Chapter 56: The House Cup and the Wisdom of Wizardry
Every year at Hogwarts is concluded by the leave-taking feast, and almost every leave taking feast is occupied by students talking about their summer schedules, planning to meet up, or simply saying goodbye. (The seventh year witches are especially tearful in theirs.) A bit of gloating from the Quidditch Cup and House Cup victors is also to be expected, of course.
This year, however – the year that would come to be remembered as the first year the Boy-Who-Lived came to Hogwarts – deviated greatly from the norm in many ways, and the leave-taking feast was no exception.
To start, there was a much wider range of conversation than the typical boring topics. Many students would go hungry later that night, as they had gone hungry earlier that day.
The topic of Voldemort's vanquishment had been exciting enough to prevent students from finding time to eat during breakfast, and although Headmistress McGonagall's promotion and the reveal of the Defense Professor's 'secret identity' happened immediately after all breakfast foods vanished from the table, discussions about it – and about 'David Monroe' in particular – had lasted all the way through lunch.
Now at dinner, even despite what must have been higher-than-average hunger, tomatoes and ponies and the Wizengamot were the topics of the moment. Students were still distracted from eating.
Even the ordinarily ravenous Gryffindors did not dig in, for they had front-row seats to the Weasley Twin celebration. Those two helped break a Hogwarts record that year: a new historical low of negative points.
They sang "For we're some jolly good losers" as the House Elves brought forth a cake bearing special candles shaped like numbers, with a floating minus sign in the same style, which actually allowed them to exactly spell out how many points they'd personally helped Gryffindor to lose. Almost two thousand throughout the entire year, they boasted.
(They included every point lost by Gryffindor tomato throwing, of course, since they were in some part 'responsible' for every single tomato. By that logic they were responsible for points lost from ALL houses in that particular activity, but nobody mentioned it, not even the two celebrators.)
The Weasleys claimed that they honestly couldn't see why some of their house mates were not impressed.
Other houses did not have to deal with the Weasleys directly, but they had their own distractions, especially Slytherin House, which was still hosting various heated debates about 'David Monroe'. Hushed heated debates, lest their words reach the ears of the man himself, though the children were too foolish to realize he could certainly hear them regardless of how softly they spoke.
Members of Ravenclaw House were the only ones who actually ate full meals due to their house rule. "No pestering during mealtimes" was recited many times that night. Students of that house are in the habit of eating as quickly and efficiently as possible in order to have some time for conversation afterwards.
Everyone else might have been planning to scarf some amount of sustenance while the victor of the House Cup was being officially announced-
A chiming of a spoon on glass dinged through the air, loudly enough that it must have been amplified.
"Attention, my young apprentices," said the voice of 'David Monroe' over the babble, which quickly died down at his polite request. "Before the House Cup is officially won by Hufflepuff, I have a few final points to bestow. My condition prevented me from awarding them last night."
This produced a brief burst of yet more babbling that quickly died down in response to metal-on-glass chiming that was much louder this time. Some of the babble, in the brief moments it had been allowed to happen, were shouts of indignation from Hufflepuff.
"Professor," said Headmistress McGonagall, sounding at once authoritative and apprehensive.
She had reprimanded him about the Wizengamot debacle when she heard of it, at least until she heard that he might have been placed under the Imperius. That threw her off-base. If, before, she did not know how to properly sanction that accursed and untouchable (and secretly her favourite) Defense Professor, now she is well and truly lost. Her standard appeal to authority has no effect on the man.
"Don't worry, Headmistress," Professor 'Monroe' assured her. "I do not intend to change the outcome at the last minute. That would hardly be proper. Besides, Mr. Potter has already refused to accept any House Points for the events of last night. He considers it unfair to win points for strange, heroic things that nobody else could possibly do. After all, how could Cedric Diggory, or Robert Jugson, or the Weasley Twins ever have the opportunity to exploit a dangerous, destructive, anti-harmonic resonance that only they share with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"
This produced a few whispers that were not so loud that 'Monroe' felt the need to silence them with chiming again.
"But the events of last night still require recognition," said 'Monroe', causing the whispers to dwindle on their own. "First, without changing the House Cup outcome, I award Mr. Potter two-hundred points for Ravenclaw-" a statement which confused many students and outraged many Hufflepuffs, for that did change the outcome, "-immediately followed by a one-hundred point deduction." Which didn't change the outcome.
