MAGIC KINGDOM

a Disney/Hogwarts Crossover Fic

Author's Note: I tweaked Quidditch a bit. It seemed a little odd that there would only be one player for each position. If any one player gets injured, the team basically has to forfeit. So, I added the Backup positions. The Backups are Jacks-Of-All-Stats (for you TV Tropes readers) who can cover for sick, exhausted or injured players in a pinch.

6. A GREAT TYPHOON

"At least they got rid of that smell."

Pocahontas Matoaka took a deep breath. "They did, actually," she said. "What was that smell, anyway?"

The boy's changing-room door swung open and Gaston LeGume entered. "Ladies," he said, pearly grin flashing, "good to see you back."

"That," Mulan Fa said to Pocahontas, who nodded in understanding. "Hi, Gaston."

Gaston leaned against the wall near where his teammates sat. He'd replaced the standard school-issued t-shirt and track pants with a suit of scarlet, skin-tight, workout gear, the better to show off his genuinely impressive musculature. He'd at least added a pair of gold basketball shorts as a token show of modesty. The effect was like a particularly vain superhero. "You girls looking forward to another year?"

"Well, optimism outweighs common sense," Pocahontas replied. She glanced over his too-close torso. "Is the body spray a new tactic? Chemical warfare's sort of unfair."

Gaston chuckled. "I missed that warrior spirit," he said. Pocahontas managed not to gag.

The door on the opposite side of the little room opened, and the youngest member of the team entered. "Oh, thank God," Merida Dunbroch said. "I almost wore my golden panties, and wouldn't that have been awkward."

Gaston merely grinned. "Hey, if you got it, flaunt it," he said, striking a pose.

Merida took out a hair tie and began trying to wrestle her mass of red curls into submission. She looked him over. "So, this is fancy dress, then?"

The older girls snickered and Gaston frowned. Pocahontas was a little worried she'd have to insert herself between Gaston and Merida, but the changing room doors opened again and they were joined by the rest of the team, distracting Gaston. He ignored Philip and James, firing a smile at Elizabeth.

"Where's Shang?" Philip asked, tightening his sneaker laces.

"Wasn't he in there?" Elizabeth replied, pointing to the boy's changing room.

"Not that we saw," James answered. He regarded Gaston, arched an eyebrow, and nodded. "All right, mate," he said, giving the burly sixth-year a punch on the shoulder. "Nothing says Gryffindor bravery like that outfit."

Any potential retort was cut off by the arrival of the captain of Gryffindor's Quidditch team. Shang Li strode in from the outside door, posture straight and gaze fierce. His hair was tied up in a topknot, his strong arms bare. Unlike Gaston's shameless display of physicality, though, Shang's sleevelessness seemed merely practical. A pair of younger students stood by his side; a boy with shaggy, auburn hair, and a sharp-eyed girl with raven hair pulled back in a ponytail. The boy, in particular, grabbed Merida's attention, while Elizabeth was a little surprised to see the girl.

"Go ahead and take a seat," Shang said to the students, who took a seat between Elizabeth and Mulan. Shang looked out over the assembled team. "All right, team, as I'm sure you can tell, we have a couple of new faces. I want you to welcome Taran Dallben and Vidia Black to the team. They're going to be our new Backups."

Merida looked up, frowning. "Hang on," she said. "We're Backup-me and Thwaites and Swann. We can only have three."

Shang smiled. "As a matter of fact, Dunbroch, you're not," he said. "You're the new Seeker."

Merida's jaw dropped. "Wha? Me? Seeker?"

"After Crockett graduated last year, you were the obvious replacement," the captain said. He turned to Elizabeth. "I considered you, Swann, but-"

Elizabeth held up a hand. "No, you made the right choice," she said. "Besides, I like being versatile, and Gaston, I swear I'll slug you, and you, too, Hook."

Gaston pouted, but James grinned at that.

Philip raised a hand. "And me?"

"You're moved to Beater," Li replied.

Gaston gave a laugh and punched Philip on the shoulder.

Shang shook his head. "Anyway, Swann, I'm going to be looking to you to help train the rookies. Both are good flyers with a lot of potential, but they're new."

Elizabeth smiled at Taran. "Don't worry, kiddo, I'll show you the ropes," she said. She looked over at Vidia, who only rolled her eyes.

"She helped teach me, too, when I joined in my first year," Merida added.

"Well, I'll be having you running special Seeker drills," Shang said. "You'll need a lot more focus, now."

Merida sighed. "Aye."

"Isn't it 'aye, captain'?" James said.

