Title: This Ain't No Self-Insertion
Author: TardisIsTheOnlyWaytoTravel
Summary: A woman finds herself in the body of young student, in the world of Harry Potter. Unfortunately, she happens to be the Leader of the Four Horsemen, the other members of which are also in the same predicament.
Author notes:
Here's a strange Xmas story for you all!
PART ONE
One minute she was minding her own business; the next she was an eleven year old girl, tiny with golden hair and the most appealing blue eyes.
Someone was going to pay.
-
A search of the castle proved she wasn't alone in her predicament. Pestilence was a tall seventh year boy with fair hair, and Famine turned out to be at the Hufflepuff table, encouraging one of his housemates to stick to her ridiculous new diet. She found Bellona in a fifth-floor corridor, beating up a fourth year boy even though she herself was only a spindly third year.
The most disturbing aspect was that War was wearing a santa hat as she did so.
Death dragged them all into an empty classroom where Pestilence promptly collapsed into laughter at the sight of Thanatos, Grim Reaper, Bringer of Darkness, End of All Things and Leader of the Four Destroyers in the form of a cute little blonde girl.
Seeing the way Death's eyes lit with terrifying green, War promptly kicked her brother in the groin.
Famine paled slightly as he stared at his grievously injured brother, before regarding Thanatos with rapt and unsmiling attention.
War smirked and perched herself on a desk, legs swinging to and fro, eyes glinting behind her curtain of dark red hair the colour of wine.
"Does anyone have any idea what caused this?" Thanatos asked, cold anger giving her voice a slight unworldly depth.
The others shook their heads, except for Pestilence who gave a pained wheeze.
"What do we know about the situation?" Thanatos continued.
"We're children, we're semi-mortal, we're in a fictional school for wizards and it's freaking Christmas Eve," War summarised cheerfully. She didn't' like Christmas much; people tended to pull back on their aggression a little, even if it was only for a single day of cease-fire. It wasn't a good time for Famine, either, with everyone donating to charity. Pestilence on the other hand, benefited from all the travel people took to visit friends and relatives, inevitably carrying diseases great distances as well as picking up new ones to take home with them. Death simply found that the number of deaths per type of fatality altered a little; fewer numbers of deaths caused by workplace machinery, for example, but a greater number of fatal car accidents.
"Thanks," Death said dryly. "Any clue how we got here?"
"Well, when the World was Made –" War began, only to stop, grinning, at Thanatos' glare.
"I'd say someone's bargained with a minor deity, or found one of their artefacts," Pestilence croaked, finally capable of speech.
"I suppose we'll have to find out who it is," Famine said glumly. "In the meantime, we have curfew."
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse stared at each other.
"Curfew?" Death echoed.
oo o0o oo
She lay in bed that night trying to work out how ordinary mortals slept. She'd curled up into a ball under her blankets, but had to pull them back a bit when she started to run out of air. Most distracting was her heartbeat. With every pump in her chest Death could feel the blood rushing around her body, through every pulse-point.
She sighed and wondered if she'd just shut down automatically, or if there was some unguessed-at skill in sleeping…