I don't own Harry Potter or Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Really... I don't. I just have a few ideas on how to mix the two stories.
I was actually kind of surprised how some themes of HP mix well with XC2.
Here goes the story:
Prologue
Helen packs her things up, arms still hurting from trashing Dumbledore's office. She paces around the dorm, pausing. She was not sure about whether she should do this. She hesitated and sat down on her bed. Outside she heard voices - boys running around and talking. One of the boys piped up, it was Ron. He made a few not-so-kind remarks towards her.
"Once she finally stops being so stupid and pulls her head out of her arse, I'll consider being her boyfriend."
The fire that burned in her previously, woke up again.
She grabbed onto her trunk - it had everything she believed she would need, then threw the invisibility cloak over her shoulders. The common room was mostly empty, except for some older students enjoying their last few days at Hogwarts. Moving swiftly through the hole in the wall, she was gone. Ignoring all of the sights of the school, she made her way towards the astronomy tower.
She tried to do her best not to look around. Not even after she took off.
Just a few hours later, she was back at the ministry, it was pretty funny that nobody saw her sneak around despite the commotion. Not even in the arch room.
The first step, the second step. She could hear the whispers behind the veil. Something reached out and touched her gently - the touch burned for a moment before it stopped.
The third step made her vanish from the world.
She had to transform fast - she was falling. Hellen honestly thought that she had enough time but then all of sudden when she thought that she would just fall through clouds, she was in the water. It was the biggest moment. Or at least she thought that it was water.
This was not good. This is not good.
With her being wet, even if she transforms to her large bird animagus form, flying is going to be next to impossible. Hellen struggled against the water.
As if that was not enough, there was this loud sound, the sound of something large approaching. She barely got a chance to look around to spot not just something large, but giant. It looked more like an island than an animal.
How come she knew that it was an animal? Easy: it had a giant mouth that was open wide and sucking in the clouds... the water?
It also sucked her in.
Hellen knows a few things about the water. She may not be the world's best swimmer or even close to one but she knows how water is supposed to be. After her very close examination, she concluded that the water or whatever it was is plain weird. It gave her the fuzzies.
Truth to be told, it could be just her imagination - she was supposed to go into the medical wing after the Ministry fight. She, quite obviously, did not do that.
She felt tired and dizzy and she could feel that some of the wounds she got earlier that day aching and wanting to re-open. Episkey can only do so much when closing an open wound, some natural healing still should occur.
"Lumos."
Her surroundings lit up ever so slightly with the white pale light of the spell.
...
Why is there grass on the ground in this monster's mouth? Sure, it was soaked with the 'water' thing but there were grass and plants and other stuff, looking like a meadow almost.
"Lumos Maxima." She threw the spell into the air, illuminating the entire place.
Okay, she thought. This is bound to be interesting at the very least.
Rocks, grass, trees, flowers - entire landscape. Along with what looked like animals, wild animals, some of which looked way too big to be normal.
The spell ran out and the plane plunged into darkness again.
On second thought, she probably shouldn't try and repeat that. Hellen gathered her things, luckily her expanded trunk and bag had survived the fall, so did her wand and silvery cloak. She had hoped that she would find Sirius right away, if he is around, he must have seen the spell. The inside of the creature is just giant. She could still see through the teeth of the thing - night sky with stars above.
Picking up her things, she got moving while doing her best to avoid the animals there.
Hellen woke up sore all over, she hurdled up in a small cave opening earlier, after setting up some wards to protect her and getting some healing stuff into her system - unfortunately, it seemed that the potions had little effect on one particular wound around her belly area where one of those weird ministry experiments touched her.
The wound would have looked kind of cool, if it was not for the obvious pain and injury factor, almost like some fancy tattoo.
Looking into her expanded bag, she pulled out some food that she gobbled down. Then she got moving.
She searched through the area, there was dim light coming from up above her. After some further examination, she realized that the giant's skin must be partially transparent. That would explain the plants. Most plants need sunlight for photosynthesis. Though in comparison, the day in the giant was still rather dark and murky. Like rainy days at Hogwarts at best and the castle got a lot of those so she knows what she is talking about.
