Z.R. Stein
Lily Potter and the Escape to Remnant—A RWBY/Harry Potter crossover AU fic
I do not own the characters of RWBY or Harry Potter in any way, shape, or form.
I know that Avengers from Earthland was supposed to have an update this week, but I reaaaally wanted to do a Chapter Two for this, just to break my way into the Remnant part of the fic. Next week I promise that that story will have a new chapter.
Anyways, now that the introductory chapter is out of the way, we can get to the stuff all of you actually want to see…Lily, Sirius, Remus, and Harry in Remnant! Enjoy!
If you realize you made a mistake with the way you've been living your life, you just have to take the next moment and start over. –Erza Scarlet
. . .
The very first thing that Lily saw upon opening her eyes was the moon shining proudly in the sky. Now, normally, there would have been nothing wrong with that, if it weren't for two facts. One, Remus was with them, or at least, he had been when they'd taken the jumpkey from Azkaban. And two, the moon was broken.
It wasn't that it was a crescent or a sliver. It wasn't even that it had a new crater that she'd never seen before, which she probably would have passed off as a meteorite strike or something. No, the moon was literally broken into thousands of tiny pieces, with roughly half of it still in one piece.
Frankly, it was worrying. It probably would have caused her to immediately panic if she didn't currently feel like she had been beaten up by a gang and dumped in a ditch somewhere.
After several minutes of lying down, staring at the impossibly broken moon (which was strangely beautiful, in a haunting, alien kind of way), Lily finally worked up enough energy to use her voice.
"Herrrrgh…"
After a fit of painful coughing, the redhead gave it another go, managing to call out to her compatriots. "Remus? Sirius?"
"Ughhh. I'm here. Kill me now."
"Stop being such a child, Sirius, or would you have rather stayed in Azkaban?"
"Azkaban didn't hurt this much."
Lily's lips quirked into a smile, before she grimaced as she tried to sit up. The three of them had landed in what looked like an abandoned city. Crumbling buildings surrounded them—crumbling Muggle buildings, she thought on closer inspection. Windows gaped, devoid of glass, while weeds grew out of the cracked street. A stone sculpture loomed over the group, though the subject of the sculpture was missing arms and most of its head. The entire area was utterly silent apart from the noises produced by the outworld interlopers. It was a profoundly lonely place.
Her eyes caught sight of movement, and Lily's gaze settled on two forms that were also slowly struggling to get up off of the ground. One of them turned towards her, which she hesitantly identified as Sirius; the combination of low light and the blood rushing to her head didn't exactly lend itself to accurate identification.
Sirius called out "Lily? How 'bout you?"
"I'm fine…well, besides hurting like hell." She responded. "As soon as I can move a bit more, I'm going to check on Harry; he's sleeping inside of one of the rooms of my trunk right now."
Sirius' sharp intake of breath did not go unnoticed.
"So Harry is…thank Merlin. I thought you were dead. Both of you…I'm…so sorry."
A groan came from Remus' direction as he stood up, shaking out his limbs in front of the moon. He cracked his back and said "Don't apologize, Padfoot. You may not have done the smartest thing, but Wormtail needed to be killed. If I had found out sooner, I would've joined you."
"A bloody pacifist like you? Please. Like you would h-have…the uh…uh…Remus? Why do you have ears?"
Remus raised an eyebrow at Sirius, confused, before his face paled. Blinking, Lily observed Remus a little more closely, discovering two mounds on the top of Remus' head that had no right to be there (under normal circumstances, which it seemed they were no longer in). Raising his hand, Remus reached up to them and hesitantly touched them.
The ears, as Lily saw them to now be, twitched.
Remus staggered backwards as fast as his recovering body would allow, trying to put as much distance between himself and his friends as possible. After only a few steps, he tripped over one of the many bumps in the pavement. Lily heard a sharp snapping noise as Remus fell.
Though he was in massive pain from his now broken ankle, Remus continued to crawl away, shouting at Lily and Sirius the entire time.
