Darth Vader smiled to himself. Earth could be interesting. According to the information his pod gave him, they had humans as well as many odd aliens. Like Elephants. What kind of name was "El-le-phant?"
He slowed down his pod quickly after entering the Earth's atmosphere, and landed gently on a big grassy field. It was afternoon, and Darth Vader could see some houses around, but no people in sight. A strange noise made him turn.
"AHH!!" shouted Darth Vader in surprise. A menacing little creature with black poofy hair and a long poofy tail greeted him from a nearby tree. Darth Vader backed away. He didn't like the evil gleam in the creature's eyes. The little thing just munched innocently on a nut, while Darth Vader tried to decipher its intent. Was it here to take over the world too?
Darth Vader turned and started marching confidently towards the nearest house. There was no way that evil little alien could out-evil him. He had cool laser blasters, and he knew for a fact that earthlings hadn't even invented jets that could go light speed. And they most certainly didn't have laser blasters.
Darth Vader blasted his way through the door of a small brick house, and walked slowly, and loudly, into the eating area. "Earthlings! I am Darth Vader, someone far superior to you all." He paused, trying to remember the rest of his speech. "Kneel before me, treat me as your king, and you shall be spared."
Upstairs, a young 8-year old girl named Madeline was playing with her Barbie dolls, her trademark giant yellow sunhat on the ground. A loud noise distracted her. Her adoptive brother must be back! She ran downstairs to greet him.
"Bonjour Seb! Tu es de retour? T'étais vite!" But it wasn't her brother. It was a tall man wearing a black suit. He breathed funny. Maybe he had bad asthma. "T'es qui toi?" she asked loudly.
Suddenly, she was reminded of the movies that her brother had watched a lot when he was a bit younger. This guy was in them. She desperately tried to remember his name.
"OHHH!!" she squealed. "T'es Darth Vader! Quelle surprise! Seb va être si heureux!"
Darth Vader was very confused. As far as he knew, earthlings spoke Basic, like him. "Uh, what language are you speaking?" he asked, annoyed.
Madeline understood. Darth Vader didn't know French. Luckily, her English wasn't bad. "Oh, you speak only Eenglish?" she asked. Not waiting for a response, she continued. "I talk French. Like Maman and Papa and Seb. Where are you from?"
Darth Vader sighed. This was weird. He needed to find out where he was in this crazy planet. "I was born on Tatooine. Where am I?"
"You are in Québec! It eez nice here, no?" Madeline paused. "Where is this Tatooo-ine?" she asked. She didn't know that place.
"Tatooine is in a different galaxy," said Darth Vader impatiently. "But I need to know how to take over the world!"
"Take over… the world?" Madeline asked, then gulped. This didn't sound good.
"Whatever!" yelled Darth Vader, and blasted the little girl with his gun. He marched outside, and blasted the house several times too, firing until it was just a mound of ash. "Now where else can I take over?" wondered Darth Vader. He got into his pod and started flying east.
***
Tintin arrived at the hospital, and jogged in to the emergency room, Mia in tow.
"Help, please!" he called out. Dr. Cullen rushed over.
"What happened?" Dr. Cullen asked.
"I think that his bus exploded," Tintin explained quickly. "Can we please get this boy some help?"
Dr. Cullen nodded, laid the boy on a stretcher, and brought him deeper into the hospital.
Milou silently ducked out of his leash and followed, making sure no one saw him. He didn't like the look of that doctor...
***
Harry Potter continued following the pull of the potion. It lead him out of city and towards a plume of smoke. Worried, Harry began to run. What a fiasco it would be if he, Harry, came too late to heroically save those with potential for magic?
He stopped, gaping at the sight in front of him.
A tour bus had skidded off the road, and was now aflame. Bodies were scattered everywhere. Shaken out of his delusions of grandeur for the moment, Harry raised his wand and cast a spell to locate any living people in the area.
Three bodies glowed faintly. Harry ran towards the closest, a dark-skinned girl with long black hair who was sprawled on the ground. He found no obvious injury on her except for a bit of blood on her head. She seemed to have only suffered a mild concussion, but was out cold nevertheless. Harry levitated her and jogged to the next person who had shown up as alive- a boy with brown hair who was facedown in the midst of the wreckage. His injuries seemed more serious. Fishing essence of Dittany out from his pocket, he spilled a few drops on each of the wounds. Before they had even finished closing, he levitated him as well, guiding the boy towards the other girl. Harry then turned his attention to the last live victim- an Asian girl who opened her eyes as he approached. "Where am I?" she asked dazedly. Harry didn't answer, but hurriedly levitated her toward the others. Her eyes widened as she realized she was floating, unsupported, above the ground. Harry realized- too late- that he probably should have chosen a method of transportation that would not shock the Muggles. Ah well, he'd have to make do. To his relief, the Asian girl fell unconscious again. He began to hurry back towards the city, his passengers in tow.
***
"Ron!" cried Hermione. Her face was shocked at first, but her expression cycled through guilt, anger, and finally embarrassment as she pulled up the blanket to cover herself. "Why?" she asked. "Why did you kill him?"
