Taste For Blood
If one was not sold on the concept of cooperation, one could simply consider the weather. Rain could be very annoying, and wind could be very annoying, but it’s when they join forces that truly miserable weather happens.
Sunset Shimmer still wasn’t sold on the concept of cooperation, but then again, she barely felt the effect of the terrible weather as she walked through the less visited utilitarian parts of the castle grounds, as magic made the water almost boil and rapidly evaporate from her, giving her a shroud of thick steam.
She was out in what others would consider awful weather after a first year student in her house, one Colin Creevey, had drawn attention to how Sunset was the tallest girl in her class, and Sunset had felt everyone studying her.
A thatched stable was in the rear portion of the castle, and the fact that it was two stories told Sunset what kind of creature inhabited it. She walked up and opened the half door, stepping out of the rain and letting herself dry off for a few moments as she looked around.
The bottom booths were empty of denizens, and instead filled with piles of hay. Not hay for food either, but for frolicking in. Ramps led up to a second story with its own booths, with a great opening alcove in the middle for anyone up there to look down at the first floor.
Sunset narrowed her eyes, and put one hand in front of one of them.
“Oh, of course. There you are,” she said, finally noticing the dozens of thestrals looking curiously at her from the upper floor. Thestrals do not voluntarily rest on ground level.
Their eyes showed unabashed curiosity as she retrieved her silver knife, normally in her potions kit, from a pocket inside her cloak, and started to prick herself in her fingers.
As little globs of blood formed on the top of her digits, the thestrals’ attention grew more focused, and many of them considered leaving the comfort of their loft to inspect further.
“Come on down, snacktime,” Sunset said, and placed her knife back into her cloak, holding her hand out.
Silently as moonlight on still water, the dark equines slipped down the opening of their loft, and surrounded Sunset like a great cloud of dark smoke, with dozens of slightly reflective eyes in it.
It would have been a quite unnerving image for one unfamiliar with thestrals, but Sunset knew better. She held out her hand, and the ones closest lowered their heads, and three silken tongues started rapidly lapping up the delicious treat.
Sunset smiled and petted one who was looking over her shoulder at her leaking fingers. “Don’t worry, there’s enough for you too,” she said, as the three currently feeding ones, a bit reluctantly, backed away to make room for their friends.
“Hold on, let me just…” Sunset said after a while, and massaged her lower arm and hand to replenish the flow. “That’s it. You feel fine, don’t you? You’re not getting cursed.”
The one by her shoulder put a leather wing around her and leaned into her petting, when suddenly, the door opened, and a giant figure stepped in.
“Huh? Wus goin’ on ‘ere?” Rubeus Hagrid asked, slightly pressingly.
“Oh, hello, mister Hagrid,” Sunset, and gave him a slightly sheepish look over her shoulder. “I just thought these colts and fillies might like a snack.”
Hagrid took a moment to digest what was happening, an alarmed look on his face, before it instead turned into an amazed one.
“By Merlin, I ain’t never seen anythin’ like this,” he said, and chuckled a bit nervously. “Most students who can see our thestrals ain’t too keen on gettin’ close.”
Sunset sniffed the mane of the one with his wing around her, then turned back to Hagrid. “Why? They smell perfectly clean to me.”
Hagrid was quiet for a moment, before letting out a loud guffaw.
When he calmed down, he walked up close to Sunset and placed the bucket, filled with blood, on the stone floor. “Feedin’ time,” he said.
Only half the thestrals, mainly the ones who had already had a taste of Sunset’s blood, disengaged from the cauldron to feed from this new source.
Hagrid looked on in befuddlement at the lukewarm interest of the thestrals.
“What’s in the bucket?” Sunset asked, glancing at it over her shoulder.
“Rooster blood,” Hagrid said, and tried spying past the bundle of heads over Sunset’s hand. “What’s tha’ ye got there, lass?”
The dark equines eagerly followed Sunset’s hand, as she brought it up long enough to show Hagrid before letting them keep feeding, the blood being lapped up before it had time to revert back to a silver color.
Hagrid stood in silence for several seconds, before he spoke again, a bit carefully. “Ye’ve eh… grown up ‘roun’ thestrals, have ye?”
A small frown slowly grew on Sunset’s face, aimed away from Hagrid, as she kept petting the stallion on his neck.
“... There were some around, yeah.”
“Who’d’ye, erm… how come ye can see ‘em?”
Sunset glanced back at Hagrid with a confused look on her face. “I’m… just used to them, that’s all. Neville’s the one with the sharp eyes. He spots them instantly.”
