Three Werewolves, a Pony, a Seer and a Skepticist walk into Hogwarts...

by SamuelK28

Sisters

Author's Note:

Warning this chapter contains themes of death, loss, general sadness and pink, lots of pink.

It was early evening when Professor Sprout and Headmaster Dumbledore came to visit Limestone in the infirmary just as she was finishing dinner. After the morning’s crazy turn of events she had been slathered in foul smelling cream, forced into the most uncomfortable, itchiest and stale smelling hospital robes imaginable, taken to an empty bed, fed some lunch and then proceeded to doze off for the entirety of the afternoon until Kendra had “accidentally” pushed her out of said bed when awakening her for dinner.

Pulling up a chair Dumbledore sat down next to her with Professor Sprout standing just behind.

“So, I am guessing you have a lot of questions, your most pressing one being can you go back to your own world? I will come straight out and tell you the answer is no. In truth it is impossible that you are sitting here in front of me right now but you are. I would rate the chances of a creature doing what you have done as approximately a billion to one.”

Limestone stared at this elderly monster for a moment in total bewilderment before she swallowed her mouthful of food and asked a second question, “And what exactly have I done?”

“Well, from what I can gather from Professor Sprout and my own knowledge, the moment before the landslide hit you, a rift opened in your world for a fraction of a second transporting you into the space between worlds. Whilst in this space your molecular structure was altered, both physically and in your mind so that you can understand our language. Then you slipped out of another rift into our world. I had always dismissed theories on alternate universes as pure fantasy but I guess I was wrong on this occasion. Although, considering you would have to have the unlikely misfortune to fall into one of these rifts, survive the molecular reconfiguration process and then not only be lucky enough to find another rift to exit through but also not exit into a world with creatures that will tear you limb from limb, a billion to one occurrence as I stated. And you are that occurrence.”

Limestone stared at this elderly monster somewhat lost and somewhat concerned for her safety.

Dumbledore let out a great big guffaw. “You need not worry; we are not going to hurt you. Even though we do eat animals in our world, horses are usually off the menu, especially sentient ones. We humans usually stick to cows, chickens, pigs, and fish.”

“Humans, so that’s what you are called,” Limestone nipped in before adding, “A bit easier than two legged hairless monsters.”

Another guffaw from Dumbledore before Limestone continued, her dinner temporarily forgotten.

“And so, what you are telling me is that there is zero chance I can go home and am stuck here for the remainder of my miserable life. Great,” she added sardonically with a role of her eyes. “So, what happens now and do I always have to wear these itchy, smelly clothes?”

“I’m afraid clothes are mandatory in our world but Professor Sprout here will help you acquire some better ones tomorrow when she takes you shopping for supplies. Thankfully the damage inside the greenhouse was nowhere near as bad as we first feared so she should now be able to spare the time. Her interns can take care of the greenhouses for a few hours. I have also contacted our government who have set up a bank account for you and already deposited a grant for you to use for said supplies. It is not huge but should be more than enough to cover what you need. Now, how about you tell me a little more about the world you came from and in between I shall share some more information about ours,” Dumbledore explained. “I even brought desert too sweeten the deal,” he added revealing a trolley of confectionary treats next to Professor Sprout.

“Sneaky old man but considering I’ve spent my entire life on a rock farm I doubt it will be that interesting,” Limestone retorted before finishing the last of her main course.

“We shall see about that. Why don’t you start with the identical tattoos on your hips?” Dumbledore encouraged reaching for a chocolate éclair.

“Tattoos? Oh, you mean my cutie marks. Sure, why not,” Limestone replied.

And so, she explained to him how every young pony in Equestria receives a special mark on both their flanks that represents their special talent, then went on to talk about the four pony races and their unique magic that only when combined and working in harmony could benefit them all. She talked about their leader, Princess Celestia, and how she raises the sun and moon, her family and life on the farm and so on and so forth.

Meanwhile Dumbledore in turn kept his word, explaining how not all humans had magic and those that did had to keep it secret from those that didn’t to stop panic and mayhem spreading across their world. He informed her of when the new term began, September 1^st, and what subjects she would be taking. Out of all the subjects she would be studying, Limestone in particular didn’t like the sound of Flying lessons. On and on they went for what must have been a good hour until Limestone’s eyes once more began to droop and she dropped off into another deep sleep.

*

Like clockwork Limestone awoke at the crack of dawn the next morning and for a moment panicked at the sight of her strange surroundings in the morning gloom until she slowly remembered what had happened the previous day.

“Oh, right,” she said sombrely suddenly feeling a peculiar stabbing pain in her chest upon realising she would receive no more wake-up calls from her sister, no matter how annoying they may have been. Or see Pinkie’s twin Marble giggling in the background at her sister’s antics. Or her parent’s disapproving gazes at whatever new chaos Pinkie had come up with since the previous day. Or read the latest letter from Maud to see how she was coping at college.

Slowly Limestone sat up, brought her knees to her chest and, resting her head on them, cried. She had always found her family annoying but now that they were most likely gone forever, she could not help but miss them, a lot. Stupid bucking feelings, she hated them.

She wasn’t sure how long she sat there reminiscing her previous life as the sun slowly rose and filled the infirmary with light and she hadn’t even heard someone approach until an arm pulled her in tight and she felt the weight of another person’s head atop her own.

“There, there, let it all out,” Kendra soothed as Limestone felt the other girl’s tears drip into her hair. “I know how you feel.”

