Author's Note: This is the first story in a series. I'm not sure how big the series will be, but this story should only be around ten chapters long. I think. Well, it will be no more than twenty chapters long. Because I tend somehow get myself into writing epics, I've decided that after Once Might Have Been is finished, I'll write series instead.

Secondly, I know I should be working on my other story. I am, but I've hit a bit of a snag. Whenever that happens, I just need to work on something else for a little while before trying to go back and fix the snag with a clear mind. So don't worry. I fully intend to put out another chapter of Once Might Have Been later on this week.

Thirdly, have fun guessing who the person at the end of the chapter is. Yes, he is a cannon DC character. No, I will not tell you who until the next chapter comes up.

Disclaimer: I neither own nor make a profit from all characters and situations herein belonging to J.K. Rowling or DC Comics.

Summary: A chance encounter leads to a hunt through time and space to find Bellatrix LeStrange before she destroys the space-time continuum. A DC Comics-Harry Potter crossover.

Rating: T

Pairings: Some UST, no true pairing-subject to change at Author's whim.

Spoilers: All seven books for Harry Potter, everything before Identity Crisis for DC.

Timeline: Takes place directly after the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Takes place somewhere between when Jason Todd died and Hal Jordon got up close and personal with the Space Bug of doooooooooom! (Sorry, couldn't resist making fun of the whole Parallax thing, although I personally like the explanation a lot because of how well it explains everything which happened.)

Prologue

She ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding being hit by an unidentifiable pink curse. Hermione rolled behind a trash bin, only to be forced to waste precious moments as she untangled her skirts, which had all but trapped her legs. The sixteen year old winced as she felt what could only be several of her stitches ripping through her skin.

She had to end this fight. Now.

Hermione got to her knees, only to duck as a curse hit the bins she was using for cover, send shrapnel in all directions. She was in no condition to fight, and she knew it. It had been less than two weeks since the battle at the Department of Mysteries and she was still suffering from the after effects of the curse Dolohov had hit her with.

Mentally preparing herself, Hermione stood. She was a Gryffindor for a reason, and she would not allow a Death Eater to get the better of her.

Hermione shouted the first curse which came to mind, followed closely by a second. Bellatrix LeStrange danced neatly out of the way of the first, only to be clipped by the second. The woman dabbed at the blood as if surprised Hermione had managed to hit her at all.

"The Mudblood has some bite in her after all," laughed Bellatrix before renewing her attack.

What was a blood purist like Bellatrix doing at a Renaissance fair in Central Park anyway? How had she managed to leave the United Kingdom? Hermione shook her head and threw up a shield charm. She wasn't sure she wanted the answer to those questions.

Hermione glanced at the other patrons of the fair and made a decision. Most of them seemed to think her duel with Bellatrix yet another show. Surely they had to realize this was more than smoke and mirrors. This was the same city which hosted the Teen Titans or whatever they were calling themselves these days. Was there something about New York which made its residents suicidal?

She comforted herself with the knowledge that her parents were at the convention. At least they were safe from this insanity. Although, she supposed that if it were not for the Orthodontics Convention, the three of them would never have been in the position to run into Bellatrix in the first place.

But if she had not been here, who would have protected the Muggles from Bellatrix?

Hermione moved out into the open. Throwing spells at Bellatrix, she made her way toward one of the few breaks in the crowd. She had to lead the woman away from the crowd before she harmed any more people. At least one person had already been hit with a slicing hex, shortly before the crowd had begun to form, and still the people crowded around to watch the fight.

As she ran, she grabbed a handful of her skirt halfway down her thighs and tucked it into her belt to help free her legs. Though she was not dressed in medieval clothing or even Wizarding robes, she was wearing a fashionable Wizarding outfit.

As expected, Bellatrix apparated to a spot in front of Hermione. She skidded to a halt and changed directions, throwing a Reductor in Bellatriz's general direction to ensure her continuing interest. Hermione had read up on the woman shortly she'd found out what Bellatrix and her cohorts had done Frank and Alice Longbottom. That, along with the encounter in the Department of Mysteries had led Hermione to believe the woman enjoyed cat and mouse games.

Hermione leaped over a chain fence and onto a path, not bothering to slow her speed. For one awful second she'd thought she was fall, but luckily managed to remain upon her feet. Where were Aurors when you needed them?

"Merlin's bloody balls," muttered Hermione under her breath as Bellatrix cut her off yet again.

She'd forgotten that North American magical communities were not organized as their European counterparts. Rather, there were scattered Wizarding enclaves similar in manner to the Greek city states of old. There was a Wizarding enclave in what had originally been New Amsterdam before the English had taken Manhattan from the Dutch, but few of their members ventured far from their Lower East Side sanctuary. It seemed she had to find some way to take care of Bellatrix herself.

