Wheee!…this is getting Hoop-dee-doo-crazy-fun!
The Wizard gang is on the run
To find Harry Potter, their dear friend
Who may soon receive an untimely end.
Mexico and Norway are where they've been.
Now it's to the origin of the Brothers Grimm!
But on the way they are stopped,
For the exit of China seems to be blocked.
Shan Yu and the Skeletons delay their flight,
But who will help to charge and fight?
Oh my goodness, how far away August 19th was! As many of you found out through e-mail, Kram Nebuer has had no time to update this story in more than two months all because of freaking school! ARGHHH! Anyhow, it's fall break and I FINALLY have time to write! It took me almost three hours to reread my entire story. Gee, I found it was really long and I really only needed to read from chapter 28ish to remember what happened. Well after rereading, revising, editing and finishing, Chapter 32, which has been half finished for months, is here for your enjoyment!
Chapter 32: Let's Get Down to Business (To Defeat…the Huns)
"I must go fetch Harry soon," Tomás said, twirling his wand in his hand like a baton. "You all can just keep working." He was in a colorful backroom filled with dozens of Transportals. Connected to the Transportals were film projectors. Rolls and rolls of colorful movie reels continually played through the projectors and through the Transportals, making a doorway to the animated worlds. "Zira! What are you doing? Just fast forward to the scenes with villians! We don't need this riff-raff from the Matchmaker."
Zira had played her movie reel, Mulan, and was watching the Bring Honor to Us All musical segment. "I'm sorry Master Tomás…I was just…"
"I don't want to hear excuses! Just fast-forward now! The little creeps are getting closer to China!"
"But master," Zeke interrupted. He was playing Pinocchio. "What's the point of going through all this trouble? Why don't we just lure the kids with Harry Potter as bait?"
"Don't question genius, Zeke!" Tomás said. "I'm going to go check on their progress and Zira, you better wish that they're not at China yet!"
"I've just found him, Master," Zira said. The Transportal showed Shan-Yu riding through the snowy mountains towards Captain Shang's tiny army.
"Then hurry up and get him through! Use a Stunning Spell if he gets too wild. We don't want him ruining this attraction." He then got up from his easy chair between one moon and a golden sun. He wasn't smiling, because a smile means friendship to everyone. He went through mountains that divide and oceans that are wide, for it was a small world after all. Literally, it was.
The dolls of the "it's a small world" attraction were no higher than Tomás's knee. Every time he walked by one, he had the urge to kick one of the smiling, jolly, plump little children dolls, but he knew he had better things to do. He came out of the attraction and into the sunlight of Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom. He turned left towards the carousel and into a closed off building that used to house the Legend of the Lion King Stage show. Inside was an enormous theatre with an enormous screen. Tomás took a seat in one of the plump, stuffed fold down seats. "Mypet! Show me Harry Potter!"
Tomás had to wait a while, for the scene in the screen changed from a view of EPCOT to a bird's-eye-view of the Walt Disney World property's roads and highways and streets. Finally, the screen revealed Animal Kingdom and then the Animal hospital. The caged gazelle filled the enormous screen. Crouched next to him was Helena, holding a sheet of paper with a list of math problems on the left side and a list of answers on the other. She apparently was trying more tests. Like the other muggles and guests, she was frozen.
"What is she doing?" Tomás asked. He pulled out his wand and waved it, muttering something in Latin. He ended the incantation with "Animal Hospital." Both gazelle and human began moving again.
"Okay Harry, 2 + 2 equals? Which one Harry? Pick from this list," Helena said, waving the paper. Her voice echoed through the empty theatre. Harry the gazelle pushed his hoof through the bars and pointed to the number four on the paper. She tried to get trickier, "That could have been a lucky guess. What do you really mean?" Harry tapped the floor of his cage four times. "Oh! You're brilliant, Harry!" She then unlocked the padlock and unlatched the latch. Harry eagerly pushed through and pranced out into the room.
