Author's Note: Generally the first thing I do with a new prompt is a kind of free association to see what ideas will immediately come to mind, if any. So when I saw this one, I started thinking of other stories that have a lot of rule-breaking involved...and the first one I thought of was Harry Potter. Each book in that series is basically about how Harry's rule-breaking saves the day in the end XD And the more I thought about Harry Potter...the more I wanted to do a crossover I never would have called fitting until now. At first glance, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to cross these stories with each other, because even though they're both fantasy, they're kind of opposite ends of the spectrum. But then I kept on thinking of ways to insert Zelda characters into the Harry Potter setting and storyline...and pretty soon I realized I'd have to give it a try. Originally, I was intending this to be the only chapter where I indulged this little plot bunny, but I've come up with so many ideas for how Link would fill Harry's shoes that I've decided to eventually do seven chapters of this crossover, one for each year. Hopefully, that will show some interesting angles on the life of Wizard!Link. Kind of a weird story to mark the halfway point, but that's just how it fell out. (Oh, and there is a very good explanation for Link's unusual Sorting, but you're going to have to wait for a future chapter to get that answer.)
Timeline: Harry Potter crossover AU (part 2 of 7)
Theme 50: Breaking the Rules
The common room was hushed—though not with a silence that echoed the shock and fear filling the rest of the school. Most of the faces he saw were expectant, trying to anticipate what would happen next. Most looked rather nervous, but a few actually had the audacity to look eager. Like they had been hoping something like this would happen.
Link had never felt further apart from his housemates. He'd never fit in, of course; he didn't care about what they cared about, and there were so many secrets he needed to keep from them. Everyone here ranked in an unspoken but undeniable hierarchy based on parentage, so Link, whose father had been an Auror but whose mother had been a Muggle, was close to the bottom of the ladder. And as if all that weren't enough, he hung around students from other houses. It was like he had traitor written across his forehead.
"Hey, Link!" a voice sneered nearby. "It's too bad about your girlfriend. You must be real torn up about it, huh? Just like she will be!"
Link whipped his head up as Mido's mocking laughter echoed around the quiet common room. He reached for his wand, but a hand on his arm stopped him just in time.
"Gotta confess," Mido continued, lazily examining his fingernails, "I was sure the monster would go for a Mudblood first. I was hoping it'd be Navi."
Link surged to his feet, the hopelessness he'd felt since that afternoon fueling his rage. He didn't care that his wand wasn't in his hand; all he wanted was to get close enough to punch Mido's lights out. "Why, you—"
"Hey!" Navi, giving up on holding him back by the arm, shoved her way between the two of them and held her arms out to keep them apart. Mido took a step back with a look of disgust, as if her hand would soil his robes. "That's enough," she said, glaring from one to the other. "This won't help Zelda! This won't help anything!"
Link's lip curled as he looked down his nose at the shorter boy, but he let Navi push him gently back, because he knew she was right. While they stood here bickering like the schoolchildren they were, Zelda was probably dying. Without another word, Link set his jaw, turned away, and marched toward the door leading out to the dungeon corridor beyond the common room.
"Wait!" Mido snapped. "What do you think you're doing?"
Link turned on the threshold, glaring around at all the students who just sat there, not lifting a finger to help or do anything useful when a thirteen-year-old girl had been kidnapped. "I'm breaking the rules."
"No offense," Navi said as the sink in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom slid aside, revealing a huge pipe that led into darkness, "but it kind of makes sense why people think you're the Heir of Slytherin when you do things like that."
Link let the eerie hiss die on his lips. He still wasn't exactly sure how he did that, nor why he found it so easy to talk to snakes when the Sorting Hat had been so eager to put him in Gryffindor instead. But he would take advantage of any skill that allowed him to save someone.
"If I was the Heir of Slytherin," he sighed, "I'd be able to control the Basilisk and rescue Zelda that way. Or she wouldn't need rescuing in the first place..."
Navi had been peering down the dark pipe uncertainly, but then she turned around, her blue eyes shining. "That's it! It's a snake—you can talk to snakes! You can tell it what to do!"
