Hey. Hello there.

So...um..yeah. So, listen. This is my first fanfic, So, I was really hoping for any of you guys out there to, y'know, be a little soft on the rookie. Although, that does not mean in any way possible for you to go ponies and rainbows on the reviews, if you wanna give one at all. Seriously; go nuts. I'm all ears. Just saying, credit where it thou due, for any of those awesome people out there who kicked ass at writing their summaries. It is not easy, let me tell you, my god. Anyways, have fun, read and review, the whole shebang. I'd even reply to any pm's, if you really want to go a little up and personal.

Oh yeah, the Disclaimer; I do not own either Harry Potter nor Skulduggery Pleasant-they belong to their respective authors.

CHAPTER 1; A TIME OF CRISIS.

Tipstaff was only inches away from reaching the doorknob to grant access to whomever that had knocked on it three seconds ago, his hand already stretched out to give it a turn and open it. So it was only rude when the piece of furniture had suddenly burst open on its own and slammed onto his face, breaking his nose.

He had fallen back from the impact and froze on the pain before squinted towards the two figures that had stridden in. One was a skeleton who could only be Skulduggery Pleasant, as he had on a classic, exquisite dark blue pinstriped suit with a matching black fedora, cocked in quite the angle on his head and wore a pair black leather gloves. His only significant other had to be Valkyrie Cain, then- the 17 year-old going on 18 who owned a pretty head of jet-black hair and a matching pretty face. She was dressed from head-to-toe in black: tight black leather jacket over a black tunic, with a matching pair of black skinny jeans and black boots.

"Service is getting quite worse here every second, I swear," the skeleton man had mumbled, his deep velvet voice tinged with a distinguished Irish accent, whilst looking amusingly towards Tipstaff, who had started groaning and currently wore a scowl upon his face. Valkyrie gave him an apologetic smile and held out her hand to help him up, in which Tipstaff had taken reluctantly.

"The council is waiting for you in the throne room, detectives."

Sure enough, his nose was broken; as he`d gave it a little rub and winced as spotting the little bit of blood on his hand. Both offered neither apologies nor appreciation as they`d left silently in the direction of the throne room. There wasn`t any time for that as far as they were concerned- Tipstaff was a big boy.

Going down the hallway, they would occasionally pass by a few other mages and sorcerers…who moved in quite a hurried phase as they were, and the patrolling Cleavers, suited in grey as they did their jobs. Scythes had gleamed from the holsters strapped to their backs, and their black, visor helmets blocked out every show of any emotion that could exist upon their faces.

After some time, they finally reached their location and Skulduggery gave the huge double doors a push to enter the room and face whatever news that awaited them. Grand Mage Erskine Ravel looked up upon their arrival with an obvious tired face as stopping momentarily from his pacing about the room, before breaking into a relieved smile.

"Skulduggery, Valkyrie," he started saying, and held out his hands to gesture them to their seats. "…Finally." That last part was seemingly whispered out, if not said out loud.

"…And 15 minutes earlier than what I expected, too. Bravo."

"Don`t be so harsh on them Mist," rasped Elder Ghastly Bespoke against Elder Madame Mist, and ran a hand down his scarred face. His posture on the throne was slumped, as opposite the woman, who was sitting up straight, her body calm and composed up to the usual black, overly-sized black veil that covered her face. It was as if a war was not going on outside their doors that very minute.

"We did call them in 5-freaking-30 in the morning, after all." He reminded, and revealed to them the obvious eye bags hanging from underneath his eyes. Madame Mist was silent. Skulduggery sat back and looked towards him, stoic.

"You owe me a lot, Ghastly. Next time, why don`t one of you try wake her up in the middle of the morning." His hands were in his pockets. "Oh, and that reminds me- I need a new hat."

Valkyrie turned towards her partner and gave out a Scowl, so bad, that it deserved the capital letter. Skulduggery was unaffected.

