Sequel to the Harry Potter fanfic Kaleidoscopic Grangers written by AdmiralPegasus. It follows the next generation of the children of the previous main characters, as well as many original characters.
The main characters of the first part, "Flock Together
," are Persephone Granger-Weasley, the trueborn werewolf daughter of Ron and Hermione, Dominique Weasley, a part-Veela, and Vanya Stryde, a young vampire introduced in The Woes of Ectothermy. Additionally, the supporting cast includes friend of Persephone's Alpin Faughn. It is described in its summary as "an original story using Potter as fertilizer, not fanfiction." Unlike Kaleidoscopic Grangers, it follows multiple point of view characters and has an episodic format.
Link here.
Tropes:
In General
- Adaptation Name Change: A very minor one in the example of Vanya; in The Woes of Ectothermy, her middle name is given as Matilda, but in Birds of a Feather it is spelled Mathilda.
- Animal Theme Naming: Tegyd's name is a unisex? Welsh name (a variant of Tegid) meaning "doe-like beauty" or "beautiful doe." Female goats are called does, befitting the fact that the species of centaur making up half her lineage are derived from goats, not horses.
- Badass Longcoat: Though Ariadne adopted this outfit for teaching late in the Kaleidoscopic Grangers epilogue section, this is her near-constant outfit in Birds of a Feather since she's almost always only seen in her context as a teacher. Ariadne wears a long burgundy coat (that looks black to Persephone due to her colourblindness) over her black dress, which has pockets that are Bigger on the Inside.
- Badass Teacher: Ariadne Granger has a very different vibe from the perspective of others than her own; where she is quite anxious and humble in her own life in Kaleidoscopic Grangers, in Birds of a Feather the fact she is in fact incredibly powerful is keenly felt, and when she is introduced Dominique thinks that the word "witch" isn't sufficient to describe her and that perhaps Grand Sorceress or Archmage suit her better. Despite trying to just be a teacher in Kaleidoscopic Grangers, her reputation as an incredibly powerful individual follows her so much that Persephone can smell how much magic surrounds her and Dominique can feel when she so much as casts a spell. In Flock Together Episode 2, Harvest Moon, Chapter 12, The Day To Day, Jayden Baker says that you shouldn't make her angry because she's the most powerful witch in Britain, and in Episode 3, The Artifacts of Hogwarts, Chapter 23, A Familiar Tactic, after being informed that Emerson Hegwood is impersonating Peregrine Arkwright she has Hegwood begging for mercy within seconds, mercy she says she does not have (she does actually end up releasing him into Auror custody instead of killing him, but seemingly because she doesn't think he's worth her time).
- Beautiful Singing Voice: Just like her Da, Persephone enjoys singing and as such took singing lessons as a young girl - in part because she is a werewolf and inherently finds singing fulfilling, and in part because she is asthmatic and the breathing exercises help. In Flock Together, Episode 4, Petty Politics, Chapter 26, Curiosities and Cuticles, Persephone sings Nightwish's Alpenglow, followed by part of the folk song The Bonny Banks o' Loch Lomond and it is remarked that she has a Beautiful Singing Voice. According to narration, she's a mezzo-soprano but can sing soprano as long as it's not for too long, as the latter aggravates her asthma.
- Big Eater: Persephone is a never-ending pit when it comes to food and constantly talks with her mouth full. She even carries snacks, getting out a half-eaten bag of cheese Wotsits in Flock Together Episode 4, Petty Politics, Chapter 27, The Attack.
- Bilingual Dialogue: Persephone (and occasionally Alpin and Hermione too) speaking Scots is usually correctly understood by English-speaking people around them, in part because they're normally code-switching in the middle of it and in part because Scots as a language is closely related to English. It isn't always entirely clear though, which Vanya mentions in Flock Together Episode 3, The Artifacts of Hogwarts, Chapter 23, A Familiar Tactic, when she double-checks with Alpin that "yestreen" does in fact mean "yesterday evening," and Alpin replies that she's learning. Dominique also speaks to her mother in French, and Alpin to his mother in Welsh.
- Familial Foe: Persephone and Dominique are very hostile to Hunter McLaggen and Portunus Thynne, who are both members of families who are enemies of the Grangers and Weasleys.
- Fantastic Racism: Features relatively heavily in Birds of a Feather, given the protagonists are all nonhuman and subject to bullying for this.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Though it was established in Kaleidoscopic Grangers, the sequel is where it goes into more detail; Goblins are characterized as a culture to derive from a Nordic culture, and are even sometimes specifically called Nordic Goblins (implying there may be other cultures of Goblins). Their language and names are shown to derive from Old Norse, and Bill Weasley explicitly states they're some of (but not all of) the inspiration for the Norse dwarf myths in their supreme ability as craftsmen.
- Foster Kid: Vanya, because she is forbidden from returning to her actual family by the Statute of Secrecy, is in the wizarding foster system, being fostered by a family called the Marshals.
- Homeschooled Kids: Dominique and her siblings were all homeschooled for their primary school years due to being visibly nonhuman and, at that time, being incapable of constantly maintaining a human appearance.
