I really, REALLY want to do a Harry Potter/Undertale crossover. Of course, my first attempt, I realised, was, if not a disaster, then a mess that I might not be able to turn into a full story. The backstory was a tangled snarl, my heart wasn't in the bashing for that work, and it just didn't work for me. So, despite your collective disappointment, I opted to not write beyond the first chapter.

But the concept never went away.

One story idea had Harry adopted by Alphys, shortly before the events of Undertale proper. I also considered doing a pure Undertale fanfic with a Charisk pairing, though working out the logistics of that seemed a mite troublesome. But I had some small inspiration that, while less groundbreaking than Undyne and Lily being related (which they aren't in this version of events), nonetheless helps fuse the two universes together. Incidentally, I have taken a lot of liberties with the Undertale timeline in having Alphys being Royal Scientist and Undyne being head of the Royal Guard while Chara is still alive. But I think it works.

Now, I've changed the original first chapter of Underground's Champion to reflect the fact that it's the original version. Also, Undertale fans may want to note that I have a new Undertale oneshot, a crossover with Death Note called Queen of Spiders and Greatest Detective, with L visiting Muffet's store.

Finally, before I get on with this sample chapter, I am strongly considering abandoning and archiving two stories in The Cauldron due to lack of inspiration. Namely Heather Potter and the Legacy of Alessa, and Resident Evil: Basilisk. I'm sorry, fans of those two stories. If I do archive them, it will be during the Christmas Update, and they will be deleted some weeks afterwards.

UNDERGROUND'S CHAMPION (REVISED VERSION)

CHAPTER 1:

TAKEN

Alphys was far from ready. The newly-appointed Royal Scientist of the Underground was chewing her lip in nervousness. It was one of the reasons why she had come to the Dump in Waterfall. It was quiet here, not many people came this way except to scavenge anything that had fallen from the Surface (which was how she had obtained a good chunk of her video collection), and she needed to think.

The enormity of her position was crushing down on her. She was expected to find a way to breach the Barrier and make it to the Surface, preferably in a way that didn't involve taking human souls. Indeed, the King and Queen had made that clear, especially as they had recently adopted a human who had fallen into Home, about a month ago. Asriel had a sister now, Chara. While more than a few Monsters were wary of her, Alphys included (partly because, well, humans were responsible for the Monsters being down here, partly because of the creepy deportment of Chara, and partly because of her unnatural red eyes), if she was under Asgore's protection, that was the end of the matter. Asgore may have been a big goofball and a softy, people didn't forget that he was also the strongest Monster in the Underground, that he was King for a reason.

As she waddled amongst the piles of garbage, she thought she heard a groan of pain. She blinked, before she turned her saurian head to where she heard it. It seemed to be coming from a pile of mattresses. These didn't come from the Surface…well, at least immediately before the Dump. No, some thrill-seeking idiots piled them up and were jumping off a nearby cliff to land on them, with the mattresses magically-enchanted to prevent injury. In theory, Alphys knew that someone could fall all the way from the Surface, and end up with bruises at best unless they landed badly.

As it happened, it seemed that someone had. Fallen from the Surface, anyway. Landing badly didn't seem likely, as the limbs weren't at grotesque angles.

And it was a human to boot.

Alphys waded through the ankle-deep water, making her way over to the human lying there, groaning in pain. It was a boy, maybe younger than Chara (who was eight), with a messy mop of black hair on his head. He seemed rather thin and scrawny for his age, and Alphys was horrified when she realised she could see bruises all over his body, some of them old. His ratty clothes were soaked, a pair of broken glasses was askew on his face. His eyes fluttered open, revealing emerald green irises, and when he seemed to see her, his eyes widened in panic. "No, stay away!" he shrieked.

"C-C-Calm down!" Alphys protested as the boy tried to scramble away, only to fall into the water. Alphys hurriedly helped him to his feet. "It's okay. I won't hurt you. I won't hurt you."

He didn't run, but his eyes were wary. And weary. He blinked as he seemed to take in her appearance. She guessed that, to a human, she would look pretty odd, like a human-sized dinosaur wearing a labcoat, glasses, and with a prominent overbite. But not threatening, she would think. Chara had recently dismissed Alphys as a 'dorkosaurus'.

After a moment, the boy looked around, and said, "Who are you? Where am I?" He sounded slightly more calm than he was seconds before, but there was also a tone of resignation that shouldn't be in the voice of a boy that age.

"You're in the Underground, beneath…Mount Ebott, I think you humans called it."

