The Girl who Didn't Just Live

Chapters

Chapter 2: Eleven Years RW
Chapter 3: Gringotts RW
Chapter 5: Bonbon RW
Chapter 6: Awkward Recruitment RW
Chapter 7: Derailed RW
Chapter 8: High Profile Attention Avoidance RW
Chapter 9: Christmas RW
Chapter 10: The Philosopher's Stone RW
Chapter 11: The Way Home RW
Chapter 12: Astrium RW
Chapter 13: Chamber Trouble RW
Chapter 14: Attunement RW
Chapter 15: First Attack RW
Chapter 16: Professer RW
Chapter 17: Death of Inconvenience RW
Chapter 18: The Thief's Defense RW
Chapter 19: The Chamber of Secrets RW
Chapter 20: Voidwalker RW
Chapter 21: Rita Skeeter RW
Chapter 22: Resurrection RW
Chapter 24: The Void
Chapter 25: The Sequence
Chapter 26: Invasion
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 1: Lord Voldemort RW
Chapter 4: Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions RW
Chapter 23: Diagon Army

Chapter 2: Eleven Years RW

Professor Dumbledore had intended to spend the eleven years Harry spent living at the Dursleys building a plan to ensure the eradication of the Dark Lord Voldemort; according to his sources, Voldemort had been spotted in the forests of Albania as a phantom, periodically possessing snakes and other creatures.

Unfortunately, he was interrupted.

Many times.

First, a girl with oddly vibrant colors in her hair appeared, and attended Hogwarts, the year after Harry had been given to the Dursleys. She was a Ravenclaw by the name of Sunset Shimmer, and had the most difficulty using a wand that Dumbledore had ever seen… even though her non-magical grades were almost ridiculously high. Even so, she wouldn’t have mattered much… if more like her hadn’t followed.

When Harry was two, two more of them appeared. They both seemed to have trouble with wands, just like Sunset- but unlike Sunset, neither of them were all that bright. They were both Slytherins.

When Harry was three, four more appeared, bringing the total to seven. All four of them were Hufflepuffs- and while they didn’t have as much trouble with wands as Sunset or the rather violent Slytherin pair, they must have landed in Hufflepuff by process of elimination- they didn’t do anything of their own volition.

This kept going.

When Harry was six, the total came up to fifty eight- and a new car was added to the Hogwarts Express just for them, making it a ten car train.

When Harry was seven, Sunset Shimmer graduated- barely- and subsequently became the Facilities Assistant at Hogwarts, helping Filch clean and maintain the Castle and Hagrid do the same for the grounds, with the rapidly increasing numbers of students.

When Harry was nine, there were significantly more of them than there were normal students at Hogwarts, at exactly five hundred, and the Ministry was investing in magically expanded cars that could carry more students at once- the Hogwarts Express had reached a whopping 25 cars, and it was starting to impinge upon the speed of the locomotive. The Ministry, and wizarding nobility, also came to start calling them ‘colorheads’, against Dumbledore’s strongest objections. He absolutely refused to use the term to describe them; he felt that it was an insult.

When Harry was ten, the Ministry had come out with their new cars… Two of them. Each one could carry ten times as many students, while still weighing just as much empty and full. However, with a thousand and twenty two of the strange-haired children in the school, they only managed to keep the train at only twenty five cars- rather than the forty three it would have been without the compressed cars. That year was a bit of a nightmare; classes had gone from about sixty students per house to about a hundred and forty in only one year, making it extremely difficult for the Professors to keep up and teach properly. Fortunately, word had come in about a large number of students tutoring one another, and he had heard reports of the smart ones gravitating towards the front of the class.

They were led in that by a Ravenclaw first-year by the name of Starlight Glimmer. She was constantly on edge, like she was desperate for or worried about something, but she would never tell him what… and she was taking it upon herself to ensure all her fellow first-years got a decent education. Dumbledore found he liked her and her ideas, even though the constantly increasing numbers of students forced him to scrap one plan after another.

Finally, it was summer- specifically, the summer in which Harry would receive his Hogwarts letter.

Judging by the pattern so far, Harry would be one of a whopping thousand first-years, with class sizes all the way up to two hundred and fifty… so Dumbledore had spoken with Starlight, and established her student tutoring thing as a school-sanctioned but student-run ‘Student Instructor Program’, whilst also restructuring it a little to help keep class sizes manageable. Starlight had dived straight into the task of locating appropriate Student Instructors, as the only member of what she had insisted on calling its ‘management team’. It was up to that team- ergo, her- to decide who to add to the management team, who to dismiss from it, and so on.

At least part of the reasoning for that decision had been carefully kept from Starlight. Specifically, Dumbledore expected that such a program would help stabilize Hogwarts to the point where he would be able to start making plans again, without shredding them all over again every year!

In the meantime, the Ministry had procured another two expanded cars, reducing the train to a mere seven cars, to the original nine… Except that, by that same estimate, they would need to add some thirty more cars to the train. Fortunately, the number of new cars required was going to be small enough that the Ministry would have plenty of time to locate them once he told them how many they would need… and by how much they would need to extend the platform as well.

He turned slightly to glare at the set of instruments that were supposed to be monitoring Harry to ensure he was being treated alright… but they had never connected, and every time he visited, it was to find out that the Dursleys had picked that day to go on vacation, and so were nowhere to be found. The time he’d waited at their house, he’d met their housesitter Mrs. Polkiss, who told him they’d left on a month-long vacation just a couple days before, and hadn’t been able to tell him when they planned to return. Even Mrs. Fig, the local squib, had reported that she hadn’t seen the boy even once- he was simply never at the house when she visited… and the Dursleys didn’t seem to favor her as a babysitter as Dumbledore had hoped, so she didn’t even have that. For some reason he had yet to determine, the few letters he’d sent to the Dursleys directly had been returned as undeliverable- or, when he used Muggle Post, inexplicably returned with ‘return to sender’ stamped on the envelope.

He would have to wait for the Hogwarts letters… then get someone, probably Hagrid, to show up to take him through Diagon Alley and figure out what his childhood had been like.

If he was still alive, for that matter. Dumbledore had been unable to confirm even that.

It hadn’t stopped him from putting in a marriage contract between the boy and Ginny Weasley, to ensure the boy had a good wife.

He sighed. He’d try visiting one last time.

A Few Years Earlier…

Ginny Weasley, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to both the new students and Dumbledore’s difficulties. Just over seven years before, her reincarnation had gone well. As expected, she’d struggled with the whole breastfeeding thing- then, when she was three or so, the fact that she was a girl had finally clicked. It still didn’t quite feel real, and she knew it wouldn’t for a while yet; the reincarnation process wouldn’t finish properly binding her soul to her body, and making her body actually feel like her, until her tenth birthday.

But… for as much as it had surprised her, over the last four years, she’d found that she actually enjoyed being a girl- even a preadolescent one.

It was a good thing she’d destroyed that House Curse. It would have forced her to ‘die’ again shortly before birth and without explanation, necessitating another reincarnation and inducing a minimum of an extra year’s delay before she could get a wand.

But she was fortunate. She had survived… and was already seven years old, with nobody being any the wiser for who she really was… Or had been, at any rate.

So now, she set a stool in the bathroom. This was going to be the first time she ever really looked at herself in the mirror; it was also, for the most part, her first opportunity to do the same.

She sighed as she looked up at the bathroom door, which she’d closed and locked, as she heard Ron rush past. He’d been a piece of work- but she’d fixed that. She knew she’d become the terror of the house in the process, whipping her older brothers into shape from the young age of four- but she’d been successful. Every single one of them showed signs of having glory in their future.

Well… ‘showed signs’. Some of them already had glory. The family was currently going through the usual morning rush to get ready to send the older children to Hogwarts. Bill had received a Head Boy badge over the summer, making their parents practically glow with pride- and of course, not only that, but Charlie had simultaneously received a Prefect badge! Percy was only a second-year this year, though, so he hadn’t yet had that kind of opportunity. The Twins, Fred and George, still had another year to go before they went to Hogwarts- just as Ron had three and she had four. But even now, the Twins were definitely pranksters, and she hadn’t even tried to stamp that out; she’d only impressed upon them the importance of safety.

The whole family would be going to the Platform to see off the Hogwarts Trio again, just like the last few years; it was a regular moment of vulnerability that Ginny always worried about. What if someone sensed her? Since she was no longer a phantom, she couldn’t tell who would be likely to be able to detect her soul and who wouldn’t be.

She stepped up onto the stool, and turned to look at herself in the mirror.

Then she promptly blushed scarlet.

She’d known her hair was a vivid red… but she hadn’t realized that it was an inhumanly vibrant, candy-apple red. She probably stood out quite a bit- and she didn’t want to attract attention!

She’d been right to be shy around strangers. Always afraid of being detected… now, she had even more reason to stay unseen. Her hair was easily the reddest of the red-haired family.

Acquiring a wand and changing it, however, didn’t even cross her mind. There was a part of her that enjoyed the individuality it gave her.

She brushed it gently aside and sighed, inspecting her appearance. Yes… Yes, this would do for a visit to Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

All of the sudden, her right hand started to tingle. It was an odd, electricky tingle, almost as if she’d struck her funny bone or something but a lot less… abrupt. Or painful. No, it wasn’t like her funny bone- it was like she’d been lying on her arm wrong, causing it to ‘fall asleep’.

She rolled her shoulder, flexed her elbow, and swung her arm around… but no effect. The tingle kept getting stronger. And- strange when her hand ‘fell asleep’- her sense of touch didn’t seem to be affected at all.

“Weird,” she muttered aloud, poking at her hand with her other hand.

Suddenly, a soft blue glow appeared on her palm, then… floated out into the air above her open palm.

She stared, frozen in combined shock and fear. What was this?

The glow- no, it was noticeably some sort of glowing light- began to crystalize as it gathered over her hand.

She stared, transfixed as her curiosity quickly overtook her fear. What was this? Where was it coming from? How did light form into a solid crystal?

A minute later, the last of the light came from her hand and joined the crystal. The glow disappeared, and her hand stopped tingling- and as soon as it did, the crystal responded to gravity and dropped into her hand.

She stared at it. If only she had a wand to probe it with, to find out what it was-

No, she stopped herself. No, this crystal just popped out of her hand. Why? How? Was it from something inhabiting her body, or was it actually a function of her body?

Was she a Royal?

She hoped she wasn’t. She was already tired of being powerful.

She scowled. It was impossible anyways; Hailey was a Royal, and they were only a year apart. That portal never appeared for a year and a half after any given appearance!

Suddenly, someone banged on the door. “Ginny, are you in there?”

It was Molly, her mother. Her mother… who liked to dote on her, not that she liked it. A few times, she’d debated using wandless magic to push her away, but that would probably be a very bad idea, so she’d never done it.

She winced, pocketing the crystal. “Yes?” she called, hopping quickly off the stool.

“We’re waiting on you now,” Molly called back.

She stowed the stool back where it belonged- they kept it in the bathroom so she could reach the toilet properly- and opened the door. “Did Percy remember his rat?”

Percy, who was walking past, froze, then spun around and dashed back upstairs.

Molly sighed, looking after him. “Always.”

“Did Fred remember his shoes?” she continued nonchalantly- and seconds later, another red-haired boy dashed past: Fred.

Perhaps they would actually arrive at the station on time this time, rather than at the last possible second.

“How are you doing that?” Molly asked.

She shrugged. “By following the patterns. Speaking of, did Charlie remember his wand?”

“Yes!” Charlie called cheerfully. “I actually remembered it this time! It’s… Uh oh.” He dashed past as well.

Ginny giggled.

Molly laughed as well.

“We have it,” George chuckled, holding up Charlie’s wand from where it had been tucked in between him and Fred on the couch.

“Aaaand did you remember your shoes?”

He paused, glancing down at his bare feet. “Uh… Yeah, you got me.” He jogged past and up the stairs, Charlie’s wand still in his hand.

“Anything I might have forgotten?” Bill asked, leaning against the wall with an amused expression on his face.

“Not that I can think of,” Ginny told him. “Not unless you’ve forgotten your whole trunk again.”

He blushed scarlet and laughed. “Oh, no, that was one year only. It sure was awkward, wasn’t it?”

Ginny, Molly, and even Ron, who had been glowering at the trio of trunks waiting to be taken to the car (he was impatient to go to Hogwarts himself), all laughed with him.

Ginny sighed. It was her eighth birthday now, almost a full year since that first crystal had appeared out of her hand.

Ever since then, another crystal had appeared every three weeks or so. She’d tried to time it, but it was erratic- anywhere from eighteen days to twenty-six. However, for as much as she was hiding it from her family… she was no longer afraid of the crystals. She had even accumulated a small pile of them in her closet.

And now of course, her hand was tingling again, twenty-two days after the last crystal.

It was a good thing it was so early in the morning; she’d awoken early, too nervous about the coming day.

Because today was also the day that her family would do their Hogwarts shopping. Bill had graduated the year before, and was going through the process of getting a job; it looked like Gringotts was going to accept him as a cursebreaker in Egypt, so that was going to be good. Charlie was still a prefect, as expected, and Percy was now a third-year student, and starting a very ambitious list of subjects. Ginny thought that suited Percy quite well; he was a very ambitious boy to begin with, though perhaps a little too ‘prim and proper’. He would likely be forever left to the assistant-type position if he didn’t change that.

Then of course, Fred and George were starting at Hogwarts as well this year- and Molly wanted to get her a birthday present while they were out.

It was going to be a very busy day, in which she was likely to be hiding most of the time.

She sighed as the light started emerging from her hand, forming into the crystal. Ever since these strange crystals had started appearing from her hand, she’d grown even shyer, if it was possible- and started avoiding even her own family, a little. For example, she now preferred to hide in her room and write in her ‘diary’- actually a research notebook about her wandless magic- rather than to join her brothers out in the house and chat, play, or whatever else with them.

She’d even started feeling real fear when faced with a stranger! Even though she was the reincarnation of Lord Voldemort, and knew not one but twelve different ways to kill with wandless magic, and a good fifty non-lethal ways to defend herself!

Not that she’d ever let her family find out how skilled she was. That would be just asking for a disaster.

The crystal finally finished forming.

She set it on fire.

Then she stared at it, floating in the heart of a handful of fire. The flames started at yellow, but as she watched, they quickly became blue and finally a bright, white-hot ball of flames that reached all of the way up to the ceiling.

She hadn’t used wandless magic to make the flames, and wasn’t using wandless magic to sustain them; the crystal was evidently fireproof.

She allowed the flames to fade… and as she did so, cast a couple wandless spells on the crystal to first check its temperature and second to bring it back down to room temperature.

Wandless magic was nowhere near as efficient as wand magic… but it was no less effective for it.

Interestingly enough, the crystal hadn’t heated up at all. Was it even real fire?

She sighed, placing the crystal on her desk, and summoned the flames again. This time, she kept the flames a cool red.

Then she reached over and touched it with her other hand.

The flames wrapped around her hand, almost as if avoiding her skin. She couldn’t feel any heat from it, and it wasn’t burning her.

When she removed her hand, she paused and looked at the back of it; there seemed to be something there.

There was what looked like a golden lotus flower glowing gently on the back of her hand.

She scowled. Where had that come from? What was it? Was-

She froze, then brought her hands together, straight through the flames… which, aside from rippling out of the way, completely ignored her hands. A quick wandless magic spell said there wasn’t anything there.

So she snuffed out the flames as quickly as she could, causing them to vanish in an instant, as if someone had teleported them elsewhere- even the higher parts of the fire.

The flower on her hand faded and disappeared.

She rubbed her chin, then recreated it… and concentrated on forming a gap in the middle of the flames.

It was far easier than expected to make a horizontal band in the middle of the flames invisible. As a matter of fact, it felt like that made them easier to maintain.

It had to be an illusion, apparition, hallucination, or the like.

She grinned, bending the flames into the shape of a fiery snake with nothing but her willpower, then turned its head into water- which she confirmed wasn’t actually there, just a part of the illusion- for good measure.

Then, while she made it slither in circles around her desk, she looked at the back of her hand. Could this same illusionary power be used to make the flower disappear? She focused on that.

Then the flower disappeared, almost as if someone had poured a bucket of skin-colored paint on it.

Yes, she could hide it. While using it.

She giggled, already wondering what else she could use it for. It didn’t seem like she could make her hand invisible, though making a Halloween costume wasn’t out of the question.

She froze. The fire-and-water snake vanished in the blink of an eye, and the flower reappeared on the back of her hand just as quickly, before fading into nothing.

No. No, a Halloween costume was completely out of the question.

This wasn’t wandless magic. It was something else.

And if it was something else… it probably made her a Royal.

She didn’t want anyone to think that.

But of course, Hailey was the Royal, wasn’t she? So how could she be one as well?

A sudden noise outside her door got her attention- but when she stopped to listen, it was just her mother headed downstairs, likely to make breakfast. Everyone else was probably going to be getting up soon as well, and it was about time she started her day.

So she rose from her desk chair, walked over to her dresser, and pulled open a drawer to contemplate what she wanted to wear.

After all, a nightgown wasn’t considered acceptable for day wear.

On her ninth birthday, Ginny looked up from her breakfast as an owl landed in front of her, offering her a letter.

“Thanks,” she told it, accepting the envelope… It was quite an official-looking envelope. Had she been detected? She broke the seal and opened it, ignoring how Fred was leaning over to read it as well.

Then she unfolded it.

It was… a marriage contract notification.

“What is it?” her father, Arthur, asked.

“Apparently, somebody put in a marriage contract that concerns me,” she muttered, scanning down the needlessly wordy missive.

“What?” her mother, Molly, gasped. “Who is it? Who is taking you away from-!?”

“Harry Potter,” she read, then carefully restrained a giggle; she knew Harry Potter didn’t exist, but nobody else did. “Of course.”

“Dumbledore,” Molly growled. “What is he thinking? Even with the Boy who Lived, he should talk to us first!”

Then Ginny froze, most of the way down. The notice… Yes. The contract had been submitted between a male wizard named Harry Potter… and a female squib named Ginny Weasley.

She burst into laughter.

Several people around her jumped.

“Wh-What?” Arthur asked.

“D-Dumbledore thinks I’m a squib!” she gasped, still laughing. Her efforts to hide her soul-aura must have been too effective- but she wasn’t sure why Dumbledore would have assumed she was a squib.

Her laughter quickly spread all around the table. Even Molly joined in!

Arthur didn’t. “Ahh,” he said, nodding. “An error. Means it’s unenforceable.”

She let out a fresh snort of laughter. As if it would be enforceable anyways, with Harry’s nonexistence- nevermind the fact that she was a Royal. She didn’t understand how she had become one, but there was no other explanation for her psionics. She’d even started messing around with its other effects- mostly just levitation- and found that she wasn’t very strong at all. She had a sneaking suspicion that her psionic powers had been growing steadily stronger as her soul bound itself more and more completely to her body; as such, they were likely to reach full strength right around her eleventh birthday, when that process would finally be completed.

The crystals popping out of her hand didn’t seem to be affected by that, though. The frequency- and size- of the crystals didn’t change at all as she grew older.

Her laughter faded slowly, and she returned to her breakfast. If she ended up reincarnating again, whether by being killed- as Lord Voldemort reborn- or by abandoning her body and fleeing… She wasn’t sure if her Royal powers would follow her, or if she would only have them for as long as she was living as Ginny Weasley.

But she was fairly certain that she would never again be satisfied with a male body.

Hailey, completely oblivious to the doorbell Dumbledore was pummeling into the wall at Privet Drive a few weeks before her eleventh birthday, finished her ice cream at the zoo.

There wasn’t really anything that she could ask for. Yes, her treatment wasn’t quite as good as Dudley’s; she expected that was because she wasn’t actually the Dursleys’ child. That said, she had three good meals a day (three of which she cooked, because she liked to cook), she kept herself busy throughout the day by doing the chores rather than blowing up aliens on the computer like Dudley did, and she slept in her own bedroom. Yes, it was the smallest bedroom… but not by much, and it wasn’t like she used the space she had. She simply didn’t want, overall- she was content with what she had.

Dudley, however, was a bully, plain and simple. He even liked attacking her whenever he had the opportunity- called it ‘Hailey Hunting’ whenever Vernon and Petunia weren’t listening. He got in trouble every time Vernon and Petunia caught him- but his blows didn’t really hurt, and that was assuming he could catch her. She might have been a small, weak little girl, as Dudley liked to tell her (she was pretty sure he meant it as an insult, even though she didn’t look at it as one), but she was light and almost alarmingly fast. She could do a standing jump and somersault over Dudley’s head with no difficulty at all- and had actually been banned from the school’s track team for outperforming the other students by two or three times.

There were, of course, the times when he attacked her when she couldn’t evade and also couldn’t just take the punches- for example, whenever she was cooking. Though that had only happened once- and as Dudley still rubbed the top of his head every time he saw her at the stove, she figured a recurrence was very unlikely. About a year before, Dudley had gathered his entire gang- she was pretty sure that was the right word, composed of him, Piers, Dennis, Gordon, and Malcolm- and attacked her while she was preparing dinner.

Unfortunately for Dudley and his gang, frying pans make great weapons.

Fortunately for Dudley, his skull must have been pretty thick because he was the only one that wasn’t knocked cold on the first blow- though he did recoil, so he’d only received one blow. Petunia had panicked when she’d entered the kitchen a minute later, in response to his pained wails- but had accepted her explanation and told Dudley off.

She had also asked Hailey to try and evade whenever possible, not to fight- and she was pretty sure she understood why.

The thick, steel bottom of the pan had been dented pretty badly.

Dudley thought she was weak… but obviously, the opposite was true. Maybe that was why his punches, which could break bones on other people- she’d seen it- only really stung a little against her? Presumably, Petunia was worried about her accidentally killing someone… Which was a very good worry, and one that she had too, after that event. She didn’t like the idea of killing someone at all… Even though the thought of people dying- even around her- didn’t bother her.

She looked up when Dudley threw a sudden tantrum across the table from her. Piers, one of his gang members, was sitting next to him. Apparently… It took Petuna a few seconds to figure out what was wrong as well.

His Knickerbocker Glory didn’t have enough ice cream on top.

It seemed to her like a strange thing for him to throw a tantrum about, but Dudley was like that: Any time he didn’t get his way, he threw a tantrum and screamed. Hailey thought it was a bit silly, since all he actually had to do was ask.

So Petunia ordered him another one… and the first was offered to Hailey. Except that she’d already had more than enough ice cream, being uninterested in the Knickerbocker Glory, so she turned it down, and Vernon ended up finishing it.

Author's Note

Patreon, Discord.

Hello again! I've now rewritten this chapter too and I think you'll like it better than the old one. Yes, in an end-of-chapter A/N again.

That said, the new version of this chapter might be a little harder to follow, since it doesn't actually flow in chronological order. It starts with Dumbledore during the summer Hailey goes to Hogwarts in, reflecting on the last ten years struggles... then cuts to Ginny, some three years before, depicts a few of her birthdays, and finally shows Hailey at the zoo.

As you may have noticed, their personalities are somewhat different than the original version- Hailey in particular. She's a lot less random... and has some effects from her powers even before she's discovered them. That should be fun.

This chapter didn't grow as much as Chap. 1 did, but I'm working on Chap. 3 right now and half the chapter has already grown to exceed the length of the original chapter. I'm going to continue uploading the backlog chapters I have as-is, and mention any rewritten chapters in their A/Ns, but the rewritten chapters are going up basically as I have them (with a day or two gap for editing, of course). Once I run out of backlog chapters, you'll stop getting notifications until I finish the rewrite in its entirety. As before, just look for the "RW" tag in the chapter title to know you're reading a rewritten chapter.

The long word count might be indicative as well, but not necessarily- a couple of original chapters had large word counts as well. I wonder how many digits their rewrites' word counts will have...

12 backlog chapters remain at time of writing.

Chapter 3: Gringotts RW

Ginny was still tired when she walked down to breakfast about a week before her birthday. She had stayed up way too long the night before, examining her body and searching for anything- anything- that she wanted to change… but she hadn’t found anything. Just like every time she’d looked at herself ever since her reincarnation- she’d yet to do any changes to her body, simply because she was happy with it. A lot of even physical psionic effects were becoming easy, as well- and her repertoire was expanding with ever-increasing speed; just two nights before that, she’d snuck out of the house in the middle of the night to test some offensive techniques she’d suddenly realized she knew.

She had no idea why she knew them, but she did.

But the fact remained that, this morning, she was tired. So tired she didn’t notice that they had guests until she was just stepping into the kitchen.

That woke her in a hurry. She let out a squeak of surprise and wrenched herself, half-physically and half-psionically, back out of sight.

Who was it? Who was visiting? She probed with her psionic senses, but didn’t recognize two of the signatures in the kitchen.

Then she looked down at herself.

She let out a soft sigh of exasperation, looked around to make sure nobody could see her… and released the psionic invisibility she hadn’t realized she’d had, let alone activated.

Though it made sense she’d be able to do something like that, given what else she could do with her power.

Finally, since her psionics weren’t telling her who the visitor was, she focused instead on her ears.

“That was Ginny,” her mother was saying. “She’s always so shy, any more. Makes me wonder if she’ll be okay when it comes time to send her to Hogwarts.”

“That’s exactly what me and Pandora have been worrying about Luna,” an unfamiliar man’s voice answered. “And the reason for the visit. She’s really shy, and…” He paused. “Well, a bit strange as well, so if we don’t set her up with friends before she goes to Hogwarts, we worry she’ll just end up being a loner- and getting bullied, to boot.”

She blinked. Pandora? Luna? That must be Xenophilius Lovegood… who wouldn’t have a hope of detecting her soul, though his wife Pandora Lovegood might be able to, if she looked closely.

Luna, on the other hand… hadn’t existed before she’d reincarnated, so she had no idea. They’d been born at about the same time…

Or technically, Luna had been born about three months and five days after she’d started the resurrection process, making her a half a year younger than Hailey and about the same amount older than Ginny… but that was beside the point.

“Speaking of Pandora,” her father began, “how is she doing?”

“You know how she is,” Xenophilius sighed. “Always doing those experiments. She managed to blow herself up last week- thank Merlin she survived. She’s still at St. Mungo’s; the healers expect to be releasing her in another couple months.” He sighed again, and Ginny could sense his sadness. “They said it was a miracle that she was still alive. I… I worry about her too.”

Ginny let out a sigh. Pandora and Xenophilius were one of the strangest couples she’d ever met… but it was good to hear that Luna hadn’t lost her mother so young. That kind of thing could do so much damage to her psyche that it wasn’t something she could wish on even her worst enemy.

On even Lord Voldemort.

Ginny shivered involuntarily. Some personality changes could be expected when reincarnating, as she adapted to her new body- but she hadn’t expected to become nearly so curious… Nor had she expected her secretiveness after those blue crystals had started appearing to develop into true shyness.

And now, those two qualities were at war with one another. After breakfast, her father had gone to work, then her mother and Xenophilius had decided that ‘a friend would be healthy’ for both her and Luna… so they had essentially thrown them at each other in the living room. At least the rest of the family wasn’t here; Ron was out de-gnoming the garden with Fred and George, Percy was doing homework (it seemed a bit late in the summer to still have some left, but he’d blushed furiously when she’d mentioned it to him), and Charlie was in the kitchen talking with the two adults. Bill had moved out a couple days ago, headed for Egypt to start his new job.

So now, she sat on one end of the couch… and Luna Lovegood, likely to be one of the strangest girls alive thanks to her parents, had sat on the other end of the couch. She’d even been able to confirm Luna’s strangeness a bit during breakfast- she’d noticed the girl had a psionic signature that didn’t make sense.

But both of them were terribly shy.

Ginny decided that it was time for her to man up- No, girl up? Woman up? Hmm, that bore thinking on. But it was time for her to call upon her skills as the reincarnation of Lord Voldemort and actually start the conversation.

“... Hi,” Ginny muttered, slowly, with her face averted.

“Hi,” Luna answered softly, almost distractedly.

Ginny studied the fluctuations in her psionic signature, rather than reading her face- neither of them were looking at one another, so that was difficult- or using legilimency as Voldemort always had. That was… Yes. That was definitely concern; the psionic signature always carried at least some emotional information.

She glanced up.

Yes, Luna did look concerned.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

Luna sighed, then glanced up as well, before meeting her eyes and studying her in turn.

She resisted the urge to break eye contact with the sheer force of the Dark Lord Voldemort’s will, and only barely managed it.

“You look…” Luna began, then paused. “Strange.”

She blushed. Probably her inhumanly red hair. She swept a lock of it aside, flicking it behind her. “Er… Yeah.”

“It’s like there’s two of you,” Luna muttered, almost transfixed.

Then it clicked.

Luna could see her soul.

Then Luna sighed, and averted her eyes. “S-Sorry. I’m always seeing things that aren’t there.”

“That was there,” Ginny told her flatly. Her first order of business would be to find out what Luna thought of her soul; that would let her determine whether it would be necessary to abandon her body or not. She really didn’t want to abandon it.

Luna looked up. “What?”

“What you’re looking at…” She shivered, and curled up, wrapping her legs in her arms. “It’s my soul.” She paused, and looked at Luna. “I’m… I’m a reincarnation, and one of the side effects…” She sighed, unsure of how to word it. “The fusing process isn’t done yet, so I technically have two bodies, one physical and one astral, until next year.” She looked down at the couch between them. “It’s a secret, though.” She sighed. “I… I am not proud of my past life.”

Luna rose from the couch, and moved over to sit next to her. It seemed like she’d successfully broken through the shyness barriers- even her own- and Luna was surprisingly comfortable with her after she did. As if to prove her point, Luna gently rested an arm across her shoulders.

She shivered at the contact, but allowed it.

“I won’t tell,” Luna told her. “They won’t believe me if I do, anyways.” She paused. “May I ask what that past was?”

She looked at her, and debated withholding it… but something told her it was okay. She wasn’t sure what, but she somehow knew she could trust it- that she could trust Luna.

So she checked her psionic sense, to make sure that only Luna would hear.

Then she projected a sonic wall around herself and Luna with her psionics, such that no sound would get either in or out. It was something she didn’t know she could do before… but it had come to mind, and she had suddenly realized she could do it, right on time.

It was very energy-intensive, though- more so even than the invisibility from earlier- so she couldn’t maintain it for long, and it was going to tire her out. But, it did the job she needed it to.

“I…” She hesitated. Worst-case scenario, she still had a week before the reincarnation truly set in. She really didn’t want to do that- her parents would probably be devastated if she simply dropped dead one day- but it was technically an option. Even after that week, all she had to do was get her hands on a wand and cast the Killing Curse on herself; anything less wouldn’t suffice to kill her… Once the reincarnation set in, at least; until it did, anything that would kill an ordinary ten-year-old would also kill her.

At least, assuming her psionics didn’t have any passive protection effects.

“I am the Dark Lord Voldemort reborn,” she muttered softly.

Luna looked at her. “But you’re not a bad person,” she observed calmly.

She raised an eyebrow, allowing her sonic barrier to collapse. She was right, it was tiring her out fast. “You’ve only just met me.”

“I can see it,” Luna told her. “Your… color. Bad people are red.”

She raised her other eyebrow, then used one hand to draw her candy apple red hair over her shoulder, so it would be clearly visible to both of them- and contrast interestingly with Luna’s waist-length dirty blonde hair, which was pouring down over Luna’s shoulders, both front and rear.

Luna actually smiled, letting out a soft chuckle. “No, not that. And darker. But you’re not. You’re…” She paused. “You’re white.”

She tilted her head. “What’s that mean?”

She shook her head. “No idea. I’ve never seen it before.”

“Hmm,” Ginny muttered, rubbing her chin with one hand. “I think… Yes. I might have an idea of what you’re looking at.” She paused. “I don’t know how to describe it with colors, though, so…” She sighed, then looked up at Luna. “What color are you?”

Luna shook her head. “I don’t know,” she muttered. “It won’t appear in the mirror.” She sighed, then looked away.

She nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like it alright.” She smiled. “Don’t believe them when they say you’re seeing things that aren’t real. It’s real alright, it’s just so hard to see that most people- even me- can’t see it.”

She looked up at her. “You can’t see it?”

She shook her head. “I can’t see it. However, when I was a phantom before I reincarnated, I could see it… and I remember it.” She paused for a few seconds to give Luna a chance to respond, but she didn’t, only looking thoughtfully at the floor. “So… what were you worried about earlier?”

Luna sighed.

On Thursday, August 12th, 2021, the mail flap clicked.

Hailey finished serving breakfast and, before digging into her own, went to get the mail. She always liked to take a peek at it, and guess at what was what, on her way back to the kitchen.

Today, there wasn’t much on the doormat. A brown envelope that looked like a bill was on top, then a postcard with a very generic photo on one side from Dudley’s Aunt Marge- who was Hailey’s… she never was sure what. Petunia was her aunt, so Vernon was her uncle-in-law- but Marge, who was Vernon’s sister…

She was supposed to call Marge ‘aunt’, which was probably at least sort of accurate, but she didn’t really know what she was supposed to call the… family bully when it came down to it.

Marjorie Dursley was, presumably at least, a decent woman- except she absolutely hated Hailey for some reason that even Petunia couldn’t figure out, and always bossed Dudley around as well. Nobody liked her, but she was richer than even Vernon and had friends in high places, so they couldn’t just tell her where to put her nonsense.

She glanced briefly down the postcard as she carried the mail back to the kitchen. She’d never figured out what the difference was, but she’d always been able to read far faster than anyone else- nevermind her perfect recall. Not that she usually let it show, or ever to anyone outside the family- people always got weirded out if they found out how fast she could read or how clearly she could remember from even a brief glance. In any case, it looked like Marge was writing to tell them she was sick; she’d eaten a ‘funny whelk’... She kinda felt bad about it, but she found herself hoping that it was going to make Marge’s life very unpleasant for a while.

Then she flipped the postcard to the bottom of the pile, and banished Marge entirely from her mind.

Then she paused. This was a thick parchment envelope, addressed in green ink to a ‘Mr. H Potter’ in her bedroom… and it had no stamp. She scowled at it for a second, then flipped it to the bottom of the pile as well… to find the bill again.

When she got back to the kitchen, she handed Vernon the mail and sat down to eat.

Vernon also went through the mail. He opened the bill, snorted at it in disgust, and flipped over the postcard. “Marge is ill,” he informed Petunia. “Ate a funny whelk.” He sighed, then paused, gazing at the parchment envelope.

Then he turned it over, revealing a purple wax seal. He showed the seal to Petunia.

“I’d forgotten about that,” Petunia observed, rubbing her chin. “But isn’t it a bit late?”

Vernon shrugged. “It arrived now, so…” He sighed.

“Might as well,” Petunia nodded. “Maybe they’re just a bit late this year.”

He chuckled. “Maybe,” he muttered, before laying it flat on the table and sweeping it towards Hailey.

She captured it easily. “It says mister,” she informed them calmly, without picking it up to reveal the address; he’d slid it across face-down.

“So it does,” Vernon answered.

“They don’t know you’re a girl,” Petunia told her.

She raised an eyebrow. “That sounds complicated,” she observed, before popping the seal off with her finger and opening the envelope one-handed. She shook the letter open, gave it a quick glance between bites, then repeated for the second page, before returning them both to the envelope. “Definitely a bit late,” she informed them. “Says ‘we await your owl by no later than July Thirty First’. Pretty sure they don’t mean 2022- but if they don’t, it’s either two weeks late or two years early.”

Petunia laughed. Her aunt and uncle knew about her perfect recall and reading speed, and didn’t mind when she let them show.

“So, this thing’s real?” Hailey asked.

“Ahh… Yes,” Vernon said, rubbing his hair nervously. “We, ahh… must’ve forgotten to tell you about… yeah.”

“Huh,” she muttered, glancing at it again. “Perhaps after breakfast, then?”

“What?” Dudley asked suddenly. He’d been following the conversation as well, though with an increasingly confused expression. “What is it?”

“Not for you,” Petunia answered off-handedly, to Dudley’s evident irritation.

Professor McGonagall rang the doorbell, and waited.

There was no response.

She tried again- but again, there was no response.

She looked sideways at the empty driveway, and sighed. Of course they would be out today!

A quick charm confirmed that the house was empty, before she headed back towards Hogwarts.

She’d have to come back tomorrow.

“I think I see it,” Hailey said suddenly.

She and Petunia were walking up Charing Cross Road. After breakfast, Vernon had taken Dudley to get ‘babysat’ for the day with Gordon, one of his gang members, while Petunia took Hailey into the living room to explain what they’d apparently forgotten to explain as she grew up.

Apparently, she was a witch. Not only that, she was known to be a very powerful witch…

Who the magical community believed was a boy named Harry, because her parents had told the world she was a boy… then the way she’d survived when her parents had not had made her famous.

And she didn’t mean ‘witch’ in the traditional sense Hailey was familiar with, either- she meant it as ‘female wizard’, not ‘evil woman with a mole on her crooked nose that always rides a broomstick and brews nasty potions in fairy tales’.

It kinda made sense, when she thought about it. She’d been banned from playing an offensive role in any of the team sports in PE after slam-dunking the ball mid-triple-backflip over the basketball hoop while the rest of the class was still halfway across the court. She’d also been banned from a defensive role shortly thereafter, simply because she was too good at it… so the PE teacher, at a loss for how she could participate without completely overshadowing everyone else, usually had her run around with everyone but never interact with the ball and stay out of the other players’ way. Whenever they played something like tennis, she was set alone against three or four other students for a somewhat even match. Once, they had even experimented with having her play multiple tennis games at once… but it was too confusing for the other students, with all the balls flying around.

A disparity like that could easily be caused by magic.

And that wasn’t even counting that she was fluent in every language that anyone in the school could name, even the ones she’d never heard of before!

“You see it?” Petunia asked. “Where?”

It didn’t make much sense that the Leaky Cauldron, the building they were headed to, would be invisible to Petunia… but such it was, theoretically. Wizards. Of course.

She pointed down the street. “Two blocks,” she informed Petunia. She’d always been able to read every line whenever she took eye exams, no matter how far she was from the sign- and without relying on her memory, almost like even her vision was that much more precise as well… Both near and far, because she could see just as clearly right in front of her. That… power wasn’t too useful in this crowded sidewalk, but she’d spotted it through a gap in the crowd.

Petunia looked, evidently didn’t see it, and sighed. “Alright.”

When Vernon had returned from getting Dudley ‘babysat’, he’d picked Petunia and Hailey up and taken them to the train station… then Hailey and Petunia had taken the train to London while Vernon drove to work.

Ginny shivered.

It was the day after her tenth birthday- the first day in which she couldn’t simply abandon her body and flee if she was detected.

Well… Technically second, but that phase of her reincarnation had set in just past dinner on her birthday, so it didn’t really count. That made it the number one most vulnerable day of her life as Ginny Weasley, even though it was also the first day in which nothing short of the Killing Curse could force her out of her body.

And she was in the Leaky Cauldron… alone. She wasn’t sure how she’d managed to get separated from her family… but she had. How? Was it one of Fred and George’s pranks? Just the year before, they’d managed to get Ron stranded in Diagon Alley for almost an hour before anybody noticed!

She was sure they thought it was funny, but if it turned out to be them, she was going to give them a piece of the Dark Lord Voldemort. It wasn’t just scary, it was absolutely terrifying!

She was trapped. Muggle London was a capital Bad Idea (though probably actually less dangerous to her than here, when it came down to it). She didn’t have any Floo Powder, so she couldn’t use the Floo to return to the Burrow to wait. And of course, she didn’t have a wand to open the door into Diagon Alley with!

Sure, she could apparate, but then she’d have to immediately kill herself because that would give her away to anyone with even half a brain. She was also fairly sure she knew a way to open the door wandlessly, but that would be just as revealing.

So she was trapped.

She’d already hidden herself in the back of a corner booth. She was tempted to use her psionic invisibility… but what good would that do? Give her away? Well… not quite. But it would tell the world she was a Royal… which would get the attention of people like Dumbledore, who would recognize her for who she used to be. Nevermind that it didn’t work very well in crowds like the one in the Cauldron, thanks to working by way of observer-dependent illusions.

So yes, it would give her away, just not directly.

“So what next?”

She jumped, looking up. Who was-?

Right. From her position, she was hidden from most of the crowd. Only three people in the whole pub could see her… Except, of course, for the front door to Muggle London and the two muggle-dressed people that had just entered. One was a blonde adult, and the other was around Ginny’s age, with wavy black hair going out of sight.

Ginny buried her face in her knees again. She’d made sure to position herself so that, even curled up as she was, the underside of her skirts were not visible to the rest of the pub. She also tuned out their voices, focusing on listening for her mother’s voice. Or her brothers, but they weren’t as distinct, so she wasn’t as sure that she’d recognize them.

A second later, an arm was suddenly laid across her shoulders.

She froze in shock… then slowly raised her head and turned to see who was touching her.

It was the girl that had just entered. She’d somehow moved all the way from the entrance to her booth, and slipped through it to sit next to her, in about a second. Even her companion- her mother?- was staring at her, though nobody else in the pub seemed to have noticed anything.

“It’s all right,” the girl told her. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.” She hugged her gently.

Ginny stared, too stunned to do much else. Even her fear and terror were ebbing away. Who was this girl?

“It’s alright,” the girl repeated, drawing a finger through her hair.

It was an oddly relaxing feeling.

“It’s alright,” the girl repeated again, smiling kindly at her. “What happened?”

She stared at the girl. All her fear was gone, just like that. How had she done that? Who was she?

On top of that, she couldn’t help but trust this girl. Why? Who was she?

“Who are you?” she asked.

“So you’re curious, eh?” The girl chuckled softly. “You can call me Hailey.”

“H…Hailey,” she muttered, hugging her back. Seriously, how was she doing it? “I… I got separated from my family.”

“Okay,” Hailey nodded. “Let’s see if we can find them, shall we? Do you know where they went?”

“Diagon Alley,” she muttered. “They’re going Hogwarts shopping.” She sighed. “I don’t have a wand, though, so I can’t follow.”

“Diagon Alley,” Hailey repeated amusedly. “Hmm… Where’s that?”

“Through the back door,” she muttered. “But you need a wand to open the wall-portal.”

Hailey smiled. “There are people going through that door every few minutes,” she informed her. “We merely have to wait for one of them.” She chuckled. “I also happen to be here for Hogwarts shopping, so do you want to search for them first or just tag along until we inevitably cross paths?”

Ginny stared at her, the two options warring with one another in her mind. On the one hand, she knew Molly would be looking for her, once she realized she was missing- and on the other, she wasn’t sure if she’d ever felt as safe in her entire life- including as Lord Voldemort- as right here, right now, with Hailey.

Then of course, there was the part where she was at the number one most vulnerable part of her reincarnation, which made safety of paramount importance.

But of course, was it a false sense of security? Did Hailey feel so safe due to some magical effect, rather than because of actual safety?

No, it was actual safety.

She couldn’t explain how she knew it… but she did.

Being around Hailey was actually safe.

As such, it was a foregone conclusion.

She hugged Hailey- but, reluctant to prolong her mother’s fear, didn’t say anything. How could she pick one? She could either be safe, or stop her mother from worrying!

Hailey chuckled softly. “C’mon, then. Let’s go find Diagon Alley.”

Ginny couldn’t believe their luck. No sooner had she, Hailey, and Hailey’s mom stepped into the courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron than the brick wall opened from someone returning to the pub, and the three of them walked through the portal before it closed.

Then… they were through. They were in Diagon Alley, where she knew her family was.

If only she’d thought to do that. Then she wouldn’t have been so scared!

On top of that, they had only gone half of the distance to Gringotts before Ginny heard a familiar cry.

“Ginny!”

Her mother very suddenly burst out of the crowd and veritably glomped Ginny. Her and Hailey’s hands separated as Molly lifted her into the air, hugging her so tight she was forced to reinforce her body with her psionics in order to retain her ability to breathe. Even if she did end up needing to die to escape notice as Voldemort’s reincarnation, she simply couldn’t allow her mother to be the one to kill her. Especially by accident- it would probably devastate her far worse than the Dark Lord Voldemort ever could have- far worse than even an army of boggarts!

Though on that topic, boggarts had never been any worry to her back when she was Voldemort. They merely turned into Voldemort as well, something which she’d always found amusing rather than frightening, though she’d never allowed anyone to find out.

“M-Mom!” she cried, carefully modulating her psionic reinforcement to keep the pressure from being any sort of dangerous, but still allow it to give her some difficulty breathing, so people wouldn’t get suspicious. “C-Can’t- Breathe-!”

Her mother nearly dropped her, then set her back on her feet and released her. “S-Sorry!” she yelped. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Ginny answered, breathing deeply. “I’m okay.”

“Oh wow, you made it,” Fred said suddenly- or possibly George, they were identical twins after all- from behind her.

She rounded on them immediately. As it turned out, both of them were there, standing next to one another, and both looking at her with faux-impressed expressions. “You did that, didn’t you?” she demanded, looking from one suddenly worried face to the other.

She didn’t need legilimency to know that she was right. It was them. They had deliberately gotten her separated in the Leaky Cauldron, and caused the whole mess.

At the same time, her mother turned to Hailey and her mother to exchange greetings.

“Uh-!” Fred began.

“Come on, Ginny, it was funny,” George said, in what he evidently thought was a winning voice.

She slapped him.

She’d always been strong for her size- but now, her psionically-reinforced muscles delivered a slap he wouldn’t soon forget. She made sure not to go too inhumanly strong, though, as that would give her away… if not as Voldemort, then as a Royal.

“That was mean,” she corrected him.

Then she froze, as she felt Hailey’s hand on her shoulder, and looked over at her.

She didn’t know how she knew it was Hailey’s hand before she looked… but she did, and it immediately calmed her down.

“Calm down, Ginny,” Hailey told her calmly, cheerfully. “You can’t kill them.”

Ginny sighed, choosing to ignore Hailey’s odd choice of words. “Yeah, I suppose,” she muttered, and turned her back resolutely on her brothers, to return to where Ron, Percy, and Charlie were watching her mother and Hailey’s talk. It sounded like Hailey’s mother was explaining their meeting with Ginny to Molly- and the way she was describing it…

She blushed. Had she really been that pitiful? Her, the reincarnation of Lord Voldemort Herself? … Himself. Every once in a while, she forgot for a moment that Voldemort hadn’t been a girl.

“Do you have any idea how scared she was?” Hailey’s voice trailed up from behind her. Hailey wasn’t yelling, but rather speaking in a low, dangerous tone.

Then it struck her.

This woman… wasn’t Hailey’s mother at all.

She was Petunia Dursley.

Which meant that Hailey wasn’t just any random odd stranger- she was Hailey Potter, the very girl she’d used to kill Lord Voldemort!

She whirled back around… then had to bite back laughter.

Hailey was tiny. Fred and George were already as tall as Molly- which wasn’t much of an achievement, she had to admit- and it put them a full head over Hailey… but they were both cowering in fear as she advanced on them, remanding them disappointedly.

Why did she cause so strong of a feeling of safety in Ginny, yet cause such a powerful fear reaction from the twins? It wasn’t because they’d already met before, at a time that Hailey couldn’t possibly remember and Ginny hadn’t realized she had, was it?

She stared, transfixed, as Hailey effortlessly backed her older and stronger brothers against the wall. Even Ginny couldn’t do that- her main weapon was ‘tell mom’!

Well… that and her persistence. That’s what got Ron to change his ways, that’s what helped Ron to recover from his own abandonment in Diagon Alley with what she was pretty sure was no lasting trauma. She wasn’t susceptible to the same trauma, having been some seventy years old when she died and retaining her mental maturity, even if her brain wasn’t so mature. That was actually a point of irritation for her; her immature brain wasn’t capable of some of the things she did as a matter of course as Lord Voldemort, and as her soul fused to her body more and more completely, she became more and more reliant upon that brain, so it was becoming more and more limiting on what she could do.

She’d already caught that brain immaturity causing some problems- for example, she’d panicked when she was scared in the Leaky Cauldron. Because she hadn’t thought about the whole maturity problem, she had completely failed to find a way out on her own… and of course, when Hailey had saved her, it had actually been a rescue, of sorts. However she had done it, Hailey had delivered the shock necessary to snap her out of her panic and bring back her rational mind. She’d also penetrated her defenses while she was in that panic-stricken state, while her defenses had all been hopelessly inadequate to stop even the weakest legilimens from learning who she was… but Hailey evidently thought she was an ordinary ten-year-old, not a reincarnation.

That was to say, even though she could have very easily- even right after her rational mind had been reasserted, she had still been in a state of shock- and had Hailey asked, she probably would have told her who she used to be- and even about her psionics.

But Hailey hadn’t asked how she got separated from her family, or why she couldn’t reach them, or whatever- and, she realized now, those would have been stupid questions to ask had she been a real ten-year-old.

Instead, Hailey had-

“Ginny?”

There was a hard note in her mother’s voice as she set a hand on her shoulder.

“Huh?” she asked, looking up in alarm. Was she in trouble?

There was a burning fire in Molly’s eyes, and her voice trembled with barely suppressed rage, but she smiled as kindly as she could. “Would you like to stay with Hailey for the rest of the day?” she asked.

Ginny stared. Her mother was so furious… but she obviously wasn’t the one in trouble. And Molly, so dead-set on pampering Ginny and otherwise helicopter-parenting her… was willing to release her to the custody of a stranger she’d only met a few minutes before, for the rest of the day? What magic had Petunia- a muggle, unless Ginny remembered incorrectly- used to get Molly to trust her so completely?

“Well?” Molly asked, evidently impatient.

Ginny blushed and, since her rational mind was taking so long to try to evaluate other questions, decided to go with the answer she wanted to give, rather than the one she judged would be right.

“Y-Yes,” she muttered.

Molly nodded, and pushed her gently towards Petunia. “Then have fun, and I’ll see you tonight in the Leaky Cauldron.”

Ginny then stared as Molly stepped past her, straight towards Hailey and the twins… then reached out to put a hand on Hailey’s shoulder as well. She shivered- if Hailey was able to offer her a ridiculous level of safety through who knew what means-!

Hailey looked up from her remanding of the twins. “Hmm?” she asked, curiously.

Ginny’s jaw dropped.

Hailey had gone from an angry Avenging Angel (that seemed to be what the Twins thought she was, anyways) to a curious, cheerful eleven-year-old in an instant. She looked calm, collected, curious, and cheerful as she looked up at Molly, not at all worried or angry.

“Allow me,” Molly stated darkly.

“Sure, no problem,” Hailey said cheerfully, then ducked out from under Molly’s hand, turned on the ball of her foot, and walked straight away from the twins, over to where Ginny was, with a smile on her face.

Ginny winced as she saw the last of the color draining out of the twins’ faces as Molly advanced on them.

So apparently, even Hailey- who could pacify and gain the trust of Lord Voldemort in an instant- couldn’t match a mother’s fear factor.

She found that amusing. That Lord Voldemort’s greatest weapon would be… her mother.

As soon as Hailey reached her and Petunia, she hugged her. Since she’d unexpectedly made friends with the girl- she was fairly sure that’s what had happened- before realizing who she was, she would have to discard all of her plans of what to do when she encountered her, and just play it by ear… and be herself.

She’d still need to check to be sure Hailey wasn’t carrying any dark magic left over from Voldemort’s suicide, though. But that was about the one thing that wouldn’t change, no matter what.

Ginny was, if she was quite honest with herself, surprised with herself. She was far less shy and fearful than she usually was- and as a result, she realized she’d missed out on so much that was going on around her in previous years.

For example, there were hundreds, even thousands of people running around the busy street with hair colors just as vivid as hers… though often actually more exotic. For instance, that one- which looked to be around first-year age and hauling a large amount of packages- had a monochromatic rainbow for her hair and a compass rose printed on the back of her golden jacket.

There were also a lot of older students running around with similarly odd hair colors- like that one, who had a bright teal stripe down the middle of her dark purple hair, which she had draped over her black robes.

As a result… she didn’t stand out at all. As a matter of fact, she probably looked refreshingly normal, despite her very vivid hair!

The goblins looked no different when they reached Gringotts… but they had never scared her. Even at the height of her reign of terror, she could casually walk into Gringotts, talk to a teller just like anyone else (though everyone else in the bank always screamed and ran for the hills whenever she did that), and get some gold from her vault. They simply didn’t care who she was, so long as she followed the rules, which meant no fighting in the bank.

Seriously. People should have realized that the Dark Lord Voldemort had never once attacked anyone while at Gringotts- and had always respected the rules at the bank!

But because of that, she was completely unconcerned about the many instruments she knew the goblins had that would tell them about her soul, whether they could sense it directly or not. They wouldn’t care, and also wouldn’t tell anyone.

It also meant that she’d always felt the safest at the bank, ever since her reincarnation. At the bank, where she was surrounded by people that simply wouldn’t care about her past self.

As such, she was completely comfortable- not that she could be anything else, while walking hand-in-hand with Hailey- as they approached the long counter in the massive marble hall of the bank.

“What do you need?” the goblin Petunia had selected grumbled as they approached.

“Uh-!” Petunia began, looking uneasy. “We need to recover Hailey’s vault, and retrieve some money from it.” She put one hand on Hailey’s shoulder as she spoke.

The goblin glared at her. “Use words that make sense,” he barked.

“Uh-!” Petunia seemed distinctly uncomfortable. “Well, her parents died some time ago, but left-!”

“So you need to reclaim the family vault, then,” the goblin interrupted grumpily.

“Uh- Yeah. Hailey does, specifically.”

The goblin looked at Hailey, then flinched and nodded. “O-One moment. Griphook!”

Ginny looked at Hailey as well, then gave a small start at the deeply unimpressed look she was giving the goblin.

Griphook turned out to be another goblin. After the two goblins conversed briefly in Gobbledegook, he started leading them down the marble hall.

“What did he say?” Ginny asked, judging it a normal question for a child her age.

“He asked Griphook to take us to the next available vault manager,” Hailey informed her, “whatever that is.”

Griphook paused, looking back at them. “You understand gobbledegook?”

“Uh… Yes, apparently,” Hailey answered.

Griphook raised his eyebrow for a second, then shrugged. “No matter. In here, please.” He opened one of the side doors, revealing a much smaller marble hallway.

“Gobbledegook?” Petunia asked, confusion evident in her voice.

“That’s what their language is called,” Ginny told her. “Er… in English, at least. I don’t know what it’s called in Gobbledegook.”

Griphook glanced back and said what sounded like a single word in Gobbledegook, then sighed. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t translate, and the wizard that made the English name so long ago wasn’t very nice, was he?”

“No, he wasn’t,” Hailey agreed. “And you’re right, it doesn’t translate. The closest you’d get would be ‘Language of the People’... but while that’s plenty descriptive, it’s not very distinctive.” She chuckled. “Though of course, Japan is properly called Nippon in Japanese- and that translates roughly to ‘Land of the Rising Sun’, which also isn’t very distinctive.” She paused. “I wonder where the word ‘Japan’ came from…?”

“Anyways, here we are,” Griphook announced, stopping in front of a closed office door. “I will wait here while you work with him.”

Ginny tilted her head. “How do you know he’s the next…?” she began.

He smiled. “We have special signals that you don’t know to look for.” Then he knocked on the door, pushed it open, and waved Ginny, Hailey, and Petunia inside.

The goblin in this room was… not very talkative. Once he heard that Hailey needed to reclaim a vault, he waved Ginny and Petunia to a bench against the wall, ordered Hailey gruffly to a stool in front of his desk, then worked silently with his many weird instruments and tools.

Finally, he shoved a piece of parchment and what Ginny instantly recognized as a blood quill at her, and told her to sign.

Hailey picked up the quill… then held it as she read the agreement.

“Just sign it,” the goblin growled. He’d never graced them with so much as a name.

Hailey said something Ginny didn’t understand- probably gobbledegook- and the goblin flinched backwards in surprise.

“Wha-? You know gobbledegook?” the goblin asked, in english.

“And old gobbledegook,” Hailey confirmed calmly, to the goblin’s evident horror. “This thing’s got a ton of fluff in it.”

Ginny stared. She’d never even heard of Old Gobbledegook, yet Hailey could read it?

“J-Just sign it,” the goblin barked, sounding half-panicked. “Don’t read it, just sign it!”

“I will never sign anything I cannot understand,” Hailey informed him calmly. “So I’m reading it. Have patience.”

“Just sign it,” he commanded right away.

She fixed him with her gaze. “Have patience,” she commanded firmly.

He recoiled as if he’d been struck, a look of utter terror on his face.

Ginny stifled a giggle. No doubt the same terror technique she’d used on her brothers, whatever it was.

A minute later, Hailey finally sighed. “A bit wordy,” she observed, “but I suppose it works. Now then.” She glanced at the desk on either side of the parchment, then looked up at the goblin, whose terror seemed to have gradually faded. “No ink?”

“Y-You won’t be needing any,” the goblin squeaked. Evidently, his terror was only hidden.

“Okay,” Hailey nodded… then put the quill to the page.

Bang!

Ginny let out a brief scream of alarm at the sudden noise- while Hailey just jumped and froze.

The quill had disappeared. No- Ginny spotted many tiny fragments of peacock feather Blood Quill raining down through the air.

“Um, is it supposed to do that?” Hailey asked.

The goblin stared for a few seconds… then wordlessly turned and left the room through the door behind his desk.

The room was silent for some five minutes before the goblin returned, with what looked like a fresh blood quill. He sat down, gave it to Hailey with the same sort of terrified air as Wormtail had used when informing the Dark Lord Voldemort of where the Potter’s home was, then sat back in his chair. “Sign it,” he instructed her. His voice quavered, but just like Wormtail, he controlled it… to a degree.

She looked at the quill, and back at him. “Aaaand this one won’t explode?” she asked.

He nodded silently.

“And also no ink?”

He nodded again.

She nodded, and put the quill to the page.

Bang!

She nodded again. “Okay, I kinda expected it that time.”

He wordlessly turned and left the room again.

Ginny jumped awake, suddenly hyper-alert. “What-? What happened?” She felt like there had been something on her nose.

“I’m done,” Hailey said, her hand retreating from Ginny’s face. “Took quite a while, and another goblin, but it’s done. He’s asking if you’re a reincarnation.”

Ginny blushed. The second time the goblin had left, he had taken so long to return that she’d actually gotten bored and fallen asleep against Petunia- and apparently, slept through his return or whatever else.

There was a recognizably different goblin behind the desk, who was watching her calmly…

Then Hailey’s words finally clicked.

He’d asked if she was a reincarnation.

She had expected them to ignore that fact, not announce it!

She felt her face heating up far hotter than before as she nodded faintly. “Y-Yes, I am,” she squeaked. That was not the kind of fact she’d wanted to advertise in front of Hailey, or anyone else for that matter.

“Ahh,” the goblin nodded. “I thought so. Reincarnations are an exception to our normal age limits, so if you want to reclaim a Vault now, you can. Would you like to?”

“Uh-!” Ginny began uncertainly.

“I should probably mention that he’s really polite,” Hailey informed her seriously.

Both Petunia and the goblin laughed out loud.

Ginny let out a small chuckle. “Ah, heh heh, yeah…” She paused. “Oh, why not.” She rose from the bench. “Let’s go ahead and see if there’s anything to reclaim.”

The goblin raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t have a Vault in your past life?”

She shook her head. “I did, but I emptied it.”

“Ahh,” he muttered. “Well, while reincarnations usually reclaim their own past vaults, that isn’t always the case. And besides, it’s easier to reclaim a vault than to designate a new one.” He chuckled softly. “Anyways, shall we get started?” He gestured her towards the stool, while Hailey took her seat next to Petunia.

“S-Sure,” she muttered, moving to the stool to sit down.

“Now then,” the goblin said, digging around in the desk. “I’m sure you already know what this process entails, correct?”

“Uh-!” she began, and shook her head. “No, I don’t. Last time, I registered a new vault.”

“Ahh,” he observed. “Well, we start out the same way, by finding the magical signature we’ll need to bind to the new vault.” He pulled a small armload of instruments out of the desk- all the strange ones from earlier- and set them on it. “And for that…” He trailed off, wielding the first couple of instruments; one looked like a small pedestal, and the other a short staff with a window in the top and a peg at the bottom of the handle that fit into a hole on the pedestal. It only took him a couple seconds before he removed the staff again, setting it aside.

“Alright, that’s done,” he informed them, selecting another instrument. This one looked almost like a mirror of sorts, except that it wasn’t reflective. He lifted it up, and set it on the pedestal as well. “This will compare your signature against every unassigned vault we have, and return every match it finds.”

“Every match?” Ginny asked, raising an eyebrow.

He nodded. “We store the signature in a simple magical format that allows us to query it for its relationship with another signature, but that’s about it. This information is searching for any vault whose signature reports any relationship to yours, making them candidates for reclamation; I’ll then be going through them one by one with another instrument to find the best match, which is then the one we offer for reclamation.”

The instrument glowed suddenly, and he looked at it.

“Hmm, almost a hundred candidates. As expected from a reincarnation.” He paused. “And as expected, not a single one is empty.”

She raised an eyebrow. “As expected? And wouldn’t that mean my old vault is not…?”

“When the owner of an empty vault dies, we undesignate the vault rather than keeping it for reclamation,” he informed her, changing instruments again. This one looked like a staff again, with a window at the top. “An empty vault is an empty vault, and we can always designate a new one. It helps keep the number of unclaimed vaults down, which makes this process faster.” He chuckled. “Once upon a time, it was typical for any given wizard to have over a thousand candidates, rather than the sixty or seventy for a non-reincarnation today- but that was also a time when we struggled to create vaults as fast as wizards wanted to designate them. But then we started the practice of undesignating unclaimed empty vaults, and now some six percent of our total vaults are actually designated, so it’s been centuries since we dug the last new one.

“In any case, very few wizards actually think to reclaim instead of just creating a new vault, which means the number of unclaimed vaults is climbing steadily; a millenia ago, after we started the undesignation practice, it was typical for any given wizard to have just five or six candidates.” He sighed. “Oh, that one’s a pretty close match.” He wrote something down and looked back at the instruments.

“... Huh,” she muttered, then looked over to where Hailey and Petunia were sitting.

Petunia was leaning back, watching with a look of calm disinterest.

Hailey smiled at her.

She smiled back, then turned her attention back to the goblin. “Er, you mentioned age limits earlier?”

“Ah, yes,” he nodded, then paused. “Hmm, that one is a really good match. Anyways, the age limits. We don’t allow witches or wizards below the age of seventeen to designate new vaults, nor below the age of ten and eleven months to reclaim old vaults, as that’s the youngest age at which any given witch or wizard will receive their Hogwarts invitation. All the other schools use the letter-sending time as the age point, rather than the start of term as Hogwarts does.” He chuckled. “It looks like you just turned ten, but as I mentioned before, reincarnations are an exception. We still don’t let reincarnations designate new vaults until seventeen, but you can reclaim a vault from the moment you can walk and talk.” He leaned around his instruments. “We don’t recommend it that early, but we do allow it.” He returned to his instruments. “Hmm, another decent match, but with that other one…”

Then he paused, and suddenly leaned around it again. “Are you a Royal?”

She blinked. “Uh- Y-Yeah,” she muttered, blushing furiously again.

“Ahh,” he nodded. “That explains why it’s taking so long to inspect each relationship.”

“That other one was really fast, though…?” Ginny asked.

He nodded. “Well yes. That’s because it only needed to inspect your magic once, and was only checking for ‘any possible relationship’. This one needs to not just look at but query your magic on every vault to determine the exact relationship between you and the previous holder. It always takes longer on Royals because those powers have a tendency of getting in the way. Fortunately, it doesn’t need to penetrate your natural wards like a blood quill, so it still worked for Hailey.” He laughed.

Hailey tilted her head curiously. “What is a Royal?” she asked.

Ginny looked over at her. “A Royal is any witch or wizard with otherworldly powers,” she informed Hailey, and sighed. “You are one too… and Royals are called such because they, well, are, as far as the government is concerned. But you don’t want anyone to find out until after you at least graduate Hogwarts, believe me.”

“That would explain why her natural wards are so strong,” the goblin mused. “Even blew up the measurement quill.” He chuckled. “Not every Royal has stronger natural wards, but it’s not uncommon.” He glanced at Ginny. “And it won’t matter for you, because Royal or not, reincarnations are already immune to blood quills.” He chuckled. “Means I don’t need the usual spiel about the dangers of blood quills, since they’ll explode for her and simply not work for you.”

Hailey giggled. “But they’re still dangerous?”

“Oh yes. Forcing someone to write a statement about themselves with a blood quill is an ancient form of mind control that simply cannot be reversed short of death and reincarnation, as an example. But neither of you will ever have to worry about that.”

“Our friends might,” Hailey observed calmly.

He tilted his head. “Yes, yes they might. Especially if someone tries to manipulate you through them.”

Several minutes later, the goblin finally let out a sigh. “Aaand, there’s the last one,” he told Ginny, before switching instruments again, consulting his notes, and manipulating it. It looked almost like some kind of lightweight typewriter, which he’d stacked on top of the pedestal instrument. “I’ve identified the vault you can reclaim,” he informed her, examining his instrument. “It’s laid unclaimed for almost eight hundred years now, but has several thousand tons in it. Do you want to proceed?”

“Sure,” Ginny muttered. “How much is… several thousand tons?”

He shrugged. “We only have a mass readout, so it could be anything. If it’s galleons, that’s enough for you and your descendents to live comfortably for several generations. If it’s knuts, it’s probably still enough for you to do that, though only maybe for descendents. If it’s bottles of water- that’s happened- then it’s just a lot of water. You won’t know until you open it up.” As he spoke, he pulled out and started filling out some paperwork- the Vault Agreement, it looked like.

“That took a while,” the runner goblin observed, as Ginny, Hailey, and Petunia emerged from the office.

“It did,” Hailey agreed. “It took him so long after the first two quills exploded that Ginny here actually fell asleep!” She laughed, putting an arm around Ginny’s shoulders.

Ginny blushed scarlet.

He chuckled. “Oh, that. Yeah, Rannuff was getting in a lot of trouble earlier for the wanton destruction of a couple of blood quills. Then after he was… dismissed, Karrast came out to report that the measurement quill had exploded!” He laughed. “I’ve never heard that before.”

“Dismissed?” Ginny asked. “Doesn’t that mean executed?”

He paused, looking back at her, and sighed. “In this case, yes, it does. He claimed not to understand the procedures we have in place to ensure no expensive blood quills get destroyed, but with all the training…” He sighed. “The High Goblin found him guilty of deliberate sabotage- comparable to treason, if we still had a nation. And no, there were past… incidents that were considered as well.” He paused in front of a door at the end of the hall. “Though before we head out, I notice you both seem to have keys now?”

Ginny blushed. Were Gringotts keys that easy to detect?

Hailey nodded. “Yeah. We both reclaimed vaults.”

“And would it be correct to assume you want to visit them?”

“Definitely mine,” Hailey said, then looked down at Ginny, who nodded faintly.

“Alright then.” The runner finally opened the door to the main concourse, letting through a wave of noise, and led them out.

He then proceeded to lead them halfway down the hall, then straight back out of the main concourse through a side tunnel before anyone spoke.

Ginny, even though she’d been expecting it, still found herself surprised by the bare stone tunnel. It was lit by flaming torches- magical torches that would never go out, she knew- and there were railroad tracks lying on the floor.

It just seemed so strange the way they connected the polished marble hall directly to these rough stone tunnels.

“What do the exploding quills mean?” Hailey asked, once the goblin had whistled for a cart.

“It means your natural wards are stronger than average,” he told her, while a cart hurtled up the tracks towards them. “Sometimes, a regular wizard can be strong enough to cause a low-level blood quill to explode- but usually, whenever any of them explode, it means we’re working with a Royal.” He shrugged. “Not that it means much to us, while you’re in our bank.”

“While we’re in the bank,” Hailey repeated, while the runner motioned them all in.

“Yes. Those powers give you ridiculous legal authority in the wizarding government, but it’s hard to use said authority when there’s nobody else around, isn’t it? And of course, even if you were to make a radical policy decision while at the bank and attempt to enact it immediately… We’re not afraid of fighting for our rights.”

“As you should be,” Hailey nodded, as the cart took off down the tracks. “Unafraid to defend your rights, that is.” She sighed. “The bits and pieces I’ve been hearing are suggesting that the wizarding government needs an overhaul to that end, but I definitely don’t want to be doing stuff like that just yet. I’d be bound to screw something up, or get manipulated by someone.” She sighed again. “And I don’t want a political career anyways.”

“Well, if nobody finds out about your powers…” Ginny trailed off, then leaned in to whisper in her ear. “What was his name again?”

Hailey laughed. “Well yes, if nobody finds out about them, I won’t be forced to take a political career- but that’d just be a pain, wouldn’t it?” She looked sideways at Ginny. “He’s Griphook, by the way. You must have forgotten when you napped.”

She blushed furiously. “Well… yes,” she muttered, “but isn’t it as simple as not using them?”

“Even though in every show or whatever- like Frozen, I liked that one- suppressing some kind of ability only ever makes it explode?”

She blinked. “R-Right, yeah… I forgot about obscurials.”

“What’s that?” Hailey asked her.

“Uhh… That’s what happens when a witch or wizard suppresses their magical nature, rather than embracing it: It tears them apart from the inside, and can… well… When it breaks free, it can kill people around them as well.”

“Ahh,” Hailey nodded.

The rest of the cart ride was mostly silent, before they arrived at the front of what seemed to be Hailey’s vault; Griphook had called Hailey forward to key the door.

When they got it open, Ginny was completely unsurprised by the small fact that three whole walls of Hailey’s vault were hidden by a veritable tidal wave of gold.

“My parents must have been rich,” Hailey observed.

“Well of course,” Ginny answered immediately. “Several of your ancestors invented some major potions in use today- Skele-Gro, the Pepper-Up Potion, and the Sleekeazy Hair Potion, to name a few. You must have inherited- and reclaimed- the ancestral vault that royalties still flow into anytime one of those potions is sold.”

“Ahh,” Hailey muttered, nodding vaguely. “So what’s the money’s value?”

“Twenty-nine bronze knuts to a silver sickle, and seventeen silver sickles to a galleon,” she informed her, before turning to Griphook. “I forget the exchange rate?”

“You must not have changed money often,” he observed.

Ginny laughed. “Only twice in my entire past life. And in neither case did I pay much attention to the rates.”

He sighed. “Each knut exchanges for twenty U.S. cents either way,” he informed her.

“So five U.S. dollars and eighty cents for a sickle, and ninety-eight sixty for a galleon,” Hailey observed instantly. “Though the United States is across the ocean?”

Griphook shrugged. “That’s the exchange that’s set in stone upstairs. If you want to exchange euros or pounds, we use the current currency exchange rates from the United States Dollar to compute the exchange rate involved.” He paused. “I believe a galleon is worth approximately seventy pounds right now.”

“So why the United States Dollar?” Hailey asked.

He shrugged. “Because that was the first branch of Gringotts to deal with muggle money. They spent months researching the value of the United States Dollar to come up with a fair exchange rate- then, since wizardkind doesn’t trade with muggles and as such can’t participate properly in the currency market, we decided to make it a fixed rate and use muggle conversions for the other currencies.”

“You should only need ten or fifteen galleons to get everything on your shopping list,” Ginny informed Hailey, once he’d finished talking.

“Okay then,” Hailey nodded, pulling out a bag and starting to pile coinage in. It looked like she counted out twenty golden galleons, then seventeen silver sickles… and filled the rest of the bag with bronze knuts, before she tucked it into her pocket… Which, Ginny noticed, wasn’t nearly large enough to hold the bag, yet still accepted it without bulging.

“Oh boy,” Griphook observed, as he and Ginny approached the door to her vault. “This door has something leaning against it.”

“How much?” Ginny asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s been sealed for nine hundred years, so if there’s any kind of royalties or whatever flowing into it, it could be all the way to the ceiling with coins.”

Ginny rubbed her chin. “Is it safe to apparate down here?”

“To apparate?” Griphook asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I’d like to be able to get out of the way in a hurry.” She glanced sideways at him. “I was licensed in my past life.”

He sighed. “I’m afraid it’s not safe to apparate down here, even just a few feet. This is one of the older sectors with enchantments that will slaughter anything that tries to apparate, rather than one the remodeled ones that use a simple anti-apparition jinx.”

She winced. “Alright. So I’ll turn the key and run?”

“Probably best,” he agreed. “That or possibly use magic of some sort to reduce the potential avalanche.”

“I think I’ll do both,” Ginny muttered. “Er, if I’m allowed to?”

“Go ahead,” Griphook informed her. “About fifty years ago, we actually had a new vault owner get crushed to death after opening their newly-reclaimed vault- the gold was piled all the way to the ceiling. That vault is currently without an owner.” He sighed. “And the biggest vault in the entire bank, to boot.”

She winced. “Er- Okay.” She walked up to the massive double doors, held out her key, and inserted it into the keyhole. “Alright, here goes.” She closed her eyes, set up psionic and wandless magical barriers to slow down the advance of anything coming out of the vault, and opened them.

Finally, she braced herself to run, then turned the key.

A fraction of a second later, the doors flew open. The key somehow came out of the lock in her hand as the doors struck her, tossing her briefly into the air, spinning like a top.

She landed painfully on her back… and looked up.

A massive avalanche of gold was pouring out of the vault. It was stacked all the way to the ceiling- and the pressure was far greater than she’d expected. The impact from the doors had disrupted her psionic barriers- and her magical ones, being wandlessly cast, simply weren’t strong enough to hold it back.

And it was too late to flee. A huge tidal wave of gold was falling directly down onto her- and it was going to crush her so bad. At least her immortality work would keep her from actually dying, but it wouldn’t stop it from breaking every bone in her body.

Quite suddenly, two things happened, both at once.

First, she was no longer underneath the wave crashing down on the ground. Instead, she was all the way back at the cart, lying on the ground right next to it.

Second, she knew she could use her psionics to teleport… and apparently had just done so instinctively.

She sat up, and looked.

The others jumped backwards a bit, but were already out of range of the avalanche.

“Alright,” she said, making both Petunia and Griphook jump, as she scrambled back to her feet. “That was unexpected.”

“Wh-What?” Petunia asked.

She smiled. “Apparently, I can teleport with my Royal powers. And that teleportation can’t be blocked or detected by…” She paused. “By any magic that I know.” She included the Dark Lord Voldemort’s entire repertoire as a skilled spellsmith in that statement, and scowled. “It’s not as efficient as apparition, but it’s got a much faster activation sequence. I doubt I could have apparated out of that even if it was an option.” She walked up to the avalanche of gold as it stopped moving. “So, how to deal with this?”

Griphook rubbed his chin as well. “You could probably use magic to shove it back in,” he observed.

She scowled. “I don’t have a wand, though, and I don’t know any wandless spells- Royal powers included- capable of moving this much in under an hour. And that’s assuming there’s space near the entrance!”

Hailey blinked, as if she’d suddenly remembered something. “Or I could just, er, cause it to be organized,” she suggested.

“You could… what?” Ginny asked.

“Cause it to be organized, so to speak. Apparently, that’s something that I can do.” She smiled. “Royal powers, probably.”

“So you’ve also got powers that you just suddenly know how to use?” Ginny asked.

Hailey shrugged. “Yeah. And always when it’s most convenient, too.”

“Huh,” she muttered, rubbing her chin. “Did, er, anything come to mind to pull me out?”

“Nope,” Hailey answered. “Instead, I somehow knew you had an ace up your sleeve.”

“Weird,” she scowled, then shrugged. “Eh, whatever. I did have a sort-of ace up my sleeve, so no big deal. Um… Go ahead, as long as it’s allowed…?” She looked at Griphook.

“No problem here,” Griphook informed her. “Royal powers are always interesting to watch in action.”

Hailey chuckled. “Probably not this one.” She held out her hand… and snapped her fingers.

There was a brilliant flash of bright, white light… and the money pouring out of her vault was gone. Instead, through the still-open doors of the vault, she could see the coins stacked neatly against the back wall all the way to the ceiling.

“You were right,” Ginny observed, walking up to the doors to look inside. “You did just… cause it to be organized.” She entered the vault, walked past the several shelves that were near the entrance, and looked around. She was at the edge of a large open space in her vault. The wall in front of her was entirely hidden by the neatly stacked wall of galleons; to her left, it was sickles; and to her right, knuts. In the middle of the space were three small piles of coins. One of galleons, one of sickles, and one of knuts.

Hailey followed her in. “I only moved the coins,” she informed her, “and put them in spaces that weren’t already occupied, so there’s nothing buried. That said, you’ve got about eight hundred million galleons in here, all told.”

Ginny looked at her. “What?”

She shrugged. “When you count the smaller denominations, at least.” She gestured at the piles. “I left about a thousand of each denomination here.”

Ginny looked at it. “That’s going to be enough to last for a lifetime if I’m frugal or get a decent job,” she observed.

“It is?” Hailey asked. “What about food?”

“If I’m frugal,” Ginny reiterated. “It’s a pretty advanced technique, but there are spells that can conjure food. It’s also not very good food… but it’s nutritious. And what I’m used to eating, too.” She shrugged. “But with this much?” She gestured around the vault. “What am I ever going to spend a million galleons on?” She reached down to pluck a handful of coins from the pile of galleons, then dropped them into her pocket. She could use her psionics to keep them from rattling on the way home, until she could hide them in her room- and if her family noticed the bulge, she could tell them that it was some souvenirs- or perhaps toys, she was still that age- that Hailey had gotten or given her.

Then, she and Hailey headed back to the entrance… but Ginny froze a few steps away, looking to the side, along the final row. The shelves were covered in various magical trinkets and doodads she’d have to inspect at a later date- but one item, hanging elegantly on the wall, had caught her attention.

Hailey paused, following her gaze. “Hmm? What is it?”

“That,” Ginny said, stepping closer. “Yeah. That’s the Sword of Gryffindor.” She looked at Hailey. “And since Hogwarts was founded a thousand years ago…” She trailed off. “What’s your bet this vault belonged to Godric Gryffindor, one of the four founders of Hogwarts?”

Hailey raised an eyebrow.

She shrugged. “It’s his sword, so…” She sighed. “Anyways, I guess we can investigate that later. God knows I’ve got time. How about we get back to the surface and see about your Hogwarts shopping?”

Author's Note

As one of my editors pointed out to me: Good luck finding a parking space on Charing Cross Road, Petunia.

And yes, I know it's "Sleekeasy's Hair Potion" in canon, but it was invented by Fleamont Potter, not somebody Sleekeasy- and there aren't enough wizards in the world for a company called Sleekeasy to be large enough to be sold, which is why it's ongoing royalties rather than merely a one-time contribution as in canon.

I mean seriously. 2,000 wizards really isn't much in Britain, and I can't imagine that too many of them used the potion on a daily basis- and of the, oh, dozen or two that likely did, I doubt they go through a package a day or anything, meaning the whole country uses less than a couldron a day... and those potions wouldn't likely have "caught on" worldwide too quickly (albeit fairly quickly), and one wizard can brew an almost alarming number of cauldrons each day, especially with large cauldrons.

Now, I could easily see the existence of a generalized potion manufacturing company that produces Skele-Gro, Sleekeasy, and Pepper-Up, alongside a number of others, including from other potioneers- and the old Potters could easily have sold them production rights for cheap in exchange for royalties on the sales, and never published the recipe in order to protect their income. That's the approach I'm taking here.

Patreon, Discord.

Any guesses what Vault Ginny just inherited?

Yellow.

I just rewrote this chapter too- and it's also a bit easier to guess which vault Ginny just inherited. That said, we also find something out about Luna and her mother. Speaking of, that time Xenophilius said she managed to blow herself up but managed to survive? That's the event that killed her in canon. We won't find out for quite a while how she survived- but if you've already read the non-rewrite version to chapter 20 or so, you can probably guess.

Anyways. You should be able to proceed straight from here into non-rewrite chapters without it being too disruptive, but since a few character personalities are changing and certain characters are becoming more... real (I'm looking at you, Ginny!), there is likely to be at least some level of discontinuity. I'm not sure, just yet, how I want to rewrite the Malfoy Encounter in chap. 4... Because every HP crossover ever, essentially, has it and I actually kinda liked the one found in the non-rewrite, even though the personality changes here would keep it from happening quite like that.

As for the rewrite, each chapter will generally expand to become at least twice as long as it used to. This one just exploded to 4.6x it's original length- from 2,418 words all the way up to 5 digits. I think that actually makes it my record longest chapter... If you want to stick to just the rewritten chapters, look for the "RW" tag in the chapter title!

Chapter 5: Bonbon RW

It was while they were in the apothecary, getting Hailey’s potion-making kit, that it crossed Ginny’s mind that it must all be a dream. If so, it was a surprisingly long dream. There was no other explanation for just how calming and safe Hailey felt- it easily fell under the heading of ‘miracle’, nevermind everything that had happened in Gringotts or the miraculous way she’d turned Draco Malfoy around.

So yes… it had to be a dream. She must have been so scared by being in the most vulnerable stage of her reincarnation- perhaps she was still in bed, perhaps she’d passed out in the Cauldron, she rather doubted she’d dreamed that terror- that she dreamed up a miracle.

And that wasn’t counting the fact that everything Hailey bought seemed to disappear into thin air whenever she wasn’t looking. Robes, cauldron, parchment and quills, trunk, everything.

That was the kind of thing that would only ever happen in a dream.

Yet… somehow, she didn’t quite believe it. It felt too real to be a dream.

So what was it? Was it real, or was it a dream?

She became certain that it was real when they finally reached Eeylops Owl Emporium. There was a girl there, looking around at the owls. She was one of the- what had Malkin and Malfoy called them? Colorheads? It still amused her that they seemed to think that she was one as well, rather than a Weasley.

This girl, though, there was no question. Her candyfloss hair was long enough for her to sit on, nevermind that it was striped a muted bubblegum pink and a dark, desaturated blue. On top of that, she practically oozed confidence- but not the same safety thing as Hailey did- and was already wearing her Hogwarts robes. As a result, even when Ginny was standing next to Hailey, or even behind her, and not using her psionic senses at all, this girl scared her.

Not Hailey, though. If anything, Hailey seemed to perk up with amusement when she saw her, before walking straight forward to strike up a conversation. “Good morning, Bonbon, long time no see,” she began, offering a hand to shake. “How’s it been?”

As she spoke, Ginny moved to hide behind Petunia instead.

The girl looked utterly confused, and definitely flustered by the greeting. “Wh-What?” she stuttered, staring at Hailey in alarm. “How do you know my name?”

“You’re wearing your uniform,” Hailey answered softly.

The girl looked down, at where the gleaming silver nameplate was attached to her robes, right across her left breast… or at least where it would be, as it looked like she wasn’t old enough to have them just yet- just like Ginny. It reminded her of her first time at Hogwarts as Tom Riddle, when she’d observed that in order to read an upper-year girl’s nameplate, you had to ogle her breasts. It was… nonoptimal, to put it nicely. It conveniently explained why padded bras had become a part of the girl’s uniform in the time since, as she’d found out before they’d left Madam Malkin’s… though it looked like they hadn’t repositioned the offensive nameplate.

Exactly as Hailey had suggested, this girl’s nameplate declared her to be Bonbon. No surname, just Bonbon.

Finally, Bonbon sighed. “Oh, alright,” she conceded. “You got me. But why… ‘long time no see’?”

“Well, ‘never’ is quite a long time, isn’t it?” Hailey asked playfully.

Bonbon laughed. It sounded strange, like she wasn’t used to laughing. “Good one, Hailey. Anyways, I was thinking about getting an owl- apparently, they carry mail. How about you?”

Hailey’s voice was suddenly a lot more impassive. “I think I’m going to turn your question back to you,” she told her calmly. “How do you know my name? I’m not wearing a nametag, and I never told you what it was.”

“Uh-!” Bonbon looked distinctly uncomfortable. “It was kinda hard to forget after Ginny attacked her mother earlier.”

Hailey smiled. “My name never came up in the conversation after that event,” she informed Bonbon calmly.

She was looking very uncomfortable now. “Um-!”

“Was it because you were watching when it came up in Scribulus’ Writing Instruments?” Hailey asked light-heartedly, but Ginny could still hear the hard edge in her voice.

“Uh-!”

“Was it because you were watching when I asked Ginny if she wanted an ice cream? Was it because you were watching when it came up in the apothecary?”

Bonbon blushed and averted her eyes.

“Okay how are you doing that?”

Ginny jumped. She hadn’t even noticed the other girl in the room… possibly because she blended in so well? Her dark grey hair wasn’t quite long enough to sit on, and was covering something purple on the back of her light grey jacket. She was also, Ginny noticed, staring at Hailey in wonder, even as she asked the question.

Hailey looked. “Doing what?” she asked curiously.

“You just made The Bonbon laugh and blush. How?”

“The Bonbon,” Hailey repeated back at her, her expression turning it into a question.

“Back in P-!” The girl froze, looking suddenly nervous, then forcibly relaxed herself. “Back where we’re from,” she corrected herself, “Bonbon has always been the most stoic person anyone’s ever seen. Never laughing, never showing any emotion. There were actually quite a few competitions to that end across… the country, I heard. So how are you getting her to do that?”

“Well you just watched the whole thing, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then you already know.”

“...Yes, but how?”

She shrugged. “It probably wouldn’t have been nearly so effective if I hadn’t been a complete stranger.”

“Probably, yeah,” Bonbon agreed suddenly.

Hailey turned straight to her. “So who are you?”

“I’m Bonbon,” she answered instantly.

“You know that’s not what I’m asking for.”

“It’s not?”

“You were watching when we were in Madam Malkin’s, weren’t you?”

There was silence for about three seconds.

“A very observant girl,” Bonbon finally stated. “And I was people-watching.”

“That time,” Hailey observed.

“... That time,” Bonbon agreed slowly, averting her eyes again.

The grey-haired girl laughed, then stepped over to offer her hand. “I’m a cellist,” she greeted, then smiled. “The name’s Octavia Melody, by the way.”

Hailey laughed and shook her hand. “A girl with good memory,” she answered. “Also known as Hailey.”

“Very good memory,” Bonbon observed bluntly.

Hailey smiled at her, then looked around at the owls and changed the subject, glancing between the two girls and the shopkeeper. “So, um, is there a difference between the different kinds of owls beyond their appearance?”

The aging shopkeeper- Mr. Eeylops, presumably- glanced up as Octavia accepted her wrapped packages- apparently, she was just finishing her trip to the shop- and headed for the door with her eagle owl. “Uh- Not per breed, no, though each owl will have its own unique personality. Larger owls are most often better suited to larger, more frequent, or longer-distance packages than smaller owls.” He paused. “Though there are a lot of packages that simply can’t be shipped by owl.”

“Packages?” Hailey asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Ah, yes. I’m using it as an umbrella term to describe anything that can be shipped by owl, from letters to small packages. Generally speaking, any owl will be able to take a normal-sized letter a few towns away every day without issue.”

“Interesting,” Hailey mused, looking up at the owls in their cages, arrayed all up the walls. “Hmm… I like that snowy one there.” She pointed.

He drew and waved his wand, causing the snowy owl’s cage to fly off the wall and float gently down to the counter. The snowy owl inside lifted its head from under a wing, then straightened up and ruffled its wings importantly.

“You have a good eye, young lady,” he informed her. “This female is particularly strong- she should have no problem with long, frequent journeys, though be wary she still can tire out if you push her too hard.”

“Nice,” Hailey observed, smiling at the owl. “What’s the price?”

“Every owl is exactly one galleon,” he informed her proudly. “You’ll probably waaaAAAGHH!”

He wasn’t the only one to react like that when a sudden burst of flames appeared in mid-air about three feet away from Hailey’s head.

Hailey whipped backwards, to the end of the counter where Petunia was waiting, with inhuman speed, simultaneously turning to face the sudden fireball. Petunia let out a gasp and jumped backwards- and Ginny teleported a few feet backwards to avoid getting trampled. Bonbon also flinched, her gaze whipping down from where she’d been browsing the owls herself.

Eeylops was easily the most pronounced reaction, though. He leaped backwards so violently that he crashed straight into the back wall of his shop- and it was a good thing, Ginny figured, that it was a blank wall, with nothing to injure himself on.

Then the flames resolved themselves… and Ginny saw the cause of the commotion.

A phoenix.

It crooned as it flew through the air, swooping directly towards Hailey… who extended an arm for it to land on.

“Well hello there,” Hailey said calmly, once it had landed on her outstretched arm. “You’re not here to pluck my eyes out, are you?”

The phoenix gave her a reproachful look.

Hailey laughed. “Didn’t think so. So who are you?”

It trilled at her.

“Okay,” Hailey nodded, “though I was actually wondering about your name.”

The phoenix looked surprised, and trilled again- though it sounded different.

“Hmm,” Hailey muttered, rubbing her chin with her free hand. “How about… Philomena?”

The bird trilled a third time, looking pleased.

Hailey chuckled. “I’m glad you like it.”

“Are you talking to it?” Bonbon asked.