- Huge Schoolgirl: Half-Giant Wulfwynn Maine is twice the height of most people around her, and as a result seems to tend to slouch and be very self-conscious.
- Inherent in the System: The mere existence of the Statute of Secrecy causes systemic injustices toward some of the nonhuman cast, which Birds of a Feather explores in more detail than Kaleidoscopic Grangers.
- Because of a decision made by the Department for the Enforcement of the International Statute of Secrecy, Vanya hasn't seen her parents in two and a half years as of the start of the story and unless something changes is legally barred from ever seeing them again. This is the reason for her placement with a foster family, the Marshals.
- Tegyd Humphries personifies the ostracization of those who are visibly nonhuman. Tegyd is one part human and one part caprid centaur, giving her a satyr-like appearance. As a result, she isn't allowed to leave her home or specific wizarding streets without extensive magical disguises, which is both inconvenient and extremely vexing. As a result, Tegyd has barely been in public, taking photos with her human mother on outings is pointless because she doesn't look like herself (having to take multiple doses of Polyjuice Potion just to go and see a movie), and many things assumed to be universal experiences are just not a part of her life - she's never encountered pizza before 2025, for one. Tegyd's ambition, stated when she's introduced, is to climb Mount Everest as herself. Additionally, the rural village she lives in is on a wizarding reserve, but that reserve isn't exclusive to the nonhumans who live there; they have to share it with a dragon sanctuary as well as a frequently rowdy Quidditch stadium belonging to the Caerphilly Catapults, and drunk Quidditch fans have assaulted Tegyd's friend Blodwen there at least once.
- As a more minor example, Dominique and her siblings were all homeschooled because until very late in their childhoods they could not be trusted to maintain a human appearance for a whole school day.
- Interspecies Friendship: Dialled up to eleven. Persephone is a werewolf, Dominique is part-Veela, Vanya is a vampire, and there's an entire Nonhuman Club.
- Legendary in the Sequel: the Granger sisters, and to a smaller extent Ginny. Ginny's a very popular Quidditch player now, Hermione is running in the election to be Minister for Magic, and Ariadne is widely regarded as the most powerful witch in Britain, slated to be Headmistress of Hogwarts in a couple of years (the epilogue of Kaleidoscopic Grangers overlaps by about two years with Birds of a Feather). Ron's not though, he's perfectly fine taking the more quiet route of being a generously philanthropic businessman, second fiddle to Hermione in terms of House Granger stuff, and a stay-at-home Dad.
- Meaningful Name:
- Tegyd's name means "the beauty of a doe." Tegyd is part-caprid centaur, and so could be described as a doe.
- Blodwen's name is an accidental example of one - the author only picked it because it sounded nice, but it means "white or blessed flower." Blodwen, as a Plant Person of the tree variety and specifically a crab apple tree would have pinkish-white blossoms in spring, and she's imbued with magic.
- Vanya's legal name, as revealed in Flock Together Episode 9, Hiding Places, Chapter 58, What's in a Name? has several hidden connections to her original name. Firstly, the name Emily begins with an E - her original name, Vanya, begins with a V, which is both the Roman numeral for the number 5, as well as the fifth letter to the end of the alphabet - E is the fifth letter from the start. Her new middle name, Theresa, shares the use of TH for a regular old 't' sound with Mathilda. Her new surname, Walker, is superficially related in that her old surname, Stryde, sounds like the word 'stride,' which is a form of walking. Also, it's a reference to her home city - the crisps company Walkers Snack Foods Limited is based in and was founded in Leicester, where Vanya comes from.
- Mentor Archetype: Ariadne, previously the protagonist, is now the most prominent mentor figure in the story, being simultaneously the Badass Teacher, The Professor, and Stern Teacher.
- Monster Rights Movement: In a successor to Kaleidoscopic Grangers' SPEER and THORN, Ariadne runs the Hogwarts Nonhuman Club.
- Named After Somebody Famous: The main characters' yearmate Ariana Evans is believed to be named after Ariadne. She basically confirms as such by looking a little awkward when Ariadne herself states she doesn't like people being named after her when there are people among the fallen more worthy of that honour such as Remus and Fred.
- Neglected Rez: The example present in Birds of a Feather is a general dumping ground for a few things, and indeed people, the wizarding world can't allow to be public. Notably the aforementioned stadium, as well as a Welsh dragon sanctuary, and the village of Pen ôl y Ddraig, where Tegyd lives with her father's caprid centaur herd, and which she describes as being the "ass end of nowhere."note Quidditch fans are noted to thoroughly disrespect the residents of the reservation, who tend to be nonhumans because they're not allowed in public. Tegyd has mentioned that the Sanctuary lacks electrical infrastructure, and that it's notably cold in winter.
- Next Sunday A.D.: The series begins in 2025, while the first chapter was published in August of 2022.
- Nobody Poops: Averted. The series occasionally has the characters going to the toilet even if it's not described much - it's how they meet Myrtle in the second episode, and in the same scene the question of what vampires poop is answered (it's plasma).
