Chapter 23: Diagon Army
“Good morning, Ginny,” Hailey greeted, as soon as she, Lily, and James had entered the Leaky Cauldron; Ginny was sitting at the nearest table with a butterbeer.
Ginny looked up, and smiled. “Good morning to you too, Hailey. How’s your summer been so far?”
“Pretty good,” Hailey told her, taking a seat and motioning for her parents to do the same. “I mean, Marge coming over for a week was not a very good birthday present, but what can you do?” She shrugged. “Besides, messing with her was fun. How’s Egypt been?”
“Boring,” Ginny sighed. “I mean, meeting Bill was nice, and it was fun to sight-see for the first couple days, but after that? I miss Hogwarts. And you.”
“And Hermione, and Silver, right?” Hailey asked.
“Well yeah,” Ginny answered, like it was obvious. “Anyways, I see you’ve got your parents with you today, even though they’re younger than you…” She trailed off, grinning mischievously as she glanced between them. “Hogwarts shopping, right?”
Hailey laughed, and nodded. “Yup, Hogwarts shopping. Now, I know you know already, but these are Lily and James Potter. And Lily, James? This is Ginny Weasley, a good friend of mine.”
“Weasley?” James asked. “Why are you associating with a Weasley?”
Hailey gave him a stern glare. “You be nice to my friends,” she commanded him. “And don’t be a hypocrite. You married a muggleborn, if I recall correctly.”
Lily covered her snicker with one hand, watching him with merriment in her eyes.
Ginny nodded curtly. “No butterbeer for you,” she decided.
A second later, Tom, the bald owner of the busy pub, walked over to deliver three foaming mugs of butterbeer- and Ginny promptly served two of them to Lily and Hailey, while taking the third for herself.
“What-?” James asked.
“That’s what you get for insulting her family,” Hailey told him calmly. “Frankly, you’re lucky she’s only withholding a drink. And that you’re too far away for me to slap.”
He flinched away from her, a look of abject terror on his face.
“These are the virgin sort,” Ginny told Lily, completely ignoring James. “No need to worry about alcohol. Not that there’s very much in the normal stuff anyways, but…” She shrugged. “Anyways.” She looked up at Hailey. “I’ve already gotten some gold from my vault- I assume you’re going to be getting a substantial sum out of yours?”
“Probably,” Hailey answered. “I’m kinda debating making James make do with second-hand robes right now.”
Lily let out a snort of laughter.
“Wha-!?” James asked, then took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Hailey,” he told her. “I didn’t mean-!”
“It’s not me you should be apologizing to,” Hailey interrupted.
He blinked, glanced sideways at Ginny, and looked down at the table. “... Sorry,” he muttered, without looking at Ginny.
“Hmm,” Hailey muttered, studying his face.
“Oh, Hailey! Ginny! Fancy running into you here!”
Both girls looked up. “Fancy running into you too, Silver,” Hailey greeted, as Silversong jogged towards them, from the direction of the floo. “Did he finally capitulate?”
She shook her head. “Nope, he still insists I’m a boy. Not sure why. But Mom’s convinced him to let her take me shopping, and she doesn’t care what he thinks, so I’m actually going to get girl’s clothes this time.”
“Awesome,” Hailey told her, bumping her fist and ignoring both her parents’ confused expressions. “Want to join us? We’re doing our Hogwarts shopping too- and your robes aren’t the only ones that don’t fit very well. Mine have gotten a bit too short.”
“Ahh, sure.” She paused. “Who are the new faces?”
“This is Lily and James Potter,” Hailey told her, gesturing towards her parents. “And you two, this is Silversong, another good friend of mine.”
“Ahhh,” Silver said knowingly, nodding. “Right, yes. Well, happy to meet you!” She offered her hand to the nearer of the two parents.
“Nice to meet you too,” Lily answered, accepting her hand with a little bow and a wide smile, evidently discarding her confusion for later.
Silver then trotted around the table to offer her hand to James. “And you too, happy to meet you!”
