56 — Helping Friends
Castor ducked his head down, then took a fancy envelope out of his expanded coat pocket. He slid it across the table to the Prime Minister. "That is Princess Twilight's invitation to the Queen and her family. She wanted me to ask you to pass it on to her." He glanced down at the other envelopes.
"These are your invitations," he said sliding the four envelopes to their respective personages. "If there are any others you think should receive invitations, she said to contact the Embassy."
The Prime Minister pursed his lips. "I'll contact the Embassy about what protocols we will need to put in place. Pull some of the personnel from the Embassy in Canterlot for more direct information on what to expect from the Equestrians."
He nodded, thinking. "I'm sure there will be several others we want to personally invite." He smirked. "Perhaps the Yank and Russian ambassadors?"
Castor suppressed his own smile at the thought of tweaking the noses the two who had formerly been the acknowledged leaders of the world in space exploration.
Walker spoke up. "One thing we need to consider is how to reward our Special Investigators. They are integrating nicely into my department, and as soon as Colin's department finishes their training, I think they will be an invaluable aid there, too." He exchanged a glance with his foreign service counterpart. "The usual rewards of bonuses and time off just don't work for them. Most don't know what to do with money, they don't seem to understand the concept of personal possessions beyond a few trinkets, and they get quite uncomfortable and nervous if they haven't an assignment." He sighed. "I've been told by one of them that not having an assignment was usually a sign of a coming punishment from their queen, and I'm afraid they might interpret any suggestions we make regarding holidays and time off in much the same manner."
The meeting lasted another hour.
۸-_-۸
Saturday was the postponed game with the Hufflepuffs. Without Dobby's interference, the game was actually fun.
The Hufflepuffs put up a good fight, but between Gryffindor chasers and beaters — and Oliver's incessant practices — they were doomed from the start.
This time, there wasn't a rogue Bludger chasing Harry to break his arm and make him fall to the ground. Or, rather, the pitch, as the aficionados of the game called it. Nor was there a somewhat incompetent D.A.D.A. professor to take it upon himself to do the Hospital Matron's job and accidentally remove all the bones in Harry's arm.
There was only one more game to be had, and that was between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. With their previous win against Ravenclaw and Slytherin, this assured the Gryffindors of the Quidditch cup for the second year in a row! Oliver was beside himself with joy.
Elly shared his joy.
What made it better was that Gryffindor was in the lead for House Points, too!
The party in Gryffindor was going to be incredible. The Gryffindor ponies had gotten a bit used to how raucous the twins' parties were, but she was sure the party tonight would leave them slack-jawed.
This time, however, the Lings simply would use the undetectable expansion charm to make the small flasks they carried, which would be camouflaged to look like fizzy-drink bottles, double or triple the capacity for the total amount of love they expected to collect. No one would give them a second glance for having a fizzy-drink in hand!
No more cupboards and fearing discovery!
Plus, this time, Elly intended to hide one of her "liberated" landscapes, a small one, under a couch with one of the more . . . intense couples. It was one of the "book-walking locked" portraits — but you could move to one of those from another portrait. It was, after all, how they managed to get around the castle undetected!
She had already placed one of her other landscapes in the Forbidden Forest mini-Hive. The Lings in the mini-Hive all knew the book-walking spell, and would come into the landscape disguised as a "herd" of ponies from this side of the Portal. They would be able to harvest the love from the couples in the Gryffindor Room without anyone suspecting they were there!
This would be allow the Lings to build up a surplus both in the Hive, there, and for Elly and her three "cousins" to take home to, well, wherever the home was that the Goblins were securing for her. All seven jars left over from last year were currently sitting in her vault.
The ones they had collected so far this year were stored in their respective trunks, disguised as fizzy-drink bottles.
Which were a rather easy method of consuming the Love, too, when they needed it. No one gave them a second glance for having a fizzy-drink in hand!
The party that afternoon was everything she hoped for. While the Hive Lings barely collected enough to offset what they had used so far that day, it was still promising. It meant they didn't need to use any of their stores. It also boded well for the evening party.
It was too bad the Prefects were so diligent about the broom-closets. She had heard that there were special mirrors that let two people to talk, like the telephones she had heard of, but no wires and you could see the other person. She could get a bunch of those and post one of each pair in a broom-closet, on the ceiling, with a small landscape beside it. Then she could set up a wall in the Hive of the other mirrors and monitor when a couple went in. A Hive Ling could watch the mirrors, and then go to that landscape to safely harvest the excess love — until the couple was caught by a Prefect.
