And I wasn't even planning on ever updating. But getting 8 reviews in pretty much 1 day kind of ups your spirits! So thank you for that so frickin much! Also this chapter is (not including a/n) 3,236 words. The longest chapter I've ever written of fanfiction. So...yeah...WOOT! I'm getting better at keeping a longer attention span! Also, this chapter is kind of a flashback (with a flashback in a flashback) since the first chapter takes place the day after this one...yeah...err...read review and enjoy?

The aging headmaster twinkled his eyes quite intentionally as he regarded the young boy seated before him. Such a peculiar boy too...

Albus was simply taking a pleasurable walk in the Forbidden (well not to him of course) Forest sometime in midday when he had come across this irregularity. The boy had been found laying unconscious on the brittle ground near a bear's abandoned den. The teenager (young adult?) was barely clothed; his garments had been torn to smithereens. All that was left unharmed was a straw hat clutched tightly in his right hand, and oddly enough, his body itself. The boy did not seem to have been hurt in any way, it was only his clothes that had not been left intact. Peculiar indeed...

And that was why Albus Dumbledore was now in his office with a young boy (now wearing a wizard's robe that was at least 2 sizes too big) grinning up at him.

"Good day." Albus began, as though they were just two old friends meeting over tea.

"Heya." The boy evenly replied.

"Care for a jelly bean?" The headmaster inquired, offering a large bowl full of the delicacies.

"Awesome!" The boy exclaimed. Leaning forward he grabbed the bowl out of the old man's grip and stuffed a handful of the sweets into his mouth. The expression that followed was quite humorous.

Albus chuckled, "I would recommend being more careful in your choosing for these particular candies."

"Whoaaahhhh!" The boy replied enthusiastically, "What the heck was that? The flavour was - was, it was-"

"Every flavour imaginable?" Albus suggested.

"Yes!" The boy laughed, "I could taste lemons, and chocolate, and chicken, and dung beetle, and vomit, and mint, and strawberry, and ear wax, and dry dirt, and wet dirt (the two tasted quite different.) and mango, and water, and vanilla, and sugar, and chilli pepper, and bacon, and grass, and coconut, and rubber (would that be considered cannibalism?) and paint, and zucchini, and cookie dough, and marzipan, and lettuce, and perogie, and salt, and- and- EVERY FLAVOUR IMAGINABLE!"

Albus burst out laughing at the boy's extravagant reaction. He remembered the time he had his first taste of the candies. He had only eaten the lemon one's before (he was quite cautious), but on a bet when he was ten, Albus had agreed to eating a handful of the every flavour variety. Unlike the boy, his reaction had included dirtying the lawn with vomit. Apparently the boy had a much stronger metabolism than the Headmaster.

"What was that?" The boy questioned, eyes wide with awe.

Still chuckling Albus reached into a drawer in his large mahogany desk, and pulled out a colourful little bag titled Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. The old man passed the bag over to the reaching hands of the boy, and smiled wide. Such an amusing boy...

"These are so cool! Where can I get some of my own!" The boy gushed, and in an after thought added, "I wonder if Sanji can make them if I get the recipe."

Albus's grin stretched a little further, "They're sold in at least every Wizarding market in Britain. But for a more local store, why not try Honeydukes Sweetshop in Hogsmeade? It's only a walk away! And I'm sure that if you manage to get the recipe, practice will make it perfect!"

The boy didn't seem to catch that last part, nor the first, "Sweetshop! Really! As in desserts! Do they sell other stuff there too! Like meat?"

"Not in Honeydukes, no. They only specialize in sweets. But The Three Broomsticks whips up the best Yorkshire pudding to be found in the country! (Even better than Hogwart's own house elf's...but don't tell them that, they'd commit mass suicide.) Though if it's a tender steak you're looking for The Hog's Head is the place to go. And I know that Madam Puddifoot's is a dainty little cafe, but Merlin that lady puts together a delicious Mystery Meat Casserole. (There's speculation that the mystery meat includes dragons...hence why Hagrid has boycotted the cafe, and is in the process of forming a protest group against the cruelty of the large, fire-breathing, lizards with wings. Not very unlike Hermione's own SPEW.)

