To her slight dismay, Sunset almost forgot that she was going to travel by phoenix fire while stuffed inside the Sorting Hat, and thus she didn’t have the time to formulate a plan, or even psyche herself up.

Instead, she took a deep breath and simply braced herself while holding the sword steady.

But she didn’t appear in the middle of a battlefield, with a giant, roaring monster shrugging off spells and arrows.

Instead, through the opening of the hat, she saw the stone ceiling of a darkened chamber that Fawkes soared through, singing bracingly.

Sunset kept breathing deeply, trying to be ready for anything, when she noticed something in her shirt pocket.. something hard and metallic.

It was the multi-tool that the muggle boys had dropped, almost a year ago.

Almost amused by the thought, Sunset made sure it was quickly accessible, when the hat was dropped to the floor.

Inside the hat, Sunset was magically cushioned, and hardly felt the soft impact.

Holding the sword from Dumbledore’s office in one hand and the knife in the other, she listened.

“That’s a phoenix,” a voice she didn’t recognise said, calmly.

Sunset narrowed her eyes. This was not at all how she expected to find herself.

“Fawkes?” a shocked and scared Harry said.

Sunset nodded. That was more like it. If Harry was here, and scared, that could very well mean that there was a martial threat here, and that was something Sunset could help with.

“And that… that’s the old school Sorting Hat.”

Sunset scoffed inside her mind. It was more than that, as someone was going to learn soon. It was just a question of figuring out who, and where they were.

The unknown voice started laughing, their echoes compounding on each other in the chamber.

“This is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now?”

Sunset smirked. Now she knew what to do.

She turned around in the magically enlarged hat, stepped out onto the stone floor, and lifted it off of her, all the way from the floor to above her head.

“... Sunset?” Harry said, taking a step back, his eyes wide as saucers

“The very same,” Sunset said, and bowed, flourishing the hat, before dropping it, revealing her sword, and turned to the other person in the room, scanning the chamber as she did.

The chamber was a vast cavern with brick walls, pillars, statues of snakes, and pools of water, and also housed the third and fourth humans, or at least human-shaped individuals.

On the floor a few steps away from her and Harry lay Ginny, unhealthily pale and cold-looking, in front of an older boy surrounded by a sort of blur, as if he wasn’t entirely corporeal, who glared at them coldly.

“... Sunset…” he said, suspiciously. “The mysterious Sunset Shimmer who scares the other students with the rumours swirling around her?”

Sunset would’ve suspected the boy was a bad apple even without seeing the highly suspicious scene in front of her.

She smirked and widened her stance. “I see my reputation precedes me, but you have me at a disadvantage.”

“He’s Voldemort, Sunset!” Harry said.

Sunset stopped dead, and her smirk morphed into a hungry grin as she eyed the half-ghostly boy eagerly.

“... Reeaally?” she said, intrigued.

Voldemort recoiled slightly as he narrowed his eyes. This was not how the dark lord was supposed to be greeted by his enemies.

Wheels were rapidly turning in Sunset’s mind however. Becoming an alicorn could be about learning enough magic, the right kind of magic, proving oneself to be worthy, or possibly all of the above and more.

In several of those options, defeating Dark Lords sounded like a wonderful idea.

The shape lying beside Voldemort caught Sunset’s attention, and she narrowed her eyes.

“And Ginny?” she asked, turning back to the half-ghostly Voldemort.

“I think she’s alive, but the diary, that book,” Harry said, and pointed at the small book lying before Ginny. “It’s Voldemort’s diary, and it’s doing something to her.”

The hostile joy Sunset had felt seconds ago were gone. Now it was just hostility towards the Lord.

“Well then,” she said, and took a step forward, raising the sword she held in her hand.

“Enough!” Voldemort barked, scowling angrily. He raised his head and opened his mouth as if to call out to the chamber itself but, instead of words, as Sunset knew them at least, an otherworldly hissing echoed through the dark.

Harry’s eyes widened, and a giant stone statue of a face opened its mouth, out of which fell a giant, slightly shiny shape, landing with a loud thump.

Sunset narrowed her eyes. “What is…?”

“The basilisk! It’s a basilisk, Sunset!”