With a bit of luck, they might collect enough to support the Hive with that method alone, making the sporadic parties bonus.
Putting don't-notice-this charms on the mirrors and landscapes would prevent the house-elves, or anyone else, from noticing them and moving them.
The party that evening was even more productive for the Lings than the afternoon party had been.
Sunday, just as breakfast was ending, Elly walked around the end of the Gryffindor table over to where Harry was and asked if he would mind helping her and her cousins with a certain spell.
He had nothing better to do and quickly agreed.
It was rather anticlimactic, actually.
The fillies all knew how to teleport with their wands, they had practiced assiduously in Equestria over the summer.
Ginny and Scootaloo took off for some recreational flying as soon as they were outside. "I am determined to match Rainbow in some of her stunts," she said, and Ginny went along as a willing and supportive critic of her attempts. Hermione left for the library — she wanted to research what spells they needed to detect possessions, and the spells drawbacks. "Lockhart has to have only mentioned a two of the ones available," she said. "This was the second time this had happened to Harry," she declared, "and I am determined that it won't happen again!"
Harry proudly watched them leave, even if his expression didn't show it.
Unlike Saturday morning, Sunday started with only a light cloud cover that Harry could see would rapidly vanish as the day went on. So, accompanied by Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, he followed Elly and her cousins as they led the way around the lake.
They took their time, there was no reason to hurry.
Despite the light clouds the sun was warming up the grounds and lake, as the rapidly dissipating fog attested. The lake's giant squid waved a tentacle idly at a few low-flying birds. It almost looked like the squid and the birds were playing tag.
"How do you know we're far enough," he asked when they finally stopped in a clearing beside the lake.
Elly shrugged. "We asked the Seventh-year Prefects where the detection spells stopped, so we wouldn't accidentally wander into unsafe territory," she said, looking back in the direction of the castle. It was hidden by the trees, at this point. "They told us how far they reached." She grinned mischievously. "One of them suggested we check out a book in the library that dealt with detecting stationary 'freestanding' spells."
Earl, beside her, smirked. "It was a book on curse-detecting for aspiring Curse-breakers," he said.
"We checked this location out last October," Essie said smugly. "Not only can't we be seen from the castle, the trees hide us from anyone who isn't close enough for us to easily see them."
"The castle's spells peter-out about ten yards that way," Elly said, pointing.
Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked as impressed as Harry felt. "Any chance we can see that book when you're through with it?"
Elly smirked, "I thought you, or, rather Hermione, might be interested," she said as she took a book out of her rucksack and handed it to him. "Because you're teaching us this teleportation spell, I figured I should at least share this."
It was an old book, Curse Detecting and Breaking For Fun and Profit, its condition betraying that it clearly had been donated by a former curse-breaker.
Harry popped the book into his robe's inside-expanded pocket.
"So," he said, "Are you ready?"
Elly nodded nervously.
"Like I said last time, picture the spell matrix in your mind."
She nodded again.
He moved up in front of her and stood up on his tiptoes as she bowed her head to press his forehead against hers. She didn't close her eyes this time. For a moment he was confused, then he realized the other time they had been standing on an incline, and she had been at a lower level than he had been at.
Quickly enough he was studying the matrix and comparing it to his. They were an exact match. He stepped back. "Okay, now," he pointed at a tree. "Imagine you are beside that tree." He paused. "That is, you are beside that tree, not beside me. Make it real. Push your magic into the matrix, and let it go."
There were the soft, tinkling sounds of tiny bells, and Elly was standing by the tree. She stared at them, blinking. Then there were the sounds of bells, again, and she was beside Harry.
He grinned at her. "With enough practice, and more power as you get older, you won't have to hold your wand to do that. By the time you get to be an adult, you might not even need the wand, anymore." Then he frowned, thinking, "Unless that's something only the unicorn tribe can do . . .." his voice trailed off as he thought about it.
She was fairly bouncing with glee at her accomplishment. Her cousins were clapping their hands and praising her.
Harry turned to Essie. "Let's see how you are with your matrix."
"Me?" she squeaked, pointing at herself with one hand, and looking incredulous.
He nodded, and a minute later he was pressing his forehead to hers. Her image of the matrix needed a bit of tweaking, so he told her to work on it, like he had Elly the previous Sunday. Earl and Emmie received the same advice.