"Hook," Shang warned. He looked to the new players and began pointing at the team members. "Hook is our Keeper. Fa, Matoaka and myself are the Chasers, and LeGume is-"

"Our mascot," James interrupted. Shang and Gaston glared at him. He held up his hands. "Sorry, mate. Couldn't resist."

"LeGume is our other Beater," Shang continued. "Now. I assume you have an idea what you'll be expected to do on the team?" Taran and Vidia nodded. Shang dropped a whistle around his neck and picked up a broom. "Right, then. Let's get down to business..."

Shang was merciless in drilling the team. He was, at least, more egalitarian in his motivational shouting, no longer asking if he'd been sent daughters when he asked for sons. Pocahontas and Mulan had both long established that that sort of thing would only motivate them to pummel him.

Taran, for his part, seemed to be proving worthy of Shang's assessment of him. He was game for all the exercises Shang put him through, even if it more than he was used to. He found himself wondering if he'd ever catch his breath, and told Elizabeth to say goodbye to those who knew him. But, as Shang said, time was, after all, racing towards them till the Slytherins arrived. And, if he heeded his every order, he might survive.

Vidia seemed to relish the intensity of the practice. She was a naturally fast flyer-really fast. In fact, more than once, Shang actually had to direct her to slow down, because she was overshooting targets and it was messing up plays. When that happened, she found herself checking the little chain bound around her ankle. The Inhibitor had kept her from moving at subsonic speeds on foot, but it might need some adjustments for flight.

Merida proved to be a natural Seeker. She had an excellent eye for finding the tiny golden snitch amid the chaos of the Quidditch field. The only thing she had trouble with was awareness of the field as a whole. In diving for the snitch, she ended up interrupting plays and almost got concussed by a bludger twice. Thankfully, Philip was there to save her from a trip to Doc Poppins'. In fact, Philip was proving to be an excellent complement to Gaston. While Gaston was all aggressive offense, Philip was always on the lookout for incoming threats, ready to defend his teammates.

Not that he'd admit it, but Taran's limbs felt like liquid lead as he followed the others back to the changing rooms. True, it wasn't as if he'd been running around on the ground, as with Muggle sports, but flight was like any form of magic in that it had to be powered by something, and the brooms drew, in part, from their riders' own physical energy reserves. Technomancers were always trying to improve the energy efficiency of brooms, but physical endurance still as important for Quidditch as for football or rugby.

James Hook smiled at him as he spotted Taran dragging his feet. "Don't worry, mate," he said, "you'll get used it before long."

Taran straightened his back and ran a hand through his messy hair. "I don't know what you mean," he said, which got a snort from Hook.

"I like your style, mate," he said, throwing an arm around the second-year's shoulders.

Taran liked Hook. He seemed funny, easy-going, and when he acted all flirty with the girls, it was more like an entertaining affectation than anything else. Philip, too, was a pretty nice guy, courteous to everyone. Taran was surprised by how easily he was accepted by all his teammates, in fact-even Gaston. Taran certainly wasn't coddled, and Li called him on every mistake, but he wasn't harassed or humiliated by any means. It was also nice being on a team with his classmate Merida, who'd been one of his best friends since they arrived at Hogwarts. He expected Vidia felt the same about Elizabeth

Having to play with Swann was the only downside to joining the team. They'd known each other since their first day, two years ago, and Swann had witnessed every blunder and stumble since then. She had no problem with Shang or Pocahontas, who were both overly starched in Vidia's opinion, and Gaston was kind of a jerk, but at least it was a general, nonspecific jerkiness. But, with the exception of Swann, the rest of the team were relative strangers, belonging to different years. The classes rarely interacted, so they didn't know her, only knew of her.

In the girls' locker room, after they'd showered and changed, Pocahontas was waving her wand over the other girls' hair. The seventh-year had a knack for weather-related magic, and was drawing the water from their damp hair as a cloud of mist. "What do you think of your first day on the team?"

"I have no complaints," Vidia replied coolly, fussing with her tie.

"You did well," Elizabeth told her. Vidia managed not to roll her eyes.

"And, barring incident, Shang won't put you out on the field in the first game," Mulan said. "So you'll have a little more time to iron out any bumps before you're put out there in front of everybody."

Vidia pursed her lips, silently daring them to mention the Inhibitor on her ankle.

"I wish I'd had that luxury," Merida remarked, trying to wrangle her riot of curls into a semblance of order.

