1Disclaimer: I don't own them
Author's note: Written for a contest for Third Floor Corridor, a Harry Potter message board. Look it up on google!
The task: must be at least partially HP themed, but obviously not entirely, must be written for this contest, must be over 5000 words, Cannot be a crossover with LOTR, Charmed, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, since those are done so often its boring.
Summary: Crossover with One Tree Hill. By accident, Harry, Draco, Hermione and Ron get transported to Tree Hill. How will they get back? And will all four of them get back alive?
Word count: 8 129
Tree Hill
It was a year after the war had taken place. Everyone had rebuilt their lives and had moved on but had not forgotten because no one could. There had been so many losses, so many people died and there wasn't a day that their families and friends didn't feel that loss but they had all learned to pick up their lives again. It was the best they could do.
Harry, Ron and Hermione, the Golden Trio, now 19 years old had also moved on, hard as it had been. After the war, their relationship had gotten only tighter and all fights during their camping trip had been written off as stress. Everything that had been said, had been done had been counted to the past and it was for the best. They couldn't dwell on what they had done and said then. Ron and Hermione were still happily in love, more so than ever and Harry was genuinely happy for them. He had also found love and in an unlikely source. His two best friends had been shocked when they discovered that he and none other than Draco Malfoy had gotten together.
They had met in the Leaky Cauldron one day several weeks after the war, they had talked and for the first time, they had seen who the other really was. Both had been tired of keeping up pretences or keeping a grudge and gradually they had started dating, although both had in the beginning quite denied that their trips were dates. Yet only two months after their first meeting, they got together and had been together ever since. They had their fights which wasn't surprising since they were still complete opposites. Draco had learned to get along with Ron and Hermione just as his two friends had learned to get along with the blonde.
The four young people also shared a fairly big apartment in muggle London but near Diagon alley. The apartment had everything they needed: two bedrooms, a large living room, kitchen, bathroom and a separate toilet. They had cast silencing spells upon their own bedrooms just to avoid that they could hear each other during the nights. They had made it so that no sounds could get out but sounds from the hallway (not the other bedroom) could get in. It worked well.
It was a Saturday night in August. The four teenagers were at home. They all didn't have to work that night. Harry and Ron worked for the Auror's office at the new and improved Ministry of Magic, Hermione was also working there at the Ministry of Law and Draco had his own Potions shop in Diagon Alley. They were all doing good and they all liked their jobs although, like other people, they often didn't feel like going to work.
"Will you guys please be quiet!" Hermione yelled to her three flatmates who were in the kitchen doing whatever they were doing. She was sitting in the living room watching her all time favourite television show One Tree Hill. She absolutely loved it. She loved the drama, the intrigue and the characters. It had become her addiction and the boys often mocked her for it but she couldn't care less. She liked watching it and that was really all that mattered.
"Sorry, Hermione!" Ron yelled back and rolled his eyes, "Women!"
Harry snickered and once more tried to built a house of cards without using magic. It was going quite nowhere since Ron and Draco were doing their best to sabotage it which led to roars of laughter and banging on the table.
Draco pretended to cough and in doing so blew over what he had again.
"Oh, come on!" Harry exclaimed as Ron and Draco laughed.
"Just admit you can't do it without magic, mate!" Ron said smiling widely.
"Never!" Harry replied and started again but he did have to admit it was hopeless, especially with his lover and best friend sabotaging him constantly. He huffed and destroyed his umpteenth attempt. "Fine, I give up!"
Draco grinned and pressed a kiss on his cheek. Harry playfully smacked his chest.
"Come on, let's go ask Hermione how to make one with magic," Ron suggested.
Draco snorted, "You're an Auror! And you can't even do something as basic as this?"
"Well, it's not every day we have to create a house of cards with our wands in order to defeat a Death Eater," Ron replied, rolling his eyes. Harry laughed and Draco chuckled.
"Point taken."
The boys headed into the living room where they were at once glared into silence by Hermione. They just sat down on the couch, Ron beside his girlfriend and the other couple on the second couch. The boys didn't speak until commercials were on.
"Yes?" Hermione asked. She'd most likely noticed they'd been dying to ask something.
"Can you make a house of cards with magic?" Ron asked. Hermione watched him like he had grown a second head which made Ron sink back against the couch.
"You're not serious."
"He actually is." Harry said grinning. Draco nodded.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Boys," she muttered under her breath. "Okay, fine, I will."
She grabbed the deck of cards and uttered a spell. Seconds later, it was done. She spent the next minute explaining how to do the spell and how to pronounce it. The boys nodded and decided to try it out, all together.
"Fine, fine, just try it before One Tree Hill starts again," Hermione said irritably. The three boys nodded and they pointed their wands at the deck of cards. It registered a little too late that trying a spell with three wasn't the most clever move ever. Before Hermione could stop them, they had already said the spell. The next thing she knew, there was a loud explosion and a flash of bright light which blinded all four of them. They all closed their eyes and they felt themselves move but a second later it was all over.
