"This one's called When Two Worlds Meet," Sokka announced. "Hmm, what other world is there for our world to meet anyway?"
"The Spirit World?" Aang suggested.
"Meh, we've already seen enough of that world," Toph said as she adjusted herself in a more comfortable position on the couch. "There's you for instance, Twinkletoes."
"And Yue," Sokka added a little wistfully. Then his face brightened up. "Hey, maybe I'll get to meet her in this story!"
"But I thought just a few minutes ago you were planning to serenade SukI?" Katara teased.
"Whatever, I don't care who Snoozles wants to serenade," Toph said while picking her nose. "Just start the story already."
"Okay, I think that's enough for today," Zuko announced as he stood on what was now the Avatar's firebending training field while facing his student. Both boys had their shirts off and were sweating profusely from the recent lesson.
"For some reason, that last line reminds me of Destinies Entwined," Sokka spoke up, causing everyone else to stare at him.
"…That's a very disturbing thought," Katara said finally with a raised eyebrow.
"I'll say," Toph agreed, while the two boys in question simply gave each other horrified glances before quickly looking away.
"Hey, I'm just saying," Sokka said in self-defense.
"Well, don't 'just say' stuff like that anymore, Snoozles. It gives us all bad mental images," Toph stated while the others nodded fervently.
Aang gave a sigh of relief. "That's good." He knew Zuko was a competent teacher, but seriously, sometimes the scarred prince was a little too tough on him.
Just as he was putting on his shirt again,
"Thank the spirits," Katara muttered to no one in particular, causing Sokka to raise an eyebrow at her, but no one else noticed.
Teo, the Duke and Haru raced towards them. "Hey Aang, we found a secret chamber just like the one in the Northern Air Temple!" Teo called out. "Wanna come check it out with us?"
Aang's eyes brightened up. "Sure!" he answered enthusiastically, pulling on his shirt and running off in a flash, leaving his firebending teacher alone in the training field shaking his head at the cloud of dust that was all that remained of his student.
"You kinda get the feeling Aang doesn't care much for his firebending lessons, don't you?" Sokka pointed out.
"Well, he wasn't exactly a model student, that's for sure," Zuko said as he glanced pointedly at Aang, who grinned sheepishly.
"Hey, the lesson's over anyway. I don't blame Twinkletoes for running off like that," Toph shrugged. "Although if he dares try that with me, he'd better prepare himself for a whole ton of flying boulders coming his way."
"Double standard," Sokka muttered.
The four boys ran down corridors and through various rooms that made up the structure of the exotic Western Air Temple, which hung upside down underneath the edge of a cliff. They came to a stop in front of a large and thick wooden door, with a contraption on it that resembled the Air Nomad insignia. Two horns led out from the contraption, into which an airbender could direct air into and open the door. Aang stood in front of the door, taking a deep breath.
"This one looks like it's never been entered for a long time," Teo spoke up for Aang's benefit. He remembered how it seemed like the secret chamber in the Northern Air Temple had been the only one untouched after a hundred years, yet when Aang finally consented to open the chamber, they had discovered a Fire Nation weaponry inside. He did not want his friend to go through the shock and pain again.
Aang nodded. "Okay." He took a stance and struck out his arms, directing air from his palms into the two horns. They watched as the three spirals on the contraption flipped over one by one, and finally the entire door opened with a creak. Inside it was apparently dark, and the four entered the chamber cautiously.
"Come to think of it Aang, was there actually a chamber like that in the Western Air Temple?" Katara asked Aang.
The airbender scratched the back of his head as he thought back. "I haven't come across one when we were there, but I guess there should be one. The one back at the Southern Air Temple was full of the statues of the past Avatars, which means that it's a spiritual place for the Avatar to meditate or something, I guess. Avatar Yangchen herself was from the Western Air Temple, so it's possible there was an inner sanctuary like that there as well."
"Or maybe it just got destroyed by the Fire Nation," Sokka piped up.
"I don't think so," Zuko answered. "I first went to the Western Air Temple on my search for the Avatar, and Uncle and I found it largely undisturbed. There were no signs of destruction or anything at all in the entire place."
