84 — Embassy
"Sit quietly with your eyes closed," said Bright Star to Green Hoof, an earth pony. "Hold your hoof over the table while I hoof-spin it once. Let me know if you feel a pull. Don't move until I tell you that I've spun it once. Then you can drop your hoof when it seems to call to you the most."
Green Hoof nodded nervously. He'd been outside the Research Building late that afternoon, tending one of the trees when the two unicorns had marched up to him and asked if he would help them with a test — well, actually ordered him. Nothing harmful, they had assured him — it should only take a few minutes. It would not prevent him from enjoying Nightmare Night festivities when they started that evening.
The round metal table in front of him had twenty slabs of wood on it, each as wide as his hooves, with a short space between them.
"Just relax and hold your hoof loosely."
He nodded again, and closed his eyes.
Top Marks watched from one side, curious and hopeful that this would work. The human wand-maker, Ollivander, had finally given his approval on their hoof-made wands, which they had piled into a box in the corner of the room.
This was their first try at a custom wand.
It was on the third rotation that Green Hoof dropped his hoof on a piece of wood. It was rosewood, Top Marks saw.
The two ponies moved to the next table as the professor made notes and pulled out the box of prospective Rosewood wands.
"This is the same," said Bright Star, "Just sit and relax. Hold your hoof over the table while I spin it."
This table had twenty depressions, each filled with want looked like hairs, feathers, scales, and gem dust. One depression had one of Top Marks' tail hairs in it.
His hoof dropped on a feather-filled section.
It took both Top Marks and Bright Star to fill the third table with different lengths of feathers and rosewood. They had discovered, through trial and error, that there was a definite correlation between the length of a wand and its core. Once that was known, it was easy to make sure each pair in the depression on the table were correctly in tune with each other. It took only a few moments to complete pairing them.
For a third time, Green Hoof sat at a table as Bright Star slowly pun it by hoof. He was surprised to note that there was a difference between this table and the other two. While the first two tables' selections had had a faint, almost undetectable draw to them, the pull from each of the depressions on the third was much stronger and easier to discern, he told the two researchers.
This time it took four turns before he could tell that the pair under his hoof felt "stronger" than the rest.
Bright Star quickly snatched the two items and went to a fourth, smaller square table.
Green Hoof sat where he was. If the two unicorns wanted him to know something, they would tell him. In a short time, she cantered back to him, the feather no longer in sight. She carefully carried, on her back, a long, thin box filled with cloth that held the piece of rosewood he had chosen.
She slid the box onto the round table. "Pick up the wand," she ordered.
Shrugging, he did as he was told, tilting the box so the wand rolled out, then "grasping" it in his mouth by the slightly thicker end. He held it a moment and stared at her, perplexed. Later he would say he felt a warmth from the wand, as if from a friend giving him a hug.
"Give it swish," Bright Star urged eagerly.
He did as instructed — and dropped the wand in surprise as sparks shot from it across the table.
Bright Star and Top Marks danced in place.
"Pick it up, pick it up!" chanted Bright Star breathlessly.
He looked at the wand on the ground, then her, and then carefully, as if he expected to get a shock, picked it up. Nothing happened. He held it up again, and gave a big swing. Sparks again cascaded across the room.
Again, the two unicorns danced happily in place, then suddenly lunged against him and hugged him.
"It worked! It worked!" they both crowed in his ears as they danced in a circle with him in the middle, still hugging.
Bright Star let go and stepped back, as did Top Marks. Eyes wide in excitement, Bright Star said, "Hold the wand up and say lumos!"
Green Hoof almost dropped the wand a second time as the end lit up in a brief flash of light.
Smiling so far it had to have hurt, Bright Star said, "Congratulations, Green Hoof, you're the first earth pony ever to cast magic with a wand in Equestria!"
He dropped the wand. Then his jaw. Then passed out.