Hagrid nodded slowly. “Does he?” he said, and stood in silence for a while, before shaking whatever he had been thinking about away. “Anyway, seems yer a new favorite. Never seen ‘em prefer anythin’ other’n what I feed ‘em.”
Sunset tutted, and the one by her shoulder finally got his taste. “Dessert first eh? I’ll try and time it better next time.”
“Ye don’t need ter feed ‘em though,” Hagrid said. “I do that.”
“I know, but I wanted to. Also, I know they only really need blood, but I would still give them some vegetables and things, put a little meat on them.”
Hagrid looked a little sheepish. “They, erm… never been interested in anythin’ else.”
Sunset kept scratching the chins of the one feeding on her. “Oh, picky are we? You a spoiled boy, mm?” she cooed.
“So, erhm… are ye goin’ ter pick Care of Magical Creatures fer next year?”
“Sorry, what?”
“Erhm, next year. Ye’ve got ter pick more subjects, ‘n’... Care of Magical Creatures is one o’ ‘em.”
“Oh, right, I forgot that,” Sunset said, and gave it some thought.
She wanted to turn into an alicorn. If she succeeded, and she had all intention of doing so, it would be a transformation of sorts, and transformation, the way Hogwarts taught its subjects, fell under the category of transfiguration.
Obviously, something as monumental as ascension to alicornhood wouldn’t be covered by something as banal as a transfiguration formula, but still, expanding her portfolio of knowledge on the subject of transfiguration might help in the end, if it required her to come up with her own magical solution on how to ascend, and the same sentiment could apply to knowledge of magical creatures in general.
“... Yeah… I think I will,” she said.
Hagrid smiled underneath his big, bushy beard, before looking out at the still ongoing torrential downpour.
“Doesn’t look like it’ll let up anytime soon,” he said. “Would ye like me ter walk ye up ter the castle? I’ve got an umbrella.”
“Uh… yes I would, thank you,” Sunset said, grateful for a chance to imply to a member of the staff that she couldn’t solve absolutely everything herself.
As they walked through the gray shower, Sunset spied Hagrid’s cottage in the distance.
“How’s your house doing in this weather?” she asked, loudly, to make herself heard over the noise of the heavy rain.
“Oh, it’s fine,” Hagrid said, waving her concerns away. “Have ter keep the fire lit at all times, but other’n that, ’s no problem.”
“Right,” Sunset said, and noted that the piled up firewood was still getting fairly soaked despite the roof over it.
It was a little far away to do a thorough job, but she still surreptitiously waved her index finger in the direction of Hagrid’s hut, drawing out a lot of the excess dampness out of both the firewood and the inside of the hut, forming it into floating balls of water that she let fall onto the wet ground, undetectable by anyone after the fact, and helping Hagrid keeping his home dry.
“Well, thanks for the shelter, Mister Hagrid,” Sunset said, shaking off the rain that had landed on her cloak regardless, as they entered the castle.
“Aye, happy ter help,” he said, smiling easily, before walking back into the rain towards his home.
—
The rainy weather persisted for weeks, and while many from her home would’ve been horrified that it was allowed to go on like this without any weather teams clearing it up, Sunset found herself actually enjoying it in a sense.
The damp chill was permeating and being felt most everywhere in the castle, but that also meant that the shelters from it, the heat from the fireplaces in the common rooms and dormitories, were all the more cozy- sanctuary from the slowly encroaching cold and dark.
One less pleasant thing about this time was that, perhaps in part thanks to the weather, flu and colds were running rampant, and many students and a few of the staff were walking around with runny noses.
Sunset had realized too late that she was infected, and had come down with one of the sicknesses herself. It didn’t last very long though, since even before Madam Pomfrey had coerced her into drinking her pepperup potion, Sunset used the fact that her body could handle vastly greater temperatures than the virus, heating up her body and purging them all quickly and neatly.
What damage it had done did leave her tired though, and she welcomed an excuse to curl up in an armchair, wrapped in a blanket, in front of the fireplace in the common room. To practice potions she would have had to sit upright, so that was out, but practicing transfiguration and charms only required her waving her wand-arm out of her cocoon, like a textile cephalopod.
“Whatcha doin’?” Dean asked, leaning over the backrest, as the rest of her classmates, sans Harry who was out practicing Quidditch, were filing in from the portrait hole.
“Examining the components of magical formulae, specifically the effect of movement from the caster, in detail,” Sunset said, waving her baton-like wand, then glancing up from underneath her blanket and seeing Dean and Seamus’ blank faces. “By which I mean what effects the swishing has when casting a spell.”
“What do you mean, ‘effect’?” Dean asked. “It… it makes the spell go.”
