Chapter One

When Universes Collide

The screams continued to echo in his ears as Harry Potter sat bolt upright in bed, shaking and sweating. Instinctively, his hand shot up to his forehead, rubbing the lightning-bolt scar imprinted there. It didn't hurt, or even prickle, which was an immediately comforting sign, but as he thought back to his dream, he couldn't help but think about the Battle of Hogwarts, about defeating Lord Voldemort, about Fred, Tonks, and Lupin, all of whom had died for him a few months previously...

Weak, gray dawn light filtered through the musty window across his and Ron's room, the dust floating about catching the light as it drifted by. Ron snored softly across the room from him, twitching only occasionally. Upstairs, soft groaning could be heard from the ghoul that resided in the attic. Though he had grown accustomed to the noise over time, the sound was still eerie and spine-prickling in the early silence of the morning.

As he lay back upon his pillow, Harry tried to recollect his dream. He had dreams like these often, full of tortured screams and dead eyes, of Sirius falling through the veil and of Hermione alone with Bellatrix Lestrange.

However, on this night, the screams had been unfamiliar. They were not the screams of anyone he could name or place if given the name. They were screams of people whom he had never met, people he'd never heard of. Of course, this must've been his imagination at work once again, for nobody could really hear something that had not been heard before.

Harry turned over in his bed, the dust catching in his nose giving him the most subtle of warnings he were about to sneeze. However, his body failed to follow through. Caught between the need to sneeze and the inability to, Harry Potter lay there, his face contorted in an odd expression, his eyebrows raised and his nose screwed up, until finally the feeling passed and he sighed.

Whoever's screams those in his dream had been, they were not of his concern, not worth worrying about. The sun rose steadily as Harry drifted into a sort of semi-consciousness.


A loud groan and a creaking of bed springs awoke Harry Potter, and he blinked open his eyes to see Ron trying to sit up in his bed without exerting too much effort. Sitting up himself, Harry gave Ron a half wave, which he returned with a slow nod of his head, stretching his arms above his head and yawning.

Harry moved to put on his glasses, pushing them slowly and precariously up the bridge of his nose. Across the room, Ron fell back onto his bed, shifting himself further under the bedsheets. Harry, however, pushed back the sheets and flung his feet over the edge of the bed. With another yawn and a glance towards the window, he called to Ron "Come on. Time to get up. Your mum'll have breakfast about ready by now."

At this, Ron made a pathetic sound between a groan and a sob, then rolled slowly out of bed himself. The two boys dressed in drowsy silence, sharing contagious yawns and stumbling about.

About fifteen minutes later, the tantalizing aroma of eggs Benedict and French toast called them down to the kitchen, where they saw Hermione and Ginny were already seated and eating, laughing lightly about something Ginny had just said. Each of the girls looked up as the boys ambled in.

Harry took a seat beside Ginny while Ron sat opposite to him and next to Hermione. Still smiling about her shared joke with Hermione, Ginny lay her head on Harry's shoulder and murmured good morning. Harry responded with an equally enthusiastic greeting as Molly Weasley sat down a plate of food before both Harry and Ron.

"Thanks Mrs. Weasley," Harry said as Ginny lifted her head and resumed eating. "Yeah, thanks mum." Yawned Ron. The group ate in silence, the hurried noises of Mrs. Weasley cleaning up in the background. All memory of his strange dream driven from his mind, Harry stood, his plate in hand, and moved to wash it.

"I'll get it, Harry dear." Molly called as she brandished her wand, removing the sullied plate from his hands and levitating it into the sink.

After breakfast, the four of them went up into the boys' room to chat. July was coming to an end, meaning Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry would be opening it's doors to enrolled students. Hermione was sure the three of them (not including Ginny, because she was automatically a seventh year anyways) would be invited back to complete their seventh year, considering how disrupted the previous year had been. Ron didn't have the same hopes, saying he loved the place but was glad they wouldn't have to worry about long hours of schoolwork to finish. When Hermione rolled her eyes at this, he hastily added that it would give them more time together in a less stressful environment. When Hermione still didn't lighten up, he gave up and twiddled his thumbs.

