Nick Cleveland and the Coven of Lancre

Nick Cleveland and the Coven of Lancre

by Technomad

(All Harry Potter characters are © J.K. Rowling, all Discworld characters are © Sir Terry Pratchett, all Slytherin Rising characters are © J.L. Matthews.)

Hogwarts Castle, Scotland, Earth

"What are you doing, Nicholas?"

Nick Cleveland looked up from his project and smiled. "Hi, Luna. I'm working on this for extra credit in Charms. Care to keep me company?"

"I'd love to. I always like being around you, Nicholas." The blonde second-year sat down beside him, watching his every move with wide eyes. "Is that a Portkey you're fiddling with?"

"Sure is. Basically, what I'm doing is going into the essentials of what makes a Portkey work---deconstructing the charms from the ground up, to see how they work and if they can be improved. One thing I've noticed over the years is that when we---wizards and witches---think something's good enough, we often don't improve it. They don't do things that way in the Muggle world, and I think we could use more of that attitude."

"Oh." Luna settled in companionably, watching as Nick narrowed his eyes, concentrating fiercely on his work. The sixth-year was known for an inventive streak; he had set world records for altitude and speed on brooms in his second year, using brooms that he had designed and built, with the help of the rest of their House. Since then, he had gone on to invent quite a few things, from self-cleaning nappies to a quill that worked by its user thinking at it. By now, he had amassed a fair amount in his Gringotts' account, and several employers were bidding for his services once he left Hogwarts.

"Let me see---what if I did---" Nick muttered, absorbed in his work. Suddenly a flash of pink light erupted, and he threw the Portkey away from himself. "Bugger---something's gone wrong! Luna, get out of---"

Then the castle disappeared from around them.

Lancre, the Discworld

When he stopped being dazzled, Nick looked around. He was in what looked very like a temperate-zone forest, an environment he was quite familiar with; he had spent much of his childhood in one or another remote part of the North American continent, watching as his parents researched Native American magic or dealt with various nasty occult beings. His wand was in his hand, and he instinctively brought it up to guard position, just as he had learned in his duelling classes.

Not far away, Luna was lying on a beach near a body of water; as he watched, she shook her head hard, sat up, and looked around, her silvery eyes wide with wonder. "Something went wrong, didn't it, Nicholas?"

"Something did, little one," Nick answered, concentrating hard on trying to detect anything hostile in the vicinity. He couldn't sense anything, but he was still extremely unnerved. He had never expected anything like what had happened, and neither had Professor Flitwick, or he'd have never been given permission to conduct his experiments. "Do you have your wand here?"

Luna felt her left forearm, where she kept it in a sheath, ready for a quick draw. "Yes, I do. Shall I take it out?"

"No, not yet. I don't think there's anything too dangerous about, but I wanted to make sure you could cast spells if needs be. I don't know where we are, and just about anything could be living here."

"I wonder what's in that water?" asked Luna. Before Nick could stop her, she wandered over by the edge of the water, dipped her finger in, and tasted it. "It's fresh, at least. So we won't die of thirst."

"Good." Nick was very worried, but didn't want to let on that he was worried in front of Luna. He was very protective of the younger girl---he tended to see her as a sort of little-sister figure---and didn't want to upset her. Not that upsetting Luna Lovegood was easy. She was one of the calmest people Nick knew.

"Let's look around. Stay close, and keep your eyes peeled. I don't want to run into something dangerous unexpectedly." With that, Nick got up and began exploring the vicinity. His wand was out, and he strained every sense he had to its utmost. While the scene seemed serene, he was quite well aware that there were quite a few large predatory animals that were native to areas like the one they were now in, and many of those would consider a witch and wizard to be tasty snacks.

They were near the edge of what looked to be a large, slow-moving river, with a sandy beach by the bank. At one side of the beach, a stone overhang looked to Nick like a handy place to shelter, if they were stuck there overnight. Around them, a forest stretched. Nick could identify elm, ash, oak and other trees readily enough, and from the lack of undergrowth, this forest hadn't ever been cleared, or at least not recently.

