Professor Snape was already there; it looked like Bonbon was explaining what had happened to him, with Diamond by her side. She saw Bonbon look up between sentences almost as soon as Madam Pomfrey entered. “Madam Pomfrey,” she greeted. “Worst one’s over there, then there’s…” She pointed out the locations, and named priorities, of injured students.
Madam Pomfrey nodded, and hurried off towards the ‘worst one’.
Bonbon hardly drew breath. “Silversong, can you get Luna? Seven one, five three, tell her Sweetie Drops asked for the Princess in the common room.”
“Yes ma’am,” Draco answered, and ran for the girl’s dormitories again. It almost felt normal that time, but he still had to suppress a shudder as he ascended the steps. He navigated the Equestrian dormitories again, found the destined door, and knocked.
It was answered by the girl he recognized as Princess Luna, from the Leaky Cauldron. “What?” she asked.
He bowed lightly, remembering what she’d said at the Leaky Cauldron about on vacation. “Uh, Sweetie Drops asked for the Princess in the common room,” he muttered.
Luna rolled her eyes. “And it’s not even two months in. Whatever.” She stepped out, pieces of dark blue metal- no, regalia- following her. “At least we made it through a whole month before something happened.” She marched off towards the exit; Draco followed.
By the time they made it down to the common room, Draco noticed the entry wall was opening again… to admit Professor Dumbledore.
He resisted sighing. The higher-ups had clearly been called, on both sides… and all because of his hat.
It took nearly two hours for everything to get processed. Draco had to stay for the whole thing; they kept asking him questions, which he answered as truthfully as he could.
It rather helped that nobody realized he was Draco, and so he never got asked about that. They also assumed he hadn’t seen how it started, because of course Silversong wasn’t present when it started.
When asked why he hadn’t helped Diamond subdue the combatants without hurting them (it turned out that the Raeth Diamond had hit with the table had a concussion), he’d answered that she knew what she was doing more than he did, so he’d let her lead. When asked why he hadn’t tried to help, he’d answered that he didn’t have nearly enough skill with his Raeth magic to do anything of value to her, and he wasn’t sure where his wand was. Which was true enough- when he had shifted to his male form in the dormitory, it had been in his pocket… but it had disappeared with the pocket when he took his female form, and he wasn’t sure where that pocket was. It certainly wasn’t the same pockets as were in his female form’s robes.
In the end, much of the time had been spent explaining what had happened to Dumbledore. Apparently, Bonbon had figured out so many details, to an alarming level of precision and accuracy, just by looking around the room. Dumbledore- and Snape- had then asked questions… then Silversong had received five points for keeping a cool head in a tense situation.
When he’d asked what Dumbledore was talking about, he’d mentioned how Silversong had been able to determine that Diamond had the combatants handled from the very beginning, and had moved on- of her own volition- to making sure the other students that had gotten caught in the fight were okay, even before she had further instructions. Then of course, Dumbledore had blinked, smiled, and given Silversong five more points, for her willingness to follow those instructions, and general helpfulness.
Of course, because Snape had seen him heaving heavy furniture fragments off one of the British students that had been caught in the fight, before Madam Pomfrey got to them, he’d asked why he didn’t use his Raeth magic when he did that. He’d answered that he was unskilled enough with his magic that there’d be too much risk of hurting the trapped student even more.
Then Diamond had stepped in and said something about ‘magic kindergarten’ that seemed to confuse both Snape and Dumbledore, but they accepted it and stopped asking. Whatever it was, he’d apparently been halfway through it when he got his Hogwarts letter. He’d tried to look like the news wasn’t new to him.
Finally, towards the end, the Raeth Diamond had knocked out had woken up… and attacked Princess Luna. Her attack only managed to knock the unprepared Princess down before Dumbledore’s and Snape’s stunners both hit her, knocking her straight back out again. Luna had risen slowly, dramatically, and overruled Dumbledore’s decision to give the girl detention.
“She just attacked her diarch,” Luna had stated dangerously. “Thus ends her tenure at Hogwarts. I will be taking her back to my sister in Equestria, to determine the length of her stay in prison.”
Dumbledore had then mentioned the Wizarding Prison, Azkaban.
Bonbon had shaken her head. “It won’t be effective against Equestrians. Our magic comes from inside- and mere bars will only work for an Aethr… and even then, only for a limited time.”
Then Luna had disappeared into thin air, the girl in tow.
Upon return, some five minutes later, she said she’d discovered the girl had a long criminal history in Equestria, including a previous discharge from prison… so she was now a lifer, and could be permanently removed from Hogwarts’ attendance lists, as she would never be returning.
Dumbledore had accepted the explanation.
