The Slytherin Dungeon was... not what Sunset expected. The dungeons were a less-than-ideal location for a common room, at least Gryffindor and Ravenclaw got the towers. The place was almost adequately lit, the pale lighting looked awful for studying and more for scheming. The grand look of the room offset this, looking ancient and magnificent with masterfully created tapestries and sculptures. Some parts of the room had glass panes looking out into the water, probably under the lake near the castle. All in all, Sunset would describe it as a dark mirror to Canterlot's majestic interior designs. If Canterlot was styled after Celestia's tastes, the Slytherin Dungeon was made from Sombra's brooding thoughts.
That was, of course, to say nothing of the faint stench of dark magic. The whole place felt... off, like the Everfree Forest or the aura of the Dazzlings. Sunset felt like malicious eyes were staring into her back every second she stood there.
The prefects directed the first years to their dormitories as soon as everyone arrived. While that was being handled, Sunset walked into a larger area with more widows and a few couches with several students. It was an impressive work of architecture, especially if the outside of the windows was real.
"So, you're the new assistant?" a student asked. She had brown hair, and vibrant green eyes, and was years younger than Sunset. Sunset nodded her head. The girl stood up and offered her hand. "I'm Penelope Padgett."
"Leave the welcoming to the prefects," a boy snarked. He had greasy blonde hair and a look that Sunset had seen on Canterlot royalty. The kind that the ones who always wanted more, but never had enough. Second-class royalty. The boy walked up to Sunset, almost pushing Penelope over when he offered his hand instead of hers. "Draco Malfoy, I'm one of the prefects this year. You'll be working with us, I suspect."
Sunset smirked on the inside. Oh yes, one of those types of rich, the ones who flaunt every bit of wealth and status they've got because of a crippling superiority complex. I never liked them at Canterlot, I doubt it's much different here. They never learned to appreciate the magnificence of personal merit. Well, best to make the right impression.
"Pleasure to meet you, Penelope," Sunset said, reaching for Penelope's withdrawn hand, which was shaken gladly. Sunset didn't offer her hand to the other boy, leaving his hand proverbially hanging. "Afternoon, Malfoy."
A boy reclined on a couch snickered. "Finally, somebody who isn't impressed by your daddy, money, or status!"
"Shove it, Zabini, or I might give you detetion," Draco growled.
"Who's going to enforce that on the first day of school?" Zabini bit back.
"Anyways." Penelope coughed. "I've never met a teaching assistant. What's your story?"
The younger student plopped down on an empty couch and gestured to Sunset to sit down. Sunset lounged on the same couch, sinking into the fabric. It was unfathomably fine, it must've been expensive. Elaborate and fancy, like the rest of the room. She relaxed a bit more before speaking.
"Well, I'm from abroad. I thought Hogwarts might be a good opportunity," Sunset said, lying through her teeth. It almost hurt, how easily she went back to that habit. "Almost everybody back home had magic in one form or another." The students looked rather surprised. Sunset did recall wizards hid from muggles; surely they had magical villages somewhere?
"Really? Where?" Penelope asked.
"Oh... you wouldn't have heard of us, we like to keep to ourselves. I'm the first to leave in... well, years, I guess," Sunset waved off the question.
"Why's that?"
"Probably to avoid all the muggles, mudbloods, and blood traitors here," Zabini scoffed. "Lucky sheltered life, that's what you got."
"What's a mudblood? That's a new word for me," Sunset asked. I swear I've heard that word before somewhere, but where?
"Wizards with parents who aren't of our kind. Half-bloods are tolerable enough, but the other pollutes our good heritage," Malfoy grumbled. "I hope you're one of us."
"We never know, things could be different where she's from," Penelope noted, her dainty finger tapping her chin thoughtfully. She turned back to "Most consider pure-blood as to having mostly pure-blood wizards with no half-bloods in the last two generations, and no muggles. I'm a half-blood. What about you?"
"I'm... an orphan. I never met my parents," Sunset said. Her hands wrung nervously in her lap. It was such a shame wizards seemed to like their bloodlines, and Sunset had none to account for.