Her attempt at getting closer towards the creatures was quickly canceled. While unappealing, the giant frog things looked way too slow to be predators. Well... that turned out to be a lie because the moment one frog spotted her, it froze.
Then it sprinted after her as Crookshanks would after his treats.
Naturally, Hellen noped out.
Towards the evening of the first day, she finally spotted someone that looked like a person. Two people in fact. After some deciding what to do, she approached carefully. "Excuse me?" It was too late to realize that the stick on the waist of one of the people was a weapon, or that the second person looked more than a little weird.
Her excuse is that it was still fairly dark.
And in the past, she was so thankful that she did not inherit her father's bad eyesight.
The response was instantaneous, one of the men, the more normal-looking pulled on the stick, which became bigger and became a... giant spear with glowing blades.
The action shocked her so much that she stared at it for a moment, looked at the man who at that moment looked as surprised as her while the other inhuman-looking figure looked indifferent.
"-."
Because of course, because why not. Different languages, why would she expect the person there to speak English?
"-.!"
The normal-looking man went from surprised to upset, crossed the distance between them in a surprisingly short amount of time while still holding the giant spear.
She noped out of there as well by turning around and running, she is not willing to stay around after that. Hellen ran and ran as fast as she could, turning around, for a moment, she pointed her wand at some roots that started growing immediately. By the time, the other man came around the corner, they were big enough to wrap around him and hold him for just one surprising moment. "Stupefy!"
The man, hit by the red light stopped moving. Then the second one came - she cast the spell again, though this time the thing only flinched. She blinked. The humanoid threw itself at her.
She barely got out of the way before the weapon connected with her skin, then she ran some more. She expected a full chase but then all of sudden, she realized that she is alone. The humanoid was no longer chasing her.
What... what was that?
Potter luck is a thing. It was always something that her friends made fun of, whether it was just to tease her or to lift her mood. It became a running joke that someone always took advantage of when stuff just happened.
Hellen was starting to think that this is the biggest bout of Potter luck in history.
When she woke up the next day, she spotted a change immediately. While the day before, she met only one of those pairs. Now there were ... lots.
Including one with a giant reddish-orange bird. Humanoid. Thing.
It wasn't that hard to figure out that these humanoid things created pairs with other people, simply by observing how they moved.
Anyways, back to her newest bout of Potter luck. She was not sure how she was discovered. Ya, she was not wearing a cloak, wanting to protect it from damage and all, plus she was actually hiding some distance away. The reddish-orange thing disappeared for just a moment and she did not suspect a thing, but then all of sudden, it was behind her.
There was not a chance to do anything before it used its hands, yes it had hands, to grab her.
Plan number 1: Kick it.
She would have kind of expected it to work, birds are not the sturdiest things around, but she quickly found out that it was not a good idea because her foot hurt a lot. A lot. What is it made of?!
The bird squeaked out some words and she could already tell that if she doesn't get out of there immediately, she is busted.
Plan number 2: Ditch a piece of the Hogwarts uniform, the cloak, and hope that it will not be fast enough.
Plan 2 worked, sort of. The black cloak remained in its hands while she slipped away, pulled out her wand, and started casting. As yesterday proved, magic was not very effective against these things, whatever they were, but she did not have to use a spell directly against them.
The ground started moving, creating a pillar between the two, so if it wanted to grab her, it would have to go around it, this bought her just a few precious seconds. Its physical strength way above hers, the speed as well. Meaning that she has to get tricky.
Hellen actually practiced apparition, but she never got it down enough to use it without being worried about splicing herself. In a quick situation like this... yeah. Potter luck. Not happening. Maybe as a last-ditch effort when she has the time to breathe.
Why couldn't her animagus form be something tiny? Why on earth did she have to get a big-ass thunderbird? Yeah, they were somewhat strong but she is not picking a fight with that thing. Whatever it was. It held her for long enough to take a good look at its claws.