"No, woman! What do you think you're doing!?!" Tomás shouted from his seat. He did another bit of fancy wand waving and Helena and Harry became motionless again. "Mypet! Go back and follow those meddling kids again!" The view on the screen swiftly changed from the Animal Kingdom Animal Hospital to forests of trees, stretches of roads, and finally the World Showcase.
"I didn't know ravens habituate tropical Florida," Hermione said, pointing up at Mypet. The rest of the group turned to see what she was talking about. They were just outside the Stave Church.
"I know. I saw one in Mexico," Ginny said. Mypet was sitting on the top most roof, staring down at the group.
"Ron, have you got Percy's camera still?" Hermione asked. "That would make a lovely picture while it's still frozen!"
"Good. They haven't realized he is watching them," Tomás said. "Mypet, don't move."
"Why are you bird-watching when Harry is in trouble?!" Ron yelled, his voice echoing through the theatre. "Stop wasting time! We've got to get to Germany!" He then started walking faster, with the others following.
Hermione spoke softly and Tomás had trouble hearing since they were farther away.
"What's she saying?" Tomás said. "Mypet, you have bad hearing! Don't move yet, they might notice. I should've sent a bat…I wonder if Fidget is available…"
***
"I didn't know ravens habituate tropical Florida," Hermione said, pointing up at a black bird on resting on top of the Stave Church in Norway. The rest of the group turned to see what she was talking about.
"I know. I saw one in Mexico," Ginny said. The black bird was frozen on the topmost roof, staring down at the group.
"Ron, have you got Percy's camera still?" Hermione asked. "That would make a lovely picture while its still frozen!"
"Why are you bird-watching when Harry is in trouble?!" Ron yelled, his voice echoing through the theatre. "Stop wasting time! We've got to get to Germany!" He then started walking faster, with the others following.
"You know very well that Harry is in no danger," Hermione said softly and calmly to Ron. "Remember, Zira said Tomás won't kill Harry until he gets rid of us first."
"It's just that…well, what if we've got it wrong!" Ron said.
"We've still got to do our best to get to Harry fast," Sirius said to Hermione. "Who knows what he's going through? Just waiting and wondering!"
Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Hermione, Neville, Ron, Ginny, two frogs [riding on Ginny's shoulders], three birds, and Milo Thatch walked down the streets of the World Showcase and was quickly transported from the stony, wooden, forests of Norway to the mysterious, multicolored, fragile temples, and buildings of the Orient. The pavilion of China was magnificently displayed, beautiful and richly detailed with reds, blues, yellows, and greens, and intricate art on tiles and in the plants and foliage. The only problem was that it was inhabited by Skeleton Warriors of times past. The eleven of them were hiding behind a Chinese Paper Umbrella vendor stand.
"They're blocking the bridge to Germany," Hermione gasped. She was right. They could see that far ahead, a line of Skeleton Warriors were linking arms and blocking the bridge as a bony chain. Trotting in front of them from side to side was a great black stallion. Riding on top was an enormous Mongolian man with dead, gray skin, a fine black mustache, and long black hair. His attire included robes and pants made of gray animal skins and thick leather boots. He had a quiver of arrows and a great bow at his side. This was the menacing Shan-Yu.
"How are we going to pass that guy?" Neville asked with a sense of distress. "He's almost as big as Hagrid!"
"Almost? He is as big as Hagrid!" Ron said. "But we don't have to worry! Some Chinese soldier is going to come and rescue us!"
"Ron's right," Neville said. "Let's just wait for the help."
"You two chickens! We have to at least try!" said Hermione. "Now we've got to find a better place to hide." She spotted a restaurant across the street. "We should go there. What's the matter, Ron? You're not scared are you? We're Gryffindors! We can do this! "
"Well, go ahead, Miss Bravery," Ron said. "It's not mine and Neville's fault that we're in the wrong Hogwarts house."
"Honestly, Ron!" Hermione said. She got out her wand and raced across the street to the Nine Dragons restaurant. Sirius, Lupin, Ginny, and Milo followed suit and flattened themselves against the building.
"Should we follow?" José asked.
