Disclaimer : I don't own anything. Except my Harry Potter books and the version of Fable installed in my computer. (Well, I used to own it anyways, rest in peace, my previous computer, I will always remember the all nighters we had together to finish that game withouta guide.)

I need a betaaaaaa, but I'm too damn lazy to get one ~

Chapter II: Very bad trip

In which Neville joins the dark side and Percy is a paranoid Weasley

The first thing Neville decided when he woke up, was to turn around and go back to sleep. Then he remembered the troll, the chase , the fall and sat up, groaning, his whole body aching in protest. Running away from the troll had to be the most physical and dangerous exercise he ever had, even uncle Algie leaving his newly acquired acromantula to 'play' with him had been easier to deal with. Who knew a mandragora's scream could kill spiders too ?

Looking wearily around, Neville saw Percy in a bed next to his. The redhead definitely had seen better days, his left arm in a cast, his skin even paler than usual, his nose bandaged, glasses and wand nowhere to be seen. Speaking of which, his own (father's) wand was also absent.

"Ah ! Neville!"

He turned his head and saw the last member of their improbable trio sitting, legs crossed against the wall on his left, which was covered from the ground to the top of the windows by bookcases, the girl was surrounded by piles of books, from which he could safely guess that she woke up hours ago. He felt really upset about that, since he was the one who did the least of them, Percy used his magic without a pause for ten minutes and Hermione used... well, he couldn't really know what kind of spell she used, probably a blinding spell on it, but it used up a lot of magic. He did nothing but faint from fright, what would his gran say to him ?

"Neville ?"

Snapped out of his brooding, the pureblood gave an embarrased smile to his friend.

"Sorry Hermione, I was just... the troll..." He finished with a shudder, that thing was truly abominable, how come it could enter in the school anyways ? The wards should have prevented it!

The girl nodded " I read in Hogwarts, a history, that trolls had left the area surrounding Hogwarts centuries ago because the monsters repelling wards were too powerful for even their hides to counter. But listen, I've asked around to the people coming here to take care of us and somehow, we're not in Hogwarts anymore, and if this book is right, we're in Albion !" The excited tone in her voice was worrying him a bit." The Albion, old England, the Albion of Merlin and King Arthur! And even more, all those theories on parallel dimentions, they were true! We're not just in our Albion, but in another world entirely! Oh that's so exciting Neville! Think of all the scientists that would kill to be in our place!"

The pureblood could honestly say that he couldn't understand half of what she said. Probably muggle things, since the 'science' word was present. He still decided to ask for explanations, as the girl seemed to be relaxed enough, it couldn't be that serious.

" Errr... Hermione ?" How could he tell her without attracting her 'righteous ire' against the pureblood's 'backward traditions and knowledge' " You know ...we, traditional Pureblood, are err... not exactly on touch with the latest science thingies..."

She gave him an horrified look before complying with his unformulated request.

"You don't even have theories about other worlds ? Oh my... Well, no matter! Parallel dimentions are supposed to be replicas of our own universe, that evolve in patterns similar to ours. They can be almost identical, or very different , and it's not exactly precised how they are kept from colliding, some think they vibrate following different frequencies, other think that the universes coexist on the same plane, others even think that some energy, that we could call magic, is the force that keep them separated." Neville's dull look was the only indication she needed to understand the she needed to simplify again." Hmmm, if you want a simpler explanation, look at this book." She raised a worn looking blue book, an atlas apparently, and waved it at him" This, is the representation of our universe, our planet earth, our stars et caterae. This one " Putting the blue book in front of her and lifting, this time, a red history book" is the other universe, the one we're in." she put it next to the first one, showing the air between them, then pointed from one to another. " The air is the mysterious barrier, and what the three of us did, was to travel from one to another."

Neville spoke up slowly, trying to twist his mind around the alien notions.

"So, that's like if the heroes from one book, got out of their book and found themselves in another book, like the people from the 'Illiad' found themselves in 'Quidditch though the ages' ?"

Hermione nodded, satisfied he understood, which prompted him to ask his other question, a sense of dread slowly spreading in his stomach.

"And, do you know how we go back to Hogwarts ?"