A swish of a wand later, rocked came to life - small critters like a mouse, sparrows and sent then at the feathered opponent.
The bird, if it was possible, gained the deer in the headlights look: Completely stunned at what it is seeing. Hellen used the opportunity and ran.
Unfortunately, she had to leave behind her trunk. At least it is locked with spells. Also, the injury on her belly which seemed to be healing before got worse because she just got this horrible spike of pain.
The bird eventually got over the shock and went after her - she could hear the squawking behind her. And it also caught her. Really, it was kind of expected. It was much faster than her. This time, it pressed her against the ground so there was no slipping out anymore. All she managed, in the end, was rolling around so she lied on her back instead of her belly.
"For the love of... let me go!"
She stopped struggling when a man came into sight. If the situation was any different, she would have stood there in quiet awe - he was tall. A giant of a man, not the giants she knows or even Hagrid but he was still a very tall mountain of muscles. Tanne, scar that puts her to shame across his entire face and graying hair gave him a very rough sort of look.
He approached, kneeled next to her, and started talking. Unfortunately, the meaning of his words flew over her head. As expected.
"Look, I have no clue what you are saying. I am not a local."
There was a moment of surprise, then understanding.
"Anyone here speaks English? Please tell me that you know English?"
The giant said something then looked at her as if he was expecting some reaction. Even in that situation, even when things were horrible, her brain still hard to be an arse and use some of its energy to wonder what he is saying, it sounded like something she was supposed to react to.
Using her free hand, she tried to find her wand. The man looked her up and down, probably taking in all the damage that her poor uniform had to endure in the past days. Cuts, burns, acid, and who knows what else. The lower part of her shirt suffered the most - the place where the brain things wrapped around her. More holes than swiz cheese.
The man also apparently took notice because he pushed the fabric out of the way to have a look at the painful injury. She flinched when he touched it. Hellen spotted an unhappy frown on his face.
The third day was by far the worst. She felt feverish.
After she was brought into what looked like a camp while still being held by the bird thing who carried her into what looked like a sturdier tent and into a bed where they told her (presumably) to put down the damaged clothes. The bird thing was still there, very likely making sure that she does not run.
It turned out to be unnecessary because the moment her head hit the bed, she fell asleep. The witch did not even realize how tired she was. She got a few hours of sleep in the wild but it wasn't much.
When she woke up, she realized that someone must have done the changing for her while also tending to her wounds, those that she did not tend to herself earlier.
A woman came by, asking her things. Probably asking.
It is a popular belief that wizards have something like translation charms. Well, they do exist. Are they good? In a clutch. They are actually really bad and wonky, more likely to mislead rather than help due to how languages work.
One muggle-born once compared them to something he called google translate.
Though at this moment, Helen would probably accept even that. She just stared at the woman dumbly before turning around and closing her eyes again.
The third day turned into fourth, on that day, the mountain person came by and sat by her bed. Looking closer at him, he had other strange features as well - mainly the long pointed ears. He started talking.
"Vandham." Like always, most of the 'convo' flew over her head, but that word caught her attention. He used it repeatedly while pointing at himself "Vandham." The oldest gesture in the book: Introduction
"Helen."
"Helen?" He pointed at her and she nodded, while she replied in the same manner. Pointed at him and said Vandham.
It is not the best start ever, but it is something.
Kids. So many kids.
If there was something she was not expecting at all, it was the kids. There were loads of adults as well, but so many kids. They ran around, making sure to stay clear of certain areas, people walked about - some warriors by the looks of it and each one of them with one of those humanoid beings.
Vandham made sure to come and visit her every day and talk, which was nice even though she had no clue what he is saying. At the very least, others seemed to learn her name as well, using it to get her attention.
She asked about her godfather, by repeating his name several times. Vandham looked thoughtful. He must be somewhere around after all - swallowed by the giant thing. Which she learned is called Uraya, while the village/camp where she found herself was called Garfont.
