The Mysterious Traveler

Didn't expect to get that many followers, but hey I'm not complaining. In fact, I dare say that it's a good start. Thanks, guys! :)

Funny thing, I originally meant for this chapter to be part of Chapter 3, but I felt that it was a little too long and decided to split it in half (without going the Part 1 & Part 2 route).

Disclaimer: I do not own 'Harry Potter' or 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'! All of this is just for fun.

Anyway, please enjoy reading! :)

Chapter Four:

The Beginning of a Journey

Katara stood at the edge of the ice, staring out towards the sea before her, a look of determination in her eyes.

"We have to go after that ship, Sokka!" she declared. "Aang and Alex saved our tribe after we kicked them out. They could have left us at the mercy of the Fire Nation, but they came back and sacrificed themselves to protect us. And now we have to save them!"

"Katara, I-"

"Why can't you realize that they're not our enemy?! Okay, maybe Alex isn't necessarily an ally, but Aang definitely is! If we don't help them, then no one will!"

"Katara!" Sokka raised his voice, trying to get her attention.

"I know, you don't like Aang or Alex, I get it. But we owe them big time and it's up to us to-"

"KATARA!" Sokka yelled, making her turn around to see him right next to a canoe. "Are you going to talk all day? Or are you coming with me?"

Her anger turning into happiness, Katara squealed with joy and ran towards him, throwing her arms around him in a tight embrace.

"Okay, get in, we're going to save your boyfriend," he motioned towards the small canoe in the water.

"He's not my-"

"Whatever!" he shrugged, half smiling.

"And what do you two think you're doing?" came a voice from behind them.

Turning around, they came face to face with their grandmother, smiling sheepishly.

With her expression disapproving at first, Gran Gran began to smile and presented a series of rolled up sleeping bags on the ground, "You'll be needing these. The journey ahead will be long and dangerous."

The two of them looked at each other, surprised and dumbstruck.

Sokka took the sleeping bags, setting them to the side.

"It's been so long since I've had hope," her eyes staring deep into Katara's. "But you brought it back into my life once again, my little Waterbender."

Gran Gran embraced her granddaughter and then turned to her grandson, "And you, my brave warrior, be nice to your sister."

A little disappointed in her choice of words, Sokka sighed and accepted her hug, "Yeah, okay, Gran Gran."

"Aang is the Avatar, the world's last hope at ending this terrible war that the Fire Nation has inflicted upon us for so long. But that other boy, Alexander Prince... I believe he may have a part to play as well. I may not know where he comes from, or what his... abilities are, but he is clearly no friend of the Fire Nation. Mysterious and unpleasant he may be, but he came to our defense in our time of need. They are allies our world desperately needs. I believe that you two found them for a reason and that your destinies are now intertwined with theirs."

The two siblings took her words to heart and looked each other, both coming to an understanding of what they needed to do.

"Not to be offensive to your canoe, Sokka, but there's no way we're going to catch a warship with this thing."

Suddenly, they all heard a loud grunting noise, turning to see the flying bison appearing over a hillside.

"Appa!" Katara exclaimed, running towards him.

"Oh," Sokka was appalled, "you just love taking me out of my comfort zone, don't you?!"

After a while of packing their stuff onto the saddle of Appa's back, they climbed on top of the bison and led him into the water, waving goodbye to their grandmother.

Taking a final glance at their village, the two attempted to try and get Appa to fly. Or rather Katara tried, while Sokka sat down, lazily saying different words.

"Go! Fly! Soar!"

Katara sat at the neck of the animal, whispering into his ear, "Please, Appa, we need your help. Aang needs your help."

"Up! Ascend! Elevate!"

"Sokka doesn't believe that you can fly, but I do. Come on, don't you want to save Aang?"

Appa gave a small grunt.

"What was it that kid said?" Sokka asked. "Yee-ha? Hup-hup? Uh, Yip Yip?"

Suddenly, with a loud growl, Appa brought the back of his tail up and slammed it against the water, beginning to rise from the water and take flight into the air.