She glanced at Harry, and noticed that he didn’t have his wand out, and that Voldemort held one.

“Basilisk. Of course. Right. Catch!” she said, tossing the gilded sword handle-first to Harry, who caught it by the handle with a steadiness that seemed to surprise him.

Harry held the sword in front of him, while glancing at Sunset, who raised her wand above her head, an intense corona of light gathering near the tip.

Her plan was to blind the monster, which was slowly unfurling itself, but a bolt of magic whipped across her hand, making her drop it, and sending a jolt of pain through it as blood started pouring from her palm.

“Agh!” she grunted, gripping her hand as her wand clattered across the stone floor, and turned to see Voldemort standing with Harry’s wand aimed at her.

“No child can stand against Lord Voldemort,” he said, smirking.

“Sunset!” Harry yelled, placing himself between her and the advancing basilisk, back turned against the monster and struggling to not look at the incoming danger.

“Pff, some Dark Lord,” Sunset scoffed, and gathered up a charge in her closed hand, which turned the blood pouring from her palm silver-coloured. “Doesn’t even have the decency to have a showdown where the wind catches people’s cloaks. Harry! Pull your socks up!”

“What?” he said, but immediately realised he should duck, and did so.

Without looking at the enormous serpent, Sunset raised her hands, which to Voldemort’s visible surprise were glowing.

She waved one of them, making water from the pools further away in the chamber levitate up, then shoot towards the general direction of the basilisk

Just as it passed beyond her and Harry, she clenched her other hand, making the glob of water explode into a cloud of steam.

An angry hiss and the sound of scale-covered flesh slamming against stone told Sunset that it had worked. She looked at the monster, and saw it thrashing in the hot steam, its eyes closed.

Deep underground, she couldn’t use her most powerful magics without the risk of a cave-in, and she didn’t want to be stuck holding back a couple of tons of rock with her magic and leaving a Dark Lord free to attack her.

Voldemort scowled at Sunset, and shouted out a command in parseltongue.

The basilisk instantly focused on his voice, and advanced against them again.

“Watch out!” Both Harry and Sunset yelled at the same time, and tried pushing the other out of harm’s way at the same time.

Sunset staggered to the side, while Harry stumbled to the ground.

“Oops,” Sunset said, but Harry was already on his feet again, swinging the sword and trying to make the basilisk back off.

The giant snake had its tongue out however, smelling Harry approaching, and bent his upper body out of the way.

For now, Sunset figured that this was a decent approach in a tactical sense. Harry faced a physical threat with a sword, while Sunset fought the wand-armed villain with magic.

Voldemort smiled widely, and hissed loudly.

Figuring that he was giving the basilisk instructions from the basilisk stopping and paying attention, Sunset raised her bleeding hand against the giant snake, her nails glowing, but this time she was ready for the counter-attack.

She raised her other hand against Voldemort, and conjured a magical shield between herself and the attack.

The impact took her by surprise though. Blaise Zabini’s feeble attempt at disarming her felt like she was a castle wall being attacked by a feather. Voldemort’s attack felt like being attacked by a trebuchet.

She staggered back, wary of what else he would try

Similarly Voldemort looked suspicious of the magic Sunset was capable of without a wand.

“... Interesting,” he said, as Sunset heard loud, angry hisses behind her, and the sound of a sword edge impacting against stone. “Maybe I’ll keep you alive, and make you tell me where you’ve learned your little tricks.”

Sunset opened her mouth to retort, but noticed Ginny again.

“You don’t have all your powers yet,” she noted, and Voldemort’s scowl told her she was right. “It’s close, but you can’t cast the most advanced spells yet.”

She grinned again, retrieved the muggle multitool, with the knife extended, and threw it at Voldemort.

The ghostly boy easily deflected the knife being hurled against him with a flick of his wand, making it land with a clack next to Ginny, but Sunset immediately aimed her hand at Voldemort, shooting a ray of fire at him.

Sunset’s magic shattered the magical shield and blew a hole through Voldemort’s blurry abdomen, but as if he was smoke it just passed through him, and his shape reformed almost instantly.

Sunset stood up more straight.

<<... Well shit.>>

Voldemort grinned and shot another ray of magic against her.