When the two professors finally left, Draco was then hounded by at least a few students that wanted to hear his side of it. He wasn’t able to get rid of them until after breakfast, when they had classes.
Finally, he managed to ditch his followers while meandering randomly through the passages… with a nearly-overflowing bladder. He had not been looking forward to finding out how girls used the bathroom, and he did happen to be in a passage with bathrooms- so he glanced both ways to make sure he was alone, shifted to male form, and stepped into the boys’ bathroom. For as much as his clothes came and went with the form, his bladder did not.
Harry smiled, wrapping an arm around Hermione as she curled up against his side in their armchair, in the Gryffindor common room. Ever since they’d met on the train, they’d both served as anchors of familiarity to each other- and so, since they were both skinny, they often ended up sitting in the same chair while they studied, and helped each other out whenever they had issues.
He was fairly sure he benefited more than she did from that part- but then, the other part came in. She often finished her schoolwork long before he did, and moved on to whatever project she was working at the time. Sometimes it was lesson plans for her class, sometimes it was plans on how to help a particular student (usually Applebloom, he’d noticed).
And more recently, she was experimenting with herself. During some of his free time, she’d done for him what she’d done for Sweetie Belle- and helped him find the magic inside him, to calm it down. He’d found that his wand magic came easier when his magic was calmer, but he hadn’t been able to get it to calm down very much.
He knew she was trying to get hers as calm as she could. He’d mentioned Rarity’s annoying levitation shortly after she’d finished her little research project, and she’d dove into it with vigor.
The only problem with this latest focus of hers was that it tired her out like crazy. And, since she could never get her dorm-mates to quiet down before nine or ten at night, she’d taken to curling up against his side for a quick nap in the noise of the common room. She never slept very well when she did that, because of the noise, but at least she could sleep.
Until, in theory, he’d discovered, practiced, and perfected a spell from the library last night. He flattened his magic as much as he could, then gave his wand a little flick, and barely whispered the incantation.
Success. Exactly as he had intended, the noise of the common room deadened right out to a low murmur inside of a cylinder of space around their seat.
Hermione blinked, not having fallen asleep yet, and looked up at him. “What-? Did you-?”
He smiled back down at her. “I thought you might like some quiet during your nap.”
“Oh,” she muttered, and smiled. “Thanks. What’s it called?”
“It’s Serena Tranqui’s Transient Silence- I got it from her autobiography. I can show you when you’re done napping, if you’d like.”
She snuggled into his side, closing her eyes again. “I would like.”
Within minutes, she was sound asleep.
He knew they would be teased about looking like a couple again; that happened every time she napped like that. But, if he was honest with himself, he didn’t care. They were just friends- and just like all… He glanced at Hermione’s notebook, lying open on the table. Just like all six thousand two hundred thirty-seven people that had said hi to him with the express purpose of making friends with the Boy who Lived during the first month and a half of his time at Hogwarts, the ones dead-set on matchmaking could also take a hike. They were simply friends. The fact that they were also each other’s first friends was unimportant.
He smiled, thinking back to Serena Tranqui’s autobiography. He hadn’t been the one to find that book in the library; no, that had actually been one of the Ravenclaw Defense Against the Dark Arts instructors. Serena Tranqui was an ex-auror, who often had the element of surprise on independent assignments. The Ravenclaw had been looking in the index to find the spells she thought would be most useful in combat, but Harry had read through the main text- and not only found the Transient Silence, but also pointed out Serena’s combat uses for it. As it turned out, the silence charm also functioned as a low-level shield, had a selective silence function that could be controlled subconsciously by the caster so as not to block incantations, and could emit a high, staticky noise, suitable for raising the level of silence- all aside from how it would last for as long as he wanted it to.
The Ravenclaw had classed the spell as “too complicated” for their first-year students, but agreed that it would likely be a good candidate in their second or third years. He, however, had mastered it in five minutes… and was using it in place of a simple Cone of Silence, a lesser charm that not only didn’t last very long, but that he had trouble with as well.
Perhaps he was too gifted with Defense Against the Dark Arts?
Heh, interesting speculation from Harry there...great chapter, looking forward to another one!
Well we know his cutie mark
Sure thing, completely unimportant. Just wait a couple years and try saying it again. Ok, he's a boy, so maybe four
Well, I hope you enjoy your new prison story of "I got a punch in on Princess Luna" because that's about all this has amounted to for you, silly person.
Also, that's some adorable friendship action going on there.
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Well, the basic concept it represents anyway, the design is still up in the air.
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Yeah, "dada".
Which begs the enormous question of why she was permitted to come here in the first place. If I were Dumbledore I would make a very strong suggestion that they reexamine their roster to check for any other troublemakers that might have slipped in. I might be a little old-fashioned, but in my opinion a school is no place for felons.
