Houses Competition Year 4. Ravenclaw, HoH, Universe Crossover (2, 1): Marvel Cinematic Universe, WC: 2000 (including destinations, as per GDocs)
AU Potterworld, wherein Hermione is in love with Draco (for some reason or another), and he disappears sometime before they get together. She goes out to find him, but he's not anywhere to be found. Shacklebolt knows she's looking, so employs his additional Minister-power to find him.
Wherein crossovers exist in separate realities. Hermione has watched Marvel movies, and Doctor Strange has read the Harry Potter books, but neither are aware of how they appear in each other's realities - so the characters are aware that they are in a crossover. A bit meta, a bit wild. Enjoy!
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Ministry of Magic, London
Hermione stepped into Kingsley Shacklebolt's office just before four o'clock. The Minister was sitting behind his desk, reading through a sheaf of papers and looking incredibly bored. He glanced up as the door clicked shut. Without speaking, he gestured to the opposite seat.
"We've found him," he said simply, putting down the papers. "We need just you to go and pick him up."
"Wow," Hermione replied, halfway to grinning but not wanting to get ahead of herself. "Okay. Where is he?"
"Draco Malfoy has slipped into another reality, and we've managed to pinpoint his position in New York City. Are you ready?" Kingsley stood up, and Hermione followed suit.
"Right now? I mean, of course I'm eager to bring him home, but I have nothing with me."
"You have your wand. And if you run into any problems, the Portkey will activate in three days' time. Here's some money." Kingsley handed her a wallet that was filled with cash. He then also gave her a newly-materialised rucksack."This is the Portkey. It also has a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a book I think you might like." Great. "Take the straps Miss Granger, any second now—"
The familiar tugging in her navel swept her from the Minister's office.
New York Sanctum, NYC
"Are you seeing this, Wong?" Stephen Strange asked aloud. Wong looked up from his plated tuna melt, staring blankly back. "Never mind. He just turned up—wait, what?"
"What's wrong?" Wong sputtered through bread-filled cheeks.
"Watch this," Strange said, pointing at the hologram in front of them. A tall, blonde-haired man was stumbling down the street a few blocks away from them. People were looking at him, distancing themselves, thinking him unwell. He sank into the shadows, then ran a few feet.
A moment later, the man disappeared entirely, almost as if he had disintegrated and become part of the polluted atmosphere, and reappeared about four or five feet ahead in the same second. Teleportation, but without gadgets.
"Magic," Wong breathed.
"Wong, you're spitting everywhere. Close your mouth when you chew," Strange muttered in return. "But yes. Magic. It could be Loki, or someone similar. We have to apprehend him."
"Wait, please!"
Both men turned at the sound of a female voice.
Somewhere, The Quantum Realm
Hermione was being dragged through realities. How the heck Kingsley had engineered such a thing was beyond her. Blurring colours whirred past her. It wasn't like Floo Powder, because she couldn't see into the windows of reality. It was faster, too—was she slowing down?
New York Sanctum, NYC
Hermione slammed down onto floorboards. She could hear voices chattering a little way off. Two men; one American and one Chinese. She quietly moved closer to them, pulling out her wand, not wanting to make noise in case of hostility. The Portkey was hot on her back.
"Watch this," the American said. Hermione crept closer, hearing the buzz of a video. Silently cursing, she tried using Wingardium Leviosa on the multi-patterned rug to make sure her magic still worked. Well enough, it seemed.
"Magic," the other man said, just as Hermione turned a corner and saw them both staring at a hologram. It looked similar to a Patronus, faintly glowing with fading edges. An image of Draco Malfoy was before them, Apparating every few feet,, out of breath and unwell. Her heart clenched for him.
The American was talking again. "It could be Loki, or someone similar. We have to apprehend him."
"Wait, please!" she called out, before she could think to stop the words. It was a silly mistake, she thought afterwards, because they had no idea who she was or what she was doing there. "I need him."
"Wong, who the hell is this?" the American asked. The Chinese man shrugged and continued eating his sandwich. "Tell me who you are and I won't send you to the Dark Dimension right now."
"Seems harsh," Wong muttered.
"The Dark Dimension?" Hermione asked, totally bewildered. Then she noticed something—a familiarity on his face. "I know you. You're that actor my mum likes, Benedict Cumberbatch! What are you doing here?"
"Benedict—who?" the American asked, incredulous.
"Wait, wait. Realities, right? Hold on. Sherlock?"
Wong was laughing. The American shook his head.
"You think I'm Sherlock Holmes, the book character?" he demanded, nearing furious. "I am Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme. Tell me who you are, now."
Hermione sighed. This was it then, the reality that she was in. She was in some Marvel Universe where the mystic arts existed. It was a damn good thing that her wand even worked at all, given the circumstances. But if Loki could use a different kind of magic on this plain, it would fall that she could use her own type of magic too.
"Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of my age," Hermione sighed, deflating.
"You think this is funny?" Doctor Strange asked coldly. Obviously, he still didn't understand what was going on. "Wong, is Comic-Con on or something? I don't keep track of the date anymore. How did you get in here?" He directed his last question at Hermione.
"I'm a witch," she said again. "Just let me explain. I'm from another reality—similar to this, but also very different." Doctor Strange rolled his eyes. "I know about you, but you don't know about me, fine—"
"I know everything about you," Doctor Strange replied. "Hermione Jean Granger. Hogwarts graduate. Best friend to Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. Fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, yada yada—you are wasting my precious time."