Many students were still confused, however. And many professors as well. One professor was simply frowning.
"In January," said the Defense Professor of Hogwarts in the precise tones of a competent lecturer, "Mr. Potter performed a feat of magic that was not a result of his being the Boy-Who-Lived. Without Dumbledore's help or mine, Mr. Potter discovered the truth about the Patronus charm. It was a truth any of you might have discovered, if you were brave enough to face Dementors, and clever enough to distrust what your eyes and ears perceived when you looked upon them, and smart enough to uncover their true nature, and happy enough to oppose them regardless. Mr. Potter did a thing that any of you could have done, in theory. It was not something exclusive to the Boy-Who-Lived. And furthermore, it was an impressive feat of magic. Neither myself nor Dumbledore had ever imagined it to be possible until it was done before our very eyes, the feat of magic many of you witnessed last night, capable of blocking a Killing Curse. Thus do I award Ravenclaw House two-hundred true House Points. It was an excellent display of problem-solving, an example which would have done proud to all four founders of Hogwarts, especially Rowena, and even done proud to Merlin himself. Congratulations, Mr. Potter. As I said, it deserves two hundred points to Ravenclaw."
He allowed the enthusiastic cheers from Ravenclaw house to go on for a while.
The man sighed heavily, his voice cutting through the excited babble. "And then Mr. Potter proceeded to flaunt the discovery to the world last night, an act which would have embarrassed Merlin himself, if it weren't for the unique circumstances of the situation. Simple emergency was not that circumstance, but I digress. On general principles, you must never follow his example, my apprentices."
"I agree one-hundred percent," said the voice of the Boy-Who-Lived from the Ravenclaw table.
He was the subject matter, the person being recognized, and yet it still took seconds for students to locate him. Everyone was wearing hats, so his shock of black hair was not readily available as an identifier.
"Please," said Harry Potter, standing on his bench seat, "for the love of Merlin, if you discover something big and important, don't tell the world about it. It's like what happened at the start of the year in Potions class. Don't disrupt class for personal reasons, no matter how much you want to. Do the appropriate thing and bring it up with the headmistress in private. When it comes to amazing discoveries, the appropriate thing is to keep it to yourself until you have an apprentice who's worthy enough to learn it. Don't brag about it. Don't talk about it. Don't use it where others can see. Don't even use it as a last resort. Sure I stopped the Dark Lord, but doing it that way would have been a mistake if not for our new pony overlords. Even-" the rest of that sentence was lost in the wave of words coming from the sea of students around him.
"While I appreciate the humor," said the dry voice of the Defense Professor, which rose above the extremely mixed responses to the statement, "please try to refrain from scaring our poor country any more than you already have. And please stick to the point, Mr. Potter."
The child looked as though he was trying not to laugh. "If you insist," he sighed, his voice now amplified. "So. To sum up. Even if it's to save a bunch of lives, even if it's to save the whole country, you have to be very careful about revealing powerful magic. Because in the end, the fate of one country doesn't outweigh the fate of the whole world. Got it?"
There was a heavy pause.
"Heed his words, my young apprentices, my fellow professors," said the Defense Professor. "Especially my young muggleborn apprentices. I apologize for calling you out as a group, for not all of you deserve it, but it must be done regardless. This day, you have seen the wisdom of politics, military, and virtue. Now you must understand the wisdom of wizardry: the arts of caution and restraint. Without it you put others at stake, not only yourselves. Those of you born to wizard parents should not need this lecture. You already know. You have already learned. When a powerful wizard says that you must not go further, when they say that you must not talk about what you have seen, then you do not question him if you want to live. It doesn't matter if that wizard is one hundred years old or eleven. If he has found it acceptable to demonstrate powerful and unknown magics to you, you listen to his edicts regarding that magic and you do not argue. Mr. Potter made his discovery in January and kept it to himself. Myself and Dumbledore were unavoidable witnesses, which happens sometimes, given that we don't live in a perfect world. Mr. Potter had the excellent forethought to tell us that we were not ready to know the truth, and I had to prevent Albus Dumbledore from prying further. Even the strongest wizards in the world are not immune to temptations of curiosity and pride. I hope that you grow to be wiser than the headmaster. Am I understood?"
