Chapter 28
Professor Lupin found that it was indeed a very friendly bunch. Hailey had returned through the wall a good hour after she left, well after the train got underway- then, not too long later, she’d pulled a few large bags of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans from her trunk, and they were having a good time working their way through them. Even Lupin was- it had never crossed his mind to smell them before!
Fluttershy was an incredibly kind girl, though she periodically clutched worriedly at her necklace and took a short while to open up to the rest. When she’d done so, she’d revealed a powerful personality under her shy exterior; in his opinion, she personified the phrase ‘beware the quiet ones’.
As for the two that sat next to him, Lily seemed to be enjoying herself immensely, while James was a lot grumpier and, Lupin recognized, he was struggling with his younger brain, whereas Lily was practically celebrating hers.
Finally, it came to the part he was worried about. The Hogwarts Express slowed and stopped roughly before it ever got near Hogsmeade Station… then the lights went out.
He knew what it was. The Dementors were searching the train, as Dumbledore had worried- one of the reasons Lupin was riding it to Hogwarts rather than using the floo. He let out a sigh, and reached into his pocket to draw his wand.
Ginny Weasley was about twelve steps ahead of him. The compartment barely had time to go dark before something in her hand lit up as suddenly as a muggle lightbulb, then leaped up into the air entirely on its own, floating right up by the ceiling. “Thought it might come in handy,” she muttered.
Hermione looked at her. “What is it?” she asked.
“Remember those robo-investigators last year? I’m using its searchlight as a lamp.”
Lupin paused, then used his wand to create a handful of fire. “Stay here,” he began- but no sooner had he said that than the door slid slowly open. He hadn’t even risen to his feet yet- they were quick.
The Dementor in the door paused for a second… then started drawing its rattling breath.
Then out of nowhere, Hailey drew a rattling breath too, and the cold of the Dementors went away.
Lupin stared as she rose to her feet and walked up to the dementor, before it started rattling again… but the cold didn’t return. The two rattled at one another for a couple minutes- it sounded almost like a conversation. Everyone was staring at them- except for Fluttershy, who was looking back and forth between them like she was following the conversation.
Finally, Hailey drew her wand, and silence fell. Hermione and Silversong both closed their eyes in looks of concentration, while Fluttershy pressed her hands to either side of her necklace, causing it to glow pink.
Then, as Hailey raised her wand, she began to glow.
“Expecto Patronum.”
“I need happiness,” Hailey suddenly announced on the Obelisk Network.
“Happiness?” Dumbledore asked, confused.
Ginny took a deep breath, She wasn’t sure what Hailey needed it for, but she knew she could provide.
“I need happiness,” she repeated urgently, onto the Sequence network- and simultaneously set up a quick ‘script’ to immediately transfer any inbound happiness to Hailey over her network. At the same time, Fluttershy pressed on the sides of her necklace, causing it to glow pink.
A second later, her sisters’ response began to flow in- and she had to admit, it was far greater than she’d expected. She channeled it quickly straight to Hailey… Who, somehow, didn’t immediately become all giddy and whatnot as she would have. She tacked on as much of her own happiness as she could muster- then, as Hailey raised her wand, a beam of rainbow energy shot from Fluttershy’s necklace and straight into Hailey’s side.
“Expecto Patronum.”
The world turned silver.
“What the-?” Dumbledore began alarmedly.
“Are you okay?” Hailey asked out loud. It sounded like she was somewhere outside the compartment; it was kinda too bad her Patronus was blinding Ginny’s psychic senses as well. “Alright, that’s enough, thank you.”
Ginny gave a nod that she wasn’t sure if anyone could see… except Hailey. “That’s enough, thank you,” she informed her sisters- and the massive influx of happiness began to fall off.
“Sadarina?” Fluttershy asked, audibly rushing to something. “Are you-!” There was a pause. “Is she okay?”
“I think so,” Hailey answered. “She’s unconscious, though. I think it’s the Patronus.”
“Didn’t she ask for it?” Fluttershy asked.
“She did. I don’t think she realized we could do one this powerful.” There was a pause. “I mean… I kinda expected to reach around the entire planet, but I did not expect to get the entire galaxy instead.” She chuckled softly. “Let’s be fair, you’re probably the one that made that possible.”
Fluttershy gave a soft squeak. “It- It’s just the Elements of Harmony-!”
“But the Element of Laughter is the very essence of the emotion that feeds that spell, which has a very powerful multiplicative effect on the energy input.”
“... Oh,” Fluttershy muttered. “Oh my.”
“Is that why we’re all blind?” Hermione asked suddenly.
