You're Being Hugged, Harry

by David Silver

24 - Mother Dear

"You need what?"

Harry smiled nervously at his alarmed mother. "Sombra said--"

"--Not exactly a trustworthy source." She crossed her arms. "From the top, kindly."

Ron raised a hand. "If I may?"

Cadance looked ready to shoot him down, but took a slow breath, as she had taught Twilight to do. "An outside voice may be just what we need. Please, explain in your own words."

"Right, yes." He waved at Harry. "We've been attacked." Cadance's wagging ears were the primary sign of her reaction to that. "That's why you sent Flurry, right?"

"Yes. I haven't heard of any further problems..."

"Not yet..." Ron shrugged. "But even with us around Harry, it's not a sure thing. Sombra wasn't being sneaky about it. Not sure he knows how to be, so, anyway..." He rolled a hand through the air. "He doesn't seem to like the thing botherin' us at all, is the thing. 'Another shadow thing, on my turf?!' That was the feeling I was getting from him. So... If it bothers them, he probably wants it."

"And this will bother this other... shadowy thing..." Cadance sank to her haunches. "I see..." She rested a hoof on Harry's chest. "That crystal protects the empire. Without it, we'd be frozen in ice, or just not living here. It wouldn't be the crystal empire anymore, in either event."

Harry adjusted his glasses between nervous hooves. "I'll be extra careful with it."

"See that you are." She drew in one more long breath. "Alright. I want you to be safe." She rose to her hooves and led the way towards where the crystal heart turned. "A little piece shouldn't... break it..."

Ron gazed upon the magical artifact. "So, that's the crystal heart huh? Accurate name..." It was just that, a heart of crystal, thick and lustrous. "Fancy..."

Cadance looked about. "Where's Arnavon, since he was brought up?"

Harry pointed off. "Probably planning with his new ladyfriend."

Cadance blinked with obvious surprise. "Arnavon has a ladyfriend?! Since when?!"

Ron burst into laughter at the surprise. "We said about the same thing. Tsuki have some really quick dates, looked like. She wanted what he had, decide he was nice, and he decided she was nice, so they're all engaged. That was it."

Cadance cocked a brow at the report. "That is a short courtship... I do hope for happiness for them both." She shook her head clear of that distraction. "We won't interrupt them then." Raising her hooves, she stopped the crystal from twirling. "Keep this close and tight. Don't ever let it leave your sight."

"Not until I give it back," promised Harry.

Cadance's horn glowed brightly as she did something with the crystal, a shard floating up out of it, a small thing. "I give this to you, not because I have to, but because I love you." She turned with the crystal, floating it towards Harry.

Harry grasped the ritualistic words and way she said it. "I accept this not because I have to, but because I love you." He took it in his own magic, bringing the glittering shard closer. "I will hold it, and treasure it, knowing your love is inside it."

"That is all I can ask." She dipped her head, touching either of Harry's shoulder with her horn. "Carry it safely, and be safe in return, until you both are returned to me." With her glowing horn, she fashioned a strange of etheric magic around Harry's neck, attaching to the crystal. With a pop, the crystal fall against him, wrapped in a silvery metal in the shape of a heart. "May it protect you."

Harry raised a hoof to it, feeling over his new heart-shaped jewelry. "Thank you... Thank you so much."

"As if I could do less for my own foal." She leaned in and they shared a soft nuzzle of shared adoration. "Now... I am curious about this new ladyfriend of Arnavon. She is invited to dinner. Kindly inform her."

Ron leaned in around Harry for a peek at the new adornment. "Fancy."

"Right?" Harry batted it gently. "Perk of being a magical creature, I suppose."

"Hardly fair... Say, what's your sister been up to while we've been gone?"

"Let's find out." They took off at a walk to find her. It wasn't a very long walk.

Cadance didn't stop them from going, things settled. "See you both at dinner."

They found Flurry Heart chatting with her dragon friend. "They don't even want me to know." She winked at her dragon friend. "Not like they can stop me."