There were a few murmurs of agreement, especially from Slytherin. Headmistress McGonagall looked indignant, but said nothing, only huffed. The other houses, especially Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, were in quite clear disbelief-
"If I had not stopped Dumbledore from prying, Voldemort might have learned of the secret, and the world might have ended. By widespread use of unblockable Dementors. Am. I. Understood?"
There was unanimous agreement from all four houses, even if the words expressing that agreement were different, overlapping into incomprehensibility for a few seconds.
"Good," said the Defense Professor. "The cleverest and most skeptical among you will have already noted that I have not followed my own advice. After all, I stupidly stated in a blatant and public fashion that I now possess the Elder Wand. Rest assured, my young apprentices, like Mr. Potter I had a good reason for revealing my own secret, with factors that mitigate the downsides. That said, if any of you wish to assassinate me and steal it," he grinned evilly, "you're welcome to try. I'll even put a bounty of a thousand Monroe points on my own head. I look forward to your creativity."
There were murmurings and wonderings to the effect of 'Wait, is he actually serious?', the Headmistress most of all.
At least one wizard in the room knew that he was serious, although that same wizard was not so stupid as to make an attempt. He wasn't a student, so the only reward would have been the Elder Wand. Which is reward enough, to be fair. Many other Slytherin adults would be thinking the same thing, given enough time. But it was a hopeless ambition.
"Just ensure that your attempts aren't too messy," 'Monroe' cautioned. "Collateral damage will be punished by Hogwarts regulation, and by the Wizengamot if it's bad enough. Trying to kill me is fine. I shall simply forgive the blood debt incurred by attempted murder, if it somehow makes it that far through the legal system. Hurting anybody else in your attempts, however, is unacceptable."
The Defense Professor then allowed murmurs of conversation for a time. There were many, especially at the Slytherin table now that it was clear he was serious.
"Now," the man continued after a single snap of his fingers that silenced everything else, "onto the final matter of justice. As I said, Mr. Potter has refused to accept true house points for his defeat of Voldemort. Therefore, I am awarding Mr. Potter in particular, not Ravenclaw House, nine hundred and thirty-eight theoretical house points. And seeing as that would theoretically put him at a tie with the current winners..."
The man clapped his hands, and the banners which had been outfitted in the style of Hufflepuff blew backwards for a brief moment. When they righted themselves, where once a black badger scurried, an image of a white humanoid of silver Patronus light stood, though the banners maintained their yellow backgrounds and black borders.
The crowd was stunned by the decision. Many of them, including the Headmistress herself, wondered if he was allowed to even do that.
The Defense Professor of Hogwarts bowed to the Boy-Who-Lived as lowly as it was rumored he had done at the start of the year, after teaching him how to lose. When the man righted himself, he was smiling widely.
"Thank you, Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, for the service you have done for me, this school, this country, and the whole world. With a Hufflepuff victory at hand, nothing could be more fitting than your friendship and loyalty. And let's not forget the hard work, the work which nobody sees, the work which few even know about, yet which makes you a master of your craft, capable of overcoming You-Know-Who himself. That is truly a Hufflepuff victory."
Hufflepuff house burst into applause. Ravenclaw quickly followed, as did Gryffindor. Some of Slytherin joined, including Draco Malfoy and Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis and Theodore Nott, but the cheers of that house were scattered and muted, as they should have been.
"Even if you were working hard at cleverness and cunning," the Defense Professor said, eyeing his house rather sharply for a brief moment, "more than five Slytherins put together, and even if it did take courage to oppose the Dark Lord, and intelligence to win in the end, the fact that it was all being done for a friend makes it more Hufflepuff than anything else. You saved me from a miserable and unhappy end, Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres. I doubt there is more than one person in this entire school who would dispute the fact that you've earned this. I believe three cheers are in order. For the one who stopped the Dark Lord, saved his Defense Professor, saved Hogwarts, and demonstrated the virtues of all four houses along the way. Ready, my young apprentices? My fellow professors? On the sound of the chime."
The same sound that got their attention rang throughout the hall. Ding.
"Huzzah!"
Due to the timing cue, there was hardly a single person in the hall who missed the first cheer. Even the Slytherins were no longer reluctant, since they were supporting their Defense Professor's savior. (Even if it is the Boy-Who-Lived).
Ding.
"HUZZAH!"
On the second cheer, only a single person missed out. Everyone else was simply working on volume.
Ding.
"HUZZAH!"