"You did it, Sokka!" Katara praised.

"He's flying! He's flying!" Sokka had a look of amazement on his face, smiling. "Katara, he's-" The moment he turned and saw Katara's 'I told you so' smirk, he quickly dropped his happy face, "I mean, big deal, he's flying." Looking away, he instantly returned to the smile he had, gazing at the water so far below them.

Now in the air, the bison gained speed and headed off towards the smoke of the Fire Nation warship in the far distance.

After a while, the Fire Prince Zuko came to visit the prisoners in their cells.

The moment the door to the holding cells opened, Severus looked up and saw Zuko entering alone. Shutting the door behind him, he walked up to his cell, standing in front of the bars. Meeting the eyes of his enemy, the two stared at each other.

Aang watched from the bars of his own cell, worried about what was going to happen.

Severus continued to look into the eyes of his captor, unable to help himself as he stared at the scar on teen's face.

"Who are you?" Zuko demanded.

Silent at first, Severus sighed, "Alexander Prince."

Zuko raised an eyebrow, "Odd name."

He refused to reply as he kept working the ropes that held his arms behind his back.

"You're obviously not from the Water Tribes, so where do you come from? The Earth Kingdom? The Fire Nation colonies?"

Severus answered again with silence.

Angered, Zuko glared at the prisoner and slammed his fists against the steel of the bars, "How did you do the things you did back there?"

The two continued to glare at one another.

"Answer me! Or else!"

"Or else what, you'll give me a nice tan? Like yours?" he sneered.

Zuko's entire face turned red, his fists lighting on fire as he moved forward, ready to send a ball of fire directly at him.

Seeing his chance, Severus immediately dashed forward from where he sat, the ropes that once bound him falling to the ground. Reaching out from the bars of his cell, he grabbed ahold of the Fire Prince, quickly pulling him forward. Eyes wide from the surprise attack, Zuko felt the impact of the cold steel greet his face, making his eyes roll to the back of his head.

Holding him still, Severus reach for a set of keys and unhooked them, letting the body of the Fire Prince fall to the ground with a thud.

Finding the key to his cell, he unlocked it.

"Whoa!" whispered a dumbstruck Aang.

Opening the Airbender's next, he spun the kid around, freeing him of his bonds.

"That was great, Alex!" Aang praised, only to have his mouth covered by Severus's hand.

"Quiet!" he growled. "I need you to take out the guards next!"

Aang nodded.

Preparing themselves, Severus opened the door and Aang sent a ball of wind towards the Fire Nation soldiers in the hallway, sending them flying against the ground. Making their way up to the surface of the ship, they then headed towards the metal door ahead of them, hearing a soldier from the helmsman area give the signal that they had escaped.

Going through a series of hallways, knocking out guards around almost every corner, they searched every room for their personal items. One of the rooms turned out to be the sleeping quarters of the half-bald man they had seen earlier, making Aang whisper, "Sorry" as he silently closed the door. After a while, they finally found the room that held Aang's staff and Severus's wand, grabbing them off of a mattress.

Reaching the control room of the ship, Severus cast a couple of Stupefys and knocked out the guards, securing the area.

"Man, I wish I could do that!" exclaimed Aang.

Ignoring him, Severus went to the controls and tried to read the strange language, quickly reminded that he was in another world.

"I don't believe you know how to read Fire Nation writing."

Aang smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, didn't get that far in my studies."

"Well, the good news is that all we need to do is disable the controls to the ship and then use one of the lifeboats to make our escape."

"You won't get that chance!" came an angry voice from behind them.

