Abduction and September
It was supposed to be a simple clean-up mission. The war finished a little over two weeks ago. Everyone that mattered was safe. Me and mine were all safe. We were supposed to help clean up the rubble that used to be Hogwarts. I was not supposed to watch as Dietrich, Ten, Jay, Lu, and Nate get sucked into a mirror shard that had black and green light glowing from it.
“Lyssie!” Dietrich had yelled, he pushed me out of the light as he disappeared, panic in his eyes.
I fell to the ground, not expecting that at all. Ginny and Luna rushed to my side and we all stared.
“... Did that just happen?” Ginny asked, blinking wide-eyed at the spot my boys disappeared from, her eyes moving from that spot and lingered on the mirror shard that just stopped glowing.
“Your lieutenants got called away by a mirror, I think.” Luna said, dreamily, “They will miss their queen. Best find them soon, they might have dropped into a den filled with nargles, wrackspurts, Loser’s Lurgy, and Heliopaths.”
I frowned and poked at the mirror shard. It didn’t do anything, like a normal mirror shard I knew was definitely anything but.
I wasn’t too worried yet. If any of mine were going to get hurt, my Clairvoyance would have told me. That’s the one trustworthy part of my pain-in-the-neck-but-bloody-useful Seer ability.
I dropped my Occlumency shields a bit, trying to see if my Clairvoyance could give me a clue before I started panicking.
Mirror with green faces brought them here - coffins floating about - children in cloaks, sorted into separate dorms - “Yes. You will grow exponentially under the banner of the snake. I am no Seer, Miss Weasly, but you are quite a reactive, balancing person. Surrounded by cunning, you will become the most cunning of them all.” - Separated from each other, they don’t want to be apart in a strange new word.
“Why are you hanging out with those normies? You should just stay quiet and fade back, they’ll leave you soon enough.” - “Did you see the new First Year? He won’t even smile when the Dorm Head himself greeted him, we should teach him a lesson.” - “You will respect Dorm Head! Respect the order of the wild!” - “Did you see him? It’s like the second coming of the Dorm Head! The sneaky guy feels so slimy, we need to keep our distance.” - “What is wrong with you? Is there nothing in your brain?”
Sneers. They’re used to sneers. - “I miss Lyssie.” - Hiding away in a warded, abandoned classroom. - Library - looking for a way home. - Students give them a wide breadth. - “There’s something wrong with them.” - Stand tall and together, their skin is thicker than anyone else's but they miss-
( Stop )
I snarled, “No one. No one. Does that to my boys and gets away with it. They are dead, and the mirror too.”
Luna just smiled. Ginny, no longer worried about me, slowly walked towards the rest of our siblings, probably to give them the heads up that I was going to do something drastic soon and might need more iron supplement potions.
Rude. But I can’t argue against that, because I was going to do something drastic. I was going to do something very drastic.
Opening a portal to an unknown world, filled with unknown magic, to get back my boys who were kidnapped by a mirror into that unknown world was probably drastic. Necessary, but probably drastic.
Would it be possible to charge me with mass murder if all the people I murder were from another world? No, I shouldn’t try. Jay would hate the needless death of someone he’d never see again. It would defeat the purpose of killing people so you won’t see them if you weren’t going to see them anyway.
Might as well terrify them to death instead. A little revenge before we leave. That should teach them to mess with my boys.
I flared my lovely Dark colors.
So very Dark.
They will regret it.
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Dietrich opened his eyes, only to find himself in some kind of small, dark, compressed space. He wasted no time using a small Bombarda to open the door and step out. It was a coffin. He looked around the room and saw that everyone else was stepping out of their respective coffins before closing them to hide that they were opened. Thankfully, or not, Lys wasn’t with them.
They all took a second to categorize what they saw. They were wearing different robes over the ones they normally wore, their wands were still safe, however, they were in a strange room filled with floating coffins and a large mirror at the center. One thing was for sure, they weren’t at Hogwarts anymore.