Hailey looked. “Yes, I’m talking to her. How about you?”

Bonbon chuckled. “Well, most of us can’t talk to birds, so…”

“She’s not just any bird,” Hailey informed them wryly. “She’s a phoenix.”

“Y-Yes,” Eeylops stuttered, peeling himself off the back wall. “A phoenix. Extremely faithful pets… for those they bond with, at any rate. They’re also highly independent, and can travel by phoenix fire… as she just demonstrated.” He sighed, returning to the counter. “Sorry about that. Ever since I got her in a month ago, she’s been enjoying scaring people.”

Hailey raised an eyebrow. “So… highly independent, yet willing to submit to being held in a shop for sale?”

The phoenix trilled calmly.

She looked at it. “And I’ve been washing dishes,” she deadpanned.

The phoenix trilled with unmistakable laughter.

Eeylops chuckled nervously. “Er, in case you’re wondering, it’s not unusual for a phoenix and its master to be able to understand each other. I think.”

“Master?” Hailey asked, looking at him. “Are you sure that’s the right term?”

“No,” he answered shortly. “I’m absolutely certain it’s the wrong one. But it’s the one the Ministry assigned to it, so it’s the official term that people will actually understand.”

“Of course they’ll only understand the wrong term,” Hailey observed. “Typical. So.” She looked up at him as Philomena climbed up to her shoulder.

“So,” he repeated, and sighed. “Phoenixes are extremely rare- but not nearly as rare as the people they’ll bond to, so you must be a pretty special girl. As such, while she’s the first phoenix in this shop since Fawkes during my grandfather’s time, it’s our policy to charge the same amount as for an owl.” He glanced sideways. “And, uh, phoenixes often don’t need or even like the owl pellets or treats that we have. They’re much happier with a taste of your bacon.”

Hailey chuckled, apparently completely ignoring his comment about her. “I bet. So if we throw in some supplies for…” She paused, looking at the owl. “Hedwig, I think, what’s the total come out to?”

He blinked. “Y-You’re picking the owl?”

She rolled her eyes. “No, dummy, I’m picking both. Asking Philomena to carry my mail would probably be more than a little ostentatious.”

The phoenix- Philomena, apparently- trilled amusedly.

Bonbon also chuckled amusedly, making Ginny jump; she’d forgotten she was there. “I expect it would be,” she agreed, then sighed. “Back in my homeland, the ruler of the country has a phoenix… named Philomena.” She chuckled. “You’d be surprised how many letters she carries.”

“But that’s royalty,” Hailey answered, waving a hand dismissively. “Royalty is supposed to be ostentatious.”

She tilted her head. “True enough.”

Ginny shivered as she, Hailey, and Petunia walked into Ollivander’s. Her shiver had nothing to do with the temperature, nor even the massive magical charge in the atmosphere of the wand shop.

Instead, it was the two people already in it, getting wands. The boy, who was waving wands around one at a time, had a mane of golden hair going about halfway down his back, exposing most of what looked like a pair of four-pointed stars overlaid on each other such that they’d create an eight-pointed star together, one gold and one purple, on the back of his white jacket.

But for as much as his demeanor reflected what she’d expect from the Malfoys almost alarmingly well, he wasn’t the one that worried her.

Instead, it was the other one. The girl. She had brilliant, red and gold hair hanging all the way down her back, conveniently hiding the back of her golden coat. No, wait- when she glanced back towards them, her hair rippled- making it look like a bonfire- and briefly revealed what Ginny could only describe as the sunrise on the back of her coat.

But it wasn’t her looks, nor the calm, don’t-give-a-damn way she was watching the boy get his wand, nor anything else most people could see that scared her about this girl.

It was her psionic signature.

Her inhuman psionic signature.

Her inhuman psionic signature that could definitely read hers.

This girl was dangerous to her in a way that even Dumbledore wasn’t.

But the girl’s response to her presence- a sort of passive curiosity that told her the girl knew she was different as well- didn’t seem to indicate that she recognized her or anything, so… she could hope.

After all, the girl was a- what had Malfoy and Malkin called them? Colorheads? She was a colorhead after all- and those hadn’t existed when Lord Voldemort had, so there was a better than even chance that none of them would have a clue who he was.

Then there was the fact that Malfoy thought she was one… yet by the way he talked about them, they were evidently another category, and not simply muggleborn, half-blood, or pure-blood witches and wizards that happened to have vivid hair, like her. As such, she presumably wasn’t one… which made his mistaking her for one amusing.

The amusement that appeared in the fire-haired girl’s psionic signature after she glanced back at them suggested that she was thinking along the same lines.

Then the boy found his match- eight and three quarters inches, she noticed, though the rest of its description didn’t garner her attention- and paid for it. The two colorheads- that was probably what they were, at any rate- then turned to leave the shop. As they did so, she saw that the fire-haired girl was already carrying a long, thin wand box; she must’ve already gotten hers before they arrived.

The girl smiled at them and waved. “See you at Hogwarts,” she told them.

Hailey chuckled and waved back. “See you at Hogwarts,” she mirrored.

Then… they were gone, and Ginny allowed herself to relax. Ollivander was a very strange man, and one she’d never evaluated for his ability to detect her for who she was, but she wasn’t all that worried about him.

Ollivander moved straight to Hailey. “Good morning, Miss.”

“Good afternoon,” Hailey answered.

He glanced up at a clock over the door- a clock which told Ginny it was one minute past noon. “Yes, yes it is, isn’t it?” He paused. “Every Ollivander wand- but you already heard that, didn’t you?”

“Yup,” Hailey nodded, then glanced at Ginny. “Ginny might’ve been too distracted being shy when we walked in, but I heard it.”

Ginny blushed and hid behind Petunia again.

He chuckled, drawing his measuring tape. “Your wand arm, please?”

“My… Wand arm.” She paused, then raised her right arm.

He set to work.

“Kinda busy in here, isn’t it?” Hailey asked casually, gesturing lightly towards the veritable mountain of wands next to them, hiding what Ginny knew was a spindly wooden chair.

“Oh yes,” he agreed. “Almost a quarter of the wands in my shop are making it into that pile every day this year.” He sighed, darting off into the shelves to retrieve some wand boxes as the measuring tape collapsed into a crumpled heap on the floor. “I’m getting quite worn out with all the running, nevermind reshelving everything at the end of the day.” He sighed again, opening the first box. “Sometimes I wish I got paid overtime. Anyways. Beechwood and dragon heartstring,” he informed her, removing the wand inside. “Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Go on, try it out.”

She accepted it, then gave it a wave. “Huh,” she observed- then glanced at him, where he was already opening the next box, having already discarded the first box onto a far larger heap of presumably empty boxes. “Onto the pile, then?”

“Yeah,” he sighed, plucking the wand out of the second box.

Hailey reached over to add the wand to the pile… then stopped, two inches away from it. “Weird,” she muttered, then added the wand to the pile… and stuck her fingers into it to retrieve a wand from deeper inside it.

Ollivander stared at her, the second wand in his hands to offer.

“Feels like this one’s calling out to me,” she observed- and, as soon as it was free of the pile, gave it a flick.

Bright, scarlet and gold sparks shot across the shop, briefly illuminating the place in the Gryffindor colors.

Then it struck Ginny.

Whenever someone bought a wand… the sparks that came out reflected the House they would be sorted into at Hogwarts, didn’t they? From what she’d heard, everyone in her family had gotten scarlet and gold sparks. She herself, when she’d gotten her first one as Tom Riddle, had produced silver and green sparks- the colors of Slytherin… and the same colors as the boy that had just left.

If she was right, Hailey was destined to be a Gryffindor.

Ollivander stared for another second, then flinched, as if he’d just been struck. “Lucky find,” he observed, then looked at the pile, and back at the wand. “An unusual combination. Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches. Nice and supple.”

“So that’s a match?” Hailey asked, raising an eyebrow as he returned his second choice to its box.

“It is,” he informed her, turning to pluck a box from underneath the heap of them. “It very much is.” He took the wand from her, placed it gently inside the box, and started pulling out some brown paper.

“Um, I’m going to need it to get back into the Leaky Cauldron,” Hailey interrupted.

He paused. “Alright, no problem.” He set the paper back again.

Hailey chuckled, drawing her money bag out of a pocket. “So, how much do I owe you?”

“A wand is seven galleons,” he informed her.

She nodded, drawing a handful of coins from her bag. She sorted out five galleons from it, before pouring the rest back in and going for another handful. “Even with all that shopping,” she mused, “I still have too many knuts.” Finally, she pocketed her bag again, and offered the seven golden galleons to him in exchange for the wand.

Then Ollivander turned to Ginny, who had come out to stand next to Petunia while Hailey hunted for wands. “How about you, young lady?”

Hailey looked at her, curiosity showing on her face.

Ginny blushed and averted her eyes. “I-I’m too young,” she muttered.

“The rules are different for reincarnations,” he informed her.

She blushed even harder. So he could tell… he seemed quite certain. So how bad was it? She hoped it wasn’t so bad she’d have to flee.

“You can tell too?” Hailey asked.

“Yes,” he nodded. “I still remember the first reincarnation I recognized, during my second life as a reincarnated wandmaker myself.” He laughed. “I never thought she’d turn out to be a goddess, but when she returned eighty years later, during my third life as a reincarnated wandmaker, she gave me her blessing.” He bowed gently. “Though I have to say, the last time I had a reincarnation in this shop that I didn’t recognize was almost two thousand years ago.”

Ginny blinked. He didn’t recognize her?

He chuckled. “Yes, yes. You must’ve changed quite a bit since you were last here, assuming you were here at some point in your past life,” he informed her. “I’d guess you were a young goddess, but you don’t have a divine presence like Hailey does.”

“I have a what?” Hailey asked, looking alarmed.

“Divine presence,” he answered simply.

She calmed down, her expression going flat. “Are you sure you’re sensing correctly? I’m fairly sure I’m neither a goddess nor a reincarnation.”

“Hm,” he muttered. “Maybe you’re a Royal instead, sometimes that’ll throw it off.”

“Well I already knew that,” Hailey informed him wryly, waving a hand dismissively.

“Ahh,” Ollivander muttered. “But in any case, Miss Weasley, it shouldn’t be too hard to hide a wand, correct?”

“I won’t mind ‘helping a friend’ do her shopping next year,” Hailey informed her.

Ginny stared at the floor, thinking. If she had changed so much that he couldn’t recognize her… then even Dumbledore wouldn’t be able to recognize her.

Finally, she looked up. “You can sense divine presences?”

He shrugged. “A side effect of the Goddess’ blessing. It’s normally something only another deity can detect, unless they broadcast it for mortals to sense. Though of course, I can’t sense it well, so I never know if it’s actually a divine presence or just something that looks like one.”

“Huh,” she muttered, looking at the floor again, and shivered. If she had changed so much, would it be possible her Hogwarts House had changed as well? What would her mother think if she wound up in Slytherin again?

“With every reincarnation, a new set of wands will be the ‘right’ wands,” he informed her. “You will still be the master of any wands you had in your past lives, of course- and it’s not uncommon for your Hogwarts House, among other things, to change a few times through your first several reincarnations.”

She shivered again. If nothing else, at least she’d be able to make sure there was no dark magic on Hailey. She wouldn’t even have to point the wand at her, merely use it as a focus to enhance her senses- she only had to touch it. It wouldn’t work with a wand that wasn’t hers, though.

She took a deep breath… and put her hand in her pocket to collect the coins she’d taken from her new vault. She counted them in her hand, then pocketed them again. “A-Alright,” she squeaked, and glanced up at Petunia, who looked like she didn’t have any objections either.

So he picked up his measuring tape, and she held out her right arm.

He took his first few measurements, then darted off between the aisles to hunt for boxes.

Ginny glanced at the pile of rejected wands, then stepped over and put her hand over the pile. Maybe, just maybe, Hailey’s detecting the perfect wand- whose description perfectly matched her own first wand’s brother, which shared a core from Dumbledore’s phoenix- wasn’t a fluke, or related to her Royal powers.

Sure enough, she felt an odd… draw from deep inside. She tried analyzing that draw- and while she could confirm it had nothing to do with her psionics, she was able to refine it with the same, and narrow it down to a single wand… which was buried well below the surface.

So she used her psionics to push it closer to the surface, sliding it gently along its length- until she could just barely close her fingertips on it when she stuck them through a gap in the pile. She tugged it gently from the heap.

“That one’s calling out to you?” Hailey asked curiously.

She nodded faintly, focused on analyzing the changes in that odd attraction as she drew it away from the pile.

“Try it out,” Ollivander said, from about two feet away- he must’ve returned when she wasn’t paying attention.

She jumped. “Eek!”

Then she took a deep breath, blushing scarlet as she averted her eyes.

Then she mentally reminded herself that now two people had seen her for what she was and failed to recognize her or connect her to her past deeds- Luna… and Ollivander. Luna had even rejected that connection when she’d presented it!

She took a deep breath… then gave the wand a little wave.

A shower of red and gold sparks shot unbidden from the tip, illuminating the shop just as Hailey’s had done.

Her heart leapt. Gryffindor.

She would not be stuck with the snakes of her past life.

She would not have to worry about what her mother would think of her being put into Slytherin.

She was going to be a perfectly normal Weasley child.

Well… ‘perfectly normal’ reincarnated Royal Weasley child with immense experience in killing and whom most spells would simply bounce off of.

… She wasn’t very normal after all. But she could hide that.

“Well done,” Ollivander began, and looked at the pile. “Hmm… That has me wondering. I’ve been doing it this way for two and a half thousand years… Yet you two may have just discovered a better way to find a match. I’ll have to do some experimentation.” He paused, then glanced at the wand in Ginny’s hand.

Ginny, meanwhile, was using it to enhance her magical senses… and successfully confirmed that there was no dark magic on Hailey.

“Beechwood and phoenix feather,” he informed her. “Thirteen and a half inches. Quite whippy.” He paused, hand half-extended for the wand. “You’re… not going to want the box, are you?”

“Uh…” Ginny paused to think. “No, I don’t think so.” She switched the wand to her other hand to dig for her coins again. “I, er, don’t want Mom to know.”

She hadn’t expected the wand to have the exact same length and core as her first one. Her first one had been an unyielding Yew.

While Yew was feared for its power in duels and curses, Beechwood was sought after for its unique subtlety and artistry… but rejected narrow-minded or intolerant masters, a property that alone told her she’d changed so far in her reincarnation as to be unrecognizable.

Lord Voldemort had been, after all, the definition of intolerant!

The flexibility of the wand, on the other hand, reflected the flexibility and otherwise adaptability of its master- and whereas Lord Voldemort’s wand had been one step shy of brittle at ‘unyielding’, to pair with his stick-in-the-mud tendency to get fixated on one thing and refuse to change for ages… her new wand was one of the more flexible ones. Perhaps that reflected her psionic powers, or the way she had adapted to both them and her new identity as a female Weasley?

A question for the ages, she expected.

Finally, she got her coins out of her pocket, counted out seven of them, and paid for the wand, which she then slipped into an inside pocket of her robes before they left the shop.

“What’s… That?” Vernon Dursley asked, the moment he stepped into the kitchen.

Hailey looked up. “This is a spatula,” she told him, holding it up- even though she knew he wasn’t talking about it. He was talking about Philomena, riding on her shoulder; this would be the first time he saw the phoenix. She had willingly hidden somewhere via her phoenix fire before they’d left Eeylops Owl Emporium, and hadn’t reappeared until she had gotten her new belongings up to her bedroom.

The belongings in question had been quite the opposite. When she’d first looked at the contents of her Gringotts Vault, she’d suddenly realized that it would be both more secure and easier to reach if she were to store it all in a subspace pocket of some sort that only she could access. The best word she could think of to describe it was… hammerspace.

She hadn’t dumped the entire contents of her vault into it, though. Instead, she found she rather enjoyed digging through vaults or bags or whatever to find the items she needed, rather than simply commanding them to appear or disappear wherever she wanted them (with no requirement for her to be anywhere nearby, it seemed, making it a perfect tool for thievery if she really wanted to). As such, she’d shoveled some coins- a few extra galleons, enough sickles to make one, and enough knuts to ensure she could pay exact change at least a few times- into a bag… then used the pocket on her jeans as cover to drop the bag into subspace; the coins were heavy, and she didn’t have any better way to carry them.

She had later used that same subspace to organize Ginny’s vault for her, alongside a strange ability to bend time to her will that she’d realized she had when faced with the avalanche… nevermind the similarly strange ability to split her mind into multiple… minds to think in parallel. She’d had as many as five hundred of herself at work organizing that vault in a single moment of frozen time- which had made the subspace very important, as she still only had one body, even if she could still move around and whatever in frozen time if she wanted.

Then, when they were in Madam Malkin’s, she’d observed the ungainliness of Draco’s wrapped robes- and the package’s lack of handles or the like- and had elected to use hammerspace to carry them with her. She didn’t have a cart, and with the number of items on the list, attempting to carry them all was a fool’s errand.

She had, however, been careful to make sure that nobody ever saw it disappear. Not even Bonbon- though hiding it from her had been tricky at times. Ever since her conversation with Draco in Madam Malkin’s, she’d felt Bonbon’s eyes boring into the back of her head nonstop… and had taken ruthless advantage of her memory, vision, and even mind-split capabilities to keep track of exactly where Bonbon was at any given time.

When they’d encountered her at Eeylops, Bonbon had professed to be considering getting an owl… but Hailey could feel her dishonesty, and knew Bonbon had already done her shopping sometime prior- not only was the girl wearing Hogwarts robes, but she hadn’t been entirely successful at hiding her wand in an inside pocket.

The angles might have helped with that. She’d only caught the tiniest glimpse of it through the gap in the girl’s robes, but she’d seen it when she’d whirled around in response to Philomena’s appearance. It looked like it was made from maple, but she couldn’t tell much else about it.

Once they’d gotten back to the Leaky Cauldron, she’d taken advantage of her mind-split thing again to make all the various packages- including the large wooden trunk they’d gotten- appear again at just the right times and places for nobody to notice. As such, when Vernon had arrived to chase off the Weasleys- well not quite, but the conversation between Petunia and Mrs. Weasley had lasted that long while Hailey and Ginny sat quietly in a corner booth, sharing the ‘virgin butterbeers’ Hailey had bought- he’d witnessed every single one of the packages they’d bought getting loaded into the trunk. Except for her wand, which she’d left in hammerspace, but he’d seen the box. He’d even seen Hedwig… but no Philomena.

He snorted. “That bird,” he told her bluntly. “What is it?”

Hailey silently and carefully sectioned the enchiladas she’d just cooked, transferring a piece to a plate. He might know about her memory and perception abilities, but there was no need to make him worry about her split-mind abilities; they’d likely drive him to fear her. Hailey-o-phobia, so to speak.

“Philomena,” she finally corrected, “is a phoenix.”

“A phoenix?” Vernon asked doubtfully. Judging by the reflection off the edge of the polished ceramic plate, he was raising his eyebrow as well. “Pull the other one, then.”

Philomena trilled amusedly.

Hailey chuckled. Just like she knew French, German, Spanish, and Ancient Greek without ever having studied them, she also knew the phoenix language… which didn’t have a name, even to phoenixes. As such, she understood what Philomena had said to mean “I don’t usually see doubt pointed towards me.”

“Of course you don’t, Philomena,” Hailey answered, then actually glanced back at Vernon. “She is a phoenix,” she repeated, completely seriously, before turning to serve up the next plate.

“She is a phoenix,” Petunia mirrored, walking into the room. “Watched it myself.”

Vernon looked at Petunia. “How?” he asked.

“Good question,” Petunia answered him. “She appeared out of nowhere while we were looking at owls.”

“She said she’s been looking for me for close to eleven years now,” Hailey informed them calmly. “Ever since she saw me being carried by a giant on a flying motorcycle.”

“Motorcycles don’t fly,” Vernon answered flatly.

“Apparently that one does,” Hailey answered simply. “By the same measure, most men aren’t twelve feet tall- but that one was.”

“... Fair enough,” Vernon muttered dryly. “So what is a phoenix?”

Petunia shrugged.

“A very loyal friend,” Hailey answered, dishing out the last serving. “Generally speaking, phoenixes are extremely powerful fire elemental birds capable of traveling by phoenix fire, carrying immensely heavy loads, rejuvenating upon death, and singing magic songs, among other things. On top of that, their tears are one of the most powerful healing magics in existence, and their tail feathers make extremely powerful wand cores.” She picked up two plates, turned around, and scanned the room. “Where’s Dudley, anyways?” Without waiting for an answer, she set the plates down and turned back to the counter to retrieve the other two.

“Wh-How do you know that?” Petunia asked.

“It’s in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” she answered calmly. “Phoenixes are apparently extremely dangerous creatures- and in all honesty, with Philomena’s sharp talons and beak, quick wits, and free teleportation ability, I have no doubt she could be very deadly if she was so inclined.” She chuckled softly, reaching up to gently stroke Philomena’s plumage. “But of course, we’re no different, are we?”

Author's Note

Patreon, Discord.

That was fun.

Aaaaand, that was fun to rework, as well. We get to see a little of why Bonbon thinks what she does about Hailey... and also some new headcanon about Garrick Ollivander!

Now, those of you that have read through the unrewrite will probably instantly recognize the foreshadowing I hid in here. Don't spoil it.

Anyways, rewrite rewrite, yadda yadda, chapter doubled in length, you know the drill. I'm getting tired of re-describing it, and you might be tired of re-reading the descriptions. Just look for the RW tag to know you're on the rewrite- and we've got a short one coming for next chapter, already in the editors' queue (at time of writing)!

Now, one moment while I publish Chap. 26 of the non-rewrite a day late.

Chapter 6: Awkward Recruitment RW

Hailey slowed down as she approached the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten at King’s Cross on September First. Two days after their shopping trip, Hedwig had brought her a second letter that bore the Hogwarts crest, the first being the one with the shopping list in it. This one hadn’t been much more than an official acknowledgement, unless one counted how it included a golden ticket stamped for the Hogwarts Express at Platform Nine and Three Quarters at eleven o’clock.

She still had half an hour to go to get on the train… but the letter had also informed her of how she was supposed to reach the nonsensical platform number.

All she had to do was walk straight through the barrier between platforms nine and ten. The barrier looked quite solid.

Then, she allowed her trolley to bump against the barrier… and quite suddenly, with a bit of a gut-wrenching feeling like she had just been lobbed a hundred feet, there was no barrier in front of her. Instead, she was facing a mostly empty platform with a steam train parked at it. Even without reading the side- it said ‘Hogwarts Express’- she knew she was in the right place; this had to be the only steam train in regular passenger service in the entire country. All the rest had gone diesel or electric long ago, to her knowledge.

She sighed, glanced behind her, suppressed a chuckle, and headed for the train. It was time for her to load her luggage- which included Hedwig- onto the train, then get changed into her Hogwarts robes.

Then she could put her trolley away and strike up a conversation.

Bonbon let out a small sigh as the purpose of her excursion today recrossed her mind. The Hogwarts Express was sitting at the station platform, waiting for students to board; as a matter of fact, it had arrived almost an hour after Bonbon had.

She was people-watching again. She’d done a lot around Diagon Alley and, even though she’d been sidetracked for a few hours by Hailey, she’d returned to it.

After all, a matter of hours into her own first day in this world, she’d been in the apothecary when Starlight Glimmer, that student of Twilight’s that had fallen through the mystery portal into Britain a year before she had, had spotted her.

Starlight Glimmer… was a second-year student, and the ex Management Team Lead of the then three-day-old Hogwarts Student Instructor Program. She hadn’t been the ex team lead yet, technically- but by the time they’d left the shop… she had been.

Because she’d inducted Bonbon herself to that position, as almost infinitely better qualified… Her words, not Bonbon’s, though she couldn’t disagree that she was better qualified. Starlight evidently had way too high of an opinion of the Agency of which Bonbon was not only a part of but one of the finest of.

But however she’d gotten that position, it was hers and she was going to put her all into completing it successfully. Objective number one… was to recruit Student Instructors and, ideally, Head Student Instructors. But the number of instructors was the priority- she needed to ensure that there were enough of them.

And the target numbers were daunting. She needed to locate almost a thousand instructors overall, of which a minimum of just under four hundred would have to be second-year students.

But she’d met them. Quite a few of the prospective instructors were not… ideal by any stretch of the imagination, so she had spent the entire month since the shopping season working odd jobs in Diagon Alley- mostly helping various shopkeepers to restock shelves, with how fast things were flying off them- and used that as an excuse to stay around for the whole month, constantly observing and witnessing all the students moving around. She’d revised a number of her Instructor picks after discovering better candidates- and today, with her people-watching on Platform Nine and Three Quarters, she’d revised another couple.

With the numbers made up… it was time for her to go after the number one prize.

Hailey.

The girl had demonstrated almost alarming observation and memory retention abilities that, given even a little bit of training, would turn her into an extremely formidable Head Student Instructor and possibly even Management Team Lead. She’d probably give her Defense Against the Dark Arts; it felt like the girl was extremely smart on top of her ridiculous skills, making her entirely too good to be true, and Starlight’s reports for what the classes had been like the year before painted the subject into a corner. No doubt the girl would be able to spice it up and ensure everyone got a quality education, despite the subject’s track record of worthless Professors that Starlight had relayed from upper-year students.

And that wasn’t counting the appearance of the phoenix; those were so rare, both in Britain and in Equestria, that there was really no telling what it meant.

Speaking of that encounter in Eeylops Owl Emporium, when she’d decided to get close enough to gauge for herself the girl that had turned one Draco Malfoy from a snobby troublemaker into an Instructor candidate in about five minutes…

The girl had proceeded to make her uncomfortable from basically the moment she entered the shop. She’d embarrassed Bonbon by reminding her that she was wearing a nametag for the first time in her life, and paired it with a joke in a way that made it very difficult indeed for Bonbon to maintain her mental defenses and self-control. A laugh had gotten out- not that she was all that worried about those, it was just a side effect of her training.

Then, when she’d turned the question back and deliberately used the girl’s name- which she’d overheard in only one of the three different scenes Hailey had named, namely when Petunia had pointed out the ice cream parlor and Hailey had promptly asked Ginny if she wanted ice cream.

The girl’s response had been to harden her tone and expression and ask her how she knew the name… But the timing was off.

The girl had initially brushed off the name… but her expression had hardened when she’d given that little white lie about having been thinking about getting an owl.

In other words, the girl had detected her lie, and deliberately picked the name to nail her on instead.

That would be the first time anyone had ever seen through her deception in over a decade… and the girl made it look easy.

So then it came to today. She was using a regular newspaper, rather than the Agency-issued one-way paper she frequently used- and she was holding it upside-down, and using a far more mundane method of people-watching over the top of it. The point of that was to, hopefully, help disarm the girl by giving the appearance of not trying so hard.

Yet she was actually working the hardest she’d ever worked… well, close to it, at any rate.

The thing was… unless she missed her guess, Hailey didn’t just have elephantine memory, but inhumanly elephantine memory- possibly as far as perfect recall. There were techniques she could use to manipulate someone with that kind of memory… but they didn’t work for long-term relationships. All she could do was use more ordinary techniques to guide her into the relationship and attempt to distract the girl from them with various other ‘sloppy’ techniques, such as the upside-down newspaper.

The upside-down newspaper that nobody else on the station was likely to notice.

Even if the girl ended up not having the aptitude to be a Student Instructor, she would be extremely useful in a quality control role. She wanted that girl on the management team, almost or else.

But she couldn’t force her. Especially with memory and observation skills like that, the girl was probably a lightning-fast learner, and if she built their relationship on resentment… Well, she’d seen a few Agents pay for underestimating people like that with their lives- and one of them hadn’t been that far below her on the rankings, which had meant that she had been assigned to eliminate that Agent-killer. It had been the most difficult mission she’d ever completed, but she’d pulled it off. Such was the gap in skill between her, the number one finest Agent in the Agency, and even the number two best Agent, that she had been able to use a rapid surprise technique to eliminate the fast-learner before they could learn her techniques.

But what that meant was that this girl was likely to learn her techniques just by dint of being near her, whether their relationship was on resentment or not- or even whether they had a relationship at all or not! There wasn’t any getting around that- and she was determined to see that it was a positive relationship built on trust. There just wasn’t any other way around it, unless she wanted to create a monster far worse than the Lord Voldemort people had been too frightened to tell her about.

Fortunately, though, the girl seemed to be good-spirited… which was a very good sign, and meant there was potential for the girl to forgive her blunder in Diagon Alley… as it seemed she already had, in Diagon Alley.

Which reminded her. The girl had detected her lie, and responded strongly to it… but had not responded strongly to the revelation that she’d been watched. As a matter of fact, she’d gotten the distinct impression the girl thought that had been amusing, rather than worrying.

She could not lie. Not without risking detection and animosity, at any rate. She wasn’t sure if she could even bend the truth- who knew exactly what tells the girl was watching, and exactly what she didn’t like!

It was all she could do to be as friendly and honest as possible, within the limitations of her job and her vows to Celestia as an Agent.

Quite suddenly, Bonbon sensed something getting close- and glanced over to her left… but as expected, it was just someone pushing a luggage trolley, putting it in the corral that her bench was set up against.

Specifically, it was Hailey putting her trolley away, and wearing her Hogwarts robes.

Bonbon scanned a couple lines of the newsprint upside-down. The story was about a Gringotts break-in that had happened a month before, in which nothing was stolen- the thief had broken into an empty vault. It wasn’t really enough to garner her attention, so she peered overtop her newspaper again.

There was Draco Malfoy, looking distinctly uncomfortable with two large, thuggish boys in tow. Yes, he was still an Instructor candidate, though she wasn’t sure yet just what subject would suit him.

Not that she was familiar with any of the subject matter, so basically all of her subject assignments were likely to be inoptimal, at first at least.

Then Hailey sat next to her. “Your newspaper is upside down,” she informed her calmly.

“It is,” Bonbon agreed, turning the page. “You’d be the first to notice.” Unfortunately, none of the plans she’d come up with and studied- even rehearsed, to some extent- for the last month had involved Hailey initiating contact, so she really only had one choice: Wing it. Fortunately, that’s what she was best at.

“I’ve also noticed you’re people-watching again,” Hailey mused. There was definite evidence of both amusement and curiosity in her voice.

“I am,” she agreed. “I was made the Management Team Lead for the brand-new Hogwarts Student Instructor Program, formed because of the huge numbers of students falling through from my world into this one. And with those numbers…” She shrugged. “You can never have too many candidates.”

“Aaaand I noticed that you’ve been very specifically not watching me,” Hailey observed again, merriment dancing in her voice.

She looked at her, then sighed and averted her eyes. “Yes. I’m not a fan of repeating mistakes.”

“Well yes,” Hailey agreed, “but it seems like you’re really worried about getting caught watching me. Or even looking at me, for that matter- and I’m curious why?”

“Well…” She paused, uncertain of how to continue. Today made two out of two times they’d met… in which Hailey had made her uncomfortable in less than sixty seconds. She hadn’t realized her efforts would be that visible; the girl’s observation skills must be through the roof, possibly even compared to her own.

“And you’re so high-strung you’re blowing off steam by making deliberate rookie mistakes.” She gestured at the newspaper.

Bonbon laughed. “Well… Yes and no. This isn’t… blowing off steam, it’s rather…” She sighed. “An attempt to hide the high-strung-ness,” she muttered darkly.

Hailey chuckled softly, looking out across the platform. “You see any good candidates?”

“I’m sitting right next to one,” Bonbon answered calmly, looking up at her. It looked like she’d draped her hair down over the front of her robes as well as her back, completely hiding her nameplate from view.

“Well of course you are,” Hailey answered instantly. There was a second’s silence, then Hailey blinked and turned to look at her. “Wait, you mean I’m a candidate?”

Bonbon smiled in spite of herself. She couldn’t tell if that delayed reaction had been genuine or faked. “Yes, I do. You’re probably the best one I’ve seen yet.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh, that can’t be right.” She leaned back, looking out at the station again. “I can’t be that good. That’d just be cheating.”

“Well yes,” Bonbon conceded. “It is a bit of a ‘too good to be true’ situation, but…” She shrugged. “I know a great way to find out.”

“Oh?” Hailey looked at her. “What’s that?”

“It’s just a little…” She paused, putting her paper down and looking out at the station. “Study session, I suppose you could call it.” She shrugged. “Sorta lesson-and-test-in-one, so to speak, but it’d take a fair amount of time, so it’s not something I’m going to be happy putting you through unless you’re willing to take advantage of such candidacy, assuming we’re able to confirm it.”

Hailey looked at her, then shrugged. “So why don’t we do it? I’ve got a compartment to myself right now, unless you’ve already set one up?”

Bonbon met her eyes. “You want to become a Student Instructor?” It was bewildering. She’d never once considered that Hailey might view the Student Instructor position as desirable… which would tend to mean all her plans had been useless even if Hailey hadn’t been the one to start the conversation.

Hailey shrugged. “Yeah, why not? Sounds like fun.”

“... Oh,” Bonbon muttered. “Then we might as well get to it.”

“Weren’t you people-watching?”

She shrugged. “It’s getting so crowded there’s no point anymore. People are getting too goal-oriented, so nobody’s exposing any of the qualities that mean anything towards or against candidacy any more.” She gestured out at the station, which had become quite packed by now; it was about ten minutes to the train’s scheduled departure. “And are you sure you’ve got a compartment to yourself, and that nobody else has moved in in the meantime?”

She gave her a knowing smile. “Yep, I’m sure.”

Author's Note

Whoops, I'm almost eleven hours late. Better get it published. I think I'm going to commit to posting a chapter a day on Patreon until it's caught up with the appropriate levels of early access (including going public automatically and on schedule)

Patreon, Discord.

The fun starts next chapter... I can't wait to see what theories come out of it.

So... I rewrote this chapter last week, and apparently forgot to actually update it. Whoops.

Good news, though, Chap. 7 is rewritten & going through the editors right now.

... And if you've reached this chapter but don't know about the rewrite yet, you should probably start back at chapter one.

Sorry, it's so late it's become early, but I've yet to go to bed.

Chapter 7: Derailed RW

Bonbon stopped talking at once when the door latch clicked.

A month before, she’d designed a full hour-long session to evaluate prospective instructors and reveal all their strengths and weaknesses.

It had only taken the first two minutes of it for her to realize that Hailey really was everything she thought she was. The girl had readily confirmed that she had perfect recall, when asked- though she had this mischievous smile on her face when she did so, so Bonbon got the idea that wasn’t the whole story.

But it was enough. She was confident she wouldn’t be averse to the rest of the story… and Hailey had been so interested in her techniques, and seen through so many of them, that she’d decided to make the call… and had given Hailey an opportunity.

The girl had, when presented with the very-much-sought-after opportunity to become her apprentice within the Agency, shrugged and told her it sounded fun.

So now, a full hour after the train had started moving… The girl really was an alarmingly fast learner, so they’d covered the entire Student Instructor training base she and Starlight had crafted… and about half of the Agency Basic Training. Well… half of the part that didn’t involve physical activity, at any rate. The girl seemed surprisingly fit for her happy-go-lucky attitude, so she didn’t expect that would be difficult to do later.

She’d have to tell the Agency leadership about the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity she’d given the girl, but she’d first have to wait until somepony managed to open the portal back home and she could actually reach the Agency leadership. She wasn’t going to be able to do that herself… but Starlight Glimmer, once a student of Twilight’s and now the Research Team Lead within the Student Instructor Program, just might. She looked up as the door slid open. The soundproofing evident in the same had come as a welcome surprise.

It was Draco Malfoy. He seemed to have lost his goons again- and it made her wonder where he’d left them. He was, however, looking less uncomfortable than he had on the station with those bodyguards.

“Well hello there,” Hailey greeted calmly, smiling mischievously at him.

He stared at her for a few seconds, then silently stepped into the compartment and closed the door behind him.

“A boy that doubts,” he began.

“Well, that’s definitely a start,” she observed. “A girl that remembers.” She paused, and tilted her head. “You know, I’m curious. If you could snap your fingers to magically turn yourself into a secret agent, a magic engineer, a schoolteacher, or a housewife, which would you choose?”

Bonbon looked at her. Where did that question come from? It didn’t make sense. A secret agent, magic engineer- what was Hailey thinking?

Draco looked thoughtful for a few seconds. “Would…” He paused. “Would it be too much to ask for all four?”

“In this scenario, yes,” Hailey mused, though Bonbon noticed her eyebrow quirk.

“Hmm,” he muttered, rubbing his chin. “That’s a good question,” he muttered. “I think… I think I’m going to have to go with a schoolteacher.”

It was Bonbon’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Funny you should pick that one,” she observed. Draco was most likely in the top fifty percent of candidates she’d scouted- and she only had seventy percent extra candidates. As such, he was basically guaranteed to get offered the job.

“Oh?” he asked, glancing between them, and settled on Bonbon. “Uh- I’m sorry, who are you?”

“A girl with an opportunity,” Bonbon answered simply, then smiled. “Call me Bonbon, the Hogwarts Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead.”

He blinked. “... What?”

“So it was interesting you’d pick that one when that’s the one that you can become, right here and now. Do you want to?”

He stared at her for a second. “Uh… Crabbe and Goyle will be waiting for me, I only told them I needed to use the bathroom.” He gestured slightly back at the door.

“It doesn’t have to be right now,” Bonbon informed him. “Are you interested?”

“C-Can I get back to you on that?”

“Sure,” Bonbon answered. “Just have an answer ready by breakfast tomorrow.”

Bonbon looked up at a knock on the door. She’d just finished giving Hailey the ‘basic’ training, then… She wondered who was interrupting with such perfect timing.

Then the door slid back to reveal a smiling witch with a cart full of food. “Anything off the cart, dears?”

A brief glance informed Bonbon that there were price tags on everything- as such, since Professor McGonagall had only given her a bare minimum to get her necessary supplies second-hand and she’d spent every knut she’d earned on various additional supplies… Even though Starlight had shored up her budget with some of the financial assistance some of the graduated Equestrians were sending her, she had flat zero coins on her, and as such was unable to get anything, even if she wanted to.

Hailey, on the other hand, had no such limitation. She drew a small, bulging pouch of coins from an inside pocket of her robes as she stood up. “Oh, sure.” She paused, scanning the cart with her eyes. “Hmm… I can’t say I’ve ever had any of this stuff before. So… how about some of everything?”

The smiling witch raised an eyebrow. “That’s going to be expensive,” she observed.

“That’s what I’ve got it for,” Hailey smiled, gesturing with her bag, before she set about deciding exactly how much she wanted of each item.

Bonbon watched calmly and silently as Hailey purchased what had to be between a quarter and a half of her own weight in snacks. It wasn’t her place to say anything.

Even if she had to forcibly suppress her jealousy when the girl dropped no less than three gleaming golden galleons back into her money bag when digging for the copious amounts of sickles and knuts required to pay the lady. Finally, her bag some thirty or forty coins lighter but not appreciably smaller because of it, she tucked the bag back into its inside pocket- which didn’t cause her robes to bulge or droop from the weight- and piled up all her new snacks on one of the seats while the lady closed the door and continued on to visit the rest of the train.

“Hungry, much?” Bonbon asked, staring at the tower of sweets.

“A little bit,” Hailey nodded. “I got enough to share, so help yourself.” She gestured towards the pile. “Hmm… I think I’ll start with these chocolate frogs,” Hailey decided, picking up a package. “Hop realistically in your stomach…” She paused. “I hope not, that sounds like a great way to get a stomachache.”

Bonbon laughed. “Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me. These wizards have come up with some of the strangest ideas I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something.”

“Only one way to find out,” Hailey announced, opening the package.

Bonbon found herself laughing once again. She wasn’t sure what it was about this girl that was quite so disarming, but even she found Hailey to be… well, disarming.

Even though the Agency training exercise had revealed her to have a mental capacity at least an order of magnitude greater than Bonbon’s own, alongside observation and analysis skills to match, making her perhaps the scariest person she’d ever met… even without knowing her physical capabilities.

It really was a good thing she’d managed to build a positive relationship with such a capable girl.

About half an hour of taste-testing the various sweets later, they found a jackpot. Neither of them knew that’s what it was at first, of course.

“Ahh, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans,” Bonbon observed, picking up a bag of colorful jelly beans. “This should be interesting.”

“Yeah,” Hailey agreed. “I think the chocolate frogs are probably the tamest sweets- they’ve only got famous witch and wizard cards in them, whereas…” She looked across the rest. “Oh, where did we start?”

Bonbon raised an eyebrow. “Perfect recall?” she asked.

“Well yes,” Hailey agreed, “but it makes people uncomfortable if I let it show, so I’m in the habit of hiding it. Same for… well, everything else.” She waved vaguely at her head. “But anyways, I wonder if they’ve simply got a lot of flavors or if it really is every flavor?”

“Only one way to find out,” Bonbon announced facetiously, and opened the package. Hailey’s oddly disarming qualities meant she was actually having fun- though not, she expected, as much as she’d have if Lyra were with them. As near as she’d been able to tell, Lyra Heartstrings, her wife, was not in Britain. It was a good thing she had someone as friendly as Hailey.

Though that reminded her: Those same disarming qualities also made her extremely scary on her own… Yes, Hailey was definitely the scariest person she’d ever met, bar none. Possibly the scariest person any Equestrian had ever met.

And with that in mind, she had a sudden idea.

“You know,” she began, picking out a purple bean. “I’ve been thinking.”

“Mm?” Hailey asked, looking up from where she’d been reading the back of a card from a chocolate frog- this one seemed to be titled ‘Albus Dumbledore’. She definitely liked chocolate a lot more than Bonbon did.

“Well, the Agency has a secret language only taught to the elite,” she informed her, and popped the bean into her mouth. She paused for a second. “Huh, weird flavor for a jellybean. Almost tastes like glass. But anyways, even just with what you’ve shown me so far, I expect you’ll qualify under that ‘elite’ label by next month at the latest, so I was wondering how hard it’d be to teach it to you.” She picked out a bright red bean. “This one looks almost like it’s waiting to burn me,” she observed.

Hailey chuckled. “It does, doesn’t it?” she agreed, before smiling up at her. “I don’t expect it’ll be too hard. I mean, I know French, German, Arabic, Ancient Greek…” She trailed off, and shrugged.

Bonbon gazed at her for a few seconds. “You’re a very scary girl, you know that?” She popped the bean into her mouth, and let out a gasp of surprise. “Yikes!” She pulled out her hip flask- it used to be a simple bottle stored in the briefcase in her tail, but that briefcase was now stored in some sort of hammerspace in her hair and the bottle had become a hip flask- and washed it down with water. “That was hot! If I was going to place the flavor…” She paused. “Jalapeno peppers, I think. And very strong.” She glanced up. “So, uh…” She switched to the Agency’s secret language, codenamed ‘Charlie’. “Od uoy dnatsrednu siht?”

Hailey laughed. “Pey, I dnatsrednu ti tsuj enif,” she informed her, far more fluently than any Agent Bonbon had ever heard- even herself. “Dnim fi I yrt- sorry, mind if I try a few beans?”

It was Bonbon’s turn to laugh, as she held out the package. “You’re a very scary girl, you know that?”

Hailey chuckled as she plucked a small handful of beans from the package, then picked a strange greyish one and started inspecting it. “Yeah, I get that a lot, whenever I let it show.” She tilted her head. “Not always verbally, of course.” She tried sniffing the bean, and raised an eyebrow. “Smells like black pepper,” she observed, before popping it into her mouth. “Oh my. And you’re right, it’s very strong.”

“Two peppers and a piece of glass,” Bonbon mused, pulling out another bean, and sniffed it as well… It was faint, but she was able to pick out the scent. “They must mean every flavor, this smells like some kind of plant. Not one I’m familiar with, though.” She popped it into her mouth, then scowled. “Hmm, definitely a vegetable, but I’m not a fan. Which is weird, I like most vegetables.”

Hailey sniffed one of her beans. “Hmm, want to wash it down with a toffee?”

She looked up. “Oh, sure, why not?”

Hailey flicked it to her, and she snapped it out of the air with her jaw rather than her fingers… then scowled. “Yeah, that’s toffee, but my toffees are better.”

“They are?” Hailey asked curiously.

“Well yeah,” she shrugged. “Back in Equestria, I’m a candymaker. What else did you think my name meant?”

She laughed. “Well, I’d love to taste it at some point. So don’t get rusty now, young lady!”

Both of them burst into laughter.

Most of the package was gone when Hailey finally stood up and stretched. “Alright,” she informed Bonbon. “I need to use the bathroom- do you think you can hold down the fort?”

“Hmm, it might be difficult, with this onslaught,” Bonbon mused, gesturing at the closed door. “Hurry back, or they might push their advantage.”

Hailey laughed. “Sure thing,” she agreed. “But when I get back with the-!” She paused. “Bertillery? Nah. When I get back with the Bertie Botts Brigade, they’ll be trembling in their wrappers.”

Bonbon laughed as well. “In all seriousness, though, the stories the others have told me about their first rides were…” She paused. “Um, not pleasant. So be careful.”

She smiled. “I killed the most fearsome Dark Lord in history when I was four months old,” she informed Bonbon calmly, suppressing the manic grin that wanted to show on her face. “So if someone decides to cause some trouble, they’re the ones in trouble, not me.”

Bonbon raised an eyebrow. “You killed…?”

“Lord Voldemort,” Hailey informed her. “Apparently his curse rebounded or something, so it’s not nearly as impressive as it sounds.”

She raised her other eyebrow. “He died when he attacked…?” She paused, then tilted her head. “Did something happen?”

“Yeah. Mom and Dad never told the world I wasn’t a boy. I don’t plan on telling them, because I don’t want Harry’s fame.”

“Can’t argue with you there,” Bonbon nodded. “But don’t let me hold you up any longer, I’d hate for you to fall.”

Hailey giggled. “Yup. Be right back.” She left the compartment, closing the door behind her.

The passage… wasn’t a bedlam, but there were a lot of people meandering their way up and down it. One, just entering at the back of the car, had a bruise forming on the side of her face, but judging by the colors in her aura, she’d come out on top and was proud of it. The traces of blood on her knuckles hinted to the same- and given the vast quantity of selfless good in the same aura, she imagined the girl had been protecting someone else.

She was a fairly heavily-muscled upper-year ‘colorhead’ with curly purple and turquoise striped hair, after all.

Hailey smiled to herself and turned towards the front of the car, where the nearest restroom was… just in time to see someone enter the car. Well, sense; there were a couple girls in the way, having a conversation with each other. The first was facing away from her, and the other wore a badge identifying her as a prefect on the right side of her chest, whereas her nameplate would be on the point of her left breast. It really wasn’t a very good place for the nameplate.

But that someone had a very, very dark aura. She could only describe it as ‘black’... representing hopelessness, helplessness…

If she had to describe the aura as a whole, the term she would use would be ‘suicidal’.

Most of the suicidality was transient- she wouldn’t normally have been, but someone must have been abusing them, manipulating their emotions, in order to push them into a massive mental breakdown.

She immediately split her mind and isolated the burning rage building up within her; there was a time and a place for that, but this wasn’t it. She could vent on the poor schmuck that did this later.

The prefect and her companion stopped talking as the person stalked around them, revealing themself to be a girl about Hailey’s age with bushy brown hair and tears in her eyes. She also didn’t have any of the colorful patches over her nameplate that all the older students seemed to- perhaps that meant she was also a first-year?

The girl the prefect was talking to turned around as the brown-haired girl- Hermione Granger, according to her nameplate- passed her, revealing herself to be Head Girl Aurora Lewis, by badge and nameplate. “Wha-?” she began, evidently confused. “What happened?”

Hermione ignored her, except for a twitch in the corner of her eye. Evidently, she was used to people pretending to care but not really.

“Hermione?” Hailey asked gently.

The girl really winced this time, but ignored her as well, marching straight past.

“Hermione,” Hailey called, much more firmly.

Hermione stopped, but didn’t turn, nor respond verbally. Past her, the girl with the bruise paused, watching concernedly.

She paused, pausing time briefly so she could have an internal debate about exactly how to disarm the girl; she was evidently expecting more violence. “What did he do?” she asked.

She must have been right in her expectation that her inexperienced best guess was not the actual best choice. Hermione turned her head slightly, though not far enough to see her in her peripheral vision. “Well?” she demanded sharply, anguish evident in her voice. “Are you going to say it?

“Say what?” Hailey asked calmly, unsure if she was going to regret it or not.

Hermione turned at her and started marching aggressively back towards her, even though the tears were actually flowing now. “That I’m up to no good,” she snapped. “That I’m ugly, that nobody likes me,” she was talking faster and louder, the anguish building up. “That I’m too smart for my own good, that I’m an insufferable know-it-all, that I’m a mud-blood, that-! That-!” She stuttered to a halt.

Hailey had, rather than trying to interrupt or stop her, gone with her instinct and stepped forward to meet and hug her. The action seemed to have caught Hermione by surprise, stunning her into silence as she tried to comprehend what was happening.

She also noticed that Head Girl Aurora Lewis and her prefect friend- whose nameplate she hadn’t seen yet- had exhibited strong reactions to the term ‘mudblood’, just as Madam Malkin and her assistant had.

And just like the bruise-faced girl stalking dangerously up the corridor, too- her face was contorted with rage, but a brief glance in her direction informed Hailey it wasn’t them she was mad at, it was whoever had called Hermione by the term.

Speaking of, the girl’s nameplate declared her to be Flurry Heart.

Hailey held the hug, squeezing gently and humming softly in her ear, until Hermione’s irrational anger ebbed away.

Finally, she released it, and stepped back to put her hands on Hermione’s shoulders instead. “I think you look just fine,” she told her calmly. “And I’m also an insufferable know-it-all. And I have another friend that’s also an insufferable know-it-all.” She paused for a second. “So why don’t we team up and show them who’s really missing out?”

Hermione looked up at her. “But if nobody likes me-?”

“He’s wrong,” Hailey told her simply. “When people start saying things like that, what they’re really telling you is that you don’t care about what they’re saying because they’re just saying it.”

Hermione sighed, looking down. “But it’s true,” she muttered.

“Not any more,” Hailey smiled. “I like you, and I expect Bonbon will too. I mean…” She paused. “I never had any friends either. Until I found out about Hogwarts.”

Hermione shrugged her hands off her shoulders, then stepped forwards to hug her. “Just don’t leave me,” she whispered.

Hailey returned the hug. “I won’t, don’t worry,” she informed her, glancing up at the look of relief on Flurry’s face- well, insomuch as it wasn’t overshadowed by her fury at Hermione’s attacker. She waited a few seconds, before gently pushing Hermione off of her.

Hermione looked up at her. It looked like she was beginning to recover already.

“I do need to use the bathroom, though,” Hailey informed her, “so how about I introduce you to Bonbon?”

“So how about I introduce you to Bonbon?”

Aurora Lewis, the Gryffindor Head Girl, shook herself out of her amazement, watching the two girls walk off, back towards a compartment not far down the car. This little black-haired girl had just calmed someone that had been that stressed out in a matter of seconds. She’d watched it, but was still having trouble believing it!

If only there had been someone like that at the school when she had been a first year. She’d been so scared, and bullied to boot- to the point where she’d briefly recognized herself in young Hermione Granger.

But now she was Head Girl, and she hadn’t become one without fighting her way through six years of her Hogwarts education. It was her responsibility to find out who had done that to Miss Granger, and see that they got punished for it.

She turned to her friend, seventh-year Ravenclaw Prefect Alverta Nettle. “What do you think happened?” she asked softly.

“Good question,” Alverta muttered, rubbing her chin. “She came from the compressed cars, so some eighty percent of the school is suspect. Maybe someone saw it?”

“We’d have to guess-and-check,” She scowled. “That’s going to take forever.”

“Do you think that Bonbon is going to ask what happened?” Alverta asked.

Aurora opened her mouth… and stopped.

A voice was coming out of the compartment door the black-haired girl had opened. “What happened?” it asked.

Both of them turned to look.

“Someone tried to convince her to jump off the back of the train, I expect,” the black-haired girl’s voice said. Her voice was calm and level- the girl must have an amazing level of control over her emotions.

“Convinced,” Hermione corrected, her voice wavering slightly but growing steadily steadier.

“Who was it?” Bonbon asked.

Aurora and Alverta both stepped silently closer, listening carefully.

“I don’t know,” Hermione muttered. “He was…” She shivered.

“Alright,” Bonbon accepted. “Where was it?”

“Uh-!” Hermione paused. “Around the middle of the next car,” she muttered.

“Okay, um,” the black-haired girl interjected. “I need to use the bathroom, so I’ll be right back?”

Their answers must’ve been nonverbal, because they didn’t hear any before the black-haired girl emerged from the compartment again, closing the door behind her, then marched straight past Aurora and Alverta with an odd, foreboding aura around her that caused both seventh-years to flatten themselves against the walls as she passed, even without being asked. They then joined the passage behind her, and started walking up the car.

Both of them noticed- judging by Alverta’s suddenly tilting her head- when Hailey spurned the open bathroom and instead crossed the boardwalk between the cars, heading into the car Hermione had just come from.

They hurried after her. This girl wasn’t about to pick a fight and get hurt, was she?

Hailey ignored Head Girl Aurora Lewis and Prefect Alverta Nettle walking behind her as she crossed between cars, just as she had ignored the bathroom; that wasn’t her priority right now.

She spotted him almost the moment she entered the car. Not visually, no; there was someone else much closer, heading back towards the car she’d just come from.

But she could sense his aura, and the immense amount of glaring maliceevil found within it. There was no doubt he was her culprit- or at least likely to be him. As she marched forwards, the girl- a colorhead, it looked like- stepped out of her way then continued on her way, revealing…

The boy was facing away from her, talking with Veronica Rosewood, who was wearing a badge she could only just see the edge of. It looked like they both had their wands out and were arguing about something.

She noticed the sudden consternation increase in the three girls behind her- Flurry Heart was following behind the prefect and head girl- when they noticed the drawn wands, and glimpsed a drawn wand in the reflection off a door handle while they also accelerated.

She didn’t slow down for them. Instead, she listened to the argument going on ahead of her… and found herself accelerating as well as it confirmed her first impression.

Sixth-year Ravenclaw Prefect Veronica Rosewood didn’t even notice the appearance of four extra people in the passage. She knew that most people had left the passage and closed their compartment doors in anticipation of a fight breaking out- as a matter of fact, she’d drawn her wand in response to fifth-year Slytherin Junior Prefect Alden Avery drawing his.

There had even already been a brief exchange of spells. He’d gone for the full body bind, but she’d dodged it and nearly hit him with a disarming charm. She had no delusions that he was going to listen to her without a fight; the fact that she was muggleborn wasn’t exactly helping with that, as Alden was extremely hostile towards anything that wasn’t pure-blood. It fitted the Slytherin House of four years ago, when he’d started school, but not so much anymore with the universally accepting colorheads quickly outnumbering British students in not just the school but in each of the four Houses as well. Perhaps it was because Alden had been a first year student in the final year in which British students had outnumbered the colorheads school-wide? Or maybe it was because three quarters of the Slytherins in his year were colorheads, as her year was the final one in which British students enjoyed a majority over colorheads on a per-year basis?

“Mudbloods are absolutely inferior,” Alden sneered at her.

“That doesn’t give you any right to bully them like that,” she answered sharply.

“I have every right in the world to push nobodies out of my way,” he sneered.

“Do you even know her name?” Veronica asked.

He laughed. “As if,” he told her. “Why should I be bothered by the name of a mudblood?”

“Hermione Granger.”

Veronica got a sudden, very strong feeling of foreboding as she looked past Alden to see the speaker.

Alden actually jumped at the statement and whirled around.

There was…

A first-year girl, it looked like.

She had long, wavy black hair, and had draped it over her nameplate. Several paces behind her, Head Girl Aurora Lewis and Senior Prefect Alverta Nettle slowed down quickly to a walk rather than a jog, wands drawn, evidently wanting to be able to aim accurately in a hurry. There was another girl behind them- a fourth-year colorhead she recognized as Flurry Heart.

“What?” Alden asked, turning to the girl.

“Her name was Hermione Granger,” the girl informed him darkly.

Veronica wasn’t sure why, but she found herself backing away from them, even as she kept her wand trained on Alden.

“Oh,” he answered disdainfully. “You’re a mudblood too, aren’t you?”

He raised his wand.

He shouldn’t have.

She swatted it out of the way with so much force that it splashed and the whole car shook. The front half of his wand spun in the air and fell to the floor.

Veronica stumbled backwards while, behind the black-haired girl, Aurora and Alverta both froze in shock.

She knew why. The girl had just revealed something potentially very important to all of them.

She was a Royal.

And she was mad at Alden.

She found herself hoping that Alden survived whatever came next… a hope that was dashed by the girl’s next action.

As Alden drew back a fist to attack her the muggle way instead, she reached forwards to take a handful of his robes in one hand and his hair in another, before twisting in place and throwing him at the wall of the car.

The heavily magically reinforced wall of the car, which had been purportedly rendered indestructible by the expansion charms, cratered.

At the same time, the whole car lurched suddenly sideways and smashed into the cliffside on that side of the tracks.

Veronica found herself thrown between the two walls of the passage like a ragdoll- but for some reason, it didn’t hurt. Was that adrenaline, possibly caused by how Alden’s blood had now covered the entire corridor, from end to end?

Then she crashed to the floor and, as the car ground to a none-too-pleasant halt and finally rolled onto its side, compartments down, struggled to avoid getting slammed around too badly.

In the end, she wasn’t too successful. Even if she hadn’t been sprayed with blood, she rolled in enough of it she was probably going to have to throw away her brand-new robes as permanently bloodstained, even without the injuries she had probably sustained when the compartment and exterior walls had slammed into her so hard.

“Were there any others?”

She looked up. It was the black-haired girl, standing calmly on the floor- which was currently the wall- as if the car hadn’t leaned over. Her voice was far gentler than it had been a second before… and the girl was looking at her, the anger she’d shown at Alden completely gone from her expression.

“N-No,” she gasped. “H-He was the only one.”

The girl bowed her head. “Thank you.” She walked past, towards the front of the car.

Veronica looked back past Alden’s dead body.

Aurora and Alverta both seemed to have been stunned by the sudden development, but Flurry had recovered far faster; the girl was inhumanly strong, though not enough to qualify her as a Royal, so it made sense. Walking across the top of the wall next to the ceiling so she didn’t have to cross any compartment doors, Flurry quickly reached the impact site where Alden was still stuck in the wall, now the ceiling… and drove her fist into what had once been his gut. Then she blinked. “H-He’s still alive!” She managed to sound alarmed, surprised, horrified, and impressed, all at once.

“What-!?” Aurora gasped, practically leaping to her feet to dart forwards. “He’s-? Oh, my. You’re right.”

“How on earth did he survive that?” Veronica asked.

“That was going to be my question,” Alverta informed her, rising to her feet as well.

“Good question,” the Flurry informed them. “Back in my world, people were more durable than here… but not nearly enough to survive that!”

Veronica looked back at where the black-haired girl had gone… but she was gone. “Who was that?”

“I don’t know,” Aurora answered.

Then Veronica noticed something, and looked down at herself, before looking up at the others again. “And how come we’re the only things in sight that aren’t covered in blood?”

A dull boom suddenly sounded from somewhere down the train.

“What the-?” the engineer gasped, leaning out the side of the locomotive and twisting to look back- but he couldn’t see anything other than the third car down leaning off the tracks and against the cliffside.

The brakes started squealing even before he wrenched his head back inside the locomotive to yank the regulator fully closed and slam all the brakes into the emergency position, resulting in enough braking pressure to throw the conductor against the front of the cab.

One of the windows of the third car being broken by a rock outcropping, which was then demolished by the magically-indestructible side of the car, probably didn’t help.

“What the-? What happened?” the conductor asked, struggling for a look of his own.

“Derailment,” he answered sharply. “Looked pretty significant, I hope nothing falls.”

The conductor winced. He was right; they were running along the edge of a mountain, so one side of the tracks was bordered by a cliff face and the other by a vertical drop. If any rolling stock fell down… everyone inside was doomed to an early grave, whether it was a magically-indestructible expanded car or not. The durability of the car didn’t affect the survivability of the landing.

The moment the train ground to a halt, they both jumped off, on the side of the vertical drop, and started walking along the train.

Within seconds, they could see around the third car… to see that the fourth car was on the tracks… albeit on its side.

“What the hell…?” the conductor muttered.

“Well, there’s a pretty big gap between it and the third,” the engineer observed, as they drew closer. “We should be able to inspect both sides of each car without difficulty.” He paused. “Do you think anyone’s still alive in there?”

“Probably,” the conductor observed, pointing past the car at the ground opposite. “Looks like it ground to a halt next to the tracks, then rolled- survivable, but definitely not comfortable.”

The engineer sighed, drawing his wand to start putting the third car back properly on the tracks. “How about we get started, then?”

The conductor helped- and a second later, one side of the truck was on the rails, and the other was inside the rails.

The engineer leaned down. “Oh wow. These wheels are bent pretty bad.” He magically lifted the car, mended the wheels, and set it back down, finally back on the rails- before mending the coupler. “Any rolling stock down the cliff?”

The conductor looked. “I don’t see any. Nothing seems to have fallen. Yet.” He walked towards the door onto the train- which was then slid back by a student on the inside.

A student with a Prefect badge, specifically.

“Is everyone alright in there?” he asked.

“We’re still looking for anyone that might have gotten hurt, but so far, everyone’s only been tossed around a bit,” the prefect informed him.

Aurora leaned out the door of the compartment. It was technically Veronica’s compartment, shared with a few other prefects that happened to be on patrol, but close enough.

Earlier, they’d used scouring charms to clean up all the blood, then magically pried Alden’s remains out of the ceiling-wall and placed them on a conjured stretcher. Almost as soon as they’d finished, the car had lifted a little and started rolling right-side-up again, so they’d transferred him in here to keep people from panicking or otherwise being horrified by the gore.

“Oh, well hello,” she greeted.

It was the black-haired girl that had thrown him into the wall, returning to the back of the car with an armload of Bertie Bott’s. Her hair was still covering her nameplate.

“Hello,” the girl answered calmly, bowing her head slightly. It was kinda odd to see that kind of show of respect from a Royal.

“Um- if I may ask, who are you?”

“A girl that cares for her friends,” the girl answered calmly, before pausing even with the compartment, such that she could see the stretcher.

“Evidently,” she agreed. “May I ask after your name?”

The girl smiled, and ignored the question. “How many pieces were there?”

“Ahh…” She paused, glancing back at Avery. “Twelve.”

The girl bowed her head again. “Thank you.” She continued on her way to the back of the car.

“I guess her name is ‘unspecified’, then,” Veronica observed.

“Probably means she doesn’t want people to know she’s a Royal,” Alverta agreed.

“A what?” Flurry asked curiously.

Aurora closed the door. “A Royal,” she answered. “In the wizarding world, Royals are defined by having otherworldly powers.” She shrugged. “If you had more than just super-strength, or had more super strength, you’d probably qualify as one.”

Flurry rolled her eyes. “Yet as a Princess of the Crystal Empire…” She trailed off. “Well, technically Mom is also a ‘princess’, but that’s just the term we use. Her role is more that of a Queen, or maybe Empress.”

“... That’d be a slightly different kind of Royal,” Aurora muttered. “And not one the wizarding government cares about, for that matter. We call people with otherworldly powers ‘royals’ because wizardkind kinda forces that role onto them.”

Flurry looked at her. “And she is one?”

She glanced back at the door. “Yes, that girl is one. And apparently she knows it, and doesn’t want attention. But since a Royal’s word is law… she’s fully entitled to anonymity, I believe.”

“Me too,” Alverta agreed. “We know which compartment she’s returning to, though- do you think it’d be a good idea to visit her in that compartment, once the train gets moving again?”

Aurora scowled. “I don’t want to hound her, though. Hmm… No more than one, I think.”

“Then you’d better go,” Veronica observed. “You’ve already presented yourself to her as a friendly face. And if you’re polite, and make sure she knows we’re accepting her request for anonymity…” She trailed off, then shrugged. “She might just tell us who we’re protecting from the public eye.”

Professor Dumbledore paused upon returning to his office from lunch, turning to look at one of his many instruments, which was tooting away merrily… indicating that the Hogwarts Express had set its brakes into the emergency position.

He sighed. “Fawkes?” he called. “Sounds like we’ve got a visit to make.”

“What in the-?” Dumbledore began, staring at the outside of the fourth car of the Hogwarts Express, while it bumped up against the third car so the conductor could connect them. “What happened?”

“No idea,” the conductor informed him, ducking into the gap between the cars. There was a minute of silence while he worked, then he emerged again. “Heard a bang, then the back of the third car and everything behind it were derailed, so we stopped in a hurry. Not sure exactly what did that- and, presumably, caused the derailment.” He paused. “This one was lying on its side, by the way. This side up.”

“... Ahh,” Dumbledore muttered- then walked up to the side of the car and climbed inside, Fawkes riding on his shoulder. Once inside, he walked down to the very large dent in the outside wall of the car, recognizing the effects of a scouring charm, likely used to clean up the broken glass that would’ve fallen from the windows. Interestingly, there was the imprint of a roughly humanoid shape at the middle of the dent, as if someone had been slammed against the side of the car in order to buckle it.

Even though this was one of the expanded cars, so this wall- as the barrier between expanded and unexpanded space- should be completely indestructible without erasing the contents of the car, which evidently hadn’t happened.

Then the compartment door next to him opened suddenly, revealing Head Girl Aurora Lewis… and behind her, Ravenclaw prefects Alverta Nettle and Veronica Rosewood, alongside a very helpful Slytherin fourth-year colorhead named Flurry Heart. That girl did have a bit of a violent streak, but she was so firmly on the side of good- and only ever violent with the more abusive rulebreakers- that he expected her to be a Prefect Candidate for the following year.

They were on either side of a stretcher that carried some unrecognizable but very bloody remains.

“Professor,” Aurora greeted.

“It was a Royal, wasn’t it?” Dumbledore asked.

She nodded. “It was. She had black hair- but that’s about all we know. Nobody saw her nameplate… or House patch.”

He sighed. “So who’s the victim?”

“Alden Avery, new Slytherin Prefect. We think she did it because he’s been bullying muggleborn first-years into jumping off the train.” She paused. “He’s still alive, by the way.”

He blinked. “He’s what?”

“He’s still alive,” Aurora repeated. “And no, we don’t know how he survived being ripped into twelve different pieces by an impact with the wall.”

“... Ahh,” he muttered. “And you’ve got everything under control?”

“I think everyone’s still in shock,” Aurora muttered. “I was actually just about to start searching for anyone else that might have been injured by the derailment, now that we’ve got him… Well, contained.”

He nodded slowly. “Alright. I’ll take him to Madam Pomfrey- is there someone that can come along to explain what happened?”

Veronica raised her hand. “I watched the whole thing,” she informed him.

Poppy Pomfrey, frequently called Madam Pomfrey or perhaps Hogwarts School Nurse but also known (to a very select few people) as the Goddess of Healing, knew a Curse of Survival when she saw one. She could also usually recognize a Blessing of Safety when she saw one, but as safety wasn’t part of her domain, she could never be as certain.

And now, before her, there was one of each.

Alden Avery, in twelve different thoroughly crushed pieces on the newly-bloodstained bed in front of her, carried the Curse of Survival. It was a tool often used by she and her deific colleagues whenever they felt the need to torture someone beyond belief, as it forced the victim to survive whatever injuries were given to them. As such, in only one out of all nine incidents she knew of where such a curse had been used had the victim not dearly wished they’d been killed instead.

It looked like Alden probably wasn’t any different, though he was unconscious… partly from pain, partly from loss of blood, and partly, though she knew neither Dumbledore nor the Prefect before her knew, because of the divine sleep she’d put him under as soon as he had arrived.

If he had earned divine displeasure that bad, she ought to take her time healing him… and be careful not to overuse her divine healing powers. According to the story that Veronica was telling her, his right hand had been slapped off- she didn’t know anyone capable of doing that without extra spells in play- before he’d been thrown into the wall, so she figured she’d just leave his hand with whatever regular wizarding healing spells could accomplish… and probably a couple other appendages as well.

As another example, he was to be castrated. It was an unspoken rule across the deities that in no event should a victim of a Curse of Survival be left fertile or be restored to fertility after the fact. They had, after all, won a Darwin Award by angering a deity.

… Usually. There were only four deities including herself, and she knew where all three others were, so the ‘black-haired girl’ Veronica Rosewood had described was probably some sort of Royal that was also capable of such a curse.

Speaking of Veronica… undoubtedly unbeknownst to the girl, especially considering the story, she carried a Blessing of Safety that was set to break down on its own in a few days. Blessings like that were often a lot harder to notice without the sort of powers necessary to detect one directly; rather than simply forcing someone to survive, or to remain unharmed in the face of danger… it simply caused danger to avoid them. Most of the time; whenever it wasn’t possible to make danger avoid them, one this powerful would easily protect them from harm when it showed up.

And judging by Veronica’s story, the Blessing of Safety- which had a side effect of keeping blood and gore from getting on its recipient’s body or clothes- had been granted to everyone on the whole train, except only Alden… which also suggested the black-haired girl’s fury had been suppressed far enough for her to take steps to ensure that those not targeted by her ire weren’t caught in it.

Who- and what- was this girl?

Author's Note

That turquoise bean was Amethyst-flavored. Spike would love it.

In other news, the Agency code Bonbon mentions isn't just speaking the words backwards (Try reading them backwards, a mirror might help). I "encoded" it that way to make it clear it's a completely different language, without having to actually invent the language in question.

Patreon, Discord.

This one was fun to rewrite. While I was rewriting the scene where Hermione met Hailey, this came to mind very strongly:

So yeah. I'm a lot more awake today, but you should probably know that if you've managed to open this chapter without being aware of the rewrite (or having read rewrite chapters, look for the RW tag), you should probably go back to chapter one.

This one about doubled... Okay, 3218 words to 7234 words is actually a 1.25x increase, but close enough. Got some good new content and some reworking of the existing content to be a little more realistic. I also tried to make the conductor/engineer a little less... indifferent when it came to the students' survival and well being.

Chapter 8: High Profile Attention Avoidance RW

“I’m back,” Hailey greeted, as she opened the door to her compartment.

Hermione looked up. “Y-You’re alive!” she gasped, before leaping forward to hug her- forcing Hailey to use hammerspace to dump her jellybeans on the seat before they got crushed, then backstep to absorb Hermione’s energy.

“Yes, I am,” Hailey agreed. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“There was that explosion, and-!” Hermione began, then wrapped her in her hug again. “And I was worried!”

“So, how many pieces is he in?” Bonbon asked casually.

“Twelve,” Hailey answered. “But he’s still alive, don’t worry.”

Bonbon choked on a bean she’d just tossed into her mouth. “Y-You mean he survived that?” she gasped.

“Yes,” Hailey informed her, closing the door behind her. “I expect he wishes I’d killed him instead. But Professor Dumbledore was approaching the car when I was on my way back, so he’ll be in good hands.” She paused, half-carrying Hermione back to her seat, then sitting down with her, picking up a packet of papers Hermione had abandoned. “How about you?”

“We went for a little tumble,” Bonbon sighed, “but we’re okay.”

“That’s good,” Hailey nodded, then looked at the packet, and raised an eyebrow. “Head Student Instructor for Charms?” She looked at Hermione. “I told you she’d like you!”

Hermione blushed, snatching the packet back and hiding it behind her.

Bonbon laughed. “Well, once the train settled on the side of the tracks, Starlight stopped by to drop these off.” She tapped a box on the seat next to her, then tossed something to Hailey.

She watched it sail towards her. It looked like a badge- and as it spun through the air, she read its face.

Then she snatched it out of the air, brushed her hair aside, and attached it to the front of her robes, right where all the prefects had their badges. “Thank you,” she informed Bonbon, flicking her hair so it covered the badge again.

“You’re-?” Hermione began.

“Head Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts,” Bonbon informed her. “Haven’t found my badge yet, but it should be in there somewhere.” She tapped the box.

Hailey chuckled. “I notice Hermione’s not wearing one?”

Hermione blushed scarlet again, averting her eyes.

Bonbon shrugged. “We were just getting started with the training session,” she informed her. “The position technically isn’t hers until we finish.”

“Ahh,” Hailey nodded. “Shall I just sit here and eat jellybeans while you do that, then?”

“Before you do that,” Bonbon smiled, “who was it?”

“Alden Avery,” she answered calmly. “A prefect. He was dueling another prefect and apparently proud of his… attack, so I threw him at the wall.” She figured it probably wasn’t a very good idea to mention the Curse of Survival and Blessing of Safety that she’d suddenly realized she could cast a couple seconds before slapping Alden’s hand off his arm.

“You must be pretty strong,” Bonbon observed, though her tone suggested it wasn’t a new observation.

“I’m not that strong,” Hailey scowled. “I mean, it did dent the wall, but that’s beside the point.”

“Had to be a pretty big dent to derail the car,” Bonbon observed.

“And the prefects asked who I was,” Hailey mused, rubbing her chin.

“A girl that punches prefects through walls,” Bonbon supplied.

She rolled her eyes. “One, I didn’t punch him, only slapped his wrist off. And two, he didn’t go through the wall, he only got stuck in it.” She sighed. “I told them I’m ‘a girl that cares for her friends’.” She shrugged. “They seemed to think it was obvious.”

“You slapped his wrist off?” Hermione asked.

“Well, he was pointing his wand at me and I could feel the curse building up inside it. I thought about just letting him curse me, with a prefect behind him and a prefect, head girl, and protective colorhead behind me, but I promised I’d stay safe, remember?”

“You did?” Bonbon asked. “I only remember asking you to be careful.”

“It was an implied promise,” Hailey smiled, then scowled. “Then he decided to punch, so I threw him out of my way and continued to the front to get these beans.” She plucked a few beans from the package Bonbon had opened almost as soon as she’d put them down, then popped one straight into her mouth without smelling it. “Blech!” She chased it down with another bean, also unsmelled. “That had to be the nastiest thing I’ve ever tasted!” She paused. “Though the milk-flavored bean washed it away pretty well.”

“You say that like it’s insignificant,” Hermione observed.

Hailey looked at her, and shrugged. “What else am I supposed to do? Panic because I pounded the fear of God into him and made it look easy? Rejoice at having taught such an evil bastard a lesson?” She sighed, then averted her eyes. “I’m glad I taught him a lesson, yes. But did I really need to throw him hard enough to paint the whole corridor red? No.” She sighed again. “I didn’t even need to throw him hard enough to derail the train- just hard enough to knock him silly would have been plenty. Only…” She sighed. “When I get mad, it gets hard to pull my punches.”

“Same here,” Bonbon supplied. “I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve lost control of my emotions and accidentally dealt more damage than I wanted to. It’s… one of the reasons I keep them so tightly controlled.”

Hailey leaned back in her seat. “Aurora Lewis. Alverta Nettle. Veronica Rosewood. Flurry Heart.”

Bonbon choked on another bean.

“They saw it happen. They all know what I look like. Veronica told me he was the only one bullying students into committing suicide, and the rest know which compartment I’m in, though none of them know my name.”

“Did you say Flurry Heart?” Bonbon gasped.

Hailey looked at her. “Yeah. She has curly purple and turquoise striped hair.”

Bonbon leaned back in her seat. “Cadence will be happy to hear that,” she observed. “That’s almost certainly Princess Flurry Heart, heir to the throne of the Crystal Empire.”

“She seemed very protective,” Hailey informed her. “She actually punched Alden in the gut as I was walking away, before realizing that he was still alive.”

“Add insult to injury, of course,” Bonbon sighed. “She probably thought she was beating a dead horse, but…”

“I think she just wanted her turn. She, Aurora, and Alverta were watching when I met Hermione.”

“Hmm,” she muttered. “I’m not sure if Cadence will be impressed or horrified when she hears about that.” She glanced at Hermione. “Cadence is Flurry’s mother, by the way, and ruler of the Crystal Empire.” She sighed, sniffing a bean and popping it into her mouth. “Flurry vanished from Equestria a little over three years ago now. Cadence was, rather understandably in my opinion, in a panic- Flurry was twelve at the time. She’ll be fifteen now- and if we assume she started at Hogwarts immediately after arriving… she’ll be a fourth-year student.” She paused. “Though if she’s protecting the weak, she must’ve had at least some support on this side to keep her from breaking down completely.”

A couple hours after the train started moving again, the sun was just sinking below the horizon out the windows when Aurora finally gathered her courage and knocked on the door to compartment seven of the fifth car. Even the finest Gryffindor paled when faced with a risk of irritating a Royal.

“Yes?” a voice called from inside. Unless she’d gotten the wrong compartment, or someone else had joined them in the meantime, that sounded like Bonbon, the girl that the black-haired Royal had introduced Hermione to.

She slid the door open.

There were three girls inside, but that was all: Bonbon, Hermione, and the Royal.

Exactly as she had hoped.

A second after she was revealed, Hermione leaned back, hiding herself behind the Royal. Bonbon’s face also grew quickly impassive… and the Royal’s expression, as she looked at her, seemed to border on tired acceptance- like she’d expected this, but wasn’t a fan of it.

She resisted the urge to close the door again and flee.

“Hi,” she greeted. All three girls were wearing badges- but the Royal’s was covered by her hair and Hermione’s was hidden behind the Royal, so the only one she could read was Bonbon’s… which declared her to be the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead.

“Hello,” The Royal answered, picking up a half-full package of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans that had been on the seat next to her and offering it. “Want to join us? We’ve got more candy than we need.”

Aurora found herself instantly uneasy. The girl was obviously trying to be friendly… while also offering her an excuse to step in and close the door against eavesdroppers. There was a hidden message in that offer.

The girl knew what she was there to talk about… and didn’t want anyone else to find out about it.

“Ah- S-Sure,” she stuttered, causing Bonbon to raise an eyebrow, as she stepped in and closed the door behind her. “Th-Thanks,” she continued, accepting the candy bag and sitting down in the corner by the door. The position gave her the angle to see that Hermione’s badge declared her to be the Head Student Instructor for Charms.

The royal scowled. “Why so scared?” she asked. “You’re the one with all the authority.”

She paused. “Huh? But-!” She stopped herself, then glanced at Bonbon and Hermione. “Um… Do… Do they know what happened to Alden?”

“Yes,” the girl answered simply.

“Then… They know you’re a Royal?”

“If they know what a Royal is, then presumably, yes,” she smiled, glancing sideways at her companions.

Bonbon tilted her head. “What is a Royal?”

“A witch or wizard with ridiculous otherworldly powers,” the Royal answered simply, and shrugged. “I guess wizardkind ascribes ridiculous political powers to the same, so they got the label ‘Royal’.”

“Y-Yes,” Aurora stuttered. “A Royal’s word is law, so-!”

“So I’m going to assert that my word is not law,” the Royal declared.

“Uh… what?”

She shrugged. “I don’t want political power.” She paused. “By the way, you can actually smell the flavors of those beans, and weed out the ones you don’t like. It’s really fun.”

“So…” Aurora shuddered, picking a random bean from the bag and smelling it. To her surprise, she could actually smell it- she’d never thought to try that before! She wasn’t a fan of the scent, but popped it into her mouth anyways to savor not the flavor of the bean but the sweet taste of victory. “So is your name still ‘unspecified’, or…?”

“Or unimportant,” Bonbon mused suddenly.

The Royal looked at Aurora for a second, then sighed. “To the world… Yes. But I expect you’ll be finding out soon anyways, so…” She sighed, reaching up to brush her hair behind her back- all of it, exposing both badge and nameplate.

The girl, Hailey Potter, was the Head Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

“... Ahh,” she muttered. “So you’re… oh my.”

“What?” Hermione asked, then leaned forward to peer at Hailey’s nameplate as well, before the girl tossed her hair again so it fell back over it. “Oh. Oh my.” She sighed, and leaned back in her seat. “I really can’t blame you for hiding your nameplate, Hailey,” she muttered. “I would too, if my name was that close to Harry Potter.”

“Yeah, right about,” Aurora sighed. “That’s going to make things… complicated.”

“I bet,” Hailey agreed calmly, then smiled mischievously. “Should be fun, though.” She paused. “What does the patch over your nameplate mean?”

“Huh?” Aurora looked down at her Gryffindor patch, displaying a roaring crimson lion through a large, golden letter H. “That’s my House Patch,” she informed her. “It means I’m in Gryffindor.”

“Interesting,” Hailey mused. “I wonder which house I’ll be in?”

“Uh-!” She glanced at the door, then back. “Good question. You can guess, but nobody really knows until you get there.”

She shrugged. “Oh well, it’s only a few more hours anyways, isn’t it?” She paused. “Does Professor Dumbledore know about Alden?”

“He’s taken Alden to Hogwarts,” Aurora informed her. “When we told him what happened, he decided to take Alden’s Prefect powers.” She sighed. “At the moment, he knows a ‘black-haired girl’ smashed Alden into the wall hard enough to derail three quarters of the Hogwarts Express, and I expect he’s going to be very interested to learn more about you.”

She scowled, picking up what looked like a Chocolate Frog card with the name ‘Albus Dumbledore’ across the top. “And as one of the greatest wizards of all time…” She paused.

“That card won’t say it, but he’s also the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot- that’s our highest governing body- and simultaneously Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards.”

“Mugwump?” Hermione asked curiously, while Hailey let out a giggle.

She shrugged. “That’s just what it’s called. No, I don’t know why, nor where it’s from.”

“But if he’s at the top of both national and international governments…” Hailey sighed.

“He probably won’t be satisfied with letting your political power go silent,” Aurora agreed. “We’re not planning to tell him any more about you, but…”

Hailey shrugged. “I should probably be careful about how many walls I punch through, then.” She sighed. “Not that I meant to throw him into that wall, either, but you know how strength gets hard to control when you’re mad.” She leaned back. “I only needed to throw him hard enough to knock him silly.”

“I’d say he was knocked silly,” Aurora observed.

“He was knocked into twelve pieces,” Hailey corrected. “I assume he passed out from the pain, but that’s not what I mean.”

“Well… that and the concussion, so I’d say you did knock him silly.”

“Still. That was… an overreaction.”

“He deserved it.”

“He did?”

“If not for you, that would’ve been the first time he managed to kill someone, but it’s far from the first time he’s picked fights or whatever when the teachers weren’t looking.” She chuckled. “Professor Dumbledore actually seemed thankful that you’ve given us such irrefutable evidence that a Royal was… displeased, since that’ll finally let us deal with his politically powerful and extremely conceited family.”

“Huh. But I still don’t think I needed to throw him that hard.”

“As you wish, My Lady.”

“Call me Hailey, please.”

“Uh- Yes, Hailey.”

Hagrid watched as the train drew to a halt in the station with an odd grinding, scraping noise. Sparks flew from the tilted fourth car as the wall of the car scraped against the platform edge; the bulge was simply enormous, far larger than the largest one he’d ever made in any wall he had ever struck, childhood included. Perhaps Dumbledore was right, and it really was a Royal? Their powers never seemed to make sense, almost always defying logic in some way. He waited patiently for the train to come to a stop and, resisting the urge to ask about the damage to the train, waved his lantern high. “First years,” he called. “First years, over here!”

He was rather disappointed that no response had ever come back from Harry… yet the Castle magic, for some reason, had never reported his letter undelivered, nor even unanswered. Something strange was afoot.

“Potter, Hailey!” Professor McGonagall called. Hagrid had guided the first-years in their maiden voyage across the lake… and been forced to empty the water out of two boats that had been overloaded and sunk. Apparently, the wood itself still floated, so the boats had dragged their passengers through the water to the dock rather than across the surface like the rest. Finally, he’d brought them up to her at the front doors of the castle. She’d then taken them into a side room, with the letters of the alphabet marked on the walls, and ordered them to sort themselves into the squares marked on the floor near those letters by the first letter of their last names. When she’d returned a few minutes later, they were about done, so she’d had them form a line in alphabetical order and follow her into the Great Hall, after which the Sorting Hat had sung its song and she’d started the sorting.

Right as a strikingly pretty girl with dark black hair covering her nameplate and a mischievous glint in her eyes stepped forward to accept the Sorting Hat, she noticed that Dumbledore was in the middle of stifling a sneeze.

The girl had just barely begun to place the Hat over her head when it called out “GRYFFINDOR!”

Hailey handed the Hat back to McGonagall- and in the instant in which their hands made contact, she could swear she could feel something deeper to the girl. She herself was Minerva McGonagall… also known, to a very select few friends, as the Goddess of Wisdom and Founder of Ravenclaw House… something which had made her station as Head of Gryffindor House very amusing indeed.

Perhaps this was the girl that young Veronica Rosewood had talked about? That Madam Pomfrey, Goddess of Healing, was so curious about after seeing the Blessing of Safety that Minerva had also seen on Veronica, and the tenth Curse of Survival ever cast, to any of their knowledge, on Alden Avery? Had this girl cast those two spells? She definitely wasn’t one of the Gods; Salazar was seated at the staff table behind her, and Godric was having fun chasing imaginary intruders off his lawn a few hundred miles away. Was she a Royal? Was she a higher goddess, the worst fear of every deity she’d ever met, including herself?

Or was she simply a newborn goddess? Deities were usually made, but it wasn’t unheard of- across the unified Divine Plane that the gods of some hundred or so different universes all had access to- for a new deity to be born.

“Potter, Harry!” she called, as Hailey left the top of the hall on her way down to the applauding Gryffindor table.

The applause cut off as muttering spread through the hall.

“Potter, did she say?” someone asked- a question that amused Minerva, as nobody had noticed that when she’d called Hailey’s name.

Then, and quite suddenly, Professor Dumbledore failed to stifle his very loud sneeze.

About half the Gryffindor table burst into fresh applause, the other half- which included Hailey, she noticed- laughter.

“Bless you,” the Sorting Hat said calmly, as if it happened every day.

The rest of the Great Hall exploded into applause.

But after a few seconds, Harry never stepped forward from the row of students still waiting to be sorted. Where was he? When she tried a divine name check, not a single student in the entire Great Hall had the name of Harry Potter. Had he gotten lost? Or had Dumbledore mistakenly added his name to the Sorting Scroll?

In any case, something was afoot, so she skipped him and called out the next name.

Ginny,

Hi. It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? I’m at Hogwarts now. The train ride up was fun- I got to meet a self-proclaimed ‘insufferable know-it-all’ named Hermione Granger, and I expect she’ll be a good friend too. On the other hand, Alden Avery, the prefect that convinced her to commit suicide (I stopped her), got thrown into the wall so hard it derailed most of the train.

Then after the welcoming feast, Dumbledore stood up to award a first year named Morning Sun a Special Award for Services to the School… for being the voice of reason that kept everyone safe and under control in the back three quarters of the train after the derailment. She seemed to think she didn’t deserve it, but…

Then Dumbledore said something about dismissing a new prefect after he got slammed into the wall of the train by a Royal, and went on a little about what Royals are and asked us to report sightings of any royals before he sent us to bed. I’m not entirely sure what that’s all about.

Hailey.

“Ahh, good morning, Hailey.”

Hailey chuckled as she entered the classroom Bonbon had temporarily commandeered for Student Instructor Program use. “Good night to you too, Bonbon.” She sighed, taking her seat at the ‘conference table’ they had set up, composed of a number of student desks set against each other.

“Everything go alright with your letter?”

“Yup,” she informed her. “Hedwig was happy to take it. Are we waiting for anyone else?”

“Nope,” Bonbon informed her. “Now that we’re all here, we can get started.”

Hermione blinked, glancing around the table. She was there, and more than a little tired… but there were only three other people at the table: Hailey, Bonbon, and a Ravenclaw second-year named Starlight Glimmer, whose badge declared her to be the Research Team Lead. “Huh? This is everyone?”

Bonbon nodded. “This is the entire Student Instructor Program Management Team so far. I looked, but Hailey was better at finding prospective management team members than I was, so this is all we have.”

Starlight raised an eyebrow. “She was better than you? Wow.”

Bonbon laughed. “She’s perhaps the single scariest person I’ve ever met. She’s a lightning-fast learner, she’s got the mental capacity to make dealing with surprises look easy, and she has the strength to derail three quarters of the Hogwarts Express by accident. I daresay that she would completely flatten me in a fight, or really any other kind of competition I can think of.”

“Not necessarily,” Hailey mused. “I mean sure, my Royal powers do seem to be rather powerful and diverse, but that doesn’t make me unbeatable.”

Starlight blinked. “So… Oh. Oh my.” She laughed. “I’m going to assume we’re going to disregard Dumbledore’s request for info on Royals, then.”

“Yes, we are,” Bonbon agreed. “The sort of clout that being recognized as a Royal would draw her… imagine if you were to suddenly find yourself in Princess Celestia’s place, in a world where Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Twilight, and even Flurry Heart had all suddenly disappeared and the entire country is in a panic.”

She winced. “Let it never be said that leadership is one of my strengths,” she muttered, then drew a breath. “And I would hate to see something like that forced on anyone, much less someone as capable as she.”