Vidia chuckled. "Oh, yeah," she said. "I remember that game. First match of the year against Slytherin, wasn't it? Shan-Yu Shonkhor kicked Dave Crockett in the head, and Kay Kyner was knocked off his broom by a bludger. You and Swann got called in." She smirked. "Good to see you two weren't discouraged by it."

Merida narrowed her eyes. "And what do you mean by that?"

Vidia gave her a blank look and shrugged. "Nothing. It was rough going, but you stuck with it. You clearly have the makings of a good Seeker. What else could it mean?"

"Shan-Yu was pretty heavily penalized for that," Pocahontas said, interrupting the argument. "Not that it stopped their team didn't try anything else less than honorable. But at least we're wise to them this time around." The Gryffindor Head Girl allowed herself a smile. "Frankly, I think we're in for a great season."

"I still think Kyner would have been better," Gaston said.

Hook put the last stud back in his ear. "Really? You'd give up your position as the team musclehead?"

Gaston sneered, crossing bulging arms over his broad chest. His easy mass was something Gaston liked to rub in the faces of his fellow male students. "Jealous?"

At seventeen, Hook was the oldest guy the Gryffindor team, but also the most slim, excluding twelve-year-old Taran. He looked positively scrawny in his school uniform, and most assumed he was too slender to be an effective Keeper. Even Philip Thwaites, who was almost two years younger, was broader in the shoulders, even if he wasn't as bulky as Gaston or Shang. But, Hook had more than proven himself, time and time again. He looked Gaston over and smirked. "Not of what you got, mate. Or haven't, rather."

Gaston glared, and Philip coughed to suppress a laugh. Taran was frozen during this exchange, aware he was partially the subject of the discussion.

"Kay would be welcome if he decided to rejoin the team," Shang said, cutting off any potential conflict escalation. "We are allowed more reserve players. But his father got that internship for him with the Aurors after graduation. If he was spending his time practicing instead of studying, he wouldn't be able to maintain the grades they require. If the new kids don't pan out, there are still other options." He looked over at Taran. "For what it's worth, I think they have what it takes."

Taran found himself blushing. "Thanks," he said. "I hope I didn't screw up too badly."

"You did fine," Philip said. "Nothing a little practice won't cure."

Gaston fired another glare at Hook. "Yeah, well, at least Hook has someone else to share makeup tips with."

"Aye," Hook said, unfazed. "This new eyeliner runs like a bastard."

Gaston snorted, flicked his wand at his locker, enchanting it shut, and stomped out, muttering under his breath.

Shang looked disapprovingly at the Keeper. "Hook, you need to stop needling Gaston."

Hook shrugged. "He can take it. He's a big boy, as he so enjoys telling people."

"To be fair, he is a pretty easy target," Philip said, which got a laugh out of Hook.

"Not the point," Shang said. "A team needs to be united, not squabbling with each other."

Hook frowned. "Big man's not exactly blameless, mate."

"I'm aware of how...difficult he is," Shang said, which got a snort from Hook. "But there's no reason to make things worse."

Hook sighed. "Alright, mate, fine. You get tall, dark and juiced to dial back on the arrogance, and I'll spare his frail, precious ego."

"That's all I'm asking," Shang said. "Believe me, I don't want to have to cut anyone from the team for something stupid, like not getting along." Shang turned and gave Philip a meaningful look, too. "Which happens to go for everyone, let it be known."

Philip and Hook both agreed, Taran nodding vehemently-though it had nothing to do with him-and the three of them departed for their respective classes. Alone in the locker room, Shang tidied the last of the equipment and smirked. Heh. "Tall, dark and juiced."

"There you are."

Merida and Taran turned and saw a boy jogging up to meet them. "Hey, Jim," Merida said.

"So, so," the boy said, catching up with them. The trio crossed the courtyard to the west wing. Jim threw his arms around their shoulders and grinned at Taran. "Tell me everything. Was it as awful as Merida makes out, or was she sugar-coating it?"

Almost in unison, Taran and Merida rolled their eyes. The pair of them had been friends with Jim Hawkins since the train ride to Hogwarts, but his eccentricities could be tiring. "I don't make anything out," Merida said, slapping at Jim's hand. She looked over at Taran. "Go on, tell him-it wasn't bad at all, was it?"

"It wasn't all that bad, really," Taran said. "More tiring than I expected, but nothing I won't get used to."

Jim narrowed his eyes at his friend, studying him. Suddenly, Jim spun Taran to face him. "They got to you, didn't they? You've been brainwashed by their cult!" He grabbed the sides of Taran's face. "ARE YOU IN THERE, TA-RAN?" he asked, speaking slowly and loudly.

