while he had free time until lunch and Arithmancy.
Now that he wasn’t nearly comatose from exhaustion or concentrating on the spells, he had time to reflect about the weekend. He really had made a lot of progress. While he didn’t remember everything perfectly, he had a good handle on what he thought were the most important spells. He could save revising the lesser spells for later.
To celebrate his progress over the weekend, he decided, he would thank his tutors for all their time with a spell they didn’t know. And after seeing how often they had had to use the reparo and finite charms after each tutoring session, he knew the perfect one to teach them. The Fail-Safe spell for returning things back to normal, a combination of the finite and the reparo — an especially useful spell, he had learned, for whenever Discord happened to be around.
He spent the hours before lunch working on the third-year spells in DADA. Unlike the previous teachers of the class, Professor Lupin actually seemed to have been competent. Or, at least, so it appeared, based on Hermione’s rather detailed notes. He had been quite relieved that the Third Year DADA text had been focused almost exclusively on the different dangerous creatures in this world, and what would or wouldn’t work in dealing with them! As a result, there were only maybe a dozen spells for all that year. Meaning, that he could practice the spells he had learned in the morning that evening with the others since they had been in classes. And that meant he could start on Fourth Year spells. Given how close to the start of the school year it was, there weren’t that many spells to cover. He would be caught up with Hermione in class later in the week!
Thus, he spent the morning practicing the third year spells, finishing just before lunch and giving himself time for a quick scan through the fourth year DADA.
Hermione’s notes, when he read them early last week, had been quite startling. He never would have expected Professor Moody to introduce the three so-called Unforgiveable Curses on the very first day of class. Especially as they weren’t mentioned except as side-notes in the textbook.
Hidden in her notes was the implication that they were all three extremely sensitive to how much magical power you put into them. The professor’s comment, that Avada Kedavra was a curse that needed powerful magic behind it had been enlightening. That the entire class could cast it at him and he thought he wouldn’t get even a nosebleed had been more so. If your power was below a certain level, it would fail, but when you crossed that line, whatever it was, it was instantly fatal to the target.
Did that mean even an average wizard could kill a vastly more powerful wizard, regardless of their power differences? And that it could go through a shield no matter how powerful the one casting it?
No wonder it was considered an unforgiveable — the powerful wizards were terrified that even an average wizard could best them in a duel if they didn’t dodge fast enough! It made a colt or filly as dangerous as a fully trained and powerful Guard unicorn.
Neither her notes nor the textbooks said it, but based on their descriptions and what little was discussed on the mathematics of casting, each of the three’s casting power was almost on an exponential scale. Small amounts of results, despite massively increasing the power, until suddenly results shot almost straight up.
The imperius was by far the least harmful in intent, but most dreadful in its insidious implications. Like the Mad King Sombra and his helmets, you could not countermand your orders — only weep later at what you had done. On the other hoof, it had a plateau. You could train yourself to overcome, or even totally resist, that spell. All it took was determination and practice. And his mum would tell you, he had determination in spades.
He would learn that defence!
Fortunately, as he had read from her notes, he could ask Professor Moody for help achieving that.
Next was the cruciatus, the pain curse. Thank Celestia, no one in Equestria had created a spell like it! It could not be overcome, was the general consensus, if cast by someone of the required skill. It operated by causing every nerve in the body to signal injury, overwhelming the victim’s brain with paralyzing levels of phantom pain. Long enough exposure could cause permanent neurological damage, and even kill the victim.
Except, Harry knew, you can turn off the pain receptors in the brain with a simple spell.* The doctors in Equestria used it when they had to operate on a pony. The Guards were taught it as well, for it was better to fight on when grievously wounded then let the pain of your injuries impair your abilities and cause your or your companions’ deaths.
Did the wizards not know this? Didn’t they have an equivalent spell? If he could remember it, and translate it to the proper runes, he could permanently ink it somewhere on his body with a trigger rune-set for that spell. If someone were to cast the cruciatus, the runes would activate when it hit him, and it would look as if they had miscast spell when he didn’t react at all. And because you actively had to power the spell, the moment their attention broke, the spell stopped. Then the runes could slowly subside, and no one would be the wiser.