"Well, they were of our kind, weren't they?" Malfoy asked.
"If you mean they had magic, then yes. Every last one of them had magic, I know that. My teacher seemed sure of that."
Imagine if you knew the truth, jerk. I'm not a pure-blood, much less a human.
"A teacher? What's the school like over there?" one of the other girls asked. An identical girl stood off to her side, a twin.
"The best place in the world. I learned from the greatest... witch ever. She takes a personal student every few decades. I was her personal student for a while."
"Why are you here? Did you get expelled?" the other twin asked.
"No, I left for... personal reasons. Call it a journey of self-discovery. I spent a few years in a... muggle community during that period."
The Slytherins around her visibly recoiled, as though Sunset had tracked mud into a crime scene.
"A muggle community? Are you daft!?" Malfoy exclaimed.
Behind Malfoy, two brutish-looking boys huffed and left the room, all interest depleted.
"How could you stand living like that?!" another student asked.
"Oh, I was livid, but I had had my reasons. Hidding magic was an exhausting endeavor."
"Couldn't stand it?" Malfoy said. "Must've been maddening for a pureblood like you."
Sunset closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The memories of how much of a monster Sunset Shimmer was, even before she became a demon, still haunted her. How many people's lives had she made miserable for her selfish desires? She broke apart Twilight's friends, used Flash Sentry as an accessory, and turned the school into a battleground for disharmony. Then she enslaved everyone to make an army to storm Equestria with. And all for a chance to get what Celestia had (rightfully) kept from her.
Sunset had once thought her magic made her superior, like these kids. They were young and impressionable, just like she had been. And they were told from eleven years old that magic inherently makes them better than everyone else. How do you even make arguments against this? Maybe...
"It does give me an idea," Sunset said slowly. She stood up and addressed the students. "Here's an extra credit question. Which came first? The wizard or the muggle?"
"Excuse me?" Zabini asked, sounding offended.
"Hold on, follow my thought process here," Sunset said. "Magic aside, muggles and wizards can interbreed without complications, right?" A few heads nodded. "So, logically, the two are the same species, but with a genetic marker or something. These genes, passed thorough children, creates wizards, right?"
"What's a gene?" someone asked.
Sunset rolled her eyes. Apparently, these wizards were more backward than she thought.
"Basically, genes are blueprints of the body. Parents pass genes to their children. It's why parents and children look similar. And no," Sunset glared at a student who looked like she was about to ask a question, "it is not a muggle concept, it is studied back home with magic. In short, if you inherit magic through your parents, it's likely because there is a magic chromosome. So, this brings us to the question.
"If magic is passed down through the family, were the first humans magical or not?" Sunset asked. "Think carefully here."
Some of the students murmured excitedly among themselves.
"Well, of course, they were magical," Malfoy scoffed after a moment. "Why wouldn't they be?"
"Then where did muggles come from?" Penelope asked.
"Squibs, obviously."
"Then all muggle-borns are descendants of wizards," Sunset replied. The room went quiet after that. Sunset smirked, realizing they'd seen the contradiction. "But if magic is dominant, why are there more muggles?"
"And if the other came first?" Zabini asked.
"Well, then all of you are descendants of muggle-borns," Sunset swore she could see a boy across the room gag. She ignored that. "So either magic is their birthright, like yours, or none at all," Sunset snorted. She yawned, stretching her arms over her head. It was then that she became aware of how large the crowd around her had grown. I think it's time I made my exit. "I'll leave you to that. I think I'll go to bed."
In a flash of light, Sunset teleported out of the circle of students, walking toward the exit. The students, with curiosity and indigence forgotten, rushed toward her excitedly. They rushed at her, demanding to know what she just did, and how.
"Was that apparition?"
"Can you teach me?"
"Where's your wand?"
"Stop!" Sunset shouted over the inquires in a volume she'd almost compare to the Royal Canterlot Voice she had read about once.
The students stopped their pestering of Sunset as her voice echoed in the common room.
