Entry: Friday, September 10th, 2021

My first week at Hogwarts is finally complete… and unfortunately, I must agree with Helia, the education on offer here- even with the upheaval she’s causing- is very disappointing. And from what I hear, it used to be even worse.

Also, thank the Lord Almighty that she came up with these diversion necklaces before I had to leave for the Hogwarts Express! As amusing as I find people’s behavior when I’m wearing them, they’re an absolute lifesaver in this kind of environment. I’ve already seen a lot of concerning magic- and my guards have rushed forwards to protect me twice already, both times fortunately uneventfully.

Speaking of the necklaces, when Helia told me to look for Harry Potter, I immediately noticed that the name was identical to that of the Boy who Lived- and sure enough, anyone on the train that I asked for Harry Potter knew instantly who I was talking about… but had no idea where he was.

Then I had started searching compartments myself, asking the occupants, one by one, and letting my new necklace keep people from realizing what I was doing. I didn’t find him- or at least, I didn’t think I had, at first. My attention was grabbed about halfway down the train by a boy wearing a necklace- which took me only a second to recognize as one of Helia’s diversion necklaces. Only a few seconds after that, it became evident that he was an exception to the diversion magic, and as such warranted closer inspection.

Then he turned out to be Harry Potter, The Boy who Lived. Interestingly, while his companions all seemed to know about that, they did not seem to be exempt from the necklaces. My first thought was they were other friends of his- and I now know that’s true. Not for very long, but he’s been making friends lately.

And of course, they also now know my name, and noticed the Royal Guards on the train, but failed to realize that they were talking to the reason why they were there. They even failed to realize that two such Guards had taken up stations on either side of the door on the outside, once they had ascertained that Harry and his companions didn’t pose a threat.

But all along, I kept my eyes and ears open- and by the time the Sorting Hat finished its strange song once we reached the school, I knew what the four Houses were.

Gryffindor, the House of Heroes, favors bravery and bullheadedness. Why Hermione wanted to go there so badly, I have no idea, but she got her wish.

Slytherin, the House of Enemies, favors cunning and guile. The Hat spent two whole minutes convincing me to accept a place there, and even a week later, I’m still not sure it was the right choice. For one thing, blood purity is everything in this House- and by their definition, my blood might as well be mud.

I will have their heads for that affront. Not that they know they’ve made it, Thank Helia.

Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, two more to make up the numbers. One favoring learning, the other favoring hard work. Harry wanted to ‘disappear’, so naturally he got one of these- the two Houses that nobody expects anything from.

And of course, Harry made a comment on the train that suggested that he knows a side of Helia that I’ve never seen, and has known it for quite some time. It took all week before I managed to get him alone for a conversation- except for my guards, of course. He confessed, with absolute confidence, that Helia has always been there for him whenever he needed her most, without fail- and he felt safe because he knew she always would be, even when he couldn’t see her. As for the comment on the train, he revealed that she’s a vicious fighter- and also a dirty fighter, such that no technique is beneath her, no matter how unethical or inhumane, if it will give her the edge she needs.

And of course, she’s always been like that. Doing what needs to be done, without regard for the legality or ethicality of it- nor, even, for if someone else would think it needed to be done. Harry outright told me that he suspected she’d potioned half the Ministry like that for some reason related to the visit he had from the Ministry that same day. Anything more specific than that was a mystery to him, but putting half the Ministry of Magic out of action just to ensure a certain result for a single person… She’s scary.

That conversation made me immensely grateful that I was already in Helia’s good graces. As is Harry- as a matter of fact, I got the strange feeling that it was guaranteed for Harry, hence why he’s so utterly fearless. Unfortunately, he didn’t know the answer to the question I most wanted to ask him- he didn’t know what she is.

Then, on my way away from that meeting, satisfied- for the moment- with my answers… I ran across a girl named Bonbon. She’s got brightly colored hair, a demeanor that reminds me of the SIS, and a penchant for disappearing into the shadows, only to reappear right when and where you least expect her.

