Chapter 23
Draco wasn’t sure what had caught his attention at the Gryffindor table as he walked past, but something did. It was Tuesday evening, just the day after he’d been “discharged” from Madam Pomfrey’s care. That day had included another seventy two hour mark, so Madam Pomfrey had excused him entirely from his afternoon classes, and kept him in the Hospital Wing for a few hours. After spending those hours scanning him, she’d told him his Animagus magic had fully returned, but that was about it.
Which, considering he wasn’t an animagus, didn’t mean much.
He approached the Gryffindor table, scanning the part of it that had caught his eye. It looked to him like a good number of the Gryffindors were coming for dinner, as he was.
At least Crabbe and Goyle were waiting for him at the Slytherin table- he didn’t have to worry about them.
Then… he spotted it.
Exactly what he did not want to spot.
In order to appease his father’s worries, he’d sent a letter on Monday, telling what had happened. Well… some of what had happened; he hadn’t been entirely truthful. His father didn’t need to know that it wasn’t a genuine magical accident.
The response he’d gotten this morning had been… displeased. He’d been instructed to save face, by meeting- and beating- the famous Potter boy, preferably in a duel.
He’d hoped to avoid encountering Harry Potter until his father gave up on that, and told him to do something different.
But there was no mistaking that lightning-bolt-shaped scar.
He’d spotted it when Harry had thrown his head back in laughter, at something the bushy brown-haired girl next to him had said- wait, no, that was Hermione Granger, one of the instructors in his Charms class.
He took a deep breath, and approached.
He still didn’t know what had caught his eye.
How was he going to do it, without looking like he had done it intentionally? He’d have to incite an argument, probably, to invite an insult he could respond to. But how could he do that?
And in front of one of his instructors, to boot?
He was almost there.
This action his father wanted to take would be his undoing.
Then Hermione looked up.
“Oh hey, good timing, Draco! I’m doing a bit of a research project, comparing Equestrian and British magics, but I need participants. We’ll be in classroom, uh,” she glanced down at her notebook again, “D-3 after dinner tonight- think you could spread the word at the Slytherin table, so anyone interested can come? I don’t expect it to take very long at all, but I do expect to be able to learn quite a bit.”
He raised an eyebrow. “With Gryffindors?”
“Oh, no, I’m hoping for as many British students as I can get from each of the four houses, and around twenty Equestrians from each as well. I’ve already told the Hufflepuffs, and Professor Flitwick will be telling the Ravenclaws for me.”
“Ahh.” Quick, he told himself, pretend you never saw the scar. “Yeah, I’ll be there.” Praying Potter isn’t on the same side of the room as me.
He nodded his head slightly, turned, and walked away from the table. He could claim he’d meant to ask her a question, since she was one of his instructors, and been sidetracked by her request.
“So…”
Hermione jumped, turning sharply, and relaxed herself. “Please don’t sneak up on me like that, Lyra.”
Lyra, who had been close enough she’d been whipped in the face by Hermione’s hair, scowled. “Sorry.” She sat down next to Hermione, on the side Harry wasn’t on. “What’s this I heard about a research project?”
Hermione looked at her. “I assume Bonbon told you what I did in class yesterday?”
She nodded. “I heard you taught Sweetie Belle to use magic.”
“Yeah. But I did it in a rather unique way. I experimented with it a bit more last night, and started noticing some differences. I want to say I can tell which tribe an Equestrian belongs to by looking at their magic. Don’t know for sure, since I knew the tribe of everyone I looked at ahead of time, but…” She shrugged. “I also noticed a few differences in the British people I looked at- so my hypothesis is that British students can also be divided into tribes.” She shrugged. “If so, I want to see how much I can learn about the British tribes, and how similar- or dissimilar- they are to the Equestrian tribes.”
Lyra tilted her head. “How might that be useful…?”