Hermione heard the singing of birds and felt a warmth on her face. She opened her eyes and discovered she was pretty much staring up at the sun. How was that possible? They were inside. When she sat up, she discovered that wasn't true. They were outside on a basketball court and to her great dismay, the court looked way too familiar. Beside her the other boys had sat up and were staring around bewildered.
"So, who mispronounced the spell?" Hermione asked conversationally as she got to her feet and looked around with her hands on her hips. This was not so good, not good at all. She'd never known a spell to backfire like this, and especially not a simple spell as she had just taught them but obviously, the combination of the spell three times, gave this effect. The spell might've been just mispronounced three times or only once could've done the trick.
"Where are we?" Ron asked, putting his wand in his pants and pulling his shirt over it. The other three followed his example.
"If I'm not mistaking and I'm sure I'm not, then we're on the basketball court at Tree Hill."
"Where on earth is Tr – oh no," Harry said breaking off.
"What?" Draco asked.
"We're in Tree Hill as in One Tree Hill."
Draco and Ron groaned. "Lovely, we're in your favourite television show."
"It has his upsides," Hermione said grinning suddenly as two boys were coming over to the court. Both were wearing sleeveless shirts which showed off their muscles nicely. The one on the left had dark brown hair and a quite square face but even that couldn't not make him attractive. The other boy, the smaller of the two, had dark blond hair and the most dreamy and clear blue eyes ever. He was holding a basketball.
The two boys walked over to them, observing them as they came closer.
"You're not from around here, are you?" the taller one asked.
"Not quite no," Hermione answered.
"Ah, you're from England," the smaller one said, grinning. "What brings you here?"
"These three idiots here did." Hermione said brightly, pointing at her three friends who all looked sheepish. The two boys looked confused but since she didn't further explain, dropped it.
"I'm Nathan," the taller one started, "This is my half brother, Lucas."
"I'm Hermione. That's Ron, Harry and Draco." Hermione said, pointing at each one of her friends.
"Weird names you guys have but cool." Lucas said grinning, "Want to play basketball with us?"
"What's basketball?" Draco hissed to Hermione.
"Would you mind if we just watched?" she asked, ignoring Draco for the time being, "We're all quite tired from our trip."
"Sure thing. Where's all your stuff, where are you staying?"
"We got robbed," Hermione lied quickly, "Everything got stolen. As for where we're staying, no idea."
Lucas and Nathan exchanged a look. "Don't worry, we'll figure something out." Nathan said grinning.
The three boys and Hermione went to sit at the picnic table which was next to the court and watched the two boys play basketball. Hermione in the meanwhile explained basketball to Draco and Ron. Both were in complete awe. They were amazed at how well both boys were playing. So was Hermione. Of course she had seen it countless times on the show but it was different to see them play right in front of her.
It was weird being here though because she knew it was just a television show with actors yet there were Nathan and Lucas, playing basketball. There were no cameras in sight. It was weird but she decided she quite liked it. But still it wasn't possible, unless …
About half an hour after the boys had started, they stopped and came over to them, breathing heavily. Their arms were shiny with sweat, their shirts wet but they looked damn good. Hermione was in heaven. Ron, on the other hand, didn't seem the like the fact that his girlfriend was pretty much leering at the boys. Harry and Draco could see what Hermione saw in them though. The dark one was completely Draco's type while the blonde one was more Harry's.
"Nice game," Harry said.
Nathan grinned, "Thanks. Now, if you follow us, we'll drop you off at Karen's café-"
"Karen's my mom," Lucas interrupted.
"Right, and then we'll sort something out for you guys."
They walked through the streets, Hermione looking everywhere, recognizing places and generally looking stunned at the beauty of the town. They could see the café from a distance. It looked even more cosy in reality. Yet, she noticed some things from different from in the show which only proved to convince her that they were not in the show, not exactly.
Upon entering the café, the four of them liked it even more. It wasn't the biggest of places but the space was well used. The counter was at the back of the space. There were round tables on their left and right and a piano at their left. Behind the counter, was a huge map with names of famous people.
"Seat yourselves over there;" Lucas said, pointing to a table on their right, "And we'll be right back."
The four sat down and the brothers walked over to the woman behind the counter.
"This place is pretty cool but any idea how we are going to get back?" Harry asked.
"No and if I'm right, time here won't effect the time in our world so when we get back, no time will have passed. I read that somewhere in a book about parallel universes." She had come to that conclusion, that must be it.
"But how is this a parallel universe? We're in our bloody television!" Draco exclaimed.
"Well, not exactly. If we were, we would have to see some kind of sign of that, like something that would look like a screen in the sky which isn't the case. I believe we were transported to the actual Tree Hill, not the fictional version which we see on television. We're in a reality which lives outside of television."
