It was the winter vacation of our sixth year at Hogwarts and my first year of high school. The team and the four of us were in the Balto World, in Nome, Alaska in the winter of 1925. Because of the season the team obviously had on winter attire, though as you probably remember the four (or five, as you'll discover later) of us didn't need any since our fur changes according to the weather. Penny P decided to just watch us along with her friends and family, so like the kids of the cul-de-sac she wasn't with us. There were new friends with us though, a wolf named Selena, a half-wolf/half-dog, and a goose.
I first met Selena in P.E. during my first day of school, my teacher, who was also her old teacher, introduced us because he noticed that we both love wolves. Numbuh 274, Rudy, Penny, and Snap met her along with me since they go to school with me, and the others met her when she first came over to my house. They only knew her in her human form then, since she's a wolf who was cursed into a human, but now they saw her in her wolf form. She looks a lot like me, except her fur is fluffier and she has blue eyes instead of green or brown like mine. Plus, she obviously doesn't have a Superwolf collar. The rest of the team also realized that she was the same wolf who was laughing at the hyenas back during The Lion King Adventure! After talking to her about this we found out that she actually followed us during every Adventure. We didn't see her a lot because she had her sneaking skills down pat by the Beauty and the Beast one. The only Adventure she didn't follow us through was The Pagemaster one, she didn't even know about that one until I told her about it.
"Who are your two new friends?" Spongebob asked me and Selena.
"I'll answer that after our two new Superwolf Friends joins us." I replied.
"Who are they?" Darwin asked.
At that a portal opened and two people came out. One was a Caucasian Goth wearing a purple coat and the other was an African-American with a red backwards cap and glasses.
"Sam! Tucker!" Danny cried happily, running up to his two best friends.
After a happy greeting by the three of them, Danny introduced us to Sam, or Sam M (M stands for her last name: Mason), a Goth who is also an environmentalist and recyclo-vegetarian, and Tucker, someone who a bully would call 'techno-geek' but we would call 'technology-expert'. A recyclo-vegetarian is a person who doesn't eat dairy products or fish along with not eating meat and can even go so far as to eat grass – edible grass of course.
"Hi everyone." Sam M said.
"Hi, glad to finally have you two with us." I said. "Oh, our other two friends are Balto and Boris."
Everyone said hi to Balto (the half-wolf/half-dog) and Boris (the goose), and they said hi back.
"So how's Hogwarts doing?" Molly asked.
So we explained what has been going on during the first semester of Hogwarts. Sirius of course was still assumed dead in their world, so while he stayed at my place alive along with James and Lily the rest of us were pretending that he, as well as James and Lily, were dead. Part of that pretending was Harry temporarily owning Sirius's home and the Black's house-elf Kreacher. Unfortunately, Kreacher was a muggle hater and also hated Sirius so he only followed Harry's orders reluctantly because all house-elves have to follow their masters whether or not they want too. Harry also made me 'temporary co-owner' until Sirius, James and Lily were able to go back to their world at the end of our seventh year. Buckbeak, who used to be in Sirius's care since the double-rescue back in our third year, was now temporarily owned by Harry, but he left Buckbeak with Hagrid instead. To keep Buckbeak safe we now call him Witherwings.
As for Hogwarts itself, there was now a new Potion's teacher by the name of Slughorn. Snape had been given the job of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
"I know Slughorn!" Lily said. "He taught Potions back when we were in Hogwarts! But I though he had retired."
"He did, but Dumbledore enlisted me to help encourage him to come back." Harry explained. "Apparently despite being a Slytherin he was very fond of you."
"Yeah, he was the only decent Slytherin we've met." Sirius added. "Not that prejudice like other Slytherins though he did seem surprised that Lily was so good at magic, especially potions."
The rest of the team seemed surprised at this. Thanks to only meeting bad Slytherins they thought that all Slytherins were bad.