Turning around, Aang gasped at the sight of a very angry Zuko, who kept his eyes glued to Severus. Without warning, the Firebender sent a couple of fireballs directly him. Quickly deflected them with a protection charm, he was met with surprise as Zuko tackled him, making them fly over the control panel and roll towards the balcony. Getting back up, Severus was just a second away from being burned by the fireball that Zuko launched at him before deflecting it, but found himself falling off the balcony from the force of the attack. Seeing the metal ground rush up to meet him, he used the 'Aresto Momentum' spell, managing to prevent himself from hitting the steel at high speed. Slowly landing on his side, he looked up and saw a series of bright, red lights from the edge of the balcony, signs of a fight going on between the Airbender and the Firebender.

Aang appeared, jumping over the bars of the balcony as he turned his staff into a glider, grabbing ahold of it to fly away.

Okay, I need to get me one of those! he watched in awe.

However, Zuko made the jump from a long distance and grabbed ahold of his leg, causing them both to fall. Doing the best he could, Aang managed to make their crash landing less harmful to them, but couldn't do anything about how they landed. Hitting the steel, both of them rolled and came to a stop on their stomachs.

Severus rushed over to Aang, only to stop at the sound of a growl from behind. Looking back, Severus saw Appa flying towards them, along with Katara and Sokka on his back.

"What is that?" Zuko stared in awe.

Even Severus was amazed that the animal could fly, completely caught off-guard at the sight.

"Appa!" exclaimed a happy Aang, who was distracted long enough for the Firebender to strike at him. Seeing this from the corner of his eye, Aang blocked his attacks with his staff, but eventually couldn't keep up with him and lost his balance, backing up against the edge of the ship.

Severus tried to come to his rescue, but Fire Nation soldiers started appearing on the deck, forcing him to handle his own situation.

With a series of more attacks from Zuko, Aang lost his staff and was struck by a fireball as he struggled to balance himself at the edge of the railings. Falling into the ocean, Aang began to sink beneath the freezing cold water.

"Aang, no!" Katara cried out from the flying bison, getting Severus's attention.

The distraction allowed for Zuko to strike him in the back, making him lose his wand as it flew out of his hand. Falling down, he groaned from the pain as his clothes were lit aflame, allowing the soldiers to attack him. Feeling their blows, a memory emerged in Severus's mind as he remembered his father hitting him with his belt, making him curl up into a ball in a failed attempt to protect himself. At the remembrance of the helplessness he felt, he also thought about all the times James Potter and Sirius Black attacked him, including how he was unable to defend himself against them as well. Anger rushed through him as he cried out in agony and rage, unleashing a wave of pure energy around him that sent the soldiers flying into the air and crashing against the rails.

Looking up as he realized the beatings had stopped, he was meant with surprise as as a fireball struck him in the back again, burning through his clothes but sparing his skin.

"What are you!" the Fire Prince demanded as he shot another fireball at him.

Acting on instinct, Severus brought up his hands and whispered the protection charm under his breath. The fire struck an invisible force field around him and dispersed, which widened both his and Zuko's eyes. But before either of them could process what he had just done, something came flying out of the water, creating a tornado made of water.

Looking up, Severus and Zuko saw Aang at the tip of the water tornado, his eyes glowing pure white. Landing on the deck of the ship, Aang made the water travel around him like a snake and unleashed it on everyone that remained on the surface, with the exception of Severus. Zuko and some of his men got hit by the wave of water and were sent over the edge of the railing. Severus stared at Aang with shocked, having never seen anything like it before.

As the bright white light began to disappear from his tattoos and eyes, the boy fell forward from exhaustion. Severus rushed forward and caught him, supporting his little body with his arms.

Appa landed on the ship, with both Sokka and Katara hopping off, rushing to their side.

"Aang! Alex!" Katara hugged them both.

Aang's eyes opened and saw them, surprised, "Katara? Sokka? You came back to rescue us!"

"Hey, we couldn't let you both have all of the glory," the Water Tribe boy teased as Severus rolled his eyes.

"I dropped my staff," he pointed towards where it laid.

"I'll get it," Sokka immediately ran off.

Severus got one of his arms under the Airbender's neck and the other under his knees, carrying him towards Appa, followed by a worried Katara. As he did, some of the knocked out Fire Nation soldiers began to get back up, though they were struggling to stand.