"Stay back, please! You both need to get as far away as you can, right now!"
Lily and Sirius shared a concerned look, watching cautiously for several moments while Remus continued his gradual departure. Eventually, when nothing happened, Sirius sighed and stood up, saying "I'll go get him. We need to have a sit down…find our bearings. It's only been…what, ten minutes, and I already have…more questions than I can even put names to."
Lily nodded; while the sight of Remus' ears had struck fear into her heart at first, it seemed evident to both of them now that Remus was not going to change into his lycan form anytime soon…for some reason. She filed that question away to ask after they had determined where the hell they were, why the moon was broken, and how Harry was doing.
Seeing as Sirius was occupied trying to coax Remus out of his desperate escape, Lily decided to answer her last question for herself. Reaching into the satchel that she had brought with her to Azkaban, Lily withdrew her miniaturized trunk and promptly returned it back to its original dimensions. She unlocked the seventh lock in the row of the trunk, which when opened, revealed a staircase that had no real business existing within the boundaries of normal space. Easing her aching body down the stairs took the better part of five minutes, but eventually, Lily stood by the crib which contained her son, peacefully sleeping in his trunk-room.
It had been Remus' idea to bring Harry along with them, as well as any supplies that they thought they needed. Lily had been loath to involve her precious son in danger, had in fact had a shouting match with Remus for several hours about it. However, Remus had eventually convinced her in the end; no one else that they knew could be implicitly trusted to care after Harry while also being free of Dumbledore's influence, and neither of them thought that leaving Harry alone was a good plan. Taking Harry was simply the best of a slew of bad options. Not to mention, Lily planned for the four of them to leave the country as quickly as possible (as is preferable for prison escapees), and the possibility of being caught when going to pick up Harry was too great.
To negate any danger, Lily had placed Harry inside of a trunk that she had bought as a graduation present from Hogwarts. The thing was enchanted to high heaven with five spacious rooms (and two ordinary trunk spaces—always a plus when dealing with Muggles), anti-fire, anti-theft, and anti-spell protections, and a whole slew of other charms, some of Lily's own making.
In all honesty, little Harry was safer in this trunk room than he had probably been in Godric's Hollow; however, British Magical society did have several laws against keeping infants inside of trunks, magically expanded or not.
Of course, as they were breaking the law anyways, Lily and Remus really didn't care about that.
Regardless, it had kept Harry safe, and that was what mattered. Lily leaned down to kiss her son, smiling at his tiny face, before checking on the infant-safe stasis charm. She hated to do this, but they were in potentially hostile territory in the middle of some abandoned Muggle city, and it was safer in the trunk than it was outside. The charm slowed down Harry's bodily functions, to the point where the year old baby would be able to go days without food or water with little adverse effect.
"I'll be back soon, I promise. Mommy won't be gone long."
Giving her son one more kiss, Lily made her way back up the stairs, exiting the trunk to find Remus and Sirius deep in discussion.
Remus looked up and immediately asked "How's Harry?"
"Still sleeping. The claudicatus charm will wear off in twenty hours, then he's coming out of the trunk. I'm not risking applying it again. So…we have a day to figure out what the hell is going on."
Sirius coughed, a strange expression on his face.
"I fixed Remus' ankle as best I could but…well. He still has those ears. And I can't remove them."
Lily's eyes widened at that. Normally, conjured animal parts were fairly easy to deal with if one knew what one was doing. Some were only temporary, vanishing after a set amount of time, while the ones that clung to the body permanently could typically be removed with a finite. Most of the more esoteric variations could be removed with a greater effort and more complicated spells, and Sirius had plenty of experience in that particular art (a side effect of his years of pranking—Sirius was quit well versed in cancelling out any trace of his magic, so as to avoid being caught). So, the fact that Sirius could not remove the wolf ears meant that they were likely linked not to any charm or spell, but to Remus' werewolf nature.
"So…it's a partial transformation?"
Remus shrugged, looking uncomfortable but thankfully not trying to make a bolt for it anymore.