"Jim? You're hurting me," Taran said through smushed cheeks.

"YES, TA-RAN," Jim said, nodding Taran's head. "YOU RE-MEM-BER ME. JIIIIIM. VE-RY GOOD!"

Taran slapped at Jim's hands and pushed him away. "Okay, that's enough," he said, rubbing his sore face.

"I still don't know why you didn't try out for the team," Merida said. "You're probably the best flyer in our year."

"Thank you, but no thank you," Jim said, and gave a shudder. "Organized sports are the root of all evil. The best way to ruin something fun, like flying, is to turn it into a competition." Taran shrugged. He obviously didn't agree with Jim's philosophy, but he could understand it. Merida, for her part, rolled her eyes and sighed.

"So?" Jim asked. "Who's the other new recruit?"

Merida raised an eyebrow. "You mean you actually knew we were filling two slots on the team?"

Jim scoffed. "How could I not, the way you carried on?" He put on a falsetto voice and a phony accent and began to wail, "'Och, Jim, me lad! Wha' am I ginna doo? Crockett's graduated and Kay's quit tae focus on his laerrrnin'! Bless me haggis, I dinna ken how we can fill twoo positions!'"

Merida glared at Jim while Taran grabbed onto Jim's shoulder so as not to fall over from laughter. "I do not sound like that," she growled.

"Whatever ye say, lassie," Jim replied, which earned him a punch in the shoulder from Merida. He held up his hands in submission. "Okay, for real, who's the other newbie?"

"Vidia Black," Merida replied.

"I detect a tone," Jim said.

"Well, I don't know what it is, but she does seem to have an attitude problem," Taran said.

"Especially where Elizabeth is concerned," Merida added. Abruptly, she turned to Jim. "Stop that."

Jim blinked. "What?"

Merida scowled. "You grabbed me, and I don't like it."

Jim shook his head. "I didn't lay a hand on you," he said. To illustrate, he showed her his hands; one held his Herbology book, the other was still around Taran's shoulder.

Merida frowned. "Then, who...?"

Taran held up his own hands, shaking his head in the negative.

There was a sudden gale of shrieking laughter, and wind swirled around the trio. The forms two young boys and a girl coalesced out of the wind, cackling madly. It was the poltergeists, Lock, Shock and Barrel. They plucked at the students' hair and clothes as they buzzed in circles around them. The students shouted and swore and flailed at the poltergeists, all to no avail. Before the students realized it, the three spirits of chaos had seized their bags and were flying away with them.

Merida was the first to chase after them, anger ratcheting her Scots accent into something unintelligible as she screamed for them to return her possessions. Taran and Jim were close on her heels, though, and they pounded up the stairs after the poltergeists. Taran wondered, though, what the plan would be when they actually caught them.

As they rounded a corner, they thought the poltergeists had evaded them. Then, Merida spotted the narrow face of Lock leering at them from the door he was partially phased through, and she shouted something at the spirit. Her accent must've been reaching critical mass in her fury, because the boys had no idea what a "badgering cork-magnet" was. Even Lock looked slightly puzzled before disappearing though the door.

The students gave chase, but it wasn't until they'd burst through the door that Taran realized where they were: the third-floor corridor of the west wing.

The three of them began tumbling through the air, no longer bound by gravity. Taran flailed, trying in vain to get to the ground, and ended up colliding with Merida, who was swearing up a storm-presumably. Jim seemed to have it figured out, making use of the antigravity to bound from wall to wall, launching himself down the corridor towards the poltergeists. Taran and Merida disentangled themselves and followed suit.

Jim was closing in on the spirits, when, suddenly, they flew through a closed door, and Jim overshot. Jim managed to get himself turned around in time to see them fly back through the door and through the opposite wall. Taran and Merida arrived soon after.

"Hellfire," Taran growled. "How are we supposed to follow them now?"

"We don't need to," Merida seethed. Her voice still vibrated with anger, but she could at least be understood, now. "They didn'a have the bags with 'em."

"Must've ditched them in that room," Jim said, gesturing to the door. He frowned. "I don't think I've ever been in this room before. Have either of you?"

They shook their heads. "I always assumed it was for one of the older students' classes," Taran said.

Jim hooked his fingers into the brickwork and scooted himself close enough to reach the doorknob. Pulling himself even closer, he turned the knob.

Or, tried to, anyway.

"Locked," he grumbled, rattling the knob.