"Oh yes, my dear- it is quite the attractive face that you have on right now. Let`s all just hold hands and pray your nostrils don`t stay inflated, don`t we?"

"Two. Hours." She whispered, before raising her voice and an outraged finger to his face. "Two. Freaking. Hours! That`s all the time I got for sleep since freaking yesterday! Of course I had to do something to his precious hat. It`s only freaking fair! Oh, then, he wanted freaking pick out a new one and made us late. So it`s his freaking fault, okay?" The last line came out sounding so sad, and an awkward atmosphere blanketed the room.

Skulduggery cleared his throat, and held up a palm. "Needed," he corrected, before placing it back into the safety and warmth of his pocket. "I needed to pick out a new hat."

Ravel sighed. He turned onto the girl anyway, and diligently changed the topic. "So, I`ve heard that you told your parents about everything. How did it go?" Valkyrie`s face immediately changed and she hatched up a smile. "Awesome. Echo-Gordon did most of the answering, though, and saved me from a whole lot of time of being grounded. Took us a while to convince them that they weren`t seeing his ghost or something." Ghastly nodded. "Good thing we caught your reflection before it started with that whole 'kill Valkyrie Cain' thing eh? Told you not to use that thing too damn much. The scepter is safe with me, and now she`s free to be both Valkyrie Cain and Stephanie Edgley-with no more difficulties or interference."

"I presume they don`t know about our most recent situation?" Mist suddenly asked, and Valkyrie snorted. "Not if I can help it."

"Now Ravel," Skulduggery had said. "Back to our topic." Ravel`s face drooped further, if it was even possible, and he sighed. "The German Sanctuary had recently launched us another threat."

"Of course," Ghastly interrupted him, and signaled up quotations marks in the air to accompany his next words. "They hadn`t actually used the word 'threat'. They called it as 'extending-a-hand-to-help'." Valkyrie frowned. "I don`t think you know how to use that."

"What? This?" he asked, and made the quotations marks again.

"Yes- please stop." Ghastly frowned, offended, and stared at his hands.

Skulduggery was ignorant of the statement and beamed instead, and gave a little finger snap. "Excellent! So who do we hurt this time?" Ravel furrowed his brows. "No. We are hurting no one this time because beating up people for no explainable reason is the last thing we have on our plan." Valkyrie frowned further on the news and made a little sigh. "But I like hurting people who had it coming for them." Ghastly chuckled, and glanced towards Skulduggery. "Valkyrie, I think you are spending way too much time with the wrong people."

Skulduggery slowly turned to face the Elder, and Valkyrie shrugged.

"Anyway, the point is-" said Ravel as he quickly dove in, "Roarhaven isn`t safe anymore. And God forbids me to end up like others before me-so I say we need another place, somewhere the other Sanctuaries won`t expect. We have too much on our plate right now." His hands were curling and uncurling in gestures of total stress. Skulduggery turned away from Ghastly and bowed his head, shadowing his hallow eye sockets deeper with the edge of his hat. "We don`t know who we can trust- every move we make will be risky," He murmured calmly. "This is a big deal, right?" Valkyrie asked, and folded her arms atop her chest. "I mean, full honesty, guys- could this be something, as comparing to the war with Mevolent?"

"With our luck lately?" Ravel retorted, "Anything and everything is a possibility. I can`t believe the Supreme Council even considered something like this, especially with all that we`re facing. I mean, what about the Darquesse person the Sensitives talked about?"

Valkyrie felt her breath hitch, and tried her best to not let anyone notice. She had nearly jumped up at the sudden touch on her fingers, and silently lets out a breath of relief when realizing that it`s just Skulduggery, trying to comfort her into feeling better. She hid up a tiny smile and intertwined their fingers closer.

Nobody seemed to notice them as Ravel continued to blabber on about his speech. "…And you think those people should know that this is a time for all of us to be teaming up and working together, not tearing ourselves apart, period."