He reached into his pocket and took out several pages of parchment. He handed them to Elly. "These go into far more detail than I gave you, telling where the safety routines are, what each routine does, and how to disable a routine and what the risks are for doing so. If you disable them all, it is very possible to teleport inside a solid object, or leave parts of yourself behind." He pursed his lips. "My mum was worried that somepony could cause a tremendous explosion if one of their atoms coincided with another. However, when she did the numbers with the magic, she discovered that magic won't let that happen. They would simply be interposed between the other atoms in the object they intersected." He took a deep breath and let it out. "Death would probably be nearly instantaneous as the extra material would immediately disrupt your brain's connections." He paused and thought a moment. "If only part of your body intersected, you might be able to teleport out. But, then again, the teleport might consider whatever you intersected as part of your body and try to bring it with you. If it were something big, you'd be stuck, unable to teleport." He shook his head. "Obviously, no one wants to experiment with that, so, nobody really knows. So, don't disable all the safeties."
Everypony was staring at him in shock.
"Twilight never told me that!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed in horror.
He looked at her. "Would you ever want to experiment with the teleport?"
"No!"
He shrugged. "There you go," he said simply.
He looked back at Essie. "When you think they have the spell-matrix suitably memorized, we can do this again."
She slowly nodded.
Emmie and Earl both held up their hands, glanced at each other, and said, ""We're not ready, yet!""
"Well, we'll head back now," Harry said, starting to walk back to the castle. "The spell is a bit tiring, at first, so make sure to rest for a while after each teleport. There's no reason to push it, it's not like you can use it in the castle."
Sweetie Belle had been unable to teleport any distance at all here at Hogwarts, no matter how close the destination. He could, but he still didn't understand why. Everypony in the herd agreed that that was one secret they wouldn't share with anypony, as frustrating as they're being unable to do it was. Based on what had happened to Harry, twice now, having that secret could save his life — and possibly theirs.
"Plus, you'll have plenty of time to practice it over the summer."
Elly and the others nodded. "I'll take it easy," she promised.
The Hufflepuff girl was turning into an interesting person, he decided.
He gave a casual wave as they left her and her cousins behind, and headed back to the castle at a trot, not even really noticing he was now a pony.
There was a certain book in his pocket that he wanted to wander through.
As would all of his herd, he knew.
۸-_-۸
The next Friday, Elly approached Harry as the group was headed out of the Great Hall after breakfast and towards their first class of the day, D.A.D.A. As they walked, she said in a low tone, just barely loud enough for him to hear, "If you don't mind, would you be willing to help my cousins tomorrow after breakfast?"
He nodded genially, "Sure." There was a brief pause as they walked, then he said, "Oh, and thanks for that Curse Detecting and Breaking book. We're still going through it, and it has some really interesting techniques."
She nodded. "Yes, I thought so, too." She glanced at her cousin. "Earl seems to have picked it up rather easily." She gave him a small wave, "Well, I'll see you later," and headed off towards the Hufflepuffs first class of the day with the Slytherins.
He waved back and headed for D.A.D.A.. Moody had been shocked and surprised at them having started the Third-year material, already. Harry had been delighted at being able to show-up the misconceptions of the lackadaisical wizards and witches.
Moody, as a result of their progress, was determined to have them make it as far as they could in the Third-year textbook before exams. From what Harry could see, it wouldn't really be all that difficult.
In a change from their first two D.A.D.A. professors, he put his emphasis on doing the spells, not on the esoterica of the theory and history of each spell.
Harry thought it wouldn't take all that much time to teach the three Firsties, not if they had been studying hard on memorizing the spell.
He knew the Elly wouldn't let them slack off on that spell!
Just from having observed them over the last few months he had seen that Elly ruled the group with an iron hand.
Oh, they weren't hanging around her all the time, that would have been impossible given their different class schedules. No, they spent a great deal of time apart, probably only hanging out together in their common room when they weren't in the library — or outside on nice days — studying with their friends. Each seemed to have their own group of friends in the other Houses, surprisingly. They were much more sociable than he was.
But when Elly said anything, or even gave them a look, they quickly toed the line in following her orders, even if the verbal interactions sounded like off-the-cuff remarks, comments, or suggestions. Not to mention that more than once he had seen one of three suddenly start, stop, or change what they were doing or saying when she merely gave them a glance.
Except for that one incident earlier in the year, the Firsties never seemed to resent being governed by the Second-year Elly.
He would have suspected she had told them something via telepathy, but the only thing close to telepathy that the witches had was occlumency and legilimency, both of which required a spell, a wand, and direct eye-to-eye sight.
Very few Equestrian unicorns had ever mastered telepathy, not even his mum had! Although she might be able to if she decided she wanted to do it.