"What if the skeletons see us?" Donald asked.
"They didn't see them," José said. "Let's run for it, boys!"
"I'd rather wait here," Neville said.
"Me too," Ron said.
"Me three!" Donald said.
"You're coming with me, verdad?" José said to Panchio.
"What do I look like, a chicken?" Panchito said. "Oh, wait! I am a chicken!"
"Look! They're going inside!" Donald said, pointing at Hermione, Sirius, Lupin, Ginny, and Milo. They were climbing through the open windows of the restaurant.
"Now we have to follow," Ron said. "Come on you guys!" He quietly sprinted across the street, watching the Skeleton Warriors and Shan-Yu meticulously. They were busy looking down at the ground in boredom or up at the sky. Ron and Neville made it safely to the building. Ron gave a leg up to Neville as Lupin and Sirius pulled him in. José Carioca then came leaping to Ron and rushed up after Neville.
Donald and Panchito were still by the vendor, too scared to go across. Ron waved his arms and mouthed for them to hurry and run across. He did some pantomiming of running in place and told them to go.
"Come on!" Ron said in a loud whisper. He continued his running in place motion. Panchito and Donald did the same, running in place and looking scared. "No, no, no! Don't run in place! Run here!" They still didn't understand and Ron gave up.
"Wait! I have an idea!" Panchito said to Donald, a light bulb literally appearing above his head. The two went behind the paper umbrella stand.
"This is exasperating," Donald grumbled as Panchito pulled him out from behind five minutes later. The two were dressed in women's silk robes and had black wigs; the synthetic hair tied up in a bun with chopsticks. They had a heavy layer of makeup and Panchito and Donald shuffled into the street.
"What in the world are they doing?!" Hermione said from her view at the restaurant. Ginny started giggling uncontrollably as the two Madam Butterflies shuffled their slipper-ed feet across the street in silk robes and holding the paper umbrellas at their sides, to cover their faces.
"Hurry up!" Ron said. They were almost at the bushes when they heard a great galloping of hooves grow louder as the horseman came closer. Ron immediately leapt up into the restaurant to hide.
"What are we going to do?" Donald said to Panchito, his eyes growing so wide that the fake eye-lashes almost sprung off. Shan-Yu had stopped his horse and got off. He was looking at the two dressed birds.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Shan-Yu grunted. "I wasn't told of two women coming."
"Oh, we're just passing through!" Panchito said in a falsetto. He had trouble hiding his Mexican accent.
"Yeah, passing through!" Donald said in his same, throaty, ducky voice.
"What did she say?" Shan-Yu asked.
"I don't know. She has a bad cold," Panchito replied. "We'll be on our way…"
"Not so fast," Shan-Yu said, pulling up Panchito by the neck of his robes to keep him from scurrying. "Who sent you?"
"No one at all," Panchito said, starting to panic. "Heh…lovely day for a walk!"
"Oh, really? Then you two can come with me and walk over there where I can see you," Shan-Yu said. He picked up Donald as well and put them on top of his horse. Donald and Panchito were shaking as they rode behind Shan-Yu on his black horse to the bridge.
"I told them to hurry! I told them! Did they listen?" Ron said.
"We'll get them back somehow," Lupin said. Right now we have to worry about how we're going to get past him.
"Who was that anyway, Hermione?" Ginny asked.
"I think it's the villain from Mulan, which was set in China," she replied.
"How did they get past him in the movie?"
"I've never seen it," Hermione said.
"Didn't you read about it?" Ron asked. "You're Hermione! You should know all the answers!"
"I don't know everything, Ron! I don't memorize books I read!"
"What about Hogwarts, A History?" Hermione opened her mouth to retaliate, but stopped, because she couldn't deny this fact.
"He was stopped by an avalanche," Neville said, finally. "But it didn't work. He got out of the snow and attacked Beijing."
"How do you know, Neville? You saw the movie?"
"Yeah…and I, uh, have the…uh…(something unintelligible)…" Neville mumbled.
"Sorry, I didn't quite hear what you said."
