51 — Deflecting Attention

Harry didn't expect to see his mum until late today. He knew she would be the one at the portal helping the ponies who crossed to revert to the pony forms. It would be much easier for them to be ponies than spend hours and hours practicing walking on two legs before going to Hogwarts. However, he was sure Applejack, Dash, and Rarity wouldn't miss the opportunity to check on their sisters. Scootaloo's aunts might visit, but they also just might ask Dash to convey their concern. That Molly and Arthur would show was a given. Hermione's parents, too, would love the opportunity to see the castle.

Supporting his herdmates would help take his mind off his . . . concerns. He was Harry, and Harry looked out for his herdmates — nothing else mattered. Without the fillies he knew he would be dead. So, he would live for the fillies and girls. If he followed their lead, then he didn't have to worry about Tom.

He blinked, staring at his empty plate.

That was his solution. He didn't need to worry about being Harry or Tom or Harry-Tom. They would be his measuring stick. His guide-phrase would be, "What would the girls do?"

Unless they were threatened. Then the guide-phrase would be, "Whatever it takes to keep them safe." No holds barred. Or was it, no spells barred?

Yes, he nodded too himself. Just as they had saved his life, they would save his soul.

He looked up from his plate to the Hufflepuff table, or, more specifically, Elly. He needed to talk with her. She seemed to be quite . . . sensitive to important events.

First, last year, and then again this year, she had noticed things that had slipped by everyone else. He and the others in the herd should have realized that her concerns regarding the Dark Trio had to involve the Diary. He needed to thank her, and properly

He felt so stupid for not realizing that the odd behaviour she had noted had to be the Diary. If they had told her about the books, she probably would have made the connection immediately. They had been too close to the problem — they couldn't see the trees for the forest.

He would make sure to give her the complete set before they left for the summer.

She didn't seem to want to join his herd — thank Celestia for small miracles! Still, he would let her know that if she needed any help, in any way, he and the girls would be ready to assist.

It was odd that she wasn't interested in visiting Equestria, but then again, she and her cousins came from the other side of the world. England, by itself, was probably enough of an adventure for them.

He should invite her to join them in their spell practice. Her background might give them a different way to look at what they were doing. She might suggest things they hadn't thought of trying or doing.

Then everyone was getting up and the Prefects were organizing them for the trip to the Common Rooms.

A little judicious use of his mum's don't-see-me spell at one of the "secret" passages to the seventh floor saw the entire herd left behind.

"Quick," he whispered, "in here," and led them into an empty room. He closed the door and put a weak "witch-aversion" spell on it to discourage anyone looking for them.

He turned and looked at the others, who were watching him with curious looks. "Well," he said, a bit sheepishly, "How do we want to do things today? I mean, obviously my mum, Rarity, and Apple Jack don't need a tour of the castle. Neither do Ginny's parents. Hermione's parents have never been here, though, and probably want to see everything. The same for Scootaloo's aunts."

Hermione sighed. "Plus, we don't know when anyone will show up."

"Whomever arrives first, we can spend some time talking about what we've learned since Spring Break," Apple Bloom suggested looking around hopefully. "Maybe the other's will show up while we're doing that?"

"Well, if it's Scootaloo's aunt's, the fillies can show them how they look as humans. Maybe help them change back and forth and get a feel for what it's like. That'll certainly take some time," Hermione suggested.

"And if the Hermione's parents get here first, we can show them the Gryffindor Common Room, and Scootaloo will know to check there first," Sweetie Belle said.

After a few more minutes discussion, they decided to just go with the flow of circumstances. They headed for the front doors, but quickly realized they wouldn't make it past the Prefects waiting for the parents, to direct them to the different Common Rooms. They ended up sneaking out of the castle using the door to the Greenhouses, then transforming into ponies to run, and fly, around the castle to the road to Hogwarts' Gates.