"Too confusing," Ron mumbled, groaning as he softly banged his head on the table.
"Not really. People believe that there are universes parallel to ours with the same time and people that go about their every day live and think that their world is the real one. Knowing that, we could of course say that there is no such thing as a real world and that things never really exist. Some people actually think ghosts are people from another world, not death people but people who somehow managed to transport their energy to another world and people seeing them just see or interpret them as a lost relative." Hermione explained, getting a bit side tracked.
"But we didn't transport our energy here, we transported our entire being here!" Harry said and risked a glance over at Nathan and Lucas. They were still talking to the woman, presumably Karen.
"Yes, because of the spell that somehow backfired."
"Okay, okay, let's get something straight. We're in the real Tree Hill, a parallel universe where these people exist because of a television show?" Draco asked, looking so confused that Harry would've laughed if he himself wasn't so very confused.
"No. It would be best to argue that the television shows exist because of the parallel universe."
"Do explain," Harry said, rubbing his eyes as he felt a headache come up.
"You could argue that people sense something from a parallel universe and get an idea. They see it in their mind's eye and think it's their own idea."
"How can we get out of here?" Draco asked tiredly. He didn't want to hear anymore about the whole parallel universe thing because it was making him tired to try and grasp everything Hermione was saying.
"Not sure but we'll have to try to reverse the spell somehow."
"Still one question though." Harry said suddenly, "You said this time here doesn't effect our time but the time here is the same as ours. Doesn't that mean it should effect our time?"
Hermione smiled, "Well, no. If there was a connection between our time and this time, then it would be night here as well which is not yet the case."
"Let's just drop it," Ron suggested.
"No, one more thing," Harry said, "They knew we where from England."
"Nothing says that the worlds can't be the same. They just have other people with other identities. If we would go look for our apartment in this world, we won't find us there. We'll find other people there or perhaps even an entirely different building."
At that time, Nathan and Lucas returned to them along with the woman. Ron was glad for that. If he heard one more word about parallel universes, he would scream.
"Guys, this is my mother, Karen."
The four introduced themselves and shook hands with Karen. She had a friendly smile on her face and she had kind eyes. She was definitely not unattractive.
"I understand that you have no place to stay and no clothes?"
"That's correct." Hermione said.
"Until you figure something out, you can always come eat here on the house."
"Oh no, we can't accept that." Harry said. They couldn't.
"Sure you can." Karen said smiling, "It's perfectly fine. I'm making enough money to give away free meals. My business partner, Nathan's mother Deb won't mind."
"As for a place to stay, I called a friend of ours, Brooke Davis. She lives in a big house and her parents are almost always away. She'll be here in a few to decide whether or not to let you guys stay with her. Don't worry, she's perfectly nice. She will let you stay with her." Lucas told, smiling reassuringly.
A few seconds later, three girls entered the café. One girl had long dark brown hair. She had brown eyes and full red lips. She was very slim and just looked like your typical hot cheerleader. The second girl had curly blonde hair. She wore kind of dark clothes. The third girl had light brown-blond ish hair. She looked the most innocent of the three.
"Guys, meet Brooke, Peyton and Haley." Nathan said, indicating the girls, "Girls, these are Hermione, Draco, Ron and Harry."
"Interesting names you have," Brooke said studying each of them before she went over to Lucas and kissed him. They could see Peyton look a bit sad but she got herself under control quickly. Haley went over to Nathan and he wrapped his arms around her.
"Where are you from?" Brooke asked.
"We're from London in England." Hermione answered.
"That would explain the stupid accent."
Haley rolled her eyes. "Don't mind her. She's pissed off because daddy won't give her any more money than she's already getting."
Brooke huffed, "I do not get a lot of money."
"Brooke, they're okay. Let them stay at your place. Do it for me?" Lucas pleaded with his girlfriend.
Brooke grinned, "Anything for you." She turned to the foursome. "Fine, you can stay. Any idea when you'll be leaving?"
"Brooke!" Peyton exclaimed, shooting her friend a dark look.
"What? That's a normal question!"
"It's a rude one!" Peyton shot back. Brooke rolled her eyes.
"We appreciate it, Brooke." Hermione said before Brooke could retort.
"My pleasure." Brooke said cheerfully, "And of course I don't mind that you're staying at my place! Everything to help out foreigners we know nothing about."
"Brooke!" Yelled four voices at the same time.
"What? I was kidding!"
Evening fell over Tree Hill. The Trio, Draco, Haley, Peyton, Brooke and the brothers were at Brooke's. They were all having dinner together and generally having a good time. They drank some beers and just talked. Draco, Hermione, Harry and Ron always had to be careful about what they said though because they didn't know this world. They didn't know whether things were the same but it went okay. It was mostly the Tree Hill residents talking anyway.