Her eyes widened with realisation, before she scratched her cheek sheepishly.

"Absolutely no idea." Her tone was entirely too happy to Neville's liking." But it's okay, I mean, someone back home will soon know we've disappeared, Percy's a prefect, and Dumbledore's the director after all. Besides, the guildmaster Weaver already said we were welcome to stay here as long as we needed. He even accepted to teach us following their own system of magic!"

Yup, his friend had lost it. Breathe in, breathe out, and thank whichever supreme force exists in this universe that he did NOT find himself stuck with worse company, in a more unfriendly place. Now, he tried to think rationally, two choices were offered to him. He could either ruin his health, the only thing he could count on right now, worrying about everything, or stop thinking, grab the herbology book Hermione was tantalizingly waving under his nose and wait for someone to rescue them. He did learn that in case of kidnapping, one should stay put and try to get the kidnappers to forget them, less chances to be hurt.

I guess it's like the slytherins said, thought Neville with a sigh, if you can't beat them, join them.

He then took the book anf fell into the blissful oblivion that herbology always caused into him. No more gran, uncle Algie, pureblood expectations or wizardry, only him, the plants and ooooh, their mandragorae didn't scream...

When he woke up, Percy felt as if Fred and George used him for 'the most important duty of training their accuracy with a bludger to avoid disfiguring the fair, almost certainly female chasers while sending the slytherins to a certain death' (read: target practice) again. He lifted his hand to his face and touched his nose experimentally. Definitely broken and oh joy, he had the two black eyes to go with it.. The fact he has problems to breathe was a sign of at least bruised ribs.

He'd have to get back at the two pests for this.

He then tried to sat up using his other arm, to no avail. The redhead forced one of his eyes open and found himself, in a unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar place and for the life of him he couldn't remember why he was here. Surely he should be at the infirmary with that kind of damage, right ? So why was he in a definitely not white room, covered in bandages and his wand arm in a cast ? He shifted uncomfortably, trying and failing to keep his arm in a position where it would not hurt. He heard a page being turned and quickly located the origin of the noise, which was a middle aged woman, clad in rather provocative clothes of a foreign fashion. She had short cropped greying black hair, mostly dark grey and red clothes that bared her muscled stomach and shoulders, black glasses and a red bandana. Percy was quite perplexed by his watcher's sense of fashion, for it was definitely not what witches liked to wear, nor was it what muggleborn females wore on their off days either.

The woman felt his gaze on her and lifted her nose off her book, staring back at him in a bored fashion.

"So you're up. I won't lose my time asking you how you came here, you don't look nearly half as powerful as you'd need to pull that off. Well, nobody can be me after all. I guess I should introduce myself, though why you wouldn't know about me is beyond me. I, am Briar Rose, the famous female of the Heroes' guild."

His brow furrowed, quite upset at the disdain dripping from her voice. If he hadn't been sure that Professor Snape had no living relative, he'd have pegged her as his sister. He opened his mouth to introduce himself, as his education and position called for but the irritating female put a hand up, interrupting him.

"No need to introduce yourself, your little friends already did tell me of your... adventure, if it can be called like that." She snorted lightly, closing her book and getting up" Managed to survive being chased by a troll huh ? I remember when I killed my first one, I'd just hit fifteen. " Her smirk turned to a grimace of distaste and she started to talk louder towards the door, looking increasingly agitated "This is a waste of my time, I shouldn't be here babysitting an incompetent, I should be on a mission to stop that...!"

An old man , followed by a blind woman who had her hands on two of his housemates' shoulders cut her before she could express her true feeling on the subject in explicit words.

"Thank you, Rose, we'll take over from now on. There is a quest card waiting for you."

Briar Rose huffed and strode out of the room, throwing a dark look at the blind younger woman, who kept a blank expression, ignoring her completely.

"Good evening lad, I should ask you how you feel, but I think we both know the answer to that one."