“Is everyone okay?” Dietrich asked as he cast the standard spells (used during the war to hide) on them, they didn’t know where they were, how they got there, or if they were even somewhere safe, they needed to be careful.
“Where are we?” Ten asked, looking around with owl eyes, in awe at the floating coffins around them.
“I don’t know, but I think we should be careful.” Dietrich asked as he eyed a burned open coffin.
“I think it had something to do with that bloody mirror shard, I remember getting sucked into it.” Lu grunted, glaring at Ten, “Lys told you not to touch anything suspicious! What kind of spell, potion, or whatever hellish magic you wanted to create needed a damn glowing mirror shard?”
“I didn’t touch anything! It was Jay!” Ten answered happily, “Ooo, what kind of thing could I make with a mirror shard?”
Dietrich Occlude hard. As much as he adores Ten, he didn’t want to deal with any explosions right now.
“It seemed harmless.” Jay muttered, fixing his braid, it had gotten messed up at some point.
“Our Lys won’t be happy.” Nate smiled his signature smile, “Someone or something took us from her and she won’t like that.”
“No, she will not.” Jay agreed.
Before anyone could say anything else, a strange bird-man (or a man with a bird mask) came into the room and waved his pen. With a swish, all the coffin doors opened, and out came other children around their age.
Subtly, Dietrich and the others pulled up the hoods of their robes, cast translation charms so they could understand what the people around them were saying, and fell back in line. Now was not the time to stand out. Now was the time to blend in and figure out where in the world they were and how to get back home. Preferably before Lys did anything dangerous, drastic, or otherwise reckless.
“Nate, start gathering information as soon as you can. Jay, stick with Nate when he starts, we can’t let any of ours go off on their own until we know it’s safe. Lu, Ten, if it’s safe, mingle with the people here, as you did with the ‘Puffs.” Dietrich ordered under his breath, dishing out orders.
He was quiet but he knew that they all heard him. Standard procedures. They needed to be as Slytherin as they could. They don’t know where they are so they need to use every bit of their cunning and self-preservation so they would stay safe. Lys might actually burn down Europe if anything happened to them.
Well, she’d move her family, Granger, Harry, and the Lovegoods to Australia or something before that.
That little joke did nothing to improve his mood but it was better than nothing. Dietrich stood a bit taller and waited. They needed more information about where they were before they could do anything.
None of the other people around them were worried, in fact, they seemed excited, so they had to wait.
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Nate pushed up his glasses as he walked towards the mirror. It was this thing that brought them to this place, he was sure of it.
From what little he could gather from the Headmaster’s speech and what he observed, they were (probably) in another universe, as unlikely as it seemed. The place they were in was a school called Night Raven College and it was a prestigious school of magic like Hogwarts was, and the world they were in was called Twisted Wonderland.
It grated on him that he had so little information. This needed to be rectified immediately. Thankfully, since this was a school, there was surely a library so there was probably also a history section.
The mirror (the Dark Mirror) in front of him was like the Quill of Acceptance, Book of Admittance, and Sorting Hat of this school. It sorts the new students into different Houses. They were: Heartslayul, Savanaclaw, Octavinelle, Scarabia, Pomefiore, Ignihyde, and Diasomina. Their values are based on the values of historical figures, respectively they are strictness, persistence, benevolence, mindfulness, tenacity, diligence, and nobility. Though, tellingly, every student was picked because of their magic amplitude and their personality. This school was basically if Slytherin was a school.
Everyone important (not that he’d ever admit it) was already sorted. Dietrich was in Scarabia, the house of mindfulness. Ten and Lu were both in Savanaclaw, the house of persistence. Jay was in Ignihyde, the house of diligence. Now it was his turn to be sorted. Personally, he wants to be in Diasomnia, it had the Slytherin colors and he was actual nobility after all.
“Speak thy name.” the Dark Mirror ordered.
Nate felt irritated someone was ordering him around, someone that wasn’t Lys but he didn’t let it show, he would be a failure of a Slytherin if he did.
“Nathaniel Wilkes.” Nate said pleasantly, with a polite smile.