Ron was still furious at Hermione. His anger made half his words incoherent, but he managed to splutter "You- cheating- bitch!" before running off, cursing the world.
---
Hermione slumped in the bed, tears falling from her eyes. She had only forgotten about Ron for a few minutes, and now Jacob was dead, Ron hated her, and the group had lost their only guide. She got out of bed and pulled on one of Jacob's shirts. It was way too big for her, but she was in absolutely no mood to do magic to fix it to her size. She then tucked Jacob in so that he might have been sleeping and slipped out of the house, her face wet with tears and guilt clawing at her insides.
***
A screaming car caught Nancy's attention. A speeder! She rushed out from the apartment lobby fast enough to see the license plate. The driver of the car must have a reason for going that fast. She would get to the bottom of this. She didn't like the police solving mysteries that she could solve much faster. And better.
***
Dr. Cullen entered his office and sat down. He pulled out some papers, and was sorting through them when he heard quiet footsteps behind him. He turned around, but saw no one.
"Hello?" he called out. There was a flash of green light, and Dr. Cullen slumped in his chair, dead.
***
"Surprise!"
Rose opened her eyes slowly. Her parents were crouched in from of her bed holding a sheaf of papers. "Wha-" she began.
"We got this strange urge to take a vacation last night!" said her mother. "And I had this dream where a small white dog was telling me to go visit our relatives in Forks!"
Rose's eyes widened. They didn't have the money to go on vacation! And she had never even heard of relatives in Forks. Where was Forks anyways? What a stupid name for a town.
"Pack up your bags, we're leaving this afternoon," said her father.
"But..." spluttered Rose. Seeing the determination in her parents' eyes, she trailed off. "What's the name of the boat we're taking, anyways?"
"Oh, this lovely French cargo ship that's agreed to take us to Forks. The Mont-Blanc, it's called."
***
Jane woke up feeling very strange indeed. As if she were floating. She struggled to remember what had happened.
Ah yes, the bus. The explosion. But why did she feel as if she were floating?
Jane's eyes fluttered open. It took her a second to focus. And another second to register the fact that she was flying.
No... I must be dreaming or something...
Jane blinked, then pinched herself, then closed her eyes and counted to ten. But when she opened her eyes again, she was still flying. She tried to look around, and managed to see her friends. They too were flying.
"Ok, this makes no sense... this has got to be a dream..." Jane mumbled to herself. She rubbed her eyes again. Everything stayed the same. "Come on WAKE UP!" she shouted at herself.
Harry turned around. One of his patients had woken up, although she seemed no saner than the other girl had. He puffed out his chest, ignored her odd exclamation, and declared himself loudly. "Hello injured Muggle! My name is Harry- Harry Potter. I have rescued you and your friends from the wreckage, as I have rescued so many other people! Thank your lucky stars that I was around to save you!"
"What did you call me?" Jane asked Harry, annoyed. What was a Muggle? Maybe muggles could float. Then maybe her friends were muggles too. Or maybe hallucinating could be a side effect of nervous breakdowns.
"Oh, oops," said Harry, deflating. He had forgotten he wasn't supposed to call people muggles- that was a magical term. Well, one of these three people was able to use magic. Maybe it was this snappy girl. "Do you believe in magic?" asked Harry.
Maybe he could have been a bit more subtle.
"Magic?" Who was this boy? And what did magic have to do with anything right now?
"If you mean like pixies and fairies and stuff, that would be a no." Jane paused, then added "And could you please tell me why I'm flying?"
Harry smirked. "You have just answered your own question," he answered in a tone of voice that would make Professor Trelawney proud.
***
Edward smiled to himself, satisfied by the sweet taste of blood that covered his lips with distinctive warmth. He was crouched over a young mountain lion, three years old at the most, grazing his teeth over its neck and leaving sharp cuts, blood flowing onto the ground below them. He savoured the taste, listening to the wind, the rustle of the trees, the soft hooves of a deer trotting through the grass, and... a car's motor?
It sounded familiar. Edward focused on the sound, his eyes narrowed. Why would Bella and Alice be returning to Forks so soon? Surely they would have called him if it was something important.
But Edward didn't like to take any chances. He straightened up, brushed off his jeans, and started running towards Forks.
***
Jane sighed. This boy was getting on her nerves. Magic? Come on! Who did he think he was? She must be hallucinating. That was the only possible explanation that made any sense.
Jane was shaken out of her thoughts by the realization that her arm hurt. And her leg. And her head was throbbing. "Hey magic boy! Maybe could you do something about this?" Jane held out her arm for inspection. It had a shallow cut, but it was long, and possibly infected. She needed medical help.
Harry grinned. Finally, a fool-proof way to show her that magic was real! He reached into his pocket where he had put Essence of Dittany, but found nothing. His grin slipped off his face. He must have lost it in the rubble. He could always use his wand to heal it, but healing wasn't his strong point...
Harry shook himself. He was Harry Potter! Of course he could heal a cut! He took out his wand and waved it over the cut, which sealed completely. Then grew feathers. "Oops," he said quietly.
Jane watched in silence as her wound healed up. But then she started growing feathers. Not good. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?" she screamed. "Turn me back, TURN ME BACK!!!"
At least now she believed in magic.
***