I'm trying to take into account the idea that Equestria has a Prison, and Lifers.
I mean, normally a really horrible person just gets a stone timeout until they can deal with them. And that's the really bad ones.
Normally, someone like Twilight will try to give them a friendship speech, give them a chance to change their behavior, to become a better person, and the stone timeout only is used when Celestia is really upset at them.
So, what makes someone a worse criminal than ... a mind controller, a would-be conqueror, or a second would-be conqueror? Hmm, Tirek got life in prison, Chrysalis got a friendship speech, Discord got forgiveness, Cozy got a stone timeout (and hopefully they will give her a chance at redemption in the comics season 10), ... and this is bad enough for life in prison as a second bad action?
10287821
I'd like to think they have some form of 'controlled' environment with an emphasis on rehabilitation for the ponies that just can't seem to get along that doesn't require imprisonment of Tartarus. Then again, they could just be turning them into foals and putting them in orphanages. ;)
10287742
Well, she was discharged from prison, and Equestria is pretty big on second chances. This was a second chance to start a new life, almost literally. And she blew it.
Draco's school life might be a bit hectic from now on since his female form is now more well-known than himself.
This instance of your version of Harry reminds me of 'the muscle wizard' lol. Strong willed, manly men help their friends when they need it. Good job harry!
Being a good role model for the other little boys.
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And his seeming intelligence advantage is negated by his upbringing having a distinct lack of normal social instruction.
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It may be worth note this is exactly what me and my first girlfriend did when people started teasing us, because we weren't ready to announce it. We were making the "not" part deliberate, so we could learn to like (or dislike) each other legitimately... without being pressured into a pairing.
That's about what Harry is doing here, whether he realizes it or not.
10287742
Agreed.
He likely did that somewhere where such a request wouldn't alert/alarm other students... which may have even been in a letter.
10287821
Well, yeah...
Firstly, this is an AU on the pony side as well. I hear that can mean a lot.
And second, that's just what Luna told him, not necessarily the truth. If they'd given her a stone time-out or the like, they wouldn't have told Dumbledore that.
The girl woke up after being knocked out and attacked the first thing she saw, it happened to be Princess Luna. My dad was in the military. There was a case where an enlisted man struck an officer after rudely being awakened. The Court Marshal found that the enlisted man was not guilty for striking the officer and that people weren’t liable for anything right after being wakened for the first couple of seconds. So to me this seems a bit harsh and superfluous unless this incident is a set up for something further on.
I also thought it wasn’t just second chances but third or perhaps fourth chances unless you were civilization threatening. I’m enjoying this and the above won’t ruin that, but unless it’s important I’m choosing to ignore it and pretend it never happened.
10287719
So, it's the Mona Lisa with a mustache and goatee?
10287742
A class of 11 year olds is no place for teaching someone who is 33, either, and yet every single Equestrian who was age 11 or older got an invite to Hogwarts.
Felons (even felons still serving their sentences, not just ex-cons like the unnamed pony in this chapter) deserve access to education as much as anyone else. They can even be taught in a school. But a middle school is the wrong environment.
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Lèse-majesté is, in general, much harsher than an equivalent offense against literally anyone else, especially in an absolute monarchy (or diarchy, in Equestria's case).
Also, FWIW: It's "court martial" (martial = military), not "court marshal". Homonyms suck, I know.
10290765
Yeah I know, the auto-correct got me. Martial meaning 'war' not marshal meaning a military rank such as "Field Marshal." And I realize the penalties for "Lèse-majesté can be severe, I do not think Luna of all the Princesses would take it to the extreme. Of course this is an alternate reality, so Luna may be a tad vindictive in this AU.
10287742
You do remember this is Hogwarts, right? The staff are convicted felons. Snape, Hagrid (proved innocent, yes, but in the eyes of Fudge and the government he is still guilty), Lupin (being a Werewolf is automatic criminal), Crouch, Quirrel (having Tom in his head counts).
10325043
Three of those were DADA instructors, so that was par for the course.
... That said, yes, the last two are, aren't they? Wizards don't exactly have a lot of common sense...
10325043
Four of the five I get, but Crouch was never hired. He got into the Staff by using Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Moody after locking the real article, afflicted with the shrinking charm (or was it a curse of some kind), in a piece of luggage. So I'm not sure he counts since he had to impersonate Moody as well, not just look like him.
We forgetting all beds have a silence enchantment on them when the curtains are closed?
At least theu have in canon.
10287742
Most children and teenagers are criminals, the laws just are more lenient towards them...
11323382
Except Harry canonically listened to Neville's snoring at several points...