She’s also in Slytherin, like me. Unlike me, though, she sleeps in the public dormitory- and I understand she gets along well with all the other Slytherin girls, even though a couple of them have confessed to me that they find her somehow terrifying.

As it happened, Bonbon was looking for me, and asked for a private conversation.

Unlike some of the other people that have tried to get me alone, she actually held the door for my guards when we entered an empty classroom, then sealed it behind them; most other people tried to block the guards out too.

That little action raised not just my eyebrows, but those of one of the guards as well- though he kept his peace. No doubt it’ll be in his report, though- alongside a transcription of the meeting and the recording I know he was making.

Still, though. It seems Bonbon is good enough to penetrate Helia’s diversion magic- though it still took her a while, and she still didn’t seem certain when she then confronted me.

“Miss Fox… you don’t happen to be Princess Abigail Fox of the United Kingdom, do you?”

Arienne blinked, then glanced down to check her necklace. Yes, it was still there. She looked back up at Bonbon, her eyes narrowing. “I do,” she muttered softly. “Why?”

Bonbon nodded. “Ahh, that explains it. You’ve got some really powerful diversion magic there- do you mind if I ask where you got it?”

She snorted. “Helia made it.”

She’d expected the statement to be ignored- the diversion magic seemed to actively hide Helia’s existence, should she come up- so the way Bonbon’s gaze snapped to hers caught her off guard.

“You’ve met Helia?” Bonbon asked softly. It wasn’t a threatening tone, but rather than the earlier curious tones, it was definitely a no-nonsense, business tone.

The guards shifted slightly at the sudden change in the tone of the conversation.

Arienne narrowed her eyes again. “And what if I have?” she asked sharply.

Bonbon nodded minutely- an acknowledgement that she had answered the question, despite having meant to leave it unanswered. Drat, this girl could read her at least as well as the SIS agents could, and she basically couldn’t keep secrets from them! She trained with them regularly, but she wasn’t there yet- she wasn’t ready for this surprise test!

“Are you aware of what she is?” Bonbon asked.

Arienne blinked- this girl knew what Helia was!?

This girl also evidently saw the answer in her eyes, because she went on unprompted.

“Helia… is something the local magical world calls a Guardian Angel.”

She snorted. “Aren’t those, like, angels?”

Bonbon let out a laugh. It was a somewhat harsh laugh, and very brief. “As if,” she answered. “It’s really a very misleading term. Sure, they’re guardians, but they’re not angels. Even Helia herself disavowed it.” She sighed. “A more correct term, and the one used by the parts of the Multiverse that actually understand them… is trauma avatar.”

She blinked again. “Trauma…?”

She nodded. “Avatars like her spawn from the heart and soul of badly abused magical children, with the sole purpose to protect those children. They’re absolutely merciless and otherwise extremely deadly killing machines- normally, at any rate. I’m pretty sure Helia was herself, at first- but the average life expectancy for a Trauma Avatar is about a week, thanks to a truly insane mortality rate from accidents, combat, or even just exorcism, as they are considered dangerous.

“And Helia is at least six years old. In that much time, she seems to have gained a properly sentient mind- so my superiors back in Equestria, across the worldwall, think it’s probably safe to let her live, even after we defeat whatever it is that she’s afraid of.”

She blinked. “She’s afraid?” she gasped disbelievingly; Helia had always been calm and compassionate, but as solid as a stone foundation, giving Arienne the impression that she didn’t even know what fear was.

“She asked for help. August first, two thousand and fifteen, by your calendar.

“And Trauma Avatars never ask for help. They’re absolutely fearless destroyers, and she’s the most powerful one we’ve ever even heard of- so powerful she’s among the top three magical things in existence, that we’re aware of at least, and both of the others are revered as gods. We… aren’t sure which of those top three slots she holds, but we’re pretty sure it’s not the lowest one.

“Yet, she’s so very obviously afraid of something. Something which can scare a fearless destroyer that rivals gods, something so dangerous that she’s been gathering powerful allies- Equestria, the British Royal Family if she’s made contact with you, the Goblins of Gringotts, a vast majority of people that have bought wands from Ollivanders’ over the last six years, and undoubtedly more- but still hasn’t made her move.