They woke Green Hoof up, still stunned at the achievement. Bright Star and Top Marks immediately tested if the sticking charm would interfere when they used it to hold the wand to his hoof. It didn't. Then they checked if there was a difference in which hoof he held the wand. There wasn't. He could even get the lumos to work with his hind hooves! Then they started practicing different spells.
The researchers grabbed the wizards' First Year Spell book and started working their way through it with Green Hoof. He could do all the simple spells. Trying to cast the spells following the directions in the book made him dizzy when he used his mouth to hold the wand, but they did work just as well as when he held the wand with his hoof.
They did discover that when he used a wand to channel magic, then anything related to his earth pony skills were much more powerful than they were normally.
It was considered, by everyone present, to be a grand achievement — and finding the correct wand took only a few minutes instead of a quarter-of-an-hour, or more, as Ollivander usually did.
They started celebrating at the Ponyville tavern when they went to dinner, shortly before the Nightmare Night festivities were scheduled to start. By the time they finally made it back to their rooms, very late at night and very drunk, all of Ponyville knew of their success — Green Hoof, and probably all other earth ponies and all pegasi could wield magic like unicorns. Numerous demonstrations and experiments in the tavern had proven it. One of the chairs was still stuck to the ceiling.
It was, everypony agreed, an eventful and momentous Nightmare Night. One that would go down in history. Not that Green Hoof and the two unicorns would remember it all that much.
By noon the next day the news had reached Canterlot. That evening, a horde of reporters had descended on Ponyville. And the portal was now front-page news.
۸-_-۸
Classes on Halloween were light. It was difficult for the younger students to concentrate as stories of previous years' feast's circulated and they speculated at what this year would be like.
To see how the entire Great Hall had been transformed was delightful. A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low, black clouds. They made the candles floating in the air, and in the pumpkins on all the tables, stutter and flutter. The pumpkins muttered and howled, at first, scattered down the tables with one every yard. Then they started telling ghost and bat jokes. Harry was impressed with their repertoire.
The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet, and they all began to dig in.
Professor Quirrell was not at his place, which was unusual, but the students didn't care.
They were partway through meal when several Slytherin witches suddenly squeaked, followed a few moments later by the wizards. Then followed an exclamation of "I'm a boy!" almost at the same time as another shouted "I'm a girl!"
Harry's first reaction, and most of the rest of the school's, was to laugh. Until a Ravenclaw wizard, suddenly grasped at his chest, wide-eyed. Startled, they had all examined the feast laid out before them, and the gasps and exclamations had rapidly spread across the room. Even the Head Table occupants were not spared.
People were frantically casting detection spells that came back negative. Whatever was doing this was not something that triggered the poison-detection spells.
Unfortunately, as everyone had just discovered, such detection charms were designed to find poisons. As in, substances that caused temporary or permanent harm to the ingestor. Temporarily changing one's gender, it seemed, was not considered a poison by those charms as it didn't impair or alter a person's ability to reason or function. Plus, except for the surprise of the change, it didn't emotionally manipulate them in any way, either.
Just as several of the more senior students were starting to get mad, and muttering angrily at the Gryffindor wizard twins, they reversed back to their normal gender. Within five minutes of the first surprised gasp, everyone in the room had spent at least some time as the opposite gender.
The First Year Slytherins and Gryffindors were laughing so hard at their table-mates that several fell off their seats. Once restored to normal, some of the other students began to laugh as well.
The relieved sporadic laughter continued a while until Professor Quirrell suddenly burst into the hall. He looked frightened, and his turban was askew. He rushed to Professor Dumbledore's chair and slumped against the table. He desperately gasped, "Troll — dungeons —" His eyes rolled up and he collapsed to the floor. He had fainted.
The hall erupted into panic.