"But the Basilisk can only be controlled by the Heir of Slytherin—"
"—which is probably because only the Heir of Slytherin is supposed to be able to talk to snakes!" Navi interrupted excitedly. "I bet you could get it to at least not attack you!"
Link looked at his best friend doubtfully, but he didn't brush the idea off as a crazy one. He'd learned to trust her hunches over the past two years; they were usually right. He mulled over the idea all the way down the slimy pipe, through the dark passageways, as Professor Lockhart accidentally modified his own memory, and as the cave-in separated them and he had to advance alone.
It made a lot of sense, he thought as he stood at the feet of the unconscious Zelda, watching the enormous snake uncoil from the mouth of the enormous statue of the Founder of his own house. Ganondorf knew the words to say to summon the monster from its dark slumber, but he was speaking in Parseltongue that Link could understand easily.
He had to admit, Ganondorf looked the part of the Heir of Slytherin much more than he did, even as a mere blurred memory come to life. The olive tone of his skin, the jet black of his hair, the calm assurance of a talented boy of sixteen—everything about him radiated confidence and power. He knew he had been born for this.
But even though he was a mere twelve years old, Link knew what he had been born to do as well. Ganondorf had taken his wand, so Link tensed, ready to run or duck at a moment's notice. The only trouble, of course, was that he couldn't look the Basilisk in the eye.
"Kill the boy," hissed Ganondorf to the enormous snake. "He is our enemy."
With a menacing hiss, the Basilisk reared up, preparing to strike. Trying to gauge what position the snake was in judging from the coils of its body on the floor, Link immediately hissed, "He lies. I am no enemy. You see, I am a Slytherin just as he is. I am a friend to all your kind."
The Basilisk halted, letting out a hiss that Link thought sounded confused. He pressed the advantage. "This man would use you for his own purposes, but I am only here to be your friend. You don't have to listen to his commands."
The hissing and spitting sounds that poured out of Ganondorf's mouth drowned out Link's words. "Fool! Do not let this whelp addle your mind! Who was it that gave you your freedom? And who can take it away again?"
The Basilisk let out an angry hiss, snapping at them both—more to express its frustration than to actually threaten them, but Link ducked all the same.
Then Ganondorf spoke the words that sealed the deal. "And I have brought you a meal, my friend. When I am through with this girl, she will be all yours. And if you kill that one, you may feast on him as well."
It would have been a perfect time to have Navi at his side, Link realized as he dodged out of the way of the Basilisk's lunge. She could have watched for the Basilisk's attacks and warned him in time. Instead, he had to rely on his hearing and his instincts. And on how fast he could run.
The monstrous snake snapped at his heels and moved its weighty bulk at a frightening speed behind him, curling the dark coils of its body around the pillars to block Link's path. Several times, he barely managed to dodge around a pillar fast enough. And finally, there was nowhere left to run. He was trapped in a dark corner of the room, and he couldn't even look up to watch his doom rushing towards him.
Then, with an oddly familiar hooting sound, an enormous owl swooped down out of the darkness, circling around the Basilisk's head and distracting it from its prey. Link dared a glance upwards, and immediately recognized the large owl that had been sitting in Rauru's office. But what was the Headmaster's pet doing here? As it circled the Basilisk again, it swooped down lower and dropped something soft in Link's hands.
The Sorting Hat.
Link wished Rauru's pet's hints were as straightforward and understandable as Navi's. But because he had nothing else to do, he ignored Ganondorf's laughter over the paltry help the Headmaster had given his prize pupil and put the Hat on.
This time, the Hat didn't waste much time on speech. The musty old voice spoke into his mind with a dusty sigh. I told you that you would have done better in Gryffindor. And something fell hard on top of Link's head, making him see stars.
He blinked and shook his head, glancing up at the owl, which was pecking and tearing ferociously at the Basilisk's eyes with its beak and talons. Then Link looked back down at the Sorting Hat, which had fallen off his head. Gleaming in the folds of cloth was something silver. He reached down and grasped the hilt of a sword, then pulled it out like a knight in a fairy tale and held it aloft. The dim light of the chamber glittered across the ruby-encrusted hilt and the name engraved on the blade: Godric Gryffindor.