Hailey chuckled. “But anyways, we gathered for an overnight session after the welcoming feast for a reason, did we not?”

“Right, yes,” Starlight began, passing out some small packets of papers. “I’ve got the first- and second-year schedules here, on a per-house basis,” she informed them. Finally, she placed a large scroll on the table. “Aand, here are the sorting assignments of every first- and second-year student.”

“Alright,” Hailey nodded. “Let’s get to building all one thousand, three hundred and ninety-four schedules we’re responsible for.”

“That’s… very specific,” Starlight observed.

“Bonbon told me there are five hundred sixty-seven second-years this year, and I counted eight hundred twenty seven new students sorted today.”

“Alright,” Bonbon agreed.

“So what all do we need to consider?” Hermione asked, scanning down the Professor schedule she’d been given. “Presumably, every Head Student Instructor or Lead Student Instructor- not that we have any right now, but I’m sure we will at some point- will need to attend their subject’s Professor’s class, and also teach their own. Then since the HSIs have a class review responsibility, we might want to make sure they’re free during the time slots occupied by other instructors’ classes of their subjects, if possible. I’d also like to look at acquiring invisibility cloaks so the named instructors don’t know when their HSI is sitting in on their class.” She rubbed her chin. “Then each class will need a room, too. If possible, I’d like to have each class have a room reserved for it twenty-four seven, so we don’t have to juggle rooms between different classes, but it would also be good to have unused rooms available for meetings of the management team or perhaps an HSI or LSI and their subordinates, club activities, or whatever else.”

“Well said,” Bonbon agreed. “Well said indeed, Hermione.”

“I did some scouting on my way back from the Owlery,” Hailey informed them. “We’ve got a total of nearly one point three thousand classrooms to choose from, making that pretty close to a whole classroom per student in the lower two years, so we shouldn’t have any trouble on that front.” She pulled a large piece of paper out of an inside pocket and unfolded it, revealing a detailed map of the entire Castle.

“Where in the world did you get that?” Hermione asked.

“I wrote it.”

“How did you find the time to write it?” Starlight asked, tilting her head curiously.

She smiled. “Carefully.”

“Yes,” Bonbon decided. “A very scary girl indeed, aren’t you?”

“I prefer to think of it as ‘capable’,” Hailey informed her amusedly.

“Would the schedules be done faster if you just did them all?” Hermione asked.

Hailey shrugged. “Possibly, but then it wouldn’t be a team effort- and I don’t believe I know everything that needs to be considered for the schedules.”

“Didn’t I just list it all?”

“I imagine there needs to be a time gap between any given Instructor attending a class as a student and their own teaching assignment in the same subject,” Hailey informed her immediately. “They can’t just repeat it back verbatim, so they need to have the opportunity to study up on any questions they had before their turn comes along, else we’ll see diminishing lesson quality the further they get from the Professors. I’m thinking of a minimum of a day or so; I’d like to go in with the expectation that our classes will either meet or exceed the standards set by the relevant Professors, rather than hoping that we don’t lose much.”

“That is a good point,” Bonbon agreed. “The track record suggests that exceeding the Professors won’t be hard on certain subjects.” She looked up at Starlight.

“Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts come to mind,” Starlight answered promptly. “Professor Snape either isn’t trying or hasn’t got a clue how to teach, and upper-year students have told me the school has a new DADA Professor each year, though never one the students actually learn very much from.” She rolled her eyes.

“Right. But mine and Hailey’s subjects aside,” Bonbon continued.

Starlight burst into laughter.

“What?” Hermione asked.

“W-Well,” Starlight gasped, struggling to stifle her laughter. “One of the finest alchemists in Equestria just announced that she’ll be leading the subject that has the known underperforming Professor, then assigning what she says is the smartest person in either of our worlds to the subject that has a new Professor every year that is generally expected to underperform.” She giggled. “In other words, Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts are probably going to go from the subjects with the lowest two school-wide average grades to the ones with the highest such grades virtually overnight!”

“This is an overnight meeting,” Hailey deadpanned, causing Starlight, Hermione, and even Bonbon to laugh- laughter that she quickly joined.

Bonbon was the first to calm down. “Alright, jokes aside, we do have a job to do.” She paused, then looked at Hailey. “What would you think about doing all the calculations and whatnot to build the schedules, then we all review them to make sure they work well?” She paused, then lifted a large, rope-bound deck of parchment. “This, by the way, is the list of Instructor Candidates I’ve been able to find, and every detail I was able to gather on each one.”

Hailey rubbed her chin. “Possible. I mean, breakfast starts in eight and a half hours, so that leaves just under twenty-two seconds per schedule if we do them one at a time.” She paused. “So before I turn two and a half reams of paper into three sickles of recycling, is there anything we’re missing?”

The large barn owl, which Dumbledore recognized as one of the school owls, took off as soon as Dumbledore accepted its quite heavy letter. It was now the morning of the second day of term; the first day of classes, just the day before, had been… remarkably quiet. He hadn’t heard even an inkling of something going wrong.

Then he unfolded the deck of papers that formed the letter… and found the heading at the top.

It wasn’t a letter. It was… It was…

Report of Instructor Performance: Professor Severus Snape
Written by: HSI-PO

It was… a report on Professor Snape’s class, written by the brand-new Head Student Instructor for Potions, or ‘HSI-PO’ for short. That was a Slytherin student, if he recalled correctly, but he couldn’t remember the name beyond that it was one of the funny-haired students.

He paused to read the report. There was obviously a reason it had been mailed to him.

When Dumbledore finally finished the report, a shiver traveled down his spine.

According to the report… Professor Snape’s class didn’t even have the educational properties of a cookbook. Apparently, Professor Snape had recited a simple recipe at the class, written the recipe up on the blackboard… and told them to brew it while he prowled around, bullying the Gryffindors for the smallest of mistakes and praising even the smallest of successes on the part of the Slytherins. It had been written by a Slytherin… but the only word Dumbledore could think of to describe the nine page report as a whole was scathing. It asserted that Snape was putting basically no effort into teaching anyone anything, and showing so much preferential treatment that it harmed the proper education of even his preferred students.

That might explain why the subject had such historically low grades.

He quietly folded the report back up, tucked it back into its envelope… then handed it to Professor McGonagall, seated next to him. “Pass this to Severus, please.”

When he looked down the table five minutes later, it was to see a livid Professor Snape reading the report.

Professor Dumbledore looked up from the paperwork on his desk when he heard a knock on the door. Why was there always so much for him to do every year? The clock over the door informed him it was approaching lunch time.

“Enter,” he called.

The door opened… to admit Professor Snape. The man didn’t look angry, like he’d done before, but rather a lot calmer and more… resigned? Determined? He wasn’t sure what word fit best.

There was, however, a small stack of pages in his hands- the report from earlier.

The silence held until after Severus stopped in front of his desk.

“So,” he began. “What did you think?”

Severus looked down at the report and sighed. “When I first saw it… I was angry that some young upstart was trying to judge me with what little they might know. But as I taught my seventh-year Slytherin-Gryffindor class today…” He trailed off, then sighed again. “It was on my mind… and I noticed that yes, written by a young upstart or not, it’s true, even with only six students, so I can’t let myself be mad at them.”

“Especially seeing as how that Head Student Instructor for Potions is a Slytherin,” Dumbledore mused.

Severus winced. “Well… Yes. About that.” He sighed. “I… I wanted to thank you for bringing this to my attention.” He paused. “I suppose we’ll have to see what I can do with it, won’t we? I never claimed to be good at teaching.”

Dumbledore rubbed his chin. “When I was reading that report, it struck me that redesigning the curriculum to less resemble a cookbook might be a good idea,” he informed him. “Perhaps if you focused more on the techniques involved?” He rubbed his chin. “Hmm, I never was very good at designing curriculum either.”

Hailey,

Not even the first day of school and you’ve already killed someone? That’s… horrifying. Even Lord Voldemort didn’t manage to kill anyone until the end of his fifth year there!

So… how many people died in the derailment? Aside from Morning Sun, it sounds like that girl saved lives.

Though even with all that carnage, Dumbledore doesn’t know who you are? No inkling at all? If so, that’s doubly impressive- Dumbledore suspected Voldemort since long before he ever reached his fifth year. But that raises the question- who all knows it was you?

Ginny.

Ginny,

Alright, first off, Alden is still alive, and nobody else was hurt. Yes, I know that sounds impossible, but that’s the facts.

Nope. Dumbledore was told that it was a ‘black-haired girl’, but that nobody had any idea what my name was nor which House I was sorted into or what year I am in. So basically, he knows nothing. At all. He also sneezed when Professor McGonagall called ‘Potter, Harry’ after I was sorted into Gryffindor.

As for who knows it was me, I told Bonbon and Hermione. Bonbon is the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead, by the way- and she’s also really impressive on her own. Apparently, she and most of the rest of the colorheads are actually grown adults that got dumped into young bodies when they fell through a mystery portal into our world. She’s made me the Head Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Hermione the Head Student Instructor for Charms, so we’ll see how well that works.

Alright. I know you’re curious, so I’ll explain why nobody died when the train derailed.

As it was about to happen, I suddenly realized I could cast two spells with my Royal powers: the Curse of Survival, and the Blessing of Safety.

The first one simply forces its target to survive whatever trauma they go through. Alden Avery was in twelve pieces, so everyone assumed he was dead at first sight, but soon realized he was actually still alive… despite being in twelve pieces.

The second one takes more energy, especially when you cast it on every other soul in the train like I did. It causes danger to simply avoid its target, and when it can’t, it protects said target from harm. As such, lots of students got tossed around when the car slammed into the cliffside at somewhere around mach four, but nobody was even bruised. No pets were bruised either, even when luggage went flying!

The parts of the train that didn’t go supersonic, such as every other car of the train, experienced only minimal forces, so the total lack of injuries actually made sense for them. I heard a couple of cars got close to falling off the cliff- but with so many blessings of safety aboard, that really wasn’t a possibility to begin with.

Oh, and I should probably mention. Aside from Bonbon and Hermione, there’s four people that saw it happen:

Head Girl Aurora Lewis, who later came to my compartment to talk about it all and confirmed they’re helping me keep the whole Royal thing secret. She seemed really afraid of me for some reason.

Seventh-year Ravenclaw Prefect Alverta Nettle, who seemed to be Aurora’s friend.

A fourth-year Slytherin colorhead named Flurry Heart, who drove her fist into Alden’s gut as I walked away, before she realized he was still alive. She’s very protective of the weak, and happy to help me keep my secret as well. She’s even got a secret of her own- she’s an actual royal princess of a country called the Crystal Empire! Yes, she gave me her permission to share that with friends, so long as they don’t repeat it. She doesn’t want it to become common knowledge.

Aaaand the only one that didn’t see me stop Hermione, a sixth-year Ravenclaw prefect named Veronica Rosewood. She went with Dumbledore to explain what happened to Madam Pomfrey, but when we caught up to her at Hogwarts, she said she was also happy to keep the secret.

Hailey.

Madam Pomfrey paused, completely immobile, for a second after she opened the door to the Hospital Wing in response to a knock.

“Hi,” the black-haired girl outside greeted. A girl that almost perfectly matched Veronica’s description of the Royal that had slapped and thrown Alden.

And of course, a girl on whom she sensed her own blessing, meaning that even though she couldn’t read the girl’s nameplate, House patch, or badge, all definitely there but covered by her hair, she knew who it was.

This was Harry Potter… though that probably wasn’t the name she went by.

“Hello,” she answered.

“You just recognized me,” the girl observed, tilting her head curiously.

“Ah- Yes,” she answered. “From some eleven years ago or so.”

“And from Veronica’s description of the Royal that slapped Alden, right?” Hailey asked. “She said she gave you a much more detailed description than she gave Dumbledore.”

There was a pause.

“Well… Yes,” she admitted, holding the door open for her. “Did you need something?”

“I just figured I’d check up on Alden, see what kind of state he’s in,” she smiled, accepting the offer and entering the infirmary. “Call me Hailey, by the way.”

Pomfrey closed the door behind her, and decided to chance it- and find out if she really was the Royal that had slammed Alden. “Do you know who cast the Curse of Survival on Alden?”

Hailey looked at her, her eyebrows raised. “You detected that?” She sounded both surprised and impressed.

She rolled her eyes. “Of course I detected that,” she answered. “I’m not the Goddess of Healing for nothing.”

“Goddess…?” Hailey asked curiously, her tone turning the word into a question.

“Yes, Goddess,” she answered. “I’ve reincarnated many times over the ages, but I’ve always been the Goddess of Healing- and as such, gravitated towards medical professions.” She paused. “You don’t happen to be a goddess yourself, do you?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m not a goddess,” Hailey answered, then rubbed her chin. “Though if I am, it would certainly explain the power and diversity of my powers.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You’re not a reincarnation?” she asked.

“No, I’m not?”

“Huh,” she muttered, rubbing her chin as well. “Back when you were a baby, after Voldemort… died, you were taken here, to me, for a day,” she informed her. “Back then, I noticed that you have a divine presence as well… though it’s far better masked than mine- to the point that it could only be detected through direct contact. That kind of thing really only happens with the most ancient of Gods or Goddesses… yet if you’re a newborn…”

“Well, just because I can’t remember any past lives doesn’t really mean I never had any,” Hailey mused. “It’s possible that I had one and just went through something that erased my memories, right?”

It was Madam Pomfrey’s turn to rub her chin. “I… I suppose,” she muttered. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of one, though.” She paused. “But deity or not, deific states are top secret to mortals- if you think the attention a Royal gets is a lot, you’ve never seen what happens when a goddess is exposed.”

“Got it,” Hailey nodded. “My lips are sealed.” She paused. “So how’s Alden doing?”

“He’s doing well enough,” Madam Pomfrey informed her, leading her over. “I’ve been keeping my divine healing powers to a minimum, so there are some things he’s never going to recover- and the way I hear it, he deserves it.”

Hailey rubbed her chin. “That is what Aurora said,” she mused. “I didn’t mean to throw him so hard, since it was only for convincing Hermione to jump off the train, but-!”

“He did What!?” she barked.

Hailey looked. “He convinced Hermione to jump off the back of the train,” she informed her. “I stopped her, so nobody was hurt, but, um…” She paused, looking at Alden. “I was mad.”

“And rightfully so,” she said, turning to look at Alden from a different angle, now that she knew what he’d done. “If he’s trying to kill people-!” She froze, gave herself a shake, and took a deep breath. “Sorry. As the Goddess of Healing, I tend to overreact to malicious violence.”

Hailey laughed. “Yeah, I was mad, so I had trouble pulling my punches,” she informed her. “Made the Curse of Survival very important, didn’t it?”

“And the Blessings of Safety on the rest of the school,” she observed.

“Well yes, and those,” Hailey agreed, “though they will have fallen off a couple days ago by now.” She scanned the bed. “Still six pieces, huh? The curse isn’t getting in the way, is it?”

“Oh, no, it’s not,” she chuckled. “The Curse of Survival is a sign of divine displeasure, so I’ve been taking my time putting him back together, completely aside from avoiding overusing divine healing power- even now, he’s still well beyond the help of wizards, even with the Curse to back it up.” She paused. “And I’ll admit I’ve been taking advantage of the strength of your Curse to perform some medical experiments on him.”

Hailey laughed. “Yeah, why not. That curse isn’t set to fall off for a year.” She smiled up at her. “And of course, as the Head Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts, I’m going to be running up here every week to see when he’s ready to resume his studies- appearances, you know- so when can I expect to start hauling homework scrolls?”

“I’m thinking about bringing him back to consciousness around Christmas, then up to passable function- where he can actually start writing again- sometime in March or April, then use May and the beginning of June to teach him how to walk again.”

“He’s not going to be doing that again in a hurry,” Hailey observed.

“No, he’s not,” Madam Pomfrey agreed. “His wand was irreparable, nevermind that your initial slap didn’t just remove his right hand but his wrist as well- which means that’s beyond the help of wizarding magic, and I’ve already decided to leave it. He’s never going to have two hands again- and I’m still debating whether or not I want to restore all the fingers of his other hand.”

Hailey laughed. “I’m all for making an example, but let’s not be too unreasonable.”

She laughed as well. “Well, but he got slapped by a Royal- as such, it’s completely unreasonable to expect him to still be alive. As far as he needs to know, he only survived through good luck and the diligent efforts of not just the same girls he was bullying but all the medical professionals around him, and he’s lucky to be alive at all.”

Hailey shrugged. “He really is. Had the Curse of Survival not come to mind three seconds before I threw him at the wall, the train probably wouldn’t have been derailed, but instead, they’d still be picking up his remains.”

She chuckled softly. “Yes, I don’t doubt.”

Hailey,

I’m not sure what to say to that, really. I’m sorry I thought you’d killed him, I didn’t know about… that random power that I probably should have expected after you organized my Vault in an instant.

But anyways, that all sounds good. You’ve already got friends in high places, and reached a high place yourself, even. And everyone’s helping you keep it under wraps- that’s going to be very important, you don’t want it to get out!

Aurora is probably scared because she doesn’t know who you are, only what you are- and Royals are terrifying, as a rule. As a matter of fact, I probably would have been far more afraid of you if I had actually recognized you before Mom caught up to us- but I didn’t, so it never crossed my mind that you might be powerful or something. And by the time I did realize who you were… I already knew who you were, so I wasn’t afraid.

That sounds SO weird when I say it like that. I knew about you from my past life- well, so to speak. It was actually between my lives, when I was roaming the world as a phantom, when I found out you were actually a girl… and that you’re a Royal. But I hadn’t actually connected you to that memory until we ran into Mom, and that was long enough for me to get to know you- on some level, at least- as a person, which made it hard to be afraid.

On the front of Alden, he’s probably rotten to the core. His parents definitely were in my past life- both of them were hardcore death eaters. That’s what Voldemort’s followers were called, by the way.

And… on a more personal note, Mom recognized Hedwig today. I told her we’re pen pals, so she’s talking about buying me an owl, even though she has to know we can’t afford one- on the family finances, at least. Is having no friends really THAT bad?

Ginny.

Ginny,

I technically organized your Vault in no time at all; time wasn’t progressing when I did that.

Also, I visited Alden in the Hospital Wing yesterday. He’s still out cold, but now he’s in only six pieces now- Madam Pomfrey does good work. Unfortunately, he can’t resume his studies yet.

On the Royals-Are-Scary front… I suppose it makes sense. Finding out you were a Royal, or even seeing your powers in action, didn’t bother me at all- but that might be because I’m a Royal too, mightn’t it?

And if you’re going to say it like that… You have to know it makes me curious about your past life.

But to answer your question… having no friends really isn’t bad at all, in my experience; I never had any friends until I met you, and was never bothered by it. On the other hand, we both know I’m no ordinary girl, ‘nobody likes you’ was the main weapon Alden used against Hermione… and his attack was effective precisely because she had no friends. Hermione seems to be an ordinary girl, so far at least- so maybe that’s what your mom is worried about? Though it’s probably a misplaced worry, since you’re also not an ordinary girl, isn’t it?

By the way, my first flying lesson is coming up this afternoon. I’m looking forward to it, though I imagine you probably already know full well how to fly, right?

Hailey.

Draco Malfoy suppressed a shudder as he reached the smooth, flat lawn that the flying lessons would be taking place on, and eyed the Slytherin column. Flying lessons were taught to just twenty students at a time, ten from each house- and not only had Gryffindor been paired with Slytherin, but their first class seemed to be heavily biased towards the British students rather than the colorheads.

He, Hailey, Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, and a colorhead rather appropriately named Lone Ranger formed the Gryffindor line.

Theodore Nott, flanked by Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, formed the core of the Slytherin line- which was otherwise exclusively formed of British girls, which happened to include Pansy Parkinson… with whom he had a marriage contract. She and all three boys were glaring at him as if he’d betrayed them somehow- a fairly common sight, ever since the sorting.

He remembered it as clearly as if it had been just a few minutes ago. He had set that Hat over his head… then sat down. Finally, a murmuring had entered his ear… from the Hat.

“Hmm, interesting, interesting. Most Malfoys go to Slytherin, but you wouldn’t fit in there, would you? So now, where shall I put you?”

Not Hufflepuff, he’d thought desperately, without even considering the implications of not being in Slytherin. Hufflepuff was the one house that would cost him his place in the Malfoy Manor.

“Not Hufflepuff, eh?” the Hat had mused. “I wasn’t even considering that, but they’re not as bad as you think. I think… Yes. GRYFFINDOR!”

It had shouted the final word to the whole hall. He could hear the confusion in the room, as people started asking their friends if they’d heard that right- but when he’d shed the Hat and headed to the Gryffindor table, a girl with bushy brown hair and a cheerful smile had grabbed him and guided him to sit next to her. The girl- Hermione Granger, according to her nameplate- had then basically ignored the rest of the Sorting, up until one Hailey Potter had been sorted; Hailey had promptly joined them on Hermione’s other side and greeted them both by name.

Hailey was the girl he’d first met in Madam Malkin’s, then again on the train. The girl that had refused to give him her name.

He’d then been practically inducted into the two girls’ friendship… and over the week since, had found himself becoming a close friend to both of the two girls.

And also a Student Instructor for Potions. That had been a shocker- not unlike when he’d found out that Hailey was the Head Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts, or that Hermione was the Head Student Instructor for Charms. Or when he’d found out they had another friend, a Slytherin colorhead named Bonbon… who was the Head Student Instructor for Potions, and simultaneously the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead.

But now… they were on the grounds. Hailey’s HSI badge was, as usual, covered by her hair. Draco’s Student Instructor badge was exposed for all the Slytherins to see- not a single one of which were Student Instructors.

He avoided Pansy’s gaze. He knew what she was thinking, and he didn’t like it at all.

And people thought the Malfoys were at the top of the food chain.

They weren’t. It was… customary for any new Malfoy born to have a partner in marriage contracted by their first birthday. It probably helped to keep the bloodline pure, but it definitely wouldn’t help with anything like his happiness.

Pansy didn’t seem to think of it that way. He’d met her only twice before getting sorted into Gryffindor, one of them on the train- and he didn’t like her at all. She, on the other hand, had evidently been being groomed to be his wife for years.

And of course… in exchange for her parents’ cooperation with the marriage contract, the Malfoys had made a few promises to the Parkinsons that Draco absolutely detested. Unfortunately, they would last as long as the contract did- and the contract was set in stone until both he and Pansy turned fifty, at which point they would both have to agree to break it to be able to do so.

In short… it was a future he dreaded.

He dreaded it so much that the boggart he’d found in his wardrobe when he arrived had turned into her, advancing on him with a ring! Fortunately, the screaming- as it shifted focus to the other first-years- had quickly drawn the Prefects’ attention, and they had been quick to take care of it.

“What are you waiting for?” Madam Hooch’s voice cut in suddenly. “Come stand by a broomstick!”

Draco watched silently as Neville Longbottom was led back up to the castle by Madam Hooch.

He’d seen it coming. Neville was practically famous through the Gryffindor House for his forgetfulness, despite having only been at the school for a total of one week. Throughout the first part of the lesson, wherein Madam Hooch had taught them how to lift their brooms with a command- he had never known anyone to do it that way, so he really wondered why that was still a part of the curriculum- and ride them properly, Neville had been very nervous and jumpy.

So, when it had come time for them to take their maiden flight two feet into the air… Neville had accidentally taken off two seconds early, and promptly forgotten how to descend… so he’d shot into the air like a homesick meteor, panicked, and fallen from his broom. Madam Hooch had been fast enough with her wand to keep him from suffering any major injuries, but he’d still managed to break his wrist when he landed from what would have otherwise been a lethal fall.

The broom he’d been riding had continued to fly up into the sky, then started drifting- and had been so high it was hard to see when it had finally recognized that it was riderless, cancelled its flight magic, and dropped to the ground as well.

As he turned back to the rest of the class, Draco spotted a glint in the grass where Neville had landed, and bent down to look more closely.

“What’s that?” Ronald Weasley, frequently known as Ron, asked.

He didn’t answer for a second, inspecting it before he picked it up.

It was a small glass ball, just about the right size for him to wrap his hand around, with a lot of what looked like smoke inside of it.

“His Remembrall,” Draco informed Ron, purposely ignoring the death glares of the Slytherins. At breakfast that morning, Neville had proudly demonstrated how it would turn red when held firmly by someone that had forgotten something- a feature that was probably supremely useless for someone like Neville, who routinely forgot the password to get back into Gryffindor Tower. It didn’t offer any clues as to what was forgotten.

As he walked back to the Gryffindor lines, deliberately ignoring the glares of the Slytherins, he tightened his grip on it… but it stayed white. He allowed himself a small smile and pocketed it to return to the forgetful boy later.

“Come in,” Professor Dumbledore called, looking up from his desk. It was Friday evening again- and that morning, he’d gotten another report from the HSI-PO. It had taken a much kinder tone… but had rather bluntly concluded that while Professor Snape was showing a huge increase in teaching effort, the teaching effectiveness of his classes hadn’t improved much at all.

It had, however, gone on to suggest some possible improvements, ‘based on what our instructors are finding most effective’... and he had passed the report to Severus at the breakfast table once again.

True to his expectations, it was Severus Snape that walked in.

He leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers.

Snape closed the door behind him. “Well,” he began, before looking down at the papers in his hand and letting out a sigh.

“A lot less scathing this time, isn’t it?” Dumbledore asked lightly.

“It is,” Snape agreed. “And again, when I look for myself… I can see it.” He sighed. “Though this time, I don’t know how to improve. Her suggestions…” He sighed again. “She suggested reworking the curriculum to focus more on the ingredients and techniques, and use the brewing of potions that use those techniques as tests, but…”

Dumbledore sighed as well. “I never was very good at curriculum design either,” he informed Snape. “Perhaps that HSI can offer some pointers? She seems to be trying to leave the course as a whole in your hands with these reports.”

“Ahh,” he muttered, rubbing his chin. “I’ll have to consider that. Who was this HSI again?”

“Bonbon,” he answered calmly. “She’s also the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead.”

Hailey,

Time… wasn’t progressing? You mean you didn’t teleport them, and instead STOPPED TIME?

I love how you’re more concerned about Alden’s ability to study than his physical well-being. Frankly, I think I am too.

Yes… Considering the limit to my powers, and the power you’ve already demonstrated… I’d say it’d be pretty difficult to be afraid of a Royal that’s at least an order of magnitude weaker than you.

Oh, I told Mom we’re friends and I think you’re right. She went on for a few minutes about how worried she had been… and I caught her singing twice today already, so she’s obviously in a very good mood from it. Yet another case of me understanding nothing because I was never a parent… though I still think she dotes on me a little too much. Nevermind that yes, it definitely is a misplaced worry, considering my past. I’ve been happy sitting here in my room and exercising my abilities as a first-class reincarnated spellsmith, both wanded and wandless- and I don’t think I’d like just playing with someone, be they my age- in this life- or not.

That said, I do miss chess with Ron. I was quite a champion in my past life, yet he’s grown to the point where he wins three out of every four matches against me- I think he has a talent for it. Do you think you could challenge him to a couple games for me? I’m curious how you’ll fare against him.

Yes, you could say I already know how to fly. That said, I never flew much on a broom… most of the flying I did was broomless via wandless magic. And I also just found out that my Royal powers include flight, so that might be fun to play with at some point.

Ginny.

P.S. On the topic of Mom and the owl thing, it’s sounding more and more like Mom and Dad are planning to go hungry if they need to to get me an owl. I’ve told them I don’t want or need an owl, but I don’t think they heard me- so I’ve been debating revealing my last on-hand galleon and claiming it came from you as a sign of our friendship or something, so they don’t bankrupt the family for my sake. What do you think?

Ginny.

“Hey, Ron? Ronald Weasley?”

Ron looked up from his Charms homework. “What?” he barked. It was Monday evening, and Fred and George had spent the afternoon pranking him- nevermind that he was struggling with this assignment. Been struggling all weekend, actually- it was due Tuesday morning, but the book wasn’t very helpful at all! As a result, he was in a very bad mood.

The girl approaching him, and who had spoken, was about his own age, and had her long, wavy black hair draped down her chest, hiding her nameplate and House patch entirely from view. It made her look very nice indeed.

“Ginny has asked me to challenge you to a game of chess,” the girl informed him, a smile playing on her lips.

“Ginny?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Then- then you’re that girl she met, uh, Hailey?” It took him a moment to remember the name.

“Yep, that’s me,” Hailey answered cheerfully. “You game?”

He sighed, looking back down at his homework. “I wish,” he grumbled.

She looked down at his homework. “You need help?” she offered.

He tilted his head, contemplating her offer. On the one hand, that had been the guise that Fred and George’s pranks had been under- on the other, her offer felt a lot more… genuine than theirs had. “Yeah,” he muttered, and sighed. “The book isn’t helping.”

“That’d be because it isn’t written very well,” Hailey answered shortly, as she sat next to him and peered at it. “Hmm… That isn’t Charms by any chance, is it?”

“It is,” he muttered. “I just… don’t understand it.” He looked at his book.

“Ahh,” Hailey muttered, before turning to look back in the direction she’d come. “Hermione?” she called.

Ron looked.

A girl with bushy brown hair and a badge gleaming on her chest looked up.

Hailey nodded her head towards Ron, and the girl smiled, standing up to come over to them.

“So what’s the problem?” she asked. Her tone was serious, but there was a smile on her face as well.

“Uh…” he muttered, looking back down at his homework.

“Oh, that,” Hermione observed, sweeping quickly around to sit on his other side. “Lotsa people had trouble with that.”

As she moved, he noticed that her badge had the code ‘HSI-CH’ printed large in the middle, with some text he couldn’t read above it and the word ‘Charms’ underneath. It reminded him of his instructors- though their badges both proclaimed the code ‘SI-CH’, with ‘Charms’ underneath and ‘Student Instructor’ above. He didn’t know what the H stood for- though he was fairly sure the rest of the code meant she knew what she was talking about.

Ginny,

No, I didn’t stop time, I only stopped my progression through it… though I suppose that had the same effect, didn’t it? And then I did actually teleport them- one at a time. Took quite a while, but with my progression through time halted, it would have seemed to be an instant to you. And to the clock.

Just played five games with Ron, after Hermione helped him with his Charms homework with a little impromptu lesson. He won all five, though the last one was close- and when Hermione challenged him to a game, he flattened her. She said it was probably because it was her first time ever playing the game, and because she kept getting distracted by the talking chessmen. Wizards really do like to enchant everything in sight, don’t they?

On the owl front, I’m fine with that… though it probably won’t increase the frequency of our letters, will it? Only give us a backup- other than Philomena- for whenever Hedwig gets tired… if she does. She says she’s been having fun finding good hunting or sleeping spots along the way.

Speaking of Philomena, I found something possibly important just last night. Apparently, the Wizengamot passed a new law, the Phoenix Bound Act of 2012, in… you guessed it, 2012, about nine years ago now. That law automatically gives phoenix-bound seats in the Wizengamot, supposedly as an incentive to get them to settle in Britain. So of course Philomena has been staying hidden for me, but we’ve also had some fun times together- like just today, when I sat in on one of the other Student Instructors’ DADA class, she was with me under the invisibility cloak.

Well… I say invisibility cloak, but there really wasn’t any involved. I’m not sure how, but I seem to be able to step out of sync with reality- so nobody can see, hear, or even touch me, but I can see, hear, and touch them just fine. Or walk straight through them, if I want to. It’s… weird. I can even look past solid walls as if they weren’t there!

Hailey.

P.S. Hermione’s birthday is this coming Sunday, on the nineteenth. I haven’t revealed Philomena to her yet, but it should be fine, if you want to meet her or something.

Professor Severus Snape let out a sharp, irritated sigh. Where was this Bonbon girl? He’d been looking for four days, with periods of classes and failed attempts to come up with new, better lesson plans interspersed in between. Infuriatingly, the only place he knew she would be was in his next first-year class with Gryffindors and Slytherins in it on Thursday- where she would be judging him again!

He continued down the passage. It was Tuesday afternoon- where was that girl?

A girl rounded the corner ahead of him, walking back towards him. Her hair was a bright, two-tone silver, neatly braided and draped down her chest next to her badge.

Her badge… which proclaimed the code ‘LSI-1-PO’, even though the House Patch opposite it marked her as a Ravenclaw. As they drew closer, he came to his decision. Ostensibly, all the Student Instructors worked under and reported to the Head Student Instructor… though he wasn’t sure what the L or number stood for.

“Miss…” He spotted her nameplate. “Silverspoon?” he finished.

The girl looked up. “Yes, Professor?” she asked.

“Where might Bonbon be?” he asked her, his eyes scanning her badge. The smaller text above and below the code declared her to be the Lead Student Instructor for Potions for First-Year Ravenclaws.

So that’s what they meant.

“A very good question,” the girl answered. “She moves around a lot, so you could scour the Castle for days and never find her.” She shrugged. “Whenever I need her, it’s a lot easier to just find Hailey- she’s in Gryffindor- and ask her. Most of the time, Hailey knows exactly where Bonbon is- and the rest of the time, it takes her about five minutes to find her.”

He paused. “And… where is this Hailey?”

She shrugged. “No idea. She’s good at turning up when I need her, though.” She blinked, looking past Snape. “Speak of the devil. Hello, Hailey!”

Snape turned to look.

A cheerful first-year girl was approaching them, her wavy black hair draped over her chest such that her nameplate and House patch- and badge, if she was wearing one- were completely covered. “Hello to you too, Silverspoon,” she answered jovially. “How’ve things been going?”

“Pretty well I think,” Silverspoon informed her. “How about you?”

“Been helping people all day,” she answered, then shrugged. “It’s still only the second week, though, so that’s to be expected.” She paused, glancing between Silverspoon and Snape. “Did you need me for something?”

“Yes, actually,” Silverspoon informed her. “Professor Snape here was looking for Bonbon.”

“Ahh,” Hailey nodded, and looked up at Snape. “Bonbon’s just leaving the Slytherin common room right now; she’s going to be sitting in on a class this evening. She’ll have a few minutes if you want to talk to her before that class, or shall I ask her to meet you in your office afterwards?”

“I was just there,” Snape informed her.

“She was at lunch a bit late,” Hailey answered immediately.

He sighed. “Alright. Now would be good.”

Hailey bowed lightly. “Right this way, then. Have a good day, Silverspoon!”

“Hi Bonbon!”

Professor Snape was having trouble believing how quickly Hailey had found Bonbon… or how easily she’d done it. She’d led him to what seemed like a random passage halfway to the Slytherin common room, then pulled open a tapestry to reveal a hidden passage… and greeted Bonbon, who had been seconds from emerging from the same passage. How had the girl known exactly where she was?

That reminded him. Helga had told him and Rowena that the girl was almost certainly a deity, and most likely an ancient deity far older than any of them that had stayed hidden from them for some reason and used a memory-loss-inducing reincarnation technique. Unfortunately, neither Helga nor Rowena- who had also glimpsed the girl’s divine nature during the Sorting Ceremony- had any idea what the girl’s aspect might be.

So was she the Goddess of Finding Things? Of Convenience? Knowledge?

He didn’t know.

“Good afternoon, Hailey,” Bonbon answered, nodding gently as she emerged into the main passage.

“Professor Snape here was looking for you,” Hailey informed her, holding her hand out to Snape.

“Thank you,” Bonbon told her, before cracking a small grin. “We really need offices, don’t we?”

“And office hours,” Hailey agreed cheerfully.

Bonbon chuckled softly, and turned to Snape. “So what can I help you with, Professor?”

He paused. Now that he’d found her, he wasn’t sure how to phrase the request.

“I’m going to guess that you need help reorganizing the Potions curriculum,” Hailey supplied suddenly.

He nodded stiffly. How had she guessed? Or was she simply a Goddess of Knowledge?

“Ahh,” Bonbon nodded. “That’s… probably going to take a while, isn’t it?” She paused. “We’ve been doing a lot of experimentation with our classes, and I’m about to sit in on one of the ones with the best grades, taught by Miss Silverspoon of Ravenclaw and Mr. Malfoy of Gryffindor. Would you like to join me?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Sit in on?”

She nodded. “We periodically review each of the classes held by the other students to ensure that the same standard of quality is maintained and all students, from our Head Student Instructors all the way down to the ones that have the most trouble, receive an equal education. We’ve designed the entire Program around that goal, actually, and that’s just one of the tools we use to do so.” She paused. “We also use Invisibility Cloaks when sitting in on classes, so the Instructors in question don’t know when we’re doing it until after the fact- and we see what their class is normally like, rather than what it’s like when they’re overly nervous or putting on a show.”

“You can use mine if you want,” Hailey offered, removing a glistening silver cloak from her bag- an Invisibility Cloak.

Bonbon raised an eyebrow at her. “But you’ve got to sit in on a class today too, don’t you?”

“Yes,” she shrugged. “But still, I won’t be needing the cloak.”

Bonbon gazed at her for a couple seconds, then sighed. “Whatever,” she muttered, and turned back to Snape. “Alternatively, I could come meet you in your office this evening, after all of the classes I’m attending or sitting in on today.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you an Instructor?”

She nodded. “I teach on Friday afternoons,” she informed him. “We’ve structured our class schedules and our rigorous training… regimens to ensure that the quality of our Instructors is consistent from the top to the bottom, and also that the material is taught to all students in a timely manner, even though we have multiple classes of Student Instructors teaching Student Instructors to make up the necessary numbers of Instructors.”

“Do you think the Instructor Course might help?” Hailey asked, her head tilting curiously.

Bonbon paused, looking at her… then tilted her head as well. “You know…” She paused again. “That’s a good point. Our Instructor training focuses not only on the study skills to be able to pass the material on in as little as twenty hours after receiving it in class, but also the skills necessary to tailor the lessons and even the curriculum to the specific class or, in some cases, even specific students. My expectation is that Miss Silverspoon and Mr. Malfoy have been particularly successful in that effort.”

“Hmm,” Snape muttered noncommittally. “Maybe. But I’ll take that sit-in offer.”

Then Hailey handed him her Invisibility Cloak- it was an ordinary one, and would break down and become opaque after a couple of years- and he joined Bonbon as she led him to the classroom, ignoring the fire-haired Ravenclaw first-year jogging past them towards Hailey.

He’d never been any good at teaching, even in his past lives, and even with both Rowena and Helga trying to help him. As such, he rather doubted they could do anything- but not only had the girl described a miracle as if it was ordinary, but Hailey was involved- so who knew, he might actually learn something!

“Well,” Bonbon muttered, shuffling her papers.

Professor Snape raised an eyebrow at her. They were five minutes into her Instructor Class on Wednesday morning, which he’d consented- and, secretly, been eager- to attend, and it felt like the girl was about to pass judgement on him.

True to his expectations, she passed her judgement a couple seconds later. “I think I can say that you don’t have the qualities and traits we’ve been looking for in our Instructors,” she informed him. “However, that’s something I can say about close to ninety percent of our Instructors- and with your permission, Professor, I know exactly how to turn you into the finest Professor this school has ever seen.”

He raised his other eyebrow. “The finest?” he asked.

She shrugged. “You’ve got one massive advantage that none of our other instructors do: You actually know the material!” She chuckled. “And you saw last night what Silverspoon and Malfoy could do with a recipe and some research. Just a little bit of training and I expect you’ll be making that class look like children playing with blocks.”

He laughed. It had been a long time since he had last laughed, but now was as good a time as any.

“Ahh, Hailey!” Madam Pomfrey bowed as she let the named girl in.

“Good evening, Madam Pomfrey,” Hailey answered, bowing as well as she entered the Infirmary.

Pomfrey closed the door with a snap. “So what can I do for you?” she asked. “You haven’t managed to break a leg, have you?”

Hailey laughed. “No, not yet. I’m sure it’ll happen at some point, though, and I don’t yet know if my powers include self-healing or not.” She shrugged. “I thought I’d check up on Alden, see how he’s doing.”

“He’s in five pieces now,” Pomfrey answered cheerfully. “I had a few St. Mungo’s representatives in here earlier today, and they said there was no point trying to transfer him- they wouldn’t be able to do any better than I am.”

“Rather predictably,” Hailey observed calmly, “but I rather expect they don’t know that.”

She laughed. “No, they don’t have a clue. All they know is that I’m one of the finest healers in the land.” She paused for a second. “Come to think of it, Professor McGonagall wanted me to ask you where you found Bonbon.”

Hailey laughed again. “Oh, I didn’t find her. She found me. Why?”

She shrugged. “Because she did her Instructor Course thing with Professor Snape this morning- and successfully did what all three of the rest of us have failed to do for over a thousand years now: Teach the God of Secrecy to teach.”

“He did really well in his class this afternoon,” Hailey agreed. “I expect we’ll start really seeing the fruits of his efforts tomorrow- and I have Bonbon’s promise she’s going to send Professor Dumbledore the report again.” She shrugged. “We don’t think there’s going to be any more need for reports to be sent straight to him, merely stored for him to ask for if he wants them, as all the rest of them are right now.”

Hailey,

So how long did it take to move a billion coins one by one?

Only five games, eh? That’s not very many. Have you beaten him since? Has Hermione?

And yes, now that I’m thinking about it, wizards DO seem to like enchanting everything in sight. From chess pieces to mirrors and pictures to clocks and brooms to even knives and forks, just about everything in my home is enchanted. Even the car- though most families that own a car don’t enchant it. Dad’s the only one that’ll do that, he absolutely loves looking at muggle technology.

I do have to agree with him, it is enticing. I don’t think I would enchant nearly as much of it as he does, though, merely study it. It’s difficult for wizards to do some of the things muggles have made machines to do for them, so I expect there’s a lot to learn- a lot that would be handy even for a wizarding household. Too bad everything in the shed has already been enchanted into oblivion, and so no longer exhibits its original behaviors.

That story with Philomena kinda makes me wish I could join you like that. Hmph.

I’ve now told Mom about the galleon. Took a while to convince her it wasn’t charity, but I managed it. The plan is to visit Diagon Alley tomorrow to spend it on an owl… and probably a family shopping trip, as well. Mom said you, Hermione, and friends would be welcome here for a birthday party- I think she’s thinking of it as an opportunity to let us meet face-to-face again, and maybe for her to meet you properly too. I know she’s been eager for that.

She might also be trying to get an idea of exactly who your friends are, and therefore who my friends will likely be once I start school. I’m not entirely sure, but if she wants to come, that’ll be awesome. Mom talked about breaking out the garden tables if need be- so we should be able to handle somewhere around twenty people overall, including us, Mom, and Dad. Let me know!

Ginny.

Ginny couldn’t sit still.

She couldn’t concentrate.

She paced back and forth across her room.

The phoenix she’d gotten on Thursday instead of an owl watched her calmly from her desk.

She was… anxious.

She knew at least part of it was because of the phoenix; as Hailey’s letter had informed her on Wednesday, the phoenix choosing her guaranteed her a Wizengamot seat… but she didn’t want that. She’d had enough with the political game as Lord Voldemort, and wanted nothing to do with it now!

Fortunately, nobody knew about the phoenix.

The phoenix she had yet to name.

The rest was because Hailey had probably received her letter on Friday… and she was probably going to receive Hailey’s response tomorrow, on Sunday… Hermione’s birthday. On top of that, there was a chance that Hailey would appear out of nowhere on the same day- possibly right after the letter, or even before it. And she was so eager to meet Hailey again.

She shivered. It wasn’t like her to get so eager. What was it?

No, no. It probably actually was like her; she had changed a lot since her time as Lord Voldemort, and among the changes had been a bit of a mental regression enforced by her cramming herself into a less mature brain. As such, it was probably less the part of her that was Lord Voldemort and more the part of her that was a ten-year-old girl named Ginny Weasley that was eager.

And Hailey was, for lack of a better term, her hero.

And Voldemort’s hero, for that matter.

The thought brought a giggle to her lips.

But it wasn’t enough to reduce her anxiety. She wanted everything to be perfect- but how? What could she do?

A sudden tingling in her right hand distracted her momentarily, but she brushed it off quickly.

It was only another crystal.

She continued her pacing, ignoring it- and held it in her hand when it finished.

What was she going to do? She couldn’t just-

She froze. The crystal felt… funny, somehow.

She looked at it.

She wasn’t holding a crystal like usual. Instead, it was a crystal-shaped block of pearlescent white metal.

She stared at it.

As she watched, it seemed to melt back into the blue crystal.

She focused… and it turned white again.

Then she squashed it with her bare hand, causing it to stretch out into a thin metal rod resembling a magic wand.

It was a hard metal… yet it bent and flowed when and where she wanted it to. She turned the metal wand back into crystal with a simple mental command… then tied it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber.

Even though, when she tested it, it was still a rock-hard crystal… and she couldn’t tie her desk into knots like that, either. Was it something about the material?

Thoroughly distracted, she fetched several more crystals from her closet and sat down at her desk. The crystals flowed together into a single lump, then formed a cutting board, a bowl, a hammer, whatever she wanted them to. It was easiest when she was touching it… but it didn’t seem to actually require that, merely for her to be close. The further she was, the harder it was.

Then she got a sudden idea. The metal and crystal were behaving like water in her hands- the crystal in particular actually seemed to be able to become a real liquid, which splashed when she put her hand in it, rather than just flowing like one. So how would it behave with a normal liquid?

She left the bowl of liquid crystal on her desk and dashed downstairs for a cup of water.

Her mother was in the garden, and her father working overtime at the Ministry on some problem or another; he’d told them that morning he expected to get it over with by evening, so he should be able to participate in any Sunday birthday parties.

As such, she didn’t run into anyone on her way back to her room, her robes billowing behind her.

She set the glass on her desk, then dipped her hand into the liquid crystal. It solidified exactly when and where she wanted it, so she drew a completely dry crystal rod from the bowl, about as big around as the tip of her smallest finger and about two inches long.

She dipped it in the water.

Nothing happened.

She took a deep breath… and liquefied it in the water.

The liquid crystal seemed to be denser than water, as it flowed down to the bottom and pooled there.

Then, right when she was getting disappointed at the lack of reaction… it began to change. It shimmered and shivered, then the water started to bubble as the top of the crystal started forming into something that looked a bit like spaghetti.

She watched it eagerly as it changed.

It took it close to half an hour- and when it was all done, most of the glass was occupied by a tangle of what looked like thread. There was still a little bit of water in the glass, but most of it seemed to have been absorbed- and the thread was floating on the surface.

She reached in, pinched the thread… and pulled it out.

The water fell right off of it, leaving it soft and dry to the touch, despite being tangled in all sorts of knots… with no discernible end, just loops.

She tested its flexibility… Yes, it seemed to be just like ordinary thread. When she tugged on it, she found that it was at least a little bit stretchy- even as far as a single thread. She didn’t need to make it move itself, or anything.

So she made it move itself. The thread rippled, split, combined, and wound itself into a neat ball in her hand- then finally rippled again, this time forming into fabric. It was a gentle, baby blue, and extremely soft to the touch. It resembled silk- that expensive material nobles liked to make their clothes out of- but was also stretchy… and no matter how hard she pulled, even with gloves made from the white metal to protect her hands or even a lever from the same, she couldn’t get even a single strand of the thread to tear.

So it was like silk… but simultaneously much stronger than silk. And stretchier.

She looked down at her clothes, then held the new fabric up to the light.

Hmm… it was translucent. That could be an issue if she wanted to make clothes from it.

She looked sideways at the bowl, then at the nearly-empty glass of water again… then grinned.

She dropped the fabric on her desk, dashed to her closet, and melted her entire remaining stock of crystals into a large metal basin, which she then carried to the bathroom to fill with water from the bathtub.

Once it was full, and she turned off the water, she molded a lid out of the rim and closed it into a tank before carrying it back to her room… via a levitation charm, since it was far too heavy for her to lift otherwise.

She set it next to her desk, drew a small rod of crystal from the bowl, turned it into the white metal… and dropped it into the water, willing it to react and form into fabric.

It was as the water bubbled that it crossed her mind that she’d made the container of the same metal. She hoped she wasn’t about to have to deal with a puddle.

But before long, the vicious bubbling stopped, and a white fabric floated to the surface. When she pulled it out, it easily shed the water, becoming soft and dry. It seemed…

Yes. It seemed almost like the cotton her robes were made from. When she held it up to the light, it was completely opaque.

She sandwiched it in the silk, which bonded effortlessly to its surface- and ended up with a baby blue silken fabric that was just as opaque as her existing robes.

So she dumped it, along with some more crystal and metal, into the basin to combine together into enough of that fabric to make a complete outfit out of. While it boiled, she took a small cube of crystal from the bowl and placed it on the desk before her. If she could make it into that white metal with a thought… was there something else?

She prodded it with a finger, willing it to become something new. The two-inch cube spurned her efforts.

She sighed. So much for discovering a strange new material capable of warping reality.

But could she make gold out of it?

The cube suddenly shrank to a fraction of its original size as it formed into what looked like polished gold.

She stared at it… then squashed it with her thumb, causing it to form into a single golden galleon.

When she picked it up, though, it was definitely heavier than a real galleon.

She looked sideways at the basin, which had just finished boiling; a mass of blue fabric was now floating at the top.

She bit the coin in half- making it split itself neatly, her teeth weren’t nearly strong enough- and spat that half into the basin, dropping the other half-coin back on the table before pulling the fabric out of the once-again-bubbling basin.

It seemed like the material seemed to have an idea for what she wanted; it wasn’t just a mass of fabric, as she’d expected; rather, it had already formed itself into a full outfit. Robe, shirt, skirt- there were even undergarments. They all shed the water as she pulled them out, making them completely dry.

Giggling madly, she locked the door, stripped her clothes off, and put it on.

It was almost unbelievably light, fluffy, and comfortable.

She unlocked her door again and dashed for the bathroom, before looking at herself in the mirror- using a wandless flight spell to get a full body view from the vanity mirror.

It looked… elegant. There was nothing else to it- she’d just made herself a set of dress robes.

She giggled madly as she returned to her room, then found that the basin had finished boiling again.

Without taking off her fancy new robes, she reached all the way to the bottom of the basin to extract the fabric that had formed of the golden metal. Her sleeve shed water once again as she pulled it out- and the new, shimmering golden fabric shed water as well. It felt a lot tougher than any fabric she knew, and was also fairly stiff- almost like a hardened fabric. Somehow, she knew that it would make great armor.

So she unraveled the fabric back into thread, wound it into a ball, and returned to the bathroom mirror with it and the surviving half-coin. She floated into the air again, then gave her new robes a makeover, redesigning them, adding accents…

She giggled at the tickling sensation of the thread, fabric, and metal sliding across her skin and through her hair all on their own.

Finally, she was done. Her new robe wouldn’t have looked out of place as a princess’s birthday outfit- it made her look like she was a very rich noble’s daughter getting ready for a party. Her vivid red hair, held back by a crystal headband and decorated with gold lotus flowers just like the one glowing on the back of her hand, helped with that appearance.

She giggled some more as she returned to her room and changed back into her normal robes. She knew what she was going to wear to Hermione’s birthday party, if it was going to happen at her house.

She shivered with excitement. Her parents would be surprised.

Her smile faded. Right, her parents… how was she going to explain it away?

Now was the time to decide on that, so it wouldn’t be a last-second fumbled story.

Ginny,

I don’t know if you will receive this letter before or after we arrive, but at the moment, I’m going to go with the assumption that it’ll serve as a warning.

I’ve told Hermione about Philomena, and about the offer. Just like your mom, she doesn’t seem to be all that worried about her own birthday- but she’s definitely eager to meet you and your family… beyond Ron, Fred, George, and Percy, who she knows here. At the moment, I intend to bring myself, Hermione, Ron, Fred, George, Percy, Draco, Bonbon, Starlight Glimmer, and Morning Sun. I don’t think you’ve met the last two.

As for the rest… I’ll have to answer it when we meet. See you Sunday!

Hailey.

Ginny sat, frozen with excitement, as she reread the letter. They were coming!

Next to her, Hedwig finished her bacon treat and flew over to join Errol by the kitchen window. There she would wait for Ginny’s answer, which Ginny usually set next to her on the windowsill while she napped.

“What is it?” her father asked- exactly as expected, he was off today. Assuming nothing came up last-second, of course.

Her mother looked up as well, then paused. “When do they get here?” she asked.

Ginny abandoned her half-eaten breakfast and bolted for the door. “Didn’t say,” she called back, dashing up the stairs, letter in her hand.

She changed quickly into her new robes, using her wand to conjure a shimmering full body mirror out of thin air to check her appearance. Satisfied, she turned to the door- then froze, and turned to look at her phoenix, which had watched the whole thing from the back of her chair.

She had an idea.

According to the letter, Hailey’s party was a total of ten people. Add her, Molly, and Arthur… and it would become thirteen. She never had been a superstitious type, despite making exactly forty-two horcruxes (many of which were coins she’d spelled to conceal their true nature before spending them, making them basically impossible to track down), but thirteen was still an unlucky number.

If, on the other hand…

“Are you feeling up to a few trips this morning, Phoebe?”

The phoenix tilted its head and trilled.

She blinked. “You’re right,” she observed. “Do you like it?”

Phoebe the Phoenix held her head proudly, evidently accepting the name that had slipped naturally off of her tongue, even though she was fairly sure she’d never thought of it. Phoebe then took flight, swooping over to land on Ginny’s shoulder and caress her head with a wing.

Ginny giggled. “You’re welcome. So, do you think you can take me to visit Bill real quick?”

William Weasley- Bill to his friends, family, and basically everyone else too- sighed as he looked out the window of his apartment. He’d finished up one tomb on Friday… and he was waiting for the paperwork to go through to grant him access to the next one. It, just like the first, was probably going to take several months to fully de-curse- but he had to wait for the office staff to give him permission… And, possibly more importantly, the location of the tomb and its entrance.

It was really too bad the office staff didn’t work on weekends. He really enjoyed breaking the curses… but he was going to have to wait for Monday at the earliest, possibly later.

He lifted his glass to his lips.

“Hi Bill!”

Milk cascaded down his front as he sputtered in surprise, then he spun to face the intruder.

His glass slipped out of his hand to shatter on the floor, sending a wave of milk over his shoes.

There was… a girl. His sister, Ginny Weasley, judging by her face, hair color, and the cheerful way she was greeting him.

On the other hand, the phoenix on her shoulder suggested that she was a Wizengamot member, and her opulent robes were… well, opulent. They were a cheerful blue that somehow went well with her hair. It was accented by white and gold- including what looked like a few pieces of metal- and it sparkled gold in the sunlight. She was wearing a headband that looked like it was made of pure crystal, and there were gleaming golden flowers in her hair.

Overall, her appearance almost perfectly drew the line between cute and beautiful… but she also looked like a young queen.

“G-Ginny?” he finally asked, staring at her.

She giggled. “Yes, that’s me,” she informed him. “Was I… unexpected?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Unexpected?” he asked, then laughed, drawing his wand to clean up the spilled milk and repair the dropped glass. “In more ways than one, I’d say.” He paused. “So… where’d you get the outfit?”

“Oh this?” She glanced down, then blinked, looked up at the window, and back down. “...Huh,” she muttered. “I didn’t think it’d…” She looked up. “Sorry. Um, I made it.”

“You made it?” he repeated. “You look like a queen.”

“A queen?” she asked, looking down and twisting to get a better view of her outfit. “Does it make me look old or something…?”

An icy shiver ran down Bill’s spine. He was no good when it came to girls- but one thing he knew well was that you never told one that she looked either old or fat, unless you wanted the short end of the stick. “N-No,” he stuttered. “It just looks like something a queen would wear. Princesses would usually be…” he paused. “A little plainer.”

“So a young queen then, huh?” Ginny muttered, looking down at herself. “Interesting.” She giggled softly, and looked back up at him. “I don’t know if you’ve heard about Hailey?”

“Hailey…?” he repeated, rubbing his chin as he thought. “Was she… the girl you met in Diagon Alley and started trading letters with?”

“Yep!” Ginny answered excitedly. “She and some of her friends are coming over for her friend Hermione’s birthday today; Mom’s throwing a party for them. Do you want to come?”

His hesitation lasted only a single second. “Oh, why not,” he relented.

Charlie let out a sigh, scanning the plans in front of him. He knew he really shouldn’t, but he enjoyed working with dragons so much that his muscles ached almost constantly from overwork. The last time he’d taken a day off had been… what? Two months ago? Three?

No, that had been when he started work.

But… it was true, he hadn’t taken a single day off since. He loved his job.

The other keepers regularly took time off each week, in rotation- and now that he thought about it, regularly encouraged him to take time off.

Just like now.

“You really should take a day off,” Arbutus Granite, a fellow dragonkeeper, told him. “In this line of work, overwork is a great way to get hurt!”

“Yes, but-!” he began.

“Don’t ‘but’ me,” Arbutus commanded him. “Last time we let someone work to his heart’s content, he pulled a muscle or something while working with a dragon, then got trampled when we subsequently lost control of the beast! I don’t want to lose you too!”

“You really should take some time off.”

Both of them jumped at the unexpected youthful voice, and looked up.

A girl was rising from ducking into the tent. Her robes were opulent, her hair was elegant, and her face was-

“Ginny-?” Charlie blurted out.

“Yes, it’s me,” Ginny answered, smiling. “Dragons are very dangerous. And even if you don’t get killed after hurting yourself, an injury will take you out of action for months- magic healing can’t do much for torn muscles. And if it tears all the way, muggle surgery becomes the only option!”

“Really?” Charlie asked, tilting his head. “But Madam Pomfrey-?”

“Magic can heal bones in an instant, but not muscles,” she informed him. “You don’t want to be crippled, so take at least a day off every so often.” She put her hands on her hips and pouted at him, though the action only made her more adorable.

He sighed, and decided to address the dragon in the room. “So… where did you get those robes?”

Her pout vanished in an instant, becoming a mischievous grin. “I made them,” she answered, mischief dancing in her eyes.

He stared at her for a few seconds. “And where did you get the materials?”

Her grin widened. “I made them,” she giggled.

He got the distinct idea that she wasn’t going to tell him any more. He sighed. “It seems awfully gaudy for everyday wear,” he informed her.

She shrugged. “That’s why it’s not everyday,” she answered simply. “Today’s special- Mom’s throwing a birthday party for my friend Hailey’s friend Hermione.” She grinned again. “You’re invited, by the way.”

“Excellent,” Arbutus cut in suddenly. “We’ll take care of everything down here today, so you go have fun with your family, Charlie!” He gave him a firm slap on the back.

Charlie sighed. “Oh alright,” he muttered, then stretched his tired muscles. “I probably should.” He paused, looking up at Ginny. “How did you get here, by the way?”

She only grinned.

“No thanks,” Bill told Molly, his mother, who was offering to make him breakfast. “I already ate.” He paused. “So, Ginny said she made those flashy robes of hers- where did they come from?”

Arthur, his father, looked up. “Flashy robes?” he asked.

“What flashy robes?” Molly asked. “Last I saw, she was running upstairs in her nightgown.”

He rubbed his chin. “Huh. It didn’t look much like a nightgown.” He paused. “Anyways, she said there was a birthday party?”

“Yes!” Molly cried. “We’re actually just getting ready. Her friend Hailey has a friend named…” She paused, then looked at Arthur. “Did you catch it?”

“Sounded like ‘hurt-my-own-knee’ to me,” Arthur answered.

“Hermione,” Bill corrected.

“Yes, that,” Molly nodded. “It’s her birthday today, so Hailey and friends are coming to visit- it’s going to be wonderful!”

“I bet,” he agreed. “I also noticed she has a phoenix?”

“Yes, she does,” Arthur nodded. “She wants to keep it secret, though- try not to mention it to anyone?”

A sudden explosion of fire appeared right next to Bill, earning a shriek of surprise from him as he leaped away. It quickly resolved itself into Ginny, Charlie, and the phoenix.

“Thanks, Phoebe!” Ginny said, stroking the phoenix as she pranced back to her abandoned breakfast.

“What the-?” Molly began. “Ginny, where did you get that outfit?”

Both Bill and Charlie chuckled.

“I made it,” Ginny answered cheerfully, through a mouthful of eggs.

“And the materials?” Arthur asked.

She swallowed her eggs. “I made those too. And no, it didn’t cost so much as a single knut.”

“Where did you find the materials for the materials?” Molly asked.

“I made them,” she answered promptly, grinning mischievously, before chomping on her bacon.

“That’s not what I asked.”

“It’s the truth,” she told her, continuing to scarf down her breakfast. “I made every bit of it, from the ground up.”

“How on earth…?” Arthur muttered.

It didn’t take long to finish breakfast and clean it up. Not too long after that, Molly was mixing up a chocolate birthday cake, Arthur was casting cleaning spells everywhere, Bill and Charlie were out back setting up the tables, and Ginny was throwing decorations up- quite literally, in most cases, making the results she was getting really quite amazing- when it happened.

Ginny froze suddenly, head turned towards the door. A second later, she bolted excitedly from the room.

Two seconds after that, they heard the sound of the front door slamming open and a gasp of alarm.

Hermione shuddered as she, Hailey, and their friends materialized on an unfamiliar lawn. The air was cool, but not too cold- and before them stood a house. It was an odd, lopsided house, that she was fairly sure was supported by magic in at least a few places; it looked almost like someone had been playing with magnetic blocks with very little respect for gravity.

“Here we are,” Hailey observed calmly. “You ready, Hermione?”

Before she could answer, the front door exploded open right in front of her and a red-and-blue missile came flying out to collide with Hailey.

Hermione gasped, leaping backwards- then blinked as the missile resolved into a girl with very bright red hair, hugging Hailey with all her might.

“Well hello to you too, Ginny,” Hailey greeted, having only taken a single step back to absorb the girl’s speed.

“What the hell?” Ron began.

“Where did you get those robes?” Fred asked.

“She made them,” Hailey told him.

Then Ginny broke from her hug. “Wha-? How do you know?” she asked.

Hailey only grinned.

“Shiny,” Draco observed, igniting some laughter as a woman- presumably Mrs. Weasley- appeared in the door, a spatula held like a wand.

“Oh,” Mrs. Weasley said, letting out a breath of relief. “Come in, come in! We were just getting ready- not much warning, you see.”

Hailey chuckled. “So Hedwig did arrive before we did,” she observed.

Ginny then looked around at everyone, and spotted Hermione. “You’re… Hermione, right?” The glint of mischief was dancing in her eyes.

“Uh- yes?” Hermione asked. What was going on? Why was Ginny-!?

Ginny grabbed her hand, then started dragging both her and Hailey into the house and up the stairs. “C’mon,” she cheered. “There’s something I want to give you!”

“Um- okay?” she asked, thoroughly bewildered as she followed.

She didn’t miss Hailey giving Bonbon a wink, nor Bonbon’s answering smile.

Ginny was almost crazy with excitement. She’d just met Hailey, and then Hermione- and she hadn’t missed the ‘HSI’ badges gleaming on each of their chests.

She’d then been visited by a simply wonderful idea, done a bit of quick estimation, and pounced on the opportunity while she still had it.

She dragged Hailey and Hermione both to her room, then knocked her entire bowl of liquid crystal into the basin to start making fabric- or more specifically, two outfits. She somehow knew the unused material would be found on the bottom of the basin, as crystal rather than as fabric.

“I’m sorry it’s last-minute,” she told Hermione, only barely concealing her excitement, “but I thought I should make you a present.”

“Make me a…?” Hermione asked, flabbergasted. “Why would you need me for that?”

She held her arms out. “You see what I’m wearing, right? I thought it’d look good on you too.” She paused. “On both of you, actually… I can hardly leave Hailey out, can I?”

Hailey chuckled softly. “You’re hopeless, aren’t you Ginny?”

Ginny blushed scarlet, averting her eyes.

“Don’t clothes take a long time to make?” Hermione asked.

“You’d think,” Ginny answered quickly, grinning at her. “Not these, though.”

“So you’re…?” Hermione paused. “Oh, you’re a Royal too, aren’t you?”

She blinked. “How’d you guess?”

“Well, in order to make clothes, you made that basin start boiling by knocking a bowl of something into it, and now you’re watching it expectantly.”

She paused. “Well… Yes.” She looked at the basin. “It, uh… doesn’t seem like it’ll go any faster without boiling over.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fast enough,” Hailey observed.

“I-!” Hermione began, putting her hands up to her mouth. Ginny had pulled dry outfits out of her bucket of water… so she and Hailey had tried them on. Ginny had then warned them that the next step might tickle- and she’d been right, it had tickled. But now that it was done, the outfit fit her perfectly. She’d known from first glance that it was flashy, and that she’d probably only wear it on special occasions- but now that Ginny had conjured mirrors for her and Hailey to look at themselves in…

“I look like I’m getting married,” she squeaked, staring at her blushing reflection. There were even shiny silver orchid flowers in her hair!

Hailey, on the other hand, had brilliant, crystal blue roses, which managed to draw out the girl’s cuteness rather than the strength and reliability that her usual black brought out.

“You’re right,” Hailey observed, turning to the sides to get a better view of her new outfit. “It does look like that, doesn’t it? That said, I think they’re a bit too cute to be wedding gowns, so we’re probably safe.”

Hermione and Ginny both blushed scarlet.

“Welcome ba- WOAH,” Fred began, staring across the kitchen at the three girls as they entered the room.

Draco looked, and found himself staring as well. The transformation was… unbelievable.

“Cute,” he observed, and tilted his head as he looked at Ginny. “Can you do that to me too?”

Ginny blinked, taken aback, and stared at him for a second, before rubbing her chin. She looked so adorable, just like a concerned princess. “Um…” she muttered. “I… Yeah. I don’t have enough left over…” She trailed off. “So I’m sorry, I can’t. Maybe next time?”

Author's Note

And not even two months after you got Philomena!

By a margin of a couple days, but still.

As you may have noticed, since those messages are owl-mail rather than e-mail, there's 1-2 days in between each one.

Patreon, Discord.

Aaaand, finally rewrote the chapter. This one took WEEKS to write- and as it's 6.2 times its original size (of 2,838 words)... Yeah, it's a long one. It's also my record longest ever... And as of right now, time of writing & all, just the first eight chapters of this story would qualify as my #7 largest story, at 60K words- only just beating the 58K/26chap The Boy who Disappeared. It's not quite as long as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, at 77K, but I'm also only halfway through the year....

And overall, including unrewrite chapters, TGwDJL has just surpassed On the Implications of Parallel Worlds (117K/54ch) and achieved #3 largest story by word count! Only The Gate (159K/74ch) and Accidental Invasion (194K/79ch) left to beat!

Anyways, rewrite, rewrite. I liked this chapter... I think? It's been so long since I wrote the first half of it, what with a new time-consuming job on top of its length being so great it takes 10 seconds to paste into FimFiction. Eh, whatever. If you're looking for rewrite chapters, just look for the RW tag... and if you want to read the rest of the rewrite description, go back to chapter one.

Finally, this time, I've actually defined the exact dates for any given letter, as you may have noticed- even though most of the dates aren't mentioned. In short, it takes 2 days for each letter to be delivered, for a total of 4 days between Hailey sending a letter and receiving the reply. As such, Ginny also got Phoebe a little bit earlier than before- rather than "a few days under two months", she got Phoebe on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021- approximately 1 month 4 days after Hailey got Philomena, as Hailey's shopping trip is specified (in chap. 3) to be Thursday, August 12, 2021, the day after Ginny's birthday.

Chapter 9: Christmas RW

Professor Dumbledore could hardly believe it had already been two whole months since the school year began when he returned to his office after the monthly, early morning meeting with his Professors, which he used to keep an eye on how things were going around the castle.

Aside from the little issue with Professor Snape’s classes, which were now some of the most loved and highest-scoring classes in the school, not one single thing had gone wrong enough to bend his ear. There were no fights, the first and second year students had year-wide average grades far higher than all the higher years, there had been no disasters, no complications… and Madam Pomfrey had commented on being ‘more bored than usual’ up in the Hospital Wing, despite still having Alden in pieces. Only three pieces now- she did good work- but it was looking like reattaching his left knee might be a lost cause, so it might actually just be two pieces, the last being the front half of his right foot- which could be regrown if reattachment failed. The missing fingers on his surviving hand could be healed with a potion once he was awake.

On the other hand, various Professors had also voiced interest in finding out what Snape had done, so they could achieve similar results- but aside from smiling at them, he never answered questions to that end.

There was also, he supposed, the troll that had appeared on Halloween night, just the night before. Professor Quirrell had come running into the Great Hall during the Halloween Feast to inform him it was in the dungeons.

So Dumbledore had secured the Great Hall and sent several Professors out to find it. It hadn’t been long before Professor McGonagall had located and subsequently defeated the troll on the fourth floor- but Professor Snape, who had headed straight to the third-floor corridor to ensure it wasn’t being used as a distraction to take a look at Fluffy, had returned with a more interesting report. Professor Quirrell had attempted to get past him, but been turned away. Why? Had Quirrell run into Voldemort during his year off in Albania?

He didn’t know.

He did know, however, that Fluffy was the giant three-headed dog he had borrowed from Hagrid to serve as the first line of defense in that corridor. Considering its vicious appetite and monstrous proportions, only Hagrid would give a Cerberus- its official species- such a gentle name. Fluffy had been trained to serve as a guard dog before Hagrid had gotten ahold of him, making him an alarmingly effective guardian- though it was also alarmingly easy to get past him… if you knew how. Most people wouldn’t think of playing music for him; singing wouldn’t work, it had to be an instrument.

There were any number of other ways to ‘pacify’ a Cerberus… but that was, by far, the easiest.

But of course, just because the school was functioning smoothly didn’t mean everything was going well. Basically everything other than the school had crashed and burned. The first example to cross his mind was that Dumbledore had yet to locate Harry within the school- and as a matter of fact, as far as the castle magic was concerned, he didn’t even exist. On top of that, none of the Professors had seen the boy, the Sorting Hat had vowed that it had never sorted anyone by that name, and when he’d tried visiting the Dursleys- they were actually at home, for once- it was for them to tell him they didn’t have a nephew, much less one named Harry Potter.

That brought him to the next topic of consternation: All of the sudden, Ginny Weasley was shrouded in mystery. Not through any particular means, though. Some time before, he’d gotten the news that the girl had met some girl in Diagon Alley, by the name of Hailey Potter- who, he had checked, was now the Head Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts, but couldn’t possibly be Harry. Anyways, according to Molly Weasley’s letter, the girl Ginny had met had been a muggleborn, and they had gotten along like Molly couldn’t believe; Ginny had always been extremely shy, but Hailey seemed to have crashed straight through that.

That aligned with the Castle records. Hailey was a muggleborn- and despite having a name so close to that of Harry Potter, he knew it couldn’t possibly be a name or even sex mistake, because she was just so different from Harry. Harry was pure-blood, coming from a muggle family, and would be largely friendless after being abused for his entire childhood. Hailey, on the other hand, was muggleborn, coming from a muggle family, and Snape had hinted that she might actually have more clout than Bonbon, the student instructor program management team lead, thanks to some sort of impressive talent.

So of course, Hailey and Ginny had started trading letters- they’d become pen pals. Hailey’s snowy owl seemed to be serving them well, but Molly worried about what would happen if it- Hedwig, apparently- grew tired, and needed to rest for a day or two. Dumbledore hadn’t believed that was of any concern, but Molly had been of a completely different mind, especially after Ginny had admitted that they were friends. So she had talked seriously with Arthur about what they’d need to do to afford to get Ginny an owl… only for Ginny to reveal that Hailey had given her a galleon as a sign of their friendship or something; even Molly hadn’t seemed certain. So she’d informed Dumbledore they were going to go spend it on an owl.

The next letter, six days later- it took Errol three days to travel from the Castle to the Burrow, then three more for the return journey- had been just the flap of the envelope. The rest had gotten too soggy on the way and ripped off, lost to who knew where.

The one after that had never shown up. By his understanding from the one after that, Errol must have collapsed on route somewhere. That letter had also contained the name ‘Phoebe’, as if it was someone he knew- Ginny’s new owl, perhaps?

The next letter had revealed that Errol had delivered an envelope flap back to Mrs. Weasley, the rest of his letter having been lost to the rain. So he’d applied an impervious charm to his response… and found out a week later that Errol had returned empty-beaked.

So he’d sent a simple response, applied an impervious charm to a new letter, and given it to one of the school owls, and sent that… only to hear from Professor Grubbly-Plank, the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, a day later that the particular owl he’d sent had limped back with what looked like a bullet wound, and was being nursed back to health.

So he’d arranged for a visit… but Ginny had been so shy she’d stayed locked up in her room for the entire visit- Dumbledore never got to see her, not even once- and Molly broke off a lot in the middle of sentences, seeming suddenly confused. When he’d spoken with Arthur, he’d gotten a similar spectacle. Arthur and Molly both seemed to think it was unusual, and were quite frustrated. The next letter Molly had sent him, with Errol, arrived in good condition- and explained that, after she’d spoken with Arthur, they’d concluded that it seemed like some force was trying to block them from discussing Ginny’s pet, or the party.

When he’d asked what party, he’d received an envelope flap.

So he’d visited again, and informed Molly of the flap… and Molly had informed him that they’d held a birthday party for one of Hailey’s friends… but that any description of it, specifically to him- they could talk to Ginny, or each other, or to Bill and Charlie (who had been present) about it all day- seemed to result in failure, through either delivery failure or sudden confusion.

She had, however, been able to inform him that Draco Malfoy had been in attendance.

The boy that was supposed to be Harry’s arch-nemesis… and had been sorted into Gryffindor, made a few good friends (which included Ginny Weasley, apparently), and became a Student Instructor.

Overall, no matter how smoothly things were going inside the Castle… even the bits of his plan that had survived the rapidly increasing numbers of students were useless. His best bet was to try to get to the bottom of whatever magic was trying to hide Ginny and her probably-not-owl pet from him.

He wasn’t having any luck.

A clock chimed somewhere. He sighed; it was time for breakfast.

Professor Dumbledore performed a spit-take, spraying pumpkin juice all over his eggs and bacon.

A phoenix had just appeared in a burst of flames… and it definitely wasn’t Fawkes; today was Fawkes’ burning day, so he was currently flightless. Nevermind that this bird looked a lot… sleeker than Fawkes did- was it, perhaps, female?

It dropped a note on his sausage, then swooped down to steal some bacon from the serving platter before vanishing in a fresh burst of flames.

The Great Hall held its breath for several seconds.

Finally, Dumbledore unfolded the note… to find a strange, unfamiliar script, that he could somehow understand anyways- even though a tap of his wand confirmed there wasn’t any magic on it.

He read the message.

The door on the third floor corridor is open.

He stared at it for a second, then shuddered.

There was only one conclusion to be drawn: The Royal that had derailed the Hogwarts Express… was also a Phoenix-bound, and was informing him that Fluffy had been scoped out by his enemy during the night, without a distraction such as the troll; Snape had guarded it, and ensured it remained locked, through the entire troll incident.

He passed the note silently to Professor McGonagall, seated next to him, and resumed his meal.

Ginny,

It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? How have you been? Anyways, there was apparently a troll somewhere in the school during dinner last night. Dumbledore secured the Great Hall for us and sent the teachers to find it- and it was found and defeated without incident. Still, though, it makes me wonder how it got in. Any ideas?

To top it off, this morning, the door to the third floor corridor Dumbledore announced out-of-bounds was ajar. When I peeked inside, there was a giant three-headed dog standing on a tradoor, and some small bloodstains on the floor near the door. It looks like someone tried and failed to get past it, but there’s not nearly enough for a mortal wound, and nothing to suggest they were lifted elsewhere or even swallowed whole. Though I suppose it COULD have been a mortal wound… if they were about half Professor Flitwick’s size, which would put them at three years old. I did notice that Professor Quirrell seemed to have a bit of a limp today, too. Do you know anything about that creature or what it might be guarding?

Before you ask, yes, I closed the door. Then had Philomena take a note to Dumbledore, penned in a language I didn’t know I knew, with the express purpose of making my handwriting unrecognizable. He was at breakfast, so Philomena seized a snack while she was at it.

In other news, there was a huge craze about a Phoenix-bound Royal today, not sure why. It was fun to participate in the search that followed- but Philomena stayed hidden, so they didn’t find anything. Dumbledore also took the opportunity to ask the school to report any sightings of a boy named Harry Potter. I don’t remember seeing anyone of that name anywhere in the castle- any ideas where he might be found?

Hailey.

Hailey,

If two days counts as a while after our Halloween visit, yes. I’ve been the same as usual- research, play with Phoebe, another crystal popped out of my hand today, you know. By the way, any ideas what to call it? At the moment, all I can really do with it is make metals and fabric. I’ve found that the stuff from the white metal takes dyes really well, but I’d rather keep some available for more science, so I haven’t remade any of my wardrobe from it.

To answer your question… trolls are really stupid. Hogwarts might not be built for defense, but it’s still not someplace you can just waltz into- especially if you happen to be a troll; it must have had inside assistance.

Wait, there was a corridor announced out of bounds? When did that happen?

But I can definitely see it being announced out of bounds if there’s a Cerberus there… that’s what your description sounds like. They’re extremely vicious monsters that can very quickly kill an unprepared wizard, though they can be pacified very easily… I forget how. It seems right up Hagrid’s alley- he’s the half-giant gamekeeper living in a hut on the grounds, and if it’s his, it’s probably got an innocent pet name. He never did seem to have the same understanding of danger as anyone around him.

Professor Quirrell had a limp? Did he get it from fighting the troll, or from that Cerberus?

And who is Professor Quirrell, anyways?

As for what it’s guarding, if you’re right and it was stationed there to guard something… no idea. Dumbledore undoubtedly has a lot to hide, and I can’t see him letting just anyone hide something in his school.

So Dumbledore’s starting to get desperate, is he? And of course, he still doesn’t know that Harry Potter doesn’t exist and indeed never did. Instead, YOU do. As I recall, your parents told the world you were a boy, because they wanted to protect you.

Ginny.

Ginny,

Good question. Perhaps… Programmium? Transformium? Clothium? Fabricite?

Yes, the third floor corridor on the right hand side. Dumbledore announced it out of bounds ‘to all who do not wish to die a very painful death’ immediately after the Welcoming Feast. I think Fluffy explains that pretty well, doesn’t it?

Yes… Fluffy. That’s the Cerberus’ name, and yes, it belongs to Hagrid. That was a fun meeting- we just ran down and visited him in his cabin, as if we were friends, and… I think he’s starved for friends, or something, because he was more than happy to let us in and enjoy a good conversation. Especially when, halfway through, I mentioned the Cerberus and voiced interest in it as a creature rather than what it was guarding- that was definitely his soft spot. He willingly told us that he lent Fluffy to Dumbledore to guard the-

He cut himself off right there. When I expressed curiosity, he said it was between Professor Dumbledore and someone named Nicholas Flamel, who he wasn’t all that interested in talking about. Judging by Dumbledore’s chocolate frog card, though, the relationship between the two men was essentially “their work in alchemy” and was quite noteworthy. Do you know something about that?

In other news, Professor Quirrell. If he got that limp from the troll, he would’ve lost a leg to it instead, and magic scans show tooth marks in his leg.

As for who he is, Professor Quirrell is the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor… this year. I’m told the position has had someone new in it every year for the last forty years, so nobody expects him to last very long. If I’m being honest, my hopes for him aren’t even that high- his classes feel too much like they’re being taught by a squirrel. I mean it, there has yet to be a class where we learned anything; we’ve had to research our own material for every class so far. After the first five such lessons… I read the entire library, traveled to Diagon Alley, and read the entire bookstore. That’s at least allowed me to find new, grade-appropriate material very quickly and easily… even if it means the upper year students- through fourth year, right now- have started asking me for help when they’re stuck. They don’t know why I know so much, they only know that my knowledge is ‘inexhaustible’, to put it in one eloquent girl’s words.

I’ve also now been jokingly called a ‘sufferable know-it-all’, as opposed to an insufferable one.

Oh, so you already know my parents telling the world I was a boy, do you? Interesting. I wonder how long Dumbledore’s going to be looking for.

Hailey.

Ginny stared at her letter for several seconds after reading it.

“What?” Molly asked.

She shook her head. “N-Nothing,” she stuttered, folding the letter and pocketing it for later. One glance up told her that answer wouldn’t do, though. “It’s just… some of the things going on at Hogwarts are just…” She shrugged.

She needed to get to her room to properly analyze the letter and formulate her response- but first, she’d have to finish her breakfast.

Perhaps… Programmium? Transformium? Clothium? Fabricite?

Ginny giggled as she scanned down Hailey’s proposed name for the Astrium crystals. They were funny, certainly, and-

She froze. The… Astrium crystals. She hadn’t just come up with that- she’d only been contemplating how funny Hailey’s suggestions were. If she had decided to name it in accordance with muggle standards… it probably would have been ‘Weasleyum’ or ‘Ginnyite’. But Astrium? Where had that word come from? And why was she so certain it was correct?

That the crystal lying on her desk, still where she’d left it four days before, was Raw Astrium.

That the basin next to her desk- which was shorter than it had once been, as she’d reclaimed the top after the water level had been reduced by fabric production- was made of Tempered Astrium… though she could swear she had never tempered it.

That the shiny gold metal that plated the Tempered Astrium flowers that went with her dress robes… was Forged Astrium, though she definitely hadn’t worked it with a forge.

That the white, cotton-like fabric was Tempered Astrium Weave. The blue silk was Raw Astrium Weave. The… tough stuff, made from the Forged Astrium, was Forged Astrium Weave.

She also knew that she’d made the weave by bonding the base Astrium with hydrogen- the bubbles weren’t steam, nor even hot at all; they were pure, breathable oxygen gas.

But why would soaking a crystal or block of metal turn it into fabric?

She still didn’t know about that.

She shivered. Was something injecting information into her brain? Or was knowing about her Royal Powers… one of her Royal Powers?

She set the problem aside for later. No doubt more evidence would surface later, so there was no point stressing herself out about it now.

She turned back towards Hailey’s letter, and pulled out a fresh piece of parchment.

Hailey,

It’s Astrium. Don’t ask me how I know, because I don’t know that myself, but that’s what it’s called. And no, I still don’t know why making it attack water turns it into fabric.

As for Fluffy… if Nicholas Flamel is involved, it’s got to be the Philosopher’s Stone- a mysterious rock that creates the Elixir of Life and turns any metal into pure gold. The only one currently in existence belongs to him- and on top of that, on the last day of July, someone broke into Gringotts… but didn’t get anything. The spokesgoblin said that the vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day- a level of foresight I would generally only accuse Dumbledore of.

Yes, DADA has had a new Professor every year… ever since Lord Voldemort was refused the position forty years ago, before he ever became Lord Voldemort. That was probably the final straw that caused him to turn irredeemably evil, now that I think about it.

Your solution to his incompetence sounds quite… thorough. It makes me wonder, how long did it take to read every book in Hogwarts and Diagon Alley?

Knowing Dumbledore, he’ll probably keep searching for years, possibly even decades. The man’s alarmingly smart and really good at what he does… but there’s a reason I periodically called him ‘Dumb-bledore’ in my past life. Once he sets his mind to something, only a good hard duel with his greatest enemy can shake him off of it. And even then, sometimes.

Ginny.

Hailey sat up, stretched, and yawned. “Mornin’,” she greeted softly, blinking the sleep out of her eyes.

“Good morning, Hailey, and merry christmas,” Hermione answered, from where her bed was somewhere off to her left.

She shook herself out, then brushed aside the curtain around her bed, climbing out of bed. “Yeah, merry christmas,” she answered.

“So,” Hermione began, gesturing towards the ends of their beds. “How do you want to go about this?”

She looked… then raised an eyebrow. Hermione was evidently referring to the massive mountains of presents; Hermione’s was four feet tall, and composed primarily of what Hailey suspected was books, while Hailey’s was a foot taller but composed of much rounder packages with, she thought, a greater average volume. “Oh my,” she muttered.

“Nobody else seems to have nearly so tall of piles,” Hermione observed. “Maybe it’s because we’re HSIs?”

“Maybe,” Hailey mused. “It also looks like we’ve got a lot of duplicate gifts, judging by…” She sighed. “On Dudley’s last birthday, he had thirty nine presents, but his pile was only three feet tall, on the kitchen table… and one of them had an entire bicycle in it. So, how about we get started- and count them, for curiosity’s sake?”

Hermione nodded. “Yeah, might as well.”

Draco Malfoy heaved a sigh as he settled back down on his mattress. He’d gone to bed early the day before, and as a result, had awoken before anyone else in the boys’ dormitory. He’d used that extra time to quickly hide his mountain of presents within the curtains of his bed, on the end of the mattress. He did not want to show off his noble status and the tidal wave of presents it brought him. He’d also gotten dressed for the day, just in case he found himself running for the Hospital Wing.

His status as a Student Instructor… didn’t seem to help, as far as having too many presents was concerned. His pile was noticeably larger than it usually was back at Malfoy Manor- and when he’d glanced up the aisles, there were present piles of all sizes… but everyone else in the room that he knew was a Student Instructor also had a large pile. Not as large as his, as he was the only noble in the room, but…

That reminded him. The Manor… he’d stayed at the school because he wasn’t ready to face his parents about being sorted into Gryffindor. He knew it was a cowardly decision, and very much not the Gryffindor choice to make. He’d have to deal with it anyways, at some point; after all, he would be going home for the summer in just seven months.

… Seven months.

He had reasoned that he needed the time to come to terms with it himself- he had yet to do that- before he could face his parents about it. He had purposely avoided the topic of his House in all the letters he sent, so they had probably assumed that he was in Slytherin.

He was, slowly, getting used to it. Hailey and Hermione were helping, in that regard, though Ron- a new friend of theirs, and one of his dorm-mates- was still unfriendly to him… sometimes. He was coming ‘round, slowly.

He double-checked that he had everything with him. His presents, his wand… and a little trinket from his trunk, used to check the safety of a present. It looked like a Remembrall with a flat spot- that was to say, it was a small, glass sphere filled with what looked like white smoke… and one face of it was flat rather than round, such that the surface was about half as far from the center as the rounded face elsewhere. If the flat part was touched against a package while it was held firmly by a witch or wizard, it would glow either green or red, based on whether that particular wizard would consider the contents safe- red for danger, green for safe. If it didn’t pick a color, it wasn’t being used properly.

It did, however, have one caveat: Since it used his magic to tell if it was safe or not… it could only warn him of dangers he knew of. As such, before he’d ever gone to Hogwarts, he’d spent almost three years studying a huge long list of things and their magic signatures. Those things ranged from mundane to inconvenient all the way to extremely lethal- but it meant that, on his birthday last June, he’d correctly detected every dangerous package he’d received. Lucius had gone over them as well before he was allowed to open any even of the safe ones, but he’d still detected them himself.

As such, he had… some confidence in himself. He knew there were many dangers he knew nothing of, that could maim or kill him after a green indication- but it was all he had.

He had to risk it, unless he wanted to leave every last present unopened, and appear ungrateful. It was far too easy to spoof a sender, after all- all one had to do was write a different name on the package.

The first package he grabbed… felt a little squishy for some reason, and said it was from Hailey. For some reason, the handwriting didn’t look quite right- but rather than attempting to open it, as much as he expected he’d love anything Hailey or Hermione got him, he held the trinket up to the package… and it glowed scarlet.

He winced, and set it aside. It probably wasn’t from Hailey at all.

The next package was from Silverspoon… and after his SafeT- what the trinket was properly called- glowed green, he opened it to find…

He studied the corked flask of potion, failed to identify it, then looked down to read her note, which had been under the bottle.

Draco,

I heard that nobles in this world tend to get ‘gifts’ that are less than friendly, so I had Bonbon help me make this potion. It’s from my homeland, so even Professor Snape won’t know it- and it’s a powerful protectant. If you drink it, you should be able to shrug off almost any dangerous substance until it wears off after about three hours. It won’t protect you from any such substances you’ve already touched, though, beware!

Silverspoon

P.S. No, this isn’t the only thing I got you. That said, I hope you find this before any of those nasty ‘trap presents’.

He let out a soft laugh. He’d already found a trap present, but… He sighed, inspecting the potion again… and shrugged. It was certainly going to help with his peace of mind. He popped the cork, and drank it empty in a few gulps. He shuddered as the potion flowed through him… then the strange feeling went away, and it was as if he’d never drank it.

“Huh,” he muttered, re-corking the emptied flask and setting it aside with its note before turning to the next package.

This one also proclaimed itself to be from Hailey. What’s more, the SafeT glowed green… so he opened it.

Then he stared.

There was no note.

Instead, he was staring at a black plastic box with a clear plastic lid. Inside, a large, glittering diamond was displayed on a velvet cushion, bracketed in gold with a fine golden chain trailing under a fold in the velvet and suggesting that it was either a bracelet or a necklace.

He stared for almost a full minute, before double-checking the writing on the paper. Yes, it was from Hailey, to Draco- it hadn’t been mis-delivered. So, had the girl addressed it to the wrong person? This would probably look excellent on, say, Hermione… but on him? He was a boy. He had no business wearing jewelry.