Professor Dumbledore set off a cannon blast with his wand. "Prefects," he boomed into the stunned silence, "take your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"
Harry remained seated, as did the fillies, while all the other students jumped to their feet and started for the Great Hall doors. The four had had multiple experiences with dangerous animals in the Everfree Forest. Knowing a dangerous creature is wandering nearby, and then charging through the trees when you had no idea where the danger was, was a fool's choice. Better to hunker down until the danger made itself evident — then flee from death as fast as possible.
Percy cried out "Follow me! Stick together, first years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now." He quickly noticed that most of the first years were not moving.
"Well, come on," he said as a knot of students clogged the doors.
"NO!" Harry said firmly. "We don't know where the troll is. He could be around the corner or on the stairs! It's better to stay right here!" The fillies nodded agreement. The other Gryffindor First Years slowly sat back down.
The Gryffindor First Years reaction, or rather their obstinate inaction, drew the attention of the professors who were deciding their course of action at the Head Table. Professor McGonagall stalked over quickly. "Move," she said, "Get back to the dormitories!" She made pushing movements with her hands.
Half their number jumped back to their feet. Harry and the fillies remained seated.
Harry looked at his Head of House. "Do you know where the Troll is? Do you know he isn't somewhere other than the Dungeons? Where the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs are now headed to their sure deaths if he is in the dungeons? Or did he follow Professor Quirrell and we'll meet him on the way to the tower, to our sure deaths? We're safer here, together, in this Hall with all the teachers!"
Her eyes shot wide open. She immediately turned and fired off a double cannon-blast from her wand. Then she held her wand to her throat as her voice rang through the silenced Great Hall and into the corridors outside. "ALL STUDENTS RETURN TO THE GREAT HALL IMMEDIATELY! THE TROLL COULD BE IN THE HALLS! I REPEAT, ALL STUDENTS RETURN TO THE GREAT HALL IMMEDIATELY!"
The uproar grew even louder as students outside the hall returned and those inside stood frozen in indecision.
"Minerva!" said the Headmaster as he came to them, "What are you doing? I said all students to their dorms!"
"And the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs dorms are in the dungeons — where the Troll is supposed to be! Unless you want to take the chance the Troll will meet them on their way, they should stay here!" She put her wand to her throat and said, "ALL HUFFLEPUFF AND SLYTHERIN STUDENTS RETURN AND STAY IN THE GREAT HALL! ALL STUDENTS TO THE GREAT HALL! All Prefects, take House attendance immediately!"
By the surprised look on the Headmaster's face, quickly replaced with an expression of thought, he had not considered that the troll may have wandered from its original detection point.
The bedlam lasted for ten minutes before slowly settling down to a dull roar, the feast on the tables completely forgotten. By now, there were only a few professors left, gathered at the head of the Gryffindor table. The Headmaster and the others had all gone in search of the troll.
Professor Quirrell was rennervated and seemed displeased that he was the centre of a crowd, and that the Great Hall was as full of students as it had been when he had arrived. Professor Sinistra brought him up on what he had missed. He scowled and stuttered unintelligibly for several minutes before taking his seat at the Head Table.
Harry shook his head in dismay. That wizard had wanted to go with the Headmaster and the others to confront a basilisk? Incredible. He was just like one of the Flower sisters in Ponyville. Well, maybe not. At least he had gone to warn them instead of collapsing on the spot!
Attendance, to the great relief of all, had shown that all students were present and accounted for, with everyone taking their places at their proper House tables. A portrait had been dispatched to tell the troll-hunting professors.
The portraits had finally located the troll on the second floor, almost halfway up the castle from the dungeons. The Gryffindors or Ravenclaws might have met it on the way to their towers! The Headmaster and the Heads of House swiftly tackled the problem.
Professor Quirrell spent the entire time staring at Harry and the three fillies, scowling. Harry wasn't sure why; they had just acted in the safest manner possible. Besides, the professor had been unconscious, so he should be glad they had stayed. Otherwise, he would have awoken by himself in an empty room. And the wandering troll might even have found him before he woke up.
