Sheldon was the first to break the baffled silence.

"Well it seems clear to me that one of our couples has been transported into a parallel universe, where the others are not actually characters in a franchise but real people"

Amy gazed in adoration at Sheldon, impressed that he was keeping so calm at living one of his favourite fantasies for real.

"But which one of us lives here, and who's visiting?" asked Draco, more confused than the others- Harry wasn't sure he even knew what a parallel universe was; Draco had always been too busy staring at Harry in lessons to concentrate.

"Well, has anyone done anything obscure today? Anything that may suggest or explain why this has happened?" Amy asked.

Sheldon thought, "Hmm… not anything I can think of. We come to the zoo all the time and it's been as pleasant as always. No strange events. What about you?" He nodded at Harry and Draco.

"Weeeelll, we did fly through a weird thunderstorm as we were going over the Bermuda Triangle," explained Draco.

"Seriously? That's so cliché. They do that in "The Suite Life on Deck"." Amy was disappointed that such a basic and banal plot device had been used by the author of their lives, be that God or two nerdy girls in a bedroom somewhere.

"Right," said Draco, fuming, "So we're stuck in a world with a bunch of weirdo muggles and no wizards. How the hell are we going to get home?"

"Lovebug, you were the one who wanted to take me for an adventure so we could escape and spend some time alone, and who can say that this isn't a fantastic opportunity for that?" Harry tried to soothe Draco, never an easy task, especially when the colour rose in his pale cheeks, as it was doing now. Harry took hold of his hand and squeezed it supportively, and realized for the first time that Draco was shaking: he was terrified to be out alone in the world, but he was doing it for Harry.

"Well that's settled then." Sheldon beamed, "I have to show you to my friends, they'll be so jealous to see that I've met Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy!" He took Amy by the hand and led them to the exit.

xxxxxxxxxx

Harry had often dreamed about walking up the stairs to Shelnard's apartment, but he'd never quite appreciated how tiring it would be. Even his Hogwarts training hadn't prepared him, since those stairs were of course magic. Upon reaching the fourth floor, he was ready to collapse at any second. Luckily, they had arrived. Sheldon invited them all in and supplied them with hot beverages. Harry was grateful for the tea, but it didn't quite taste like butterbeer, and for the first time he began to get pangs of fear- what if they couldn't make it back to the wizarding world?

Sheldon watched with a huge smile plastered on his face. He couldn't wait for his friends to get home so he could show off his new discovery. Not only was there two wizards sat in his kitchen but the journey they took to get there could have ground-breaking scientific implications.

On cue, Leonard, Howard and Raj walked through the door of 4A. Sheldon leapt to his feet and hurried over to them.

"Look, look. Meet my friends, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy" Sheldon gestured over to the two boys with a smug look on his face.

All three were flabbergasted and stood staring at them. Leonard tried to speak but just ended up stuttering incoherently. Howard stepped forward.

"Oh Harry, it's such an honour to meet you, I hope you don't mind my speaking in parseltongue but I guess if you're the real harry potter and not cosplaying you'll be able to reply, right?"

Harry hadn't even realised Howard was speaking parseltongue, and felt a little uncomfortable joining in, but he agreed that it was something that only the real Harry would be able to do, and he could understand Howard's desire for proof. It was a very Hermione-esque trait.

"Yeah, no, that's fine, I'm pleased to meet you too I guess, although I've always felt you could be nicer to Raj. No offence."

As Howard and Harry chatted amiably in parseltongue (although it sounded very aggressive), Raj had worked up the courage to talk to Draco. He was very excited and was basically rambling whilst Draco awkwardly stood nodding along.

"I liked the third book, it was so interesting to see the way JK presented Lupin when he knew Harry and Harry didn't know him and it wasnot the way their life should have worked out, but I didn't like it when you were rude to Buckbeak, I mean Hippogriffs are such beautiful creatures, according to the movies anyway, and really you deserved to be attacked by it. Oh sorry I didn't mean to offend you, I'm sure you're a lovely person, especially since your relationship with Harry. You two really complement each other. That makes it sound like you're like a pair of Louis Vuitton's and a matching nail polish, sorry I'm rambling. Did you know that I dressed up as Harry once for Halloween? Hey I should dress up as you! No, that would be weird now that we've met…"

Leonard eventually dragged Raj away to the sofa to rescue Draco who was obviously having a tough time talking to Raj.

"So, Draco, how long are you going to be in Pasadena?" He asked, trying to make small talk. His attempt failed miserably when Draco's face grew visibly worried and he muttered, "I don't know how to get home again, so maybe forever…"

Leonard tried to reassure him.

"Can't you just go back the way you came?" He asked, reasonably.

"I don't know," said Draco, with a further droop of his head, "We got kinda lost on the way here and I don't know if we can retrace our steps."

"Don't worry guys, we'll help you find your way home- we'll just have to do some research, if any exists. And until we get you home, you can stay with us. What do you say?"

Draco smiled at the generosity of this short muggle, who according to Sheldon's colourful depiction he had expected to be much grouchier.

"That would be great, thank you." He said with a warm smile, one that he only showed to people he was truly comfortable around, and that therefore never made an appearance at Hogwarts.

That night, after an afternoon spent comfortably chatting about the wizarding vs muggle worlds, Draco and Harry squished up to sleep on the sofa together, not wanting to be parted from each other in this new world they didn't quite understand. They had gone against Sheldon's advice to sleep with their heads in "his spot", saying that marauders didn't scare them, with secret smiles.