"So you've been to the Western Air Temple before," Sokka nodded. "No wonder you found us there after the invasion."
"I assumed you'd made the connection already."
"Nah, I thought of that incident as an unfortunate-but-in-the-end-it-turned-out-for-the-better coincidence."
"Oh."
Once they got used to the dim light, Aang realized that the place was just like the secret chamber in the Southern Air Temple, containing a long line of statues of previous Avatars. The statues were arranged around the room in spirals, ending with the statue of Avatar Roku standing before the visitors to the chamber. Aang walked up to the statue and stared into Roku's hollow eyes, remembering his first time entering the inner sanctuary back at the Southern Air Temple.
"This is amazing," Haru exclaimed in a voice filled with wonder as he took in everything around them. Teo pulled up his wheelchair along the line of statues and studied them carefully.
"Water, Earth, Fire, Air. All of these statues are arranged according to the Avatar Cycle!"
"Yeah, they are," Aang confirmed, for he had made the same discovery back at the Southern Air Temple. The four boys continued to wander among the statues, careful not to disturb any of the centuries-old relics while taking in the awe-inspiring sight of all the previous incarnations of the Avatar Spirit gathered in one room.
"Teo would've loved to see what it was like in there," Aang smiled, remembering his wheelchair-bound friend. "Remember how he was so excited about it back in the Northern Air Temple?"
"Maybe we could bring him to the Southern Air Temple some time to show him the chamber there," Katara suggested. "Appa could easily take him up there."
"Yeah, but we haven't heard anything from him ever since the war ended," Sokka pointed out. "Still, it might be fun to get together sometime."
"It would," Aang agreed.
Just then, the sound of something being knocked over could be heard from a dark corner of the chamber, followed by someone groaning in pain. Tensing, Aang cautiously turned towards the direction of the sound and slowly made his way towards the dark corner. He had been sure nobody else had gotten into the chamber before they did, but now it seemed that there had been intruders here before them – intruders that were still here.
"Hey, isn't this similar to the time we found Momo in the Southern Air Temple?" Katara asked. "That time we also thought it might be intruders, but it turned out to be a flying lemur instead."
"Not much of an improvement, if you ask me," Sokka said. "He's still a danger, at least for my food supplies."
"Yeah, and I'm sure that's simply horrible," Toph said drily.
"Absolutely, I'm glad you understand."
The blind earthbender shook her head in exasperation. "For someone whose existence depends on partly sarcasm, you're really slow in getting the point."
Passing another statue, Aang saw that the one after the next statue had fallen over, presumably the object that had been knocked over. His view of the fallen statue was blocked by the one before it, and he cautiously stepped to the side of the statue to see properly what was going on, only to have a pair of green eyes stare back at him.
"Aah!" Aang cried in surprise, quickly taking an airbending stance. In that split second, he found what appeared to be a stick pointed a few mere inches away from his nose by the other person, his green eyes hidden behind a pair of spectacles. He tilted his head to the side a little, and could see a bushy-haired girl helping up a tall boy with flaming red hair who had fallen on the ground.
"Just blow them over, won't you Aang?" Sokka told the book. "The guy's got nothing more than a twig; you could take him down easily!"
"Well, he once had trouble with taking down a Melon Lord," Toph pointed out.
"You forgot that the Melon Lord could throw flaming boulders," Zuko spoke up.
"Oh yeah, there was that," Toph grinned. "That was fun."
"Easy for you to say; you're not running for your life from burning rocks," Sokka grumbled.
"Who are you?" Aang asked bewilderedly. He had never seen anyone like these three strangers before, and he was one of the few people who can actually say that they have traveled right around the world.
"And almost lost their lives in the process," Sokka added. "Seriously, now that I look back, traveling with the Avatar was a real safety hazard."
"Guess Aang won't be organizing vacation tours any time soon," Toph grinned.
"I might open a zoo though. I'm good with animals," Aang said, remembering how he'd helped a zookeeper in Ba Sing Se.