There was a less-than-comfortable silence as each people considered on what the next safest move should be.

"What about the Ministry of Magic?"

That had come in as a sudden suggestion, and every pair of eyes fell atop Madame Mist, as being the one to say it out loud.

"The Magistrate-of-who-to-the what-now?"

"The Ministry, you mean as in Cornelius Fudge?" Ghastly started, and raised his brows before shaking his head. "I do not think that`s a good idea. It`s in London, isn`t it? For all we know they may even have some kind of conspiracy with the English Sanctuary." Ravel brought a single finger to tap on his cheek to contemplate the idea. While Ghastly had directly opposed Mist`s suggestion, Ravel found himself agreeing to it.

"No, no. That… actually sounds like a good plan." He murmured. Skulduggery gave a slight gesture of his head towards Ravel. "I think I agree with Ravel- as far as we know, the Ministry of Magic is independent, and their people are too much of a coward to get involved with anything that can disrupt the peace of the world."

"Then why even think that they would lend us help- and go against their policies?" Ghastly retaliated. Skulduggery shrugged. "Simple elementary, my dear, foolish Ghastly- the Irish Sanctuary was the only party that had considered their desperate plea for help during the fight against Mould-e-mort-"

"Voldemort."

"Yes, that`s what I had said, and we did take considerable measures to warn them of the impending chaos during the war with Mevolent… don`t you think that they owe us quite the favor now? And let us not forget our, ah…precious little bond over the times during the Trade. I recall knowing that The Ministry having quite the soft spot for Corrival Deuce. That`s enough acceptable reasons for them to go through our tight situation. Besides, it wouldn`t hurt to at least try now, don`t you think? The other Sanctuaries won`t even see it coming."

Valkyrie was getting more and more confused by the second. They`d ignored her previous question, obviously, and she didn`t even have a clue to what they were talking about. She felt quite dumb even just by sitting in the whole center of it, playing with the ends of her hair whilst they debated further over the single suggestion that she didn`t even understand. To be frank, she felt quite left out and huffed silently in irritation.

"And that`s that then." Ravel said, and rubbed his hands together in satisfaction. Ghastly ran a hand down to the back of his head. "They would eventually need us as much as we need them, anyway." If Skulduggery had owned a face, Valkyrie swore that it would have some kind of smug look going on about now.

"I`m sure we can make up some sort of deal."

….

"So, care to tell me what went on back there?" They were already out of the room and were on their way to Skulduggery`s car. Skulduggery tilted his head in confusion to her question.

"You didn`t pay attention? Well." He shrugged in amusement. "We had discussed the different type of cheeses and the best proper ways of melting them to be coated atop potato chips. Ravel was quite confident that we may even invent a new type of exquisite delicacy- but Ghastly had argued that it may contribute to the growing amount of couch potatoes." Valkyrie groaned and brought a frustrated palm to her face. "But not to worry- Mist said that we will not be at fault to those who will die in cause of Diabetes."

"I may be clueless, Skulduggery, but I`m not that stupid. I recall hearing you mention a type of Ministry a couple of times in the argument, and a man with a moldy name."

They finally reached their vehicle; a 1954 R-Type Continental Bentley- one of the few 208 pieces that were ever made. It was coated with a retro, albeit gorgeous exterior and had a completely modern set of conveniences on the interior to suit the needs of its owner. The Bentley was majestic; it was powerful, and not less elegant- and Valkyrie found herself to be in love with it as much as Skulduggery is.

"I didn`t tell you about The Ministry of Magic? Huh. Doesn`t sound like me. Not at all. Maybe it`s best we assume that you`ve forgotten, completely about it- now that`s more like it. I tell you everything."

"At first I thought so too. But you didn`t tell me about this."

"Ah, but I did."

"No you didn`t. Liar, liar- pants on fire."