“Well, if the correlation is strong enough, you and your people could potentially use information like it to help evaluate if a given first-year student is eligible for the extended teaching program… and what they’ll likely be good at. I heard you basically guessed with me and Harry, and even then weren’t sure until after we were at the heads of our own classes, soo…”
Lyra tilted her head. “... True.” She put a hand to her chin. “This next year, I’m hoping to get a list of all the British first-years as soon as the Hogwarts staff can get it, meet as many of them in the Leaky Cauldron as possible, and possibly even start making housecalls to meet the rest. Depending on what information you’re able to procure…” She grinned. “Could make the search that much easier. Mind if I watch?”
Hermione nodded. “Go ahead, but please don’t tell me anything I don’t ask for. Until I ask for anything I might be missing.” She shrugged. “I don’t want to miss something by reason of expectation.”
“Got it. Though… with a large number of students, how are you going to remember enough to compare your discoveries?”
She tapped her wand, resting next to her plate, with one finger. “Memory charm.” She blinked. “Er, not the one normally called a ‘memory charm’, that makes you forget- this one will enhance my memory of what happens in there. And I’ll be writing a lot down, too.”
“I wish I could say we were here with good news,” the Prime Minister of England grumbled, as the rest of his cabinet gathered in the secret conference room that didn’t have a picture in it that set off motion detectors.
The Secretary of Defense sighed. “How bad is it?”
“Not very,” he answered. “I think.”
“... You think,” the press secretary repeated.
He nodded. “I think. As for what happened… You probably heard about the mass rolling stock acquisition and return in America?”
Nods went around the room.
“I heard the wizards covered their tracks pretty well on that one,” the Secretary of Foreign Relations mused. “Lotsa memory charms, and they even thought to ask which ones were planned to go unused for a few days, too. I heard some of them even got paid, though they couldn’t remember what they were paid for.” He shrugged. “Security cameras did.”
“Exactly,” the Prime Minister continued. “I just received communication from the Minister for Magic.”
“Oh boy,” the Secretary of the Interior sighed, leaning back in her chair.
He nodded. “Turns out it wasn’t an American operation at all, even though they acquired all American stock.” He looked up, down the full length of the table. “Hogwarts experienced a sudden explosion in attendance- and the wizards found themselves needing the rolling stock to carry some thirteen thousand students to the school this year. Where those students came from… He was hoping I knew where ‘Equestria’ was.”
“Equestria?” the Secretary of Defense asked, tilting her head. “Sounds almost like it was made up- but with thirteen thousand students… Do you think it’s possible they are a confirmation of the Multiverse Theory?”
“Possible. In any case, if they’ve got that many new students at Hogwarts, wherever they came from, the wizarding population is going to be exploding in the coming years. We’re going to have to step up our game with the Wizarding Investigations, and look into the possibility of introducing the general population to them before long.” He sighed. “And… Minister Fudge wanted to know how hard it would be, and how much it would cost, to acquire a large amount of rolling stock to be permanently assigned to the Hogwarts Express. Said the locomotives they acquired, however temporarily, from America did a wonderful job, even if they were a bit unsightly- and that any components that might overload could be magically reinforced, post-delivery, without issue.”
The Press Secretary snorted. “Yeah, those freight locomotives would be a bit unsightly on a passenger train.”
The Secretary of the Interior scowled. “They don’t have the space to store any more rolling stock. Their shed’s full as-is.” She tilted her head. “Hmm… How plausible might it be to connect the Wizarding Line to the National Rail Network, and locate a shed- and/or storage yard- for them somewhere else?”
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Oh yes, Dumbledore's plan is very screwed. But is that really so bad considering? Anyway, great chapter. I'm looking forward to seeing Hermione test her theory-and if Dray's going to challenge Harry or not. I vote not and say he did.
That muggle tidbit was rather interesting. Thirteen thousand new wizards should be one hell of a jump in wizarding Britain population, significant even on a global scale, the mundane government does well in prepararing to introduce magic to the world.
10271316 Canon is that almost all British wizardkind go to Hogwarts. There are no other schools. Based on a school population of 280 or 40 people per year and assuming an average lifespan of 120 years, the UK wizard population can not be more than around 4800 people. Even assuming that 20% of the population is ineligible for one reason or another (squib, homeschooled) that still only gives a population of 6000.
An additional 13,000 wizards and witches more than triples the total population.