As their conversations dragged on, Harry's thoughts were continually pulled back to his strange dream. He didn't remember any visual, but the sounds were just as vivid as if he were hearing them now.

"Harry?"

"Huh?"

Ginny nudged him in the chest with her elbow. "You alright?" She asked.

Ron and Hermione were staring at him as well now, looks of surprise and and concern crossing their faces. Harry blinked a few times.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." He replied, pulling himself to sit up straighter while trying not to disturb Ginny's head on his leg. "Just... Thinking."

Hermione and Ron exchanged a glance, then looked back at Harry. Over the years of knowing him, they'd learned that when Harry dazed off in his own thoughts, it was usually something important. Ginny on the other hand passed over this bit of information, continuing to pass Harry's hand between her own two. Harry gave his friends a small shake if his head, indicating it was nothing, but the unconvinced looks on their faces told him they were going to ask him about it later anyways.

Later that day, Ron continued the argument about their schooling.

"I mean, even if they do call us back, it'll be kind of pointless, won't it? This is all just relearning stuff from our seventh year."

Hermione rolled her eyes as if this topic had been broached before. "Ron, of course that's what would happen. Last year could hardly be called a school year, could it? The three of us didn't even go, and those who did... Well, it could've hardly been called a school at that time." She sent a slightly guilty glance Ginny's way. The previous school year was hardly ever mentioned anymore. It had been so hectic and disturbing, no one dared recall it. Ginny had been one of the many left at the school as Harry, Ron, and Hermione traveled the country hiding out and searching for Lord Voldemort's horcruxes.

Ginny didn't seem to notice the glance and hardly acknowledged the topic. No one said anything for a moment until finally the door creaked open and Crookshanks slipped into the room, purring as he curled up underneath Hermione's welcoming hand.

After a few minutes, the cat stopped purring and pricked his ears, listening intently. Hermione lifted her hand from his head cautiously, looking concerned. A low hiss was emanating from Crookshanks's mouth, the only sound in an eerily silent room. His fur began to bristle and his torch-like eyes glowed with anticipation.

Suddenly, an extremely faint pop was heard through the open window, as if someone had Apparated just inside the garden, and Crookshanks leaped a foot in the air and retreated beneath a bed.

The four of them looked at each other, then simultaneously got up and dashed to the window to see what had happened.

Everything seemed normal, all quiet and everything in place. Regardless of this observation, the four of them bounded down the stairs and out into the garden, an oblivious Mrs. Weasley attending to an infestation of Doxies in the curtains of Fred and George's old room.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny pushed through the back door and out into the garden, glancing around frantically for a first sight of the disturbance. After a moment or two, Harry lowered the wand he had so hastily retrieved from his pocket, scanning the garden. His friends, all except for Hermione who lowered hers much later, followed suit in lowering their wands. Everything was silent, save for the wind brushing over the leaves of garden plants.

Harry was beginning to wonder wether they'd all gotten worked up over nothing, when a profanity so loud and so sudden it made all of them jump split the air.

"F***!" The shout came off to they're right and they hurried around the house.

On the side of the house, tangled in the bushes, were what seemed to be two normal kids, maybe around Harry's and the others' ages. Upon closer examination, however, both of these kids had orange protrusions (horns) from their skulls and pale, gray skin.

The two kids were struggling against each other, attempting to untangle themselves. With a final shove, the first and slightly larger of the two pushed the other away, and they both fell hard on their backs, panting.

Now that he could see their faces, Harry was able to draw more conclusions about these kids. They obviously weren't humans: the orange horns and sharp, pointy teeth told him that much. One was obviously a male, the other less obviously female. The male looked as though he felt the world owed him something for this predicament, though the female seemed to have a more positive outlook on things: she was laughing quietly to herself, a mischievous and most Fred-and-George like smile playing across her painted black lips.