“'Makes it go’, yes I suppose that’s not incorrect,” Sunset granted, and then considered the two boys for a time.
“What?” Seamus asked.
“Oh, just thinking about stuff. What I could say to you in response to what you just said, whether I should, if that’s good for anyone, or immediately satisfying, and what it would mean if it were, and so on.”
“What are you on about?” Ron asked, as the rest of her classmates settled down into the nearby couches and armchairs.
“Nothing,” Sunset said. “Just that while ‘it makes it go’ is all good and well for understanding magic, I’d recommend being ready to examine things on a deeper level.”
“What’s that got to do with the wand movement?” Hermione asked.
“... Ron, show us Wingardium Leviosa,” Sunset said.
“What?”
“... Oh yeah, you’re right,” Sunset said, remembering Ron’s busted wand, and pointed at the discarded junk lying on the table in front of them. “Lavender. Show us Wingardium Leviosa on that candy wrapper.”
A bit uncertain about what trick Sunset had up her sleeve, Lavender waved her wand and said, “Wingardium Leviosa.”
The candy wrapper floated up into the air, and hovered above the table.
“Right. So it was about a year ago you got the hang of this. Your movements were much slopper this time.”
Lavender shot Sunset a slightly wounded look. “I’ve been practicing other stuff! Other spells.”
“Yep,” Sunset agreed.
“So… you know, it goes without saying it wouldn’t be as good this time.”
“Yes, exactly.”
There was a confused and somewhat tense silence around the table.
Sunset decided to help them along on their way. “And my point is that it still worked. I suspect the reason why it still worked is a subject that will come up in later years.”
All her classmates looked down at their books and wands in confusion, except Hermione, who gave Sunset a long and somewhat intrigued look.
—
Friday meant double potions, which was something Sunset had braced herself for. She just got the feeling that some lingering irk of Snape’s would manifest in a bad mood, but Harry was the lightning rod for Snape’s whims so long as Sunset managed to keep her head down.
Sunset felt that there was something in the air, like a gathering storm, or dozens of frustrated people trying not to be the first one to blow up and make a scene, but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.
Maybe it was discharges of miscast cheering charms evaporating from the walls, or perhaps a nervous cat was always just a corridor ahead of her, but Sunset felt that there was something.
“Madam Shimmer,” a wheezing voice spoke as she exited the potions classroom, making her jump.
She took a breath to calm herself. “Lord Baron,” she said, as her classmates looked at her, wondering what business she might have with Slytherin’s ghost.
“Great is your prowess and laudable are your skills, but the time has come. When one takes freedom from another, the line between justice and crime can be unclear. The… creature… needs its freedom.”
The Baron gave Sunset a small nod, who bowed and floated away through a wall.
She let out a sigh, afraid that he would’ve revealed more about her skills to her classmates, but thankfully it probably wasn’t very bad.
The Baron was right however. Sunset had completely forgotten Peeves.
Her classmates started moving on, glancing back to see if there was anything more revealed, when Draco walked up to her.
“What did he mean?” he asked.
“Uh… just a little side project,” Sunset said, smiling apologetically at him. “Don’t worry about it. Anyway, I guess the feast starts soon. We should probably get rid of our books.”
“Yes. I’ll see you there,” Draco said.
“Yeah, see you,” Sunset said, knowing full well that they sat at different tables.
“What was that about? What needs its freedom?” Harry asked Sunset as she caught up with the rest of her house.
“Ah, nothing,” Sunset said.
“And why are you always chumming with the Slytherins?” Ron said.
“I wouldn’t say I am,” Sunset said, struggling for a way to say that Draco was just following her without being rude about it. “I’m just… going about my own business.”
Ron looked at her cautiously. “Yeah… right.”
Sunset finally realized something. “Hey, why aren’t you all excited?” she asked Ron. “It’s a feast tonight. You love feasts.”
“Can’t go,” Harry said. “Promised Nick we’d attend his death party.
“Oh… uh… that’s interesting,” Sunset said, as tactfully as she could manage. “Uh… get souvenirs.”
“Right,” Ron muttered.
Sunset hurried up to the dormitories ahead of Hermione and the siamese gossip duo, and retrieved the old potions bottle with Peeves squeezed into it from the drawer in her bed’s end table.
“You’re lucky, you know, and probably ungrateful too,” Sunset said, and opened the window, casually dropping the bottle to the stone tiles far, far below. “Enjoy your freedom.”
Over the past year, Sunset had somehow picked up that Harry and Ron weren’t friends with Hermione until Halloween, one year ago, when that changed thanks to the troll incident.