At that thought, Hermione reached into her backpack, all the while trying to hit Bellatrix with a hex or curse. She quickly pulled a vial containing a dose of Pepperup potion and downed it. She knew she'd need the energy the potion used to aid recovery and fend off illnesses provided. She was nearly at the end of her rope. Though she was no longer on ten potions a day to aid her recovery, she was still taking six different potions daily.

"Nowhere to run to now, is there?" smirked Bellatrix.

Hermione let out a string of curses which would have impressed a sailor. How could she have been so stupid? She'd allowed Bellatrix to herd her into a dead end.

She turned around to face Bellatrix. Hermione was struck by an idea, but she knew it would either enrage Bellatrix to the point where she made a mistake or to the point where she stopped playing games with Hermione.

Gathering her courage, Hermione said, "I didn't take you for much of a sight seer. Did your Half-Blood master give you some time off as a reward for the Department of Mysteries. Oh, wait, you failed your mission. Harry destroyed the prophecy." She gave her a mock look of sadness. "Were you laid off for your poor workmanship?"

Bellatrix gave her a look of rage rather similar to the one upon her wanted poster. "How dare you imply my master is a Mudblood like you!"

"There's no implication," smirked Hermione. "He's a Half-Blood. His Daddy was a Muggle." She continued in a sing song voice, using everything Harry had told her over the years and a few things she thought up on the spot. "A dirty nasty Muggle who left his witch of a wife to die and his bastard Mudblood son to grow up in a dirty Muggle orphanage."

That was when the barrage of spells began. Hermione threw up a shield as she ducked out of the way, searching desperately for any form of cover. And then a spell managed to get through her shield, hitting her with the full force of Bellatrix's rage.

It was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. A detached, clinical part of her mind told Hermione that it was because the Cruciatus Curse caused every nerve in her body to believe that it was experiencing an overload of pain. Not that the clinical, detached part of her mind was of much help.

Somebody was screaming. Who was screaming like that? Were they being mugged? Surely with the racket they were making, somebody would come to their aid. Oh, part of Hermione wanted to laugh, she was the person screaming.

How long this stretched on for, Hermione did not know. It felt like hours, but surely that could not be right. Bellatrix had personally driven Alice Longbottom, a very well respected and seasoned Auror, insane within twenty minutes.

And then the pain stopped.

It took Hermione a moment to make herself stop screaming. Dazed, she barely managed to force herself to open her eyes. The sun was directly above her. Oh, it had to have been less than half an hour since her battle with Bellatrix had begun, since it had been noon precisely when she'd run into the deranged Azkaban escapee.

As Hermione forced herself to sit up, wincing occasionally at the twinge of pain any movement caused and the stiffness her limbs, she wondered to herself why Bellatrix was not attacking her. Or at least taunting her. Perhaps it was another of her twisted games.

Pulling her legs beneath her body, Hermione turned to where she'd last seen Bellatrix. She blinked in surprise, not quite connecting the image for a full minute. Bellatrix and a teenage boy-or perhaps it was a man-were wrestling upon the ground. And then Bellatrix managed to get her wand into the proper position to do a spell.

The boy was thrown several feet into the air only to land heavily between Hermione and Bellatrix. As if Bellatrix had not noticed that Hermione was aware-and perhaps she truly had not noticed-she turned her attention to the boy.

"Crucio!" cried Bellatrix, all but foaming at the mouth.

Hermione winced at her rescuer's cries of pain. She pushed herself to her feet, only to stumble and nearly fall. She had obviously moved too quickly. Hermione steeled herself as she tried to decide what to do.

"Let him go, Bellatrix," said Hermione.

Bellatrix blinked at her stupidly, as if surprised that Hermione was coherent. "Little Mudblood's tougher than I thought."

The spell was lifted from the boy as Bellatrix pointed her wand at Hermione. The two began to fling spells at one another as they ducked and dodged. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the boy get to his feet unsteadily. This had to end before anybody else was harmed.

She tried desperately to find a spell which would get past Bellatrix's defenses and put her down for the count. Finally, she decided upon a spell which could get her the Dementor's Kiss if performed upon British soil. Luckily, there were no such restrictions in the Americas. Perhaps the months spent perusing books clandestinely liberated from the Black family library would come in use after all.

Hermione barely noticed the spell heading in her general directed as she yelled, "Ihfrokuv!"

A swirling purple beam left her wand as it headed toward Bellatrix only to hit the spell her enemy had cast. She saw but a moment of the beams crashing into each other and combining as a large body smashed into her, dragging her to the ground. A moment later she realized that the large mass was the boy, using his own body to shield her from the reaction of the two spells combining.

There was a flash of brown light, followed by darkness as Hermione lost consciousness.