Deciding to reveal some tricks of her own, she teleported away, toward the basilisk, and evaded the older boy’s ray of magic.

Harry was in the middle of dodging a lunge from the giant snake, and slashed it across one of its eyes.

It recoiled, hissing angrily again and, though it was already blinded, at least temporarily by the steam, one more swing like this would take the basilisk’s gaze out of the fight permanently.

“Nice one!” Sunset yelled to Harry, who looked around the snake, surprised to see Sunset there.

Sunset once again raised her hands to magically attack the basilisk, but was once again interrupted, this time by an ancient brick being magically flung at her from the side.

She cast an angry glare at Voldemort, who was still standing next to Ginny, aiming Harry’s wand at them with a look of utter determination.

She had to admit that this wasn’t looking good. She would have to figure out how to hurt a wizard powerful enough to give her a run for her money, who was only growing stronger, and if they didn’t finish this soon, Ginny would be dead.

Perhaps emboldened by his successful attack, Harry raised the sword for an overhead swing, but the basilisk dodged to the side, making Harry stagger forward as the blade struck the ground and sent him off balance.

The basilisk opened its mouth to strike, but Sunset slapped her hand against the middle of its body, magically making her palm glow red hot.

The basilisk let out another roaring hiss as it raised its head and thrashed to get away, and Sunset noticed too late that it swung its great tail at her.

It impacted her belly, and she felt the air being knocked out of her as she was launched over a dozen yards, landing in a tangled pile next to Ginny

Sunset rolled over to see Voldemort staring down at her with a triumphant smile.

“Interloper,” he said, aiming his wand straight at Sunset’s face. “This was to be between me, and Harry Potter.”

Sunset wanted to say something clever, but instead just coughed. She felt that this was a slightly strange thing to say, since Voldemort was the one who brought both Ginny and the basilisk here.

That split second of thinking gave Sunset an idea.

She glanced at Ginny now lying beside her, still unmoving and pale, and the multi-tool still lying next to her pale form.

Rolling aside to dodge a bolt of magic, Sunset raised herself to all fours with her good hand, and grabbed the knife with her injured one, dramatically raising it above Ginny’s head, blade pointing down as if to stab the younger girl.

Voldemort paused, a look of amusement and disbelief.

“No…” he said, shaking his head while smiling widely. “No, no Gryffindor ever would.”

“You’re right,” Sunset said, as blood poured down the blade, which was held right above Ginny’s mouth.

In the dim view of the chamber, Voldemort saw what Sunset was doing with the knife, and hardly believed his eyes

Voldemort’s face contorted into rage and disbelief when he noticed that the blood was silver-coloured.

“No!” he yelled, lunging towards Sunset, when a drop of it landed in Ginny’s mouth.

Ginny immediately arched her back, taking desperate breaths as colour instantly returned to her cheeks, and Voldemort doubled over in pain, as Harry’s wand slipped through his now blurry and more ghostly hand.

He fell to his knees, clutching his chest as he stared at Sunset with hatred across his unclear face.

“How…?” he wheezed, demandingly.

“I’m full of surprises,” Sunset said, coughed, and raised herself up, grabbing the book as she did. “Harry!”

Harry had moved in towards the basilisk, which was nicked and bleeding in several spots, but instead looked at Sunset.

As if knowing what Sunset was about to do, Fawkes swooped in, and raked the basilisk across its still intact eye, drawing out a shower of blood as it raised its neck, trying to roll with the blow.

“Bludger!” Sunset yelled, and threw the diary at Harry.

Harry nodded, and spun almost fully around as he made a double handed swing at the diary soaring through the air.

The sword sliced through the book, just barely missing the spine and failing to cleave it in two, but leaving it looking almost like a double hung door.

Not only that, but his swing was wide enough to give the basilisk the same treatment, the blade going through the basilisk’s flesh and just barely not severing its spine.

The giant snake didn’t let out a desperate scream, but the book did. For only a second, a yell of pain, anger, and desperation echoed through the chamber as ink spewed from it like a torrent, before it was silenced, and came to land on the stone floor with a wet thud.

Stillness reigned for several seconds, with Sunset taking a few calming breaths, and a panting and disbelieving Harry back and forth between Sunset, the basilisk, and the bloodied sword in his hands.

