Title: Swapped & Startled
Pairing: Harry/Draco, Ron/Hermione
Genre: Drama, Romance, Angst
Rating: M
Summary: The Golden Trio, along with Slytherin's Trio, are torn from Hogwarts and wake up to find themselves in different time periods or different places. They each think they're alone, but they all have one thing linking them together: their minds. EWE, slash, HPDM, 8th year fic

~Prologue~

Harry roughly brushed his hair away from his face, his breath coming in haggard gasps. The dread that had been building in the pit of his stomach since the start of the new school year suddenly boiled over.

Harry couldn't believe it.

Eight years, eight years he managed to keep himself alive and suddenly he was swept off his feet by some intangible force and dumped into this freezing cold pond in the middle of nowhere. It was unbelievable! There was something seriously wrong with this predicament, and it wasn't just the fact that he was lost and disoriented from being torn from his cozy bedroom.

Or wait...had he been in his bedroom?

Harry suddenly remembered getting out of bed and eating breakfast. He recalled sitting in class that morning listening to Professor McGonagall's lecture about transfiguring humans, since their class was advanced, but he also recalled zoning out and coming to in Potions with the Slytherins. That was, of course, due to the argument he had with Malfoy over who messed up their potion and whether it was done intentionally or not, and then came the fistfight, where Harry could clearly remember pulling Malfoy out into the corridor and punching him square in the face. Zabini had come flying out of the classroom before Malfoy could retaliate and dragged him towards what Harry could only assume to be the Hospital Wing.

That was the last thought Harry could recall with clarity before he passed out.

-HPDM-

Draco shifted minutely, barely repressing a gasp as pain lanced through one of his shoulders.

"Shit," he thought desperately. How was he injured? The last thing Draco could recall was telling Zabini good-bye, and now here he was (where was 'here' anyway?) writhing in pain and trying not to scream aloud. The heavens were clearly out to get him, Draco decided grimly. Well, too bad. Draco wasn't letting them have him without putting up a good fight.

-HPDM-

"I've lost them. It's all my fault," Hermione Granger thought despairingly. She could very well have killed Harry and Draco, and even Ron, though how he tied into this she couldn't fathom. Her only consolation was that Theodore Nott had been there to stop her before her spell severed everyone's magic. Why the boy hadn't been sorted into Ravenclaw, she'd never know, but she was certain of one thing: she owed him their lives. Now if only she could find him in this...topiary maze?

-HPDM-

"Ow!" Blaise Zabini uttered an oath as he was deposited none too gently on the rough stone floor of the Slytherin dungeons. At least, it looked like the Slytherin dungeons, though Blaise couldn't be sure. He shook off the feeling of lethargy that had abruptly overcome his body moments before. When the slightly dizzy feeling of apparating slowly ebbed away, Zabini could suddenly think with a clear head. He took in his surroundings with a firm, cursory glance and muttered another oath. This wasn't Hogwarts, or at least, it wasn't the one he knew.

~TBC~

I haven't really thought this story out, it's something like a mini-ficlet I wrote to try out my new mini keyboard and well...you can see how my thoughts run amok with gloom and doom. Most of my stories don't make any sense until the middle/end due to my odd writing style. I swear I don't do it on purpose, but I can't seem to stop writing awkwardly suspenseful chapters that lack vital information. Call it a curse, if you will. I haven't written in a few years so I'm obviously rusty, and I need to get the hang of FF's formatting, so please bear with me. I don't mean for it to be so short, but I don't know what I'm writing or whether anyone will like it (in which it'd be a waste of time for me to pursue). If you like it, I promise I'll write longer chapters with in-depth characterization and a real plot. ^^

Please review? If only to encourage a retired writer to write again? :D