Harry Potter and the Prancing of Ponies

by The Guy Who Writes

Chapter 27: Going Through the Motions

"Better," Mr. Book declared. "You are beginning to anticipate the probes. I think that is enough for the day."

Fatigued, but his false personality still intact after the lesson for the first time since they began, Silver asked, "When do we begin Legilimency?"

"We could begin now," said Mr. Book. "But it is most efficiently learned after achieving perfect Occlumency, which you have not yet done. If you are asking for variety, perhaps we could advance to Apparition tomorrow. Yes, I am aware of your age. Remember who imposed that limit, and how much you should respect them. With proper instruction, it can safely be learned by wizards of age fifteen, and your magic is now that powerful. You passed the threshold not long ago."

Silver nodded, then began recharging the portkey that brought him here. The portkey that would take him home was, of course, already recharged.

"Before you go," Mr. Book said in a cautionary tone, "I have an update on the two who might be able to expose us if we are ignorant or negligent. The Elements of Honesty, present and former, can only detect deception. They cannot distinguish truth from falsehood. They can see intent, regardless of facial expression or tone of voice. You must be even more careful."

"I know," said Silver. "Your warning is a little late. Applejack and Rarity had a sleepover with Twilight, and I was forced to play a round of truth or dare with them. Nothing important wass revealed. What progresss have you made to ssave girl-child-friend?"

"I have acquired accesss to oldesst library in thiss country. Am ressearching ass we sspeak, but accesss iss limited. Will take perhapss a year to read through it all. Will likely find promissing lead in lesss than one month, unlesss library containss none at all. Have already found leadss in library about other asspectss of my ambitionss."

Silver sighed. "Fine."

And now that the tutoring session was over...

"By the way, I have an update of my own. Now that I'm done with pegasus magic, I've been thinking about our actual problems." He almost couldn't believe he was saying this, but... "First, I have an idea for your great creation."

Some time ago, Mr. Book had asked him to attempt to imagine sensible Horcrux ideas – things that would make for good fail safes and additions even beyond the resurrection stone and the pioneer plaque.

In return for that advice, if Silver could give it, Mr. Book had promised his assistance in destroying all Dementors – transport and political support, if not magical power.

Mr. Book would take him where he knew Dementors resided, starting with Azkaban, and he would protect him from the aftermath, including the guards that might try to arrest him, the politicians that might try to prosecute him, and the public that might try to shame him. Mr. Book would also do his honest best to prevent the magical world from falling into chaos after losing their longest and most ironclad prison security system.

Silver had been hesitant to agree to the deal.

Mr. Book had once again reassured him, through Parseltongue promise, that any murders utilizing his ideas would save net lives. Good, innocent lives, as Mr. Book imagined Silver imagined them. The person/pony being killed would be a menace to society, guaranteed to be a danger/menace to others in the future because they are a danger/menace to others in the present.

Mr. Book had, apparently, made many horcruxes from the deaths of dark wizards during his worldly travels, and he would do the same with any of Silver's ideas, regardless of circumstances. IF Silver could offer anything Mr. Book hadn't already considered.

Once his Gryffindor and Hufflepuff parts decided that the deal was morally acceptable, and his Slytherin and Ravenclaw parts agreed it was practically important to get help with Dementors, he had allowed his mind to take that "if" as a challenge.

He had thought about this problem, and others, for the last few weeks.

Now that he had discarded the stupid ideas and refined the best ones...

"Have you thought of horcruxing your wand?" Silver suggested.

It was the only useful idea that Mr. Book might not have considered himself, because maybe he'd always used his own wand to do the horcruxing.

"It's already connected to your life and magic," Silver explained, "so Dementors would be able to drain you through it either way. It wouldn't be an additional point of vulnerability. The main benefit is that it would turn your wand into a Thing of Power, as the headmaster put it, and that would make it invincible to everything but Fiendfyre, I think. Right?"

"Not quite," Mr. Book shook his head. "There are a few rare and obscure means of destruction," he lectured. "Like basilisk venom, certain goblin-forged weapons, and, I suspect, nuclear explosions. But those are far less practical than Fiendfyre."

