Well, a new year, a new sample chapter of a fic that may or may not go anywhere. This one is another attempt at a crossover with So I'm a Spider, So What?, but with a changed setting. Instead of being set at Hogwarts, this one is set on the world of So I'm a Spider, So What? In addition, while this is still a WBWL fic with a massive twist, it's now partly based on DZ2's 'Prodigal Son' challenge.

There's no guarantee this will become a full fic, but I do still want to do a crossover with this series, come Hell or high water. So I'm a Spider, So What? is one of the best isekai series out there, and thanks to D's Hallows, my oneshot crossover, I have an interesting mythos that links it with the Potterverse.

EDIT (14/1/2021): So, I actually hit a wall with the second chapter of this version of Xenogenous Souls. I dropped it, and tried another angle on my TWT variant of this crossover. That didn't quite go anywhere, but there was a new angle that I decided to try and use for this variant of the story. So, watch this space...

XENOGENOUS SOULS (ORIGINAL)

CHAPTER 1:

WHEN HARRY MET HIIRO

His whole life was a lie.

He stared into the face so like and yet so unlike his own, the hazel eyes looking at him with barely-veiled contempt and disdain. He clutched at the burns on his cheek, inflicted by the man right in front of him, a man he had heard the praises sung of for much of his time at Hogwarts. And yet, the irony was, one man that he hated above all others, and who hated him in his term, had been right.

"You dare defy me?! Your own father?!" snapped the man in front of him. "After all I have done for you?"

"What have you done for me?" he retorted back. "Hidden like a coward, left me to rot with those poor excuses for Muggles, who treated me like a servant? Left me to face Voldemort so many times, when good people died?"

"I let you have the fame you didn't deserve then, and you deserve it even less now. And if the Dursleys had killed you, all the better." Suddenly, he was wrapped in chains, and that thing claiming to be his father levitated him into the air. "Well, if you reject my overly generous offer, then you can follow Black into the Veil. I'll just say the Horcrux in your scar took you over."

He couldn't speak, but his confusion and shock was writ large on his face, alongside his anger. And his so-called father snapped his fingers. "Oh right, you don't know what a Horcrux is. Albus didn't tell you. You have a fragment of Voldemort's soul in your scar. That is why you are expendable. And given the trouble you've put me to, well, being cast through the Veil is too merciful. But I'd rather it be over and done with. Oh, and if you ever run into a freaky, evil bitch called 'D'…tell her you're my gift to her."

And then, without a further word, he was hurled into the Veil, cold winds rushing past him as he fell into the void…

The first thing he felt upon being woken up was the pain, like an icicle jabbing into his head. An involuntary groan escaped his lips before his eyes opened. It took him a moment to realise he was in a dark cave, and it took him a depressingly long time to remember why.

He had been engaged in a not-so-great escape from that fortress he had been imprisoned in. He'd woken up there a few days ago, with soldiers barking questions in an unknown language in his face. He tried responding to them in English, only to get more abuse, verbal and physical, in his turn. The fact that they looked like they had wandered out of some Renaissance Fair, more so than even the wizards back home, only compounded his confusion.

He could have escaped earlier. But considering what he had gone through in a short period of time, he was still coming to terms with what had happened before, and he wasn't sure what had happened to him now. It was only a short while ago that he truly decided to escape, only to end up tripping on a rock in this cave he had fled into, and knocking himself out.

Then again, considering what Harry Potter had just been through, being distracted was understandable.

The last few years had not been kind to him. Well, truthfully, his time at Hogwarts had been pretty crappy, but his enjoyment of magic and the adventures had overrode that disquiet that this was not even remotely normal, even for Magical Britain. But when Sirius escaped from Azkaban, and the Dementors were posted around Hogwarts, well, Harry felt things were getting increasingly worse for him.

His godfather was never exonerated. There were the increasing nightmares of Voldemort. The attack on the Quidditch World Cup. The Tri-Wizard Tournament. The bad press. Voldemort's revival. His being kept in the dark by his friends. Umbridge and Fudge's actions. And then, it all culminated in Harry being lured to the Department of Mysteries…and the return of his so-called father and twin brother.