He should be grateful to them instead of scowling as if they had spoiled a secret plan of his.
It wasn't that much later when the Headmaster returned and took his place at the Head Table. "Well," he said jovially, "We seem to have had a rather Halloween-ish scare for the evening's entertainment, in addition to the wonderful gender-reversal prank provided by person's unknown." He had smiled at the twins, who promptly stood and bowed to him, and then to the room in general.
His smile had grown larger. "I don't think such a harmless prank deserves punishment, although I'm sure Professor Snape will want a full accounting of the potion-making process. Five points to each of you."
Said professor just scowled at them.
He gestured at the room in general. "Please, don't let a little excitement ruin your appetite. Dig in!"
It took a few minutes, but soon the room was back to the happy and excited atmosphere it had had before the prank and Troll. Except for their DADA professor who still wore a sour expression.
Naturally, the talk of the room was how a troll could have slipped inside the wards. Why hadn't the protective charms detected it and prevented it from doing so? Harry wondered how such a possibility had escaped Twilight's spells?
He shook his head and returned to his treacle pudding. Bon Bon, he was sure, would send the Princess a letter later tonight.
۸-ꞈ-۸
Albus stared at the muggle Friday Times newspaper, completely befuddled. There, for all the world to see, was a picture of Princess Sparkle and Prince Blueblood. With their names listed — and odd hair colouring. Standing with them were muggle Prime Minister and the Home and Foreign Secretaries. They were announcing the opening of the Equestrian Embassy, a foreign country on the other side of a portal! Plus, they mentioned that there were other nations there that would be introduced soon, as well.
The imposing marble building behind them was listed as being in Little Whinging, Surry.
He felt his stomach drop at the implications. There could be no mistake about that. It was not a coincidence. The "portal" Princess Sparkle had mentioned and the portal in the news-story had to be one and the same.
Were they bloody barmy? This completely ignored the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy! No, it didn't ignore it, it destroyed it! The repercussions when the rest of the world learned about wizards and witches would ruin them. The Islamic world, a quarter of the world's population, would go into a frenzy. As would the Christians, a third of the world's population, albeit to a lesser degree.
True, there were some societies that were more welcoming, such as the Japanese. But they made up less than two-percent of the world's population. For all intents and purposes, all the muggle societies feared and hated wizards and witches.
This announcement would make the witch-hunts of the Middle Ages look like a friendly neighbourhood party! It would be a repeat of the wizard genocides committed by the communist Chinese and Russians, only much, much larger.
This completely destroyed the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy! This was a disaster of monumental proportions. Plus, being in such a prestigious muggle newspaper, and on muggle radio as the article mentioned, there was no way the Ministry Obliviators could wrap this story back up as a joke or fraud — not with that enormous building in the background that anyone could visit and see. The international editions were already being delivered across the world, he knew, meaning it wasn't even just the English Isles that received the news. It would be impossible to obliviate the entire world!
There was even the announcement of a ball on Saturday next at the new Embassy, with every foreign ambassador in England invited.
This exposed the Atlanteans to the muggles in the largest way possible — and it had happened on British soil! He needed to talk with Princess Sparkle as soon as possible. No, he needed to talk with Miss BonBon and Miss Heartstring, first!
But one thing puzzled him. The Equestrians stated that their appearance on the other side of the portal was different, that their native appearance was not as people but as ponies — with included pictures of the six types of ponies. There was a different man or woman standing by each to give a bit of scale. Three were Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity.
That was what made him sit back and think, and re-read the article. Why would they claim to be ponies, first? What did that mean to the Statute of Secrecy?
The major saving grace — that he could see after re-reading the article — was that the word "magic" was never used by those five, or any official quoted. Instead, they called the Equestrians' abilities an advanced "technology." While some of those involved referred to the re-growing of lost limbs by amputee soldiers as "like magic," nowhere did anyone claim it was magic.