"Did you think of thiss idea yoursself?" Silver hissed.

"No."

"Is the ssuggestion good enough?"

"Perhapss. Perhapss not. Did you have any other ideas?" Mr. Book asked neutrally. "Aside from an indestructible wand?"

"Sort-of," Silver shifted uncomfortably. It was far less likely to succeed. Mr. Book probably has already thought of it. But still... "If you could cast a broomstick enchantment on your horcruxed wand, you might be able to move it around at will, so you'd be magical and mobile even if the resurrection stone failed."

The resurrection stone was the current biggest vulnerability in Mr. Book's setup. Even if his horcruxes are in better places now. Unless the very act of horcruxing the stone imposed a permanent change on the system (which hopefully wasn't the case), destroying the resurrection stone would set him back to the point where he'd get trapped in his devices if his body dies. And since the resurrection stone is on the other side of the mirror, he might even find this idea immediately useful. As it stands, his death would remove his freedom of movement until the moment he possesses a pony. Probably.

Unless, of course, he added a broomstick-wand-horcrux to his list of backup plans. Then, maybe, he might still be able to move around. Even, possibly, if he stayed within his devices. And he'd be able to bring his wand back with him through the mirror, in theory, so it wouldn't be a wasted effort even in the long run.

"Broomstick enchantments cannot be put on wands," Mr. Book denied.

Silver's pessimistic brain, long used to disheartening research results, heaved a weary sigh.

"But the idea might work for a broomstick horcrux in general."

Silver's optimistic brain, long used to finding the silver linings, gave a relieved sigh.

"As for a wand horcrux..." Mr. Book's eyes were distant. "I will think about it."

"What of your promissed aid?" Silver asked.

"You have earned it," Mr. Book hissed back.

Silver allowed his relieved sigh to reach his lips. "Good."

"Was that all?"

"Two more ideas," Silver said. "Hopefully at least one will work. First, I was thinking about what you said earlier about muscle memory."

Mr. Book had claimed that their bodily habits would probably betray them when they returned, including hoof (i.e. wand) movements.

One of the reasons Mr. Book was focusing so heavily on wandless magic was because the skill would transfer regardless of the body he wears. Another reason was that many spells were currently inaccessible to Silver (from a learning standpoint) due to the complex finger movements required. Both of them could currently cast any spell they already knew beforehand, but Silver couldn't learn any new ones if they required finger movements. Mr. Book couldn't either, in theory, but the only spell Silver knew how to cast that Mr. Book couldn't was the Patronus Charm. Which, admittedly, was one of the most finger-intensive spells out there. But Mr. Book probably didn't care about that. He cared about how the muscle memory and finger problems impacted Silver.

There were many good spells he wasn't learning because he didn't have fingers, and a good portion of the progress he'd made over the past months would likely be ruined after his reversion to a human. Mr. Book would be affected as well, but he was somewhat used to it, thanks to his animagus experience. For Silver, who didn't have that experience, it would be worse, and it would only get worse the longer Silver got used to his new body without human reference.

Finally, there was the problem that the mirror might not even revert their forms upon their return. If it didn't, they should be able to Transfigure their bodies back into humans. On the off chance some magic prevented them from doing that, Mr. Book could still become human through his horcrux system. He could create a new body, then move his 'soul' into it. Silver didn't have that option, and wouldn't ever have that option if he 'continued to maintain his moral quibbles'.

Long story short, there was a chance he'd be stuck as a pony forever.

He'd thought about all this, considering ideas and discarding almost all of them. In the end, he'd been left with only one that might be immediately helpful. Once he'd flown under his own wing power as a pegasus (and rather swiftly at that), his brain was no longer hung up on the idea of a peregrine falcon for...

"Do you think it might be possible for me to become a human animagus?" he asked. "You know, just in case the mirror doesn't change me back when we go back?"

Mr. Book began laughing. Silver had to wait a surprisingly long time for it to die down.

"Is that a 'no'?"