The dragon snorted softly. "As if. When did you become a super spy?"

"When wasn't I super?" countered Flurry, spotting Harry and Ron coming. "Hey." She raised a hoof at them. "Mom said you went off to do something. Did it work?"

Ron hiked a thumb off. "We visited the tsukis."

"Oh! Shoulda told me." She crossed her arms in a pout. "I wanted to visit those floofy bun buns."

Her dragon friend rolled their eyes. "Yeah... Ponies are floofy enough, Flurry."

"Then you haven't dealt with them, extra floof." She hugged herself, imagining the floof. "Arctic bunnies, all the floof."

The dragon spread their wings. "Too much floof. You have just enough I can tolerate." With a powerful flap, they took off to other things.

Flurry shook her head. "No such thing. Speaking of that, where's our floofy boy?"

Harry pointed up at the castle. "Hanging out with his new ladyfriend, which he has, and is engaged to."

Flurry blinked numbly a moment. "What?" She hurried in on Harry. "What?! I didn't see him hanging around with anytsuki else? When did this happen? How?! Why?!"

"Not gonna ask who?" Ron looked a bit smugly pleased with that joke. "She's Tillybell, at least she seems like a nice rabbit."

"Tillybell." As if Flurry was tasting the word. "Not bad... I want to meet them!"

"You'll get your chance." Harry pointed all the more firmly at the palace. "Tonight, dinner. We're inviting them, so if you're there, you get to meet them too."

"Perfect!" Flurry danced early. "I want to be sure Arnie's not having his heart played with. Poor thing is too innocent. Imagine if we let somecreature take advantage of him."

Harry raised a brow at that, both going up. "That hard to imagine, both of them being tsuki. Can a tsuki lie?"

"I never tested." Flurry shrugged softly. "Doesn't mean we shouldn't keep our friend safe."

So it was agreed that Flurry would inspect that new tsuki.

It was, perhaps, a shame that she could find not a drop of deception in Tillybell. She wanted to learn magic, and Arnavon was learning magic. It was that simple. "And then I get to learn it, and my mate will be the first magic tsuki and the first writer tsuki. We'll have fun and teach each other things." She bounced in place, smiling brightly at Flurry Heart. "You have a horn, so you can do magic?"

Flurry glowed her horn gently. "I'm pretty good at it, even if I say so myself. I can't teach a tsuki how to do magic..." That tsuki could do magic was still a new idea. "But I'll be with them, when they head back."

Tilly leaned her entire body to the left, then the right, humming softly as she did it. "Why can't I go? I could learn magic with Arnavon then."

Flurry raised a negating hoof. "Then you wouldn't need Arnavon."

"I don't need him right now," Tillybell replied with not a shred of duplicity. "But he's nice, and he thinks I'm nice. We get along." She nodded firmly, as if that was it. All that a tsuki required of choosing their mate. "He gives a firm hug, just right, not too tight, not too loose." She blushed softly, as if the quality of a hug one delivered was the most lewd thing. "I like that too... It's a trustworthy hug. I hope my hug is as good."

Flurry pinned on ear back. "Well... he seems to like you... so your hug has to be good?"

"Good point." Tilly nodded, put right back at ease. "So we like each other's hugs. This is good! You can't have a good mating if you don't like each other's hugs." Forget any other factor, that was #1. "Did you find someone you think is nice yet?"

It took Flurry a moment to put that together, along with its implications. She colored slowly but penetratingly across her entire face. "Nocreature like that!"

"Aw. I'll hope for you. Now, I'll join him." She pointed off at Arnavon, not part of the conversation. "We'll lean magic, together."

Flurry was no wizarding expert, but... "I don't think that's allowed..."

"What isn't?" There was Ron, drawn by the two chatting. "What are you two whispering about?"

Flurry pointed with a wing at Tilly. "She wants to go to school with us, to learn with Arnavon."

"Oh..." Ron rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You're not a wizard."

"I want to become one," reasoned Tillybell. It seemed like simple logic, to her. "That's why you're going, right?"