They went to bed late. Hermione and Ron shared a room, as did Harry and Draco. The boys hadn't told the Tree Hill youth about their relationship because they weren't sure whether that was accepted here or not.
Morning dawned soon. Harry and Draco woke up in each other's arms.
"Morning," Draco whispered, pressing a kiss on Harry's forehead. Harry grinned and leaned up to properly kiss his boyfriend. He swung a leg over Draco's and ran a hand over Draco's muscular chest. Draco let out a soft moan and slid a hand in Harry's silky soft hair. They made out for several minutes before abruptly breaking apart as they heard noises in the hallway. They quickly created some distance between them and right on time to as Brooke burst in.
"Rise and shine, boys!" she said cheerfully, "Breakfast is served."
She left the room as soon as she had entered and they heard her say the same in the room next to theirs which was Ron and Hermione's room.
"That one's crazy." Harry muttered as he got up. Draco snickered and put his hands behind his head watching Harry as he got dressed. Harry noticed and smirked.
"I bet you rather have that I was undressing now instead of getting dressed."
"Ah, you can read my mind!" Draco said grinning and he got up, grabbing his clothes and getting dressed as well.
They headed downstairs and found Lucas and Brooke making out. Harry coughed and the couple broke apart, Lucas blushing slightly and Brooke not looking the least bit bothered.
"Slept well?" Lucas asked as Draco and Harry took place around the table. Harry and Draco both nodded. Brooke put a plate of pancakes on the table.
"Dig in!" she said cheerfully. They were joined by Hermione and Ron at that time and the six ate breakfast together in silence.
Afterwards, they headed over to Karen's café where they were going to meet Nathan, Haley and Peyton. Ron had tried to convince his girlfriend that it would be best for them to figure out a way to get home and Hermione had reassured him she was doing her best to come up with something but they all had the feeling Hermione was actually enjoying being here.
The six of them where the first to arrive. Karen all gave them something to drink, paid for by Brooke and Lucas who said they couldn't really let Karen pay for everything. That just proved to make Hermione feel slightly guilty. She wished there was a way to pay them back but she didn't have a clue how and where they would get dollars (they seemed to be using that too).
A few minutes later, Nathan and Haley arrived, followed a few minutes later by Peyton. Apart from all of them, the café was empty. The morning rush had quieted down, considering people where now at their work. It was a Saturday so the youth didn't have school. It was too good weather to sit inside though so they were planning what they were going to do.
"We could all go to the basketball court." Nathan suggested. Lucas nodded his head.
"And watch you guys play basketball again? I didn't think so. We see it enough already." Brooke answered.
"I'm with her," Haley said and Peyton nodded.
"I vote for a shopping spree!" Brooke suggested, clapping her hands excitedly.
'Impossible. We don't have any money." Hermione said carefully.
"Oh, right."
Ron wasn't really following the conversation. He just wanted to go back home. He had no idea how to though. He wished he could read Hermione's mind to make sure she wasn't holding anything back but Occlumency wasn't his strongest point and he wouldn't really be able to do it without using his wand which was at the moment quite impossible.
He watched as a 25 years old man entered. His hands were shoved in the front pockets of a black sweater. He looked around, looked at their table and then looked at Karen who was on the phone. He walked over to the counter, Ron's eyes following him. The man waited until Karen had gotten off the phone and before Ron could react, shout something, he pulled out a gun and fired a warning shot at the ceiling.
Brooke screamed and scared eyes turned to watch the man.
"You," the man started pointing his gun at Nathan, "Close the blinds."
Nathan got up and did as he was told, all the while keeping his eyes on the man. They could see he was trying to see if there was any way he could get to the man without being shot but there really wasn't any. They sat at the same table they had sat before which was near the door and a bit too far from the counter. He finished closing the blinds and sat back down, reaching for Haley's hands and giving it a squeeze.
"I want the girls to come over here!" he barked.
"They're staying here." Draco said, sending the man once of his ice cold glares which usually send everyone running.
"Don't make me shoot you!" the man yelled and they could see how his hand was shaking. He obviously was scared which meant he was more dangerous than someone who knew what he was doing.
Hermione got up first and Brooke, Haley and Peyton followed. Hermione wasn't all that scared. She had faced worse. If necessary, she could still grab her wand and curse the guy. She just hoped that Harry, Ron and Draco wouldn't draw theirs. Otherwise they would have a lot of explaining to do. Brooke, Haley and Peyton on the other hand were scared and Peyton the most. They were all thinking back to when Jimmy, a classmate had accidentally shot Peyton in the leg and had held Haley, Nathan and other students hostage in the tutor centre of the school. Lucas's uncle had been killed and the memories were still engraved in their memories. They still had nightmares about that day.
The four girls sat around a table, near the counter and were joined by a pale looking Karen. The hostage taker stood beside the table.