"Now that I've calmed down…I don't know, it's strange. I can never quite remember what happens during my…jaunts…but during the changing…between the pain, I would notice little things, like seeing in the dark much better…now, it's the same. Somewhat. I don't feel in pain…well, aside from the ankle." Sirius snorted at that. "I can see almost perfectly, despite it being night. And my ears…err…these ears," Remus pointed to the furry wolf ears adorning his head "These can pick up both of your heartbeats. I think my nose is sharper as well…Sirius smells like a backed up loo."
Lily smothered a giggle, while Sirius smacked his best friend upside the head.
"Scrawny wolf."
"Mangy dog."
Lily rolled her eyes and said "Boys. Anyways…so far, you haven't seemed like a threat. Sirius and I will keep an eye on you, but for now, I think you're safe."
Remus nodded, a small measure of relief seeming to flow into him at her words. He then frowned and flicked his eyes to the shattered moon.
"With that out of the way…I'd very much like to know where we are."
Lily sighed and removed her wand.
"That's just the thing, I've no idea. I'm fairly certain all of us would have noticed if the moon had broken like that. So…we're all under the influence of an illusion, we're all crazy or we're…not on Earth anymore."
To say that Sirius and Remus were shocked would be an understatement. Their jaws were trying very hard to detach from their mouths and hit the floor.
"How is…how is that even possible?"
Lily cast a barrage of Point-Me and other locator spells, frowning when they didn't function.
"I don't know. The jumpkey was experimental…not always perfectly accurate. But it's never gone anywhere even remotely close to this off course before. That it could is…it'd be like throwing a dart at a dartboard only to miss the dartboard and end up murdering the Minister of Magic…who was sitting in his office, five miles away from the bar where you were throwing the dart. It's simply impossible...or it should be. Then again…Azkaban was originally built by Ekrizdis, the 15th century Dark Wizard who terrorized both Ireland and Scotland for well over a decade. According to the sources I could find, he made the wards personally, and the Ministry of Magic never replaced them. It's possible…perhaps, that the powerful, eldritch level wards of Azkaban interfered with the jumpkey…maybe the two operate along a similar frequency…"
Sirius headed Lily off with a raised hand before she could devolve into an analytical mood, knowing that she would likely remain in a stupor while she puzzled out another mystery of magic.
"It doesn't really matter right now, Lily. So…we're here, in a strange place, possibly not on Earth…damn, that's strange to say. Remus has ears and might be stuck in some kind of partial transformation, but he's fine, so right now, that doesn't matter either. All that matters right now is HOLY SHIT WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THAT THING!?"
Whirling around, Lily and Remus saw what Sirius was referring to. About a hundred meters away, a large, black shape had emerged from behind one of the abandoned buildings. It was shaped vaguely like a bear, though it had an array of massive spikes growing out of its back, and a mask covering its face. Both protuberances were bone white, while the thing's eyes glowed a fiery red that, even from a distance, exuded hatred and malice. The creature, having heard them, was now charging at the threesome with a purposeful stride, its black paws slamming against the ruined road.
Sirius whipped his wand towards the beast and yelled out "Confringo!"
The Blasting Curse flew towards the lumbering creature, which stumbled momentarily under the spell before continuing its charge; other than a missing spike and a crack in its mask, there was no visible damage.
Lily and Remus quickly flanked Sirius, and the three of them started casting like their lives depended on it. Some spells seemed to have no visible effect on the beast, but a stream of Confringos and Reductos took the thing down. It skidded to a halt less than a dozen meters away, its body dissolving into nothingness until only a pool of black ichor remained.
The group had no time to relax, however, as several other monstrous beasts began their approach. Some of them resembled the bear-like creature, while others were more like werewolves. All, however, bore the bone spurs and skull-like mask that the first creature had possessed.
Remus fired off a string of silent Banishers before he turned to the two and said a single word.
"Run."