"Yeah... but I'm already partway, and at least a human... No offense or nothin', but they got kind of a big fence on that idea. Hogwarts is for humans." Ron shrugged helplessly. It wasn't like he made up the rules! "Sorry."

Tilly considered that, rocking in place as if she were hugging herself. "Hm! Hm... Then how does Arnavon go?"

Ron turned the pointing finger at Arnavon. "He's an owl. Harry's specifically. It's... not normal, but he got permission to be Harry's owl. An owl is expected to deliver letters wherever they're asked to, and to be out of the way and well behaved. Arnavon's got all that covered."

Tillybell thudded both hands to her chest. "Then I will be an owl. We'll be a mated pair of owls. Owls mate too, don't they? They have to, or there would be no owls." Simple logic there... "So owl pair. Arnavon!" He looked over at her sudden call. "I'm going to be your owl wife." Arnavon nodded with easy agreement.

Tilly looked back to Ron. "Settled."

Ron laughed nervously. "Sure, yea, settled with Arnie, but he had to get permission from the school, not just another tsuki like that. They're the ones who say yes or no."

"Then I'll ask him how he did it." She bounced into the air without warning, leaving the conversation quite physically.

Flurry shook her head slowly. "We had to ask too. Hogwarts has a lot of rules... I hope she doesn't get into any trouble. They barely let me in... and I'm super nice!" She beamed with self assurance. "Who wouldn't want me around?"

Ron patted her lightly on the head, and didn't get bit for it. "You're just fine, Flurry. But Hogwarts has its rules and they stick to most of 'em. You and Arnie are already stretching it. Not sure if they'll be alright with another 'owl' that isn't really an owl..."

---

Dumbledore chuckled softly as a great furry thing landed in front of him. "Arnavon?"

Tilly inclined her head. "No. That is my mate."

"Oh!" He stroked at his chin. "I see. What brings you, Miss Arnavon, to Hogwarts?"

Tilly blinked softly. "Miss Arnavon... I like that. I want to be an owl too."

Dumbledore shook his head slowly. "I can't start saying all of you are owls, besides, whose owl would you be? We can't have wild owls on campus, now can we?"

Tilly considered that a moment, ah ha. There was a nice person she knew! "Ronald Weasley," she stated with careful precision. "I will be his owl. I will fetch his letters, and deliver his letters. As long as Ronald is at school, I will serve him faithfully.

She leaned in, holding up a hand to stage whisper, "And Arnavon's here."

"Of course," allowed Dumbledore with all proper seriousness. "I wouldn't want to separate a wedded owl pair."

"No!" That would be awful. "But I will be a good owl until then. I promise."

"Does he know you, or that you've come to ask this?" He considered the large beast. For as powerful as she seemed to be, there was not a scrap of malice about her.

"I know him. He knows me. He thinks I'm nice and I think he's nice. We'll get along great," she assured with a firm nodding. "May I? Please. I will be a good owl."

Author's Note:

Tillybell doesn't want to be written out of the story, but will she be allowed in?

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

Tilly is now an Owl two hoo?

And she hasnt even met Maybeso.

[Da Fennec]

Wizards are human much like many they believe their power and rules give them control. Beyond a point its illusion without study and trial how would Dumbledore or the school stop Tilly if she decided to ignore their decision?

[fluttershyfan3030]

i'm scared! What will happen to Arnovan, Tilly, Harry and Flurry Heart when Umbridge forces her way to the top in Hogwarts during the "Order of the Pheonix" arc of this story. I'm really scared and worried about them because of Umbridge's hatred to non-human magic users.

[David Silver]

11474345
Fortunately, Tilly is a good tsuki.

[howard035]

Huzzah! Tilly will be a fantastic owl. The Tsuki definitely have the right idea about #1 mate qualities.

[David Silver]

11483747
If only we could have it so simple.

[tsaukpaetra]

Tsuki do tend to cut right through all the difficult nuance.
They've managed to keep their childlike innocence with ponies. Will humans be the ones to corrupt them?