Chapter 7: Over-Mailed
When Hailey returned home to Privet Drive… it was to find that a second letter had shown up for her while she’d been gone. This one was instead addressed to Mr. H Potter, but still definitely destined for her.
“It’s backwards,” Petunia observed. “Maybe it’s self-addressing to whichever form you’re in when it arrives?”
“Weird,” Hailey agreed. “Maybe we’ll find out if they send a third.”
“How many do you think it will be today?” Hailey mused at breakfast. More letters had kept showing up for ‘Mr. H Potter’ in greater and greater numbers each morning- even when she’d deliberately interrupted her sleep to ensure she’d never turned back.
Petunia sighed. “Too many,” she answered. “You’d think they’d have realized by now that you’ve already agreed to attend.”
“Yeah, you’d think,” Hailey sighed. “Yesterday was over a hundred, so-!”
At that moment, a sudden boom echoed down the hallway into the kitchen and the whole house shook. It sounded like someone was knocking… hard.
There was a moment of silence.
“They’re here,” Hailey observed, and rose to her feet.
Whoever it was struck again, and the sound of breaking glass followed it.
Petunia also rose to her feet. “What the hell are they-!?”
As Hailey opened the door to the hall, the front door took a third blow- and she watched splinters fly off of it as another pane from the window next to it popped out and shattered on the floor. “We’re coming, we’re coming!” she called sharply… then stood there, by the kitchen, and waited. She had a feeling it was a bad idea to get any closer than that.
Petunia stepped up next to her. “Um…?” she began.
Before she could say anything else, Hailey’s feeling was proven as the door was hit with so much force it splintered apart, scattering debris all down the hall and revealing a giant of a man standing in the doorway.
The giant stepped in, out of the gentle drizzle outside. “Couldn’t make us a cup of tea, could yeh? It’s not been an easy journey.”
“You are breaking and entering,” Hailey observed calmly, “then asking for a cup of tea?”
“Get out of my house,” Petunia commanded.
“Where’s Harry?” the giant asked, completely ignoring them.
“Harry?” Hailey asked. “Harry who?”
“Harry Potter, o’ course,” the giant muttered. “Come to deliver his ‘Ogwarts letter.”
She raised an eyebrow. “To Harry Potter?” She paused, then turned to Petunia. “I don’t remember anyone by that name?”
“He ran away,” Petunia barked irritably, though Hailey could see the signs of her amusement. “Five years ago now. Never found him.”
“Can’t have,” the giant growled, rising to his full height and punching his head into the ceiling tiles. “The magic said-!”
“The magic has been wrong before,” Hailey snapped back at him despite not knowing what magic he was talking about, taking it as confirmation that he was magical. “Now get out, before I make you.”
“But Dumbledore said-!”
“Doesn’t matter,” she commanded, and snapped her fingers. Her wand immediately appeared in her hand, transported instantly from where she’d left it upstairs. “Get Out, before I make you.”
“Dumbledore said I wasn’t ter-!”
Bang.
Hailey wasn’t sure exactly how she knew how to do it, but she did- and it had taken her only a fraction of a second. A quick, tight flick of her wand was all it took and a bolt of scarlet light slammed straight into the giant’s chest. A moment later, the giant smashed through the door frame as he flew, backwards, out of the house.
“And stay out!” Petunia yelled after him, a couple seconds after he landed on the front lawn.
Hailey flicked her wand at the entryway, causing it to spring back together again, then walked up to the open front door and twirled her wand in her hand as she leaned against the jamb. “Go,” she commanded the giant. “Go tell this Dumbledore fool to stop sending us Hogwarts letters!”
He drew his pink umbrella and started twirling it over his head. “NEVER,” he roared, “INSULT ALBUS DUMBLEDORE IN FRONT OF ME!”
Then he swept it down to point at Hailey.
She flicked her wand almost casually, and the bolt of light that shot at her from his umbrella shattered against the shimmering silver barrier she’d conjured. A moment later, her own scarlet bolt of light connected with him, and he was thrown all the way out into the street, his umbrella twirling through the air before it landed on the ground where he’d been a moment before.
“What the hell,” someone muttered.