"Just stick to saving the world, Twinkletoes."
The other bespectacled teen, who seemed to be older than Aang, said nothing but withdrew his weapon, which was just a piece of wood for all Aang could see. Behind them, the red-haired boy finally got to his feet and dusted the dirt off his clothes while the girl turned her attention to their surroundings. "Well, this isn't Hogsmeade."
"What's Hogsmeade?" Aang asked, not able to help himself.
"Apparently it's some place we don't know," Toph answered.
"I think it might be a location in the world the three people belong to; remember the title of the story, When Two Worlds Meet?" Katara pointed out. "This must be the moment when the two worlds meet."
"In a secret chamber full of statues of dead people," Sokka added. "It does give it the needed eerie atmosphere."
"I'll say," the red-haired boy agreed, finally straightening up to show that he was the tallest of the three. "So where are we?"
The girl wrinkled her nose in irritation. "How should I know? I've never even seen this place before!"
"Well, since you're the one who Apparated us here, I would've thought you knew where we were going." The red-haired boy suddenly noticed Aang's presence and tensed. "Oh damn."
The girl also stared at Aang. "He doesn't look like a Muggle, although he might be a monk judging from his bald head and clothing. I've never seen those tattoos before, though."
"So they have monks in their world too," Sokka said, stating the obvious.
"And they also have 'Muggles', which is something our world doesn't have," Aang added.
"It feels rather weird, comparing things from different worlds," Zuko spoke up.
"Meh, we've seen our share of weird stuff," Toph shrugged. "Just go along with it and you'll be fine."
The green-eyed boy with messy black hair said nothing until after he had stuffed his stick into his pocket. Then he said finally, "I don't think he's a Muggle."
"Can someone please answer my question?" Aang said in a slightly annoyed tone, for he didn't know what a Muggle was and he didn't care whether he was one or not. "Who are the three of you, how did you get here, and where did you all come from anyway?"
"That's the spirit Aang," Sokka grinned.
The boy with the glasses looked taken aback at first, but then his expression calmed down. "I'm Harry, and these are my friends Ron and Hermione. We're not sure how we got here, but I think it might have been an accident. As from where we're from, well, I can't really tell you yet."
"Okay," Aang said slowly, trying to process the information he'd just received. "So you guys came through some secret corridor or something?"
"No."
The airbender frowned. "There's only one door to this chamber that I know of, and I'm very sure nobody could have opened it before I did. So if you didn't use some hidden entrance, are you trying to say you just appeared out of thin air?" he asked incredulously.
"Pretty much," the boy who Aang assumed to be Ron grinned.
Aang blinked. "That… that's impossible."
"Technically, meeting people from another universe is already impossible, yet that's just what happened," Sokka pointed out.
"Hey, we're five kids that just saved the entire world," Toph said. " 'Impossible' isn't a word in our dictionary."
"Well, considering one of us is the Avatar, one can manipulate other people by bending their blood, one invented a whole new bending skill while being imprisoned in a metal cage, one rediscovered his bending after meeting two dragons that were supposed to be extinct, one thought up an entire battle plan to take down what was the most powerful nation in the world at the time, and all of us did all that before coming of age, I guess it's to be expected we can do some pretty cool stuff."
"For once you're actually talking sense, Snoozles."
"Not for us though," Harry explained. "We're wizards; we can do magic, which means we can disappear and appear again out of thin air."
Aang widened his eyes. "Wow." Then he frowned again. "So, are 'wizards' some sort of spirit, since they can do magic?"
"Oh brilliant, a dash of spirit magic to add to the whole mix," Sokka muttered. "Just what we needed."
"No, we're not spirits," the girl said quickly. "We're just ordinary humans like you."
"So much for your spirit magic," Toph said to Sokka.
"Ordinary humans can't do magic," Aang stated. "They can only bend."
The three newcomers looked perplexed. "Bend?"
"You know, bending? Waterbending, earthbending, firebending, airbending?" Aang noticed the three's confused expressions and sighed. "Like this?" he asked, producing a small tornado in his palm.
