So, I've recently started playing Baldur's Gate 3, and I'm already potentially looking into doing a crossover with the Potterverse. I have two ideas, one that will require me to play more of the game first. That story will have a Harry/Shadowheart pairing.

But I was also considering a Harry/Lae'zel pairing.

Those who have been reading this compilation will no doubt remember my attempts at another Dungeons & Dragons crossover, specifically with The Legend of Drizzt, where I intended to pair Harry with Drizzt's least bitchy sister Vierna. In many ways, this story is basically a rewrite of the plot I was intending to use. Pairing Harry with evil characters, especially xenophobic ones like Vierna or Lae'zel, is always a risk, but sometimes, they can be the most rewarding stories to write, if only because the effort can be worthwhile.

Anyway, as always, there's no guarantee this will go further than even this chapter. But hopefully, you'll enjoy it anyway...

ZHAK VO'N'ASH DUJ

CHAPTER 1:

A GITHYANKI IN MAGICAL BRITAIN

Shadowheart thought that the end was drawing near. She'd been snatched off the streets of Baldur's Gate by that damned Illithid Nautiloid, thrust into a pod, and had a damned Illithid tadpole put into her eye. A very unpleasant experience, to say the least, but she also knew of the dangers of Ceremorphosis. In a matter of days, the larval creature would transform her into one of those bloody monsters. And unless she could find a very good healer, her odds of surviving were nil. Well, surviving without having a face full of tentacles and a craving for brains, anyway.

So it was to some surprise that the Nautilod began shaking, and the roars of Dragons could be heard. The Nautiloid was under attack, but by whom? Given the sound of Dragons attacking, she'd put her money on the Githyanki, who famously used Red Dragons as mounts as they rode between dimensions. She doubted she would find a rescue from those xenophobic warriors, though. They hated the Mindflayers only marginally more than they did all other beings.

The sphincter to the room opened, and a pair of humanoid shapes moved in. Shadowheart groaned in quiet dismay. One of them was most definitely a Githyanki, a woman with dark red hair, green eyes…actually, she was a surprisingly comely specimen of her people. But she doubted she would find a rescue from the likes of them.

But was that a human following her? Dark-haired, green eyed, looking around warily, young by human standards, probably barely out of his teens, and wearing rather odd clothes. He indicated the thralls on their seats nearby. "What about these two, Zelly?"

Shadowheart frowned. Were they working together? And judging by their attitude, not to mention what sounded like an affectionate nickname, they must've known each other for a while. A human and a Githyanki working willingly together? Maybe the Githyanki was a Githzerai, one of their less xenophobic brethren?

The Githyanki went over to them, before sneering. "Tsk'va!" she snarled. "Thralls…if you wish to bring them with you, I won't stop you. Your mother may be able to help them."

"Got it." The young man said, shrinking the thralls, and turning them into pebbles that he pocketed.

Shadowheart's eyes widened. Such a casual display of magic, and advanced magic at that…maybe they could help. She banged on the hatch of her pod. "Hey, over here! Help me, please!"

The Githyanki and human came over. "…Are you all right?" the human asked.

"Apart from having a Mindflayer's larva in me, I'm fine," Shadowheart said, though she couldn't help the sarcastic lilt to her voice.

She half-expected the Githyanki to advocate them leaving her behind, but the young woman nodded grimly. "Understood. But stay calm. We will have you out of there, Elf."

"Half-Elf, actually," Shadowheart griped. Typical Githyanki blinkeredness, not bothering to discern the difference between various races.

"My apologies for not noticing the minor details, Half-Elf, but this ship is currently flying through Avernus," the Githyanki snarked back. "We need to rescue any survivors who are not Ghaik, and then head to the helm before we all perish in a crashing Nautiloid, not to mention my former comrades are assaulting it as well. If you wish to actually die, then I'm all too happy to oblige you."

"Zelly, we're not leaving her to die unless she tries to betray us," the human said. "Now, let's see…Alohamora."

The unfamiliar word accompanied a burst of magic, and the lid to the pod opened up. Shadowheart clambered out, pocketing the Gith artifact she had clutched in her hands. The Githyanki noticed it, and looked to her. We will talk about that later, her eyes promised. But no real hostility was in her eyes, just an understandable wariness.