“Ginny!” he suddenly muttered, and ran up towards the reason both he and Sunset had come here.

Indeed, Ginny was gingerly raising herself up, as Harry kneeled down and put his hands around her shoulder to steady her.

“Ginny! Are you alright?”

But she just looked at him and Sunset with wide eyes, trying to understand the scene before her.

“Wha- Harry? Sunset? What… What happened? Why are you here? Where’s Riddle? Wh- why do you have a sword? Is that the… the basilisk? You killed it? You… I…”

Tears were welling up in Ginny’s eyes, and an awkward-looking Harry was trying to figure out what to do or say.

“I… I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn’t in front of Percy. It was me, but I swear, I… I didn’t mean to… R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over…”

Sunset half-listened as she pointed her hand at her wand, making it fly into her grip. She conjured up a piece of cloth that she cleaned the blood from her hand with before conjuring up some bandages that she magically tied around her hand, as she sauntered towards the now-dead magical diary and picked it up.

“... How did you kill that thing?” Ginny kept asking, as Sunset walked back towards them. “W-where’s Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary.”

“It’s alright,” Harry said. “Riddle’s finished. Him and the basilisk. Look.”

Sunset held up the diary and gave Ginny what she hoped was a reassuringly easy-going smile.

“Let’s get outta here. I want a shower,” Sunset said, and looked around as she went over to pick up the Sorting Hat. “Where’s the exit?”

“Uh, over there,” Harry said, and pointed to the far end of the dank cavern, standing up and helping Ginny to do so as well. “By the way, uh… thanks, Sunset. I don’t think we’d be alive right now if it wasn’t for you.”

Sunset chuckled. “Haven’t you done this before? Twice even?”

“What? Oh, yeah, well, once at least, but… still,” he said, as he helped a sobbing Ginny along. “But how come you’re here?”

“I was looking for the entrance to… well, this place,” Sunset said, and waved demonstratively around her. “Then Fawkes found me. He was looking for something to help you with, and I guess he found what he thought was the most dangerous thing in the castle, which I found kinda flattering I guess. Also, who’s Riddle?”

“Oh, uh… Turns out that Voldemort’s–” Ginny’s jumped slightly at the name “– his real name was Tom Riddle. Tom Marvolo Riddle.”

“Huh. I did not know that,” Sunset noted, as they passed by the dead basilisk, the blood still pooling around it. “Hey. Sword,” she said, snapping her fingers

A confused Harry handed Sunset the sword, and she swung it at one of the fangs, severing it clean off, then handed Harry the sword back before very carefully picking the fang up in her uninjured hand. “Trophy. Want one?”

“N-no thanks.”

Sunset shrugged, surreptitiously conjured some more cloth to temporarily wrap the fang in, and slipped it in her pocket.

“I’m going to be expelled,” Ginny said. “I’ve looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I’ll have to leave and… w-what will mum and dad say?

“What?” Sunset asked, confused. “Why would you be expelled?”

Ginny looked at Sunset with puffy, red eyes. “W-what do you mean? I… I’m the one who attacked people!”

“No, you said Riddle took you over,” Sunset noted, as they neared the entrance that Fawkes was hovering by. “That means you’re not the one who– hey… what happened here? This thing caved in.”

“Yeah, uh… Professor Lockhart tried to wipe our– uh, my and Ron’s memories,” Harry said. “But he collapsed the tunnel instead.”

Sunset looked at Harry, and even Ginny stopped sobbing to give him a surprised look.

“Yeah, sounds like him,” Sunset noted, and heard the sound of grunting and rocks scraping against each other from the other side of the rubble, noticing that someone was hauling rocks to make a passage from the other side.

“Who’s there!?” Ron called, before his face appeared over some rocks.

“Ron!” Harry called. “Ginny’s here! She’s okay! We’ve got her!”

Ron let out what could only be described as a celebratory mewl, before he quickly collected himself. “Ginny! You’re okay!” he said, and pulled another large rock towards him and out of the way. “I… what happened? Wait, Sunset!?”

“Hey,” Sunset said, giving a wave.

“Where did you come from?”

“Dumbledore’s office.”

