DELETED SCENES

This section was originally part of Chapter 10. It was removed because I realized that it slowed down the action too much:

"The resistance in Connecticut has finally been smashed, My Lord," said Bellatrix. "It was sad to have to spill such noble, ancient wizarding blood as Endora's."

"Ah, yes," replied the Dark Sovereign. "She was a long-life, I believe?"

"She claimed to have been a student of Salazar Slytherin, himself," said Bellatrix, sweetly. "But then, her daughter Samantha married a muggle, whelped a couple of half-bloods, and all Endora could do was mope about it!

"You would think that I was doing Endora a favour," continued Bellatrix. "But, she resisted me and tried to protect them. And so, I was forced to use the killing curse on her."

"If she had only pruned her family tree herself," replied the Dark Sovereign, without pity. "She would not have met with such a sticky end. And now, my wife," the Dark Sovereign gestured to the bound Young Ones and Lily and Severus. "What have we here?"

This is part of the original cameo by "Bewitched" characters Samantha and Endora. It was replaced with the current section in Chapter 11 because I realized that it abruptly changed the story from a "Harry Potter" / "Dungeons and Dragons" crossover to a "Harry Potter" / "Bewitched" crossover. (In other words, I almost added too much "spice" to the basic "stew recipe:")

Samantha Stephens sealed the parchment envelope, stamping the hot wax with the official seal of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Sorcery. She then gave the memo to the owl sitting on the perch beside her desk, and the owl promptly flew out of her office.

"Disgusting!" said Samantha's mother, Endora. The older, red-haired witch sitting on the corner of Samantha's desk twitched her nose, making the feathers and other "souvenirs" of the owl's presence vanish. "Tabatha should be here soon, Sam. Shouldn't we be getting ready to meet her for lunch? I'm positively starving!"

"Yes, mother," replied Samantha. "In fact, I'll be going to the floo hearth in a few minutes to meet her. This will be Tabatha's first time traveling by floo powder. She must be excited!" Samantha sighed. It had been a long day, and it was probably going to be even longer. She had been looking forward to lunch with her mother and daughter at the Leaky Caldron all week, but she was not looking forward to the accumulated paperwork when she got back.

Samantha started to stand when an owl flew in, dropping a parchment envelope on her desk before alighting on the office perch. Samantha opened the envelope and gasped. "This is from Hogwarts! They say that Tabatha cannot be excused to go to lunch with us today because they did not receive my reply regarding . . . the "Christmas Incident from five years ago?!?!?!" Samantha continued to read, then said, "They say they sent me a request for additional information two weeks ago! I never got anything from Hogwarts!"

"Oh!" said Endora, withdrawing an envelope from her purse. "I wonder if they could possibly mean . . . this?"

"MOTHER!!!"

"Well, I did intend to give it to you earlier, but I thought that it was only a request for you and 'Derwood' to join the Hogwarts PTA, or to let you know about a school play or a bake sale, or some other unimportant trivia. It's too early for report cards, after all . . . ."

Samantha took the envelope from her mother and quickly read the contents, letting out another sigh. "Alright, mother. I'm going to Hogwarts to try and sort this thing out so that maybe Tabatha can still have lunch with us today, after all. I should have you explain to her why we couldn't get together today if I can't straighten things out! And for the last time, my husband's name is Darrin, mother!"

"Oh, Sam!" said Endora, rolling her eyes. "Must you always be such a Drama Queen? You are acting like this is all my fault! I certainly didn't tell Tabatha five years ago that she should use magic to cover herself and her muggle friend with polka-dots!"

The original (you can tell by the Luna and Draco reference,) "zinger" ending to Chapter 11 had the Young Ones meeting Philip Pullman's Lyra Belacqua, her daemon, Pantalaimon, and Will Parry from "His Dark Materials." I also considered a "Pendragon" ending; a Marvel "Runaways" ending (Venger vs. Nico Minoru . . . hmmmm . . . ;) and a "Stargate SG-1" ending. But I thought that the "Kingdom Hearts" ending was the best choice:

It took the Young Ones a moment to realize what was happening. A cut was being made in the air in front of them. They could just make out the tip of a knife and a hand, spreading the edges of the cut apart, like someone cutting through a sheet hanging on a clothes line.

Maybe this was the help that Luna and Draco promised to send, but in The Realm, one could never be too careful. Immediately, Hank drew an arrow of light, ready for anything. Diana extended her javelin, and Bobby brought up his club.

Then two people, a boy and a girl, about Presto's age, stepped through the opening. The boy holding the knife had dark hair and a jutting jaw, and was dressed in jeans and a torn shirt. His left hand was wrapped in a bloody bandage.

The girl had dark blonde hair, and wore a green, sleeveless blouse and a blue, tartan skirt. Around her neck, she wore what looked like an old-fashioned pocket-watch on a chain. But the strangest thing about her was a colorful butterfly hovering next to her head.

"Will," said the girl nervously. The butterfly then landed on her shoulder, and transformed into a mouse! "This en't Oxford . . . yours or mine!"

"W-where are we, Lyra," said the small mouse on her shoulder.

"Hush, Pan," said the girl, taking the mouse in her hand to soothe it.

"This doesn't even look like Earth, Lyra. Look . . . ." And the boy pointed to the four suns in The Realm's sky.

All the Young Ones could do was stare . . . .