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Persephone is the first example of a Trueborn Werewolf in the story, and Birds of A Feather explores her adolescence as someone who has no available information about how her puberty will progress.
- Exotic Equipment: It's casually mentioned in Flock Together Episode 2, Harvest Moon, Chapter 13, Taking Wing, that Persephone has a baubellum. Otherwise known as a clitoris bone.
- Multiboobage: Persephone has six nipples, and it is implied that all six will develop into breasts given that all but one of them have budded as of Flock Together Episode 4, Petty Politics, Chapter 25, Chance Meetings.
- My Instincts Are Showing: Persephone has an extremely strong pack instinct and frequently behaves like a dog.
- In Flock Together, Episode 5, Field Trip, Chapter 30, An Opportunity, it's revealed that Trueborn Werewolves also have thicker nails than humans with more of a true quick, as well as slightly webbed fingers and toes.
- Persephone is established in Flock Together, Episode 9 Hiding Places, Chapter 61, A Growing Girl, to be growing fur even in her humanoid form.
- Our Centaurs Are Different:
- A regular centaur by the name of Thelan, who appeared in Kaleidoscopic Grangers, also appears in Birds of a Feather as a seventh year helping run the Nonhuman Club.
- Kaleidoscopic Grangers commonly introduces "Caprid Centaurs," centaurs who have the lower half of goats rather than horses, as well as goat ears and horns. One recurring character in Birds of a Feather is Tegyd Humphries, who is half human half caprid centaur, which makes her look like a satyr of some sort. She has the rear legs of a goat, as well as the ears and horns of one, and seems to have the digestive system of one given she is stated to be a ruminant. In Flock Together Episode 6 The Girl in a Picture Frame, Chapter 37 Wearing Many a Cloak, Tegyd seems to imply that instead of human breasts she has an udder, which she finds aggravating.
- Pen Pals: Thanks to this story being set in the 2020s, several of the main characters have phones that work in Hogwarts thanks to advances encouraged by the Grangers and text family - Persephone is shown to be in contact with her parents, as is Dominique.
- Plant Person: In Kaleidoscopic Grangers, Dryads are sentient trees. One such Dryad attends Hogwarts, a crab apple tree named Blodwen. She is perfectly fine with people eating her apples, and even allows her half goat centaur friend Tegyd to eat her leaves.
- Post-Modern Magik: Birds of a Feather is set in the 2020s, when Hogwarts has WiFi and frequent BYOD usage.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: In this era, Hermione as Deputy Minister for Magic. Particularly notable in Flock Together, Episode 4, Petty Politics, Chapter 25, Chance Meetings, where she explains that in fact if she had been able to reverse the decision to keep Vanya from her family, she would have, and did fight to have it reversed - but it's not under her jurisdiction and she can't directly do anything about it. In this, she is a Reasonable Authority Figure in both directions; she recognizes the inherent injustice in Vanya's situation, but also points out that she can't do anything about it without blatantly abusing her power, which doesn't become a good thing just because the good guys are doing it.
- Scars Are Forever: Persephone still has the scars from when she was trying to breathe in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 370, Little Wolf.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Nymphadora Tonks didn't die in Kaleidoscopic Grangers, so she is alive and well in this work. In Flock Together Episode 3, The Artifacts of Hogwarts, Chapter 23, A Familiar Tactic, she is shown to be head of the Auror Office, and hold the rank of Chief Constable Tonks.
- Spin-Offspring: Persephone and Dominique.
- Summon to Hand: Ariadne's wand has an occasional tendency to do this with a blast of lightning when she is startled - in order of what was written, it actually first does it in Chapter 375, Ariadne Lily Granger, of Kaleidoscopic Grangers. It's not stated if this is actually a trait of the wand or if it's just Ariadne tending to instinctively summon it with her own magic now that Ginny's been teaching her wandless magic.
- The Clan: Just like in Kaleidoscopic Grangers, the House of Granger features in Birds of a Feather quite heavily. However, there are a few changes that were made between the end of Kaleidoscopic Grangers and the start of Birds of a Feather. The House has been split between Hermione's main branch and Ariadne's cadet branch, which wasn't established in the prior work, meaning that Persephone is of the First House of Granger. The First House is more Scottish, stated to have altered its heraldry to be blue instead of red, have adopted a tartan, and use crest brooches instead of signet rings. The Second House starts with Ariadne, who is now a Lady, and Delphini is the heiress-apparent, designated Lady Delphini as Persephone's counterpart and wearing a signet ring.
- Token Human: Within the core friend group, Alpin is the Token Human accompanied by a werewolf, a vampire, and a part-Veela.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: In Birds of a Feather, vampires are shown to be capable of similar, if not identical, Voluntary Shapeshifting to Metamorphmagi, and Jason Tonks teaches Vanya how to use this during Flock Together.
- Shapeshifter Baggage: Averted. In Flock Together Episode 4, Petty Politics, Chapter 26, Curiosities and Cuticles, Jason discusses that Metamorphmagi and vampires have to contend with conservation of mass, and how it can actually be useful to them to have a little excess body fat to put to use.