"Any funny business from you guys and one of these girls will get shot!" the man said. The boys nodded. Hermione could see Ron's hand going towards his wand. She caught his eyes and shook her head.
"What do you want?" Karen asked, "Take the money and go!"
"Ah no, it won't be that easy," the man said with an insane grin on his face. "I want revenge."
"Why? On who?" Harry asked.
"Shh," Nathan hissed.
"Doesn't matter on who and the why doesn't matter either!"
"You're holding us hostage, don't you think we have a right to know?" Harry asked conversationally. If he could deal with Voldemort and crazy Death Eaters, he could deal with a gunman who was most likely not going to shoot anyway. He couldn't be more wrong. The bullet flew right over his head. It shocked him into a shocked silence, as he'd never been shot at before and drove Draco out of his.
"Listen here, you whack job! Let us go or you will regret ever coming here in the first place!" Draco was very tempted to reach for his wand but at Hermione's shake of her head, didn't. He would next time if he fired off a round though. Someone was going to get injured like this.
The man smirked. "I would watch your words if I were you. I would hate to have to hurt one of these pretty ladies over here." He said as he ran a hand through Brooke's hair. She jerked away from him, looking scared which made Lucas shoot into action. He jumped off his chair.
"Leave her alone!"
"Djeezus, you guys are so noble, all looking out for each other and everything. Makes me want to become trigger happy so do cut it out. And sit back down!"
Lucas sat back down, glaring.
"What do you want? There must be something you want?" Hermione asked kindly.
"Revenge."
"By doing what? By holding us hostage all day and then let us walk?" Came Nathan's voice from the boys' table.
"No, by killing you one by one. What a lovely statement would that make. But first…" He trailed off and got behind the counter. He grabbed the phone.
"Tree Hill police? Yes, I would like to report that several people are being held hostage within Karen's café … How do I know this? Well, I'm the hostage taker of course." He laughed and hung up.
"We've got to do something." Nathan hissed to the other four boys. He kept an eye on the guy who was studying the girls so that he didn't really notice they were talking. If the guy touched Haley, though, he'd throw himself at that man. No one touched his wife.
"We can't do a thing," Lucas replied. The three wizards exchanged a look. There was something they could do but they were thinking the same as Hermione. The police would be there soon, perhaps they'd be able to do something without them having to expose themselves and risk getting distrusted all of a sudden.
"If one of the girls distract him, we can rush him!"
"Bad plan," Harry hissed, "Wait for the police."
"We can't!"
"We can and we will. Look, if he sees any of us move, he'll shoot, don't doubt that and that won't help us any." Harry replied.
Nathan and Lucas had to nod.
Over at the girls' table, Hermione was very tempted to just curse the guy now. He did not like the way he was looking at her. He didn't at all but as long as he didn't do anything, she wouldn't do anything.
"I might as well tell you all why I'm doing this, you won't live to tell. Three years ago, my girlfriend got shot by the police. She'd been running from them and made the mistake of wanting to pull out her cell phone. They thought it was a gun and shot her, just like that! Now, I'm going to make them pay by killing innocent people as well, starting with the girls. Or perhaps I should only shoot the girls, make them feel the loss."
"I'm sorry about what happened but you can' t go murdering us."
"I can. My girlfriend came to me last night and told me that I should get my revenge. I'd do everything for her, I'll do anything she wants me to do, I'd die for her." He sounded so insane that Hermione honestly thought that he'd start laughing and that then all of a sudden lightning would strike. He stayed calm though, well as calm as he could be.
"You remind me of her," he said indicating Hermione. "You're just as pretty, just as smart too. I can tell. Perhaps I should take you with me."
"The hell you will!" Ron burst out. The man turned to look at him and grinned.
"Ah, the boyfriend I presume? How sweet."
Hermione shook her head at Ron as she was once more saw him reach for his wand. Ron looked pissed, she could tell. Even from a bit of a distance, she could see his ears go red which was never a good sign.
A few seconds later, they heard police sirens come closer. The man smiled. "It's nearly show time. Now with who shall I start?" He looked at Brooke first. The girl looked downright scared but still pretty, always pretty. Then he looked at Hermione, the one who reminded him of his girl. He didn't think he could shoot her. Then he looked at Haley, she didn't really look scared, brave that one. Then he looked at Peyton who was simply glaring. Typical. Last he looked at Karen who looked pale but otherwise okay. Perhaps he should start off with a boy.
He looked at Nathan, star basketball player. Yes, he knew him well. Son of Dan Scott. Next he looked at Lucas. Then at Ron who looked furious. It was fun to see. Then at Harry. He didn't look particularly interested. Last he looked at Draco who was hanging in his chair, glaring coldly. He ought to take the blonde one.
"You! Get up and come over here."