“What? Uh… well, okay. C-come on, Ginny,” he said, and reached out over the rubble to help his sister through.

Sunset climbed through next, followed by Harry.

A smiling Ron was trying to hug Ginny, but she seemed to be too upset for hugs, and gently pushed him away.

“But you’re okay, Ginny. It’s over now, it’s– where did that bird come from.”

“He’s Dumbledore’s,” said Harry, who was squeezing himself through.

“And how come you have a sword?” he said, and looked alarmed when he got a better look at Harry. “Hey! Are you alright!?”

“What? Oh… yeah, this isn’t mine,” Harry said, indicating the splatters of blood on his and Sunset’s clothes. “It’s the basilisk’s.”

“Oh, good. It’s, uh… dead, then?”

“Yeah.”

“Good,” Ron said, and eyed Sunset incredulously. “And seriously, where did you come from, Sunset?”

“Dumbledore’s office,” Sunset repeated. “I get the feeling I’m going to be telling this at least one more time tonight, so I’ll save it for then, but Fawkes helped me get here,” she said, indicating the phoenix who had landed on Harry’s shoulder.

“How?”

“Fawkes is a phoenix,” Harry clarified. “And, uh, that also means that he can help us out of here, I think?” he continued, giving Fawkes a questioning look.

Fawkes just trilled and nodded his head.

“Right, good. Where’s Lockhart, by the way? I guess we should bring him with us.”

“Over there,” Ron muttered, pointing with his thumb above his shoulder. “Come and see.”

Over near a round pipe leading upward at a steep angle was their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, sitting in the dirt and looking happily oblivious.

“Hello there,” he said, when they approached.

“I told him to wait here. Completely wiped his memories by the looks of things,” Ron said.

“Do you live here?” Lockhart asked.

“No,” Harry said, as he and Ron looked at each other.

“Do I live here?”

“If you want to. Not really all that different,” Sunset noted to the others, who nodded critically.

“Anyway, Fawkes, can you handle all of us together?”

Fawkes trilled in confirmation, and Sunset held an oblivious Lockhart around his waist with her injured hand, while grabbing one of Fawkes’ talons with her other.

Harry, Ron, and Ginny held onto the other one, and mere moments later, they emerged in Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom.

Sunset looked at the entrance to the chamber which was closing behind them into a normal stone basin.

“The secret entrance is in a bathroom?” she said, not bothering to hide her disappointment.

“Oh, you’re still alive,” Moaning Myrtle said from their side.

“I’m outta here,” Sunset said, waving her bandaged hand and walking out the door.

She got halfway down a corridor when Harry and Ron caught up with her, with a still crying Ginny and an oblivious looking Lockhart trailing behind them.

“Where are you going?” Harry asked. “We need to tell Professor McGonagall what happened.”

McGonagall’s perpetually disapproving look was something Sunset could do without, and she waved that suggestion away.

“Bah. You tell her, I have better things to do,” she muttered, and walked on.

“Uh, Sunset!” Ron suddenly said.

“What?”

“Uhm… thank you,” he said, looking awkwardly at his shoes.

Sunset’s expression softened, and she looked at him for a moment, before just smiling easily. “It’s alright. See you later.”

She waved her hand and walked off, leaving the others to look at her, surprised, before making their way towards Professor McGonagall’s office.

Sunset wanted to clean all the grime and blood off from her, not to mention sit down and relax as she processed the situation she had been in, but she remembered what she had written to Celestia.

Still a little high strung from the adrenaline, she tried working out the tension by running through the dark corridors towards Gryffindor tower.

“And what have you been up to!?” the Fat Lady asked her, looking both shocked and a little stern.

“Basilisk hunting,” Sunset said, and cut off any more questions by providing the password.

The common room was quiet and still, and she made her way up to the second years’ dormitories, but when she opened the door, there was a pair of quick shrieks, as Parvati pulled her duvet up above her head to hide, and Lavender rolled out of the bed and took cover behind it, aiming her wand at the door.

“Sunset!?” Lavender said, making Parvati look out from her duvet.

“Yo,” Sunset responded, and walked over to her bed to get her book which was hidden underneath a spare set of robes.

“What… what happened?” Lavender asked. “Are you okay? Did you actually find the monster?”