"Mount Ebott? That's where they took me for camping, but Dudley, he…he pushed me into the river, saying anything that went into the river disappeared forever. It went into a cave, Dudley and Uncle Vernon were laughing, and…" The boy began to sob, and he allowed Alphys to give him a hug. The scientist was sorry for the child, but she was also angry. She never thought she could be this angry before, and yet, if what this child had said was correct, his relatives had just tried to murder him.

After the boy's sobs died down, Alphys then said, "Well, you asked who I was. My name is Doctor Alphys. What's your name?"

Tentatively, the boy said, "Harry. Harry Potter…"

Harry Potter smiled to himself as he walked through Waterfall, back to his home. Well, the home of one of his mothers, anyway. They were going to have a nice dinner tonight, with his mothers, and the Dreemurrs, minus Asgore, who was busy with affairs of state (namely the paperwork he had neglected while watering his flowers). He had just been visiting Sans and Papyrus in Snowdin. He knew Undyne got annoyed by Papyrus' overwhelming and loud enthusiasm, as well as Sans' bad puns, but the two skeletons were good guys. Undyne knew that, she just had a bit of a clash of personality with them.

Also, thanks to a few factors, he was something of a minor celebrity in the Underground. He was, after all, one of only two humans who lived in the Underground. And one of his mothers was the Royal Scientist, while the other was the Head of the Royal Guard, and at a young age to boot. And, unfortunately, being the boyfriend of the only other human in the Underground didn't help matters. Harry was uncomfortable with celebrity, especially as he knew now something of his reputation on the Surface (amongst the wizards and witches, anyway), but he was living with it.

As he made his way, he spotted the Dreemurrs just ahead of him. Toriel Dreemurr, her biological son Asriel, and her adopted daughter Chara. A bit of a motley crew, to say the least. Toriel and Asriel looked, for all the world, like humanoid goats. White fur covered the exposed parts of their bodies, they had long floppy ears and long snouts. Both had a pair of fangs poking out of their mouths, in a manner that managed to look endearing rather than sinister. Both had horns, though both pairs were rather short. Toriel was dressed in a tabard embroidered with the Delta Rune, the sign of the Underground, and a depiction of a prophecy. Asriel was dressed rather more casually, in a green and yellow striped shirt and black trousers, as was Chara.

In terms of appearance, Chara was very different, though that was probably because she was human. There was something vaguely and hauntingly unearthly about her beauty, though, especially now that she, and Harry, were fourteen. Short brown hair framed a beautiful face that seemed to have a perpetual blush, even if only faintly at times. Her most notable features, however, were her blood red eyes. An unwanted gift from her biological father, he knew.

As usual, it was Asriel who noticed him first, and greeted him. "Howdy, Harry! We were just coming over."

"You're a bit early," Harry remarked. "Not that I'm complaining, mind."

Chara looked at Harry, and winked. "I'm sure you aren't."

Harry blushed a little. He remembered how embarrassed he was when he and Chara got caught making out by the rest of the Dreemurrs, on their birthday. They didn't have the exact same date, true, but close enough that their parties usually were combined. What compounded the embarrassment was that the Dreemurrs encouraged their affection. Oh, not so far as to encourage actual intimacy, but kissing was fine in their book. Asriel did play a bit of the protective brother card, but in truth, he still didn't mind them being together.

Then again, it was only thanks to Harry that Chara and Asriel were alive today. It was Harry, after all, who stopped them from going through with that insane plan, one that would have seen Chara dead, and possibly Asriel too.

"Now, let's be on our best behaviour," Toriel said.

"Or what, are you going to use those bad puns you've practised with Sans on me?" Chara asked with a roll of her eyes. "They may cause an allergic reaction in some people, but not me. Harry, would you be a gentleman and hold my hand while you escort me to your home?"

Harry smiled, and did so. Her skin was cool to the touch, but not in a creepy way, rather, more of a soothing way. As they continued, Harry remarked, "It'd be Halloween on the surface tonight."

Chara scoffed. "Probably one of the few times that nobody would look askance at the Monsters. They'd probably think they were good costumes or something."

"It's practically a national holiday with the wizards and witches, all because Voldemort was vanquished," Harry said. He scowled at the thought. It was only thanks to Chara that he knew anything about his heritage. He wasn't a fool: he knew that there were good humans, despite what Chara thought. But the thought of being kept ignorant of what he was…

Chara shrugged. "Well, I would celebrate, but for a subtly different reason."

They had come to the house where Harry and his mothers lived, which vaguely looked like a scowling fish's head. As was her wont to do, even on a day off, his aunt was doing training exercises. "NGAAAAH!" she screamed as she sent a blizzard of magic spears at a training dummy, turning it into scattered rags and stuffing.