Again everyone joined in, this time loud enough to shake the very stones of Hogwarts.
Everyone except exactly one wizard.
Severus Snape continued glowering. And not because Slytherin had finally lost the unimportant House Cup.
His gaze was focused firmly on Voldemort.
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I forgot if it was if you move Kings pawn, you can lose to Checkmate in another three moves?
I'm trying to figure out what was the giveaway that Monroe is Voldy. Snape has figured it out. And I'm not seeing the give-away.
Are we finally going to see Snape confront the former Dark Lord?
11421146
Snape was the one who delivered the prophecy.
So he heard the line "Only a remnant" so When the former dark lord said Voldemort learning to cast the spell to frighten dementors would make him a "Remnant of his former self" it clicked in Snape's head
11420949
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholar%27s_mate
There is one even faster but you really have to be bumbling into it:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool's_mate
I’m just going to register my theory that the Avada Kedavra was Riddle targeting himself to use his own death to create a morally neutral Horcrux for Harry! Harry’s said he’s immortal now, which could be a result of being an Alicorn but doesn’t fit with the implication that if he died he’d come back from the Knightmare Bus chapter; and the AK was described as “point-blank” which, in the context of a living target, limits it to Riddle and Harry, but Harry needed to be alive to resurrect the one that died... I’ve suspected Riddle killed himself for a while, but I only just now understood why.
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Theory registered. Though it's not especially spoilery, I'll censor my response anyway.
Close but no cigar. At one point, the ending of that chapter was (unintentionally) even more ambiguous than it currently is, so I did a bit of editing in the hopes that it would be very clear that the spell was truly cast, that it was cast at Harry, and that it hit Harry. Good thinking, though. Not in the sense of paying close attention to wording - this isn't that kind of puzzle. Good thinking in terms of trying to come up with an original, morally neutral sacrificial ritual theory - this is exactly that kind of puzzle. If you think of the same thing I did, you'll get it.
11421641
Well, then... rereading the chapter, it describes a pattern being drawn that was drawing Harry’s mind towards his elder wand. And if the curse was cast at and hit Harry, then the person Harry was supposed to revive before it was too late was himself. Riddle, in Equestria, was able to transfer his consciousness back to his own dead body; but he did that with FalTorPan, and the preceding discussion means the implication is Harry was meant to restore his own life with his patronus Hermione-style rather than Riddle-style, so a Harry horcrux seems unlikely. This somewhat makes me think it was immortality through the only other ritual which was mentioned- Lichdom. And from a Doylist perspective, a ritual which was brought up with so many notes of confusion and *explicitly discussed* as “If there’s a way to make it morally neutral I will do it” with no clear explanation attached is a natural candidate.
So, then, how would a Lich ritual work in this canon? It requires “the sacrifice of something that can only been sacrificed once, and results in a form without feeling [both emotions and tactile sensation].” It requires the sacrifice of ten ponies, which should be far too many for what it does, and binds consciousness to a physical object. It also requires the sacrifice of the Lich’s physical form; manifesting them as a ghost-like entity.
The morally neutral version seems to still require a phylactery- in Harry’s case, the elder wand- and still requires the sacrifice of the pony being liched. It’s interesting that Harry *did* need to be in his pony form, but given that he later talked about switching to pony form (during the resonance) this seems unlikely, unless the pony form was altered instead of destroyed? Alternatively, he could have simply entered the mirror again to regain his pony form or gain a new one; we haven’t seen it since the sacrifice. Or better yet, he became a Pony animagus, like he became a Human animagus in Equestria- this would explain why “his pony form was the animagus form of Harry Potter” in chapter 50, rather than the other way around. That would explain why he had to be in pony form for the ritual despite the resonance no longer happening. What isn’t required is the deaths of the ten ponies or the sacrifice of feeling; replacing them is the Patronus Charm backed by infinite life.
In that case, a possible thought could be the sacrifice of humanity (ponity?) in exchange for becoming no longer human/pony (for ease of writing I’ll use human-based terms going forwards); the sacrifice represented by the murders of the ponies and the loss of feeling. Then that would mean some power from the Patronus 2.0, the corporeal instantiation of humanity, could be sacrificed instead, which would be far more morally neutral- especially when backed by infinite life so the sacrifice would be far less; though it likely wouldn’t sacrifice all the power of a Patronus even for one who didn’t have infinite life. And humanity can only be sacrificed once- once you don’t have it you don’t have it anymore to sacrifice. Murdering more ponies won’t make you less human past a certain point.