Harry's hand came up to the burn on his face. Even now, it was tender, a brand inflicted by James Potter when Harry, in his anger over what his so-called father claimed and his attitude, told him that Snivellous, for once, had been right. James Potter had left his best friends to rot (one in Azkaban, the other in poverty), along with his son (at Durzkaban), and out of cowardice.

The worst part was, despite his anger with them, he didn't know if Ron or Hermione were all right. Ron had been attacked by those brain things, and Hermione had that curse by Dolohov inflicted on her. That was one of his biggest regrets, that he would never know if they were all right. That, and whether Lupin, Tonks, the Weasleys, whether they would ever mourn him, ever consider him to be the true Boy Who Lived, not that Johnny-come-lately fake.

The only consolation was that he was still alive, despite what James Potter intended.

"Except I'm stuck here," he muttered to himself. "In this dark cave." Well, his eyes were getting used to the gloom, but still, being stuck in a dark cave, with distant growls and roars echoing from deeper within didn't help. "And those soldiers didn't follow me in. So it's dangerous. Joy."

Harry didn't know it, but he was being watched from afar, by an octet of pink eyes in the darkness…

The owner of those eyes was once a Japanese schoolgirl by the name of Hiiro Wakaba. For various reasons that will be gotten into at a later date, she was no longer human. The upshot was, she died, and was reincarnated as a monster.

Which was why she was approaching the person sitting on a rock carefully, from hiding. Normally, she wouldn't do anything, wanting nothing more than to leave the Great Elroe Labyrinth that had been her home for way too long, but unlike the other times she had encountered humans, she noticed something about him that was different to them. Something that gave her hope.

He had been speaking English.

So, you guys heard that, right? she asked, seemingly of herself. Which was technically correct, just not in the way you'd think.

Yeah, sure did, replied her own voice. Specifically, that of one of her Parallel Minds, Magic Mind 1, a sort of split personality that helped her acquire more information and knowledge, as well as using magic in battle. That's definitely English, not Isekaiese.

And now I'm glad I studied English to watch undubbed films and stuff, Hiiro thought. And that's a British accent, not American. He seems about our age too.

Maybe he was isekai'd too? Except he wasn't reincarnated? Those clothes look more modern than those we saw on the adventurers earlier, Magic Mind 2 pointed out.

Hiiro hummed to herself in thought mentally as she considered the situation. The problem was, she had a monstrous body, not remotely human-looking. In addition, her actions further below in the Great Elroe Labyrinth had earned her passive skills that made people and monsters afraid of her on sight. And she couldn't speak yet. Her body didn't really have the capacity, and while she was trying to evolve it so she could regain some semblance of a human form, she was still a way off from it.

Appraisal didn't give her any joy, for some reason. She didn't know why exactly, though the fact that she couldn't get through it even with Wisdom was telling. Then again, it was more that it seemed glitched out rather than blocked.

She could spend some Skill Points and gain Telepathy, but she had resisted until now because she didn't know the local language. Encountering that Administrator, the one her Taboo revelation had dubbed Güliedistodiez, as well as those adventurers, had proven there was a language barrier Telepathy could not overcome. Of course, if the teenaged boy knew English, then that problem was null and void.

Of course, Hiiro was something of a social recluse. She had spent her time in life as a shut-in who enjoyed gaming more than socialising with friends or even her family, something she regretted. She certainly retained her social anxiety from life, despite her energetic inner monologue (well, dialogue, with her three Parallel Minds…or was that a quadralogue?), so that, on top of her monstrous body, had her holding back.

However, in the end, she was desperate. She hadn't spoken to someone in so long. And if she could tell him not to fear her appearance, maybe it would mitigate any bad reaction.

Hiiro sighed, before purchasing the skill. Now for the hard part. Namely, working up the courage to speak to this boy. Nai wa, she thought to herself…

Harry was sitting on the rock, trying to figure out his next course of action, before he heard, improbably, a voice, speaking inside his head. That of a girl's, accented, the syllables slightly staccato and clipped, but recognisably English. And nervous to boot. Umm…can you hear me?

