E'jeah slumps to the floor in despair when, after the face hugger has fallen from her face, Xenomorphs come and release her from the resin. She knows she should kill herself, to prevent an abomination from being loosed on the galaxy, but she doesn't even have the will to do that. Besides which, her weapons aren't here. A small creature with floppy ears appears, puts something on the table and disappears with a pop. With a grunt, she pulls herself to her feet to see what they've given her, to make her final days more pleasant. A computer tablet, how, kind.
Not even a day later, she's starting to feel the gnawing sensation of hunger. She's quite prepared to ignore it when one of those small creatures pops in.
"Can Twixie get Missy Dreads like something to eat?"
E'jeah's mandibles drop open as not only does it speak, but she can understand.
"Twixie can tell Missy Dreads is hungry, Twixie will get acromantula."
This time it disappears in a flash of fire and reappears just as quickly with a spider thing.
"Not Queen likes these, Twixie thinks you will too."
Carefully, she pokes at the spider thing with a talon before ripping a leg off. When it doesn't move she bites into it and sates her hunger.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
"Master, I can't keep doing this. Are you sure we must be here?"
"You saw McGonagall retrieve the stone, where else could it be? Get me the stone, and we can use it to make me a new body. Then we will reclaim what was snatched from our grasp 10 years ago."
"But what of your seizures? If they happen at the wrong time, I may not be able to stop them from revealing you."
"You forget Quirrell, I can take over your body when you fall unconscious. Just steer clear of the castle walls and you will be fine."
"And the girl?"
"Kill her if you can. Ignore her if you can't, the stone is more important."
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
Minerva stares at her hands, and how the skin on them is starting to darken after only 2 months. It seems that humans are more susceptible to these changes than Yautja, as none of the Yautja guests have started showing the same level of changes. Pomona's have gone even faster than her own. Wild Mask, he was complicated. At times it seems like he's absolutely ecstatic about the changes and what it means for her status. Other times he falls into a rage and only his life partner is able to calm him down. He's already started growing again, taking on some of the attributes of the other female Yautja Minerva's seen.
"Head Master, Minister Fudge is asking to come through with Madam Marchbanks."
Minerva looks up tiredly, "Let them through. Tilly, would you be able to get tea and snacks for the 5 of us please?"
"Tilly would like to remind kitty that two plus two is four not five."
"Kitty would like to remind Tilly that Tilly is as much my assistant as Priya is, and will be recognised as such. Especially since you joined the same hive I belong to."
"Tilly is house elf, not human. No need for silly rituals."
"Tilly is Family, therefore Tilly will be included in silly rituals because it makes non-family more comfortable."
Over by the fireplace, Minerva can feel Priya laughing through the hive even as she keeps her face professional.
"Good afternoon Minister."
"Good afternoon Headmistress."
"Head Master please, it's two words. I am after all a Master of Transfiguration, and I am the Head of all the other Masters in the school."
"I'm afraid I don't understand."
"When you get really good at something, you master it, you never mistress it. The same is true when you are recognised at having achieved mastery in a subject. Hence Master. In the non-magical world it's a little easier, as they use the term Doctor, which indicates the person has a doctorate in philosophy. Of course, because their healers are also called doctors, that has its own source of confusion. They also have what is called a Masters Degree, which is equivalent to journeyman in our culture."
"I think I see, I must confess, I never thought of it that way before."
"No reason for you to have done so, to my knowledge Hogwarts is the only school that requires a mastery to teach a subject. Tea?"
"Thank you. I'm sorry to dive into business straight away, but I have a meeting to get to soon."
"Not at all. Though I have to wonder why Madam Marchbanks is here."
Marchbanks lifts a teacup to her face to hide a smile as she smells the tea, "I thought it would be interesting, and as I had to point the dear Minister your way, due to this being an internal school matter, I decided to tag along."
"I see." – idly she takes an acromantula leg and starts to crunch on it – "What is so urgent you couldn't make an appointment?"
"I have had a number of concerned parents complaining to me about the number of non-human students you have here."
"We have 3, why?"
"I was told you have more, most of the Hufflepuff first years by reports."
"Ah, I see. No, this is just a new technique for achieving an animagus form, that relies on accidental magic. I'm planning on writing a paper on it over the summer next year. Entwhistle and McMillian have been unable to achieve the change, despite being primed and undergoing severe enough trauma to require an obliviation. Speaking with their parents afterwards, I discovered that they had been practicing with wands for a couple of years before arriving at the school."
"I will need to report that to the DMLE."