This, then, is my guess: the Lich ritual requires the sacrifice of the physical body and of humanity, in exchange for a new physical form which is not tied to humanity. Riddle turned this into a morally neutral sacrificial ritual which still sacrifices the physical body, which isn’t an issue for someone with more than one physical body, and power from the Patronus 2.0. He then cast Avada Kedavra at Harry, part of the ritual (a spell described as “severing the soul from the body” seems like a natural spell for Lichdom), and pulled him into his Elder Wand for use as a phylactery. Harry, from within the Elder Wand, sacrificed Patronus power (in the form of humanity) to complete the ritual, while simultaneously using his Patronus (as an expression of his life force) in conjunction with his Stone of Permanence to restore his consciousness to his original body. He then became an Animagus again, but this time to Pony; now his human form is back to being his base form.
I still feel like there’s a note of discord (the concept, not the draconequus) here, but this is my best guess for now, and seems to fit well; I suspect there is a small note where what I have differs from the “truth”, but I’m not quite sure exactly where it is, and without more information about the Lich ritual I’m not entirely convinced I can figure it out further.
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But that wasn't in this chapter.
what was the give-away in this chapter that made Snape realize the truth?
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He realized in chapter 51, that’s why he kept freezing, he was trying to tell the others and cast spells on Riddle
ahh. Right.
I had to go back and check, that "avada kedavra" on Harry was in chapter 50, when he fired on the pony form. Yea, that explanation seems to fit nicely -- use the improved pony litch ritual, on Harry, using his ascended pony nature and his near infinite life source.
11421742
Now THAT is proper way to tackle this particular puzzle. Attention to detail, clue-searching in relevant areas, evidence-based reasoning, and independent theorizing. I won't remark on any specifics; I don't think I can offer any more guiding corrections without finally get into truly spoiler territory. All I'll say is that it's the closest theory so far, and anybody looking to make future guesses should follow this example. Not follow the specific conclusions, necessarily, but definitely the methodology used to get there.
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I do not agree with you there, Silver went to act against bully in heavy handed and public way in symbolically important event in her life and then walked off from the situation. What do you think would be the response to all of this by the bully? I could be wrong with my understanding of how people act but likely outcome is the Diamond will take her frustration to the victim of her bullying. All Silver did was to antagonize the situation and then we hear nothing from the situation.
In essence he did not deal with the situation, all he likely did was to make it worse to make a brief moral grandstanding. If one would take a cynical perspective he took the situation to look and feel moral and good, damn the consequences to anyone else.
Proper action here would have been to de-escalate here and then deal with the situation later when the situation would have been better. Now we have bitter Diamond Tiara likely nursing a grudge and hurtful memory in a day that should have been a happy occasion for coming of age. It is understandable since Silver is a child, but still it is annoying.
11426296
You're still thinking about this from the 'how do I manipulate people's emotions to get the best outcome' perspective. You don't 'de-escalate' (i.e. appease) bullies, in the moment or afterwards. That's what Dumbeldore thought was the right thing to do in the aftermath of SPHEW. Harry informed his headmaster that it wasn't the right thing to do, and I believe he would stand by that opinion now. To take an extreme example, appeasement is what all of Europe (except Winston Churchill) thought was the correct response to Hitler.
Appeasement is the problem with Diamond Tiara. It's how she became the way she is. Constant appeasement by her father. Furthermore, this is a world of magical, morally upstanding ponies. Twilight's conversation with Silver isn't shown, but the matter isn't just dropped. On either end. I referenced it in a recent chapter, even:
-Rehab 9.3
I now realize that I should have included a bit more; that settled the matter legally. Luna arranges a bit more personal intervention with DT offscreen, same with Twilight's convo with Silver.
But most importantly of all, you haven't addressed my argument, so I shall repeat it. SILVER WASN'T TRYING TO CHANGE DIAMOND, HE WAS TRYING TO CHANGE EVERYONE ELSE. The power to change DT is WAY out of his hooves, so he doesn't bother. You haven't addressed my other argument either: stop giving DT special consideration because it's her 'special day'. She doesn't deserve it. She instigated the bullying, special day or no. Abuse of privileges is ALSO how she got where she is.
His remnants actually...