That was a remote possibility, though. He had only seen the spell once, in one of the books his mum had left out while researching something. He doubted he’d be able to remember it in full. But he’d still try, though. He might get lucky.
The last curse, avada kedavra, was like the other two, harmless, and then, POW! Unlike the pain curse, however, once you got to the right level, you could take out opponents who were much more powerful than yourself.
The imperius and cruciatus were power-level dependent. That is, if the person you were casting against was substantially stronger than you, neither would work!
But not the Killing Curse. Once you reached that power level, it was just as deadly to a person as it was to a mouse.
Fortunately, both the pain and killing curse required that you actively hate the target. Dislike wouldn’t do it. He sorta doubted there were many ponies in Equestria who could muster the sort of feeling those two required.
The other common feature of the three was that they merely had to touch you. Anywhere. A finger, an ear, anything that was a part of your body. Your clothing or armour would do nothing to protect you from them.
Of the three, only the imperius and cruciatus could be blocked by an adequate shield. The avada kedavra simply powered its way through magical shields, no matter how powerful. The same was true for physical shields, too, unless the item doing the shielding was extraordinarily strong.
The best strategy was simply to not be there when that spell arrived after being cast. The next best solution was to put something solid, like a steel plate, thick brick, marble, of even one of your enemies’ bodies between you and it. Oddly enough, for all three, if they missed their target there was an explosion! But if they hit a soft-body, the curse operated without creating any damage. Which was really weird.
Harry had the odd thought, after reading Hermione’s notes, that if the killing curse killed the spider, would summoning spiders from the area around you also work as protection and without property damage? Spiders, he knew, were almost everywhere.
Well, no matter. There was no way for him to practice those curses, not that he intended to.
After lunch and Arithmancy, Hermione helped him practice the spells he had tried that morning. Ginny and Luna showed up as well. Their DADA class had just let out, and they were more than happy to help out with the spells with him and Hermione. Nothing like getting a head start on the competition!
That took until dinner. Then Jonathan and Liza took over. It only took an hour to cover the third year spells, and then they started on the fourth year spells.
On Tuesday, he started third year charms, and Wednesday was Transfigurations. He planned to alternate those two until he was caught up on them, as well. Which he could easily do on this weekend without working himself into exhaustion, again.
Wednesday, at breakfast, the owl parliament arrived and an owl dropped a box to Luna. She squealed happily, dropped it on the floor behind Harry, and tapped it with her wand. It immediately grew to a much larger size. Harry saw, when she opened it, that it was packed with issues of TheQuibbler with a giant headline across two lines, “Triwizard Tournament becomes Quadwizard!” Underneath it were two smaller headlines, “Harry Potter Returns” and “Goblet of Fire Champions!” She gleefully handed one to him.
Unlike the Daily Prophet, The Quibbler’s approach was much more like a newspaper from Equestria, Harry was relieved to see. Under the Champions’ article headline was a line of photographs featuring the champions, with nice write-ups of each photograph. While Harry did get much more print than the others because of the article about how he had abruptly appeared in the Great Hall and what had happened after that, it was far more focused on the Tournament than the Daily Prophet. Actually, that wasn’t been that high a bar to overcome.
There were also at least a score of casual photographs of the four champions in various settings as the two articles continued on other pages, and articles on each school appeared. There was even one article about Krum’s Quidditch career. The conveyances used by the other two schools were also covered. And numerous quotes from students in all three schools, as well as the schools’ heads, were scattered throughout.
Easily, half of the entire newspaper was about the events at Hogwarts. And while the newspaper wasn’t as thick as the Daily Prophet, it still had far more facts and only a tiny bit of speculation. And the speculation articles were easy to spot.
