• Published 25th Feb 2020
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On the Implications of Parallel Worlds - computerneek



Usually, first contact is made with just a few people. The latest civilization to be invited to Hogwarts begs to differ.

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Chapter 6

Tom already knew something was up by the time the two girls sat down at his bar. Hagrid had shown them through Diagon Alley the day before, so presumably, they were Hogwarts students.

Of course, hardly fifteen minutes had passed after they left, with Hagrid, back to the muggle world… before they had appeared, as if by apparition, alongside some twenty or thirty more, also funny-haired, first-years… Which, he’d noticed, most of them seemed to be female. They’d then headed to Diagon Alley as a group, and he hadn’t seen them come back at all that night.

Now, they just appeared out of thin air, looked around contemplatively, and headed straight for the bar.

It was still early in the morning, so aside from the morning rush he dealt with fifteen minutes prior, the pub was pretty empty. He stepped peaceably over, somehow already knowing that these two would be his most important customers for the entire day, and greeted them. “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” the blue-and-white-haired one greeted him in turn. “I’m curious, what would you recommend for a drink while on the job?”

That brought him pause. People normally stopped by to unwind after work, not during… and usually got at least a little drunk. Which was probably not a very good idea for someone that still had work to do, so he’d need to find something non-alcoholic, but still with plenty of kick in it. Something that would provide the relief so many came to his pub to find, yet without the side-effects.

He glanced sideways at the small shelf full of virgin menus that he hadn’t touched in years. Perhaps… Yes. Butterbeer might have only produced a mild release effect compared to some of his stronger drinks, but it was plenty strong in its own right- and did not, unlike so many of his drinks, rely on its mild alcohol content to achieve that effect. As such, he figured, he had a solution.

“I’ll have to admit, I don’t get very many people coming in to drink before their work is done,” he began.

The other girl, with a paired pink and purple stripe in her dark blue hair, let out a snort of laughter.

He grinned. “But I believe I might have something that fits the bill: Virgin butterbeer.”

The blue-haired girl raised an eyebrow, but the brighter-haired girl spoke. “Huh. Does it taste any different from the non-virgin version?”

He shook his head. “A regular butterbeer only contains a half a standard drink of alcohol per tankard, so it’s not missing much.”

“Hmm,” the girl looked at her darker-haired companion, then back at him. “I can’t say I’ve ever heard of butterbeer before. Can I get one of those virgin ones, then?”

“And I’d like a regular Butterbeer, please,” the darker-haired companion smiled.

“... Okay then,” he answered. “Coming right up.”

It took him about a minute to prepare and supply the two foaming tankards.

When he returned five minutes later, having served two other customers, he found both tankards empty… and both girls watching him almost expectantly.

“Ahh,” he muttered uncertainly, looking at them.

“Soo, how much do we owe you?” the lighter-haired girl smiled.

“Ah.” He glanced down at the drinks, totalling the memorized prices in his head rather than going back to review their tab; that had been all they ordered. “That would be twenty knuts.”

“Twenty knuts?” the darker-haired girl asked, sounding almost shocked, before turning to her companion. “I’m really starting to think that the exchange rate might not be as fair as we thought.”

The lighter-haired girl shrugged in response. “Me too. By a margin of, at a guess, an order of magnitude. But the rate’s set in stone for five years, so it’s not like we can go back and fix it.” She pulled out a small, bulging pouch, and casually flipped a silver sickle onto the counter, looking back up at him. “Go ahead and keep the change. And, ahh… Tom, was it?”

He let the coin sit on the counter for the time being. “Yes, Miss…?” He trailed off, inviting her to provide a name.

“Oh, sorry. I’m Lyra Heartstrings, and this is Princess Twilight Sparkle. We’re both accomplished mages from another world, and first-year students at Hogwarts.” He gasped- that would explain their apparition earlier- but she ignored it. “Anyways, we’ve got an estimated nine to eighteen thousand more coming after us, with over twenty-five hundred confirmed, and having a local base of operations would be… Advantageous, to say the least, to helping things run smoothly. Would it be okay for us to use your pub as such?”

“Ahh… What would that…?”