Taran pointed his wand at the door. "Swing yourself out of the way," he said. Jim did, and Taran said, "Alohamora."

The locked clicked, and Jim tried it again. This time, the knob turned. Jim pushed away from the wall opening the door with him as he drifted. Making sure he was holding firmly to the door, Merida grabbed Jim's arm and pulled. Taran, holding on to her robes, went with her. As soon as they crossed the threshold into the darkened classroom, though, they crashed to the floor in a heap.

Jim was able to ease himself into the room a little more carefully, as Taran and the vehemently swearing Merida disentangled themselves. "Weird how this one room still has gravity," Jim said. "I wonder why that is."

"Doesn't matter," Merida replied, smoothing out her robes. "There's our stuff," she said, pointing to the pile of their belongings, dumped in a corner by the poltergeists.

As Jim and Merida walked over to collect their things, Taran paused, frowning. "Hang on a minute," he said in a low voice.

Merida looked up. "What?"

"Do you hear that?"

Jim and Merida stopped and listened. "No," Jim answered, and bent to pick up his bag.

Merida held up a head. "No, he's right," she said, pushing her hair out of the way. "There is a weird sound in here. Is that a machine? I don't think we're near the Technomancy workshop. Maybe this is a boiler room?"

Taran held his wand up and murmured, "Lumos." Cool, wan light glowed from the tip of his wand, though it didn't do a whole lot to illuminate the room. He moved the wand about, accepting his bag from Jim. Mostly, he saw more darkness. He angled the light over to where the strange, rumbling, whooshing noise seemed to be coming from. There was something there, a large shape in the gloom. Curious, he stepped towards the thing.

Suddenly, something moved. The light from his wand gleamed off of a round surface a few feet away. He wasn't sure what he was looking at, at first, but as his instincts told him to start backing away, his brain realized that he was looking at an eye.

"Um," he said, drawing near the others.

They followed his line of sight, their breath catching. The large, gleaming, red eye was joined by another, and then another, and another, until their were six in all, moving up through the gloom to stare down at them. The rumbling, whooshing noise solidified into the steady pumping of huge lungs. Merida lit her own wand, and the murky shape defined itself into a massive, three-headed dog. Lips curled back from three sets of fangs, each as long as a man's leg, gleaming in the witchlight. The room started to vibrate, and Taran realized the thing was growling.

"You guys got our stuff?" Taran sqeaked.

Jim grunted in the affirmative.

"Then, I think we ought to leave," Taran replied. "Quickly."

They started to back towards the door, and the seismic growling intensified. The massive dog shifted, its nearest head drawing back. "Hide your eyes," Merida told them, then shouted, "Lux Fulguris!" A ball of light rocketed from the end of her wand and exploded in blinding flash.

The huge beast thrashed and bellowed, it's dark-attuned eyes dazzled by the sudden, intense light. Taran felt a hand close on his collar, and Merida flung him into the weightless corridor. Jim had already leapt through the door, and Merida followed, yanking the door shut behind her. They bounced off the opposite wall and kicked and flailed their way down the hallway towards the main corridor.

When they returned to normal gravity, they barely managed to not fall in a pile. Still, they sat on the floor for a moment as their heartbeats returned to normal and their higher brain function returned.

"What was that?" Jim asked.

Taran shook his head. "My question is why it was there in the first place. It can't be for one of Professor Rafiki's lessons."

"You didn'a see it, did ye?" Merida asked.

"The big-ass dog with three heads?" Jim said. "Yeah, I noticed it."

Merida shook her head. "Not that. When it stood up. It was blocking a door."

"So, what?" Taran said. "That was a guard dog?"

Merida shrugged. "Would be my guess."

They got to their feet and started off towards Gryfffindor Tower. "Of course, now I want to know what it was guarding," Jim said.

Taran frowned. "You don't think...?"

Merida arched an eyebrow. "What?"

"Nothing," Taran said. "Just... What if the whole anti-gravity thing wasn't some sort of mishap? What if it was to keep people out of that hallway?"

They considered that. It made sense-and yet, it didn't. What could possibly be so important to require such security?

"Wouldn't do any good asking the teachers about it," Merida said. "They'd only get angry because we were there to begin with."

The boys nodded. "I guess that means we'll just have to find out some other way," Jim said, grinning at the notion of a mystery to solve. Suddenly, he stopped, turned to Merida, and gasped.

"What?" Merida asked.

"Oh, nothing," Jim sighed, hand to his chest. "I saw your hair and thought the gravity had turned off out here, too."

He was still laughing when Merida punched him in the shoulder.