"Oh no." Mr. Book was still chuckling. "It might be possible. I just find it extremely amusing. To become the first human animagus in history..." He seemed to compose himself. "Let's just say I hope it can be done. If it can, you will have earned my favour for suggesting it. What was your final idea?"

His final possibly-viable-idea had to do with the original deal he'd made with Lord Voldemort. In particular, he realized he still needed to bypass/fix Obliviation and the Cruciatus.

It was only the crudest of speculation, based on the only ritual he knew all the details about. But...

"I only had one example to base it off of, the Unbreakable Vow, so my guess about ritual magic could be completely off, but would it be possible to design a ritual that sacrifices a new memory in order to relive an obliviated one? Like, suppose you obliviated someone of fifteen minutes of memory. This ritual puts them into a coma for fifteen minutes, and they spend that time reliving what you Obliviated, rather than making a new memory. That's their sacrifice – they lose the potential to make a new memory for as long as it takes to relive the old one."

If it's possible to sacrifice the potential for trust, it's possible to sacrifice abstract concepts. That's the reasoning his brain had adopted.

He was unsure of the logic. He wasn't an experienced ritualist.

"Is that a sufficient sacrifice by the standards of rituals?" he asked the actually experienced ritualist. "Or am I way off?"

There was a long pause in the cavern.

"That was, perhaps, one of the worst things you could have said to me."

Mr. Silver did not miss the threatening undertone... but he had to ask, "What did I do wrong this time?"

"You put me in a bad mood."

"How?"

"By providing a sensible solution."

And the thestral vanished in a pop of Apparition, leaving a bewildered pegasus behind.

Silver never was told the reason for the bad mood, but he was later warned by Mr. Book that the ritual he'd suggested would, in all likelihood, restore all Obliviated memories in one session. If that session – i.e. the coma – lasted longer than a few days, it would be dangerous. If it lasted years, it would be deadly unless carried out in St. Mungos, where comatose wizards could be kept alive indefinitely – until old age took them, or they succumbed to some other illness.

The ritual might also undo the memory-sealing variant of Obliviation, which is something of a security concern. In the department of magical law enforcement, memory sealing their own employees is standard practice when specialists – like, say, magical device experts – have to be brought in to consult on classified cases – like, say, anything have to do with Time Turners.

Silver's suggested ritual is dangerous, Mr. Book summarised, because nobody can ever know how much of their life's memory has been obliviated/sealed. It could be zero minutes, or it could be whole months. And memories are always taken for a reason – often nefarious, sometimes necessary. Undoing Obliviation without knowing the full story could be very risky indeed.

At that point, Silver sarcastically asked if there are any rituals that aren't dangerous or risky.

Mr. Book said he wasn't making excuses not to invent the ritual – he intended to do that either way.

He only wished for Silver to beware what he brings into existence and who he shares it with.

---

The fall days flew forward until winter fell upon all of Equestria.

When school let out (pegasi get long winter breaks, earth ponies get long summer breaks, unicorns get scattered breaks) Silver had to bring his own classes to an end.

The final lesson of his tutoring had not been the final class. He'd hosted many sessions after the day of the blow-up between Scootaloo and Rainbow. Those sessions mostly served as supervised practice for the slower students to catch up.

On the final Monday of the school year he declared that he would be hosting a new set of sessions in the spring, starting at square one. Whoever hadn't made it all the way up to air-bucking would have to wait until the new set of sessions wrapped around again.

He explained how they should practice everything else they learned in the meantime so they'd only have to go to one more lesson. Better that than waste time and money just to be told that they weren't ready for air-bucking yet and they need to go to the stadium to practice, like they've been told for the past few weeks.

For the most part, his pegasus lessons had been a success. Approximately 40% of his class could now air buck, and the rest had managed the air cushion at least once, not to mention everything else that came before it.

In all parts, his school lessons had been a success. He'd caught up to his peers thanks to Coach Formation's flight and weather tutoring, he'd impressed his creative course teachers (Gym, Library, Art, and Music), and he'd aced his Social Studies class without even trying.

