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Harry Potter was the boy who lived. He was a celebrity and he loved it. Every day he would walk down into the great hall of Hogwarts – a school of witchcraft in wizardry in England, Planet Earth – and feel a certain smugness filll him. They all loved him.
"Hi Harry." Said Hermione, his annoying friend with big hair.
"Hello."
"What are you doing today?" She asked him.
"I'm going to Hogsmeade to meet Nymphadora. She said she had something important to tell me."
"Well, I don't think you should be hanging around with that Tonks. She's a bad influence with that purple hair of hers!" Hermione exclaimed, shoving some cucumber purée into her loud mouth.
Harry was sick of Hermione already for today and got up. He jumped on his broom and flew out the window. After about 10 minutes, he arrived at the Three Broomsticks. Rosmerta poured him a butterbeer and pointed at Nymphadora, who was sitting in a dark corner looking a little bit drunk. Harry walked over to her.
"Hi Nymphie."
"Ay ya there, 'arry ma mate! How ya doing?" She hiccuped and smiled. "Sit down. I have something important to tell you."
"Yes, you said you had something important to tell me."
"Yes. I have something important to tell you."
"Yes. Tell me." Harry looked intrigued.
"I..." She looked around to see that no one was watching. "I've found a portal to another world."
Harry rolled his eyes and drank his whole butterbeer in one sip. "You mean to the muggle world?" This wasn't the first time she pulled something like this. She'd been having some drinking problems after Remus revealed to her that he was a werewolf. She didn't like wolves because she was allergic to dogs.
"No, 'arry. I mean...to another world. Not the muggle world. To...a different galaxy. Yesterday I was taking a walk in the Forbidden Forest and I stumbled over the roots of an old tree. I don't know what happened, but I fell down under it and..." She paused and looked around again, like she was afraid to sound crazy. "...and...I met him."
"Met who?" Harry looked puzzled.
"Dumbledore."
"That's crazy. Dumbledore is in his office."
"Not him! His brother! Aberforth! He's been missing for a few weeks now, you know."
"Ah, yes. I forgot. So what was he doing under the tree?" Harry wondered.
"Well, he was alright, but...he looked different."
"What do you mean 'different'?"
"He had cut his hair and trimmed his eyebrows. His beard was gone and people were calling him Mance."
"I don't understand." Harry replied. "Why was he under the tree?"
"It was under the tree, yes, only...it wasn't really under the tree. It was another world. It was cold and snowy. I asked him. He recognized me but he didn't want to talk about his true self. He said we were on a planet called Hoth and that I had to return to Hogsmeade or I would be in grave danger." Nymphadora snapped her fingers, and Rosmerta brought a green drink over to their table. She downed it in seconds.
"Come on, 'arry. We need to go to Hoth. Now!" She slammed the empty glass on the table.
"I can't, Nymphie, I have my O.W.L.S. tomorrow, I need to study." Harry complained.
"What is more important – becoming a great wizard or saving Aberforth who you've never met?" She gave him the ultimatum, and scared to lose his celebrity status, Harry knew what he had to do to seem like a good person.
Harry and Nymphadora jumped on their brooms. Nymphadora was zigzagging around and probably should've been on the back of Harry's instead of flying herself, but Harry liked the adrenaline kick of seeing her close to death (or at least an accident). She survived this time too, suddenly landing in the middle of the Forbidden Forest. Harry was a little bit behind her. He could hear her yell for him down there among the dark trees. He landed smoothly next to her. "Come on then!" She growled and stomped in the left direction. Harry followed. Suddenly, they heard a sound behind them. Scared, they stopped and turned around. From behind a tree, a boy emerged.
"What do you think you're doing?" He spat.
"What's it to ya, Malfoy?" Harry spat back, hating the taste of his enemy's name in his mouth.
"I'm not going to let you fuck shit up again." Draco whined pussily.
"Oy! Lis'n up you little blondie, yer coming with oz or ye can just feck off!" Nymphadora pulled Draco's arm and tripped Harry and Draco so that they all tumbled down under the tree.
It was so cold on the other side. So cold. There was snow. And ice. A man came towards them. "What's your business here?" He pointed a big gun at them.
"We're here to see Mr. Dumbledore." Harry said quickly, brushing snow off the knees of his green velvet jeans. The man looked confused. "Oh, sorry, I mean...Mance. Mance."
"Follow me."
The four of them tracked through the snow. The unknown man was better at it than them. Harry guessed he had walked through snow before. Strange beings were all around them. There were some people too, but their clothes were weird. They didn't look like magical people but they didn't look like muggles either. After walking for about four hours, a large, black temple emerged in the horizon. Nymphadora and Harry exchanged looks. Draco was whining about blisters on his heels. He was only wearing sandals, which wasn't very appropriate for this weird place called Hoth. The unknown man swinged open the main entrance door, which was very big and tall and thick and black/grey. "Master." The man said. "Guests."
In front of them in the hall, was a wide set of stairs, and on top of them a throne made of thousands of iron swords. It was an iron throne, Harry thought to himself. Hard materials, just like the voice of the person sitting on it. But it also had a certain softness to it, Draco thought.
"Well, well. What are three little wizards like yourselves doing here?"
"I'm not a wizard. I'm a witch for fuck's sake!" Said Nymphadora angrily.
"Haha..." The person giggled and drew a hand through her long, silver white hair. "What business have you on Hoth?" She got up and walked slowly and dramatically down the stairs towards them.
Harry cleared his throat and walked up the first step, where he stopped and spoke: "We're looking for our headmaster's brother, Aberforth."
"I see." The woman replied. On her shoulder was a small, white dragon. It coughed a little bit of flames, and her hair didn't catch fire even though it was coughing right into it. "Stop it, Norbert. I don't want dragon goo on my hair, I just washed it!"
She walked down a few more steps. Slowly. Slowly... "Aberforth is no more. Mance destroyed him."
"But Mance is Aberforth." Harry said.
"And Aberforth is Mance." The woman smiled smugly. "But he is with us now."
"I don't understand." Nymphadora said.
"I'll help you understand." The blonde woman whipped out a handle from her belt and a thick, long, red laser popped out of it.