"Amazing! They all sound so good! Gaaahh! I'm so hungry now!" The boy drooled.

"It is nearing lunch time, I suppose we should get to filling our bellies!" Albus rose from his seat and layers of thick midnight blue fabric with a bright gold ladybug print sashayed as he moved. The embroidered bugs shook their wings in annoyance; they always seemed to prefer it when the headmaster kept to one place.

"Food! Food!" The boy enthusiastically agreed. "Can we go to that Hog place? I wanna try all those foods you told me 'bout!"

Albus chuckled, he couldn't seem to stop, "No, I'm afraid not. Hogsmeade is not open for business today, seeing as the students aren't here yet." Taking note of the boy's sullen expression the old man amended, "But worry not! I assure you that the school's cook's are more then capable of fixing up a hearty meal! I only hire the best, of course! (Which wasn't much to go by since everyone knew that Albus considered everyone who tried their best to be the best.)

"Oooh. That's cool then! As long as they have meat!" The headmaster's nod assured the boy. "Oh and who'zzat?"

Albus trailed his gaze over the path laid out by the boy's pointed finger, and found himself looking at a very out of breath and pink in the face Minerva Mcgonagall. The man's eyes brightened at the pleasant intrusion. Perhaps she was here to supply with him with his latest owl-ment of Every Flavour Beans. The bag he had shown the boy had been his last, unfortunately.

"And to what do I owe this pleasure, Minerva?"

Breathing heavily the Transfiguration professor replied as evenly as possible, "You're letter...said it was urgent...had to come...quickly...what?"

Albus blinked confusedly. A letter, why is Minerva aski-oh right! The Headmaster remembered, "Yes! Yes! I did send you an owl! I completely forgot!"

Minerva did her best to keep her temper down, "I see...so what was so urgent that I had to be repeatedly pecked by Fawkes sharp and painful beak until I agreed to return with him by falling off my broomstick while I was doing the routine check of the boundaries...and might I add that I was at least 350 ft high up in the air!"

Albus only smiled in return, it's not like his friend was severely injured or anything, "I wanted you to meet someone."

The headmaster gestured to the boy watching silently from his side, "This here is..."

Albus paused, and then after a moment's consideration turned to the boy. "Now that I think of it, I don't actually know your name."

Minerva would've slapped her forehead in exasperation if it were becoming of a lady of her stature. (Not to mention age.)

The boy laughed in response. "I don't know yours either! Eh well, you can tell me after. Anyways, I'm Luffy! Monkey D. Luffy!"

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Minerva was usually an agreeable woman. True she was quite stern, and could be down right horrifying when needed (She had managed to make Severus quiver in his dragon hide boots back when he was still in school.) but overall she considered herself to be fairly pleasant. Nonetheless, the woman was practically seething at the moment.

Should've expected it by now. Of course Dumbledore goes and makes bloody friends with the possibly dangerous stranger. Never mind that you don't know his name. Never mind that he's fascinated by the most mundane things. (Mundane magical things, one would add. Not mundane muggle. Never muggle in Hogwarts.) Never mind that he was found in the middle of a forest! Never mind that he doesn't even know what Scotland is! Or Britain and even Europe, for that matter! Never mind that could most probably be a perilous foe sent by You-Know-Who in the guise of an idiotic nut case! Never mind any sense of caution at all! Especially when he likes the same bloody god-forsaken sweets as you do!

"A knut for you thoughts?" Dumbledore inquired.

Minerva fixated the older man with the coldest glare possible, and instead placed her attention on Luffy. They were all seated around a coffee table adorning various tea time snacks, and the boy was wolfing them down at a hideous pace. Trying her best to remain calm and steadfast, Minerva questioned, "So, who are you boy?"