"Sirius. Person. Family." She tried to make gestures. But how do you even sign 'godfather' or an uncle? Then she got an idea - she asked for her things. With some effort, while ignoring slightly surprised looks when her hand sunk way deeper than it should, she pulled out her photo album. In there, she found a recent photo of the two, the last one they took on Christmas, just the two of them, it was not even moving. In all that hurry and stress, they never got to it.
She was so glad that the people turned out to be nice in the end - Vandham in the end understood what she had been asking for. "Sirius, family."
Vandham took the photo and left it with it somewhere.
Looking a little embarrassed, the man she met on day 1 turned up as well, looking more than a bit guilty and gave her what she assumed was some sort of an apology.
"It is alright! I knocked you out, so I guess that makes us even!"
Looking at him again, he did not even look that much older than she was. Maybe around 18 or 19. Admittedly, Hellen looked younger than what she actually was - supposed to be turning 16 in over a month, looked like a 14-year-old at the best, partially due to her height.
The man was also with the humanoid that attacked her earlier, the person looked indifferent towards her, however. Maybe.
"Luke."
"Nice to meet you, Luke."
It took her a week to walk around normally, the wound became this really nasty red color with pus running down from it at one point. When she finally did get up from her bed, she took a look in a mirror. She looked like some sort of a ghost - black hair everywhere, pale unhealthy complexion with some dark spots that were still healing.
She looked like a dementor alright.
Helen set out to change that a bit - before she would always have to cut her hair when going back to her relatives. If only as a precaution, Petunia hated it when she grew it out and as a result she always ended up with a bird's nest of a haircut.
She never did that this year because… reasons. Hellen shoved the memories of past days away and got to work right after taking a shower while hoping that Vandham would appear and give her news. Any news really.
Luke waited for her at the entrance to her surprise, looking sheepish. "Hi?" The simple gesture made him happy. The being behind him still looked indifferent. Helen did not trust it. It was almost a funny sight with the two side by side with how different they were.
"Vandham?" She asked him.
He seemed to think for a moment, then shook his head. The bird was not around either. Helen kept her mouth in a straight line and started looking around. The place was actually beautiful, with bits of light passing through the giant's shell and trees with many other colors, most of which were not green, but rather shades of blue, or orange even.
When Luke left and she found herself alone, she bent over and covered her face.
Of course, she knew, she knew for a while but wouldn't want to admit it.
Assuming that Sirius appeared in the same place, he should have been also swallowed by Uraya like she were, that is why she kept scouting the area without moving on.
Sirius either drowned or was killed by some monster.
Chances of him appearing at some other spot that also happened to be safe were minimal. She did not know what was worse - the uncertainty or the thought that he is very likely dead. Or the memories of what exactly happened at the ministry.
The kid's eyes became the size of dinner plates as he stared at the piece of paper in her hands. By wrapping it around a few times and then using a small trick she made sure to learn while mopping around. Looking back at things, the third year was one of the best - evenings spent eating funny candy and then getting a pillow to face because you are the one with a locomotive whistle. Again.
When McGonagall finally had enough of the commotion and confiscated the candy, much to the dismay of everyone involved, they had to learn about quieter ways to entertain each other. Like folding parchment to create a bird of sort and making it fly around and possibly annoy a person or two. This skill turned out to be very useful in case someone was not prepared for their end-of-the-year exams.
The tiny paper bird in her hands flopped its wings a few times before taking off. The kids stared at each other only for a moment before the chase was on.
Vandham eyed her on the side as she did the trick.
One week turned into two weeks. Luke seemed glued to her side whenever he was around - the place turned out to be a group of people who would travel out to do various jobs. Like mercenaries.
These mercenaries would also sometimes pick up kids who otherwise would be orphans on the streets hence why there were so many kids.
Helen learned some language, though it was not enough to make a decent conversation yet. Like, very far from a decent conversation but it was better than before.
"Neat."
What was also neat was that magic was not a taboo to use around nonwizards. At least that is what she assumed since no one, not a single soul pointed at her forehead while shouting something along the lines of 'girl-who-lived'. Wizards were an unknown - but magic or something similar was not.