But now that it was in front of him… He couldn’t resist. He gently opened the case, then reached down and touched the diamond. It felt cool and… welcoming, somehow, under his fingertip.

So he scooped it out, and lifted it gently free of the box. The chain unwound easily from its storage spot, exposing a significant length- it was definitely a necklace, and it seemed like there was an anti-tangling enchantment on the chain as well, as it untwisted itself like a living thing the moment it was free of its box.

He stared at it, resting peacefully in his hand… then caught the two halves of the open clasp in his other hand, and dropped the gemstone, flipping it upright as he held it by the clasp.

It looked like… Yes. It looked like a simple clasp, where the tiny ball at one end of the chain would fit snugly into a socket at the other and lock firmly into place.

He reached up, sliding the chain around his neck, and snapped the clasp closed behind his neck, allowing the diamond to hang against his chest. He was just too curious how it would feel to wear a necklace.

Right as he drew his hands back forwards, he let out a sudden gasp of surprise as a sudden twisting feeling appeared in his belly. Was this the potion? Or the necklace?

He leaned over forwards, bracing himself on the mattress, as the feeling spread rapidly throughout his body. His robes almost seemed to flutter around his legs, and his arms seemed to grow slightly thinner before his eyes… and a second after it started, the feeling was gone.

All of the sudden… the whole world felt different. Well… slightly. Mostly, it still felt the same- except that there was something funny about his robes around his legs, there seemed to be something wrapped around his upper body, there was something heavy stuck to the back of his head… and was he imagining it, or was the skin on his hands slightly softer and more sensitive than he was used to?

He straightened up, looking at his hand more closely… and froze when something- the necklace, he was pretty sure- felt very strange against his chest. Almost like it was- Was-!

He looked down… and stared.

Then he slowly lowered the hand he’d been inspecting to touch his chest.

It… It was real. He had, somehow, become a girl. And it seemed his early puberty applied even in female form; before, his shoulders had already been widening, and he’d already been getting rapidly taller… but now, he was a girl… and as near as he could tell, quite curvy for his age.

… His? He was a girl now, so his pronouns should change. She was a girl.

Which meant that, as near as she could tell, she was quite curvy for her age.

A shiver of excitement ran down her spine. She’d always dreamed of being able to claim female pronouns… even though genderflipping magic like this simply didn’t exist. It wasn’t possible, as had been proven by some number of ancient, famous magic engineers.

Merlin and the rest of them were evidently wrong.

She lowered her hand a little more, to take the diamond in her hand. The gemstone was warm now, but still felt welcoming- and she instantly knew that it was the necklace that had transformed her, not the potion.

She smiled. She’d known she’d like any present Hailey got her… but she hadn’t expected it to be this amazing.

“Hey, Draco?” someone asked suddenly- Ron Weasley. “Presents!”

She froze. He must’ve gotten up when she wasn’t paying attention- had he heard her?

A moment later, Ron ripped open the curtains around her bed… and she let out a squeak of alarm.

Their eyes met.

The silence held for about three seconds.

“Uhh… who are you?” Ron asked, evidently dumbfounded.

“Uh,” she muttered in response, looking down at the presents… then lifted the diamond necklace off her chest again to show him. “Hailey sent me a necklace.” Rather than her usual rapidly deepening and somewhat gravely masculine voice, her voice was now high, soft, and feminine. It was a good thing she could still hear the snores of the other six boys that had stayed at Hogwarts; nobody else would realize he’d become a girl.

“You’re… Draco?” Ron asked, disbelievingly.

“Yeah,” she answered, swinging the necklace off over her head to show it to him better.

The twisting feeling returned, starting in her gut this time. She braced herself against the bed- and a second later, it was gone, and Ron was staring. When she looked down… her chest was flat again, the weight was gone from the back of her head, her skin was rougher again… Presumably, she’d reverted to her male self.

“... Oh,” Ron muttered.

“Yeah,” she answered- and found herself surprised at how unsettling it was to hear her normal voice once again. She sighed, separated the clasp, and put the necklace back on. The twisting feeling returned for another second- but she was ready for it, so it didn’t bother her as much. “Oof,” she grumbled. “Something tells me I’ll be getting used to that feeling. But yeah, probably the best present I’ve ever gotten.” She lifted the gemstone to look at it once again, then smiled at Ron.

Ron shrugged. “Just don’t ask me to wear it,” he told her, then looked down, while she turned back towards her pile. “Oh, another one from- GAH!”

She whipped around in response to his half-alarmed, half-pained cry. He’d found- and opened- the package she’d set aside earlier as dangerous… and now, it had attached itself to his left hand and was spraying him in the face with a smelly green liquid, his hand already completely covered.

It took her only a moment to recognize it.

It was undiluted Bubotuber Pus… a great potion ingredient, and when diluted, a great cure for acne- but this was undiluted, so it was causing a carpet of bright yellow boils to sprout all over Ron’s skin wherever it had touched.

She reached forward and wrenched the package free of his hand with her left, getting sprayed for her trouble- but it didn’t seem to bother her. A second later, her right hand had found her wand, and she whipped it around, spitting out a mouthful of pus. “Evanesco!”

The package, and all the pus, vanished in the blink of an eye… leaving her skin smooth and unblemished. Somehow, she knew it was the necklace which had protected her, not the potion.

“Ron!” she cried. She scrambled out of her bed, struggling a little with her robes; her legs seemed to have gotten tangled up in them somehow. She managed it, though- and once on her feet, she wrapped one arm around Ron. “C’mon, let’s go find Madam Pomfrey.” Tucking her wand into an inside pocket of her robes, she then guided Ron from the room.

As she went, there was an odd feeling of fabric swirling around her legs. Did that mean…? Yes, there was only one thing that could mean, wasn’t there?

She was wearing a skirt.

And for as strange as it felt… she found that she was enjoying it.

Once they had left the Gryffindor common room and entered the silent corridors between it and the Hospital Wing, she let out a sigh. “Ron… you should know. I’m a Noble- and while that does mean I get a lot of presents from people trying to earn my family’s favor… it also means I get a lot of fake presents, like that one, from people that want to hurt me. It wasn’t really from Hailey.” She sighed again. “I’m sorry. But please beware of that, and don’t ever try to open any of my presents, okay? I have a way to detect those so-called ‘bombs’, but you don’t.”

Ron only moaned. She winced; enough of the pus had gotten into his mouth that his tongue was probably too swollen to speak.

“Magical Me again,” Hermione observed calmly, standing up to set the gleaming book she’d just unwrapped on the stack of matching books. “This ‘Lockhart’ fellow must be pretty popular.”

“I think… Yes. This one’s got the largest number of packages of Bertie Bott’s so far, at twelve.” Hailey tossed a small armload of large bags up to the top of the mountain that sat on the floor next to her bed. “That makes two hundred gifts comprised of about eight hundred packages of jellybeans…” She paused, ripping open another package to reveal a half-dozen more bags, one of which she turned over. “I wonder if they expire?”

“With magic to preserve them?” Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow. “I doubt it.” She paused. “Um… This one feels like there’s something sloshing around inside it.”

Hailey looked up. “Oh?” She scowled. “Hmm. Here, have a Blessing of Safety, just in case.” She waved her hand in Hermione’s direction.

Hermione giggled, then opened the package… only to get sprayed in the face with a smelly green liquid.

It didn’t make it to her face, though. It curved sharply to the side inches away from her nose and splattered against the bed.

“Yeech!” she screeched.

Hailey looked- then, quite suddenly, both the offensive package and all the liquid had vanished into thin air. “Good thing I gave you that blessing,” she observed. “My guess would be that that was Bubotuber Pus- and that stuff can do funny things to the skin when undiluted.” She scowled. “Probably some idiot trying to get you hurt.”

“Y-Yeah,” Hermione stuttered, breathing hard. The sudden spray may not have actually touched her, but it had scared her half to death. “Yeah, probably.” She paused. “So, um, what did you do with it?”

“I sent it straight to Hell,” Hailey answered, then smiled at her. “Apparently, I can do that.”

Hermione sighed, and ripped open another package, trying to take her mind off the pus. “One, two, three… Yep. Another full set of Lockhart books.” She stood up to add the books to their piles.

Then Hailey paused, feeling a package. “That’s… not pus, is it?” Hermione asked.

“Nah,” Hailey answered. “No sender listed on the wrapping, and it feels like cloth inside.” She shrugged. “Well, if I can send pus to Hell, I can probably send a hostile cloak there too.” She ripped the package open… and a mass of silvery fabric flowed out of it.

Hermione looked. “Ohh, what’s that?”

“Donno,” Hailey answered, plucking a note from among the folds. “Was my father’s… about time it was passed on to me… Dumbledore’s handwriting, but no name.” She set the note down, then stood up, shaking out the silvery fabric. “Oh, that looks familiar,” she observed.

“Is that an invisibility cloak?” Hermione asked.

“Looks like it,” Hailey agreed, before tossing it around herself. Sure enough, she disappeared, from the neck down. “Yep. And if it was my father’s…” She sighed.

“That’s well beyond the expected lifespan of any invisibility cloak,” Hermione agreed.

Hailey nodded. “Which means it’s probably some kind of artifact, or perhaps one of ridiculously good quality, the sort that nobles might kill to get their hands on.” She sighed. “Disappointing, really.”

“Disappointing?” Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow as Hailey whipped the cloak off again and bundled it up in her hands.

She shrugged. “Yeah. Disappointing that they’d kill to get their hands on it.”

A sudden burst of flames appeared next to Hailey, quickly resolving itself into a young phoenix with a package.

“Well hello there, Phoebe,” Hailey greeted, as Ginny’s phoenix dropped the package into Hailey’s lap and swooped around to land on the mattress next to Hailey.

The phoenix crooned gently.

She chuckled. “Does Ginny have you playing delivery girl?” she asked.

Phoebe trilled with unmistakable laughter.

Draco let out a soft sigh as she half-walked, half-pranced back towards Gryffindor Tower. Her trip to the infirmary with Ron had gone well; Madam Pomfrey had informed them that she had a medicine that would be effective, but it would take a few hours to correct the damage, so Ron would probably be leaving her care again around lunchtime.

Even so, as she had started her journey back to the Tower, she’d found herself luxuriating in the feel of the fabric swirling around her ankles, in the slight bounce in her chest whenever she took a step, in the feminine sound of her voice… in the lack of an extra appendage between her legs to get in her way. She’d even caught herself humming a couple of times!

She paused when she spotted the door to a girl’s bathroom… then went inside, not to relieve herself, but to use the mirror. A quick glance down the aisle revealed that all the stall doors were ajar, meaning there wasn’t anyone else in the room, so she danced straight up to the mirror to find out what she looked like.

She was… She was…

She decided that, if she was being critical… she was basically the epitome of cuteness. Her eyes shone with excitement, her face twisting further and further into a wild smile as she watched. Her hair- this was the first time she was seeing it- was a bright silver with royal blue stripes splitting it neatly into thirds… and it was so long that it hung out of sight behind her back. When she reached one dainty hand back to pull it over a shoulder, it was to find out that her hair was right about long enough for her to sit on, and also both gently wavy and wonderfully cohesive, giving it the appearance of liquid metal.

She flung her hair back over her shoulder, scattering glittering fragments of light all across the room, and looked down at her own neckline… and below.

Her body looked… petite, if that was the right word: Small, dainty, and soft. Her hands were similar- small and soft… though when she clenched them into fists, her muscles bulged. And when she lifted her shirt… she didn’t only find the black undergarment she didn’t know the name for, wrapped around her breasts… but she also found out that she apparently had six-pack abs, something she’d never had even as a boy!

The necklace, she decided, added the perfect accent, hanging neatly between her breasts, the chain cutting in between her Gryffindor patch and her Student Instructor badge… and her nameplate.

Her nameplate… which was blank.

Weren’t they enchanted to always display their owners’ name? So why didn’t it show ‘Draco Malfoy’? That was her name, wasn’t it?

Then she blinked. ‘Draco’ wasn’t exactly a girl’s name, was it? And was her surname going to appear on it as well, once he had a girl’s name?

She stared at the mirror, running her eyes over her face again. Her cute, very huggable- in her opinion at least- face. Her dainty jawline, her gleaming blue eyelashes. Her bright blue eyes, her very feminine hairline. Her bright, silver hair…

“Silver,” she muttered softly, as if trying it out. She looked herself up and down again, then suddenly remembered her sudden propensity towards song. “Silver… song,” she muttered, then smiled. “Silversong,” she told the mirror, then nodded. “I think I like that. Silversong.”

Her nameplate suddenly glowed softly… then, before her very eyes, the name ‘Silversong’ appeared on it, with no surname. The glow finally went away, and she gave the mirror a manic grin before resuming her trek to Gryffindor Tower.

Silversong stopped about one corner away from the Portrait Hole, looked both ways down the passage… and slung her necklace off, over her head. The twist returned, and she braced herself against the wall.

When it went away… she felt off again, the same off she’d felt for most of her life.

She grinned, checking to make sure she had reverted as thoroughly as she expected. At least now she knew what was off.

She noticed that her nameplate had returned to saying ‘Draco Malfoy’, alongside the return of her… male parts.

She tucked the necklace into an inside pocket in her robe and marched importantly back up to the Portrait Hole. “Pig snout,” she told the Fat Lady, in her pink silk dress.

Her portrait swung forwards, revealing the passage back into the Gryffindor common room- which Silver then stopped halfway across, looking to the side, where Hailey and Hermione were waiting.

She turned and walked over to them. “So,” she began, once again unsettled by her male voice.

“So,” Hailey answered promptly.

“Where did you get it?” he asked.

“I found it in a shop.”

Hermione blinked. “Huh? What?”

Hailey held up one finger.

“Why?” Silver asked.

Hailey shrugged. “I thought you might like it. Why else?” She paused for a second. “And, ah, have you finished opening your presents?”

“Not yet,” she answered.

“You might want to,” Hailey told her, leaning back casually. “I just finished unwrapping about a ton and a half of Bertie Bott’s.”

“I’m now the owner of two hundred eight copies of Magical Me by Gilderoy Lockhart,” Hermione supplied sourly. “And I don’t care what the public thinks, but the covers are a self-obsessed insanity. Those books have one purpose and one purpose only: To make him popular.” She heaved a sigh. “I daresay he was successful- he is a celebrity- but I expect it’s all talk.”

“There are about twelve points of chronological conflict between the various books,” Hailey agreed calmly, “and a couple of the books even contradict themselves. They’re too consistent for a total fabrication, though- at least some of that stuff probably actually happened… though perhaps not quite the way he describes it.”

It was approaching breakfast time when Silver later joined Hailey and Hermione on their way out of the Portrait Hole towards breakfast; she’d spent the time between sitting on her bed, as a girl, opening her presents. Some of them had been decent, but most of them were the usual fare… and there had been more ‘bombs’ than usual, too.

It took Hailey about two minutes to guide them into an empty classroom and close the door. “So, do you like it?” she began, looking at Silver.

Hermione looked curiously between them.

Silver, meanwhile, drew the necklace from the pocket she was storing it in; she’d made sure to turn herself male again before showing herself. “No,” she declared, watching Hailey as she quickly snapped the clasp shut behind her neck.

Hermione’s confused expression, with one eyebrow raised, quickly morphed into one of shock and surprise as Silver felt her gut twist again- that familiar twist that she was already starting to get used to. She barely stumbled at all- and when it finished, she was a little bit shorter than Hailey rather than taller, but ignored it and put her hands on Hailey’s shoulders anyways. “I love it,” she corrected Hailey, before wrenching her forward and into a hug. She felt so much like she was trying to hug her mother.

Hailey laughed, returning the hug. “I’m glad you like it,” she teased.

Silver pulled back. “No,” she commanded. “I don’t like it. I love it.” Then she grinned, and giggled. “So.” She allowed the hug to finally break apart. “Where did you get it?”

“I found it in a shop,” Hailey told her, while Hermione slowly recovered.

“As if,” she barked.

Hailey chuckled. “Well, alright. I enchanted it myself. But I did find it in a shop- a muggle shop, to be specific.”

“Won’t that get you in trouble for misuse of muggle artifacts?” Silver answered promptly.

Hermione let out a snort of laughter, making Silver jump. “I’d like to see them try,” she observed darkly.

“Uh- okay,” Silver muttered, then looked back at Hailey. “So… The magic to change someone’s sex doesn’t exist and is actually impossible,” she told her. “So where did you get it?”

“Merlin was wrong,” Hailey informed her calmly, “it’s perfectly possible.” She paused. “Though yes, I didn’t exactly enchant it with the kind of magic he’s used to, did I?” She chuckled. “I mean, I used my Royal Powers.”

“You’re telling him?” Hermione asked curiously. “Er- her, sorry.” She smiled apologetically at Silver, who waved it off.

“Yes,” Hailey answered. “I figure, why not?” She looked back at Silver. “Yes, I’m a Royal. And if you tell anyone, I will cheerfully silence you in any way I need to.” She gave her a quick, stern look, before breaking back out in a grin. “So, I notice you’ve already picked a name.”

“Uh-!” Silver glanced down at her chest, and blushed. “Y-Yeah, I have, haven’t I?”

“And that’s nothing short of adorable,” said another voice- as Bonbon appeared out of thin air, removing an invisibility cloak.

Silver let out a shriek of combined surprise and alarm. Neither Hailey nor Hermione seemed surprised by it, though.

Bonbon chuckled, then glanced at Hailey. “You do good work, Hailey. She looks quite natural.” She smiled.

Hailey shrugged. “I mean, there’s gotta be a reason the local deities think I’m an ancient goddess,” she agreed- then, after a pause in which all three girls looked at her, she smiled. “And no, I can’t tell you who they are. It’s a divine secret. And I only know who three of the four are anyways.”

“Alright,” Bonbon nodded slowly. “I… can’t say that surprises me, actually. It would certainly explain the power and versatility of your powers.”

“Though of course, if we’re right, we have no idea what my aspect might be,” she mused.

“Ahh,” Bonbon nodded, then turned to Silver. “You seem to be enjoying your new feminine side,” she observed.

“New?” Silver asked, her gaze snapping away from Hailey. “Whoever said it was new?” She paused, briefly. “I, er, always felt like something was wrong.”

“To the point that, when Hailey asked on the train if you’d rather be a secret agent, magic engineer, schoolteacher, or housewife, you asked for all four, right?” Bonbon asked.

She blinked. “Uh-!?”

Hailey chuckled. “That was the first clue, yes. Asking Ginny to dress you up too on Hermione’s birthday also wasn’t exactly… subtle.”

She let out a sigh. “Oh alright, you’ve got me. I’ve… I guess I’ve kinda always been a girl on the inside.”

Bonbon chuckled softly. “Anyways, if you’d like, it shouldn’t be too hard to fire Draco from his Student Instructor position, and hire Silversong in his place.”

“... Huh?”

Hailey giggled. “Fancy words for ‘we can let you attend Potions as a girl’,” she informed her. “You’d have to be ready to commit to it for the rest of the year, though- we won’t be able to justify going back.”

“... Are you kidding me?” she asked. “Yes, definitely! I mean, please do that, yes!”

Bonbon laughed. “Alright, consider it done. Just make sure you attend Potions as Silversong- both in Professor Snape’s lesson and in your own with Silverspoon- and I’m also going to ask that you don’t display your Instructor badge while in form as Draco.”

“While in form as Draco,” she muttered, scowling.

“Unfortunately, switching Draco out for Silversong in all your other classes is something we really can’t justify without telling people who you used to be, so it’s not an option.” She smiled. “I would personally recommend telling Silverspoon, and possibly even showing her the transform; that would help you two to avoid unnecessary confusion as an Instructor Team, and we’ve already confirmed she’ll keep the secret.” She paused, briefly. “As a matter of fact, she already knows there’s a secret to be kept, though we haven’t told her what it is- and won’t, that’s for you to decide.”

“Uh- okay,” Silver muttered, clasping her hands over her belly and looking at the floor. “That’s… Hmm. I’m going to have to think on that one.”

Bonbon nodded. “Alright. Have a good rest of your holidays, Silversong. It shouldn’t be too hard to cover Draco’s sudden absence from the passages.” She waved… and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Silver turned straight to Hailey. “Why did you tell her?” she asked.

Hailey shrugged. “She helped me procure- and select- the necklace once I told her what I wanted to do with it,” she answered simply.

“... Ahh.”

“And you may have noticed, it’ll change your clothes too- though only the ones you’re wearing, and only for as long as you’re wearing them. Extra articles, like the bra, will just… pop out of nowhere.”

She looked at her. “What’s a bra?”

“It’s that thing you’re wearing under your shirt, up around your breasts,” Hermione informed her, using her hands to indicate an invisible band around her own chest.

“... Okay.”

“And if you remove it by the clasp, you won’t change back,” Hailey informed her, with a smile. “The transformation is technically permanent, after all.”

She blinked. “Meaning- meaning I can take it off…” She reached up to undo the clasp behind her neck, then held the necklace in front of her and looked down. “Huh.” She put it back on. “But why would I want to do that?”

“In case you wanted to sleep as a girl,” Hailey answered cheerfully, a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “A necklace isn’t very comfortable in bed.”

She felt the heat rush to her face, but dove forwards to hug her again anyways.

Hermione chuckled. “I take it you’ll be wearing it over the summer, then.”

Her face heated up even further, to the point that it felt like it was going to catch fire. “Uh-!” she began, thinking about it… then stopped. “... Dad’s going to be in for a surprise.”

They all burst into laughter.

Author's Note

Patreon, Discord.

Rewriting this one was fun. Then again, Silver always is, isn't she?

In other news, I feel like I need to go back to the earlier chapters and refresh myself on rewritten-Hailey's personality before I can satisfactorily finish Chap. 10...

This one... also grew. Not quite as much as last chapter, since it wasn't quite as easy to expand the letters into actual story as Chap. 8 was... though I do like how the Silversong sequence turned out. She feels much more human, and more real, than before, where she was basically just a background character.

Chapter 10: The Philosopher's Stone RW

Professor Dumbledore took a long, slow breath.

Things were going… not nearly as well as they were supposed to.

Some months ago, a Special Report had made its way to his desk from the Student Instructor Program Management Team, sent directly to his office rather than at breakfast. The report had detailed every trap and challenge he had protecting the Philosopher’s Stone… and how each had been rather casually bypassed- bypassed, not overcome or defeated- by a pair of unidentified but ‘rather skilled’ first-year students.

They knew that singing wouldn’t calm a Cerberus… but apparently whistling would. For the drop to the Devil’s Snare, they simply descended with borrowed school brooms, and flew over the top of the deadly plant. Professor Flitwick’s room full of flying keys had been solved by a simple summoning charm, not on the key but on the door handle from five feet away, which overwhelmed the simple spring-loaded lock (which was supposed to overwhelm to let people out without the key, though not in) and caused the door to fly open. The spring to close the door again had been rendered useless by the presence of the other student’s hands to hold it open while they floated through on their broomsticks.

Broomsticks that they used to just fly over the top of Professor McGonagall’s giant chess set, without ever setting foot in the room… which meant the pieces never tried to block them from cheating, and so didn’t bother them at all.

After that had been the troll… but apparently, four months trapped alone in a locked room was enough to kill even a troll, so it was just a smelly corpse to fly over. After that, rather than solving Professor Snape’s riddle (which they had apparently solved in their heads while flying overtop), they had flown straight through the flame-free doorway, having never set foot in the room to trigger the trap. They had then come across his own protection… and while their method of bypass for that- his spell was supposed to mean that only one that wanted to find it, not to use it, would get it- hadn’t been described, he’d found the Stone lying on the floor in front of the Mirror of Erised when he’d come charging down after reading the report, testing the bypasses himself.

They had been entirely correct.

So the Stone had been moved to a filing cabinet in the corner of his office under cover of one of the most powerful notice-me-not charms he’d ever cast, and he’d followed the Report’s recommendation of putting the cabinet under the Fidelius Charm after storage, such that only he could breach it, but he also had easy access.

Shortly after that, he’d noticed a sudden drop in Hagrid’s gamekeeping performance… but that had only lasted a couple of weeks. Three days after he caught back up again, Hagrid had nervously come to his office in person to explain what had happened.

Apparently, he’d played a game of cards and won a dragon egg, then spent those two weeks caring for it before it got carted off to the Romanian dragon reserve, where his good friend Ronald Weasley’s brother Charlie would take care of it for him. In that regard, Ron had apparently been immensely helpful, both in helping take care of the dragon- a Norwegian Ridgeback he’d called Norbert- and in serving as a liaison to his brother in Romania, and his brother’s friends that had done the transportation.

The reason he had come to tell the story was that, not too long after Norbert had been sent down, Ron had apparently been down to report that Charlie had determined that Norbert was actually a female dragon… and asked, in depth, about how he’d gotten the egg.

The danger had been in the conversation over the cards… and the copious amount of alcohol the man he’d won the egg from had fed him. Hagrid hadn’t remembered it very well at all, but he had remembered revealing Fluffy’s musical secret to them.

He’d acted like it was a serious problem, even though that hiding place had since been converted entirely into a red herring (with a troll-like magical projection of his own design instead of a real troll), and had thanked Hagrid for the information.

If nothing else, it helped him narrow down the culprit… or at least, he’d thought it would. Hagrid had remembered so few details of the man that he hadn’t been able to get anywhere on that.

Somewhere around the same time, he’d noticed a sudden lack of reports- from his various sources- pertaining to a certain Malfoy heir outside of classes. However, when he’d looked into it, even the excessively efficient Student Instructor Program had been hard-pressed to turn up a copy of his course schedule. He was still waiting on that.

In other news, a girl by the name of Silversong had started drawing the attention of her housemates, quickly giving the Weasley twins a run for the position of Chief Hogwarts Prankster, an award the Student Instructor Program had come up with but had yet to actually grant, as the three pranksters entered into a War of the Pranks with each other.

It was really quite amazing, as Silversong simultaneously wore a badge, declaring her first as a Student Instructor for Potions, and later as a Lead Student Instructor for Potions for First-Year Gryffindors… and according to the response when he’d written to Starlight to request some information, she had been awarded the Lead Student Instructor position as a reward for being one of their best Student Instructors school-wide.

Everything had seemed to go smoothly after that… until the very end of the year. He’d gotten a sudden summons from the Ministry- and when he’d gone to investigate it, he’d found himself turning back halfway to spring the trap on Voldemort.

When he had arrived in the final chamber on his broom, it had been to find Professor Quirrell arguing with the mirror about the Stone…. And seeking the counsel of Lord Voldemort for how to proceed. In an effort to protect the Dark mirror from destruction, he’d had a brief but decisive duel with Professor Quirrell… and managed to apply a tracer spell to the phantom that had burst from the back of the man’s head.

At least now he understood why the Student Instructor Program had basically taken over the entire Defense Against the Dark Arts subject, holding classes for upper-year students all the way up through the seventh year and completely disregarding Professor Quirrell’s lessons in the process.

And now, all that was left was the end-of-term feast… and to send the students home for the summer.

And, of course, to find a new Defense teacher, and to see if being able to track Voldemort would finally let him formulate a plan that might actually hold together under the Student Instructor Program’s terminal competence.

And perhaps find Harry Potter, or figure out who Ginny’s friend was, or… any number of things he hadn’t been able to do all year.

Author's Note

First year sure went fast. Might be because Ginny is one of the main driving forces of the story (or at least, its difference from canon), which makes the story uninteresting without her...

That said, I had a lot of fun writing those letters. It's almost too bad the rest of the story isn't written in that format.

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This chapter was a pain to rewrite. Overall, I tried some five or six different approaches for it- and finally concluded that offscreening it was best, and also giving Ron the spotlight with Norberta, without railroading Hailey & Co into that particular plot event. We also see better how the school is working, despite the chapter being only a third of the size.

If I hadn't been able to think of this particular approach, we might still not have a rewritten Chap. 10- but now, we finally do, because I've got 11, 12, and a very large 13 flying up tonight as well.

Chapter 11: The Way Home RW

When the Hogwarts Express reached Platform Nine and Three Quarters, nothing could dampen Silversong’s good mood- not even the fact that she had to remove her necklace before she left the train! The reason was simple: Bonbon had, bless her heart, offered to remove Draco Malfoy from the attendance lists for her second year, to be replaced entirely by Silversong- complete with an assignment to the girls’ dormitories. The girls’ dormitories that she already frequented with ‘sleepovers’.

She technically hadn’t given the girl an answer, though one would have to be really stupid to fail to guess what her reaction meant. She’d been so delighted by the offer that she’d hugged and kissed her- right on the lips, as a matter of fact, even though she’d aimed for the cheeks.

Bonbon had been so stunned it had taken her minutes to recover, and- with Hailey laughing herself silly the entire time- had finally explained.

“That was the first time anyone has gotten that close to me that fast in living memory,” the girl had muttered, still visibly stunned, “and it was for a kiss.” She’d paused. “I’ll take it as a yes, then?”

That had only been a couple minutes ago- and now, her heavy trunk on a cart in front of her, she made her way to where her father was waiting.

“Have a good year?” Lucius asked immediately.

“Better than I could ever have imagined,” she answered promptly, hardly even noticing the grating unpleasantness that was her male voice.

“Where are Crabbe and Goyle?” he asked next, his eyes narrowing.

“No idea,” she told him honestly. “Last time I saw them was when we were getting ready for the Sorting.”

“You mean you ditched them?”

“No, I mean that the school had us alphabetize ourselves by last name before going into the Great Hall for the Sorting, and that was the last time I ever saw either of them.” She shrugged, electing not to mention that she’d heard about them multiple times since; the two boys had some of the lowest grades in the school, and Bonbon had lamented about not having enough teachers- or instructors- capable of handling ‘special needs’ students like them. As a result, they had been among the five people that had failed their end-of-year exams and got held back.

“Then who was your bodyguard?” Lucius asked, worry creeping into his voice.

“Didn’t have one,” she answered promptly. “Would’ve been handy a time or two, but I managed.” She wasn’t about to tell him that, in each of the three cases when other students had tried to bully her into doing something with her high-ranking noble influence, Hailey had appeared out of nowhere- once quite literally, thanks to her Invisibility Cloak- with a Professor in tow to hand them detentions.

How the girl had predicted it each time, she would never know.

He stared at her for a second, then sighed. “C’mon,” he instructed, before taking her arm in one hand and the handle of her trunk in his other and taking them both to the Malfoy Manor via side-along apparition.

He immediately overbalanced, her trunk crashing straight to the floor.

“Careful, it’s heavy,” she informed him.

“So,” he began, stumbling back upright, and turned to her; Narcissa, having heard their arrival, was walking out of the kitchen to meet them. “Gryffindor, huh?”

She glanced down at her House patch; since she had known her father wouldn’t take her through the main station, and just apparate directly from the platform, she hadn’t changed out of her Hogwarts robes. “Yeah,” she answered. “The Hat sounded a bit confused when it saw me, then said that it would normally expect a Malfoy to be in Slytherin and that I would be a poor fit for that House.”

“Huh,” Lucius muttered, rubbing his chin. “Do you think that girl from Madam Malkin’s might have been a part of it?”

She paused, thinking for a second. “Hmm… Yeah, Hailey probably did set the ball rolling, didn’t she?” She rubbed her chin. “I mean, back in Madam Malkin’s, she made me question everything I knew- then on the train, she did it again. And now?” She shrugged. “It’s like she set me free, somehow.”

“Is that… her name? Hailey?”

“Uh, yeah, that girl from Madam Malkin’s was Hailey. She’s the Head Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and one of my friends.”

“Hmm,” he muttered. “Is there anyone that might be willing to serve guard duty?”

She looked at him. “I’m sure there are,” she muttered. “Hailey would probably recommend a half dozen off the top of her head- but they won’t be necessary.”

“They won’t be?” Narcissa asked, finally speaking up.

“Why not?” Lucius asked sternly. “Your safety is paramount!”

She allowed herself a smile. “Because I have a friend… that happens to be a Royal.”

The silence rang for several seconds.

“You… what?” Lucius asked.

Her smile grew. “I have a friend that happens to be a Royal,” she repeated. “The same one that derailed the Hogwarts Express by accident, as a matter of fact.”

“Y- You mean- You mean the one that crushed the Avery family in one savage blow to their son?”

“That’s the one,” she nodded. “All because said son tried to get my friend Hermione to kill herself.”

“Why would he do that?” Narcissa asked.

She shrugged. “Because Hermione’s muggleborn,” she answered. “Why else? But with a Royal protecting her like that…” She trailed off.

“Nobody dared touch her,” Lucius muttered.

She shrugged. “More like nobody- but Hermione- knew who the Royal was, nor who she was protecting. Then around Christmas, she gave me something and revealed who she was.”

“Who?” Narcissa asked.

She shook her head. “She asked me not to tell,” she muttered darkly. Hailey had explained to her that she didn’t want her political power, and she figured that her father would probably force the girl to use it at some point, in some way, if he found out… so she was deliberately making it sound like Hailey and the Royal were different people, without ever saying as much.

“So… what did she give you?” Lucius asked, evidently uncomfortable, but also evidently unwilling to cross a Royal’s will.

“A… pendant, of sorts,” she muttered, drawing her necklace from an inside pocket. “She said she enchanted it herself, and, ahh… it does not like to be taken from me.” That was fairly strictly true; she could give it to people just fine… but only if she was willingly giving it to them, not if they were coercing her or taking it. It had a habit of burning the hands of anyone that tried, as she’d found out a few times, when people had tried to bully her while she was walking the school as Silversong. She always wore the necklace proudly on top, where everyone could see the gleaming diamond sparkling against her black robes.

Lucius looked at it. “Isn’t that a necklace?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Yeah, it kinda is, isn’t it?”

“What does it do?” Narcissa asked.

She looked at it. “It was enchanted by a Royal,” she answered. “When I’m wearing it, and only when I’m wearing it, it lets me use the Royal powers that she invested in it. That’s come in handy a fair few times as well- especially when you consider it makes me invulnerable.” She paused. “And that’s why I don’t need bodyguards.”

She plucked the two ends of the chain from the tangle, allowing the necklace to hang down from her hand- and watching as it almost instantly untangled itself.

“That would do it, wouldn’t it?” Lucius muttered.

“It’s a nice necklace,” Narcissa observed. “A shame you have to hide it down your…?” She trailed off, her eyes going wide.

“I guess I forgot to mention its other effect,” she mused, having just put it on- and almost habitually used the Royal powers she’d mentioned to teleport her LSI badge into its place on her chest. It had been an interesting day when Hailey had explained those to her, and helped her learn to control them.

Both parents stared wide-eyed for several seconds.

Narcissa was the first to speak. “Silver…song?” she muttered slowly, her eyes having tracked down to her nameplate.

She nodded. “I need a colorhead name when I look like a colorhead, don’t I?” She shrugged. “And I like being Silversong anyways, so Bonbon reassigned my teaching assignment from Draco to Silversong.” She glanced down at her badge. “Then apparently I quickly became one of the best instructors in the school, so she gave me the lead slot.”

“Only for your year and House?” Narcissa asked, tilting her head.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Bonbon’s the Head Student Instructor for Potions school-wide- and she’s definitely better qualified for it than I am. I mean… she’s in the same year as me, but she brewed Felix Felicis under her bed in the Ravenclaw dormitories. Successfully. Without anyone finding out.”

Lucius picked that moment to recover from the shock, then reached forward to take the necklace in his hand.

“I wouldn’t do that if-!” Silver began, but too late- he gave it a solid tug.

Exactly as expected, she didn’t feel the pull at all. Instead, the chain glowed suddenly white-hot and, with a sizzling sound and the stench of burned flesh, it sliced his fingers right off. When it dropped back down against her clothes, it was comfortably warm, no longer insanely hot.

He let out a gasp of pain and clutched at his injured hand. No blood came; the wound had been instantly cauterized. “What the-?” he began.

“Didn’t I already tell you?” she began, holding up a hand to use the necklace’s powers to heal his fingers with a gentle green glow. “It doesn’t like to be taken from me. At all.”

“You’re a boy,” Lucius barked.

“I’m a girl, thank you very much,” she answered sharply, folding her arms under her breasts. “Are you blind?”

“You’re a boy,” he commanded. “Take it off at once!”

“Lucius!” Narcissa gasped.

“No,” Silver barked straight back into his face. “I am a girl and I’m not going to give it up!”

“You are not-!”

“Lucius!” Narcissa half-yelled into his face, stunning him into taking a couple steps back before she turned briefly to Silver. “Go, Draco- er, Silver, sorry. Let me handle this.”

She tried to ignore the shouting behind her as she effortlessly carried her trunk up to her bedroom. Lucius was… exactly what she was afraid of: He rejected her change. Frankly, she’d been surprised by her own willingness to fight for it, but she was more than willing to leave it to her mother… who, aside from always talking about how much she wanted a daughter, seemed to have accepted the change.

She found herself hoping that her choice wasn’t going to rip her family apart at the seams.

Author's Note

Sorry, I couldn't think of anything better to call this chapter.

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I forgot to publish this yesterday. Sorry! It will have gone up on schedule on Patreon, for those of you that read it there.

And question: Why is Ron in a mood? I never really decided that, and he doesn't really have much of a part in the story anyways, but the best I can think of is that Fred & George did something he didn't like in the slightest.

Now newly rewritten!

This chapter gave me a lot of trouble too, but not as much as the last one. I redid Silver's homecoming scene... and removed basically everything else from this chapter, as it was either inconsequential (for the stuff before Silver's scene) or actually removed from the plot (for the stuff after). Hailey no longer instantly recalls all her past memories with only a potion or two.

Chapter 12: Astrium RW

“Oh well hello there,” Petunia began, after opening the front door in response to the doorbell. On her doorstep was a young witch that hadn’t even tried to dress in non-magical clothing when visiting a non-magical home. Her hair was a bright, candy-apple red as it flowed down her back and out of sight behind her pale blue robes. Her appearance might’ve been okay, as it probably looked from behind like she was wearing a trench coat or perhaps a dress, if it hadn’t been for the large, scarlet-and-gold bird sitting on her unprotected shoulder.

This bird was a phoenix… which was very definitely not an ordinary animal.

On the other hand, thanks mostly to the color of her hair, Petunia recognized this girl instantly. It was Ginny Weasley, the girl that had accompanied her and Hailey through Diagon Alley the year before.

The girl Hailey had supported so thoroughly through that entire visit.

The last time she’d seen the girl had been over a month prior, at King’s Cross- where Hailey had given Ginny a strange black crystal that seemed to warp the light around it, causing her to stare after them until they were long out of sight, her mouth forming a perfect circle and her eyes just as wide.

“Hi,” Ginny greeted her, giving her a nervous smile and a little wave. “I’m Ginny Weasley. Is Hailey available?”

She raised an eyebrow. “You could at least try to blend in,” she informed her, gesturing lightly at the phoenix as she stood back.

Ginny blushed, looking down and accepting the silent invitation into her home. “Uh, yeah… sorry about that, it, um, didn’t cross my mind.”

“Of course it didn’t,” Hailey said suddenly, emerging from the kitchen with Philomena riding her shoulder. “I only told you last time we met!” She sighed. “But anyways, it’s good to see you.”

Ginny flinched away from her, averting her eyes nervously. “Er- sorry,” she muttered.

Hailey sighed, marched over, and wrapped her in a hug. “Hey, don’t beat yourself up over it. Just don’t let it happen again, okay?”

Ginny returned the hug. “Okay.” Then she pulled back. “So why haven’t you answered my letters?”

Hailey sighed. “I haven’t been receiving them,” she answered. “Hedwig is more than a little peeved about it too. She’s taken to hunting for whatever’s stealing all my mail.”

Ginny scowled. “Of course you haven’t,” she grumbled. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s some Noble overreaching their authority.”

“Probably,” Hailey agreed. “I’ve actually debated asking Philomena to play middle-phoenix with my mail, between Hedwig and here, via phoenix fire; all the mail disappearances seem to be around here.” She shrugged. “But in the end, I’m not sure that that would do it either.”

“It’d probably all get delivered properly if we had Philomena and Phoebe take it directly to each other,” Ginny offered.

She snorted. “Of course it would, basically nothing can interfere with phoenix fire. But if we’re going to have them carry our mail, we might as well just have them carry us instead and hand-deliver.” She paused. “Nevermind that you simply don’t use phoenixes, they serve of their own free will.”

She nodded. “Yeah, that’s true, isn’t it?” She sighed, looking up into Hailey’s face. “So, how on earth did you make Nocturnic Astrium on the platform?”

“Nocturnic Astrium?” Hailey asked, tilting her head. “That’s the one that warps the worldwall with its mere existence, isn’t it?”

Ginny raised an eyebrow. “Yes, and the one that you have to warp the timeline to create. So how did you just… make it on the platform?”

She shrugged. “I just made it. Didn’t even have to apply my powers.”

“So you just… did the impossible, without even trying.” She paused. “I don’t even know why I’m surprised anymore.”

She laughed. “Yeah, I’m really not all that surprising anymore, am I?”

Ginny snorted. “More like I’ve come to expect to be surprised,” she answered. “Too bad it doesn’t tone down the surprise when it does come, because you’re too- too- predictably unpredictable!”

Hailey chuckled. “Oh, I’m a lot less unpredictable at Hogwarts these days,” she informed her. “I stopped discovering new powers every other week in February sometime; now it’s more of a monthly occurrence.” She shrugged. “I’ve got a spell in mind that’ll give us some nice little offices when we return to Hogwarts; I expect Bonbon’s going to be happy about it.”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course she will.” She paused. “I know you’re trying to keep your Royal powers secret- so why do you keep using them? Genderflipping necklaces aren’t exactly subtle, and neither is punching the train off the tracks!”

“That necklace also gives her some minor divine powers,” Hailey answered, completely ignoring the question. “I wonder how long it’ll take before she learns them?”

“Uh… what?” Ginny asked, evidently thrown for a loop.

Hailey giggled. “Fun fact, the human wellspring loves to learn and grow. I didn’t put anything in that necklace to keep hers from doing that with the powers it gives her, so at some point, her wellspring is going to start giving her those powers without the necklace.” She paused. “The transformation is like that too.”

Ginny blinked. “Wait. Does that mean that Animagus-?”

Hailey blinked. “Animagus…? Yeah, right about. When someone becomes an Animagus, their wellspring learns-in a self-transfiguration spell, which…” She paused. “Same is true for apparition. That’s why you have to train so long for both spells, and why they’re so dangerous to learn- in both cases, you’re forcing your wellspring to evolve.”

“... Huh,” Ginny muttered.

Petunia backed away slowly. It didn’t sound like a conversation she had any part in.

“Here,” Hailey told Ginny, tossing something to her as she returned to the living room. They’d moved their conversation there- then she’d remembered something, and headed upstairs to fetch it. “I made it out of all the rest of the Astrium you gave me,” she informed her, as she sat back down.

Ginny held it up to look at it… then stared at it, and finally looked at Hailey again. “Wh-Where the hell did you get a Void Weave Drive?” she asked. She didn’t know how she knew what it was called- or why she suddenly knew what it did and how to use it as well… and the blueprint necessary to actually use it. Even as she asked her question, some small part of her brain directed some of the Astrium in her pocket- she’d brought it in case Hailey had some ideas for experiments and didn’t have enough- to flow up through the weave of her clothes to the Drive in her hand, and attach itself to it as an ‘Astrion Generator’.

“I made it,” Hailey answered simply, with a shrug. “A few days after I got home, I felt like playing with the rest of the Astrium you gave me, and that was the result.” She gestured towards the device.

Ginny finished building the Astrion Generator, and began magically heating its Nocturnic Astrium core to a plasmic state; once she finished, a little shock of electricity would fire up the combined device, after which it would sustain itself. “So you just sat down and… built an interdimensional warp engine?” she asked. Not that that one was large enough to actually breach the worldwall, nor even to function as a reactionless drive; it was too small to be useful for anything other than a power generator.

Hailey smiled. “Yeah, I guess I did, didn’t I?” She tilted her head. “How would you use it?”

She fed it that little shock of electricity, and felt as the Drive powered on and began sustaining its own Astrion Generator with only a tiny bit of its full capacity. “It’s simple,” she muttered. “If your ship is made of Astrium, that is, and you can interface with it.” She looked at the device in her hand. “This one’s miniaturized to a level that shouldn’t even be possible, putting it well below the point where it will no longer actually be useful as an engine, instead serving as a decent megawatt-range power generator.” She paused. “So, where did you get the other materials for it from? Iridium and Orichalcum, to name a couple, aren’t very easy to get.”

“You mean it works?”

“Yup. I turned it on.” She sighed. “Yes, it seems like I can interface with the Astrium. But we already knew that, didn’t we?” She paused as several more blueprints just… appeared in her mind, alongside…

She put a hand to her forehead. “Oh,” she muttered.

“What?” Hailey asked.

“No, I just-!” She paused. “You know how I just… suddenly knew what Astrium was called, and suddenly knew what a Void Weave Drive was called, and how to turn it on, and all that?”

Hailey nodded silently.

“Well… I just figured out where all that has been coming from.”

“Lemme guess, one of your Royal powers?”

She let out a chuckle. “No, actually. And I suppose I’m technically not a Royal either, for that matter- my powers don’t come from that… portal or whatever.” She looked sideways at Hailey. “Have you ever wondered what’s beyond our universe?”

“Not really,” Hailey mused. “This sector of the Multiverse really isn’t very busy- but it’s positively crowded when compared to this sector of the Omniverse.”

“Uh… Okay. I’ll take that to mean you haven’t wondered because you know. Well… out there somewhere is a multiversal explorer that, um, can’t just show up at a universe and enter it. They need special data of some sort to get in… but they can launch a little machine in, called a Seed, which can gather that special data on the way out.

“That Seed… planted itself in my head long before I was born, and is what gave me all of my powers. Including the Astrium. And that’s where it’s all been coming from.”

“So it’s been a part of you all along, huh?” Hailey chuckled. “I wonder why it waited so long to tell you about itself?”

“Um…” She paused. “I don’t get the idea it’s telling me everything just yet, and it is saying most of it’s a bit early, and being unlocked mainly because I now have access to all five forms of Astrium and need to know how to use them.” She paused. “The last one is Luminous Astrium, which this Drive will let me create, albeit slowly.”

“Anything else?”

She scowled. “It’s telling me that, even though a larger Void Weave Drive would let me leave the universe, doing so would be… strongly inadvisable until I find something very specific. It, uh… isn’t explaining what it is just yet, but whatever it is is way up north.”

“That’s the direction Hogwarts is,” Hailey observed.

“Yeah,” Ginny agreed, “it is. Doesn’t feel like a significant difference in compass heading between here and the Burrow, though, so it’s quite a ways.”

“Such as, say, Hogwarts,” Hailey supplied. “It’s only a ten-hour train ride with a magic locomotive that doesn’t need to be oiled every hundred and fifty miles.”

Ginny nodded. “Such as Hogwarts. There’s a part of me that hopes it is at Hogwarts, just because that’d make things easy.”

Hailey chuckled. “Yeah, hopefully.”

She rubbed her chin, thinking, for a minute. “Hmm… I imagine I can use the Chamber of Secrets to hide experiments with Astrium at Hogwarts. Up to and including building a void-capable ship.”

“Chamber of Secrets?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “I assume that it’s full of secrets?”

Ginny laughed. “Nah, it’s just called that. Donno why- I just know it was made by Salazar Slytherin himself, and only parselmouths can get in.”

“Parselmouths?”

“People that can talk to snakes by speaking Parseltongue, snake language.” She sighed. “It’s usually viewed as an evil power, despite being hereditary.”

Hailey tilted her head. “So which side do you get it from?” she asked.

She blinked, snorted, and laughed. “Oh, that. No, I have it as a leftover from my past life, where I was a direct descendent of Salazar Slytherin.”

“Ahh,” Hailey muttered, nodding slowly. “And you know, I’m curious. I’ve yet to encounter a language I didn’t already know- do you think you can say something in Parseltongue?”

Ginny looked at her in confusion, then sighed and concentrated very briefly. It was never all that difficult to do, though it was the first time she’d ever spoken parseltongue in this body, so it didn’t come quite as easily as, say, English. A familiar hissing sound escaped her lips. “Something something.”

Hailey smiled. “Something very somethingy,” she nodded, also speaking parseltongue.

Both girls promptly broke out giggling, even before Dudley wandered in to ask who’d brought a cat inside.

Author's Note

The Astrium technically isn't my invention, but Gerandakis, my editor's; I don't think he's ever published anything related to the (unwritten) story it comes from, though, so I'm pretty sure this is its first exposure to the public. This story is actually canon to that story, thanks to something you'll find out about in... A fair few chapters, I forget how many. Before that point, but also in a few chapters, Ginny actually does properly explain the Astrium, so I'm not going to.

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Something tells me Dumbledore is having a bad day.

Aaaand, rewritten, everything makes more sense now. This chapter went smoothly, and only lost around five hundred words, with mostly the same events, just slightly reworked... and the Dumbledore bits removed because plot changes, and Ginny's multidimensional playtime removed from the plot as well. It suggests way more capability than she actually had at this point in the story.

Chapter 13: Chamber Trouble RW

“Good morning, Hailey,” Bonbon greeted.

“Mornin’, Bonbon,” Hailey answered; she’d just arrived at the Leaky Cauldron in response to Bonbon’s letter informing her the shopping season had begun, so her presence was needed in the Alley as a management team member. “So, what’ve we got?”

“Some bloke called Gilderoy Lockhart is taking over Defense Against the Dark Arts,” Bonbon informed her immediately.

“Some bloke, huh?” Hailey mirrored. “Yet the world seems to think he’s a celebrity.”

She nodded. “Yup. And Dumbledore told me outright that he thinks the man’s a fraud.”

She winced. “Yeah, I can see that. What’s the booklist look like?”

She held out a list.

“Oof, he’s put all his mainstream books on it.” She scowled. “Not a single one of those books contains a second of instruction; they’re storybooks. Nevermind that they’re all about him doing certain things, and if you don’t count that two of the books happen at the same time as each other, there are forty-three points of conflict between the books.” She sighed. “And if you include his non-mainstream works, some of which might actually be useful in Defense Against the Dark Arts, you get even more- though those books- mostly information books like Fantastic Beasts- all agree with each other, and constantly cite sources.”

“Whelp,” Bonbon muttered. “Does that mean Defense will be about the same this year as last?”

She shrugged. “I expect it to be, yeah. That means only those of us that will be attending his classes directly will need any of his books. For the rest of them…” She paused. “I think I’d like to assign An Introduction to Defensive Magic by Hezekiah Pinkusheenfor first-years, then-!”

“Pincushion?” Bonbon asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Pinkusheen,” Hailey corrected. “Yes, it sounds similar, but her book is one of the best I’ve seen when it comes to defensive theory. Second-years can get Everyday Mischief and the Cessation Thereof by Miranda Goshawk- one of her more mischievous titles, and I think even Lockhart’s students will need our books too.”

Bonbon scribbled both titles down in her notepad. “And for the upper-year supplementary classes?”

She rubbed her chin. “Hmm… Third years can get How To Train Your Garden Gnome by Cressida Dowell, and perhaps I should remind you that they’re also part of the Program.”

She raised an eyebrow as she wrote it down. “Are you trying to make extra Weasley twins?”

She laughed. “Nah. I’ll have the first years focus on basic defensive theory, then second years learn defensive spellwork, and third-years learn about common creatures they might encounter. Fourth gets One Spell Fits All by Nadia Silvesti, to learn how to apply their repertoire in creative ways, expanding their capabilities with said repertoire.” She paused. “We can also note that third-years and up are welcome to pick up all books for earlier years as well, and I will help them to ‘catch up’ with anything they didn’t know already- almost like remedial classes.” She rubbed her chin. “Hmm, those might need special timeslots.”

“What about the second-years?”

She shrugged. “Most of my instruction last year came from Hezekiah’s wonderful book, and Madam Pince told me her five copies spent a cumulative two weeks in the library last year; it won’t take long at all to make sure everyone’s at the same point our current first years will be at the beginning of their second year.” She paused. “Fifth-years get Situational Defense Theory: How Far is Too Far? By Adalbert Waffling, and in that class, we’ll be focusing on managing danger and the ethics of defense- and hopefully, anyone that goes through there will not be dead weight- literally or figuratively- in the event of a crisis. Though yes, it might be advisable for our second-years to get Hezekiah’s book as well, though I’m not sure that there’s enough in Diagon Alley for that.”

“You’ve got everything planned out,” she observed. “And I have to say, that’s more than I’m told the seventh years are learning so far.”

“Not surprised, what with one inadequate teacher after another,” Hailey shrugged. “Sixth years get Self-Sustaining Spells in a Seashell by Wendelin Werdwave. Fun fact, Wendelin is actually a direct descendent of Wendelin the Weird, a fourteenth-century witch that allowed herself to be burned in the Witch Hunts no less than forty-seven times. One of the interim ancestors lived by the sea, and made a living selling seashell necklaces to bring the sound of the sea with people that went inland. They were considered good-luck charms, even if you weren’t going inland.” She sighed. “Too bad you can’t find them today.”

“And… what will our NEWT students be learning from her?”

“Warding and enchantments,” she answered, “with a focus on building and dismantling wards, since Arithmancy and Runes focus on object enchantment. Sixth-year Defense students will also be learning the basics of Cursebreaking, which otherwise isn’t taught at Hogwarts- and hasn’t been for decades.”

“That brother of Ginny’s must be pretty impressive then.”

“Yup. I’m told he was self-taught, and even then only barely managed to clear the bar to become a Cursebreaker. Now, a couple short years later, he’s one of the best there is- really quite amazing for someone that’s only twenty one years old.”

She snorted. “And so many purebloods still think the Weasleys suck,” Bonbon sighed. “They haven’t a clue what they’re missing out on. So what do the top-level students study?”

“They get Spellweavers: Fine-Tuning Your Wand by Constance Featherwick. They’ll be learning cast chaining, multicasting, and minicasting, techniques that all allow you to cast spells faster and more effectively.” She let out a soft sigh. “I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not very good at any of the above just yet. Cast chaining is about reducing the gap between spell casts; multicasting casts spells simultaneous to one another, using whole or part of a spell’s wand motion as a whole or part of another spell’s wand motion; and minicasting is about making those wand motions smaller and smaller, and thence faster, without losing effectiveness. As silent incantations can be basically instant and are expected of all NEWT students in all classes, that’ll enable them to perform what’s called ‘flash-casting’, where the entire cast, start to finish, is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it.”

“Alright,” Bonbon nodded, tugging the page free from her notepad and passing it to Hailey, who inspected it calmly. “Take that to Flourish and Blotts, then- and do you have your shopping list yet?”

“Not yet, no. How many first-years this year?”

“Two thousand three hundred and forty-five,” Bonbon answered promptly. “Are you ready to help hunt for instructors? I estimate we’ll need a total of two thousand six hundred or so.”

“Yup,” Hailey nodded. “How long until the first few shoppers?”

“First two are already in the Alley,” Bonbon informed her. “Both are half-flood first-years with only one magical parent, and they know we’ll have a little discrepancy when it comes to the books.”

“Speaking of… shall I just pick up a hundred and twenty copies of each of the Lockhart-prescribed books on the Program’s dime, and have them loaned out to those of our Instructors that attend his classes?”

“And the upper years?” Bonbon asked, raising an eyebrow.

She shrugged. “Every single student fourth year and above will be attending his classes,” she informed her. “As such, they’ll need those books, and we can’t easily justify buying them for them. For the first three, they’re only needed by our Instructors, so we can use Program-owned books.”

“Fair.”

“Good morning, Ginny.”

Ginny looked up at the sudden greeting, then abandoned her shelter behind her mother in an instant, running straight to Hailey to hug her. “Hailey!” she greeted. Had anyone ever told her during her past life that she would reincarnate into someone that would do something like that, she probably would have tortured them for even thinking about it- but now, she really didn’t care. Hailey still felt oddly safe- and it didn’t exactly hurt that she now had a fair amount of working, Astrium-based machinery back in her bedroom.

She found it rather weird that she, an upstanding, pure-blooded Witch, would enjoy creating and experimenting with what was, for all intents and purposes, muggle technology quite so much. She’d even built a magic-based matter transmutation engine and an ‘Astrium Forge’ and started shuttling dirt in from outside via psionic teleportation, which meant she was gaining Astrium rather faster than she had before.

It was strange… yet, when she thought about it objectively, it probably wasn’t as strange as her father’s obsession with enchanting actual muggle technology into oblivion.

So she made sure to design everything she made with Astrium to be unenchantable- an interesting technique involving trace amounts of Luminous Astrium (which took insane amounts of energy to make, so building a bigger generator had been a top priority) and a special, anti-enchantment enchantment her Seed had taught her.

Hailey chuckled. “Always so energetic, huh?” she smiled. “Might be a problem if you keep doing that every time you see me at Hogwarts. Speaking of, I’m fairly sure you’re at least as qualified to teach as any other first-year, so which subject do you want?”

She blinked then pulled back. “Say what?”

She smiled. “How would you like to be a Student Instructor?”

“Uh…” She trailed off, blushing faintly. “I might be a bit shy for that.”

Hailey laughed. “Oh, after some of the colorheads we turned into stellar teachers last year, that won’t be a problem at all. So, interested?”

She sighed. “Yeah,” she muttered. “Probably help with the whole shy thing, too. You wouldn’t believe how embarrassing that is.” She paused. “How about… Defense?”

Hailey chuckled, reaching over to tug a packet of papers from a bag sitting on the chair next to her; she’d been people-watching from Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor. She then offered them to Ginny. “How about this?”

She looked at it… and baulked. “A-Are you sure?”

She smiled. “I doubt there’s anyone better qualified in the entire year,” she informed her. “Come to think of it, have you been to Flourish and Blotts yet, by any chance?”

“Not yet,” Ginny answered, and sighed. “It’s going to be expensive, though- five sets of Lockhart books. Those things aren’t cheap.”

“Good thing you and Ron don’t need any, isn’t it?” Hailey smiled.

She looked up. “Say what?”

She shrugged. “I’ve read those books, and Dumbledore told us he thinks he’s a fraud. So, no first, second, or third year student needs a copy of any of his books.”

“What? But don’t the Instructors still have to go to his classes?”

She smiled. “Yep. And I’ve already purchased all one hundred and twenty copies of each of those books that said Instructors will need, to be loaned out by the Student Instructor Program rather than purchased by a little over thirty times as many students as will actually need them.” She chuckled softly. “Of course, we’ve also assigned our own Defense textbooks this time, since we expect to continue last year’s development of the Program teaching Defense classes all the way up through seventh year, and we’ve made him aware of our assignments.”

“You’re assigning books?” she asked.

She shrugged. “Dumbledore said Lockhart was a fraud, so what else did he expect us to do? Live through a year of absolutely dismal Defense instruction? Nah. Not long after people came back from the winter holidays, we basically took over the entire subject, and that’s going to continue this year. Now then.” She turned to look at the next table over. “Mind if I get distracted for a couple hours, Bonbon?”

Ginny flinched as Bonbon- the scary girl from Eeylops the year before- looked over from her people-watching and shrugged. “I don’t see why that’d be a problem. See anyone good?”

Hailey silently held up the packet she’d offered Ginny, which Ginny had promptly placed on the table. The packet which declared the position she was being offered to be a Lead Student Instructor, not just a regular one. Then she tapped Ginny on the top of the head with it, causing her to squeak in protest as she ducked and attempted to grab the offensive document out of the air.

Bonbon laughed. “Of course,” she chuckled. “I should have seen that coming, shouldn’t I? Anyways, go have fun.”

Hailey giggled as Ginny caught the document and lowered it firmly back to the table. “Then we might as well, mightn’t we?” she told Ginny.

“Might as well what?” Ginny asked.

Hailey chuckled, swiping the document back off the table and into her bag as she rose from her chair. “Mrs. Weasley?” she asked.

Ginny turned, and barely suppressed a flinch of surprise as she realized her mother had been standing just ten feet behind her for the entire time.

“Yes?” Molly Weasley, Ginny’s mother, asked.

“Is it okay if Ginny does her shopping with me, rather than the rest of the family?” she asked.

Ginny got the sudden funny feeling that Hailey was doing something to… encourage her mother to agree, but she didn’t have any idea what. Why hadn’t she noticed that before? Was it because she was paying more attention to her psionic senses than last time she’d been in Diagon Alley with Hailey, back when she’d met Petunia and found out she was rich?

Speaking of her aunt, Hailey appeared to be alone today, no adults in evidence at all.

“Sure,” Molly stated, then paused. “You said neither Ron nor Ginny would need Lockhart books?”

“Yep,” Hailey agreed. “Should save you a few galleons, shouldn’t it?” She sighed. “I’m sorry that Fred, George, and Percy will still need sets of those books. They’re above the third year, so I can’t justify billing it to the Student Instructor Program and loaning them out to the people that’ll actually be in his class.”

“Why won’t the rest need it?”

She shrugged. “Would you use The Adventures of Marty Higgs, the Mad Muggle as a Charms textbook?”

Molly, Ginny, and a couple of her brothers- primarily the Twins- snorted. Ginny and the twins snickered as well.

“Absolutely not,” Molly answered. “That’s a storybook, not a textbook, no matter who wrote it.”

Hailey nodded. “And that’s why we’re disregarding the assigned Lockhart books: I’ve read them, and they’re storybooks, not textbooks. There’s basically nothing in any of them that even could be useful in a Defense class, so obviously Hogwarts’ reputation for getting terrible Defense professors isn’t over yet.”

“Oh, alright,” Molly sighed. “Well, have fun, you too! We’ll meet in the Leaky Cauldron tonight?”

“Hmm,” Hailey muttered. “Are you sure you want to wait that long? I don’t expect it’d be difficult to send her home by Floo or even Phoebe at the end of the day.”

“... True,” Molly muttered. “Well, Ginny, don’t stay out too long, and have fun with your friend!” She then dragged the boys away, in the direction of Gringotts.

“Uh,” Ginny muttered, when Hailey simply watched them go. “Aren’t we going to the same place?”

“I doubt that kind of suggestive magic would be enough to maintain the illusion if she saw us in Gringotts,” she informed her. “We’ll go in while they’re winding through the tunnels.”

“Suggestive magic?” Ginny asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Why else do you think she’d fail to notice that you can’t exactly go shopping with no money?”

She laughed. “So what’s it going to take?”

“Just don’t draw attention to where the money came from, and she won’t notice.”

“Hey Ginny,” Hailey smiled, rising from her chair as Ginny entered her office. It was late Friday night, the evening of the second day of term; both Hailey and Ginny had experienced their first Defense Against the Dark Arts classes with Lockhart on Thursday, then today would have included the first one Ginny had taught.

Hailey, meanwhile, had taught three classes of Defense on Thursday, two first-year and one second-year, all three just ten minutes after identical classes of Lockhart’s, and with all the same students. On Fridays, she taught two, just like Lockhart- second years for Slytherins and Hufflepuffs, then seventh year NEWT students from all four houses, both also ten minutes after the identical, official classes. The NEWT class only had a few students in it, all aiming to become aurors- and frighteningly, very few of them had even heard of half the things on her syllabus for the earlier years, so she was giving them a crash course through the lower-year books that they’d all brought. She had a sneaking suspicion that they wouldn’t actually get to her seventh-year curriculum until much closer to graduation than any of them would like.

“How’s your first week been?” Hailey finished.

Ginny closed the door behind her, then sighed. “Um…” She paused, then looked up. “My first week?” she asked. “It’s only been two days.”

Hailey shrugged. “Yet you should’ve had about sixty other Student Instructors report to you earlier today,” she informed her, “simply because it’s the end of the week.”

Ginny blushed. “Y-Yeah, I did,” she muttered. “A lot of…” She sighed. “Most of them have teaching assignments in the beginning of the week, so they didn’t have much to report.”

Hailey shrugged. “As expected, really. How do the rest say they’re doing?”

“Amazingly well,” Ginny answered, then sighed. “Though of course, I suppose…” She paused. “You know my shyness got in the way, don’t you?”

She shrugged again, raising a hand to knock on the wall next to her desk. “I expect you powered through it with sheer force of will, right?”

Ginny nodded faintly, watching as half of the entire wall of the rectangular room faded into nothing, revealing a comfortably furnished sitting area, six comfortable armchairs set around a circular table that was adorned by a delicate tea set. She could see the faint stream of steam floating from the spout of the teapot.

Hailey glanced at her, walking around her desk and into that sitting area. “C’mon, have a seat. Got some really good tea today.”

She snorted and jogged over, claiming an armchair next to the one Hailey took. “How’s that wall work?” she asked.

“Abused my Royal powers,” Hailey answered quickly. “This is actually an unused classroom that we’ve sectioned with these false walls. There’s nine compartments per such classroom; the HSIs get all nine as part of their ‘office’. As an LSI, you’ll have three of them composing your office, with the office of another LSI in the same year and subject across the ‘hall’ from yours. You’ll be able to temporarily deactivate the intervening walls on either side of your office to access a sitting area like this one- the tea is automagically supplied, by the way- and on the other side, just like the opposite side here in my office, you’ll have a shielded activities section, for if you need to demonstrate a spell or tutor someone. The regular Student Instructors don’t have any extra spaces, which lets us cram six offices into a single classroom- a fairly important compression, since we only have a total of twice as many classrooms in the Castle as classes, so we can’t afford to give everyone even half-classroom offices like yours, let alone full-classroom offices like the HSIs.”

“Ahh,” she nodded, then sipped the tea Hailey had poured her while she spoke. “Oh, you’re right, that is good tea.” She leaned back in her chair. “So, since I’ve got basically nothing to report right now beyond ‘people are figuring out what is what’, how about…” She paused. “Lockhart. He was… well. When I went into his class, I was a bit nervous, I’ll be the first to admit- but by five minutes in, I guess I’d already subconsciously dismissed him as a nobody. Quizzed us on himself for the first half-hour, then started… goofing off at the front of the class.”

Hailey chuckled. “Better than happened in his very first class, the second-year class that just happened to include me,” she observed. “Well, for certain definitions of ‘better’. Quizzed us on himself, gave me ten points for perfect score, then unleashed a cage of Cornish Pixies on the class. That was particularly fun; I mean, you should have seen the lecture Lockhart got from Morning Sun for that.”

Ginny chuckled- but a moment later, a knock sounded on Hailey’s office door.

Hailey leaned back so she could see it around the false wall. “Enter,” she called.

Ginny couldn’t see the door directly, but she heard it open, and close, and caught a glimpse of someone standing near it.

“Ahh, speak of the devil,” Hailey smiled. “Come on over, Morning. We were just discussing that class of Lockhart’s.”

Then, right as the new girl appeared around the corner, Ginny also recognized her psionic signature.

This was the girl she’d crossed paths with in Ollivanders’ a little over a year before, when she’d gotten her wand.

The girl that could definitely tell that she wasn’t normal.

“Good evening, Hailey,” the girl, Morning Sun, greeted. “Nothing all that amusing to report- or at least, not that you haven’t seen already. Few classes done, nobody had any trouble, readings assigned.” She shrugged. “Typical Welcome Week, really.” She paused. “Do you mind?” She gestured towards the seat on Hailey’s other side.

“No problem,” Hailey smiled, pouring a third cup of tea. “In Ginny’s class, Lockhart quizzed the class on himself then…” She paused, looking at Ginny. “You said he ‘goofed off’ for the rest?”

She nodded, carefully suppressing her nervousness. “Y-Yeah,” she said, stuttering slightly despite her effort, and unable to suppress a brief glance towards Morning and her badge, which declared her the Lead Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts for Second-Year Ravenclaws. “He acted out a quick scene from Travels with Trolls.”

“Don’t worry,” Morning smiled kindly, “I don’t bite.”

Hailey chuckled. “Of course you don’t. But just as you can sense her… uniqueness, so can she yours.”

Morning nodded. “I expected as much. Don’t worry, I won’t be telling anyone.” She laughed. “I mean, I’m probably in more danger than you are if people find out, and I’m the second-in-command of the Royal Guard!”

Ginny let out a chuckle in spite of herself.

Hailey didn’t restrain her chuckle. “Yup, definitely more danger. Ginny would probably be revered as a Royal- something neither of us wants- rather than threatened, though.”

Morning shrugged. “Eh,” she muttered, waving it off. “At least Lockhart didn’t try to unleash Cornish Pixies on you, did he?”

Ginny blinked, and shook her head. “N-No, he didn’t,” she answered. “What happened?”

“Me and Morning stunned all the pixies into paperweights, then while most of the class swept them up to return them to their cage, Morning here went after Lockhart. If the classrooms weren’t soundproof, Hagrid might have heard it.”

Morning blushed. “I’m not sure it was that loud,” she complained. “But yes, I’m not about to stand for the careless endangerment of the students in his care.” She shrugged. “I didn’t make Second in Command for nothing.”

“No, you didn’t,” Hailey agreed. “I still remember when you received that Special Award for Services to the School about two hours after you first arrived at the school.”

Morning shook her head. “Only doing my job.”

“Never said you weren’t,” Hailey smiled, then turned to Ginny. “By the way, in his acting, how do you think he did?”

“He’s a terrible actor,” she answered promptly, an odd calm having settled over her while the other two girls talked. “And to top it off, he doesn’t have nearly the coordination necessary to cast any of the spells he ‘used’.”

“Not surprised,” Hailey mused, sipping her tea. “Go ahead and try it, Morning,” she added. “I’ve got a really good one today.”

Morning shrugged. “Oh, why not,” she smiled and tried it. “Oh wow, you’re right. That is good stuff.”

Quite suddenly, a voice that wasn’t any of theirs floated through the ceiling.

“Come… Come to me. Let me rip you. Let me tear you. Let me kill you.”

Hailey looked up in the direction it had come from. “What was that?” she asked.

Morning put her tea down. “I didn’t hear it,” she informed them.

“Parseltongue,” Ginny answered. “Snake language. Anyone that can’t speak it won’t have heard it- and Parselmouths, people that can speak it, are really rare, so unless there are some among the colorheads, we’re probably the only two in the Castle.” She winced when she noticed Morning’s eyebrow raising, even as she felt a sudden, strange undercurrent of trust. It was weird- though not as weird as when she’d first met Hailey.

Hailey looked at her. “Alright. What was that?”

She glanced uncertainly at Morning.

“She’ll keep the secret,” Hailey informed her- but Ginny didn’t miss the command in her voice. She wasn’t just telling her Morning would keep the secret- she was commanding Morning to, with the full confidence that it would be obeyed.

“That sounded like the Monster of Slytherin from the Chamber of Secrets,” she informed Hailey. “It’s a Basilisk- and merely opening the Chamber won’t unleash it. Neither will descending into said Chamber- it has to be deliberate, and it can’t get out on its own.”

“Basilisk?” Morning asked.

“King of Snakes,” Hailey recited instantly. “Killed by the crowing of a rooster, but it has a lethal gaze. If you see it indirectly, such as through a mirror or window, it’ll only petrify you, for which the only cure is a Mandrake draft, which has a waiting list some fifty years long.”

“Mandrakes are really rare and hard to cultivate, on top of being nearly impossible to get even if you do find them,” Ginny added. “Their lethal screams don’t exactly help.”

“Professor Sprout had her second-year class repotting some new mandrakes in Greenhouse Three yesterday,” Hailey continued. “It’s going to take much of the year for them to be ready, but nobody will have to wait fifty years to resume their schooling.”

“Do you know if it was unleashed before?” Morning asked suddenly.

“It was,” Ginny answered immediately- unsure if it was Hailey’s assurance or that strange undercurrent of trust that made her do so. Hailey nodded when she met her eyes, so she took a deep breath. “When I was at Hogwarts in my last life, during my fifth year. About fifty years ago.” She paused to remember. “There were a few attacks where people got petrified, then Myrtle Warren- also known, nowadays at least, as Moaning Myrtle- was killed in the final attack.” She sighed. “The entrance to the Chamber is in her bathroom, across from her stall- but they never caught the culprit. Hagrid was accused of it and expelled, but nobody believed it was actually him. Only the headmaster, an old fool by the name of Armando Dippet, and the boy that ‘caught’ him, the fifth-year prefect Tom Riddle… who was the true culprit.”

“Riddle?” Hailey asked.

“That’d have to be Voldemort,” Morning nodded. “Can’t say I’m surprised.”

Hailey sighed. “Me neither.”

“Isn’t Voldemort dead?” Ginny asked.

Morning raised an eyebrow. “I wish. Dumbledore successfully placed a tracer on a phantom, whose identity was confirmed to be Lord Voldemort, at the end of last year as it raced off into the distance. It’s in an Albanian forest right now, but nobody is exactly sure why he remained as a phantom- nor why he was able to possess Professor Quirrell as such.”

Ginny blinked. “Uh… Okay.” She paused. “There’s only one way I know of to assure that a wizard can stick around as a phantom like that,” she informed them, “and that’s something called a ‘horcrux’.”

“Horcrux?” Morning asked.

“Powerful dark magic object,” Hailey answered. “Basically, a Dark wizard uses an act of cold-blooded murder to fracture his soul, then uses a bunch of dark magic to attach the generated fragment to an object before it can fuse back into the rest of his soul. If the right- also Dark- enchantments are placed on that horcrux, it is theoretically capable of possessing any wizard that handles it- and Voldemort was known to be a parselmouth, so if one of his horcruxes is in the school, anyone it possesses will also be a parselmouth for the duration of the possession.” She scowled. “The possessed would likely not remember anything that happened while they were possessed, so it could be using them to access the Chamber of Secrets and summon the monster.”

There was a brief pause.

“If we assume that’s the case, can we predict such a Horcrux’ behavior?” Morning asked, looking at Ginny.

Ginny winced; Morning had obviously figured out her past identity already, or at least guessed it. “If it is, the first time is probably more to confirm that the Basilisk is still alive than anything else. If that’s the case, nobody should get hurt. If it’s not…” She sighed. “It probably is. There’s a pretty big riddle buried deep in the Chamber that you have to solve to be able to summon the Basilisk, even from inside the Chamber itself- and when I visited the chamber yesterday, there were no signs that anyone had been down there at all over the last fifty years.”

“How hard is that riddle?” Morning asked.

“Very hard,” Ginny answered. “I solved it in my past life- I never was one to turn down a challenge- but it took almost a whole month.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You know how to summon the Monster?” she asked.

Ginny nodded, wondering if she should have revealed that tidbit.

“Would destroying the monster be effective?”

She shook her head. “There’s a spell of some sort down there, presumably set by Salazar Slytherin, that will spawn a new one within hours of the death of the last one. Unless someone can break that curse, killing the monster is pointless- and breaking the curse would be insanely dangerous, because of the monster’s presence and constant replacement.”

“Is there a bottleneck we can utilize?”

She shook her head. “It can be summoned with a poem sung in parseltongue at any sink in the Castle.”

“Do you know what or where the Horcrux might be, or might look like?”

She shook her head. “Voldemort made several of them, including a diary, a crown, a locket with a necklace chain, a ring, and a cup. I rather doubt it’s the cup or the crown, but the other three would be fairly easy to hide- especially the ring, though that one would be hard to acquire without getting hit by a powerful withering curse, and the locket should be submerged in a powerful, slow-acting poison in an Inferi-filled cave a long way from here.”

“What does it take to destroy a Horcrux?”

“The Killing Curse, Fiendfyre, or Basilisk venom,” Hailey answered immediately. “There’s also a special, three-hour ritual you can conduct on the night of the full moon that will do it without destroying the container.”

Ginny blinked. “I didn’t know about the ritual,” she observed.

She shrugged. “It’s a recent discovery.”

Morning rubbed her chin. “That’s sounding like the best we can do is guess-and-check,” she grumbled, “and I hate guess and check.”

“We should be able to use the process of elimination,” Hailey observed. “Should make it a lot faster.”

“True,” Morning agreed. “Though for that, given the size of the student body, we’ll need some way for any one ‘investigator’ to instantly alert the rest whenever they detect the Monster roaming about or find a victim. Ideas?”

“I imagine a telepathic signal would probably be easiest,” Hailey muttered, then looked up at Ginny. “Do you think you can do that?”

Ginny rubbed her chin. “Hmm… Yes, I should be able to build us a telepathic network, and tie our investigators to it. Should completely eliminate information travel time- and risk, as said network would also be able to detect attacks against any of its nodes, lethal or not, and sound the alarm on its own.”

“How long would that network last?” Morning asked.

Ginny tilted her head. “Theoretically indefinitely,” she answered. “We can remove people from it, but unless we do, it lasts forever.”

Morning rubbed her chin this time. “Would it be able to detect if one of its nodes was possessed?”

“Absolutely,” she answered instantly.

“How hard would it be to set up a school-wide network like that, and tell people it’s a library lookup system or something, then use that alert function to identify who’s being possessed the next time they get possessed?”

“Ahh…” She rubbed her chin. “I’d have to build a network database…” She paused. “I don’t have nearly enough Astrium to do that school-wide, and probably won’t for another year or two, but the technical capability is no different from making just a few nodes.”

“Then perhaps we can use it to coordinate our investigation,” Hailey mused. “Say, we tie our investigators to it rather than the suspects, and anytime there’s an attack, all the investigators examine their surroundings and we try to cross out as many people as possible, and pick more investigators to cross out as much of the remainder as possible on the next attack, and repeat, until we can either connect all the remaining suspects or post investigators to monitor them around the clock.”

Morning scowled. “We… could,” she allowed. “We’ll have to be very careful to make sure we don’t cross out anyone that even might be possessed. But yeah, that sounds like it might be the best solution available with limited resources.” She turned to Ginny. “So, what do you need to set that network up?”

“Time,” she answered promptly, “and not a lot of it. I’ll need to build some miniaturized communications devices to pass out; I’ve already built a full-size, full-capability one and installed it in myself, so that’ll host the network no problem.” She paused. “We won’t be able to eliminate that network vulnerability until I can build a database, which takes a lot more Astrium than a dozen minicoms, and shift the network hosting duty to it.” She closed her eyes and concentrated, holding out her hand, so a stream of blue light flowed out from it and started to gather into a blue crystal.

“What’s that?” Morning asked.

“Astrium,” she answered promptly. “I don’t have much of it with me right now, but it should be enough to set up the network between us three and possibly a couple more, before I get back down to the Chamber of Secrets, where I have an Astrium production operation churning away, to get more.” She scowled. “The hard part will be that I can only carry so much up from the Chamber at once, and production capacity will quickly exceed the amount I can transport discreetly.”

“So Phoebe wouldn’t…?” Hailey began.

She blushed. “Fair.”

Morning raised an eyebrow. “Is there a way to automatically transport it up to some location in the Castle?”

“Yes,” she answered, while a couple other colors of light- a much lighter blue making a small, bizarrely transparent crystal and a wave of dark, black light- it looked as strange as it sounded- to produce a small black crystal. “I can liquefy it in raw form and pump it up somewhere, then use that same conduit for the energy necessary for type conversions.”

She turned to Hailey. “How difficult would it be to get a dedicated Astrium Room up here, that investigation management could fetch comms from to assign new investigators without having to go through Ginevra?”

“Ginny,” Hailey corrected almost automatically. “And I’m not sure, I’d have to talk to Bonbon. Shouldn’t be an issue, though, there’s a lot of unused classrooms even after we made the offices.” She paused. “Speaking of, since our investigators don’t actually have to be confirmed unpossessed thanks to the network fault thing, I’d like to induct her.”

Morning tilted her head. “Hmm, that’s an assumption I’d rather not make,” she scowled. “Is there a way to detect parselmouths throughout the school, just in case the Horcrux found a Parselmouth we don’t know about, and taught or convinced them to do it of their own free will?”

Hailey and Ginny looked at each other, even as the crystals in Ginny’s hands flowed together, almost like liquids, to form into a series of six-inch metal rods about as big around as the tip of her wand. “Uh, no,” Ginny muttered, looking back at Morning. “But if we can’t trust Bonbon, who can we trust?”

“That very question has resulted in more criminals being trusted than I like to think about,” Morning informed her. “For the moment, we three are the only trustworthy ones, until and unless we can verify otherwise.” She glanced at Hailey. “Go ahead and still ask about the Astrium Room, but make it sound like Ginny wants to build that library access system we discussed earlier as its cover story, and needs somewhere to set up the production infrastructure. Do not mention the Chamber of Secrets at all. I assume she knows about Ginny’s powers?”

She nodded. “And mine, not that anyone knows my limits.” She scowled. “Even I don’t.”

“Good.” She turned to Ginny. “I’m going to ask you to spend a bit of spare Astrium on making it look like all of your production infrastructure is in that Astrium room- and is there a way to set it up so that only existing investigators- not just people that’ve received that minicom thing- can retrieve more?”

“Yes,” she answered, holding a handful of minicoms in one hand as she rubbed her chin with the other, the leftover Luminous and Nocturnic Astrium- the transparent and black crystals- stored safely back inside her body. “We’d probably only want to hide some of them, if we’re going to be making it a library database system.”

“Though a library database would still rely on building a database, wouldn’t it?” Hailey mused, tilting her head. “We could probably tell her it’s a telepathic network to help the Management Team function more smoothly, which we could anticipate eventually expanding to serve a library database function.”

“Good idea,” Morning nodded. “I imagine the management team would probably benefit a lot from being able to notify each other of when things happen and so on.” She turned to Hailey. “Do you think Bonbon will want to expand it to the rest of the Program as well?”

She nodded. “She’ll almost certainly want to expand the network first to LSIs, then to Student Instructors, and finally to the rest of the student body, in order. It’ll make managing things like Potions mishaps a lot smoother and easier.”

“Even if it’ll function as, essentially, mental mail,” Ginny muttered. “No delay, but only concepts- not even words, those are automatically applied by the recipient’s mind.” She scowled. “For… certain, highly-trusted people, like you, Hailey, I’m okay with going for the full-size version that’s mounted in my head, called an Obelisk, and don’t ask me why because I don’t know either. That installation will involve the very time-consuming installation of an Astrium Control Module to allow it to interface properly- and the Obelisks are similarly more capable. That said, unlike the minicoms, any obelisk connections will know who I am… and be able to control exactly who they’re sending stuff to. Mesh network between them, basically, rather than hub-and-node.”

“More capable?”

She winced. “Voice, information, understanding- anything you can perceive, you can send through a connection between two Obelisks, and it will be delivered in perfect clarity. You could even stream your senses through it.” She paused. “Though, unlike the minicoms, the Obelisks can’t be configured to self-disable during exam times, and really can’t be removed from the network.”

There was a moment of silence.

“I’ll leave that up to you, then,” Morning informed Ginny. “I’ll just ask that you don’t give one to anyone that you don’t know, without a doubt, is trustworthy, including on the Chamber business.” Pause. “Which at the moment, does not include anyone that isn’t in this room.” She sighed. “When summoning the Monster… does our Culprit have to stay with the Monster, or no?”

“No,” Ginny answered. “They have to stand in front of the sink they want to summon it from, though- and anyone that happens to be in the room will know that they’re speaking parseltongue. It sounds like…” She paused to switch languages. “Something something.”

“Something very somethingy,” Morning immediately answered, in parseltongue, before switching to English. “By the nature of what I am, I automatically can speak every language that anything magical can or ever has been able to,” she informed her. “I do not, however, have the apparent ability to hear through walls that you parselmouths seem to.”

“And also by the nature of what you are, you should be immune to the deadly aspect of the Basilisk’s gaze,” Hailey informed her. “I’m not so sure about the petrification one, but you should be able to at least resist that as well.” She sighed. “And by the nature of what I am, I’m immune to both aspects of its gaze and its venom.”

“I know a potion that will render a witch or wizard immune to the gaze for about three hours,” Ginny informed them. “It’ll take about a month to brew, but it only requires common ingredients. Shall I brew a small ocean of it?”

Morning snorted. “Shouldn’t need that much, but definitely brew a good amount. We’ll want every investigator to have some on-hand at all times, so they can protect themselves against it if they have reason to believe it’s approaching them, or even just in case when we sound the alarm, if they can do so discreetly.” She paused. “And with that in mind, we’ll want a decent reserve, in case the Basilisk is summoned several times in quick succession. I’d imagine we want each investigator to have, what, two or more doses, separately bottled, on hand at all times?”

Ginny nodded. “Sounds good to me. It would let them protect themselves for longer… or protect someone else near them.” She placed the minicoms in the center of the table like a handful of pencils. “Here’s all the minicoms I can make with the Astrium I have on hand,” she informed them. “They’re configured to auto-install in anyone that touches them and doesn’t already have one, and when they do, they’ll automatically search for a name and send it to me so I can identify the connection.”

“A name,” Morning repeated.

“A name,” she nodded. “Specifically, it’s looking for your name in the same place your nameplate does. It’s meant so I can correctly identify random messages people send, since those messages don’t contain identity bands unless they’re being sent between two Obelisks.”

Hailey reached out to take one, and the moment she touched it, it vanished in a burst of light and she blinked. “Oh, that’s interesting,” she mused.

Morning watched her for a second, then did the same. “Creative,” she observed.

Ginny blushed. Both names had come across exactly as she’d expected, and the script she’d set up in her Seed had automatically assigned the names to the associated minicom IDs. “If we only do the management team and a couple extra, I should have the Astrium to build a database in about two months.”

Author's Note

It's been soooo long since I wrote this... I've proofread it a dozen times... I'm pretty sure there are still errors in it.

I need to start uploading these things as I write them (or close thereto), so I don't run into "must upload before publishing" situations again, and last-second "what am I going to say about it" blurbs like this one.

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This one actually didn't take very long to rewrite, even though much of it is from the ground up (and the new parts at the beginning, of course). It did, however, grow by about the same amount as the last three chapters shrank by, combined! And I'm a lot more satisfied with how the events turn out, and how Hailey & Ginny come across as the children that they actually are, rather than supersmarts, even though they do have a lot of knowledge. We also find out some more about a name that's otherwise appeared only in a couple of letters a few chapters back...

Chapter 14: Attunement RW

Ginny looked up at the sudden burst of fire in the Chamber of Secrets, where she was working at the moment. “Morning, Hailey,” she greeted, before turning back to the half-built Void Weave Drive before her to finish assembling it. It was Saturday morning, just over a week after the Monster of Slytherin was first detected.

“Good morning,” Hailey agreed.

The silence then held for the seconds it took her to finish building the device, and order it powered on; the energy required to preheat its Astrion Generator was more than she wanted to spend at that moment, but thanks to the second, smaller Drive already attached to the system, she didn’t have to.

Finally, she rose to her feet and turned her back on her setup, which would’ve fit easily on her desk back home. “So, you’re ready?”

Hailey nodded. “That’s not as big as I was expecting,” she indicated, gesturing down at the Astrium on the floor.

She glanced down at it, and shrugged. “Yeah, of course it’s not. I’m using matter transmutation to make the ingredients for the Astrium, then forging it- and even though these little Drives each produce more power than my wellspring, even the upgrade I just performed will only bring it up to about the same speed as the crystals popping out of my hands.” She paused. “Speaking of which, I actually know how to control that now, so I no longer need to fear crystals popping out at inopportune times.”

Hailey tilted her head. “I take it matter transmutation takes a lot of power?”

She nodded. “It takes an unbelievably large amount of power. Then the forging takes a lot of power as well; one of the limiters on my innate production is actually my wellspring rather than materials gathering.” She sighed. “By default, my body gathers the raw materials from dust, essentially, then uses magic- specifically, the overflow from my wellspring when my reserves are full- to form the base Astrium compound and forge it into Astrium as well. My seed has been storing all the excess power not used by that- which isn’t much- to enable me to create the initial sample of Luminous Astrium just slightly sooner than my fiftieth birthday if I happen to be unable to access electricity or whatever; that, combined with the output of these Drives, is what allowed me to make the Luminous Astrium I used for the minicoms so far.” She sighed. “Good thing they don’t use much.”

“How much power does Luminous Astrium require?”

She chuckled. “You know how I said matter transmutation takes an unbelievably large amount of power? Well, forging the base compound into Raw Astrium doesn’t take quite that much, but still requires a lot of power… and making Luminous Astrium makes it look free. I’d probably have a good fifty times as much Astrium here, if I wasn’t focusing so much power into making Luminous Astrium so I can build bigger Void Weave Drives and make it faster.” She sighed. “I kinda wish the Drive didn’t have so much Luminous Astrium in it, especially in power generation focus like these, but you take what you can get, I guess. I’m already running right about a gigawatt of total power output in here right now, so there isn’t much that a muggle power supply can offer.” She sighed. “With this much power, I can make the amount of Luminous Astrium used in that tiny Drive you gave me once an hour or so- so I expect to be upsizing this Drive once a week or so. Ideally, I’d like to get it big enough to go all the way from this wall to the Snake Gate, as I call it, and add another one on top- but that’s going to take a small eternity.”

“I expect it will,” Hailey agreed. “At least it will accelerate over time, won’t it?”