"I don't think there's anybody else here, Nick," commented Luna. "I don't see any signs of people, do you?"

"No, sweetie, I don't. Just the same, we're going to be careful. I have no idea where we are; do you?"

Luna considered the question carefully, finally shaking her head. "No, I don't think I've ever been here before."

"So it'd be better to be too careful rather than not careful enough. Understand?"

"All right, Nick. Do you think we could try to find something to eat? I'm hungry!"

Nick thought about it for a few seconds. "I'll bet there are fish in that river. Summoning Charms won't work on them---I tried it once, and it didn't work well---but I can rig some fishing gear right quick."

Taking out his pocketknife, the Ravenclaw bent to work. He cut some long, straight branches, and whittled them into shape to make fishing poles. He hummed tunelessly to himself as he worked, finally nodding and picking up the poles. They looked crude, but would do---he had selected the branches for flexibility and strength. "Now for some string," muttered Nick. He looked around, and his eyes lit up when he saw a willow tree not far away. "Ah, there we go!" He pointed his wand, and willow-withes came tumbling out of the tree, to be gathered up and laid end-to-end. Another spell, and they had become lengths of strong string.

Luna watched, wide-eyed with wonder. "Nick...how is it that you know so much about these things?"

Nick grinned. "You know I spent a long time traipsing around one wilderness or another with my parents, either because they were investigating Native American magic or North American magical beasties, don't you?" Luna nodded. "Well---a lot of times, I was left behind with the locals. Their elders just couldn't bear seeing a child and not teaching him, so I picked up a lot of tricks for wilderness living from them. Now watch as I show you how to make fishhooks!"

He cut some smaller pieces of wood, and began carving until they were fairly crude hooks. "This is where being magical comes in handy," he remarked; "the people I learned a lot of these stunts from couldn't do Transfiguration. I'm no great shakes at it myself, but this, I can do!" He waved his wand and muttered a spell, and the crude wooden hooks he had carved transformed into fine-quality metal fishhooks.

"What'll you do for bait, Nicholas?"

"Good question, that. Have you any food on you?"

"Why---yes, I do." Luna delved into one of her pockets, and came out with a half-eaten sandwich. "But I don't think fish like vegemite---"

"No more do I," interjected Nick. "What I want to do is take a chunk of that and turn it into something fish will go for---if that's all right with you?" At Luna's nod, he carefully peeled off a piece of the sandwich, and a few minutes later, it had been Transfigured into a chunk of raw liver.

"Couldn't you transfigure just anything into that, Nick?" asked Luna, reclaiming her sandwich and taking a hearty bite, as Nick shuddered. "I mean---there's lots of scraps of wood about, you know."

"I do know, Luna. However---I told you already I'm no great shakes at Transfiguration. Transfiguring one edible thing into another is a lot less complicated than transfiguring something non-edible into something edible. Now---let's be off to the water and see what we catch!"

Several hours later, they had a catch of four fine fat trout and a smallmouth bass, and Nick was showing Luna how to clean them. Luna was country-raised, and caught on very quickly. After they got done with preparing the fish, Nick spitted them neatly on sticks he had whittled, and looked around for some firewood.

As the fish slowly cooked over the fire Nick had built, Nick looked up at the sky. It looked as though evening was coming on, although something was different about the sun that he couldn't put his finger on. He pulled off his cloak. "Luna, give me your cloak, please."

Luna trustingly handed the garment over; it had been very cool at Hogwarts when they had left, and they had both been wearing cloaks over their robes, over street clothes. Where they now were, it was warm enough that cloaks and robes were superfluous, at least in daytime. The weather was clear, and if Nick was any judge, it was springtime.

Pointing his wand, he muttered "Transfiguro Sagum Magis," and his cloak expanded, growing shaggier and shaggier, until it was a buffalo-hide robe. Nick nodded, and did the same thing to Luna's cloak.

"Why did you do that, Nicholas?"

