Cover photo by Kikaigaku of deviantART.
Probably the world's greatest crossover – Rise of the Brave, Tangled Dragons and the Harry Potter Universe.
Harry Potter & Co. never existed in this AU. It uses Rowling's universe only, not her characters.
Characters from Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks.
September 1, 2010.
Towing a small trunk behind him, he fought his way through the crowd to keep up with the tall, bearded man ahead of him.
"This is it." The man said in a thick Russian accent, stopping so suddenly that Jack nearly bumped into him.
North, he'd said his name was, when Jack had first met him a week earlier. He was a teacher, he said, at a boarding school for special children. Magical children, just like Jack.
As he peered out from behind North's luxurious red coat, he couldn't help the nagging suspicion that the man was about to laugh at him, at the disappointment that was painted across this face.
He'd been expecting something spectacular and magical. Exciting, even. Out of the ordinary, in the very least. But instead, he was standing before two very boring, very ordinary and very anti-climactic trains. He wasn't even sure which one was less exciting, because with their sleek aluminium bodies, they looked exactly the same. They certainly didn't look like the type of vehicle that would stop at a magical school.
Jack glanced between the two trains, an empty, sinking in his gut telling him that his guide was about to announce that this was all a cleverly planned joke.
This was where he were going to laugh and tell him that he couldn't believe that Jack had actually believed him. This was where his social worker was going to appear out of the crowd, give him the sternest of looks and ask if he'd finally learned his lesson about playing tricks on people. And where his foster family was going to show up and tell him they'd finally gotten him back for all the tricks he'd played on them.
And they were going to send him away, like all of his other his foster families had been doing for as long as he could remember.
"After you," the Russian man said, giving Jack a broad grin and gesturing to the brick wall between the two platforms.
Jack regarded him with a puzzled and sceptical expression.
"Is platform nine and three-quarters." North said, gesturing to the signs above them that read platform 9 and 10.
Jack took a step forward, his hand stretched out in front of him. But where his eyes told his body he should feel the rough texture of a brick wall, he instead found his hand vanishing into it.
A hesitant grin spreading across his face and with a single step, he felt the magical barrier wash away the last of his scepticism.
"Platform Nine and Three-Quarters!" Professor North announced with an amused chuckle, his wide blue eyes reflecting the wonder around them. Clapping one hand onto Jack's shoulder, he handed the boy a ticket with the other.
His icy blue eyes scanned the train station around him, hungrily taking everything in. The bright red steam engine, the crowds of other children waiting to board the train and the piles of luggage that lay scattered around them, waiting to be loaded.
The Hogwarts Express.
It was everything he'd ever dreamed.
"Good luck!" North said, bidding Jack adieu before vanishing into the crowd.
As he wove his way through the crowds of people on the platform towards the line-up to board the train, Jack realized that he could tell which families were magical and which were muggles, entirely by what they were wearing.
Children from muggle families were dressed in hoodies and jeans, just like the kids at his elementary school. And the children from magical families, well, they were dressed differently. Like people who had more important things to worry about than the latest fashions. Some even looked as though they'd just stepped right off the pages of a book about medieval times.
A squeal of terror sounded from behind Jack as his body hit the ground, the breath knocked out of him completely. His eyes stretched wide in shock as a speeding trolley barely missed his face.
His lungs aching for breath, Jack stared after the offending trolley as it suddenly spun sideways and toppled over, dumping its' red-haired rider and all of her luggage onto the floor.
Untangling himself from the golden blonde who'd crashed into him, and the pale blonde who he'd knocked down as a result, he muttered an apology. As Jack got to his feet, the girl with the white-blonde hair fled, muttering about concealing something, and nearly sending Jack sprawling all over again as she pushed past him.
"You see, my previous little Flower?" A woman's voice soothed, and Jack turned to find the golden blonde wrapped in her mother's protective embrace. "I've told you a dozen times that Hogwarts isn't a safe place. Are you really sure you want to go?"
"Yes," the girl answered, although she didn't sound terribly sure.
"Merida!" An exasperated woman called across the platform, hurrying over to the site of the trolley accident, followed by man who looked very much like a bear, except for the fact that he had fiery red hair. As they passed Jack, the couple nearly lost their footing and began to skid towards the trolley.
Glancing around at the patch of ice on the cobbles, Jack grinned and held out his hand to catch a falling snowflake. Hogwarts must be a magical place indeed if it could snow inside a train station in September.
The brunette woman pulled the fiery-haired girl out of the luggage pile, scolding her in a heavy Scottish accent as another man appeared and rescued a second child – a boy with a mop of brown hair – from the wreckage.
As the girl's parents began to argue loudly with the boy's father, Jack stepped up to the entrance of the Hogwarts Express and handed the man his ticket.
Standing at the very end of the train as it pulled out of King's Cross Station and began its' journey to the magical school they called Hogwarts, Jack couldn't help grinning as he watched London fade from view.
Hogwarts was going to be a new beginning.
Making his way up the train, he found the majority of the cabins were already full of other students. Who knew there were so many children just like him? He'd never have imagined the world that was hidden right under his very nose.