He didn’t take her hand. “What’s your surname?”
Silver raised an eyebrow, and lowered her hand. “Really? You sound almost like I did two years ago.”
“More than you know,” Hailey told her calmly, with a small smile.
“What?” Silver asked critically, and folded her arms. “You mean he’s been insulting Weasleys?”
Hailey chuckled. “How’d you guess?”
“Just a wild guess,” Silver answered, winking at Ginny, before turning back to James and leaning down until her face was inches from his, her necklace dangling down between them. “Have you apologized yet?” she asked sternly.
“Remember what I said about people taking a very dim view of bullying?” Hailey asked, grinning at James.
“Er-!” He glanced at Hailey. “Yeah?”
“Silver isn’t the scariest of them either.”
Silver straightened up, moving one hand to her hip and waving the other as if she was warding off a fly. “Well no, of course not. That’s Hermione. Bonbon if you’re particularly skilled, since you’re just a nobody to her if you’re not.” She chuckled softly.
“In terms of bullying, I suppose,” Hailey agreed. “I’ve seen her stop bullies by casually knocking over the bully before they ever realized she was there.”
“Is someone talking about bullying?”
“Speak of the devil,” Hailey grinned. “Good morning, Bonbon. James Potter here was beating up on the Weasleys.”
“I heard,” Bonbon nodded, leaning in on James’s other side. “Watched the whole thing.” She looked at James. “You’d do well to remove that kind of prejudice from your psyche,” she warned him. “It’ll only get you in trouble at Hogwarts. Anyways.” She straightened up, and walked around to draw up a seat between Ginny and Lily, while Silver straightened up and crossed to draw one up between Lily and Hailey; the table only had four chairs at it to begin with. “Nice to meet you, Lily.” She held her hand out for her to shake. “I’m Bonbon, Head Student Instructor for Potions at Hogwarts.”
“... Say what?” Lily asked, staring at her.
“Head Student Instructor for Potions at Hogwarts. I’m the same for Charms.”
Hailey looked up. “And hello to you too, Hermione.”
Hermione pulled up a seat between Hailey and James. “You’ve gathered quite the crowd today,” she observed. “Might need a bigger table if Starlight and Sunset show up. I know they’re around here somewhere.”
James put his head in his hands. “I’m sorry,” he muttered.
Hermione looked at him. “Sorry, didn’t catch that?”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, a bit louder. “For being so…” He sighed, then looked up at Ginny. “I’m sorry,” he told her.
Ginny waved it off. “Eh, it’s no big deal, I get it all the time.” She looked at Hailey. “You can get him new robes now.”
Hermione blinked, looking between them. “Wha-? What am I missing?”
“You’re late to the party,” Hailey chuckled. “These are Lily and James Potter.”
Hermione blinked. “Oh! You mean it worked? Awesome! So…” She glanced at James. “What was that all about?”
“He started beating up on the Weasleys for a moment,” Hailey informed her.
She blinked. “Oooh,” she nodded. “That makes sense.”
“You certainly seem to have a lot of friends,” Lily observed, looking at Hailey.
Hailey chuckled. “Yes, I do.”
“So…” Lily glanced at Bonbon, then looked at Hailey again. “Head Student Instructor? What’s that?”
“Well, Hogwarts has huge numbers of students this year- oh, Starlight! What was the total this year?”
Starlight Glimmer, walking up to join them at the table with a thick deck of pages in her hand, chuckled. “Eight thousand six hundred and thirty three students total,” she answered, “of which four thousand, three hundred and thirty-four are first-years. Which includes Lyra, Bonbon- she was headed for Malkin’s a few minutes ago.”
“Lyra?” Bonbon blinked, then rose from her seat. “Thanks!” She jogged off.