“I-It’s stupid,” Limestone wept into Kendra’s chest. “I always wished to be an only child. Always found my siblings annoying and troublesome and never realised or thanked my parents for how much they did for us. So why do I feel like my chest is going to explode?”

“Guilt I guess,” Kendra said distantly. “Like so many others before you, you thought you had all the time in the world to make amends with the ones closest to your heart and then suddenly you don’t. I was only seven when my aunt, uncle and eighteen-month-old cousin were murdered. The pain never goes away, in fact for me it only gets worse as I get older and truly understand what happened.”

“I-I’m sorry,” Limestone sniffled. “W-would you like to talk about it?”

“There was a civil war, some witches and wizards, pure bloods, don’t like witches or wizards with muggle blood and as such they turned on those who sympathised with them. My uncle fell in love and married a muggle. When the pure bloods made their big move, they were all killed along with many other young families. Nineteen wizarding families were hit in one night in 1981 and thirty-four people were murdered including fourteen children under two. If the family were pure-blooded but sympathised with half-bloods and muggle-borns, just their child was targeted for their insubordination, but if you had gone far enough to marry a muggle like my uncle had, the whole family was wiped out. My cousin Hannah would have been your age and just about to start her schooling at Hogwarts this year, yet I never even had the chance to get to know her properly,” Kendra finished.

“Wow, that’s…” Limestone couldn’t find the words to describe such horrendous actions.

“Despicable. Yeah, I know but you can either let yourself be lost in grief or make those you’ve lost proud with your actions. It’s why I’m striving to become a healer like my parents, so that I can save lives, not take them,” Kendra explained with a faraway gaze. “Do you understand?”

“I think so. Thanks Kendra, I’ll make my family proud.”

“Good girl,” Kendra said slowly releasing Limestone and ruffling her hair.

“I hate you so much sometimes,” Limestone grumbled pushing Kendra of the bed.

“Feelings mutual,” Kendra replied with a smug grin rising from the floor. “Now how about I go rustle us up some breakfast and then we can get ready for our shopping trip.”

A look of alarm suddenly crossed Limestone’s face. “Wait, I thought Professor Sprout was taking me?”

“Oh, she is, but that doesn’t stop me coming along to annoy you. Plus, I need some new supplies myself. Although mostly it is for the former,” Kendra stated, her grin somehow managing to grow even wider.

“Correction, I just hate you,” Limestone deadpanned.

*

“Miss Abbot, really, I told you to find her some old robes from the school storage closet,” Professor Sprout admonished whilst trying desperately not to snicker at poor Limestone’s misfortune.

“You told me this was all the school had,” Limestone bellowed whilst directing her best death glare at Kendra. It was kind of lost due to the fact she was wearing the frilliest pink dress and hat imaginable. The older girl had even adapted it so that Limestone’s short tail had room to poke through a small hole at the back.

“Well, you were constantly complaining about how that old hospital robe was extremely smelly, itchy, and uncomfortable, and I thought those robes would be likewise, so I went home and found one of my old outfits,” Kendra explained, barely able to keep a straight face.

“Thanks,” Limestone grumbled, still maintaining her death glare and wishing unthinkable horrors upon the older girl.

“Well, that was extremely thoughtful of you, I think,” Professor Sprout stated.

“Yeah, real thoughtful,” Limestone grumbled again. Her death glare was now in full I want to throw you into a meat grinder mode. “Anyway, haven’t we some shopping to do? Specifically, for some better clothes.”

“I don’t know. I’m sure the whole school would love to see you in that dress at the sorting ceremony…YOW, that’s my bruised shin!” Kendra yelped leaping into the air and proceeding to hop around on one leg.

“I know,” Limestone deadpanned unsympathetically.

Professor Sprout rolled her eyes. “I’m beginning to wonder just which one of you is nearly an adult and which one is the new student. Kendra, please, we have a lot to do today so can you please show Miss Pie how to use floo powder.”

“Please do. I’ve a lot of paperwork to do before the start of the new year and you are disturbing my peace,” Professor McGonagall droned not looking up from behind her desk.

As only three fireplaces were connected to the external floo network in Hogwarts and the one in the infirmary only went to St Mungo’s, they were using the one in Minerva McGonagall’s office, much to the deputy headmistress’ displeasure.

Kendra immediately stopped hopping about and took some of the floo powder from above the fireplace. “Of course. It is really simple. You just take a handful of floo powder, step into the fireplace and clearly state your destination whilst throwing the powder at your feet. Just remember to say your destination clearly or you may end up somewhere completely random or worse, parts of you could end up in several places at once. A very messy way to go. Now pay attention. DIAGON ALLEY,” she cried throwing the powder at her feet and disappearing in a puff of emerald green fire.

“Erm, okay, what was that part about ending up in several places at once?” Limestone questioned turning to Professor Sprout who had a way to fake smile plastered across her face.

“Nothing at all to worry about as long as your pronunciation is clear and you remain calm and don’t fidget. Also keep your eyes closed to keep the soot out of them and elbows tucked in. Go on, give it a go,” Professor Sprout pressed pushing Limestone towards the fireplace.

The girl decided it would be best just to get it over with so grabbed a handful of the green powder, stepped into the fireplace, and shouted at the top of her lungs “DIAGON ALLEY.”

“Huh, not bad for a first attempt,” Professor McGonagall commented, momentarily lifting her head from her paperwork.