Merry Christmas one and all, and I hope that you enjoy this little resolution to last year's cliffhanger. A conclusion of Act 1 of the Harry Potter Nutcracker inspired piece.
Strangely enough, it took until getting to the dorm and finding the other boys frozen in the middle of preparing to lie down that Harry realized something was off. Ron was suspended in the middle of lying down on his pillow with his mouth open as if talking to one of the others in the midst of pulling on their sleeping shirts.
That's when he noticed the snow frozen outside the window and Scabbers bit him.
Letting out a cry of dismay, he dropped the rat that fell to the ground and waddled off back the way they had come, despite the injuries he'd gotten previously. Turning to give chase, he thought of Hermione, and hoped that she was faring better.
Up another staircase, Hermione was… puzzled.
She hadn't expected much, but seeing a house elf in the middle of disappearing was not even remotely close to the list. She had never gotten a chance to look closely at it before, but it was somewhat disturbing to look at incomplete. Turning back around, she went to go see Harry because whenever something like this happened, Harry was in trouble.
She wished that she was exaggerating about that.
Honestly, that boy was such a worry for her, she was wondering if she should ask her mother for some advice on him. But the thought of it made her blush and reconsider such a foolish notion every time.
Getting to the main room, she set her nutcracker safely on a shelf before hearing the footfalls of Harry rushing back into the main room, hot on the tail of Scabbers that ducked between Hermione's legs and towards the main entrance. As the two met in their usual manner, greeting each other while acknowledging the new weird things going on, they heard the chime of a bell come to an end. Looking at the clock, they realized that it was oddly enough still midnight.
"Hermione?" Harry asked, his wand coming to his hand and at the ready while scanning the common room for a threat. His friend at his back, he knew that she would be safe with him protecting him.
Meanwhile, the brightest witch of the age wracked her brain to try and figure out what manner of spell, creature, or being could have this type of slowing down of time itself. The options she was coming up with were not something she liked.
After all, knowing that ancient magics were possibly at play probably would do little to comfort anyone. Least of all a boy known to be hunted by things that often wanted to use said ancient magics to do him great bodily harm. So instead, she took a calming breath and opened her mouth to speak when another cut through the air.
"Tis Drosselmeyer's doing noble chosen of my family," a formal voice began to explain from the shelf, causing the pair to whip around, Harry's wand at the ready where the nutcracker stood with an impassive face, save for his jaw that moved with his speaking. "I believe the old fiend has locked us in battle once more. Forgive me for not finishing it before you woke."
Harry stared at the nutcracker, while his friend's brain caught up with her. "Wait… Drosselmeyer, as in Herr Drosselmeyer?"
"The one and the same," the nutcracker answered with a nod of his wooden head. The lack of joints meant it looked a fair bit more disturbing that perhaps it should have. "Fear not children, I shall vanquish the rat traitor once more, and free us of this curse. But I require your permission to summon aide."
Harry followed the painted gaze that was locked on Hermione, as he watched his friend processing everything. For once, it wasn't HIM that the strange things were happening to directly, this was a Christmas gift he was not expecting, and if it was anyone other than his best friend, he wouldn't even consider refusing it. But since this one was Hermione, he was following her lead.
"Call them," Hermione stated after a moment, her voice heavy and resigned. "Bring forth your allies, and vanquish the Rat Traitor."
Leaning over as the nutcracker freed a horn from his hip and began blowing a series of notes, she whispered. "We'll come up with something to explain to Ron what happened later."
Harry nodded his agreement as several glowing portals opened around the room, and out marched dozens of wooden soldiers, armed with sabers in their gleaming red and blue uniforms. The troops, as there was precious else to call them formed ranks before Hermione and Harry, saluting sharply as they lined up. When the last one snapped into a salute, there was a momentary pause before they all dropped their salute and snapped to attention with a wash of clacking noises.
"May I address the troops in your name ma'am?" the nutcracker asked politely as he stepped up.
Getting a short, confused nod from the witch, he stepped up to the front of the shelf and spoke up in a clear voice. "Soldiers of Toyland! This is the night we knew to come, the Rat King has returned in a new form. The traitor of the treaty of old wanders the halls of this very castle. The magic of old has brought us forth, and we must battle once more. Go forth and bring the Rat Traitor back here, so that the ancient battle may be completed."
The snap of the legion of toy soldiers saluting was nearly deafening, before the nutcracker drew his sword and levelled it before him. A wave to the right, and half of the soldiers marched off to seek in that direction, and then he mirrored it to the left, sending the others away.
In a school of magic, it was perhaps not a little strange to see the soldiers disappearing into portals, and yet it was still a rather daunting sight. Silence reigned over the room with the three of them; save for Hermione kneeling down and doing something with her slipper while muttering about ballets should not be this applicable to her life.
Harry decided not to ask.
It had to have been minutes later, not that the clock would move enough to acknowledge it, when a portal larger than any of the others opened and Scabbers spilled into the room, skidding along. The nutcracker dashed into action, saber raised to strike.
It should have been an impressive battle, with a daunting series of slashes, gnashing of teeth, and use of tails as whips.
Two foes should have locked in glorious combat, battling epically before one emerged victorious with just the well timed aide of an ally being the deciding factor.
It should have been all of those things, had Hermione not chucked her wooden soled slipper through the air at the rat, catching him full in the face. As he was stunned, the nutcracker brought down his saber and ended his life with ease
Really anti-climactic, at least until the form of the rat began to shift, and they realized something was SERIOUSLY wrong. Harry pulled Hermione into a tight hug, shielding her eyes from the sight of a broken man sprawled out over the floor.
He really wished he had the forethought to turn his own gaze away.
The nutcracker pulled back in horror at the sight before him, his trusty sword clattering to the ground before him. The rat had not been truly a rat? Why had Drosselmeyer done this?
That was when the soft sound of clapping filled the air. Sitting upon the top of the mantle, a spindly old man looked over the trio of survivors with an almost unabashed gleeful smile splitting his face hideously. "How marvelous! A splendid end of this little escapade, and much quicker than your previous encounter."
"Drosselmeyer! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" the Nutcracker demanded as he thrust a hand towards the former rat behind him.
The man turned to look Harry squarely in the eyes, the mirth seeming to disappear for a moment before he spoke. "All in due time my good Nutcracker, but first… these two need to clear this vision from their minds. To Toyland ere I explain."
Harry and the Nutcracker shared a look, before turning to try and get the old man to explain more, only to find him gone again. "I should… Every time…" the Nutcracker fumed as he put his wooden hand to his face. "It looks like we must play out this story until its end… for what it's worth, I am sor-"
"It isn't your fault, you didn't know… we just have a lot of explaining to do in the morning, if it comes," Harry muttered as Hermione finally worked herself free. Marching over to one of the shelves, she dug out some of the spare parchment and quills students hid there and began writing something.
As she wrote, Harry decided to take a blanket off the couch, and just… cover up the man on the ground. It didn't look like there was anything else he could do now. There was something bigger going on here, and he was pretty sure it wasn't about to slow down and explain things to him. Maybe he could get the quick version from Hermione later, but for now, he was going to focus on making sure they both got out of this alive, even if it meant the both of them traipsing about in their comfort wear a while longer.
He was fairly certain that he was not going to like tomorrow morning.