Minerva just looks at him, while Marchbanks sighs, "We know it happens, and it's technically legal. As the law about the reasonable use of underage magic was added as a rider on the statute of secrecy several years ago. Back when you were first voted in as Minister as I recall."
"What? How can that be?"
Minerva sighs, "Tilly, would you mind getting the book of laws from the library?"
When Tilly returns, Minerva uses a very useful spell that Madam Pince taught her, to locate the specific phrases in the book, rather than needing to thumb through it, and potentially damage the parchment.
"Right, here we are, 'Until they reach the age of majority, all witches and wizards will be prohibited from using wands in locations that may endanger the statute of secrecy. On the first offence, a warning will be sent out. On the second offence they will be brought to the DMLE and a fine issued. On a third offence, they will be expelled, and their wand snapped, and magic bound. Each of these stages may be appealed on the grounds of self-defence, or the defence of others."
"Oh, right. Well that seems reasonable."
Minerva sighs, "It does, until you consider that it affects muggleborn and the poor far more disproportionately than those that can afford to live in wizarding areas."
"Well, yes. They are obviously more likely to expose magic aren't they."
"Minister, is a student practicing magic in their bedroom a danger to the statute of secrecy?"
"Well, no, probably not."
"I had 3 students get warnings the year this came in for doing just that. We now tell all student's that they're not allowed to use magic during the holidays."
"But what about the non-humans you have attending the school?"
"I am following the school charter, that states that anyone with the capability to use magic must be allowed to learn here."
"But surely that only applies to people…"
"How many people are sitting here?"
Fudge promptly replies "4"
"What about Tilly?"
"She's a house elf."
"Why does that matter?"
"Because house elves are house elves."
"Minister Fudge, without using the words Human, Witch, Wizard, or non-human, I want you to tell me what makes a person a person."
"Well, she can't use a wand."
"Why's that?"
"It's illegal."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"What about non-magicals, are they not people because they can't use wands either?"
"Ah…"
"Consider this homework, I expect you to write a 12 inch essay on this and give it to me after the Christmas holidays."
"But I'm a busy man, I have so many things to do."
"Minister, you were elected to serve the people. How can you do that properly if you can't even tell me what makes a person a person."
"What can I do then?"
Marchbanks smiles openly, "That I can advise you on. Put together a panel of advisors. They will need to go over all the laws and ministry rules for the last 15 years, in combination with the minutes and decisions of the Hogwarts school of governors from the last 22 years. Oh, and you should try to include at least one muggleborn."
"Why? What do they have to do with each other?"
"In the last war, a key number of board seats changed hands over a few years. They then scrapped the culture and customs class, as it only lasted two years, and didn't have any exams associated with it. This was touted as a money saving exercise. A few years after the death of Voldemort, I was handed new ministry guidelines that stopped me from hiring anyone that doesn't have at least 1 magical parent and grandparent. As those that don't have any magical family have no understanding of our customs or culture. Could it be that the two things are related? Or how about the end of the Ministry run werewolf enclaves, again for money saving reasons. Then the late Umbridge starts proposing laws to control the werewolf population because they are now a danger to ordinary witches and wizards.
"Oh, and Minerva, I hope that you're going to do something about that curse."
Minerva's eyes just sparkle, and she gives a predatory grin.
Desperately, Fudge says, "What do I say to the parents who are pressuring me?"
"If they can provide their own essay about what makes a person a person, without using the words Human, Witch, Wizard, Magic, or Non-human, I will grant them an interview where they can explain their reasoning. Until then, those three students will be staying, and I will accept any other students that seek an education at this school."
"What if they hurt or kill one of the witches or wizards?"
"Then I'd say that's Darwinism in action."
Minerva gets blank looks from everyone else around the table, and she reviews what she said. Tipping her head back to cover her distant look, as she follows that phrase to where it came from, she continues, "Er, it's a muggle phrase that means evolution in acti… Evolution is the term given to the muggle discovery, that nearly all of the species that exist on earth became the way they are through very small changes, that happened repeatedly over unimaginably large periods of time. Mr Darwin was the person that brought all the research together last century and published it under his own name."
Priya has a glazed look in her eyes, and Minerva feels a faint touch on her mind as she tries to find out how she knows this. So she points Priya to the section of memories that come from the Grangers.
Marchbanks looks at Minerva speculatively before putting her empty teacup down, "Minister Fudge, I believe the time for pleasantries is over, and you did say that you had a meeting to get to."
"Oh, yes. I do, I do. Sorry to cut this meeting short, it was most informative."
Minerva smiles at him, "Don't forget your homework, Minister."