They sat up, and both groups regarded each other in silence for a moment, the smile still plastered upon the female's face. Finally, the male spoke, and Harry recognized it from the voice they'd heard before. "WHAT THE ******* **** IS GOING ON HERE? WHO THE ******* TURD-SNIFFING ***WIPES ARE YOU GRUB-*******!?"

The others stepped back at this explosive choice of colorful vocabulary and exchanged glances. They had no idea how to respond to such a greeting.

Finally, the girl stood, not bother to dust dirt off of her black panes, and she helped the boy up. He, however, dusted himself off with haste, an angry, resentful look still resting upon his glowering face. The girl bent down to pick something up, her fingers catching hold of a white cane, a red ornament decorating the top.

The girl spoke in a much friendlier tone. "Well, if your just going to stand there and stare, might as well introduce yourselves." She said, staring expectantly at each one. When neither Harry nor any of the others moved, she sighed, and even though her eyes were hidden behind a pair of reflective red glasses, Harry got the feeling she was rolling her eyes.

"I'll start. My name's Terezi, and this grumpy little grub here is Karkat." She pointed at herself and her partner respectively. 'Karkat' grumbled something under his breath, glaring up at the four humans.

Harry was the first to find his voice. "I'm- I'm Harry Potter," he said, leaning forward slightly as if to shake hands, but not removing his hands from his sides.

The rest introduced themselves almost automatically, their awe reflecting into their voices. 'Karkat' didn't seem very impressed by their less-than-enthusiastic greeting, but he said nothing.

Terezi inhaled deeply, gazing around the area by turning her whole head. She laughed with a slight note of insanity, gripping her cane. "Smells like we've fallen into the Land of Gumdrops and Flowery Pink!" She she announced to Karkat, who pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, undoubtedly rolling them. Terezi began to wonder off through the garden, but Karkat pulled her back. "You can't just wander off into some weird nooksucker's mutant-plant garden. Jegus know what's crawling around in there!" He tugged her back forcefully, still glowering at the humans.

"What do you want?" He snapped, folding his arms and raising his chin. Harry exchanged an incredulous look with Ron, who said "This so happens to be my family's garden, not a public park for loudmouths like you."

Karkat fired up at once. "DON'T TELL ME WHERE I CAN AND CAN'T GO, HUMAN. YOUR PATHETIC RACE WAS WIPED OUT YEARS AGO." As he finished this statement, Karkat looked slightly confused. Terezi, however, took this moment to break in. "You guys are humans?" She asked with an air of haughty disbelief. "But, your planet was destroyed years ago..." She considered this for a moment. There was silence between the two parties.

Hermione took the chance to ask a question Harry knew was burning inside of her. "Sorry to come across rude but, what exactly are you?"

Karkat seemed to come out of a daze. "WE'RE ******* TROLLS, WHAT DO WE LOOK LIKE, ANUS SWAB?" He shouted.

Hermione took a step back, obviously surprised at the reaction. "B-but you don't look like mountain t-trolls..." She stammered.

Terezi cut off Karkat this time. "Mountain trolls? Who said anything about the mountains?" Turning to Karkat, she asked "Do we even have mountains on Alternia?"

After exchanging a glance with his friends again, Harry took a step forward. "What exactly are you two doing here?" He asked. Karkat snorted. "As if we know," he muttered, but Terezi shut him off with a thwap from her cane. She answered instead. "We don't know. One minute, we're stranded around on a tiny meteor, the second, here we are." She turned her head as if looking for some explanation.

Harry, glanced backward. Ron was staring irritably at Karkat, Hermione staring back at Harry, a very confused look on her face. Ginny seemed slightly irritated as well, but not as much as she seemed curious. Exchanging a glance with Ron, they seemed to have a very quick and silent argument with their eyes. Harry turned back to the trolls.

"Would you like to come inside?" He asked, gesturing to the house. "I'm sure Ron's mum won't mind helping you two out."


A/N: This is my first crossover fanfic, so I hope you guys like it! ^u^

Reviews, suggestions, and critique are all appreciated. Thanks so much for reading and have a nice rest of your day/night.