Ron's eyes widened at the sight of the air whirling around on Aang's open palm. "Wow, they certainly don't teach us stuff like that in Hogwarts."
"I'm guessing 'Hogwarts' is some kind of school, probably where they learned their magic," Katara reasoned.
"Too bad they don't teach bending though; they're really missing out on the fun," Toph grinned.
"I'm just happy for them that they don't have teachers like you," Sokka said.
"Say what you want Snoozles, I don't care anyway."
"Good."
"What's that called?" the girl who must be Hermione asked.
"Airbending. And this is waterbending." Aang drew out a small stream of water from a pouch hanging around his waist, something he had taken to doing after the failed invasion to ensure that he always had something to use for self-defense, and formed a bubble on his outstretched hand before sending it back into the pouch. "Earthbending," and the fallen statue was put back into place, looking as if it had never been knocked over. "And firebending," Aang said as he produced a small flame on his open palm.
"Like Incendio, only without a wand," Ron nodded.
Aang raised an eyebrow. "Wand?"
"You know, this." Ron stuck his hand into his pocket and took out another stick, holding it up for Aang to see. It was similar to the one Harry had been pointing at him just a few minutes ago.
"You do magic with a stick?"
"Oh, I'd like to see that," Sokka smirked. "I wonder if the spirits also do their magic with twigs?"
"They don't," Aang replied immediately.
"Not a stick, a wand," Hermione explained. "Look, I'll show you," and she drew out yet another stick (they seemed to have one of these for every person) and said, "Lumos." The tip of the wand produced a soft glow, illuminating the dark around them.
"Wow," Hermione gasped, properly seeing their surroundings for the first time. She held her wand up as she walked along the line of statues, studying their faces carefully.
"Who are these people?" Ron asked as he held up his wand and caused it to glow as well, letting the light fall on the statues around them.
"These are past reincarnations of the Avatar Spirit," Aang explained. "They're arranged according to the Avatar Cycle – like, for example, this one's a Fire Nation avatar, and after him is an Air Nomad Avatar, then a Water Tribe Avatar. Oh, and the statue you knocked over was an Earth Kingdom Avatar."
"You know Aang, you're taking this whole thing rather well," Sokka remarked. "I mean, three strangers just showed up and announced that they appeared out of thin air, and you're not even freaking out in the slightest."
"That's because he has better control of his emotions than you do," Katara explained.
"Says who?"
"Says the girl who saw her brother assume a twelve-year-old boy to be a Fire Nation spy just because he emerged from an iceberg."
"Okay fine, fair point," Sokka admitted grudgingly.
"What's an Avatar?"
Aang stared at Ron, who had just asked that question. "You don't know?" He scratched his bald head in confusion. "Huh, you guys really don't much about the world, do you?"
"We don't know much about this world," Harry said slowly, as if he had just realized something, "because we're not from this world at all."
At this, both Aang and Ron turned to stare at him, saying the same thing simultaneously, "What?!"
"I know, right?" Sokka told the book. "That's the same thing I wanted to say ever since you three popped up!"
"Oh great, now Snoozles is talking to books containing crazy stories about us," Toph said. "Who brought out the cactus juice?"
"No one, thank you very much."
"If you say so."
"Look around us, Ron." Harry gestured to the chamber around him. "Bending, Avatars – we've never heard of things like these before. And they," he pointed to Aang, "don't know anything about magic either."
"Well, actually all Muggles don't know about magic," Ron pointed out.
"Yes, but Muggles can't manipulate the elements, can't they? And look at the statues' clothes –they're nothing like the wizard robes we have, or even Muggle clothing. I don't know how," Harry frowned slightly, "but I think we've just Apparated into a whole other universe."
"What's 'Apparated' anyway?" Aang asked. "That's the second time we've seen that word."
"Probably their name for their vanishing trick," Sokka guessed.
"It'd be interesting to just vanish into thin air and appear right away at your destination, though," Zuko said thoughtfully. "Not to mention convenient."