For the most part, his wizarding lessons had been mildly successful, a grade of A+ or EE- by Mr. Book's standards. Silver had learned how to brew a number of potions. He had gotten much better at noticing his own magic whenever he was using it. He had learned wandless Apparition, Perfect Occlumency, and fledgling Legilimency.

He had learned the variant of the memory charm that allows you to lock memories away instead of erasing them. It had taken a good deal of mental effort to learn; it was more directed, more targeted, than simple Obliviation.

Silver wanted to learn it because if he did have to wipe a pony's memory (if they saw him casting a spell), better to do it reversibly, in case his ritual idea didn't work out. Mr. Book wanted to teach it because it built mental habits that lend well to learning the false memory charm. Though that charm, along with memory extraction/modification and the Pensieve potion, were going to be learned after Legilimency.

He'd also learned some utility charms, like Accio (a good spell for wandless wizards), Colloportus (so he didn't have to just rely on the physical lock of his room to keep Twilight from bursting in on a practice session), and Tempus. He had, at first, complained when he'd been told the time-keeping spell would replace his wristwatch, and thus he would no longer be allowed to wear it. Mr. Book pointed out that a watch to a wizard is like a calculator to a mathematician. It is a crutch that, while convenient and useful in the short term, gets in the way of competence in the long run. A wandless Tempus is faster and subtler than a glance at a watch.

Most importantly of all, he had reached Perfect Occlumency. Out of everything, that was probably the most difficult to get down before Winter came. It was thanks to Social Studies – his one ordinary, boring school class – that he made it before Mr. Book's arbitrary deadline. Studying a new society had been initially interesting. But then he began outpacing his fellow students. In recent weeks, it was only tolerable due to 'mental multitasking', a technique he'd been taught during his Perfect Occlumency lessons.

He pretended to be an attentive student, keeping that persona at the forefront of his mind. He had treated his teacher's words like Legilimency probes, racing ahead and anticipating them. Having nothing else to do in the class gave him plenty of time to practice.

As a part of him paid token attention to the teacher, the rest of him was able to think about other things. Vastly more important things. Like Hermione. But his brain kept running into dead ends on that front.

After his brain got tired of losing, it occasionally moved on to other topics, and that's how he'd had the time to think of possibly workable ideas that even Mr. Book hadn't considered. It's also how he became a Perfect Occlumens in time. But apparently that wasn't as significant as it sounded.

He had been told, just as he was about to celebrate, that there are degrees of skill even among Perfect Occlumenses. At his current skill level, if a Legilimens attempts to enter his mind, they could probably tell that Silver's thoroughly-composed personality isn't real. A Legilimens can pick up on behavioral cues, match them to the inner personality they see, and if there are any inconsistencies, that suggests they're probing a potential Perfect Occlumens.

Not to mention, if Silver was randomly Legilimised in the future when he wasn't expecting it, he might react in a way that gave him away, even if it were just a slight widening of his eyes. And so, Mr. Book would be Legilimising him at random points in the future, to make sure that he was always paying attention, that his barriers never slacked and were always ready. Silver had assumed this meant he would be tested during future lessons.

The very next day, when he sat in the school library on Wednesday, the last day before winter break...

"Um... are you Silver Wing?"

Silver looked up from his book, beholding what looked like an ordinary eight-or-nine-year-old pegasus filly. "Yup. You here to sign up for my next round of lessons?"

"Um... actually, I had a question about something else?"

"What is it?"

A legilimency probe ALMOST bypassed his barriers.

"Why was I almost able to do that?" asked the same young-filly voice, now in Mr. Book's typical cadence, which was rather disconcerting.

Yeah. Fun. But he couldn't complain that he hadn't been warned.

He resolved in that moment to pay careful attention to his occlumency personality whenever he talked to another pony or person. Period. No exceptions.

Later that same day, when he was practicing spells in his locked room-

"Seriously," said Mr. Book's normal voice after ANOTHER legilimency probe nearly succeeded. "Are you even TRYING?"

The piercing, blue-slitted eyes had appeared directly in front of him out of nowhere, right in the middle of a spell cast, when his attention was quite elsewhere.