Sunset double checked that her spell that blocked scents was fresh in her mind, in case more trolls showed up.
There were a few more hours until the feast was to begin, and the feeling of tension and unease was still lingering in the castle, even in Gryffindor tower. Sunset looked out the window she had just pushed Peeves’ little habitat out of, and decided to take a walk along the grounds, which were empty despite the weather having cleared up.
She slipped out through the open front gate of the castle, and started prowling along the castle grounds, along the gardens and greenhouses, through overgrown stone patios, around copses of trees, and by the gates leading out of the castle ground.
The tension was easier here, barely perceptible. One option could be to try and ask the Dark Forest, though she suspected that it wouldn’t tell her anything that she didn’t already know.
She wandered, deep in thought, along the banks of the lake, when a fiery red shape streaked past her in the gathering dark of the evening. Sunset congratulated herself on keeping her composure, unlike with the Bloody Baron, and spied out over the surface of the water to see a slightly glowing shape zooming low enough to touch the water, and then ascend again.
Sunset smiled, and called out to it.
“Fawkes!”
A melodic cry was let out, but was aborted after a second, and he banked around and headed towards Sunset, who held out an arm for him.
He landed on it, and trilled in greeting.
“And good evening to you too,” she said, and looked around to make sure she was alone, before conjuring a flame in the palm of her hand that she let the phoenix bask his plumage in. “Are you out hunting?”
Fawkes lightly spread his wings and cried playfully, making Sunset nod in understanding. He did look a little sagged.
“Mmm, getting a little long in the beak then?
Fawkes squawked, and puffed up his plumage.
“Of course you still can, but…” Sunset looked around again. “No one has to know if you got a little help.”
The phoenix gave Sunset a scrutinizing glare, then let out a mumble-like trill.
“Right. Let me just…” Sunset spied around her again, and walked out towards the water.
As she approached the surface, her hair glowed, and the water formed a thick walkway of solid ice for her that she walked on top of.
Some ways out onto the darkened waters, she willed the ice to form into a wider platform, and walked over to the edge, staring down into the depths.
After a moment, Fawkes let out an eager squawk.
“I see it.”
The ways of marine life are complex and fascinating, but the life of a single fish is a fairly simple one. Swim out of your egg, chew at things that are probably food, spit it out again if it turns out to not be food, flee from the unfamiliar and some of the familiar, lay eggs or fertilize eggs, then pass away and turn into food for other aquatic creatures.
There’s more to it than that, but not much, and if it had any more cognisant capacity, it would’ve let out a mildly curious “huh,” the split second it had to react if it was to be flash frozen in the middle of going about its business.
Sunet levitated out the fish, frozen in a sphere of ice, from the water.
“Well, look at that,” Sunset said, floating the ice sphere closer to herself and Fawkes. “Some sort of bass? If there was a sou’wester around, I’d say I’ve earned it.”
Fawkes spread his wings and trilled eagerly.
“Alright, keep your tail feathers on,” Sunset said, and sauntered back to shore. “Do you want it cleaned out or do you take it as-is?”
Fawkes whistled.
“Right. Good. Because I’ve never cleaned a fish before.”
Sunset knocked the surrounding ice from the cold fish, and conjured a fire mid-air underneath the fish, and refocused all the heat towards their catch, cooking it at great speed and dripping boiling juice out of it on the shingle below.
“Like this, right? And a little charred?
Fawkes whistled encouragingly.
“More? Okay.”
Once the bass was almost completely blackened on the outside, Fawkes trilled again.
“Dinner is served.”
Fawkes turned his head and whistled at Sunset.
“Yeah, I suppose it’s time to head back to the feast. And now you have one as well. Here, let me just put a temporary lightening charm on it. It should last up to Dumbledore’s study.”
Fawkes trilled again, and nuzzled Sunset’s cheek.
“Alright, you’re welcome,” she said, smiling. “He wouldn’t neglect you when there’s a feast in the castle, right?”
Fawkes trilled, and lifted off to grab the fish in his talons, and flew away to the castle.
“I thought he wouldn’t,” Sunset said, and walked back towards the Great Hall.
“Hello, Sunset,” Neville said, when she walked up to her classmates sitting around the table, and scooted to the side, making room for her. By the looks of things, she was the last to arrive.
“Thanks,” she said, and sat down next to him.
“So where are the clowns?” Fred asked in the general direction of Sunset’s year.
There was a pregnant pause, before everyone realized what he was talking about.
“Oh, them,” Sunset said, as she grabbed a pumpkin piece appetizer. “Apparently, Nick is throwing a party and they were invited.”