Meanwhile, Sokka got Aang's staff, only to have Zuko reach up from the edge of where the anchor was hanging off of and grab ahold of it. At first startled, Sokka used the staff to hit him and make him off, although he managed to grab ahold of the anchor at the last second.

"Ha, that's from the Water Tribe!" Sokka taunted before immediately running back towards Appa.

As Severus put Aang on the saddle of Appa, Katara attempted to use her waterbending to take care of the soldiers, but accidentally froze Sokka's feet in the process.

"KATARA!"

"Sorry, Sokka!"

"I didn't ask for any of this flying, bending or magic!" he whispered angrily under his breath, breaking the ice with his boomerang.

Turning her back against the soldiers, she did the same thing in reverse and found that it actually worked, freezing the soldiers before they could reach her.

Severus found his wand and quickly climbing back onto the bison.

Sokka immediately followed after freeing his feet, running up the animal's tail as he shouted, "Yip yip! Yip yip!"

As the bison took flight, the half-bald man appeared at the doorway, looking up to see what the commotion was about, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Noticing the Fire Prince trying to get back onto the ship, he rushed to his side and helped him up.

"Shoot them down!" Zuko ordered, getting into a battle stance with the half-bald man, both firing a large amount of fire together.

Seeing the huge fireball heading their way, Severus brought up his hand and just by thinking of the protection spell's name, managed to deflect the fire and cause it to hit a large glacier, making the broken ice and snow collapse onto the ship, trapping it.

Although Sokka, Katara, and Aang cheered; Severus could only stare in silence and shock, unable to process what he had just done. He looked at the hand he had used to deflect the fire and then turned to the other... where his wand was.

The Fire Prince Zuko and Fire General Iroh both looked on as the flying bison made off with their prizes, disappearing in the long distance.

"Well, good news for the Fire Lord. The Fire Nation's greatest threat is just a bunch of teenagers," the half-bald man joked.

Zuko turned to him, eyes full of anger as he held out his hand towards the destruction before them, "Those teenagers, Uncle, just did this! And most of this wasn't even the Avatar's doing! It was that other one, Alexander Prince! I don't know how, Uncle, but he has the ability to do things that no bender in existence can ever dream of doing. And because of that, I won't underestimate him or the Avatar ever again."

Turning towards his men, he commanded, "Dig this ship out and follow them!"

However, much to his dismay, he saw that most of his men were frozen, while the others worked to unfreeze them.

"Uh, as soon as you're done with that," he turned away, narrowing his eyes in the direction of the bison.

The sun began to set on the horizon as Appa flew through the air to put some distance between them and their enemy. Severus found himself more tired than he ever felt before, struggling to stay awake during the silence. His eyes focused on the three of them, never letting them out of sight.

After flying for a while, Katara was the one to speak

"Okay, how did you do that with the water, Aang?!" she went crazy with excitement. "It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen!"

Aang shrugged, sitting on the front tip of the saddle, with a sad expression, "I don't know. I just sort of did it."

"Forget the waterbending, guys," Sokka jumped into the conversation, almost as excited and amazed as his sister was. "What about what Alex did? He pushed aside an entire gang of firebending soldiers without even touching them! And single-handedly shielded us from a fireball!"

Severus began to blush, thankful for his greasy hair to hide it.

"I don't want to talk about it," he growled, turning away from them.

"But, Alex, we just want to-" Katara tried to reach over to touch him on the shoulder.

"I SAID I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!" he snapped, making her flinch.

Although upset that he had yelled at his sister, Sokka moved away from him, frightened of his reaction.

Even Aang was surprised by his sudden outburst.

You should have left on your own! he shouted at himself. But no, you had to play the hero and act like a Gryffindor, making the situation much worse than it originally was!

He began debating with himself if he should depart from them or stick with them. On one hand, leaving them would help keep him from being discovered. He could easily change his appearance and cut his hair, being able to move freely. But there was a problem with that as well. Despite that he may be safe from being recognized on his own, he had no knowledge of the world he was in, including where he was going to start his search of finding a way back home.