It was a wonderful Scottish Spring day. Harry knew, though, even if it hadn't been such a nice day to begin with, Scootaloo and several of the other pegasi would have quickly cleared the skies over the castle for such an important thing as a visit by everypony's parents.

Already, they could see a stream of parents in the distance making their way up the road to the castle. The parents were usually couples walking together; sometimes with their other, younger children. Rarely, they were with a child that had managed to escape the Prefects.

۸-_-۸

It didn't take too long for the four Lings to finish their preparations. They snuck out of their dorm using the landscape painting above Elly's bed — after using the notice-me-not spell so no one saw the other three going into Elly's dorm room. The other landscape was hidden in a closet on the ground floor not far from the door to the outside that led to the greenhouses.

It only took a few minutes to hide their emotion containers, with each Ling taking two floors. Then they used the door that led to the Greenhouses to go outside when they finished, to avoid all the Prefects at the front doors to the castle.

Soon, the Lings were about a quarter of the way down the road to Hogsmeade, halfway to the Gate House and just past Hagrid's Hut. The Forbidden Forest was as close to the road as it ever got, as was the "Lookout" tunnel of the mini-hive. But they strolled along the road, not even looking at the Forbidden Forest, so that Hagrid wouldn't think they were trying to sneak into it. They were far enough away, they hoped, to not draw attention.

Not that he would notice them. Elly could easily see the thirty-nine First-year ponies who were pronking, and bouncing by the gates, and whirling overhead in anticipation of seeing their parents and showing them the school. A number of younger human students were with them, having managed to elude their respective Prefects. The older students were "more mature," in their own minds, too dignified for such a childish display of their emotions. They remained in their Common Rooms.

As soon as she detected her, Elly was stunned when she discovered that Elsie was the only Ling in the mini-hive! Elsie gave Elly a quick recap. The three Lings in the mini-hive had known something was happening in the castle — the massive spike in fear and terror had easily reached them. However, in leu of a call from Elly, they had remained in place and alert for a possible trouble . . . until they had received the message from Brunton that a "clear the Hive" alert had been called.

The Humans had pulled nearly all the Lings in Brunton into the manhunt for a missing and dangerous wizard!

Elsie had only a limited experience in Infiltrating, having spent most of her time outside the Hive pretending to be either a bird, dog, or cat. Interacting with Humans was a rare event, so she had remained in the event Ellie tried to contact the mini-hive. One Ling missing out of hundreds would be unnoticed. The others had hastened back to Brunton to prevent any suspicions that a Ling might be missing.

Then Elly brought Elsie up-to-date on what had happened in the castle.

"I'm sorry . . . Elly," Elsie was finding it difficult to refer to her Queen so familiarly. "But we saw no students or adults leave the castle yesterday. If . . . Goyle . . . left the castle, it was by one of the secret tunnels far enough away from us to go undetected." She paused. "Based on what you've said of Tom Riddle, he probably didn't even leave the tunnel, he just followed it outside the school boundaries and teleported."

Elly sighed. "I thought as much." She looked down the road towards the Gates. "And the humans have deployed almost all the Lings to the airports and ferry locations?"

She felt Elsie nod. "They rousted us at midnight, and gave us the information on Goyle and Riddle, along with pictures, the messenger said. We are paired with the Special Technology officers all over the country, and most of us were to be in position before dawn in every location. Almost every Ling they could, they used." She shook her head. "They only left behind twenty-three as unsuitable to send out. They had had the elast contact with Humans and thus were prone to too many mistakes."

Elly was surprised. While easily almost eight out of ten Lings had made the transition to Infiltrator status, and were training with the humans, that was because surviving outside the hive in a hostile Equestria after the failed Canterlot attack had greatly reduced the . . . more specialized . . . Lings. Nearly one-third were considered too old or unsuitable by the humans for a variety of reasons — mostly not being very good at imitating humans. They couldn't seem to completely internalize the needed behaviours, and made many mistakes that would ruin any infiltration they were assigned. To put it nicely, they also weren't what one would call quick at understanding any given situation. Some of the ones she had met in the Hive before the invasion she doubted could reliably finish any task that wasn't their specialty without being confused unless it was very simple. That hadn't really mattered in the old hive, though.