“Basically, a few of our team members would set themselves up in here, from morning through evening each day. The rest of the team would guide the rest of our people through Diagon Alley in groups, managed by the members set up in here, to get everyone the stuff they’ll need for their first year at Hogwarts. In the meantime, we’d have a second team that would base themselves in here all along, to intervene if something happened.” She shrugged. “We could expect both teams to rack up a truly enormous tab- we would want it all on the same one- but with how much gold the Princess here extracted from the treasury, and how lopsided the exchange rate ended up being, we’ll have no problem paying it off- and as a matter of fact, I figure we can even pay a hundred and fifty percent for everything, too, in exchange for quote ‘basing rights’.” She grinned at Twilight, using air quotes for her last two words.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Why must you joke around with everything, Lyra?”

Lyra shrugged. “Why not? I mean, like I just told him, we’re both accomplished mages. Hogwarts won’t offer us anything we can integrate directly into our intrinsic magics, as it’s too different- and, I rather doubt it’ll offer us anything we can’t already do by other means. So, why are we here in the first place, but to explore, try it out, and have fun? Possibly, eventually, create open trade between our nations?”

“Lyra!”

“Or, how about, why did I open that gate in the first place?”

“Lyra, stop! We’re here for a lot more than just fun! You know the Ear- er…” She glanced briefly at Tom. “You know that they will undoubtedly benefit from a Hogwarts education! They’ll be able to use active magic for the first time in history!”

Lyra shrugged. “Yeah, I know.” She looked up at Tom. “In our nation, the population is divided right about evenly into three tribes- the Raeth, Aethr, and Etrah tribes, specifically. All three have magic, but the Etrah tribe’s magic is all passive, and the Aethr tribe’s magic is all subconscious. The Raeth tribe- to which we both belong, alongside every other mage from our world- is the only one capable of what we call ‘active magic’, being consciously controlled magic. Simply put, if you wouldn’t call it Accidental Magic, we would call it Active Magic. The Hogwarts letters have been going indiscriminately to all three tribes, so presumably, a wand can bypass that limitation.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Though, it’s a bit less of a bypass, since wand magic is intrinsically different from our magic- starting all the way back at where the power comes from!”

Lyra nodded. “Yeah. That’s why I expect all three tribes to be equally capable when it comes to wand magic.” She shrugged. “Pre-reform Starlight would be happy.” Then she scowled. “Discord, on the other hand, might be disinterested. Though, he did RSVP, soo…”

“Wait, what? Discord is coming!?”

“Yeah, he accepted his offer. Exactly how much, ahh, stuff he does really depends on what Hogwarts already has to offer.”

“Celestia help us.” Twilight put her head in her hands.

“Hey, I don’t think it’ll be that bad. I mean, they have talking pictures and mirrors. I’d be willing to bet he’ll love those- I’m sure they’re great for having a conversation with someone long gone, but could you imagine being unable to save an amazing moment, or never being sure that you were getting a faithful reflection out of your mirror?”

Twilight’s head snapped up again. “Ahh… That brings back memories, actually.”

“I know, that’s something he did for us once. Theirs are a little more consistent- and all over the place. Personally, it strikes me as a response to needing to feel like they live in a magical society, and so making everything around them magical. If the pictures got caught up in that…”

Both girls spoke together. “What else did?”

Twilight nodded slowly. “Discord’s probably going to have fun finding the answer to that.”

Lyra grinned. “Of course he will.” She glanced up at Tom. “Is there some kind of conflict between the wizards and the- you call ‘em ‘muggles’, right?- that might explain it?”

Tom blinked. “Not… Well, yeah. A lot of the pure-blooded wizarding families believe muggleborn or half-blood witches and wizards to be inferior… and muggles themselves, even worse.” He shuddered. “You’d think we didn’t just have a huge wizarding war against one such muggle-hater end just ten years ago!”

Lyra let out a snort of laughter. “Well, next time someone starts a war like that, sic the muggles on him. They may not have magic, but I’ve seen a bit of what they do have- and it’s no less deadly for it. Like, flatten an entire city in ten seconds flat, deadly. And they can do that so quietly you won’t know they’re coming until after they’re done.”

“... Ahh.”

“Wait, they have stuff that destructive?” Twilight asked.

“Yep! Nuke ‘em from orbit, only way to be sure!”

Twilight facepalmed. “Of course they would.”

Author's Note:

It's been a busy week... Well, in terms of getting a game working, that is. BotW is not easy to hardmod, even on the WiiU (which is easier than the Switch) and after it is extracted from the disk (giving me full write access to all its files, not just the update data). But I think I've figured it out... if I remember to restart the console before I test my installation. (For some reason, testing w/o restart causes it to lock up the console...)

But anyways, this is ready.

Patreon and Discord, if you like.

... And I'm curious how you think I did with Tom?