Colin’s byline was on every photograph, and he beamed like a new proud and giddy parent as he perused his copy and showed it to his friends. Colin, it seemed, had a few business smarts of his own, as except for the pictures from the wand weighing ceremony, all the other champions’ photographs included several other students as well, with none repeated.
Interestingly, Luna Lovegood had the byline as the reporter on several of the articles.
Students quickly lined up to buy their own copies, especially as word spread about those students who appeared in any of the photos with the champions! It didn’t take Luna long to sell out, and she excitedly told the disappointed latecomers that she would have more that evening. All she had to do was make a floo call!
Oddly enough, while the taciturn Krum was usually seated at the Slytherin table, Colin had captured very few Slytherin students in the photographs with him. And none included Draco Malfoy or any of his friends. From the photographs, one might think that there were only three Houses at Hogwarts, and not four.
The Slytherin habit of maligning and avoiding association with muggle-borns had definitely not worked in their favour this time.
Harry had to laugh. Blueblood had him told it never hurts to be courteous to your enemies. Open hostility rarely played well in the press. And there were far more opportunities to turn things to your advantage with courtesy than rudeness. And here was a clear example. Just from looking casually through The Quibbler, the lack of Slytherin photos and quotes made it seem as if the Slytherins were churlishly shunning the world-famous Quidditch star. And anything else to do with the Tournament.
All because they continuously picked on Colin, the muggle-born photographer, and the unusual “loony” Luna.
Even as Luna sold out her father’s newspaper — she had suddenly become extremely business-like and no-nonsense — Harry noticed that two owls delivered a newspaper, each, to Headmistress Maxime and High Master Karkaroff. And that whatever the source, probably important newspapers from their own countries, both appeared quite pleased at the articles they were reading over their breakfasts.
He had to wonder, though, just when the third-year had managed to do all that writing? Or had her father done the writing from her notes? Still, that was an awful lot of writing to do in such a short time, especially as she had spent most of the weekend with him, practicing spells.
Friday, Hermione told him that Saturday was a Hogsmeade day, when third year and above students could visit the village. “Come on, Harry,” she said as they entered the Common Room after finishing the practices for the night. “It will do you good to get away from the castle for a bit.”
Both Ginny and Luna, who were behind them, readily agreed.
Considering that the first task was only four days away, he knew that he should probably take a break. Spike had told him all about Twilight’s frantic all-night studying before a test, and then taking the test bleary-eyed and exhausted. “If you’ve been studying all along, all you’ll need are refreshers the day before and you should be just fine,” he had told Harry. Which had worked for him very well at Celestia’s School in Canterlot. He had seen other ponies embark on binge-studying without a break, and not get as much of a boost out of it as they had hoped.
He would use Sunday to complete the studying for third year Charms and Transfigurations. And relax and look around Hogsmeade on Saturday and the castle on Monday.
It was a nice leisurely walk down the road to Hogsmeade, although at one point Harry had heard noises in the forest to the side of the castle.
Seeing where he was looking, Herione said, “Oh, the Ministry is building something for the first task over there.”
He nodded and turned back to the road.
“It’s the only all-wizarding village in Britain. Hogwarts: A History says that it was founded by the wizard Hengist of Woodcroft as he was fleeing persecution by Muggles. Students have been allowed to go there almost since it was established, but in 1714 they decided only third-years and above would be allowed. It’s got all sorts of shops in it, you know. My favourite is Tomes and Scrolls, the local bookshop, of course. Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop has all types of quills and parchment should you run out. There’s Dogweed and Deathcap, an herbology shop if your kit’s running low. There’s Ceridwen’s Cauldrons, which sells cauldrons if you ever melt yours like Neville sometimes does, he gives them quite a bit of business, I hear. The Three Broomsticks Inn is wonderful for a meal or if you’re thirsty. And a lot of the witches like Gladrags Wizardwear, a clothing shop. They sell socks that scream when they get too smelly.”
Harry listened as she prattled on about what he would find once they arrived. Ginny, behind them, was hiding giggles behind her hands. Luna was just walking dreamily along beside her.