Swallowing down a large handful of shortbread cookies, he managed to wheeze, "I'm Luffy. I already told you that didn't I?" The boy was getting impatient. Why wouldn't these people just let him eat? He was hungry!

"Yes, I know that." Minerva wouldn't let him go that easily, "But that's just your name. I'm asking who you are."

Putting down the little cucumber sandwich (Where was the meat?) Luffy pondered the question (Not too hard, mind you. He didn't want to get a headache.) The boy's eyes lit up in understanding once an answer was reached, "I'm a pirate!"

Dumbledore smiled, "See Minerva. Just like Luffy said, he's a pirate." then he blinked. The man mentally reviewed what he had just said. Pirate. That didn't sound quite right. Even to him.

Minerva raised a brow. "A pirate?"

Luffy grinned hysterically as he stuffed the cucumber sandwich into the gaping hole in his face.

"I will not stand for any horseplay boy. I want you to be serious with me."

Luffy pouted, "But I am being serious. I'm a pirate. And soon I'm going to be King of the Pirates!"

The Transfiguration professor had come to a conclusion to this mystery: the boy was delusional. He had probably some escapee of St. Mungo's asylum ward, and had somehow managed to stumble his way into Hogwarts. All that was left to do was to contact the hospital and they would get this issue straightened out in a jiffy. In the meantime, Minerva found no harm in humouring the boy. "So, if you're going to be King that must mean you have your own crew?"

"Yep!"

"How many mates do you have? 100? 200?" Dumbledore seemed to be playing along as well.

"Nuh uh. It's only the 9 of us so far. Me, Zoro, Nami, Brook, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Sanji and Usopp. But I'm going to get another crewmate soon!"

Minerva would've thought that the Luffy would've been imaginative enough to delusion up a stronger crew. Make him an all-powerful god worthy of the crown, and all that. But to each his own, it seemed. "So, does your crew go on a lot of adventures?"

"Hmm" Luffy had to swallow again, "Yeah! We've seen lots of real cool places on the Grand Line! And the New World, but we've only just gotten there!"

"Grand Line? New World? I don't believe I'm familiar with any of those places." Dumbledore chuckled.

"You're not!" Luffy seemed to be honestly bewildered this time, then he broke out in laughter, "The hell, old man! Have you been living under a rock all your life? Who doesn't know what the Grand Line is? Or the New World! That's just crazy! I mean, we're in the New World right now!"

Dumbledore squinted his brows in confusion, "I do think you're quite mistaken, son. We're in Scotland."

Luffy pursed his lips together in confusion.

"Britain." Dumbledore explained.

Luffy pursed his lips together in confusion.

"Europe."

Luffy pursed his lips together in confusion. "Whaa?"

Dumbledore turned to Minerva, confusion painting his face. It seemed the Headmaster hadn't quite yet reached the same conclusion as she had. I really should stop overestimating him. Flicking her wand out of a pocket in her robe she muttered a quick accio and summoned a world map from some far off place. (Or just from Professor Binn's history classroom.)

Luffy didn't blink an eye at the small performance of magic. At least this is also part of his delusion. Pointing with her wand, to a chunk of the map labelled Europe Minerva stated, "This is the continent we are on now. Europe."

She tapped the map with her wand twice, thus enabling it to zoom into focus on the countries in the continent instead of the whole world. Gliding her wand over the now more detailed map, Minerva stilled it over Scotland. "And this is Scotland, it's a country part of Great Britain. It's where we are now. Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft is in Scotland."

Minerva looked up to see if this was making any sense to the boy, but Luffy still had his lips pursed together in that ridiculous fashion. "Can I have a paper an' pen?"

Dumbledore complied to Luffy's odd request and accio'd the supplies for him. Taking hold of the two object, Luffy quickly put two and two together and began to sketch on the parchment with an already inked quill pen. The result was a crude diagram of what seemed to be his world.