Draco got up calmly, gave his boyfriend a reassuring smile and walked until he was only a few feet away from the man.
Outside, the sirens had stopped. He could tell they were outside, assessing the situation. They'd get into action when they heard a shot being fired.
He noticed the change in the room. All the girls were now looking a bit scared, scared for the blonde, not for themselves. Four boys had tensed up completely. The only one looking utterly worried was the raven haired one. A small smile spread over his face.
"Well, well. I hadn't seen that one coming."
"What?" Draco sneered, crossing his arms but feeling his heart thump wildly. He stupidly enough had forgotten his wand at Brooke's house, had figured he didn't need it. Of course he should've known by now to never go anywhere without a wand.
"You and raven haired boy over there are a couple, aren't you? He's the only one looking downright scared."
"What if we are?"
"Well, see, I hate fags. It's not natural."
Nathan and Lucas were watching Harry with an expression of shock, luckily not with one of disgust.
"Got a problem with that?" Ron hissed, glaring. The brothers quickly shook their heads.
The man raised his gun, everyone thought he was going to shoot Draco. Hermione reached for her wand. The man's back was pretty much turned towards her. But she wasn't fast enough. The man took aim and Draco braced himself but before he knew, he had changed his aim, pointing his gun at Harry instead. Before anyone could react; a bullet left his gun and as in slow motion, it shot towards a petrified Harry who didn't move quick enough. By the time the bullet struck Harry in the chest, creating a fountain of red, Hermione had shot up from her chair, wand pointed. A beam of red light hit the guy and he fell.
The room was frozen for a second and then a lot of things happened at once. Draco, Ron and Hermione ran over to Harry who was losing blood rapidly. Nathan and Lucas had jumped up, opening the blinds while Karen and Haley ran into kitchen, going for water and a towel. Brooke and Peyton had also hurried over to Harry.
"What was that beam?" Brooke asked, "What did you do to him? Not that I mind all that much, considering he was threatening to kill us all."
"We'll explain later," Hermione said, "But don't tell anyone! Say he just fell over."
Brooke and Peyton nodded. Meanwhile, Draco had pulled out his shirt and was pushing it against Harry's wound, hoping to stop the bleeding. Harry moaned weakly as he pushed too hard. It seemed hopeless, blood was just pouring out of the wound, over his clothes and Draco's hands.
Nathan and Lucas had already gone outside, saying they needed an ambulance. Police came in, cuffing the frozen up man and taking him away. Karen and Haley returned from the kitchen. Haley handed Draco several towels. Ron took one and took over from Draco, pushing it on the wound.
Draco stared at his in blood drenched hands, then stared at Harry's incredibly pale face. He could pretty much see life flowing out of Harry.
"Hermione," he pleaded.
"I don't know!" she said, sounding close to hysterics. Panicking wasn't making her mind any clearer but she just didn't know. She couldn't just close the wound because the bullet was still in Harry, had possible hit something fatal. She didn't know any healing spell that could fix this and it frustrated her. Magic had never failed her before.
"Wash your hands," Haley said to Draco, placing a hand on his shoulder. Draco stared up at her but didn't really see her. He nodded his head and pushed his hands into the bowl of water, rubbing of the blood slowly. It was clear that he was in shock. They had survived the war. Harry just couldn't die here, in a parallel universe where they had ended up by accident. It just couldn't be. He just wished he would wake up and realize it had all been a bad dream but he realized he wouldn't.
They heard more approaching sirens and a few seconds later, he was being pulled aside by Hermione. Paramedics rushed past him and to Harry. Draco stared as they worked on trying to stop the bleeding so that they could transport him. They asked what Harry's blood group was and Draco answered.
"Go with the ambulance," Hermione said, squeezing his shoulder. He looked at her. She looked just as scared as he felt. He nodded numbly and before he knew it, he was sitting in the ambulance. The journey to the hospital passed rather fast and a few minutes later, he was alone in the waiting room. He guessed that the others were giving their statement but he wished they would hurry hear. He wasn't really in any state to be alone. He wanted to be with Harry now but he couldn't. He had vaguely heard the paramedics tell him to wait here for news. Well, he hated waiting and even more so when he was alone.
He rested his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands. Why did bad stuff always had to happen to them? Why couldn't they just be left alone for once? Why couldn't they have a normal relationship?
It was about an hour later that Hermione and Ron along with Nathan, Lucas, Peyton, Brooke and Haley arrived. Ron and Hermione sat down on either side of them while the other remained standing.
"Any news?"
Draco shook his head, unable to speak. He was afraid that if he would speak he'd either scream or cry, he didn't know which one.
"Now might not be the best time to ask but what was with that red beam?" Lucas asked. Hermione sighed and exchanged a look with her friends. Ron shrugged and Draco gave her a small nod.