She sighed. “Yeah.” Then she glanced up. “Um, so you know, I’m currently reserving about ninety-five percent of the power produced for this expansion duty; the remaining five percent gets put into making those minicoms. The Database requires a lot of Luminous Astrium to reach its design potential, of theoretically unlimited storage and access capacities, but it’ll take hardly any at all to make one big enough to serve a Hogwarts full of minicoms. It’ll need a lot more Nocturnic, but I’ve got plenty of that.”

“Works for me,” Hailey informed her. “Rushing to build a full-castle network is kinda pointless if you don’t have the capacity to maintain it, and I don’t want you stunting yourself in order to do something like that either.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I know,” she sighed. “That’s why there’s only five percent left over for building the network- and even the ACM you’re here for. Good thing that requires very little Luminous Astrium, isn’t it?”

She chuckled. “Yup, good thing. And I assume the Obelisk also requires very little?”

She nodded. “It does need more than the minicoms- quite a bit more, actually- but not as much as that miniaturized Void Weave Drive.”

“And your excuse for making so little Astrium upstairs?”

She shrugged. “Matter-energy conversion makes even Luminous Astrium production look cheap, and that’s what I’m pretending to use upstairs. The pipe I ran from here is really skinny, so it didn’t take long to make and fill and it’s hard to find, but thanks to running it through the Chamber of Secrets Access Network, not only is it impossible to find without speaking Parseltongue, but I can expand it to a pretty significant size without even walking up to it- all I have to do is be near either end, and pass the commands along the Astrium.” She paused. “I’ve got my Seed running a matter-energy conversion simulation so I know exactly how big to make the Tempered Astrium blocks upstairs, which are based on actual, Luminous-Astrium-intensive ME device blueprints, and how frequently to make new minicoms available.” She sighed. “I’m pretending to have about seventy percent as much power production upstairs as I actually have down here, but upstairs is only taking about two percent of my total power production right now, and that’s only going to fall as my power grows much faster than the ME stuff would.”

“And you’ve used some of that three percent for the ACM and stuff?”

She nodded. “I did.” She held up a little white ball of Tempered Astrium, about the size of a walnut. “This is the ACM… well, technically it’s the case around the extremely fragile ACM, but you get the idea. It’s actually based on my Seed, which looks about like the case around the ACM before it is installed and does quite a lot more, but I don’t have the blueprint for it, so…” She shrugged. “It’s not like anyone else actually needs, or even wants for that matter, much of the rest of the Seed’s functions.” She sighed. “Hell, even I don’t want a couple of them, but only in a similar way as I don’t want the psionic powers or to be seen as Phoenix-bonded.” She shrugged again. “I’m tired of power, simply put. But it’s not like I can exactly complain about it, so it’s here to stay.”

Hailey shrugged. “Same way I don’t want all of my powers, but it’s not like I can just throw them in the trash can.” She paused. “Well… I actually can, as strange as that sounds, but I’d still have them, if you know what I mean.”

Ginny giggled. “I think I have an idea.” She then drew what looked like a deep purple wand from an inside pocket. “This is the Obelisk. Don’t worry, just like the minicom, it’s installed in an energy form, so you don’t have to deal with a hard rod like this nor any brain damage from its presence.” She paused. “It’s also capable of self-installation, so long as the host has an ACM or similar; if said host has a Seed, like mine, it doesn’t self-install; instead, the Seed takes over to install it.” She shrugged, then pocketed it again. “Just like the minicoms, I’ve configured it to self-install in the first person it touches that doesn’t have one… and is compatible with it. It’ll also uninstall the minicom while it’s at it- there’s no point having both.”

She nodded softly. “Alright then. What do you need me to do?”

She drew her wand this time and conjured a bed. Too bad conjuration- and transfiguration- weren’t good enough for Astrium production. “You’ll have to be unconscious through the ACM installation process,” she informed her. “The installation can react… poorly with a conscious mind. I’ll be using my psionics to keep you asleep.”

Hailey nodded, laying on the bed as Philomena leaped into the air and vanished in a burst of flames. “Alright, give it a shot.”

“How’s it coming?”

“Pretty well,” Ginny answered automatically. “Finished the installation, now I’m just verifying it.” She paused, and looked up. “Wait. Hailey?” She looked down at the bed again, then back up. “How?”

The Hailey that was standing next to her chuckled. “One of the first powers I discovered last year lets me be in multiple places at once, with completely independent bodies in each place that I can spontaneously create and destroy as I like. Souls don’t experience unconsciousness like bodies do, so it’s perfectly fine for me to do this during the installation; it won’t affect the soul tethering.” She scowled. “Which actually isn’t working already, because my wellspring apparently already has that capability, and merely needs to see exactly how to interface with it.”

Ginny blinked. “Meaning… you didn’t actually need an ACM.”

She shrugged. “Meaning my wellspring learned in all the features of the ACM basically the moment you installed it, then rejected the hardware components,” she answered. “The Obelisk will probably experience something similar, given what I am.” She chuckled. “You should be able to retrieve your ACM without any issues.”

She looked down, and back up. “Are you certain?”

“Just as certain as I am of what I am,” she sighed. “And unfortunately, I’m so certain that I’m actually aware I technically don’t fit in this universe. Or at least, not within its laws of physics; as such, my very presence warps reality far more than Nocturnic Astrium does, which is why any Astrium can be ordered into Nocturnic Astrium in my presence, independent of time distortions made by other Nocturnic or not.”

Ginny facepalmed. “So…” She sighed. “So you could already interface with the Astrium?”

“Yup.”

A minute later, her ACM case once again contained an intact ACM, and Ginny pulled the Obelisk out of her pocket to hand it to Hailey.

Hailey touched it. There was a burst of light… and the Obelisk was still in Ginny’s hand, even as she felt the connection come in from Hailey, as if it had been properly installed.

“As expected,” Hailey nodded. “Once again, all my soul needed was instructions, because it was already capable of it.” She scowled. “Far more than capable of it; those Obelisks can reach between universes within the same Multiverse, but I’m pretty sure I’m capable of going between Multiverses as well.”

“That’s insane,” Ginny muttered, as both the bed and the Hailey on it vanished into thin air.

“It is,” Hailey agreed. “There’s absolutely nothing out there- and this is the only even remotely interesting Multiverse in the entire sector… right now, at least.”

“So,” Ginny sighed, rising from her chair and vanishing it. “So you’re connected, then.” She smiled. “I kinda want to get Hermione and Silver as well, but until we know…”

Hailey nodded. “We know.”

“We do?”

She shrugged. “One of my powers lets me just automatically know things if I want to. It’s a bit of a waste, most of the time, and definitely the boring way to go about it, but sometimes it can be handy.” She paused. “And if you think I wouldn’t use it to verify that the people I trust are actually trustworthy, the boring way or not, you’re out of your mind.”

She snorted. “How about Bonbon?”

She shrugged. “She’s also safe,” she answered. “So is Morning. And the rest of the Management Team, and that’s everyone I’ve dared to let that power look at- just because it’s so boring to abuse it.” She chuckled. “When I told Bonbon about it, she agreed that as convenient as it might be, we should keep it as a last resort.”

“Awesome,” Ginny smiled. “So, do you think we can get Hermione down here next week?”

“Only Hermione?”

She shrugged. “Then Silver the week after, then Morning and finally Bonbon, both up in the Astrium Room instead. It’d probably look more than a little suspicious if I vanished for too long, even on a weekend.”

“I suppose,” Hailey answered, tilting her head. “Yeah, it probably would, wouldn’t it? Especially when some of your subordinates are looking for you.” She shrugged. “Don’t worry, they, ahh, randomly crossed paths with me, asked their questions, and got answers.”

“Randomly?”

She shrugged. “Last year, people kept saying I had a habit of turning up whenever they needed me. That’s because I’ve set a special, ‘hidden ward’ over the Castle, so I know instantly the moment someone starts looking for me, or otherwise needing me, and can plot a way to just… turn up.” She chuckled. “Naturally, I don’t meet every need; I do, after all, maintain at least the appearance of being in only one place at a time, despite teaching as many as three different classes at once while attending a fourth, but…” She shrugged. “You do what you can, you know?”

She snorted. “Of course you do. So, how many of you are running around right now?”

“Right now? Eighteen.” She paused. “Seventeen. On weekdays, last year, it was usually at least fifty- and this year, so far, it’s closer to a hundred at any given time. Eighteen again, someone’s looking for Bonbon and hasn’t realized she has an office.” She sighed. “Hopefully, as people start to realize where our offices are, I’ll stop having to be in quite so many places at once.” She leaned back in the air. “At least this year we have enough Instructors that specialize in Special Needs students, so people like Crabbe and Goyle shouldn’t be held back by their disabilities anymore.” She looked sideways at Ginny. “So, I’m curious. Without abusing my powers, what are the various kinds of Astrium?”

She blinked. “Uhh… Yeah, why not.” She conjured a sofa to sit in, and Hailey promptly joined her. “I suppose it all starts with Raw Astrium. That’s the kind my body makes, that’s the kind the Astrium Forge makes. Yes, I know, you’d think it’d be Forged Astrium coming from the Forge, but that’s because it’s all translation artefacts from a language with much more nuanced versions of the words.” She sighed. “Raw Astrium, the blue crystals, is a room temperature superconductor for electricity, magic, heat, and psionic energy, to name a few. You can make batteries out of it, but they won’t have nearly as much capacity as Luminous Astrium batteries.

“Next comes Forged Astrium. It seems to be a little deceptively named in English, but again, translation artefact, it happens. It’s the densest and toughest form of Astrium, looks a bit like solid gold- and, despite taking the form of a metal, it’s actually a pretty good insulator. There’s very little that’s tough enough to cut Forged Astrium, and the main one is Forged Astrium itself- not that anyone compatible with Astrium will ever need to cut it, per se, but still.

“Then there’s Tempered Astrium. Another… funny-named one, I think I’ll call them, since you don’t make it by tempering it but you make it the same way you make Forged Astrium: Order it to change states. It’s only a little bit denser than the Raw form, but still many times tougher than steel and about as good of a thermal conductor as the same. It’s also not too great of an insulator, though it still functions as one.” She chuckled. “When building a ship out of Astrium, the core structural components get built of Forged Astrium, at least if it’s a large or high-performance ship, and the hull out of Tempered Astrium. Bladed weapons often have a Tempered blade, with an extremely fine edge of Forged Astrium. Tempered Astrium is even used in windows- if you oxidize it properly, it’s more transparent than glass, without sacrificing any of its strength.

“And now for Nocturnic Astrium. Simple command, in the presence of time distortions, as you know. It’s a lot easier to make the initial sample for than Luminous Astrium, as it only takes six months for a Chronotemporal Accumulator- basically a time battery with a funny name given to it by translation artefacts, made from just the base three- to, ahh, accumulate the time distortions necessary. It’s capable of making those distortions on command, so it’s pretty easy to make more once you’ve got a base sample, no power or whatever necessary. Nocturnic Astrium is very… niche; it’s pretty useless, in general. Brittle and soft, it’s like the playdough of Astrium… except of course for the ways it interacts with gravitons, tachyons, and chronitons. It’s the only form of Astrium that interacts with those, and because of that, it’s absolutely essential in anything that wants to manipulate gravity, time, or the worldwall- such as the Obelisk and Minicoms, which work through the worldwall, giving them effectively unlimited range.

“Finally, and hardest to make, is Luminous Astrium. According to the reference materials in my Seed, it usually takes about twenty years of effort to make the initial sample of it, which you gave me in the form of that Void Weave Drive during the summer.” She chuckled. “It takes insane amounts of power to create, but it serves as a near-unlimited-capacity battery for basically any form of energy without any special construction or whatever required. That said, it’s actually pretty hazardous to just let go of, because it’s only partly physical and actually completely massless, so you never know what it’s going to do outside of a perfect vacuum. According to my references, it’s standard practice to mix it with enough Raw Astrium to make it heavier than air for storage, so that’s what I’ve been doing with it as well.” She shrugged. “Still floats on water, though.

“Finally, there’s a bunch of extra variants of Astrium that you can make by bonding it to various other materials, such as the oxidized Tempered Astrium, which I don’t have a specific name on record for. Then there’s the Astrium Weave, that’s what the fabric is all called, which can be made from any of the five types by bonding it with hydrogen. Raw Weave looks like silk, Forged is kevlar, Tempered is amazingly similar to cotton. I haven’t made any Luminous or Nocturnic weave, but according to my database, I have no reason to; Luminous Weave isn’t massless, but it is a lot lighter than hydrogen gas and about as transparent as the same- and Nocturnic weave is…” She sighed. “It’s just bizarre. I actually don’t have any information on exactly how it is bizarre, it apparently just is.”

Author's Note

"It's just bizarre. I'm not sure how else to describe it."

Code for "The author hasn't designed it yet".

... Ideas?

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I think I'm going to say whoops. The last chapter went up a day early... then there was none on the scheduled publication date. It's pretty clear to me that my mind just hasn't been in it lately.

It's time to fix that. I'm going to get a bunch of chapters uploaded today, and I'll also start a daily update cycle for a week or so so we get to the point where I can actually remember the sequence of events and perhaps actually not be too depressed by the 22-chapter backlog (after this chapter) to work on the next one. Seriously, on the existing schedule, that's enough to reach past Feb. 23 of next year, and I'm sick and tired of the 5-month head start, so we're going to reduce it!

... four words...

I rewrote this entire chapter basically from scratch, with only a little reference to the old version to keep everything in line- and copying the new version in overtop the old increased the word count by...

Four Words.

Anyways, Ginny now shows a little more willingness to use magic to conjure stuff, rather than making everything out of her (expensive) Astrium. I've also quite significantly increased the cost of matter-energy conversion (to something possibly approximating real-world ME costs, what with E=mc^2), and rebalanced the costs of everything else so she actually takes a reasonable amount of time to get the resources she wants.

Also, fun fact: Ginny said that her Gigawatt power plant could make an "initial sample amount" of Luminous Astrium about once an hour. This was actually derived; had Hailey not been there, and had she had access to electricity and drawn 20A@240V continuous, it would have taken her about twenty years to make that initial sample.

20A@240V continuous for twenty years sums up to about 3,000 GW-seconds, or roughly 0.85GWh. That "initial sample" would make the tiny drive Hailey had made her, which would produce probably 10MW (it was specified "megawatt-range", but not where in the range). As such, that tiny drive could make enough to replicate itself in 100 hours (~4 days, which would accelerate somewhat rapidly as she built more and more of them, and so on, allowing her to reach the 1GW threshold right about at this point in the story, at Hogwarts. Since it's "about" 20 years, and she only said "about" 1GW, I figure it's close enough to fudge it to where she's got that amount of Astrium "about" once an hour (rather than once every 51 minutes).

Chapter 15: First Attack RW

Ginny stiffened. It was in the middle of the Halloween Feast, and Hailey was in the middle of a bathroom break.

“The Monster of Slytherin is on the move,” Hailey announced.

She shivered, listening to the distant sound as she searched the room. Once the whole management team had been outfitted with minicoms, Bonbon had declared them no less than ‘genius’ and offered Ginny a position on said management team. She’d postponed for a month or so, but once Hermione and Silver were both outfitted with Obelisks (without telling anyone else), she’d finally let in and joined the team… to find out that Hailey had been given the top slot as Management Team Lead.

Unbeknownst to the Management Team, the minicom host had already been migrated to a communications module in the Chamber of Secrets, even without any sort of database to attach it to. That module relayed them to Hailey, but it was an independent address on her Obelisk Network, so the whole network no longer relied on her… and she didn’t have to personally pass messages from one management team member to another. Should something happen to it, the minicoms would automatically connect first to Ginny and then to Hailey as backup hosts. When she expanded the Database to actually be a database, which she had the Astrium for now that she thought about it, it would take over that information-relay role, without the need for anyone to pass messages around; they’d just find their way to their destinations automatically.

In other news, as much to Ginny’s surprise as anyone else’s, she’d actually managed to find other friends, not just Hailey’s friends. Well… one other friend: Luna Lovegood. They’d only met three times before Hogwarts, in three short visits, but two weeks after the year started, they ran into each other in the Castle… and it was like they were old friends.

She also had a new acquaintance and, exactly as she’d suspected some time after the murder, there was a lot more to Myrtle Warren- more frequently called ‘Moaning Myrtle’ behind her back- than was visible at first glance. She’d managed to cheer the girl up and, while she didn’t exactly count as a friend to Ginny, Myrtle obviously thought of her as such. Ginny was also helping the ghost to solve the problem of the constant bullying- through reincarnation, of course, the easiest way she knew of short of casting Unforgivable Curses on the entire student body. Unfortunately, much of that process was waiting for a decent candidate to appear; Myrtle was very specific about who she wanted to be born to.

Not as specific as Ginny had been, though. Or at least, not that the girl realized; Myrtle had originally told Ginny she wanted to be born either directly to her birth parents, but that was basically impossible, even without considering their age: Her father was five years deceased, and her mother had been on her deathbed. Myrtle had been heartbroken to learn that her death had shortened her parents’ lives but, with some creative magic, Ginny had been able to arrange a visit between the ghost and her mother’s muggle hospital room.

Mrs. Warren had died happy, knowing that her daughter was still alive, if a little alarmed and perhaps frightened by her form.

After that, Myrtle had told Ginny she’d be satisfied with any magical family; she didn’t want to be seen as a ‘mudblood’ again, and wanted the benefits of cosmetic magic as well. Two days later, in the course of her research, Ginny had discovered that Myrtle’s non-magical sister had married a squib and given her a niece and a nephew, both muggles and newlyweds to other muggles. Myrtle had laughed herself silly at the idea of being her own great-aunt, and had accepted them as options, but she still preferred to be born to a magical family.

Ginny had carefully not mentioned that Lord Voldemort had, before becoming the Dark Lord, sired one child out of wedlock: Molly Prewett. A special little spell had kept the baby girl from inheriting things like parseltongue, but she was her own grandfather! And her own granddaughter!

That had been something she hadn’t realized until after she’d found Myrtle’s niece and nephew, having simply not thought about it.

But whereas that had been Myrtle’s only stipulation, Ginny had added a few more to her search without telling the girl.

She was going to ensure that not only would Myrtle be reborn as a girl, and she’d do so to a family that wouldn’t just accept her but care for her. To a family that would help her to accept her new appearance, whatever it was, without cosmetics, as Ginny had, rather than modifying herself.

She was going to make sure Myrtle’s second childhood was a happy childhood… and, as she had told her parents she wanted a sister and was carefully suggesting to them that they could afford to give her one, it might even be as Ginny’s younger sister. By a pretty large margin, but so? Their souls were the same age, and that was all she really cared about.

But aside from all that, she scanned the room- the Great Hall, in response to Hailey’s warning. Hermione and Silver did the same, and all three of them sent all the information they gathered straight to Hailey; for some reason probably related to her random acquisition of new powers every month or perhaps her ability to be in multiple places at once, Hailey had some truly insane processing skills to go with her perfect recall.

It took Ginny about a second to positively ID every other member of the Management Team in the Great Hall, along with most of the school’s staff and several hundred other students. She matched it with a psionic biosign scan of the room and all nearby spaces, covering around half the Castle- and immediately sent the scan to Hailey. Unexpectedly, she’d detected the Monster in her scan- and what looked like someone in a passage near it, though they were at the very edge of the scan, so it was hard to tell.

Seconds later, Hailey’s voice returned. “Found the victim. Mrs. Norris, outside Myrtle’s bathroom. Petrified.” There was a pause, in which Hailey sent Ginny, Hermione, and Silver a picture, showing Mrs. Norris- the caretaker Argus Filch’s pet cat- hanging from a torch bracket by her tail, a threatening message written on the wall underneath in scarlet paint. “Suspect escaped too quickly, identification negative.”

‘Suspect?’ Morning sent- but she was using a minicom, so the message was lacking in voice and tone, only carrying her meaning.

“Someone was near the Chamber entrance the Monster returned into,” Hailey promptly informed them. “Detected via Ginny’s powers. They got away before we could identify them.” There was a pause. “Myrtle says it was a girl, but she didn’t look.”

“Psionic signature looked like a possession,” Ginny observed.

“How many did we get?” Morning asked.

The silence held for almost a whole minute after that, during which the deserts appeared, and Percy asked Ginny if she was okay; she was still stiff from the announcement her brother hadn’t heard. “Y-Yeah,” she answered Percy. “I’m okay.”

Finally, as Hailey entered the Great Hall from her bathroom visit, she answered. “We’ve positively identified one thousand and twelve safe, leaving three thousand, three hundred seventy-two possible. Most identifications are Gryffindor and Ravenclaw house, but we’ve confirmed the Instructor Program’s management team to be safe.” She paired it with the upload of a large block of data that Ginny reflexively saved to her Seed without transferring it to biological memory.

She let out a sigh, and queried her Astrium down in the Chamber… then started directing the formation of the Obelisk Network Database through its own connection to her Obelisk. “We’ll have the database in two minutes,” she informed everyone, then sent just to Morning’s minicom. ‘And Morning, if you want to meet me in the Chamber of Secrets this Saturday, I can get you an Obelisk too.’

She could almost feel Morning’s raised eyebrow from across the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. ‘Are you sure you want to offer me something that permanent?’

She allowed her lips to quirk in a smile as Hailey sat next to her and immediately started serving herself some dessert. ‘Yes, I’m sure.’ It was kinda funny how she could tell Morning wasn’t objecting to it at all, merely confirming that she was making the offer.

“No doubt about it, Lockhart’s an idiot,” Ginny broadcast grumpily, while glaring at Lockhart. Once the feast had ended, someone had found Mrs. Norris, and everyone had stopped. Seconds later, Filch had arrived, and started accusing the people that had discovered the scene of killing his cat.

Seconds after that, while Filch was still making mild death threats in the direction of the twins that had just happened to be at the front, Professor Dumbledore had followed the sound of panic and arrived with Professors Snape, McGonagall, and Lockhart in tow.

Lockhart had offered the use of his office for the investigation, so Dumbledore had accepted it. He’d sent most of the students off to bed, while having the Twins follow him and the other Professors to Lockhart’s office… and asking Bonbon to summon the rest of the management team to the same office.

So they had come… and while Dumbledore bent over Mrs. Norris, examining her closely, Lockhart had started talking about the various things that had probably killed Mrs. Norris, without even waiting for confirmation that she was actually dead.

‘He did warn us Lockhart’s a fraud,’ Bonbon conceded through her minicom.

Ginny scowled at the difference. Wasn’t there a way to let the rest of the management team, or even the Professors, take advantage of the communications capabilities of the Obelisk… without making it permanent, nor requiring ACM installations? She called up the blueprints for the Obelisk and the minicom, and compared them. The difference was quite startling- but if she stripped out the Obelisk’s soul transfer capabilities, and replaced the psychic network with a psychic link between user and Obelisk and made it an electronic network directly between Obelisks… then she could also remove the ACM, which the Obelisk primarily used to link itself to the user’s soul.

Which would enable her new system to be installed and uninstalled on a whim. The device- a communicator, she decided, as a larger version of the minicoms- would be only a little bit bigger than the minicoms, as much of the Obelisk’s volume was spent in the hardware necessary for soul transfer, rather than that necessary to form a psychic link with the mind, which she’d omitted in her original design for the minicoms. She could easily run multiple separate networks simultaneously; one for the management team, one for the investigators, and one for the Hogwarts staff, for example. The full Obelisks would be compatible with such a network, just like they were with the minicoms- and unlike the Obelisk Network, it would be simplicity itself to simply assign identities to people in these networks, and in so doing, keep people from realizing who and what she was.

The main challenge would be that it would require twice as much Luminous Astrium as a minicom, though still not nearly as much as an Obelisk.

But… she had enough. She could do that. Especially now that the management team was confirmed safe, and she could tell Bonbon about the true extent of her Astrium production infrastructure.

Finally, Dumbledore straightened up suddenly. “She’s not dead,” he announced.

Lockhart immediately cut off in the middle of all the murders he’d prevented.

“Not dead?” Filch asked disbelievingly, looking up suddenly from where he’d been crying in the corner. “Then why is she all- All-?”

“She has been petrified,” Dumbledore informed him, and went on to tell Filch about Professor Sprout’s mandrakes.

They all ignored Lockhart’s declaration of “Ahh, I thought so.”

‘How hard would it be to connect senior staff to this network of yours?’ Bonbon asked suddenly.

Ginny blinked. “Easy,” she answered promptly. “I’ve also just come up with upgraded communicators that’ll expand the network capabilities significantly, eliminate the reliance on a hub location, and let us run multiple separate networks at once- ‘channels’, if you will. They’ll be just as easy to install as the minicoms.”

‘Expand the network capabilities?’ Bonbon queried.

“Yes- to make it a true telepathic network, rather than mental mail.”

“Sounds like it could be useful,” Hailey observed calmly, but Ginny noticed the amusement she poured liberally into her tone… none of which would make it into the message relayed to Bonbon’s minicom by the new database, as the minicoms just weren’t capable of it.

“Shall I let you suggest it to Dumbledore?” Ginny asked. “I don’t want him to know who I am.”

‘Predictably,’ Bonbon answered. ‘I’ll take care of the offer. When can we expect the upgrade?’

“First thing in the morning,” she answered. “I’ll have enough Communicators ready by then for all the Hogwarts staff as well.”

Author's Note

This is where thing start to... Oh, alright, it's not. Things are already interesting.

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Or more accurately, both this chapter and next are fillers before the next "interesting" development in Chap. 17. Good thing I decided to accelerate the schedule, we're going through a boring spot in the story! No wonder The Gate and On the Implications of Parallel Worlds never made it past second year without terminating the plot of the books by Christmas! (Anyone remember Lake Don't-Mess-With-Hermione in the first of the two?)

Okay, THIS chapter gained an extra 300 words or so, rather than just four words like fourteen did. I had some fun with family design, not just for Myrtle (she was 15 when she died and has been dead for 50 years, so if her parents were 20 when she was born, they're no less than 85 years old now), but for Ginny as well... and the Myrtle-is-getting-reincarnated thing grew from a side mention to a whole page.

But just like the last one, basically the entire chapter was fully, entirely rewritten. I had some fun with the Mrs. Norris scene at the end, and it's somewhere around twice as long as the original.

Chapter 16: Professer RW

Zephyr Breeze- no relation to the Element Bearer of Kindness' brother of the same name, she was tired of telling ponies that- jumped awake quite suddenly when her… what had the management team called it? Communicator? Yeah, that sounded about right. When it delivered a message. It was strange, almost like someone was talking inside her brain, and she expected that she would never get used to it, despite the eventual plan for the system that she’d been told. Apparently, it would eventually allow her to contact her Instructors for assistance without having to locate their offices- and with no risk of finding said offices empty when she did so. They had promised that it wouldn’t wake her for anything unimportant, only for items of critical importance- such as the Monster of Slytherin being on the loose, as she was one of the Investigators.

Such as now. The voice was perfectly nondescript, and the Communicator didn’t give her any source identity information alongside the message, so she knew who it was: It was the anonymous Royal that had made the whole system possible.

“The Monster is on the move.”

A second later, her senses came back to her- and she let out a gasp of surprise and pain, in response to the strange stabbing sensation in her right arm. She clenched her jaw as she recalled why her arm hurt that much.

She was the Gryffindor seeker- and quite a talented one at that, apparently. Only, when she’d won the match for Gryffindor the day before despite the Slytherins riding brooms that outmatched her team’s to a broom, she’d somehow failed to notice that the Bludgers didn’t suddenly fall out of the air when the game ended. It might also have been because one of the two Slytherin beaters- she didn’t remember which- had clubbed it straight at her the moment she’d caught the Snitch. The resultant foul had been taken by Alicia Spinnet, one of the three Gryffindor chasers, who had almost casually put the Quaffle through one of the three goal hoops; the Slytherin keeper had been too confused by the turn of events to block it.

When the bludger had snapped Zephyr’s elbow like a twig, she’d- rather admirably, she understood- kept her hand closed on the Snitch, even as she subsequently crashed into the ground. It wasn’t all that unusual for her- as a pegasus, impacts like that were pretty ordinary… though her human body didn’t seem to be as durable, and that was going to be a problem.

Then of course, Gilderoy Fraudhart (that was the nickname basically the whole school had for him now, only ever used when he wasn’t present) had shown up, and gone to mend her elbow… and instead managed to vanish all the bones out of her entire arm. Fortunately, Madam Pomfrey would only need one night to grow them back; she was in the middle of doing that, as a matter of fact.

Speaking of Madam Pomfrey, she came bustling out of her office in response to her pained cry. “Are you okay?” she asked. “How bad does it hurt?”

“Not too bad,” Zephyr answered her. “Mostly just surprised me when I woke up- you were right, it is making for a rough night.”

At the same time, she thought about the message from the Royal, and her duty in response to it. She was one of the investigators- and her job as such was merely to record where she was and who was in her immediate vicinity anytime the monster was active. She’d then report that list, as complete as possible, to the Investigation Management Team, which consisted of a few people from the Student Instructor Program’s management team, the Royal… and the Investigation Team Lead, a girl named Morning Sun. That girl wasn’t a member of the Instructor Program’s management team, only a Lead Student Instructor, but she also already had a Special Award for Services to the School to her name- which she had tried to refuse as ‘just doing her job’.

On top of that, in no event was she allowed to let anyone around her get even a hint of what she was doing- for which reason they had connected a database to the network. She could stream her senses to it, creating a ‘file’ for her to review later, in the event that she didn’t think she could positively identify every student she saw- and that memory would be accessible only to her until and unless she ‘unlocked’ it for the rest.

She didn’t expect to need that this time, though. Madam Pomfrey was here… and her sensitive pegasus hearing (apparently only pegasi carried that over into Britain) told her that theirs were the only two heartbeats in the room, so there weren’t any other patients.

She quickly contacted the database and submitted an ‘electronic’ report through it, the way she was supposed to report since paper could be seen, that reported as much.

Professor McGonagall paused suddenly, then walked closer and cast her wandlight over what she’d seen in the corner of her eye; the alert for Slytherin’s monster had gone out while she had been visiting the bathroom. It was… It was a student, camera held up to his face. She sighed, and called up that telepathic network thing- she was still really new to it, having received it from Dumbledore just three hours before, and connected to two separate… networks. One was the investigation network, which was almost entirely student-managed- and the other had no students in it at all, connecting Dumbledore and the Heads of House so far. Tomorrow, some of the other Professors would be invited to receive them as well.

“Found a victim,” she announced onto the investigation network- which Dumbledore was on too. “Colin Creevey, near the Hospital Wing. Petrified.”

“Madam Pomfrey is confirmed safe,” Hailey- the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead, and one of the members of the Investigation Team- answered promptly. “Will you need help bringing him to her?”

She paused. “No, I’ll be fine.”

“Say what now?” Dumbledore began confusedly, eliciting a sigh. Like many of the investigators, he’d been awoken by the alert- though she’d already been on her way downstairs for some hot chocolate. Unlike a lot of the investigators, though, Dumbledore was very much not an earlybird- he was basically useless after waking until he had finished at least two mugs of Professor Snape’s special not-coffee. She attributed it to just how little sleep he got on a regular basis; the poor man was severely overworked, and had been long before the colorheads had started appearing, so she expected it was all he could do to keep things from spiraling out of control.

But aside from that, being able to telepathically inform her colleagues of things like this was already quite convenient… though it was still very unfamiliar to her.

And still fell under the heading of ‘Top Secret’.

Zephyr Breeze was just starting to drift back towards sleep when another message came in.

“Thank you everyone; even with just the preliminary reports so far, you’ve helped us narrow it down to less than half the school. We’ll have a meeting in the afternoon, please come.”

That was Morning Sun- and as usual, she paired it with one of the more interesting features of the Communicator network. It presented the exact time and location of the suggested meeting in an easy-to-understand way… and also told her what exactly to ask the Database to get that same information. It was going to be at two o’clock sharp, in just over twelve hours.

She’d have to ask Madam Pomfrey if she was allowed to attend an important meeting- if she wasn’t already released by then, that was- but for now, she allowed herself to drift off back to sleep.

The following afternoon, Zephyr paused, briefly, before entering the conference room that had been assigned for the meeting. She’d been pleasantly surprised to be discharged from the infirmary in the morning, once Madam Pomfrey had satisfied herself that her bones had been properly regrown.

Then, upon entering the room, she paused again. It looked like four classrooms had been stitched together in a square- there were even four blackboards, two on either side of the huge square room. The clocks placed strategically around the room told her she was about two minutes early, and much of the room was filled with chairs facing one wall; in the middle of that wall was a lectern with Morning Sun leaning against it, and the rest of the Investigation Management Team seated on a row of chairs behind her: Hailey Potter, Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead; Ginny Weasley, a first-year Lead Student Instructor; Bonbon, the previous SIPMTL, and now just Head Student Instructor for Potions; a bushy-haired girl named Hermione Granger, Head Student Instructor for Charms; and a bright silver-haired girl named Silversong, a Lead Student Instructor and one of Zephyr’s own Potions instructors.

“Good afternoon, Zephyr. Your seat is up front, with the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.”

She blinked at the unexpected message through her communicator- sounded like it was from the Royal- and followed the line on the seating plan that had been sent with it to her seat… which was, true to the message, with the rest of the Quidditch team. There was a sign resting on the table in front of her chair, identifying it as hers- even though she already knew.

The silence held for another couple minutes or so before Morning gave a sharp nod. “Alright then,” she called- and Zephyr immediately noticed that she was mirroring her speech over the communicators so that everyone would understand clearly, even without her needing to yell. “Now that we’re all here, let’s get started. So.” She sighed. “At this point, only about ten percent of all of our investigators last night have submitted reports- and yes, I’m aware that some of you are new investigators as of this morning. But even with only eighteen reports, we’ve been able to narrow it down by quite a bit.”

There was a dramatic pause while people muttered.

“This was in large part thanks to Professor Severus Snape!” She held out one hand towards one end of the front row, where Professor Snape looked somewhat stunned, then chuckled. “Yes, I know. You’re all asking, since he wasn’t even an investigator during the attack, how did he clear the names of every single student in his House?”

Even Snape looked confused by that.

Morning chuckled. “In short? He took his duty to his house seriously in a way that none of the other three Heads of House have.” She paused. “It’s really amazing how much effort he has been putting into this school, even at the cost of his own health. I’m told that last year, when he found out he was failing his Potions students, he went almost a hundred and thirty hours without sleep, grading assignments and working on his curriculum by night and searching for those that could help him with the latter by day, until he found them.”

Professor Dumbledore blinked and turned to look across the room at an embarrassed Professor Snape, straight past Zephyr (pegasus situational awareness was so convenient), his expression showing that he was both stunned and impressed.

“That diligence does not end there. He takes his duties as Head of House just as seriously, spending just over an hour every night this year, counting students.”

“Uh…” somebody muttered, somewhere in the crowd.

Morning chuckled. “I know what you’re thinking. ‘This year? What about prior years?’” She chuckled again. “In prior years, it didn’t take him as long.”

A wave of gentle laughter crossed the room.

“But that count, recorded on a special chart every night after curfew and sealed with an Oath given outside the Slytherin common room, is what allowed us to clear every Slytherin’s name. Few know it, but when the Headcount Oath is given properly, as he did, it activates a passage detection charm on the entrance to the common room in question, which will record which students depart into the rest of the Castle from the moment that Oath is given.” She paused. “Last night, his headcount sheet reported every student accounted for, and that charm reported that no student had departed over the hour and a half or so between said headcount and when we queried it some fifteen minutes after the attack last night.

“That is what cleared all their names.”

Professor Snape sat up straighter, preening slightly.

Then Morning sighed. “The most recent headcount sheets for the other three houses, unfortunately, are a full week out of date- and the passage charms still report graduated students from three years ago, meaning the Oaths have not been done properly in all that time.” She paused, glancing at the other three Heads of House, who all had the grace to look ashamed. “On the other hand, a few students were, ahh, not in bed at the time of the attack- and a couple of them were investigators.

“Of those few students we know about, only one was actually supposed to be outside of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Towers at that time.” She held her hand out towards Zephyr. “That being Miss Zephyr Breeze here, Gryffindor seeker, who was bedridden in the Hospital Wing and submitted a report that cleared Madam Pomfrey’s name.” She chuckled. “And here I was expecting our matron to be one of the last people we were able to cross off, not one of the first.

“Next up comes Miss Angelina Johnson.” She gestured at Angelina, seated right next to Zephyr. “Gryffindor Chaser, and clearly more Gryffindor than anyone gives her credit for. Caught stealing food from the kitchens, according to Mr. Filch, who was shouting at her and her friend in his office for the entire attack.” She chuckled. “While I hesitate to encourage any student to break school rules, her report did clear Mr. Filch’s name.” She paused for a long moment while chuckles swept the room and Angelina blushed furiously. “Now… there’s a big difference between being supposed to be in Gryffindor Tower and being supposed to be outside of it- and between the two, there’s a third category, which very few students are aware of: The Student Instructor Program Management Team is exempt from curfew, and allowed to roam the Castle at all hours.

“Exactly what Miss Ginny Weasley here was doing at half past midnight we may never know, and she certainly isn’t required to tell us- but what we do know is that, whatever it was, she was in a position that enabled her to trace the Monster of Slytherin back to the exact sink that had been used to summon it.”

There was a roar of applause, and Ginny Weasley put her bright red face in her hands, causing Hailey Potter- seated next to her- to put an arm comfortingly around her shoulders.

“Now, unfortunately, our Horcrux had already left, so we weren’t able to identify them- but the sink showed signs of being used multiple times.” She paused dramatically. “Perhaps, had Professor Flitwick taken his Head of House duty as seriously as Professor Snape, we would know who the culprit was, or at least have a very good idea; that sink just happened to be the nearest sink to Ravenclaw Tower outside of the dormitories.”

Morning never told anyone that she actually knew what Ginny had been doing; she had been talking to the girl, in the Chamber of Secrets, when the Monster had been summoned. Neither of them had been fast enough to stop its exodus up to the Castle- the summoning magic sure was fast- but they had been able to follow its exit path. As she had told the room, the Horcrux- and its victim- had already disappeared when they had arrived, just in time to capture and question the Monster itself on its return, and find out that it was the sink it had been summoned from the first time as well, though it’d been summoned from the main entrance in Myrtle’s bathroom for the attack on Mrs. Norris.

Author's Note

Profess, v. claim that one has (a quality or feeling), especially when this is not the case.

So just like miners mine and diggers dig, a professer professes. I don't doubt we could debate for hours, days, or even longer on the topic of whether it's properly spelled 'professer' or 'professor', so that's why I used three words where Hailey used one in another language- I wanted it to be clear what she was saying before you ever got down to here, as if you were actually in the room listening to her psychic speech. It really is amazing.

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Here's a trick question: Any guess who gets attacked next?

This one was fun to rewrite. Especially when I went on to imply that Professor Snape is actually the best teacher in the school by a long shot, despite being the worst at actually teaching... Gained a few hundred words, too.

Chapter 17: Death of Inconvenience RW

Professor Dumbledore sighed as he leaned back in his office several months later. A third attack had taken place about a month after the second, this time targeting two people: Justin Finch-Fletchley, a very smart Hufflepuff who had been down for Eton- a very famous muggle school- before he’d come to Hogwarts instead, and the Gryffindor Ghost, Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington… more commonly known as Nearly Headless Nick, because his neck had been only nearly severed in his death, meaning he could swing it off onto his shoulder.

Justin had been petrified- and Nicholas, who everyone was pretty sure had taken the full brunt of the attack, had gone from his normal pearly white transparency to a smoky gray. He was still a ghost, though- albeit, interestingly enough, he had seemed to interact with air, so they’d been able to use a fan to blow him up to the Hospital wing. Hopefully, the mandrake restorative draft was going to be effective on him, and not just pass through him.

Unfortunately, the Horcrux wasn’t as stupid as he and the Investigation Team had hoped, and had used a different sink for that attack- so the monitoring spells placed on that one sink near Ravenclaw Tower weren’t able to warn them or identify its victim. There was one good thing about that attack, though: Morning’s team had managed to narrow down the Horcrux to only nine hundred and eighty-three students. It was still about six times as many as there were investigators, but it was a lot less than the two thousand left after the attack on Colin Creevy, and it was enough for them to start looking into specific students that might be more likely than the rest.

Speaking of the Team… He’d seen Ginny during that Investigation Team meeting after the second attack. She hadn’t seemed overly shy, almost like someone- probably the Student Instructor Program, she was an LSI- had… coached that out of her. By piecing together Morning’s comments, she’d also found out that the girl was on not just the Investigation Management Team, but the Instructor Program’s management team as well. Perhaps she just had a ton of potential that her shyness had kept her parents from noticing, but the Program- with their highly talented help- had discovered?

He’d asked her to visit his office a week or so after the third attack, with the express purpose of simply meeting her as a family friend. In the request he’d sent her over that Communicator network (fortunately, he could send private messages through it), he’d mentioned that something seemed to be interfering with the girl’s parents anytime they started talking about her.

When she’d shown up for that meeting, she’d seemed extremely nervous, so he’d maintained a friendly front, while still taking full advantage of his political practice to get the information he wanted.

He hadn’t gotten it. Every time he felt like he was going to get close to learning exactly what all those failed letters had been unable to tell him… Ginny had demonstrated a sudden confusion spectacle that looked suspiciously like the ones her parents had given him last time he visited.

Unfortunately for him, after the first couple of times, she’d realized what he was doing and clammed up, refusing to say anything more, confused or not. He’d even tried Legilimency- only to find out that either she was a skilled Occlumens, which he found more than a little unlikely, or whatever was stopping her mother’s mail and confusing both her and her parents was also shielding her mind from him.

That was, unfortunately, quite likely.

Especially when he considered the strong fear reaction the Legilimency triggered, almost like it was the first time she’d ever detected a Legilimantic attack. She’d positively fled his office, and he hadn’t called her back, merely apologized- and explained his reasoning- through the Communicator.

She hadn’t given him the courtesy of so much as an acknowledgement, nor had he heard anything from her over the Communicator since. He hoped he hadn’t accidentally traumatized her.

It was really no different from the Royal. The anonymous Royal that had made the Communicators possible, after punching the Hogwarts Express off the tracks the year before… and some of the constructs in the Student Instructors’ offices could only have come from a Royal, so she was obviously being both employed and protected by the Program. Yet, no matter how hard he tried, not a single person would tell him who she was, or how he could reach her- nor even acknowledge her work.

Whenever he tried to reach her with the Communicator, particularly after she announced that the Monster of Slytherin was active (because of course she could sense it) for the third attack, he never got a response, even in that totally nondescript voice she used.

It was infuriating. He had thought about threatening to disband the Student Instructor Program if they didn’t tell him… but then he’d discarded that thought, as all such a disbanding would do would be to cause mayhem to break loose in the Castle- mayhem which would quickly cascade into the Ministry and the Wizengamot, where the balance was already excessively fragile thanks to the logistical nightmare of all the colorheads studying at Hogwarts. It was all he could do to keep it together as it was, he didn’t need to blow it up himself.

He really wanted to find that Royal, though. The authority of a Royal would ban mayhem from the Wizengamot, and provided the Royal understood the problems at stake (which he could make sure of), they would also be about twelve times as effective at handling that logistical nightmare as the entire Wizengamot. The entire Wizengamot, which was a nightmare itself; so many of the warlocks were so stick-in-the-mud that it took Dumbledore weeks- at best- to push through even minor laws or motions that would help to alleviate the pain of the logistical nightmare.

He still had no idea where Harry Potter had disappeared to. Hailey had never heard of him, and he’d confirmed with her- she was the Instructor Program Management Team Lead, as of a few weeks into the year- that there was no such name at Hogwarts. As such, he’d finally put the missing boy out of his mind. He’d already searched long enough, and in enough places, that continuing to search probably wasn’t going to find him; either he would turn up, or he wouldn’t.

Professor Lockhart was, as usual, proclaiming himself to have scared off the Monster of Slytherin. It was infuriating, and the reason why the man was the only member of Hogwarts staff that didn’t have a Communicator on at least the Staff Network that the Royal had set up for them.

He let out a soft chuckle as he thought about what had happened last time. So confident that the Monster wouldn’t appear after only two attacks, Lockhart had requested permission to do a little ‘dueling club’. After checking with Hailey to see if she thought there’d be a problem, he’d allowed it.

He chuckled again as he remembered the, ahh, alternate definition of “Professor” that Hailey had used in her answer, which fit the man to a T. Just like miners mine and diggers dig, a man that professes to be more than he really is would be properly termed a professer, which Hailey had respelled to match the respectable Professor title so she could insult him to his face without anyone being any the wiser. Fortunately, communicator-to-communicator messages weren’t only words, so he’d understood all that without her having to explain.

So, the very day before the third attack, Lockhart had held his dueling club.

It had been a resounding failure… for Lockhart. Overall, the Club had been a wonderful success, even as Professor Snape- who had received a raise about a week after the second attack- blew his partner, Professer Lockhart, around the stage like a ragdoll. Hailey- and the other senior Defense instructors- had taken over the rest of the club about two minutes in.

After that, Christmas had come and gone, and Hailey had commented casually on having a pile of presents all the way up to the ceiling, with a vast majority of them the Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans she seemed to enjoy so much. She hadn’t seemed to be bothered by even a single so-called ‘bomb package’, though- even though Dumbledore was sure there’d be somebody sending her one.

Valentine’s Day had then seen a rather inventive- and extremely annoying- attempt of Lockhart’s to ‘cheer up’ the school, by having a bunch of crudely dressed and equipped dwarves, his ‘card-carrying cupids’, run around the place delivering valentines. Most of the teachers, including Student Instructors, had cast locking charms on their classroom doors once everyone was present, in order to keep the dwarves from interrupting them. Amusingly, Lockhart had been handed a valentine that concealed a Howler- which had promptly exploded into flames and started screaming compliments so contrived they were actually insults for nearly an hour, without ever revealing who had sent it. Even the dwarf hadn’t known, and the voice had been just as horribly nondescript as the Royal on the Network, so Dumbledore suspected that was who had sent it.

Which finally brought him to today. He was watching silently out his office window as the students flowed out onto the grounds to watch the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff Quidditch match, but he had a bad feeling. What was it? Why did he feel like something was going to happen?

He was right about to tell the Investigation Management Team about that feeling, in case they thought it might be important, when a completely different message came in.

“The Monster is on the move.”

It was the Royal. Her voice was as painfully nondescript as ever.

The Investigation Network immediately became alive with activity, as it sounded like the investigation management team was barricading the Castle entrances until they could clear every single student that had left the Castle. They were determined to use the event to narrow it down to few enough people that they could justify questioning them and searching their belongings for the Diary, if necessary.

It felt like there were hundreds more investigators than there really were for some reason, all pouring memories into the database… publicly. He took a peek at a couple of them, and saw that they had airborne vantage points. Had the Royal enchanted a bunch of brooms to investigate for her?

“Wh- What happened?” Hermione gasped into the Obelisk Network, without adding the metadata for it to relay into one of the three Communicator networks maintained by the Database. Her voice, just like her, was absolutely terrified. “Where am I?” She couldn’t feel her hands!

Hailey’s voice came back first. “What do you remember?” she asked.

“I-!” she began, then paused for a second to… she tried to take a deep breath, but she didn’t seem to have lungs anymore. It still worked, though. “I was near the library. Found enough hints there, so I plausibly could’ve figured out what the monster was, so I was going to tell Penelope Clearwater, who was in the library too for a last-minute fact check… only for her to tell me. So I warned her the Monster was known to be active, and she pulled out a mirror. Only…” She sighed, carefully suppressing her fear- and, to be fair, her other emotions as well- so she could think rationally. “Only, the first corner she looked around, she suddenly froze up and tipped over. I- I didn’t realize what that meant… and when the Monster appeared around the corner three seconds later, I- I-!”

“You met its gaze, didn’t you?” Ginny asked suddenly.

She nodded silently. It sounded like Ginny probably knew something.

“Yeah… That means you’re dead. You probably can’t see, hear, taste, smell, or feel anything?”

“H-How do you know?” she gasped. “And how can I be dead but still… here?” She paused after that. It would explain why she didn’t seem to have any senses; dead bodies couldn’t see, after all.

“Because the Obelisks have a feature I didn’t tell you about,” Ginny informed her. “I didn’t think it would work without a Seed, which only I have, but I guess it does. Anyways, it’s a death avoidance mechanism. Your Obelisk responded to your death by uploading you onto the Network- mind and soul- which made your survival completely independent of your body’s survival.” She paused. “And since you don’t have a lot of the other facilities provided by my Seed, you’re going to be basically helpless right now. Sorry about that. But don’t worry, that’s an easy fix, I just need to get to the Chamber.

“And after that… it won’t be hard to make you a fake mechanical body, for the months it’ll take to regrow the biological one you’re used to in a biofab chamber.” There was a pause. “Um… speaking of, I’m going to have to modify said biological body to work properly with the Astrium core, and the only pattern I have for that modification includes my psionics. I don’t think they’ll be hard to remove later in the process, but…”

Hermione took another deep ‘breath’, choosing to ignore the details about her new biological body for now. Especially if it was the only option, it was the only option. “So… I was ‘rescued’ in the nick of time, but now… Alright.” She paused. “Is it going to hurt?”

“Nope. If anything, you’ve already gone through the part that’s likely to hurt the most: The conversion of your mind into a form that’s fully, naturally compatible with Astrium. It’s going to make installing the additional modules necessary to bring you back very easy and very painless.”

“Conversion? Why would-?”

“Because at the moment, you’re living in a Luminous Astrium storage matrix- that is to say, inside the Obelisk Network Database. It’s not possible to hold an incompatible mind like that.” She paused. “Thanks to my Seed, my mind is already fully compatible, so even if something manages to get past all the magics protecting me and kill my body, I’ll simply jump to the Chamber of Secrets and build a new one- it won’t really affect me at all.” She paused again. “I still wonder why it’s called a Seed.”

“Good evening, Cornelius,” Professor Dumbledore greeted, when Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge was shown to his office several hours after the fourth attack, the one by the library. Penelope Clearwater… and there had also been the very interesting spectacle of Miss Granger looking down at her own, snake-eaten body, without being a ghost. Apparently, the Royal had pulled her out of her body in the nick of time and given her a new one, so the school had been told that only Clearwater had been attacked- Granger had barricaded herself in the library after she saw Clearwater get petrified, as far as the rest of the school was concerned.

“Evening, Dumbledore,” Fudge answered curtly, then sighed. “We’re going to have to take Hagrid away.”

He let out a soft sigh. He’d half-expected this particular move, but hadn’t been able to prevent it, it seemed; Fudge was not one to be swayed from his beliefs, and he was one to take dramatic actions on what amounted to a whim. “I would like to remind you that we were able to confirm it is not him as of a few months ago,” he intoned.

The Minister ignored him. “Three attacks on muggleborns,” he said distractedly. “The Ministry’s got to act- got to be seen doing something. And his record’s against him. Even the Governors have been in touch!”

He sighed again. That suggested the Governors had been ignoring his reports of the investigation progress. “Our investigation got a lot of valuable information this time,” he informed Fudge. “The analysis team is still compiling the results from the most recent attack, but it’s entirely possible we’ve identified the culprit.”

“No matter,” Fudge dismissed. “If someone else is caught, he’ll be let out with a full apology.”

He resisted the urge to sigh a third time. What was with Fudge’s obsession with imprisoning innocent gamekeepers? This wasn’t the first time he’d tried to imprison Hagrid, and given the situation, it was the first time Dumbledore wouldn’t be able to stop him!

Removing Hagrid, though, would likely send the Wizengamot into panic when the next attack hit, as they lost trust in their own Minister for Magic. Which would very quickly result in the collapse of Magical Britain, and with it possibly the whole magical world as the influx of colorheads didn’t seem like it was going to stop, which would force them into the muggle world, blowing the Statute of Secrecy wide open. “I remind you,” he began again.

A sudden banging noise indicated that his office door had been thrown violently open- revealing Lucius Malfoy and, behind him, Hailey… who was carrying a stack of papers.

Lucius completely ignored the girl’s glare, wearing a strangely satisfied smile. “Already here, Fudge? Good, good.”

Dumbledore didn’t miss Hailey’s eyes narrowing at his back. “And what exactly do you want with me, Lucius?” he asked politely, already guessing what was coming.

“Dreadful thing, Dumbledore,” Lucius said calmly, snidely, taking a scroll out of his cloak, “but the Governors feel it’s time for you to step aside. This is an order of suspension. You’ll-!”

In that instant, nobody missed the phoenix teleporting into the room, riding on the shoulder of… someone. The figure was vaguely feminine, and had long, black hair- but other than that, she was completely nondescript.

This was the Royal… who must have done some really strange magic to keep anyone from identifying her.

“You know you’re supposed to knock, right?” the Royal asked loudly, looking straight up into Lucius’ face. Her voice wasn’t quite as nondescript as usual, in that it carried tone of voice and he could tell it was a girl speaking, but it was still incredibly nondescript.

Lucius sneered at her, turned back to Dumbledore, and took a breath to resume.

The Royal wasn’t going to leave it there, though. “Do the Governors know that, through creative use of the resources available to him, Professor Dumbledore is very, very close to finding the culprit?”

Dumbledore suppressed a smile. Just hearing his title from her was immensely helpful; she respected him, even as she showed very little of the same for Lucius! If that wasn’t a political statement…

“Do they know that if the Headmaster gets kicked out now, we’ll have to start over basically from scratch?” the Royal continued. “He’s the one that has all the know-how and ideas- I don’t doubt we wouldn’t be anywhere near where we are now without him.”

Lucius turned to her. “What are you-!?” He froze, staring at her. He’d evidently noticed her nondescription.

“I’m talking about how, under Professor Dumbledore’s skilled guidance, the handpicked investigators buried throughout the school have successfully narrowed the culprit down to a selection of only ninety-eight students, or less than two percent of the four thousand three hundred and sixty-six students in this Castle right now.” She spoke loudly and quickly, with an abrasive, judgemental tone. “About how Professor Dumbledore is the only one that actually knows how best to continue, making him keystone for the entire investigation effort, and meaning that removing him will completely cripple said effort?”

Dumbledore carefully suppressed a grin. He had yet to contribute to the investigation in any meaningful way; he hadn’t even warned them of his bad feeling earlier the same day!

On the other hand, she’d specified ninety-eight students. He didn’t know how the Royal got that information, but she had somehow, and given her vaunted prowess, and how everyone in the school seemed to be protecting her, he went with the assumption that she knew because she’d been told.

Still, though, ninety eight. That was quite a lot more than he- or the Investigation Management Team- liked. “Ninety-eight, huh?” he mused, and sighed. “With that many, it’ll still be too dangerous to try interrogating them; the Culprit might get the hint and do something we’ll regret.” He scowled, rubbing his chin with a finger. “On the other hand, given the number of investigators…” He paused. “I don’t see why we can’t basically guarantee that we can identify the culprit with the next attack, and quite probably prevent the attack as well.”

“Yes, Professor,” the Royal agreed, respect entering her voice for the first time. “That’s a little under half the number of investigators, so it shouldn’t be hard to have them shadowed. Especially if I do something to keep our people from being noticed.”

There was silence for a second, during which Fudge looked quite uncomfortable, glancing between the Royal and Lucius.

Dumbledore, meanwhile, was more than a little bit stunned. The Royal had referred to the very idea he had, and with her demonstrated ability to disappear…

Lucius, meanwhile, turned to face the Royal. “Who do you think you-!?”

The girl backhanded him across the office, all of Dumbledore’s shelves and instruments jumping out of his way and back in, just like everything that happened to be in the way of the Knight Bus, while she turned to look at him.

It really was quite amusing how a nondescript figure could look at someone as if they were a particularly smelly clump of dirt on their shoe… without being any less nondescript. If that wasn’t proof that she was a Royal, he wasn’t sure what was. “I asked you a question,” she barked back, returning instantly to her irritated tone from before, turning to face him and putting her hands on her hips as she marched towards him, the shelves shying away from her as she advanced.

Fudge backed against the wall, staring at her, then looked at Dumbledore. “Sh-She’s a Royal?” he asked.

Dumbledore only nodded.

Lucius looked up at her from where he was, crumpled between the wall and the floor as she advanced on him. He seemed to be oddly unharmed, which would make sense as she’d protected him against the thaumic backlash of damaging Dumbledore’s many instruments, and was staring at her as well. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak… then paused, torn between terror and resignation.

“No,” Lucius finally decided, his tone cautious, with none of his earlier blustering confidence. “The Governors do not know.”

The Royal straightened up, her tone softening as she removed her hands from her hips and folded her arms instead. “And do you think that maybe they should know, before they make arbitrary decisions like this one?” She kicked at something on the floor, which Dumbledore recognized as Lucius’ suspension order moments before it exploded into bright, blue-bell flames and crumbled into ash.

“Y-Yes,” Lucius stuttered, staring at the pile of ash with wide eyes.

“And that perhaps they shouldn’t be told that their families will be cursed if they don’t sign a piece of paper they are almost unanimously opposed to?”

Lucius let out a gasp and shrank back down against the wall, staring at her in abject terror.

“Well?” she pressed.

On the other side of the open doorway, Hailey raised an eyebrow at him… and seemed quite calm. She obviously knew the Royal.

“Ah-! Th-! They shouldn’t,” Lucius stuttered, his voice unnaturally high. That was weird, nobody had kicked him in the groin.

“Alright,” the Royal nodded. “Are you going to go do it properly, then?”

“Y-Yes,” he conceded, then rose and turned, relievedly, to leave.

“Don’t mention the investigation to anyone else, please,” Dumbledore informed him, causing Lucius to stop in the doorway to listen. “If the culprit gets wind of it, that’ll only make things harder.”

He nodded silently, and left.

“Before you go,” the Royal added vindictively, as Lucius reached the staircase, forcing him to pause and look back.

“Yes?” he asked, still half-trembling with terror.

“I and the other royals here at Hogwarts would appreciate if you could help the Chief Warlock’s economic measures to go through, so that when Hogwarts takes in four and a half thousand new students next year, or nineteen thousand the year after, the whole economy doesn’t crumble to pieces. It would also be nice if you helped him to hold things together in that stuffy stone chamber, and to help the public to manage the logistical nightmare that already exists from the current four and a half thousand student population of this Castle.”

Dumbledore froze. She and the other Royals? That suggested that there were at least three! And they were in agreement, something which had never happened in history!

Completely aside from how she was explicitly supporting his platform, while talking to the leader of the opposing party, after forcing him to acknowledge what she was.

He wasn’t entirely sure if it was going to be a good or a bad thing, though. Who knew exactly how Lucius’ efforts to obey the Royal before him would affect the balance of the Wizengamot.

Her comment on the Wizengamot chamber being a ‘stuffy stone chamber’ only brought commiserating nods from Dumbledore and Fudge. Very few warlocks didn’t think of it as that.

“A-Alright,” Lucius nodded, a little bit distractedly as he evidently thought about exactly how he was going to do it.

Then the Royal smiled cheerfully- and her tone became cheerful too, while she waved him goodbye. “Oh, and tell your daughter hi for me, please.”

“Daughter-?” Fudge began, blinking, and cut himself off before he could interrupt any more than he already had.

“I don’t have a daughter,” Lucius half-hissed.

“Yes you do,” the Royal answered dangerously, and the temperature in the room dropped suddenly by several degrees.

Lucius back-stepped, then very nearly fell down the stairs, only barely catching the railing in time. “Wh-What daughter?” he asked.

“You know who I’m talking about,” she asserted darkly.

He let out a squeak of fright, then nodded vaguely, before fairly fleeing down the stairs.

The warmth returned gradually to the room while the Royal sighed. “I suppose it remains to be seen if he’ll do that or not,” she mused, then turned to look back over to where Dumbledore and Fudge were waiting. “Anyways, I heard someone was here to arrest an innocent man?”

“Ah-!” Fudge began, flinching away from her.

She sighed, shaking her head. “Don’t be stupid,” she told him disappointedly. “Innocent until proven guilty, remember. Anything else and you’ll destroy trust in your own government.”

She then turned away from them, towards Hailey.

“A lot to do today, isn’t there?” Hailey asked cheerfully.

“Yeah, quite a lot. Thanks for the heads up, by the way.” The Royal then turned to the door to walk out of it. “Philomena?”

A flash of phoenix-fire later, and she was gone.

“You’re welcome,” Hailey told the empty air she’d been in a moment before, before turning to walk up towards Dumbledore’s desk, papers in hand, as if nothing had happened. “Alright. We’ve finished compiling all the reports from earlier, and as you know by now, we’ve narrowed it down to ninety-six students. Morning is doing some recruitment at the moment; she doesn’t like the idea of having only two shifts to monitor the remaining suspects, and wants at least three people for each one. Meanwhile, Miss Royal-” she gestured over her shoulder with her thumb- “is setting up a script on the Network to automatically coordinate them for one-hundred-percent surveillance uptime without letting anything on, looking suspicious, or cutting too significantly into any given student’s time.” She sighed, and handed him the papers. “Anyways, here’s the summary; the full report is in the usual location.”

By which she meant ‘in the Network Database’.

“Thank you,” he agreed. “I see she’s anticipated my plan.”

Hailey nodded. “We have,” she agreed. “In other news, shortly before she was attacked, Miss Clearwater deduced what the Monster was and told Hermione- who had also just deduced it, but that’s beside the point. Anyways, you know Hermione barricaded herself in the library while Penelope braved the corridors. It’s a Basilisk- and while the potion to render people immune to a basilisk’s gaze takes a month to brew and wears off in three hours…” She shrugged, then gestured over her shoulder again. “A Royal-powered defensive ward takes about five seconds, affects every student in the entire Castle, and lasts for a few decades, completely aside from how that same ward will render everyone invulnerable to its physical attacks for the rest of the year, allowing us to destroy it really at our leisure, once it comes out.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “I take it she’s already done that?”

She nodded. “Yup, she did that before I ever came up here- and she said she’s ready to guarantee that nobody else will be hurt by that monster- even just petrification.”

“And I take it she asked to remain anonymous?”

She nodded. “Yup. That was some pretty impressive anonymizing magic, in my opinion- but also not the most impressive I’ve seen her use.”

“Alright, thank you,” he told her, bowing his head in dismissal.

She bowed fully. “You’re welcome,” she told him, then turned and left.

“Is… Is she that Royal’s friend?” Fudge asked slowly.

Dumbledore nodded; considering their behavior, that was the only conclusion he could draw. “I think so,” he agreed. “She does seem to feel strongly about a few certain issues, doesn’t she?”

“Yes, quite,” Fudge muttered, then sighed. “So… Not Hagrid. Not if he’s innocent.” He sighed again. “I guess I’ve got no real choice but to leave the investigation up to you, and I wish you luck.” He paused. “After that… the Governors might rescind the pressure they put on me, but the public is another matter entirely. Do you think we can get away with a news announcement?”

He shrugged. “The investigation really is pretty sensitive. If our culprit catches wind of it, we may never catch them- even with the constant surveillance method. Probably best to keep the public’s mind off of it for now.”

Fudge winced. “That’s going to be a pain,” he grumbled. “And Rita will be impossible. Again.” He glanced sideways at Dumbledore. “Can you promise me that, when you get everything around here- and the Wizengamot- ready for the public to know about exactly how many colorheads there are, you’ll have Rita tell people? She’s been dying for a big piece like that, and it’s been torture keeping her from Hogwarts.”

“I think…” He paused. “Hmm, I would prefer someone without her reputation, but if she’s willing to cooperate, I don’t see why not.”

There was a pause. “Do… Do you know who that Royal was?”

He raised an eyebrow. “No. I wish I did, honestly.” He paused. “And… that anonymizing magic. I have reason to believe it affects more than just her appearance- so, ahh, do you remember the color of her green eyes?”

There was a pause.

“... No. What color was it?”

He didn’t answer. How did he know that the Royal had green eyes? He’d never even seen them!

Author's Note

I didn't know Lucius' voice could get that high. Did you?

Patreon, Discord.

In other news, Hermione has stopped eating altogether- she never comes to meals anymore. Should I be worried?

Aaand, new rewrite. Gained almost two thousand words, and while I did completely redo the Royal encounter (as Dumbledore doesn't yet know who she is), I think it turned out okay, and I hope I didn't do too much damage to the Lucius-beatdown. What do you think?

Chapter 18: The Thief's Defense RW

“I’ve lost Luna.”

It wasn’t a message Zephyr Breeze was proud of sending. The Investigation had switched to a much more active method- that was to say, active ‘surveillance’ on every single one of the ninety-eight remaining possible culprits- after the attack on Penelope Clearwater, a Ravenclaw prefect. The Royal had also set the database up to manage it for them, so all she had to do was tell the database what she wanted to do and when, and it would immediately find someone to relieve her to do whatever she needed to do- anytime she had to leave, there was conveniently always someone waiting to take over.

Unfortunately, though, Luna Lovegood, who had been seen curled up in her common room and usually sported a fearful look on her pale face, was a priority target for that… and she’d managed to shake Zephyr off her trail.

“Anything unusual?”

She winced at the verbal answer, rather than the data answer the database always provided. Even worse, that wasn’t Morning Sun- that was the Royal’s voice!

But still, unusual, unusual… “She had a bucket of paint and a paintbrush.”

“Was it red?”

A horrible thought struck her at that question; there was only one reason why they’d already know the color, yet still have to ask. “Yes.”

“Go to the second floor girl’s bathroom. Do not enter it, but check for more messages from the Heir. If you see Luna on the way, let us know.”

She took a deep breath, let it out, and turned to jog towards the named bathroom, dreading what she would find.

“Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.”

Hailey winced at the message, especially paired with the image. While Zephyr had run for Myrtle’s bathroom, she and Ginny had checked with all the other active investigators- everyone else was accounted for.

The Horcrux… was in the possession of Ginny’s friend, Luna Lovegood. And it had taken her into the Chamber to wait.

It was really too bad they weren’t currently in the Chamber.

She sighed, then broadcast a message to the entire investigation team, using Ginny’s ‘royal voice’ filter, which even Morning Sun had used a couple of times. “All units dismissed, the Horcrux has been located.” She switched to sending just to Zephyr. “Thank you, Zephyr. We’ll take it from here.”

“Who is it?” Morning asked immediately.

“Luna Lovegood,” she answered promptly, broadcasting to the Investigation Management Team. “According to the message Zephyr uploaded, Luna has been taken into the Chamber and will not be returning.”

“We’ll see how long that lasts,” Bonbon observed calmly. “Do you need anyone to come with you?”

There was a pause, during which Hailey hugged Ginny gently. “I think we’ll take Lockhart.”

“I’m supposed to tell you that you shouldn’t burn him at the stake,” Hermione supplied honestly. “He’s in his office, by the way. Sleeping, looks like.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I know exactly how I’ll prepare the firewood.”

Even Ginny let out a snort of laughter.

It took a few minutes of pounding before Lockhart finally opened his office door. “What?” he asked irritably, having visibly just gotten out of bed.

“I take it you missed the announcement,” Hailey greeted calmly. No verbal announcements had been given, but Lockhart was almost famous across the Castle for missing those by sleeping.

“Huh?” Lockhart asked. “What announcement?”

“That there’s been another attack,” Hailey answered darkly. “Luna Lovegood… was taken into the Chamber of Secrets.”

He closed the door in her face. “Nothing I can do,” he said, his footsteps walking away from it.

She drew her wand. “Open Sesame.”

With a great crunching noise, the door ripped violently off the hinges and landed on the floor as a pile of firewood.

“What the-?” Lockhart began, while Ginny jogged up to Hailey; Hailey had teleported, but Ginny had walked.

“There is something you can do, Professor Lockhart,” Hailey told him firmly, lowering her wand. “We know where the entrance to the Chamber is, and how to get into it. What kind of famous monster-slaughterer turns down the opportunity to slaughter a monster?”

“Don’t tell me you’re actually going to burn him at the stake,” Ginny observed, though Hailey picked up the humor in the statement.

“Of course not,” Hailey answered promptly, and stepped over the firewood into Lockhart’s office. “Though I certainly seem to have prepared the firewood.” She looked up at Lockhart. “So are you going to do something about it?”

“W-Well,” Lockhart stuttered, staring at her in shock. “No,” he decided.

“Why not?” Hailey asked. “You’re the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and here there’s some Dark Arts to defend against. Why not make it a practical lesson?” Not that he’d ever given a lesson worth listening to, practical or otherwise.

“Ah-!” Lockhart gasped. “When I took the job… Nothing in the job description-!”

“Correction,” she began, drawing a scroll from her pocket and unrolling it. “Hogwarts Professorial Employment Agreement, paragraph fourteen: ‘I agree that I may be required to perform additional duties as required to maintain the School and safety thereof independent of teaching duties, especially when related to my subject or skills’. This is a copy of the agreement that you signed to accept the job.” She smiled. “To maintain the School and safety thereof,” she quoted. “The Monster of Slytherin is threatening both the School and the safety of the same, and it’s definitely Dark Arts. As such, the job actually does require you to take action- and it’s your fault if you didn’t read it.”

“I- I didn’t expect-!” Lockhart began.

Ginny raised an eyebrow. “After all that stuff you did in your books?” she asked- taking the opportunity to get him to explain something.

“Books can be misleading,” Lockhart told them delicately.

“You wrote them,” she muttered calmly. “Are you telling us you lied?”

“My dear girl,” Lockhart began.

“Can I kill him?” Ginny interrupted him verbally, in Parseltongue- a question that sounded like an angry hiss to non-parselmouths and parselmouths alike.

Hailey smiled. “Only a little bit,” she answered, also in Parseltongue. Then she looked up, switching to English. “Oh, and by the way, only a parselmouth can get into the Chamber of Secrets, hence why so many Headmasters never found it. Lucky you, right?”

Lockhart scowled, but ignored her. “My books wouldn’t have sold half as well if people didn’t think I’d done all those things! Noone wants to read about some old armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves- he’d look dreadful on the front cover- no dress sense at all. And the witch that banished the Bandon Banshee had a hairlip!”

“So we were right, then, and you never did any of that,” Ginny observed. “Instead, you’ve been stealing other people’s accomplishments?”

“I knew there was a reason Dumbledore called you a fraud,” Hailey sighed.

Lockhart completely ignored their implications, as oblivious as ever. “Girls, it’s not nearly that simple- there was work involved. I had to track down each of these people, question them about exactly how they did what they did, then put a memory charm on them so they wouldn’t remember doing it. If there’s one thing I pride myself on, it’s my memory charms.”

“That doesn’t make it any less wrong,” Hailey informed him.

“That’s fame,” Lockhart told her. “If you want fame, you have to be prepared to fight for it.”

“Then you don’t deserve to be famous,” Hailey declared. “No thief should be famous.”

“I’m not a thief,” Lockhart scowled. “If not for me, their stories would never have seen the light of day. So what if I had to change them a bit?”

“You took credit for their accomplishments,” Ginny answered, “rather than taking the humble route of supporting them in their accomplishments. You probably wouldn’t have gotten as famous, nor as quickly, but your fanbase would be a lot less fickle- and a single mistake wouldn’t completely ruin you.”

He laughed. “Yes, I could’ve,” he conceded. “Then I’d be groveling on the side of the street!”

Hailey sighed. “Rita Skeeter is famous,” she told him. “She’s famous for capturing audiences with her penwomanship, so just about any publication- the Daily Prophet, the Quibbler, whatever- will pay quite a pretty penny for just about any article she’s willing to give them, no matter what it’s about.” She shrugged. “She attracts a very large audience- and even though most of the world knows her articles are sometimes inaccurate and basically always slanderously misrepresentative, they still read and believe them like their bread and butter.” She smiled. “Most of the world doesn’t like what she puts in her articles, but they don’t care because people like drama, and that’s what she gives them.”

“Don’t you think you could have done something similar, but in the opposite direction?” Ginny asked. “How many books have you written? Twelve?”

“... About,” Lockhart agreed. “I’ve got three more in the works.”

“You’re obviously good at finding those heroic stories that even someone like Rita has difficulty uncovering,” Hailey told him calmly. “You could’ve easily taken their stories, embellished them, and supported the people that did it. Had you done that, you probably would have become famous in your own right for helping those people out. You’d even have fans telling you about the major accomplishments of the people they knew, so you could tell their stories too. Had you done that, I don’t doubt you could’ve written fifty books by now, and been much more secure in your fanbase- like Rita, who basically can’t do wrong in the eyes of the public; she’s been involved in a few scandals throughout her career, but she’s pulled through because hers is genuine fame.”

“No, I-!” Lockhart sighed, lifting his wand from his desk. “I can’t have you two going about telling everyone about my secrets,” he said, raising it high. There was a moment of silence, in which Hailey and Ginny glanced at each other, and then- “Obliviate!”

The spell bolt froze in midair, about two feet in front of Hailey.

Then Hailey sighed. “Alright, how about this. We’re both Royals, and you’re coming with us whether you like it or not.” She smiled dangerously, and the temperature in the room dropped by several degrees, making Ginny flinch in surprise. “Unless you like dropping dead where you stand.”

“We might have considered keeping your secret for you if you had actually cooperated instead of trying to attack us,” Ginny supplied. “Unfortunately, though, you’ve just made us mad. You’re going to accompany us into the Chamber of Secrets and help us rescue Luna- and if you think we can’t feel you drawing behind our backs, or that we can’t destroy your wand without turning to actually see the wand in question, you’ve got another one coming.”

“When we get back from the Chamber, when you survive Slytherin’s Basilisk’s deadly gaze because of a special blessing I gave the whole Castle earlier this month, you won’t remember a thing about us, and we’ll tell the world your secrets.” She put a finger to her chin. “Hmm, the Daily Prophet seems like a good idea. Mind, they’ll probably just pay Rita to write the story, but…” She shrugged, then waved a hand to make the air kick him towards the door. “Anyways. Get up, start walking.”

“Good evening, Myrtle,” Hailey greeted, as she and Ginny shepherded Lockhart up the room. Myrtle had come out to meet them; ever since Ginny had taken her to meet her mother, she had become much more cheerful- so much that people weren’t calling her ‘Moaning Myrtle’ as much any more.

“Evening, Hailey!” Myrtle greeted in turn, before looking at Lockhart. “What’s he doing here?”

“He’s going to help us destroy the Monster of Slytherin,” Hailey told her.

Myrtle looked at her and blinked owlishly. “You really think he’s going to help?”

She shrugged. “His fans do.”

Myrtle laughed. “Of course they do. So.” She glanced back towards the end sink. “You’re going in after Luna?”

“Yup,” Hailey answered. “You watched?”

Myrtle nodded. “Right over the stall door- I wasn’t sure how best to alert you. She was holding a little black diary, and went into a huge pipe there.” She pointed at the end sink. “She didn’t seem like… well, herself. The pipe’s all closed up now, I don’t know how to open it.”

Lockhart reached the wall next to the sink Myrtle had pointed at; it was in the corner of the room. “What do you want me to do?” he asked plaintively.

“Go in first,” Hailey commanded. “The Chamber of Secrets is right next to you.”

There was a second of silence, then Ginny spoke. “Oh, right, we have to open the door for you, don’t we?” She switched briefly to Parseltongue. “Open Up.”

“Go in first,” Hailey repeated, gesturing towards the slimy pipe.

Lockhart did, dangling his legs down the pipe. “Girls,” he began.

Ginny gave him a psionic push, and he was gone.

“The pipe’s a lot slimier than it usually is,” Myrtle observed. “And that’s when it doesn’t give you stairs.”

“It’s all about how you ask it,” Ginny answered. “It’s all in Parseltongue- but if you just say ‘Open’, it’ll offer the clean pipe. If you say ‘please’, you get stairs. Tell it to ‘open up’, as I just did, and you get all covered in slime on the way down.” She giggled. “And if we ask it to please give us a lift, as I will once Lockhart gets to the bottom, we get an elevator.”

Myrtle giggled. “Finally taking him down a peg, eh?”

Hailey chuckled as well. “Yup. I’ve already given him an appropriate Curse, so while we’re down there sometime he’s going to find himself suddenly lobotomized.” She paused. “Then he’s going to find out exactly what the public thinks of his theft.”

Ginny snickered. “There are Curses and Blessings for everything, aren’t there?”

She nodded. “Yes, there are. For example, the oddly specific Blessing of Basilisk Immunity.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, alright. Anyways, do you want to come with us, Myrtle? Or do you want to wait up here?”

Myrtle shrugged. “That thousand-year-old basilisk doesn’t pose any danger, does it?” She paused. “Oh, why not. I’ll come with you, if you’ll have me.”

“Sure, no problem.” Ginny turned to the sink. “Close. Could you please give us a lift?”

The sink rose back into sight, hiding the pipe… then promptly sank away again, the pipe stretching up and morphing into a comfortable platform floating in a vertical shaft.

The three of them stepped on, and it dropped like a rock, but they really didn’t feel it; the magic moved them with it.

Author's Note

There was a man in the second-floor girls' bathroom today. I don't know why, but it was the first time this year. I think his name started with 'Gilderoy' and ended with 'Lockhart'...

Patreon, Discord.

Whatever you think is going to happen next chapter, it's definitely not all that happens. I'd still love to hear your theories, though.

When I first started rewriting this chapter, I did NOT expect them to take Myrtle down in to the chamber! That said, given what happens in the next chapters... I'm glad they did, it was rather convenient. You'll notice I've also changed the way they kicked him down...

I'm curious what you think of Myrtle's joining the effort?

Chapter 19: The Chamber of Secrets RW

The walk down the entryway to the main door to the Chamber of Secrets was fairly silent- then, right when Ginny was about to give the command to open the Snake Gate, there was a sharp cracking noise. Lockhart’s wand-light went out like a light, while Lockhart suddenly stiffened and fell over backwards with a dull thump.

“What was that?” Ginny asked.

“That’s what happens when the Curse of Reversal decides it’s time for him to lose a year of his life,” Hailey answered promptly. “He’ll be out cold for around half an hour, and when he wakes up, he won’t remember anything from the last year at all.” She paused. “That Curse also protects him against concussions or other injuries brought on by the fall whenever it activates- it’s one of a set of curses that are actually designed to rehabilitate their hosts rather than just punishing them, though it is one of the more cruel of them.”

“So that’s why he…” Myrtle stopped. “Come to think of it, am I immune to the Basilisk?”

“Yup,” Hailey answered. “Madam Pomfrey was absolutely gobsmacked that I managed to apply a Blessing of Basilisk Immunity to such things as ghosts and gods.” She snickered. “So yes, you’ll be fine.” She then drew something out of her pocket- a small device, it looked like. Ginny didn’t immediately recognize it, but it was definitely something muggle. “Philomena?”

Philomena appeared out of nowhere in a burst of flames, swooping forwards to land on Hailey’s shoulder with a soft trill, then rubbed her head against Hailey’s cheek.

Hailey chuckled, stroking her feathers for a second before offering the device. “Do you think you can take this to Rita Skeeter?” She tapped a button on the side.

Philomena trilled amusedly, took flight, grabbed the device in her talons, and vanished in a burst of flames.

Myrtle looked at her. “Was that a cassette recorder?” she asked.

Hailey let out a snort of laughter while Ginny, unsure what she was referring to, opened the Snake Gate. “No, that wasn’t a cassette recorder. Technology has come a long way since the days of cassettes. That was a fully electronic voice recorder- and I have it on good authority that Rita knows how to use one.”

Ginny burst into laughter as they stepped across the threshold, and both of them ignored her rapidly growing Astrium setup in the corner of the Chamber, save for the little robot drone that took off from it to light the way with its floodlight.

Rita Skeeter jumped when a phoenix suddenly appeared out of nowhere in her study to offer her a… She paused as she accepted it. Yes, this was a voice recorder. She had one herself; they were incredibly useful for those times and places when quills would be inappropriate. She looked up at the phoenix, which had landed on the side of her table, and was eying the recorder. “Ahh… May I pull the recording from it?” she asked.

The phoenix bowed its head.

So she turned to the other desk she had in her study, at which there was a particularly confusing muggle contraption called a ‘computer’. There was a reason she’d purchased a muggle home when she’d last moved; it had electricity in it, which was necessary to run the computer that made it easy to organize and play back the recordings from these recorders. It was already on; earlier that morning, she’d been browsing through the various recordings she’d harvested, looking for ideas on what to dig into next. People always commented on her having it easy, but being a journalist- especially one as famous as she- was hard work. She plugged the data cable- what ‘USB’ stood for she had no idea and really didn’t care either- into the recorder, then opened it up on the computer and copied the files off of it. Finally, she unplugged it, and handed the recorder back to the phoenix. “Thank you,” she told it.

The phoenix trilled amusedly, took flight, accepted the recorder back from her hand, and vanished in a burst of flame.

Then she turned back to the computer, put on her headset… and opened the first file.

It was time to see what she’d just been given.

“Testing, testing.” There was a click, her player hopped to the next file, and the same feminine voice returned. “Okay, it’s working. Hogwarts: A History must be wrong- not that I didn’t already know that, I’m only sitting in front of a whole server rack right now. Anyways, hello, Rita Skeeter. If you’re anyone else, or if anyone else is listening, I’d advise you turn the recording off- I’ve done a pretty clever curse on the data itself, and it’ll do a lot of damage- your favorite, irreparable brain damage- to anyone other than Rita if they listen far enough to learn anything important, even if the recording has been transferred to another device.

“But, back to the topic at hand. If you ever hear these recordings, something’s happened that I think you should know about, but there are some things you might hear in them which you MUST NOT tell anyone. Like seriously. If you ever tell anyone that me or my friends are Royals, or phoenix-bound- which some of us are- we will cheerfully hunt your Animagus ass down and kill you. I mean seriously, between us, we’ve got at least one death god and one reincarnated dark lord- you do NOT want to annoy us, Royal or not.

“Aside from that, I’ll be frank. As I’m recording this, it’s about mid-September, and Hogwarts has a total population of a little over four thousand students. From what I’m told, if that number becomes public knowledge, society as we know it will collapse- alongside our ability to uphold the Statute of Secrecy. So, with anything and everything you learn in these recordings, other than the stuff I just forbade, PLEASE consider the repercussions of exposing it to the world before doing so- I rather expect you don’t want to see how deadly modern witch hunts can be, even to a true witch or wizard.

“Anyways. At the moment, it’s two weeks into the school year. If you’re listening to this, it’s probably because we’re outing ‘Professer’ Gilderoy Lockhart as the fraud that he is, and possibly using the Chamber of Secrets as a tool with which to force him to expose his true self. But who knows; times change, and if it’s not September of two thousand twenty two as you’re listening to this, they probably have.

“So, um… Yeah, I believe that’s all the boilerplate you’ll need. Just… be careful, okay? Don’t bring the wizarding world crashing down on everyone’s heads.

“Oh, and, I’m not worried about people finding out that there’s an anonymous Royal or Phoenix-Bonded at Hogwarts, just don’t give them an identity. And ideally make it sound like there’s only one of either, both in the same person, rather than the actual three Royals, two of which are Phoenix-Bonded.” There was a click- and another hop between files- then a second later, it sounded like someone was banging on a door, before the same feminine voice came, though sounding a little older than before, more… recent. “Professor Lockhart!” she yelled commandingly, and the pounding resumed.

“Welcome to the Chamber of Secrets,” Ginny told Hailey softly, leading the way down the massive, cavernous chamber filled with an ominous greenish gloom; she hadn’t spent any Astrium on relighting the space just yet, as all of her power was still focused on expansion. The pillars were intricately carved to resemble groups of giant snakes holding up the distant ceiling, which was invisible in the light provided by the green Everburning Flames on each pillar. “Luna’s probably at the end.” She scowled. “That’s where Salazar’s statue is- and the Basilisk inside it. I haven’t walked down the Chamber like this in decades.”

“I wonder what Salazar needed an empty room of this size for,” Hailey muttered, as they walked steadily down it.

She shrugged. “Beats me. Sure is convenient to have a space this large for some of our other purposes, though.” She paused. “I’ll have to see about lighting it properly at some point.” As she spoke, Phoebe flew down from her perch on top of the Void Weave Drive- which was about the size of a small car- to land on her shoulder… and Philomena simultaneously returned with the recorder, giving it to Hailey before landing on her shoulder again.

Hailey chuckled, pocketing the recorder. “Thank you, Philomena. Did she like it?”

The phoenix trilled amusedly.

“Hangon,” Ginny said suddenly, sending her robot skittering forwards. A massive statue loomed out of the gloom- and lying at its feet was a black-clothed figure.

Phoebe took off moments before Ginny burst into a run. “Luna!” she cried. “Luna, are you okay?” She paused, sliding to a halt next to the girl… who didn’t react at all. “No, of course you’re not.” She drew her wand and tapped Luna’s forehead with it, muttering a select incantation.

The results came back quickly. Luna was being drained by the Horcrux in the Diary… though it was nowhere near the point where it would threaten her friend’s life, nor even the point where she wouldn’t recover entirely on her own.

She sighed. “I thought so.”

Then she looked up sharply, at the wall behind Salazar’s statue.

Right there, at eye level if she were standing, was an inscription that definitely hadn’t been there the last time she’d visited this end of the Chamber fifty years before. Its appearance didn’t surprise her- rather, it was more that it was written in Psychic Script… and had the accompanying psychic investment that meant that anyone could understand it, just like Psychic Speech.

E.V.E.
Obelisk Network Access Point
Novum Level Authorization Required.
System Interface Dormant.

Ginny stared at it for a second… then laughed, ignoring the sudden urge to activate it as her Seed realized what it was as well.

“Something funny?” Hailey asked, the tone of her voice revealing just how unconcerned she was about what was going to happen. Rather predictably; she rather doubted Hailey had missed her Astrium responding to her commands as they passed, forming a massive, turreted interstellar weapon that was trained on the statue’s mouth, waiting to annihilate the Basilisk as soon as it appeared.

She would have trained it on the Diary, or even used it to annihilate the Diary, but she wasn’t sure if it would work to destroy the Horcrux- or what sort of effect the weapon would have on the rest of her soul.

And of course, she didn’t want Luna to be in the blast radius when it vaporized a couple hundred pounds of flesh and stone. She could teleport out of the way, and Hailey was Hailey… but Luna would be vulnerable.

She glanced back at Hailey, then sighed, setting Luna back down again as she rose to her feet, spying the Diary’s projection standing against one of the pillars behind Hailey, holding what looked like Luna’s wand. “Remember last summer, when I told you my Seed was pointing me at something unknown up in this area of the world?”

Hailey nodded. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

She nodded. “Curse Hogwarts’ wards for interfering with the tracking signal- if it didn’t, I would’ve walked over here and found it months ago!” She sighed. “Anyways, he’s behind you.”

Hailey and Myrtle both turned to look.

“Fancy seeing quite so many,” Tom Riddle mused, twirling Luna’s wand in his fingers. “And no teachers. Has the school run out or something?”

“No teachers?” Hailey asked, raising an eyebrow. “Have you ignored our badges, then?”

“Badges that don’t mean anything,” Riddle observed.

Ginny raised an eyebrow. “Badges that mean that Hailey here is the de-facto Defense Professor at the school,” she retorted.

He raised his eyebrow. “They’ve fallen so low as to use a mere student as a Professor?”

Hailey shrugged. “It’s better than the alternative. He’s still unconscious in the entry tunnel, by the way.”

Riddle scoffed. “Disappointing,” he grumbled. Then his eyes shifted to Myrtle. “And what are you doing here?”

Myrtle blinked. “Me?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”

“That’s Tom Riddle,” Ginny answered. “The boy that killed you, preserved in an object known as a Horcrux.”

Riddle scowled. “How do you know that?” he demanded.

Hailey shrugged. “Same way she knew where to find the Chamber of Secrets, I expect,” she mused. “But in any case, we don’t have all day. Why did you set up this wonderful battlefield for our final showdown, if I may ask?”

He snarled. “As if two phoenix-born could do anything against the power of Lord Voldemort,” he hissed.

Hailey raised an eyebrow. “You’ve forgotten Myrtle.”

“As if a ghost could do anything,” Riddle laughed.

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you might be surprised. Myrtle, give him a good slap for me, please.”

Myrtle laughed, then floated forward and slapped him.

Even Myrtle seemed surprised when her slap actually connected, rather than passing straight through him. “What the-?” she began, then drew back a fist and nailed him right on the nose.

Riddle, evidently not expecting a ghost of all things to get violent, was lifted a few inches in the air by her punch and flew backwards, Luna’s wand spinning in the air before it clattered to the floor.

Myrtle bent down to try the wand, but her hand just passed through it. “Huh,” she muttered. “But why him?”

“Probably because of what he is right now,” Hailey answered. “He’s basically drawing the line between a ghost and a body, which incidentally makes him quite solid to ghosts, even if our attacks will go right through him.”

“Cool,” Myrtle observed, as Ginny used a summoning charm to pick Luna’s wand up, then turned back to Riddle. “Now, you’re the one that extended my torture by condemning me to fifty years of ridicule, right?”

Riddle struggled to his feet and struck first… but his fist passed straight through her.

Her answering uppercut flipped him over her head. “Oh wow,” she observed. “I’m not sure if I’m strong after fifty years or you’re just light.”