“Oh,” she pointed at a building set some distance from the village, and almost as far from the road they were following as the village, at the moment. “That’s the Shrieking Shack! It’s supposed to be the most haunted place in England.”
He looked at her, puzzled.
“Yeah,” she said, “I know, there are more ghosts at Hogwarts. But it’s said that there used to be the most horrible and terrifying noises coming from that shack. Sounds that could be easily heard in town. Someone told me it was haunted by a werewolf ghost who’s is looking for another victim to claim. Or else hunting for the one who bit him.”
Harry slowly nodded and made a mental note never to go there. And never tell the fillies about it either. They’d start making plans for a visit almost immediately. “Cutie Mark Crusaders Ghost Busters! YAY!” Never mind that they all had cutie marks already.
Soon enough he was gorging himself on large cream-filled chocolates as they exited Honeydukes. He had a big bag of other candies shrunken in his pocket.
He looked down the street to see Rita Skeeter and her photographer friend leave the Three Broomsticks pub. For a moment, he considered avoiding them by dodging back into the shop behind them, but then decided not to do that.
They almost didn’t notice him.
۸-_-۸
Great chapter.
Though a question as sparked into my mind.
Will Harry’s godfather Black appear in the story at some point?
I think Harry's likely intelligent enough (and most importantly non-wizard enough) to realize the description on Avada is so full of holes that there's no way wizards ever properly experimented with it. There being no possible defense that wouldn't make Picolo proud's kinda ridiculous if you think about it.
If he does get to remember the runes for analgesics it'll be hilarious to see the death eaters' reactions to their crucios on the little pone
It's a spell meant to cause the worst pain imaginable I gotta think that would counter any attempts to block pain. I mean just look how its described:
Also, you're really making runes out to be ridiculously broken. I mean honestly, a pain-blocking rune? Might as well introduce an insta-heal rune and an insta-res rune while you're at it. There has to be some kind of limit to what a rune can be used for otherwise you could just make yourself virtually invincible by covering yourself with the right runes.
Yep Hermione is definately considering migration.
I'm not sure why Harry would know a pain surpressing spell as he's neither guard unicorn nor medical doctor and at 15ish he'd still be looking at several years of studying in Celestia's school.
Wonder how Rita's going to react to this encounter with Harry given the Quibbler's byline and his response to her print, especially since it seems the other countries are getting their information as well unlike the normal timeline.
Well done Colin his handling of the Slytherins.
9861245
This is the 600 bonus chapter so we're waiting till Thursday for the next one I believe.
9861244
I have plenty of questions about what happened in the past few years with no Harry.
9861295
I agree with you on the term of what happened while Harry was gone
9861244
He would have to escape Azkaban first... it could be interesting.
If you're bent on being formal, this should really be "mother", Harry.
And yet...
9861304
Wouldn’t he have done that the same year as Harry was ment to start his second year at Hogwarts
I'd like to see Sirius helping him with those Tattoos
9861307
Prisoner of Azkaban was Harry's third year.
When Twilight was testing the mirror to look for Harry's universe with his old tennis shoes, couldn't she have fine-tuned it/sped it up by also looking for universes with a unicorn in it, since Harry is a unicorn now?
Well I kinda want to see Harry keep throwing rocks at the hornets nest, but he needs to be dropped a few pegs as his attitude is getting out of hand. Then again I still believe that once Twilight arrives she is going to be very displeased with how her colt has been acting and once she finds out who was teaching him I doubt Blueblood will find much welcome anywhere in Equestria that a Princess calls home.
9861367
When dumped into Equestria, Harry was changed into a pony.
When the mirror is used, whoever's travelling is turned into the dominant species of that particular universe.
It stands to reason whatever took Harry would change him to the dominant species.
Plus, if you take into account infinite possibilities, there may be multiple universes with 'displaced' Harrys.
This may be a little slower, but it guarantees a far greater chance of success.
No one should be surprised that Harry's general attitude is different from the books. He spent 5 years moving in the top social circles of Equestria and being taught by very powerful and learned mages instead of being stuck in Little Whinging every summer.