"Some of you should get some sleep before classes start," Sunset said. "I'll leave my question open to responses. In fact..." Sunset quickly looked toward the door out of the common room. It wasn't too far. She could always get well out of their range at any point. She had their complete attention after that teleport. Well, I can work with that. "If anyone can give me a thought-out response by the end of the week, and I like the answer, I'll show you how to do this."
Sunset, in a show of dramatic flair, clapped her hands twice and teleported out of the Slytherin common room. The moment she was out, she rushed out of the dungeons. The looks some of them gave had been downright obsessive. Most of them were interested in magic for self-serving reasons, like she had been all those years prior. I can just say no to their answers, I suppose.
The whole house is full of mini-Sunsets. What am I supposed to do with that lot, redeem them?
Sunset's walking arrested itself. Oh.
Twilight's walk up to the Ravenclaw tower was exhausting. She didn't think her human body was designed for that many stairs! But the riddle to enter was so interesting it made Twilight forget about her sore feet. Many fancy tables and chairs occupied the main floor of the common room, it reminded Twilight of Canterlot. The rows of books reminded her of the library even more. Some students were idly chatting, catching up over the summer's events.
"Hey, Twilight, over here!" Cho said from the other side of the tower.
Cho and a few other students were sitting around a table near the fireplace. Twilight walked over to where the group sat.
"Come on, introduce yourself. We always get some talking in before we go to bed. These," Cho gestured at other students at the table, "are some friends along with what's left of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. We have a lot of empty spots this year."
"That's... unfortunate," Twilight said. She didn't care for sports much unless her friends were involved, like the Equestria games. Her less-than-stellar attempt at soccer as a human came to mind quite painfully.
"Do you play?" one of the boys asked. "I'm Roger Davies, team captain."
"Nice to meet you," Twilight said. "And, uh, no, I don't play. Harry made a game called cloudball over the summer, but I didn't do well."
"Harry? As in Harry Potter?" another girl asked.
"Yes. We're good friends. I'd count myself as his first friend."
"Oh, sounds like a story," the same girl said.
"It's not, really," Twilight insisted.
"Anyways," Roger spoke over the girl, "what's this about a 'cloudball'?"
"Harry made a new game with different rules and no broomsticks, we don't have those in Equestria," Twilight explained. "We called it cloudball. Last I heard it's getting popular in Cloudsdale as an amateur sport. But as for me? I can barely fly with my wings, much less a broom."
"Wings?" Roger inquired.
"Oh, it's really cool!" Cho gushed excitedly to the rest of the table. "I saw them on the train. She, Harry, and the new girl can transfigure themselves!" She turned to Twilight with a gleam in her eyes. "Can you show us? Please?"
"Sure!" Twilight agreed.
She scooted her chair back, stood up, and cast the spell. Her body returned to its natural alicorn form. Now much shorter, Twilight hopped up on her chair and scooted it forward with her magic. She held her wings out for everybody to see.
"Whoa, that's so cool!" a bespectacled boy said.
"She's adorable! Platonically, of course," another girl gushed.
"How'd you do that without a wand?" a student asked.
"She's probably an animagus. An experienced one doesn't need a wand, like McGonagall," Marcus remarked.
"Nope, it's just a spell I found in an old castle," Twilight said.
"You can talk!?" Marcus exclaimed.
"It's brilliant, right?" Cho said. "Harry and the new girl could do it as well! Well, they don't have wings, but it's the same animal!"
"So what is she? She looks like a winged unicorn." A girl walked around the table to inspect Twilight closer. She had a pale face with scarlet hair and glasses on her face. "Her face is highly expressive, her wings are disproportionately small for her size, her horn and hooves are the same color as her fur, and her mane and tail are striped. That's not like any magical creature I've read about. Do you mind if I take some notes?" The girl pulled out a small notebook from her robes.
"Come off it, Yvonne, you're creeping the new girl out," Cho insisted.
"Oh no, it's fine," Twilight said. She turned to the girl, Yvonne. "Well, first off, I'm an alicorn."
"Is it like a unicorn?"