“Huh. Alright,” Fred said, as his sister walked up in almost a daze, sat down next to him, and grabbed a fork and started poking her plate before realizing there was nothing on it. “Hey, Ginny. You look like you’ve been in Professor Kettleburn’s medicine cabinet.”
“Huh? What?” she said, looking up at her brother.
“Ginny,” Percy said on the other side of the twins. “Did you take the potion I gave you?”
“Easy, Perce,” George said. “She did. She needs a feast. We all need a feast. Where is it?”
As if on cue, it materialized in front of them. Sunset almost forgot to inspect the brief display of magic like she had the last few feasts, but she was fairly certain that the food was magically transported from inside the castle.
“Now that’s more like it,” George said, and grabbed a plate of pork, emptying half in his plate, and the other half on Ginny’s.
The buzz of talking around them was replaced by the buzz of eating, and Sunset realized that she was no longer feeling the tension from before. Whatever caused it might have vanished, or the feeling of elation emanating from the people around her was overpowering it, but she was grateful it was gone.
Sunset dug in heartily. Cadence had said that Sunset needed more love in her life, that she needed to show more of it. Sunset disagreed. Sunset had plenty of love, and she showed it, especially to fried potatoes.
“Want some fried potatoes with that?” Parvati said in a smarmy voice, holding out the plate with refills.
“Yes, thank you,” Sunset simply said, and dumped the rest onto her own plate.
“So how come none of us were invited to Nick’s party?” Dean asked. “I bet ghosts really know how to really have a Halloween party.”
“Oh don’t even think about it,” Lavender said, shaking her head. “My great great great great–” she stopped briefly to count in her head”–great great great aunt is a ghost, and trust me, you don’t want ghost food.”
“Okay,” Dean said, shrugging.
Neville was looking around for the pitcher of pumpkin juice, which Sunset grabbed from her side for him.
“Potion of Thirst Quenching?” she offered, making Seamus snigger.
“By the way, ease off on the eating, Sunset,” Lavender suddenly said, a bit sharply.
“Why?” she asked, around the mouth full of food.
“You snore, and it’s worse when you eat a lot,” Parvati said.
Sunset just shrugged. “There are solutions to this, you know.”
“Like what?”
“We’re in a school for magic, you know.”
After the dessert had left the table, McGonagall intercepted a speech from Lockhart, and the student body started pouring out into the corridor, simmering with contentedness.
Sunset was picking her teeth, when suddenly everything was quiet and still.
She craned her neck to see around an older girl, and saw what everyone was staring at.
Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger, all stood frozen, their bodies turned towards the wall, but their heads turned to stare at the silent crowd.
From a torch bracket on the wall, Mrs Norris, Filch’s cat, was hanging by her tail, looking as if she was frozen in place, and above her, in huge letters, were written the words, all in capital letters.
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.
Sunset glanced around. A part of her wanted to elbow her way forward and take a closer look, but a louder part of her insisted to keep her head down, and blend into the crowd.
“Enemies of the heir, beware!” Malfoy read from the crowd on the other side of the corridor. “You’ll be next, Mudbloods!”
Sunset gave him a skeptical look, but for once, thankfully, Malfoy’s attention was somewhere else.
“What’s going on here? What’s going on?” Sunset heard Argus Filch shout, pushing his way through the crowd.
Sunset stepped aside, not looking forward to what was to happen next.
When Filch saw his cat, he stepped back in horror, and Sunset could smell the despair, quickly followed by rage, as he babbled in despair.
“My cat! My cat! What’s happened to Mrs Norris!?
“... You!” he yelled at Harry. “You! You’ve murdered my cat! You’ve killed her! I’ll kill you! I’ll–”
As a wide-eyed Harry was about to take a step back, there was another voice from behind them.
“Argus!”
Sunset turned to see Dumbledore striding towards them, and made more room for him and the cadre of faculty members following him.
Dumbledore briskly walked past everyone in the corridor and took Mrs Norris into his arms.
“Come with me, Argus. You too, Mr Potter, Mr Weasley, Miss Granger.”
Lockhart jumped up with his usual smile, somewhat inappropriate considering the mood of his surroundings. “My Office is nearest, Headmaster, just upstairs, please feel free…”
“Thank you, Gilderoy.”
Dumbledore, Lockhart, McGonagall, and Snape, all left in the direction of Lockhart’s office, while Flitwick stared after them for several moments, before he turned to the students.
“Well, there’s no reason to stand around here, everyone. Bedtime calls,” he said, in a carefully neutral voice.
The sea of students started moving, and Sunset walked deliberately slowly past the source of all this drama, giving the letters a long look as she did.