Specific to Birds of a Feather: Flock Together
- Affectionate Nickname: Multiple characters are given nicknames, such as Persephone's 'Seph,' Dominique's 'Dom' or 'Dommie,' and Vanya's 'Van.' Nymphadora Tonks also calls Dominique 'Beaky,' and some people call Vanya 'Twilight.'
- Author Appeal: Episode 3, The Artifacts of Hogwarts, Chapter 19, New Lessons, is allegedly so long because the author studied VFX at a university level and was able to channel this knowledge via Jason's Metamorphmagy.
- Asleep in Class: Persephone repeatedly falls asleep in History class in Episode 3, The Artifacts of Hogwarts. This isn't entirely because she's bored though; she's crepuscular, so her body clock expects her to be asleep during this time of the day.
- Badass Boast: In Episode 3, The Artifacts of Hogwarts, Chapter 23 A Familiar Tactic, Ariadne boasts that she destroyed the Resurrection Stone by using Dimensional Transfiguration to spaghettify it through a miniature black hole.
- Bilingual Bonus:
- In Episode 3, The Artifacts of Hogwarts, Chapter 22, Make Some Noise, people who speak Welsh will get a joke earlier than other readers, much as Alpin does; the meaning of the name of Tegyd's home town of Pen ôl y Ddraig is not provided in the footnotes most of the text's non-English text is translated in. Alpin bursts out laughing immediately, because Pen ôl y Ddraig means "The Ass End of the Dragon."
- Also, in Episode 7, Cold Snap, Chapter 46, Atypical Truancy, speakers of Finnish may note an element of Foreshadowing - in a Shout-Out, Persephone is listening to Nightwish's Erämaan Viimeinen, and the lyrics mentioned translate to "Is this a dream, or death where I can return to where the embers are already giving up under the snow..." The end of the chapter is about Vanya having fallen into a torpor due to the cold, which would probably have been starting at around the same time.
- Breather Episode: Episode 2, Harvest Moon, doesn't really have a plot aside from setting up Persephone's first full moon at Hogwarts and the Nonhuman Club.
- Call-Back:
- In Episode 1, The Flock, Chapter 1, Persephone, Ron talks about taking naps at Hogwarts, and Hermione mentions incidents of having to elbow Ron awake, which she did multiple times in Kaleidoscopic Grangers.
- Vanya often remembers the events of The Woes of Ectothermy, which is her origin story.
- In Chapter 3, Dominique, Bill Weasley is shown to still suffer the long-term consequences of having caught COVID-19 in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 371, The Pandemic and the Veela, and the time Dominique and her siblings spent with Ariadne and Ginny is mentioned.
- In Chapter 5, Waverley Dhùn Èideann, Persephone recalls having told Alpin she was a werewolf in 2020, as she was stated to have done in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 373, Ronald and Hermione, as well as how Alpin's family came to visit to assure the Granger-Weasleys they would not cause them problems.
- In Chapter 8, First Day, Seamus threatens to do what Gilderoy Lockhart did in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 41, Immobulus, and release a cage of Cornish Pixies.
- In Chapter 10, Born To Be Wild, Persephone describes her first full moon as depicted in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 370, Little Wolf.
- In Episode 2, Harvest Moon, Chapter 13, Taking Wing, Madam Hooch references how Neville broke his wrist in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 14, Up! Additionally, the girls meet Myrtle and reference how the Grangers knew her, though Myrtle does not appear to remember the Grangers very well.
- The title of Episode 2, Harvest Moon, Chapter 15, You'll Take the High Road, is a reference to the folk song Bonny Banks of Loch Lomond and is also a Call-Back to how in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 357, Goddess of Spring, that was the first song ever sung to Persephone.
- In Episode 4, Petty Politics, Chapter 24, Being Ourselves, Ariadne mentions that Hermione doesn't like capsicum - this was brought up in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 111, A Free Man.
- At the end of Chapter 29, The Decision, Hermione announces over the radio that she will indeed be running for the office of the Minister for Magic in 2026 - this section matches word for word the ending to Kaleidoscopic Grangers' Chapter 373, Ronald and Hermione, but its ending includes Hermione's answer to the reporter's question.
- A couple of them in Episode 6, The Girl in a Picture Frame, Chapter 37, Wearing Many a Cloak. Firstly, Ariadne tells Wulfwynn to give her giant mother Dúntrume her regards; Dúntrume was first mentioned in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 364, The Spy's Son as being a Giant who gave Hermione a gift for her as yet unborn daughter Hestia, and had a half-Giant child - who evidently was Wulfwynn. Secondly, Ariadne refers back to the Yule Ball of the Triwizard Tournament, particularly the unwelcome attention she got in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 125, Unwelcome Attention. Additionally, Ariadne alludes to how Lavender thought that Remus Lupin being a werewolf made him more attractive in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 216, Diplomatic Relations.
- A couple in Chapter 38, A Moment Frozen in Time. Dominique mentions how Hermione's wedding dress was made by a Goblin back in Kaleidoscopic Grangers, Vanya mentions how Dominique said werewolves' minds feel fuzzy to her in Chapter 18, The Ghosts' Council, and Dominique is loathe to ignore her gut because of what happened in the episode The Artifacts of Hogwarts.