Shadowheart sighed, hoping she wouldn't regret this. But then, she had a vial filled with a blue liquid handed to her. "…What's this?" she asked of the young human, who had given it to her, and who seemed to be holding a jar partly-filled with a liquid.

"The Illithids put a larvae into you, right? This can get it out of you as long as you haven't been infected for long. I know it's a bit much to ask you to trust us, considering we've only just met, and apparently it gives you a splitting headache for a few seconds afterwards, but…"

Shadowheart nodded. Unless they were being extremely devious, it was unlikely they'd free her only to feed her poison or some sort of mind control potion. And she was admittedly desperate. She knew the dangers Ceremorphosis posed. So she drank the potion in the vial. A Cleric like herself needed to have a leap of faith every now and then.

The potion was sickly sweet going down. After a few seconds, she suddenly felt as if an icicle had been stabbed into her head. Even through the migraine, though, she saw something rather nasty appear in the jar he was holding, along with some blood. An Illithid's tadpole, she realised. He then put the jar away. "Why are you keeping it?" Shadowheart asked.

"My mother had detected unusual activity amongst certain Illithids lately," the young man said. "We need live specimens to track them down. You're welcome to help if you want to, Miss…"

"Shadowheart. And you are…?"

"This is Lae'zel, formerly of Creche K'liir," the young human said, indicating the Githyanki. "And I'm Harry Evans. I think for now, that'll have to do, we need to get to the helm ASAP…"

A few years before…

"So, how is our guest, Dr Evans?"

Dr Lily Evans frowned at Kingsley Shacklebolt's question as she examined the form on the bed in the Ministry holding cell. "I think she's stable now. Given the wounds she suffered, including the one to her bowels, she's lucky we got to her in time. Still…I did a basic Legilimency probe. It's hard while the subject is unconscious, but I managed to get snatches of memory from her. Shack, she's not from Earth."

"She's an alien?"

"More or less, alien to both this world and this dimension."

She indicated the young woman, probably in her late teens, her frame lean, lanky, much of it bone and muscle. Her hair was dark red, her skin was green, her ears pointed and serrated. They vaguely reminded her of an aloe vera plant, for some reason. Her nose was almost non-existent. Yet despite that, she seemed attractive enough. Of course, what Lily had seen in this one's mind had her pause for thought.

"Meet Lae'zel of Creche K'liir, a Githyanki," Lily said. "A warrior race, highly xenophobic, able to travel between dimensions. She was sent here on a training mission under her commander to assassinate a traitor to her people who fled here, hoping Earth'd be out of their reach. The traitor was mistaken. However, their people have some sort of psionic ability, and he impressed his memories onto her as she killed him…and when she made the mistake of uttering some rather interesting things about their queen out loud, her commander turned on her."

Shacklebolt nodded, the dark-skinned Auror frowning in thought. "Any links to the cult we were investigating? Or the serial killer, the Brain Eater?"

"Not as far as I can tell, she's only just arrived, though I only did a surface probe. That they fought that traitor near where we raided the cult is coincidence," Lily muttered. "Merlin, she's so young. She's about Harry's age."

"Not that it's stopped Harry from doing well in the Unspeakables," Shacklebolt said. "A shame he doesn't want to join the DMLE. It was his first proper field mission, wasn't it?"

"Of this type, yes. Unfortunately, because of our issues with James…it's unlikely he'll join the DMLE. Shack, I know there's plenty of good people with you, even with Fudge slashing funding. You, Nymphadora…hell, James is a damned good Auror, most of the time. Even Dawlish is good when he isn't being a Ministry toady. And Amelia is the best damned Head of the DMLE I've known, and Rufus is fine when he has his head out of his arse. But in many ways, Harry's more of my son than James'. He has a desire for learning, for pushing boundaries that you could never get away with in the DMLE these days."

Shacklebolt nodded. Eventually, he said, "Lily…listen, I know what your answer is going to be, but Dumbledore asked me to try again."

Lily scowled. "And the answer, again, is no, Shack. I am not going to bury the hatchet with Snape! I'm not blaming you, you at least know what my answer is going to be, but after what that greasy-haired bastard nearly did to me, and Dumbledore refused to take any action. No, he fired me, all because I duelled Snape when he tried to drug me and have his way with me!"