Hermione looked around first. They were alone in the waiting room and the hallway seemed to be fairly deserted. "That was the result of a spell. I'm a witch, my friends are wizards. We can perform magic, using a wand." She took out hers and showed it to them. Their eyes went wide.
"That's pretty cool. What else can you do?"
"Loads of things but we can't show you now." Hermione answered. They looked a bit disappointed but they shouldn't risk exposing themselves even more.
"What did that spell do?"
"It causes someone to completely freeze up." Ron answered.
"So you paralyse him?" Nathan asked.
Hermione nodded, "Yeah. It wears off after a while though."
"I read about witches and wizards," Haley spoke up. "Do you go to a school too?"
"Yes, Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Also, we might have not been completely honest." Hermione said. She might as well tell them everything.
"About what?" Brooke asked.
Hermione sighed and started explaining how they had gotten here. She said that they were literally from another world similar to this one but didn't mention they had been watching One Tree Hill on television. That might be a bit too much.
"Let me get this straight, the four of you ended up here from your own world because a spell backfired?" Peyton asked, raising an eyebrow.
Ron nodded. "To make things worse, we don't really know how to get back and now with Harry having been shot, we might have to stick around for a bit longer."
"No problem." Brooke said, "You're still welcome. You pretty much saved us. I'm not claiming I'm not completely freaked out by everything I've heard but you all seem honest enough not to be lying about this."
"Thanks," Hermione said gratefully.
"As for getting back, can't you reverse the spell? Try it again?" Lucas suggested.
Hermione shook her head. "If someone indeed didn't pronounce the spell the right way, it's fairly impossible to try that again but reversing the spell might work."
"What do you mean?" Ron asked now confused.
"Saying the spell backwards."
"And since when does that work? Why not use Finite Incantatem?" Ron asked.
"Because I don't know if that spell is strong enough to reverse something like this."
"What if me, Draco and Harry each say it?"
"It's worth a shot, I guess." Hermione said thoughtful. Could it be this easy?
"Draco, he'll be fine," Haley said to Draco suddenly. Draco looked up at her and managed a weak smile. Hermione took his hand. The Tree Hill youth eventually sat down too. They waited and waited. Time passed agonizingly slow.
Draco didn't allow himself to think that Harry might not survive. He just had to.
It was a few hours later when a doctor came in. Everyone spoke at once, asking how he was.
"It looked bad for a while but we managed to remove the bullet. It didn't hit anything vital which is a miracle. He lost a lot of blood but we've been giving him blood transfusions ever since arriving. He's not yet out of the danger zone but so far, everything's going good."
Relieve swept through all of them. Draco who had gotten up sank back down in his chair. "Can we see him?" His voice cracked.
"Not yet, I'm afraid. He's in ICU now and tomorrow morning he will be transported to a normal room. Then you'll be able to see him. I suggest you all go home and come back tomorrow."
They thanked the doctor. Hermione was faced with the impossible task to try to convince Draco to go home. It was only after a lot of whining from everyone that he decided that they were right.
Upon arriving in Brooke's house, he went to take a shower as suggested. The warm water ran over his body and he felt himself relax. A tear ran down his cheek and mixed with the water. More tears came. He had been so close to losing Harry today. He could've lost him. He washed while he just let the tears flow. He could best get it out of his system at once.
15 minutes later, he came downstairs again, dressed in clothes belonging to Lucas and feeling a whole lot better. He was still worried sick about Harry but Brooke had given her home number and had told the nurse to call them as soon as something happened. It allowed Draco to relax a bit.
Hermione went to take a shower after him and then Ron took a shower. Lucas, Nathan and Haley had gone home to shower but promised to come over as soon as they were done. Brooke showered as last.
At ten pm; they were gathered in Brooke's living room. They were talking and laughing a bit but it was clear that they were all still a bit in shock from what had happened. Everyone was also worried about Harry.
"Show us some magic." Nathan said.
Draco grinned at Hermione and she rolled her eyes. She took out her wand.
"What I'm about to show you is my Patronus." She quickly explained what it was and why it was used.
"Expecto Patronum!" A silvery otter flowed out of her wand. The three grinned at the shocked and awed expression of the other teenagers.
"That's so cool and so pretty!" Brooke exclaimed. The otter flew around her.
Draco, Ron and Hermione took turns in showing them some magic. They knew it was forbidden but this wasn't their world and they knew the others wouldn't tell. They had gone through an ordeal together, a short one but still an ordeal and it created a bond.
They went to bed around midnight.
Draco was the first to wake back up. They hadn't had a call from the hospital so he considered that to be a good sign. He got up and went to wake everyone else. Everyone had stayed at Brooke's. They'd all wanted to stay together.
An hour later, Draco, Hermione and Ron were back at the hospital. Lucas had dropped them off and then went to his mother to check up on her. She'd stayed over at her boyfriend's place. Lucas would come pick them up an hour later. The three of them had told the others to stay at the house. There wasn't any point in all of them going.