As he passed the candy trolley, he spied an empty seat and paused in the cabin's doorway. "Do you mind if I sit with you?"
"Go ahead." Answered a wild-haired redhead with what appeared to be a frog's leg sticking out of her mouth. It was the same girl who'd very nearly run him over with her trolley earlier that day.
"Are you eating a frog?" Jack asked, half amused, half disgusted.
"A chocolate one, yes." She snatched up a purple package from the pile of sweets next to her and tossed it across the cabin to him. "The name's Merida."
"Jack." He nodded, grinning as he took a seat.
"I'm Hiccup." Said the boy with the mass of freckles and the cobble-shaped graze on his cheek. As Merida handed Hiccup a chocolate, Jack recognized him as the boy that Merida had run over with her trolley.
"Hiccup?" Merida asked, making a face.
"Short for Hindrick, but nobody's called me that since I was a baby."
The trio looked over at the girl beside Jack expectantly, but she was staring out the window as the English countryside flashed by. After a moment, she realized they were all staring at her, and instead of introducing herself, just seemed to shrink into her oversized black robes.
"Whot's yer name?" Merida said with a friendly smile, offering the girl a chocolate frog as well.
She hesitated a moment, but then seemed to give in to the temptation of chocolate and leaned forward to accept the package, her hood falling back to reveal long golden hair. "I'm Rapunzel."
Without another word, Merida tore the wrapper off a second chocolate frog. Hiccup didn't seem fazed, but Rapunzel shrieked and Jack's eyes stretched wide with alarm when the thing sprang out of the package and began to climb up the window.
"I thought you said they were chocolate frogs!" Jack said, inspecting the purple package in his hands.
"They are!" Merida said, pouncing on the window and scooping the frog up in her cupped hands. "Whot, d'ye think Ah'd eat a realfrog? Ah'm a Scot, not a savage."
"They're enchanted to move." Hiccup explained, opening his chocolate and popping it into his mouth before it could hop away, as though to demonstrate that it was indeed safe to eat.
"You're sure they're not really alive?" Rapunzel asked, looking nervous as she watched Jack open his and try it.
It tasted like real chocolate, though it was a little unsettling to have it try to hop out of his mouth when he tried to eat it.
"Mostly sure," Merida said with a shrug.
Rapunzel looked alarmed, and held up the package like she was trying to read the fine print. "It's not going to turn me into a frog if I eat it, is it?"
Jack realized that a question like that was probably a good thing to have asked before taking candy from someone who was both a stranger and a witch.
"They've never turned me inta one." Merida said with another shrug, before sitting back to inspect the two very cautious people sitting across from her. "Are ye muggleborn?"
Rapunzel shook her head. "My mother's a witch. We just bake all our own treats."
Merida nodded and turned to Jack. "And you?"
Here it was. The question he always dreaded. The one he always tried to hard to avoid. So many children didn't understand the foster care system. Most times, it was just easiest not to correct them when they mistakenly believed he was just someone's step-sibling.
"I don't know." Jack said with a shrug, seeming to shrink as he leaned against the wall. "I've never met my parents."
Rapunzel gasped. "That's so sad!"
A sullen silence fell over the group; Jack's smile had vanished.
"Uh, my parents are both pureblooded." Merida volunteered, trying to break the awkward silence that had befallen them.
"I'm half and half," Hiccup said. "Somewhere along the line, at least."
As Merida unwrapped another candy, Hiccup raised a hand and gingerly touched the large graze on his cheek.
"Sorry abou' that." Merida said, nodding at the injury on his face. "I didn't mean ta run anyone over with my trolley."
"That's what they all say," Hiccup said, grinning. "Well, at least now I look tough like my dad."
Merida nodded in agreement.
"Maybe I even look tough enough to be put in Gryffindor," Hiccup said. "My whole family has been in Gryffindor for as long as anyone can remember."
"I hope I'm sorted into Gryffindor too," Merida grinned, before turning to Jack and Rapunzel. "What house do you two want to be in?"
"My mother didn't think I was ready for Hogwarts this year, she thought it'd be too dangerous. Mother would want me to be in the safest house." Rapunzel told them, regarding the other two with wide green eyes. "Um. . . which house is the safest?"
"Gryffindor, definitely." Merida said. "It's the bravest house, so if there was danger, there would always be someone around to help you."
"Gryffindor," Rapunzel whispered, as if testing the name on her tongue. Then she smiled and nodded. "Great! What about you, Jack?"
"The funnest one?" Jack said uncertainly, trying to remember everything that North had told him about Hogwarts.
"Gryffindor." Merida said. "My mum was in Ravenclaw and she's no fun at all. But my dad was in Gryffindor and he's loads of fun."
"Let's all be in Gryffindor!" Rapunzel said, clapping her hands together in excitement. "Yay!"
And as Merida launched into a conversation about how excited she was to start flying class, Jack realized that neither Merida nor Hiccup nor Rapunzel seemed to think he was weird for not having any parents.
Perhaps Hogwarts really was a brand new beginning.
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