Okay so Harry and Blueblood might not be as much as jerk I might though earlier, but his aloofness toward others won't always help him, especially sense he can't count on the power of his title, the crown, or the guard to back it up, he is a stranger in a stranger land, he can't be too antagonistic with those around him. It was nice to finally hear a little of how it was for harry at CSoGU, hope we get to see more. Maybe Sunbust is also a tutor of his too.
9861307
No he escapes Azkaban as a result from the end of year two that causes the Weasley to travel to Egypt and Sirius see a picture of them and see Pedro and when he realize he is in Hogwarts where Harry would be, though I'm not sure if he remembers Harry at this point, and decides to escape because of that instead of waiting to have more power before doing it.
Without the chamber in year two the Weasley are not suposed to have made the trip to Egypt and as a result Sirius never escaped.
As far as I remember, if I'm getting something wrong just say.
9861294
A hospital anti-pain spell is essentially an anaesthetic. Those aren't exactly super powerful combat spells and would have as many disadvantages as advantages. Not being able to feel pain is not as big an advantage as it seems at first glance, since even aside from pain alerting us to all sorts of things, it also means not being able to feel anything else. Heat, cold, wind, standing in water, cutting off pain to the entire body might block the cruciatus curse (because feeling no pain is feeling no pain, no matter how terrible the pain) but it only does so by blinding one of your four senses.
It's a bit like fighting someone who blinds you with bright lights by covering your eyes. Sure, he can't blind you with bright lights anymore, but only because you've already cut off your sight yourself.
9861554
Sure but my issue is with the idea of a rune that could activate such a thing when you need it then turn it off once no longer necessary. Yeah, Harry could be talking out his ass but until we're told otherwise we have no choice but to take everything he says as fact.
9861286
Probably because he was looking at Wizards' spells from the viewpoint of Equestrian's unicorns.
9861294
Huh? So you can’t cast a pain-blocking spell? You can’t cast a cut-healing spell? If runes are the language of spells, then a spell has to be able to be made by runes. And a pain blocking spell, applied to the pain receptor organ in the brain would be a very small spell! We’re not talking about turning off the signals being sent by the nerves, merely the reception point being turned off. It would actually take very little power.
9861554
More like shielding your eyes when someone is shining a blinding light in your eyes, the moment the light turns off, instead of seeing a blinding reflex-spot that completely ruins what you see, not to mention having your vision all out of whack because of the sudden light change, you can still see just fine.
I’d make that trade in an instant. Seconds of not being able to feel pain so that when the spell stops I can function normally instead lying on the floor shaking to severely to stand. And, as I said, we use pain-blockers in medicine during surgery quite frequently. In fact, we use them all the time in the rest of our lives, to. They’re called aspirin! And athletes frequently use pain-killers during games. (of course, the difference between medical full-stop blockers and over the counter medicines is quite large).
If Twilight and company don't make a big dramatic entrance ( preferably during meal time ) I will be a little disappointed.
9861498
The chamber of secrets had nothing to do with the Weasley's trip. Arthur won a small lottery and they decided to use part of it to go visit Bill.
9861439
I now can't help picturing a universe where the Twilight of this universe accidentally opens a portal to the if wishes were ponies universe and that Harry trying to explain no he isn't the colt she's looking for.
9861605
I think their issue is more that your introducing new spells and new spell methods (pain blocking spell, runes do all sorts of amazing things) that aren't shown in either series and doing so in a manner to favour the ponies and specifically Harry.
Wizards have 3 super powerful curses death, pain, control and not only has Harry (a teenager) got the ability to counter 2 of them, one in a permanent manner using something you introduced but he's figuring out all sorts of things about them without experimentation. Basically there's not a lot of tension right now because its appearing Harry has the perfect answer to everything and anything that may come up when really he shouldn't. Sweetie was begining to learn how to use her magic only shortly before she got her cutie mark and didn't go/hasn't gone to Celestia's school as of season 9, Twilight didn't got to Celestia's school till after she got hers.