“It is,” Hailey answered. “And you’re not the only one. I was expecting a lot of light, and I think Sadarina was expecting a lot, but I don’t think anyone expected nearly this much.”
“But is she okay?” Silver asked. “This… Sadarina.”
“She seems to be, though she’s unconscious. Probably just overwhelmed- but the Patronus is a harmonic magic spell, it’s not possible for it to hurt.”
There was a pause- and right about as the happiness influx from the Sequence became small enough Ginny was confident she could absorb the remainder without suffering for it, the intensity of the silver light began to fade. Within seconds, her psionic senses recovered- even though she still couldn’t see anything- and she spotted Hailey and Fluttershy, kneeling on either side of an unfamiliar… She wasn’t sure what sex it was by feel, but person. It felt human, but perhaps a little more- and a quick database search suggested it was simply a hivemind the human was connected to, not unlike the Obelisk Network. She was, however, able to infer that this was the ‘Sadarina’ girl that Hailey and Fluttershy were talking about.
“Thank you everyone,” she informed her sisters. “We’ve managed to cast a patronus strong enough to fill the entire galaxy with silver light.”
At the same time, Sadarina seemed to wake up… a little. She reached out for Hailey with an “Uuuh!”
Hailey hugged her gently in response. “It was a success,” she muttered, into the girl’s ear.
Ginny blinked. She’d missed that the light was fading far enough for her psionically and magically augmented eyes to start being able to make out their outlines- which was improving the precision of her psychic ‘view’ of them.
At the same time, the first response came back over the Sequence, after a brief stunned silence. She knew a vast majority of her sisters were busy looking up what a Patronus was- but Eve Unit 2157, also known as Iris Potter, apparently knew already. “Why in Merlin’s name do you need a patronus that strong?” She paused for a second. “Have fun with the Statute of Secrecy.”
“Did you just have a daughter?” Lily asked, in an accusatory tone.
Ginny let out a snort of laughter. “I doubt she uses patroni to have kids,” she observed- before answering her sister. “I don’t know, she asked for it.” She paused for a second. “I think we overdid it.”
“I rather doubt that too,” Hailey answered, carrying the girl back into their compartment. “On the other hand, there are ways to do that, and most of them involve overpowering it… to a lesser degree than we just did.” She chuckled softly, retaking her seat and putting the girl in her lap as Ginny’s color perception began its return, despite the stupidly massive intensities of silver light still bouncing around. At the same time, the floor started vibrating again, and she felt the gentle push against her seat- the train was moving again.
Fluttershy sat quietly back in her seat, evidently watching the girl.
“To a lesser degree?” James asked, and sighed. “So how many children?”
“Just one, if any,” Hailey answered, “and not biologically.”
“Is it just me or is she a cute one?” Ginny asked.
Hailey looked up. “So you can see?”
She paused. “You can’t?”
“Well of course I can,” Hailey answered. “Why wouldn’t I be able to?”
“You know, with all this light?”
Hailey rolled her eyes. “Whatever, as you wish,” she muttered, then started humming softly to the girl, rocking gently side-to-side. Within minutes, she had fallen asleep, head resting peacefully on Hailey’s shoulder.
“She looks so peaceful like that,” Ginny observed.
Hailey merely smiled and nodded her agreement.
“So what does she look like?” Silver asked. “I still can’t see anything.”
“She looks almost like a miniature Hailey with curlier hair,” Hermione answered immediately, with a grin.
Several minutes later, when the train was starting to decelerate into Hogsmeade Station, the light finally faded down to where people could reasonably see each other again.
“That took a while,” Professor Lupin observed, as he dug for some chocolate. “Is that what happens when a Royal casts a Patronus?”
Hailey tilted her head. “Well… No, technically. That took two very specific royals with very specific powersets and a set of powerful magical artifacts and their users, along with the enormous resources available to us beyond our persons, to pull off. Overall, I think the happiness came from a total of something like a few hundred trillion souls scattered across the Multiverse, and the amount of magic power required to convert that into a Patronus was greater than the combined total of every other spell ever cast throughout the entire history of this planet. Even so, I wasn’t expecting it to be that overblown.” She paused, then looked at Ginny. “That actually ranks it among the most powerful spells ever cast across the entire Multiverse.”
Ginny looked at her. “Seriously?”
She nodded. “Seriously.”
“I suppose that’s one way to break the Statute of Secrecy,” Lupin observed calmly, breaking his chocolate bar apart. For some reason, a lot of her words simply weren’t processing for him- almost like there was some sort of magic trying to conceal it from him; it sounded largely unimportant, though, and it was likely something that one of the Royals was doing anyways, so he’d chosen to ignore it.