"You're one-third correct." Twilight corrected. She levitated a spare piece of paper off the table and picked up Yvonne's quill. She made a simple drawing of an alicorn, highlighting three sections on the body. "Alicorns get their horns from unicorn ponies, but our wings are from pegasus ponies and our strength is from the earth ponies."
"A crossbreed then? I've never heard of a crossbred animagus."
"That's— uh, not how alicorns are made. I don't understand it myself, there are only four of us alive, and I'm the youngest. I used to be a unicorn pony, actually."
"That's what Harry and Sunset were, right, unicorn ponies?" Cho asked.
"Yep."
"That's incredible. And you can still use magic in your animal form!" Yvonne closed her book and stuffed it into her robes. "Yvonne Bampton. I can't wait to see what you can teach!"
"I heard you could apparate in the castle," a dark-skinned girl said. "I bet you know loads of magic."
"I've been learning since I could walk," Twilight said. She thought back to a few stories her parents had told her about her fillyhood magic surges. "Probably before that."
"Really? I'm so jealous. You must spend all your time studying."
Twilight shrugged. "Unless I'm doing something more important, yeah."
"What could be more important than magic?" Yvonne asked.
"The magic of friendship, of course," Twilight answered.
"Oh, great, more wacko stuff," a voice said. Twilight turned around to see another girl walk into the common room. She was rather short, with a tired and annoyed expression on her face. "One Luna's bad enough, believing in things you can't prove. You can't honestly believe friendship is magic. It's silly emotions. There's no magic there. The only magic that matters is what you do with your wand."
"Felicity! That's rude!" Marcus said. "I know you don't like Luna, but you can't take that out on the teaching assistant!"
Yikes, and I thought Hermione was skeptical. I mean, I guess they don't have Elements, but is it that hard to believe? All I had was a dusty old book, and I was willing to take on Nightmare Moon. Maybe I should've brought my copy of the book.
"No, it's okay," Twilight insisted. "I was skeptical about it when I first heard about it, too. Harmony magic, also known as the Magic of Friendship, is well-known back home. Before my current title, I was the Element-Bearer of Magic, one of Harmony's six Elements. Each one required a specific attribute found in friendship to bring out their magic. But if you don't think so, that's okay. We can still be friends." Twilight transformed back and held her hand out to Felicity to shake.
Felicity appeared completely stunned by Twilight's offer. Her mouth warped into a scowl.
"Friends? Yeesh, you are a piece of work. Just try to keep your obsessions away from me, and we'll be fine." Felicity huffed and went down the stairs to the girls' dormitories.
"Yeah, don't worry about her, she's a bit of a jerk at times," Cho said.
Twilight shrugged. "That's okay, I've got tons of new friends already," Twilight declared with a smile. She got up out of her seat and let out a yawn. "I should probably get some sleep."
Twilight said her goodbyes before leaving the Ravenclaw tower. It took a few minutes of navigation, but she eventually found her way to the room She'd been assigned for her time as a teaching assistant. The room was almost identical to the one she had as a guest at the castle. Twilight didn't bother changing into her nightgown, transforming into her natural alicorn body and curling up under the covers.
I wonder how Harry is doing? And my friends back home, I hope they're not worrying.
But Twilight had new friends, that was a good start. Tomorrow there would be more to do.
Harry followed everyone else to the Gryffindor Tower, learning the absurdly complicated password of Mimbulus Mimbletonia from Neville, who had (for once) remembered the password.
The Gryffindor common room looked as welcoming as ever, a cozy circular tower room full of dilapidated squashy armchairs and rickety old tables. The fireplace crackled softly in the grate, giving the common room a cozy, homey feeling, like the library used to have. A few students were warming their hands by said fire before going up to their dormitories; on the other side of the room, Fred and George Weasley were pinning something up on the noticeboard. Harry waved good night to them and headed straight for the door to the boys' dormitories; he was not in much of a mood for talking at the moment. Neville followed him.
Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan had reached the dormitory first and were in the process of covering the walls beside their beds with posters and photographs. They had been talking as Harry pushed open the door but stopped abruptly the moment they saw him. Harry wondered whether they had been talking about him, then whether he was being paranoid.