The four of us then got to telling them about the prophecy, which Harry had already told Ron W and Hermione when we had gone to Ron W's house for the remainder of the summer. Dumbledore told us that it was all right. According to the prophecy neither one can live while the other survives, meaning that either Harry has to kill Voldemort or else no one can! I mean we did confirm that Harry was the Chosen One but neither Harry nor I ever told the team the full prophecy before. None of us were worried though, we knew that Harry will kill Voldemort in the end, and we were comforted by the fact that Harry won't lose his life in the process.
The four of us then mentioned about Draco getting more involved with the Death Eaters and seeming to be cooking up some sort of plot. Since we weren't really supposed to know about Draco until the end of our sixth year Hermione was pretending not to believe Harry's suspicions, which is what her reaction would really be if the Adventures had never happened. Ron W's act was more like Hermione's, but he soon started becoming suspicious like Harry and I were when we found out that Snape was helping Draco. We also explained that thanks to Dumbledore's Pensieve – a stone basin that contains memories – Dumbledore, Harry and I have been able to meet Voldemort's mom, uncle and grandpa before his mom and dad even got married. Voldemort's mom's name was Merope, his uncle's name was Morfin, and his grandfather's name was Marvolo. That was when we stopped the story since telling the team everything about Voldemort's parents and such would take a very long time. We decided to gradually tell the team during our visit since Selena and I like to stay in this World for a while everytime we visit it.
"Come on guys, there's a race going on! I don't want to miss the end!" Balto said excitedly, rushing off.
The team and the five of us followed him into town, going through the alleyways. Balto, Boris, and I moved along the roofs and porches, but everyone else stuck to the ground. Danny used his intangibility powers to help the others keep up with us. Soon, a flash burst into the air.
"It's the three mile marker!" Balto said as he pulled Boris onto a porch rail by the face.
"Get your slobbery mouth off me!" Boris snapped, pushing Balto's mouth off of his face.
"Come on let's go guys, we can cut around back and catch the end of the race!" Balto said.
"Oh no! No, no, no, no! I am a delicate country bird!" Boris said, stopping Balto by the tail. "I hate going into town!" He whined.
"Ah come on what's the worse that can happen?" Balto replied.
He dragged Boris, who was still holding onto his tail, over a couple of porch rails and caught Boris in his mouth as Boris flew over him. Balto then put Boris into a pair of pants that was on a clothesline and grabbed onto the clothesline with his mouth, moving the clothesline so that they had moved across the street to a roof. I followed them using the tightrope walker method on the clothesline.
"Please, *bleah*!" Boris cried as Balto grabbed him by the tail and flung him onto the roof. "Why do I let you talk me into these things?" Boris muttered before tripping onto the roof.
He slid down until his foot got caught in the antlers of a stuffed moose head – which surprised me, I thought they were only used for indoor decoration. Looking to his left, he unfortunately saw dead, featherless geese! He was outside the window of a butcher shop! Boris gave a yell as the butcher pulled him inside by the leg. The butcher then pulled all of Boris's tail feathers off. Boris grabbed most of his feathers back and stuck them into his tail.
"Vhat the…!" He started to argue, but stopped when the butcher pulled out a cleaver!
Courage failing, Boris ran screaming to the window, but the cleaver ended up right in front of his face, stopping him in his tracks! The butcher then grabbed Boris by the legs and held him down as he prepared to chop Boris's head off! Boris screamed as some of his feathers popped out to form an outline, but Balto grabbed Boris by the head just in time.
"Bring that back, you thief!" The butcher called out the window angrily as Selena barked at the butcher.
The butcher ignored Selena and shut the window.
"You, uh, put me down now, Mr. Golden Retriever." Boris honked sarcastically.
"Whatever you say Boris." Balto chuckled, letting go of him.
"Every time there's a race, you run around like you're in it." Boris said bitterly.
"Maybe one day I will be." Balto replied, climbing down the roof that we were on to walk onto a pipe.
I followed Balto, having had practice with this before.
"Heel you two! Boris Goosetenov is no spring chicken!" Boris said as he slid down the roof.
Unfortunately, he also slid over a skylight, causing him to fall through it. After a crashing sound from inside Boris then burst through a window and came outside onto a porch…and a pile of snow from the roof fell on him.