“Something so dangerous that she has seen fit to fight it by protecting the masses- another thing that Trauma Avatars never do.”

“What is it?” she asked directly, shifting into her own business tone.

Bonbon didn’t miss a beat. “We think she’s fighting a legacy, or perhaps societal direction, more than a person, but we don’t know. We only know that she absolutely demolished Dumbledore a month ago- but very deliberately didn’t kill him. He’s obviously one of her enemies… but for some reason, she didn’t kill him, yet. That’s another thing Avatars never do- leave their enemies alive, for any reason.”

“Huh,” she muttered, and rubbed her chin. Then she blinked. “Wait. So the reason my wand-!”

“Her hair,” Bonbon informed her. “It’s a Guardian Wand, right?”

She nodded.

“So is mine. It’s her hair- she is the Guardian in question.”

“Should I be worried?”

Bonbon shook her head. “Guardian-infused magical instruments, such as Guardian Wands, are known to only function for those that the Guardian feels are worthy of their protection- and that’s true for nearly every possible type of Guardian, including both humans and Trauma Avatars. For as long as that wand answers to your command, you can be sure she will not hurt you- and could instead come to your protection when you are most in need.”

“She does that already.”

“Then, if she hasn’t already informed you of her fight or asked for assistance, she probably sees you as a natural ally- that is to say, she recognizes that you would help her in her mission as a matter of course. The Goblin Nation is a natural ally to almost all Avatars, so they’re… much more permissive. The reports have indicated Gringotts is aware of who and what she is, and fully supports her mission- all the way to the point of ignoring her murdering two tellers, one in an honor duel that demonstrated an Avatar’s lethality and the other as an assassination.”

“That demonstrated…?”

“Are you aware of the chunky salsa rule?”

She blinked at the apparent non-sequitur. “Uh… Yeah.”

“Her kind has a propensity to demonstrate it. She didn’t- no doubt being kind to whoever would have had to clean up the mess- but she had that goblin dismembered and decapitated so fast it looked like all she did was put her weapon away.”

Arienne didn’t miss her guards sharing a look with each other. “Do we know…” She paused. “It’s Harry,” she muttered.

Bonbon tilted her head. “Harry?”

She looked at Bonbon, then decided to trust her. She had a sneaking feeling that this conversation wouldn’t be happening if Helia didn’t want it to, especially with as deadly as Bonbon said Helia was, and she already knew she could trust Helia, deadly or otherwise. “Harry said Helia is always there for him when he needs her the most- and that’s why he doesn’t feel fear any more. He knows she has his back, always.”

Bonbon rubbed her chin. “It’s… possible that she sprung from him,” she observed. “He didn’t strike me as an abused child, though, and Trauma Avatars almost always look like their hosts. Unless…” She paused, gazing at the wall. “If she sprung from him, she could have forged him into a soldier of his own, only letting on what he wants to let on.” She scowled. “And if she’s given you diversion magic, she’s almost certainly given him diversion magic.”

“She has. Harry Potter, the Boy who Lived that nobody realizes is in their midst.”

“Not unlike Princess Fox, the Crown Princess that nobody realizes is in their midst,” Bonbon observed, though her eyebrow had quirked at Harry’s title. “Speaking of, your nameplate says Arienne, but the Crown says Abigail. Which should I…?”

“Abigail is my public name,” she answered. “Arienne is the name we only use in private, where people won’t find out. I consider it to be my true name.”

“Yet you’re using it here?”

She shrugged. “Diversion magic, remember. Nobody realizes I have anything to do with the Crown, even when they use my proper titles.” She tapped her necklace. “Fair warning, if you meet me in public when I’m not wearing this necklace, I’m Abigail.”

“The magic is tied to it,” Bonbon observed, though her tone suggested it wasn’t a new observation.

She nodded. “It is. Helia said it’s unstealable.”