This time, Riddle struggled to his feet and ran. He fled past Hailey and Ginny, to a pillar on the other side of the Chamber from the main entryway.

Myrtle walked after him. “Oh come on,” she told him. “I’m not done yet.”

Riddle winced, and looked up. “Speak to me, Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwarts Four.”

There was a rumble as the statue’s job slid open.

In the very next instant, a massive, blinding beam of purple energy momentarily connected the turret, positioned right in front of the Snake Gate, with the back of the statue’s mouth. It was so bright that it lit the entire cavernous chamber to a blinding glare- and then, it was gone.

A fraction of a second later, so small Ginny was certain it was strange that she could tell there was a gap at all, the sound of the blast reached her ears- and it was deafening.

At the same moment, Ginny felt the gut-wrenching twisting feeling in the ambient magic fields from a powerful spell being shattered- it was good to know that the E.V.E. Sequence Standard Anti-Capital-Ship Disintegration Cannon could destroy enchantments.

Professor Dumbledore gasped and stumbled to the wall of his office, clutching it hard as the whole Castle shook around him. An earthquake? At this hour? And this was the strongest one he’d ever felt here at Hogwarts, especially through the earthquake wards!

He prayed the Castle wasn’t going to fall apart.

As Luna- who had been forced unconscious by the Diary- bolted upright in response to the noise of the blast, her scream completely inaudible against the shockwaves, fragments of Salazar’s statue started raining down all over the place. Not a single one hit Hailey, Ginny, or Luna- in part, Ginny expected, because of Hailey, as her psionics weren’t strong enough to stop some of those pieces.

It felt like a small eternity later when the noise finally died down, and Ginny used her psionics to boost her natural regeneration, in case it had done damage to her hearing. She still seemed to be hearing Riddle’s incoherent gasping, though, so the damage apparently hadn’t been nearly as bad as she had expected from so loud of a noise.

“Wh-Wh-WHAAAT!?” Riddle cried, staring up at the statue.

Ginny glanced up at it, to see that not just the head was gone, but the entire body as well- and there seemed to be a crater in the wall behind where its head used to be. All that was left was the right foot and ankle, and the left foot, ankle, and calf. Both knees were gone, along with everything above them.

“What happened?” Luna asked frantically, looking around wildly as she rose to her feet. “Where am I?” Then she spotted Riddle, gasped, and stumbled backwards, against Salazar’s left foot. “Wha-! He- Riddle! He-!” She kicked something away from her foot.

“The Diary,” Ginny nodded, looking at it. “Thought so. You probably don’t know, Luna, but that diary is a Horcrux- an object containing a piece of Lord Voldemort’s soul.”

“And that’s-!?” Luna began, breaking off as she looked up at Riddle- moments before Riddle was shaken from his shock by Myrtle’s fist.

“That’s him, yes. We just killed the Basilisk dead, so no need to worry.”

“With more than a little bit of overkill,” Hailey observed, looking up at the crater.

Ginny glanced up as well, drawing Luna’s attention and eliciting a second gasp. “Yeah, a little bit,” she agreed.

“This place is huge!”

Ginny twitched at the sudden call, and looked- but it was just Hermione walking up the Chamber and looking around, her wand drawn and in her hand. “It is,” she agreed.

“It’s absolutely insane,” Hermione continued. “What on earth did he need a Chamber this large for? Was he trying to store the Black Lake down here? Or to make enough space to build a whole castle?”

“Good question,” Hailey observed. “Anyways, Riddle.” She turned to where Myrtle had gotten Riddle on the floor and was cheerfully pummeling him, apparently delighted at having something she could interact with, even if it was only her enemy. “Why did you choose this as the venue for your final battle?”

Myrtle stopped her punching, but didn’t stop pinning him to the ground with her knees; it seemed like she could interact with him when she wanted to, but not interact with him when she didn’t want to, preventing him from offering any sort of resistance.

“Wh-What?” Riddle began. “Can you do something about this crazy- Ahh!”

Myrtle had punched him again, completely ignoring his arms as they flailed about in her torso, trying desperately to push her off.

“Mmm, no,” Hailey decided, walking over to bend down next to him. “How about this: You answer my question, and not only will she not punch you, but Ginny will stop torturing you.”

“Torturing me?” Riddle asked.

Ginny raised her wand to point at the Diary.

“Crucio.”

Riddle screamed.

Luna flinched, but Ginny only held the spell for a few seconds.

“Oh wow, that was effective,” Myrtle observed. “What was it?”

“An Unforgivable Curse,” she answered simply. “So, ahh, mind you never use it on another human being, that’s an instant life sentence in Azkaban.”

Myrtle looked down at Riddle. “Uh…”

“He’s a Horcrux, not a human,” she answered.

Myrtle shrugged, then knocked one of Riddle’s teeth out. The tooth fizzled briefly before it disappeared. “Oh hey, I can injure him!”

Hailey chuckled and looked down at Riddle. “So, are you going to answer my question?”

“Are you asking why I set the Basilisk on three mudbloods and that squib’s cat?”

Hailey looked at Ginny, and gave a short nod.

Riddle screamed.

“No slurs like that M word on my watch,” Hailey told him sternly, as he recovered. “And you know I’m not asking why you attacked the muggleborn. I’m asking why you dragged a pureblood deep into this Chamber with the apparent intent to kill her.”

There was a pause. “I-!” Riddle began. “I had grown strong enough I could consume her and become independent,” he muttered.

She raised an eyebrow. “And that new message?”

“Fearmongering.”

Hailey snorted. “You really never do know when to quit, do you? Not until you died.” She glanced up at Myrtle, who gave him a quick one-two, forcing him to spit out another broken tooth. Myrtle seemed quite delighted by her ability to injure Riddle, and Ginny found herself hoping the girl would channel that delight into less… violent avenues after reincarnation.

Then Hailey looked up at Ginny. “That’s all I wanted to ask him. You?”

Ginny shrugged. “I kinda hate to take Myrtle’s punching bag away from her, but this horcrux does need destroying.”

“I don’t have anything,” Hermione sighed. “I’d say he’s not worth the effort of killing him, if he weren’t so capable of manipulating others to get his evil done.”

Ginny looked at Luna, who merely shook her head.

Then she conjured all the Raw Astrium she had stored in its energy form in her body, and morphed it into a Tempered Astrium sword with a Forged Astrium cutting edge. She then slid her wand into its hilt, and raised it high over the diary. “Goodbye, Tom,” she told him.

Myrtle punched his lights out.

Ginny snorted. “Avada Kedavra,” she incanted darkly, as she thrust the blade deep down inside the Diary- all the way down to the hilt.

Riddle vanished with a faint pop… then Ginny let out a blood-curdling scream not too dissimilar to Riddle’s under the Cruciatus Curse, and collapsed… into Hailey’s arms, as Hailey had moved across the chamber far too quickly, forcing Philomena to catch herself from a sudden freefall. Phoebe had a similar panic reaction, and they both swooped around to land on Hailey’s shoulders while Hailey supported Ginny in her arms.

“Ginny!” Hailey asked. “Are you okay? What was that?”

Ginny closed her eyes and just… breathed for the first minute or so. When she opened them again, Hermione, Luna, and Myrtle were all crowded around her as well.

“Are you okay?” Hermione asked. “He didn’t curse you or anything, did he?”

She let out a weak chuckle. “No, he didn’t,” she told her. “What happened… I destroyed the Horcrux.” She paused. “Destroying a Horcrux damages the soul that created it,” she informed them. “Of the three ways to destroy one, the Killing Curse- it’s an unforgivable too- is the gentlest to the surviving portion of the soul… and also safest to handle.”

“Then you could have told us about this ahead of time,” Hermione complained. “It’d be a lot less of a surprise.”

Ginny tried to avert her eyes, but no matter which way she turned them, all she managed to do was meet another set of worried eyes. She sighed, and settled for closing her eyes again. “Okay, okay. Soul damage like this can’t be magically healed, you have to let it heal the normal way- which will take a couple weeks. If another horcrux is destroyed during that same interval, it’ll result in the collapse and death of the soul- the kind of death that even the Obelisk Network can’t protect me against.” She opened her eyes, and looked from one concerned face to another. “But even so, I am Lord Voldemort.”

Nobody moved. Nobody seemed to be all that surprised- even though Luna was the only one that already knew.

“So?” Hailey asked.

“S-So?” she stuttered.

“Yeah, so?” Hermione asked, shrugging. “I guessed that a long time ago.”

Ginny let out a sigh and looked at Myrtle.

Myrtle blushed silver. “I, ahh, didn’t connect the dots, I guess, but it doesn’t surprise me. And it doesn’t change anything- you’re very much not that idiot we just beat up, I don’t care if he technically shared a soul with you or even was your past or not, that’s not who you are.”

There was a pause.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, Myrtle,” she muttered. “The Lord Voldemort of old would never have even dreamed of helping you reincarnate. Speaking of which, we’ve got an option- we’ll have a couple days to act on it if you like it.” She looked at Hailey. “It still doesn’t change the fact that I killed Myrtle, and your parents, Hailey. Past life or not.”

Hailey shrugged. “So what?”

“So what?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. “A number of murders so large that it got reported worldwide on muggle news is ‘so what’?”

Hailey shrugged. “There was still news to report it,” she told her. “You’re doing a lot better than I did.”

There was silence for several seconds.

“Than… you did,” Ginny mirrored.

“Yes,” Hailey nodded. “You won’t find records of it; I murdered the whole multiverse long before this universe was created. Before any of the current universes were created.” She paused. “Hmm… You know, there’s a pretty well-known number, at least in muggle circles: A total estimate for the number of atoms in the universe.”

“About ten to the power of eighty,” Hermione recited instantly.

“Yeah, that number,” Hailey agreed. “Now, take that number, and square it. Then square it again, and again, and again, about a thousand times.”

“That’s a pretty big number,” Hermione agreed.

“Pretty big number?” Myrtle asked, tilting her head. “Wouldn’t it have, like… lots of digits?”

“So many that the number of digits it has is itself a three hundred and three digit number,” Hailey informed her with a nod. “Incidentally, that means there aren’t enough atoms in this universe to calculate or store the full number in raw form.” She sighed. “That’s the number of universes in this multiverse right now.”

“I’d say you didn’t do too bad either if there’s so many left,” Ginny observed.

Hailey laughed. “Take that insane number. Raise it to the power of itself. Then take that new number, and raise it to the power of itself, and repeat, a few quadrillion times.”

“I’m not even going to try calculating that one,” Hermione observed.

Hailey nodded. “A very, very big number- so large it’s not possible to properly describe its magnitude in this universe, forget the English Language. Yet, it’s still nowhere near large enough to even hope to represent the total number of universes in this multiverse before I murdered them all.” She paused. “Then I happened. I destroyed every last one of them, killed every last one of the countless lives that came from each one. Well… except one: Me.” She paused again. “I reduced that total universe count all the way down to zero, and in so doing, became the single oldest being in the entire multiverse at the young age of eighteen. I would know, I killed the rest.”

All four of them stared at her in silence.

Then Hailey chuckled. “I suppose we do share one thing, Ginny. In my past life, before I seeded the multiverse and reincarnated… I was male as well.” She chuckled. “I also deliberately suffered personality death in between, though, so I’m not sure that it counts. But anyways. When I was first born… I was a weak little child, with only one power, without some of what even the muggles of this world have.” She smiled. “Yes. I was unbelievably weak, and fragile… Yet, I had one power, and one power that I still have: I would permanently gain the powers and strengths of anything I killed.” She sighed. “Once I discovered that… I went on a killing spree. Became a megalomaniacal evil overlord, sought power, and destroyed. Did whatever I needed to to kill anything that stood in my path.

“My first god, I killed by atomizing an entire star system with a flick of my wrist. My first multiversal goddess, I killed by shattering the universe she happened to be in.” She sighed. “Then of course, at the time, this was the only interesting multiverse across the entirety of the Omniverse, so all the Omniversal deities were visiting, having fun being ‘reborn’ in a particular universe.

“When I destroyed that entire sector of the Multiverse with a wave of my hand- because I was that powerful… they were killed too.” She sighed. “The thing that allowed me to grow that powerful… The next world over from my original birth world- in planets, it was a spacefaring civilization- had a unique twist to the usual ‘alpha of the pack’ concept. That was to say, they weren’t just pack leaders- no. These wolves- quite similar to wolves on this world- actually had two male genders, differentiated by their magic. One of them, the so-called ‘Beta Males’, had minor magic powers. They could use them themselves… but on a powerfully magical world like that one, where deer were deadly, herbivorous predators, they were largely helpless.

“The other of the two, called the ‘Alpha Males’... They could freely use the powers of any Beta Males in their pack, at double the power those Betas could accomplish themselves. These wolves were mostly hunted to extinction before I ever got there- but there were enough left. After that… Every few days, my powers become about a million times more powerful, without limit. As a result, I grew in power so fast that before the gods and goddesses realized what was going on, I had surpassed them and was preparing to kill them.” She sighed. “Then, in what seemed like no time, I was the only thing alive.

“As I’m sure you can imagine, I floated about for quite a while, simply getting stronger off of those wolves’ stolen powers… and eventually, I realized the gravity of what I had done, and started trying to kill myself. After failing so many times that you wouldn’t believe, I used a snap of my fingers- such as I could, with three hands and eight fingers each, but that was just what I was. Anyways, I used a snap of my many fingers as a focus to curse the entire multiverse to ensure that no creature such as I would ever form again, that no one creature or even civilization would ever gain the power to do what I did.

“A second set of curses and enchantments were set to guide me to personality death and resurrection in a form that would be beneficial, rather than harmful, to Multiversal society… then I laid the groundwork for just one single universe, then placed myself way out in the Void and isolated myself to assist with the whole personality death thing.

“Cue so many years that the words don’t exist in the English language. That one universe went through about a hundred cycles before it collapsed and died, during which it spawned just five child universes. Each of them went through their own series of cycles, spawned children, and died.

“And so on… until we get to today, with the number of universes we have now meaning a whole new universe is born somewhere every few nanoseconds at the most, despite their almost stupendously long lifecycles.” She smiled. “I achieved personality death many, many trillions of universal cycles ago, but the magic waited to reincarnate me until now because this cycle is the first one in which multiversal civilization has appeared.” She sighed. “Once the said civilization appears… it’s bound to stick around for multiple cycles, unless it kills itself or encounters something that kills it. Each universe goes through its own cycle, after all, and they’re only rarely in sync- or even the same speed as one another, so any given multiversal civilization merely has to survive long enough in the Void to see multiple cycles. The Multiverse doesn’t cycle, so provided nothing like me appears, any given immortal being could conceivably live truly forever.” She paused, looking at Ginny. “And that is why Voldemort is ‘so what’.”

“Scary,” Hermione observed, not looking scared at all.

Hailey chuckled. “I can do scary if you want,” she informed her. “I am, after all, a death god.”

Myrtle snorted. “Yet you’ve never come to rule the ghosts,” she observed.

She shrugged. “There’s a reason my ‘make a good person’ magic has been doing its damndest to keep me out of the political eye,” she informed her. “I don’t need nor want political power. All a political career can do at this stage of my reincarnation is destroy everything I spent so long creating.”

“So… Have powers that could destroy universes tried to appear since, or…?” Hermione trailed off uncertainly.

She chuckled. “Yes. Quite a few of them, actually- but they’re allowed to exist. The enchantment only blocks them from falling into the possession of anything that might misuse them. That means no civilization has ever had one, with only one exception it seems, because bureaucracy always manages to land some moron that would misuse them in power- and that very, very few builders have made them and managed to actually keep them.” She paused. “I think that total is zero, actually, thanks to ‘rogue’ AIs that saved the universe from their supposed masters- or ‘simple’ coincidences resulting in death of the creator and/or destruction of the device.” She shrugged. “It’s not many that would build an apocalypse device and not use it, and even fewer with the resources to do so.”

It took several minutes before Ginny recovered the strength to stand again. There was a part of her that wished that destroying a horcrux wouldn’t injure her soul so much- but as she’d told her friends, a quick, clean severance by Killing Curse was the gentlest way, and caused the least damage. Destroying the Diary with Basilisk venom would have knocked her out for weeks- and Fiendfyre, the roughest way to destroy a horcrux, would put her in a coma for as much as a year.

But, once she had stood, she’d immediately turned to the Obelisk buried in the wall… and quirked a small smile as her Seed acknowledged its presence but didn’t try to urge her to activate it. It had, as soon as it had realized what she was looking at earlier, infodumped all of the connection and activation information… and also explained why it hadn’t done what it was designed to, and simply taken control to activate it automatically: It had detected a clear and present danger. As such, it had given her the urge to activate it, but it hadn’t actually done it, because it wanted her to make an informed decision about whether it was safe or not.

Yet now, with the danger removed, it was no longer urging her to activate it, and it wasn’t activating it either. Instead, it was merely acknowledging its presence… and ignoring it.

Which was strange.

Had the destruction of the Horcrux somehow damaged it? She tried sending it the activation command- and it immediately resisted her. Activation process may be dangerous with the present injured state, it warned her, and asked if she was sure while she let out a small snort of laughter. It thought her weakness was physical for some reason, rather than spiritual, and believed that the movements and energies it would need to demand from her body would do potentially crippling damage, causing the activation to fail.

She felt for her wellspring… and, just like her muscles, she could feel its full, coiled strength waiting patiently to be released, even if the damage to her soul meant that she couldn’t control either one with much strength at all… or at all for her magic. She was going to be completely without her magic for almost three whole days, simply because her soul would recognize that it would be too dangerous to unleash any of her magic, as it wouldn’t be able to control how much, nor the amounts that would emerge.

Her psionics were a different story. As near as she could tell, since they’d been learned by only the parts of her that were living in her body and not split to the Horcruxes, they were still at full power, fully available to her with no restrictions and no risk.

So, whatever her Seed thought, activating her Obelisk posed no danger whatsoever.

“Girls?” she asked quietly.

“Hmm?” Hailey asked, glancing up at the Obelisk. “Oh, is it calling out to you again?”

Hermione looked curiously between the two of them, then up at the wall, and spotted the Obelisk’s text, before blinking. “Is that an Obelisk?” she muttered.

Myrtle and Luna merely looked between them, their brows furrowed in confusion.

Ginny let out a soft chuckle. “Yes, that’s an Obelisk,” she told them. “And no, Hailey, it’s actually not calling out.” She shrugged- or at least, as much of one as she could manage. “It thinks that activating it will hurt me- but it won’t. Well… unless you count the psionic backlash of connecting to an Obelisk Network that already has some eight thousand addresses; in my current state, there’s a small chance that’ll be enough to knock me out for a couple minutes, and it’ll definitely be enough to knock me down.” She sighed. “And to be honest, I’d like to get it over with sooner rather than later. For one, I’ll have access to all the newest blueprints.”

“For two, you’ll have a second source of information, I expect,” Hailey mused.

“Eight thousand addresses?” Hermione asked.

Ginny sighed. “Knowing that the very first one on the network is the zeroth address, I’ll be the eight thousand, three hundred and nineteenth.”

“So, it’s already got eighty-three nineteen addresses,” Hailey observed. “Unless something anomalous happened.”

“How do you know that?” Hermione asked.

“Because that Obelisk, when I activate it, will reach across the worldwall- and target a very specific Fleet at a very specific point on a very specific layer of a higher-dimensional space-time continuum, and that’s how many it’s scheduled to have at that point, according to the designation number encoded into my Seed.” She paused. “I mean yes, it’s probably possible for it to be off by one or two, but still.”

Hailey chuckled, then reached forward to put a hand on Ginny’s shoulder. “Go for it, then,” she told her. “We’ll catch.”

She took a deep breath. “Alright then, here goes. It’ll probably look a bit weird.” She sent the activation command to her seed, then confirmed it.

Are you really sure?

She confirmed it again.

Are you really, REALLY sure?

“Stupid triple authorization override,” she grumbled aloud, and confirmed it the third time, ignoring Hailey, Hermione, and Myrtle’s snickers.

This time, it took.

The moment it did, her mind went blissfully blank. No pain, no thought, nothing, just calm, healing peace.

Ginny’s body was another matter. Her Seed spent about two seconds, having her simply stand unmoving, while it took control of her psionic and magical potential as well- it was going to be using them as the communications medium with which to reach out to the Obelisk, since it lacked any sort of remote communications capability… and the Obelisk wouldn’t be listening for any sort of wireless transmission anyways, or it’d have used the Obelisk she’d already installed before she’d ever boarded the train to Hogwarts. As it was, it had spent almost a month after that installation restructuring itself to accept two separate Obelisks; unless this one malfunctioned for some reason, the Sequence Link duty could not be offloaded onto one that she had created herself… and it was against protocol to allow her to link a foreign network- such as the one she’d set up at Hogwarts- with that of the Sequence without prior authorization. Not that it believed she wanted to link the two networks in the first place- it was fairly certain she hadn’t realized this one even existed until after she’d built her own.

Finally, it began the connection process. This started with making eye contact with the engraving and projecting her psionic and magical energies at it to power the new Obelisk. This would have the effect of making her eyes look like purple spotlights to any outside observers- and while protocol did have something to say about such, Hailey, Hermione, Luna, and Myrtle, as her friends, were exceptions. Besides, she had used the triple-auth override, so limits like that were ignored anyways; she was the supreme authority on that particular matter.

So with the basic matter of the new Obelisk’s operating power taken care of, it was time to actually initiate the Obelisk’s startup sequence.

“Emergent. Virtual. Explorer,” she spoke, in Psychic Speech. Her voice was calm and emotionless, like a machine- but that’s what the Seed was, really. With each word, one letter of the abbreviation at the top of the inscription glowed purple as well.

That was the Obelisk’s startup sequence complete- the device was now ready to receive instructions. The next step was to identify itself, after which it would be able to switch to a lower level communications scheme to authenticate with.

“Eve unit eight three one nine, commencing link up,” she stated calmly.

The bottom line of the inscription glowed purple, then promptly changed from ‘System Interface Dormant’ to ‘System Interface Activated’. Her Seed then waited patiently while the Obelisk did some internal processing- probably loading its side of the authentication handshake- before the line above it, ‘Novum Level Authorization Required’, glowed to indicate it was ready for authentication.

“Transmitting authentication codes,” she informed the room calmly. Her Seed immediately initiated the authentication handshake by way of psionic communication; her side of it had been loaded in memory from the very beginning… but her Seed had also been initialized over twelve years before, before it had even bound itself to her. To an outside observer, the purple light coming from both her eyes and the inscription would seem to flicker a little, provided their senses were fast enough to keep up with it.

The authorization message in the inscription changed as well. ‘Authorization Accepted. Novum Level Access Confirmed.’

Finally, authorization was complete, and the Obelisk could be transported to its installation location.

“Commencing Sequence Link,” both units stated- one through Ginny’s voice, the other replacing the ‘System Interface Active’ message. The installation went smoothly throughout the verbal statement- and, as she finished speaking, installation was completed and the Obelisk reached across the worldwall.

This handshake was near-instant, as it was by Void Tether Link to a receiver that had been expecting it rather than by a rudimentary psychic pulse designed to be detectable through any sort of interference, and her Seed released control of her body the moment it began.

Ginny collapsed.

Hailey and Hermione caught her. “Ginny?”

Ginny blinked a few times, and shook her head a little, even as some part of her mind immediately reached into her Seed’s upload queue- it was quite long all of the sudden- and into the Sequence Database to mark almost her entire identity file as ‘Need To Know’, so nobody else would know any more than her name and appearance without talking to her, or having the authority to override or bypass her data classification. “Huh- What? Oh, sorry.” She rose to her feet. “The… The psychic feedback. As expected. Thank you.”

Hailey nodded. “No problem. Do you need us to carry you, or…?”

Ginny paused, looking down at her hand. “Huh? Oh, um… No.” She sat down on the floor. “Sorry, I’m… I’m downloading a bunch of information.”

The silence drew on for about a minute, during which Myrtle knelt next to her and the other three knelt around her.

“Okay,” Ginny muttered. “I think that’ll about do it.” She sighed. “Um… We’ll probably want to wait another few minutes. I should have enough physical strength back to look like nothing happened after as little as half an hour. Less, if I cheat with psionics.” She paused. “And while we’re here, Hermione… now that I’m connected, we’ve suddenly got tons of options as far as your biosleeve is concerned.”

Hermione raised an eyebrow. “Biosleeve?”

She shrugged. “That’s one of the names the Eve Sequence has applied to biological bodies other than your first one,” she answered. “Specifically, the ones you can just slip in and out of like a sleeve- which is what I’m making for you.” She paused. “I can make it biologically identical to your original body except for the bare minimum to make it a biosleeve- to let you slip into it, that is. I can also remodel the biofab with a blueprint I didn’t have yesterday and restart the process to make the whole process about a hundred times faster. Or if you want, we can make it a cyborg. And after what happened here…” She glanced up at the crater. “I think I’d rather have something smaller available next time something happens, so I’ll offer you a more… well, combat-oriented synthsleeve right away, if you’d like. No, you wouldn’t notice the difference, generally- unless something happened, of course.”

Hermione paused, her jaw articulating up and down as she thought. “Let’s… how fast could you do the biothing?”

“We’d be looking at around two weeks, including time to remodel the biofab, starting… probably tomorrow morning.” She sighed. “The faster model uses a lot more expensive Luminous Astrium.”

She rubbed her chin. “So I’d get it something like the day after the Hogwarts Express took me home for summer,” she muttered, then sighed. “Nah, leave it.” She paused. “No need to change the modification blueprint either, I think.”

There was a brief pause.

“I don’t think it’s ever told you stuff that readily,” Hailey observed.

“It hasn’t,” Ginny agreed. “And while yes, it has infodumped everything else it’s got, I now have a direct connection to a much larger database that tells me all these things if I ask.” She smiled. “I did notice the Seed blueprint is in there, but I don’t have access. Locked behind Oracle rank, and there’s no chance in the universe I’m going to get that.”

“Speaking of, what’s the Novum authorization and stuff?” Myrtle asked.

“Oh, that?” She looked at the wall where the Obelisk had been; the inscription had disappeared once the process completed. “Novum… was my rank in the Eve Sequence, before I found that. But as soon as I turned it on, I got promoted to Tribune.” She smiled. “I’m not sure it means much, beyond data access- not that there’s much locked to anything higher than Tribune- and command hierarchy in the event of a Fleet action.”

“So… Sequence, eh?” Hailey asked, grinning at her.

“Er… That’s what it’s called, yes,” Ginny answered. “Why?”

“Hmm,” Hailey muttered, rubbing her chin. “Does the name… Null Star ring a bell?”

Ginny tilted her head. “The Null Star? That’s Zero’s ship- the flagship of the Sequence. Is that…? What?”

Hailey didn’t stop giggling.

“I said What, Hailey.”

Hailey stifled her giggles. “Sorry, it’s just…” She took a deep breath, and let it out. “Remember when I was talking about apocalypse devices, and how no civilization has ever had one, with only one exception?”

“Yeah?” Ginny asked, her head tilt mirrored by Hermione, Luna, and Myrtle. “Why?”

Hailey grinned. “Because the Sequence is that exception,” Hailey told her.

Ginny blinked. “Huh? Uh…” She paused. “Is it because the whole thing is like a huge family of all girls?” She paused again. “With, uh, a couple boys sprinkled in via the Twin Bond Protocol, but even then, they’re not technically part of the Sequence, despite…” She trailed off, and sighed. “You know what I mean.”

Hailey shrugged. “Maybe. Who knows, in the end- but the Sequence wouldn’t misuse them. Pretty important, I suppose, since it’s composed of them.”

“C-Composed-?” Ginny gasped.

Hailey nodded. “Yes. The Eve Seed used by the Sequence, paired with just the blueprints in its ROMs and not counting the ones stored on the Sequence archives, is considered an Apocalypse Device.” She paused. “Admittedly, it’s one of the slower Apocalypse Devices out there, but it does qualify as one- and once it gets itself established by forming an Eve, it’s incredibly difficult to stop, even on its own.”

“... Ahh,” Ginny muttered vaguely. There was a second of silence, then she blinked. “Oh, sorry, Mom was saying hi. Er… Sequence Mom. Er… You know what I mean.”

Hailey giggled. “I do.”

“You have two moms now?” Myrtle asked.

“Three, actually. Two of which are alive, and one of which is younger than me.”

Author's Note

Wait, what just happened? I left to get the sirloin, but it looks like Lockhart's already been burned?

Patreon, Discord.

Hailey actually gives us enough figures to calculate the approximate length (to an accuracy of within 25% or so) of an average universal lifecycle (total number, individual reproductive rate per cycle, and total reproductive rate)... but it involves numbers big enough I'm not going to even try to calculate how many umpteen gazillion millennia it is. You could even, theoretically, calculate how many years it has been since she laid the groundwork for that one!

Why isn't the next chapter up for patrons yet? Because I'm not satisfied with it, of course.
Specifically, I'm not satisfied with the way Luna acted like a piece of furniture, even after she awoke.

I'll be... adjusting it, then publishing it when its ready... Hopefully tomorrow, when it's scheduled, rather than a week from tomorrow.

Speaking of, sorry it's a bit late today.

I've yet to decide what the side effects of that earthquake were, since it was definitely strong enough to be detected and measured by muggles all around the globe, not unlike a nuclear weapon. And it was also definitely not a natural quake, if they analyze it properly... Ideas?

Also, this chapter was very fun to rewrite- especially the new and extended Chamber sequence. Riddle is still hopelessly outclassed, but at least the fight has better entertainment value...

I know the old "so you're Voldemort, so what" sequence was called "funny and full of lore", but with two extra characters present, I kinda had to redo it... I personally liked how Hailey wasn't the only one saying 'so what'. What do you think of the new one?

Oh, yes, and: Three THOUSAND more words than the old version, yay!

Also worth note: Hailey said there are 10(80*21000) universes in the Multiverse.

If you compute out the exponent, it's roughly equal to 8.5*10302. You could reasonably calculate that on a sufficiently large calculator, but most software calculators just won't go that high. (Interestingly, Windows Calculator does, but displays in scientific notation).

If you try to compute out the final number, without any scientific notation or exponents... Well, that number, approximately 10(10303), would require so many binary bits to store that it would not fit on all the hard drive space on the planet- requiring somewhere around 101,000 bytes (I may be way off, not sure what the proper method is to calculate that number)- and the total hard drive space on the planet is only about 1022 bytes. Nevermind the universe only has 1080 or so atoms in it, so you'd need 10920 or so universes of hard drives to store that one number in raw form...

And I doubt your imagination is large enough to even conceptualize the number she said there used to be before her.

Chapter 20: Voidwalker RW

The connection of Eve Unit 8319 caused a ripple of silence to flow throughout the Sequence Obelisk Network, not just the usual love and welcome that any Eve had for their sisters.

Normally, whenever a new Eve connected to the network, her identity files automatically uploaded to the Database almost before anyone could realize she was connecting, allowing each and every one of her sisters to find out who she was if ever they wanted to say hi. This, combined with the immense curiosity of every Eve, usually meant that, within the first second after each new Eve arrived, a vast majority of all Eves- well over ninety percent, often- had requested and received those identity files, curious to learn about their new sister’s world. Every once in a while, an Eve- usually one of the digital ones- would be so fast on the uptake that her request would reach the Database before her new sister’s files reached it, causing it to refuse her request because it couldn’t find the file. This happened to an unfortunate Eve on about five percent of new connections by now, and very, extremely rarely to two at once. Fortunately, every Eve knew that whenever they saw that error, all they had to do was wait a mere millisecond and try again to be basically guaranteed a success.

When Unit 8319 connected, the initial curiosity wave was relatively strong. About 7953 Eves requested her identity files within that first second, for a full 96% of her sisters… but every single one got back an error. Not only that, but every single one received an error on their retries as well.

By the time three seconds had passed, every single other Eve on the network had pinged her ID files… and received the report that those files just weren’t found.

Fully three seconds after that, her ID files still hadn’t been uploaded and the database was fielding about ten million requests for them each second. It could handle a theoretically infinite number, though, so Eve Zero, the mother of all the Eves, requested a database health report and a report on the new Eve’s database activity. If there was something stopping her from uploading her identity files, she needed to know.

The reports came back instantly. The first calmly reported an immeasurably low utilization percentage… and the latter indicated that her new daughter’s Emergency Backup, which would reduce the time required for the Emergency Upload in the event of her death, was about eighty-seven percent complete. The database had been notified that her identity files were in the girl’s upload queue, but unfortunately, the Seed’s throughput capacity was far more limited than the database itself, so the emergency backup had priority. She and the rest of her daughters could stand to wait the extra seconds it would take for the backup if it meant that they didn’t lose their new family member- something which had never happened before, even to older Eves. The poor girl’s Seed was evidently running at maximum utilization in its attempt to preserve her life.

Zero immediately made an instantaneous broadcast to the entire Sequence; many of her daughters- particularly the ones that tended to get ‘file not found’ errors on their sisters’ identity files- had already asked her if there was a problem with the database, since it wasn’t turning up the files.

“Remain calm, your new sister is running her backup. Her ID will be up soon.”

The response was, rather than a reduction in worry as she’d expected, a sudden increase in worry and concern. She then got swamped with so many questions about if their new sister was fine that she was almost instantly glad that she wasn’t limited by biological processing speed, as a digital entity herself. Unfortunately, she knew no more than her daughters did; it could take years, even with the processing power available to the Sequence, to decode even a single, small backup file, as each entity used their own format.

And the seven-second duration of the upload suggested that the poor girl wasn’t around twenty years old, like most Eves were when they connected- rather, she had around seventy years of experience, assuming normal accumulation rates. That wasn’t unheardof, but it also wasn’t exactly common, at well below a single percentage of new Eves.

When the upload finally finished, and everyone received the identity files, they didn’t do anything to calm everyone’s worries. Whereas most of her daughters had name, appearance, and some sort of rundown of their life so far, this daughter- Ginny Weasley- was missing the last of the three. They knew what she went by, what she looked like… and that was it.

She also started a long chain of downloads as soon as her uploads were over, which was pretty typical of a new Eve. Their thirst for information often included their own equipment, at least until they knew it like the backs of their hands.

The emotional side bands that opened alongside that download served to calm a fair few of her daughters, who returned to whatever they were doing; the rest, however, waited with baited breath for her first words, to find out who she really was.

During that time, Ginny’s seed automatically submitted a request to tie the girl’s private database to the Sequence network as such, so it would serve as an access path back into her world in case she died before she managed to build a Void Weave Drive. She would still have full control over that database, and even Zero wouldn’t have access to it without Ginny’s permission.

Zero approved it. Whatever Ginny stored in it would automatically be backed up to the main Sequence database, with files locked so only she could open them, in case her database was destroyed. Interestingly, judging by the running mode of her database, she was using it to run some other kind of network, not merely for herself.

It was also somewhat alarming that the girl had enough Luminous Astrium to build a database, even before she connected back up. Her identity files claimed that she was a mere eleven standard years old, and Luminous Astrium production demanded so much power that most Eves required twenty years- after linking up- to make their first sample of the stuff! Yet if Ginny had enough to build a database, she almost certainly already had enough to make a simple Voidship!

She waited silently. She had no idea what Ginny was doing, and didn’t want to risk interrupting something- but especially with so much concern pointed at her, the girl had to know everyone was waiting with baited breath.

Still, though. A full minute passed- and Ginny then submitted a request to change the status of her database on the Sequence network. This one wasn’t an automated request, it was a request that definitely came from her; the Seed would never automatically request a private database be set into a multi-network operating mode whilst also serving as a backup for the entire Sequence Database.

She considered the request for a second. Ginny’s database would then serve as a backup in case the Sequence Fleet out in the Void was attacked and destroyed- something which hadn’t happened yet, but Zero wasn’t in the habit of taking chances. On top of that, judging by the operating specifics she provided in her request, her database would be serving a completely separate Obelisk Network she was currently running on it and serving as a database for that network, whilst keeping the two networks entirely separated… save only that her private network database would be mirrored securely into the Sequence Database.

On top of that, her database seemed to be hosting multiple lesser networks, which were set up as ‘servant networks’ of her private Obelisk Network. She wanted to keep her setup entirely intact, and retain the control over her database to configure- or remove- sub-networks like that on her private Obelisk Network, whilst adding the Sequence Database backup function as well. Implicit in her request was a promise not to dismantle her database nor otherwise take it offline in the foreseeable future. On top of that, completely unmentioned by the request and- she suspected- unconsidered for it, her database would serve as an avenue through which her sisters could visit and help her, even before she built a Void Weave Drive to depart her universe.

She debated with herself for a couple of femtoseconds, then approved it- and the full duplication of the encrypted database began. It only took a single second, thanks to the immense capacities of the databases in question.

More minutes passed- and eventually, someone spoke up, but it wasn’t Ginny.

“Do you think she’s too busy?”

It was a young Eve, one who had linked up just a few months before and hadn’t even gotten her initial Nocturnic Astrium sample yet, let alone the Luminous Astrium she’d need to join her sisters in the Void. Unlike the transmissions earlier, she used a realtime vocal transmission; that was only natural, considering she was a biological Eve, so that was the speed she was used to working at.

“No, I don’t think so.” Zero stopped, unwilling to admit that no matter how many different models she applied, she simply could not imagine a situation that would cause the events she’d seen. She also chose not to mention that Ginny had downloaded the lump sum of the publicly available identity files, evidently curious who she’d just connected to- and a clear action of curiosity rather than panic. “She doesn’t seem to think she’s in any danger,” she observed.

“But is she really?” a relatively senior Eve asked, the worry creeping into her tone. “I don’t know about you, but I’m having a hard time deciding which I hope is wrong: Her Seed, which panicked hard enough to initiate an Emergency Backup, or her, who evidently doesn’t feel like she’s in danger.”

“Why?” a younger one asked- this one had just achieved her first Luminous Astrium the day before, but didn’t yet have enough to build the Void Weave Drive she’d need to join her sisters in the Void. “I know I’m hoping it’s her Seed that’s wrong, because that’d mean she’s actually safe.”

“Well yes,” the senior Eve agreed, “that’s true. However, if her Seed is that wrong, it could mean there’s a problem- a vulnerability- in Mother’s programming, which exists in every single one of us as well, and that could be huge.” She paused. “Yet, I certainly don’t want her to be in danger.”

Zero heaved a sigh and, fully five minutes after Ginny had connected, she reached out directly to her. The conversation had taken place in a channel that any Eve- including Ginny- could hear, but the girl had probably tuned it out or otherwise not realized they were talking about her. “Ginny?” she called out. “Are you okay?”

The answer came back immediately, and sounded a little confused and a lot stunned. “Huh?” There was a very brief pause. “Oh, uh, Yeah, I’m okay- or at least, I will be. Why?”

“We noticed you uploaded an Emergency Backup as soon as you linked,” one of the senior Eves informed her. “That’s… I think it’s the first EB in the history of the Sequence- right, Mom?”

Zero gave the Network equivalent of a nod. “Yes, that was the first emergency-priority backup the Sequence has ever seen.” Usually, the initial backup ran in the background over the first minute or two of a young Eve’s connection to the network, then was kept constantly up to date, rendering the Emergency Backup unnecessary. Not to say that Emergency Uploads hadn’t happened; they saved more than a few of her daughters from time to time, after all. Backups had also been executed at high priority before, when the Eve in question discovered her Obelisk in a dangerous situation- but emergency priority only happened if the Seed thought it might not have time for even that before she died, and it was unlikely to be able to pull her out of danger.

There were a couple seconds of silence before Ginny answered. “Um… Yeah, my Seed kinda did that on its own. Had to triple-auth-override the activation sequence, because it thought soul damage was going to affect it.”

“Soul damage?” Zero asked, horrified. That was the one thing the Obelisk Network couldn’t protect her daughters against!

“Yup,” Ginny answered, and sighed. “It’ll heal, though, don’t worry. The danger’s past.” There was a brief pause. “And it shouldn’t hurt so much next time.”

A good ten minutes of silence passed before Ginny stood up again. She was still just a little unsteady on her feet, but she could manage- and her psionics could be used to shore it up if need be. She stretched, then sighed, then looked around at the rest. “Shall we be on our way, then?”

“Might as well,” Hailey agreed, then she and Hermione rose to their feet as well… but Luna stayed sitting on the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees.

Ginny looked at her, then bent down a little. “Luna?” she asked. “Are you okay?”

Luna twitched, then looked up at her. “He… He’s been controlling me.”

“I know,” Ginny answered, using psionics more than muscle to draw her sword out of the Diary- and a quick command to the Astrium to dull it, even before she commanded it to dissolve back into Raw Astrium and store itself back inside her body. That revealed her wand hidden in the handle- and now held in her hand, before she pocketed it. “That was a Horcrux. There’s a lot of nasty magic on those things- and only three things can destroy them: The Killing Curse, Fiendfyre, and Basilisk Venom.” She paused, and glanced at Hailey. “And apparently a three-hour-long ritual that can only be performed on the night of the full moon.”

“And requires one werewolf, one phoenix, one dementor, and one unicorn to be present,” Hailey agreed. “It’s perhaps the hardest way to destroy a Horcrux safely, even including Basilisk Venom.” She paused. “Though the werewolf can’t have taken Wolfsbane Potion or it won’t work, and they can’t be restrained, magically or otherwise, so it’s only for certain definitions of ‘safely’.”

“Seems like the riskiest method as well,” Hermione observed. “Imagine being chased around a spell circle by a crazy werewolf for three hours, while manipulating said spell circle…” She shuddered. “Whoever discovered it must’ve had really good legs.”

“And don’t forget that unicorns and dementors are mortal enemies,” Hailey observed. “The discovery was through Arithmancy rather than trying things out, and the poor guy died of exhaustion, not Dementor or Werewolf attacks or getting trampled by the unicorn thirty-seven times, about two hours after he succeeded in casting it.” She shrugged. “The phoenix might be the reason why.”

Ginny winced. “Yikes.”

Luna let out a soft sigh. “He… He said he had no control over it, it just happened.”

Ginny snorted. “He lied,” she told her. “Lying is the thing Voldemort was best at. Possession like that is strictly voluntary.”

“I imagine he felt a little funny whenever he was possessing you,” Hailey mused.

Luna nodded. “He said he’d never been a girl before.”

The Chamber of Secrets promptly rang with Ginny, Hailey, Hermione, and Myrtle’s laughter. After a second, Luna joined in as well, though a bit feebly.

When the laughter died out, Luna went on. “That wasn’t all,” she half-whispered. “He said I was… different. Strange. Weird. Craz-!”

“So you can see auras, so what?” Ginny asked. “Most wizards don’t even know they exist, but they’re no less important for it.”

She winced. “But- But the other things-!”

“So you can see the multidimensional objects passing through this plane of existence, so what?” Hailey asked. “That only means you’re a Royal. Voidwalker, specifically, which incidentally makes you the most powerful true Royal since Merlin.”

Luna looked up. “True Royal?”

She shrugged. “Well, neither me nor Ginny are technically Royals, since that portal had nothing to do with our powers- I mean, with one being a reincarnated goddess and the other being gifted powers by a multiversal civilization…” She trailed off. “Voidwalkers technically aren’t divine beings, but thanks to being a higher-dimensional being capable of traversing the Void and manipulating the worldwall, you’re actually stronger than the local deities.” She paused. “Not by much, mind, but you are.”

Ginny looked up. “Is that how she was able to wake up through Riddle’s drain?”

She nodded. “Even the most powerful four-dimensional drain like that is but the tiniest prick of the finger to a twelve-dimensional Voidwalker. She’s still in the developmental phase, though, so for the most part, her wellspring is sticking to human-like limitations for now.”

Luna blinked at her. “Human-like,” she observed.

Hailey shrugged. “Well, you haven’t accidentally sidestepped out of reality yet,” she observed. “That’s a human-like limitation. It doesn’t reduce your actual capability, so if something happens or something startles you into reflexive action, those limitations go straight out the window, and whatever is bothering you gets the full brunt of your true capabilities.” She smiled. “So yes, you’re different. And unusual. Perhaps a bit strange to the people around you, and I’m sure they’ll call you weird because they apply that label to anything they don’t understand. Yes, I know, it’s annoying.

“But you’re most definitely not crazy.”

Then Ginny tilted her head. “Um… Hailey? Why can’t I find anything on Voidwalkers in the Sequence database?”

“Because that database is only around four hundred years old,” she answered, “and she’s the first Voidwalker since the Multiverse was destroyed and re-seeded.”

Ginny scowled. “So…” She rubbed her chin. “So why is there so much Multiverse stuff gathering right here?”

She shrugged. “Because my presence in this universe warps the laws of physics,” she answered simply. “As a matter of fact, that portal- the one that causes Royals- is a side effect of the damage done to said laws of physics by my presence. It is, in a very real sense, a wound in the voidweave continuum- and one that connects all the way back to the pre-disaster Multiverse that I destroyed, drawing power and patterns from back then.” She paused. “Sorta…” She rubbed her chin. “Yeah. It is to the Voidweave Continuum what a singularity is to the Spacetime Continuum.”

“A hole,” Hermione mirrored. “That’s… interesting.”

Luna sighed, staring at her knees. “But if I’m a Royal-!”

“If you don’t want to end up in a political career, the same Multiverse-level enchantment that’s keeping me out of a political career will do it for you too.” She paused. “It’s already doing that for Ginny- I understand it’s resulted in some very interesting situations. And like I did in Dumbledore’s office a month ago, that doesn’t mean you can’t use your powers or even Royal authority- just means you want to be careful about it.”

“But- But my dad-!”

“You’re the only one that magic will allow to make the decision to expose your Royal status to the political world,” Hailey informed her. “If you tell your father, which is up to you, then he goes to try and tell, say, Dumbledore, he’ll get the same thing Molly Weasley did when she tried to tell him Ginny had a Phoebe: Delivery failure after delivery failure, and strange, sudden confusion while talking to him.”

Ginny blinked. “Then when he asked me directly-?”

Hailey nodded. “Yes. When someone tries to manipulate you into revealing it against your will, that magic will step in to help you out. If you start noticing sudden, inexplicable bouts of confusion while being interrogated or even ‘talked to’ by certain people, you know that’s what’s happening- they’re manipulating you, and it’s helping you keep the secret. No amount of fancy words can fool that enchantment.” She paused. “Though… I should probably mention that it won’t stop random strangers that won’t try to shepherd you into a political career from finding out about it, only people that might push you into a political career.” She snorted. “As a matter of fact, there’s a special little cutout in that magic. So… if I told you I knew a Royal, would you be able to tell me what the color of her silver hair was?”

She looked up at her. “You just said it,” she answered. “It’s silver.”

“Silver?” Hermione asked, looking up at Hailey.

She nodded. “She’s still in the formation stage, but that necklace is turning her into a goddess. Multiversal- and the first one since me.” She looked back down to Luna. “If you ask someone about some tidbit of a Royal’s appearance and include the answer in the question, only someone that will be safe to tell about that Royal will be able to provide that answer. Anyone else will likely be utterly confused about why they can’t remember the color of the Royal’s blonde hair.” She smiled. “It’s a special clause in the enchantment, and it’ll work even when someone else- that knows- is the one asking, no matter how far they are.”

“Silver’s going to be interested to know that,” Ginny observed.

“Just told her,” Hermione smiled.

“Anyways,” Hailey supplied. “Lockhart’s waiting in the entryway, and your parents are waiting upstairs, so we should probably go meet them.”

Luna scowled. “What’s Mom doing away from Saint Mungo’s?”

“Probably coming to see her daughter after receiving a message that said you may have been killed,” Hailey answered, then chuckled. “Not that the Killing Curse would even phase you.” She paused. “Fun fact, in most worlds like ours, your mom is dead. In this world, though, when she would have died, you were there- and reflexively used your powers to save her.” She chuckled. “The will of a child is a powerful thing, and even their own wellspring will bow to it.”

Gilderoy Lockhart had a problem.

Firstly, he was in a strange, stone tunnel somewhere; it was a bit too long- and curved- to be a room, and the animal bones all over the floor suggested that he was screwed if he didn’t find a way out. Unfortunately, though, there didn’t seem to be an entrance… unless you ascribed that name to the high shaft at one end, but no light came from above and he couldn’t fly either. At the other end were some creepy snake carvings. There was even a massive green serpent skin on the floor around the middle- and he had no idea what it was from.

The truly terrifying part was that one or two of his books detailed people in spaces like this one before, so everyone the world over would think this was old news to him.

On the other hand, even knowing what he claimed in his books (which really had happened, even if he hadn’t actually been the one to do it), he had no idea what to do. He didn’t want to try blowing through the ceiling or walls, having no idea what was on top of him- and the spells his books talked of using to determine just that, which really had been used by the people in question… weren’t telling him anything. Maybe he wasn’t casting them properly?

He was still a wizard, though. He could conjure light, he could clean up the floor. Before desperation could set in, he conjured himself a comfortable armchair around halfway, before settling down to wait and think. Perhaps calm himself down a little bit, and try not to panic. His timekeeping spell seemed to be utterly confused about the current date and time, refusing to give him anything but the magical equivalent of a shrug- which suggested something big had happened… or perhaps the tunnel was warded against time spells. It seemed silly, but he’d heard of sillier.

Fortunately, his time spell was able to measure how long he’d been there, and count elapsed time.

Because of that, when he heard a sudden rumbling from the snake wall end, he knew he’d been there for about fifteen minutes.

He leaped off his chair as though burned, vanished it, and extinguished his light as well, before crouching in the shadows. Who was coming?

He heard voices. Girls, it sounded like, and saw wandlights around the corner. There was a sudden hush.

Then someone spoke, and he made out the words.

“Huh. Where’d Professor Lockhart go?”

Professor?

In what life was he a professor? What had happened? Had-

Had he tried to obliviate someone, and hit himself instead? Had something obliviated him?

He had been lying flat on his back when he awoke, after all.

He racked his brains. Last he remembered, he’d returned home from a disguised trip to Diagon Alley- he liked to be famous, but a famous man simply couldn’t shop in peace- to the news that the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts had been killed by Voldemort. He’d had a stray thought that maybe he should apply.

Had that happened? Had he applied, then gone to Hogwarts and become a well-respected Professor?

All told, if he’d been one for very long, he rather doubted he’d been well-respected. His own Defense grades had been in the dumps, to the point where they’d nearly held him back a year at one point- and while he had sat that NEWT after a frankly amazing OWL score, he’d flunked it. Compound that with his total inability to cast any of the spells in his books… Sure, he knew about lots of Defense work in the wild, but what good would it be? Maybe he’d built up a head of overconfidence and attempted something he’d never done before in the name of showing off, only to get burned, but the only other thing he could even imagine himself doing was trying to convey the lessons he’d learned through writing his books.

But how on earth would he do that? Given time pressure, he could imagine that he’d simply start trying to act them out, partly to appeal to the children and partly in the hopes that they’d remember something of the techniques.

All in all, going to Hogwarts as a Professor would be a supremely stupid idea.

That was about the point that the girls rounded the corner- and sure enough, by the light reflecting off the walls, they were dressed in Hogwarts uniforms. Four girls… and one ghost, all walking side-by-side. The red-headed girl seemed to be leaning on the black-haired girl, almost like she’d been hurt somehow.

Were these also captives of this tunnel, or…?

He rose quickly to his feet, abandoning his crouch, and cast a light charm, casting it over them to see better.

Interesting. They looked like lower-year students; the ghost was taller than all of them, and he recognized her, too: That was Myrtle Warren, also known as Moaning Myrtle, the ghost of a third-year student that had died in a bathroom the year before Lockhart started at Hogwarts himself.

She was quite different from last he’d seen her; in his later years, she spent all her time crying in the bathroom she’d died in, because people kept insulting her- and from what little he’d heard about her in the time since he’d left Hogwarts, things hadn’t improved.

“Hello?” he called.

One of the girls pointed their own wand light up at him, then lowered it. “Oh, Professor Lockhart.” The derision evident in her voice suggested that he had indeed gone the Hogwarts route.

He paused, trying to think of how best to handle the situation. Finally, he settled on playing it straight- and not-quite-outright telling them of his issue. Obliviation already wasn’t an option, as it didn’t work on ghosts, but he’d have to figure that out later. Finally, he spoke. “Am I a Professor?” he asked, blinking bemusedly to sell the act. “I don’t recall.”

All five girls stopped walking and stared at him. “You don’t recall?” the redhead asked. “You’ve been one all year!”

The brunette tilted her head. “Do you… remember… where we are?”

He shook his head. “I was actually hoping you knew that,” he muttered.

“The entryway to the Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts,” the black-haired girl said matter-of-factly. “I guess you’ve forgotten, but the exams are scheduled to start in a few days, and you’ve been the Defense Professor for the entire year.” There was a brief pause, in which they got close enough for him to read the badges that three of them- the black-haired girl, the redhead, and the brunette- were wearing. “With the Chamber of Secrets issues we’ve been having this year, we came down here with you to rescue Luna from the Basilisk back there… then, as we were approaching that gate back there, you just… fell over, unconscious.” She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb.

“B-Basilisk?” he asked, his eyes wide- then he turned to look at the massive snake skin. “A basilisk?” he gasped.

“Yup,” the girl said- Hailey Potter, according to her nameplate, and the Hogwarts Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead- something he’d never even heard of- according to her badge. “We killed it.” She paused. “Turns out that if you combine three witches and wands into a single blasting spell, and have each experience a magic surge during the cast, the resultant blast is absolutely deafening. Turned the statue the Basilisk was still inside into a crater.”

He let out a breath of relief. “That’s good, I suppose,” he muttered. “So, ahh-!” He glanced in the direction of the vertical shaft. “How do you suppose we get out?”

“The elevator should still be over there,” Ginevra Weasley- the redhead- observed, gesturing vaguely past him.

Hailey nodded. “It should, though because this is Salazar Slitherin’s Chamber of Secrets, only a parselmouth can control it.”

“And…” He trailed off. “I’m guessing one of you is…?”

Hermione Granger, the brunette, nodded. “Three of us.”

“And something happened to, ahh, Miss Weasley?”

Hailey looked down at her red-haired companion, then sighed. “Voldemort did, yes.”

He gasped. “Y-You Know Who?”

“Voldemort,” Hailey repeated firmly. “It’s a word and I’m not afraid of it. Anyways, yes. One of his horcruxes, specifically- possessed Luna to drag her down, then projected himself out in a physical-ish form, and summoned the Basilisk. After we foiled that by aerosolizing it, we fought him directly, and killed him. Myrtle in particular had fun beating him up.”

He blinked, trying to ignore Myrtle’s evident pride. “She’s a ghost,” he observed bluntly.

“So she is,” Hailey nodded. “But apparently, unlike spells and fists, ghosts collide with Horcrux-projections- which allowed her to beat him up when the rest of us were basically defenseless against him.”

“... Huh,” he muttered, as Myrtle began to glow with pride. “So, ahh…” He paused. “What’s today’s date?”

A few eyebrows raised, but then Ginny sighed. “Yeah, memory loss would tend to do that, wouldn’t it?” she muttered.

“Month something, day something, year something,” Myrtle helpfully supplied.

Hermione snorted. “May 20, 2023,” she answered. “Next week is exam week, and the Hogwarts Express is scheduled for the 29th.”

“Luna!”

“Mom?” Luna asked, stepping forward to catch her mom almost the moment she’d opened the door to Professor McGonagall’s office, where Hermione had said everyone would be waiting after waving her wand a bit and not casting any magic. “You look like you should still be in the hospital!”

“She should be,” Madam Pomfrey agreed, standing next to the seat Pandora Lovegood had just vacated, and glancing sideways at the St. Mungo’s healer standing on the other side. “The news that her daughter had been killed, though…”

Luna winced. “Yeah,” she muttered, then paused. “I… I saw the message.” She helped guide her mother back to her seat, and hugged her there.

“Good evening,” Dumbledore nodded, as Hailey, Ginny, Hermione, Myrtle, and Lockhart all entered behind Luna.

“Killed the monster, killed Riddle,” Hailey answered calmly. “Turns out that combining three surge-powered blasting spells is enough to turn the entire statue that Basilisk was still inside into a crater in one shot.” She shrugged. “Then Riddle was there, in his weird, ethereal way, but while we couldn’t fight him, Myrtle could. So she beat him to a pulp… then, all of the sudden, a diary left on the Chamber floor burst into flames and he disappeared.”

Dumbledore nodded, steepling his fingers. “Would you mind elaborating?” he asked, then looked up at Lockhart.

Lockhart shrugged. “I seem to have passed out on the approach,” he told Professor Dumbledore, “and lost a year or so of my memories. I guess the Chamber is warded against adults or something…? Good thing they didn’t need me, I think.”

Rita Skeeter, in the corner by the door, looked up.

Hailey chuckled. “Yeah. But that really is kinda all that happened down there.”

“Could you elaborate?” Dumbledore repeated.

“Oh alright,” Hailey relented, making Ginny, Hermione, Myrtle, and even Rita giggle.

Author's Note

Hi. Here's the chapter that was supposed to come out a couple days ago, but ended up getting rewritten instead.

Patreon, Discord.

Yes, we're into the summer now. And I know I said in Chap. 19's comments that the next few chapters would be to help explain the Sequence... that starts in Chap. 24, where Hermione learns about them. In the meantime, there's a few interesting events going on. Such as... The escape of Sirius Black. And... Spoilers!

That sword of Ginny's was impressively sharp, wasn't it?

New rewrite! Woo! This one was fun. Not just writing a new-and-improved version of the Sequence... sequence, but the new way they tell Luna she's a Royal, and Lockhart's reaction to losing a year of his memories and finding himself in a strange, underground tunnel... And Hailey's brevity in the face of Dumbledore... Added a couple thousand words again, too.

Chapter 21: Rita Skeeter RW

“Why do you keep turning yourself into a girl!?” Lucius Malfoy demanded.

Silver sighed, having just put her necklace on as soon as they got home, after playing Draco to dismount the Hogwarts Express. She’d carefully not mentioned her femininity at Hogwarts to him; he’d probably go crazy if he found out that she’d spent all of about an hour and a half as Draco up at the school- and that entirely consisting of the seconds it took to feminize her all-male wardrobe, roughly ten seconds each morning and evening. All of the rest of the time, she’d been Silversong, complete with a girl’s dormitory assignment.

Not that she had used her own bed very often, despite it being a girl’s bed; she’d spent most nights cuddling with Hailey or Hermione- or, in one memorable instance at the end of the year, both of them at once.

“Because I am one,” she told him calmly, folding her arms.

Lucius glared at her, his fingers working by his side. The summer before, he’d tried to stop her from putting it on after her birthday party… only to find out that trying to stop her was a great way to get electrocuted. She wasn’t sure why it used lightning for that, but it did- and she wasn’t complaining. Once, she’d seen Lucius tell Dobby the House-Elf to stop her from putting it on- but Dobby had merely glanced in her direction, and promptly told Lucius that stopping her was physically impossible… which hadn’t surprised her, considering its origins.

“You’re a boy,” Lucius declared. “You’re my son, not some girl!”

Narcissa, who had been waiting in the entryway, winced. “Lucius, please,” she pleaded. “You’re-!”

“I am not having a son that plays at being a girl, Sissy!”

It was Silver’s turn to wince. She wasn’t sure why, but hearing Lucius’ derogatory nickname for her mother felt more… wrong than it usually did, even if she found the rest of his statement amusingly accurate. “Father,” she said. “I am not a son playing at being a girl. I am a girl- your daughter, who used to play at being a boy. And Mother doesn’t like it when you call her that.”

Lucius nearly inflated with rage. “You are a boy,” he hollered, reaching forward to take a fistful of her robes, “and my son, not some-!”

A sharp cracking noise stopped him, moments before Silver slapped his hand off her robes. A shock of electricity seemed to connect their hands for a fraction of a second, but while Lucius lept backwards, howling in pain, she didn’t feel anything. Well, except a strange surge of power through her body, but she didn’t think that had anything to do with it. She put her hands on her hips, and gave him an evil smile. “I heard a Royal snapped at you a month ago,” she intoned.

“A Royal?” Narcissa asked, turning to Lucius. “What did you do?”

“He tried to get Dumbledore sacked by threatening the other members of the Board of Governors,” Silver supplied, still smiling. “She told you to do something else too, didn’t she?”

“How do you know?” Lucius demanded.

She shrugged. “Oh, she’s only one of my best friends,” she chuckled. “As a matter of fact, she’s the one that gave me this necklace- and enchanted it.” She raised her necklace to look at it. “... Huh, it’s broken. I wonder when that happened?” She mended it with a wave of her hand, getting the strange feeling that it was unenchanted, then looked up at Lucius. “And if I remember right, she said she told you to do a third thing- to say something to me, did she not?”

He bared his teeth. “I don’t have a daughter,” he snarled.

She shrugged. “Then I guess I don’t have a father. Whelp, a good thing I haven’t been using the family name then, isn’t it?”

“I am your father!” he hollered. “And you are my son, not some girl! Now take off that necklace!”

She sighed, sweeping the necklace off over her head. She had a funny feeling that it’d be alright- and sure enough, she remained as a girl, despite performing the action that had turned her into a boy less than an hour before. She dropped it on the floor next to her. “Well?” she demanded. “Do I look like a boy to you?”

For some reason, Narcissa had put her hands over her mouth and was backing against the wall in what looked like fear.

Then, quite suddenly, something popped into Silver’s mind. Something she could do to Lucius, which would maybe help him understand…? She wasn’t entirely sure how the Curse of Misidentity would do that, but she had a feeling that it would… so, she did it. Cast it, really- it felt like a spell, though she didn’t need a wand at all.

It didn’t seem to do anything.

“That was just an illusion!” Lucius snarled. “Take off that necklace for real!” he demanded.

“I did,” she answered him darkly. “It didn’t do anything because I am a girl.”

“You’re a boy-!”

Anything further that Lucius might have said was cut off by a very bright flash of light and a loud bang.

Moments later, Luciosa Malfoy, a young woman wearing a long dress, was standing exactly where Lucius had been, a look of utter shock written on her face.

Silver doubled over laughing.

A second later, Narcissa joined in, though she didn’t double over and her laugh was more of a snicker.

The Dursleys were a little bit late to the train station, judging by how Hailey was waiting on a bench outside the station when they drove up. “Have a good term?” Petunia greeted.

“Yup, pretty good,” she agreed, lifting her trunk and carrying it to the trunk of the car, where Vernon then hoisted it in, having a much harder time lifting it than Hailey did. Finally, Hailey returned to the bench- and what looked like a smaller version of her, who she’d been sitting next to. “By the way, Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia- this is Angriana, and after a few certain… events this year, she doesn’t have anywhere to live. Do you think we could take her in?”

“Events?” Vernon asked.

She nodded. “Yeah. Events, which resulted in the destruction of the only place she’s ever called home.” She scowled. “Not that it was a very good place, in the very stone mouth of a very stone statue that stood in a very stone room underneath a very stone castle without so much as a bed to sleep on, but…” She shrugged, and Angriana looked up to smile timidly, exposing bright yellow eyes.

“Sure,” Petunia agreed. “We’d be happy to have you, Angriana.”

It wasn’t until dinner that Silver and Narcissa found out exactly what had happened with Luciosa. She’d skipped lunch and hidden away in her study, so neither girl had seen her all day.

When she appeared in the door, her face a brilliant scarlet, neither Silver nor Narcissa could hold in their laughter. Thanks to her knowledge of the curse, it was rather obvious to Silver exactly what she had done.

Any time Luciosa started trying to force someone into an identity that wasn’t theirs, such as trying to force her to be a boy, the Curse would force her into an identity that wasn’t hers in the same way, for exactly twenty-four hours. To top it off, if she fought said false identity, it would make it stronger instead.

So, Luciosa stood in the entrance of the dining room, wearing a frilly, poofy ball gown and high heels, probably from trying to undress. She was by far the curviest girl in the room, probably from trying to curse the curves off- and her hair was hanging just a few inches off the floor, probably from trying to cut it.

On top of that, her hair was a bright, gleaming silver with two royal blue stripes in it, making her look like a larger version of Silver.

At least, Silver knew, it would let her change into nightclothes… or more accurately, when she went to go to bed, the dress would transform into nightclothes.

“How am I supposed to use the bathroom in… this?” Luciosa asked.

Narcissa stifled her laughter. “Y-You haven’t used the bathroom?”

Luciosa averted her eyes, blushing even more furiously. “I did,” she muttered. “Then… it got bigger.”

Silver stifled her laughter as well. “I know a lot of muggles, when they have insane wedding dresses, either don’t, or have someone to help.”

There was a pause.

“Shall we have dinner?” Narcissa asked.

After dinner, and after having Narcissa help her with the bathroom real quick, Luciosa vanished straight back into her study.

Narcissa, meanwhile, joined Silver in the lounge.

Silver looked up from where she was lying on the couch. “Hi Mom,” she greeted. Being a noble daughter was really… boring. About as much as being a noble son was, actually. There was a part of her that worried about her pajamas that night; she still had an all-male wardrobe, and without the necklace and its transformation thing, she wouldn’t be able to feminize it. The rest of her was worried about her curse; it was a lot more painful for him than she’d expected… and she didn’t know how to remove it.

Her mother sat down on an armchair, then sighed. “Silversong?” she asked.

“Hmm?” she offered.

“Do you… know the Royal that cursed Luciosa?”

She paused, then nodded. “Yeah. Why?”

There was a pause. “Do… Do you know what she’s waiting for?”

She looked at her mother. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, with that curse…” She sighed. “What will it take for her to remove it?”

Silver looked back up at the ceiling. “Oh.” She paused. “Can you tell me the color of her silver hair?”

Narcissa blinked, evidently taken aback. “Uh… you just said it’s silver,” she observed. “Just like yours.”

She nodded. “Yes, just like mine,” she agreed. “Well… it’s a bit of a secret, especially to Dad, but-!”

“You can still call her Dad?” Narcissa asked, blinking confusedly. “Yet I can’t stop myself from calling her my sister wife?”

She shrugged. “I was the one that cast the curse,” she muttered. “Of course I’m immune to its area effects.” She sighed, looking up at the ceiling. “I wish I’d known how bad it’d be before I cast it… because I can’t remove it.”

“You…?” Narcissa asked.

She nodded. “Yeah. This necklace is broken- it’s just an ordinary necklace now, and I seem to actually be a Royal now, with or without it.” She scowled. “Not sure why.” She sighed. “But yeah. At least it’s set to fall off after a year.”

“A… year,” Narcissa muttered. “So she’ll be…?”

She let out a snort of laughter at the thought of Lucius being stuck in that ball gown for a year. “No, it’s…” she paused. “I’m not sure how best to describe it. It’s…” She paused again. “It’s a rehabilitation-type curse, so it’s only active for twenty-four hours at a time.” She turned to Narcissa. “He’ll turn back after spending twenty-four hours as a girl… which means yes, he’s going to have to sleep as one. Either that or pull an all-nighter.” She turned back to the ceiling. “On the other hand, it’ll trigger- starting another twenty-four hours- any time he starts trying to force someone into an identity that isn’t theirs.”

“Such as her trying to force you to be a boy,” Narcissa muttered.

She nodded. “Whatever aspect of the other person’s identity that he’s trying to change… the curse flips against him for those twenty-four hours. And if he fights it, it only gets worse.” She sighed. “So every time he starts trying to force me to be a boy, he’ll spend a day as Luciosa- but it’ll be the boyish Luciosa we saw in the Entrance Hall, until and unless he tries to fight it each time.” She paused. “And no, it won’t force him to wear that dress to sleep. It’ll give him a nightgown, probably- though what it’ll look like, I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Probably be easier for him to use the bathroom. And that dress won’t return in the morning, it’ll go back to the basic one he had this afternoon, until and unless he tries to fight it again.”

“Always telling us about escaped convicts, aren’t they?” Hailey commented, glancing up briefly at the new kitchen TV as she served breakfast. The TV had apparently been acquired as a ‘welcome home for the summer’ present for Dudley, who had been complaining about the long walk from the fridge to the TV in the living room.

“Always,” Vernon agreed, then sighed, looking over his newspaper. “This one’s just plain filthy.”

“Funny,” Angriana mused, studying the screen. “I swear that guy was on the front page of the Daily Prophet this morning, too.”

The reporter picked exactly that moment to move to the next report.

“Hangon,” Vernon scowled at the TV. “You haven’t told us where he’s escaped from!”

Hailey tilted her head. “Hmm. If he was in the magical newspapers, it’s probably Azkaban. I wonder where he got a weapon…?” There was a pause, before a second Hailey walked in to hand the first a newspaper and disappear into thin air. The Dursleys had been a bit alarmed the first time she’d shown them that capability, but by now, they were used to her being able to do multiple things at once- and be in multiple places at once, too.

As an example, she was also in Diagon Alley, simultaneously helping six different shopkeepers prepare for the day’s shopping rush- and she would continue, like that, for much of the day, helping alleviate the struggle by working ‘part-time’ at twelve different shops to help them keep up. She’d placed an enchantment that was vaguely based on the Confundus Charm on Diagon Alley so that nobody would notice she was doing that… nor that, with the goblins’ agreement, there were a hundred of her working at the bank, all disguised as identical goblins. There just weren’t enough real goblins to keep up with the rush at the bank any more- and the part where each customer took close to an hour to deal with, on average, merely meant that they needed far more people than any other shop in the Alley.

Even Ollivanders, which would have just two of Hailey on the salesfloor, selling wands, and several more in the back with the wandmaker, helping him make wands. All the way back in September, she’d visited him during her first class with Lockhart and, as he already knew about the gods, she’d told him about herself. She’d also explained the massive numbers of students coming in future years, and he’d promptly offered her an ‘apprenticeship’ with him; she’d taken it just as quickly, so by now, she was almost as skilled at making wands as he was.

He was a little annoyed that she was refusing to take payment for any more than one of her.

She looked at the front page. “Yup, Azkaban.” She turned the page. “Hmm… Interesting. That story said he was armed and dangerous, but this doesn’t say anything about that.” She tossed it onto the table next to Vernon, then turned back to the counter to get the last two plates.

Vernon snorted, put down his local newspaper, then picked up the magical one and unfolded it to read. “Interesting,” he mused. “Your world’s a lot smaller, but it seems to have a lot more going on.”

“It does,” Hailey nodded. “The ‘Colorheads’ that’ve been appearing out of nowhere and attending Hogwarts already outnumber Magical Britain, but eight thousand children is basically nothing to Britain as a whole.”

Vernon chortled, then paused. “What’s this Wizengamot?”

“That’s Magical Britain’s lawmaking body,” she answered. “It technically answers to the Queen as well, but I don’t think she knows about them in the first place- and I know that some of their laws are in direct contradiction of Her Majesty’s laws, yet still enforced.”

“Idiots,” Vernon grumbled.

She nodded. “Yup.”

Marjorie Durlsey, Vernon’s sister, was nothing but a pain, as far as Hailey was concerned. She loved to have Hailey around so she could verbally abuse her- and watch her bulldogs chase her around the lawn. She’d also chosen that summer to visit- and more specifically, for a week starting on Hailey’s birthday. It wasn’t a very good birthday present.

Those same bulldogs, however, were deathly afraid of Angriana- and with good reason. The girl might have looked like an eleven-year-old child, but when she accidentally cut herself while cooking, not only did she heal abnormally fast but the few drops of her blood that escaped… burned a hole in the cutting board. The knife also had to be replaced, half of the blade having melted- and she had eaten the meat she’d been cutting herself, as unlike the Dursleys, she was immune to the toxins in her blood.

At least that had happened before Marjorie had arrived; Angriana simply didn’t cook with guests in the house. She’d been worried about the bulldogs, until she’d found out that the dogs could somehow sense what she was.

And since she liked staying near Hailey, neither of them had to deal with bulldogs very much at all.

Fortunately, there was some extra spice right in the middle of the visit- even while Marjorie, who was supposed to be called ‘Aunt Marge’ (even though she was Dudley’s aunt, Hailey’s aunt-in-law, and Angriana’s complete stranger), was picking on them… verbally.

“Uh, hello?” Petunia asked, opening the door to answer the doorbell.

“Good morning, I’m Rita Skeeter with the Daily Prophet. Is Miss Hailey Potter available?”

“Ahh-!” Petunia began.

“Sure,” Hailey said suddenly, stepping out of the living room- and just as suddenly wearing her shoes. Angriana followed her, also magically wearing her shoes; another confundus-based spell on the house kept Marge from noticing. “What do you need?”

Rita blinked. “There’s two of you?”

Hailey laughed. “Nah, this is Angriana. She’s… a friend.” She paused, briefly. “And yes, she looks very much like me, doesn’t she?”

Petunia chuckled. She knew Rita was a witch- she had mentioned the wizarding newspaper- but she knew exactly how to dress up in non-wizarding clothing. She’d done so well that she actually fit in quite well in their non-magical neighborhood- and one could be excused for thinking she couldn’t possibly be magical.

She then stood back as the two girls arrived at the front door.

“We’ve got guests right now,” Hailey informed her, “so how about we walk somewhere?”

“Ahh… Sure,” Rita said slowly.

“So what brings you to Privet Drive?” Hailey asked, as she and Angriana stepped out the front door and closed it behind them.

“Ahh,” Rita muttered, glancing briefly back at the door as they started walking down the front walk. “Well, firstly, I’d like to thank you for the voice recorder.”

Hailey smiled. “Oh, that. And before you ask, Angriana knows too.”

There was a pause.

“Alright,” Rita nodded. “That works.” She paused. “So…” She trailed off. “Lockhart,” she decided. “You mentioned a Curse of Reversal on the recording. How exactly…?”

“Does that Divine Curse rehabilitate him? Well, it’s technically a rehabilitation-type torture curse, for one. Every month or so, it’ll check to make sure he’s not continuing the offensive actions- in this case, his stealing of other people’s accomplishments- and if he is, it’ll erase the most recent year of his memories and rewind his body to the exact age he was in the newest memory he’s left with. If he doesn’t continue those actions, which he actually seems to have reformed off just one reversal, then it’ll leave him be.”

“It seems like he’s reformed?” Rita asked.

She shrugged. “Sure, he’s been continuing his publicity stunts, but he’s sworn off publishing any more books as Gilderoy Lockhart- beyond reference books, at least. He’s also set himself up a pen name, Rockhirty Gladelot- a Voldemort-style anagram of his real name- under which he’ll continue publishing storybooks like he already has, yet I’m told he’s going to be a lot more honest about who’s accomplishing the feat. He’s also mentioned he’ll be using the skills he’s gained throughout his career so far to, rather than take credit for things other people did, find the right people to do them for him, then tell the story, as embellished as usual but with honest names. He said he’s planning on using art for the covers of the Gladelot books, rather than portraits.”

“Voldemort style?” Rita asked, tilting her head.

“Yup,” Hailey nodded. “Tom Marvolo Riddle, Voldemort’s birth name, is an anagram of the phrase ‘I Am Lord Voldemort’. And, when there are no children around, of ‘Mr. Tom, A Dildo Lover’, among other things, but who’s counting?”

Rita snorted. “Really?” she asked, then glanced down at Angriana.

Hailey glanced down at her too, then back up at Rita. “No, Angriana is around a thousand years old; she’s not a child at all, merely looks like one.”

“And probably acting like one at least a little bit,” Angriana observed. “I mean, imagine living a full thousand years in a flame-lit, stone chamber with nothing to do, then finally getting out to have some fun.” She chuckled. “I’m doing that now.”

“Sounds… unpleasant,” Rita observed.

“Oh you have no idea. Couldn’t even get out to eat or drink; a stupid magic spell took care of that for me.” She sighed. “I’m glad that blasted spell got, well, blasted. To pieces.”

“Especially considering that spell also trapped her in that Chamber, forced her to obey anyone that said something to her in her native tongue, and forced her to resurrect if ever she managed to die.” Hailey sighed. “That curse was a piece of work, but it turns out battleship cannons work pretty hard.”

“I imagine you probably used your powers to pull her out of harm’s way, then?” Rita asked.

“Yup,” Hailey nodded. “Took a few days before I could pull her back into this universe and release the stasis I used to protect her in the interim, but I managed it.”

“So that’s why I came out on the train,” Angriana observed, then paused. “Were you hiding me from Dumbledore?”

She nodded. “And Fudge. Neither of them would have been very happy about your sudden appearance, in the wake of what happened.”

“Ahh,” Rita muttered. “Is there a story I can tell there, or…?”

“Probably a bad idea,” Hailey observed. “If people learn what she is, they’ll start trying to kill her left and right, just for being alive.” She sighed. “Just like me- most people respect Royals, but there are some that want to remove them from the equation. Like… Lucius Malfoy, in particular, would do just about anything to kill a certain Royal right now.” She chuckled. “Too bad it’s not possible for a mere wizard to kill her, and he has no idea who she is.”

“She’s… not you, is she?”

“Nope, she’s not. She actually wasn’t a Royal either, until I turned her into one.” She chuckled. “But he thinks she’s me. Well…” She shrugged. “He thinks she’s the one that slapped him across Dumbledore’s office a few months back, which is me, but he doesn’t remember anything about what I actually looked like. Royal anonymizing spells can be amazingly effective. Anyways, Lockhart’s planning to tell the story of the Chamber of Secrets already, and credit ‘the appropriate people’ in his book- though he doesn’t know about Angriana, so of course she won’t appear.”

“Ahh,” she nodded. “Yeah, that’ll do it. I wonder how big that book’s going to be.”

“Probably huge,” Hailey observed. “You know how he made entire books out of people defeating single werewolves or vampires- and this time… Well, the digital records made by the Chamber Investigation Team throughout the year would make a pile about two hundred meters tall if written down and stacked. A lot of that info is actually redundant, but if you trim out the redundancy, you still get around a thousand pages or so of actual, historical records. Add the Student Instructor Program records for the year, some of which were relevant, and the pile suddenly gets as tall as Hogwarts Castle once again.” She chuckled. “But aside from all that, was there something else you wanted?”

“Ahh… Yes, there was. Sirius Black.”

“Sirius?” Angriana asked. “We read the story, but I don’t see what it has to do with us?”

Rita chuckled. “As with any story coming from the government, there’s stuff I’m not supposed to report- that I can’t report without being imprisoned, sometimes. For example…” She sighed. “Before he escaped, he spoke in his sleep. Always the same words- ‘He’s at Hogwarts’, over and over again. Minister Fudge thinks he’s talking about Harry Potter.”

Hailey let out a snort of laughter. “I doubt it- nobody by that name has graced the halls of Hogwarts in decades. But what kind of information could he have gotten inside Azkaban?”

Rita raised an eyebrow, and lowered it again. “That’s what I’ve been wondering, too. Fudge said that when he inspected the place last week, Sirius was all calm and reasonable, like the Dementors weren’t even affecting him, and asked for his newspaper so he could do the crossword on the back. Supposedly, that’s when it started.”

“The newspaper, a week ago? What was in it?”

Rita drew a newspaper out of her purse, and handed it to Hailey. “I tracked down the exact issue it would’ve been.”

She looked at it and scowled. “The Weasley family, huh?” She sighed. “Anyone else mentioned at Hogwarts?”

She shook her head. “Nope. That’s the only story about anything even remotely associated with Hogwarts.”

“And it doesn’t say anything about Harry, of course. So if it all started from this…” She scowled, inspecting the photo. “But why would he want to go after Percy, Fred, George, or Ron? He doesn’t know about…” She trailed off. “Unless his target is someone else in the picture that would just happen to go to Hogwarts with one of them.” She scowled. “But the only option for that would be Scabbers, Ron’s rat. What business would he have with a rat?”

“Who knows,” Rita muttered, then paused. “Maybe that rat is an unregistered animagus?”

“Good question,” Hailey nodded. “One moment while I contact a Royal friend I have that’s near him right now.” She switched to the Obelisk Network. “Hey, Ginny? Have you noticed anything strange about Scabbers?”

There were a few seconds of silence before Ginny’s reply to her Obelisk message came back. “You mean aside from the human-like psionic signature I noticed when I was five, but didn’t understand until I was nine? Or perhaps how his lifespan is long enough for him to still be alive now? Not really. He does seem a lot more agitated since that story about Black’s escape a few days ago, and bits of his fur have been falling out.”

Hailey rubbed her chin with a finger. “That sounds like a fear reaction to me- and Black is known to have been saying ‘he’s at Hogwarts’ in his sleep ever since he saw that photo of your family, with Scabbers on Ron’s shoulder, in the Daily Prophet that Fudge gave him.”

“You mean-!? Oh. Oh My.” There were another couple seconds of silence. “Yeah, that Animagus detection spell Sunset came up with declares him human. I think you’re right, he’s Sirius’ target- and he knows it.” There was a pause. “A psychic scan says his name is ‘Peter Pettigrew’. That’s the name of the rat-faced coward that sold your parents out to me, but I never thought he was an animagus.”

“Thanks,” Hailey told her, before speaking out loud. “Sirius was sent to Azkaban for killing Peter Pettigrew and thirteen muggles, right?” she asked.

Rita nodded. “That sounds about right,” she said. “But if Peter is dead…”

“He might not be, though. According to my friend, Ron’s rat, Scabbers… is actually the unregistered animagus of someone named Peter Pettigrew.” She paused. “I suppose there’s a chance he’s another Peter Pettigrew, so it raises a few questions: Was Peter an animagus? Did he fake his own death? On what evidence was Sirius convicted?”

“The largest piece of Peter they were able to find was a finger,” Rita muttered. “That… If he was an animagus, specifically to something small, he could’ve just cut it off, transformed, and blown up the street or something, and it’d look like he’d been killed.”

“And Scabbers is missing a toe,” Hailey observed, inspecting the photo closely.

“If your Royal friend wants to expose themselves, we could probably clear Sirius’ name in a few minutes even without any orders,” she observed. “But without exposing them…” She paused, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “The trial- and witnesses- might just give us something to work with. I think I’ve got court records to examine and muggles to interview.”

Hailey nodded. “I’ll let you get to it, then.”

Author's Note

A wild Rita Skeeter has appeared!

Patreon, Discord.

In other news, I've altered the payment schedule on Patreon... again. Won't mean anything for existing patrons, but new ones won't have to worry about getting charged twice if they join at the end of the month- just like any other subscription.

This one was decently fun to rewrite. Especially with the introduction of a new character, new development of Silver's, and... Luciosa. Silver's right, it's temporary, but might come back.

Chapter 22: Resurrection RW

Hailey sighed as Marjorie Dursley finally left the house only three days later. “Finally,” she declared, once the door had landed shut behind the torturous woman, who Vernon was taking to the train station. Petunia was going with them as well, as they planned to do some grocery shopping on the way back; Marjorie had emptied the fridge even more efficiently than Dudley, who was scrounging around in the fridge for anything either of them had missed. “I thought she’d never leave.”

Angriana stretched, growing about a foot taller for a couple seconds as she did so, her skin taking on a faint greenish tint for a moment. “Yeah, she was a pain. Calling me a freak just because I look like you- and then of course, calling you a freak.” She sighed. “I was so tempted to spit in her drink.”

“That would have killed her,” Hailey observed.

“I know. That’s why.” She sighed again. “I still don’t get why she thought it might be a good idea to call you a freak, though. I mean, who in their right mind calls any goddess a freak, let alone a goddess of life?”

“Well, I once met an old God of Freakishness… Yes, that seriously was his aspect, and he really was a freak.” She shrugged. “And what do you mean, goddess of life? I’m a death god, not a life one.”

She blinked at the door. “That’s even worse,” she muttered, then looked up at Hailey. “Are you sure? I could have sworn I felt the power of a deity of Life when you rescued me, not Death.”

She tilted her head. “Really?” She paused, then rubbed her chin. “Hmm… I suppose it’s possible I dual-aspected through my reincarnation,” she mused. “I know I’m a deity of death, but I suppose it’s possible I’m one of Life too now. That’ll be interesting, as I wasn’t just any Goddess of Death but an evil Goddess of Death, and life deities simply can’t be evil.”

She blinked. “Huh.” She paused. “Though, there was something you wanted to do, right?”

“Oh, right, yes,” Hailey nodded. “And if you’re right, and I’m the first dual-leaning deity I’ve ever heard of, it should be easy.” She chuckled. “I guess we’ll see what she thinks.”

And, both snickering like naughty schoolgirls, they vanished into the living room.

Lily Potter coughed gently as she awoke and opened her eyes.

She was lying on the floor, looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling. Did that mean…?

She clearly remembered Voldemort’s curse hitting her square in the chest. Did that mean Hailey had survived, and resurrected her?

She sat up to look around. Her first impression of the room reminded her instantly of her sister’s living room- but then, she spotted the girl kneeling next to her. Bright, green eyes- her green eyes, with amusement and anticipation dancing in them. Long, black hair, with the wave of Lily’s and the raven black of her husband’s. Gentle facial features being drawn slowly into a smile, a youthful build-

And last but most definitely not least… she felt the power of her own sacrifice attached to the girl.

She smiled, then rolled around to get her legs under her and silently hugged her daughter.

Hailey hugged her back. It was a tender hug, with none of the immense power she’d expected from the Royal, but it wasn’t any less valuable for it.

There was one other thing that the hug drew her attention to. Her daughter’s breasts were developing nicely; if she had to guess, the girl was… thirteen, or so. Yet, her own didn’t seem to be nearly as large as she remembered- nevermind that either Hailey was big for a thirteen-year-old, or she was small for a thirty-year-old. Had Hailey used a spell that resurrected her not into her prior form, but into something else?

She still felt human, and like a girl, so the change probably wasn’t as… dramatic as it could be.

“Welcome back, Mom,” Hailey finally whispered.

She let out a soft sigh, and didn’t let go. “You survived,” she whispered thankfully- and as she did so, some part of her brain noticed how youthful her voice was. Not that it mattered at the moment.

Hailey seemed to think it was funny, judging by how she chuckled softly. “Yes, I did,” she agreed. “Given what I am, though, it’s a bit obvious, in hindsight.”

She drew back far enough to meet her eyes. “And what are you?”

She smiled, a mischievous glint appearing in her eyes. “An ancient death god reborn as a Goddess of Life.”

Lily couldn’t help it. She laughed. She sat back down on the floor, fully releasing Hailey from her hug, and laughed. If that was what her daughter was, of course she couldn’t be killed by a mere dark lord!

It took several seconds for her to recover. “So… I guess bringing me back was easy, wasn’t it?”

Hailey laughed as well. “Maybe if I’d used my divine powers,” she suggested. “Nah. I used a spell cooked up by someone named Starlight Glimmer- a spell that any witch or wizard can use, for that matter.” She giggled. “A little caveat to that spell: It brings you back as a Hogwarts-age child, rather than your previous adult form.”

Lily snickered too, then kissed her on the cheek. “A perfect excuse to stay with you, isn’t it?”

Hailey snorted. “Yeah, I suppose, even though I’m the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead, and the de-facto Defense Professor for two years running,” she mused.

“De-facto?”

She shrugged. “Well, Quirrell had Voldemort’s wraith-crux sticking out the back of his head, then Lockhart, ah, flopped, so…”

“He even flopped on his back.”

Lily jumped at the unexpected comment from… it sounded like a slightly younger version of Hailey’s voice, from her other side.

Then she looked.

It was… a slightly younger version of Hailey, except only for those bright yellow eyes. “Wha-?” she began, then turned back to Hailey. “You have a daughter?”

Both other girls laughed. It was bright and cheerful, and brought happiness to her heart.

“I suppose I do,” Hailey chuckled, “though not biologically, of course. This is Angriana, the Basilisk of the Chamber of Secrets. She’s got a second set of eyelids that holds back her deadly gaze, so don’t worry.” She paused, very briefly. “And she chose that appearance herself, in case you’re wondering. It actually fooled the Ministry magic into thinking she really is my daughter, so she’s Angriana Potter, no longer just Angriana.”

Angriana giggled. “Happy to serve,” she intoned, and bowed.

Lily looked up when she heard the front door open, and voices from it. She, Hailey, and Angriana had moved to the kitchen, where Hailey had conjured a meal- out of nowhere, as the fridge was empty- for Petunia’s son Dudley, who had promptly carried it back to the living room to watch TV while Hailey produced some food for Lily’s admittedly rumbling stomach.

“Sounds like they’re back from taking Marge to the train station,” Hailey observed.

Lily wrinkled her nose. “I never liked that woman,” she grumbled, then blinked. “Oh, and you probably don’t want to resurrect your father yet, either. He’s… well, the Potter Family used to be the stuck-up, pureblood supremacist, noble sort, like the Malfoys but ten times worse, and he’s his father’s son.”

Hailey met her eyes. “Are you going to be okay, being without him for a lot of years?”

She shrugged, and wrapped an arm around Hailey. “I have you,” she told her, “and something tells me nothing’s going to be taking you away.”

Hailey returned her sideways hug and chuckled. “I’m sure we could beat some sense into him,” she mused, just before the kitchen door opened.