"I'm no spring penguin either." He muttered as he popped out of the snow. "Oy! It's cold."
He shivered as he leapt into the air, but unfortunately forgot to flap, so he ended up falling. Balto caught Boris onto his back as he rode a falling board of wood into a window. Getting the same idea, I brought the board back over with my wand and rode it into the window too. Selena then followed us by running up the board. The four of us then burst out of a door to the building just as the two-mile marker burst into the sky. The rest of the team caught up with us through the fence thanks to Danny.
"Come on we don't want to miss the finish!" Balto said.
"Oh that vould be a tragedy!" Boris said sarcastically.
Balto zipped ahead, causing Boris to 'drill' himself into the snow.
"I vas being sarcastic." Boris muttered.
Selena laughed a bit while looking into the hole with her ears perked forward.
"Lets keep the sarcasm to a minimum yeah?" She teased.
"Why? I like sarcasm." I grinned.
"Yeah but a little too much gets annoying after a while." Selena grinned back.
"I have yet to experience that." I smirked. "Come on let's catch up with Balto."
As Selena and I left, Mickey helped Boris out of the hole.
"Thanks." Boris muttered to Mickey.
"Anytime." Mickey grinned back, knowing that Boris was only in a bitter mood from ending up in that hole.
Selena and I managed to catch up with Balto, who was going to watch the end of the race from a gap between the crowds. It was kind of a tight squeeze but we managed it. Only one sled team had made it into the town at that point, making Selena and I wonder what had happened to the other team. We knew the lead dog – a black husky named Steele – of the winning team a little too well, and wouldn't put it past him to cheat.
"Jenna, stay girl." A little girl said from the other side of the finish line.
We looked and saw a friend of ours: Jenna the red husky, who was strapped to a kid-sized sled. The little girl who had spoken earlier before leaving was one of Jenna's owners, a little girl named Rosy. Balto smiled as he saw Jenna, and Selena and I glanced knowing smiles at each other. Balto has had a crush on Jenna for a long time, but was always shy around her.
"Jenna!" Rosy said happily as she went back to Jenna.
Jenna barked happily and nuzzled her.
"Jenna. Hold on. Come on Steele!" Rosy cheered while waving her musher hat.
Steele was well known as the champion lead dog and dogsled racer of the town…and was also known to Selena, Balto and I as the champion egocentric of the town.
"Oh no!" Rosy suddenly gasped.
The wind had blown her musher hat out of her hand! It flew through the air and landed by the finish line.
"My hat!" Rosy cried, tying to get her hat back.
Jenna fortunately stopped her by grabbing onto her sleeve.
Balto suddenly looked at the hat, then at the dogsled team, and then after the dogsled team passed him he looked as if he was about to leave.
"Balto! Where are you…?" Selena started to ask.
Balto suddenly entered the track without a word!
"…Going?" She finished with a sigh as her ears went down.
Our friends, excluding Boris, caught up with us here, though most of them ended up in the back.
"Where's Balto?" Clifford asked.
"Out on the track." I replied, wide-eyed.
"What the heck is he doing?" Billy said, also wide-eyed.
We weren't the only ones to notice Balto.
"Get that stray dog!" One villager said.
"He'll ruin the race!" Another villager said.
Boris managed to pop out to the front of the crowd at this point, and when he saw what Balto was doing he gave a cry of shock. Soon, Balto managed to catch up with Steele.
"Hey, out of my way lobo!" Steele said angrily.
Balto ignored him.
Balto and the sled team continued on, Balto and Steele being neck and neck. Boris gave a shout as he covered his face with his wings, leaving only one eye free. Steele suddenly snapped at Balto's paws but Balto jumped out of the way and grabbed Rosy's hat just in time! Balto then moved to the other side of the track unharmed to our great relief, but if Boris was also relieved he did not show it.
"Vhen vill you learn to stay on the sidelines?" He shrieked angrily.
At that, the sled kicked up a bunch of snow that splattered Boris and completely covered him. He wiped some snow off an eye and spat some more snow out of his mouth in disgust. Selena and I chuckled at the irony. Some of the rest of the team chuckled too, but most of them only smiled in amusement.