"I have the entire Disney Video collection, well except for the newer ones…" Neville confessed. He was looking at his feet. "Go ahead. You can laugh now…" But they didn't laugh at all. Everyone was celebrating. They had a Disney expert with them!
"Neville, that's wonderful! You must know tons!" Hermione said.
"I wish we had a TB and a what's it called, Vid. E. O. Elections?" Ron asked. "Is that what you use for watching motion pictures?"
"It's one word: video. My great Uncle Algie said it was punishment to watch Muggle inventions because I wasn't showing any magical powers when I was younger. He said that I should live like a Muggle child since he thought I'd end up being a Squib…"
"So which movies have you seen?"
"Everything from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Tarzan," Neville said.
"That's wonderful!" Hermione said. "So who do you suppose will help us in this ruddy mess?"
"Well, isn't it obvious?" Neville said. "This is China and of course we're going to get to meet-"
"Mulan," a young Chinese women with shoulder length hair and a blue and maroon silk robe-dress. She was shaking Sirius's hand. Her other hand was behind her back, hiding something. "And this is my dragon friend, Mushu." A shrimpy, little red dragon was sitting on Mulan's shoulder.
"Zira sent us a woman and a tiny little lizard to help us?!?" Ron said.
***
"Zira, I want you to get…What did I tell you about the Hero riff-raff?!?" Tomás said as he stormed back into his Headquarters at the "it's a small world" attraction. Zira was again watching the undesired scenes of the movie reels. "We don't need the seven dwarfs or anyone else at all from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs! The witch is where she should be. Now go and find Jafar!"
"Sorry, Master. I…I forgot," Zira replied, stopping the movie reel.
"Now, we have a little problem with Mr. Potter," Tomás said. "I may be gone awhile getting him away from that Muggle vet. You all keep working and make sure that Stromboli and Governor Ratcliffe are put in place."
"Yes, sir," his followers replied.
"Now don't do anything stupid and let out someone like the Three Caballeros out," Tomás said. Zira tried to hide her face.
***
[A/N: Just a little note, Mulan was voiced by Ming-Na from "ER" and Mushu was voiced by Eddie Murphy.]
"Ron! What a rude thing to say!" Hermione said.
"I'm sorry," Ron said, rubbing the red spot on his cheek where Hermione had slapped him. "I really had my hopes up for a great Chinese soldier with armor and a sword and-"
"But, Ron, that's what we did get," Neville said.
"You better get glasses, Neville, because I just see a female in a dress! She's no soldier!"
"What makes you think women can't be soldiers?" Mulan said to Ron angrily.
"And what makes you think a big, mean, ol' dragon like me is a lizard?" Mushu said, his hands on his hips. He jumped down from Mulan's shoulder and stepped down to Ron. "See look. Watch me now!" He opened his mouth and let out a spark of fire on Ron's shoe.
"Ahhh!" Ron said, trying to stamp out the blaze with his other shoe.
"Hah! Didn't think I could do that, did ya?" said Mushu as he marched back to Mulan.
"And I may seem like a small, fragile, china doll," Mulan said, "but…" With a quick, graceful turn, Mulan unsheathed the sword hidden behind her and held it in front of her, as if preparing for a fencing match. She then raised the sword and positioned her body as if in a slow-moving sword fight. Very calm, soothing, Oriental music suddenly filled the restaurant. It was like yoga with a sword. She finished and everyone applauded.
"Whoo! You go, Mulan!" said Mushu.
"That was very impressive," Sirius said. "Do you think you could teach me some of those tricks?"
"We've no time for that," Hermione said. "We've got to get to Germany, remember?"
"And we've got to rescue Señor Donald and Panchito!" José Carioca added. "They could be in mucho trouble!"
"How are you all with a sword?" Mulan asked.
"Wand, sword, what's the difference?" Sirius said.
"I don't think I can even hold one up," said Neville.
"I want a sword! Give me one!" said Ron.
"I've read about them before. The iron and steel make them extremely heavy, I don't think I'll manage to keep it held up, let alone for swordplay," said Hermione.