Petunia was in the lead, her shoulders weighed down by reusable grocery bags, with Vernon behind her. It looked like there was someone behind him as well, but she wasn’t sure.

Petunia froze, staring across the kitchen at Lily, who met her eyes.

The silence held for several seconds, before Petunia finally spoke up. “Lily,” she muttered. “Is- Is that you?”

She nodded silently. Judging by Hailey’s age, it had been nearly sixteen years since she’d last seen her sister- even if it was just three to her.

Petunia staggered in and began unloading her grocery bags onto the table, without ever taking her eyes off of Lily. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Lily suppressed her tears by sheer force of will. Petunia would be forty-three now, which made her around thirty two years older than her fraternal twin- and they had been separated for nearly thirteen years longer than Lily had ever dreamed.

Yes, Petunia had offended her when she’d insulted her choice of men, rather than her usual beating up on James alone (which Lily often joined her in; she loved the man dearly, but he still hadn’t been cured of his pureblooded upbringing).

The main reason she hadn’t visited in years, though, had been that she was afraid of hurting Petunia again. James insisted on visiting with her every time, even though she was more than capable of taking care of herself. That was obvious enough just with how often James found his head embedded in the bathroom ceiling from trying to interrupt her shower; she actually suspected, based in part on her ability to do that without a wand, that she might be a minor Royal rather than just a powerful Witch.

She had, against James’s recommendation, sent Petunia a letter when Hailey had been born. She’d stuck to the story they’d agreed on before their girl’s birth that they would pretend she was male, though, just in case it was intercepted.

Then she’d made plans to visit again on Christmas that year, and bring her daughter along… but no thanks to Voldemort, she’d been forced to cancel those plans.

She rose from her seat and walked around the table. “No, Petunia,” she told her. “I’m sorry.” She paused as she rounded the table, and saw Petunia’s stare wander over her much smaller frame. “It was an overreaction.” She sighed, averting her eyes. “I didn’t visit in so long because I was afraid of offending you again.”

Petunia completely lost control at that, taking a couple steps forward and lowering herself down to hug Lily with crushing strength. Well… comparatively crushing strength; she knew Petunia wasn’t actually all that strong, it was just that her tiny body was weak.

For all the crushing strength, though, she didn’t have any difficulty breathing. It reminded her of many similar hugs she’d received from her sister- or others- over the years, but in those times, there had never been such a dramatic strength difference that it had gotten her attention. And yet, here she was, getting crushed and yet not really feeling it at all?

She quickly set that thought aside and hugged Petunia back. “It’s been far too long,” she muttered.

Then Hailey’s voice cut into the silence. “Rita?” she asked. “What brings you back here?”

That got Lily’s attention at once- as did the way she could feel who Hailey was looking at without actually seeing either one.

A little twitch of her chin and she could see past Petunia’s hair to the woman that had followed Vernon in. It was… It was Rita Skeeter! There was no one else it could be!

She remembered the woman from her time at Hogwarts. A few years ahead of her, but with a fairly vocal dream of becoming a journalist. Judging by the woman’s appearance, it was a dream that had been realized, even though Lily had never heard of it before her untimely death.

“A-ah, well,” Rita stuttered, tearing her eyes away from Lily and Petunia to look at Hailey, and opened her mouth to speak, before stopping again. “Did you resurrect your mother?”

Hailey and Petunia both let out snorts of laughter, and the two of them separated to watch the exchange.

“Yes,” Hailey answered amusedly. “So.”

“So,” Rita repeated, once again tearing her eyes away from the twins that looked like mother and daughter. “I, ahh, did some digging. Turns out I didn’t have court records to examine for the simple reason that none exist, but I did have plenty of muggles to interview.” She sighed. “Turned out Black was sent to Azkaban without trial or investigation.”

“No trial or investigation, huh?” Hailey confirmed, her eyebrows raised.

“What moron did that?” Lily demanded, completely abandoning Petunia as she marched towards them and hardly noticing as the journalist jerked back in alarm. “What imbecile saw my daughter’s godfather imprisoned without cause?”

Then Hailey laid an arm across her shoulders, and she was shocked from her fury by an electricky wave of power shooting through her at the touch. “Calmly, Mom. There’s a reason death gods never lose their tempers, and it’s not because they’re the deadliest gods to anger.”

A shiver of primordial fear shot down her spine at those words, and she abruptly sat down, next to Hailey… on the couch in the living room? When had they left the kitchen?

But that sentence still served to remind her of what her daughter was.

An ancient, powerful Goddess of Death, reborn into a new world.

And she somehow knew that the death god in her daughter was just as angry as she was, after hearing what her relationship was with him.

Yet, she was withholding her temper far stronger than Lily herself, putting practice to her words.

She shuddered again at the sheer, deadly power of her daughter’s touch before they simultaneously looked back up at Rita.

Rita, apparently somewhat alarmed by the sudden change in scenery, had recovered rather admirably quickly, and had sat in an armchair facing them, while she dug in her bag for something. She seemed to feel their gazes and looked up instantly to meet their eyes. “Ahh-!” she began, sounding at once startled, frightened, and unsettled. “I brought a copy of the evidence,” she informed them quickly, “such as it was.” She turned back to her bag, then found what she was looking for. “Here it is.” She pulled it out. “Shortly after Voldemort performed his… attack, Sirius was arrested as the only survivor of an explosion that killed thirteen muggles and, ostensibly, Peter Pettigrew as well.”

“Peter?” Lily asked, raising an eyebrow. “He’s a rat animagus- and as slippery as one, too.”

Rita nodded. “Yes, that’s my expectation as well. I don’t know if you’re aware, but myself and Hailey figured that out a few days ago, with the help of one of her Royal friends.”

Lily blinked. “There’s other Royals?”

“Plenty of them,” Hailey observed, her tone lethally hard. “But back on topic.”

“Yes. Cornelius Fudge, the Auror on the spot, performed the arrest and ascertained from a quick, preliminary questioning of nearby muggles that Pettigrew had loudly accused Black of killing the Potters before the explosion. As for Black himself, he was merely laughing- and Auror Fudge observed it was likely shock or the like, and asserted that the man should be held in a Ministry cell and monitored by healers for a minimum of twenty-four hours prior to questioning. He wrote and signed a report on the incident, and this is a copy of it.” She held out a scroll, which flew across the room to Hailey’s hand.

Hailey then unrolled it, and Lily turned to read it with her, even as her ears listened to Rita’s ongoing explanation. Strange, she’d never been that good at multitasking before.

“As near as I can tell, Fudge did his job completely and correctly,” Rita informed them. “Unfortunately, though, that’s about it for the good news. When he got back to the Ministry with Black, he put him in a cell, issued the instructions for a Healer to watch him and for delayed questioning with possibility of self-incrimination in matters he wasn’t actually guilty to, and remanded custody of the case to Bartemius Crouch Sr, then Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, now Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation.”

“Uh-oh,” Petunia observed, standing in the doorway.

Rita nodded. “Head of the DMLE is usually a position one retires from, rather than transferring,” she agreed. “And there was a good reason. The same reason that Millicent Baginold gave up her position as Minister of Magic less than a year after he was imprisoned, I expect- a timing that rather eerily coincides with Crouch’s transfer. Well… yes.

“Black only spent about three hours in that Ministry cell before he was transferred to Azkaban and never seen again. The order that saw it happen, which flies in the face of many due process laws…” She sighed, holding it out. “Was signed by Bartemius Crouch Sr, Millicent Baginold… and Albus Dumbledore, then and current Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot.”

It was only the constant pressure of Hailey’s hand on her shoulder that kept Lily from flying off the handle once again at that revelation, even as Hailey let out a long, slow breath and leaned back. She’d trusted that man! And this was how he paid her back? Imprison the only person she and James had entrusted Hailey’s true identity to, and the man that had promised to see her daughter moved to the Dursleys after they died, even before they’d realized they could set spells to ensure that it happened anyways?

And with no trial?

“Why?” she snarled.

“I don’t know,” Rita answered immediately.

“That explains something that’s been bugging me for over fifty years, then,” Angriana said suddenly, pushing past Petunia.

Lily jumped, then turned to look at her. “Huh-?”

Angriana shrugged. “Fifty years ago, when Tom Riddle triggered that curse and forced me to kill Myrtle, I deliberately shed a skin in the main Castle, right in front of the Transfiguration teacher’s office door. Then last year, when Riddle again forced me to go around the Castle petrifying students that were too smart to get properly killed, I shed a skin on the stairs to the Headmaster’s office. I didn’t yet know that they were the same person, but that’s beside the point, because he had two shed skins to work with but never once figured out what I was, instead having to wait for-!” She paused, glancing briefly at Rita. “For your friend to tell him.”

“Straight out of the Basilisk’s mouth,” Hailey observed, a hint of amusement tinting her deadly tone. “Only problem is, Dumbledore is the only thing preventing a major Wizard-Muggle War from breaking out right now, so unseating him will be… tricky.”

Author's Note

This should be interesting.

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The next two chapters are available to patrons as of about two hours ago... and coming up soon, that's going to climb all the way up to the next five chapters. Except for top-level patrons, they've already got early access to all 13 unpublished chapters after this one...

This one was a pain to rewrite. I had to rework the entire resurrection scene, and find a way for it to work well with Hailey's new personality- and Angriana's presence. That was a pain... but I managed it, I think.

We're also revealing Dumbledore to be Evil!Dumbledore in this story. I think that's a first for my published works.

Anyways, we gained a little over a thousand words here, overall- what do you think?

Chapter 24: The Void

“Draco.”

Silver jumped, letting out a squeak of alarm as she jumped to the side, right after emerging from the Floo. “Wha-? Oh. Dad.” She paused. “What?”

“You got girl’s clothes, didn’t you?” he snarled, snatching the blood red ruby necklace out of her hand.

“Huh? Uh-!” Silver blinked a couple times. “What!?” She was staring at the necklace, now hanging from his hand.

Very suddenly, the necklace glowed crimson and leaped out of his hand, wrapping itself around his neck.

“What the-?” Lucius began, tugging on it- but the clasp held solid, and when he tried to lift it over his head, it wouldn’t go past his ears.

“That necklace is cursed,” Silver told him calmly, still staring at him in disbelief. “She said it’ll ‘belittle’ anyone that tries to take it for eight hours.” She paused. “Though she had this really mischievous grin on her face when she said that, so who knows what it really does.”

Narcissa rose to her feet, having been sitting on the couch next to Lucius when Silver had appeared. “It’s- it’s not going to hurt him, is it?”

Silver shrugged. “Knowing her, no, it won’t. But it’s going to be making his life very, very unpleasant for the…” She trailed off, watching as Lucius began to shrink, still struggling with the necklace- which was now glowing white. The same glow quickly suffused him, hiding his figure from view- and when it finally faded away…

“Oh my,” Narcissa muttered, putting a hand to her mouth.

“What?” Lucius demanded, before blinking himself and putting a hand to his mouth.

Silver burst into laughter. He’d become a six-year-old girl with waist-length hair so red he looked like Ginny’s younger sister.

Finally, Lucius looked down at himself, let out an ungainly shriek, and looked up at Silver again. “Y-You turn me back this instant!” he demanded, looking almost ridiculously cute.

Silver stumbled backwards and flopped down in an armchair, where she managed to stifle her laughter enough to speak. “I can’t,” she told him, only barely holding back her giggles. “Eight hours. And since it was cursed by a Royal…” She snickered. “Nothing can end it early.”

Narcissa walked around Lucius, who was having a temper tantrum on the floor; his clothes had not shrunk with him, so the moment he’d tried to take a step, he’d tripped and faceplanted. “Why?” she asked.

Silver shrugged. “Good question,” she answered, watching Lucius struggle. “She insisted I take it. I think she wanted me to be able to goad him with it whenever he starts beating down on me for being female, but I honestly didn’t think he’d fall for it. Especially that quickly.” She sighed, and looked down at Lucius. “Whelp. Word of warning, don’t fall for it again. It’ll take twice as long to wear off each time- so it can quickly reach weeks or even months at a time, and I doubt the Malfoy name would survive that.”

“Are you sure you’re not hungry, Hermione?”

Hermione sighed. “Yes, I’m sure,” she told her mom yet again. She hadn’t told them about the whole ‘mechanical body’ thing- and it wouldn’t take to food very well. Ginny had uploaded a new blueprint that would handle food quite well to the database at the end of the year, but Hermione hadn’t acquired the extra Astrium necessary to actually perform the upgrade. She knew she could simply gather dirt or something and make it, since Ginny’s database had told her how to make Astrium directly with her magic, but she hadn’t gotten around to it. She knew she could even use the material in her food to do exactly that- but of course, she wasn’t nearly as fearless as Ginny when it came to messing with her body, even if it was mechanical and she could just make another one. At Hogwarts, where the biofab chamber was churning away merrily, due to finish her new biological body sometime in October.

“Why?” her mother, Emma Granger, asked, raising an eyebrow. “Are you snacking on stuff in your room?”

Hermione sighed. The effect was exactly the same as a biological body, but produced in a very different way; her machine-body didn’t have lungs. “No,” she answered. They had this exact same conversation every day- often multiple times, once at each meal.

“Are you snacking between meals?”

“No,” she answered.

“So why are you not hungry?”

She sighed. This was usually where she told her it was ‘reasons’ and otherwise stonewalled her questions- but she was getting tired of that, and she really didn’t like hurting her parents like that.

On top of that, over the first couple months of the summer, she’d become reasonably certain that her parents were actually going to accept her explanation without throwing her out as some imposter.

So she sat down at her spot at the table. “Because… Because last year, at Hogwarts… I died.”

The room went silent. Her father, Dan Granger, froze, his fork halfway to his mouth; as usual, he was letting Emma question Hermione.

“You… Died?” Emma asked.

She nodded. “It was… mildly inconvenient.”

“Then how are you…?” Dan asked, gesturing towards her.

“Because…” She sighed. “I happen to be friends with a couple of what wizardkind calls ‘Royals’- people with ridiculous otherworldly powers. Anyways, one of them had set up this… system that pulled me out of my body in the moment of my death, which protected me from actually dying, and made it really easy for her to just put me back. But the Basilisk ate my body, so we couldn’t just fix it and put me back in it, we had to make a whole new one. It’s…” She sighed again. “The Biofab Chamber she built at Hogwarts is still busy doing exactly that- it takes a very long time.”

“But you’re…?” Emma asked. “If you don’t have a body…?” She gestured vaguely towards her.

She nodded. “In the meantime, she’s given me this…” She paused. “Mechanical body to live in. It… uh, doesn’t eat. Can’t, I’m pretty sure.” She scowled. “Can’t sleep, definitely, only ‘go dormant’ and leave me to my thoughts.”

“You mean-!?” she began.

She nodded. “Yeah. Because of it, I can’t sleep right now. I can look like I’m sleeping, but I’m actually incapable of being unconscious.”

“And you expect us to believe that?” Dan asked.

She raised an eyebrow, then took her left forearm in her right hand… and disconnected it at the elbow, with the special joint designed to be easily separable in case of emergency. It would go back together just as easily, without requiring her to repair any parts.

They both stared at the gently-glowing attachment plate in her arm.

“See?” she asked. “It’s like that all the way through.” She paused. “Albeit that’s an attachment plate, rather than… But still.” She put her arm back on, purposely exaggerating the click as it locked back together, and watched as her skin reformed around the joint.

“What do you need, then?” Emma asked.

She shrugged. “Nothing, I guess. This body is entirely self-powered- makes its own fuel and everything.” She sighed. “Kinda disappointing, I know.”

“What about repairs?” Dan asked.

She shrugged. “She made it out of Astrium, a weird form of programmable matter, so repairs are as simple as telling it to simply be fixed. Modifications should be as well, but, ahh… I guess I’m just not brave enough to try that yet.”

She didn’t think her parents would take the news that the ‘upload’ from her original body had also converted her into some sort of digital being, meaning she could jump in and out of her body at will. Especially after those new features Ginny had attached to her, giving her ‘innate’ control over the Astrium, just like hers. Or about how she now had perfect recall- or ‘computer memory’ as she called it, since she could selectively forget things, like deleting files on the computer.

“Um… Mom?” Hermione asked, shortly after breakfast about a week later; it was a mere week before she would catch the Hogwarts Express back to Hogwarts.

“Yes, Hermione?” Emma asked, looking up.

“Um… A couple of my friends want to pull a Star Trek and go where ‘no man has gone before’,” she told her. “They want to know if I can come. Um… Can I?”

She gazed at her daughter for several seconds. “Can you promise you’ll be back?”

“Yeah,” Hermione answered promptly. “She’s promised to have us back for dinner, one way or another.”

“How would you get there?”

“She’s… ‘got transportation’ that’ll make outdoing Kirk easy. She didn’t tell me what it is, but I can guess.”

She sighed. “Alright. You can go. Just be safe, okay?”

“Okay, will do,” Hermione told her.

The doorbell rang less than ten minutes after Hermione informed Hailey and Ginny by Obelisk message of her mother’s decision. When Hermione eagerly answered it, it was just Hailey- and Ginny was standing in an open door floating over the walk up to the house, a set of steps lowered from it.

Emma joined Hermione at the door almost immediately, and glanced out. “You’ve stolen a Klingon ship,” she observed.

Hailey chuckled. “Not a Klingon ship, no. We built this one. It looks more like an airplane than a warbird, minus the wings, but wingless planes have no business flying, so we installed a cloaking device.”

It took less than a minute, once Hermione was aboard and all three girls had sat down at their seats, before the air near the ship seemed to warp briefly as it flew away from the house, then release… then there was no ship over the town, cloaked or otherwise.

And of course, no sooner had Emma Granger sat down in the living room from seeing them off than the doorbell rang again.

When she opened the door, it was a tall man in a black suit and tie and wearing black glasses. “Is Miss Hermione Granger available?” he asked.

“Just missed her. Why?”

He sighed. “Your daughter has been spotted entering and departing from structures invisible to the naked eye and walking through walls,” he told him. “A pub called the ‘Leaky Cauldron’ on Charing Cross Road in London, and the barrier between platforms nine and ten at King’s Cross Station.”

She nodded slowly. “Okay. So why is an entire government squad on my lawn to tell me this?”

“Because…” He sighed. “It’s unknown what kind of danger these areas contain. We’ve had teams try to enter them, but they’ve all been invariably turned back with no recollection, records, or reports.”

She scowled. “Weird,” she muttered, and looked up again. “So why is your team peeling up my flowerbeds?”

He turned to look. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he barked at them. “We already know there’s nothing to be found in the flowerbed!” He sighed, and turned back to her. “Sorry, the higher-ups decided to give me all the stupidest people available for the investigation, and insisted I go in force whenever I might meet anyone that’s gone into those places. I think they want me to fail.”

“Ahh,” Emma muttered.

“So…” He paused. “Can I ask for an interview at our facility, so they’ll stop vandalizing your property?”

She paused. “Hmm,” she muttered. “Alright. Do you have a business card?”

He pulled one out of the chest pocket in his suit. “Right here, Ma’am. May I request that you take Hermione Granger along for the interview?” He paused, glancing sideways at the lawn, which was still being ransacked. “And, ahh, a bodyguard or two probably wouldn’t be out of order as well.”

“Oh wow,” Hermione muttered, gazing out the windshield.

Ginny smiled. “Yes, the twelve-dimensional void is beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Quite,” Hailey agreed, then glanced sideways at Hermione. “This is why we didn’t bring Silver- or even Philomena and Phoebe- along. Just seeing this vista would drive them mad or kill them.”

Hermione looked back. “But not me?”

Ginny shook her head. “Nope, not you. One of the changes I had to make to let you use that body had the side effect of enabling you to comprehend twelve-dimensional space like me and Hailey do.” She sighed. “And when you get your biological body back, you’ll also gain psionic powers like mine. It’s the only modification blueprint I had that would make it possible for you to inhabit the new body, at the time- the same blueprint that was applied to me back before I was born. Anyways, I’ve now uploaded the nav data necessary to get back in our universe to the Obelisk Database, so that takes care of the entire ‘work’ purpose of this voyage. All the rest is leisure.”

“ ‘The’ Obelisk Database?” Hailey asked.

“Yeah, both of them,” Ginny answered. “Ours, and the Sequence one.” She giggled softly. “Not that there are any ship blueprints on ours, or instructions for how to get the Void Weave Drive to take you to the Void.” She paused. “Hmm, what do you say we go visit the Sequence Fleet? I’m sure they’ll all be happy to meet you two.” She smiled. “And you might like them, too.”

“What is this Sequence?” Hermione asked.

Ginny paused. “It’s…” She sighed. “I’m kinda part of two families. The Weasley Family, that I was born into… and the Sequence, which is a bit of a strange family, but a family nonetheless.”

“Strange?” Hermione asked. “How so?”

“All girls, for one,” Ginny informed her. “No men at all… but a new sister joins the family every couple weeks.” She shrugged. “Of course, there are a few boys around the Fleet, but they’re not actually a part of the Sequence, just friends or relatives of Sequence members. Oh, and they’re all explorers as well, and as curious as all get-out.” She grinned at Hermione. “If they were to all go to Hogwarts, every last one would be in Gryffindor.” She paused. “I think.”

“Sure, why not?” Hailey asked, looking over at Hermione. “Why not just go see Ginny’s second family? Ought to be interesting.”

“Yeah, why not?” Hermione mirrored.

Ginny chuckled. “Alright, Fleet it is…” She trailed off, then nodded, putting her hands back on the handlebars. “E.T.A, about sixty seconds.”

Eve Zero was always interested to know when her daughters were going to return to her out in the Void- so she’d set the database up to report two things to her, beyond the first five minutes of any new Eve’s database activity: It would inform her whenever any Eve uploaded navigation data for entering a universe, indicating that they had departed it for the first time- and because they didn’t always head straight for the Fleet, the first time any given Eve queried the database for the Fleet’s current location.

As such, her interest was piqued when young Ginny Weasley, unit 8319, raced ahead of nearly four hundred of her sisters by uploading nav data only a few months after she’d connected, rather than the twenty or thirty years that most Eves took. After all, it took several months to form the initial sample of Nocturnic Astrium in most worlds, and it had only been about half that long since Ginny had connected. Luminous Astrium was even worse- it usually took a decade or two, depending on the power infrastructure the Eve in question was able to draw on.

Yet Ginny Weasley, aged only twelve years old, had not just the Luminous and Nocturnic Astrium she needed to build the Void Weave Drive, but enough Astrium to build a decent Voidship. There was definitely something unique about either her or her world that had enabled her to create her initial samples of the two energy-intensive forms of Astrium so quickly- or perhaps before she connected, even. Most Eves didn’t even start making their initial samples until some time after they connected up… though once they had it, expanding those initial samples was easy, as it always was; Nocturnic Astrium could effortlessly produce the distortions needed to form more out of other Astrium with exponentially increasing speed, and if an Eve crafted it into a small Void Weave Drive, the initial Luminous Astrium sample could be easily used to produce more Luminous Astrium. Acquiring Astrium in significant quantities was fairly easy, provided one had access to the appropriate raw materials, which could be mined in most worlds rather than relying on thaumic transmutation techniques or matter-energy conversion… but most worlds wouldn’t allow a twelve-year-old access to those materials.

Then, about two minutes after her upload, the Database reported that she’d queried the Fleet’s location- which, seven thousand nine hundred twenty times out of seven thousand nine hundred and twenty three, meant she was flying to join the fleet. She quickly ran the numbers in her mind, based on the coordinates of Ginny’s world, and estimated her flight time to be about sixty-two and a half seconds… Assuming she hadn’t flown off somewhere before requesting coordinates, of course, but considering the delay, that would add a maximum of about four minutes to the total.

Sure enough, a matter of seconds after Zero estimated the Fleet would have entered Ginny’s onboard sensor range, assuming a basic, minimal-sensor-equipped craft (sensors were particularly heavy on Luminous Astrium, which was only really easy to produce in large quantities if you had a huge Void Weave Drive as found in the larger Sequence vessels, or far more time than Ginny would have had), Ginny broke comms silence over the Obelisk Network… and broadcast to the whole fleet. Interestingly enough, she left out the Eves that weren’t physically located with the Fleet, indicating that she was close enough not just to spot the Fleet but to ID the Eves found within it… which suggested a craft with a very high sensor capability, since vessels with even mid-range sensor loadouts lacked that ability when parked just outside the hull.

She must have very large amounts of Luminous Astrium.

“Hi Mom! I’m coming up on the Fleet right now, and I’ve got a couple friends with me, so I’ll need to return in another eight hours or so. Anyways, I thought a meet-and-greet of sorts might be nice, but my ship isn’t nearly big enough for that- so where shall I dock, and on which ship?”

It took her a fraction of a second to access the sensors of her flagship, the Null Star. They reported one tiny ship inbound- which was definitely custom-designed by the Eve in question, and bristling with sensor arrays. She estimated it likely had a single-digit life support capacity, and similar interior space, so she had to agree with Ginny’s statement of ‘not nearly big enough’.

Rather than answering verbally, she picked one of the docking cradles on the Null Star’s through-deck hangar and sent its identifier to Ginny, who promptly consulted her nav computer and the Database to decide exactly how she was going to approach it. Finally, she teleported herself down to meet her new daughter and concealed her amusement as the database disseminated the parking space identifier to the hundred or so Eves that had already requested it. As expected, she got there before Ginny did.

Author's Note

And now, we finally enter the Void, and start learning more about the Sequence! Alongside Hermione.

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I didn't get around to rewriting any chapters this week, sorry about that. Nasty bout of sickness. Not COVID, though- that's a good thing- and I'm finally getting back to it. At the same time, I'm getting over a wave of disease-induced writer's block, so it's flowing once again!

Chapter 25: The Sequence

“Alrighty,” Ginny said, just a few seconds after they’d gotten underway. “Time to find a parking space.”

“A parking space?” Hermione asked. “A fleet in deep, er, void has a parking lot?”

There was silence for several seconds. Hermione might have interrupted it, but Ginny held up a finger to stop her.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “I’m still no good at the whole ‘six conversations at once’ thing.” She glanced sideways. “Seriously, how do you do that?”

“By splitting off extra consciousnesses to deal with them,” Hailey answered promptly. “How else would I think faster than a supercomputer?” She grinned. “And yes, I know I’m one of very few entities across the Multiverse that can do it that way. Unless you count the trillions of universes in which that’s how the local population thinks in the first place.” She chuckled softly; she’d informed Hermione of her past a week or so before the train home from Hogwarts- specifically, the night after the Basilisk had been killed. Hermione had wanted an explanation for why the monster hadn’t been able to hurt her when she wasn’t an experienced reincarnation like Ginny… who had also revealed her past identity to Hermione at the same time, in her explanation of how she knew the spells she’d used on the Basilisk and the Diary.

Ginny sighed. “Anyways, we’ve got a parking spot. And no, it’s not so much a parking lot as it is a docking location. We can hardly have a meet-and-greet in this ship, can we?” She gestured back behind them, at the tiny passage at the back of the bridge that served as a walkway between the doors on either side of the ship.

Hermione looked. “Hmm… Yeah. You might be able to fit another seat or two, but then it’d be nothing short of cramped.”

“And even short-duration life support capacity is only two,” Ginny answered, before grinning back at Hermione; their seats were set in a triangle formation, with Ginny at the extreme front of the ship. “Your Astrium body doesn’t need air- that let me save a few pounds of Astrium, and meant I had enough to mount the sensors I wanted.”

Hermione sighed. “Yeah, I know. What would you have done if I had my body back already?”

“Built a life support system big enough to have spare capacity with all three of us,” she answered immediately. “I didn’t do that because you’d be the only one that might actually be inconvenienced by lack of air- me and Hailey will simply live with it… and since you’re using a synthetic form, it won’t bother you either.” She sighed. “If you had your body back, this voyage would probably have been delayed some six months or longer so I could build a ship large enough to mount redundancies beyond sensors. At the moment, my Seed is providing redundancy for everything necessary to keep me alive, but I won’t be satisfied with just that with someone aboard that actually needs the life support functions.” She shrugged. “Just because I can put myself in stasis and wait for rescue doesn’t mean you can. And that’s not counting that Hailey could just… I don’t know. Think us back home again.”

Hailey chuckled. “I probably could, yes.”

“Anyways,” Ginny chuckled. “Here’s the Fleet. What do you think?” She gestured out the windshield at the Fleet as they flew steadily through it, zeroing in on the flagship.

“Fancy,” Hermione observed, leaning closer to the window. “I like the sailboat aesthetic.”

“Yeah, me too,” Ginny agreed. “As weird as it looks flying through the sky or the Void.”

Hermione laughed.

“So where’s our parking space?” Hailey asked calmly.

“It’s…” Ginny paused as she finally flew around the last ship; the fleet was positively huge. “There she is. The Null Star. We’ve got a docking cradle in her bay.”

“The Null Star herself,” Hailey observed, looking up at the massive ship. “The very first ship ever constructed by the Sequence. Well… sort of, she’s actually older than Zero, though not by much. I think she’s got a few design elements that no other ship in the Fleet does, thanks to her… unique origin.”

Ginny looked at her. “It really is weird just how much you know about random stuff like that.”

“Yeah,” she agreed calmly. “My powers mean that anything a living being understands or ever has understood, whether it’s alive or long dead… I understand too. Same thing for knowledge, technically, but that just makes things boring so I keep it suppressed most of the time.”

She heaved a sigh as she maneuvered her tiny little ship into the bay, and spotted her parking space. “And Zero also counts as a ‘living being’?”

“Yes,” Hailey nodded. “Which is pretty impressive, actually, considering her creators were only trying to create a mere AI- those things don’t count.” She chuckled. “Creating a true digital entity like Zero is much, much harder, but they managed it by accident.”

Ginny sighed, then looked down at the assigned landing pad as she decelerated to a crawl for final approach. “Oh, it looks like the welcoming committee is already coming to meet us,” she observed.

“It does,” Hailey nodded.

Hermione leaned right up to her window. “They look… weird,” she observed.

“Well yeah,” Ginny agreed immediately, as she guided the ship down for landing. “They’re not all human. You’d be amazed what kinds of variations there are out there.” She paused, deploying the landing gear… by reforming the lower hull into landing gear. “There are plenty you can’t see as well, because they’re digital entities and don’t often even have bodies.” She sighed as she switched off the engines. “Whelp, might as well get the hug-fest over with.”

Hailey and Hermione chuckled as she rose from her seat and stepped deftly past them to the entrance facing the crowd. She paused, took a deep breath… then kicked the door open, stepped out onto the top step, held her arms wide, and called out dramatically, “I Am Here!” Unfortunately, she was only able to hold the pose for about a second before she broke down giggling.

“So you are, my child. And remarkably quickly at that.”

Ginny stopped giggling pretty quickly at the pleasant but almost tired tone, and looked up at the speaker. The speaker had a visibly robotic form, with a mostly human appearance, aside from the pearlescent white metal it was crafted from- Tempered Astrium. Three glass domes replaced her eyes, but one of them was dark, the others exposing only the faint glow of her optics- and her hair was replaced by three flexible tendrils, one draped over each shoulder and the third just hanging down her back.

It was Eve Zero, the mother of all the rest.

“Huh?” she muttered, looking up at her. “Remarkably quickly?” As she descended the stairs to the pad surface, she ran through the various estimates stored in her Seed for how long any given stage would take… and quickly realized that it was remarkably quick, by a margin of some twenty years or so.

Oops. So much for being ‘normal’ aside from the upload her Seed did the moment she connected; she’d taken to avoiding attention ever since her reincarnation. Perhaps that was a side effect of being Hailey’s friend?

“Indeed,” Zero nodded. “Many of your sisters take years or decades to join us in body after they join us in mind. But normally they also aren’t already hosting a separate psionic network at the time, which rather implies you gained access to the harder to acquire forms of Astrium remarkably early in life.”

Ginny winced. There was really no avoiding that, was there? She’d avoided mentioning or talking about the network she had with Hailey and the rest, but knew it was mentioned in the ‘identity files’ her Seed had automatically uploaded when she connected, so of course Zero knew about it. Completely aside from how the sensors of the Null Star could probably detect it.

“The Seeds usually wait longer for the child in question to mature before providing that information,” Zero continued, “and even then, the available infrastructure limits them, except in advanced worlds.” She paused briefly, visibly glancing up at the door to Ginny’s ship, where Hailey and Hermione were both standing, looking out with amusement and curiosity respectively. “I see you’ve brought friends. Would you care to introduce us?”

“Uh- Yeah,” Ginny muttered. She’d let her keep talking about it for Hailey’s and Hermione’s benefit, but was rather embarrassed to have her difference pointed out so casually. Fortunately, she’d offered her another topic, so she locked onto it with relish, and pretended Zero hadn’t said any of the rest. “Um,” she muttered, and looked back up at the entrance to her ship, before holding out her hand to indicate them in turn. “This is Hailey Potter and Hermione Granger. And you two, uhh…” She paused, looking around at the veritable army of gathered Eves, and picked Zero, before looking back up at her companions. “This is Zero, my…” She trailed off, unsure of how to say it. “Er, Sequence-mom.” She sighed. “It feels kinda weird to say it like that here.”

Hailey chuckled amusedly. “I rather doubt Molly could get out here anyways, not without some serious assistance.” She paused, then spoke instead over their Obelisk network. “I wonder what she’d think if she got to meet Zero?”

“Well that’d just be complicated,” Ginny answered her promptly, while Hermione grinned and waved timidly.

“A pleasure to meet the both of you,” Zero greeted courteously, looking up at them. “Though I sense you have a clearly organic neural pattern in an artificial body. How curious.”

Ginny grimaced, averting her eyes. Of course Zero would notice that, and comment on it; it didn’t exactly help that it was a pretty touchy subject for Hermione. She debated stopping Zero, but wasn’t sure exactly how.

“I suppose a world advanced enough to provide the higher forms of Astrium so quickly would not find such a thing too unusual,” Zero observed calmly. “Though, those worlds with the necessary advancement tend to either embrace or abhor the practice. It’s among the most universally divisive issues.”

“...Eh?” Hermione asked, looking alarmed as she stepped backwards back into the ship; she’d emerged onto the top of the steps a moment before.

“Oh, uh,” Ginny muttered, scrambling to think of a good way to alert Zero to the touchiness of the topic without offending Hermione… or using the Obelisk Network, since that would probably just weird Hermione out. “I, er, made that for her when she, uh, died. We’re still remaking her organic body.” She paused, indecisive. Was that going to be enough?

Then Hailey came to the rescue with a change of topic. “A world advanced enough, huh?” she asked, casually descending the stairs to join Ginny at the bottom. “I suppose it counts… maybe.”

Ginny folded her arms to give her a look. “Only because you were living in it.”

Hailey chuckled, waving her hand dismissively. “Oh, no, there were several things that could’ve done that. I just happened to be the first one you ran across.”

Zero, however, completely ignored their attempt at redirection. “I remind you that we all have the same ability to command Astrium as you do, Miss Granger,” she informed her. “The control interface for your temporary body may be locked to your commands only, but I can easily sense that there is one- and the Null Star has extensive sensors, both internal and external.”

Hermione gave a squeak that sounded suspiciously like the word ‘Creepy’ and disappeared behind the wall of the ship. At the same time, Hailey gave a very loud sigh and raised an eyebrow at Zero, giving her a look that said, quite plainly, ‘Really?’

Fortunately, this time, Zero got the hint, and broke off her attempt to commune with Hermione, instead turning to Hailey. “And you are most curious,” she told her, while Ginny ran back up the steps into her ship to talk to Hermione. “You are far more powerful than you appear, yet even I am having trouble getting a good read on your true abilities.”

“I’m… Not going to say I didn’t see that coming,” Hailey answered calmly, both relief and amusement evident in her voice.

A part of Ginny wished she could be as confident as Hailey, and just solve problems like she did. The rest of her was more focused on Hermione. “She didn’t mean it like that, Hermione,” she told her, hugging her. “It’s just that when you have as many sensors as the Fleet does, Astrium stands out like a sore thumb.”

“She’s a digital entity that originated as an AI, remember,” Hailey told them both over the Obelisk Network. “She doesn’t understand much of what you are, Hermione. Just like how nobody understands her, she understands hardly anybody as well as she likes to think. Compound that with her apparent talkativeness, and you’ve got a recipe for awkward conversations- but she means well.”

“So- you mean she’s not- not neurotypical?” Hermione asked back.

Ginny promptly looked up the unfamiliar word in her database; Hermione had long since uploaded about six dictionaries to it.

Hailey didn’t need to look it up. “No, she’s not. Not by a long shot.”

As if to prove the point, Zero then raised her voice so they could hear her clearly inside the ship. “As does any kind of control interface to an Artificial Intelligence like myself. I would recognize an Astrium body, given that I use one myself.”

Hermione let out a small giggle. “So- So it’s not-?” she began.

“Yeah, it’s nothing personal,” Ginny informed her. “Just Zero being Zero.” She gave Hermione a smile that told her she was going to repeat something she already knew, for Zero’s benefit. “I don’t think anyone understands her. And yes, the Astrium your body is made from is locked to you- nobody else, not even me, can change it until and unless you upload out of it.”

Hermione took a deep breath, and sighed, before straightening up. “Alright. Thank you, both of you. I think I can handle the conversation now.”

“Even if it were like that, your two other friends would have more to worry about,” Zero informed them calmly. “Your current body is very much temporary, after all.”

Ginny stepped back out the door, with Hermione right behind her. “Two other friends?” she asked.

Hailey chuckled, leaning amusedly against the side of the ship.

“Well,” Zero informed them, shrugging. “We’ve been talking in person for minutes and you still haven’t given your mother or any of your sisters a hug yet. What are we supposed to think?”

Ginny chuckled. “Yeah, but still, why two other friends? I mean, there’s the three of us here, but we’ve got a lot more than just two other friends back… er, home.”

Hailey, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow. “You mean they’re all waiting for us to hug them first?”

Hermione let out a giggle at the sudden nodding of the entire crowd.

“Mostly my daughter, but yes,” Zero agreed. “If we initiated the hugging, we might not get done with it before your eight hour timeframe runs out.”

“How does that work?” Hermione asked, on the Obelisk Network.

“It ought to be fun to find out why who starts the hug changes how long it takes,” Hailey agreed.

Ginny blushed furiously and looked at the ground. “I’d like to think it’d take less than eight hours to hug everyone.”

Hailey chuckled. “Have you thought about just how many are here, and how eager they are?” She gestured out to the crowd- the back of which was invisible to Ginny.

“Indeed,” Zero agreed. “Once they find out there is hugging to be had, half the fleet would come running. Even those who aren’t part of the link- many of my daughters bring their own crews, after all. And they all seem to like hugs- even the AIs.”

“She means ‘digital entities’, right?” Hermione asked.

“Mostly,” Hailey agreed, “but some of the hug-loving crew members she’s referring to actually are true AIs.”

Ginny sighed, and rubbed the side of her head. “Okay, okay, you got me. I was kinda expecting to be glomped by the crowd as soon as I stepped out of the ship.” She walked forward, then suddenly leaped forward and glomped Zero… who rather effortlessly stayed on her feet, thanks in part to her heavy metal frame and the rest to Ginny’s small, light frame. “Come over here, you guys,” she told her sisters. “Group hug.”

What followed was a truly massive group hug so tight that she- and several of her sisters, she could tell- were having a little bit of trouble breathing. Several Eves of various sorts sprang out of the nearby reservoirs- the digital ones that weren’t normally capable of hugs, thanks to not normally having bodies.

“They really are diverse, aren’t they?” Hermione commented, chuckling.

“Of course they are,” Hailey told her. “One from each universe, and humans are- believe it or not- not the most common thing out there.” She paused. “Though it does seem like the human and humanoid Eves outnumber each of the other sorts right here and now.”

Finally, Ginny pulled herself free from the hug. “Okay, hug over, hug over,” she gasped. “I need to breathe!”

Hermione let out a giggle. “I don’t need to,” she muttered. “I kinda miss it, though.”

“Don’t worry, little sister,” one of the digital Eves said, “we can fix your organic deficiencies easily enough.”

A small black cat, perhaps the only organic Eve within ten feet of the epicenter of the hug- the hugicenter?- that hadn’t had difficulty breathing, snorted. “Don’t get me started!”

Ginny ducked out of the budding debate with a cough. “Yeah, I’d rather not do that.”

The rest of the Eves didn’t, though- they broke out into a debate over whether organic, synthetic, cybernetic, or whatever bodies were better or worse.

Hailey chuckled. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s personal preference. I like having an organic body, but not everyone does- it’s certainly the neediest of the various options. Well, unless you count…” She trailed off.

“Wait, you have a stance on that question?” Ginny asked, staring at her.

She shrugged. “Why shouldn’t I?”

“I do,” Hermione volunteered, before sighing. “I miss my organic body.”

Zero also ducked out of the path of the debaters. “I could point out that your current synthetic body was never meant to be a long-term solution and not designed as one,” she informed Hermione- and Ginny noticed she was using a much gentler tone than earlier. So, she still had that in mind. “Indeed, an organic body has the most needs, but replicating the pleasures it offers with any of the alternatives is usually much harder.”

Ginny tilted her head. “Well… Technically it actually is a long-term blueprint intended for an Eve to inhabit, and I only modified it to look like her organic body.” She sighed, looking at Hermione. “Speaking of, I notice you didn’t upgrade to the bio-alike blueprint I gave you.”

Hermione blushed and averted her eyes.

Zero chose to answer for her. “To do so may well have seemed like a more long-term option and thus avoided,” she suggested.

Hermione latched onto it. “S-Something like that, yeah,” she muttered, still not meeting Ginny’s eyes.

Ginny nodded. “Ahh, no problem, I only provided it as an option.” She paused briefly. “Though interestingly enough, the bio-alike blueprint is actually designed to be transitory.”

She looked up, and met her eyes. “It is?”

She nodded. “It uses a lot of fine components that wear out quickly. Not that repairs are hard, but they can get tedious after a while, unless you set up a self-maintenance program.”

Hailey suddenly raised her voice, deliberately drawing the subject away from Hermione’s body again- and simultaneously disrupting the ongoing debate. “Enough about bodies, we came to have a meet-and-greet and perhaps a good conversation long enough to make our voiceboxes hurt, didn’t we?”

A few chuckles sounded around the room.

Ginny was one of them. “Not that any of our voiceboxes are susceptible to things like that,” she chuckled, “thanks to my psionic regeneration and your…” She trailed off, unsure of how to describe it. “You.”

“The more you keep suggesting things the more curious I become, my daughter,” Zero informed her quickly.

Hailey completely ignored Zero’s statement, and shrugged. “Actually, mine is susceptible to that. It just takes a while.”

“Ahh,” Ginny muttered, before looking up at Zero. “Suggesting?”

“Your mysterious friend’s power,” she informed Ginny. “I know there is more to her than meets the eye, but I cannot tell what she’s truly capable of.”

Hailey chuckled amusedly. “Of course you can’t,” she answered simply.

“Uh-!” Ginny began, glancing at Hailey. “She’s just as mysterious as you, Mom.”

Author's Note

So, uh... There. You now know somewhat more about what the Sequence is, what they do, and why they're awkward to talk to (some of them, at any rate). And why you don't call for a group hug on the Null Star.

Patreon, Discord.

On the other hand, I rewrote Chapter 3 on Sunday... It exploded up to 4.6 times its original size, incidentally making it my first 5-digit-word-count chapter and the longest chapter I've ever published. I've added a lot of new material to it, including reworking the half-page narration describing Hailey and Ginny's first encounter with each other into three full pages. Then there was... Wait, no, I'll let you go read it. Suffice it to say, it would normally be 3 separate chapters, but was piled into one because of the constraints of the in-place rewrite! (I don't want to redesignate any chapters, nor to make any "chapter 3.1" stuff...)

It should be possible to go straight from rewrite chapters to non-rewrite chapters without losing track of the story, but the hiccups are getting worse- personalities are changing, and I'm also filling in parts of the inter-chapter timegap between Chap. 3 and 4... from both chapters, which is going to make going from RW 3 to non-RW 4 a bit rougher. Speaking of 4, I'm still working on it, but it's looking at only a mere doubling- and like it's going to contain only one logical chapter within it!

Anyways, as usual, if you want to hunt for rewrite chapters only, just look for the RW tag in the chapter title. I'll get Chap. 4 out... eventually.

Edit 5 hours later: Whoops, forgot to hit publish. No wonder there weren't any comments...

Chapter 26: Invasion

“Uh-oh,” Ginny muttered, as her ship materialized near Hermione’s house, and she flew towards it under stealth.

Hermione looked. “What-!?”

Hailey leaned forward to look too. “Something’s wrong,” she agreed.

Ginny parked the ship ten feet in the air, then opened the door without lowering the steps. “We’ll be jumping down and back up,” she answered. “It keeps the engines warm.”

“And protects against any idiots trying to shoot straight in or climb in while we’re away,” Hailey observed.

“Exactly,” Ginny said, and jumped from the ship.

Hailey and Hermione quickly followed, then Hermione led the way into the house, through the wide-open front door. “Mom?” she called. “Are you okay?”

There was no answer.

They searched the entire house… but didn’t find anything or anyone except ransacked and destroyed furniture. Interestingly, Hermione’s bedroom was secure, despite significant damage to the door and surrounding walls- then Hailey told her that was probably the work of the emerald necklace she’d given her for Christmas her second year at Hogwarts, which was enchanted to protect her and her personal spaces from harm.

“I found a business card,” Ginny announced suddenly, from downstairs.

Hermione walked downstairs to look at her. “A business card?”

“Half-under the hot water heater,” Ginny answered, then looked down at it. “Land Dots… with the government Mystery Investigation Department.”

Hailey raised an eyebrow. “Mystery Investigation Department? What’s that?”

Hermione took the business card. “Mystery investigation department?” she mirrored. “Weird. Why here, though?” She drew her wand, and pointed it at the phone. “Reparo!” She stowed her wand, and dialed the number on the card, before setting it on speakerphone.

They listened calmly as it rang four times… then the answering machine took over. “Hello, you’ve reached the office of Land Dots. Sorry I’m not available right now. If you feel like you’ve been wronged by my people, by all means, pay a visit to the facility and bring a bodyguard or two. God knows they’re bad enough. Otherwise, leave a message after the tone with your name, number, and probably complaint, and I’ll get back to you when I can.” It clicked, then a different voice came out of it. “We’re sorry, this mailbox is full. Please try again later.”

Then the line went dead.

Hermione took a deep breath, and let it out, before punching the ‘end call’ key. “Alright.”

“Sounds like Land Dots himself is a decent person,” Hailey observed, “being forced to work with a whole bunch of idiots.”

“Sounds like it,” Hermione agreed, then sighed. “Might as well visit, see if they, uh, ‘wronged’ Mom.”

Ginny rubbed her chin. “If we stop by Hogwarts real quick, I can upgrade this ship a little. Probably cannibalize an ME machine or two for parts.” She glanced at Hermione. “We can also give your body a more combat-oriented upgrade, if you want.”

“Yes, let’s do that,” Hermione nodded. “I’d rather avoid a fight if we can help it, but if they insist…” She shrugged. “I do not intend to lose.”

The receptionist at the Mystery Investigation Department Headquarters, which was disguised as an unmarked office building because the Department officially didn’t exist in an attempt to keep it away from the notice of its targets, looked up when the front door opened.

A single girl entered. She looked to be about thirteen, had bushy brown hair, and was looking around with what looked like curiosity before she started approaching the receptionist’s desk. She was wearing a bright yellow shirt and khaki pants, but there was a faint golden gleam to it when the light hit it just right, and her form was oddly bulky for her size- almost like she was wearing a bulletproof vest or something. The colors in her clothes contrasted strangely with the bright, sapphire blue gemstone necklace hanging around her neck.

The receptionist, Lavender Books, heaved a sigh. There was obviously more to this girl than met the eye- but she couldn’t tell what.

That was probably a good thing. Between her and the department head, Land Dots, the Department was in a sorry state. The current Prime Minister and accompanying cabinet had a fairly low opinion of the M.I.D, so the Department had faced budget cut after budget cut, and had been forced to lay off experienced personnel and hire new, inexperienced people. She and Dots both agreed that it seemed like a mafia had moved in in the meantime, but the budget had been cut so much that they’d have to get a significantly larger budget to be able to really do anything about it. The Ministry refused to believe them any time they sent in reports of illegal activities… such as the ransacking of the Granger home earlier that day.

On top of that, this girl was walking in literally minutes before closing time. She prayed that the girl wasn’t here for anything that would force her to stay late… And that the girl wasn’t alone. Why was a thirteen-year-old girl walking into an office building, anyways?

“Good evening,” she greeted. “We’ll be closing in a few minutes, but how can I help you?”

“I’m looking for the Mystery Investigation Department,” she stated firmly, confidently.

“You don’t have a bodyguard,” she observed.

“I don’t need one,” the girl answered, in the same confident, no-nonsense tone. “Is Mr. Land Dots available?”

“Uh- No, actually, he had an important meeting to go to. He should be getting back in a few minutes.”

“And you close in a few minutes?” the girl asked, raising an eyebrow.

She checked the clock again. “Uh- Yes. Depending on what you need with him, he may be able to take care of it today.”

The girl gazed at her. It felt like she was being judged. “Is Emma Granger here?”

She blinked. “Uh… Lemme check.” She turned to her computer, and started searching the database. The name didn’t show up in the employee database, so she winced, and started searching the other databases. She wasn’t supposed to, by the rules, but she and Dots had agreed that she should since so many people had been dragged in against their will without authorization.

There, she found it.

“Uhh… Looks like she was taken in for questioning this morning,” she muttered. “Doesn’t say what for, the idiots never fill it out properly. It says she’s in cell three.”

The girl raised an eyebrow. “Why?” she demanded.

She shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Can I visit her?” It was worded as a question, but her tone made it a demand.

She winced. “I… I can forward your request to the floor manager, but I can’t guarantee he’ll allow it.” She paused. “And are you sure you don’t need a bodyguard?”

The girl smiled. “I’m sure,” she said. “If anyone, it’s the idiot that attacks me that needs a bodyguard.”

When combined with the girl’s tone, what Lavender heard was more on the end of ‘I am my own bodyguard’.

She shivered. The girl was clearly fairly deadly- or at least, believed she was. Was the bulk of her clothing in fact a bulletproof vest or the like? “Alright, I’ll send it in,” she muttered. “What’s your name?”

“Hermione Granger,” she answered calmly. “How many others in the building right now would be… worried about my safety?”

“Uh-!” she stopped, double-checking the occupancy lists. “None, I think. Unless you count… she’s your mom, right? Anyways, it’s just me and Dots. Everyone else is…” She shivered.

Hermione nodded calmly, then waited until she’d sent the message to the floor manager. “Something tells me you might want to leave the building in a hurry,” she informed her calmly.

“Wha-!?”

It only took about two minutes after the receptionist- Lavender Books, according to the nameplate on her desk- sent the message before a bunch of men in black suits with black ties, black glasses, black hats, and black assault rifles appeared out of doors on either side of the room. It was an oddly fitting name for the receptionist, considering the book she’d been reading when Hermione had entered and the lavender dye job she’d done on her normally brown hair- it was showing at the roots.

“Hermione Granger?” a particularly thuggish-looking businessman asked.

“That’s me,” Hermione answered, scanning them with her eyes. The assault rifles they carried were nothing to the Tempered Astrium Weave clothing she wore, let alone the Forged Astrium armor underneath, or her Tempered Astrium hull underneath that… though they could damage her skin’s surface matrix. Not that that was particularly hard to fix.

Once she took off Hailey’s latest protective necklace, of course. Until she did, their bullets would simply stop short of her, rendering her armor or lack thereof moot.

“This way,” he demanded, and the rest of his men started to herd her towards a door.

“Okay,” she conceded calmly, and followed. She needed them to think she was cooperating… until after she had transferred the necklace to her mother, so they couldn’t possibly hurt her to get at Hermione.

They walked for a couple of minutes, down twisting passages. They didn’t seem to be going into the basement- though Hailey’s sensor analysis had indicated that there wasn’t a basement, so she wasn’t all that worried.

“Someone’s coming out,” Hailey suddenly informed her, over the Obelisk network. “Looks like the receptionist.”

“She was helpful,” Hermione answered promptly. “Let her go. Nobody else in the building will care, except Land Dots himself- and he’s not here, though he’s supposed to arrive any time now.”

“Got it,” Ginny answered her. “We’ll keep an eye out.”

Then the goons led Hermione into a hallway with iron bars on either side- cells. They were separated by brick walls, and seemed to be numbered from one to nine on one side, then eleven to nineteen on the other.

The lead goon opened the door to a cell- cell four- and pointed in. “Get in there,” he barked.

She stopped even with cells three and thirteen. Her onboard sensor scan matched Hailey’s from Ginny’s ship outside, and indicated that there was only one lifesign in any of these cells: Cell three, her mother, which she had just visually confirmed.

“Move it,” one of the goons behind her barked.

She raised her hand to her chest, and tugged the sapphire necklace off, causing the clasp to burst apart with very little resistance.

She then flung it casually to the side, straight into cell three.

The necklace shot from her hand like it had been fired from a cannon- and even corrected its own path to slip through the bars and strike her mother square on the chest. When it did, the chain instantly wrapped around her neck, with the clasp closing securely.

Her mother, who had been curled up in the corner, let out a shriek of surprise and looked at it, before looking up. “H-Hermione!” she gasped.

“I said move it,” the goon barked, poking her with his gun.

She turned to look at him, and swatted his gun aside with so much force that it shattered. “Why, though?” she asked- and unleashed a reddish purple bolt of energy from inside her sleeve… which vaporized his head instantly.

The other goons froze for about a second, stunned by the sudden gore- but in that single second, she’d already unleashed six more shots- three forwards, three backwards, all aimed with the help of her onboard sensors.

The last few sprayed bullets- but the few that hit her bounced harmlessly off her armor. The one that would have hit her mother, who was now standing in the corner of her cell with her hands over her mouth in shock, stopped in midair about a foot before it reached her, then fell to the ground.

Overall, the whole fight lasted three seconds.

She drew her wand. “Alohomora.” She stowed it again as her mother’s cell door burst open, then stepped inside. “Hi mom,” she greeted, hugging her.

“H-H-Hermione,” her mom said slowly, staring at the carnage. “What…?”

Hermione looked, and took a deep breath, despite her lack of lungs. She might be using a combat-oriented Astrium body, mounted with far more than just the two weapons she’d used, but she still had a conscience. “They had it coming,” she informed her mother. “Nobody hurts my family. C’mon, let’s get out of here. That necklace is tougher than any armor- they won’t be able to hurt us.”

“Alright, yes, I know, it’s an emergency,” Land Dots said, into his phone. “I’ll be there in just a-!” He pulled over, right away, after rounding the corner.

An alien spaceship was floating over the parking lot for his workplace. It was very beautiful, with a heavy dose of pearly white hull marked with elegant golden streaks and odd, glowing blue highlights that might be the reactionless drive it seemed to be using to stay airborne…

Oh, and the reddish purple beams of undiluted death and destruction that it was firing into the building.

“Uhh,” he muttered. “I know I said I’d be there, but I think I’ll wait until the spaceship stops blowing the place up.”

“... What?” the minister that was calling him back to the office said, sounding utterly confused.

He sighed. He’d already been on his way back to the office after that ‘absolutely critical’ yet utterly boring meeting he’d been required to attend, when the top-secret Minister of Mysteries had called him up to tell him a very, very important person had just showed up at the department headquarters and he needed him to meet with them immediately. The Minister of Mysteries was probably the only person in the entire government that thought the Department was of any use, and had always worked closely with Dots.

“I just came around the corner, and the first thing I see,” he told the Minister, “is an alien spaceship floating over the parking lot, firing beams of death and destruction into the building.”

“Uhh… Should we call the Department of Defense?”

He paused. “Um… Maybe? It just stop- Oh. No, it just finished knocking the whole building down.” He watched quietly as the entire building collapsed… and the spaceship descended to pick someone up by the entrance, before vanishing into nothingness as it started to fly away.

“Well crap. At least all our files are electronic. Any idea why?”

He paused. “Well, it just picked someone up from the parking lot before flying away and turning invisible, so I think I have an idea.”

“Oh. So do I.”

“And something tells me they’re exactly the same,” he observed.

Then they both spoke at once. “Emma Granger.”

“It’s a good thing you weren’t there,” the Minister sighed. “Any other survivors?”

“Um…” He scanned the parking lot. “Looks like the receptionist’s parking space is empty.”

“Oh good, that’s everyone that doesn’t suck, right?”

“Everyone we don’t think is part of the mafia,” he agreed. “So, ahh, who was this important person?”

There was silence for about five seconds.

“Hermione Granger.”

“I think we owe her an apology,” he observed calmly. “I wonder where she got the spaceship, though?”

“Uh, so you know, we’re going to be keeping this strictly off of her legal records. Frankly, she did our job for us.”

“As expected, then.” He paused. “And we now know what happens if we kidnap the family of any of the people that regularly enter the hidden areas.”

Emma Granger hugged her daughter, who had removed the gleaming golden armor from under her clothes during the flight back home, as they stepped slowly down the steps out of the spaceship they’d rescued her with. She glanced sideways at the massive… laser cannons attached to the hull just under the nose, and shivered, before she looked up at the house.

Dan was standing in the ruined door, staring open-mouthed at them and the clearly visible ship; Hailey- who was apparently the pilot, while Ginny ran the weapons and Hermione raided the building- had dropped stealth as they came in for a landing, so she could properly see the ship as they left. She could see his car sitting on the driveway, somewhat towards the end.

“Hi dad!” Hermione cried, waving. Interestingly, she hadn’t removed whatever weapons she’d used in the fight, but they also weren’t visible on her body. Perhaps they were a part of the armor? She had only ever seen those bolts come out from inside her sleeve, but had no clue what from.

He walked out to meet them. “What… What happened? Why are you coming out of a spaceship?”

“Because it’s what was convenient,” Hailey answered, descending behind them. She raised her wand. “Reparo.”

In an instant, the broken windows jumped back together. The door sprang back onto the hinges, completely undamaged. The flowerbeds sprang back together- everything jumped back together.

Hermione looked at her. “That wasn’t the only spell you did, was it?”

Hailey chuckled. “Of course not, a house is much too large for that spell. Oh, hello, Philomena. How’s it been?” A large, scarlet and gold bird had just appeared in a burst of flames and landed on her shoulder.

Land Dots had been driving back home for about five minutes when his phone rang. He immediately punched the call accept button on his steering wheel. “Hello?” he asked. Unfortunately, his car wasn’t new enough to tell him who was calling, and actually looking at his phone to find out wouldn’t be safe.

“Oh, Mr. Dots, you’re alive!”

He chuckled. “I could say the same, Mrs. Books.” He paused. “Did you happen to see why the spaceship was destroying the building?”

There was silence for a few seconds.

“Hermione Granger came in a few minutes before,” she muttered. “She knew who we were, and insisted she didn’t need a bodyguard- she seemed too bulky for her size, so I assumed she was wearing a bullet-proof vest or something. Then she told me that ‘something told her’ it’d be a good idea to leave the building in a hurry, and allowed the thugs to herd her deeper into the building. Next thing I know, I’m just reaching the parking lot exit when there’s this big explosion behind me- and there’s the spaceship, ripping open the windows with reckless abandon. No idea where it came from.”

“She must have been working with someone,” he muttered. “I arrived in time to witness the latter half of the destruction- the whole building has collapsed. Anyways, I saw it picking someone up by the entrance before it left.”

“Hermione. And her mother, Emma, I’m certain. I checked, there were no other prisoners in the building at the time.”

“She was lucky,” he muttered. “Emma, that is. As near as I’ve been able to tell, everyone else they dragged in was tortured and eventually killed.”

Later that evening, when Dan Granger turned on the news in time to catch the last report, Hermione was in the room.

“And finally,” the newscaster announced, “an alien invasion was apparently deterred by lack of resistance earlier today.”

Hermione let out a snort of laughter. “Alien invasion, huh?”

The newscaster showed a poor-quality video taken from a window in a nearby building. “The aliens swooped down over southern London today, fired on what appears to be a random office building, abducted some survivors from the wreckage, and left.”

Hermione laughed outright.

Emma, walking into the room, blinked. “Wait, is that-?” she began.

“Investigators have found particularly large amounts of steel in the wreckage, with at least one piece looking like a cell door, so it may not have been the simple office building it looked like.” He showed a picture of the door, half-buried in the concrete debris. “And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of aliens tonight, Jim?”

“Well I don’t know about that, Ted,” the weatherman began, but his voice was quickly drowned out by the laughter between Hermione and Emma.

“What?” Dan asked.

“That was us,” Hermione said, pointing at the TV. “The alien invasion. That wasn’t aliens, that was us. And the people it ‘abducted’ was me and Mom.”

“Th-That’s dangerous,” he stuttered, staring at her.

“Well yeah. But Mom had been kidnapped while I was out visiting Ginny’s family, and it would’ve been more dangerous to leave her there. So we made a rescue.”

“What about you?”

“Have you forgotten about this, Dad?” Hermione asked, taking her head off her neck and holding it in her lap. “I’m basically unkillable.” She put her head back on. “On top of that, I was wearing armor- and that necklace I gave Mom,” she gestured towards the sapphire necklace Emma was still wearing, “projects a magical force field that would protect her from even an atom bomb. Mind, my armor would have withstood an atom bomb too, even if my extremeties wouldn’t have- but it’s a good thing we didn’t have to deal with any atom bombs. Just bullets, and those… I mean, I suppose they could damage the surface matrix for my skin, but that’d really only be a brief dent as my auto repair system took over.”

“What about those guns you were using?” Emma asked. “Were they in the armor?”

“Guns?” Hermione asked. “Oh.” She held up an arm, and a small but vicious-looking… rod of sorts burst out of her forearm, pointing down her arm and past her hand. “You mean these weapons.”

Both of them stared, and she folded it again. “Er… Yeah. Ginny also helped me upgrade to a more… combat-oriented mechanical body.” She sighed. “I killed twenty-two people earlier today,” she muttered. “It still doesn’t really feel real, though. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because Ginny got eighty or so, and neither she nor Hailey were in any way bothered by it?” She sighed, leaning back. “I hope I’m not becoming a heartless killer.”

Author's Note

Mystery Investigation Department: Essentially, SCP Foundation, in a world with no SCP. Except wizards.

Lavender Books: Believe it or not, that came out of a Harry Potter name generator verbatum. It's not a pony name, and definitely not Twilight.

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So, uh... I kinda remember what happened in this chapter, but I'm so disenchanted with the old version that it's a part of that I didn't really bother to read it. The characters aren't alive enough.

Speaking of the new version, I know this chapter is a day late, but I have good reason:

Procrastination.

Oh alright, it's not a good reason, I'll admit. But in exchange, the rewrite for Chap. 4 went up day before yesterday, Chap. 5 went up a few minutes ago, and Chap. 6 is already rewritten and going through the editing process, so expect it in the next couple days. It is a short one, though I like it a lot better than the original. A much more satisfying back-and-forth between Hailey and Bonbon, I believe.

If you're waiting for me to describe the rewrite again... I've done that on the last three or four chapters, and on the first three rewrite chapters. I'm sick and tired of writing it over and over, go hunt for Chap. 1's A/N if you want it. Just remember to look for the RW tag in the chapter title!

Chapter 27 Author's Note

I seriously am not bothering to read these before I post them any more. They suck.

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In terms of the rewrite, Chap. 6 went up yesterday and I just put Chap. 7 up, so you've got some 9,000 more words of rewrite waiting to be read. Remember to look for the RW tag in the title!

Chapter 27

Professor Remus Lupin looked up when the door to his compartment on the Hogwarts Express was opened. He’d boarded the train some time before, and had been settling down for a nice nap; the students likely wouldn’t want to join him in this compartment, and he was dreadfully tired as well, after the full moon the night before.

It was a young girl, roughly… Thirteen, maybe? She could easily be anywhere from second-year to perhaps fifth-year, but he was fairly certain she wasn’t a first-year student. She had long, gleaming black hair, and was even already wearing her Hogwarts robes. They looked to be brand new- and while her hair was draped over the House patch and her nameplate such that he couldn’t read either one, he could see the scarlet edge of the House patch. She was a Gryffindor.

“Well hello there,” the girl greeted, then paused, looking him up and down for a second. “I didn’t know teachers rode the Hogwarts Express?” she asked, tilting her head.

“We do, from time to time,” he answered. “Especially when, like me, they prefer the more… mundane methods of travel to things like apparition.”

“A lot slower but also a lot more relaxing,” the girl agreed. “Um…” She glanced down the passage, and looked back at him. “Do you mind if we join you in here?”

“We?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah. Me, Ginny, Hermione, Silver, Lily, and James.”

He paused. With the exception of James and possibly Silver, that sounded like a list of girls’ names- and if there was one thing he knew about girls, it was that they tended to be confusing. On top of that, the presence of both Lily and James on the list immediately made him think of the Potters… But no, it couldn’t be- they were dead. “Ahh,” he muttered. “I’m looking forward to a good nap, so if you can keep the noise down…” He shrugged.

“Ahh, thanks!” the girl said, then dragged her trunk in from around the corner. Remus got up to help her lift it into the luggage rack- then she paused, still standing on the seat and looking at his trunk and the letters stamped on the corner. “Hangon,” she muttered. “You’re… Professor Remus Lupin, the new Professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts this year, right?”

He nodded slowly. “I am,” he muttered, wondering where she’d gotten his name from.

“Awesome,” she said, popping her trunk open to dig for something. “I’m Hailey Potter, the Head Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts… and simultaneously the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead. I’m looking forward to working with you- Dumbledore had nothing but good to say.” She chuckled. “That’s a first. Oh, there it is!” She plucked something from her trunk, shut the lid, and stepped down from the seat, before glancing at the door to make sure it was closed. “I think you should have this,” she informed him, holding out… a deep purple amethyst necklace.

He accepted it, and raised it up to his eyes. “A necklace?” he asked.

She nodded. “Professor Dumbledore told me about your…” She paused. “Condition, let’s call it,” she muttered softly. “That should help, but I’m not entirely sure. See, I found it in a muggle shop, all nice and labeled as a magic necklace. It’s a nice necklace, so I got it- and when I did some tests on it, I concluded that yes, it is a magic necklace. It’s got no effect whatsoever when worn by a regular human like, say, me- but as near as I can tell, if a werewolf wears it during the full moon… they won’t transform.”

He raised his eyebrows at her. “Professor Dumbledore told me he had a couple of Royals working in the Student Instructor Program,” he told her calmly. “Did you have one of them look at it?”

Hailey paused, and looked at him for a second. “I know the one that enchanted it, actually. Can you tell me the color of her black hair?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You just said it,” he observed. “It’s black.”

She smiled. “She’s me. And because I am the one that enchanted it, out of the four Royals at Hogwarts, the effect is basically guaranteed and you can safely tuck it down your robes or something. I’d rather people not find out about me, though.” She sighed. “I’d have made it a persistent effect like Silver’s genderflipping necklace, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that properly, especially against an intermittent effect like werewolf transformation.”

“A necklace, though?”

She shrugged. “It’s what was handy. And honestly, what else am I supposed to enchant? A sock?” She chuckled. “Gemstones also take enchantments of this sort really well, so that made the enchantment side of things a lot easier.” She paused. “Er, I did add a few cushion and gravitational behavior charms so it shouldn’t be a problem to sleep with it during the full moon.”

“Thanks,” he muttered, slipping it into an inside pocket of his robes. He was going to have to try it on at some point, so he could acclimate to the feeling of wearing it before the full moon at the end of the month… and still take Wolfsbane Potion, just in case. “Are you going to get your friends?”

“Huh?” Hailey muttered, then blinked. “Oh, right, you wouldn’t know. We have a telepathic network… maintained by the other Royal Dumbledore knows about, actually. But I’ve already told them where to meet, so they’ll be here any second.”

Right at that moment, the door opened- revealing a slightly younger girl with brilliant red hair and a Gryffindor patch as well… and an exposed nametag, though he really didn’t need that to recognize her as Ginny Weasley. “Hi Hailey!” she grinned, dragging her trunk into the compartment and giving Hailey a quick hug before they hoisted it into the luggage rack. Finally, she sat next to Hailey- who had sat across from Lupin- and waved cheerfully at Lupin. “Hi!”

Lupin stared. Wasn’t Ginny ridiculously shy?

Hailey seemed to be thinking along the same lines. “You’ve forgotten to be shy again,” she observed.

Ginny blinked. “Oh yeah,” she muttered, then shrugged. “I guess I’m just used to it by now.”

Hailey chuckled, and looked up at Lupin. “Ginny here is our second-year Lead Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts,” she informed him, wrapping an arm around Ginny. “Aaaaand… the royal with the psychic network.”

Ginny raised an eyebrow. “Really?” she asked.

Hailey shrugged. “He passed the test,” she told her calmly.

Lupin raised an eyebrow at them; Ginny accepted the explanation unquestioningly.

Hailey grinned. “A good while ago, I cast some really powerful magics that are set to help us avoid political careers. The main effects that it’s had so far would be a series of coincidences that keep us out of their notice… though at one point, it got so far as Professor Dumbledore couldn’t figure out who I was when he was sitting right next to me. Wasn’t long after that when he accepted that we have a right to anonymity or something- I don’t really know- and suddenly had no trouble telling us our names.”

“Ahh,” Lupin muttered slowly. “You mentioned four royals?”

Ginny looked at Hailey. “Four? Weren’t there only three?”

“You turned Hermione into one, didn’t you?” Hailey countered.

Ginny blushed and averted her eyes.

Hailey chuckled. “Though I expect it won’t be long before I finish creating my first royal, either.”

Both Ginny and Lupin looked at her. “What?”

She shrugged, grinning mischievously. “I expect Silver will evolve into a goddess in another year or so,” she mused. “That’ll make her the second student deity at Hogwarts… though fifth at Hogwarts overall, since three of the Professors are deities.”

The next second, the compartment door slid open to reveal three people- two girls and a boy. One of the girls looked almost exactly like a young version of the Lily he knew- and discounting the bright red evidence of a slap on the side of his face, the boy looked like a young version of James.

The girl that had opened the door had bushy brown hair and brilliant brown eyes- and she was carrying her trunk in one hand. The nameplate on her Hogwarts robes identified her as Hermione Granger. “Hi Hailey, Ginny!” she greeted, entering and practically tossing her trunk into the luggage rack with a very heavy thump. “And… Professor Lupin, was it?”

He nodded. Probably that psychic network thing.

“Remus,” the boy said- his nametag identified him as James Potter alright- as the other girl, Lily Potter, dragged both their trunks over so Hermione could hoist them, apparently effortlessly, into the luggage rack. Both Potters had no House patch- meaning they were first-years. “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

He stared. “What…?”

Hailey giggled. “Yes, they’re the same ones you know. I resurrected them a month ago.”

He looked at Hailey, then back at James. “... Ahh,” he muttered, as Hermione sat next to Ginny, then James came to sit next to him, Lily on his other side.

That left only one person: Silver, who Hailey had just referred to with a female pronoun. As such, he and James would be the only boys in the compartment.

Then the door slid open again, revealing a cute girl with a Gryffindor patch as well. She had gleaming silver hair down her back, split cleanly into thirds by royal blue stripes. She was also wearing her Hogwarts robes- and over them, a brilliant diamond necklace. Her nameplate simply said ‘Silversong’, no surname or anything- and she had an arm around another really cute girl… who didn’t have a House patch on her robes- a first-year. She seemed to be extremely timid, trying to hide behind Silver and even her own flowing pink hair- and while her hair was draped over her nameplate so he couldn’t read it, she was wearing a bright pink butterfly-shaped gemstone necklace.

“Hi Hailey,” Silversong greeted. “Do we know if any of Fluttershy’s friends are here?” She looked at the pink-haired girl- presumably Fluttershy. “What were their names again?”

Hailey answered first. “I wasn’t aware any Element Bearers had fallen through,” she observed calmly. “This… This is going to be big. Let me check on something.” She rose to her feet, turned, and walked straight into the wall of the car, vanishing tracelessly.

Lupin looked out the window, but there was no sign of her.

“Hmm,” Silversong muttered, before looking at the girl, Fluttershy. “Would you like to join us?” she asked. “I promise we’re kind.”

Lupin tilted his head at the odd promise.

Most of an hour later…

Princess Twilight Sparkle paced back and forth in front of the lectern in her library. Fluttershy had disappeared just two days before, and nopony knew where she was. It couldn’t be the portal- it had already sucked its batch through for the year nearly a month before… and she was no closer to stopping it.

But where was Fluttershy?

“Good evening, Twilight.”

She jumped at the sudden, unfamiliar voice, and looked.

It was… some kind of minotaur-like creature, though it was only about as tall as she was. It was female, with a black mane flowing down her back- and unlike the Minotaurs, it was shrouded almost completely in black fabric. There was a patch and a badge on her chest, but Twilight was at a loss for what either of them meant.

The… cow? That was what minotaurs called them, right? The cow was walking casually towards her- and by the movements in her clothing, her legs most definitely did not work like minotaur’s did. She saw the odd shoes the cow was wearing underneath her drapes, and they weren’t shaped like anything she’d ever seen before…

No, wait. She knew what sort of creature this was; she’d met them before, when she went through Starswirl’s mirror portal.

They were called humans. And ‘girl’ was the right term; ‘cow’ would be an insult to her.

Even so, this girl’s proportions were different- and her skin had an interesting, light pinkish tone. She was also holding a small, hardcover book in one hand.

“Good evening,” she answered, straining to offer the same courtesy the girl was offering her. “Who are you and why are you here?”

“I’m Hailey,” she answered simply. “I’m from the world your people are falling into.”

She blinked. “You found a way to send ponies back?” she asked eagerly, all courtesy forgotten.

The girl shook her head. “No, I didn’t, though it wouldn’t be all that hard. Another couple years and Starlight will probably figure it out- though I’m going to have to stop her from doing so, since any that do return will die immediately upon arrival.” She sighed, then took a piece of paper from inside the front cover of the book and held it out.

Twilight accepted it, using her magic to float it over to her; the girl- Hailey- was still a good twenty feet away.

She instantly recognized Fluttershy… and the Element of Kindness around her neck, even though that should’ve been on the Tree of Harmony. Fluttershy was looking very timid and worried, standing next to a strange girl with bright silver hair, who was only partially in the photo. Interestingly, both of them had similar skin coloration as Hailey’s.

“What- How? That portal already took its handful!”

“It seems to have picked another after the fact,” Hailey told her, and sighed. “I did some… research of my own on my way here, and figured out why your people are falling through the worldwall like that.”

Twilight looked up. “Why?”

She sighed, and stopped, about a pony-length away from Twilight. “Because this universe will die in less than fifty years,” she answered. “The worldwall is already beginning to collapse, causing your people to ‘fall’ into the nearest other universe- mine.”

“Y-You mean-!?” she began.

The girl nodded. “The land of Equestria will cease to exist within the next fifty years.” She sighed. “As near as I can tell, it’s the Magic of Harmony that’s bringing your people all the way to my universe when they leak out through the worldwall into the Void, which would otherwise kill them instantly- as a result, I don’t think anything truly evil is ever going to make it across. Once all six Element Bearers are in Britain, it won’t be hard for you to restore Equestrian magic to your people.”

“Th-Then-!” Twilight paused. “What about their families?”

Hailey offered her the book. “Here’s a spellbook I made for you,” she told her. “In it, you’ll find spells to send things to people that have already crossed, send people across, communicate with people that have already crossed, both telepathically and through a visible ‘window’, tell when any given pony will fall through… and of course, to temporarily project yourself to the other side, as a human like us.” She sighed. “I’m really sorry to have to be the bearer of such bad news, but it is what it is- and the best I can do is to give you and your people the chance to save what’s important.”

Twilight accepted the spellbook, and placed it on the lectern for later. The girl had just told her what was in it, so she didn’t need to look just yet. “Alright,” she said. “Thank you. I’ll be…” She paused. “Probably talking with Celestia before we disseminate any of those spells.”

Hailey nodded. “I would ask that you keep my identity to a need-to-know basis,” she informed her. “I’m keeping my powers secret in my world. I don’t mind if the other Bearers know- we’ll be telling Fluttershy pretty soon anyways.”

Twilight nodded. “Thank you.”

Chapter 28

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 29 Author's Note

It has crossed my mind a few times that I haven't put any of the rewrite on Patreon. I'll get to that... eventually.

This chapter... needed reworking before publication even without the rewrite in progress, but I haven't done that. I mean, I'm just going to rewrite it anyways... But yeah, it's way below the standards set even by the other pre-rewrite chapters. I won't blame you if you just skip the whole Iris scene, and you really won't miss anything by doing that.

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Nope, no new rewrite chapters this week; I've had a very busy week, what with a new job taking up all my time and waves of depression. Fortunately, with first paycheck today, that depression is blowing away in the wind!

Chapter 29

Professor McGonagall paused for a fraction of a second about a third of the way through the Sorting Ceremony, before calling out the next name on the list.

“Potter, James!”

There was no way it was the one she knew.

She glanced briefly behind her as a black-haired boy emerged from the throng of students still waiting to be sorted; it looked like Professor Snape had stiffened as well, and Dumbledore looked more attentive than he usually did during the Sorting Ceremony.

The boy that came forward did indeed look very much like the James Potter she knew- the one that had been killed by Lord Voldemort thirteen years before. He was, however, a first-year student, and not a fully grown adult.

“Gryffindor!”

With a chuckle, the boy set the hat back down- he’d been sorted instantly, that was always nice- and jogged off towards the Gryffindor table.

She looked down at the next name, and froze for almost two full seconds. That… wasn’t possible.

“Potter, Lily!”

Snape noticeably leaned forwards as the girl stepped out of the crowd. She looked much like she was Ginny Weasley’s younger sister, thanks in part to her vivid red hair- but as she danced up to the Hat, Professor McGonagall spotted her bright green eyes.

And on second thought, while there was no family resemblance between the two… when Lily sat between James and Hailey at the Gryffindor table- she’d been an instant-sort as well- the family resemblance then popped out at her between the three of them.

It wasn’t… It wasn’t possible, was it?

“Hailey, did your parents reincarnate?” Snape asked stiffly, over the psychic network- asking the question Professor McGonagall was certain the rest of the staff was wondering too.

Hailey’s answer was immediate. “No, I resurrected them. As children. Mom loves it, but Dad keeps wondering about the house.”

“It burned down,” Dumbledore informed her, surprise coloring his tone. He’d evidently been expecting the news of their resurrection just as much as Snape- who reacted to the news with stunned silence- and McGonagall had.

“I know,” Hailey asserted. “Even though it wasn’t on fire when I was pulled out of it.”

“I never figured that out either,” Dumbledore answered. “Maybe it was a lightning strike?”

“Professor Lupin did,” Hailey informed him calmly. “According to him, the Ministry of Magic decided the easiest way to keep our stuff from falling into muggle hands was to burn it down, bodies and all.” She sighed. “I thought about storming the Ministry to demand their policies be updated, but they’ve already done that and no longer routinely commit arson. Thanks to Cornelius Fudge, actually, just last year- when he ordered the law changed, he said he had a relative that had been declared dead, and returned months later to find all his stuff up in smoke.”

“Oh yeah, that,” Dumbledore nodded. “The Wizengamot refused to take a stance on that law when I took issue with it almost sixty years ago now.”

“Well it’s changed now. Fudge insisted on not just extending the waiting period, but instead preserving the property, with appropriate antimuggle charms, for the next person to inherit their Gringotts Vault.”

“That might be why all the older wizarding homesteads are heavily enchanted to be extremely difficult for even wizards to find,” Professor Flitwick observed calmly.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve done down here,” Hailey observed calmly, as she and Ginny stepped off the magic platform in the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets the normal way, rather than by Void Weave Drive as they had when they’d been swapping Hermione’s body out for the new one a couple weeks prior. They still had the long, long-since-cleaned passage to walk down before they reached the Parselmouth Door, as they’d nicknamed it, that would let them into the Chamber proper.

Ginny chuckled. “Yeah, I did do something a little different since last time you saw it,” Ginny agreed, nodding. Only a couple days after the sorting, one of her sisters- Iris, incidentally- had requested permission to come pay her a visit… so she’d talked to Hailey, who had talked to Dumbledore. In the end, the answer was that yes, she could come… Provided that neither she nor anything she brought would look too ‘out of place’. Fortunately, the Chamber of Secrets would conveniently hide an Astrium vessel, allowing the definitely-out-of-place spaceship to be stored out of sight while her sister was visiting.

So, after another couple days to prepare (and, Ginny was guiltily aware, ‘reach the weekend’ so fewer of her friends would be stuck in class), it was time to welcome her first interdimensional guests about a week after the term started. But of course, they didn’t have a fixed time set yet- her sister knew it was going to be soon, but Ginny wanted to double-check the ‘landing zone’ first, and make sure the sensors necessary to guide Iris’ ship to a safe landing were properly set up and functional.

She sighed softly. “So, how were your new classes this week?”

“Professor Trelawney saw the Grim in my cup,” Hailey informed her calmly. “Might be because I was interfering with the magic involved to keep it from mentioning my abnormality.”

Ginny chuckled. “When the immortal Goddess of the Multiverse sees a Grim…” She chuckled again.

“The Omniverse, technically,” Hailey corrected her. “But yeah, considering it’s factually impossible to kill me, a death omen has to be perhaps one of the most amusing things for it to have displayed. How about you?”

“I like Professor Lupin,” Ginny told her simply. “He didn’t quite throw us in the deep end, but I actually learned something.” She smiled. “Even when I consider my prior knowledge as Lord Voldemort, he still managed to top seven years of Defense Against the Dark Arts training.”

“Sounds like him,” Hailey agreed. “Our first lesson with him was a practical lesson; he took us to the staffroom to eliminate a Boggart.”

“A Boggart?” Ginny asked, tilting her head. “Interesting. I wiped a few of those out as Lord Voldemort, but I can’t say I know what my boggart is right now.”

“Yeah,” Hailey muttered. “When it looked at me, it just sorta… vibrated until someone else got its attention.”

Ginny snorted. “You simply don’t fear, do you?”

She chuckled. “I mean, I do fear some things, but anything capable of making you guys stay dead wouldn’t fit in just three dimensions, so it couldn’t become my worst fear. Nevermind the impossibility of penetrating natural wards as powerful as mine to figure out what it is in the first place.” She gave a short bark of laughter. “Care of Magical Creatures was just as interesting; Hagrid showed us a Hippogriff, and taught us all sorts of different facts about them. We’re actually going to put it to the test next lesson.”

Ginny smiled, then glanced at the floor. “Somewhere along here, Lockhart laid for an hour or so while we rescued Luna,” she observed. “And I can’t help but notice he’s still at large?”

“Rita’s really taking her time,” Hailey observed calmly. “But don’t worry, I have her word she’s going to rip his reputation apart, piece by piece.”

“I hope so,” Ginny answered calmly.

“You’ve been busy in here,” Hailey observed.

“Well of course,” Ginny answered. “You’ll notice I cannibalized the ship again.”

“I do,” Hailey observed. “And unless I miss my guess, that’s one huge Void Weave Drive.”

Ginny looked, and nodded; it was tucked into the corner next to the entrance, but stood so massive it nearly blocked the entrance anyways. “There’s another one stacked on top,” she informed Hailey. “They’re powering a pretty productive mine-and-transmute operation behind Salazar’s statue; I’m excavating a bunch of stone and converting it into Astrium. The extra power that isn’t used by that is being funneled into a Luminous Astrium storage matrix so I can make as much Luminous Astrium as I want, whenever I want.”

Hailey nodded. “Yeah, I did notice the tanks down the length of the chamber.”

Ginny chuckled. “You noticed that, eh? Yeah. Between the pillars is parking space, but outside is storage space. A couple of those tanks are full, actually- with this amount of power to run the transmutation and the size of forge I have next to Salazar’s statue, the drilling process is going very quickly indeed. Anyways, when we went to the Void, I mounted a boatload of sensors on the ship so it could navigate its way back in here without assistance, but Iris’ ship isn’t nearly as… wallpapered in sensors.” She looked up, and reached out a hand towards the tanks on either side, ordering Astrium to ripple out the tops of the tanks- through hatches that sprang open for it- to become massive sensor arrays on the sides of the tanks.

“There,” she nodded softly. “Now I just need to calibrate them, which…” She paused. The calibration process was very finicky, especially with this many sensors- but the number and positions she’d set would mean Iris would be able to position her ship to within a millimeter of her desired emergence point without using her onboard sensors at all. As a result, it took a couple of minutes, then she finally let out a sigh and called up her sister. “Alright, I’m ready,” she informed her.

Within seconds, a spot in the air just about as far away from Ginny as she could see in the bright illumination cast down from the spotlights she’d mounted at the tops of the tanks- namely, a matter of feet in front of Salazar’s statue- began to twist around itself. A moment later, a small ring of pure, greyish energy appeared, with little bits of green, blue, and purple flickering throughout it. It quickly widened into a sort of funnel of energy large enough for a small bus to drive through- then a flash of blue light emerged from it, resolving into Iris’s ship with the dull thump of a pressure wave Ginny hadn’t realized would be there but Hailey apparently had, before the funnel shrank back to nothing.

Iris descended quickly, flying a little closer to them before she ‘landed’; the ship didn’t have landing gear, Ginny knew, instead using a magical structure to hold itself a couple inches off the ground when ‘parked’.

Finally, a door on the side of the ship opened, and someone stuck their head out- Iris, Ginny knew. She looked very much like Hailey, though she was an adult rather than a teenager.

“Welcome to the Chamber of Secrets, Iris,” Ginny began, with a gentle bow, as Iris descended the two steps to the stone, and more people began to emerge; she recognized three of them instantly as Hermione, Luna… and herself.

Iris looked around as her friends emerged as well, chuckling softly. “Well, this brings back memories.”

Ginny chuckled. “I bet yours wasn’t all full of Astrium tanks,” she observed.

The last to exit, an unfamiliar woman, grinned as she looked around, her rippling green hair flowing down her back. “I like what you’ve done with the place. Proper lighting, for one. A thousand years in a stone room lit only by green fire makes you appreciate those kinds of things.”

“Despite a little over two hundred years since, Ginny tells me,” Hailey observed calmly.

The woman smiled and her form shifted. Her legs fused together, elongating into a long, green snake tail as scales rippled into existence along it. When she finished, she was a large green snake with a human head and torso. “Basilisks have long memories,” she intoned.

Ginny blinked. “You mean-!” She broke off, trying to understand what was going on.

Iris giggled. “Allow me to introduce Lady Ashasra of the Chamber, or as we call her, Emerald.”

“That’s one way to solve the Monster of Slytherin problem.”

Ginny immediately looked up, following the voice to the top of the massive tower of Void Weave Drives next to her- to spot Hermione sticking her head off the top. “How long have you been up there?” she asked, to which Hermione only grinned.

Hailey chuckled. “There’s actually still a basilisk up in Salazar’s statue over there,” she said, gesturing past Iris and her friends. “Unfortunately, though, basilisks in this world are stupid, so that really isn’t an option for us.” She chuckled softly. “It’s nice to meet you, Emerald.”

Ginny glanced nervously between Hailey and Emerald. “Yeah, nice to meet you too, Emerald.” She scanned her eyes across the last three. “I think I can kinda guess your names,” she informed them. “Especially my older doppelganger.” She giggled softly. “Nice to meet you all. I’m Ginny, as you’ve probably guessed, and this is Hailey. Up on the top of my power plants somewhere is Hermione.”

Hermione picked that moment to jump off, taking advantage of her mechanical body’s strength for a very solid landing right next to Hailey, who didn’t even flinch despite the stone-shattering impact. “Nice to meet you guys!” she greeted.

Iris and her other three friends took the opportunity to transform themselves into similar creatures as Emerald. Iris’ and her friend Ginny’s tails both matched their hair, with dark black and bright red respectively. On the other hand, Hermione’s was honey-colored, and Luna’s was such a bright white it was almost painful to look at under the bright spotlights.

“So, uh-!” Ginny began.

Hermione rolled her eyes, pranced forwards, and tackle-hugged her snake-tailed adult doppelganger. “I never realized it’d seem so ordinary to meet myself from another world,” she told her cheerfully. “I guess being friends with Hailey has desensitized me.” She giggled.

Ginny blinked, staring for a second. “Oh come on, I was supposed to be the one to start the hugging,” she complained, putting her hands on her hips.

Iris grinned, and about a half a second later, she had already shot across the floor and wrapped her tail once around Ginny’s legs with an enthusiastic hug of her own. “You’ll never get to actually start it with this kind of adorable pouting.” She paused. “Which is not something I’d ever expected to be saying to the reincarnation of Voldemort, but I guess here we are …”

Hailey chuckled. “Now I just need to hug your Ginny, and we’ll have a full set. Though I don’t want to leave Luna out, so…” She chuckled, then jogged forwards, towards the snake-tailed Ginny and Luna. “Group hug, you two!”