After Steele and his team were unhitched from the sled, three of Steele's team members, his brainless lackeys, followed him as he started walking to his owner the musher. The names of the lackeys are Nikki, a kind of brown chow-chow – or at least that's what I'd call him if it wasn't for the fact that he doesn't have a blue tongue – Kaltag, a golden malamute, and Star, a purple…well, we never figured out what breed he was, though despite the floppy ears he had the basic build of a small husky. Actually, there's a type of small husky called a Klee Kai, so that's probably what Star is.
"Congratulations there boss there, it was a pleasure running behind yous." Nikki congratulated Steele. "Of course the view got monotonous." He added under his breath.
"You are the most amazing, most exalted, most preeminent," Kaltag praised. "The most top drawer…."
"You won!" Star interrupted, laughing.
Kaltag growled as he knocked Star out, causing Star to fall onto his back. That caused the three of them to fall behind as Steele caught up with his owner the musher.
"Hmm, I don't know, do you think maybe Steele's losing his edge?" The musher asked his photographer friend as Steele stood next to them looking heroic.
"Yeah, looks like just about any dog could outrun him." The photographer agreed, carrying his camera as the two of them walked away.
Steele growled to himself at that.
"Balto!" Rosy laughed, taking her hat.
This caused Steele to turn around and glare at the scene.
"What a crazy thing to do! Just to show off to a pretty girl." Rosy smirked.
Balto smiled at Jenna, who shyly smiled back. Selena and I went over to catch up with Balto.
"I'm sure Jenna would love to have you on her team." Rosy added, holding out the harness that went with her toy sled.
Balto obligingly stepped into the harness…until Rosy's dad came by.
"Hey! Hey, hey! Rosy stay away from him!" Rosy's dad snapped, kicking snow at Balto in order to drive him away.
"Dad!" Rosy said angrily.
"He might bite you honey, he's part wolf." Rosy's dad explained gently.
"Oh now you hurt his feelings!" Rosy complained.
Sure enough Balto did look very hurt.
"Come on now." Rosy's dad said as he led her away by the hand.
Steele chuckled to himself as he started to walk over to Jenna, but her two best friends Dixie, a purple-dyed clipped Pomeranian, and Sylvie, a longhaired saluki, cut him off.
"Congratulations and felicitations Steele." Dixie said.
"Ladies." Steele replied as his shadow fell over Dixie and caused her to almost literally melt into the snow. "Hi there Jenna, enjoy the race?"
"Yeah," Jenna said dryly. "Almost as much as you did."
"Thanks." Steele replied, causing Balto to look even more downcast.
"Ohhh don't listen to that big Bully-Dog Balto. Jenna really doesn't like him at all. He's too much of a pushover." Selena said.
"Yeah," I agreed. "If you listened to her tone you could tell that she was mocking his ego."
Balto, still hurt over the way Rosy's dad treated him, just walked away without a word.
"Jenna, let's go celebrate," Steele continued alluringly. "I know where all the bones are buried."
"I don't know Steele, suddenly I've lost my appetite." Jenna replied coolly, walking away from him.
"Ohhh." Steele replied, insulted, as he cricked his shoulders. "Well maybe your taste runs more toward…wolf."
Selena glared at Steele with a slight growl at that, but I stopped her from going over to Steele – in order to get back at him – by putting a paw on her shoulder.
"We're supposed to act as tame as possible so that the village will trust us, attacking Steele is just going to make things worse." I whispered to her.
She reluctantly followed Balto and I back to the others.
Meanwhile, Jenna, startled by Steele's comment, looked back at him with a slight frown.
"Jenna! Come on girl, we're going back home!" Rosy called.
"Sorry Steele, my girl's calling me." Jenna said, not really meaning the sorry part.
"On the other hand," Dixie said, walking under Steele and batting the loose end of his collar. "My girl is away at boarding school."
Not interested, Steele just walked away over Dixie, causing her to collapse on her back onto the snow dazed.