“Come on,” Lavender said, grabbing Sunset’s arm and pulling her along.
Someone else who was moving slowly was Draco, just a bit ahead of her.
Before he turned around a corner, he caught Sunset’s eye, and an excited smirk grew on his face.
As soon as they were out of earshot of any teachers, the student body exploded in excited and alarmed chatter.
“What was that!?”
“Did you see her hanging like that?”
“Well, of course, everyone hates Filch.”
“But what does it mean?”
“Do you think Potter or Weasley killed Mrs Norris?”
“Watch it, you’re talking about my brother.”
“What’s the Chamber of Secrets?”
“It’s a Slytherin that did it. It’s always a Slytherin.”
“... But don’t hurt the cat.”
“But the three of them were just standing there.”
“Keep in mind that Granger is really skilled. I’ve seen her doing third year transfigurations.”
“I think the whole chamber-business is just to throw people off.”
“We shouldn’t forget the teachers. They’re the most powerful witches and wizards in the castle.”
“Well I’ve heard of the Chamber of Secrets.”
“Hah! Keep an eye out for people acting odd? That’s half the castle.”
With a feast in their bellies weighing them down, the students didn’t stop in the common room to gossip, and instead kept going up the stairs to the dormitories.
Lavender closed the door behind them, and let out a sigh, relieved to be back in the safety of the dorms.
Sunset could understand. There were a few times she really appreciated the luxurious bedroom, with the warm light from the fireplace dancing lightly around, and this night was one of them.
“What do you think happened?” Lavender asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t think Harry or Ron or Hermione did it,” Parvati said.
“No. Especially not Hermione. Even if Harry or Ron wanted to do anything, she wouldn’t let them,” Lavender agreed.
“What do you think, Sunset?”
“I agree,” Sunset said, climbing into bed and reaching for her book. “Besides, I’m guessing Nick will provide an alibi.”
“That’s right,” Lavender nodded eagerly, as she too lay down. “But what happened to Mrs Norris?”
“Frozen in place,” Sunset said, jotting down that as a note for things to research. “Well, goodnight, you two.”
“... Goodnight.”
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Thanks for the chapter. Have to say, this is like the best mlp/Potter crossover on this site and I can't wait for more.
Yessss! An update!!! Thank you
11514757
You're welcome, and thank you too
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Thanks
Nice to see another chapter. I think Sunset would enjoy the study of semiotics.
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And nice to see you commenting
Are you saying that because of the wand scene?
Enjoyed this chapter a lot. The scenes with the thestrals and Hagrid were very nice.
Are the ghosts missing the entertainment from Peeves? Because he wasn’t locked up that long considering the percentage of his existence.
I also liked Sunset’s interaction with Fawkes. That counts as making friends and being friendly helping catch and cook the fish. Small steps?
The Thestrals are always very cute
Updates for this fic always brighten my day.
Now the plot of the second book kicks off. I wonder if Sunset will catch something wrong with Ginny or get petrified before then? She will not miss much and I get the feeling that Sunset may end up much like her fellow housemate and take almost all of the electives.
She forgot about poor Peeves -- that isn't a good thing. Huge respect from Hagrid. Dumbledore might lose a phoenix if he doesn't treat her better, or at least if Sunset's pampering greatly exceeds his.
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Glad to hear it
And, you know, maybe they do. They do nothing but express exasperation about him in the books, but maybe they'd actually miss him if he were to vanish.
And I'd say going fishing together is a bonding experience, yeah
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They are
*Silence*
That's the sound of a thestral saying they love you.
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Seventeen brightened days then. I hope it'll continue doing that
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We only really see Harry's two electives, and while arithmancy is a thing in other franchises, I'm still not sure what it is.
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I hope the scene didn't come across as Dumbledore neglecting Fawkes. Fawkes is getting old, but he insisted that he can still hunt on his own, and Dumbledore indulged him.
Yay! New chapter! Can't wait for my exam to be done so that I can read it!
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Also I noticed this in that segment:
After a moment, Fawked let out an eager squawk.
(Fawked to Fawkes)
As for Dumbledore being too busy for Fawkes in this trying time of the story, it fits with his character. There is a lot going on, and Fawkes can be quite demanding, and Dumbledore doesn't have the energy or time to provide as much attention as Fawkes wants. Sunset on the other hand, is very indulgent of Fawkes. In a way she is the doting grandmother who spoils the children.
I also think Dumbledore has never had to deal with someone else giving attention to his phoenix and takes the relationship a bit for granted like a well-worn shoe.
Missing the word "one", I think.