Most of those had perished rather quickly after Canterlot.

Of course, the original number Debby had given her didn't count the new Lings that had been arriving for the last few months. There hadn't been a reason for her to want to know, it wasn't her responsibility. Debby's earlier numbers had been a drastic understatement when they made an actual count last weekend.

In a situation where any tiny mistake could end in disaster or death, either others or their own, those Lings simply couldn't be trusted out of the hive. The human government also didn't want to attract any attention to the Lings. They must be truly desperate to dive that deeply into the numbers, leaving out only those who would require far too much supervision to be effective.

However, pairing them with magicals, and explaining that they were Equestrians, would help cover for any mistakes the more borderline Lings made. Or so the Humans hoped.

Elly was impressed that Debby had managed to hide the fact that there were Lings absent from Brunton and hiding in Hogsmeade long enough for all but one to return.

"I think they are underestimating Riddle," Elly said with a sigh. "If he had any sense at all, he would act just like any other non-magical. His information may be out of date, but he has lived in that world and knows the mannerisms that will and won't draw attention — better than many of our Infiltrators! If he is a good enough actor, he could submerge himself in his role as an average person travelling." She snorted. "He certainly fooled everyone in Hogwarts into thinking Goyle wasn't possessed. If he has the discipline, he could hide his emotions behind a wall of being someone concerned only with their own business.

"Without broadcasting anxiety, fear, or any other emotional triggers, he would be difficult to detect," Elsie opinioned.

"He wouldn't cast any magic unless absolutely necessary. The one thing he is certain to do is to cast an illusion that he is an adult, probably a random person he saw on the street," Elly said.

"In short, if he is at all competent, he could walk right by one of us and we'd never notice him." She again shook her head. "I'd be surprised if he hasn't already slipped out of the country. I would have been on the first plane leaving England in any random direction before noon, yesterday."

Elis changed the topic took a deep breath and let it out. "Next, Abby thinks she found a house in Hogsmeade." She shared her visions of the building and its layout. Its dirt basement floor, an unattractive feature to most Wizards and witches, would be perfect for the Lings. They could connect a tunnel directly from the house to the Forbidden Forest base, small as it was, and thence to one of the other secret tunnels that riddled the castle.

Elly agreed. It seemed to be a reasonable location. She would send an owl to the Goblins to see about purchasing it under a fake name.

"Before the emergency last night, the Humans didn't suspect any Lings are missing?"

"The four of us here were declared 'unsuitable' for espionage work." Elsie said wryly. "They still don't seem to understand that a Ling will do what she's told. The other three here were farmers and they are scared of the humans. I've . . . gotten used to humans. As far as the government is concerned, they think we are on housekeeping duty somewhere inside the hive with the other "unsuitables."

"Excellent. I've discovered that there is a trunk-maker in Diagon Alley selling trunks linked by Floo. This summer, I'll get two. One we can keep at Brunton, and the other here. That should make things much, much easier."

It would, too. No more time-wasting long flights to throw-off suspicions. They could move Lings back and forth at their leisure. No one would guess the Ling they were seeing in the Brunton Hive had been in Scotland just a few minutes ago. She could even have Essie, Ellis, and Earl each purchase a set. That way they could have three locations in Brunton, so no one trunk got all the traffic. It would also let them have a trunk in the de Rippe House — when it was ready.

Elly shared a bit more of what they had learned this last week in Hogwarts for Abby to share with the other Brunton Lings later. With the instruction that the most accomplished infiltrators were to practice the wand movements and incantations. They would be getting wands this summer and she expected them to be proficient in all the basics.