In fact, the Equestrians, and the British government, insisted it was an advanced form of technology. Just one of many technologies that they were more than willing to share — including a cure for many cancers. A fair exchange for ideas and earth technologies that they had never considered — things like the telephone and television. Plus, they were delighted by the variety of art and culture they saw in this new world. If anything, they were more enthused about that than anything else, according to the article.
Rarity had apparently gone on a long and enthusiastic rant about how the fashions they were seeing would ". . . revolutionize Equestrian society."
The Statute of Secrecy held that wizards and witches should not disclose the existence of magic. It did not say you couldn't live among muggles, or all the muggle-born families would be in violation of it. Neither could wizards live in non-magical communities such as Godric's Hollow or Ottery St Catchpole.
But based on the pictures in the article, it certainly was magic at work. Just from the descriptions given by the volunteers he could see the use of Skele-Gro, dittany, a blood-replenishing potion, and muscle healing spells at work.
But the medical cures were all described as being technological in basis and action. Not magic. They were quite emphatic that it was advanced technology, as yet unknown to humans, at work.
The volunteers also insisted that they had been participating in a test of the technology at a government facility in England. They, too, never mentioned the word magic, except that it was magic-like how the new devices and medicines had cured them. The article declared a new medical renaissance was about to sweep across the world. No longer would losing a limb be a life-altering event. Instead, it would be a mere inconvenience.
A companion article to the main article waxed poetic on the mere existence of the portal. The article said the portal was giving their physicists a new understanding of the universe and how it worked. The scientists anticipated the discovery of a working star-drive engine in the next ten years. And the possibility of instantaneous travel to a star with a portal once the starship arrived at its destination. "The universe is at our fingertips!" the article declared.
There was a philosophical article that dealt with the ramifications of another intelligent race out in space. What it meant that man was not alone. Then there was how that one simple fact might affect different religions on the planet, especially those that claimed man as the favourite of their god. After all, here were aliens who clearly were superior in many ways to men. They were also inferior in others — no hands in their native world!
There were many quotes from major leaders of the major religions. Complicating the issue was that the aliens professed to know of gods, but did not worship them. That was a major revelation. Some saw it as an opportunity, others as blasphemy.
But by presenting themselves as ponies, they defused the whole problem with the various religions telling their followers to abhor magical humans. Any muggle seeing a pony wielding magic would not think to look for a wizard or witch.
The Equestrians blamed their appearance on the portal. They claimed it changed them when they went through to look like humans, to better blend in with the majority intelligent species on Earth. They provided pictures from their native world to prove it.
But Albus was focused on the magical aspect. How would the wizards and witches perceive this?
Perhaps he had time to begin damage control. He could only hope so.
The English Ministry of Magic wasn't the sharpest of tools at the best of times. They wouldn't notice this announcement, if ever, until someone brought it to their attention.
Forcefully.
Such as the ICW sending a delegation demanding action about this grievous blow to the Statute of Secrecy! Then publicly reprimanding England, with a suitable punishment to follow.
However, as the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, he could stall any such actions for a time. They had never had to contemplate such a massive display of magic — only the Yankees in twenty-six had ever come even close to this degree of disclosure. That had been because of an obscurial. They had been saved from ruin by a fortuitous intervention of a thunderbird and someone who could control it.
He just had to figure out how to defuse the situation without jeopardizing his position. He needed an explanation to protect England.
The Unspeakables in the Ministry probably knew, but what they would do was uncertain at the best of times. Most were too wrapped up in their own research to care about the outside world. To most of them, the Ministry was just a building they had to walk through to get to work. Being exposed to the muggles wasn't something that was usually their concern — until the Minister brought them into it.
But the longer he thought on the matter, the better the situation became. In fact, as he considered it, it was quite clever of the Atlanteans. They claimed to be from another world — as if there was really another world that supported life!
And the gullible muggles had accepted that explanation!
۸-_-۸