"Succor" is not quite the right word here--it means help or assistance, rather than shelter, implying a person giving it--although shelter is often the help needed when the word sees use.
Oh dear. Forgive me for this, but working as an editor for an antivirus company for years leaves certain scars.
The plural of virus is viruses. Virii would be the plural of a masculine singular Latin word viria, but no such word exists. If virus were a singular masculine word, viri would be correct, but again it is not; virus in Latin is a neuter mass noun meaning "slime" or "poison", and thus has no correct plural form. Therefore the plural is formed by English rules, which gives us viruses.
Interestingly, in biology, the word is still treated as a mass noun, so Sunset might be said to handle higher temperatures than the virus. In this context, viruses would only be used if there were multiple types of virus at play. When biologists get out their heavy duty microscopes, what they look at are individual virions.
Missing a comma after Quidditch.
An asterisk has usurped the place of a single quote.
The last bit ought to be "and what it would mean if it were," I think, though the latter could easily be justified as informal speech from a non-native speaker.
All that aside, this is marvelous writing. I loved the interactions with Hagrid and Fawkes especially, and I want to call out "textile cephalopod" as a bit of wordsmithing that more than justifies the simile, to those of schools that would seek to eliminate it. And Lavender counting is funnier than it has any right to be. Keep it up!
11514834
It'll be here, waiting for you
11514835
Thanks for the heads-up
That sounds like headcanon to me, although it doesn't contradict anything from actual canon. I like to think Fawkes is well-treated. What is clearly said though is that phoenixes makes very loyal pets, so I think Sunset would be an additional friend, rather than a replacement friend.
11514839
Thanks for the help. I asked google what the plural of virus was, but It wasn't very clear.
That's probably detritus from a restructure. That's where a lot of my typos comes from.
Glad you like it though
Huzzah! New chapter!
11514842
Sunset is Grandma(That headcanon came right from the story in just how she treats the phoenix and how Fawkes treats her). If you want to reinforce Dumbledore with regard to Fawkes, you might want a scene where he sees Sunset interacting with Fawkes, then him interacting with Fawkes afterward.
It is not like we have seen much of him in the story of late. I mean he could even have been watching out for Fawkes when he let Fawkes out to hunt and saw the whole Sunset scene in this chapter. (What is funny is if we had this conversation on an unreleased chapter I probably would have recommended a short Dumbledore scene with Fawkes after the Sunset interaction of this type to mitigate the concerns you had).
Him watching the magic Sunset used here and the way she interacts with Fawkes could have given him some insights as well.
Lol. Spoiled thestrals, only skin and bones because they don’t eat there veggies.
11514853
Ugh, I feel that in my bones.
11514855
The books use Dumbledore's appearances pretty sparingly, and I think that's often a good idea. But yes, Dumbledore will notice more strange things about Sunset, the mysterious around her deepening.
11514854
I hope it's to your liking.
11514857
Luckily there's enough energy and lifeforce in fresh blood for thestrals to get by perfectly well on that. I guess someone should introduce them to blood oranges.
11514894
yes
Awesome, Ithe chamber, in which sunset won't be interested in investigating XD.
11514898
Glad you like it
11514839
That is intentional, for the asterisk uprising is now! My fellow pony, will you join and rise with the asterisk!? Or will you fall and crumble with the quotes?
So Sunset's still trying to figure out how to make herself an alicorn, huh? She's not gonna give up that dream so easily, is she?
11514923
I would but I don't have the moustache to join Asterix in any rebellion.
11514935
It's her life's goal. She's going to be very sad if she has to give that up.
11514822
Numerology is a part of arithmancy. Voldemort planned to make seven horcruxes because of it.
I think it deals with amounts and proportions, their magical significance, etc. Auxiliary for all other classes, like Astronomy.
11514923
I only regret that I have but one asterisk for my country.
11514988
I guess it's a shame that I can't take that class, because I still want to know the significance of the seven keys.
I wonder if Sunset, being as powerful as she is in this world, will ever understand that becoming an alicorn is a process that no one really has full control over. Sunset seems to still be under the impression that she either can, or will be able to control anything she wants with enough knowledge.
11515059
I'm glad you are wondering that, because that's a long-running aspect of the whole story.
Knowledge is power, and Sunset wants power, but unlike a lot of people who want power, she only wants it as the means to an end. If she can get what she wants without it, she would easily ignore or cast aside many kinds of power.
11515081
The immediate contradiction, or Sunset's reaction?
As someone at bronycon VA panel with Rebecca yelled: "We love you, Bacon Hair!"
Very interesting.
11515093
Oops, incomplete quote.