"Hey," Harry said as he walked past them. Harry jumped into bed, transforming halfway through his leap. He looked at his roommates, who were all dumbfounded.
"Blimey," Dean said. "When'd you learn that?"
"Summer break," answered Harry. He figured the whole story would take the rest of the night and then some, so he abridged it by saying, "I picked up loads of spells and tricks. Not much to talk about. How were your breaks?"
"Yeah, it was okay," chuckled Dean. "Better than Seamus's anyway, he was just telling me."
"Why, what happened, Seamus?" Neville asked as entered the boys' dormitory.
Seamus did not answer immediately; he was rather obsessed with quadruple-checking that his poster of the Kenmare Kestrels Quidditch team was straight. However, his glancing eyes and a crooked poster betrayed a different focus.
"It's really dumb," Seamus replied. Then, with his back still turned to Harry, said, "My mum didn't want me to come back. Thought it was a bad idea."
"What?" said Harry. He transformed back into a human to sit at the edge of his bed.
"She— well— she didn't want me to come back to Hogwarts. I had to fight tooth and nail to come back."
"But why?" said Harry, perplexed. There were somewhat rational reasons, like the constant staff changes, recurring threats to students' lives, and a returned dark lord. However, Harry suspected the reason was less than reasonable
"Well..." Seamus muttered, "I guess it's the rumors... about you."
"About... me?" said Harry, shocked. Was Seamus' mother reading The Daily Prophet?
"Well, yeah," Seamus answered with a measured tone. "Well, not just you, but Cedric and Dumbledore, too. I've never heard her more scared."
"Scared? Of what?" Harry demanded. "Does she think I'm crazy and Dumbledore's an old fool?"
"Unfortunately."
That gave Harry pause. "Unfortunately" implied Seamus didn't agree, not entirely. Harry felt anger rise, before his wiser side, the side Twilight encouraged, calmed down. The Daily Prophet wasn't doing anything to quell the rumors, it encouraged them. How was Seamus' mother to know the truth? The truth was hard to find sometimes. Sure, thinking Harry was crazy and Dumbledore was senile was a stretch, but why should he care what Seamus' mother thought about him?
"I mean, we all saw Cedric come back," Seamus went on talking, "the blood..." Seamus shivered. "I couldn't picture you doing it. You couldn't have hoodwinked Dumbledore, and Cedric supported you after getting out of the hospital. I guess what I'm trying to say is... I believe you, Harry. You, Cedric, and Dumbledore."
"Yeah, my gran's saying the same," added Neville. "She says it's the Daily Prophet's not worth reading anymore. She's canceled our subscription. We believe Harry," he said with conviction. He placed his Mimbulus Mimbletonia on the cabinet closest to his bed. He climbed into bed and pulled the covers up to his chin, looking over them at Seamus. "My gran's always believed You-Know-Who would come back one day. Dumbledore's lost more than he's gained by saying he's back, he can't be lying."
Harry couldn't find the right words. Sure, he expected Cedric's and Dumbledore's testimony to have swayed people, but after hearing about the Ministry's attempt to shut them down, hearing someone say that was surprising.
"...Thanks," Harry said after a stunned silence.
"Don't mention it," Seamus said, very nonchalant. "I mean, last time everyone thought you were crazy was with the Chamber of Secrets. I mean, everyone thought you were the heir and all that. But you obviously weren't, and I think doubting you a second time might be... over the top."
Harry chuckled awkwardly. Technically, with Voldemort's soul fragment, Harry could've been the heir, but that wasn't important. "I mean, still talk to snakes, but I don't think I fit Slytheirn's pureblood fibs. thanks for the second chance, I guess."
"Like I said, don't mention it," Seamus replied.
Harry got out of bed and opened his trunk. He might as well spend the night as a human, being able to transform didn't change the fact that he was human here. Harry shifted through his bag until his eye caught on a black bag near the bottom of his trunk. Strange, I don't remember packing that... Harry hefted the bag up and peeked inside. What's that...?