However, they needed to modify what they had planned for the next two days. Elsie would have to impersonate their Matilda . . . unless Matilda showed up! Elsie was to exit the Hogsmeade tunnel, as a dog or cat, and look for the woman — Elly made sure Elsie had a clear and accurate image of Matilda! She should be here easily before noon. If she wasn't, Elsie was to imitate her and Elly would monitor her closely so she always knew what to do, if that became necessary.

Elly stopped and looked at Hagrid's hut. Hagrid wasn't there, of course. He was at the Hogwarts Gates, waiting to let in the human and pony parents.

That entire conversation with Elsie had taken only a few moments.

Whatever the situation was with Riddle, it was out of her hands. If he had fled the country — most likely — there was nothing she or her Lings could do. If he hadn't fled, then only constant vigilance would be the correct answer. They would have to wait to see if they could find him first, or if he acted out against the magicals or them.

The Lings had moved to the Gates where the crowd of ponies and students were standing and excitedly waiting to see their parents. Elly and the other three made a point of waving to the parents as they passed, and said they were waiting for their own relative to arrive.

Naturally, they planned on soaking up ambient love from the pony reunions when the pony parents arrived, too, in the meantime.

It was worth waiting for the ponies to arrive, given how much more effusive they were than the humans. It was almost as good as when the Hogwarts train returned to King's Cross Station at the end of term. Only it would be longer, more sustained, and over a smaller area. They wouldn't lose out on any simply because they were too far away.

Unfortunately, for the Humans, most of those reunions would take place in the Common Rooms, and the Lings were cut off from three of the four. Hence their concentrating on the ponies here at the Gates.

They would need a few more jars, Elly realized. They might be able get an entire year's worth of love for the four Lings just from the next two days. The extra beyond their immediate needs would, of course, be put in stasis for emergencies.

The Brunton Hive Lings had their own supplies, and any dipping into those by four at Hogwarts might be noticed. Although, it really shouldn't be that difficult for the gatherers to reserve a bit of what they had collected from the official tally. But, still, it would be better to save that option for later, if it was ever needed. No reason to take chances, now, when they didn't have to do that.

In the meantime, she planned out the letter she would send the goblins for the house in Hogsmeade. She wondered if she could get the goblins to teach her apparition instead of waiting another four years?

Maybe she could ask Harry about that teleport spell he had used in the Great Hall? If he could do it, and she knew he could, from what she had heard in Ponyville — then they should be able to do it, too. It would be a powerful tool in the future. Especially for her Lings working for the government. No one would ever suspect they could use "wizard" magic as easily as the "official" Technical Specialists. Especially given that the Lings had been very upfront with the government that most Lings' skills with Equestrian magic were on par with what the average unicorn mastered. Teleportation was one skill only the most advanced of their unicorns and Infiltrators could master. Plus, it was very much a short-range skill only, for most of those who could do it. Short-range as in only a few tens of miles, not hundreds!

Only their Queen-mother had had skills that approached those of the wizards — and she had usually relied on simple brute-force instead of finesse. Elly had promised herself that with the magic provided with wands, she would never resort to such unwieldy tactics. Subtle was soo much better.

Elly was curious how he had done it in the Great Hall, though. It was supposed to be impossible to use apparition on school grounds. That would come in handy if she and the Lings could do it, too. Even if it was a cut-out that Princess Twilight had put in just for the ponies, the teleport would be useful outside the school. Obviously.

She wondered if a Ling would be able to use her magic abilities to hide a wand in one arm, like they used to do with other things in the holes in their legs? They could still cast with their innate horns, but it was so much harder and their spell repertoire was so much smaller. Which made a wand extremely attractive and versatile to use. If they could hide one in one of their arms, it would be impossible to find by anyone, magical or not, without a special wand-detecting charm — and yet it would still be instantly available.