"I know, Lily, I know, but it's your word against Snape's…and Dumbledore's word behind Snape. And Dumbledore's got some weight behind his name," Shacklebolt said.

Lily gritted her teeth, trying not to think of the incident that had her fired from teaching at Hogwarts, another victim of the so-called DADA Teacher curse, and that had her withdrawing Harry from the school before he could even do his OWLs. Instead, she thought to the cases that had gotten her involved with the DMLE as a consultant. Cases that were nominally unconnected, and yet, they had rocked Magical Britain.

For the past decade, there had been a mysterious serial killer who had attacked people and taken their brains, cutting open their skulls and removing them. The DMLE and the Department of Mysteries wouldn't have gotten involved had it not been for more than a few wizards becoming victims, or that traces of magic had been apparently found on the victims. Some had even shown signs of being eaten, so the killer was known in the press as the Brain Eater.

There was also a cult on the rise. And the one time they had captured a member of said cult, they'd committed suicide rather than allow for interrogation. The autopsy provided something rather horrific. The wizard only looked outwardly human. Inwardly, they had a different brain, one that looked alien, as did the digestive tract. Some elements even reminded Lily of cephalopods.

Her thoughts were interrupted when her son came into the cell. Another Auror was levitating the body of the captured cultist, readying themselves to put the man into a cell. "How is she, Mum?" Harry asked.

"…On the mend," Lily said, leaving the cell with Shacklebolt, ready to lock the Githyanki in there until they had time to deal with her. "But more importantly…"

Suddenly, there was a soft sound, one that sounded like fwoop! The Auror escorting the cultist collapsed, his eyes rolling up in his head. They whirled to face the cultist, who flung out a hand. "Expelliarmus!"

Stars exploded in Lily's skull as her body smacked into a wall, her wand flying away. The cultist sneered at them. "…I'm rather peckish. I think I'll be having a takeaway meal," he said.

"Tsk'va!"

That guttural snarl was the herald for a lanky green form to leap onto the cultist, grabbing his head, then twisting. A snap was heard, and the cultist shuddered, and went limp. Lily got shakily to her feet, looking at the form of Lae'zel as she glared down at the cultist in disgust.

"Damnable Ghaik," she snarled in what sounded like English, before spitting on the man. "You may hide your true nature in another's flesh, but the Mind Blast gave you away."

"Ghaik?" Lily asked.

The Githyanki scoffed. "You call them Illithids or Mind-Flayers in your tongue, Istik. They normally look more monstrous than this, vile beasts with the miens of octopi, and with psionic powers. But these ones hide in the skins of men. I have heard of their like before. A rare mutation, but one they use as spies. They betray their true likeness on the inside, and in their diet. Surely you know of Illithids?"

The name rang a bell for some reason. True, Lily hadn't dived too much into Lae'zel's mind, just enough to get a gist of what she was doing on Earth and what she was like, and yet, she felt like she had heard of the name before. "Not really."

"Tsk'va! Of course I would end up on a backwater world on the Material Plane," Lae'zel snarled.

"A little gratitude won't go astray," Shacklebolt said. "We saved your life from those attacking you."

"They were traitors who turned on me when I was…confused," Lae'zel retorted, before she looked to the dead cultist. "Still…where there is one Ghaik, there are bound to be more. And dealing with them…yes…" She met Lily's eyes. "Given your ignorance on the Ghaik, I will assist you. Only then can I go back to my creche with my head held up high."

Oh, joy, Lily thought to herself. We've got a xenophobic alien looking to help us. Then again, maybe she will be of some help after all…

CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:

So, there you have it. A flash-forward to the beginning of Baldur's Gate 3, and then how Harry and Lae'zel end up together in the first place. We'll elaborate more on why later. The main part of the story is set about 3-4 years prior to the game, FYI, so Lae'zel is about 18-19 here. Also, this is a WBWL fic, albeit without James-bashing like I usually do, so Harry's about the same age as Lae'zel.

I'm not sure if "Fwoop!" is the standard onomatopoeia for the Mind-Flayers' Mind Blast, but it was used in RA Salvatore's Exile, when Drizzt and his companions are attacked by the Mind-Flayers.

No numbered annotations this time.