The kids eventually caught the paper bird, though looking quite upset, when they brought it back, Helen realized that in their wild chase, they also ripped one of its wings slightly. As a result, it stopped moving.
Helen took it, hid it for just a moment to cast a wandless reparo. When her palms moved apart, it was fine and well and the kids were happy.
"Gentle."
The kids nodded and this time they only brought it back when the spell ran out.
As she learned, people in pairs with the humanoids were called Drivers and the humanoids were their living weapons - awakened from blueish cubes called core crystals. They are bound for life.
The theory about the arch was that it sent people to alternate words. Well, one of the theories. Helen had actually heard about the thing before seeing it for the first time at the ministry. She did visit the forbidden section at night a few times every now and then reading onto random stuff she found interesting when she couldn't sleep.
It has been confirmed that people do not die when they pass, however it has not been confirmed what exactly happens with them.
This place sure did look like some alternate reality - something that would appear on television at best. Admittedly, the info she found on it was limited at best so it was a big gamble to jump through.
Looking around, Luke was there again, giving her a big smile.
Good thing it worked out.
There were always countless other things and Helen was simply another cog in the system. The drivers would get together and train, then train some more, then do some paperwork. Then maybe someday they would have a mock battle, a spar.
"Ether!" One of the kids called it. Looking again, that's not how mana behaved, but it was scary similar. Almost identical, just like the cloud water on day 1.
The pairs would face off against each other, Blades would provide the Drivers with weapons and the fight was on - weapons clashing and colliding. It seemed dangerous but looking closer, in the end, it really was just a spar. Like those, she had her little club in her last year do. Although admittedly, she had them overpower stinging charms, partly for the motivation.
When spar 1 was done, the second pair came into the area.. and it was Luke and some muscly guy, not Vandham though.
Luke scanned the area before finding her while giving her a big smile.
Truth to be told, this behavior was starting to make her uncomfortable - it reminded her of a few fanboys she had, Colin's little fan club. Then secondarily, it was the kind of expression that boys made when Fleur was around. Or the other vela at the world championship.
He was not exactly subtle either.
Laughing, Vandham patted her back while uttering something only she could hear. He has a crush on her, he totally has. Helen tried to keep up the smile while pretending that she is not shrinking deep into her seat. Not that Luke looked at her for long enough to see that because he had already drawn his weapon and clashed with his opponent.
The witch went back to her dinner - probably meat of some local monster plus some eggs.
Luke emerged victorious while accompanied by the cheers of others.
Helen eyed the blades. They were cool, like really cool. The orange-red bird that restrained her back then was called Roc, Vandham's blade.
The bird looked down at her whenever she came close, squawking some word out.
Ignoring him at the moment, she approached the tanned mountain man who looked like he was taking a break from his responsibilities.
"Hello." The man, who had already seen her enter just inclined for her to come in. "I would like to ask, Is it okay for me to stay here?" She tried to somehow translate into the other language. He seemed to get the gist of it. "I am really thankful for all the help, I hope I was not a bother."
The man looked at her for a moment as if he couldn't believe what he is hearing.
"Bother? What you mean, bother?"
… that was not a reaction she expected. She backed just a little. The world is vast, that is the little she gathered from listening in on various conversations, Uraya is one of the places - titans as they called them. Giant beings that swim in the cloud sea.
It was quite mindblowing actually, that there is no solid ground, only these titans - and there are several of them. Gotmott, Indol, Mor Ardain, Tanta, Morytha and so on. If she were to leave, where would she even start? Sure, she could probably find a job to feed and clothe herself, but the world was still a giant unknown.
She remembered always dreaming of exploration, while she was still stuck at her relative's place - there were so many places she wanted to visit. France, Mione invited her there and she would have gone if it was not for the Hogwarts Headmaster stopping her. Once, she got invited to go to the US and travel around. She wanted to see Australia where supposedly even common grass was likely to murder a person (that one was given a big nope by her friends to her dismay), she wanted to see Asia, and so on.