"Fred and George says they can fight, if we can turn them back to humans," said Ginny.
"I want a sword! Give me one!" said Ron.
"I've, uh, handled a good amount of swords at the museum," said Milo Thatch, sucking in his gut and trying to act strong.
"Good. We'll need a good strong offense to get through. Shan-Yu can be very tricky," said Mulan.
"Not to mention, them arrows he shoots never miss his target," said Mushu. He turned to Mulan. "But I don't see the point in fighting him off. You just got lucky before. Remember, it was me who scared him away!" Mulan just rolled her eyes and passed out swords [where she got them, I do not know]. Meanwhile, Hermione was trying to think of human transfigurations.
"We've never gotten this far in class. Even if we did, I don't think I could do it," said Hermione.
"Come on! Think, Hermione!" croaked Fred.
"I'm afraid we'll have to fix you later," said Ginny. "We haven't time to figure it out."
"I just wish we had more help," said Mulan, looking at the small army of Ron, Sirius, Lupin, and Milo, who had immediately dropped his sword when he received it.
"You wish? Mulan, you better pray!" said Mushu as Milo tried to lift his sword up.
"Didn't she have any other friends or comrades?" Hermione asked Neville.
"There were those three guys at the camp- Ling, Yao, and Chien Po- and Captain Shang," Neville replied, his face scrunched in thought. "And the Great Stone Dragon!"
"Oh! Don't you get me started on that guy!" said Mushu. "If you ask me, he seemed a little cracked!" Suddenly, a Transportal appeared in the restaurant and a beam of blinding white light shined on the group. Just as quick as it appeared, the light was cut off by a very large, rotund figure.
"Sorry we're late!" said Chien Po as he stepped into the restaurant. He was followed by a tall and skinny Chinese soldier, a squat, short one, and the Captain Li Shang.
"Good luck!" said Zira, waving from the other side as the Transportal sealed shut and disappeared.
"Now this is a somewhat better army," said Mulan.
"So what exactly is going on?" asked Ling as he stood in line with the others. "I thought we already got rid of Shan-Yu. And why does this place look so weird?"
"Let's clear some things up! I got rid of Shan-Yu, thank you very much," said Mushu.
"Mushu, that was just luck," said Mulan. "Who was the one who saved you from that rocket in the first place?" Mushu opened his mouth to speak, but stopped and crossed his arms and looked annoyed.
"Well, the thing is, Shan-Yu has been returned to our world to delay our plight in finding our friend," explained Hermione. "And there's all these horrible skeleton warriors and…." She then finished the rest of the story, finishing with their new problem of saving Panchito and Donald.
"We have to save a duck and a rooster from Shan-Yu! That's the dumbest thing I ever heard!" said Yao.
"He's right. After saving a republic, this rescue mission seems a bit effortless," said Captain Shang.
[A/N: Yeah, just realized a Portuguese parrot speaks Portuguese and a Spanish parrot would speak Spanish. Oops! Oh well…]
"¡Perdon, señores, pero ellos son mis amigos!" said José Carioca angrily. "We must help them!"
"And we've got to stop wasting time! We have to save Harry as well, you know!" said Sirius. "Let's go get some dog food!" Sirius began to charge towards the door, but Captain Shang flung his arm in front to stop him.
"We can't just go now! We need a plan so no one gets hurt!" said Captain Shang.
"Why don't we send Mr. Jumpstart first," said Mushu. "That way, we've got a distraction so we can all run!"
"That's suicide!" said Ling.
"Look out there," said Hermione. "They've made a human- er, skeletal chain. How are we going to break through?"
"We've got weapons! We'll hack our way through!" said Ron.
"That will probably only work for five minutes," said Mulan. "We need to stop them all at once. This is what we're going to do…" They all huddled like football players on the 10th yard line, formulating a plan…
***
"You have no need for us," said Panchito in his horrible falsetto. "We're just a tiny Chinese rooster and duck."