"Night's coming on, and it might get cold. Come to it, we'd best start thinking about beds for ourselves. I know some charms that'll keep wildlife, if there is any here, at bay, and it doesn't look or smell to me like it's going to rain tonight, but we'll need somewhere to sleep. I want to stay close around here, since if they figure out what happened, they'll come looking for us and I want us to be easy to find."

"Oh." Luna accepted this calmly, as she did everything else. Nick had never known anybody with her serenity, and secretly rather envied her. He concealed a hot temper and Machiavellian disposition behind a mask of courtesy, but had been known to lose control of his temper, spectacularly.

Luna pointed at the fire. "Aren't those fish ready to eat?" Soon they were munching away, carefully spitting out bones, in companionable silence. When they were done, Luna commented: "That was nice, Nicholas, but we could have used some salt and pepper, I think. And wouldn't it be nice to have some pumpkin juice?"

"I'm an idiot!" Nick slapped his forehead theatrically.

"No, you aren't, Nicholas. You're really one of the most intelligent people I've ever met. I wish I was smart like you."

"Don't you say things like that, Luna," Nick admonished his friend. "You're smart like Luna, and believe me, that's all you'll ever need." She looked at him, cocking her head to one side, and he continued: "Have I ever lied to you?" She shook her head, and he went on: "I should have thought of that myself, which was why I said that. I can Transfigure water into pumpkin juice easily enough...that won't damage us even if it un-Transfigures at some point...and could have transfigured some of the fish guts we threw away into salt and pepper and other fixin's. Those things are edible enough, just not palatable. A real Transfiguration master, like Professor McGonagall, could turn dry moldy bread and stale water into a feast fit for Hogwarts."

"Oh. I didn't know that." Luna gave Nick a sunny smile. "Shall we start setting up our beds?"

Nick's experienced eye soon spotted a good place; close to water, but high enough up that even a sudden flash flood would not wash them away, and under a tree that would give them some little shelter should it start raining. At his direction, Luna gathered up springy boughs, and Nick Transfigured the two piles she had made at his direction into futon mattresses. He spread the buffalo robes out over them.

"It's not Hogwarts, Luna, but it's the best I can do on such short notice. Come tomorrow, if they haven't found us, I'll get busy rigging us a better shelter." Nick yawned; the sun was just setting, and stars were winking into life above the two Ravenvclaws. "I don't know about you, but I'm knackered."

The two sat up for a while, talking of inconsequential matters, until Luna began yawning. Nick helped her into her bed and tucked her in, leaving her with a pat on the head before heading to his own bed.

Some time later, Nick snapped awake. There was someone else in bed with him, and he knew instantly that it wasn't his girlfriend, Melinda. "Luna! Is that you?"

The blonde second-year clung to him, her body shaking with sobs. "The stars! Look at the stars!"

Nick looked up, and his blood froze in his veins. He was middling at Astronomy at best, but he had spent enough time in the wilderness to have learned how to orient himself by the stars. And none of the constellations he saw above them were at all familiar, either from his textbooks or his own observations.

Luna was weeping unashamedly. "I miss my dorm! I want my Daddy! I want to go home! I want us both to go home!"

Nick controlled himself, clamping down on his urge to panic with an iron will. If he'd been alone, he'd have been all but gibbering, but he knew he had to keep a calm front up, if only for Luna's sake. The last thing she needed, he figured, was the sight of her protector raving and screeching like a monkey on Pepper-up Potion.

"Luna - Luna, sweetie, please stop crying. Everything will be all right. I promise. Soon as daylight comes, I'm going to start figuring out what happened. I might be able to get us home. You and your Daddy will be back together real soon."

After about half an hour of this, Luna finally drifted off to sleep, clinging to Nick like a limpet, her head pillowed on his chest. Nick stared up at the alien, unreadable stars, an unanswerable question echoing in his mind:

Okay, Luna, I've got you comforted. Now who will comfort me?

Sleep took a long time coming for him.

End Chapter 01