Apparently he did know about Hermione. The question was how, but that could be saved for later.
"Look, I need him," she said, pointing to Draco. "I need to take him back to my reality." They clearly didn't believe her. "Oh for Merlin's sake, Accio!"
Wong's empty plate flew from his grip into Hermione's outstretched hands as the two men stared at her in total disbelief, which she found incredibly insulting given that they were both also involved in magic—which they quickly demonstrated by lighting up the room with glowing, yellow protective barriers.
"I don't know who I am in your reality, but trust me, please. Just for a while. I can take him off your hands, you can be done with the both of us, and we can all forget this happened."
Doctor Strange glanced at Wong. Wong nodded.
"Alright," Strange said. "Well, dimension hopping. You have been busy. You'd think I would understand the breadth of multiple realities and dimensions a little more after, well—it doesn't matter."
Endgame, Hermione thought. Great movie.
Midtown High School, NYC
The school bell rang out clearly throughout the halls, and Peter Parker leapt from his seat. His senses were all over the place after being snapped in and out of reality. Well, more all over the place than they usually were. It wasn't exactly easy-breezy having spider-spliced DNA.
Peter stopped by Ned's locker on the way out, but Ned had already left the school. Fair enough. Curfews were a nightmare now, what with people having had their kids disappear and reappear five years later, or vice versa. May wanted him home before dinner, and he guessed that she was only so lenient because he had dealt with a few more monsters than most had in the past few months.
Sometimes he dreamt about the battle. The glaring lights, staring into that oncoming army, the flying horse, and Mr. Stark… He needed a break, a big break, away from Spiderman—
"Woah, buddy, are you alright?" Peter asked as the stranger stumbled into him. "Hey, somebody call 9-1-1!" Peter wrapped the guy's arm around his shoulders as he tried to take another step. "Hey man, what happened? It's not contagious, are you? You're not going to start a zombie race?"
"No," the other man coughed. "I just…"
The other man fell forward, but then suddenly he was ten feet away, collapsed on the ground.
New York Sanctum, NYC
"Is that your phone?" Hermione asked as something buzzed and rang out from one of the long robes that Doctor Strange was wearing.
"Oh. Yeah, hold on, it's the kid. Peter?" Doctor Strange picked up the phone. It was so odd, seeing someone wearing such archaic clothing pick up an iPhone. "Okay, we're on our way now—no, don't call the cops. Miss Granger, come with me. It's him."
Hermione felt she was in a world of hims and he's—where were the superhero women, seriously?—but she followed Doctor Strange anyway. He made a wide circle with the Sling Ring. It shimmered orange-gold for a few moments, sparking outwards like a firework, then Hermione knew she had to step through. She stepped into the fiery portal, quickly followed by Strange. On the other side…
Outside Midtown High School, NYC
"Tom Holland—nope, sorry. Peter Parker," she corrected herself. "Merlin, this is so strange."
She caught Peter looking at Doctor Strange in total confusion.
"Don't even ask," Strange advised. Peter nodded. "That's him, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Hermione breathed, moving towards Draco with steady steps.
She felt as though she might explode with emotion. It had been too long. He had been falling through dimensions for months now, lost ever since his father had died. She wasn't entirely sure how it had happened, but Draco looked so ill. His eyes were sunken and his skin was thin like paper, almost blue. She reached out a hand to touch him, and he jumped. His magic seemed to be splitting him in half. He was so tired that it was causing him to jump and to break in all manners of reality. That was why he was Apparating, or appeared to be Apparating, in short starts over and over.
"Draco," she said softly, reaching for him again. This time he didn't jump, but she could feel that he was shaking all over.
"What's wrong with him?" she heard Peter ask Doctor Strange.
"He's been torn through multiple realities," Strange replied. "Miss Granger, he needs to rest. He can't make the jump back immediately."
"I know," she said. "I can't anyway. My Portkey—ah, dimension-hopper doesn't go back for another three days. They expected it would take longer to find him, I think."
"You're welcome to stay with us at the Sanctum," Strange offered. "It might be more comfortable for him to be around magic, even if it's not his type of magic."
"Wait, this guy is a wizard, too?" Peter asked, his face lighting up. "That is so cool. I'd offer to have you guys at mine, but I don't think May would be pleased. Stranger-Danger and all."
"Hermione." Draco was talking, looking at her, then up at the other two men. "Am I hallucinating? Because I'm seeing you, and I'm also seeing Spiderman and that phoney wizard you watched on the magic box." Hermione watched as Peter registered about six different emotions at Draco having known about his secret identity.
"Again, don't ask," Strange told the kid.
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Three days later, they were set to go. Draco was still discoloured, but overall looked much better. He was answering the somewhat persistent questions of Peter Parker, leant up against a bannister in the entrance hall.
"It's been great to meet you, Miss Granger," Doctor Strange said. "Come back anytime."
"What you really mean is please don't come back and tear a hole in our reality," she replied, laughing.
"That too," Strange agreed. "Have a safe journey."
"Thank you," Hermione said. She called over to Peter and Draco, "Sorry, Peter, I have to drag him away now."
"It was great to meet you, Mr. Malfoy!" Peter was grinning at Draco unlike anything he had encountered before. Draco smiled back at the kid, and stumbled over to Hermione.
"Ready?" she asked, already thinking that she would be taking him straight to St. Mungo's once they were back in London.
"Ready," he replied.
She brushed a stray hair from his face and kissed his cheek. Hopefully they could get some normality back in their lives.
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Thanks for reading!