Hailey watched her go with a smile, then looked back down at Lily while Starlight took Bonbon’s vacated seat. “Anyways,” she began, “there’s no way the unexpanded staff of Hogwarts will be able to keep up with that many students… So Dumbledore made an agreement with Starlight here to form the Student Instructor Program. It’s grown a lot since- nowadays, Bonbon’s the HSI for Potions, Hermione HSI for Charms, and I’m the HSI for Defense Against the Dark Arts- and the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead at the same time, as of about a year ago.” She smiled at Lily’s awed look, then gestured towards Starlight. “And of course, Starlight now serves as our Research Team Lead, since she specializes in that kind of thing. It’s actually her team that came up with that resurrection spell.”
Hermione grinned mischievously.
“Ahh,” Lily muttered, nodding slowly, before glancing in the direction Bonbon had run off in. “Who’s Lyra?”
“Her wife,” Hailey answered promptly, then smiled. “Most of the funny-haired students- colorheads, I hear the Wizarding Nobility is calling them- aren’t actually children, and have been falling through a mysterious portal in increasing numbers every year. We’re working on a way to send them back home, but haven’t found it yet- that’s Starlight’s team’s main focus. Bonbon fell through it two years ago, and I guess Lyra fell only this year?” She looked at Starlight.
She nodded. “Yes.”
Hailey nodded as well, looking back at Lily. “So she very dearly misses her. Almost like if we’d waited two years before resurrecting James, rather than only a day.”
“Oh, there you are!”
Hailey looked up. “Good morning, Sunset. Do you need something?”
Sunset was walking up, holding the hand of a scared-looking girl with white and purple striped hair. “Uh- Yes. Has anyone seen Miss Diamond Tiara’s parents?” She gestured down at the girl, from her adult stature.
“What would their names be?” Starlight asked, flipping a few pages.
“Filthy Rich and Spoiled Rich,” Hailey answered promptly. “They’re not already at Hogwarts or graduated, so if anything, they’ll be first-years.”
Diamond whimpered. “Don’t tell me mom’s here,” she squeaked softly.
Hailey and Sunset shared a look, while Lily put her hands to her mouth.
“Well,” Starlight muttered, scanning down a page. “Filthy isn’t here.” She flipped a few more pages. “Aaaand… neither is Spoiled.” She looked up. “I’m sorry, Diamond, you’re on your own. But we’ll gladly fill in for them if you want.”
“I can’t believe how quickly that went,” Lily muttered, as Hailey, Ginny, Lily, Diamond, Silver, Hermione, James, Starlight, and Sunset all returned to the Leaky Cauldron with their new school supplies. Narcissa, Silver’s mom, had arrived through the fireplace right as they were getting up to leave the Leaky Cauldron and had been happy to leave her to her own devices- and her friends, with how numerous they were. After accompanying them to Gringotts to help her withdraw some gold, she had gotten something to drink at the Leaky Cauldron and headed home without her daughter.
“Yeah, they’re getting faster every year,” Hailey agreed, as Sunset, Starlight, and James moved a few tables up to each other so they wouldn’t be overcrowding a single tiny table. “I think they’re learning over time or something- developing new, more efficient practices and all that.” She grinned. “I find it hard to believe we’re the only ones doing research, you know?”
“And with the speed that Ollivander found our wands,” James said, and shook his head. “Well, I say he found them, but…” He shrugged.
Hailey chuckled; Ollivander had completely restructured his shop so, after getting an idea of the likely match from his measurements, he’d simply take the purchaser to a shelf and have them pick out the one that seemed to ‘call out’ to them. It was far, far faster than the prior technique- but it also wasn’t foolproof, so Hailey knew he sometimes had to go back to his usual guess-and-check method. Still, though, it saved him a ton of time- and he’d found both her parents’ wands in basically no time at all.
More amusing to Hailey had been just how astounded James had been to learn that Ginny had galleons in her moneybag- and not just a few.
“I noticed we got a new book for Defense Against the Dark Arts,” Ginny said, looking up at Hailey, who she’d sat next to. “And that Lockhart’s still at large. What’s going on with that?”