If you are talking about the effects of modern technology on the wizard secrecy, you might want to read “Harry Potter and the Natural 20“. Book 2, which starts with the Weasley family rescue of Harry, winds up going through the Muggle police, including what was at that time new technology of computerized wordprocessing, and Walkman style tape recorders being used by people while jogging.
It results in what I consider to be the best OC I have seen in a Hogwarts setting: Fiona, a British police woman who goes toe to toe with with wizards and witches and overall winds up (mostly) on top.
10271349
At 6.000 we're talking about a 0.66% population growth a year. And that is... around England's rate actually
I didn't think of doing said math or checking their growth rate until then, thanks for the heads-up!
That's one tripling, but with only eleven year olds. When you take in consideration that last tidbit you realize that the population needed to send those from another world would be orders of magnitude greater than the entirety of earth's wizarding population. The situation is, if anything, considerably more dire than reality to the muggles.
Finding out they're actually transformed ponies is going to be peanuts compared to that.
10271349
Going from the latest world population figure I found, at 7.8 Billion in 2018, and the same-period figure for Britain, at 66.27 million... a total of 6k wizards suggests an average of one wizard per 11,000 people. Thus, an estimated 710,000 wizards worldwide... And considering the stadium they did the World Quidditch Cup in could seat "one hundred thousand", that's pretty impressive patronage, at over 10% of the worldwide wizarding population.
That also means that the addition of 13,000 Equestrians will have increased British magical population by 220%... and worldwide magical population by about 2%. Add in future years, and the potential for high power levels the Equestrians are no doubt bringing with them, and the muggles are right, the magical population will be exploding in coming years- just the Equestrians being invited to Hogwarts will likely push it up by a minimum of some 20% worldwide...
10271407
Not orders of magnitude... quite. Those 13,000 11-year-olds alone will increase worldwide wizarding population by about 2%... which suggests an Equestrian population of at least double, assuming equivalent lifespans and population growth rate. Which clearly isn't the case, judging by what the Sorting Hat discovered in Chap. 14...
Note that the muggles are already considering that it might be visitors from another universe. Yeah, finding out that that's what they are is going to be an "Oh, nice to know. Do we need to set up an immigration desk for them?" issue.
That last conversation should have had the lines
"Equestria, like in My Little Pony?"
"Exactly."
"Oh dear god."
10271443
Don't forget about the two wizarding wars in addition to squibs due to too much inbreeding. I'd imagine the present population of functional magic ussers is a lot smaller then it should be.
10271539
Unfortunately, as with all of my human-involving stories, the My Little Pony franchise does not exist in the human world. It saves on some potential creepiness/awkwardness when the ponies find out about it.
10271625
Ya, I'm just joking around.
Followup to 10271702
So that Goddess could have chosen someone from the Muggle Ministry -- in this story, it's not just the prime minister, but a good number of their staff as well. Someone from this group, that already deals with both worlds, could have been chosen. They'd have all the contacts, and political influence, and could make it happen fairly easily.
Instead, a simple 8 year old was selected, and her agreement taken more than given.
Oh ...
So you'd want to get some railroad workers to lay a junction and track from A to B, and install a junction there. And, there's probably someone in that crew that realizes that B's track isn't on the railway lines.
Hmm. It's actually doable. First, arrange with the ministry of magic to send someone to Obliviate the details afterwards. You could even arrange the cover story, like they were working on a different rail line elsewhere, where a junction does belong.
Then? Once all the people that worked on it have lost track of where the new line is? You're done. What's the chance of someone randomly coming across this brand new junction, wondering where it goes, and being able to follow it to this strange, unexpected rail line off into the Scottish highlands (or wherever Hogs Wards are located?)
(Answer: Discord is in this year's students ... :-)
10271710
Yeah... The goddess wasn't aware that any more than the muggle Prime Minister knew about it, because the others knowing was all Muggle doings. And, the Muggle Ministry being all elected positions (or nominated by elected officers), if she gave one of them that mission, they would very quickly be voted out of office, compared to the duration she wanted... Plus, as far as she knew, it was the wizards that had to make the first move, not the muggles.