And so the Slytherin boy, aided by the trusted bird of his Hufflepuff Headmaster, wielded the fabled blade of Gryffindor to save the life of a Ravenclaw. The evil monster within the Chamber of Secrets stood no chance against the combined power of all four houses, and with one last lunge, impaled itself on Link's sword.
But before Link could feel even the first burst of triumph, he felt something as sharp as his sword stab into his arm. One of the Basilisk's razor-sharp fangs jabbed all the way through his arm. He choked back a cry as he fell to his knees, tugging his arm off its sharp point. The whole tooth broke off, clattering to the floor next to him. He cradled his throbbing left arm against his chest, trying to staunch the bleeding at least a little. He could already feel the snake's venom start to seep through his veins, clouding his vision and slowing his brain to a sluggish crawl.
"How dare you!" bellowed Ganondorf, stalking around the enormous dead head of his monster and pointing Link's own wand at him. "I see I have underestimated you, boy, but never again shall—"
Link spotted the little black diary a few paces away and acted on instinct. He grabbed the Basilisk fang, lunged for the book, and stabbed the fang into it. Ink poured out of the hole in the pages, as if he had stabbed Ganondorf's still-beating heart. And the dark phantom screamed as though that were the case as well, clawing at his translucent body till it all faded away. All that was left of him were the screams echoing through the hall.
Zelda sat up, looking around herself in confusion as the strength Ganondorf had sapped from her was restored. Link caught a glimpse of her as his vision blurred and started to grow dark at the edges. He sank to the cold stone floor, his good arm trembling so much he couldn't hold himself upright anymore.
He blinked, and suddenly Zelda was right there, lifting his head to lay it in her lap. She was crying, he realized dimly when he felt drops of water fall on his cheeks. Well...at least he would die looking at her pretty face...
"No!"
Running footsteps echoed through the chamber, and then a weight landed on his shoulder, jarring his wounded arm. He could draw no breath to cry out, but the sudden jab of pain blew away the clouds in his eyes till he could make out Navi's anguished face hovering over him. Oh...she must have made it past the cave-in. She grabbed fistfuls of his robes and shook him slightly, saying through gritted teeth, "You are not going to die like this. Not now."
No...he didn't want to die yet... Not when there was still so much left to do...
His eyes slid from one of his best friends to the other, and he scraped the last of his strength together to whisper, "I'm...sorry..."
"No!" Navi screamed, her tears splashing down to mingle with Zelda's.
And then...was she...glowing? A blue light seemed to shine underneath her skin, surrounding her till her features were almost obscured. Her hand pressed against the wound in his arm, and at first her skin burned like a branding iron, but then it cooled down till it was almost icy.
Link shook his head, blinked, and sat up. Strangely, all pain was gone from his arm...and he wasn't dead. He stared in wonder at Navi, whose bluish glow sank back beneath her skin, leaving it the same hue it had always been. She gaped back at him, pointing a shaking finger at the bloody place on his arm where the Basilisk fang had gone straight through.
The skin there was as new and smooth as a baby's.
"You're...You're healed," Navi whispered, staring at her own hands in wonder.
"You must have fairy blood in you," Zelda murmured, looking just as shocked as the others. And if something surprised Zelda, who seemed to remember every scrap of detail from every book in the entire library, it must be truly unprecedented.
Navi's face screwed up in disgust. "You mean those annoying little blue things Professor Lockhart set loose in the classroom?"
Zelda chuckled. "No, not pixies. Fairies. Truly powerful magic beings, with natural powers of healing and bestowing magical powers on those who are worthy. They were said to have died out, when Muggles tried to obliterate all traces of magic in the Dark Ages. But maybe they simply took on the form of humans in order to survive..."
"Okay, okay, Encyclopedia Magica," Navi grumbled, rolling her eyes. Then she met Link's eyes and her expression softened. "I'm just glad that whatever I did worked."
Link smiled. "You saved my life, Navi. Thank you."