"Meh, I'd just stick to Appa," Toph said. "At least I won't have to worry about whether my whole body will appear again on the other side."
There was a stunned silence at this, but before anyone could say anything, Haru's voice could be heard. "Aang, are you in here? We just met someone; I think you should come see her!"
The three ran towards where the others stood, with Hermione inspecting Teo's wheelchair. "Wow, did your father really design this?"
"Yup," Teo replied proudly.
"It's really amazing, considering the whole thing's fashioned out of wood only. And this brake works surprisingly well."
"You should see me when I've got my glider on. I can actually fly while still sitting."
"If she likes that, wait till she sees my submarine," Sokka grinned. "Man, she'll be so amazed!"
"Even though the Mechanist did most of the work," Katara pointed out. "In fact Sokka, all you did was draw a picture of a rhino-whale with people in it."
"And the bubble is burst," Toph smirked as Sokka put on a pout. "Bloop."
"Hermione, who are these people?" Ron asked as he stepped closer to her, effectively blocking Teo and his wheelchair from her view. "And why are you talking to them?"
"I met them when I was walking around looking at the statues. He's a bender too!" Hermione explained while pointing at Haru.
Ron turned to look at him. "Can you make fire with your hands?"
Sokka snorted. "What do we look like, magicians?"
"Well, Haru does have that mustache of his," Aang pointed out. "I guess that does make him look like a magician."
"I think my Wang Fire beard's much better."
"Yup, a nice fancy fake beard is definitely the best example of facial hair," Toph smirked.
Haru shook his head. "No, I'm an earthbender. I can only bend earth."
"But that kid over there can do four elements!" Ron said as he pointed to Aang.
"Ron, don't be rude, his name's Aang," Hermione spoke up.
"Whatever. How can you do that anyway, controlling four kinds of stuff?" Ron questioned the bald boy.
Aang shrugged. "Well, I'm kinda the current Avatar. All Avatars can bend four elements."
"And these," Hermione pointed to the statues around them. "are your past lives?"
"Yup."
"Wow." Ron grinned at Harry. "Bet you wouldn't mind having more than one life, eh Harry?"
"I dunno," Harry shrugged. "I wouldn't be in danger of being killed by Voldemort if I'm in an entirely different universe."
"And vice-versa, Aang wouldn't have to worry about being killed by Ozai if he ended up in their universe," Sokka reasoned.
"So Voldemort's the Fire Lord in their universe?" Aang wondered.
"I don't think every universe has a Fire Lord, Twinkletoes," Toph answered. "He must be their bad guy though; everyone needs a bad guy."
"Yes, because we all need a bit more fear in our lives," Zuko said drily.
"You guys come from another universe?" Teo asked with wide eyes, but before Harry could answer, they could hear Katara's voice calling for them.
"We'll talk about it later," Aang replied. "Right now, let's just head outside first."
"Okay. Hey, you should see the Western Air Temple, it's hanging upside down from a cliff!"
"Cool!" Ron exclaimed as the seven teens left the inner sanctuary of the Air Temple and walked outside, where the rest of Team Avatar was waiting for them.
"And that's the end of the story," Sokka said as he closed the book. "I gotta admit, all this talk of other universes can get quite confusing."
"Tell me about it," Toph agreed. "Me, I'm happy to stick with the same lousy planet I live on now. At least they have great tea here," she added while grinning, holding up her now empty tea cup.
"I could get us all a refill if you like," Zuko offered.
"No need to trouble yourself, I'm heading to the kitchen anyway. I wanna see what snacks Iroh has for us," Sokka said as he led the way towards the stairs, leaving the Companion in its usual place on the low table.
To all you Potterheads, see if you can recall where Zuko's 'we all need a bit more fear' line came from :). To everyone else, this is my first time writing a crossover (the 'Favorite Crossover Category' award in the AtLA Awards doesn't really count), so any opinions you can contribute are very much appreciated. And also, a big thank you to those of you who gave advice on how I should write my clique modern high school AU fic in their reviews – the whole thing's coming along rather well now, and you might just see that genre feature in the Companion soon! Till next time then!