“If Patroni were visible to the naked eye, yes,” Hailey answered. “Fun fact, they’re not- we see them through our magic senses rather than our eyes. Muggles can’t see them at all- and if we train ourselves to differentiate between magic senses and mundane senses, we can see through them too.”
Lupin sighed. “You’ve done your research,” he observed, then started handing out the chocolate. “Here,” he told them.
Hailey accepted the two pieces he offered her. “Thank you, Professor.”
Ginny blinked like she’d only just remembered something. “Chocolate is like the recovery medicine for Dementor exposure,” she informed everyone. “I’m not sure if exposure to such a powerful Patronus will act as an antidote on its own or not, but chocolate helps even with the tiniest of Dementor exposures, so…” She shrugged, and chomped on her chocolate while Hailey prodded Sadarina awake to offer her a piece.
“I know channeling that much happiness certainly has that antidote effect,” Hailey informed her calmly.
“Are you sure you should be talking about that?” Hermione asked Hailey, over the Obelisk Network.
“Why not?” Hailey answered. “I cast a spell to keep the secret before I ever stood up to talk to her.”
Ginny sighed, switching channels to make a transmission of her own simultaneous to their brief comments- a broadcast to her sisters across the Multiverse, whose curiosity had been completely unabated by the minimal answer she’d been able to present earlier. “News flash,” she began, and paused briefly to contain the sudden wave of curiosity. “That was one of the most powerful spells ever cast across the entire multiverse.” She paused again, this time partly for dramatic effect, and partly to let her sisters digest that; the incredulity and amazement coming back was… strong. “And it was only possible because of us.”
She paused a second time and, while they digested it, switched again to ask Hailey a question. “You mentioned both the Element of Kindness that Fluttershy is wearing, and the Element of Laughter. Why?”
“Simple, really,” Hailey answered immediately. “Fluttershy happened to be in contact with her friends, which were able to travel to the location the other Elements of Harmony are stored at while I was talking to Sadarina. Following that, when she asked for the strongest patronus I could muster and subsequently told me how to do it, she and her friends used the Element of Kindness as a conduit through which they could channel all six of them.
“In the end, the Elements of Harmony provided about two percent of the magic power necessary to convert the happiness we collected into a patronus, and about thirty percent of the total happiness.”
It was really interesting how efficient Hailey was in delivering information; despite the wordy response, it had taken a fraction of the time it would have taken to verbalize. On the flipside, she was still processing it when Hermione asked a question and her sisters in the Void also responded to the news.
“Quick question- considering I’m still using a synthetic body, is it safe for me to eat this chocolate and is there any point?” Hermione asked.
“I gathered, yes,” the same Eve as had asked earlier- Iris- answered. “What could you possibly need that powerful a patronus for?”
“Uh-!” Ginny began, then paused, and picked Hermione. Her sisters in the Void could wait just a little longer. “Yes, Hermione, you can eat the chocolate. That combat unit isn’t bio-alike, but it does have a simulated digestive system- I made it from an assassin blueprint that’s designed to have the appearance and apparent function of an organic body. That said, for as long as you’re using synthetic bodies, you’ll be completely immune to the effects of the dementors- they can’t touch Astrium control matrices.” She paused, briefly. “So yes. While you still don’t need to eat, you can… and no, it won’t have any effect. The food and liquid are automatically used to refill the onboard Astrium reserves in case repairs are required.”
She then switched channels to answer her sister. “I guess the dementor asked for it? Specifically, for the ‘strongest patronus we could muster’.”
Hermione let out a small snort of laughter. “You mean I’m an assassin right now? That would definitely explain all the hidden weapons.” She paused. “I’ve also been enjoying the strength and versatility of this new unit.”
Iris also answered at the same time. “The Dementor… asked for a patronus? Why?”
“You know,” Hailey injected, “if you want, I’m sure we can set up your organic body to be Astrium-augmented. That way, you’d have an organic body, but keep the abilities of the mech.”
There was a pause while Hermione considered it, and Ginny took the opportunity to answer her sister immediately. “No idea, I wasn’t the one that talked to it. Her, apparently.”
Another of her sisters spoke up- Eve Heridea, also known as Eve Unit Two, the one that had supplied the most happiness. “Did it work?”
Iris sent the psychic equivalent of nodding. “Oh yeah, good point. What did it do, exactly?”
“That’s a good question,” Ginny answered them. “She said it was a success, so I guess it worked. As for what it did… I don’t know where the dementor went, but a girl appeared in the corridor, and now Hailey’s feeding her chocolate. Did she, like, resurrect the dementor or something?”