They both slid into the front leather seats and Skulduggery turned on the ignition key. The engine whirred into life, and they started on their journey to send Valkyrie back home. "As seeing that my pants aren`t on fire, then I am most certainly not lying. Your methods to guessing truth are not reliable, or mature." Valkyrie rolled her eyes. "So? I`m waiting."

"This may come as a surprise to you, my dear, but apparently ours isn't the only type of magic to exist in the world." Valkyrie`s eyebrows rose in surprise. "Meaning?"

"Meaning, Valkyrie- ours is the world where Sanctuaries control the activities in a community of mages and sorcerers. However, a second government-type unit known as The Ministry of Magic also exists among us, and controls what, as they would call themselves, Witches and Wizards."

"Witches and wizards?"

"Yes, with the flicking of their little wands and saying gibberish, making up potions in big, funny pots. You know- old school magic."

"Old school magic?"

"I never knew an echo existed in this vehicle, I swear, it`s getting quite annoying." Valkyrie scowled. "That doesn`t sound like the magic we know- it sounds very tiring, and like a whole lot of work." Skulduggery hummed in agreement.

"Their kind of magic is very different from ours. While we get our powers from the surge in the abilities of a single type of magic, or wielding, their possibilities are endless, and wide-ranged. It`s true that they can be quite powerful, but we have the greater advantage in mastering and perfecting ours and they say because of that, we are the more powerful of the two."

"What about Old-e-mort? Or whatever his name is."

"Lord Voldemort is their version of Mevolent."

"Ah."

"Yes."

Skulduggery turned to a stop by the pier at Haggard, Dublin, and Valkyrie did the motion of letting herself out. "Make sure to update, Skul." Skulduggery was quiet as he turned towards her and opened his mouth slightly, as if to say something, but finally decided against it and closed back his mouth. Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. "What?"

The skeleton man shook his head, and turned his vision back to the front of the car. "Nothing. Say hi to your parents for me." Valkyrie nodded and pushed the passenger car door shut. She watched quietly as the Bentley went further and further, before it finally disappeared out of sight, and made her way home.

She went straight for her bedroom window and felt for the spot where all the spaces had connected, before propelling herself upwards using her magic. Valkyrie was graceful as she finally reached the upper window ledge and unlatched the hook. Of course, she could use the front door to get into the house; but where`s the fun in that? After all, didn`t Skulduggery say that doors are for people with no imagination?

She lets a sigh escape her mouth as she changed into a more casual set of yellow t-shirt and sweatpants.

'Now that was some useful piece of information.' Valkyrie stiffened as she hears the appearance of the little voice in her head. Darquesse. She frowned, and took in a huge, deep breath. She was so not in the mood for this right now.

'Now, you can really destroy magic for good. Wizards and Sorcerers! This is going to be so much fun.'

"No I won`t. I am not listening to you."

'Oh come on- you know you can`t escape this! Why even bother?'

"Shut up, just, just shut up."

'Nobody will survive. NOBODY! Imagine their screams, Valkyrie! Imagine their pain. Just let me out- it`ll be all yours. I know you want to.'

"One more word, Darquesse. One more- and soon you`ll watch me put an end to this, once and for all. I`ll simply give up doing magic."

'You won`t do that. I know you won`t. You just love the power too da-'

"Really?" Valkyrie interrupted, and lowered her voice into a menacing tone. "Then why don`t you give it a try?" Her eyes were narrowed and her lips were curled into a snarl. Darquesse was finally quiet. Valkyrie took in another huge breath to compose herself, before she finally took in those steps downwards to meet with her family. Her father was reading the morning news on the leisure couch, while little Alice played with her toys on the carpet. She can hear her mother working in the kitchen and she smiled. This was normal. Normal is good. Normal is safe.

"Hey dad."