Ah, who was he kidding? It might take a few days, but she would do it. Her cutie mark practically guaranteed it!
In any case, Elly and her cousins were not Equestrian, so that couldn't be it.
۸-_-۸
After breakfast the next day, the group went back to the same place they had visited the previous week.
"So," he said as they arrived at the clearing by the lake, "Who wants to go first?"
After a moment's hesitation, Earl stepped up to him and leaned forward slightly.
Harry pressed his forehead against the other. He was impressed, the image of the spell-work was just as clean as it had been with Elly. He stepped back. "Excellent," he said approvingly, smiling. "Now, as I told Elly, picture yourself over there," he pointed to a tree at the other end of the clearing's shoreline. "You aren't here, you're there. You have to want to be there."
It took a bit longer than it had with Elly, but eventually, he succeeded. The bells were a bit louder than Harry was used to hearing, but that was all.
Then he moved on to Essie, and then Emmie. Both were a bit faster at picking it up than Earl, but not by much.
"Oh," he said, suddenly remembering. "Don't try this in the air."
They looked at him questioningly.
"My mum explained it to me," he said. "The witches say that trying to apparate while in the air is always fatal, in that the witch is never heard from again."
They slowly nodded. They had all heard that from the upper-years talking about learning how to apparate when they turned seventeen and could take the Hogwarts class.
"My mum talked with the muggle scientists and figured it out." He stopped looked at them. They were all listening intently. "The earth is rotating at about a thousand miles per hour at the equator, about 733 miles per hour here in Scotland, and orbiting through space at about 66,000 miles per hour. The sun and our galaxy are moving North at about 448 thousand miles per hour. So, in total, the earth is moving about eighty-eight miles per second through space."
They all nodded slowly, and Scootaloo looked ready to fall asleep.
"Well, the magic in apparition and disapparition are tied to the earth, and you move relative to those two fixed points. The problem is, if you are in the air, one of those two points is not fixed — and the spell doesn't take into account the Earth's motion through space. Plus, while apparition is nearly instantaneous, it really isn't, you have time to recognize that you are moving. That's why you feel the squeezing sensation that every witch or wizard mentions when you apparate. If it were instantaneous, you wouldn't have time to feel those things — it would be over. So, it takes time, maybe as much as a quarter or half a second — during which the earth moves twenty-two to forty-four miles . . . maybe only eleven." He stopped and took a deep breath, "Which, depending on the time of the day, means you could end up ten to twenty miles straight up in space, ten to twenty miles down in the ground . . . or at any angle from where you were, but ten to twenty miles from where you started." He paused. "Considering that we're in the Northern hemisphere, that usually means down, at an angle, into the ground."
They all looked a bit sick at the thought. Scootaloo was giving him a wide-eyed, horrified look. Apparently, she had been considering teleportation while flying.
"My mum said that her modified teleportation spell should be okay, but she doesn't want anyone else to try until she's had time to make sure the safeties will work in all circumstances. They work just fine in Equestria, meaning there you can teleport in the air. But things are different there. At the moment, she thinks only she and the Princesses can manage it in the air, here."
They nodded solemnly. "Right," Scootaloo said dryly. "No teleporting while flying!" She shuddered and they were all silent a moment in contemplation.
Scootaloo gave herself a shake, slapped Harry on the shoulder, and exclaimed, "Tag, you're it!" Then she teleported to the opposite edge of the little clearing, giggling.
For the next five minutes they combined teleporting and running — but no flying! — playing tag until they were too tired to continue.
Then they collapsed in a pony pile to catch their breath — at least the Equestrians did. The four humans arranged themselves around the ponies and began petting them and scratching their ears.
They talked a bit about school and their friends.
After a time of just relaxing in the sun, the ponies slowly got back on their hooves, and the people back on their feet. They were getting hungry and it was getting close to lunch time, only an hour or so away.
۸·_·۸
The week before exams, Hedwyg flew in at breakfast carrying a letter and landed in front of Harry. Harry had told Hermione, Ginny, and Ron that they could use his owl anytime they wanted, which meant any incoming mail was frequently for his friends. His mum would just have Spike send a scroll, if it was something important. Hedwyg appreciated not hanging around in the owlery doing nothing.
Surprised, he, quickly retrieved the letter, and handed the owl a banger. The girls all gave him questioning looks as he unrolled the large scroll.
"It's from Hagrid," he said, surprised. "He wants me to come visit him this afternoon after classes." He frowned and blinked his eyes. "He wants to see you fillies, too." He looked at the girls with raised eyebrows.