While he usually would have waited for the man, obviously an authority figure, to continue with what was going to ba an introduction, Percy was tired, his arm, nose and head hurt, he had problems to breathe, would probably vomit soon, if his excessive salivation was any indication, he'd been insulted repeatedly by a Snape clone, he didn't know where he was, how he came to be here besides the fact a troll was probably involved, and two of his charges were with total strangers, which was entirely too far from his comfort zone. He was honor bound to protect them, now way in the bloody hell he'd let them out of his sight, being a prefect was serious business, in or out of Hogwarts. How would he be able to inspire the future generations to follow his example if that was what they ended up seeing ?

"I'm sorry for my rudeness, sir, but those two are my responsability, and as such, I'd like to ask you to kindly let them come here. I don't feel comfortable letting them in the presence of strangers whose motives I have yet to discover."

He didn't know what he said that was funny, but it must have been downright hilarious for the senior was chuckling in his moustache.

"Of course m'boy, I wouldn't want you to feel too uncomfortable, after all, you're wounded , with one arm and three ribs broken, your focus smashed to pieces, in an unfamiliar place and alone against several hundreds of the strongest mages of the country. Obviously, you're not to be taken lightly, far from it."

Said like that, Percy was feeling foolish, his ears were heating up and felt the intense need to hide under his covers. Now he thought about it, the diminutive man did emit an aura similar to Dumbledore's. Maybe, and the thought frightened him to no end, more powerful, for while he was smaller than even him, his musculature, or what was hinted of it, clearly was superior to anyone's in this room and the way he was moving, like one of the wizarding war auror veterans screamed of experience in fighting and killing . The man in front of him would not hesitate to snap his neck if he saw him as a danger.

Deciding he'd like to stay alive, thank you very much, he ducked his head muttering apologies.

"No offence taken, don't worry. If anything, that shows your dedication to your duties. Though it is admirable, you're in no state to do anything right now. As I was going to say, I am Weaver, master of the Heroes' Guild, and this is Theresa, one of my... friends. She'll be your legal guardian during your stay here."

Percy's hearing picked up the slight hesitation in the man's voice as he spoke of this Theresa. He'd need to keep an eye on here, she looked the shady type, with all those tribal marks and... Were those blood traces he saw on that armor ?

"This country is called 'Albion'. According to the young miss Granger, your plane is several hundreds years older than us. Things must have gone terribly wrong for magic to have gone in hiding and ... Oh , dear."

Percy was about to ask what was wrong but a wave of nausea struck him and he decided to keep his mouth shut. His head was swimming and the noise of a door being slammed open worsened his headache, so did the screaming that accompanied it.

"You send me to chase after Trolls ?! Is that a joke? What the Jack are you thinking! I'm one of this guild's best, I won't stand this humiliation any longer, first acting as a babysitter for a brat, then as pest control ?!"

Her voice was grating on his nerves, Percy decided. Especialy since she was screaming next to his bed when a devious idea climbed up his damaged brain. She wanted a brat ? He was more than happy to oblige. Now, he was usually better than this, but he was ill, tired, frustrated and that old cow insulted him again! Dizziness and nausera made it hard to aim but with the last of his stength, he managed to bend and vomit on her shoes. Then gave her the most innocent smile he could muster and fainted again. He was the twins' older brother after all.

What is that sorcery ? Another chapter, less than 24 hours before the first ? Don't get used to it guys, I'll post as soon as they're written, so the updates will be irregular ~

Special thanks:

Well, thanks, Guest (even if I don't know who you are) for your positive review, that's always nice to read while I was working on my chappie 2. Glad you like that idea of a trio, I really couldn't write a story starring HP, even though he's the hereo, he's got enough screentime like that damnit. And before anyone ask, I won't bash anyone, especially the firsties that we won't see in the rest of this fanfic because seriously, they're eleven, who can say they had the maturity of an adult at eleven ?

And to eveapplefields, geez, you make me blush. In fact no, you don't, that'd be creepy. Glad you like the dialogues, I was fearing it was a bit too forced, and then I realized none of the three was really used to conversing with others, for their own reasons, so of course they needed to be awkward .

I'll continue to answer to the reviews I get, but I can't promise the answers to be long, it will depend mostly of the quality of the review itself. I think that was all, feel free to ask questions and off to fanfic-ing (YES that's a word because I said so.)