The picture displayed a large circle separated into four parts titled North, South, East, and West Blue (Each in their respective places). A thick rectangle labelled Red Line ran vertically along the middle of the 'map'. Then another rectangle, this time thinner than the other, ran horizontally across the middle page, intersecting with the Red Line in the middle. This line was labelled Grand Line on both sides of the vertical Red Line, but on one half it said in brackets New World.

Minerva looked up for an explanation while Dumbledore continued to study the 'map'.

"This is the world." Luffy pointed to the map. "These are the four blue seas, this is the Red Line. This whole line is the Grand Line but when you cross the Red Line and into the other half of the Grand Line people start calling it the New World 'cuz not a lot of people have been there yet...or something like that. "

Luffy chuckled as he regarded his drawing, "Nami would hit me if she saw this."

"She's my navigator," Luffy explained to Dumbledore who had finally looked up, "she likes drawing maps and hers are way better than this!"

"I can imagine." Dumbledore chuckled gravely.

"So you recognize this, right?" Luffy seemed to plead.

In all honesty Minerva knew that the best course of action would be to continue humouring the boy and pretending that they agreed and understood his delusions. Alas, Dumbledore did not follow the same rules of logic as her. "Not at all. The world I know is the one in the first map you saw."

Luffy calmly looked at both Dumbledore and Minerva, as though judging whether they were serious or not. Breathing deeply the boy stated after his contemplation, "I understand now."

Minerva raised a brow, while Dumbledore looked on encouragingly.

"I'm in a mystery world."

Minerva felt that this would be another wonderful opportunity to slap her forehead in exasperation. (Yet, for the same reasons as before, she did not.) She really did need to get to writing that letter. Things like this were not to be postponed. So, finally having had enough make-belief for one day Minerva excused herself from the room. Hopefully St. Mungo's would reply soon and the boy would be out of her hair. She and Dumbledore already had enough things to worry about (Ministry monsters, soul eating monsters, and snake-man monsters, to name a few). No need to add another ball to the juggle.

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Albus looked at Luffy speculatively. He had no doubt that the boy thought he was telling the truth. For all the Headmaster knew, he really could have been telling the truth. Their really were many mysteries out in the world still waiting to be discovered. So why couldn't this boy be one of them. "Tell me Luffy, you haven't yet mentioned this but, how did you get here?"

Luffy grinned sheepishly, "Ehehehehe. Nami made me go find some meat when we docked cuz I already ate everything we had on the ship. Zoro came along with me cuz apparently I would get lost (Since Zoro obviously has wonderful directional sense...unfortunately everyone else still keeps getting lost!) but then we still got lost."

Albus nodded, he wondered how these other characters would play in the story. Both past and future. Luffy continued his explanation, "Then we got split up cuz I saw a really yummy looking tiger and I think he saw a gorilla. Anyways, I followed the tiger into this really big twisty-turny cave where I got lost again (Not to mention the tiger. Poor tiger also got lost. Luckily it would survive on the underground bunnies until it's loyal brethren came to save it carrying fiery torches...how they managed to light fire and carry it as a torch between their jaws remains a mystery to this day.) but luckily I found the exit! 'Cept when I walked out of it the jungle looked a lot different!"

"Jungle?" The headmaster repeated.

"Yeah, it was a tropical one before. But after I left the cave it became more like a cold forest." Luffy nodded affirmatively.

Albus thought it over. One could assume that Luffy was merely delusional and this was just a figment of his imagination. (But that's no fun.) Or they could assume that he was from some sort of parallel universe and had somehow stumbled upon a matter-existence discrepancy. (Or in simpler terms, a rip in space!) Having gone through this discrepancy Luffy had managed to walk his way right into the Wizarding and Muggle world known by Albus. (Now that was more interesting!)

The old headmaster gazed at the peculiar boy with a calculating stare that slowly transformed itself into a jaw breaking grin. "I have a wonderful idea Luffy!"

Oh Merlin was Albus going to have fun solving this puzzle! Plus the fact that Severus had lost that poker game some while ago and still owed Albus a prize, really livened things up!