Chapter One: We're Not In Kansas Anymore...
"How many of 'em are there?"
"We dunno. We didn't count, damn it! We were looking for pigs an' instead...we found these people."
"Well, could ya at least tell me where you found them?"
"Out there."
Ralph rolled his eyes. "'Out there' is very informative," he drawled sarcastically, obviously exasperated.
"Why do you care, anyway?" Jack Merridew demanded with equal irritation.
The boys' impending argument was disrupted by the stirring of a skinny, bespectacled child who had a scar across his forehead that was partially covered by a mop of messy black hair. He jumped slightly upon laying eyes on the two strangers, especially when he noticed one of them welded a spear. "What the - ?!" he started.
"It's...awake," murmured Jack.
"He's awake," corrected Ralph.
Harry sighed. "Um, I can hear you, you know," he said. "I'd appreciate it if you'd speak to me instead of about me." He looked around the poorly built shelter, catching sight of the incapacitated forms of Ron, Fred & George, Ginny, Hermione, and...an involuntary sneer crossed his features. Draco Malfoy. Well, at least Crabbe and Goyle weren't with him...
Another person entered the hut and paused beside the fair-haired boy and the spear-carrying redhead. This one was another young boy, thin, short, and tanned, with dark hair, and he seemed surprised to see so many unfamiliar unconscious people lying around...and one awake, struggling to sit up.
"What - how - where did -?" Simon paused, trying to think of a way to phrase his question that didn't sound rude.
He didn't need to. For once, Ralph and Jack understood what he was trying to convey. "Me an' my hunters found 'em," explained the former choir leader.
"They were looking for pigs again, 'stead of tending the fire," said Ralph, "but for once I guess that's not such a bad thing."
Harry was beginning to get annoyed. "I don't suppose one of you would mind telling me where I am?" he suggested. He didn't understand any of this; one minute, he'd been in the Gryffindor common room, the next...
"You're on an island," replied the undersized, dark-haired boy.
Harry nodded slowly. "How?"
The fair-haired boy frowned. "What do you mean, 'how'?"
"Do you know how I got here?"
"No," was the unanimous response from all three children.
"We just found you," said the flame-haired boy, carelessly waving his spear, "how're we s'pose to know how you go here?"
Slowly, the other Hogwarts students began to stir. Gasps of shock and disbelief escaped them. "Oh my God," muttered Hermione, shaking her head, "where - ?"
"We're on an island," said Harry, unable to say anything more.
His bushy-haired female friend nodded. Her eyes widened at the sight of the three dirty strangers. "Which island?"
"Do you mean, like the name of it?" asked Simon. Hermione nodded.
"We don't know the name of it," Ralph informed her.
"What?" spit out Draco, his voice thick with disbelief. "You don't know the name of your own island?"
"I'm scared," Ginny was whimpering, "I wanna go home..."
Ron was glancing around, taking everything in without saying anything. Finally he spoke. "There aren't any...spiders...here, are there?"
"Not that we know of," said Simon kindly, a bit puzzled.
"What're all your names, anyway?" Ralph asked.
"I'm Fred," said George.
"I'm George," said Fred.
Harry ignored the twins' joke. "I'm Harry," he introduced himself, unable to remember if he'd already told them that or not, "that's Ron, Hermione, Ginny...and Draco."
"I'm Ralph; this is Simon an' Jack. There's more of us, though; you can meet them soon."