Now he was trying to get into the habit of always paying close attention to his pretended personality, but it wasn't easy.

It helped that he had a time-turner and therefore six extra hours each day to practice. It also helped that he had the world's best Legilimens as a tutor.

He is getting better.

His real problem – and this had been his problem from the very beginning – is that he isn't making genuine progress. By his own standards, it didn't feel like he was living up to his potential. He isn't striving to accomplish any of his major ambitions. At least, none of the ones that had tangible end-goals. And especially not the most important one.

Even back when he was researching pegasus magic, it had felt like he was going through the motions. He had bursts of excitement, instances of emotions, but an undertone of emptiness coloured everything in grey.

Until the day a certain bird came to Ponyville.

---

At first, Silver assumed it would simply be one of those days.

And at first, it was.

He had taken to calling them 'friendship' days, where he didn't interfere because the ruler of the land had once told him not to.

They happened from time to time. As far as he could tell, they only happened in Ponyville. He'd gone around Cloudsdale telling stories about typical Ponyville experiences and asking if those things were common. He'd received many incredulous stares, scoffs of disbelief, and from the few ponies who didn't dismiss him, he learned that, no, that sort of thing didn't happen in Cloudsdale, or anywhere else for that matter, and was he really being serious?

A phrase Professor McGonagall had once used to describe him came to mind. Ponyville, like Hogwarts, was some sort of chaos magnet. A rather contradictory notion, given that the Elements of Harmony live there. Early on, Silver had learned to go to his room whenever a friendship day came along, if he could get away with it.

Today's friendship lesson involved Fluttershy trying to help a dying bird. According to Twilight, it was Celestia's pet, though Twilight also says she didn't know her mentor had a pet before that day.

That was the moment he knew it would be one of those days.

He had been tempted to go to his room and wait it out... but there was something about the bird that nagged at him. The occasional sideways glance it gave him, which he could've just imagined. The feeling of magic despite the half-dead outward appearance, which could also have been his imagination. It nagged at him enough that he decided to stay in the main room of the library, but not enough to stop him from reading a book.

Soon enough, the bird escaped and he followed Twilight and Fluttershy through the town as they searched for it. It was only when the bird burst to ash that Silver understood the nagging.

Could THIS be the realm that they ORIGINALLY come from? he thought. Professor Quirrell said they came into our realm from a realm invoked in the mirror, right?

Soon enough, Celestia arrived, told her familiar to stop fooling around, and the rest of the town learned what Silver had already inferred: Celestia's pet was a phoenix.

Eventually, once the lesson was learned, everything began to calm down.

Silver didn't particularly agree with Twilight's moral of 'ask before taking matters into your own hooves'.

Once upon a time, he had tried asking for help before taking things into his own hands. He had asked multiple times, in fact.

Now he has a dead friend due to that stupidity.

Almost like she were responding to that thought, Philomena the phoenix flew like a homing missile across the town square, coming to a hover just in front of him.

A piercing cry filled the air, so loud that many ponies covered their ears.

NOW.

Silver staggered backward.

Not at the shock of the sound.

Not at the imperative in the call.

And not quite out of surprise or startlement.

Stunned realisation was what had made him waver on his hooves.

Immediately after, one thought screamed through his mind.

WHAT have I been DOING?

"Philomena, no!" the ruler of Equestria scolded her pet. "You mustn't ask such things of young colts."

"No," said Silver.

He stood to full height, like he was finally picking up a weight of responsibility that he'd been dragging behind him all this time. He felt like he was putting it on his shoulders, carrying it properly, like he should have been doing all along.

"No, she's right." He turned to face his caretaker. "Sorry Twilight, but I need to go do something I never should've put off. I don't know when I'll be back. And on the off chance I don't come back, thanks for everything."

Determination, Destination, De-

"PHILOMENA!"

He appeared in the hideout without finishing his Apparition.

"Emergus. Mahasu."

That done, he turned to look at his back. "I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, but you're still Celestia's familiar, right?"

"Caw."

"You're just here to help with this one thing?"

"Caw!"

