One day Harry Potter was walking around Hogwarts when the ground started to shake.
His best friend Ron Weasley ran up to him and yelled, "Quick! To the dungeons! It's raining elephants!" They were halfway to the potions classroom when they ran into Hermione Granger.
"Where are you two going?" she asked. "It's just an earthquake."
"Oh," said Harry and Ron. "We knew that."
"Uh huh," Hermione said.
Just then, a woman in a ball gown walked by. "Excuse me," she said, "have you seen my other shoe?" She lifted the hem of her dress to show a glass slipper.
"Uh… no," said Ron. She sighed and walked off. "Well, that was weird."
"Hmm," Hermione said, looking thoughtful. They walked upstairs. Outside of the transfiguration classroom was a man in a trench coat smoking a pipe and holding a magnifying glass.
"Watson?" he said, looking up. Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared at him. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I thought you were someone else."
"No problem," Harry said. They walked off quickly.
"What is going on here?" Ron asked.
Hermione said, "I'm not quite sure, but I have a hunch." Before she could explain, a teenage boy in strange clothes ran up to them and grabbed Hermione.
"Juliet?" he asked her. "Where is my Juliet?"
"Oi," said Ron defensively, "Get off her."
The boy stared at him wildly before racing away yelling, "Juliet! Juliet! My love!"
A blonde girl wearing a blue dress with a white apron walked by and said thoughtfully, "Curioser and curiouser." Behind her floated a large cat grinning.
"Care to explain, Hermione?" Ron asked, staring after the pair.
"Well, what I think has happened"—they ducked as a red dragon flew over their heads, then stepped to the side to let a hobbit chase after it—"is that there was a big surge of magic and it brought a bunch of fictional characters to life."
Harry and Ron thought about that. "Huh," said Harry eventually. The three of them walked into the Great Hall. Voldemort was sitting at the Slytherin table talking to a dark, curly-haired man wearing a pirate hat and a hook for a hand and a green-skinned witch dressed all in black.
"So here's the plan… you send the flying monkeys in first, then Hook will follow up with his crew. Meanwhile, I'll be waiting for Kronos' signal, and…"
"Huh," said Harry. They backed out quietly and walked outside. In the lake a red-haired mermaid was combing her hair with a fork. She waved at Harry and giggled. Harry winked at her.
"Oh my god," Hermione said, stopping in her tracks. "It's Mr. Darcy." She started playing with her hair.
"Who's Mr. Darcy?" Ron asked Harry.
"Dunno," Harry shrugged. "Him, I guess." A man in an old-fashioned outfit was walking towards the three of them.
"Hmpf. Don't see what's so special about him," Ron grumbled.
Mr. Darcy came up to Hermione and said, "Excuse me, madam, I seem to have lost my way. Would you be so kind as to inform me as to our location?"
"Oh... yes," she said, blushing. "We're at Hogwarts, in England, it's a school…"
Her thanked her and bowed. Ron scowled at him as he left. Hermione was still blushing. "Right," said Ron. "What are we going to do about this?"
"What?... oh… um," said Hermione, who was still looking in the direction of Mr. Darcy.
Harry said, "To the library!"
They raced to the library. On one of the tables was a pile of open books. Harry picked one up and read the title. "I didn't know the Hogwarts library had a copy of Peter Pan," he said.
Just then two girls and two boys dressed in armor and waving swords charged into the library yelling, "For Narnia!" They stopped when they saw Harry, Ron and Hermione, who were staring at them.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry," said the oldest boy. "We thought you were someone else."
"No worries," said Ron, eyeing their swords.
"I don't suppose you've seen a tall, blonde woman anywhere?" asked the oldest girl.
"She's in the dungeons with Snape," said Hermione.
"Oo-er," said Ron.
"Disgusting!" said Harry.
"Thanks," said the youngest girl. All of them left except for the youngest boy, who lingered long enough to blow a kiss to Hermione and wink at her.
She blushed. Ron scowled.
"Alright," said Harry hurriedly. "What now?"
"Er… right. I think if we close the books the fictional characters will disappear," Hermione explained.
Ron grabbed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and slammed it shut. "Like that?"
Hermione winced. "Exactly."
Once all the books had been closed, the three of them cautiously exited the library and went to look around the school. The only person they saw was Voldemort, sitting dejectedly in the Great Hall.
"We saved the day!" cheered Ron.
"Again!" added Harry.
And they had.