And that led to the second option.

By staying with the small group, he would be with people who knew this world better than he did and would give him power in numbers as well. And being in a world that he barely knew, he was going to need some acquaintances in order to survive.

Meanwhile, Sokka and Katara turned their attention towards the Airbender, who stared off into the distance.

"Aang, why didn't you tell us you were the Avatar?" she asked, her voice sounding a little hurt by the fact that he never shared the information with her.

Aang looked at her and then turned the other way, ashamed, "Because... I never wanted to be."

Severus looked at the young kid with interest, feeling some form of respect for him, a feeling he immediately scowled himself for.

A long moment of silence passed.

"But, Aang, the world's been waiting for the Avatar to return and finally put an end to this war."

I need to ask about this whole Avatar thing later.

"And how am I going to do that?"

"Well, according to legend, you need to first master water, then earth and then fire, right?"

Aang nodded, "That's what the monks told me."

"Well, if we go to the North Pole, you can master waterbending."

Aang's sad expression turned to happiness and excitement, "We can learn it together!"

Katara smiled and turned to her brother, "And Sokka, I'm sure that you'll get to knock some Firebender heads along the way."

Sokka smiled, mischievously, "I'd like that. I'd really like that."

Severus's rolled his eyes but then realized that everyone's attention was on him now.

"So... Alex," Katara slightly smiled at him. "Would you like to accompany us to the North Pole? Or do you want us to drop you off somewhere and let you get back to... wherever it is you said you're from."

"Please come with us!" Aang pleaded with him. "I feel safer knowing that we'll have someone like you with us on our journey. Especially with the things that you can do."

Sokka nodded in agreement, "Yeah, even I have to admit that I'd feel safer too. I still don't trust you, but you've proven yourself to be a worthy ally against the Fire Nation. So that's good enough for me."

Severus thought about it and came to a decision, hoping it was the right one, "Fine. But the moment I find a way to get back home, I'm taking it."

"Great!" Katara's face lit up with excitement and happiness. "Now we're all in this together!"

"Alright, but before I learn waterbending, we have some serious business to attend to. Here, here and here," Aang pulled out a map and pointed to the spots that he apparently needed to visit.

"What's there?" Katara asked, pointing at the first location he marked.

"Here, we're going to ride the Hopping Llamas!" Aang explained. "And then way over here-"

You're kidding me! Severus sneered at the kid. This kid wants to take a vacation trip to ride strange animals?

Ignoring him, Severus let his mind wander and looked towards the beautiful sky, enjoying the sight for him.

But his moment of peace wasn't to last.

Memories of his previous actions returned to haunt his mind, making him anxious as he began to add more questions to the never-ending growing list. Somehow, someway, he had managed to perform magic against his enemies... without using a wand or even saying the spells out loud!

Such skill was possible back in his home world, but it was very rare for someone to perform magic without a wand, and even rarer to cast spells without speaking them. But to do both altogether was something that was close to impossible, with an even shorter list of people who have been able to do it.

Feeling his body grow tired, his eyelids began to close, slowing down his speed of thoughts. Before losing consciousness, he made a vow to find the answers he sought and to find a way back home. A vow he was going to keep, no matter how long it would take to fulfill it.

Okay, so that pretty much covers the first two episodes of the series. I figured it would be great to change up a couple of things and add in some new developments.

I thought it would be great to have Severus be able to perform magic without a wand or even having to say the names of the spells. In case if anyone of you are wondering how this is possible, I can promise that the reason for why Severus can do this will be revealed much later in the story. For right now, I'm just sticking to developing Severus's character with the Avatar characters. I have a few ideas in mind, especially a few involving a love interest for Severus (I'm winking at you, 'actionliker' ;)).

But anyway, what do you guys think of the story so far?

See you all later in Chapter 5! Hope you enjoyed this one! :)