Hailey turned to see Auror Tonks standing on the side of the porch, her wand in her hand. “Ahh, Tonks,” she greeted. “Something happen?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Security ward tripped.” She glanced down towards the giant, who was quite suddenly surrounded by aurors. “And of course it’s Hagrid.” She sighed. “He never was very good at… Well, let’s just say he’s not the finest wand in the shop.” Then she turned back to Hailey. “But- how did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“You-! I mean-!” She sighed. “When he made it a Wizard’s Duel… how did you, a new Hogwarts student that has had her wand for not even a week, defeat Hagrid, who had three whole years of magic education before he got expelled?”
She shrugged. “I followed my instincts?” she offered. “I mean seriously, I don’t know how I did that either.” She paused. “Well… I do, but I don’t know how I knew how.”
“Something tells me you’re going to be a terrifying duelist someday,” Tonks informed her, “if not already. That was a very advanced shield alongside an intermediate disarming charm- with some mighty fast cast chaining and silent incantations.” She sighed. “That’s a lot of very high-level techniques, and you just followed your instinct?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“Are you, by any chance, an experienced witch that reincarnated, or…?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Not that I’m aware of, at any rate.”
Dumbledore stared at the letter before him.
A week before, just in case his enchantments on the Dursley home weren’t enough to ensure Harry got his Hogwarts letter, he’d assigned Hagrid to do just that.
He’d expected Hagrid to be absent for a week; that simply meant his enchantments weren’t enough, and Hagrid had to go to greater and greater extremes to get the letter delivered. The disappearance duration had started getting a little worrying- but then…
Then this letter.
It was a notice to the Headmaster of Hogwarts, from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement… that Hagrid had been arrested for breaking and entering, initiating a Wizard’s Duel with a minor, and six counts of breach of the Statute of Secrecy. His trial had been held the day after his arrest, as was fairly typical of cases that involved a House of sufficient standing, thanks to a Veritaserum-permitting law… and he had been sentenced to just one year in the Ministry-internal prison.
Apparently, the reason he hadn’t been sentenced to Azkaban, or to a longer sentence, was because he had done it under order in his position as a Hogwarts employee. That also meant that a case had been opened against Hogwarts regarding the same, and a couple other charges added on thanks to the details Hagrid gave during the trial- and he would be required to attend as the defendant, to represent Hogwarts.
He must be wearing too many hats. There was no other way he would have missed a case like that until after it was a done deal!
He rubbed his forehead with one hand. How was he going to smooth this over…?
He wasn’t sure it was going to smooth over. The case was marked as involving a high-standing House- Most Noble or higher- so Veritaserum would be required by law, and he wouldn’t be able to hide his reasons.
But he could lay the blame on miscommunication- that was what had happened, wasn’t it? He’d merely ordered Hagrid to ensure that Harry received his letter, with the expectation that there might be difficulties related to his relatives. He had not told Hagrid to do anything illegal.
As such, he was probably going to get off with no more than a slap on the wrist, and Hogwarts merely fined.
He didn’t think it was going to interfere with the Student Instructor Program too much, though- but he’d have to inform Princess Celestia of it before she found out through her people.
He heaved a sigh, pulled out a fresh piece of parchment and a quill, and began to compose the necessary letter.
Molly Weasley chuckled softly as she watched her youngest. She had taken the little girl along for the Hogwarts shopping season this year; this time, there would be nobody of sufficient age left at home to watch her.
Not that Ginevra had ever needed watching, for that matter. No; it had always seemed like it was Ginevra watching her older brothers and even father once, back when she’d been five, rather than them watching her. Why? Whenever she got home, Molly would always hear stories and complaints from those older babysitters that she was reprimanding them when they tried to do the things they wanted to do.
She wasn’t complaining about that, of course. Thanks to her youngest, her family had straightened out- to a degree. It still wasn’t the way she liked it, but ever since the girl had learned to walk and talk, all of her sons’ grades had skyrocketed.
And that was even before she considered just how insanely active the girl’s Accidental Magic was. As a matter of fact, it was so active she was pretty sure the girl had learned to control it already!
Now, though… Ginny was merely holding a conversation with a few much older girls that had weirdly colored hair. That itself wasn’t too unusual; rather, the weird part was that they seemed to have gone straight into a discussion of something that was too mind-bendingly strange for her to make heads or tails of. But Ginny had always been a bit of a weird child- or was it just the difference between a girl and a boy that she was looking at? She could never be sure.
Then a muggleborn with bushy brown hair had entered the apothecary they were in with Professor Minerva McGonagall and her parents… and joined the conversation with so much eager energy it was practically like she’d already been a part of it.