Lily nodded and grabbed the trunk, shrinking it down and placing it back into her satchel while Sirius and Remus continued holding the line. With that taken care of, the three took off, the small pack of monsters hot on their heels.
Remus suddenly pointed to a moderately intact building and yelled out "Up there!"
The three Apparated within a few seconds of each other, a loud triple crack signaling their departure. They reappeared on top of the building that Remus had pointed out and took a moment to catch their breathe.
Down below, the creatures halted their charge and began sniffing the ground, trying to detect where their prey had gone to. Unable to find a trace, the pack dispersed, some of the members clawing at the ground in what seemed like frustration.
Sirius sat on the ledge of the decrepit structure and shook his head.
"What the hell is going on? I've never seen anything like that! Those things…they almost felt like…well, not exactly, but the closest I can compare them to would be Dementors."
Remus nodded in agreement with his longtime friend.
"I felt it too. Not nearly to the same extent…it was much more subtle. That feeling of hate…I could almost taste it. I felt vulnerable…like my soul was at stake. They can't be natural."
"The first one dissolved into a cloud of black ash after we killed it…of course it isn't natural!"
Remus held up his hands in surrender.
"Alright, alright, just…calm down. Yelling won't accomplish anything…actually, we probably should try to be as quiet as possible, your shout is what drew…them…to us."
"Good point. So…monsters. It's looking more and more like we're not on Earth anymore."
Lily kneaded the bridge of her nose, feeling a stress induced headache forming.
"Perhaps. Like you said early, it doesn't matter much right now. We're vulnerable out here, and I'm not sure if I trust anything I have on me to keep us safe. That thing shrugged off a Body-Binding curse like it was nothing before we brought it down. Whatever they are, they clearly have some kind of magical resistance…not on the same level of dragons, thank Merlin, but enough to have me worried. Until we know what we're dealing with, I don't want to risk Harry under the presumption that these monsters can't get past our spells."
Remus grimaced, his lips compressed into a thin line. Idly, a small part of Lily's mind noticed that his new ears were perked up and turning constantly.
"I wouldn't either. In all honesty, I don't think we are safe up here. I can hear them moving around down there, faintly. They haven't left the area, even if they've lost the scent. I'd rather not stick around while a pack of predators hunts wants to eat us."
Lily and Sirius nodded in agreement, and the group lapsed into silence for a few moments. Sirius was the one to break the spell, a thoughtful look on his face.
"If there are buildings…then there must be humans or…something…living around here, something intelligent. We should take a look around…try to find any signs of current civilization."
Remus narrowed his eyes and nodded.
"Hmm…that's right. Despite the state of these ruins, they can't be much more than fifty years old, if that."
The threesome turned their attention outwards, towards the horizon. The moon was nearly halfway through its descent, indicating that night was only an hour or so away from ending. Ruined city extended in every direction, the spires extending up from the ground like long forgotten trees. To the west of the city was a large bay, and on the far, northern, side of the water, dozens of kilometers away, a string of lights could be seen, steadily showing in the darkness.
Sirius had a dopey grin on his face upon observing the lights. He turned to Lily and Remus and said "Told you so. That's our ticket out of here."
Lily snorted and continued gazing at the distant light source.
"Maybe. Or it could just be an even worse place than this one. We need to be cautious, Sirius."
"Do you think we should go for it?"
"…yes. Despite it being an unknown, there's a high potential that help could be found in that direction. Where there's light, there's life, and hopefully they won't begrudge us protection…whoever they are. There might even be a city."
"Wait." Remus shushed both of them. His body stilled, his ears seemingly straining to hear. They shifted independently of his head movements, seeking out an elusive sound that only he could hear.
"I hear wings"
"Like a dragon?"
"No…I don't think so…like a bird…a really, really big bird."
A loud, if distant, screech tore through the air, and the threesome looked up in horror. Descending upon them at breakneck speeds was a giant crow-like bird, wearing one of the now familiar bone white masks (though this one had, disturbingly, four blood red eyes). Though it was still a kilometer away, they could tell that it was as large as any dragon and, taken with the magical resistance its cousins had displayed, it made the wizards and witch rather nervous. Sirius turned to Lily and jerked his head to the north-west.