- In chapter 48, Darkly Familiar, Dominique recalls both how she ate a Doxy in Chapter 11, First Prize for Mischief, as well as when Victoire ate a mouse in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 371, The Pandemic and the Veela.
- In Chapter 49, A Happy New Year, Vanya recalls with some distress the last time she entered a torpor, which was the opening scene to The Woes of Ectothermy.
- In Episode 8, Summer's Approach, Chapter 50, Stormy Celebrations, Dominique thinks about how she's been warned by her mother not to eat unsuitable food for her species just to fit in among humans, and that it gave her mother horrible stomach aches; this is something Fleur talked about in Kaleidoscopic Grangers' Chapter 297, Happy Birthdays.
- In Chapter 52, Pull the Rug Out, Summer mentions how Ron caught a Bludger in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 207, The Lions, The Witch, and The Werewolf.
- In Chapter 56, A Good Talk, several. Ron is uneasy returning to Hogwarts because of the events of Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 273, The Mistress of Death, Persephone worries that Hunter McLaggen might know she's a werewolf from the fact his father figured out Ron was one in KG Chapter 206, Like Pulling Teeth, and Hermione recalls Ginny constantly joking about her job title during their last year at Hogwarts. During Persephone's parent-teacher conference, Professor Seong notes her solving Catherine's dilemma in The Girl in a Picture Frame, as well as all four instances of Persephone getting into fights. Hermione also recalls Ariadne punching Draco Malfoy in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 91, Shopping and Snowballs.
- In Chapter 57, Conference in Confidence, Ron having caught a Bludger during Kaleidoscopic Grangers is mentioned several times.
- In Episode 9, Hiding Places, Chapter 58, What's in a Name, Bill having caught COVID-19 in 2020 is brought up.
- In Chapter 60, Mysterious Mementos, the story of the Sword of Godric Gryffindor during Kaleidoscopic Grangers is summarised.
- In Chapter 62, Campaign Commencement, Hermione relays some details of her early career during Kaleidoscopic Grangers.
- In Chapter 68, The Gifts of Generosity, Tegyd mentions her preference for figgy iced tea as being related to Dionysus and "the Prosymnus thing," recalling how she mentioned worshipping Dionysus in Episode 7, Cold Snap, Chapter 49, A Happy New Year.
- In Episode 10, Running for Office, Chapter 70, A Week to Remember, one of several calls back to Ron's threat of French lessons to curb Persephone's violent impulses in Chapter 56, A Good Talk, is invoked.
- The Commissioner Gordon and/or Friend on the Force: Because Nymphadora Tonks was Spared by the Adaptation, she has wound up in charge of the Auror Office, holding the rank of Chief Constable. She's also the mother of a supporting character, Jason Tonks, and friend to Ariadne, so in Episode 3 The Artifacts of Hogwarts, Chapter 23 A Familiar Tactic, Ariadne nonchalantly calls her for her help cleaning up after someone is caught infiltrating Hogwarts.
- Continuity Nod:
- In Episode 1, The Flock, Chapter 3, Dominique, Delphini takes an interest in Ginny's motorcycles as she was stated to have in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 375, Ariadne Lily Granger. In this, the ending of Kaleidoscopic Grangers overlaps with Flock Together, because we know Delphini goes on to learn to ride motorcycles and Ariadne and Nymphadora plan to buy her her first motorcycle later that year.
- In Chapter 6, But Where to Put You? Brenda Paddison is shown to be the daughter of Jeremy Paddison, Hermione's secretary and whose wife Felicity had been pregnant in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 355, The Deep Breath, lining up with Brenda's age.
- In Chapter 8, First Day, Ariadne begins her Transfiguration class in the same way as described in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 360, Professor Granger. She even gives her speech identically.
- In Episode 2, Harvest Moon, Chapter 14, Welcome to the Club, Jason Tonks is in a feminine form, as he is stated to occasionally do in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 375, Ariadne Lily Granger.
- In Episode 4, Petty Politics, Chapter 24, Being Ourselves, the fact that Jason Tonks will be taking Animagus Studies comes up; this scene takes place in the week prior to the first scene of Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 375, Ariadne Lily Granger, where this was also mentioned.
- Similarly, the first chapter of Episode 5, Field Trip, An Opportunity, includes mention of Ariadne having met Dudley in Chapter 375, as that weekend is between the two episodes.
- In Episode 6, The Girl in a Picture Frame, Chapter 37, Wearing Many a Cloak, the half-giant child of the Gúr’g Dúntrume mentioned in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 364, The Spy's Son, turns out to be Wulfwynn.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- In Episode 1, The Flock, Dominique spots a jet black cat with bright blue eyes which seems to be able to teleport at the feet of Hunter McLaggen in Chapter 7, Disparate Houses. This cat reappears later as McLaggen's seemingly unwilling Matagot familiar which he uses to prank the girls during detention, which he is caught doing. This cat reappears to Vanya in subsequent episodes, usually demanding food. The Matagot is revealed to Persephone and Dominique in Episode 7, Cold Snap, when it attempts to warm a torpor-stricken Vanya and makes sure Dominique and Persephone find Vanya.