“Nathaniel Wilkes… The shape of thy soul is… Octavinelle.” The Dark Mirror said.
“Thank you.” Nate said as he made his way away from the mirror so the next person could go.
The house of benevolence. Oh, the irony. From the corner of his eye, he could see Ten and Lu struggling to keep their laughter in.
“I don’t know why they seem so amused.” Nate said to the ever stone-faced Dietrich, “I have always been very benevolent.”
“ Ferme ta gueule , Nate. I do not want to hear it.”
“Fufufu, what would Lys say?”
“Lys would say not to bother Dietrich.” Jay said softly, cutting into the conversation, “Let’s go.”
Nate and Dietrich silently followed Jay to the back where Lu and Ten were waiting for them. The chaos involving some Muggle of this universe and a flaming cat was a great distraction.
“We don’t have much time, they’ll fix the situation soon.” Jay muttered.
“Right.” Dietrich nodded, “We’ll meet back up at the cafeteria early in the morning. Spend the rest of the time learning from our new… classmates. We’ll play pretend until we manage to figure out what happened and, more importantly, how to get home.”
“I should have kept the Runes and Wards book Lys gave me Shrunken and in my Extended Pocket!” Ten whined, “We could have used it to make a way home ourselves without needing to do this!”
“Right now, Lys would say something like: unfortunately, you don’t and we do.” Lu said, causing the group to fall into silence.
Nate vowed to gather as much information as he could.
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Ten was practically vibrating in the air. Sure, things were weird and strange and a bit scary and he really, really missed Lyssie but they were in a new world! Nate said so himself so it had to be true. There was probably so much new stuff that he could explore, new animals to see, and things to make explode. He had his camera in his Extended Pocket so he could take pictures to show Lys later.
Ten followed Lu as they walked with the rest of the Savanaclaw First Years to the Savanaclaw dorm. His eyes started sparkling when they had to walk through a mirror to get to the door.
“Hey, Lu.” Ten whispered, “You remember how you asked what kind of spell thing I want to make that would need a mirror shard? I think I know now. I want to make a transport mirror like the one we just walked through.”
“No.” Lu said immediately, “Lys would kill ya. Then she’d kill me for lettin’ ya. Do it when I’m not responsible for ya.”
Ten pouted. He wanted a travel mirror. However, his attention quickly moved to the giant stadium next to the dorm.
“Lu! We can fly all we want!” Ten whispered excitedly, pointing to the stadium.
Lu’s eyes brightened and they shared a grin. They still had their Shrunken brooms in their Extended Pockets. You never know when you needed a quick escape and what better way than with a broom?
“Listen up, brats!” A person with hyena ears yelled, Ten wants to pet them, “Dorm Head Leona Kingscholar is going to talk!”
Immediately, all the chatter disappeared.
A person with lion ears spoke up, “You are all part of Savanaclaw now. The only law here is the Law of the Wild. Make sure you have the will to live. Though, if any of you bastards wake me up, your life is forfeit. Ruggie, you take over.”
“Huh? What?” Ruggie, the hyena-eared person blinked, “Leona!”
“Do it.” Leona ordered before walking away, “I’m going to sleep.”
“Leona… okay!” Ruggie turned back around, “You all fight for your rooms. Don’t touch the big room, since that’s Leona’s but every room is up for grabs. Even the already occupied ones. You have one hour to fight it out so good luck. Shishishi.”
Ten and Lu looked at each other and ran. They could just find a room for two, cast a Notice-me-not charm on it, and ward it to high heaven. The sooner they did that, the sooner they can fly!
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Lu smiled viciously at Ten, brooms in hand ready to go. It was in the middle of the night and everyone was probably asleep. This feels just like when they were younger, back before Lys dropped the ‘Oh, a war is coming soon, are you with me or against me’ bomb on them, back when everyone would follow him to the Quidditch Field at night just to watch him practice so he wouldn’t be alone.
“Ready?” Lu asked, eyes gleaming.
“Ready!” Ten cheered.