One day, she would explore around, she told herself. As Mione called her, Helen was a goldmine of bad ideas, a walking natural disaster when she gets going, but even she has some boundaries. She is still exhausted from the events at the ministry, aching all over. She has no money, no good knowledge and barely even speaks the language.
This is why she hoped that she could stay, even for just a little bit longer.
"Get over here kid!" Seeing his irritation, that is not something she wanted to do that much. But she obliged. "Do you have a family?"
"Sirius, last family." She replied automatically.
"Others?"
It was her turn to frown. If she somehow tried to get back… no. "Not get along. Relatives." Though just stating that she and Petunia do not get along is like stating that the sun is just slightly warm. The woman gave of more hate than Riddle did and he is a whole different bag of issues.
Thinking about it again, she probably should have just said no, now he might kick her out anyways.
The one thing she was not expecting was the next answer: "You, always place here."
She blinked, surprised, and asked him to repeat the sentence. "You will always have a place here. You, one of us now."
Yeah, that is what she had heard the first time, but her brain somehow failed to register the meaning.
"There many kids who without a home, you looked after them, right?" Yeah, she did look after some that came around to see her, even helped to tend wounds - some scraps from falling down. The kids looked like they liked her, though that could have been only because of those little tricks she entertained them with. "You are just like them, you stay here until you decide otherwise."
She breathed in and out, some sort of emotion must have shown on her face because Vandham's face softened at that point.
"Thank you." She excused herself and quickly walked out, needing some time alone.
Helen left the building while trying to sort through her thoughts.
She never had a home, that much was made clear to her when staying with her relatives. Petunia never actually hit her, nor her husband, but they always made it clear in many ways that she is as welcome as that dirty bug on a kitchen counter. Through words and other actions, they have always found ways to make her very uncomfortable and Helen was threatened with being thrown out on more occasions than she can count.
The Weasleys did invite her along, but the treatment she had received there made it clear that she was a precious guest. A guest. So it was not her home.
Hogwarts was a place to which most of her good memories are tied, but some of her worst as well. She thought of it as her home up until year four when all hell broke loose with the Triwizard champions selection. She was never really that upset about what happened in the second year, quite possibly due to being used to being the outcast, Helen even has some understanding. The kids were scared and looked for the one responsible. Not to mention that the older kids were more than reasonable enough to know that a second-year would not be able to do that, especially one that had no prior magic education. But in the fourth?
Half of her things went missing or were destroyed, this included her books and school supplies, she had to go and buy new sets of books two times and it took Mcgonagal absolutely exploding on the students and the first task to get everyone to stop. The less said about what Ron did the better - their friendship never recovered after what he pulled during the Yule dance after she was dumb enough to go with him.
Then year 5 came along. While some relationships recovered, many students came along and apologized, her relationship with Dumbledore deteriorated rapidly to a point that she did not even feel safe in her own bed.
As a result, the concept of home became something abstract.
Helen looked around, and took in the entire Garfont - it looked more like a bunch of tents placed around with only a few sturdy buildings here and there, all situated in a crevice. Flowers growing here and there, trees of exotic colors growing about. It was.. beautiful.
No, it was not a home, it is not something that can be decided on a measly few days. But the thought that she had a place there made her feel like a small flame lit up somewhere inside her - like those that Mione used to make whenever the castle got too drafty.
I just.. want to do my work in peace but this thing... it just won't leave me! So, I am dumping it over here.
The idea I have in mind would be another monster of a story and to be honest, I already have 2 other fics I want to finish at some point! In comparison, to make this thing I have in mind work, I would have to do major changes to the main story of XC2 and that Is not well planned. Yet.
I already have a blade for her picked out, I may consider others but only when finding a good reason for that.
I kind of want to save everyone but that is not possible. Jin is beyond saving for example, but I am hoping I could save a certain someone else that likes to shout and swear a lot... which is what exactly would make this story very hard to do well.
I want to continue this, it has been a while since I got caught up in a new bunny like this, they usually came and leave after few days to be forgotten forever.
Review?
I'll probably update this depending on the response.
Anyway, thx for reading!