“Yep,” Sunset said, and started flipping through the pages. “Or, well, I had it found for me. It was a basilisk, but don’t worry, it’s dead now. Harry killed it.”

“Harry killed it?” Parvati asked, as Sunset made her way out the door again.

Sunset paused in the doorway.

“Sure did. Bisected it with a sword. Anyway, I’m feeling kinda icky,” Sunset said, tugging at her still blood-covered robes. “So if you don’t mind.”

Shutting the door behind her, Sunset made her way back down the stairs, and to the nearest set of showers without running into anyone else.

She didn’t even bother disrobing at first; instead, she just stood underneath the hot water and felt the adrenaline leave her body so much that she started shivering despite the warmth.

The water was thick with streams of basilisk blood as Sunset leaned against the shower stall, taking several deep, calming breaths, before her hair started glowing as she magically brought the book up before her face, and flipped to the last page, and saw something she hadn’t expected, which was Twilight’s writing style.

Hello, Sunset. Princess Celestia is really nervous. She keeps pacing and is trying to keep calm. She’s really worried about you, and so am I. Please let us know as soon as possible if you are okay.

Sunset took a deep breath, her entire body shivering from the mix of emotions she felt, having just been in what was honestly a very dangerous situation, and had worried the princess, and Twilight, in the process.

I’m okay. The monster is dead, everyone is safe, and I just got a scratch. I’m sorry for worrying you. Please tell Celestia that I’m okay.

Here she comes now.

The princess’s words were forming slowly, as Celestia often did when she struggled to control herself.

I’m very, very glad to hear that, dear Sunset. But please, try and stay out of danger. I do not want to lose you.

I’m glad you’re okay too, Sunset.

Sunset took, for what seemed like the thousandth time, a deep breath, as her body purged some adrenaline.

I’m sorry for worrying you, but I’m fine. Thanks for caring.

Where are you? Your ink is smudging.

In the showers. I’m washing away the basilisk blood.

The book was still for a moment, before Celestia’s writing started appearing faster and more forcefully.

A BASILISK!?

The book was once again still for a moment, and Sunset got the distinct feeling that Twilight was calming the princess down.

I

That was all that Celestia wrote for several seconds.

I suppose I should not be surprised you took on a basilisk, Sunset. Are you sure you’re okay?

Yes, there was a dark wizard there too, but he just managed to nick me.

Good. I suppose we should let you continue cleaning yourself in peace.

I’ll talk to you later, Princess.

I’m always here, Sunset. Rest now. It seems you need it.

Sunset put the book away, and took the time to clean herself and her clothes properly, before drying them off and applying some light healing paste on her hand, before dressing again and sauntering up towards the hospital wing. She figured that Madam Pomfrey would be upset with her if she didn’t get to look at the injuries.

“THERE YOU ARE!” Professor McGonagall’s voice rang out through the corridor, making Sunset jump.

She groaned as she looked back at her head of house marching up to her with a cross expression on her face.

“Miss Shimmer, do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?”

“Not really,” Sunset tiredly muttered, and added under her breath, “I should’ve gone to bed.”

“Mister Potter said that you were injured fighting a basilisk!” McGonagall continued, as she marched up to Sunset

“Yeah yeah, but I wasn’t injured by a basilisk. ‘The Dark Lord’ slashed my hand, but look!” Sunset said, and held up her hand which had a smear of healing paste across the palm. “It’s all taken care of, and I’m even on the way up to the hospital wing to get it looked at.”

Professor McGonagall clutched her chest and took a step back, taking deep, calming breaths.

“... Fighting you-know-who,” she said to herself. “Right! That does it! You’re marching up to the hospital wing right now!”

“Oh,” Sunset said, pleasantly surprised by how McGonagall was only moderately angry with her.

She didn’t even threaten her with detention,

—

Madam Pomfrey had administered the mandrake cure to the victims, and Ginny and her parents had just left, so Sunset didn’t interact with anyone except Madam Pomfrey, who had quite a few things to say about the state of the school without Dumbledore as headmaster… Which turned out to not be the case anymore, as he had returned to his post very recently.