She didn't know if there was a wand-detecting charm, though. She would have to scour the library. Plus, see if there was an anti-summoning charm they could permanently cast on their wands so that they wouldn't have to worry about that being issue even when they had their wands out.

۸-_-۸

Harry had to admit, he was not surprised that one of the first couples rushing up the road from the gates were Arthur and Molly Weasley. They, along with the dozen or so other couples behind them, must have been waiting at the gates for Hagrid to open them!

He was surprised that the thestral carriages weren't being used.

"Ginny!" Molly loudly called as soon as she saw them, and almost ran to the group. The others quickly stepped away from Molly's victim, abandoning the girl to her fate. At the last second, Ginny tried to evade what she knew was coming, but it was in vain.

Her mother picked her daughter up into a hug, showering her with kisses as her husband caught up and gave them all a careful look. "I was so worried!" she exclaimed.

"Mom!" Ginny belatedly complained, squirming as she struggled to escape, which made her mother hold the pegasus that much tighter. After a few more moments of theatrics, Molly grudgingly allowed the girl to return to the ground. Ginny pouted at her treatment.

"Now, Molly," Arthur said consolingly as his wife carefully inspected Ginny for any signs of bruises or cuts. "The Headmaster assured us that none of our children were harmed."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Ginny said quickly. "But you might want to see Ron and the twins. They were in the thick of it!" She clearly was more than willing to throw her siblings under the bus if it saved her from her mother's overbearing attention. "They're all waiting for you in the Common Room," she concluded.

Her father raised his eyebrows, just as clearly seeing what she was attempting to do.

"Ronny? The twins?" their mother gasped, staring up at the castle. She snatched up the small pegasus a second time, hugged and kissed her again, then set her down. She gave her daughter a quick glance, then looked at the rest of them. She nodded. "Well, stay out of trouble, dear."

She turned and started off for the castle with a hurried stride. "Come alone, honey." She called over her shoulder.

Arthur smiled at them, "I'm glad none of you suffered any injuries," he said kindly, then hurried off after his wife.

Ginny looked at the others, who were all not-too-successfully hiding smirks, and huffed. She glanced at Scootaloo and smirked. "Race you to the gates," she said, flapping and lifting off the ground, already starting to turn.

Scootaloo squawked out a "Hay! You cheater," and leapt into the air, beating her wings hard to catch up to the other, quickly accelerating, pegasus.

Harry and the other three just shook their heads and started down the road.

They met several other couples as they headed down the gates. The wizards and witches gave the ponies an evaluating, curious glance, but didn't slow down or stop to talk. They did nod as they passed, though.

They weren't people any of them recognized. Not surprising since the only parents they had met were all their year-mates, and, as Hermione put it, "Most of them seem more concerned about their dignity than their children."

That was an attitude the fillies still had a hard time wrapping their minds around.

Harry was surprised, at first, to see Elly and her three cousins already at the gate. However, on reflection, maybe it wasn't that much of a surprise. Elly was surprisingly on the ball, despite her appearing to be in the middle of their year, academically. He had to smile at the thought that while she might not be the smartest in class, she had what he had heard other kids in primary call street-smarts. From what he remembered; they claimed that street-smarts frequently trumped book-smarts. Knowing how to fight versus knowing when to simply run.

Ginny and Scootaloo had been sucked into a pegasus game of some sort, which seemed to be who could spot and name the Equestrians on the road to Hogwarts, first. Of which the very first group had just reached the gates.

Just as Harry had expected, the Equestrians were all ponies. Their escort of six EUP guards probably shouldn't have surprised him as much as it did — it only made sense considering how unfamiliar with the world the pony parents were. As soon as the ponies passed onto Hogwarts' ground, three of the guards turned and headed back to Hogsmeade.

All the guards were wearing mini-gun saddle-harnesses, with a six-barrelled gun on each side of the saddles. Oddly, to Harry's eyes, there didn't appear to be a box of ammunition. He wondered if the ammunition boxes were hidden using witchery expanded-spaces. The barrels were shorter, too, barely reaching their shoulders. Wouldn't that be a hazard? Did the barrels telescope forward when used?