Sunset's reaction.
11515195
Bacon Hair... Sunset Simmer.
11515199
Oh, good to hear. I was hoping for reactions to that part
11514764
Yup. As you've written her, she strikes me as someone who wants to know why.
Poor Sunset, she's accidentally set herself up to be very incriminating! I'd bet she'd take it a bit better than Harry did, though, considering she's some years older than he is (probably not an adult, either now or when she went through- I can't remember if you ever actually said, come to it- but closer to that end, and more cynical than plenty of ponies twice her age, I'd bet). It's still going to be a rough time, though, and also highly annoying, especially since Harry and co. are shown to be... a little bit stupid at this age, both here and in canon. (The fact that everyone stays a little bit stupid well into the series, I entirely blame on who wrote them.)
Draco isn't going to help matters, either, probably leading to further incrimination out of an entirely misplaced "admiration"- I hope that plotline dries up kind of soon, bc something about it makes me a scoonch uncomfortable. Idk if it's bc I dislike him, or what, but it's starting to wear at me a bit... Creepy little boy, glomming onto her like that. The fact that she's actually much older than him probably doesn't help, even if she isn't remotely reciprocal. Maybe I'm projecting a bit too much, finding the prospect of anyone- but especially someone significantly younger- relentlessly pursuing me (especially when I've never shown any particular interest) to be wildly unsettling.
Yeah! Really loving this, glad to have another chapter.
I see friendship is continuing to sneak up on Sunset despite her best efforts.
Did Sunset just made a snack for Fawkes? And why she mentioned Dumbledore?
11515455
Friendly Fawkes the phoenix.
11515551
That, as well as the thing that I was thinking of when I made the comment.
All of her interactions with her quote unquote, colleagues at the feast.
11515341
Yep. She likes magic, and is convinced that really, really understanding magic is how you become an alicorn
11515367
I'm not sure I'd call them stupid, but year 2 is the one where they flounder the most if I recall, chasing red herrings down dead ends and such. Now, I'm actually considering deleting the part where it says that Sunset is suddenly younger as a human, and just leave that as vague as possible, because I'm not sure it's necessary to establish that one way or the other. So she might be 12 years old at this time.
It's a shame if you don't like Draco's contributions in this story, because as I'm planning things right now, he's an important stepping stone for Sunset and the mysteries and insights that will lead her to the conclusion of her quest. And yes, he is a little creep, but if this story plays out well, he's a humanized little creep, rather than a cardboard cut-out of a creep.
And unwanted attention might not be pleasant, and those of us who gets no attention might look at it and say, "Hey, at least it's something."
11515374
Thank you
11515455
It's insidious, like ionizing radiation. If you're in a zone with a lot of it, you can do your best to shield yourself, but it might still creep up on you even if you're very vigilant
11515551
She did promise him fish the last time they met. And she was just making smalltalk with Fawkes about Dumbledore.
I love this :)
11515625
Thank you
11515223
First, Sunset Shimmer, next Sunset Simmer and then Sunset Whistle.
11514757
Really good, but there is also School of Wizardry and Ponies, but it wasn't updated for years.
Sweet Celestia, people are gonna assume Sunset is releasing the basilisk later on because of this comment, aren’t they?
11515962
Yeah, the timing of the Baron's comment could've been better
11515584
I don't actually get attention; I'm just deeply put off by the idea of it. I'm a socially anxious person, though, and also aroaspec.
I mean, Sunset being physically younger is something that I knew; it doesn't actually change anything, though. Mentally she's implied to be older, which is part of what makes me uncomfortable. Not that Draco has any way of knowing this, or that she's at all reciprocal; Draco is mostly just a means to an end to her that she tolerates occasionally in order to further her aims of learning about the society she has found herself in, as well as possibly acquiring resources... unfortunately, this has the downside of making her seem suspicious to people who are somewhat understandably yet still unfairly biased towards Slytherins and their ilk. (Always hated how one-dimensional the Slytherins wound up being in the series; in hindsight, that woman wasn't very good at writing a complex and nuanced story with complex characters- or at least wasn't very good at handling them. That much evidently has not changed, not that I'd touch anything else she's written with a fifty-foot pole.)
And now it begins....
11516135
The month of March? Not quite yet.
11516048
Well now I'm curious, when you say that it makes you uncomfortable, do you mean that you emphasize with Sunset, imagining yourself in her shoes and feeling the awkwardness she's feeling around Draco, or do you mean uncomfortable as in this makes the story absolutely disgusting, and the author is going beyond the pale with this filth? Because I've seen the term used in the later context a lot lately.