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
Hermione looks at Susan with a confused expression, "Susan, where are we going?"
"It's Halloween, so we thought we'd include you in a girls only game."
"But what about the feast?"
"We've got permission to do this, because we don't want any of the other students to get hurt."
Hermione stops and looks at her friend, "Susan, what do you mean you don't want any of the other students to get hurt?"
"Well, the other girls and I have these brilliant new forms, and they come with all sorts of wonderful instincts. What we really like is chasing things, and humans are so smart."
Hermione backs against a wall, as she sees the xenomorph forms of the other girls, while Susan continues, "Of course, we've chased Wayne, Entwhistle, and McMillian, but we've always been stopped before the hunt can come to its natural end. Of course, you can't change, and the others know that you're desperate to change. It was easy enough to lie to the Head Master and persuade her that we're going to try and force you into your change. But what we really want is to know what human tastes like." – Susan flows down into her animagus form and, using the mental speech of xenomorphs, continues – "We are going to give you a head start, so that if they review our memories we can honestly say we tried. It's not our fault if our instincts over come us later."
Hermione looks around and all 5 of the Hufflepuff girls are arrayed around her, on the wall as well as the floor.
"You have 15 seconds to run, then we're following you."
Hermione doesn't even wait for the rest of the sentence, at 15 seconds, she's dodging around her classmates and running pell-mell down the corridor. Somewhere in the back of her mind is the thought that this is another setup, but as she vaults over a balustrade and slides down a banister to a lower floor, that thought is buried under the primal instinct to run from the predators. Spotting a black shape fly past her to land on the flight of stairs below her, she leaps off the stairs down a corridor that leads further away from the Great Hall.
A few minutes of desperately playing keep away later, one of the girls comes out from a corridor to the right. Dropping to the floor, she slides along the age smoothed stone underneath them, before some how pushing herself into a roll to get back to her feet. Grabbing the corner with her hands, her sharpening fingers grip in just enough to pull her round the corner and to a spiral staircase that leads up and down.
Her heart in her mouth, she heads down knowing that going higher will just see her trapped. Much to her dismay, this is one of the weird staircases in the castle, and a few seconds later she recognises the tapestry of someone teaching trolls to dance. Praying to whatever deity is listening, she runs for the far end of the corridor hoping to get there before the others do.
She skids to a halt as two xenomorphs come from either side of the T junction, and start to prowl towards her. Turning around, she sees the one she slid under stalking behind her. The one she's looking at glances very slightly to one side, and Hermione spins around to see a xenomorph heading straight for her, claws out. With a pop, she disappears and reappears in the second floor girls bathroom.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
Minerva looks up in surprise as Professor Quirrell comes running into the Great Hall a few minutes after the Halloween feast has started.
"Troll, there's a troll in the dungeons. I just thought you should know." The poor man then faints before he can give them any useful information like, what sort of troll, where in the dungeons, and why he was even in the dungeons rather than at the feast.
Putting her wand to her throat, Minerva amplifies her voice to say, "Prefects, close the doors and do a head count. Can we have a moment's silence for the Troll please, as the first year Hufflepuffs are playing in the school."
A Slytherin Prefect holds a squirming red headed first year by the doors, "All accounted for now, this one was trying to sneak out though."
A Gryffindor prefect then says, "All Weasley's accounted for, and so is everyone else." The other two houses are equally present, apart from those first years.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
Hermione's heart is just starting to calm enough to think, when the most awful stench fills the bathroom. Something almost knocks the door off its hinges and a massive, grey skinned, humanoid ducks, as it forces itself through the doorway. In its meaty hand is a cudgel longer than she is tall, crudely shaped out of a log. As its beady eyes latch onto her, it brings the cudgel around in a whistling arc, catching her in the side and sending her through a cubical wall. She bounces off the castle wall at the back of the cubical, and lands on the floor. Unsteadily she climbs to her feet and shakes her head, her tail whipping around behind her. Ducking to the floor as another swing smashes its way through the walls of the cubicles behind her, she leaps over the ruins of the cubical she landed in, and swipes at the troll as she passes.
Howling in pain, it spins to follow her and brings its cudgel slamming into the wall that she'd come to rest on. Acting purely on instinct, Hermione launches herself over the Trolls arm. Then latches onto its back by digging a claw into the gap between the collar bone and shoulder blade to act as a pivot. Desperately, the troll tries to grab her as she brings her jaw up to the back of its head and, with a sound like a gun, her inner jaws pierce its braincase and it falls to the floor, dead.
Only a few minutes later, the other girls find her contentedly gnawing on a leg, and swiftly join in.