- In Episode 3, The Artifacts of Hogwarts, several clues are laid out immediately that "Professor Arkwright" is not who he claims to be but in fact an impostor. First, Persephone smells a strong smell of ammonia coming off him and his eyebrows are brown despite his hair being blond, both signs his hair was bleached and dyed which Jason notices immediately, his clothes are described as baggy on him, his monocle doesn't fit, Dominique feels a second mind in his office, and he is clearly inept at History.
- In Episode 4, Petty Politics, Chapter 27, The Attack, Persephone puts her inhaler into her bag instead of into her pocket at the end of a Potions lesson, and this is reiterated again in the middle of the chapter when she is reminded of some English homework left in the bottom of her bag. This comes up later in the same chapter because Theodore Chambers steals Persephone's bag right before Persephone's asthma is triggered by how cold the air by the courtyard is, resulting in her having an asthma attack and lacking her inhaler to medicate it.
- In Episode 6, The Girl in a Picture Frame, Siân Waddle is introduced as having a large thin crate, whose contents are unknown. A few chapters later, it's revealed this is a specially designed magical painting meant to be a stasis device for her cursed patient, Catherine.
- Also in Episode 6, Chapter 40, Applications, ends with Persephone overhearing Ariadne telling Professor Seong and Miss Waddle that she has something called a "dimensional prison" set up in the lower Dungeons, which were declared off-limits by Professor McGonagall in the previous episode.
- In the very beginning of Episode 6, the audience is reminded that transfigurative magic doesn't work on werewolves by Chambers trying and failing to apply one to Persephone - this is the trait that Persephone banks on saving Catherine's life.
- In Episode 7, Cold Snap, the fact that Vampires slow down in the cold, how cold the Slytherin dormitories are, and that the reason Tabitha didn't turn the heater on in the morning is because they won't be there for long, are all reaffirmed in Chapter 45, A Chill in the Air, before Vanya enters a torpor because of these factors in Chapter 46, Atypical Truancy.
- Cliffhanger:
- Episode 3, The Artifacts of Hogwarts, Chapter 17, What a Pain in the Neck, ends with Dominique falling unconscious after the violent disappearance of Professor Binns.
- Chapter 22, Make Some Noise, ends with Ariadne arriving after being alerted to the noise in her office and yelling for all three occupants to freeze.
- Episode 7, Cold Snap, Chapter 46, Atypical Truancy ends with Persephone crying that Vanya's heart isn't beating. However, the notes assure readers that the 'Major Character Death' tag has not been accidentally omitted, so Vanya isn't dead, just in torpor.
- Cowboy Cop: Both Averted and Invoked by Nymphadora Tonks in the same exchange - in Episode 3, The Artifacts of Hogwarts, Chapter 23, A Familiar Tactic, she says that that isn't how the Auror office is "supposed to roll," and her means of teaching her department that is by being a Cowboy Cop to the Cowboy Cops. Apparently it made the papers that she stunned three of her own officers for this behaviour, and she says she was giving them a taste of their own medicine.
- D-Cup Distress: In Episode 6, The Girl in a Picture Frame, Chapter 37, Wearing Many a Cloak, Tegyd - who is stated to be "to put it politely, very well endowed" for her age - discusses the drawbacks of being busty at 13. She also laments that she's actually already discussed breast reduction surgery with Madam Pomfrey, and that because of an unspecified reason (implied to be because Tegyd may have an udder because of her caprid centaur ancestry, given she speaks about it in the singular) said surgery wouldn't be viable for her. In particular, the back pain, frequent expense of going up cup sizes and requiring new bras, and especially the unwanted sexualized attention boys, even boys several years above her in the school, give her, get on her nerves.
- Detention Episode: Episode 1, The Flock, culminates in Persephone and Dominique getting detention with Hunter and Theo.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: In Episode 7, Cold Snap, Chapter 46, Atypical Truancy, it's revealed that Ginny is boycotting the 2026 Quidditch World Cup, because it's being held in Nigeria, a country where gay marriage is illegal and in some states punishable by death. This is a pretty clear allusion to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 controversy.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- In Episode 1, The Flock, Chapter 1, Persephone, Persephone's speech patterns don't quite match her subsequent ones where she uses the Scots 'A' rather than English 'I.'
- In Chapter 6, But Where to Put You? Kiera Grey's name is spelled Keira.
- End-of-Episode Silliness:
- Episode 4, Petty Politics, Chapter 26, Curiosities and Cuticles, ends with a brief moment of Persephone, Dominique, and the other girls of their dormitory as well as Alpin having a karaoke afternoon where Persephone is standing on her bed and "hollering" the chorus to I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers.
- In Episode 6, The Girl in a Picture Frame, Chapter 41, Results, ends with Catherine asking if Persephone is the alpha of her pack, and Persephone, Cedar, and Rowan, all groaning in unison that that's not how it works.
- "Eureka!" Moment:
- In Episode 3, The Artifacts of Hogwarts, Chapter 22, Make Some Noise, Vanya and Dominique realize in the same instant that "Professor Arkwright" must be an impostor and immediately start running.