"Think we should we make a break for it?"
Lily frowned, taking a bare second to think before nodding.
"If we stay up here we'll get torn to shreds. Try to stay together, call out where you're Apparating to. Hopefully we'll be able to shake it off."
. . .
It was not easy to shake off. Unlike the bear and werewolf types, the crow type seemed to have truly excellent vision, as would be expected of an aerial predator. Even Disillusionment charms didn't throw it off the trail; the giant avian simply kept pursuing, its haunting screech echoing in the threesome's ears.
The raptor was also much tougher than its compatriots had been. Blasting Curses had no observable effect, and it shrugged off a Bombarda without missing a beat. Not that the magic users took much time to curse it; most of their precious time, they spent running, pointing out spots to Apparate to, and then repeating the process. Visibility was limited, and they limited their Apparition to perhaps half a kilometer each time, as they were completely unfamiliar with the area. Any further and they risked Splinching, twisted ankles, or ending up inside of a tree.
"Goddamn bloody crow! How does it keep on finding us?"
Sirius cast a slew of increasingly exotic curses and hexes at the approaching creature while Remus and Lily scoped out a new Apparition point. They were more than halfway to the welcoming string of lights, and the ruined city had given way to a forest full of mighty trees. They had tried to stay along the edge of the treeline, hugging it as they Apparated up the coastline; that way, they could travel as far as possible on each trip and still have cover if needed.
Or at least, that had been the theory. Several times during their escape, Lily had caught sight of other shadowy beasts lurking amongst the trees. Whatever these things were, they were everywhere. She desperately hoped that the lights held some form of salvation, because right now, the chances of surviving for any length of time out in this wilderness were lowering quickly.
Remus suddenly grabbed her arm, and Lily turned towards him. His haggard face, already pale from a long week of planning and stress, seemed even more gaunt than usual.
"I hear scuttling. Like some sort of giant insect."
The three of them promptly Apparated to the next point, stumbling slightly in exhaustion. Turning back the way they came, the threesome saw what looked like a colossal scorpion break out of the treeline, the monster coming to a stop over where they had previously been.
"This place just keeps getting better. What the hell is next, a giant bone dragon with six eyes? Merlin's beard, I'd hate to live out here." Sirius finished off his miniature tirade and eyed the crow, which hadn't even paused in its pursuit. It screeched again, the savage, malicious sound, sending a shiver through their hearts.
The beast was an avatar of destruction, a relentless hunter that had one purpose in life; to kill any human it laid its eyes on. It would not stop if one came into its sights, and it would not easily tire. One could hide, for a time, but that would simply delay the inevitable. Death was, Lily thought, the only true way to be free of these beings. Either hers, or theirs.
It was at that very moment, that something proved her right. A loud gunshot sounded along the waters of the bay, and the crow suddenly fell, an enormous hole punched through its wing. The black beast tumbled out of the air and slammed onto the rocky shore, alive but grievously injured. Another shot rang out, and the beast slumped down dead, its body already decaying.
Lily and her companions turned their eyes in the direction of the gunfire, and beheld a distant figure waving at them. Sirius, Remus, and Lily looked at each other, nodded, and began to walk towards their savior, deliberately not Apparating in case this person was a Muggle (which, given the use of a gun, seemed likely).
Upon approaching, the threesome found the gun's owner to be a young man around the same age as themselves, early twenties, perhaps. He wore a grey jacket, and a tattered red cloak hung off of his shoulders. Slung over one shoulder was a gigantic sniper rifle, and an equally large blade peaked out from behind his back. For some reason, he was wearing a pair of aviator sunglasses, despite the fact that it was still nighttime.
"Erm…hello?" Sirius offered, not entirely sure how to respond to the man who had saved them.
The man's eyebrows furrowed, and he said something in a language none of them understood.
Lily frowned and palmed her wand.