Harry looked around sharply. "Who's there?"

Sorry, I'm here. I…I'm hiding at the moment. Ugh, nai wa, I knew this was a mistake.

"What do you mean, a mistake? Who are you?"

…Umm, I'm…Wakaba Hiiro. Oh, wait, you put your family names last. Sorry, I'm Hiiro Wakaba. What's your name?

"…Harry Potter. Hiiro Wakaba…is that Japanese?"

Yes! So you're from Earth?

"Uhh, yeah. Britain, actually. What do you mean, I'm from Earth?"

There was a pause, before Hiiro said, Well…this place isn't Earth. I got isekai'd, and it seems so did you.

"Issa-what?"

Umm, isekai basically means being sent to another world. You've never heard of it? I heard it's popular even outside of Japan. I mean as fiction, not as something that actually happens.

"…So this is another world?" Harry asked, feeling a pit of dread form in his stomach. He was stranded in another world?

Yeah, that's it, Hiiro said. You were lucky, though, I think. I mean, you took a direct route here, right? I got reincarnated when my classroom went kaboom. And…well, the thing is…I got reincarnated as a monster.

"…A monster?"

On his wary tone, Hiiro snapped defensively, Hey, I didn't choose to be reborn as a monster in this damn place! Which is the Great Elroe Labyrinth, by the way! You're lucky you didn't wander in any further, or you could have been killed! I dunno how strong you are, Harry, but I had to face monsters like a final boss in a video game! I'm… Her voice seemed to catch in her throat, despite being mental. …I just want to have a peaceful life, but I'm probably never going to get it, she muttered morosely, sounding on the verge of tears. You are literally the first person I could really talk about it to…I mean, aside from that Administrator 'D' person…

Harry blinked. "D? Did you say…'D'?"

You know her?

"…The last thing I heard before I was chucked through this portal was to say I was a gift to some freaky evil bitch called 'D', by someone claiming to be my father."

…Okay, well, evil bitch sounds right. She called herself an evil goddess. Would you believe she made a phone appear from thin air just to talk to me? Nai wa…anyway, if…if I show myself, will you promise not to panic or attack or anything?

"…As long as you're not trying to kill me or anything…I'll try."

Okay. Just…don't be alarmed. I promise you, I mean you no harm.

Then, a scuttling from the ceiling, quiet, before something walked down the wall opposite him. Something the size of a largeish dog. But something that was most certainly not a dog.

It was a giant spider.

The bulbous rear had spike-like projections, and half of it was black. The front two legs were like scythes, wicked and vicious. Eight pink eyes peered at him from its face. Just by seeing it, he felt an intense sensation of dread, like a more bearable form of the Dementor's aura, only without disinterring bad memories. The Acromantulas back home were bad enough, but this was worse than even them. This spider seemed like the very Reaper itself.

And then, after reaching the floor in front of him, it waved. Hi there! It's me!

"…Is that really you, Hiiro?" Harry asked.

Yep, and thanks for not freaking out too much. I…I'm not used to socialising, even before I became a spider. I'm amazed I even did this much. The spider seemed to clutch its head with the forelegs, and Harry heard Hiiro mutter Nai wa once more, before it seemed to straighten. I guess we have a lot to talk about. I…I think I needed someone to talk to.

Harry looked at the spider, before resigning himself to this latest swerve in the clusterfuck that was his life. He'd dealt with Dementors, dragons, and deranged warlocks. So his newest acquaintance was a spider, so what? The sad thing was, he'd encountered weirder things.

The sting of betrayal was still too-fresh in his heart. But there was no denying it, he needed help to survive in this world. And maybe Hiiro could help that…

CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:

So, Harry's ended up near the Great Elroe Labyrinth, and has met Kumoko! But what link does James Potter have to 'D'? Why is he acting this way?

No numbered annotations this time.