This Harry was educated by Blueblood (for some reason), has gone to Celestia's school, has a comprehensive knowledge of runes, is apparently still at Ponyville, is brilliant enough to figure out that the unforgiveables have an exponential increase. It's not impossible but it really feels a bit much for someone his age and that there'll be nothing to challenge him as he breezes through the contests. Even adult, educated and powerful unicorns like Twilight, Starlight and Starswirl all still make mistakes and mess thing up. Twilight Celestia's prodigy usually makes things worse before she fixes problems with magic (winter wrap up, lesson zero, crystalling, it's about time) and she's older than him and presumably got personal tutoring from Celestia.
Of course I could be reading too much of my own feelings into their posts but I think in this case we are having much the same response.
EDIT
Speaking personally I think part of the issue is we just jump in halfway through and never saw anything about Celestia's school, harry with blueblood so we don't see him grow into the pony you want to use.
9861294
The trouble with runes that prevent them from being overpowered is that not only do they have to be applied, they have to be powered and the more powerful the effect the more energy it would use, not to mention that they would be unreliable on young people due to growing, even tattoos fade, and it is fairly frequent in fiction that runes can burn out if not written in or on certain materials which would limit or negate the concept of permanent runes on a person, though it is interesting that certain aspects of the idea do exist in fiction, in the west you have various forms of woad and warpaints that are blessed, which in harry potter terms could be enchanted or charmed with various effects, and in the east you have magic tattoos, though they are not runic, and on that note, the eastern runes tend to be the only examples of working runes on paper or parchment (in fiction).
All that said though the author could handwave it by saying that equestrian runes could bypass such limitations, but that would be... unlikely to fit well and really ham up the whole ponies are better then wizards thing.
9861723
Wow. Have you ever talked with a teenager about fixing problems? They come up with all sorts of solutions for problems that won’t work for one reason or another. And they tend to think they know everything, too. Just because he thinks he has a solution does not mean he does. And, really, no one knows how the torture curse works. Does it stimulate the pain receptors in the brain directly? Does it stimulate the nerves to send pain messages? Does it actually cause pain? All three are different problems with different solutions. Will the runes protect anyone? Who knows! As you say, he has never tested them! And for obvious reasons.
What if it works exactly as he intended -- blocks the brain from getting the pain messages -- yet he still falls to the ground convulsing because the nerves are sending random messages to every muscle in his body?
As for the three curses, all three can be blocked with a physical object, one of them can be resisted.
If, as I said before, runes are the language of magic, then, yes, they CAN do everything you can do with a spell! Otherwise you could claim that mathematics is not the language of physics, because everything in physics can be described mathematically. Because mathematics CAN describe physics, does that mean mathematics somehow breaks physics?
i am super impressed with how much starting a story with year 4 really changes every thing.
this is a totally amazing story.
how much longer till Twilight and friends make there way to Hogwarts?
Also loved the update and look forward to seeing what Hary has to say to Rita Repulsa...err I mean Skeeter
9861805
I think this is as good a segue as any that Harry probably should know the proper format for a letter to the editor. The letter in the story reads like a point by point rebuttal to a forum post; the only thing missing is the block quotes. This is not a writing style or format that he should be familiar with, given his upbringing and the historical era of the setting.
By mentioning the repeated revisions to said letter by Harry, I had my expectations set for a more refined letter.
Excellent chapter!
9861295
That he arrive in Equestria in a delirious state likely due to a concussion notwithstanding, Harry's the adopted son of one of the most accomplished mages in Equestria and spent five years running around with the CMC. I'd be surprised if he didn't know an analgesic rune or spell -- along with various ways of removing tree sap from a wide variety of surfaces.
9861805
The thing is we have no reason to assume he might be wrong. If he is wrong why spend so much time on his ideas. Usually, when a story wants to establish that the character might be wrong it will immediately be shown that they are wrong or a counter-argument will be introduced to make it clear that there is a possibility the idea might be wrong.