- In Episode 6, The Girl in a Picture Frame, Chapter 39, Hypotheses, Persephone realizes that infecting Catherine with lycanthropy could be a sort of cure to her curse by jumping to her feet and exclaiming "Werewolves!"
- Exact Words: In Episode 6, The Girl in a Picture Frame, Chapter 37, Wearing Many a Cloak, Persephone beats Alpin in a previously deadlocked chess game because they're using wizard's chess pieces which take verbal orders - Alpin tells his king, in Scots, that "you need to move to the side" in order to escape Persephone's check, failing to specify which side it needs to move in - which, to Alpin's dismay, causes the king to go in the wrong direction and allows Persephone to checkmate him in one move.
- Familiar: In Episode 1, The Flock, rival of the main characters Hunter McLaggen is shown to have a Matagot familiar, seemingly named Lausanne, which he uses to prank Persephone and Dominique with some success until Ariadne notices. However, Ariadne banishes the pet, telling him he shouldn't be able to summon her for an hour or two - and in that time, she meets Vanya, and Vanya feeds her. Later, in Episode 2, Harvest Moon, McLaggen is convinced that the girls did something to Lausanne, as he can no longer summon her. However, the matagot continues to visit Vanya, indicating that it has perhaps bound itself to Vanya without her knowledge. Indeed, in Episode 7, Cold Snap, Chapter 44, Curious Returns, the Matagot appears in Vanya's bedroom hundreds of miles south of Hogwarts in Tinworth, and later in the episode in Chapter 46, Atypical Truancy, it is attempting to warm Vanya up from her torpor, and makes sure Vanya is found by her peers. Ariadne explains that it has clearly been looking for a new master and that Vanya is its preferred option. So in Chapter 49, A Happy New Year, Vanya accepts its offer and names it Puss.
- Given Name Reveal: In Episode 9, Hiding Places, Chapter 58, What's in a Name? it is revealed that actually, Vanya Mathilda Stryde isn't Vanya's legal name. Because of the issues of her true identity having been declared dead, Vanya was given a whole new identity by the Ministry, and chooses to still go by Vanya in her daily life directly against Ministry advice. Her legal name is in fact Emily Theresa Walker.
- Hanukkah Episode and Christmas Episode: Episode 6, The Girl in a Picture Frame, takes place during late December, and the Yule Ball is a prominent feature. It turns out that Hogwarts is also putting up decorations for Hanukkah among the usual Christmas decorations for the Yule Ball, as the holiday coincides with it in 2025, including additional blue and white tinsel, latkes being available as well as Christmas puddings, and a hanukiah menorah in the doorway of the Great Hall. Though, the fact that Hanukkah is not in fact a particularly big holiday in Judaism, and nor is it "Jewish Christmas," is lampshaded by Madam Pomfrey, who, perhaps feeling emboldened by the decor nonetheless, tells Persephone, Cedar, and Rowan that she herself is Jewish and says that the reason it's being so notably represented at Hogwarts is because she mentioned her mother, a Polish Jew who fought in Warsaw and escaped Auschwitz, to Ariadne - the Deputy Headmistress - a few weeks before and Ariadne is as a result going a little endearingly overboard in ensuring Hanukkah is represented too.
- Mythology Gag: In Episode 8, Summer's Approach, Chapter 50, Stormy Celebrations, Persephone thinks back to Hermione making the same joke she makes in - and is the title of - the standalone piece It'll Kill the Vacuum Cleaner.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Episode 3, The Artifacts of Hogwarts, is opened with the sudden seeming destruction of Professor Binns, the ghostly History teacher. Much is made of the fact that that should be a near-impossible feat, but in fact the episode itself swerves to focus on Binns' replacement, Professor Arkwright being impersonated by a man trying to steal the Deathly Hallows from Ariadne. The author has indicated in
messages that Binns' disappearance is in fact "a surprise tool that will help us later." - Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In Episode 6, The Girl in a Picture Frame, some of the solution to the main conflict of the episode, Catherine's curse of Transmogrificating Lycacomia, occurs offscreen because the main characters are first year students; Persephone comes up with the idea, but it's executed offscreen by Draco while Charlie subdues the Transmogrified girl outside.
- One Myth to Explain Them All: Averted - in Episode 3, The Artifacts of Hogwarts, Chapter 21, The Little Things, Bill tells Dominique over text that actually, even though the Goblins do account for some of the inspiration for Norse myths of dwarfs, the wizarding world can only take so much credit for mythology, and it's just funny when someone claims wizards are responsible for all of it. He also says that it's more likely that the name Veela was taken from Slavic folkloric víly and not the other way around.