"Thought so."

He could no longer get a phoenix of his own because he knew of the choice. But it seemed that a phoenix could still choose to help.

While he waited for Mr. Book to appear, he searched the cavern for anything that might be of use. A workstation where the stone of permanence was being researched, perhaps.

But the only desk-like station he found held a stack of books completely unrelated to magic.

He knew they were unrelated to magic because he recognized the titles.

He was having a hard time believing his eyes.

Pop.

"Growing impatient, Mr.-" the sardonic voice began, but cut itself off.

"Yes, I am. And I can't believe I'm doing this now, but I have to ask. How did my books get here? Didn't you say they didn't come with me?"

Mr. Book eyed the phoenix with keen interest. "I did. But I never said that they did not come at all. They did come with me."

"Um... how?"

"Magic."

Silver sat down. Put his head in his hooves.

"That response has served me well. Thank you for teaching it to me. In return for that kindness, I trust you will forgive me for bribing one of your fellow Ravenclaws to bypass the wards on your trunk, sneak into the bottom compartment, and copy down the titles of your books onto a sheet of parchment. I then gave that list to a different, materially resourceful muggleborn and offered one-hundred Quirrell points if he could acquire the whole list before the school year's end. I also gave him two-hundred galleons to cover costs and said he could keep the change if he rushed."

Silver pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay, I can understand that much. But why and how was the entire collection on you when we were trapped?"

"I intended to leave Hogwarts that day. Everything of import was 'on me', with a few exceptions. Ancient magical tomes, for example, are to be kept on bookshelves, with only an empty space to show where they are. Muggle books can be kept on one's person, in space charms, with little to fear."

Silver saw the implication right away. "So... just how much stuff were you wearing when we were trapped?"

"Not much that would interest you. A car battery, which I remembered from your first battle. A few other pieces of muggle technology. Mostly magical items, or things from my tenure as defense professor. And your books, of course. That used up most of my space." He wore a slight frown, and when he spoke again, his voice sounded annoyed. "The student responsible for acquiring them did not do so in a timely manner. He delivered them all at once, in the last week of school. It forced me to haul them all on my final departure, rather than my earlier ventures from the grounds. He earned his house points, but I did not allow him to keep any money, and I took pleasure in his Obliviation." A sigh. "But I suppose it did work out for the best."

"Is there-?" Silver began, but was cut off by another-

"Caw!"

"Sorry. You're right. I'm just procrastinating again. On the plus side, I can ask if he brought a defibrillator?"

"I did not." Again, that keen interest. "Is that bird why you have called me here?"

"More like, she made me realise I should have done this from the start. I don't think I'll be leaving 'till it's over. So, first question. What have you tried with the Stone of Permanence so far?"

Comments

[Bobbles]

Now that I'm caught up, I'd like to say that I have not seen any characterization issues that jumped out at me like the one in my previous comment. With that out of the way...

I've been enjoying this story!

And... ...are you suggesting that Philomena can Phoenix-Fire them back out of the mirror? That is going to be an interesting escape plan if so. 👀 Or, is the Phoenix' call being invoked for something other than his quest to end the scars of the world?

[Booster Spice]

Do anti teleport by whatever means wards cover temporal, dimentional and probabilities?

How bad a joke do you have to tell a pheonix to make it cry?

Mr Book brought a car battery, but did he bring the ignition coil , or they have enough soft iron, copper, silver or gold wire for windings and waxed paper or fabric or shellac/enamel for insulation? Then again, thats only for outside the skin. A Taser, through the skin, is vastly more capable.

[The Guy Who Writes]

10889562
The 'on the off-chance I don't COME back' line was Harry's pessimistic brain wondering if his wish being fulfilled would untrap-him from the mirror. He was just giving the pony in the vicinity he cared about the most a heads-up.

[Poparakelis]

"More like, she made me realise I should have done this from the start. I don't think I'll be leaving 'till it's over. So, first question. What have you tried with the Stone of Permanence so far?"

???

[Black--Soul]

A great overview of skills learned, but i wonder... what is going on now... exactly?