Harry has been shown to be very skilled with magic so why should we doubt him now? Maybe he is incredibly arrogant and thinks he's always right when he's not. We don't know because it is really hard to get a handle on his character. I mean at first it seemed the whole snob thing was just an act but as the story goes on its starting to feel like that's how he always is.
9861605
To fully cut himself off from pain, it would take some powerful drugs. Even Morphine doesn't completely take care of pain at the level of the curse does. That why, when things this bad nasty, they normally knock your arse out.
There are medical conditions that do not allow you to feel pain that could be mimicked. But "feeling no pain" is a incredibly dangerous state to be in. If this is standard for Guard ponies, I see them martering themselves quite a lot as they push their bodies beyond what they can handle.
While they might save some lives doing that, death and getting crippled, when it wasn't needed, is going to happen.
To things: One, in the episode Magic Duel, after losing the Alicorn Amulet, Trixie cast a spell at Rainbow that was supposed to make her writhe in agony (Trixie's own words, btw). 2. When it comes to the press, the worst thing you can say to them is "no comment". That's basically telling them to print whatever they like.
Forgive me for thinking of math, but ...
I think you want exponential, not logarithmic. Both can be scaled such that there's no response below a certain power level, and then a big response above that level. But a logarithmic grows SLOWLY. Straight up is either a power or exponential response. Think (2^n)/128,000 as a simple example -- almost nothing until 2^n is bigger than 128K, and then it grows quickly.
... Yea, I did stop reading just to post this. Going back to reading now :-)
Needs "at"
First:
9861723
"We're sorry, but your prince is in another universe".
Can you imagine a bunch of "shorts", a paragraph or 3, once per chapter, talking about the universe that they visited that had the wrong Harry in it as a running gag?
(And no, I'm not thinking of The Maretian doing something like that, or Song of the Spheres/League of Sweetie Bells/Stargate SG1/Quantum Leap/Sliders/ ... hmm, this is a rather common trope in story telling, isn't it?)
Second: Milo had the best way to deal with cruciatus, but since he's not here, we can't ask him about that method, can we?
Didn't it fail to dispel Discord's chocolate-milk cloud, though? I distinctly remember Twilight exclaiming, "my fail-safe spell...failed!" near the beginning of the Season 2 premiere.
I don't think your adopted mother would be happy you felt the need to permanently tattoo yourself with an anti-pain rune-set, though, especially since doing such wasn't necessary before you were effectively foalnapped.
Pain receptors are the sensors and are located in the place you feel pain. The brain itself contains no pain receptors. You mean that you can block the nerve signals from the pain receptors to the sensory cortex.
I don't think "extraordinarily strong" leaves the right impression. Hunks of stone are too mundane for us to think of them as "extraordinarily strong". Maybe something like "too thick and strong to be worn or carried".
Not sure if it was covered, but did Tirek eat that horcrux?
So, living sacrificial Spider shield?
I suddenly have this image of a whirlwind of spiders circling him and absorbing the killing curse.
Actually, would they block the other curses too? It seems like many of the curses that cause effects on living things, including the big three have no penetrating power and stop on a single target.
If he's referring to Tirek's draining of the ponies' magic, I always liked to believe that he left a bit of special magic behind (either incapable or unwilling to drain it all) and that magic that he didn't drain is the ponies' "life force".
In the same vein, I like to believe that magical exhaustion is the body's natural limiter saying "You've used too much magic. Use any more and you could do damage to your magic. Use too much more and you'll drain it all away and die."
I also like to believe that that final bit of magic has a connection to the soul, and it's actually the soul that is the producer of the magic (Liches have magic because their soul is still present, just in a phylactory, while a zombie or skeleton has none outside of what is animating them)
Least, that is my belief :3
9862124
Tactical Ablative Armour.
Could be worse, could be baby armour.