- Rewatch Bonus: In Episode 6, The Girl in a Picture Frame. If you pay attention to the fight in Chapter 35, Off-Colour Remarks, you'll realise that Vanya probably would have wanted that spell Theodore Chambers threw at her at the end to hit her; Calvorio is a hair-removing curse, which is exactly the sort of thing that would have saved Vanya some time in Chapter 42, Hair of the Dog, when she cuts her hair off to regrow it undamaged by straightening using a potion. It's even lampshaded by Myrtle mentioning such spells existing, but that she's forgotten them, in Chapter 42.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: In Episode 6, The Girl in a Picture Frame, Chapter 42, Hair of the Dog, Persephone's dormmates are surprised when Persephone gets ready for the Yule Ball and goes to significantly more effort than the rest of them - because she's the heiress of the House of Granger - and cleans up so nicely several people don't recognise her. Persephone finds it funny; she can get all dressed up, she just normally doesn't.
- Shout-Out:
- Vanya is occasionally nicknamed 'Twilight.'
- In the Hufflepuff Common Room there is evidently a television and a Nintendo console because there are frequently Mario Kart tournaments going on.
- In Episode 1, The Flock:
- In Chapter 2, Vanya, Vanya and Sophie, her foster sister, play the game Don't Starve Together together. Vanya plays Willow, and Sophie plays Wendy.
- Chapter 10, Born To Be Wild, is named after the Steppenwolf song of the same name.
- The title of Episode 2, Harvest Moon, Chapter 15, You'll Take the High Road, is a reference to the folk song Bonny Banks of Loch Lomond, which is also a Call-Back to how in Kaleidoscopic Grangers Chapter 357, Goddess of Spring, that was the first song ever sung to Persephone.
- In Episode 4, Petty Politics, Chapter 26, Curiosities and Cuticles, multiple songs are referred to. In order, these are Nightwish's Alpenglow, which Persephone sings, followed by The Bonny Banks of Loch Lomond, which she also sings. She also states she has The Proclaimers' I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), Sabaton's Blood of Bannockburn, Wind Rose's To Erebor, and Halestorm music on her phone, as well as an eight and a half minute version of the Irish folk song The Rattlin' Bog, which by the description of the lyrics (ending on a subatomic particle) is Seamus Kennedy's version.
- In Chapter 27, The Attack, when Persephone is threatening Cameron Vexmoor, she tries to judge if she can strangle him with one hand or if she'll need both. Being muggleborn, Bonnie Wood asks if she's trying to Force choke Vexmoor like Darth Vader, and then if they can do that.
- In Episode 5, Field Trip, Chapter 31, The Isle of Arran, Persephone compares taking a Portkey to the description of Hyperspace in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as being "unpleasantly like being drunk" - What's so unpleasant about being drunk? You ask a glass of water. Additionally, the subject of the field trip, Teàrlach the Unsightly, is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it copy of Beldin from The Belgariad.
- In Chapter 34, Bonfire Night, Ariadne stammers a line heavily and then mutters "Merry Christmas Denis Norden." This is a reference to the ITV television show It'll Be Alright On The Night, which until 2006 was hosted by Denis Norden and showed a number of bloopers from film sets - actor Rik Mayall occasionally said, in said bloopers, some permutation of "Merry Christmas Denis Norden." Though the show still airs in 2023 when the chapter went up, its viewership is nowhere near what it was when Ariadne would have been a child in the Granger household nearly thirty years prior, and Persephone has no idea who Denis Norden was.
- The episode The Girl in a Picture Frame is named after a 1641 Rembrandt painting.
- A couple in Chapter 37, Wearing Many a Cloak; on the radio is playing Queen's Thank God It's Christmas, as well as Wham!'s Last Christmas. Additionally, Rowan suggests that Blodwen could go to the Yule Ball as Groot.
- In Episode 6, The Girl in a Picture Frame, Chapter 38, A Moment Frozen in Time, Catherine is reading one of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books. She identifies Persephone's name as being that of a Greek goddess in Chapter 41, Results, possibly because of this.
- Also in Chapter 41, Results, Persephone mentions Hermione and Hestia being likely to want to watch the Doctor Who special, and both WhatsApp and Discord come up in conversation in regards to a Nonhuman Club group chat.
- In Episode 7, Cold Snap, Chapter 46, Atypical Truancy, Persephone is listening to Nightwish's Erämaan Viimeinen. The lyrics specifically mentioned are also an example of a Bilingual Bonus piece of Foreshadowing.
- In Chapter 49, A Happy New Year, Cedar and Rowan sing Fearless Hero from the soundtrack of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish when reminded of it by Vanya naming her matagot familiar "Puss."
- Episode 9, Hiding Places, Chapter 63, You Know We'll Have a Good Time Then, is named after a lyric from Harry Chapin's 1974 song Cat's in the Cradle. Additionally, in that episode, in Chapter 64, Tentative Travel, Persephone gets Vanya the Tiffany Aching books among Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. In Chapter 68, Tegyd mentions having read them too, as well as other Discworld ones, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and a few books by Mercedes Lackey.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Episode 5, Field Trip, is explicitly called out in its notes as being inspired by an episode of Wolfblood; season 1 episode 5 Occam's Razor, where the class also goes on a field trip to an ancient structure on an island on the day of the full moon and a fair-haired nonhuman falls off of something - however where in the Wolfblood episode Rhydian fakes his injury to be able to stay on Holy Island for the full moon, Dominique actually breaks her wing.