10271732
... Or, have the railway company and contractors and etc that are aware of all that issued security clearances (with appropriate checks first, of course), and sworn to secrecy. And, acknowledge that it's their first step in linking the Muggle and Wizarding worlds together- the one that makes the eventual collision and/or merge inevitable.
If the Wizarding world had actually bothered to keep proper tabs on Muggles, then they would have realized that, even in the 1990s, Muggle tech had outpaced their magic in a lot of areas, and quickly catching up on the ones it hadn't. And that most people would just see Magic as some crazy new tech.
10271443
Those... are completely valid points
I wonder if they'll filter the applicants for said desk through their lack of reaction to Cute. Because damn they'll be exposed to it a lot
10271818
... If said desk is in Equestria. Remember, they don't look like ponies when they're in Britain...
10271824
That's a travesty I tell you!
They should cross for immigration as they are, for the power of CUTE compels it!
On an unrelated matter I just realized I had skipped chapter 22. That's bound to cause some significant ripples, and is surprisingly reasonable for wizards. Maybe it's because Fred & George haven't grown old enough to become full fledged ones yet, hmm
10271361
Here's all three from HPMOR:
Honestly, not entirely sure. Maybe it's supposed to be a background pony.
Very clearly Twilight Sparkle
Very clearly Rarity
The pure blood faction would be enraged on this idea. Since this is something that 'magic' biologically branded them, not by themselves.
10271947
The first one is the OC of someone who helped him with the story (IIRC, she goes by the handle "Alicorn", and wrote Luminosity, a similarly-themed fic for Twilight. (Warning: TvTropes link!))
10271961
Yes, yes they would.
But it's not like they have a choice, is it?
10271733
To be fair, the wizards actually DO have to make the first move... but not because it would never be made otherwise.
See, we aren't really phased by the existence of a new (to us) type of elemental energy, and could easily accept the "you've been deemed ready" approach if it's applied humbly enough... but a hidden group of people with incredible power that could control things from the shadows? They'd quickly get branded as IRL Illuminati or worse!
In other words, there's a ticking clock here, and if the wizards don't choose to go public before then it would result in another Great Witch Hunt, only this one would be driven by somewhat justified political fear rather than the completely unjustified religious fear of the first one.
10272254
Yep.
A ticking clock the wizards aren't aware of... And fortunately, one that the muggle leadership is aware of.
10271947
I actually did start reading that story not all that long ago, after having put it on my list a few years back. I found it fairly good at first, but only got through about half of first year (not up to the unicorn thing yet) before I ended up emotionally drained and decided not to bother. I already know that I'm probably missing out on a tremendous literary masterpiece, but between the angst over becoming evil, the sentient sorting hat wishing to die, Draco being... whatever you'd describe that well-mannered horror to be, the Dark Lord doing a decent job at teaching (and also doing the "Does he know that I know that he knows" thing) or possibly trying to groom Harry into his replacement, and Harry trying to be good because he thinks that he thinks it's merely what he should be doing... Well, it was a hell of a stressful journey. And apparently there's also a MLP shoutout (at best, since they were the victims)...
10272306
The entire story is just first year. It's a really long year. :)
10271433 Seems legit.
10271305
Or better yet, he (or someone else) suggests they practice their spells on each other to facilitate the study and he partners up with Harry at some point so he can honestly tell his father he faced him in magical combat but it ended in a draw. Can even use his extended Hospital Wing visit as an excuse for why he didn't thrash Harry.
10271947
Starlight? Glim-Glim?
10272306
It sounds like you made it to the Azkaban section.
Yes, it's the bottom of the train. It does get better.
This is where Harry starts to become his future. Remember, Quirrel's goal is for Harry to rule magical britain, with him as his advisor. He's trying to push Harry to his goal, even if Harry thinks of himself as a Light Lord instead of a Dark Lord.
His worry about "Am I evil?" becomes "Trust Hermione". The "n+1" level thinking of the Dark Lord is intentional. You will find out by the end what the real story with Voldemort is. And yes, "good because you should be good" is a real thing. Things change.
Manipledore is still a negative, but the rest is enough of a positive, I can ignore it.