They were off. They tried to keep the cheering to a minimum but… there was something about flying that always made him drop his guard, especially since it’s been so damn long since he was last in the air for the fun of it. And no, the few times he flew after the war didn’t count. When he flew, he could see the ruins of many battlefields if he ever flew high enough to really enjoy the flight.
“Do you think they have Quidditch here?” Ten asked, doing a loop-de-loop over him.
“Maybe, there are a lot of brooms in the closet when we checked. If not, they better have their own version of it or else I’ll punch something.” Lu answered, zooming ahead, leaving Ten to eat his dust.
“Hahaha! Lys will get mad if you do!”
“She’ll be mad when she finds us, what’s another thing to be mad about?”Lu asked as he turned.
However, he was stopped by a strong gust of wind.
“Oi. What did I say about waking me up?” A voice growled.
Lu turned his head and saw that Leona guy standing on his broom with his pen (which seemed to be this world’s wand) pointed at him. Lu and Ten shared a look. It seems like they should have paid more attention.
If they get information from their new Head Boy’s (they said he was the Dorm Head but wasn’t that the same as Head Boy?) scolding, would the others forgive them for getting in trouble on the first night?
Maybe.
Well, better than nothing.
Lu put on his Sobbish Mask, as Lyssie called it, and waited for the scolding. After all of Lyssie’s yelling, nothing can scare him.
Unless it was Professor Snape.
Professor Snape was a scary wanker.
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Jay quickly and quietly entered the classroom for his first History of Magic class. He sat next to his dorm room neighbour. Scarabia, Pomefiore, and Ignihyde were the only dorms that don’t require you to have dormmates so he had a room to himself, just like Dietrich, to everyone else’s jealousy. Nate especially. He did have neighbours though, and they seem friendly if a bit closed off.
Jay was worried at first, seeing as Ignihyde was a dorm filled with technology and everyone knew what happened when you mix magic and technology. However, this world’s technology was much more resistant to magic. It would take effort (or constant strong exposure) to break the technology using pure magical pressure. Better keep them away from Lys if she comes here.
His talk with the others bore little fruit. All they managed to do was confirm Nate’s theories and the only new information was from Ten and Lu who found out that there was this thing called Magishift, which was this world’s version of Quidditch. It had different rules but it was close enough for the Quidditch Nuts (as Lys called them) that they were excited to learn how to play.
Dietrich said it best. It was sad that the only new information they got was about a game, more so that Lu and Ten were the ones who got that information. Nate was very offended that he wasn’t the one to discover something new.
“Hey… Rookwood…” His neighbor whispered.
“Yes?” Jay answered, why would his neighbor need to talk to him?
“Why are you hanging out with those normies?” His neighbor asked.
Normies? Did he mean his friends?
“You mean my friends? The people I sat with-”
“Yeah, them. Take this from me, they aren’t your friends.” His neighbor whispered as Professor Trein started talking, “Listen, I’ve seen people like them, they’ll just use you, especially the ones from Scarabia and Octavinelle, you can’t trust them. You should just stay quiet and ghost them, fade into the background, they’ll leave you soon enough. You will inconvenience the Dorm Head if something happens.”
Jay was… he was shocked silent.
No one has ever said that to him before. Everyone talked about how girly he looked, how meek and gutless he seemed despite how rotten he was on the inside. Even with his aversion to bullying the weak, he was still called a heartless bastard (by some of the ‘Claws he helped Lys retaliate against but, schematics). However, he was never told that his friends, the ones who brought him out of the darkest times of his life, the ones he literally fought a war with, were just using him.
What a joke.
Jay just gave his neighbor a cold smile, taking great joy as his neighbor squirmed under his gaze, “Thank you for your advice. I will keep what you said in mind but you don’t need to worry about me.”
Jay said this politely and nonchalantly, just like he used to when they were dealing with people trying to poke holes into their potesta , just like he did when they were at war and needed to talk to someone who didn’t take kindly to Death Eater Names being part of the group against Voldemort.
Just like when he had to deal with his mother.
Objectively, it was a pleasant voice, but it didn’t match well with the ice in his eyes and smile.