“Hmm,” Hermione finally began. “I’ll have to think on that more later. I’m already going to be gaining psionics when I return, right?”
“Uh- Yeah,” Ginny answered; Hermione’s question had come at almost the perfect moment for her to answer immediately after answering her sisters. “Essentially, my Royal power. We… er, can remove that from it if you want- but once you have them, you have them for good, just like the whole uploading thing. It’s easier to remove the capability from the body after the fact than it is to add it, so that’s why I’m growing it with it right now.” She paused for a second. “I’d expect removing psionics to delay release by a couple days, and conversion into a cyborg unit to make it a Christmas present. The timing of the decisions won’t materially affect the final release date, unless they fall within a week or so of the currently scheduled one.” She paused again. “And yes, if you get the psionic powers then die or upload again, those mechs are capable of supporting it- we’d just need to prime their psion modules.”
At the same time, Iris spoke up again. “Given what else she’s apparently gotten up to, I wouldn’t be surprised. Only, was the dementor dead in the first place? I don’t think I ever figured out how they work in my world. I haven’t the faintest clue how they’d work in yours.”
“So I’d be becoming a Royal if I…?” Hermione began.
“Yes, you would be,” Ginny answered Hermione first, since she’d finished talking first. “Even though the mental upgrades necessary for the body-hopping could be construed as Royal powers already. But the moment you become a true Royal, Hailey’s no-political-attention spell will step in to make that irrelevant unless you want it. Frankly, it probably already has, but it’s a lot more noticeable when you’re a Royal.”
Hermione paused, and Ginny used the time to answer Iris. “That’s a very good question. Considering it was able to ask for the Patronus… No idea.” She sent the equivalent of a shrug to the network. “Pretty sure undead don’t exist.”
“Does your world not have Inferi, then?”
She almost winced at the prompt comeback. “Oh yeah, those things. They exist.”
“I’ll… have to think about it,” Hermione decided.
“That is true,” Hailey agreed, transmitting to Ginny, Hermione, and Silver. “That enchantment will not only protect me but my closest friends as well- that includes all of you, and probably Sadarina too. I wonder what Fudge is going to think she is.”
Right as the train came to a full stop, Ginny burst out laughing suddenly enough to make Professor Lupin jump. She might not have been a part of it, but she’d listened to Hailey’s conversation with Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey some ten minutes before, and it had been decided that Sadarina would stay with her at the Castle for the time being; she seemed to be ten or so, so she would likely be getting a Hogwarts letter the following summer.
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30% of all happiness was from Elements of Harmony. Now that I think about it.
30% came from 6 girls while 70% came to form a whole galaxy. Billions of billions of beings inhabit galaxy. Furthermore, they even didn't break a sweat. They just lend a helping hand to friends. So maybe it was 1/5 their power? That would mean that they are more powerful, well at least when it comes to happiness than the whole galaxy?!
Am I wrong?
Disaster? No idea. But I can confidently call ongoing conversations as "spaghetti". Also, I have no idea what even happened and what was the purpose in the first place. Was introducing yet another new character even necessary?
11425359
The power didn't come from just the whole galaxy, more like a hundred universes across the multiverse. The galaxy is just the size of the effect. That makes it very impressive that the Element of Laughter was able to provide so large a percentage! (You'll notice that 30% was very specifically the Element of Laughter, not the Elements of Harmony as a whole- and also not its bearer, though it relied on all six bearers to channel properly).
Yes, that is incredibly powerful. Comparatively? No idea.
11425458
Yes, because Sadarina is a preexisting character from other stories that I really like. As for the rest...
Yes, I was also noticing how hard it is to follow the two simultaneous conversations. I really could have done that better.
It's not too bad, it was definitely interesting
11425469
Sooo. Let's assume that When Elements works without the bearer they have maybe 10% of their maximum power. 50% when they work with their bearer. What's more 100% is reached when the whole group, 6 beings, are working in perfect harmony. And that is for one Element with the help of others. Not mistaking for whole group. When working together and creating the 'rainbow of doom' they should have the most potency. Let's say 1000% of Element.
30% of the whole multiverse is equal to 10% of one element without bearer.
So, yeah they are f**** overpowered.
I don't think this chapter is as bad as you think.
Sure, it's a little awkward, but far from a disaster.
And it's always nice to see Sadarina
this chapter is so fun to read.
i love how it jumps around to follow the girls and at the same time works so good.
awesome righting.
11429330
Don't think so
Just read and absolutely love it. Great work!
Either the Dementors got killed of or restored after that spell, but they should be all gone now.
Fluttershy is kindness, why is Fluttershy using laughter
With so mutch happiness I expected a hug fest