9861894
Except real life is rarely that considerate of anyone’s ideas. There have been many ideas presented, in this century, alone, that sounded logical, yet, in hindsight, after many years of study, are actually rather ludicrous. One was craniology. It was popular for decades because it allowed people to pretend that the shape of someone’s head, like a foreigner, could prove that they were “inferior” to someone else. Another was the “hollow Earth” theory that persisted for decades, with many scientific followers and even a couple of expeditions to “prove” it, when classical physics could easily disprove it.
Usually, in fiction, such ideas are rapidly shot down to conserve space and to move the plot along rapidly in the space available (most SF books are 100,000, only famous and popular authors are allowed to exceed that for any reason; romance writers rarely exceed 60,000 words).
Here, space is not an issue, and I can leave messy half-completed ideas all over the place, and take care of those critics who say, “Why didn’t he do A, or B, or C?” by doing it, but not tying it off. After all, how often have you started a project to realize it won’t work, or just plain got distracted and never finished it? To have a ‘perfect’ character who never does that is unreal, to me. A mary-sue, if you wish.
Alos, has anyone realized that the Vanishing Cabinet in CoS was never damaged while saving Harry from a detention? It still works perfectly and is in a classroom somewhere. Anyone could buy the other from Borgin and Burkes and sneak in and out of the castle. I’ll never use that (probably) but it is there.
9862511
You realize that's what Draco did in book 6 to sneak the death eaters into Hogwarts right?
Is it weird I heard the pokemon battle music with the last line?
Thanks for the update!!
9862515
Yep.
9862591
You say that like ideas of racial superiority dissapeared from the rest of the world after those events. They exist in wizarding culture because they exist in ours.
9862611
9862591
Plus all the muggle born children are quickly indoctrinated into the wizarding culture. If a muggle born wants to get anywhere in the British magical society they must toe the line. That is what makes the Prime Ministers demands to Dumbledore all the more chilling in If Wishes Were Ponies. The wizards have not had to face outside pressure to change or be changed because nobody wants to upset the boat.
9862611 That assumes an average life expectancy of 120 years and a low child mortality rate, consistent with advanced health care.
1000 students over 7 years = 142 students in a year or 142 people of that age per year
142 * 120 years = 17040 people in total.
That's the population of a small town, my own hometown Matlock (well technically the town and surrounding villiages comes to about 20,000). It's served by a single secondary school (Middle school + High School for Americans), and has no dedicated hospital, just clinics (Chesterfield General or Sheffield are the 'local' hospitals.)
They would probably need more than one teacher per subject in that case. Each House would normally have 35 students per year rather than 10, as in Harry's year. So if you're taking 2 Houses from the same year in a lesson, you're going to have a class size of 70. Yikes!
I always thought that a normal size for a House year group was 15 to 20 (Harry's year being unusually small due to the war). That would give class sizes of 30 to 40 students, large but managable, for a given value of managable. Though that pits the total wizarding population at between 7200 and 9600 people. I've always wondered how a population that small could produce a self sustaining society. Even 17,000 is not a large number.
Even so, Hogwarts teachers are impossibly overworked. The core subjects require 28 class periods a week. Each year has two class groups who each have two classes in a subject per week, for 7 years. If NEWT students can be grouped into a single year group per subject, that brings it down to 24, but if there are two class periods in the morning and two in the afternoon, that only comes to 20 total! Even adding a third afternoon class period only brings it to 25, just barely physically possible. And that's not counting 'double' lesson periods...
At least that explains where McGonnagal got the Time Turner to give Hermione. All the staff must have one just to keep up with their schedules!
9863099
It's important to keep in mind that not every course is offered to every year (divination, for example, is only offered to third years) then of course not every student takes a class at NEWT level and you have classes students choose not to take at all in later years. So I imagine some teachers might be very busy while others don't have nearly as heavy a workload.
It does ultimately come down to Rowling being bad at math but I don't think it's implausible for each teacher to handle teaching a single subject by themselves without working themselves to death.
Although honestly, she may have limited the number of teachers just to make it easier to keep track of each character instead of just throwing in some no-name characters to fill out the staff.