Desmond Edgley looked up from his newspaper and cracked up his own bright little smile. "Good Morning, Steph. Melissa! Stephanie`s home!" He had shouted, and Valkyrie thought she`d heard something fell in the kitchen before her mother rushed out and gave her a hug. "Darling!" her face was relieved, and Valkyrie thought she`d seen tiny hints of tears coming out from the corners of her mother`s eyes.

"I… I didn`t see you in bed this morning, and I was so worried! I thought… I, I thought-"

"Sorry mom. Ignore it- Skulduggery called and came to take me to the Sanctuary early this morning. I hadn`t had the heart to wake you up for it."

Her mind wandered to the memory when she`d told them the truth, at the mansion. Her mother was initially very traumatized and disapproving when she knew about the first time she`d met with Skulduggery and defeated Serpine- but it was inevitable. Thanks to Skulduggery, she eventually managed to convince the both of them that she was fine, and that it was her choice. Her mother had been very taken to Skulduggery`s charm but her father was more than wary than to except that he`s been working so close with Valkyrie.

Too close.

But over time he`s gotten to the point that he doesn`t even bother about it as much as he used to, and that`s given her quite the breath of relief. Valkyrie knew that she was blessed to have such accepting parents, and that it wasn`t the same for just anyone else. It made her love for the both of them grew, because they know that the best thing for her was that she was given the opportunity to choose for herself, and determine her own fate in life. They had and still give her all their support in everything she does, and actually trusted her to continue doing them, despite all the things she knew that she had done and hide from them.

Her little trance broke off when Alice suddenly clapped her hands in giddy merriment, and her mother finally releases her form from the bone-crushing hug. Melissa looked into her daughter`s eyes, and smiled.

"Well. Have you had breakfast, sweetie?" Valkyrie laughed, and shook her head. Desmond`s smile grew, and he gave his daughter a little pat on her back. "You`re in luck then, Steph! It`s waffles today!" Valkyrie picked Alice up from her spot on the floor and the little girl proceeded to smother her elder sister with drool as she continued her happy, nonsensical ramblings. Valkyrie made a face. "Ugh, Alice!"

"Ugh, ugh!" Alice replied, and Valkyrie placed her into her usual high chair in the kitchen, next to her mother. Melissa set the delicacies on the table, and Valkyrie took the part by playing airplanes with her younger sister. Desmond laughed. "Alice. You stop bullying Stephanie right this instant. You`re getting too old for this- Valkyrie, stop. She can feed herself if she wants to." Melissa sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Skulduggery said hi, by the way."

Melissa gave her daughter a smile. "Of course, dear- such a charming uh, skeleton." Desmond snorted and rolled his eyes. Valkyrie laughed. It was obvious that despite the growing comfort in their relationship about Skulduggery, he still does not fully approve of the figure`s closeness with Valkyrie. Even if it was only for work purposes. The situation surrounding them was filled with warmth, and laughter, and Valkyrie felt like it was as if nothing could ever disturb their peace.

"Written in the stars, a million miles away;

Message to the main~"

Except for that. She groaned, and flipped her phone open. "Sorry dad, but I really need to take this." She got up from the table and headed to the other room. It was Skulduggery, but a message. She typed her reply before returning to the dining room, and took back her seat.

"Steph? Is everything okay?" She sighed. "I need to head back out after this- we`ve got a new case on our hands." It was a lie, of course, but she`d had no other choice. The truth was much too dangerous- she just couldn`t risk her family getting into danger because of her.

Skulduggery was in so much trouble.

….

Her footsteps were slow and reluctant, and she was silent. The Bentley was parked at its usual place by the pier and she could see the slightly slumped figure of her partner leaning by the car. Skulduggery stood up from his spot and gave her an unreadable stare of silent anticipation. "Did I interrupt a little bit of family time?" His voice was composed and regretful.

"It`s okay. Let`s just go there already." She replied gruffly and slid into the passenger seat. Skulduggery stayed there for a while, and Valkyrie found herself questioning his actions. "Skul?"

"Right. Yes."

First chappie done! So whaddya think?