Ginny winced as she hugged her sister back. “Yeah, just like I never expected to be a Weasley saying I was looking forward to meeting a Malfoy, but I did that just that a couple years ago.” She paused. “Um, the whole Voldemort thing is a secret, by the way, so don’t tell anyone else around here.”

Emerald was the one pouting now. “I know I used to live in a place like this, but I’m not set dressing, just for your information!”

Hermione released her snake-tailed doppelganger and turned to Emerald with a grin. “Then get over here, silly,” she told her, before launching herself into a very fast tacklehug.

Hailey chuckled as she broke from the snake-tailed Ginny and Luna. “Of course you’re not,” she agreed, then turned to glance slyly back up at where Iris and Ginny were still hugging. “Though something tells me you’re not just here for the hugs, right? I mean, there was enough of that when we visited the Null Star two weeks ago.” She chuckled. “Ginny got crushed when she called for a group hug.”

Emerald rolled her eyes. “Well, why do you think I asked for it when there were only six people around? You don’t call for a group hug on the Null Star, that’s just the kind of thing you learn after dealing with the Sequence for long enough.”

“Er- Yeah,” Ginny muttered, before meeting Iris’ eyes. “Hailey does have a point. You didn’t come here just to see me, did you?”

“Of course not,” Iris answered. “There is the bit about your galaxy-wide patronus, obviously, but we’re also generally curious what your world is like. Since we left our home universe after most of our business there was done, exploring our sisters’ universes is sort of what we do. Or what I do anyway, the girls are mostly just along for the ride.”

“Oh yeah, the Multiverse’s Strongest Patronus,” Hailey muttered. “That’s what happens when you get trillions of entities gathering their happiness together and concentrating it through a sufficiently powerful magical aperture to become a patronus.”

Hermione looked up from Emerald. “You always make it sound so simple,” she informed her calmly.

“Well it is,” Hailey answered simply. “That was by far the simplest spell to ever rise above one tera-thaum across the entire Multiverse.” She paused. “Though you wouldn’t express its power in tera-thaums so much as peta-thaums or higher. I don’t know, I didn’t actually measure it.”

Ginny looked at her. “A Patronus, the simplest? Isn’t it very complex?” She paused. “I’d hate to see what the rest looked like.”

The visiting Hermione frowned slightly. “Well, no. It’s difficult to learn, sure. But it’s not actually all that complex. Provide the right emotional impetus, use the correct incantation, done. There isn’t even a wand motion. It’s actually fairly simple in the grand scheme of things. Of course, wands do allow for greater effects with simpler spells than is the average. Keep in mind that most universes don’t have them, so their spells are usually more complex than what you’re used to by default.”

“Oh alright,” Ginny conceded.

“True enough, I suppose,” Hailey observed, tapping her chin. “Though the Patronus is actually one of the most complex spells you can cast with a wand. It’s mostly Harmony magic, though, which has a tendency of casting itself, and your wand does the requisite setup steps for you.” She shrugged. “And the rest… The you know what enchantment is perhaps the most powerful one ever cast- and simultaneously the most complex one, even including spells cast at lower power levels.” She paused. “I don’t think you could fit the spell matrix in this entire universe- it’s a good thing a majority of it is Harmony magic.”

“That’s huge,” Hermione observed simply.

Hailey nodded. “It is. Does its job well, though.” She paused. “By the way, how long can you guys maintain human forms?”

“Used to be it got unpleasant after eight hours and painful after twelve. But we’ve managed to extend it by a factor of three,” the visiting Luna spoke up for the first time, shuddering slightly. “We never actually tried how long we theoretically could hold these forms. After the second threshold, it gets very unpleasant very fast.”

“I’m not asking you to torture yourselves,” Hailey answered calmly. “I mean, I’m looking at the magic, and the absolute limit seems to be ‘indefinite’- so, limited by your pain tolerance, really.”

“Should be way more than enough to keep anyone from suspecting anything up in Hogwarts Castle,” Ginny observed. “Speaking of, are you interested in visiting that? I’m sure Silver would be interested to meet you too.” She grinned knowingly.

Iris gave a sort of lopsided smile in response. “Well, yeah, we wouldn’t have had to go through the whole song and dance with your Dumbledore if we didn’t want to see Hogwarts, would we? And damn it’s weird to think that he’s still alive in this world …”

“He does seem to have a habit of dying old, doesn’t he?” Hailey observed, then chuckled softly. “Sounds really weird when you say it like that.”

Ginny chuckled too. “Though I didn’t necessarily go to Dumbledore about it directly, I left that to Hailey.” She sighed. “Anyways, the exit’s this way.” She gestured towards the entrance, which slid smoothly open as she approached it, walking backwards. The entrance tunnel wasn’t nearly as well lit as the Chamber of Secrets itself, but thanks to relatively dim strip lights along the corners, it was pretty well lit as well. “You might be able to tell I’ve basically… seized the Chamber of Secrets for my own uses.”

“True, though if you haven’t already, you might want to add some extra security. There is someone else who is rather famously able to get in here,” the visiting Hermione pointed out, still slithering along.

“Someone else?” Ginny asked curiously, as she led the way up the tunnel. “Who? Salazar Slytherin himself?”

“Well, no. Even if you are a reincarnation, you aren’t the only part of you out there, are you?”

“Oh, you mean Voldemort.” She shrugged. “Yeah, I suppose. But that’s why I’ve got a set of heavy Astrium doors in here before we reach the pipe- you have to not only be a parselmouth but also be able to control Astrium to get in, and there’s only one piece of me that can do that.” She pointed her thumb back at herself.

“Fair enough. But the chamber walls aren’t that heavily warded. It doesn’t matter how durable your door is if an intruder can just break through the wall next to it.”

“Yeah, but by then, I’ll be remoting in to all the Astrium in here, so they’ll look like a pincushion the moment they get in.”

“If they’re using a living body,” Luna pointed out absently.

“Even if they’re not, they’ll still look like a pincushion,” Ginny asserted. “Well… if I use hard munitions. Which, to be honest, I’m far more likely to use energy weapons. Anyways.” She paused as she glanced at the floor, and chuckled. “Every time I walk up this way, I find myself imagining Professor Lockhart lying unconscious on the floor right around here.”

“He managed to end up down here in your world too?” Iris asked curiously. “I guess that makes four for four. I wonder why that is. It’s not like he usually has any real reason to want to be down here.”

Hailey chuckled. “We were a little different. He didn’t manage to obliviate himself- and rather than dragging him down to help us fight, we dragged him down to figuratively burn him at the stake. Rita’s still working on the more literal version of that.”

The five visitors shared glances before breaking out into eerily similar and decidedly sinister grins. “You have a good Rita in this world?” Emerald prompted. “Oh my. Do keep us up to date on that one. Should be fun.”

Ginny laughed. “Oh, no, she’s still the evil, slanderous Rita we all know and love. She’s just really good at knocking particularly famous people like Lockhart down a peg, especially since he got it by taking credit for a bunch of other people’s achievements.” She paused. “I still haven’t seen anything about that yet. I wonder why?” She looked at Hailey.

“She’s been taking her time to do it right,” Hailey answered simply.

“Ah, yes, good old Rita,” Iris put in with a melancholy smile. “So long as you can point her in the right direction, she’s a very useful ally to have.”

“I bet,” Ginny muttered, and sighed. “Only time I talked to her, she was asking for details on Lockhart already. Mind, Hailey had already sent her a voice recorder…” She paused, glancing up. “Oh, and here’s my Astrium door.” A second later, the solid golden wall ahead of them responded to her command by splitting in half and sliding into the walls. Behind it, the iron pipe that led up to the second floor girls’ bathroom was visible.

Hermione chuckled. “I suppose the Astrium equivalents of welding and un-welding counts as a sort of locking mechanism, doesn’t it?” she asked, then sighed, folding her arms and glancing sideways at Hailey. “I’m still having difficulty believing wizards were that wrong about technology and Hogwarts,” she declared grumpily.

Hailey only chuckled softly.

“Well yeah,” Ginny grinned. “Even Alohomora can’t open that kind of lock.”

“Might be being a bit generous with ‘lock’ there, me,” the visiting Ginny pointed out. “That usually implies a locking mechanism.”

“Well there is one,” Ginny smiled. “Mechanical, in the walls, and I’ve also set up full locking and unlocking scripts within the Astrium itself, so all I have to do is wake up the right script. Overkill, I know, but where’s the fun in anything less?” She paused as they approached the pipe. “I suppose you guys have a couple different options here. First off, we’ve put lots of cleanliness spells on this pipe,” she glanced sideways at Hailey, “so if you slither up it, you won’t have to worry about getting covered in gunk. And the other option…” She brandished her wand at the pipe, causing the ‘elevator platform’ as Hailey had called it to appear, and the pipe to subsequently stretch upwards to accept it. “We’ll be riding this, and you’re welcome to join us.”

“That’s a lot easier than a running start and a nice fast slide,” Hermione observed.

Iris sighed softly. “Oh alright, guess it was inevitable.” Her form rippled once again as she shifted back into her human shape, the other four half-basilisks behind her following her lead a moment later. “We couldn’t risk slithering up anyway. Mind you, anyone but Myrtle being in the toilet to see us is unlikely, but still too risky. And turning back in the pipe is just asking for trouble.”

“I’d say even Myrtle is unlikely now,” Ginny observed, leading the way onto the platform, which stretched to fit all of them as she did so. “But yeah, turning back in here would be basically impossible- thanks to the ancient magic in here, this pipe is always just the right size for a passing basilisk to push off all the corners- or even connecting pipes- without issue.” She paused. “I’m fooling it into thinking this platform is a flying cube-shaped basilisk, so the pipe’s getting out of the way.” She glanced back. “Everyone on?”

Hermione chuckled. “Cube-shaped basilisk,” she muttered amusedly. “I wonder how many of those you find in nature.”

“None,” her visiting counterpart supplied readily. “Basilisk are artificially created.”

“True,” Hermione muttered, glancing back past everyone. “Looks like we’re all on, Ginny. But yeah, chicken egg hatched under a toad. Unless someone’s unlucky enough to have a toad farm in the attic of a henhouse, or a toad invades the henhouse and happens to jump on top of an egg right before it hatches. The rooster would probably kill it right away, though- unless there weren’t any, but I can hardly imagine an egg hatching without a rooster.”

Ginny smiled and flicked her wand, and the platform started sliding smoothly up the pipe. Behind them, her Astrium door slid shut and fused itself once more.

Chapter 30

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 31

“Do you need something?” Professor Lupin asked, looking up from his briefcase. He’d just finished his last class for September, and was packing his things again- but there was one student left. One student, and one non-student that always sat with her at the same table. “Ahh, Hailey,” he muttered.

She nodded, slinging her bag over her shoulder and walking up to his desk, one arm draped around Sadarina’s shoulders; the girl still acted very much like a baby, always clutching at Hailey’s side- though by now, there were occasional flashes of more complicated emotions on her face. “How is it?” Hailey asked- gesturing slightly towards his chest.

He glanced down, and let out a soft sigh; he was wearing the amethyst necklace she’d given him, though he’d tucked it down the front of his robes. Even though he’d tried it on a few times throughout the month, the chain still felt heavy against his neck- and when the full moon had appeared that night, he hadn’t transformed, so had been able to cancel the arrangements he’d made for Snape to cover for him. However, the necklace had started to glow gently when the full moon appeared, so he was a little afraid to take it off. “Why does it glow?”

“That means it’s working,” she answered. “If you take it off while it’s glowing, you can expect potentially dramatic results. Once it stops, though, it's perfectly safe.”

He nodded slowly. “Ahh. Alright.” He paused. “Thank you.”

“You’re… Sirius Black, right?”

Sirius Black froze on his way through the castle, then turned. Who had snuck up behind him? Why weren’t they enjoying the Halloween Feast downstairs? Why did they seem so nonchalant as they spoke to a ‘convicted’ mass murderer that was armed with a large knife?

The girl had gleaming red and gold hair flowing down her back like a bonfire, and did not have her wand out. Instead, she was carrying a book in her hands- which made sense, as he recognized the Ravenclaw patch on her chest. Her nameplate indicated her name was Morning Sun, and she had a badge underneath that, which identified her as… He couldn’t read the text from twenty feet away, but there was a lot of it.

“Yes,” he asserted, showing her the knife. “Who are you?”

She smiled. “Someone that is not afraid of you,” she said simply.

He scowled. “That much is obvious,” he grumbled. “Why?”

She calmly reached into her robes to draw out a rolled-up newspaper and glanced at it, before walking forward to hand it to him. “This is why.” She paused. “Mind, it’s a month and a half old, but…”

He accepted the newspaper, only briefly considering brandishing the knife now that she was actually in knife range. Her badge read ‘Lead Student Instructor of Defense Against the Dark Arts for Third-Year Ravenclaws, with the ‘of’ and ‘for’ printed very small and dividing the rest into three lines.

He shook the newspaper out, and glanced at the headline- ‘man spends thirteen years in Azkaban without trial for a crime he did not commit’. He also immediately recognized himself on the front page- and actually, the scene in which Peter had faked his death. He found himself staring at it.

She chuckled. “The Ministry hasn’t apologized, reinvestigated, or otherwise responded at all just yet, so Rita’s been getting increasingly vicious towards them ever since. On the other hand, nobody’s afraid any more.” She paused. “If you’re looking for Peter Pettigrew, the Fat Lady won’t let you in without the password, no matter what you do.”

He looked up at her. “You know where he-!?” He cut himself off. “You say that like you know the password,” he observed.

She laughed. “Nah, I’m neither a Gryffindor nor part of the Management Team. I haven’t a clue what that password is.” She turned away and shrugged as she walked away. “Not that it’s that hard to steal, mind.”

He scowled, evaluating the new information. “Why aren’t you at the Halloween Feast?” he asked.

She glanced back and grinned. “I don’t like feasts- they’re too noisy. Now, I know Ravenclaw Tower is the easiest one to get into with no prior knowledge, but if you try and attack me in my sleep… I’ll warn you now, I can get pretty deadly when I want to, even without my wand.” She turned a corner and jogged away, in the direction of the library.

Sirius looked back down at the newspaper, sighed, and resumed his path to Gryffindor Tower. He wouldn’t be able to get to Peter- that wasn’t a very nice pill to swallow, but he’d already kinda expected that. On the other hand, her suggestion about the password being easy to steal was almost too good to be true, so he wanted to investigate the area around the Portrait Hole, and see exactly how easy it was going to be to steal the password before he headed back to the forest. He was going to need to do some planning before he actually stole the password and entered to catch Peter.

Author's Note

Does this chapter seem short? Yes?

Good. It is, because I've removed 2500 words of it to prevent spoilering of some fun events and mechanics that'll appear in the rewrite as well.

Speaking of the rewrite, for everyone that hasn't been religiously following my blog or Discord server, chapters 9 through 15 have been fully rewritten since I uploaded Chapter 30! If you need a refresher on what the rewrite is, please see the Chap. 1 A/N, I really don't want to bother re-describing it now. Why did it take so long? Because Chapter 10 in particular was a nightmare. As far as the plot of the rewrite was concerned, it should have had a 0 word count, and I just won't accept that. But, I eventually found something to fill it with, which fits in its allocated time slot and matches the rewrite's adjustments, and everything after it has been coming rather smoothly so far (pretty close to a chapter a day, actually, even though I tend to upload them in chunks rather than individually).

I've also formed a plan. Since the old-version chapters exist in written state through 35, I'll be releasing one with every fifth rewritten chapter (this one for 15, then 32 for 20, 33 for 25, etc.) until I catch up... even though it means I'll be releasing "old version" 35 with the rewrite of Chap. 35, which means I'll never be releasing that old version chapter. Oh well, that chapter really only killed Amelia Bones with some really weak explanations and excuses, so it's no loss.

Anyways, the usual links. Where did I put them again? Oh, right, they're right here:

...

Patreon, Discord.

Chapter 32

“Captain Shining Armor?”

Shining Armor looked up at his name after entering the library, and quickly spotted the caller. It was an older student, probably third-year, with a veritable bonfire of hair flowing down her back. She was seated at one of the tables, a book lying closed in front of her; she must’ve been thinking or something. She was wearing one of the badges that indicated a position within the Student Instructor Program, unlike him; he had so much trouble getting his wand to work properly that he didn’t qualify for even a Student Instructor position. Not that it had stopped the management team from working with him for other purposes, counting on his skills and experience as the Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard for close to fifty years. “Yes?” he asked, walking forwards- and as he approached, he picked out the text on the girl’s nameplate, which he couldn’t read from the door.

She was Morning Sun… his second-in-command for all of three months. She’d risen through the ranks so quickly at least in part because of her uncanny ability to read ponies like a book, even when they had good poker faces. Several times, she’d called suspects out during an interrogation for lying… and they’d subsequently admitted to it, and usually confessed to committing the crime in question as well.

“Ahh, Morning Sun,” he greeted, trotting over to her. “Long time no see.” He paused, glancing at her badge- she was the Lead Student Instructor of Defense Against the Dark Arts for third-year Ravenclaws… which meant she was a third-year, which lined up with her disappearance from Equestria two years before his own.

She chuckled softly. “Yeah… I wasn’t your Second In Command for very long at all, was I?”

He chuckled as well. “No, no you weren’t,” he agreed. “I see you’re a third-year here, though, so it’s not like you had much choice.” He shrugged. “Ain't no Royal Guard in Hogwarts. But anyways, how’s it been these last two years?”

She paused. “... Relaxing,” she decided slowly.

“Ahh, good you, Morning,” Hailey greeted.

Morning chuckled softly as she entered Hailey’s office a week after Halloween to deliver the week’s report on how the Student Instructors she oversaw were doing; Hailey always greeted her like that. It was a sort of in-joke between the two of them.

“Good me to you too,” she answered, closing the door behind her. “All pretty good this week- I think that Hogsmeade visit on Halloween did everyone good.” She opened her mouth to continue, but Hailey beat her to it.

“How did Sirius look when you met him?” she asked.

Morning froze. “Y-You know about that?”

She nodded. “Yes, I happen to know some pretty good Seers. Well…” She paused. “You could say, at least. Surely you guessed that was why I gave you that ancient newspaper?”

Morning paused. “Uh- Yes, I guessed. It’s just…” She paused. “I’m not used to people knowing about random stuff like that.”

Hailey shrugged. “Neither me, really, and don’t worry, it won’t happen very often. As a matter of fact, the main reason I knew to set anyone up to meet Sirius like that was because I happen to know someone that lives in a very similar universe to ours… Yes, interdimensional travelers, and in their universe, the portrait of the Fat Lady got shredded on Halloween night because she wouldn’t let him in.”

She paused. “He did look like he might have done that, yeah,” she muttered.

She chuckled. “But anyways, there’s something else I’d like to talk to you about. It’s…” She paused to dig in a drawer with one hand; her other was holding Sadarina in place in her lap.

Sadarina smiled cheerfully up at her as Hailey worked.

“Ahh, here it is,” Hailey muttered, set a pamphlet on the desk, and turned it to face Morning. “You’re easily one of the best students in the school, so we want to offer you a Head Student Instructor position.”

“We?” Morning asked, tilting her head.

She nodded. “Yes, We. That is to say, the management team; all HSIs are automatically part of said management team.” She paused. “I also happen to be the management team lead, but that’s beside the point.”

Author's Note

Does this chapter feel incomplete, at only 710 words? Yes?

It should. I trimmed it from 2500 words to keep it from spoiling the rewrite too badly.

Patreon, Discord.

Speaking of the rewrite, this story is quite suddenly some 8697 words longer, not including this chapter, because I've uploaded the rewritten versions of chapters 16 through 20- a total of nearly 24,000 words of fully rewritten content! Well okay, the Sequence link-up sequence was re-used verbatum, but that's merely the interaction between Ginny's seed and her Obelisk... Everything else is new. With some fun new twists that should make things quite interesting even for rereaders, I think, without throwing everything too far off the rails!

Sorry, but the story was cancelled at some point... see the blog posts I made about them. I'll probably come back and actually link to them at some point, but right now I can't be bothered. A replacement is coming, though, don't worry! ... Eventually.

Chapter 1: Lord Voldemort RW

“Avada Kedavra.”

Lord Voldemort’s life flashed before his eyes as the bolt of green light leaped from his wand, heading for the head of the tiny child in the crib before him.

He’d heard the prophecy, given to him by Severus Snape. He only knew a part of it; unfortunately, Snape had only heard part of it.

But he’d heard enough. With some deep thought, and observation that Professor Dumbledore seemed to be taking hope from that prophecy… the prophecy must be telling of his demise.

So he had picked a target.

That had been a month ago. Now, on Halloween night, he had invaded the Potters’ home… then fought, and killed, both parents. He wished he didn’t have to, but they had forced his hand.

In all likelihood, his curse was going to rebound off of this three-month-old boy, leaving a scar, and hit him instead, bringing his evil campaign to an end. If he hadn’t killed the mother, that simply wouldn’t have been true.

He’d then have to reincarnate himself as something different, and start cleaning up the Death Eaters as someone ‘unrelated’.

It was impossible that he would truly die, of course. He’d taken too many steps, gone to too many lengths, to keep that from happening… before he had realized how big of a mistake the Dark Lord Voldemort really was.

His curse struck the tiny infant… and, true to his expectation, rebounded, leaving only a cut shaped like a lightning bolt.

He closed his eyes, waiting patiently for the bolt to strike him and making no attempt to dodge it. That cut was going to become an everlasting scar, and probably torture the poor boy from time to time as well… but there wasn’t anything he could do about it, yet at any rate.

The boy’s name was Harry Potter.

Once he reincarnated, acquired a wand, and met Harry Potter, he would be able to purge the dark magic from the scar and even heal it completely- but that would take quite a while.

It would be something that even the renowned Albus Dumbledore couldn’t do, though. The man lacked the necessary understanding of the magic involved.

And of course, he would only be able to do it if the boy survived that long. That was the big question; there was no question of if he would be able to reincarnate and get a wand, only of how long it would take him.

He had made sure to inform the double-agent Severus Snape where he was going and what he was doing before he left. The man was a great occlumens, but he was also Lily Potter’s childhood friend, so he’d seen the flash of fear and- far more importantly- determination.

Dumbledore was going to find out very fast indeed, and he shouldn’t need to worry too much about Harry’s survival.

He let out a sigh as he felt the energy of his curse start penetrating his clothing. He knew the sigh was going to end a good long time after his body died- it was really only penetrating his clothing for an instant.

It really was amusing just how much faster the mind operated in its final moments.

Lord Voldemort was dead. Only one of his anti-death steps would protect him from getting erased by this curse, and that was his horcruxes.

They also didn’t protect his body- only his soul. He would become a phantom after death, necessitating reincarnation. Even after reincarnation, all his immortality work would carry over- his new body would be just as invulnerable as his current one, such that the Killing Curse would be the only thing that could kill him.

He wasn’t sure how much of his mind would stay with him as a phantom, or in his new body when he reincarnated; reincarnation… had never been tried before. As a matter of fact, he had invented the magic in question!

He would want to reincarnate quickly, though, so he could end the boy’s suffering before it dragged on for too long. At Hogwarts, ideally- during his own first year, preferably early.

The curse struck him… and for as long as it had taken to penetrate his clothes and the various protective spells placed upon them, its work was instant- even painless. He didn’t notice any damage to his mind- it did seem he was keeping his entire mind as a phantom. That would be useful.

There was, however, the sting of fragmenting his soul yet again. This was expected; it was hard not to fragment the soul on the receiving end of that curse, even though he wasn’t due for one as the killer.

He watched the tiny fragment, less than a millionth of his soul and about the same as the fragments used in each of his horcruxes, dive towards the boy. It was going to make him into yet another horcrux… and the destruction of that horcrux would be necessary to heal the scar.

Since he was intimately familiar with horcrux magic, and it wouldn’t be a true horcrux, only a pseudo horcrux, it wouldn’t be all that hard to do without endangering the boy’s life… but he would need a wand.

Quite suddenly, the fragment bounced off of the infant, and vanished into the distance.

He did the phantom equivalent of staring, despite having no eyes to stare with. It had… bounced off? Was a mother’s love powerful enough to deflect it? How on earth did it move quite that fast after the bounce?

He didn’t feel the crushing pain of its destruction, though, so it was evidently still out there. Had it bound itself to someone else? Would he have to purge it from an unknown person?

Would he have to track it down and bind it to something? Would he have to destroy it himself, rather than simply unbinding it from the boy and re-binding it to some object or another?

He hoped he wouldn’t have to. The fragment had already traveled too far for him to have a hope of tracing it, either now or later, so he would have to locate it later.

He heaved a lungless phantom equivalent of a sigh and settled down to wait.

His first order of business was going to be to find out what was going to happen to the boy. He was going to want to meet him with a wand anyways, to ensure that the soul fragment hadn’t left any dark magic on the boy in the bounce. It very easily could have.

It was as Voldemort had worried. It took a small eternity for people to realize what was going on; the first sign of life arrived nearly two hours after the infant woke up and began crying for its mother. A massive man Voldemort recognized immediately as Rubeus Hagrid- the man he’d gotten accused of his own first murder- burst in, collected the baby, and left the building, while only sparing Voldemort’s dead body a quick glance.

The next sign arrived as Hagrid was leaving: Sirius Black, James’ best friend according to the rat, fell out of the sky on a giant motorcycle. After a brief conversation that Voldemort didn’t overhear for fear of being detected by Black, Black gave Hagrid his bike and headed into the house. Hagrid accepted the bike, kicked it to life, and took off.

Voldemort followed him. He didn’t know what Sirius was going to do in the house- but it was probably unimportant. When compared to following Hagrid, of course- he needed to know where the boy was going. Which was probably Hogwarts… at least for a time.

Sure enough, Hagrid led him all the way to Hogwarts.

There, Voldemort was forced to play a constant game of hide-and-seek with all the staff and students that even might be able to perceive his presence- even Peeves and the ghosts. He did not want to be detected; if he was, Dumbledore might guess his plans or even be able to start tracing him. It was possible to do that… and without a wand, he couldn’t effectively block it. Thus, if he allowed that to happen… Dumbledore would know who he reincarnated as.

Too bad he hadn’t been able to put a tracer on the escaped soul fragment. That would have been handy.

At the school, the boy was passed directly to Madam Pomfrey to take care of. Unfortunately, Madam Pomfrey’s magical signature was surprisingly strong- which suggested she could pick him up from a few rooms away, so he didn’t dare go anywhere near the Hospital Wing… and had to focus more on watching the entrances and listening to rumors shared between the weaker students that wouldn’t have a hope of detecting him.

“Good morning, Hagrid,” Professor Dumbledore greeted, looking up from his desk with bags under his eyes. He’d had a long night already; he had received the news of Voldemort’s attack on Lily and James shortly before bedtime, so he’d never actually gone to bed. Professor Snape’s ‘not-coffee’ (that’s what Severus called it) was tasty and very effective, but it felt like it was about time for him to take some more. It was three or four hours past midnight, and he still had work to do. “How did it go?”

“Morning, Dumbledore,” Hagrid bowed. “Not well. Lily and James… and You Know Who, all lying dead on the floor. And Harry, crying in the crib. I, er, took him to Madam Pomfrey.”

“Good, good,” Dumbledore muttered. “I wish we could have protected Lily and James, but…” He sighed. “Lord Voldemort has just unwittingly given us a way to beat him.” He paused for a second. “Thank you, Hagrid. I will probably have you carry him to his new home tonight, so get some rest.”

“Yes professor,” Hagrid bowed, and left.

Dumbledore sighed. “Fawkes?”

Fawkes, his pet phoenix, took off from his perch, flying up to his desk with an inquisitive look.

He reached forward to stroke Fawkes’ scarlet and gold plumage. “Could you inform Severus I would like another mug of that not-coffee, and Minerva that I would appreciate her presence here?”

Fawkes bowed his head, took flight, and vanished in a burst of flames.

“Good morning,” Professor McGonagall greeted stiffly, upon entering Dumbledore’s office, her nostrils flaring slightly. Dumbledore’s message seemed to have awoken her a couple hours earlier than usual- and she was quite snippy when awoken without good reason.

“Lily and James have been killed,” Dumbledore answered, by way of a morning greeting. “Harry survived, though, and has been taken to Madam Pomfrey.”

Her disgruntled expression vanished in an instant. “They’re… dead?” she asked. “Lily and James?”

He nodded. “Voldemort attacked their home. Fought, presumably at least, and killed both parents, then tried to kill Harry… but I guess it backfired.”

“... Ahh,” Minerva muttered. “So why did you call me?”

“I wanted to sound you out about it,” he informed her. “To discuss Harry’s future, and what will be best for him.”

“Sirius was his godfather,” Minerva observed immediately.

Dumbledore nodded. “Yes, he was. However… Sirius has yet to settle down, and he will undoubtedly want to avenge Lily and James’ deaths, so I’m not sure that’s wise.” He sighed. “Then there’s the problem of his mother’s love- and her final act which saved him.”

She nodded. “Yes, that. It’ll last a year and a half, as I recall.”

He nodded again. “Yes. Fortunately, though, it can be restored to original strength… by living in the home of his mother’s sibling for a week or two.”

“She was a muggleborn,” she observed calmly. “You would have him live with muggles?”

“She was,” Dumbledore agreed, and sighed. “I don’t like it, but it’s probably the best thing for him. To maintain that protection, should Voldemort or one of the Death Eaters come after him again- and he’ll be harder to find in a muggle neighborhood to begin with.” He smiled. “I believe I know just the charms to… enhance that.”

“I don’t recall Lily ever talking about any siblings.”

“She has a sister,” Dumbledore informed her. “Petunia. I met her back when I did Lily’s muggleborn introduction.”

“So this… Petunia Evans?” Minerva asked. “But we don’t know where she is now, do we?”

“That’s what I’ve been looking into while I waited for you,” Dumbledore informed her. “And it turns out… we do. Number four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. Apparently, she’s also found a husband and started a family as Petunia Dursley.” He sighed. “I actually surprised myself when I dug that up. That said, there was apparently a jealousy problem between her and her sister. I hope she will be willing to take in her sister’s child.”

“Hmm, yes,” Minerva muttered, rubbing her chin. “That could be a problem.” She paused, then looked down at the documents Dumbledore had pulled out to double-check Petunia’s address… and found it right next to the not-coffee mug Dumbledore was using as a paperweight. “Well… my tolerance for sleep deprivation is rather higher than yours, so why don’t I go scope them out for the day and meet you there?”

Dumbledore rubbed his chin. “Hmm… Yes, why not? I’ll write a letter for them, then we’ll meet just past midnight?”

Madam Pomfrey wasn’t sure exactly what to think as she hummed the baby to sleep.

Some hours before, Hagrid had delivered Harry Potter to her… and she’d promptly recognized the child’s magical signature. It was quite like her own- only, better disguised in the physical plane.

And sure enough, when she changed the baby’s diaper by magic, she was able to verify that it was not a boy at all, but a girl… and judging by her magic signature, she had been all along. She’d immediately fed her, and put her to sleep; now, she’d woken up hungry again, so she had fed her again, and was putting her back to bed. Undoubtedly, the girl had had a very long night as well- far too long for a three-month-old child.

Even if that child was definitely far, far more than ordinary. Most wizards would likely call her a Royal- but unless Madam Pomfrey was much mistaken, it would be very bad for people to find out about her until much later in her life.

So she set to work, using the day in which she had custody of the baby to place a number of spells to help her stay out of the public eye.

The whole male-female thing- everybody thought she was a boy- was probably going to help. She wasn’t going to tell anyone about that- not even Dumbledore!

Vernon Dursley, a large, beefy man with a neatly-groomed head of black hair and hardly any neck, had a good morning. It went as usual, really- and before he left for work, he kissed his wife, Petunia, while she fed Dudley. As thin as he was beefy, as blonde as he was black, and with a neck as long as his was short, she was the angel of his life. She wasn’t very pretty- even he had to admit she looked a bit like a horse- but he didn’t care, he liked what he saw in her, not on her.

He, on the other hand… He often wondered exactly what Petunia saw in him. Big, fat, and very tough on his subordinates at work, he didn’t even look that nice. Sure, he could put on a suit and tie, and he could groom his huge beard as much as he liked… but no matter what he did, when he looked at himself in the mirror, he couldn’t see what had attracted Petunia to him.

It made sense, though. He had never figured out exactly what had drawn his attention to Petunia in the first place- but they were meant to be.

He paused on his way to the car, attention drawn by something moving- but it was only a tabby cat, looking up at him from where it had been grooming itself on the garden wall. It had interesting, square markings around its eyes, almost like someone had dyed the shape of glasses onto it.

He ignored it, got into his car, and backed out of the driveway to head for work. He was the director and owner of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. Thanks to his efforts, the company was growing very rapidly and was known amongst its customers for the top-quality drills it produced.

Admittedly, though, he didn’t get very far before his day went south. Almost as soon as the usual morning traffic jam appeared, so also did many groups of people wearing oddly-colored cloaks. They seemed to be gathered about, huddled together in various groups.

He braked firmly to avoid hitting one such cloaked figure that crossed the street without looking, and snarled at them through the windshield. Those idiots were going to cause an accident and get hurt! And now that he was thinking about it, he’d run into the traffic jam earlier than expected- probably because of idiots like that one. He hoped there was no accident up ahead, those always took forever to get past.

When the car next to him sounded his horn at the next such idiot about a minute later, the cloaked figure turned to look, incidentally revealing himself to be an old man wearing an emerald green cloak.

Was this some sort of event? Were they collecting for something? Eventgoers always did seem to have a weird sense of invulnerability.

Fortunately, there was no accident- well, except the one he watched happen in his rear-view mirror, where a man in a blue cloak very nearly got hit by a car that was promptly struck from behind by a driver that wasn’t paying as much attention. Not too long after that, he’d noticed the police out in force, trying to control the rampant street-crossings.

But eventually, he got to work forty-five minutes late, despite not being slowed down by an accident. As only a few people had managed to arrive on time, he told the human resources manager to strike out late penalties for the day- the unexpected traffic was at fault, not the employees- and sat down in his office to work.

About two hours later, he turned his chair around to look out the window while he thought; he always sat with his back to it.

He was very quickly distracted by two separate owls flying past in different directions.

He rose from his seat, and walked up to the massive, floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out. From his office on the ninth floor, he could see over the rooftops of several of the smaller buildings around- and he could see that there were indeed several owls, flying every which way… That one had an envelope clamped in his beak!

He froze, then blinked.

That explained it. But why were wizards all up and down the street in broad daylight? Didn’t they have some sort of law- Statute of Secrecy, was it?- to ban that? Or had it been repealed?

He rubbed his chin, gazing down at the street. No, no. That looked like a celebration of some sort. But why? What was so worth celebrating that an entire civilization would violate an international law like that?

He himself only knew about wizards because Petunia’s sister was a witch… and had married a wizard. Last time they had visited, some two or three years before, there had been a big argument- he couldn’t remember the specifics- and the magical couple had left. Petunia was still irritated by her sister… but he could tell that she missed her. Her sister, Lily, was a cheerful young redhead that was as beautiful as Petunia was ugly… but even after seeing her, Vernon was glad he’d picked Petunia. Lily was a great woman… but not for him.

James, on the other hand, looked upon him and Petunia with scorn, and called them ‘muggles’. He’d actually gotten himself slapped by his wife a number of times in the few times they’d seen him; she had very little tolerance for his abuse of her sister’s family. That said, aside from one side of his face often being a fair amount redder than the other, he was a tall, handsome man with messy black hair- Vernon could definitely see what Lily had seen in him. He was, after all, as handsome as Vernon wasn’t, and could easily be described as a ‘textbook bachelor’.

He knew Petunia was jealous of her sister, despite still loving her very much- and that both women expected him to be jealous of James, but in the end, he actually felt like he’d gotten the better deal- and felt nothing but scorn for the scornful wizard.

Just a few months before, while he and Petunia were just about to head upstairs for bed, an owl had visited, knocking on the kitchen window to deliver a letter from them; apparently, wizards simply didn’t get ‘muggle mail’. It was the most recent communication from them- and had informed them that they’d had a son, which they’d named Harry. He didn’t know much-

A sudden chime came from his computer, and he turned sharply back towards it, marching over to read the message from his secretary. His eleven o’clock appointment, an interview for the position of sales manager, had arrived.

He swiftly sat down again, then checked around the office- and the applicant’s file, which revealed it to be an internal application from one of the old sales manager’s subordinates- and finally informed his secretary that he was ready.

Vernon wasn’t in the habit of bringing lunch from home. He might’ve spent a little less on food if he was, but if he was entirely honest, there was really no need for him to save money like that. So, as he walked downstairs at the start of his lunch break, he figured he would walk across the street for a bun from the bakery.

This plan went well, overall; yes, he walked past a few huddles of wizards in the street, and strained his ears to hear what it was all about, but he reached the bakery without incident.

It was on his way back, clutching a large donut in a bag, that he actually stopped to speak to them, his curiosity getting the better of him.

He cleared his throat loudly. “Excuse me,” he asked, “but what’s all this about?”

The violet cloak in front of him turned around, revealing a tiny young man. “Rejoice!” the man cried. “Rejoice, for You Know Who is gone at last! Even muggles like yourself should be celebrating this happy, happy day!”

“I don’t know who,” he answered flatly.

The man didn’t pay him any more attention, though, and when he tried to ask for details, they were summarily refused to him. So he recrossed the street, and deliberately paused near another huddle to listen in. These wizards didn’t think much of ‘muggles’ like him- even the ones that didn’t scorn him.

Unfortunately, he didn’t catch much of what they were whispering- but he did catch a few words.

“The potters?”

“Yes, that’s what I heard. Their son, Harry-!”

The excitement of the others got too loud for him to hear the rest.

He scowled. Had something happened to Petunia’s sister? He continued back to his office to eat and get back to work. He’d have to talk to Petunia about it later; he doubted it was so important that she’d want him to call her about it right away.

At least the drive home was uneventful. The police had managed to get the wizards under control, so there was no more than the usual traffic jam.

Then of course, when he pulled back onto the driveway, the first thing he saw… was the tabby cat from that morning, chasing butterflies in the garden. It only looked when he closed the car door, before getting right back to the chase.

He chuckled softly as he headed inside.

It wasn’t much later that Dudley had been put to bed, and he turned on the TV during the evening news. They were doing a split-screen with a news anchor in the station, and a reporter out in the field… who was wearing a black cloak, and holding a microphone.

“Ah yes,” the reporter told the camera. “I’m wearing this because earlier, when I was asking the cloak-wearers what was going on, they kept telling me ‘You Know Who’ was gone at last, and calling me a ‘muggle’. Still not sure what that is. But after I got this, they’re suddenly perfectly willing to tell me about it. Apparently, someone so evil everyone is afraid to name him attacked and killed Lily and James Potter… but was unable to kill their son, a newborn by the name of Harry.”

“What is this evil man called?” the anchor asked.

“They kept calling him ‘You Know Who’ or ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’,” she informed the camera. “However, I was able to find one that was willing to write it down; they are referring to, ahh…” She paused, looking down at a notepad in her other hand. “The Dark Lord Voldemort.”

“Well I’ve never heard of that,” the anchor mused.

“Me neither, but whenever I ask, I get called a muggle again. That said, apparently this Voldemort not only couldn’t kill Harry… but his weapon backfired or something when he tried, killing him instead- and that’s what they’re celebrating.”

“Or something?” the anchor asked.

“I haven’t been able to get the details, but that’s what it sounds like. Some people seemed convinced the weapon had bounced off the boy and rebounded upon Voldemort.” She shrugged. “I also haven’t been able to gather exactly what kind of weapon he was using.”

“What.” Petunia asked suddenly.

Vernon looked up. She was standing in the doorway, a tray of tea in her hands and her face as white as chalk. “Ahh,” he began. “How about you sit down?”

She did. “Did- Did-!”

“Yes,” he answered. “She just said Lily was killed, and Harry survived.” He sighed. “They’re definitely wizards, the lot of them.” He put a comforting arm around her shoulder- then glanced sideways to see that the tabby cat was sitting on the windowsill, watching them as they watched the news.

“But-!” Petunia began. “That’s not true, is it?”

“It seems so,” he muttered. “When I passed them in the street, they were talking about Potters. And their son, Harry. Er, that was his name, right?”

She nodded vaguely. “Yes.”

“I didn’t hear anything about them being killed, though,” he scowled, rubbing his chin.

“Vernon…” She muttered. “I… I never apologized.” She looked at the screen. “Where do you think her grave will be?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

The clock had just barely chimed midnight when a tall, silver-haired man wearing a purple cloak appeared out of thin air on the corner of Privet Drive. He glanced around, his waist-length beard waving gently in the breeze, then reached into a pocket of his cloak to pull out a silver lighter. He flicked it open, held it up high, and clicked it.

The nearest street lamp went out.

He clicked it again, and again, and again, a single street lamp going out each time, until Privet Drive was bathed in nothing but darkness. There was even no moon in the sky- but that had already been true.

Finally, he flicked it closed, returned it to his pocket, and set off down the street. He didn’t have far to walk; at only the second house in the row, number four, he stopped and sat on the garden wall.

The tabby cat Vernon Dursley had been looking at jumped up onto the wall next to him.

“So how did it go, Minerva?”

The cat transformed seamlessly into a severe-looking woman with square spectacles- Professor McGonagall. “Better than expected, Albus,” she informed him. “They might actually accept Harry without a fuss.”

“Good, good,” the man, Professor Dumbledore, nodded. “That’s always good to hear.”

“On the other paw, the muggle-!”

“Paw?” Dumbledore asked.

“Yes,” she answered flatly. “That’s what cats have instead of hands. Anyways, the muggle-!”

“But why paw?”

“Because I was a cat when I learned of this,” she hissed. “Their news-!”

“Ah, yes, I keep forgetting about that,” Dumbledore mused.

“Do you want me to hurt you with my claws?”

“Hmm? Oh, no, thank you.”

“Then stop interrupting!” She took a breath. “Their news said something about hundreds of cloaked people out on the streets in broad daylight. And owls swooping everywhere. And-!” She cut herself off this time, and sighed. “A fine thing it would be if, the night You Know Who is defeated, the muggles find out about us all?”

Dumbledore nodded. “You can’t blame them,” he muttered. “They’ve had precious little to celebrate for eleven years. But yes, it’s been a nightmare. The Ministry of Magic is working overtime, and the muggle ministry had to order several news stations not to tell the world the ‘cloak-wearers’ were magical!” He sighed. “We weren’t able to figure out how they found out- we didn’t tell anyone, did we?”

“I certainly didn’t,” Professor McGonagall informed him.

“I wonder who did,” Dumbledore muttered, then sighed. “In any case, Hagrid will be here in a couple minutes. I didn’t think it wise to carry Harry by side-along apparition.”

She paused. “True enough,” she muttered.

“Lemon drop?”

“What?”

“It’s a kind of muggle sweet I’m rather fond of.”

“Ahh. No thank you.”

Voldemort took off after Hagrid again as he left Hogwarts. It was really too bad Harry wouldn’t be growing up at Hogwarts; that probably would have been the best thing for him. The Castle would have offered unparalleled safety, a thorough magic education, early friends, and a very strong support structure all throughout his childhood- nevermind that it would also make it easy to find him once he got a wand.

At least Harry wasn’t crying this time- rather, he fell asleep along the journey.

Hagrid led him way out into the countryside, and eventually flew down and landed in the middle of a darkened muggle neighborhood. Interestingly, several streets around were also darkened- it looked like the work of a Put-Outer.

He kept his distance from the landing location. Professor McGonagall also had an extremely powerful magic signature, though it was far less surprising than Madam Pomfrey… and Professor Dumbledore was also there.

Ugh. Professor Dumbledore, who had first demonstrated magic to him by destroying the gifts given to him by the other kids at that orphanage- the gifts he’d received for protecting them from bullies or harmful adoptive parents- and accusing him of theft.

Sure, he never did fit in at that orphanage… but that didn’t make him evil. The other kids had understood- once Dumbledore had left, because he wanted to ‘think about’ whether he wanted to go to Hogwarts or not, they had come together to support him. Not out of fear, but out of goodwill.

He chuckled to himself. When he thought about it, that was when the seeds of evil had been planted in his heart- the seeds that had grown into a massive tree that he was now burning down.

He watched from a safe distance as Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Hagrid talked. Unfortunately, the only sounds he heard from them were Hagrid’s wails of grief.

Finally, they left. He waited until they had all apparated- or flown- back to Hogwarts, then flew in himself to check on the boy.

Harry had been thoroughly wrapped in blankets and protected adequately; Voldemort could sense the spells Dumbledore had set around the boy to protect him from the wind, snatchers, or whatever else before the residents came out to get him.

So he settled down to wait for morning.

Petunia Dursley froze when she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles… then, slowly, bent down to look more closely.

There was an infant lying on the doorstep. It was wrapped tightly in blue blankets and sleeping soundly- and there was a parchment envelope tucked into the blankets with it.

Wizards, probably; nobody else used parchment anymore.

She sighed, set out the milk bottles, and finally picked the baby up to carry it inside.

She set it on the kitchen table… then pulled the envelope out of the blankets, broke the wax seal- which was stamped with what she recognized as the Hogwarts crest- and pulled out the message inside.

“What’s… that?” Vernon asked, upon entering the kitchen.

Petunia looked up from the letter in her hands with tears in her eyes. “They were right,” she cried. “Lily is dead.”

He crossed to hug her. “Who is this?” He looked at the baby on the table.

“That’s our nephew,” she answered. “Harry.” She dropped the letter on the table and leaned into him. “Lily…” She broke down crying again.

Vernon patted her gently, retrieving the dropped letter with his other hand to read it as well. Finally, he scowled up at the baby. “Well… we should be able to take him in, though it’d be a lot of work and we’d need more supplies.” He rubbed his chin. “The legal side of things could be… tricky, though.”

Voldemort also tried to pat her shoulder, but as a phantom, she had no way of knowing he was doing that. As a matter of fact, neither Dursley would have any way of realizing he was there.

“I-!” Lily paused. “I don’t know,” she muttered. “Their son… He’ll probably be a reminder of James. And he…” She scowled. “I don’t… Don’t…?” She trailed off, staring at the child.

Vernon followed her gaze first, then Voldemort did, both staring as well.

A brilliant blue glow was rising from the baby. It floated to the side, then took on a shape, appearance… a form.

It was Lily Potter, the boy’s mother. She was floating a foot off the floor next to the table, semitransparent, and glowing blue, facing directly towards Petunia.

Petunia put her hands over her mouth.

“Petunia,” Lily said, sadly. “If you’re hearing this message, I’m already dead.”

“I’m sorry,” Petunia whispered faintly.

She sighed. “I’m sorry to leave you a message this way, but it’s the only way. We’ve recently become certain that Lord Voldemort will be coming for us soon. We’ve taken steps to stop him, but with his cunning, I doubt it will do anything but slow him down, buy us time to lay these magics.” She sighed again. “Even as I’m making this recording, James is casting the requisite magic to ensure Hailey makes it into your hands when we die.”

Petunia blinked. “H-Hailey?” she asked.

Vernon didn’t move, too stunned to react. Voldemort glanced at the baby, then back up at Lily.

Lily paused for a second, and smiled. “Yes, Hailey. We saw something like this coming, so we told everyone she was a boy, but she’s not.” Her smile faded, and she sighed. “I know I have no right to ask this of you, given…” Her expression darkened. “Given the past,” she mumbled, and sighed. “But may I ask that you raise our daughter like one of your own?”

There were a few seconds of silence.

Lily sighed again, and looked down. “I… I have no way of receiving your answer,” she told them sorrowfully. “But she…” She paused. “She is what wizardkind calls a Royal.”

Voldemort stared at her. A Royal? Really?

Lily sighed. “Every two and a half years, on average, a portal to another dimension opens somewhere. It’s only ever open for three days at most… but if a child is born within a half a mile of that open gateway, they gain otherworldly powers that…” She sighed again. “That’s what makes them wizarding royalty. The powers, that is; we never found the gate, but we could tell she had those powers the moment she was born.” She chuckled. “It’s kinda hard to miss when your newborn teleports into your arms.” She sighed, smile fading again. “We’ve been able to confirm that she has otherworldly power, not just crazy luck with Accidental Magic, and that she’s almost ridiculously powerful. We haven’t been able to determine her aspect, though, so we don’t know what her powers might be… aside from an almost ridiculous amount of authority in the wizarding government.

“Even so, that doesn’t change the fact that wizardkind insists upon hounding those of their royalty with questions and whatever, forcing them to exercise their authority from basically the moment they are revealed.” She brought her hands together in front of her. “Given how powerful she is, she could destroy the world if that is allowed to happen to her- not just upset the entire wizarding world with a childish tantrum. She needs to grow up away from wizardkind… then attend Hogwarts without that attention, including just from the Hogwarts staff, if at all possible. As she grows…” She sighed, and lowered her hands. “Me and James have already anchored our souls in her. We’re going to be her guardian angels- but as she grows stronger, magically stronger, there is a possibility she will be able to bring us back to the land of the living, even without her Royal powers.

“So… I’m begging you.” She brought her clasped hands back up, and went down on one knee. “Please take care of her. Help her grow up to be a well-adjusted young woman… so that she can learn to control her powers safely, and either use them to protect the world… or refrain from using them at all.” She closed her eyes, and hung her head. “When… When the time comes for her to go to Hogwarts… make absolutely certain she’s able to read that first letter. If she’s not, I’m sure Hogwarts staff will get involved to force her hand. Then…” She sighed, and looked up. “Whatever her decision is, please honor it. The post office in Diagon Alley will suffice to send a reply to the letter- and if she wants to go, she should be able to reclaim our Vault at Gringotts Bank and pay for her own education with the fortune we are leaving her.

“If… If you’ve forgotten how to get into Diagon Alley, or the station to Hogwarts, Platform Nine and Three Quarters…” She sighed. “She will be able to see the Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross Road- and you will too, so long as you are touching her. For Platform Nine and Three Quarters, just walk through the barrier between platforms nine and ten. You will be able to pass through with her… if you are touching her.” She bowed her head. “Please, and thank you.”

She dissolved into a faint blue mist that faded into nothingness.

The room was silent for a very long time, except for Petunia’s tears.

About a week later, Lord Voldemort spread the energy of his being, sensing around for reincarnation options. Vernon had stayed home from work that day, and helped his wife to come to grips with Lily’s death- but had returned to work the next day, determined to provide for his wife and now two children. He wasn’t sure how happy Hailey’s childhood was going to be, but he couldn’t think of a reason that it might not be sufficient- even if she really was a royal, a concept that didn’t exist beyond those extremely rare few that had been granted ridiculous powers by that strange portal.

It was strange. For as frequently as the portal appeared, a Royal would emerge every few hundred years- and usually, nobody realized they were a royal until they discovered their otherworldly power, often somewhere in the middle of Hogwarts age. There were very few cases in which it had been figured out earlier, thanks to a more readily detectable powerset or the discovery of the portal, and later correlation to find out they had been in range- the second event of which was why wizardkind knew so much about them.

But for the child to use those powers immediately after birth… That was so rare he was pretty sure it had never happened before.

But aside from that, to reincarnate himself, he needed a baby that had only just been conceived and hadn’t yet started constructing a soul. With that, he could install himself as its soul; any later, and he would merely be possessing another being, which would likely result in an early death… and not be the reincarnation he was looking for.

He also wanted to avoid Dumbledore’s scrutiny; the reincarnation process was far from foolproof. For the first eleven years after his rebirth, his soul would still be detectable separately, as if he were still a phantom floating around the child- and even after that, he wasn’t sure if Dumbledore would recognize his soul in a new body. He’d only be able to instantly remove himself from the new body, allowing it to drop dead while he fled, for the first ten years- creating a full year of vulnerability. And that wasn’t even counting his vast knowledge of magic- if he dared to be born to muggles, that would be a dead giveaway!

So he needed to be born to a wizarding family that wouldn’t be able to detect his presence and that wouldn’t have high-level mages like Dumbledore visiting. He was also rather tired of being evil, so he wanted to avoid the Death Eater or pureblood supremacist families as well… which massively cut down on his options, as most the rest were perfect candidates for Dumbledore to visit. Perhaps a family with one muggle parent, or one muggleborn parent? He’d have to be sure the family wouldn’t break up like his first one did, so he wouldn’t find himself in an orphanage again.

Then… he spotted a candidate. He was actually surprised by his good luck in finding one so quickly… then looked into its circumstances.

He had about three hours to pick this one, if he wanted to. If he did, he would be born to a witch and wizard that were firmly on the side of the Light. What’s more, Dumbledore would have basically no reason to visit them… No, he would need to ensure that. But he could… Yes. A few quick spells, of the sort he could cast as a phantom, would set up a cascade of events sure to keep Dumbledore from visiting for a decade or two.

That left only one problem: Someone, long ago, had cursed the family name to never be able to have a female child, and to have a tendency of dying young.

He wasn’t too worried about the first part- he was male, after all- but he did not want him, his new brothers, his eventual children, or any of his new family to die young.

Fortunately, though, he had certain powers, as a phantom, that he would never have- and never had- in a body… Which included the abilities to see those curses and, conveniently, to destroy them.

So after doing exactly that, he swooped in to gently inhabit their new, just-barely-conceived child. He knew his hair was likely to be red, thanks to the particulars of the reincarnation magic, but had no idea what he was going to look like beyond that- even which sex it would be, since he would need a wand to control for that- but he really didn’t care, either. If he didn’t like his post-reincarnation sex or appearance, he knew how to change it. All he would need would be a wand… before he turned ten.

Author's Note

I never thought I'd be able to start a story with the Dark Lord Voldemort committing suicide.

Patreon, Discord.

Hello again! Rewrote the chapter and I think you'll like it better than the old version.

... Yes, I'm saying that in an end-of-chapter A/N.

Lotsa changes, mostly to help bring character development back into it. I'm also enhancing the plot a little bit, in cases- and while some chapters may only grow a little, some- like this one- will more than double in length, or possibly even hit five digit word counts if I don't run out of new material before I run out of the scope of the chapter. In either case, the rewrite should be MUCH easier to follow and easier to like, and unlike my past in-place rewrites, you should be able to move straight from rewrite chapters (look for the "RW" tag in the chapter title) to pre-rewrite chapters without getting too confused, though things may not line up quite perfectly... and you would definitely notice a significant drop in story quality too, so it's really not recommended.

I'm also going to continue publishing the backlog of non-rewrite chapters I still have, since they aren't irrelevant, even though they will be rewritten at some point as well. At time of writing, that backlog is 13 chapters long... so maybe I'll rewrite them all before I finish publishing them all!

Chapter 4: Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions RW

When Ginny emerged from Gringotts Bank with Hailey and Petunia… she immediately recognized the sound of her mother’s voice, still yelling at the twins, and raised an eyebrow.

Hailey seemed to recognize it too. “Isn’t that your mom?” she asked, tilting her head.

“Sounds like it,” Ginny agreed. “I’m wondering what the Twins did this time.”

Then she paused, listening to the sound for a minute. She could sort-of make out the words in the distance.

“You know, I think she’s still at it from earlier,” Hailey said suddenly. “She must have been furious.”

“It’s been almost two hours,” Petunia observed blankly.

Ginny rubbed her chin. “Hmm… Wouldn’t be the first time. Mind if we break them up real quick?” She looked up at Petunia.

“Probably a good idea,” Petunia agreed. “I wouldn’t want her to scar her sons in your place.”

“They’re thirteen,” Ginny informed her dismissively, then tilted her head. “Though it’s true, that does not make them old enough to take it in stride.” She sighed, then led the way towards the yelling.

When they arrived, the twins had color in their faces once again… and actually seemed to be taking it in stride. Perhaps their personalities were strong enough that they could take it in stride early?

Ginny jogged up behind her mother, then reached up and tugged on Molly’s robes.

She got whacked across the face for her trouble, as Molly shook her off without looking or interrupting her spiel… which told her it was going to take something much more dramatic to get her to stop.

So she stood back up again, after sitting down hard from the blow, then sighed, psionically healed her bloody nose (it hadn’t broken, just bled) but didn’t clean it up, and walked away… before turning to face again. She then made a running jump, up as high as she could with only the tiniest of psionic boosts- and wrapped both her arms around her mother’s neck from behind.

“Mom!” she yelled, straight into Molly’s ear.

Molly choked, stumbled, and fell forwards, landing on her hands and knees in front of the Twins.

Ginny then rolled quickly off of her, taking advantage of Molly’s gasping for breath to move in front of her, and put her hands on her hips. “It’s been two hours,” she told her. “Don’t you think you’ve yelled at them enough?”

“Two hours?” Fred asked.

“New record!” George cried, sticking a fist in the air.

So it was a game to them.

She gave George a back kick to the groin. Even with her overall weakness and pulling the blow, it was still enough to make him sink to the ground in pain. She still had the wrath of Lord Voldemort to feed them both later, but she didn’t quite want to castrate them.

“That is not an acceptable way to set new getting-shouted-at records,” she remanded over her shoulder. “Stuff like that can cause permanent damage to people as young as us.”

Fred knelt down next to George, putting an arm across his shoulders with a pained expression; the two twins had so strong of a brotherly bond that hurting one hurt the other as well, albeit not physically. The effect was so acute that Ginny frequently wondered if they were actually entangled souls.

“G-Ginny!” Molly gasped, finally recovering from her brief stranglehold and looking up at her. “Wha- Why is your nose bleeding? Who hit you?”

Ginny folded her arms. “You did.” She didn’t like hurting her mother like that, but it was the truth- and since Molly hadn’t realized it herself, that meant it was probably going to be the shock necessary to return her mother’s brain to normal, logical operation.

There was silence for nearly five seconds.

Then Molly leaned forwards and hugged her. “S-sorry,” she cried. “I was just so worried-!”

“Sometimes I think you worry a bit too much,” Ginny informed her, ‘gently’ pushing her off with her muscles psionically enhanced to the point that she could overpower her mother.

Molly sighed, then finally rose back to her feet. “Y-Yeah, I suppose, but… But I just worry!”

She sighed. “So… why didn’t you set any yelling records when they got Ron lost out here for an hour last year?”

“I, ahh…” Molly muttered, evidently trying to remember.

“Oh that’s easy,” Hailey chuckled, jogging up next to Ginny. “He’s not the baby of the family.”

Ginny blushed at being labeled the ‘baby of the family’... but it was true. She was the youngest.

Molly, on the other hand, blushed far darker than she, and covered her face with her hands. “O-Oops,” she squeaked.

Ginny laughed. “Hey, it’s okay,” she said, capturing and patting her mother’s elbow.

Ten feet to the side, where he was sitting next to Percy on a bench, Ron laughed as well. Percy didn’t, but her psionic senses told her he wanted to.

“It’s okay,” Ginny repeated. “We’ll live. Just, ahh… Try not to go quite so crazy over me? It’s… Well, crazy.” She glanced back at the twins, causing them to jolt backwards against the wall- even though George was still clutching at his groin. “And record-setting,” she added darkly.

“Oh? Is she done yelling?” It was Madam Malkin, presumably, as Hailey, Ginny, and Petunia walked into Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions.

“Who?” Hailey asked curiously.

“Mrs. Weasley,” Malkin continued. “She’s been yelling at her sons for quite a while now. Something about being mean to their sister.”

Ginny blushed. “Yeah… She’s done now.”

Hailey chuckled softly. Just that morning, when she’d walked into the Leaky Cauldron with Petunia, she hadn’t expected to feel Ginny calling out for help… somehow, because it definitely wasn’t verbal. She’d answered that call- surprisingly effectively- and when they had finally found her mother… Ginny had immediately identified the ones that had gotten her lost to be a couple of her older brothers, and gotten the next best thing to a confession out of them.

So Hailey had taken over, with the express purpose of allowing Ginny to… stabilize her mother while she dealt with the Twins; she could somehow feel that the woman had been on the verge of losing her mind from worry.

Unfortunately, she’d been unsuccessful. When she had weaponized her memory of Ginny’s reaction against the twins, their mother had heard it… and lost her mind to rage. Unsure of how best to solve the problem, and unwilling to put herself between a raging mother and the target of her ire, Hailey had allowed herself to be herded out of the way by said mother; hopefully, she would be able to get it out of her system fairly quickly, without giving the boys too unfair of a talking to.

Petunia had evidently come to the same conclusion, and the three of them had headed towards Gringotts. Ginny had joined them again, after the invitations; apparently, Petunia had been worried about just how few friends Hailey had at school (flat zero, nobody seemed to like dealing with her for long) and Ginny’s mother was worried about Ginny’s… shyness…

The girl hadn’t seemed to be shy at all as far as Hailey could tell, except for those times when she blushed at the goblins’ questions, though that was probably just because they were very personal questions.

They had been enough, though. Hailey had found out that the girl was actually a reincarnation- specifically, a grown adult in the body of a young child. It had made it strange how she’d reacted so much like a child sometimes… But also explained quite a lot of her far more reasoned reactions.

Hailey was well aware that she was mature for her age, possibly because she feared her own strength… but she wasn’t sure if she was as mature as Ginny was. Or what sort of impact her young brain was having on her experienced mind- because it was obviously having some, or she wouldn’t have broken down- and lost her mind- in the Leaky Cauldron.

But then they’d returned to the streets… to find that Hailey had been wrong about Ginny’s mother: She hadn’t gotten all the rage out of her system and recovered on her own, which suggested that she had a lot of pent-up rage towards the two boys.

So she had gone with Ginny’s suggestion of breaking them up… and had allowed Ginny to use her knowledge to wake her mother up. She’d then stood back and watched until the woman had actually recovered before allowing herself to make any comments.

Finally, they’d had a decent, low-stress (at least, when compared to the first one) meeting, and Petunia and Molly had decided that they were going to let Ginny stay with Hailey anyways. Hailey wasn’t sure what was doing it, but Ginny did seem to be a bit clingy towards her. It couldn’t have been the reincarnation thing, could it? If anything, that was what she’d expect her to do if she wasn’t a reincarnation- because then, she could reasonably have expected the girl to view her as her savior!

And now, they had entered Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions to get Hailey’s new Hogwarts uniform- ‘three sets plain work robes (black); one plain pointed hat (black) for day wear; one pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar); one winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)’, according to the shopping list. She still wasn’t quite sure why the pointed hat was specified for day wear; it wasn’t like she was going to be sleeping while wearing a pointed hat, was it?

Madam Malkin chuckled at Ginny’s response as well. “She really cares about her daughter, doesn’t she?” She sighed. “Hogwarts, dears?”

Ginny blushed very brightly and hid behind Hailey- perhaps one of the first shy things she’d done around her.

“Uh- Yes,” Hailey told Malkin. “For me, at least. Ginny isn’t of age yet.”

“Ginny, huh? Oddly normal name for a colorhead.” She let out a soft chuckle. “Right over here please, miss.” She gestured Hailey towards a small stool, plucking a robe off a rack as she went.

“Colorhead?” Hailey inquired, as she moved to obey; Ginny tried to hide behind Petunia, but when Petunia sat down on a bench to wait, she was forced to sit next to her instead.

“Hmm? Oh, it’s a name the nobles have applied to all the funny-haired students running around, as of a few days ago.” She offered the robe to Hailey to slip on over her head.

“What, never heard of a colorhead?”

Hailey glanced over as she slipped the robe on. What looked like a shop assistant was working with a blonde boy’s robes, pinning them to length. The boy had a kind of slow, drawling kind of voice that sounded distinctly disinterested.

Then it struck her. She knew exactly how Ginny had called out to her- and how this boy was calling out to her as well, both of them without realizing or meaning to, she was pretty sure.

It was the black. Well… it technically wasn’t black, as it wasn’t really a color, even if that seemed to be the best way to describe it- perhaps it was something to do with a magic aura or the sort? Back when she’d met her, Ginny’d had what felt like a transient black- something that had instantly informed Hailey that she was absolutely panicked. That black had vanished very quickly as she’d comforted her.

This boy… it was a different sort of black. Well… sort of. It definitely wasn’t going to vanish as quickly or easily, and also delivered a very different message to her.

Whereas Ginny had felt helpless and trapped in the moment, and as such had panicked… this boy felt like he had no control over his life whatsoever. Like he was trapped by his life, not his circumstances, and helpless as a result.

This wasn’t the kind of thing she’d be able to fix in an afternoon… but somehow, she knew just how to start.

“I have now,” she told him calmly.

Then his eyes fell on Petunia. “Oh, you’re a mudblood, aren’t- Ow!”

The word had obviously been intended as an insult- and the reactions were very strong across Madam Malkin, her assistant, and Ginny. Madam Malkin had given him a death glare, her assistant had let out a hiss and just slightly mis-applied the pin she was working on so that it poked him- and Ginny, all shyness forgotten, practically flew off the bench, her face contorted with rage… It looked like she was biting it back, though.

Hailey decided to take the term literally. “No,” she told him. “I’m not some strange species of human that has a mixture of water and dirt in place of blood.”

Then Ginny arrived, and stopped just far enough away from the boy to not get in Malkin’s assistant’s way. “Draco Malfoy, are you not?” she asked.

He looked at her. “Yes… How did you know, colorhead?”

“Your family has been leeching off their distant ancestors for generations,” she informed him, completely ignoring his question- possibly because he was using the term ‘colorhead’ as an insult as well. “Despite not having any income to speak of. Even the lowliest Hufflepuff wouldn’t do that if given the opportunity- they’ll actually work for a change. And of course, your family has been one of the worst offenders in the gradual polarization of the political climate into pure-blood supremacists and ‘others’ that the first claim shouldn’t be allowed, hasn’t it?”

He stared at her. Hailey could tell that he was trying- and failing- to come up with a response. He evidently didn’t know much about the specifics she’d decided to pull up.

So she asked the question he no doubt wanted to ask. “What are you talking about?” Hailey asked her.

Ginny looked at her, jarred out of her rage. “Um,” she began, and paused, evidently re-processing her argument.

“How about this,” Hailey decided for her. “He’s eleven.” Very specifically he, because she was mature for her age and Ginny was definitely not mentally eleven.

“So?” Ginny asked.

“So don’t bully him for his parents’ decisions,” she remanded. “He doesn’t have a choice, does he? Just like we don’t either, do we?”

“But calling you a-! A-!” Ginny evidently couldn’t bring herself to repeat the word.

“Doesn’t matter,” Hailey told her. “It’s wrong anyways. I’m wizard-born.” She couldn’t explain how she knew what the vulgar term was referring to, but she did, and she was going to take advantage of that. “So why bully him for his parents’ actions?”

Ginny glanced sideways at Draco. “Uh-!” she began, then paused. “Um… Sorry.” She turned her back and returned to the bench, looking flustered. Once there, she set one leg overtop the other, braced her elbow on the higher one, and put her chin in the palm of her hand, wearing an expression of deep thought.

Draco stared at her for a second, then looked at Hailey. “H-How?” he asked. “Who are you?”

In that instant, as Hailey sensed his wonder and curiosity, she knew how she was going to clean up the black in his… aura. It wasn’t going to be simple… which made it fairly important that she stay mysterious to him, for now at least. The stronger his curiosity got today, the easier it was going to be down the road.

Ginny looked up at her, but seemed to have already decided to let her answer rather than answering for her.

“A girl that believes we should all have a chance to prove ourselves, no matter what our parents or past selves may or may not have done,” she told him.

Ginny blushed- just like all the previous times, it was so adorable- and averted her eyes at Hailey’s comment. Did that mean that she disapproved of something her past self did? Probably a question that was best left unasked. The girl might’ve fully healed from her terror that morning, and had no black whatsoever in her aura, but Hailey didn’t want to risk making an enemy out of her. Especially when the girl had so quickly become her friend- she’d never had as nice of a friend as Ginny… and somehow knew that, out of the many acquaintances she’d had, Ginny would be the first one to stay with her for the long haul.

Draco scowled. “That’s not what I asked,” he told her.

“I know,” she answered promptly.

He stared at her for several seconds, wonder and irritation warring with each other on his face. Eventually, his curiosity won. “How would we ‘prove ourselves’ when our parents…?” He trailed off, evidently unsure of how to phrase it.

“A very good question,” Hailey told him. “I imagine that one way would be by contributing towards a peaceful society, though that can be… difficult at our age. And it probably also includes avoiding whatever supremacism she was talking about- that kind of stuff started all the wars in the history books.” She nodded towards Ginny, who blushed even redder.

He stared at her again. “Who are you?”

“A girl that believes that our worth should be defined by the future we create, not the past we’re leaving behind or the amount of gold in our Gringotts vaults.”

Ginny blushed so red it looked like she could start a fire and put her face in her hands. Hailey wasn’t sure what it was this time- she couldn’t think of anything that would cause that statement to be embarrassing.

“By the future we create?” he asked, speaking mostly to himself, then looked up at her again. “But how would you know what future we would create?”

“By their fruits ye shall know them,” Hailey answered, “to quote the Bible. Simply put, we won’t know until you create it.”

“But then it’ll be the past,” he observed.

“Yes, it would be,” she agreed. “An interesting paradox, isn’t it?”

He scowled. “But then, wouldn’t you have to make an assumption?”

“Yes, you would,” Hailey agreed. “Even though, when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me.”

“What?” he asked, looking dumbfounded.

“Well, ‘assume’ is spelled A S S, U, and M E, isn’t it?”

He stared at her.

She giggled. “The easiest way to avoid making the wrong assumption in treatment would be to simply treat everyone the same- whether they be of high, low, or indeterminate worth.” She smiled. “That also handily removes the need to empirically define the worth of a person to begin with.”

“But that doesn’t… Purebloods are better, aren’t they?”

“Are they?” Hailey asked seriously. “Why? How? What makes them better?” She paused, studying his expression. “Or is it instead a misperception or even, heavens forbid, an assumption made by our ancestors?”

Ginny put her face in her hands again.

“Uh… My father is,” Draco muttered. “He’s better than a lot of other purebloods.”

“Is he?” Hailey asked, observing the darkening of Draco’s immediate aura, for lack of a better term, as he spoke. He evidently wasn’t too enthusiastic about his father, and bringing said father’s ‘betterness’ into question felt like a good way to clean that up. “How so?”

He blinked, taken aback. “Uh- Um…” He paused. “He talks to the Minister for Magic a lot,” he muttered. “He can make the Ministry do basically whatever he wants. And he controls the Hogwarts School Board.”

“Alright,” Hailey nodded. “He’s clearly a decent politician.”

Draco laughed. Madam Malkin’s assistant had to pause to let him control his laughter before she could continue pinning up his sleeves. Ginny giggled as well, her face still scarlet but no longer hidden behind her hands.

“Decent,” Draco chuckled. “Yeah, I’d say he’s a decent politician.”

Hailey chuckled as well, careful to hold still so Madam Malkin wouldn’t have to interrupt her work as well. “You know what they say about politicians, right?”

He looked at her. “What?”

“There’s no such thing as an honest politician,” she told him calmly. “But that’s an occupational hazard, isn’t it?” She chuckled softly. “But that merely answers the question of his job. So… how is he better than everyone else?”

He stared blankly at the floor in front of him while Malkin’s assistant moved to his other sleeve. It seemed that Madam Malkin was faster. “I don’t know,” he muttered slowly.

“Then there’s possibly the most important question of all,” Hailey told him. “How do you know?”

He looked at her, then at the floor, and finally at her again. “Who are you?”

“A girl that asks why,” she answered instantly.

He gave her a deadpan look. “No, what’s your name?”

“Unimportant,” she informed him.

Madam Malkin let out a snort of laughter, and Hailey felt the point of a pin graze against her skin. It didn’t hurt, though- it wasn’t able to penetrate her skin.

He stared at her. “But- But your family-?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Hailey told him. “Who are you?”

“I am Draco Malfoy,” he told her calmly.

“You’re a boy standing on a stool in a robe shop,” Hailey corrected. “So who are you?”

“I-! I-!” He paused. “I am a Malfoy,” he muttered.

“Not your name,” Hailey informed him. “Who are you, behind the name?”

He stared at her. “I…” He paused. “I am…” He paused again. “I am a Malfoy.”

“That’s… all you could come up with?” Hailey asked gently.

He nodded, averting his eyes.

“Sounds like you’ve got some self-discovery to do. Because your name does not define you- you define it.”

He removed his robe in response to Malkin’s assistant’s silent gesture, revealing crisp green robes underneath. “I suppose,” he muttered, then looked at her. “So who are you?”

“A girl that likes to help,” she smiled. “You?”

“A boy that…” He paused. “A boy that…” He sighed. “A boy that has much to learn, I expect.”

Ginny laughed outright, and Draco quickly joined her.

“A girl that cares,” Hailey told him, once the laughing had drawn to a close.

He shook his head. “That’s all I’ve got.”

“Here you go,” Madam Malkin’s assistant injected suddenly, handing Draco a brown paper package. Presumably, his parents had paid in advance.

“I’ll see you at Hogwarts,” Hailey told him cheerfully, before removing her robe in response to Madam Malkin’s signal. Draco smiled back at her, and waved as he headed for the door. “Yeah, see you at Hogwarts!”

Then he was gone.

“So how did you do that?” Ginny asked, the moment the door landed shut behind him.

“Do what?” Hailey answered.

“You got a Malfoy to admit that he has much to learn.”

“You were listening, weren’t you?” Hailey asked.

“Uh- Yes,” Ginny admitted.

“Then you already know, right?” She grinned. “Who are you?”

“Huh? Uh-!” She paused, looking confused.

“Because your name doesn’t define you, does it?”

“Um-!” Ginny began, then paused again. “I am… a very curious girl.”

Author's Note

Why did Draco stare at Hailey so quickly? She got a Weasley to say sorry to a Malfoy. He might only be eleven, but even he knew that that never happened.

What gave it away to the goblins? In my mind, that High Goblin was wearing some kind of optical lens- monocle, glasses, contacts, whatever- that revealed it to him. I think I mentioned it in response to someone's comment, but I figure the rest of you shouldn't have to miss out on it.

Patreon, Discord.

Someone got real close to guessing the identity of Ginny's new vault's previous owner...

Aaaand, now this chapter has been rewritten too. A quick note:

“By their fruits ye shall know them,” Hailey answered, “to quote the Bible."

KJV, Matthew 7:20. I think it's a pretty solid statement, whether you're Christian or not, but let's avoid religious debates. This isn't the place.

Would you believe it if I told you this chapter was fully rewrite-completed on Thursday, almost a week ago (as of the time I'm uploading the rewrite, Wednesday night)? Well... it was. It took a little less than a day for my editors (one of which technically isn't an editor but a top-tier patron choosing to serve as one) to look it over, then it just... well, sat. I have no excuses. Well... I kinda do. My motivation has been in the dump this last week, but I still managed to rewrite Chap. 5- that's been sent to the editors as of half an hour ago at time of writing, so it'll probably go up moments before I publish Chap. 27 tomorrow.

I had a lot of fun in rewriting this chapter, particularly with the Malfoy scene. I liked the original one, but their personality changes wouldn't have allowed it... but I found a way to keep it at least similar while also preserving and developing their new personalities. Draco actually feels like a person now, woohoo!

By the way, I found evidence that this version of Draco is actually canon: His wand is made of Hawthorne... which "seemed most at home with a conflicted nature, or with a witch or wizard passing through a period of turmoil", according to the Harry Potter Wiki. Even though the Pottermore wiki reveals that Rowling used a Celtic tree calendar to decide his, Hermione's, Harry's, and Ron's wand woods (possibly other characters too) based on their birthdates rather than their personalities and the woods' properties.

And of course, with the rewrite, yadda yadda yadda, you've already seen this three times already (plus more times if you're also following the new unrewrite chapters as well), so I don't need to explain it again, do I? Just remember to look for the RW tag if you want the rewrite chapters!

Chapter 23: Diagon Army

“Good morning, Ginny,” Hailey greeted, as soon as she, Lily, and James had entered the Leaky Cauldron; Ginny was sitting at the nearest table with a butterbeer.

Ginny looked up, and smiled. “Good morning to you too, Hailey. How’s your summer been so far?”

“Pretty good,” Hailey told her, taking a seat and motioning for her parents to do the same. “I mean, Marge coming over for a week was not a very good birthday present, but what can you do?” She shrugged. “Besides, messing with her was fun. How’s Egypt been?”

“Boring,” Ginny sighed. “I mean, meeting Bill was nice, and it was fun to sight-see for the first couple days, but after that? I miss Hogwarts. And you.”

“And Hermione, and Silver, right?” Hailey asked.

“Well yeah,” Ginny answered, like it was obvious. “Anyways, I see you’ve got your parents with you today, even though they’re younger than you…” She trailed off, grinning mischievously as she glanced between them. “Hogwarts shopping, right?”

Hailey laughed, and nodded. “Yup, Hogwarts shopping. Now, I know you know already, but these are Lily and James Potter. And Lily, James? This is Ginny Weasley, a good friend of mine.”

“Weasley?” James asked. “Why are you associating with a Weasley?”

Hailey gave him a stern glare. “You be nice to my friends,” she commanded him. “And don’t be a hypocrite. You married a muggleborn, if I recall correctly.”

Lily covered her snicker with one hand, watching him with merriment in her eyes.

Ginny nodded curtly. “No butterbeer for you,” she decided.

A second later, Tom, the bald owner of the busy pub, walked over to deliver three foaming mugs of butterbeer- and Ginny promptly served two of them to Lily and Hailey, while taking the third for herself.

“What-?” James asked.

“That’s what you get for insulting her family,” Hailey told him calmly. “Frankly, you’re lucky she’s only withholding a drink. And that you’re too far away for me to slap.”

He flinched away from her, a look of abject terror on his face.

“These are the virgin sort,” Ginny told Lily, completely ignoring James. “No need to worry about alcohol. Not that there’s very much in the normal stuff anyways, but…” She shrugged. “Anyways.” She looked up at Hailey. “I’ve already gotten some gold from my vault- I assume you’re going to be getting a substantial sum out of yours?”

“Probably,” Hailey answered. “I’m kinda debating making James make do with second-hand robes right now.”

Lily let out a snort of laughter.

“Wha-!?” James asked, then took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Hailey,” he told her. “I didn’t mean-!”

“It’s not me you should be apologizing to,” Hailey interrupted.

He blinked, glanced sideways at Ginny, and looked down at the table. “... Sorry,” he muttered, without looking at Ginny.

“Hmm,” Hailey muttered, studying his face.

“Oh, Hailey! Ginny! Fancy running into you here!”

Both girls looked up. “Fancy running into you too, Silver,” Hailey greeted, as Silversong jogged towards them, from the direction of the floo. “Did he finally capitulate?”

She shook her head. “Nope, he still insists I’m a boy. Not sure why. But Mom’s convinced him to let her take me shopping, and she doesn’t care what he thinks, so I’m actually going to get girl’s clothes this time.”

“Awesome,” Hailey told her, bumping her fist and ignoring both her parents’ confused expressions. “Want to join us? We’re doing our Hogwarts shopping too- and your robes aren’t the only ones that don’t fit very well. Mine have gotten a bit too short.”

“Ahh, sure.” She paused. “Who are the new faces?”

“This is Lily and James Potter,” Hailey told her, gesturing towards her parents. “And you two, this is Silversong, another good friend of mine.”

“Ahhh,” Silver said knowingly, nodding. “Right, yes. Well, happy to meet you!” She offered her hand to the nearer of the two parents.

“Nice to meet you too,” Lily answered, accepting her hand with a little bow and a wide smile, evidently discarding her confusion for later.

Silver then trotted around the table to offer her hand to James. “And you too, happy to meet you!”

He didn’t take her hand. “What’s your surname?”

Silver raised an eyebrow, and lowered her hand. “Really? You sound almost like I did two years ago.”

“More than you know,” Hailey told her calmly, with a small smile.

“What?” Silver asked critically, and folded her arms. “You mean he’s been insulting Weasleys?”

Hailey chuckled. “How’d you guess?”

“Just a wild guess,” Silver answered, winking at Ginny, before turning back to James and leaning down until her face was inches from his, her necklace dangling down between them. “Have you apologized yet?” she asked sternly.

“Remember what I said about people taking a very dim view of bullying?” Hailey asked, grinning at James.

“Er-!” He glanced at Hailey. “Yeah?”

“Silver isn’t the scariest of them either.”

Silver straightened up, moving one hand to her hip and waving the other as if she was warding off a fly. “Well no, of course not. That’s Hermione. Bonbon if you’re particularly skilled, since you’re just a nobody to her if you’re not.” She chuckled softly.

“In terms of bullying, I suppose,” Hailey agreed. “I’ve seen her stop bullies by casually knocking over the bully before they ever realized she was there.”

“Is someone talking about bullying?”

“Speak of the devil,” Hailey grinned. “Good morning, Bonbon. James Potter here was beating up on the Weasleys.”

“I heard,” Bonbon nodded, leaning in on James’s other side. “Watched the whole thing.” She looked at James. “You’d do well to remove that kind of prejudice from your psyche,” she warned him. “It’ll only get you in trouble at Hogwarts. Anyways.” She straightened up, and walked around to draw up a seat between Ginny and Lily, while Silver straightened up and crossed to draw one up between Lily and Hailey; the table only had four chairs at it to begin with. “Nice to meet you, Lily.” She held her hand out for her to shake. “I’m Bonbon, Head Student Instructor for Potions at Hogwarts.”

“... Say what?” Lily asked, staring at her.

“Head Student Instructor for Potions at Hogwarts. I’m the same for Charms.”

Hailey looked up. “And hello to you too, Hermione.”

Hermione pulled up a seat between Hailey and James. “You’ve gathered quite the crowd today,” she observed. “Might need a bigger table if Starlight and Sunset show up. I know they’re around here somewhere.”

James put his head in his hands. “I’m sorry,” he muttered.

Hermione looked at him. “Sorry, didn’t catch that?”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, a bit louder. “For being so…” He sighed, then looked up at Ginny. “I’m sorry,” he told her.

Ginny waved it off. “Eh, it’s no big deal, I get it all the time.” She looked at Hailey. “You can get him new robes now.”

Hermione blinked, looking between them. “Wha-? What am I missing?”

“You’re late to the party,” Hailey chuckled. “These are Lily and James Potter.”

Hermione blinked. “Oh! You mean it worked? Awesome! So…” She glanced at James. “What was that all about?”

“He started beating up on the Weasleys for a moment,” Hailey informed her.

She blinked. “Oooh,” she nodded. “That makes sense.”

“You certainly seem to have a lot of friends,” Lily observed, looking at Hailey.

Hailey chuckled. “Yes, I do.”

“So…” Lily glanced at Bonbon, then looked at Hailey again. “Head Student Instructor? What’s that?”

“Well, Hogwarts has huge numbers of students this year- oh, Starlight! What was the total this year?”

Starlight Glimmer, walking up to join them at the table with a thick deck of pages in her hand, chuckled. “Eight thousand six hundred and thirty three students total,” she answered, “of which four thousand, three hundred and thirty-four are first-years. Which includes Lyra, Bonbon- she was headed for Malkin’s a few minutes ago.”

“Lyra?” Bonbon blinked, then rose from her seat. “Thanks!” She jogged off.

Hailey watched her go with a smile, then looked back down at Lily while Starlight took Bonbon’s vacated seat. “Anyways,” she began, “there’s no way the unexpanded staff of Hogwarts will be able to keep up with that many students… So Dumbledore made an agreement with Starlight here to form the Student Instructor Program. It’s grown a lot since- nowadays, Bonbon’s the HSI for Potions, Hermione HSI for Charms, and I’m the HSI for Defense Against the Dark Arts- and the Student Instructor Program Management Team Lead at the same time, as of about a year ago.” She smiled at Lily’s awed look, then gestured towards Starlight. “And of course, Starlight now serves as our Research Team Lead, since she specializes in that kind of thing. It’s actually her team that came up with that resurrection spell.”

Hermione grinned mischievously.

“Ahh,” Lily muttered, nodding slowly, before glancing in the direction Bonbon had run off in. “Who’s Lyra?”

“Her wife,” Hailey answered promptly, then smiled. “Most of the funny-haired students- colorheads, I hear the Wizarding Nobility is calling them- aren’t actually children, and have been falling through a mysterious portal in increasing numbers every year. We’re working on a way to send them back home, but haven’t found it yet- that’s Starlight’s team’s main focus. Bonbon fell through it two years ago, and I guess Lyra fell only this year?” She looked at Starlight.

She nodded. “Yes.”

Hailey nodded as well, looking back at Lily. “So she very dearly misses her. Almost like if we’d waited two years before resurrecting James, rather than only a day.”

“Oh, there you are!”

Hailey looked up. “Good morning, Sunset. Do you need something?”

Sunset was walking up, holding the hand of a scared-looking girl with white and purple striped hair. “Uh- Yes. Has anyone seen Miss Diamond Tiara’s parents?” She gestured down at the girl, from her adult stature.

“What would their names be?” Starlight asked, flipping a few pages.

“Filthy Rich and Spoiled Rich,” Hailey answered promptly. “They’re not already at Hogwarts or graduated, so if anything, they’ll be first-years.”

Diamond whimpered. “Don’t tell me mom’s here,” she squeaked softly.

Hailey and Sunset shared a look, while Lily put her hands to her mouth.

“Well,” Starlight muttered, scanning down a page. “Filthy isn’t here.” She flipped a few more pages. “Aaaand… neither is Spoiled.” She looked up. “I’m sorry, Diamond, you’re on your own. But we’ll gladly fill in for them if you want.”

“I can’t believe how quickly that went,” Lily muttered, as Hailey, Ginny, Lily, Diamond, Silver, Hermione, James, Starlight, and Sunset all returned to the Leaky Cauldron with their new school supplies. Narcissa, Silver’s mom, had arrived through the fireplace right as they were getting up to leave the Leaky Cauldron and had been happy to leave her to her own devices- and her friends, with how numerous they were. After accompanying them to Gringotts to help her withdraw some gold, she had gotten something to drink at the Leaky Cauldron and headed home without her daughter.

“Yeah, they’re getting faster every year,” Hailey agreed, as Sunset, Starlight, and James moved a few tables up to each other so they wouldn’t be overcrowding a single tiny table. “I think they’re learning over time or something- developing new, more efficient practices and all that.” She grinned. “I find it hard to believe we’re the only ones doing research, you know?”

“And with the speed that Ollivander found our wands,” James said, and shook his head. “Well, I say he found them, but…” He shrugged.

Hailey chuckled; Ollivander had completely restructured his shop so, after getting an idea of the likely match from his measurements, he’d simply take the purchaser to a shelf and have them pick out the one that seemed to ‘call out’ to them. It was far, far faster than the prior technique- but it also wasn’t foolproof, so Hailey knew he sometimes had to go back to his usual guess-and-check method. Still, though, it saved him a ton of time- and he’d found both her parents’ wands in basically no time at all.

More amusing to Hailey had been just how astounded James had been to learn that Ginny had galleons in her moneybag- and not just a few.

“I noticed we got a new book for Defense Against the Dark Arts,” Ginny said, looking up at Hailey, who she’d sat next to. “And that Lockhart’s still at large. What’s going on with that?”

“Rita’s taking her time with that,” Hailey nodded. “And Dumbledore’s brought in an old friend to serve as our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, so we should have some fun classes.” She grinned sideways at James, who wasn’t looking in her direction, then looked up at the rest again. “Now, who wants some butterbeer?”

“Hi Hailey!”

Hailey looked up. “Hello again, Bonbon. Do I take it this is Lyra?” She turned in her seat and held her hand out to the first year walking next to her, with light blue and white striped hair; they had their arms around each other, even though Bonbon was somewhat taller.

“Yes,” Bonbon answered. “This is Lyra.”

“Nice to meet you, Lyra,” Hailey told her, holding out a hand for her to shake. “How are things back in Equestria?”

Lyra shrugged. “Panic, mostly. Nobody’s managed to even predict where the portal will appear next; not even Twilight. Speaking of which, at least when I got pulled through, all six Bearers were still just fine. The Royal Family is another story- Prince Shining Armor is going to be around here somewhere. He got sucked in about a day before I did.”

Hailey rubbed her chin. “Okay, this should be interesting.” She looked at Starlight. “Have we spotted him?”

“Shining Armor?” Starlight asked, flipping open her documents. “Um… Yes, he did his shopping yesterday.” She flipped it closed again. “Also, while we were out shopping a minute ago, one of my researchers told me we’ve pinned down the portal’s movement pattern, and can accurately predict where it will appear. We still can’t go through it, or control it, but it’s a step in the right direction.” She paused. “I think.”

Hailey chuckled, and looked back at Lyra. “I expect we’ll be happy to have you.”

Author's Note

Patreon, Discord.

Why is Twilight unable to predict it with full access to Equestrian magic, but Starlight able to with only limited use of her magic? Because it doesn't take the form of a portal in Equestria, that's merely what they think it is.

Also, I rewrote Chapter 1 if you want to go back and look. It's in-place and connects with the rest of the story; I've got Chap. 2 in the works right now, likely for release tomorrow.