After Madam Pomfrey had approved of Sunset’s self-applied aid, and given her a clean bill of health, she sent Sunset down to the Great Hall just in time to join in the victory feast.

Both Dumbledore and Hagrid were back, Harry and Ron raked in enough house points to secure Gryffindor winning the house cup again, Ginny (rightfully in Sunset’s opinion) did not get into and trouble whatsoever, Defence Against the Dark Arts classes were suspended for the rest of the term, and there were no exams this semester.

Through the entire thing, Sunset managed to keep a low profile, with only a few rumours that she was involved in any kind of way originating from her own classmates and Fred & George.

The little time that was left of the semester passed by quickly, and before long, Sunset was boarding the Hogwarts Express on its journey back to London.

“Hey, Sunset,” Fred Weasley said, and tugged her robe arm, gently pulling her into a compartment along with George, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

“Hey, guys,” she said, a little awkwardly, and sat down on an empty seat.

They happily greeted her back, except for Ron who squirmed a little uncomfortably.

“Ron. Spill it,” George ordered.

“Alright uh… sorry, Sunset,” he said.

“Again? For what exactly?” Sunset asked.

“Well for… thinking that you hated muggles and muggleborns, and uhm… well… we kinda suspected that you were the heir of Slytherin.”

Sunset raised an eyebrow, slightly amused. “What?” she asked, chuckling a little.

“Well… we couldn’t figure out who it was!” he said, defensively. “We thought it was Malfoy, but we, uh… overheard him thinking that it might be you.”

Sunset scoffed in amusement. “I’m actually very certain I’m not his descendant.”

“Anyway, Harry told us all about how you showed up and saved our sister,” Fred said.

“Helped save your sister,” Sunset insisted.

“Right. Helped save our sister. So… thanks.”

“Thank you, Sunset,” Ginny carefully said from her almost curled-up position in her seat.

Sunset shrugged as she searched for words. “Well… no problem, I guess.”

“We made sure that mum and dad learned that as well. So don’t be afraid to ask for anything,” George said. “We’d love for you to come by The Burrow some time.”

Sunset smiled a little awkwardly at that, trying to figure out how she felt about that idea. “Thanks,” she said.

After hours of entertaining themselves by playing magical cards (Go Fish where you actually had to fish up the cards), and setting off some harmless fireworks in the compartment, they arrived in London, and said goodbye to each other for now, before setting off in different directions.

Sunset wandered King’s Cross station for a while, thinking of where to go next.

She could head to Surrey, like she had last time, but something about that struck her as very uninspired.

Even so, she surreptitiously climbed up on the roof of a bus heading to… somewhere, as she tried thinking of what to do next, when inspiration struck her.

Normal, everyday wizarding magic hadn’t yet helped Sunset become an alicorn, but there was more in this world than that when it came to magic. She hadn’t been lying when she told Lucius that this collection of old, magical artefacts was impressive.

If today’s magic hadn’t led anywhere, perhaps old magic might.

She lay on the roof of the bus, turning away from the afternoon sun as they left London and headed north, and instead looked out into vast areas of adjacent communities, with lighter industries and zones of single family houses.

One sight caught her eye, and she sat up to pay closer attention.

A few houses over, a muggle man was bending over a large automobile, one of several, with the hood open, no doubt performing some sort of repair or maintenance on it.

Intrigued, Sunset considered the sight for a moment, and just before they passed out of sight, Sunset jumped off the bus, and unseen by anyone in the early evening, floated calmly down onto the sidewalk.

She walked up to the man bending over the internals of the self-driving carriage, hearing the sound of a ratchet being used in the bowels of the machine, a fuchsia-coloured one.

Ideas were forming in her head.

Sunset double checked that she was dressed in the black jacket and skirt she had arrived on this world in, and not wizarding robes, before she walked up to the man.

“Hello, sir,” she said, in a friendly voice.

The man looked up, surprised, at Sunset, and after taking a look at her face, smiled back at her. “Hello, miss.”

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m pulling spare parts out of this car…” he said, knocking on the inside of the hood above him. “... To use on that one,” he continued, pointing with the ratchet at another car, very similar to that one, but with less rust and a different colour.

“Why?” Sunset asked, innocently.

“Because neither of them work, but if I get the good parts of each, at least one of them might,” he explained.