"Sirius, try and distract him. Let me try and remember a translation charm…I know that I know one…"
Sirius nodded almost imperceptivity and stepped forwards, stopping when the stranger tightened his grip on the oversized sniper rifle.
"H-hello…thank you for saving us. We come in peace. Eh…take us to your leader?"
Remus smacked a hand over his face as he tried to stop grinning; it was so perfectly Sirius to try and make a joke out of a situation like this. Lily didn't notice, deep as she was in her thoughts. Suddenly snapping her fingers, Lily cast a silent translation charm on herself just as the stranger began speaking again.
"I hope you're not insulting me, bud. I'd hate to have to shoot you after saving you."
"Please! We need help, sir!" Lily began earnestly. The man exhibited no outward reaction at her suddenly speaking his language, though that may have just been because of the aviators. "We've been running away from those beasts for quite some time now, and were hoping to gain sanctuary in the city up ahead."
The man gave her an appraising glance, before shrugging.
"Sure, that's fine by me. Though I am curious as to why you three are mucking around outside of Vale. Ya don't look much like Huntsmen. And what's that language yer friend was speaking?"
During the course of the conversation, Lily had managed to cast the translation charm on both Remus and Sirius. The latter stepped forwards again, a disarming smile on his face.
"Just English, as it were. So…erm…the cities name is Vale, Mister?"
The man raised a single eyebrow at the question before reaching up to pluck off his aviators. Two blood red orbs stared out at them, frightfully similar to the beasts that they had just been running from.
"Name's Qrow. Come on, you lot can answer questions on the way back to Vale. It isn't safe out here, even this close to the city."
. . .
Qrow wasn't entirely sure what to think of the small group. He had always been a good judge of body language and character, at least more so than most of his fellow Beacon classmates. His skills had only advanced after graduating as a Hunstman, and the knowledge had served him well in his frequent infiltration missions. Being able to judge people let him choose an accurate response, and the three in front of him were setting off all sorts of alarm bells, though not necessarily of the bad kind. They were clearly tired, stressed, and afraid, but they were holding up remarkably well, much better than any civilian would if they had been trapped outside the city. Despite this, it was clear they weren't Huntsman; they were too raw, too sloppy. They had experience fighting then, but no formal training. Then, there was the fact that they didn't know the name of Vale, and didn't seem to know what Grimm were called…which was just plain weird. All in all, Qrow wasn't quite sure how to categorize them and simply opted to guide them to Vale, for now.
The girl was a looker though. Long red hair and eyes greener than any he'd ever seen. Her two male friends were a bit on the scruffy side, though they each were handsome in their own way, he supposed. Privately, Qrow reassured himself that he was much better looking.
"So…where are you going to take us?" asked the gangly one with the sandy hair.
Qrow adjusted the sniper rifle on his shoulder; deciding to take a chance, he said "Well, normally I'd just drop civilians off in Vale proper after a job, but you three…call me crazy, but for some reason I'm getting the feeling you're not from around here."
The trio looked amongst themselves, communicating silently before the one with the long hair and beard responded "Maybe. If we weren't, where would you be taking us?"
"If you weren't? That's awfully vague, bud. But if you weren't, I'd take you to see Ozpin. He's the Headmaster at Beacon. Oz'll know what to do."
Qrow observed a flash of disgust appear on the woman's face at the word 'Headmaster'. Curious.
Very curious.
Yes! Its Mothertrucking QROW! My second favourite RWBY character ever, and who I think is the perfect person to introduce them to Ozpin.
Please take note, this does take place long before both stories. Harry and Ruby will be approximately the same age, so, given that Harry is currently one year old, Ruby is the same age. Draw what conclusions you will from that.
On the subject of Apparition, one can only teleport to someplace you can see clearly in your mind's eye. Navigating an unknown area, and taking into account the limits of human eyesight, I think half a kilometer is plenty far.
On the subject of Harry being in a trunk, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Lastly, got this one out inless than a month. There is hope!