"Yeah!" said Donald, still trembling. "He's - I mean she's bad luck! Year of the Rooster, not good…"
"We're eccentric and-"
"I don't care! You're good bait!" shouted Shan-Yu, desiring to shut them up.
"Bait?!?" cried Donald. "They're gonna eat us!!!!"
"I think they're vegetarians," Panchito said to Donald, calming him down.
"Would you two be quiet!" roared Shan-Yu. He started to pace back up and down the bridge and mumbled, "Of all the prisoners I could've taken, I got stuck with those two…of all the darn…well, hello." Shan-Yu stopped pacing, for he was confronted with Mulan and her army of soldiers, two wizards, and a museum boiler room mechanic.
"Shan-Yu, give us the birds and no one gets hurt!" said Mushu.
"Oh, so you are one to make bargains?" said Shan-Yu, nonchalantly. He was leaning on the bridge rail and twirling the end of his goatee in his finger. "Well I don't play that way…"
"What do you want then? Why are you blocking the way?" asked Mulan.
"To prevent those wizards from getting to Germany," said Shan-Yu, thinking this would surprise the troop. "You see Fa Mulan, I am not as ignorant as you think I be…what brings you here anyway? Tomás had no purpose for you."
"Well these fine people do, and if you won't get out of our way, we'll just have to cut our own path!" said Captain Shang. He unsheathed his sword with a graceful curve and charged at the massive Mongolian, ready to fight.
***
"Ahhh!" Ginny screamed suddenly as she, Fred, George, Hermione, Ron, and Neville watched the skeletons and living and animated warriors battle from the windows of the restaurant. Everything Harry Potter Needs to Know About Quidditch started to tremble like mad and Ginny dropped it onto the floor.
"What's going on, Ginny?" asked Hermione, turning to see Ginny watch the book spin and quiver on the floor. A gust of wind blew from the book as it opened by itself. The two girls bent down to read the pages while Ron, Neville, and José still watched the battle.
Keeping time frozen is harder than I thought. Why should I trouble with such difficult magic? Forget the real world. Say goodbye, you'll be leaving it for a while. In the words of Tigger, TTFN - Ta-ta for now!
"Whatever does he mean by-" Hermione didn't finish her sentence. The words were replaced with an animated picture of the exact spot they were standing in. Instantly, the book became some sort of vacuum, black hole transporting the readers into another world. Hermione and Ginny were sucked into the book! Soon Ron, Neville, and José were being pulled from the window and into the book, drowning in a whirlwind of color and being transported away into the other world.
***
"What in the heck is that?" Milo yelled above the battle cries as a giant tornado the colors of the rainbow blew out of the restaurant and into the street. A great sound of rushing wind filled the air and all the warriors stopped battling.
"Where gonna get sucked in!" cried Sirius as his feet left the ground and was sucked into the tornado of color. The skeletons and Chinese Warriors and any other moving being were sucked into the tornado, swirling and twirling as it became smaller and smaller and soon was gone, trasnporting all its contents through the portal of Tomás's book.
The dim images of the frozen guests gradually started to reappear. Soon the Muggle and holiday-ing Wizard guests sprung back to life and continued their day as if nothing had happened. No one could tell that a troop of skeleton warriors had just roamed the streets of the World Showcase and no one cared to pick up the little book in the Chinese Restaurant. The gang was gone.
***
I want to keep going, but this chapter is already long enough as it is. I was annoyed by the long chapters as I reread my story, so I want to finish this one here. I hope you all understand it. I still can't believe I hadn't updated in so long!! It's November 3rd, 4 days until the 1st anniversary of this story! My goodness, has it really been a year? Anyhow…
What happened to our heroes? Where have they gone to? What will become of them? Will the quest at the World Showcase finally lead them to Harry? Who is Mypet (Hint: He's a "henchbird" of the best villianesse of Disney History from the movie that was released on DVD September 7th of this year)? What does Tomás have in store for everyone? Will he succeed in the end? Find out next time in Harry Potter and the World of Disney (Title change, should I do this?)