“Hmm…" Sunset said, balancing on the balls of her feet, fairly certain that she had not annoyed the man, which was good, and pressed on with her plan. “I have a friend who is really good at that.”

The muggle again glanced up from the mess of metal and hoses. “Oh yeah? Likes the classics, does he?”

“Yep,” Sunset improvised. “And he’s looking for some spare parts himself.”

“Oh, huh,” he said, diving back down, but dropping his tool, which fell onto the ground below, and grunted, before grabbing a filthy rag and standing up to look at Sunset, wiping his hands while he did so. “Well, I’m not a junk dealer, I got this off of one. But if your friend can wait until I’m done with this, he can have a go at it. Might not be much good left though.”

“That’s okay,” Sunset said. “I think he’d appreciate it anyway. How much do you want for it?”

“Uuuh,” he said, eyeing the rusty car critically. “After I’m done, he can have it for free if he just tow it away. It’s not registered as functional, so we don’t need to sign any transfer papers. Who is it anyway? Your dad? Uncle?”

“Uh, friend of the family,” Sunset said.

“Right,” he said, and bent down to retrieve his ratchet from under the car. “Well, tell him to show up tomorrow and we can talk it over. Maybe he’d like to help me with the tires. The bolts have rusted.”

“Sure,” Sunset said.

—

After sundown, Sunset walked through the dark streets, back towards where the old, non-functional cars were resting.

The houses around were dark and still, and Sunset didn’t even bother trying to look inconspicuous.

Bringing out her wand, she unlocked the hood of the first car and lifted it up, being greeted by a filthy mess of steel and plastic.

“Let’s see how good wizarding magic is at this,” she said, and started casting repair spell after repair spell.

Bolts fastened themselves, rust reverted back to steel, hoses put themselves back into position, the battery was restored, and bent metal straightened itself out again.

Sunset gently closed the hood, and lay down on the curb to do the same to the undercarriage, and the doors, and the couch inside, the rudder (or whatever it was called), the windows, the panels, and so on.

Not finding anything more to cast repair spells on, she magically turned the ignition, as she had seen the muggles do, but with keys, on the television.

The car roared to life, and a startled Sunset immediately cast a silencing charm on the machine.

The headlights came alive, and lit up the neighbour’s house, until Sunset cut the engine.

Feeling mighty pleased with herself, she stepped out and did the same with the other car, and this time had the wisdom to put a silencing spell before turning on the engine.

Smiling widely to herself, she pulled out a piece of paper from her bag, and wrote a message on it.

Dear sir. I hope you are pleased with the result. Go ahead and try it out. I took the liberty of disposing of the other vehicle.

Yours.
The Mysterious Friend.

Sunset put a cushioning spell on the front of her car, now restored to a deep fuschia without any rust, and sat down in front of the driver’s seat.

She looked back into the roomy backseat, and nodded to herself, before opening the gloves compartment, and retrieving a pair of keys, and what was clearly an owner’s manual.

“Hmm… 1961 DeSoto Adventurer, eh?”

Sunset put her hands behind her head and thought.

Somewhere in Devon, the Weasley’s lived, who were probably at least somewhat favourably inclined to her right now. Not to mention that Mr Weasley was apparently quite good at enchanting muggle inventions, if the rumours were true that the car that crashed into the Whomping Willow, and which Sunset had briefly encountered in the forest, was his.

Sunset nodded to herself, started the car with the keys from the gloves compartment, and started carefully driving towards the countryside.

When she reached the rural areas, she looked up at the sky, dark and cloudy, and shrugged.

She needed a good magical workout anyway.

Channelling magic through both her hands and her hair, the car floated off the road, and turned west, soaring through the night sky.

Feeling rather pleased with herself, Sunset noticed the radio on the panel next to the rudder.

She knew of those from last summer, when she became familiar with a lot of muggle inventions, and turned the knob to power up the device.

“♪I’m learning to fly, but I ain’t got wings…♫”

Sunset laughed a little to herself, and leaned back into her seat.

“Too right.”

Author's Note

Right. Like I said, this was kinda rushed, but hopefully you still enjoyed it. Thanks to Snuffy and ssokolow for their help.