"Enthusiastic as always, Undyne?" Toriel asked.

Undyne turned to look at Toriel, and then grinned. "You know it, Toriel." It took her a while to stop calling Toriel Queen. "Alphy's putting the finishing touches on the meal. I'm still surprised at how good a cook she is. She usually eats junk at her lab. I'm a little jealous, really."

"I brought along my butterscotch cinnamon pie, and some of Alphys' favourite snacks," Toriel said.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Undyne cheered, before they entered the house, to find Alphys serving out a meal.

"Good evening, Toriel, Asriel, Chara," Alphys said, smiling nervously. "It's nice to have you here."

"It's good to be here, Alphys," Toriel said with a smile.

The meal was occasionally punctuated by small talk, mostly started by Toriel, Asriel, or Harry. Chara was unsociable at the best of times, unless her family or Harry was involved. Alphys was rather timid about social situations, and Undyne…well, she was loud and boisterous, and tended to derail conversations rather than start them.

After a period, Toriel turned to Harry and Alphys. "How is the research into the Barrier coming along?"

"Slowly, but we are making better progress using human magic rather than that of Monsters," Harry said. "As it was human mages who set up the Barrier in the first place, human magic would have better luck in removing it, though they seemed to set up failsafes against it being removed from inside the Barrier, save for the seven human souls. The soul fragment that was in my scar seems to count as one soul, luckily."

"About time he was good for something," Chara snorted.

"Hey, Voldemort was good for two things at least," Harry said, looking at Chara meaningfully. "Given what he did to my parents, and to your mother…"

"Yes, I know," Chara said. "I just don't like sitting around, knowing that he's out there. He shouldn't be our problem, but…"

Toriel nodded. "He's been defeated by Harry once, Chara. Someone like Voldemort cannot countenance such a thing. His ego won't allow it. If he ever finds out that Harry is in the Underground…and that's without going into the innocent lives he will destroy."

"Innocent," Chara scoffed quietly. She didn't say anything further, though she got up from the table. Asriel went with her.

However, shortly thereafter, Harry convulsed. He was sitting with Alphys and Undyne next to him, and as Chara passed, blue fire flared around the four of them. Suddenly, in a flare of azure light, they vanished, leaving Toriel to gape.

Shortly after that, Toriel's phone rang. She frowned when she saw the phone number, that of Asgore, and answered it. In a distant voice, she said, "Gorey…I'll need to call you back. Something bad has just happened." She frowned when she heard her husband telling her something impossible, before her eyes widened in shock. "What do you mean, the Barrier just shattered?!"

In the Great Hall of Hogwarts, something big was happening. Not just the drawing of the three Champions from the schools of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. No, this was about to overshadow that. They knew this when the Goblet of Fire spat out a fourth name, a name only two people in that hall had been expecting, even if they didn't show it. They showed shock and surprise, especially when the name on that slip of paper was read out by Professor Dumbledore.

"Harry Potter?"

The silence that followed was so thick, it could be cut with a knife. It was the calm before the storm. Harry Potter? The Boy Who Lived? The Boy Who Disappeared?

Suddenly, there was a flare of blue flame near the Goblet of Fire. For a time, the azure flames flicked in a massive patch of fire on the stone floor, before finally, with a loud crack of noise like thunder, it dissipated, revealing a quintet of…people?

One of them appeared to be a short, yellow lizard in a dress, glasses askew and with a prominent overbite. Another was a woman who appeared to be part-fish, with blue scaly skin, red hair, an athletic figure, and one baleful golden eye with a slitted pupil, the other eye covered by an eyepatch. A third seemed to be a teenager, but with goat-like features, white-furred and with short horns.

The other two seemed human enough, though the red eyes of one of them that peered out in anger from underneath a fringe of brown hair suggested otherwise. The other, however, was a major surprise, with messy black hair framing handsome features, green eyes peering out from behind glasses, and a scar zig-zagging out from underneath their fringe.

It seemed that the Tri-Wizard Tournament had gotten even more complicated…

CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:

So, there you have it. I copied and pasted a lot from the original story's first chapter, as those who read The Cauldron know. Of course, it was suitably edited.

I think this story has more potential than the original. The fusion between the two universes is less complicated by far, I have a VERY interesting pairing for Harry, and I'm sure some of you are already making guesses as to why Chara hates Voldemort. Plus, having Alphys as Harry's adoptive mother seems original, and adorable. Alphys really needs a hug badly.

No numbered annotations for this chapter.