She snorted. “An easy feat for someone that powerful- especially Trama Avatars, which already have far finer control over their magic than any creature, thanks to being forged of magic themselves.” She tilted her head. “Do you know where she got them?”

“She made them,” she answered. “Took her two weeks to cram it into an amulet- she had to cast it all directly for my Diagon Alley shopping.”

Bonbon blinked. “Damn, she must’ve crammed some insane protections in there.” She shrugged. “Like other magical constructs, Trauma Avatars’ minds work like computers,” she provided, by way of an explanation. “They think lightning fast, and have an intrinsic knowledge of magic, so needing two weeks suggests a huge array of mutually exclusive spells she had to force to work together.”

Arienne scowled. “She didn’t seem like a construct to me.”

“Of course she didn’t. And she didn’t seem like one to me either when I met her a few days before the Hogwarts Express- even her magical signature has changed. Not so much that it’s unrecognizable, but enough that she now reads as human rather than as a construct like an avatar. I can only assume she’s now a human-construct hybrid, likely combining the strengths of both, and grown beyond a simple Trauma Avatar. How she did that… we have no idea.”

“Interesting,” she muttered. “So, uh, why are you here? Equestria, I mean. Unless I got that wrong?”

“Nope, you got that right. Equestria is an Absolute Diarchy led by the two benevolent pseudo-goddesses I mentioned earlier- and our main goal in this world right now is to wage war with whatever it is that is scaring Helia. Once that’s done with, our universe is collapsing, so we’re on the hunt for a new one to move the nation into- that’s actually the reason we opened the portals in the first place- and this world is a prime candidate. As such, we’re… well, looking for local allies for the war at the moment, but also for the eventual saving of our entire people.” She sighed, then went on, shifting into a matter-of-fact tone.

“When one of our Agents guided the Boy who Lived through Diagon Alley, she found him with his aunt, uncle, and cousin at Number Four Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. The uncle and cousin are morbidly obese, and all three of them were demonstrably abusive towards Harry, though we have evidence that they were being forced to be so by a blood-anchored ward of some kind- even the negligence regarding Dudley Dursley is probably magically forced, and by an unknown party- neither our agent nor Director Bones of the DMLE were able to identify the caster. We haven’t taken any action in regards to the Dursley household, instead leaving that to more local governments, but we are aware that Helia has taken total guardianship over Harry and removed him from that household. Since the blood ward is keyed to him, it is likely to collapse on its own within the next couple of years; taking it down by force is likely to kill whomever it is anchored on- which could easily be Harry, and probably is, since Helia hasn’t taken it down herself.” She shuddered in uncharacteristic fear. “I’d hate to find out by forcing Helia to stop us.”

Arienne listened carefully to what sounded very much like a military briefing, then glanced sideways at one of her guards- who gave a short nod to indicate that it was recorded, since that definitely sounded important, possibly even to national security. “Are you telling me this to gain my favor?” she asked directly.

Bonbon quirked a small grin. “If I’m being honest, yes, maybe a little. But I’m a fighter, not a diplomat- we haven’t sent any of those through the portal yet, and probably won’t until we’re satisfied that the war is under control.” She sighed. “I mainly work alone, but I’m not afraid of seeking allies when the enemy is too great for me to manage. And if Helia has sought both of us out to help her, we’ll be able to help her better by working together than we could ever hope to do apart.”

“And you trust that helping Helia is the right thing to do?”

She shrugged. “I do now. If the Royal Family is her natural ally, her enemy is also an enemy of your country- and you just don’t know it yet.” She sighed. “Given the wide array of allies she’s gathering, I can only assume that the Dark Lords Grindelwald and Voldemort look like toddlers throwing tantrums next to our true enemy.” She met Arienne’s eyes. “And it’s likely that the World Wars from not too long ago in your history look like the squabbling of children when compared to the battle we could have coming.”

Arienne winced. “Mutually assured destruction,” she muttered.

Bonbon nodded. “I don’t have any evidence to this effect, but my gut tells me that even nuclear war would be tame next to our worst case scenario.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Princess Luna Lumine of Equestria… can sling moons around.”

Author's Note

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