In any case, the new arrangement made each team of three ponies a veritable powerhouse. Anyone crossing one of the EUP would immediately regret the experience for the rest of their extremely short lives.

Harry doubted anyone who saw the guards would realize just what they were seeing.

The sergeant looked around at the clustered foals whose parents weren't in the group that had just been brought over. The Pegasus guard had already taken off for the foals flying overhead.

It took only a few moments for all the ponies to be on the ground, perched on the roof of the gate house, or on the walls to either side of the Gates.

"Alright," the sergeant bellowed loudly. "We'll be bringing your parents over in groups. We expect all the parents to be here in the next two hours. The next group will be here in thirty minutes. It would be better, and more efficient, if you waited at the castle."

"Aww," came the disappointed responses of the gathered ponies.

The sergeant frowned as he looked them over. "However, you are all old enough to make your own decisions. If any of you decide to wait here, which I guarantee will be very boring, stay out of the way of the other parents who will be arriving. They are all as anxious to see their foals, as you are to see your parents. That is all."

The ponies were exchanging guilty looks. Most hadn't considered that.

The sergeant walked over to Harry. "Princess Twilight said I might see you here. She told me to tell you that she doesn't expect to be able to come, herself, until noon, at the earliest."

Harry nodded. "That's what I expected," he said quietly.

The sergeant nodded at him approvingly, and turned to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. "Your sisters are helping organize things and expect to be here before noon." He turned to Scootaloo, "Your aunts and parents should be in the next group."

Having delivered the messages he had been given, he looked over at the adults. "Gentlestallions and gentlemares, children, if you are ready?" At their nods of ascent, he nodded to his compatriots and started trotting off up the road to Hogwarts, saying, "If you'll follow me, please?" The Pegasus Guards took up station circling overhead while the Earth-pony followed the group so they didn't lose any stragglers to curiosity t the surroundings, and forest.

Most of the pony students went with him. They would wait at the castle.

The parents were caught between staring around at the new world, and their hyperactive foals clamouring for attention and desperate to show their parents everything about the castle that they had learned in the last nine months. From the sounds of it, the slides were very popular.

"On our left," the sergeant continued, "the cottage you see is the home of the human who let us through the gates, Rubeus Hagrid, behind it is the Forbidden Forest."

The Half-giant was staring at all the ponies with a big smile.

A good portion of the waiting pony students turned and followed the guards, including one of Elly's cousins. The pegasi returned to flying, but most seemed to be headed to the castle. They probably would lurk around the front doors instead of going to their Common Rooms.

The sergeant's voice slowly faded out as he gave the parents a summary of the creatures found in the forest — to many gasps — and that it was off-limits to all students. There was a collective shudder from the parents when he mentioned the centaurs. He made sure to add that even the parents should not enter the forest without one of the Hogwarts' Professors or an EUP escort.

Harry glanced at his herdmates. "I think we should stay here and help Hagrid," he said. The girls looked a bit sceptical. He shrugged. "Maybe show the others the Dancing Feet Spell? Or one of the other Shield Spells to keep them from pestering Hagrid too much?" he said looking at Hermione. Hermione was only paying him part of her attention. She was looking at the open iron gates and worrying her lower lip in anxiety waiting to see if her parents would soon be here.

However, she perked up at his suggestion. After a moment to think, she called out to the small group of ponies left, "Who knows the Dancing Feet Charm? Who would like to learn it?" In short order, she had the eight ponies surrounding her, transformed back to children with their wands in hand, slowly copying her wand movements.

Most of the Pegasi were still circling overhead, looking for their parents.

Sweetie Belle joined her a moment later.

Ginny and Scootaloo had already returned to coasting above and watched both the village and the castle.

And, of course, to just enjoy flying.

۸-_-۸