They got the room number and entered the room. Harry was hooked up to all kinds of machines and it made Draco's heart ache. He sat down and took Harry's hand. The boy stirred and sleepily opened his eyes.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Draco asked, smiling a bit.
"Not to bad but then again, I'm on painkillers," he said chuckling. Ron and Hermione grinned.
"You had us scared, Harry." Hermione said. Harry looked at her and did his best to shrug.
"I've faced worse than that. Is everyone else okay?
"Yeah, just shaken up and we had to tell them everything. I had to stupefy the guy."
Harry nodded, "Fair enough." He sighed and closed his eyes. "Any idea when I get out of here?"
"That won't be for too soon, I'm afraid." Said the doctor from the door. He smiled at them. Draco moved out of the way so that the doctor could examine Harry.
"It's good that you're awake. The wound looks clean, that's good too. A nurse will come in to change the bandage soon. We'll decide later on how long you'll have to stay but it will be a couple of days due to the nature of the wound."
Harry made a face. "Lovely."
The doctor smiled and left.
"I just want to go home. Any ideas on how?"
"Well, we're not leaving before the doctor clears you, that's for sure. And yeah, we have a couple of ideas." Hermione answered. "Hey, Ron, let's go get a cup of coffee."
"No, I'm fine." Ron answered but when he caught his girlfriend's look, changed his mind. They left the room.
Harry grinned at Draco, "No need to look so down. I'm okay."
"I could've lost you."
"But you didn't. I'm still here, see?" Harry answered. He reached out and stroke Draco's cheek. Draco nodded and leaned in to softly kiss his boyfriend.
It was a week later and Harry was finally released. Brooke had offered to pay for the hospital costs since they couldn't pay for it themselves and they had grudgingly given in. They didn't like being in debt with someone they would never see again but Brooke shrugged it off. Lucas, Nathan, Peyton and Haley had all agreed to pay Brooke back so that she didn't have to pay for it herself.
For the past week, Draco had been more in the hospital than elsewhere. Ron and Hermione had gone a lot too but on Harry's orders had hung out with their new friends too. Harry hadn't been able to convince Draco to join them because he stubbornly refused every time. They were all glad when the week was over though.
Haley, Peyton, Brooke, Nathan and Lucas had gone visit Harry plenty too and the five realized their lives would from now on never be the same anymore. They had tried to work something out with Hermione so that they could stay in touch but Hermione had no idea on how to do that. It was kind of sad for everyone.
So when it was evening and Hermione, Draco, Ron and Harry were about to try to get back, the mood was sad. The foursome sat in the middle of the room while the others stood a fair distance away so that they wouldn't be transported back by accident. They had said goodbye a few a minutes earlier. It had been a bit emotional.
Also, the four still felt guilty for having nothing to pay them with but they had all said they were even now.
Hermione took one last look at the five teens. Brooke and Haley were teary eyes, Peyton looked sad and so did Nathan and Lucas. Hermione gave them a smile and then turned to the three boys.
"Go ahead." She said.
"Finite Incantatem." Ron said pointing his wand at a deck of cards in the middle of them.
"Finite Incantatem." Draco said, pointing his wand too.
"Finite Incantatem." Harry finished. There was a familiar explosion and white light surrounded them. Next they knew, they were sitting back on the couch. One Tree Hill just started again.
They looked at each, stunned.
"Did that all just happen?" Ron asked, looking at himself and then the time. They had been gone for a week, yet not a minute had passed.
"It did and I've got the scar to prove it," Harry said.
"What's this?" Draco asked, looking at the envelope in his lap. He took it and opened it. Out fell several letters and photos of them all together and some of just the five teens. The letters all said the same at the end: don't forget us, we won't forget you.
Hermione smiled and before she knew it, was crying. She wanted to go back, she missed them already. She watched the television screen and there they were, yet it wasn't them. The people on the screen were actors, not the real people they had met. When she looked closely, she could see some differences between the actors and the real life people. It was weird.
Ron wrapped her arms around his girlfriend. They decided that they should see the show every Saturday to honour them, to feel connected with them.
Meanwhile, in the parallel universe, the five teens stared at the spot where their four friends had just disappeared.
"Do you think they got back to where they were from?" Brooke asked, wrapping her arms around herself. Lucas nodded.
"I'm sure they did."
"Do you think we will ever see them again?" Haley asked.
"No," Nathan answered resolutely, "Definitely not. They've gone back to their world now. They won't be able to return."
"Too bad," Peyton said. The five them just stared at the spot where the others had disappeared. Brooke later on discovered letters on their beds, thanking them again, reminding them it had not been a dream. She smiled sadly.
The end
Hi! I hope you enjoyed this! I definitely enjoyed writing it, it's different from what I usually write so yeah. Review!