Then a minute later, while the muggleborn’s parents were watching the fast-paced conversation with a look of building bewilderment, the Greengrasses had walked into the shop; apparently, Daphne Greengrass was starting at Hogwarts that year. They’d had their younger daughter with them too- Astoria, according to Mrs. Greengrass.
And Astoria had also promptly joined the conversation.
Interestingly, when Molly had subsequently started a conversation with the other parents (after they had all taken care of their business in the apothecary, of course), it had been to find out that both the other girls- Hermione Granger and Astoria Greengrass- were seen as a little bit strange as well.
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And we have our 3rd volde-shard
When, shall we Three meet again?
I can make next Tuesday.
Oh dear, someone fed Hagrid the old script and ate the rewrite.
Ohhh, Astoria- I was wondering. I forget about the Greengrasses sometimes, they're not really big players until... well, y'know Cursed Child (*scoff*). I'm interested to see how things play out though - also wouldn't it feel weird to essentially be talking to yourself times three?
Oh, kay.. this is Promising: twilightsmile:
Should be something extra-Ordinary to follow, to the end of the Earth and Beyond
Why the Hagrid bashing?
Dumbledore bashing, fine. But Hagrid?
We're talking someone who was badly abused by a corrupt system; someone who did nothing wrong, and did everything possible to do their best. Who was able to put all that mistreatment behind, and move on to living the best life he had. Who frankly could give Fluttershy a run for the same element and position.
And ... you're turning him into someone who gets abused by the system again?
Seriously, what did Hagrid ever do to deserve this?
11707034
What did he do? Nothing.
He's getting a long-overdue lesson in regards to what's appropriate and what's not... albeit a rather harsher version of it than he needs. There's a reason why he ended up with so light of a punishment (and that full year is probably a rather comfy one, with aurors regularly coming by to help school him) considering the gravity of the crime- and it's because they know he didn't know any better!
I mean... Vernon got Life in Azkaban for what was essentially the same thing: Vernon attacked the Head of a Grand Royal and Most Ancient House with his fists, Hagrid started an impromptu Wizard's Duel with the same. And Tonks watched.
Hagrid will be back, and better educated. He'll stop being the fumbling, gigantic fool that he is in the books, and probably actually fit the bill if/when Dumbledore calls on him to be a Professor... and when he gets back, he'll probably notify the Ministry of things like the Acromantula and start working with them- and the acromantula in question- to move them to a 'safe' locale.
Because by now? Everyone in the Ministry knows that Hagrid is some kind of god when it comes to creatures, and they don't want to lose/anger that resource. They just... can't prove it.
I realize I'm commenting on this story after it has been canceled and I'm not even fully through it yet. But something I've noticed is how seemingly little MLP there is in this. This feels much more like a HP story first, with barely elements of MLP, like it's an after thought. Chapter 5 seemed to have absolutely no MLP stuff at all. Chapter 6 has a MLP OC that little would have changed without her. And this chapter's seemingly only MLP content is the mention of weirdly colored hair girls. Perhaps the MLP characters become far more important later. I know the earlier chapters had laws affected by preparing for the Equestrians to arrive. But it almost feels like to me if the MLP stuff was omitted entirely, this could easily just be a pure HP story with a different reason for the law changes and an influx of students from say, other parts of the world. Which I know wouldn't be allowed to be posted as a story on this site, but up to this point it seems like it barely counts to be here. I'll probably read more later and hopefully the MLP side of things is a lot more important. I might even resume the previous story before this one, both being re-writes of the same core story.
With that said, whoa, things certainly went differently here. The straight up beatings and a life imprisonment for Vernon only to lead to a suicide mere days later. Harry/Hailey really off to being much more powerful as a year one student. It does seem like some of the new laws and law changes were to address elements in the original books that didn't make much sense.
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Yes, the absence of any actual MLP focus was an issue this story had... I think it's because of my hands-off approach to deciding which Equestrians arrived when, and not allowing myself to pull characters I wanted forwards. This is the only one that did that, Bonbon & Co are coming back for the next rewrite, ARM... which is in process and a little bit slow since I'm trying to change up my writing style as well this time. All my previous stories focus much more heavily on the MLP side than this one does, including its own previous version- which was a pretty decent story, if I may say so myself, it just... died off. For the same reason this one did, even- MC got too used to using her powers (and too many powers), which turned her into a fast Mary Sue!