Varying degrees of surprise showed in their expressions, but Scootaloo summed it for them with a shrug and a simple, "Sure, why not?"
Then they turned their attention back to their breakfasts.
۸·_·۸
After their last class, Charms, they headed for Hagrid's hut.
It was a nice day, at the moment, to be outside. The morning rain had passed and it was now a bit warmer, overall, than the day before. The end of the semester was in sight, and they would head home for the summer.
Harry was quite looking forward to it — no witches or wizards always getting in the way with their absurd attitudes!
Both Ginny and Scootaloo changed to ponies the moment they were outside, and took off. Harry and the others were quick to change, too, and they raced each other towards Hagrid's hut. It felt really good to stretch his legs — running was quite a treat after sitting for so long in the classrooms.
Hagrid was outside, working in his large garden. Fang was sleeping beside the hut, basking in the sun.
Their thundering hooves woke the dog from his nap, and he quickly jumped to his paws. He was happy for the company, as always, and tried to tackle as many of the oncoming ponies as possible. They had had plenty of practice, though, and easily dodged around him.
Harry was still uncomfortable with dogs. His experiences with Marge's dogs, especially Ripper, still made him shy sharply away from any rapidly moving dog. Unfortunately, the fillies were a lot more accepting of the friendly dog, and he had to support them. Which cut down his opportunities to evade quite a lot.
"Down Fang!" ordered Hagrid as he made his way from the middle of his gardening area, although the line separating a garden from a farm was uncertain to Harry. Depending on whether he was a pony or a human, the definitions for both appeared markedly different.
Not that Fang listened much until Hagrid hauled him off Harry. This time Harry had managed to stay on his feet.
He wiped the dog-drool off his face, then said, "Hi, Hagrid!" The fillies had already greeted the half-giant.
"Come on inside and have a spot o' tea," the half-giant said, already heading for his hut's door.
They arranged themselves around the room. One interesting difference was the stack of six nested chairs he rapidly set out for them with a wave of his wand. They were a bit difficult to climb into for the children, but that was because they were set to the right height to fit at his table.
It was an unusual experience to be seated around his table instead of using his bed as a backless couch and sitting at the table with their chins nearly on the table top. It was a nice improvement. Harry wondered who had suggested it to him.
In a few short minutes, he was filling their cups with steaming tea.
"Think yer ready for exams?" he asked.
Harry grinned. "I think we're doing pretty well," he said glancing at the others, who mostly murmured their agreement or nodded. They spent the next few minutes discussing the classes, "D.A.D.A. is the worst, because Professor Moody is really putting the pressure on to make sure everyone passes," "History will be the easiest, we did most of that before Christmas," and "I think Sweetie Bell will have the worst time with Potions, although she has improved," were just a few comments.
Finally, after refilling their cups, Hagrid sat back and sighed. He looked at the fillies, pursed his lips, and then said. "I took yer advice, an' talked with Rosie." He reached over and pulled a book out from a bag hanging on a hook, Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches. "She told me some things, an' suggested I visit the bookstore and ask a clerk for a book on dating. He gave me this un."
He and the fillies all exchanged looks. Harry took a slow breath, and let it out just as slowly. "The best advice I can give you, Hagrid, is just be yourself." He glanced at the fillies, who were all nodding and agreeing.
"But don't spend the entire time talking about your pets or the animals in the forest," Hermione said earnestly, leaning forward. "Give her time to talk about herself, what she likes, too."
"Besides," Harry said, "You want to know what she's like to see if you like each other."
Scootaloo furrowed her brow and looked puzzled. "Have you met any witches to even take on a date?"
A hint of red became visible on Hagrid's face. "Rosie said she knew a friend who might like to meet me." He looked down at the tabletop. "We'll be havin' dinner there this evenin'."
"Good for you!" declared Ginny, firmly, nodding her head.
Sweetie Belle was giving him a critical eye, peering at him intently. "You want to make a good impression," she said. "So, make sure you're presentable! Make sure to take a bath and comb your mane . . . hair," she said, swiftly correctly herself.
The others nodded their approval of her advice.
"And make sure your clothes are clean, too. Maybe ask Professor Flitwick to check your wardrobe?"
Hagrid was pursing his lips and looking around the hut.
"Have you asked the Headmaster about improving your hut, here? Making it bigger, adding a kitchen with a coldbox?" said Ginny, looking at some of the smoked meats hanging in the rafters.
Hagrid smothered a grin — it was close to smirk.
۸·_·۸