“Rita’s taking her time with that,” Hailey nodded. “And Dumbledore’s brought in an old friend to serve as our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, so we should have some fun classes.” She grinned sideways at James, who wasn’t looking in her direction, then looked up at the rest again. “Now, who wants some butterbeer?”
“Hi Hailey!”
Hailey looked up. “Hello again, Bonbon. Do I take it this is Lyra?” She turned in her seat and held her hand out to the first year walking next to her, with light blue and white striped hair; they had their arms around each other, even though Bonbon was somewhat taller.
“Yes,” Bonbon answered. “This is Lyra.”
“Nice to meet you, Lyra,” Hailey told her, holding out a hand for her to shake. “How are things back in Equestria?”
Lyra shrugged. “Panic, mostly. Nobody’s managed to even predict where the portal will appear next; not even Twilight. Speaking of which, at least when I got pulled through, all six Bearers were still just fine. The Royal Family is another story- Prince Shining Armor is going to be around here somewhere. He got sucked in about a day before I did.”
Hailey rubbed her chin. “Okay, this should be interesting.” She looked at Starlight. “Have we spotted him?”
“Shining Armor?” Starlight asked, flipping open her documents. “Um… Yes, he did his shopping yesterday.” She flipped it closed again. “Also, while we were out shopping a minute ago, one of my researchers told me we’ve pinned down the portal’s movement pattern, and can accurately predict where it will appear. We still can’t go through it, or control it, but it’s a step in the right direction.” She paused. “I think.”
Hailey chuckled, and looked back at Lyra. “I expect we’ll be happy to have you.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.039 seconds
Total duration
947 users online
1,248,025 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I don't think you'll have to rewrite this chapter.
Pleasantly of character interactions, with minimal "Techno Babble" while explaining lore.
Good job.
I looking forward to seeing where this is going
11393167
Oh, this one will get rewritten. Probably mostly just expanded... but as with anything, their personalities will be slightly different, so I'm going to have to make sure they line up properly.
Ooh, a rewrite. Like the new chapter as well, cannot wait to see James and Lily's reaction when they get to Hogwarts
I wonder, considering mc is a near omnipotent omnimultiverse God how come she can't just will a portal to Equestria in existence or control the existing one? Limitations on her powers are quite odd. In some situations she bends reality to her will and in other she can't do a thing because plot demand so.
11393465
More specifically, she doesn't do a thing because plot demands so. At some point fairly soon, you'll find out more about the exact workings of the portal- I forget which chapter- but this is actually something I'm aiming to address in my rewrite: She's powerful enough to simply delete all her problems, so why doesn't she? I expect it'll come up around the end of second year to possibly later (but not too much so people aren't asking questions like that for too long)... So, anywhere from four chapters ago to the end of my backlog. Though not likely the end of it, considering where that is chronologically...
I don't know if you keep making the joke about the difference between the book and the movie on purpose.
11394574
Wait, that's a joke?
I've never seen the movie- and from the bits I've seen, I'm never going to.
Since you are doing an in-place re-write, should we read the new chapters, or wait for the re-write to make it all the way to the end?
(I admit, I've kinda lost interest since the shark jump. I'm hoping the rewrite makes things better.)
11399748
That's up to you.
The rewrite chapters are generally at least twice as long as the original, since I'm clamping each chapter to the same timeline and main plot events- and I'm placing them so you should be able to start reading in the rewrite and then just continue straight through to the originals and have it still make sense... for the most part, because some personalities are changing and some explanations are appearing that simply weren't there before, as I'm actually planning for a number of things that were on-the-spot ideas in the first pass.
If you've lost interest in this "old version" since the Shark Jump, then go ahead and run back and start over with only rewritten chapters; look for the "RW" tag in the chapter title (as mentioned in their A/N addendums). You choose how you read the story, not me- I only choose how I publish it.
The portal isn't effected by Discord by any chance?
Snape will be happy to see Lily Potter, not so mutch James.
Guess Snape don't get a happy end after all... Lily is back, so is James now.
Can't we make a second Lily Potter for Snape?